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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As an avid fan of the Avalon Dairy classic glass bottle, I was intrigued when I saw this line of cleaners packaged in these iconic containers. One look at that historic shape and I get an instant sense of purity and a throwback to less toxic times. Speaking with Keena, wife of Live for Tomorrow owner Munu Hicken-Gaberria, I found out the bottle has a practical side as well. It is returnable, with a deposit (just like its farm cousins) and goes right back into production to be refilled. On the spray cleaner side of things, a more modern solution is provided in the form of a compact, stainless steel bottle. This too, is a ‘lifetime’ refillable product, and its handy size means you don’t have to shlep around a big bottle to zap a stain or two. As a locally-produced and Eco-Logo certified product, Live for Tomorrow gets full marks.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: Although the brand has a consistent and clean look, the modern design and font choice of the labeling seemed somewhat at odds with the old-fashioned milk bottle design in that particular line. But the real opportunity to me would be to cross-promote directly with Avalon Dairy. This would be a deep-green target market, used to paying a premium and used to the returnable bottle format. No brainer.

Seeing this booth was like walking into a living Dr. Seuss / Rube Goldberg display. Brass instruments, copper piping and elegant metalwork spiraled outward, propelled by water. Master Recycler and Artist Douglas Walker was also there, happy to exchange wry comments and discuss the sculptures. If you have a garden patio or yard in need of a feature, you should really check these out. (Visit waterworksgardenart.com) Ex-brass-musicians and band geeks will enjoy them even more.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: I’d love to see some of Walker’s work with wind-powered or solar-powered components. (And who knows, maybe he has some) He might also want to talk with Endless Rain about incorporating his sculptures into their in-ground water capture and storage systems.

There’s nothing appealing about having a giant plastic barrel in your yard. But a gently babbling fountain that sits atop a sub-surface cistern, circulating the water to keep it fresh while taking some of the stress off our municipal water and storm sewer systems… what’s not to like about that?

I like the upside-down umbrella idea of their logo, and the endless rain booth was nicely designed, with informative displays. Owner Gord Szolnyanszky  took me through a few of the advantages of the systems, and we discussed the challenges of setting it up off-grid (powering the fountain being the main one). After returning home, I checked out the endless rain web site, which offers a rich viewing experience, if a bit flash-heavy.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: IMHO, this set-up should be required in new home construction. So why not contact municipal regulators and news agencies to make the case? Choose an Endless Rain representative and position them as an expert in the media for PR opportunities regarding water issues.  And look act cross-promoting with contractors, architects, landscapers and even fountain artists like Douglas Walker.

OK, so if I qualify for federal grants for my home energy efficiency improvements, I can borrow all the money I need and pay it back with the money I save on my energy bills. Can it be that easy? Well, that was the pitch from Blair Wilson at the ecoEquity booth.  Sounds like a great idea, and one that more people should take advantage of. But, according to Wilson, Western Canadians just don’t go for federal grants as much as they should, citing a general lack of awareness as the reason. I know from my creative-brain perspective, the process for applying seems too onerous to even contemplate. So their offer to help take care of the paperwork looks particularly inviting to me.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: The brochure begins with several points; Earn up to $12,345; ecoEquity Green Lease; 100% Financing; Increase the value of your home… etc. perhaps they could focus on one main benefit first. Or offer a few versions of the brochure tailored to different priorities. (And if Western Canadians need help getting government money, that might be a good lead for one option) The inside of the brochure continues with more good points about the program, but could use more ways for the reader to interact. With an issue this complex, I might suggest a link to a YouTube video on their website home page, with a nice tight explanation and maybe a few testimonials, and possibly a referral program for those who have successfully participated.

This is one product for which I am a prime target market. Energy Alternatives provides power systems for homes and cottages, and I am in the research phase for just such a system for our cabin at the lake. So I spent a bit of time at their booth. What Energy Alternatives has done well has been to break their offerings down by needs: Backup Power, Grid Tie-Up, Primary Power Systems, Cottager Systems, and Cabin Lights. At their booth, each target market is offered a letter-sized B&W insert sheet describing different prepackaged systems and providing a checklist on the back to calculate energy use. This is a good start, but as with most complex systems, the myriad details and benefits begin to take over and I suspect many readers become overwhelmed with the info. A visit to their web site shows that from a content perspective, Energy Alternatives really knows their stuff. But overall the brand has the look and feel of more of a local grass-roots operation than a serious player in the new green economy.
Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: This brand has the history, the qualifications and a library of resources and information. But they could use some key message streamlining and a logo/brand evolution to raise their image to the level of their expertise. (And position them well against future competition as the category grows) Their rich web site content (such as this System Design pdf) could be repurposed into a suite of more interactive online tools. A YouTube video might also help support higher end purchases through longer decision-making cycles, and a content-managed website design would allow them to update their own materials without recoding.