It Grows On Trees

Eco Zoo: Where the Animals Feed You

They feed your imagination, anyway. I'm not even going to comment, except to say Eco Zoo, produced by Tokyo interactive shop Enjin, is one hell of a "petting zoo:" a massive hands-on experience that breaks more than one mold. Enjoy.

Attention Green Businesses: Presenting the Future of Green Marketing

And the answer is: it's the future of all marketing and advertising.

Served up by Paul Isakson, a strategist for Minneapolis (and LA/NYC) shop Space150. For some of you, this will be all too familiar. For all of you, this is one of the better presentations I've seen on the subject.

With this charming and laser-focused little deck, Isakson validates a few inescapable realities I've blogged about here. Better still, he reveals the thinking that gave us Adopt the Sky, which his shop produced for Earth Justice last year. Count me as an official fan.

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Hat tip to David Armano.

Notes that accompany Isakson's presentation (abridged):

A presentation I gave internally at our agency last week (3/21/08) for our monthly "What's Next" lunches. I was asked to share what's going on in marketing and where things are moving. What you'll see/did see is that I ended up using a little bit of what I've been posting about on my blog and some of what has been getting covered both within the trade pubs and on industry related blogs to give me the outline. If you follow the plannersphere and other social media and marketing blogs, then this probably won't be much new, but it might connect the conversations a little more. Or maybe not.Mostly just wanted to share it since I did put a bit of time into pulling it together and was inspired by many of you who've been writing about similar subject matter.

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Tap Project Taps a Deep Emotional Well (Not Deep Pockets)

From an environmental/socially responsible marketing standpoint the Tap Project is a no brainer: when you eat out, you dole out the price of bottled water (or at least a buck) in exchange for a glass of normally free tap water. The restaurant then donates the dough to a UNICEF program that delivers clean drinking water to communities around the world where safe water is scarce. The program kicked off in NYC last year and garnered the support of some 300 restaurants.

From a design/brand standpoint, Tap delights with logos/identities unique to each of the 13 cities with participating restaurants this year. Some of the most respected names in advertising are contributing to the campaign (WK, Crispin). Here's a great spot from the Boston chapter that says all you need to know — about Tap, but also about producing great work that both defies green clichés and big budgets.

What I love about this spot is that it cost — or should have cost — next to nothing to make. With minimal visuals and maximal audio, it's positively Hitchcockian. Best of all, it stays true to the premise of the tap project: let's spend the money to get clean drinking water to those who need it, not to pay for a high-ticket film/video shoot.

Via Ernie Schenck, whose agency Hill Holliday produced the spot. Kudos, kids.

Gas Tank Range/Cost Calculator

A nifty example of an interactive tool that delivers value in a hands-on, demonstrative little package: "How Far Can You Go on a Tank of Gas," produced by Bankrate.com, a financial research/rate clearinghouse. The company features an interesting, balanced "Going Green" section in its 2007 Car Buyer's Guide.

Pick any car category, enter the price of gas, and see how far you and your wallet get on a single tank. Another example of the Touchy Feely Rule, this time with both an economic and green angle. Via the Consumerist.

As an aside, the commentary on the site is quite balanced, although this excerpt gave me whiplash.

"Buyers of alternative-fuel vehicles can feel good about helping the environment,                 encouraging technological development or even feeding their need to own something that's  cutting edge.

But, dollar for dollar, none of the alternatives to a gasoline-powered car or truck make economic or practical good sense at this point."

Apparently, bankrate.com stays true to its calling: dollars and cents over the big picture reasons for "Going Green."

The Touchy Feely Rule

Quit lecturing, get your audience involved, make them feel something. It's good for them. It's good for you.

I'm going to call this the Touchy Feely Rule, because the fundamentals behind it are essential to building green business: the two-way, user-controlled experience with rich design/production values. It's not a question of effectiveness, it's a question of what's mandatory. Proof here, here and here.

Some cool alternate descriptions of this principle from Brains on Fire and David Armano's Logic + Emotion.  

BOF's Spike Jones introduces the above graphic with a quote that says it all:

“Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.” -Native American Proverb

Armano's take on the same idea:

Armano's blog is loaded with, if not devoted to, visual depictions of interactive  and creative development principles like this. They've helped earn him a huge and enthusiastic following (as have his insights). This graphic of the Touchy Feely Rule gets the point across pretty well: experience =  conversation = relationship = affinity = conversation (repeat). For a collection of even better illustrations of his, click here.

If you had to map your place in either of these graphics, where you land? If you had to map your audience's experience with your brand would it look anything like these at all?