Around 240,000 people will benefit from the most recent Annual Appeal from World Bicycle Relief. If you don’t know them, WBR is a smart and well-run non-profit that provides sustainable transportation to help people go farther, carry more and cut their travel time considerably.

You can see our full case study here.

A lot of hard work and strategy went into this endeavor – a true team effort between Stalelife and the Communications and Development groups at WBR. Our approach was integrated with old and new tactics, and the results will make us stronger for years to come.

In the end, we surpassed initial goals by 25%, raised the total donation amount and nearly doubled the amount of advocates on the WBR lists. But most important, we helped the group that helps so many. And that feels good.

So why not make ‘em dig deep?

You give $10, they give $10. You send a whole bike ($134 – seriously, isn’t that insane?), the angel gives one, too. That can really add up with all our friends, and the donations will help healthcare workers travel farther, and allow families to carry food and water and more.

If you’re feeling giving this holiday season, go to this site and donate today . They make nice gifts, too.

P.S. – We designed this campaign. Show a little love for the crew.

Public perception might not matter to a super established brand like IBM – wait, no, they really want people to like their products and services too.

Mid-sized companies, they need it.
Same with the SMBs.

So how can you improve perception? How can you show yourself as a company that cares, a business that has a human side that makes prospects and competitors say out loud “you know what, I really like them.”

Try social media.

It can be tricky – there are a lot of rules to it. Your presence has to be fun and upfront, caring, compassionate and you’ll need to contribute to your community. Your product or service must be up-to-par and able to withstand criticism (sounds like a general rule to me).

But the end results far outweigh the budget – social media is cheap and should be apart of your marketing plan. Especially if you’d like to find brand advocates who tell their friends why they enjoy what you bring to the table.

It’s almost like FREE advertising.

Here are some additional tips:

• Track your campaigns. All major blogging software can provide results on FREE Google Analytics pages. Plus sites like LinkedIN, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter also have tracking or search available. You can even create links that people can share with others, and you can track the usage.

• Let people comment and talk about you. Think about cultivating, not controlling. Encourage discussions on this two-way street.

• Watch the goodwill spread. It will take some time – you won’t see immediate gains. But like any part of a campaign, it needs to blossom to help build your name and your brand.

Here’s one example using something we love, the bicycle. The companies involved are MASH, an innovative cycling products company, and Mellow Johnny’s, a bike shop in Austin owned by Lance Armstrong.

Yeah, that Lance.

We’re not sure who started this conversation, but somehow these two places got together and before you know it Lance is riding a fixed-geared bike all over the city of Austin with guys from MASH. The only real sign about the shop is his hat, but it’s in there.

And once the video was up, it spread like gangbusters. Blogs. Forums. Twitter. 25,000 people saw it on YouTube. Eventually people all ended up at MASH and probably said, “what is this company?”

Now they know. And they think it’s once cool place, that’s for sure. Who knows, they probably even bought an innovative new product or signed up for email alerts.

The results were great – 20 cyclists donated and a few spectators brought food just for the heck of it. We’re humbled by the generosity of the cyclists at the Dirt Derby – there’s enough there to fill a small shopping cart.

There’s still time to get on the pick-up list for Saturday’s donation run. We’re riding – with Adomatica and a few other cyclists – from North Austin to South and picking up scheduled food donations as we make our way to the HAMup TweetUP. All you need to do is email HAMup@stalelife.com and give us your address. We’ll show up and collect the food from your porch or your person.

The more food there is, the more people we can feed. And with news of Ike heading toward the Texas coast, the Capital Area Food Bank will use all the food it gets. They provide immediate disaster relief for gulf-coast hurricanes (amongst other things).

Please consider donating.

Yeah, neither did we. That is until some of our friends on Twitter started chatting about it. Next thing you know, the local community is rallying around this great cause and supporting the Capital Area Food Bank with the HAMup TweetUP. Immediately we thought, “how can we help this social event, but with our own spin?”

A coffee’s worth of brainstorming
with Robert Gilbreath of Adomatica and several ideas rose to the top. But none stuck out as much as picking up donations on September 13th and transporting them via bicycle straight to the CAFB. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to donate if you can’t make the event yourself.

There are plenty of ways you can help feed the hungry. Here are just a few:

• Collect donations in your office, church, school or social events
• Spread the word about Hunger Action Month – here are some examples of avatars people have created for their social networking sites
• Take a “Hunger is unacceptable” image and upload it here. Then share it with your friends.
• Volunteer your time at the HAMup TweetUP on 09.13
• Attend the HAMup GrillUP Happy Hour dinner at Whole Foods on 09.11
• Grab your bike and join us on 09.13 as we take a slow stroll from North Austin to South, picking up food goods along the way

If you can’t make the HAMup TweetUP – but you know that you’ll shop for groceries this week or next – let us bring some of these needed items on your behalf. We will even pick up checks made out to the CAFB.

To schedule a pickup, please email us at HAMup@stalelife.com.

Our convoy will leave from Burnet and Justin area and pick up any donation (and riders) between the highways all the way down to CAFB. If you live East of I35 or West of MOPAC and can collect in your area and join us, that would be great.

Let’s feed even more people this year while laying down less of a carbon footprint! You can make a difference in the lives of hungry Central Texans, so please consider helping out.

15 people took the day to celebrate a year of smart marketing and advertising with our crew. It was a good mixture of clients, cohorts and friends. We even saw a SOX 13-8 winner over the Pirates.

Good thing the SOX got that winning idea out of their system before the weekend Cubs series.

See you next year!

We met near the statue dedicated to the 2005 World Champs!

A new Stalelife tradition – wish organist Nancy Faust
a good game for good luck.

All eyes were on the board in the 3rd. Woot!

No doubt Kurt and Matt were discussing the finer points of editing video.
Matt’s recent creations all feature his newborn son, Rylan.

What a good looking crew. Missing a couple of folks from the
full roster in this one.

Stuck with driving duties…thanks, Sid!

We put it on the White Sox scoreboard, but here is
actual proof – our clients rock!

Hugs are so fun and necessary to life, and this group got plenty of signatures with “intimate networking” (think of the anti-online social networking). A true win win.

We’re mulling over ideas for SXSW 2008 – we want to stand out and have fun with a campaign that draws attention, very akin to this one. Want to help us turn the conference upside down? Have an idea? Let us know.

Happy weekend, friends.

Instead it’s professionals gathering, discussing and sharing ideas and values with others who do the same thing. It’s the ultimate social tool for business folks, and we’re into it.

Stalelife is definitely going to participate, and we might even lead a make-shift session. After all, if you don’t cultivate this Good Samaritan-ism for Business 2.0, it’ll likely go away.

Topics for this ProductCamp are marketing and project management. Should be good. If you’re in Austin, we hope to see you there.

Twitter’s saturation isn’t huge compared to other social media, like Facebook and Myspace, but it’s not the same format, either.

It’s a microblogging platform where people share their notes, news, reviews… anything they want – even contests. We know people who’ve found new business by following the right feeds on Twitter. You can even use Twitter to find a job.

Anyone can Tweet (the name for an entry on Twitter), but it turns out that most people using it skew to a younger audience – 18 to 34.

You’re held to 140 characters per Tweet, making haiku-type messages a necessity. So every entry becomes an exercise in terse copywriting.

As a CD I often worked with my writers to “shore up” their copy to make one point instead of several, or to fit into space. The same holds true with Twitter – I often find myself thinking like a copywriter again:

What should I write about this conference I’m at?
How do I make it interesting and worthwhile?
Or should it just be fun
Do people really want to know what I’m eating? Maybe if I include the recipe.

It can be tougher than it sounds, just like writing a banner ad. It’s simple, short and requires a skill that most writers still need to develop.

One book we reference often in the Stalelife office is Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. In it, William Strunk tells us:

“Make every word tell,”
and
“Omit needless words!”

It’s harder than you think. In fact, just keeping your marketing copy in the present tense is tough (but that’s an entry for another date).

One day this week I wrote a Tweet:

But afterwards I couldn’t help believe that it could be more fun, shorter and use a better tense, like:

Dear Joe, Call Mike T. Love, Twitter

Still, a good portion of people who use Twitter are still trying to figure it out. It’s like Open Source Code – anyone and everyone can contribute and use it how they want. It’s almost like everyday life.

And if you’re a writer by trade, Twitter should be part of yours.

The Stalelife Twitter feed is Stalelife.
Joe can be found as joeyTWOwheels.
Kurt is KurtyP.

The idea du jour was that the brand far outweighed real benefits. It was always pure justice when our measurable creative was tested versus a heavy brand approach and won (a good 100% of the time, seriously).

Enter the mid-2000s and now marketers are starting to see, the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) theory has reached epic proportion. Social networking allows customers to talk and give their opinion, just like your neighbor telling you about a great oil change joint, or the horrible service at the local greasy spoon.

There’s no place to hide these days, and there’s no way to “counter” bad news except with superior service.

Here’s an example – Son & Heir clothing, a boutique sports t-shirt shop. We recently ordered and the package contents looked like this:

The shirt arrived on time. It was exactly as ordered. AND they gave us a Dum Dum Pop and a note to say thanks:

Small things, sure. But the small things lead to much more. For instance, we’ve already told many sports-nut friends who might be interested in their sweet design offerings.

Transparency in the modern age is real. If you rely heavily on advertising to sway opinion – or your company is constantly seen in a negative light – it’s time to re-direct your funds and your attention to your customers. Make sure the user experience is something worthwhile, and you will be rewarded time and again.

After all, your customers are talking to anyone who will listen (and read), because nowadays it’s easier than ever to do.