by Adjoy production partners.

by Joseph Wenkoff.

Adjoy production partners were there for the grand opening of the largest IKEA store in Canada.

Adjoy partners produced a video highlighting customer testimonials for the Shopify eCommerce platform. Shopify is a cutting-edge eCommerce platform, designed to make setting up an online shop an absolute breeze.

By Adjoy and production partners.

Adjoy and WBK Boxing is (literally) going to the ring for charity. Adjoy CEO, Brad Stewart and Adjoy CTO, Mark Northcott will be joining 14 other boxers, including one national boxing champion and an Olympian to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
The event will take place on June 10th, 2012 in association with the CHEO telethon. At noon on that day, the 16 boxers will line up behind 4 heavy bags, and take turns punching as many times as possible in one hour.
The team’s sports psychologist and University of Ottawa 400m track and field runner Jennifer Perrault puts the punchathon into perspective:

“Every athlete knows firsthand that interval training is the most gruelling training you can do as an athlete. What you guys are attempting is basically an interval marathon.”

The boxers are all training hard, and raising donations each with a goal of $1.00 per punch. The goal for each boxer is 2000 punches in one hour, for a total raised of $30,000 for CHEO.

Adjoy Partners With DealBoutique

Adjoy has officially partnered with DealBoutique, ‘the ethical deal directory’. DealBoutique enables emerchants and small businesses to post daily deals for 0% commission. DealBoutique’s business strategy is to sell production and media services to any user of their freemium deal posting service.

“DealBoutique is working incredibly,”

says David Kujawa, Founder and CEO of DealBoutique.

“Merchants really hate daily-deals sales calls, but when I explain it’s 100% free, and that we don’t charge a penny, they go from annoyed to relieved,”

adds Kujawa.
Adjoy is very pleased to help DealBoutique clients drive media traffic in YouTube, and in social media using our proprietary video production and media services. We support DealBoutique in practice and principal, because they very much aim to help MainStreet both online and offline.

A Guy Rows Into A Swamp And Says To A Frog …

by Brad Stewart, Adjoy CEO

Originally printed in Mediapost: the media, marketing and advertising professionals’ complete resource for industry news, events, jobs and more. To see the original, please click here. 

I often watch my favorite childhood film, “The Muppet Movie,” with my son.

Dom DeLuise makes his entrance in Kermit’s swamp, rowing frantically, asking for help.

“I’m lost. I’m lost. I’m truly lost,” he exclaims.

“Have you tried Hare Krishna?” Kermit responds.

To some, this is a groaner; to others, this is funny; to others, this is offensive.

But everyone LOVES humor.

Similarly, who loves green? The short answer: everyone.

Over the past five years, green marketing has gone from marginal, risky and controversial to a ubiquitous, mature and mainstay practice.

Traditionally, advertisers were conscious of alienating so-called “conservative consumers,” who are allegedly averse to green, based on their political or social leanings.

But now that green marketing and merchandising has gained mainstream acceptability, the obvious question is: “Were consumers always open to green, or were advertisers just missing something all along?”

Like humor, theoretically, everyone is into green, to one extent or another. We are, after all, natural organisms. The neighborhoods with the highest house prices are always situated in areas with ample combinations of big trees, lots of sunshine, or water access.

Even the extreme pessimist has to admit that everyone’s bottom line depends on nature itself. Broadly defined, that Porsche, cell phone, laptop and big-screen TV are all products of good ol’ natural resources. One hundred percent of the TV-watching audience, therefore, has at least an indirect interest in nature.

The more I reflect on this problem, the more I realize advertisers were engaging in a form of collective self-deception, thinking that there was some huge class of people who did not care – in some deep and meaningful way — about some environment or another.

One might cite climate change deniers as a cross-section of people who aren’t interested in global environmental factors. However, the fact that these individuals so doggedly deny climate change is proof that they do care, and they know everyone else does. If they truly didn’t care about climate change, they wouldn’t put so much effort into denying the verity of the claims. (Note: if you want to see what actually “not caring” looks like, just witness the reaction of a teenager to a parental warning.)

Our history books are filled with green activism, across politically and socially divergent classes. My favorite example can be found in this remarkably under-viewed film about the conservation history of Big Cypress Swamp (a/k/a: the Everglades).

In the late 1960s, a jetport was to be built in association with Miami International Airport. An initial runway was actually paved, prompting a “coalition of unlikely cohorts” to join forces and halt the development. Environmentalists, hunters, Hispanics, labor unions, Miccosukee Indians, liberals and conservatives were all part of the coalition.

Surveyors depended on alligator poachers to transport them in their airboats. According to environmental activist Joe Browder, the poachers would call him at the Audubon office, giving him inside information on proposed development locations. Audubon would then buy up land right in the middle of the proposed zone.

Eventually, the hard work and ingenuity of poachers, palm tree huggers and politicians paid off. Big Cypress National Preserve was established in 1974, and Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve was created the same year.

Conclusion: ask not whether someone is green, ask “what green are you?”

Next month, I will provide a list of green market segments and green personality types, cutting across many demographic categories. By all means, please share in the comments section, if you’ve encountered a surprisingly green persona in an unlikely place.

Invisible Children: Slacktivism or Heroism?

by Brad Stewart, Adjoy CEO

Originally printed in Mediapost: the media, marketing and advertising professionals’ complete resource for industry news, events, jobs and more. To see the original, please click here. 

As most of you are aware, Invisible Children has changed the landscape of modern digital activism with a video that will do for cause media what Star Wars did for sci-fi. In short, the video is a professionally produced documentary highlighting African rebel warlord Joseph Kony’s unconscionable practice of forcing 9 to 12 year olds into a life of violent slavery as child soldiers. The general purpose of the campaign is to raise international awareness of Kony’s crimes, with a goal of capturing and trying him by the end of 2012.

According to the Invisible Children website:

Invisible Children uses film, creativity, and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restores LRA-affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity.

The organization had a goal of gaining 500,000 video views by the end of 2012. In the week of Feb. 25 to March 2, the video had gained 103 views. From March 2 to March 8, the video garnered 14.2 million plays. The rest is online media history.

This much attention, however, is inevitably a magnet for criticism. And, let’s face it: any organization that is capable of gaining the support of the U.S. military certainly deserves to be analyzed under a powerful microscope.

There is one type of criticism however that – as marketers, media leaders and global citizens — we should be vigilant to avoid.

“Slacktivism” is a term that has been coined in the past few years to criticize those who do a little, rather than “a lot” towards a cause. The likelihood of being labeled a Slacktivist increases if you engage in social media activities (like tweetingn or sharing on Facebook) to help a cause. The irony: by doing nothing, you can avoid the Slacktivist scarlet letter!

What these pundits are missing is that little good has ever happened from the actions of a single individual. Most good things: from innovations to revolutions have emerged from a whole lot of people adding a little bit of a value to a greater good. Humans are social creatures who can only succeed, thrive –and yes survive- with other humans doing a whole lot of tweeting, baking, texting, walking, working, talking, or buying. This utility of small actions has only been multiplied by the advent of social media.

Hope is the oxygen of happiness for all of us. We have to believe that our little actions mean something, and that we will be the next lottery winner, startup success, or hero. It’s an essential part of our personal narratives.

There are two reasons why this is all crucial for green marketers. One, people really do get things done that are good when we work together, and two, people have an inherent need to believe that this is true.

By siding with the spirit of what the Invisible Children Organization represent, you are siding with an optimism that is a constituent component of humanity. Maybe that tweet will be the spark that ignites the fire in the right person. Perhaps that one extra signature on the petition will put the campaign over the tipping point. Maybe buying that orange-scented Zero-VOC cleaner will send the right message to the manufacturers and buyers.

By siding with the optimists and doers, green marketers are aligning themselves with a kind, gentle, (critics might say naïve), but powerful essential element of an individual’s being. Our green history is filled with such examples. Next month, I will write about how the powerful force of hope and passion cuts across political and social boundaries, enabling alligator poachers, environmentalists and powerful government officials to make real change happen against tremendous odds and significant opposition.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/171186/invisible-children-slacktivism-or-heroism.html#ixzz1ttjpuNZh