Getting involved in the social media scene in San Diego is easy and fun thanks to Social Media Breakfast San Diego (SMBSD). The group meets once a month at the Milano Coffee in Mission Valley to network and collaborate with other social media enthusiasts and to share their experiences in recent social media initiatives.

This month we got up close and personal with the social media team from Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. otherwise known as Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. Erika DiProfio and Ginger Anderson are the masterminds behind the company’s social media strategy and shared with us how Garden Fresh utilized social media and how their fully integrated approach has proven to be successful.

You can access the presentation on Slideshare or check out the Ustream video here. I suggest fast forwarding the video 16 minutes because that’s when the actual Souplantation discussion begins.

Key Take Aways

1. Erika & Ginger are responsible day to day execution of Souplantation’s social media strategy.
2. Social media was not viewed as a single campaign but a way to integrate everything they do for promotions.
   1. Use social media to capture customer feedback and drive marketing initiatives.
3. Their goals were to open the lines of communication and to increase brand loyalty.
4. UGC contest on Facebook has included: Best Pucker Face & Best Salad Face.
5. The company has over 5K employees. Downward communication has been vital to their success to date.
6. Over 1.1MM Club Veg Members to date.
7. CEO has supported the team’s social media initiatives.

[Image Source: DiscoverSD]

[Video Source: SMBSD]

Melonie Gallegos
Geary Interactive

Melonie Gallegos has been an Ad2 San Diego member since she joined the team of Geary Interactive in 2008. To Melonie, Ad2 provides networking with “smart people in the industry.” (thanks for calling us smart!)but she also knows networking is not the only thing that makes Ad2 a great community.

The best thing about Ad2, she says, “everyone knows how to have fun and more importantly, it facilitates shared learning by bringing in talented speakers and hot topics.” Melonie has always been an extremely positive addition to every Ad2 event. Not only does she bring a lot of ideas but her bright smile and friendly demeanor are always a welcome treat.

Know an Ad2SD member that’s going above and beyond for Ad2SD? Send your nomination for next month’s Board Member and Member Spotlight to info@ad2sd.com or send a direct message to the team at Twitter.com/Ad2SD.

Come join us on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at the Tilted Kilt as we listen to the first World Champion of Surfing, Peter “PT” Townend, speak about his long career in the action sports industry. Happy Hour will be extended for the event until 8pm including some light appetizers.

About the Speaker: Peter “PT” Townend

The first World Champion of Professional Surfing (1976) has held numerous industry positions in a 25- plus year career in action sports, including a 10- year term as advertising director/associate publisher of Surfing, Bodyboarding and Volleyball Magazines; eight years as the marketing director of Rusty; and more recently this decade as publisher of Primedia’s Surfing Group and marketing and events director for the Primedia Action Sports Group (ASG) division.

Townend also served as president of SIMA (’88-’89) and president of Surfing America (’97-04)which he founded.  He served as head coach of the USA Surf Team in 1982-1984, when he led the team to a gold medal win in ’84, and most recently from 2004-2007 when he brought the USA Surf Team back to international credibility with a return to the dais in three of five international ISA World Championship appearences.

Townend currently serves on the USA SkateBoarding board of directors, the umbrella organization that is endeavoring to bring skateboarding into the Olympics, and will field the USA National SkateBoarding Team.  Townend also serves on SIMA’s seniour advisory board and the CONNECT S.I. advisory board.

Register now while seats are available! All Ad 2 San Diego events do sell out. Sign up today!

Pricing

• Ad 2 Members: $10
• Students: $10
• Ad Club Members: $15
• Non Members: $20

An Additional $5 will be added to the cost on the night of the event.

Location

The Tilted Kilt
310 10th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92101 (Map)

Advanced Registration is now closed. Walk up seats are still available.

Ad 2 San Diego is proud to announce the 2009-2010 Public Service Campaign Winner. Numerous non-profit organizations submitted their applications for this campaign, however, only one made the cut.

Congratulations to the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) who presented a strong and powerful message with multiple possibilities for a campaign. Ad2SD is very excited to work with these passionate individuals and we hope to create a beneficial and meaningful campaign for this very deserving non-profit organization. Thank you to all those who applied and we encourage you to apply again next year. For more information about the Ad2SD Public Service campaign and to check out last year’s public service campaign for the Big Brothers and Sisters of San Diego County, check out our Public Service page.

Three non-profits gave a 10-minute presentation to persuade a panel of judges that they were the most deserving of an Ad2SD  public service campaign.

Challenged Athletes Foundation

The first to present was the Challenged Athletes Foundation. The non-profit helps to build confidence for disabled people by providing them with the tools they need to compete in athletic activities. Every year they hold the San Diego Triathlon Challenge and they are asking Ad2SD to create a campaign to increase the population of able-bodied competitors, disabled competitors and donors. They hope to have a model in which they can use for future campaigns for their various events.

Make A Wish Foundation

The second to present was San Diego’s local chapter of Make A Wish Foundation. Make A Wish grants wishes of children with life threatening illnesses.

They classify the wishes they get into four different categories:

• I wish to go…
• I wish to be…
• I wish to have…
• I wish to be able to…

A lot of the different wishes involve flying somewhere to do them. The airlines don’t give Make A Wish any breaks on airline tickets, so they set up a program for donors to donate airline miles to Make A Wish. The San Diego chapter asked Ad2SD to create a campaign to promote donating miles to Make a Wish.

California Center for Sustainable Energy

The last to present was California Center for Sustainable Energy. They have various programs to educate the San Diego Community on being smart about energy use. Their budget doesn’t allow for much marketing, so they would need a self-funded marketing plan as well as an advertising campaign.

The panel of judges continued with a session of questions and answers. They will get back to Ad2 and the non-profits on which campaign they will select.

Christine Guardia

The night ended with a presentation on cause marketing by Christine Guardia. Christine Guardia works at KooDooZ and has a MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management and Marketing from Boston University. She defined cause marketing as something that mutually benefits a corporation and a non-profit. She categorized three kinds of cause marketing promoting a product buy showing and promoting awareness of a cause, promotion of proceeds and buy one give one. She emphasized transparency of exactly what is donated because consumers want to know where their money is going. You can view her presentation on Cause Marketing here.

On Friday, August 21^st I got the pleasure of attending the SD Ad Club’s seminar on the “Art of Powerful Presentations” led by Nancy Stern. Nancy is an educator and communications consultant. She has worked with companies like General Dynamics, Sony, and Tiffany & Co, and is known for her quote “How you say what you say matters.” The goal of the seminar was to help us develop strategies that would enable us to be better communicators; whether it be in front of a crowd of hundreds, or one on one. Nancy kept us engaged by getting us involved. In between topics Nancy would pose questions and have us brainstorm possible answers at our tables. Then she would call on us to read our answers aloud so we could discuss as a group.

The three main takeaways from the seminar are:

PowerPoint is NOT a teleprompter

The slides in your presentation are there to support your topic. A rule of thumb is not to overload your presentation with bullets. You want to keep the text to a minimum and add imagery to help support your point. Also you want to speak to the slides rather than read from them. A good presentation blends technology, visuals, and human connections.

Always have a plan B

What would you do if your computer or the projector dies? You should be able to give an engaging presentation with or without the slides. Nancy explained that technology doesn’t kill a presentation, bullet points and bad delivery does. If you do not have access to your presentation make use of any other elements you have around. Make notes on a whiteboard, or a large piece of paper. You can make up for not having slides by using visual words like “Imagine a…” or “Picture this…” Nancy said that taking an improv class will help you think on your feet and prepare for the unexpected.

Start strong
You only get 35-40 seconds to capture the audience’s attention. Nancy advised us against giving our bio at the beginning of our presentation; they should already know who we are. Starting your presentation with a story or example is a good attention grabber. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Nancy started her presentation by presenting the wrong way. She had her back to the audience, she was mumbling, and her slides were hard to read. After doing this for two minutes she stopped and asked us to list all the things that she did wrong. This got our attention because it threw us off guard.

Nancy mentioned a number of books throughout the seminar such as:

Presentation Zen By: Garr Reynolds

Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

Brain Rules by John Medina

What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter

This past month we started our yearly student outreach campaign.  I was joined by Ad 2 National Chair Cheri Reeves at the Art Institute on August 19.  We talked how our careers got started and how we have both benefited from Ad 2.  I gave my story about how networking helped land my internship with the Cleveland Indians and how most of my clients are from Ad 2 contacts.  This month, I will join a delegation at the University of San Diego to help start an AAF Chapter there.

As far as Ad 2 Committee work, I’m very proud of the work that Public Service has done this year.  They very diligently picked three outstanding finalists and ultimately were won over by the Challenged Athletes.  Now that the selection process is over, the next step is strategy and planning.  If you would like to build your resume, meet “whose who” in the industry, and participate to a very meaningful cause, then I strongly encourage you to join the Public Service committee.

Nicole Rawski of Geary Interactive has done a great job planning this year’s 4th Annual Sports Marketing Night.  It will be on September 22 at the Tilted Kilt in East Village.  Peter Townend, the first World Champion of Professional Surfing (1976) is our speaker.  This is our first alternative sports speaker.  In the past, we have had the VP of marketing for the Chargers, Marketing Director for the Padres, and Regional Sales Manager for MillerCoors.  Make sure that you sign up early, as this staple Ad 2 event will sell out!

See you on the 22nd,

Adam Hermsdorfer
President, Ad 2 San Diego
BigTuna Interactive

Photos courtesy of Andrew Mera