Change

Speaker Karen Kaiser Clark is credited with having said, “Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” At GroundFloor Media change is afoot and we couldn’t be happier with all of the growth opportunities. From personal changes – such as weddings, babies, new smart phones, MacBook Pros (hey – change is change!) – to professional changes – like new team members, clients, exciting opportunities with long-term clients we are proud to call friends – we’re growing and changing in new ways every day.

The world of public relations has been forced to grow in recent years, too – morphing from an industry based upon hard copy press kits and traditional media relations to an industry whose contacts change daily with the reduction of traditional newsroom staff, the advent of new social media outlets and the meteoric rise of new influencers one might never have guessed just a month earlier. Seth Godin recently wrote a great blog post titled “First and Never” in which he addressed the joys and excitement around “firsts” and the inevitable change that comes with “nevers.” While PR will never be the same as it was when I first entered the field (ah – the days of one computer for the whole office to check e-mail and no BlackBerry to follow me home at night…), the reason I fell in love with this industry is still the same – the opportunity to share great stories with interested audiences whose lives might just change thanks for the stories my clients have to tell.

I like how dictionary.com defines change : “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone.” At GroundFloor Media we embrace change, and while growth might be optional, if you know our team well you can be certain that when given the option we’re always up for the challenge.

Celebrate National Nutrition Month with a Healthy Snack

Time to talk chocolate, one of my favorite subjects, as it’s National Nutrition Month. It may seem like a strange pairing but ‘tis true. Mars Chocolate North America has chosen the Boulder/Denver market for the launch its new goodnessKnows™ luscious snacksquares. The thinking behind this is that our market is a hub for healthy living and health-conscious consumers. Trending is showing us that consumers are also gravitating back toward healthy snacks and nutrition bars. Indulgence without guilt is what Pierre Buisson, Standard Functional Foods Group, says consumers are looking for and nutrition companies are trying to achieve. He also adds that food companies are making nutritional options taste good without adding numbers to the scale. Add chocolate to this and you have a winning combination in my book.

What sets goodnessKnows snacksquares apart from other chocolate products and/or healthy snacks is the fact that they are made from cocoa beans specially selected and handled to retain cocoa flavanols, which help support healthy circulation for a free flow of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. The consumption of flavonoids has been positively linked to a number of human health benefits and all goodnessKnows products are guaranteed to contain at least 200 mg of bio-available cocoa flavanols in every four-square serving. I got that explanation from Catherine Kwik-Uribe, PhD., applied cocoa flavanols research manager at Mars, Inc., who examines the potential role of specific cocoa-derived compounds (i.e., cocoa flavanols) in human health. Want to know about all things chocolate, she’s your gal.

So why Boulder? Now that would make a fun headline and banter on Leno. A recent Gallup Poll named Boulder as the Happiest, Healthy City in the United States. I couldn’t agree more but then again, I’m a bit biased. No matter what you think of Boulder, it is a great test market for healthy natural foods. We have some tough critics from moms to athletes to media to community leaders to professors at the University of Colorado, just to name a few. According to Kwik-Uribe, they could have chosen anywhere but chose Boulder because the community is quite aware of what it means to be healthy and have good snack options. She also mentioned that Mars is committed to cocoa sustainability and is focused on improving the planet and lives of cocoa farmers through responsible agricultural practices. Something Boulder can appreciate, too.

Denver you’ll have your chance in a few more weeks. So go ahead and celebrate this month with a healthy new snack. Give goodnessKnows a try and let us know what you think.

~ Amy

Corporate Giving - Are You Committed?

Corporate giving, corporate social responsibility, community relations – we hear about these important issues all the time. It’s supposedly essential for companies to give back to their communities – to help solve the ills that plague society. But is it really the role of business to address issues like hunger, natural disasters and poverty – or to support causes such as higher education or the arts? Shouldn’t business just be about customers, revenues and the bottom line? Considering that I personally spent six years in an organization dedicated largely to encouraging corporate philanthropy, I have to say that forward-thinking businesses should do more than care about their bottom line. And I’m happy to report that Denver – and our nation – is chock full of business leaders and employees who truly care about their community.

According to the 2009 State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States survey from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and The Hitachi Foundation, “In a strong signal that corporate social responsibility has earned a place alongside the bottom line, a survey of nearly 800 companies found most senior executives believe business should take a greater role solving problems in health care, product safety, education and climate change.” The survey results go on to show that “corporate citizenship is weathering the recession and is increasingly being integrated into business strategy and operations.”

I am proud to report that even though we are a small business, we believe in walking the proverbial walk. In addition to helping clients identify nonprofit partners and develop strategic corporate giving plans, GroundFloor Media donates up to 15% each year to nonprofits. Several years ago, GroundFloor Media chose Tennyson Center for Children, one of the Rocky Mountain region’s leading treatment and education centers for abused, neglected and at-risk youth, as its nonprofit partner and began providing pro bono PR services to the organization. Through its Get Grounded program, GroundFloor Media also allows its employees to get paid time off for volunteering and provides matching grants to organizations about which employees feel passionate.

And, GroundFloor Media is not alone. For instance, in 2008 Qdoba Mexican Grill adopted Starlight Children’s Foundation as its national charity partner, to which it donates funds, employee volunteer hours and food. Denver-based St. Mary Land & Exploration Company has sponsored the building of a Habitat for Humanity house each year for the past several years, sending employee volunteers to help with the construction, and in 2009, Pinnacol Assurance awarded more than $250,000 in scholarships to students through its foundation. And this is just a small sample of the many businesses doing great things in their communities and around the world.

But with all of the potential causes and issues out there, how does a company know which one (or ones) to support? A couple of tips to keep in mind:

• In order to ensure buy-in – and even enthusiasm – for the program among employees, it’s a good idea to survey them to identify causes that matter them. If a majority of your employees believe strongly in the need to help bolster public education, then that might be the way to go.
• It can also help give a company direction to consider what causes are most closely related to their product or mission. What can your company offer that others can’t? Take Tide’s Loads of Hope campaign for instance – by providing mobile laundry services to victims of natural disasters, they are building incredible good will through a very unique offering.
• And don’t forget to give employees ways to support their own personal causes, in addition to an overall cause for the corporation. This is a wonderful way to build employee morale and help ensure employee retention.

And, finally – because we would be remiss as a corporate citizen if we didn’t include a plug for our nonprofit partner in a blog post about corporate giving… For more information on how you can help Tennyson Center, be sure to tune in to 9NEWS in Denver on Thursday morning, March 4. Tennyson Center’s president and CEO will be on the 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. newscasts, and members of the Tennyson Center team will be taking calls about how individuals and groups can get involved.