Green Briefs » Sustainable Show Highlights

One month til Sustainable Brands 2012. Who wants to come for 20% off?

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:31:36 +0000

Things are heating up for the biggest green branding brain fest in North America. June 3 – 7, representatives from the sustainability industry’s biggest and brightest gather in San Diego California to compare notes on corporate initiatives, consumer expectations and organic alcohol. Once again I am heading south to immerse myself in this green culture, though not on Amtrak this time, as the additional distance makes it just too far to sleep in the bar car, even for me. Stay tuned to see how I deal with this carbon conundrum…

And, as a semi-official blogger and Sustainable Brands alumni, I have been granted special dispensation to offer a 20% discount code to any of my legions of loyal followers. So if you want the ultimate green brand networking experience, let me know. It’s going to be an amazing week.

Here is the link to the official program so far. Speakers include representatives from:

National Geographic
Lush
Ford
Intel
BASF
World Wildlife Fund
Safeway
Patagonia
Interface Floors
Earth911
Molson/Coors
1% for the Planet
North Face
REI
Neutrogena
Unilever
3M
Volcom
WalMart

Just as a reminder, here’s the Green Briefs Unofficial Road Trip Video from Sustainable Brands 2011.

Organic Beer, Skeptics and Green Strippers. The Sustainable Brands Road Trip takes shape.

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 20:00:25 +0000

Sustainable Brands 2011 starts in a week. The train is booked. I’m taking my bike in for a tune-up. I’ve consolidated the results of my survey and have chosen my sessions (with your able assistance, dear readers). I’ve even offered to host a talk on green attitudes at one of the SB’11 ‘Birds of a Feather’ dinner discussions – evening mixers held at local restaurants. My topic: Good Green News / Bad Green News – Which motivates better?

For the rest of the sessions, according to your survey votes, here are some of the talks I should see:

• Inspiring Sustainability in Skeptics
• Managing For Change: Stages of Sustainability Maturity
• Reality Check: Evaluating & Combating Consumer’s Green Fatigue
• Fun and Impact: Making the Connection and
• Dissecting Communications from the Top 10 Green Brands

Networking-wise, most respondents were interested in meeting folks from Disney, Best Buy and Saatchi & Saatchi. But by far the most votes encouraged me to seek out “the (other) freakiest-looking person in the room”. I’m on it.

Best suggestion for non-conference gonzo-journalistic activities: “Strippers. How to live green by wearing less.”

The survey is still posted, so there’s time for a few more entries in the ‘Green California Souvenir’ contest.

Otherwise it’s off to Monterey….

Remember, you can follow all the fun in real-time on my Twitter feed @GreenBriefs.

Tell me where to go at Sustainable Brands 2011 and I could be bringing you a California Green Souvenir.

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:19:17 +0000

It’s official. I’m booked to return to the biggest green marketing event in North America – SB’11 in Monterey. But what will I see? Who shall I meet? What toxins should I ingest to effectively anesthetize myself against the unending torrents of sustainable marketing bumf?

This is where I call upon you, dear Green Briefs readers. Simply help choose which sessions I should attend, whom I should offend and with what elixers my arm should bend, with this little survey.

Then stay tuned to the ‘Briefs for updates starting June 5th. Live vicariously as I journey to California on the Amtrak Cascades train for 30 hours, sleep in coach (or the bar car) attend four days of green marketing conferences with some of the world’s top companies and tour the Monterey environs with my bike and a rented Prius. (Long-time Green Briefs readers may experience deja-vu, as this is almost exactly what I did when attending Sustainable Brands 2008. Flashbacks here.)

Hopefully I will return with even more sustainability wisdom and deep marketing knowledge, all in the name of green. Which could be my skin colour by the time I make it back.

Come on, take the survey already!

EPIC Sustainable Living Expo 2009

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:48:08 +0000

This is the second year that your Unicycling blogger has attended this show, and if the crowds heading into Vancouver’s new Trade & Convention Centre on a sunny Saturday afternoon in May were any indication, green products and services are even more popular this year despite the recession. (Click here for a look at last year’s reviews)
Once again I made my annual tour of the event, evaluating products, buzz and potential, and offering up my usual marketing recommendations – unasked for, and unbilled – starting, of course, with the booze-tasting zone.

Natureland Organic Beer. Looks good, tell me more.

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:22:28 +0000

When I reported on this product last year, my main comment was ‘great beer, shame about the packaging’. Well, this year, the beer is just as good, and the packaging… better. Brian Hansford, Territory Manager for Pacific Western Brewing, told me the packaging had definitely helped sales, pointing out that the new box now actually features a picture of the bottle. The booth included POS designed on the same theme, and overall the effect reflects much better on the quality of the product.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: The package looks good, but could use some story. What is Natureland? What makes it different than other beers? Is there a web site? (Actually, not that I could find. Googling just led me to the Pacific Brewing site, which featured the OLD package) Time now to tell the world the story behind the beer, and create marketing that talks to nature-loving organic beer drinkers everywhere. Email me for more ideas. Will write for beer.

Prairie Organic Vodka: Starts with a punch but lacks show-stopping finish.

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:17:18 +0000

I had seen this product before, as its packaging had appeared in the prestigious Communication Arts Design Annual 2008. So I eagerly stepped up to the sampling table. I’m no vodka connoisseur, but the corn-based beverage seemed adequate to do the job, and set me up well for my day at Epic 2009.
From a marketing perspective, their folksy blue brochure conveyed a lot of solid backup for their organic claim (USDA, Oregon Tilth and Kosher to boot) as well as detailing their biomass energy generation and employee-ownership stake. I just wish more of this genuine prairie goodness had made it on to their website, which is as gratuitous and dysfunctional a flash wank-off as I have seen in a long time. (And I like flash) Visit prairievodka.com just to see what not to do with rich media. But back to the show at hand. Here at Epic, I thought there was more opportunity to have fun with the prairie imagery of this product. It was taking itself a bit seriously, at least for the tone of this show. And I suspect most of the crowd in attendance would use this beverage mixed in a drink rather than as a pure shot.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: Why not invent a Prairie Martini? Perhaps combined with an organic fruit (an organic blueberry stuck through on a wheat stalk?) Give people a reason to purchase this beverage and enjoy it as part of their sustainable lifestyle.

Lotusland Wines: A surprising contender to make your 100-mile diet more palatable.

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:15:41 +0000

I had seen the sign for Lotusland Winery around Abbotsford on Highway 1, and in the land of mushroom farms and rural sprawl, hadn’t given it much thought. But their label design has a much more urban flair, using west coast Vancouver B&W imagery that definitely made their product appealing to try. I sampled their ‘Blushing’, a varietal white blend tinted with pinot, and their Pinot Noir, a 2002 vintage. The blushing was a good summer hot day swiller, and the Pinot had decent complexity and nice tones of barnyard on the finish.
I was helped with this last description by the able coaching of Owner David Avery, who brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm to the table. Lotusland wines are made from organically-grown grapes sourced from Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack. So it’s a legitimate 100-mile product. (In Dave’s opinion, global warming is making the Okanagan too hot to grow some grapes, and the Fraser Valley is well positioned to move up the wine food chain) When asked whether the 2002 vintage was actually available for sale, he replied in the affirmative, and that he wouldn’t sell a wine until it was ready to drink, adding that with chemical- and pesticide-free production processes, aging a wine to this stage before release should be the norm.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: As Lotusland doesn’t sell through the BC Liquor Distribution system (our government stores, for you international readers) it might behoove them to partner with some Vancouver-based organic restaurateurs to promote name awareness. A ‘Vancouver 100-Mile Diet Approved’ certification of some sort would also be welcome, perhaps on their label, and they could contact some other suppliers and promoters of that system to cross-market with.

Momentum Biking Magazine – A cultural icon in the making?

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:15:25 +0000

I have seen this publication before at one of my local coffee shops, so I was happy to find out more at their booth at Epic. A chance to win a bike trailer was enough to entice me to subscribe, (for the show-special rate of $15 a year) and I had a nice chat with Managing Editor Terry Lowe and Ulrike Rodrigues, one of the contributing writers. I’ve always thought that as a vehicle for reaching Vancouver’s cycling community, this publication has a good opportunity to be the killer in the category. It’s well laid out, full of interesting articles for the starter commuter to the hard-core fixed-wheel maniac and seems to be well supported with some relevant advertising. In its 4th year of publication, it has also been chosen as a nominee for the Utne Reader Independent Press Awards. But it took a little online research for me to find out just how much this little publication has grown. One thing I didn’t realize was that it’s actually now distributed in 20 cities across North America, and prints 50,000 copies. (Though according to it’s media kit, about 2500 of those copies are paid subscriptions) As a fervent biker, I find Momentum a very exciting prospect. Their tag-line ‘The magazine for self-propelled people’ has a lot of potential to rally riders to their cause.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: I would see increasing the paid subscription base as a huge priority, and would probably recommend some ‘Guerilla Media’ tactics that would be easy to replicate in the 20 North American cities they cover. Consider that outside the Epic show, sidewalks were bristling with bikes locked to every conceivable rack-like object. How about a simple notice or item that easily attaches to a bike featuring a web link and contest offer? Like an branded pants-clip or cool sticker that would remind me of Momentum and encourage me to subscribe with a web URL. This could easily be distributed at Folk Festivals, Concerts –wherever bikes are gathered at an event.

CBR Products – A biased review

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:08:28 +0000

As CBR Products is a Unicycle Creative client, I have to come clean: This review will be incredibly positive. But besides being their Marketing Guy, I also use their products on my cabin at Lillooet Lake. So I’m sold on the stuff for all the right reasons. Perhaps CBR’s most famous product is BRODA® PRO-TEK-TOR, a natural oil wood stain that is actually water-borne, so it has low-VOC’s and cleans up with water. Yet still lasts like crazy and comes in over 50 stock colours. The BRODA® line also offers CLARITY Acrylics and PRO-THANE urethanes, which are water-based and tintable. It’s also locally manufactured right here in Vancouver, so there’s less shipping carbon. The team was also showing off the SAFECOAT® line of paints by AFM. These are manufactured in the US (CBR is the Canadian Distributor) but are one of the best non-toxic paints you can get. At this show, CBR shared a booth with Greenworks Building Supply (Featured in Green Briefs way back in 07) so there were other unique products on display, such as the PaperStone line of counter tops, that look and feel like some sort of coloured slate, but are actually made from recycled paper bonded with a bio-friendly resin.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: Well, I like the way the booth was anchored with a backdrop featuring the arresting signature CBR image (the BRODA® Bear). There was a nice selection of samples available for easy discussion, and the whole effect was warm and earthy. Next time, however, I’d like to incorporate some sort of product demonstration. As a customer, using the BRODA® product is such a pleasant part of the brand experience, it seems a shame not to share it.

Sundog Clothesline Company A green marketer’s dry dream.

admin — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:05:47 +0000

Here are some products ripe for the times. What could be more pure than the smell of fresh clothes drying in the sun? What could offer more righteous and newsworthy PR opportunities than the fight for the right to dry clothes? Add to that a unique range of products tailored to apartment dwellers as well as homeowners and it should spell success. The booth seemed popular, and products were easily demonstrated, including a simple towel rack that hangs on your balcony rail and an ingenious cable gizmo that spools out line to any required length.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts:
My overall brand impression was good, although perhaps more could be done with both the ‘fresh hanging clothes’ sensation and the ‘right to dry’ at the display level. For instance, I heard the owner was working to develop products and solutions that would work with the concerns of condo strata committees and property councils. Some take-home advocacy support tools could be useful. Also, I noticed wooden clothes pins were used as part of the display… I would love to have taken one of those home, custom branded as a functional Sundog business card, perhaps with a built-in magnet to stick on my fridge.