No. 13 {See description below}

Dear Ann,

Thank you for tweeting your idea to honor the boys and girls at Sandy Hook Elementary. The team @Jigsaw_LLC recently completed #26actsofkindness. I asked my madly creative co-workers to share what they learned from participating in this campaign.

“If you want to feel liberated, walk into the public market and give money to a stranger.”

“How beautiful and resilient the human spirit is.”

“How good it feels to help others without expectation of anything in return.”

“To never complain. There are so many people having a harder day than me.”

“To be grateful every single day that I have such a good life, and because of it, I have the ability to help those who don’t have it so good.”

“That taking time out of our hectic schedules to help other people, whether something big or something small, is one of the most important things we can do each day. At the end of the day, what’s more important than basic kindness?”

“I have ten minutes to spare.”

“There are deserving people everywhere.”

“I am never more important than anyone else.”

“#26acts taught me that a child’s smile is worth so much.“

Because of you this happened:

1. Paid for a stranger’s coffee.
2. Sponsored two families over the holidays with a meal and presents for their kids.
3. Coordinated the Kids BackPak program at children’s school. The students bring kid-friendly food items to school, which are then distributed to needy kids on the weekend via their school backpack. This is a way to give the kids, who rely on daily meals at school, meals over the weekend.
4. Consolidated grocery bags and gave one to stranger whose broke.
5. Donated to Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston in honor of friend who is running marathon.  The donation was dedicated to the boys and girls killed at Sandy Hook.
6. Helped a disabled person grocery shop at the Metro Market.
7. Donated winter coat and cold weather accessories to the Salvation Army.
8. Paid for person standing behind in line at Alterra.
9. Helped son’s teacher prepare classroom for the new year.
10. Paid for veteran’s next round of Stone Creek Coffee.
11. Paid for another person’s gas at the pump.
12. Mailed 26 baggies filled with crayons to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin for their kiddos.
13. Left chalkboard coasters in a neighbor’s mailbox with an anonymous holiday note. {See picture above}
14. Paid for car behind in parking garage.
15. Baked cookies for co-workers.
16. Helped lost person with directions.
17. Donated peanut butter to the Hunger Task Force 100,000 Jar Drive.
18. Bought a homeless person Subway.
19. Shoveled neighbor’s driveway.
20. Donated 26 pairs of individually wrapped children’s socks to the Joy House. {Part of Milwaukee Rescue Mission}
21. Helped daughter and classmates make Valentine’s.
22. Left $5 and note on random car at Milwaukee Public Market.
23. Helped family whose daughter is receiving cancer treatments.
24. Found a new shopping cart for an elderly lady whose cart’s wheels weren’t rolling. Helped her move her items to the new cart.
25. Helped an elderly couple set up their WIFI.
26. Let a stranger cut the line at Costco because they only had one item.

Thank you for inspiring us to be better.

Sincerely,
Rachel

CC: @Jigsaw_LLC

Bad things happen. But then 140 characters make the world seem good again.

RT @AnnCurry: Imagine if all of us committed to 20 mitzvahs/acts of kindness to honor each child lost in Newtown. I’m in. If you are RT #20acts.

Her followers changed #20 to #26.

#26actsofkindness celebrates good deeds people are doing like tipping the mailman, shoveling a neighbor’s snowy driveway, or handing dog treats out at the park (our favorite tweet we’ve read so far), without expecting something in return, to honor the children and adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.

This month we challenged ourselves to participate and together we completed several acts so far. Allison L. helped a person with disabilities grocery shop, donated winter gear to the Salvation Army, and paid in advance for coffee drinkers. Sue S. treated veterans to their next round at Stone Creek Coffee, helped her son’s teacher prepare for a new month, and offered to help a family whose daughter is receiving treatment for cancer. Steven W. paid for another person’s gas at the pump, and last week I shipped 26 baggies with crayons to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for their kiddos.

Curry’s tweet has inspired people all over the world including our friends at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, who recently announced their participation. Kudos!

Fred Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in the world.”

Follow us @Jigsaw_LLC to see how we and others continue to find joy in random acts of kindness.

We all come up with good ideas and executions all the time. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t make it in advertising for very long. Every once in a while, good work becomes great work. That’s the work that wins awards, grabs the attention of the media and may even become a part of pop culture.

What factors differentiate the merely good from the great? A lot of variables affect the outcome (client relationships, agency culture, budget, attitude – just to name a few), but two play a larger role in success than all the others: the idea and the execution.

You can have a fantastic idea and an OK execution, and your final product will be good, not great.

Or you can have an OK idea and a fantastic execution, and your final product will be good, not great

You will only have a great final product if the idea and the execution are both outstanding.

Here’s an example. Dolly Parton had a fantastic idea for a song.

Her execution of the song was good, but it wasn’t great.

(I may not have loved her version of this song. But that doesn’t mean I won’t always love Dolly.)

It took Whitney Huston’s execution to elevate the song to new heights.

By collaborating, Dolly and Whitney achieved success that went beyond what each could have reached alone.

This song is a lot like advertising. Except in our field, the person who most often gets all the credit and glory is the one who comes up with the idea. But, as we’ve just heard, the idea is only half of what makes something exceptional. Even if you don’t come up with the idea, it’s important to remember that the execution is just as important. You can  take a great deal of pride in what you can do to transform good into great.

As you get your next assignment, be inspired by Dolly and Whitney. (Just don’t sing to your partner too much. I’ve been told that’s annoying.)

Inspired by two books I am reading (The Lean Startup by Eric Ries and 344 Questions by Stefan G. Bucher, although 344 Questions isn’t a book you actually read) and the fact that I am a giant kid whose 8943765472 questions a day drive all adults around me crazy, I was going to write a long inspirational type of post on the power of curiosity, exploration, experimenting and mistakes. On the power of constantly asking questions and trying new things. But them I stumbled upon this video created by the great folks from Skillshare – a community marketplace to learn anything from anyone. The video does a much better job of encouraging all of us to be lifelong learners with childlike curiosity than the 500 or so words I was going to write.

The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

And because I can’t miss an opportunity to quote Albert Einstein, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes and a question from 344 Questions.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

“When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’ with eagerness?” – Stefan G. Bucher

Remember how big and rapidly growing Tumblr was last year? Well, no one cares anymore. There’s a new web darling: Pinterest. Just like most social platforms, it’s difficult to easily describe what Pinterest is. For me, it is an inspiration board/discovery tool/visual bookmarking tool. Pinterest calls itself “an online pinboard to collect and share what inspires you. Discover new things hand-picked by people who share your interests.”

Unlike most startups, Pinterest grew quickly in the past few months because it was embraced by DIY crafters, designers and moms, not tech types. Over 59% of Pinterest’s users are women age 25-44, which makes it a very unique environment for fashion, travel, food, art, fitness and home décor topics. Not surprisingly, every day more and more brands start pinning. Some of the bigger and more popular ones are Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Etsy, Martha Stewart, TIME Magazine, Rent the Runway and the Travel Channel. Even universities and libraries are jumping in.

What can brands do on Pinterest?

1. Share what your brand stands for: Pinterest is a great platform to share the essence of your brand or the lifestyles it promotes. It’s not just about your products and/or services, but about the idea behind them, about what they allow people to do. Pinterest makes it really easy to visualize what your brand stands for and what’s the role it plays in peoples lives: empowering people to create the home of their dream, inspiring them to find their individual style, etc. It’s not about you, it’s about how you can help people. And, you can even segment your audiences and create different boards that appeal to different people with different lifestyles.

2. Share your corporate culture and core values: As people become more interested in learning about the people behind an organization and as organizations become more human and transparent, sharing a corporation’s culture and core values in an easy to digest visual way with short stories is a no-brainer. People are interested in the details and images can humanize the brand. Post pictures of the office, lunch breaks, office events, behind the scenes, people volunteering, etc.

3. Increase visibility and interest, even sales: As a great discovery tool that doesn’t require strong ties such as mutual friendship or an asymmetrical following, Pinterest makes it easy to stumble upon a variety of products that a user is highly likely to be interested in. From recipes to books, to furniture, to accessories, a user can find pretty much anything and everything. Not only that, but also pin those items to boards such as “Gift ideas,” “My Wedding,” “Home projects,” etc. Real Simple recently reported that Pinterest is driving more traffic to its site than Facebook.

4. Use it as a focus group: I’ve always said that social media is the best focus group you can ever get if you know how to mine the data and Pinterest is no exception. Millions of people use it to keep track of objects they love, places they enjoy, places they want to visit, foods they devour, clothes they want, things that inspire them. It’s the quickest way to glance into people’s lives and heads. Look at the pinners who follow your brand and see what they’re pinning and who else they’re following. As behavioral economists have told us, asking people what they want/need or how they feel isn’t as effective as observing their behavior. Pinterest allows for just that.

5. Inspire your team: Create mood boards and pin things that are interesting and relevant to your team. The world and the web are full with beautiful objects that make you want to apply for a job at Oscar de la Renta. Pinterest allows you to collect all these objects and organize them in a way that makes sense and is easy to navigate.

Because it’s focused on interests, Pinterest allows brands to participate in people’s lives in a more utilitarian, subtle and non-intrusive way.

Happy pinning!