ORLANDO, Florida – If you are Deluxe Corp., a longtime player in the printed checks business, how do you get a documentary on Hulu? Enlist Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec to help conduct a “revolution” and bring it to small-town USA.
Amanda Brinkman is one of the stars of the eight-episode series Small Business Resolution—along with being Deluxe’s Chief Brand & Communications Officer. So the passion she exhibits when explaining the evolution of Revolution, crafted to highlight Deluxe’s evolution to a marketing services provider, is understandable.
“We really wanted to do something good in our 100th year,” Brinkman says in an interview with Beet.TV at the Masters of Marketing conference of the Association of National Advertisers. “No other small businesses are more under siege than in our small towns, and we wanted to do something about that.”
Deluxe solicited nominations to determine which small town to support with a $500,000 makeover for its small business and downtown area. After nearly 10,000 nominations and 180,000 votes cast, Wabash, Indiana emerged on top.
The Small Business Resolution series, which is also available online, consists of interviews with local business owners whose offerings run the gamut from a bridal accessories to tattoos. Along the way, Deluxe representatives offer advice on such topics as brand design and website maximization.
“We evolved alongside those small businesses that we’ve been serving for 100 years and now offer a full suite of marketing services,” says Brinkman. “But people don’t really know us for that. To change perceptions, we thought we’d do something good at the same time.”
One thing most small businesses have in common is a lack of marketing expertise. “You don’t start your own business because you can’t wait to build a website or figure what SEO is or manage your twitter account,” Brinkman adds.
She is excited about the conversations around purpose-based marketing at the ANA confab, saying “At the core of it people want to interact with brands that are doing something that matters. It only benefits us all if the entire marketing community rallies around doing things that make a difference.”
We interviewed her at the ANA Masters of Marketing annual meeting in Orlando. This video is part of a series produced at the conference. Beet’s coverage is sponsored by Cadent. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
