New Belgium Brewery Greg Owsley, Chief Branding Officer. On my first night in Monterey, I stopped by a local liquor deli to stock my mini fridge. Not seeing anything ‘natural’, or ‘organic’, I settled on Fat Tire Ale, a character beer I had tried and liked once in Colorado. Little did I know I had […]

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Rafael Bemporad & Mitch Baranowski, BBMG The post-lunch breakout, held in the big room. I sit in the front row and pirate some power from the plug-in for the Powerpoint monitor. Hopefully I won’t blow it up. This presentation was one of the most requested by my blog readers, so I will do my best to […]

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Jeffrey Hollander, President 7th Generation For me, this presentation was one of this show’s most powerful, yet I will have a challenge communicating it to you, Dear Readers, second-hand. If you’re not familiar with the Seventh Generation line of cleaning and household products, it is a paragon of environmental business. Three years ago their growth […]

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Inside a marketing campaign that raised web traffic 58% and e-mail sign up 85% Bobbie Parisi, VP of Marketing The whole Keen Footwear line started withn one simple design question: Can a sandal protect toes? From there, they have exploded on to the scene, with a brand that is hip, enlightened, inclusive and inspiring. Bobbie began […]

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Annie Longsworth, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe Russ Meyer, Landor Associates Jay Leveton, Penn, Schoen & Berland This presentation was largely statistical, so here are the numbers. Research geeks, enjoy: The study was done in the US and U.K. with 3000 adults 2007: 3600+ new green products 45,000+ green/sustainable articles Economic concerns are growing again – […]

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Bill Morrissey VP Environmental Sustainability, Clorox Corporation The first surprise for me here is how many brands Clorox owns: STP, Armor All, BRITA, Glad bags, Hidden Valley Dressings, (on their brand heirarchy chart, Hidden Valley was sandwiched in between Kingsford Charcoal and Scoop Away Cat litter. Yum.), and one example of a recent brand absorption that […]

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Julie Fasone Holder, Senior VP, Chief Marketing, Sales and Reputation Officer The Dow Chemical Company Fasone Holder was here, primarily to introduce the Human Elements Campaign recently launched by DOW. This is an ad creative guy’s wet dream. A concept so clear and compelling, so extendable and logical, yet emotional that it’s a wonder nobody […]

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The energy of the conference is appreciably higher today, as this is technically the first day of the conference. (Yesterday was ‘pre-conference’ events). In the big room, Jacqui Ottman (one of Unicycle Creative’s earliest associates and inspirations) started as the keynote speaker and MC. Her straightforward tenets and no-nonsense delivery come from 20+ years in a market […]

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On my way back from the Sustainable Brands 08 opening night shmooze I decided to seek a warming evening beverage to nurse me through my homework for the night. A drive-through Starbucks loomed on the horizon, so I rode up to the speaker. The zit-faced voice coming through the black grill was promising at first. […]

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The stampede for the Taste of California shmooze fest at the Hyatt’s TUSCA Restaurant was perhaps more restrained than other conferences, but otherwise was pretty indistinguishable. On the patio looking out to the golf course, propane heaters blazed, keeping the 65-degree weather mercifully at bay for the Sustainable Brands 08 attendees. A small thing, perhaps… […]

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