In fact, my phone has been ringing off the hook for the past three days (and nights…I just finished a phone call at 8:30 P.M. with a client in Massachusetts) with clients looking for last minute eco-friendly promotional ideas for their outreach programs.

Putting your name and logo on recycled promotional items is great.  I would not be able to stay in business without it, nor I would have chosen it as my profession if I did not believe strongly in them.

That being said, my questions to most of these callers are:

1. What is The Goal of Your Earth Day Message?

• Are you looking to change behaviors?
• Are you trying to change the public’s perception of your organization?
• Are you looking to educate the public–as sort of a public service or outreach campaign?

All three of these agendas require a different mareting message.  Make sure your message matches your goals.

2. Can You Back Up Your Message With Deeds and Achievements?

• As they say in my home town of Austin, Texas, are you “talking the talk–or walking the walk”?
• Did you just wake up this morning thinking that you had to do something green for Earth Day?
• Did your boss call you in for a meeting and declare that you will be participating in an Earth Day event–and this is all news to you?
• Or has your organization been planning your green agenda for many, many months and Earth Day is a natural extension of your marketing mix?

3) How are You Planning to Communicate Your Goals, Message and/or Agenda?

• Will you be using social media?
• Will you be giving a speech?
• Will you be exhibiting at a community Earth Day event?

Hopefully, if you are truly a green company, the answer is all three.

According to the 2011 Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker, consumers do not expect companies to be saints. A full three-quarters (75%) say it is okay if a company is not environmentally perfect—as long as it is honest and transparent about its efforts.

My advice: Be real. Don’t fake it.

Happy Earth Day.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products, has worked to help plant over 25 million trees through his live tree seedling gift program over the past dozen years. His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him at Twitter (http://twitter.com/ecomarketing) or #ecomarketing , by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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The public is starting to be wary of every Tom, Dick and Harriet affixing their name to an Earth Day event without having honest reason to participate.  They are starting to develop better BS-meters and their intolerance for green washing is becoming stronger.

My advice, if you are not a green company, find another event to hitch your wagon to.  There are 364 other days in the year for which you can promote your brand.

That being said, if you are a green company, or are going green, Earth Day is a wonderful opportunity to explain to your audience a few facts, such as:

• How you are green.
• Why you decided to “go green”.
• What kinds of benefits to the planet (community, galaxy?) that your audience will reap.
• Why should your customers care about this change or improvement?
• Why they should go green.

However, bottom line, remember this:  Earth Day is an opportunity for outreach and for education.

It is fine to explain the benefits of your product or service–but also take the time to make your audience aware of other ways that they can help to reduce their carbon footprint. Help organizations, businesses and the general public understand more about recycling and its benefits.

Get children involved with tree planting to beautify their neighborhood, their homes or their park.

Help people to understand the Why of Earth Day and its benefits to them and to future generations

Be pro-active—-and be REAL.

Happy Earth Day!

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Though these Guidelines are not the Law, and will probably see many rounds of changes, here are some of the key revisions the the 1998 Green Guides, according to the Better Business Bureau.

• Marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims such as “green” or “eco-friendly”.  According to the Guides, these claims are difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.
• Seals and Certifications are considered “endorsements.”  This means that marketers may need to disclose any material connections with the certifier.  Third-party certification does not eliminate a marketer’s obligation to have substantiation for its claims.
• An unqualified claim that a product or package is biodegradable means that it will completely decompose is no more than one year after customary disposal.  Marketers should not make unqualified degradable claims for items destined for landfills.
• The Guides address claims of recyclability and introduce a three-tiered analysis for disclosing the limited availability of recycling programs.
• Marketers making “renewable energy” claims should specify the source of the renewable energy.  If a company sells Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for the renewable energy they generate, should not represent that they use renewable energy.
• Marketers making “carbon offset” claims should disclose if the offset purchase funds emission reductions that will not occur for two years or longer.

Best advice, deal with reputable organizations and ones that can provide Third Party Certification to back up its claims.

For more information, visit the BBB website or FTC Green Guides website.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Countdown to Earth Day Promotion Ideas: Marketing to Adults

Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Marketing to Adults (Part 4 of 4)

Choosing the Right Gift for Your Earth Day Promotion: Marketing Your Earth Day Promotion to Adults

Earth Day is the one time a year that many adults ever think about the environment.  Sad, but true.

Earth Day also provides an opportunity to educate and inspire adults to take action and to instill some useful information that might persuade them to become more energy efficient or to reduce their carbon footprint.

If you are a company that is trying to market a green product, Earth Day is the ultimate opportunity to promote your brand or product or service.  In fact, if you have a green product and you are not promoting it heavily during Earth Day, you are missing out on a tremendous marketing opportunity.

Here are my Top 10 selling eco-friendly promotional items that businesses and organizations have used in 2010 to better promote their cause and message:

1: Informational Slide Wheels : These handy eco guides will be used over and over again, keeping your imprint and message in front of your audience for years.

2: Flower Seed Packets: Whether it be butterfly mixes or standard Spring flowers, the large imprint area on the back of a flower seed packet allows you to imprint a miniature billboard of information.  Great for lists and environmental tips.

3: Pens and Pencils Made from Recycled Materials:  There are imprinted writing instruments now made from recycled denim, currency, newspaper, plastic and even tires.

4: Tote Bags: If you are promoting Earth Day at an outdoor event or a trade show, nothing will be as popular as a reusable tote bag—made from recycled materials.  The most popular recycled materials are polypropylene, cotton and PET, which are the recycled plastic from soda and water bottles.  Large imprint and multiple usage lead the reason for the popularity of promotional tote bags.

5: Reusable Sports & Water Bottles: Anything your organization can do to discourage single use water bottles and coffee cups will help in the reduction of landfill waste. Choose from recycled plastic mugs, cups or tumblers – or such durable reusable bottles as stainless steel, plastic or ceramic.  These imprinted cups and mugs are now also available with double walls for insulation.

6: Live Tree Seedlings: Perhaps the most eco-friendly of all Earth Day promotional items, a live tree seedling (or sapling) in an imprinted bag or tube can live for 80-100 years and convert carbon dioxide into pure oxygen, helping to reduce greenhouse gases and improving our environment.

7: Recycled Journals and Writing Pads: Be sure the covers and the paper have been recycled for added benefit.  Some of these imprinted writing journals even come with a recycled pen—making it perfect for meetings and shopping lists.  Another popular trend has been writing pads with recycled sticky pads and sticky flags, for marking pages.

8: Solar-Powered Items: There has been a fast-growing trend to solar powered promotional gifts, including solar powered flashlights, calculators, phone/PDA chargers, watches and more.

9: Recycled Rubber Tire Jar Openers: If you are on a tight budget and looking for quantity, then jar openers made from recycled rubber tires are a must for your Earth Day event. These black jar openers come in many eco-friendly shapes, such as a foot (for carbon footprint messages), CFL light bulb (for light bulb-changing messages) and the recycling arrow and recycling bin for recycling-themed messages.  Try a white or green imprint against the black design for optimal impact.

10:  Organic Clothing: Be sure your entire team (sales team, employees, volunteers, etc.) is dressed in imprinted organic T-shirts and organic cotton embroidered caps.  Say “no” to synthetics – and “yes” to the feel of organic cotton.

Make Earth Day a fun event… and promote your message.  The media will be hungry for your messages, so be sure to send them samples of our eco-friendly promotional items, or photos of your team distributing them to your desired audience.

Let’s make Every Day, Earth Day.

To read the balance of the series, click on the following links:

Part 1: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Determining Your Earth Day Goal

Part 2: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Determining Your Earth Day Plan of Action

Part 3: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Marketing to Children

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Countdown to Earth Day Promotion Ideas

Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Part 1 of 4

Earth Day falls on April 22^nd every year, and many of my clients wait until the first week in April to order their imprinted eco-friendly promotional items.

This year, with a little bit of pre-planning, you can get maximum exposure for Earth Day with a series of scheduled themed promotions.

First thing any organization needs to do is determine your goal for Earth Day events.

1. Is it to brand your organization as “green friendly” or to promote your sustainability drive?
2. Is it to do community outreach?  This can include promoting new energy saving features or to encourage reduction in energy consumption?
3. Is it because your competitors are promoting Earth Day and you do not want to fall behind in your prospects’ minds?
4. Is it a feel-good mission to spend some of your marketing dollars promoting environmental causes?
5. Is it a mandate from your boss?

It is crucial to determine the reason for your participation, in order to maximize your ROI and return on your marketing dollar.

In the next part of this 4-part series, we will break down these 5 reasons for Earth Day marketing to see which strategies will work best for each occasion.

Let’s make Every Day, Earth Day.

To read the balance of the series, click on the following links:

Part 2: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Determining Your Earth Day Plan of Action

Part 3: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Marketing to Children

Part 4: Countdown to Your Earth Day Promotion: Marketing to Adults

Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Made of 100% FSC-certified and recycled material, it is designed to use minimal tape and to be able to withstand multiple use.

Hopefully these stylish bozes will become a status symbol for eBay members, and help to encourage reusing of boxes to other industries, especially any company in the mail order business. Perhaps Amazon, Dell, Lands’ End, Apple and other large-volume shippers will create their own boxes to encourage reuse, rather than recycling.

“Our company been reusing boxes since 1986,and have heard favorable feedback from our customers”, says Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions. He continues. “Several companes have a kraft-colored spray paint that can be used to mask over old labels and scuff marks– rendering these reused boxes as good as new”.

For companies that are going green or are looking to reduce their carbon footprint, small changes like reusing boxes and other shipping supplies, go a long way and show your clients that you are “walking the walk”. Perhaps companies can include a decal or insert sheet (both made of recycled material) ecplaining why reused boxes are being sent out – and to encourage the recipients to do the same. Think of the number of trees that can be saved if every company made it their goal to reuse their shipping boxes at least one time.

Remember, going green is a state of mind– and small changes can begin at the top, as well as in the shipping department.

Help make Every Day Earth Day.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

It is a interesting and interactive site based on 40 possible scenarios and based on as study by the IPCC, the non-profit Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The results can greatly effect world populations, in terms of famines, droughts, warfare, etc.  Global issue can be considered a security threat that needs to be addressed.

This study is an eye-opening look at what our planet can become if steps are not taken by leading countries and economies to address global warming in the immediate future.  It is time that people take a serious look at alternative energy sources, increased sustainability in manufacturing, transportation, farming, as well as other activities, before we pay an even steeper price.

Earth Day cannot be a yearly celebration.  It needs to become a way of life.

Let’s make Earth Day, Every Day.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

These guidelines should help to clarify terms that are used by many manufacturers and retailers to promote sustainability.

Currently there are nearly 300 different Green Seals of Approvals used to grade a products “level of eco-friendliness”, and these guidelines will help to clarify these terms and definitions for consumers once and for all.

This can help to render much of today’s green washing claims obsolete.   However, as with any new rules and guidelines, it is important that the American consumer learns to read the labels and to understand these labels.  However, after a recent trip down the candy, cookie, soft drink and cereal aisles of my local grocery store last week proved, just because labels are out there, doesn’t mean anybody will be reading them or paying attention to them.  Sugar, fructose, corn syrup and other sweeteners are still high on the ingredient list of many of these products, and they are still selling quite well.

Let’s hope the public takes the time to learn these new guidelines — and supports those companies that are helping to make a difference to make the planet greener.

Let’s make every day, Earth Day.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

The top four winners of their contest are all excellent ideas to reduce paper consumption, but only one was a reusable or biodegradable cup.

“We’re very interested in looking at the winning ideas and many of the other submitted ideas as we develop new solutions to reduce cup waste,” said Elise Chisholm, Starbucks spokesperson. “We haven’t yet had a chance to determine specific action plans. Increasing adoption of reusable cups – including travel tumblers and our own ceramic serveware – is definitely an important part of the equation for us.”

The Betacup competition offered a total of $20,000 for ideas that could eliminate paper cup consumption. Starbucks sponsored it as part of its efforts to only offer reusable or recyclable cups by 2015.

The winning idea was the Karma Cup, a simple concept for putting a chalkboard by the register at a coffee shop, having customers that use reusable cups make a mark on the board, and then giving a free coffee to every 10th customer that uses a reusable. This is a fun and creative idea – but be sure to move back toward the end of the line once you see the 10^th person get their reward.

The three honorable mentions were:

1) Band of Honor

This novel idea revolves around a rubber band with a barcode on it that a customer can put on any reusable cup and have scanned every time they use it, getting larger discounts the more they reuse it.

2) Champion Cup

Similar to the Band of Honor, is a platform in which customers tag their mugs, register them online, get rewards for reusing them and track how many cups they’ve saved,

3) Reusable & Biodegradable Cup Contest

Probably the biggest no-brainer of the contest, any reusable or biodegradable cup would save on paper waste.   This particular cup would be made from rice husks that has a sleeve with an RFID tag that can be scanned for tracking cup use and receiving discounts.

Unless Starbucks stops offering drinks in disposable cups completely, millions of tons of paper waste will continue to be created.  Robert Piller, President of EcoMarketingSolutions.com, says, “Reusable and biodegradable coffee mugs would clearly be the easiest to get into their stores, as they are readily available.  We currently offer dozens of reusable and biodegradable coffee mugs that Starbucks could offer with their logo – along witht heir ten cent per cup discount for each use.”

According to GreenBiz.com, recycling has been a sticking point in Starbucks’ environmental efforts. In its 2009 Global Responsibility Report, it stamped “Needs Improvement” on its three recycling goals of developing a recyclable cup by 2012, setting up front-of-store recycling in company-owned stores by 2015 and serving a quarter of beverages in reusable cups by 2015.

In April, Starbucks hosted its second cup summit, bringing together municipalities, suppliers, manufacturers, recyclers, NGOs and more to develop solutions for making paper and plastic cups more widely recyclable. Earlier that month, on April 15, Starbucks ran a promotion giving a free coffee to anyone who brought in a reusable mug to use.

Kudos to Starbucks for acknowledging their problem and working to improve sustainability.

McDonalds & Dunkin Donuts, you’re next.  What will you do to raise the bar in order to reduce waste and improve reuse?

Let’s Make Earth Day, Every Day.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.