If you’re looking for more ways to make the most of what you do in your businesses, as an advertising exec for several decades, here’s my advice. Use the whole cow. No, this is not a non-vegetarian statement. It is a reminder for efficiency and innovation.
When a cow is brought to market, every facet of that entity finds a market; from the milk to the meat, to the hooves to the manure. When you develop a product or service, look for as many ways as you can to find profit or visibility from it, wherein everyone benefits. As an example, we just completed a video production and live awards presentation for our friends at the Carlsbad Chamber. It was called the Brilliance in Business Awards Banquet and many of Carlsbad’s brightest businesses were finalists or attended the gala event. As an example for you, here are some of the ways we made the most out of our involvement.
1. For a modest fee, we built the entire video component for the venue and were on hand to facilitate it for the venue.
2. We also arranged for part of our efforts to be used to help cover the cost of our membership for another year. The Carlsbad Chamber is a great place to belong.
3. As part of our production process, we arranged to visit some 50 local businesses to video tape them for the awards ceremony. It took us extra time and effort, but everyone benefited. Each business was represented to a crowd of hundreds during the banquet. Further, we had the opportunity to personally show off our video production capabilities to these businesses.
4. After the venue, we were allowed to offer customized video segments to the winning businesses for their usage on the websites or for other purposes. Everyone benefits from this.
5. Segments of this production will also go into our BizVid social media to show off our production prowess.
6. BizVid also produces a weekly SBA Radio broadcast, with Small Business Administration District Director Ruben Garcia and me behind the microphones.
As we did for last year’s awards, we plan to bring the Chamber President, Ted Owen and selected “Best in Business” winners on the air to highlight the chamber and the winners, as well as give small business listeners tips on improving their own business strategies.
7. Other media opportunities were also created as a result of our efforts. Not only does this include blog topics such as this, but invitations to write video articles for the Chamber, and distribute other PR of our own choosing.
I hope you find this illustration helpful. If a business gets in the habit of looking for multiple ways to make who they are and what they do more fruitful, they will find that they’ve softened the challenging economic times and feel more fulfilled at the end of the day. Remember, use the whole cow.