EDIT: Just occurred to me at 11:11PM on 08.06.08 to mention that none of the three companies I’m writing about in this post are current clients. I had a consulting session before BlogHer with Zwaggle, but otherwise, these companies are just doing rockin’ stuff that I dig, I’m not making money from blogging about them. I’ll go out of my way in every post to make sure you know if I’m representing (as a Brand Manager or otherwise) a company or person about which I write. <3

We all like getting free stuff.

This post is about three businesses that help us get/give free stuff, show us we can do more with less and bank on us wanting to do good in the world by doing good themselves.

Swag, skills and the stuff you throw away. Free stuff.

Free stuff with big potential.

Case Study 1: Zwaggle Your Swaggle

I met up with Zwaggle Founder Adam Levy on a sunny day at The Cup. We got together for a consulting sesh because he was going to be a sponsor for BlogHer08. There was to be a Zwaggle Recycling Room…a place to recycle the stuff you get in your swag. Who would want to give up free stuff from big companies like Disney or Quickbooks!? You, maybe…

Do I Really Need Another Coupon for Free Panties? Last year’s participants at BlogHer (replace BlogHer w/SXSWi or An Event Apart, or…) were inundated with swag they didn’t want, couldn’t carry-on or would never use. Enter Zwaggle. Basing the room on a slice of what they do online on a daily basis, the room became a real-life, meatspace trading place for the-swag-that-just-don’t-cut-it. Adam used a “swag-o-meter” to determine how much swag had come into the room. It topped out at more than 1,000 pounds. And through the weekend you could come back and drop off that Magic 8 ball or free pair of panties…as well check in on all the other rejected swag (come on, you know you kept checking back in to see if you could score some more free soap…). (For way more info than you ever wanted on the anatomy of a swag bag, as well as a lengthy rant from me in the comments, check Jeremiah’s informative Brands Obsess over Female Bloggers piece.)

Share the Love The swag that you didn’t take home was either returned to sender, recycled or sent to charity. And here’s what the charity had to say:

“Thanks so much, Adam, Zwaggle and BlogHer for sending us these wonderful items. The troubled kids that Create Now! serves will love them, especially since most of them have so little in their lives. It will mean a lot for them to know that people like you and the bloggers at the conference who donated their goodies really care.” -Create Now, an LA-based charity

Now that’s rad.

Companies, Listen Up

Perhaps my favorite thing about what Zwaggle did is that it raised awareness simply by existing as a space for people to make a choice…there was no agenda being pushed.

Rather than chucking 3/4 of my swag bag as I did last year (including the bag itself) I went down to the Zwaggle room and got a giant sticker declaring I’d “Zwaggled my Swaggle” (a phrase which Adam insists I came up with…my mother would be so proud.) It’s kind of like the “I Voted” sticker.

It just feels right.

Swag Sponsors…Better Luck Next Time? A Tip

Sometimes branding and outreach isn’t about going “out there” by sending little Chinese-manufactured toys and crappy little 1 gig thumb drives (my guy proceeded to snap off the drive, throwing away the fancy bracelet w/your logo emblazoned on it…just sayin’) in a swag bag (hey, Michelin, Disney and the rest that swagged us, y’all are awesome, but how about giving away scholarships next year instead?! Kill less trees, make folks happy much?) It’s about asking others to come “in here” to see what we’re up to.

What You Give: At BlogHer, you gave up your unwanted swag. On the Zwaggle site, you give up your unneeded items such as clothes, toys and strollers.
What You Get: At BlogHer, you could pick up any swag you wanted to take home. On the site, you get “zoints” that allow you to purchase other items that you need.

Case Study 2: Trade a Favor

Zwaggle’s online mission is about trading products your family has outgrown. This next company is about trading favors.

Frick and Barile, the cofounders of Trade a Favor, are “betting that personal favors traded within socially meaningful trade circles will become the dominant Internet trading paradigm. If they’re right, their venture could get a boost from a sagging economy that has renewed interest in barter options.”

Here’s how it works with their Facebook app. I say I’m trading Japanese lessons (which I am). I need your life coaching skills. We trade. The end.

Or is it? When I was in Japan I was asked to guest teach a yoga class a few hours outside of Yokohama. It was for a magazine article. In exchange for teaching in what I was told was a “barter” community (they don’t use yen at all, ever, within the village), I would receive a delicious organic meal. I had no idea what to expect.

We drove way outside of the city limits, eventually coming to a village nestled in some foothills. It was quiet. There were goats, barefoot children playing out front. After teaching the lesson I went in and sat down to one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had. There was a sense of calm to the place. No running water, no indoor electricity. It reminded me of my time in Morocco.

And, like Morocco, there seemed to be a sense of connection between everyone present. Nobody looked at me askance because I was a tall skinny white girl. I felt whole, completely at ease.

They told me about their town. Showed me a map of the village. You go here to get your hair cut. There to get your lawn supplies. Everything you could need in daily life. Bartered. It was surreal. A slice of paradise.

What I see in people my age in America is a sense of longing for real connection, beyond the online world. We track people down online in scarily stalkerish ways. What if we use the tools we’ve created to “connect” with others to ascertain the needs of others and help see that they’re met? Paradise, indeed.

What You Give: Whatever skills you’d like to trade. Creative types can offer design services, for instance.
What You Get: Whatever skill you’re looking for. According to the site, “Everyone has something to trade. It could be a skill or talent. It could be a valuable item, or access to an exclusive perk. It could be anything.”

Case Study 3: ZeroHero

I was leaving the Mile High Music Festival, high on the soothing sounds of John Mayer, a few weeks ago when I saw a friendly looking man in a bright green shirt helping people recycle as they left the grounds. It struck me as so out of place that I decided to stop and get some footage of what was happening. (DMB fans, be on the look out for a fan boy shout out. Hard core recyclers, you may recognize yourself in a character who comes on stage in the first few seconds.)

Zero Waste at Mile High Music Festival from gwenbell on Vimeo.

The question here isn’t “Why are these initiatives so remarkable?” it’s “Why aren’t more companies doing things like this?” Apparently the tents cost a couple of hundred bucks, but with upwards of 60,000 people moving through the area over the course of two days, imagine the amount of good that they do (not to mention the number of times their logo is seen).

Having an “expert” from ZeroHeroEvents help with recycling (or in Levy’s case, on “swag”) on-site does more than the tent standing alone would ever do. Sure, there’s an element of teaching involved. But it’s like the “teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime” parable. A short-term investment like that has long-term and far-reaching positive impact. Meaning your company and your legacy live on long after you’re gone.

What You Give: This is an easy one. You give up your trash and recyclables in an orderly manner.
What You Get:
The doing is its own reward. You get to help keep the environment clean and make the lives of those cleaning up after the event that much easier. Good karma, for lack of a better word.

Do More with What You Already Have

It comes down to doing more with what we already have.

Levy’s Zwaggle, Frick and Barile’s Trade a Favor and the ZeroHero teams make the most of the “stuff” (products, services and waste, respectively) that already exists, rather than creating new “stuff” we really don’t need. That stuff fails to get us closer to what we’re really craving: connection, or happiness, at the very least. “Although there may be nothing intrinsically wrong with having stuff, too many of us get caught on a treadmill of acquisition…trouble is, you can never get enough of what you don’t really need to make you happy.” That’s from Success Built to Last. And if authors Porrass, Emery and Thompson are right it’ll be sites like Zwaggle, Trade a Favor and ZeroHeroEvents that will be on our radars more than ever.

How’s that for remarkable branding? Proof that the story, as ever, matters most. And that sometimes standing on a tabletop screaming “Look at me! Look at me!” isn’t the answer. That doing hard things, allowing your remarkable story to emerge…doing good is.

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I appreciate the people in these companies for their forward-thinking behaviors and their willingness to do good in the world regardless of who notices or cares. I am inspired and excited about the potential for more companies like these to emerge.

These are my appreciations for this week. See Week 1 and Week 2 for more appreciations.