Next Tuesday, May 22 at 7 pm, we hope you can join us for an evening of smart people talking, sharing and collaborating about Brand at Oola Distillery.

We promise:

• No more than five slides (because we all know what we are doing)
• No statistics (because we all know how to use Google)
• No prescriptions (because takeaways are supposed to be personal and exciting)

Catering & cocktails provided by Restaurant Zoë.

 R.S.V.P. today!

Call for more information: 206-838-3170

This Cinco de Mayo, we put on our sombreros and headed out to visit our beloved clients, a basket of miniature piñatas in hand. As we delivered these colorful, tissue paper friends to each desk, smiles crossed the faces of those we met and people laughed as they tried to figure out if a bull or a burro best suited their mood at the moment. We walked away that afternoon, happy to have spread a little joy. But for us, this story has even more love in it than our clients may realize!

The miniature piñata idea was shared earlier in the week and the entire Golden Lasso team whooped with excitement as we  put the plan into place. My job was to secure 30 little piñatas. With efficiency being one of my key values, I knew to call  ahead to put the piñatas on hold prior to heading out of the office to run this quick errand.

[Insert ominous music here]

Who knew that Seattle loved Cinco de Mayo so much? Phone call after phone call unveiled the truth—there was a serious piñata shortage in Seattle. Quickly, the team jumped on the phone lines with me, branching away from the party and  costume stores and reaching out to restaurant supply stores and authentic Mexican grocers.

Still nada.

Many would have given up at this point. But here, we are dedicated to these moments, knowing that our clients deserve a nice thank you and a little cheer, Golden Lasso style. “No piñatas” was not an option.

As 6PM rolled around, the eve of Cinco de Mayo (ok… the eve of Cuatro de Mayo but we can’t get into the client corporate office on Saturday), we found three small piñatas available at a party store in Bellevue. I decided it was a starting point and battled traffic to begin my collection. My mind raced as I drove – where else could I find more burros and bulls?! Halfway across the 520 bridge, my phone rang and a new course for my adventure was set.

It was a costume shop I had called earlier. They thought I was a little eccentric when I asked if I could leave my number with them in case a shipment of miniature piñatas arrived; but when 40 bull & burro piñatas were on a truck waiting to be unloaded, they called me just as I had hoped. I screamed – “it’s a Cinco de Mayo miracle!” Then I calmed myself and told them I would be right over to purchase 30 of them.

It took me 35 minutes to get to the north side of Seattle with rain and traffic fighting me every step of the way. I bounded into the shop and said, “I’m here! I’m here for my 30 mini-piñatas!” The store folk looked at me dryly and said, “Sorry. We only have 12 here. The rest stayed on the truck and are heading to Edmonds.”

Again, you may think this is where a person gives up. It’s 7:10PM. These stores close at 8PM. Instead, I buy what they have on hand and calmly ask them to call the Edmonds store to hold 18 of those little piñatas for me. I’ll be there by 7:30.

I drive to Edmonds. Long story short – the truck did not drop off any miniature piñatas in Edmonds. It went straight on to Everett. And I… I followed it.

As I pushed through the traffic that seemed to have no reason for being at that hour, I refused to entertain the idea that I wouldn’t complete my task. The piñatas would be in our clients’ hands the next day. There was no room for an alternate ending.

At 7:50PM, minutes before the Everett party store closed, I rushed through the doors and threw my arms up in the air and begged, “PLEASE tell me you have 18 burros and/or bulls!” (Yes… it really was that dramatic.) The woman at the counter went in the back to check. My pulse raced and it felt like an hour passed before she turned the corner, miniature piñatas galore in hand.

I smiled from ear-to-ear and again cried out, “It’s a Cinco de Mayo miracle!”

With 30 miniature piñatas in tow, I began my drive back to Seattle. I called home to ask my love to start some dinner for me when he asked, “Where have you been?!”

I laughed and said, “I’ve been chasing piñatas.”

So you see, here at Golden Lasso, we always go the distance for our clients. Because we appreciate them! And we have a passion for doing what’s right… even if it’s not easy.

Most of the country has been enjoying a nice, early spring. But here in Seattle, we’ve proudly let spring take its due course, doing our best to embrace the clouds, rain, and wind knowing that when we see the sun again, it will be like finding a $20 bill in a jacket you haven’t worn in a year.

Well, it finally happened. This weekend, I watched the city wake up. Revived by sunshine and warmth, I stood amazed at how “fresh” everything looked and felt. But really… what had changed? Everything was the same but somehow, my perception shifted and I saw everything as though it was new again.

This got me thinking about brands that have gone through something similar – the ones that hibernated (or maybe fell into a coma, of sorts) and then found a way to offer us a new perspective on what they’re all about. So in the spirit of spring renewal, let’s give a nod to one such brand: FIAT

FIAT in the ’70′s

FIAT Today

I know that there are oh-so-many more great examples out there! What is your favorite long-lasting brand that’s kept things “fresh” after all of these years?

~Brenda

Back in 2008, while digital marketing and social media were changing the political landscape, a national telecom giant approached us with an interesting opportunity: “We are going to sponsor the Democratic National Convention (DNC) as their technology provider. How do we make hay with that?”

You can imagine the collective buzz in a boutique marketing firm like ours. “Little ol’ Golden Lasso? Really?”

Big ideas can come from anywhere and they wanted our thinking because they knew we approach marketing and branding in ways that complement what our clients can actually provide. In other words, big brand ideas don’t always dovetail with what can actually be accomplished by the product or service itself. Overpromising an experience (and under delivering) is a recipe for brand disaster in today’s age of savvy consumerism and the digital megaphone that has been handed to the consumer. All that to say, our experience and knowledge made us a responsible marketing and brand partner.

So, you are asking, what happened? Nothing. Nada. Well, almost nothing.

In the end, there were some logos applied to other companies’ banners around the halls of the DNC in Denver. There was also some communications technology and bandwidth provided through their sponsorship that bought our potential client the power of logos along the bottom of news crawls on major networks. Brand awareness, right? Perhaps. We can argue that one on a different GLog post.

The big question is: where was the idea that had the opportunity to be affiliated with one of the most rallying moments in modern politics? Nowhere to be seen.

So, again, you are asking, what happened? We delivered big ideas.

Check out the photos below of the spec work we developed to show them the power behind the potential of what was originally THEIR smart idea. We showed them work that didn’t over scope their allocation of media. We gave them an idea that would give their brand an opportunity to be the backbone of a movement. And this was done prior to knowing what the Obama campaign machine had up their sleeve.

Our potential client had the chance to get a jump on implementing a digital, integrated campaign as “Movement Media”. They could have been recognized as more than a corporation who was aligning themselves with the Democratic Party; they could have been seen as an integral part of the Democratic process. It was actually their big idea – all we did was visualize it for them to create more opportunity and bang for their sponsorship buck.

In the end, they agreed that the “ideas and activities visualized were powerful but they don’t look like us.” This feedback was a head-scratcher as we had responsibly reviewed and complied with all of their brand and graphic standards, knowing that going off the reservation can feel too risky for some marketing managers and may close the door to new, innovative ideas.

Considering all of this, I recognize that one of two things happened:

1. We did a bad job of selling the potential of our idea.

 -OR-

2. The preciousness of the BRAND usurped the opportunity for BRANDING.

Our team loves big challenges, and this was one of them. We don’t always win. But we never back down from the opportunity to push smart and responsible creative solutions.

The work below shows this forward thinking idea: enabling individuals’ voices and opinions to be digitally shared as part of a national conversation delivered directly through the client’s product. An idea just a little ahead of the curve.

In celebration of eight wonderful years in the design world, our entire team joined up and volunteered time to give back to the community that inspires us to create and innovate. From ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, our crew donned aprons and 1950′s throwback diner hats to chop, dice, laugh, dance, and prepare food for nearly 1,000 of Seattle’s residents in need.

Founder Bridget Culligan with Sarah Delaney, Jennifer Lovering, and Robert Well (in the background)

Philip, Joe, and Brenda are ready and willing

The engaging and innovative mission of Farestart is the reason our team could pass up their usual brunch and personal routines on Sunday morning to become kitchen preps for a day. Guided by the confident leadership of Chef Rick and Chef Mark, our team bonded over meats, vegetables, and whole a lot of cutting boards in an effort to support Farestart and it’s mission to transform lives within the homeless community.

Break time, community style.

After all the cutting, cooking, and cleaning was done, goodbyes were said to the wonderful Farestart Chefs and our team hung together to celebrate Golden Lasso’s Founders’ Day with the 8th Annual bowling event at the Garage on Capitol Hill. Harnessing energy from The Big Lebowski’s “The Dude”, the team rolled two rounds, enjoyed delicious Cupcake Royal cupcakes, and celebrated being together as members of Golden Lasso.

For a day normally filled with pranks, our team enjoyed a day of giving back, bonding, and celebrating.

Happy Founders' Day!

A recent study published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, co-written by Nathalie Kylander & Christopher Stone, provides an insightful look at the social impacts of brand within the nonprofit world— a sector where work is done for a greater, common good. Golden Lasso aligns with this kind of thinking. Kylander & Stone’s research bears our own intuition and beliefs: that the benefits of a focused brand narrative offer long-term value while strengthening internal and external identity. That’s how brand adds to mind share.

• The era of Galas and conservative black tie events are too long in the tooth. For years fundraising events and auctions were meant to reflect the social hierarchy and provide high-wealth donors the opportunity to party in style. There is still style, in spades. However, a focus on the unique, memorable experience over formal is where non-profits and foundations are tapping into creating community around their causes.

• To auction or not auction? That is the question. Arguably there are still plenty of reasons to procure high-value and interesting auction items that will yield significant giving and fervor in the deft hands and voice of the right auctioneer. The problem has been differentiation, saturation of the same types of items and, frankly, a lack of interest. Even with trends like themes, auctions dedicated to wine, travel or dining, it is getting trickier than ever to create the level of interest that will drive giving to levels necessary to make the headaches of an auction worth it.

• What can make a difference in fundraising events? As we see it, the theme and the brand of the event itself are becoming ever more integral to higher levels of participation, engagement and giving. Golden Lasso has been fortunate to be involved in the branding of events for diverse organizations and causes. From the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s The Giving Pledge to small, yet culturally crucial efforts like Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Words Matter or Richard Hugo House’s Eat, Read Hugo, the narrative around the event’s brand is as crucial to the success of the effort as it is to the brand of the organization. And that is where expertise in brand alignment comes into play.

Leaning too heavily on the organization’s brand alone can water down the fun factor and—in these times of more fundraisers than ever—intriguing, fun, interesting and playful can be effective ways to keep your RSVPs and donations flourishing.

One of the more adventurous groups we work with is Northwest Film Forum. Executive Director, Lyall Bush, and the Board of Directors annually reinvent their major fundraising event, starting with just a big idea and from there they bring it to life. In the next couple weeks we will be debuting the 2012 branded theme under the title Black + White and I firmly believe it is some of the most beautiful work my creative team has ever accomplished.

On the eve of that reveal, I wanted to share some of our team’s stellar work from the 2011 Northwest Film Forum fundraiser. In the creative brief, Lyall asked us to exploit 80’s arcade graphics under the title Gala-Ga. Roshan Gurusinghe, our Creative Services Manager, is also an accomplished illustrator with mastery over stylizing brands, and he was the perfect choice to bring a nostalgic view to life around this event theme. Below, you’ll find his initial illustration concepts that aligned the event’s style with the Northwest Film Forum’s evocative brand mark.

As we get closer to the 2012 event, stay tuned for more of Roshan and his team’s inventive creative illustration and design work.

Philip Shaw

President & Chief Creative Strategist

No, we’re not trying to rub it into your faces. We just understand that underneath the emails, phone calls and other daily tasks, it’s important to take care of yourself. (In other words, we take care of us so we can take care of you!)

Here’s a quick photo of Carol, along with our mascot – P.T. Scoots the Wonder Pup.

Even Peets needs a massage!

We’re a pretty lucky bunch over here at GL. A big, huge, ginormous thanks to our CEO, Bridget Culligan, for arranging such a wonderful treat!

If you live in Western Washington then you’ve heard little else other than the impending snowy doom that finally made it’s appearance last night. You’ve heard it on the radio, on the morning news, midday news, evening news and late night news — you’ve even heard it from the BBC.

While listening to the news this morning, and searching for the snow brush for my car (I know I have one somewhere), I heard the anchors referring to our current weather situation as ‘Winter Extreme’ (feel free to debate the use of the word extreme with others).

Now, given that we at Golden Lasso are what you could call ‘branding nerds’ we feel there is a huge missed opportunity here. Vicious rounds of snow, winds, and freezing temps rarely hit this area with such gusto. Why not brand these suckers? (Come on, it’s all we hear about for a week every year or so, let’s have some fun with it!)

Thus, the brilliant-bordering-on-crazily-ingenious minds of Golden Lasso put our partially caffeinated heads together and came up with the following list of names for our beloved winter storms. The idea is to have these function akin to hurricane names; we’ll have a set list and rotate through the names as needed.

We at Golden Lasso want to present you with a Brand. New. kind of winter snowstorm.

Snowmageddon (It’s been used before but you have to admit it’s pretty great.)

Snowpocalypse (Ditto.)

SnobamaCare (We need coverage, lots of deep powder coverage)

Death Storm 2012 (Pronounced as twenty-twelve, none of that two-thousand stuff.)

Storminator (For those pining for yet another Ah-nold tribute.)

White Night (Be careful to not misspell night.)

Flake Fest (has potential uses other than snow)

Proto-Slush (Created specifically for those techie folks.)

Ice Ice Baby (And you thought it was a one-hit wonder.)

Fluff Core (We must admit this came from the one of us perpetually in a pink haze – due to his adorable daughters, of course.)

Seattle’s Annual SUV Justification (Insert your SUV opinion here.)

Snow Place Like Home (An homage to the place 95% of us will be if those flakes start a’falling.)

The White Wrath (Because every once in a while our beautiful region decides to try on a different color than grey, and quickly realizes the ‘Don’t wear white after Labor Day’ rule actually is true.)

Sleet Week ’12 (It’s rain. It’s snow. It’s rain. It’s … sleet.)

And the winner is …

iStorm (Just because we could.)

If you happen to be a weatherman, or know one, point him/her to this post. We’re missing out on a wonderful opportunity to brand and really give a personality to the storms that pass through our area every so often. People need to connect with the storm, form a personal relationship with it, interact with it and feel like they can trust it. It all begins with the name. It’s the least we can do to help the storm win over the citizens of Western Washington.

Give us a call, we’d love to help.

Posted by Jennifer Lovering.

 

One of the great things about Golden Lasso’s neighborhood here on Capitol Hill in Seattle is the plethora of mouth-watering food options. The lunchtime choice is always difficult. Today, we opted for one of our favorite food trucks turned brick and mortar institution: Marination Station! 

Who knew the unusual cuisine combination of Korean fused with Hawaiian could be so delicious? We do. And you should find out too.

We’re lucky that Marination choose Capitol Hill as the place for their transition from mobile deliciousness to neighborhood novelty. Spicy beef, tofu, and pork tacos are a team favorite. Their spam sliders and Kimchee rice bowls are also a tasty treat for your palate. Almost everything is marinated in their signature sauce. The Marination menu may be short, but has something for everyone.

Today, shortly after noon, we filtered into the conference room, pulled up a chair and shared a meal together. Few things beat the sight of a table full of Marination Station’s yummy concoctions. We like to think of our Friday team lunches as a little office tradition, a caloric intake to tackle the creative problems of the afternoon.

Why post about our lunch? Because we care about our neighborhood. Rumor has it that the rules for Seattle food trucks are changing, slowly opening the door to even more possibilities in and around the Hill in the future. ‘Bring on the trucks!’ we say. We’re all for more variety, more options, and more activity, the kinds that make local communities thrive.