September is Here with Cultivate! 🍂
Summer is coming to a close and an autumn breeze is in the air. Check out some exciting updates from Cultivate clients for the month of September!
Barr Hill Gin by Caledonia Spirits 🍸 🐝
What’s the buzz, you ask? Since 1974, the numbers of North American bumblebees have fallen nearly 50 percent (Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service).
Barr Hill is celebrating Bee’s Knees Week from September 20-29, 2024 to raise awareness for and provide support to pollinators. With over 700,000 square feet of pollinator habitat pledged and planted over the past six years, Barr Hill’s goal now is to reach 1 million square feet of pollinator habitat by the end of the week.
How to support Barr Hill’s Bee’s Knees Week:
Enjoy a Barr Hill Bee’s Knees Cocktail—either at their distillery or at home
Spread the buzz using @barrhillgin and #beeskneesweek in posts and stories on social media
For every cocktail shared, Barr Hill plants 10 square feet of new bee habitat. Additionally, every bottle of Barr Hill sold equals an additional 20 square feet pledged.
Burlington Baroque 🎼
The first-ever Burlington Baroque Festival will take place September 26-29, 2024. Join Juno Award-winning orchestra L’harmonie des saisons, internationally acclaimed soloists, and some of Vermont’s best vocal talent in 5 performances of exceptional early music repertoire.
All performances will take place at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, VT. Buy tickets here. Read about the festival on Early Music America for more information!
Community College of Vermont 📚 🎒
The Community College of Vermont begins its Fall academic year, starting September 3, 2024. A range of Vermont students from high-schoolers enrolled in pre-college programs, working professionals working toward a degree, and 2+2 Pathway students will continue their academic journeys this month. Watch this inspiring story we placed about CCV’s Credit for Prior Learning Program!
Best wishes to CCV students, faculty, and staff on a successful school year!
RunVermont 🏃♂️
RunVermont will host its 11th Annual Island Vines race on September 15, 2024, at Snow Farm Vineyard. Running options include a 10K, 5K, and Half-Mile Kids Fun Run.
Registration includes finish line chip timing, courses measured to USATF certification standards, a free Island Vines glass, a food truck ticket, a drink ticket, awards for winners, and post-race music/entertainment. Register here.
Vermont Smoke & Cure 🥩🍴
September 23 is National Snack Stick Day! Celebrate the day and get your snack on with Vermont Smoke & Cure.
VS&C will be launching an exclusive product on September 23 made in collaboration with WhistlePig Whiskey: its Maple Old Fashioned Meat Stick. This new product creates a one-of-a-kind cocktail-inspired snack experience! Only available for a limited time.
As a 2024 Taste for Life Food Essentials Award Winner, VS&C’s meat stick varieties serve as a healthy on-the-go snack option—they are free from antibiotics, hormones, artificial colors, preservatives, and artificial flavors, and are also gluten-free.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra 🎻
Vermont Symphony Orchestra heads into its fall season with two performances on September 27 and 28, 2024 featuring Béla Fleck and American Excellence. This all-American performance features virtuoso banjoist Béla Fleck and composer Adolphus Hailstork.
Don’t miss out on phenomenal classical music performed by Vermont talent! Buy tickets to the Burlington, VT performance here or the Rutland, VT performance here.
🌞 Happy August from Cultivate! 🎉
To kick off this month, we've compiled a list of exciting new products, events, and updates from some of our amazing clients at Cultivate. Dive in to see what they’re up to!
Ann Clark Ltd. 🍪
Celebrate the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with Ann Clark Ltd., America's beloved cookie cutter and baking supply company! They've crafted a Paris Summer Games cookie cutter set, perfect for hosting a watch party. Available on Amazon, these cookie cutters are sure to add a delicious touch to your celebrations as you cheer on Team USA! 🇺🇸
Barr Hill Gin 🍸🐝
Join us for Barr Hill's second annual Royal Jelly Cocktail Competition on August 25th! Bartenders from across the Northeastern United States will compete to craft the best Bees’ Knees-inspired cocktail using Barr Hill gin, lemon, and honey. This event is a precursor to Barr Hill’s Bees’ Knees Week, dedicated to raising money and awareness for pollinator habitats.
Attend in person at Barr Hill’s distillery in Montpelier, VT. Tickets available here. Read about the event on Bevnet for more details!
Burlington Baroque 🎻
Burlington Baroque is gearing up for its inaugural Burlington Baroque Festival from September 26-29, 2024, promising four days of phenomenal music!
Juno award-winning period instrument orchestra L’Harmonie des Saisons, internationally acclaimed soloists, and Vermont vocalists unite to re-invigorate the community with Baroque classics and Baroque renditions of Beatles songs. All concerts will be at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, VT. Get your tickets here.
Cold Hollow Sculpture Park 🎨🌳
Join Cold Hollow Sculpture Park for an artist-in-residence talk with Stephanie Cardon on August 24 from 2-4 PM. The event will showcase Cardon’s work, highlighting the emotional and social impact of ecological loss and climate change.
Cold Hollow Sculpture Park invites you to attend this special event. RSVP for free here.
RunVermont 🏃♀️
Get active with RunVermont’s Summer Six Pack Series, with two dates in August and one in September. The series features 5k races in the Burlington area, with post-race drinks, meals, music, and community bonding. Walkers and runners are welcome!
August 7: SpareTime in Colchester
August 21: Barr Hill in Montpelier
September 4: Switchback Brewery in Burlington
Participation is $25 per race, with proceeds benefiting RunVermont’s youth programs. Register here.
Vermont Federal Credit Union 🎒
Vermont Federal Credit Union is partnering with NBC5 for the annual “Class Act” school supplies drive. Donate new school supplies at any Vermont Federal branch until August 24 to support local children’s education—every little bit helps!
Vermont Federal is committed to community support and strives to regularly support programming that gives back to the Vermont community.
Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Cultivate throughout August!
Free Influencer Brief Template
Element #1: Brand Introduction
Take time to introduce creators to your brand, history and context for this specific campaign.
Element #2: Campaign Overview
This will give creators a good understanding of many key things, such as what the brand is all about, the product’s or service’s description, the target audience and what the brand wants to achieve. Include key products or services to feature and any other specific campaign features and details.
Element #3: Campaign Objectives
It’s good practice to dive deeper into your objectives in order for the content creators to understand the reasons behind your campaign, and how they can help you achieve them. You should also know what metrics you are tracking and how. If the creator needs to include a tracking code that needs to be made clear.
Element #4: Ideal Creator Type
By stating what types of creators you want to work with, you help foster the right fit from the start. This will save precious time from having to reject creators who are in a different niche than the one you’re looking for.
Element #5: Content Style and Channels
Deciding which social media platforms to go for will play a vital role in your campaign’s outcomes and the influencer content you leverage, no matter what content format you decide is suitable for your campaign.
Element #6: Key Campaign Messages
Clarify the 3-5 key messages you want your creators to get across to their audiences.
Element #7: Content Requirements
Technical, photo/video, and copy requirements are all about details that creators should be aware of when making a piece of content for a brand. We recommend specifying these requirements up front in an influencer brief to save time for both you and the creators from making content that doesn't work for you. Example: Within the first 10 seconds of a video “Sponsored by” language must be included.
Element #8: Do’s and Don’ts
Expressing what your ideal campaign should look like is important for both you and the creators. You need to be details and specific when stating what creators should do and what they should avoid when creating content for you.
Element #9: Timeline and Process
Every brief should include a clear timeline. This means letting creators know about deadlines for the deliverables, so you can be proactive and have enough time to make any revisions, if needed. You should also define your processes for receiving and reviewing content, and any content expiration dates.
Element #10: Call-to-action
Including a CTA in your brief will not only drive better results for your campaign, but will also make your objectives more clear to creators.
Public Relations & Social Media Trends for 2023
As we dive into 2023, the team at Cultivate sees these major trends for public relations and social media programs:
While we should be in the continual practice of evaluating our process, perspective, and approach, there is nothing like entering a new year to inspire renewed thinking.
As we dive into 2023, the team at Cultivate sees these major trends in public relations and social media:
Earned media’s continued rise in importance vis-a-vis paid or sponsored media. Public trust in organizations has never been more critical. Earned media offers what paid cannot — the opportunity for a credible, external endorsement of a brand. Add to that smaller ad budgets and mounting challenges in the paid media world, and it’s never been a better time to reconsider your communications mix.
Expanding breadth of what public relations is. What excites us about public relations at this moment in time is its expansion. Yes, it’s traditional media relations — but it is so much more. It’s strategic partnerships; it’s collaborations with influencers and content creators; it’s community relations. We are truly embracing the “public” in public relations.
Growing importance of a crisis communications skillset. With what seems like increased frequency, there’s a new brand crisis every news cycle - and PR professionals at all levels need to be prepared to counsel their clients strategically. That means crisis scenario planning and media training as well as individual skills in decisiveness, adaptability, self-control, empathy, and perseverance.
Moving beyond “doing it for good PR.” Brands started facing a true reckoning at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic with massive calls for transparency, meaningful action, and a goodbye to corporate social responsibility as window dressing. The best PR pros know how to support clients in building and communicating impact programs with real-world benefit.
Navigating a social media upheaval. As Facebook and Twitter face big challenges, new social media channels are on the rise (TikTok, anyone?). Another trend? Brands choosing to be “anti-social” (See Lush). It’s time to evaluate your social media program, assess where your audience is, ask yourself why you are there, and adjust your strategy.
Providing IRL brand experiences. In 2022, we saw a big shift towards travel (coming out of the pandemic) and a consumer desire for real-life experiences. It’s not all digital! As PR and social media pros, we can creatively strategize how to use our digital channels to bring people to fantastic real-world experiences, then inspire them to share those experiences in turn as a means of brand ambassadorship, advocacy, or UGC.
Setting the stage for a meaningful metaverse. It may be years off, but the metaverse is taking shape. Now is the time to build it with communications ethics in mind. It’s also a time for brands to consider there own future role in the metaverse. The possibilities are provocative, the pitfalls could be many.
That’s what’s on our radar for 2023. What’s on yours? Do any of these trends resonate with you? We’d love to hear your perspective. Something that is always on trend is a good two-way conversation.