Serving On A School District's Communication Committee

A few months back the Olentangy Local School District created a Communications Committee and put a call out for potential members. Anyone interested was asked to submit a resume. Living in the school district, having children who attend school in the district, and working in PR and marketing for years I decided to apply.

I was asked to join the committee of about 25 individuals. The committee is filled with individuals with PR, marketing, or media experience, as well as a couple individuals who live in the district, a few teachers and even a couple high school students. I have been enjoying my time learning about the district, its communication policies and plans for the future.

As I committee member I am looked upon as an advisory panel member where I can offer my insight, and expertise on things like marketing, PR opportunities, Listserv, website and whether or not the school district should participate in social media (which I think they should).

I'm thrilled to be able to assist the district in taking it to the next level and am excited for the potential. Having only two Communication staff members in the district office, I think it was very wise for the district to create this committee, especially since the district keeps growing at an incredibly fast pace.

Here's to moving Olentangy into new a communication direction that will benefit students, parents and community members in today's 2.0 world.

Teachers Mark You Calendars for Staples Teacher Appreciation Day!

Get your calendar out and mark Saturday, August 22nd as Staples Teacher Appreciation Day. All Columbus stores will be celebrating teachers as they prepare to go back to school.

The event runs from 9a - 12 noon and is filled with gifts and special promotions including:

• A FREE gift bag (for the first 100 teachers, while supplies last)
• Staples Teacher Rewards® Bonus Season (Every $1 spent in product purchases will count as $2 toward earning rewards)
• Hot new items for the classroom
• Save on the Copy & Print services that benefit you in the classroom

Girl Scout Cookies Are Here!

Today my Girl Scout Cookies arrived.  Oh how I love those thin mints!  As I enjoy almost half a sleeve, yikes, I am inspired to write about the recent restructure of the Girl Scout brand.

Girl Scouts is 97 years old.  Over the years girls worked to earn badges, wore polyester vests camped and sold cookies.  The cookies are still in but almost everything else is out.  Because enrollment keeps dropping every year, the Girls Scouts are changing their brand image and trying to become cool.

Going hi-tech, troops are into blogging and life on-line. Going hip, teen troops are being led my college students instead of moms. Going curriculum, badges are gone and journeys are in focusing on teamwork and making a difference.  Going fashionable, polyester has been replaced with hip t-shirts, hoodies and hats.  Going multi-cultural troops are twinning - video conferencing with troops in other countries.

Being true who they are girl scouts will still camp, sing and sell cookies.  Leaders of troops can select which new options they would like to incorporate into their troop.

Only time will tell if these brand changes will start to increase enrollment.  Hats off to Girl Scouts for embracing the times and changing their structure to meet the needs of today's girl.

Keep selling those cookies.  I'm off to finish the rest of my thin mint sleeve. Yum!

Can Pinocchio Make Your Kid Eat Healthier?

The USDA recently partnered with Walt Disney Studio Home Entertainment to launch a series of new public service announcements motivating moms to encourage proper nutrition and more physical activity for their children.

By using Pinocchio in the "Bright Futures" campaign, PSAs will highlight the importance of a balance between good nutrition and keeping active in order to reduce childhood obesity and increase the number of fruit and vegetable intake in children. According to the Ad Council, less than 25% of all adolescents eat the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.

Key messaging in the PSAs will direct moms to www.mypyramid.gov to use the food pyramid as an effective tool when making food selections.  Last year the food pyramid was given a makeover.   You can compare new and old food pyramid's below.

Before you compare I have just one question . . . .

If a child lies and says they ate their broccoli when they really fed it to the dog will their nose grow big too? 

Lunch with Project Mentor

On Friday, we ended the week at a lunch meeting with Project Mentor. One of our old co-workers and friends, Abby, who now works for Project Mentor, suggested they contact us to "pick our brain" about how they can better market to the community to recruit more volunteers for their program.  We gave them a bunch of ideas and told them we would help by creating a post about the organization, as well as a call to action asking our site visitors to consider becoming a mentor.

During our hour and a half lunch, we learned quite a bit about the good work Project Mentor is doing.  Project Mentor is a school-based mentoring program collaborative effort of Columbus City Schools and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio.  Its mission is to support the Columbus City Schools Project 2012 initiative to raise graduation rates and sustain them in the future.  Project Mentor's seven-year roll out calls for 10,000 volunteer mentors saturating every one of the Columbus City Schools.

This program is one-to-one mentoring based on forming a relationship between the child and the mentor at school during the lunch hour.  Project Mentor focuses on both academic needs and social/emotional development for the child. By helping students, mentors increase the likelihood that they will graduate from high school and will make a real difference in their lives.

Project Mentor is actively looking for volunteer mentors and needs your help.  All you need to do is invest one hour a week of your time.  Why not share you lunch hour with a child.  You'll be feeding more than your belly, you'll also be feeding your soul.

For more information, contact Project Mentor at 614.839.KIDS (5437) or visit their web site for more details.

Money Tight? Feed the Pig.

It's an expensive time of the year on top of a tough economic time.  Feeling frustrated and not sure what to do.  Feed the Pig can help!

We found a great site sponsored by the AICPA (America Institute of Certified Public Accountants) that gives you great tips on saving money, provides financial resources, financial discussions and podcasts.  They even have a site to help tweens with money questions.

"Spokespig" Benjamin guides you through the site making it interactive.  You can also find your inner under saver and learn how you can slightly change your habits and save money.  Add the application to your Facebook (like we did) and keep track of your saving commitment through social networking.

Want a daily reminder text keyword "feed" to 83484 for free reminders to feed the pig.

Sponsored by the Ad Council this campaign is targeted to Americans 25-34 so they can take control of their finances by reducing debt and increasing savings.

Great resource at a time when it's really needed.  Go ahead, check out the site and feed the pig.

More Than Just Monkey Business

Yesterday I was helping my daughter with a school project.  She is writing a report on Jane Goodall, the primatologist who spent over 45 years studying chimpanzees and a number of years interacting with them in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.  My daughter had to create a magazine cover and it only made sense that she called it Gorilla Fancy.

Anyway, I've heard of Jane but never really knew much about her other than the movie Gorillas in the Mist was about her life.  My daughter's report peaked my curiosity so I did a little research and came across the Jane Goodall Institute.  

There I learned that chimpanzees are on the brink of extinction and the JGI is working to correct that.  You can make a donation and become a chimpanzee guardian to help. Or if you'd rather donate through ecommerce you can get a really cute chimp stuffed animal or a cool t-shirt for $15.00, among other things.  Sixty percent of merchandise sales goes to the program. Jane Goodall also has a line of chocolate bars and coffee for purchase.

Who knew.  History lesson over.  Just interesting stuff I just wanted to pass along.

Apple Field Trips - Education or Marketing?

After all the tag line is:  Apple Retail Store. Come to shop. Return to learn.

Students K-12 can come to the Apple store for a creative field trip.  Students can create a really cool class project or present a project at the store using their products.  Teachers can even have their class try out the Apple mobile labs.

Smart.  Get the kids in, let them "learn" on the product, and just like that, they are hooked. Great way to market to a new customer base.  Well, and teach them a little too.

All participating kids leave with a free T-shirt.  Great way to market to kids who haven't gone but see the t-shirt and now want to go.

Apple can also send out personalized field trip invitations for parents, teachers and friends. Bet they'd be happy to!   Quite an inexpensive direct marketing piece.

Looks like the old saying "An apple a day" is taking on a whole other meaning.

Be on the Lookout for the 7-foot Brutus

Before you know it, we will all be yelling O-H to stop and wait for someone to yell back I-O (which doesn't take very long). In just four quick weeks all of Columbus will be wearing scarlet and gray cheering for our Buckeyes along side the cheerleaders and Brutus.

Brutus, the beloved Buckeye mascot sure knows how to get the crowd all fired up. He is one of the great Ohio State University brands. Over the years Brutus' look has changed quite a bit. To see some of his past looks click here.

Now Brutus is taking on another different look - that of a seven foot tall concrete statue. The Brutus on Parade project is a fundraiser for the campus library and a scholarship for future cheerleaders.

The concept:

To commission out blank cement Brutus statues that local artists personalize and donors purchase at a price tag of $10,000 - $20,000, depending on whether they want to keep the statue at the end of the parade or not.

The goal:

Create 250 statues to raise $1 million dollars.

The parade:

Start in early August 2008 with Brutus statues displayed all throughout Columbus.

The reality:

Due to a tough economy only about 40 statues have been commissioned and only $100,000 is expected to be raised. Nonetheless, some money and awareness has been raised. Plus, these cool pieces of art give Columbus something unique to display in the city.

Some of the Brutus statues include Christopher Columbus, Jim Tressel and as you can see below, Woody Hayes and E. Gordon Gee.

Go Bucks!

GEE Ohio State University

Should THE Ohio State University change its name to GEE Ohio State University?

E. Gordon Gee - University President, Leader, Visionary, Rock Star. The University loves him, the State loves him, the students and alumni love him.

Gordon Gee is great for the OSU brand! Why? He is smart, a CEO, philosopher, is charismatic, a salesman, educator, is witty, a politician and lawyer. But more than that, he knows how to appeal to everyone and is touchable. So touchable he enjoys fun time with the students, like in February when the students played "Wii with Gee" during a video game competition. Gee brings the OSU brand to life.

Gee stands behind OSU and believes it starts with him. His goals over the next few years are many, but what stood out to us was his goal to change the image of Ohio State University making it the "University of the American Dream". He wants to create an image of Ohio State as the "single-minded university with worldwide reach" rather than an array of academic courses.

If anyone can do it, Gee can. And when he does, he can add brand strategist and brand marketing to his list of descriptive adjectives. Or, he can contact columbus imPRessions for assistance - we'd be happy to help! :)