You also gotta love Julie Turner for asking the question! Check out David Baker and ReCourses. We love.

What's in store for the WECO?

We’ve long dreamed of converting the infamous WECO building, a former grocery store/pool hall/charity thrift (and our current home) into a creative salon. It makes sense with the Riggs Partners modular business model; it makes sense with our partnership philosophy; and quite frankly, it makes sense given the real estate we’re sitting on.

So we’re pleased as punch to (officially) announce that interactive usability consultancy firm truematter and inbound marketing specialists keelysaye.com are taking up residence with us, here, in the WECO building at 750 Meeting.

The vision of all parties is that the open, bullpen space of the building be a shared community environment in which the creatives of all three companies work in hive fashion, herman-miller-hexagon to herman-miller-hexagon. While there will undoubtedly be instances in which the companies are collaborating on projects, each remains an independent company with its own clients. And not one new wall is being built to divide the three.

We love this description from Wikipedia:

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation.

It’s a French concept we believe applies parfaitement to the way smart businesses are functioning in this new economy: connected, specialized, synergized.

you get the general idea

It is with great gusto that we welcome our dear friends (and client) First Community Bank to world of blogging. “First on Main” will shine a spotlight on entrepreneurs, businesses and happenings in the Midlands of South Carolina. We’ve been the marketing partner for First Community for many, many years, and we can speak first hand: No one has a better view of all that is happening in the local economy than “the local bank for local business.”

We hope you will stay tuned, as well!

Let me say: I’ve never been a fan of “rules” in marketing (other than to give us a really good baseline from which we can divert). I mean, when every brand in the category is doing it one way, isn’t it our job to find another vastly more interesting alternative?

Well, of course. Just ask one of my style icons Andy Spade, who always does things in a most unexpected and delicious way.

But still I promised the post. So here it is.

Navigating the social media landscape: It's wild out there.

Rule #1  Accept that it is the Wild West out there.

We get requests every day for case studies to validate the recommendations we are making to our clients/prospective clients. I’m a big fan of the case study; there’s usually a really interesting story arc and beautiful creative presentation. But in this crazy new world of social media, the only way to have a real impact is to do something that is so custom, so true to the heart of your brand, it has never been done before. You have to blaze a new trail.

Rule #2   Think cross-platform.

Someone told me years ago:  You know you’ve learned a foreign language when you catch yourself thinking in that language. That’s just what you have to do with all the emerging communication channels out there. Don’t start with a traditional media campaign and then try to figure a way to tack some Facebooking and Twittering on to the end of it. Instead, start with a big idea. Then find interesting ways to deploy it seamlessly across traditional and nontraditional media.

Rule #3  Develop the strategy first.

Seriously. Start the old-fashioned way, by determining not only what you are going to do, but why you are doing it, and with whom. Get clear on your objectives.

Rule #4   Be interesting.

Ever been to a cocktail party and gotten cornered by a “talker”?  (Thank you, Tim Burke.) It’s painful, and all you want is escape. That’s how prospects feel when the only topic of conversation you have with them is YOU. Instead, initiate conversations on topics they find interesting and engaging.

Rule #5  Understand the difference between interruption and engagement.

Way back in October of 2009, Alex Bogusky wrote a post I’m getting out of this business again. The entire post is worth a read, but I’ve pulled the section that spoke so loudly to me:

“The market forces created by the rapid demise of mass media and traditional media models have made the real business we’re in clearer than ever. We’re in the business of . . .creating new ideas . . . so compelling and entertaining that the consumer searches them out. . . . Brilliance will be more powerful than ever, and yet everything from above average on down will become invisible. Produce ordinary ideas and nobody will ever see them.”

It’s daunting. It’s also true. And I guess that makes it the most important *rule* of all.

Brian, Teresa and Steve, just prior to Cakefest 2010

Brian Murrell and Steve Sperling of ADCO stopped by this afternoon with a sweet surprise—a big, beautiful, oh-so-chocolate “best cake in town” for the Riggers. It seems our own Teresa Coles acted as Referrer in sending some work (The Children’s Trust of South Carolina) to our pals at ADCO and they came by, cake in hand, to offer their thanks.

The sinful, chocolatey goodness of that cake reminds us how sweet an old fashioned “thank you” can be.

The partners spent the afternoon deeply touched and on a delightful sugar high! Thanks back to you, ADCO.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is a fancy name for the acknowledgement that businesses, as well as individuals, have an important role to play in bettering the world around us. Our friends at the Hilton Head Island VCB  have embraced the concept and are one of the first corporate destinations in the country to offer a customized CSR component to their Meetings and Groups packages.

It works like this. A company plans a meeting, or retreat, on Hilton Head Island. A community service project is incorporated as part of the event package, and the group is matched with a participating United Way of the Lowcountry organization. During their time on Hilton Head Island, the group of 10 to 100 people works together on the specified project, such as a Habitat build.

Our assignment was to package, and promote, The Hilton Head Difference.

The Hilton Head Difference direct mail, sent to meeting planners

spring flowers, from my yard to my table

Maybe it’s the four new business meetings we had last week (notably supported by reasonable budgets). Maybe it’s the Today Show news that the Dow “charged” above 11,000. Or maybe it’s just the huge arrangement of yard cuttings blooming in the milk bottle vase on my kitchen table.

There’s something sweet in the air, and it smells like ~ dare we say it ~ Recovery.

It feels good.

Not long ago, I was in a meeting with a longtime client. We were talking about the roller coaster that has been the last 18 months. And we were attempting to plan for the next six. We spent a good part of that session focused on small business owners and the exhaustion they (ahum. we.) feel. “I now understand what my Grandmother meant when she said she was spent,” he said.

It’s an apt description.

And Recovery, or not, I am glad Spring is here. Like a tiny sprout breaking through the soil, I feel the sunshine and am renewed.

Kudos to the ADDY committee for the Party-Part of the night. We had a blast.

And now to the awards. We did A-OK, walking out with both Best of Print and Best of Broadcast. We also racked up three gold ADDYs and four silvers, and while we shouldn’t, we will steal a tad bit of the spotlight of the two silvers bestowed upon our friend Ryan Cockrell for his amazing Riggs Partners CreateAthon video. (Ryan rocks.) Glory!

Honored work included:

• Best of Print for Vaughn’s BBQ, poster and sales collateral
• Best of Broadcast for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, Breast Health Center, television campaign
• Gold ADDY for Preservation Trust of Spartanburg, logo
• Gold ADDY for Vaughn’s BBQ, poster and sales collateral
• Gold ADDY for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, Breast Health Center, television campaign
• Silver ADDY for Central Carolina Community Foundation, annual report
• Silver ADDY for Hilton Head Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, direct mail
• Silver ADDY for Girl Scouts of South Carolina – Mountains to Midlands, website
• Silver ADDY for PAALS/Heartworm Project, event poster

We want to shine a little light upon our Riggs Partners apprentices, who contributed mightily to our big haul. And thanks to our good, good friends Mad Monkey, as our creative partners in the Spartanburg Regional “Who’s Your Plus One” television. (We believe in the cause–find a woman you care about and MAKE SURE she gets a mammogram!)

It has never been more true: a fine time was had by all!

There are so many reasons to register to be a part of the first Virtual March in support of responsible reproductive health policy in South Carolina:

• South Carolina is considered an HIV “hot spot” by the CDC
• STIs and STDs are spreading at alarming rates, with half of all new cases affecting young people between the ages of 15 and 24;
• Teen pregnancy rates are on the rise (three in 10 girls will become pregnant at least once before the age of 20);
• Woefully inadequate female representation in our state government (SC ranks dead last)

Here’s the kicker. We know how to solve this! And 80 percent of South Carolinians agree on the solution: policies that provide for comprehensive sex education and prevention programs. We just have to let our legislators know.

If you want to be a part of the solution and are willing to send an email to your state representatives (it’s that easy), register for the Virtual March.

Riggs Partners is honored and excited to be working with TellThemSC.org in getting the word out. We think there’s no greater issue facing our state today.