It Grows On Trees

Astronaut Snags "Best of Show" with Work for Poet

Mostly, we try to track the wider world of green communications, but we recently received a decent enough reason to brag on our own work. In this, our first year entering work in the South Dakota Advertising Federation awards show, Astronaut took Best of Show in "electronic media," one of only two categories so honored.

The work that beat out scores of worthy entries (many from the old-guard agencies in our area) is a program called "Landscapes" we developed and produced for Poet, the world's largest ethanol producer and one of our best clients.

Its primary objective was to generate excitement, interest and action from farmers in the region to join Poet's effort to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale. Its secondary objective was to demonstrate the company's leadership and give others who support renewable energy and biofuels a clear star to steer by in Project Liberty, Poet's cellulosic ethanol effort. 

As with all agency work, this was a team effort. Landscapes is the result of one of those great moments of collaboration between our client, our shop and our production partner, VVI. So we want to share the love with them, big time. Best of all, our client/producer at Poet, Autumn Bates, reports the show did its job by generating real enthusiasm and buy-in from its farmer audience.

Props also to Insight Marketing Design, our friends who took Best of Show in the Addy's print category.
The awards garnered a little press here.      

Oh yeah, Astronaut also earned one Best of Class award, three gold Addy's and four silver Addy's. Not bad for the new kid on the block, huh?

Delta Faucet Refreshes With Tech Pitch

It's the bane of anyone who's advocated for, developed creative/messaging for or pitched anything green: the kill-joy who invariably sucks the energy out of the room with this smarmy line:

"Okay, but what's in it for me?"

Alas, for the buzz killers, Ditto Heads, and unconverted, "Duh, saving the planet" just don't cut it. Although that angle is good enough for some, for most others it still comes down to dollars, cents and an immediate payoff or tangible benefit.

As long as my lights turn on, the reasoning go, why would I pay more for renewable energy?

I recently bought a low-flow Delta showerhead that uses only 1.6 gallons per minute, a 36% savings over standard 2.5 gpm showerheads. Although the packaging for its "H20Kinetics" showerhead didn't back away from the green benefit of lower water consumption, it didn't make a big deal of it either. Instead, the product packaging spotlighted 1) the quality of the showering experience, which it claimed delivered the "feeling of a standard showerhead at a lower flow," and 2) the  "H2OKinetics" branded technology, which it positioned as advanced design that gives you the best of both worlds.

Here's a graphic from Delta's website demonstrating the way its technology improves your shower.

And that brings up this point, which applies to both ambivalent consumers and phobic greenies who cry foul at marketing claims of allegedly questionable credibility: the real juice making green sell isn't just greenness. It's relevance.

By the way, the showerhead I brought really is awesome. It's impressive technology and yes, feels mighty fine.