Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Happy Birthday Willie!

Last week I was critical of an Oxfam video featuring crowdsourced video content. Actually, I love the idea of sourcing content (of all kinds, for that matter) from donors, volunteers and especially the beneficiaries of whatever it is you do. What I didn’t like was the execution. It told no story about the need it […]

Learn More April 29, 2013

What’s Your Innovation Quotient?

Here’s an article — Teaching The Old Dog Some New Tricks — that caught my attention simply because of its opening teaser line … “Business has only two functions: marketing and innovation.” Now, the author isn’t sure whether he’s quoting management guru Peter Drucker or novelist Milan Kundera, but no matter. Personally, I think it’s […]

Learn More April 26, 2013

When Words Fail

Confession: I’m a slut when it comes to words. I believe, too much so, that they matter more than any other symbol of human communication. Understandable, because I once made a living as a copywriter. But this doesn’t forgive my sins of omission in highlighting other forms of communications that make a real and important […]

Learn More April 25, 2013

The Courage To Change

Early this year the 100 year-old American Cancer Society (ACS) rocked the direct response ecosystem with its decision to stop all direct mail acquisition … stop the use of direct mail to non-dm acquired donors … and remove the ACS list of donors from all exchange universes. Judging from comments I overheard at the February […]

Learn More April 24, 2013

‘No Sale’ Oxfam Video

Agitators readers know I’m a sucker for online videos to deliver important messages and sell causes and charities. See here and here in the past week alone! But this one from Oxfam is a ‘No Sale’ as far as I’m concerned. Yes, I applaud the use of crowdsourcing to generate mission-related video. Huge potential for […]

Learn More April 23, 2013

Your Nonprofit’s Self-Image

The latest extension of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign has generated buckets of attention. As Dove puts it, the mission of the campaign is “to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety”. We first wrote about this campaign in 2006, applauding its focus on self-esteem. What’s creating the latest buzz […]

Learn More April 22, 2013