5 Things I Like About Our Work Being Featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune
The other day the Minneapolis Star Tribune, one of the ten biggest newspapers in the country, ran an article about the rebrand we worked on with the amazing PR agency Lola Red.
I wrote about the rebrand here, but we're really freaking excited that someone else wrote about it!
Here are 5 things I like about the article:
1. It called our work “imaginative”
The writer did an excellent job as a journalist writing the facts and quoting Alexis for the color, but also described Kelly’s main image as an “imaginative scene,” which by the transitive property means that the Minneapolis Star Tribune called Kelly’s work “imaginative,” which I’ll take.
2. We were featured in the same newspaper as this guy
To me, Kevin Garnett is one of the wisest, funniest, most inspirational, most honest people that I spend time following. He was one of my favorite players with Minnesota and then especially with the Celtics, and now he's one of my favorite podcasters (KG Certified is must-listen for me), plus his book KG: A to Z: An Uncensored Encyclopedia of Life, Basketball, and Everything in Between is also one of my favorites. Kelly pointed out that our work being in this newspaper gives us another thing in common with KG, and I will gladly take that too!
3. It's better than the last time I was in a major newspaper
On a Sunday morning in 2005 I was stirred from my slumber by a bunch of phone calls because I was on the cover of the Boston Globe after a devastating Red Sox loss to the Yankees:
While in this picture I am upset about how the game was going (it was a terrible game), I was actually just feeling absolutely terrible and would later find out I had a fever north of 100. But, it made for a pretty damn good photo.
Also, I love that they had to specify that Jeanne Sullivan was with her husband, Evan (right), and not the uncredited college student.
4. I love Minneapolis and walked by the Star Tribune printing presses the last time I was in town
Minneapolis is a cool city. If you haven't been, take some advice from Anthony Edwards:
I had been in town for a work trip, and before my flight home I spent the day walking around the city in the freezing rain, and I had a blast! I walked through the warehouse district where the Star Tribune prints the paper, then along the banks of the Mississippi river as lyrics from Minnesota’s own The Hold Steady ran through my head ("the banks of the Mississippi river" being one of them), then across the Grain Belt Bridge that leads "into bright, new Minneapolis.”
The highlight for sure was the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus. (The highlight from the previous trip was a Jucy Lucy at Matt’s Bar, and yes, I spelled that right.)
Anyways, I really like the city, and I like imagining people all around the city getting the paper delivered and reading about our work.
5. It's so much fun bringing our clients' dreams to life
I distinctly remember the call when Alexis, founder of Lola Red, said, "I wouldn't mind one flamingo." Much of what Alexis and her team said on that Soul Search call where we dive deep with our clients was so good it went directly into the copy I wrote for the website. "If you're brave enough to let us in, you'll never want to let us out." “We love being the catalyst that influences someone’s day.” “Greatness doesn’t always look like you think it should.”
At one point in the call Alexis was talking to us about her adorable twins, and sharing that she’d heard that flamingos lose their color for awhile after giving birth but at this point in her life and in the rebrand process it felt like she was getting her color back. She thought using one flamingo in the website would be meaningful to her for those reasons and because “a little part of us [Lola Red] is maximalist.” A big part of Kelly is maximalist, so she ran with it from there.
In building the brand, Kind & Funny expanded on what we thought the flamingo represented, from the historical context of the 1950’s when plastic flamingos were used to make suburban houses appear unique to the point that it’s a flamingo’s habits (eating, specifically) that make it “look-at-me” pink just as it’s Lola Red’s work habits that make their clients stand out.
To see one of our own clients say “I felt like I had my fire and my pink back” from the work we did together fills me with a lot of pride and gratitude. Not quite like this, but also a little bit like this:
Have you ever been in the paper? I would love to hear about it. jed@kindandfunny.com.