Are you looking for a new way to build your brand and market your products? Forget about naming a stadium - why not brand an animal species with your name. Purdue University is now selling naming rights for some new species of bats. That’s right! - they will be auctioning off naming rights to seven recently discovered types of bats from Mexico, South and Central America as well as Africa. That’s not all - they also have a couple of Amazonian turtles on the auction block.
This isn’t the first instance. This summer the Scripps Oceanographic Museum in San Diego was hawking naming rights to several aquatic species, and a biologist from East Carolina University is now soliciting donations for a biodiversity scholarship at the university with the highest bidder getting the opportunity to name a species of spider.
The hope of the scientists is that this will help raise awareness of the biodiversity crisis happening on this planet, and how many species are dying off even before they are discovered. Hopefully if a business buy’s naming rights that the business entity doesn’t outlast the species. Sound interesting? All of this won’t come cheap. However it is surely cheaper than a Super Bowl commercial and definitely going to a better cause.
I came across an article this week where a high school calculus teacher in California named Tom Farber came up with an innovative way to deal with budget cuts. He decided to start advertising on quiz’s, tests and exams to help raise money to cover the printing costs.
So Farber, who says he’d never asked for money from parents in his 18 years of high school teaching, pitched the ad idea to parents at a September back-to-school night. For checks made to the math department — $10 a quiz, $20 a test or $30 for a final exam — they could insert an inspirational quote — their own or someone else’s — or a business advertisement at the bottom of the first page.
"Brace yourself for a great semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D.," read one of the ads in small type at the bottom of a quiz’s first page.
Innovative thinking and yet sad that he had to be put into this position to begin with.
Our Chief Operating Officer and office trivia champion Vince Martino (author of The Marine Corps Way) has written another article for the Idaho Statesman’s ‘Starting Up’ series. In his latest article, Vince discusses what it takes for a start-up to survive this arduous time. With the economy undeniably on everyone’s minds, Vince outlines several crucial guidelines that start-ups should follow during this trying time. Read the full article here: (more…)
