The Lemonade Stand That Umpqua Bank Built Umpqua Bank, an Oregon bank famous for nontraditional marketing and customer service, has created a clever summer campaign to promote its services to small businesses: it is offering children a kit and start-up capital to set up and run a lemonade stand. Dubbed “the lemonaire,” the campaign is aimed at children in the 96 cities in Oregon, Washington and California where Umpqua operates 144 branches. Lani Hayward, executive vice president of creative strategies for Umpqua, said 70 percent of the bank’s deposits and loans came from small and medium-size businesses.
- The New York TimesRight. It's a lot easier to pull off a stunt like this when you already have an established base of 144 stores and hordes of moms and dads as customers. But what about when you're a small startup with nothin' but a great idea? Answer: Think Bacon Salt. Have fun, be clever and use the tools of the new digital frontier.
We're working right now with a little company that meets that description, who we will probably be introducing to you very soon. They have a great story -- it's actually about making lemons in lemonade as well, figurative ones in this case. And they have a great product (not lemonade). We can't wait to introduce them to the world.
-Adrianne (@msfener)
