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A little imagination can go a long way in enhancing the image of any company

April 22, 2009

Even before we had a product at Pet Promise, it was a joy to watch the kind of raw creativity, instinctive marketing acumen and enthusiasm at the retail level possessed by Melissa McGinnis, our creative consultant. I’ve chosen to shine the spotlight on Melissa this week because over the years she has proven to be one of the most innovative marketers I have run into, especially from an alternative and viral standpoint.

From her first expo representing Pet Promise, when she used fake dog poop to demonstrate the purity of our product (all over the expo hotels and convention floor, at that), she has exhibited an unusual flair for coming up with novel and unconventional approaches. But this year, she has really outdone herself while working with our new fledgling enterprise, GreenOps, a recycling company designed for material recovery. The idea she came up with was the concept of "bottle babes" -- girls dressed in dresses made of plastic bottles. They proved to be a ‘walking exhibit’ wherever they went, always managing to draw attention to the GreenOps Tracking System and really getting the message across about the ways these materials can be re-used. In addition, as nightfall came, the GreenOps logo was projected on the walls of the two hotels by a truck and projector moving down the street. Such dazzling attention-getting devices, in combination with sign twirlers and a theme for the show of “Track It, Don't Trash It,” projected by old TV sets in the booth together with a sampling station, made all the elements of this promotional effort her best yet, in my opinion.

What all this demonstrates is the key role that creativity and an unconventional approach play in launching any kind of business, even one as seemingly unglamorous as a recycling operation.. There’s no telling what a little imagination can do for the image of even the most prosaic product, or how exciting and engaging it can make an enterprise for the consumer. In fact, as I reflect back on brands that have been around for the last 30 to 50 years, they all started with the very sort of enthusiasm and unconventional marketing acumen that was exhibited by Melissa and her team at Expo West, with GreenOps becoming the proud recipient of the resulting attention. Now let’s see if we can manage to maintain that verve and vitality to develop public awareness of our mission (hopefully, with the continued help of Melissa and the people who assisted her).

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