Creative economies prosper when they think creatively about themselves. In Portland, you can see that in action in the “Springboard” sessions run by Common Good Ventures.

Every month or so, Springboard pulls together local business leaders to think as out-of-the-box as possible about a nonprofit organization’s problem. In just 90 fast-paced minutes, some of Portland’s most resourceful businesspeople cluster around a table and help the organization develop ideas about a better business plan, more savvy marketing or, really, any business issue.

It all happens at the offices of the VIA Agency, in the historic Baxter Library building, which they have completely retooled for their own look and style. Around the table are local representatives from the worlds of marketing, law, finance, media, retail, and more. Up steps the nonprofit’s Executive Director and he/she walks the group through the organization’s background and particular issue.

What follows is a zippity-quick process of tossing out ideas that are posted on the wall, with time for explanations. In a structured format, the conversation goes back and forth boisterously and convivially. At the end of an hour-and-a-half, the nonprofit comes away with a raft of implementable ideas and perspectives. The for-profit attendees come away knowing that they have had direct—and quick—input into a local organization’s core concerns.

For example, a Springboard session this morning focused on Community Television Network, Portland’s cable access channel. CTN wanted ideas on how to boost sales of their video production services, which in turn support their nonprofit programming. By the end of 90 minutes, the wall was covered with colored stickies categorized into topics like Outreach, Cool Quotient, Social Media, Re-Branding, and Local Products.

Will Springboard replace McKinsey’s management consulting teams? Unlikely. But the process does provide a way for Portland’s nonprofit and for-profit communities to interact in a cooperative, non-threatening, results-driven atmosphere. Plus, it’s free for the nonprofit—and fun for the participants!

You can contact Chad Sclove if you want to attend the next Springboard.

Photo by John Spritz

Portland is as dense with ad agencies as it is replete with restaurants and arts venues. So if you’re new to town how do you get a sense of who is doing what in Portland’s creative AdLand? One easy answer is to look at the list of winners of the biennial Broderson Awards—or better yet, to have been at the awards ceremony last Thursday (October 27) at the State Theatre.

That might have helped Pete Shelly, a young copy writer now based on the outskirts of NYC who is hoping to move to Portland, but he visited portland a week too soon. Pete is so gung ho about moving here that he built a very cool little website announcing his trip here and inviting ad creatives to have a cup of coffee (on him) to talk about Portland.

What kind of welcome did Pete receive in Portland? “I had 5 ad agencies in mind, and I had meetings with principles at 4 of them, all based on the premise of ‘hey, let’s grab a cup of coffee.’” Pete says. “They were all pretty open about lending a hand and giving their perspective. I was kind of blown away by the response. Nobody had to let me come into their office, but they did, and they took the time to sit down and listen to my story. I was anxiously awaiting the list of Broderson winners. I had the opportunity to stop by the gallery they had set up next to the State Theatre, and, having talked to creative directors and writers at each of the agencies, I was curious to see how everyone fared. I think that taking a look at the work produced in Maine just this year is a pretty good way to see how much talent is in this city, and that’s pretty attractive to me. I want to be a part of it as well.”

So here, Pete, is a whirlwind tour of Portland’s advertising creatives, courtesy of the Ad Club of Maine:

First off, the Best of Show award went to creative director Don Fibich of Kemp Goldberg Partners for their “Continue the Journey” print campaign for Sea Bags (great Portland agency building a great Portland brand—this is our kind of story). KGP also scored with their Camden National Bank Annual Report and their logo for the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine.

Virtually owning the big budget TV categories, the VIA agency‘s Teddy Stoecklein, Amos Goss, Ron Clayton, Ken Matsubara walked (half a block) home with medals for Samsung, Fairpoint and Klondike. VIA also won for it’s integrated marketing campaign for Samsung’s tablets, digital work for Samsung and Pediacare, environmental design for DuPont and a “Pitched but Ditched” whiskey bottle design for Pendleton.

Garrand‘s chief creative officer Larry Vine chalked up an impressive 12 (mainly print category) wins for national clients like Dunkin’ Donuts, Hood  and United Way and Maine brands like Gorham Savings Bank, Gorgeous Gelato and Maine Jewish Film Festival.

Several strong in-house departments scored as well: Angela Adams, IDEXX Laboratories, CIEE, Maine College of Art, White Rock Distilleries, Inc. and Coastal Enterprises Inc.

Dearest to LiveWork Portland’s heart, perhaps, were wins by independent creatives and small design studios for authentic local brands, like Leslie Evans‘ logo and brochures for Calendar islands Maine Lobster, Taja Dockendorf of Pulp + Wire’s identity and packaging work for Pleasant River Soap Co. and Erica Hebold of E+M Marketing’s design for the Grace Restaurant website.

Will the winners influence where Pete applies for a job? Or will he just move here, find some buddies and set up his own shop? As Zhou Enlai said about the French Revolution, “It’s too soon to tell.”

From the VIA Agency (left to right): Teddy Stoecklein, Jessica Fidalgo, John Coleman, Greg Smith, Dan O’Donnell

John Rooks is a true Portland original. As the founder and president of The Soap Group, he is at the forefront of business consulting for sustainability and social justice. In his new book, More Than Promote, he looks past the duality of consumerism and environmentalism and “reassembles a new thing; a strategy and methodology of promotion that is, simultaneously, sustainability.” Neat trick, John.

For his presentation at TEDxDirigo, Rooks tackled the issue of authenticity (often hilariously) and it’s post modern sci-fi doppelganger, the simulacrum. For those of you less up on your Philip K. Dick (and Arnold Schwarzenegger) than John, a simulacrum is a copy for which there is no original. His point is that advertisers have to move beyond the wink-wink head fake of “green” marketing to the more radical transparency of authenticity.

I was intrigued by John’s concept of the “authenticity audit” and about how it might apply to Portland. In many ways, the appeal of Portland—and of Maine—is that they are originals for which there is no copy, so I though we would hold up pretty well. I asked him to sketch out for us what an audit of Portland might look like and, true to form, what he came up with was both tougher and more helpful than I had anticipated:

When a cruise ship pulls into Portland, and the tourists spill out into the street, money falling from their pockets as they shuffle their way into chowder houses, are they experiencing the real Portland?

Do we, as residents experience the real Portland?  Is there any such thing as a Real Portland? It’s not a metaphysical question.  It’s a strategic question important to mental and economic health of our city.

Today, the question is important because Authenticity is a new kind of currency.  Brands and destinations are all claiming that they offer authentic products and experiences.  Realwashing is the new greenwashing.  So, as both a brand and a destination it seems that Portland might want to explore its own Authenticity a bit.  The underlying logic says that consumers (or in our case residents) want more Authenticity in their lives.  And brands (or cities) need to be ready to deliver.

But contrary to popular mythologies, Authenticity is not an effortless way of being.  It does not just happen.  People, businesses and even municipalities need to work hard at it. This is where things get exciting.  It turns out that Authentic people are happier.  And Authentic businesses are more profitable.  Authentic cities, the logic follows, would have happier people and more profitable businesses inside the city limits.

If we were to perform an Authenticity Audit on Portland, what would we find?  If we measured what Portland says about itself (via Portland Downtown District, LiveWorkPortland, PACA, Greater Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau, Portland Buy Local, the Chamber, City Hall, Maine Department of Tourism, etc., etc) against what Portland actually does, what do you think we would we find?  That’s the authenticity formula – the difference between what you say and what you do.  And between the two is an Authenticity Gap™.  Within the Authenticity Gap are opportunities to make yourself, your business and your Portland a better place.

What Rooks is pointing to, from our local perspective, is that the conditions that have created the creative economy in Portland need to be explored, understood and promoted. And beyond that, the sustainability of the creative economy here is based on the authentic talents and efforts of people and companies that are responding to the authentic needs of their customers and the challenging conditions of our times. And that response is an ongoing human performance, not a robot on auto pilot. It’s not easy being authentic, but it wasn’t easy for Kermit to be green, either.

Image of John Rooks courtesy of TEDxDirigo, photograph by Jason Esposito

While the national—and global—economic picture is decidedly mixed, there are signs that Portland, Maine, may be exceptional in more ways than it’s number of James Beard nominations per capita. This may be highly anecdotal, but in the last few weeks many postings for high-level creative jobs in Portland have moved across my radar. These are not just-out-of-college quasi-paid internships, but well-paying jobs worth moving from Brooklyn, Boston, Berkeley or Austin for. Putney, a veterinary products startup based in Portland, was the highest ranking Maine company on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growng small companies with an impressive 291% three year growth rate. Go to the careers page their website and you’ll see they are looking for a director of marketing; If you follow Mediabistro you would have seen a posting for an art director at Kemp Goldberg Partners marketing and advertising agency; and (as I mentioned in a recent post) The Via Agency has 8 positions to be filled.

At a time when all levels of government are talking about how to spur job creation it is great to see that the creative economy (at least here in Portland) is actually doing it. All kinds of non-profits are sharpening their business focus as well in hopes of remaining relevant and positioning themselves as worthy targets for scarce investment dollars. The speakers at the upcoming TEDxDirigo conference receive coaching in how to distill their “ideas worth spreading” into 18 minutes or less and then get a high quality video of their talk to help them spread those ideas further. MaineBiz just did a profile on founder Adam Burk. TEDxDirigo talks are not quite elevator pitches, but they’re a way to give creative social entrepreneurs a leg up on getting attention—and funding.

Art, it must be said, is not business. But there is a lot of business that develops around art. In order for that process to happen there need to be opportunities for artists to find support for their own basic research and let others jump in to find applications. The Maine Arts Commission just released a report on the economic impact of Museum attendance in Maine as a way of demonstrating an aspect of that link. MAC has shown unwavering support for both local arts organizations and individual artists, both crucial components in the growth of the creative economy from which many of the cultural perks of Portland flow.

In a similar vein, Maine AIGA’s annual exhibit this year is entitled, “Good Design is Good Business,” and the focus is on “the elements of branding.” Maine AIGA president, and partner at Portland branding shop Might & Main (formerly Forge), Sean Wilkinson says, ”Well designed presence in the world is what sets one great idea apart from another. It is ‘intelligence made visible.’ Your expertise as a business is only as valuable as people perceive it to be, and hiring a designer is one of the most important steps in shaping that perception. It also keeps good folks like me gainfully employed.”

Good folks, gainfully employed in Portland, Maine—the image of a glass filling…

background photo by Corey Templeton, Portland Daily Photo

The summer’s other great sequel was not in 3-d multiplexes but right on Congress street in Portland. Ad Age named the VIA Agency, Small Agency of the Year, Gold. Why the Harry Potter motif? “The Via agency is housed in the Baxter building, built in 1888 as the public library of Portland, Maine. The imposing peaks and gables of the stone facade and wooden beam-studded high-ceiling interior led one Via client to dub the building the “Hogwarts of Advertising.” … And if the building is Hogwarts, then CEO and founder John Coleman is its Harry Potter. With similar rounded black-framed glasses, an affable charm and wide-eyed curiosity about everything, Mr. Coleman even seems to have Master Potter’s magic touch — in the advertising industry at least,” reads the lead of the Ad Age piece.

Careful readers of this blog will remember that VIA won silver for the same prive last year, no mean feat for a Portland agency. But the intervening year has been a very good one for VIA and they attribute at least a bit of that good fortune to being located here. ”To live in a smaller town and to go to baseball games and do the grocery shopping and all of that, helps in understanding the broad spectrum of different kinds of people, but I truly believe that what it really does is afford us the opportunity to think,” Mr. Coleman said. “I love New York, but I feel blessed to live in a place like Portland.”

Go to the Portland section of the Via website and the first thing you read is “Portland isn’t just where we are. It’s who we are.” (I wish we had written that!) They then lead you through three iPad swipes of highlights that tell you why it’s great to live in Portland followed by listings for eight (at last count) really great jobs. Talk about brand story! VIA is itself one of the best advertisements for Portland that Portland’s got. And for those of you who like a little wistful bitterness to temper your jubilation, read Chief Creative Officer Greg Smith’s reaction to the award, “So That Didn’t Suck.”

For some reason Portland is possessed of a number of hypertrophied creative communities relative to our population: architecture, culinary arts, literature, music and particularly advertising. I asked Dave Goldberg of Kemp Goldberg how big the agency scene is here. “Between ad agencies, PR firms and digital/interactive marketing firms in greater Portland, there are WAY more companies in this business than an area this size should or deserves to have,” says Dave. “I have 27 bookmarked, but there are more.” I asked him what he thought accounted for the disproportionate numbers and he answered with an anecdote, “I was down in West Hartford recently at my 30th high school reunion. I was talking to a woman I knew from school who does PR. From our discussion my guess is that in greater Hartford, an area larger than greater Portland, they have half as many agencies. Hartford does not have a “creative economy.” It doesn’t attract the creative talent, leadership, investment, etc. We in Portland are different.”

To celebrate that difference, the VIA agency is hosting this year’s Broderson Awards, The Ad Club of Maine‘s “Celebration of Commercial Artists from the State of Maine.” In a recent post on Forbes.com, I talked about Dunbar’s number and the size of cohesive social communities. In the hunter gatherer terms I was considering, our advertising community is one of our few creative enclaves larger than a clan and approaching a tribe. A clan, however, would fit the theme of this year’s competition which (mis)quotes the great (and greatly inebriated) Irish poet Dylan Thomas with the title ”In Our Craft or Sullen Art.” Why a sullen art? For Thomas, the poet’s craft was practiced while others slept so as to earn “the common wages /Of their most secret heart.” Sounds a lot like advertising!

In the words of VIA creative director, Teddy Stoecklein, ”To outsiders Maine, let alone Portland or Bangor, is usually just vacationland. Our Fine Art community is often overshadowed by bigger cities like Boston, New York, Providence, even Montreal. The same is true of our Commercial Art community, yet we have some of the most talented people in the nation, right here. The Broderson Awards is hosted by the Maine Ad Club to reward the very best in Maine. But it’s more than just a pat on the back or a trophy. It’s also an acknowledgment that our craft is indeed a Fine Art. It’s both a showcase and a moment of inspiration.” To make that acknowledgement stick, they have lined up some first rate judges: Nina DiSesa, Former Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of McCann Erickson, New York; Rupal Parekh, Agency Editor of Advertising Age; and Peter Friedman Former Executive Producer at Wieden + Kennedy and McCann Erickson, New York.

The deadline for all entries is next Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5 p.m. Late entries will not be accepted. See the Broderson site to find out more.

Like this month’s Abstract conference that created an intersection between the design communities of New York and Portland, the Broderson’s in October will do the same for advertising. But whereas the designers convened in the very nice but clan sized Hannaford Hall at USM, the ad tribe will take over the 2,500 seat State Theatre. In honor of Dylan Thomas, sullenness will not be banished, drinks will be served!

Of all the world-class creative directors alighting on Portland, Maine this Friday for the Abstract: The Future of Design in Media Conference, Gael Towey is perhaps in the best position to “get” Portland. Towey has been the Creative Director for Martha Stewart’s magazines and other omnimedias for the past 20 years. Together, Martha and Gael have made the well-crafted and well-curated life knowable and accessible to a generation of Americans that was losing touch with the basic competencies of their own lifestyles. From heirloom apples to the perfect turkey, Martha Stewart Living has shown and told us what to buy—and more importantly—what to do with what we buy.

So it was serendipity last week, as I was considering how to introduce Gael Towey to Portland, that designer Brook Delorme, of Brook There on Wharf Street, posted a piece on her blog entitled “Artisanal Living.” If Martha Stewart turned the artistry of everyday life into an aspirational pastime, many of us in Portland have turned it into a full-time occupation. Brook begins, ”I understand, in theory, the way to really make money … invent something and then remove your personal body, self and time from the process of building and distribution.” But that, of course, is not what Brook is doing in her design business at all, she’s making things, herself, by hand. “The artisanal approach is limited—by working hours in the day,” she continues. “Artisanal manufacturing; whether it’s bread or pottery or handmade clothing— isn’t very scalable.”

And there you have it, Martha Stewart in New York creating content (at scale) about the joys of doing things by hand and recognizing things well done, and Portland artisans filling the hours of their days practicing, in a sense, what Martha is preaching. There is a bit of a fret underlying all of the emphasis on craft in Portland—are we too artisanal for our own good? But in Portland, which was Brooklyn before Brooklyn was Brooklyn, it is not just the art of the hand-made garment or the perfect baguette that consumes us, but also the art of the community. When Brook muses, ”So, were I to desire to grow this business, I’d need to find someone else to at least do some of the stuff I like doing, and I’d have to spend more time doing things I dislike,” we can echo as well that people live in Portland so they can spend more of their time doing the things they like and less time doing things they dislike. Finally, Brook asks, “Can I reframe this somehow? what am I missing?”

This is the question that Portland is asking and to a certain extent, what the Abstract Conference is answering. The conference grows out of the incredibly dense media community in New York that has spent the last few years battling its own extinction from the pressures of what in the ’90s was quaintly called “new media.” But the strength of the community was such that, with the help of technology, they have led the “old media” print publishing companies into the new world of branded apps, social media and mobile content. These creative directors have all “reframed” their skills and talents in the context of multi-platform publishing. So the promise of the conference to participants is a concentrated glimpse of the way forward for designers and publishers, but in a more concrete sense it is about how a critical mass of talent in one place leads to innovation and the growth of new businesses.

Portland aspires to be such a community of creative innovators, and I think many of us have a sense that we are approaching a tipping point beyond which we will spontaneously begin to emit new products and businesses like strange quarks in a particle accelerator. That is the spirit behind LiveWork Portland and our new networking group 2 Degrees Portland. As Brook Delorme wrote in a post we commented on last year, we think more competition from more creatives will be better for everyone’s business. So we’re trying to connect the dots for people interested in relocating here by hooking them up with volunteers here who can help them find their place in Portland.

I asked all of the Abstract panelists “To the extent that technology allows you to move your life and work to another city, which ones would you consider? And if you didn’t answer Portland, Maine, what factors (other than moving it to Brooklyn!) would make you consider relocating here?” Not surprisingly, Gael replied, “I can’t move to Portland because my husband and kids are in NYC, and I love it too much. However, I am excited to visit Portland. I think technology allows us to travel more and live in other cities besides NY.” So we know that she is not coming to Portland on Friday to scout the location, BUT IF she were, this is the kind of thing that 2 Degrees Portland would do for her:

[If the English language had a subjunctive tense with a connotation that means AS IF, we would switch to that at this point in the post!]

2 Degrees Portland coordinator Laura Burden would receive an email from Gael through the 2 Degrees website or Facebook page. Since she would have just read the “Artisanal Living” post, Brook would immediately spring to mind as a good “connector” for Gael. [To become a connector for 2 Degrees Portland, just fill out this short form.] Laura would email Brook and ask her if she would be willing to talk to Gael on the phone or meet with her on her next trip to Portland. Brook would say, ”Sounds like fun! and thank you for thinking of me ” Perhaps Brook would invite Gael to her workshop on Wharf Street and tell her about starting a lifestyle brand in Portland. Then maybe they would walk over to Custom House Wharf for a hands-on stitching demonstration at Sea Bags and then to 2 Note Perfumery on Moulton Street to pick out a gift for Martha. in parting, Brook would wish her luck, ask her to keep in touch and pass on a list of places she thinks Gael would enjoy:

a short list in portland!

my favorites:
fore street <—favorite nice restaurant because it’s relaxed
boda <—-only thai food in portland that’s actually like food in thailand
rosemont market <—they make the best hummous in portland, & competitively price their excellent quality produce
micucci’s <—-luna bread-  the best bread in portland
arabica, bard, hilltop  <—I can’t take sides, I love them all, but almost every day I get a latte from arabica.
quimby colony <—Roxanne Quimby’s exciting and emerging artist colony, with a focus on design
bar lola <—Our artisanal version of “Everyday Food”

granted, most of my list is food-related…but that’s what portland’s about, right?

Switching out of the subjunctive, Gael, even if you’re not going to HQ your own multimedia empire here, we hope you enjoy Portland. If you have the time, Brook would be happy to meet you, Sea Bags really would make a photogenic how-to story for the iPad, 2 Note is great for gifts and the food really is as good as everyone says.

Muchness is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the quality or state of being great in quantity, extent, or degree. — much of a muchness. : very much the same.” And so it is on June 10th in Portland. Not only is AIGA Maine hosting the first Abstract: The Future of Design in Media conference (a much of a muchness itself), but on the same day Kemp Goldberg and GBrittPR are sponsoring the second of their Brand Roundtables, this one on ”The New Definition of Creativity.” Both forums take on what seems to be very abstract topics and render them into examples of constructive actions taken in increasingly complex worlds.

Abstract, in its most concrete terms, is about how designers can thrive in the emerging multiscreen world. It is telling that in this new world of content production, print is just another “screen,” albeit a privileged one with very high-resolution (but low interactivity). The six presenters for the Abstract Conference are all creative directors (or similar) for New York based big media brands, and all got their start (and have lived most of their careers) in print. Florian Bachleda (Fast Company), Dirk Barnett, (Newsweek Daily Beast), Scott Dadich (Condé Nast), Arem DuPlessis (The New York Times Magazine), Luke Hayman (Pentagram) and Gael Towey (Martha Stewart) have all transitioned their charges successfully into the world of websites and apps, and seem to be having a pretty good time juggling them all.

Registration for the conference is still being accepted. The conference will be held at the University of Southern Maine Abromson Center for Continuing Education at 88 Bedford Street in Portland, and will run from 9am-5:30 pm followed by cocktails till whenever.

The “New Definition of Creativity” that Lars Bastholm, chief of creative and digital for Ogilvy & Mather in New York, will talk about also engages with the quantum complexity of  contemporary communications, in this case in the worlds of advertising and marketing. Like the publishers and content creators represented in Abstract, the marketers that Lars will talk about have figured out how to enter the anarchic dialog that their customers engage with daily across multiple communications channels and emerge with their brands intact.

The brand roundtable is free and will include lunch. The event will be held at The Masonic Temple, 415 Congress St. in Portland. Lunch will be served at noon, the presentation will start at 12:30 pm and run until 2pm. RSVP required.

We will be following up with more posts about what the Abstract panelists will bring to Portland. And with local sponsors for the event including VIA, Maine Magazine/Maine Home + Design, Downeast, MaineBiz, USM and Portland Color, there are bound to be more design related events orbiting around the conference that we will report on.

Last night I attended the Portland Phoenix’s Best of Portland Awards at Port City Music Hall. The show began at 7:00, but when I arrived at 6:00 it was already filled with some of Portland’s most creative people. Granted there was a VIP special hour before hand, hmmm why wasn’t I invited? (hint, hint, wink, wink) Fortunately a dear friend held a seat for me, and to my delight food was being handed to me left and right from the wonderful staff of Black Tie Catering. Not to mention that as I looked to my right there was a gorgeous fondue table, which was completely swarmed by eager eaters, ooh if only I had a longer reach!

After Marie Moreshead finished her set (one of the night’s three musical performances), the award announcements began They even started with my favorite category, Arts & Entertainment! Boy, I tell you, the crowd was a super zealous one. As each nominee was announced, enthusiastic cheers made winners out of even those who did not receive an award. I was so excited that I tweeted almost every category and winner, my finger actually kind of hurts today!

The Great Lost Bear won for best burger, and when two loyal customers discovered that the owners were not in attendance they graciously accepted the award for them. “Evan Horton and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to accept the award for the Great Lost Bear. We were honored and promptly delivered it of course,” said Robert Barnes of  revDRTV. Now that’s dedication! I am so proud of the city I live in, I wish I could tweet it all!

Portlanders cultivate authenticity in everything we do. But as anyone in the fashion or accessories business knows, as soon as you create something really new, low-cost knockoffs begin showing up in the mall. Sea Bags makes one of a kind tote bags from upcycled sail cloth, “born of the sea,” as they like to say and stitched right on Custom House Wharf in Portland, Maine. They have been written up in the New Yorker and collaborated on a line of bags with Angela Adams for J. Crew. Their business has been growing at a healthy clip and they seem to have found their (sea) legs. But how to differentiate their genuine, unique article from all the imitators? This was the challenge they brought to Kemp Goldberg Partners—the other big ad agency in Portland. In a visually rich and conceptually economical way, Kemp Goldberg’s print campaign for Sea Bags located their creation story in the middle of the open ocean, most strikingly off the coast of Greenland, above. The copy merely delivers the place and the time of the image and the messages “Every Sea Bag has a story,” and, “Continue the Journey.” The campaign works because the target audience is nautically identified and feels, in the ads, the ancestral pull of the sea. Kemp Goldberg are also “developing a fully integrated campaign based on the unique brand positioning and story to include a QR code/video for the bag tag, a cause marketing campaign to reinforce and communicate the values that are central to the company, as well as other social media and interactive tactics.” Sounds like a plan. Made in Portland, marketed in Portland, sold to discerning customers everywhere.