This is the second installment in a series titled, “How to Get Your Client on the Front Page of the New York Times,” explaining how PureDriven helped vault the GoogleTwinPorts initiative (focused on Duluth, MN and Superior Wis.) to national prominence in its effort to win Google’s attention and become one of the few sites where Google will build an ultra-high speed network. I’ve written this series in hopes of sharing with businesses of all sorts, politicians and grassroots organizers how to best gain offline and online attention for your cause, event or organization.
Lesson 2: Why Getting Paid Is Overrated
- Credit: FutureShape
Google only gave communities about 45 days for the entire project, making a nimble initiative critical. Many volunteers came forward, along with a handful of local advertising agencies and people
willing to work for money.
Because of Minnesota disclosure laws, asking for money from Duluth to hire a firm or firms would take too long. So if a company wanted to help, it had to do so with the understanding that it would be strictly on a voluntary basis. It was a frustrating thought, considering we’d heard anecdotal information that other communities were handing their organizing committees checks of $10,000, $20,000 or even $30,000. We on the other hand, had to work completely for free at the beginning, even spending our own money for incidental costs like food and parking fees, with no guarantee of being paid back. But this lack of money ultimately translated into a boon for us. 1. Organizations only interested in the project if they could make money off it, quickly vanished. 2. That in turn allowed for those lesser known individuals and organizations who showed up for mainly altruistic reasons to take over, such as the TwinPorts Commonwealth, which co-managed the project with PureDriven. Companies like Outcom Consulting and ProPrint also pitched in for free. And others lowered or nixed their prices altogether. Had we had money to spend, what we got for free wouldn’t have been so free. To see a complete list of all the companies that helped out or supported the project, just visit GoogleTwinPorts.com.
So Remember This: Not having money is sometimes a wonderful thing. If you’re a business, consider getting involved in a project with no guarantee of getting paid, because often it will in fact pay off in the long run in ways you didn’t expect. PureDriven probably received more than $50,000 in free advertising, simply because our name was attached to the project, which was being talked about throughout the area and all over the Internet. When money isn’t the object, the people you want to work with – because their motives are in the right place – tend to materialize, and those who may be talented but only in it for the money, fade away.
If you missed Lesson 1 of our series, just click here: How to Get Your Client on Page 1 of the New York Times.
