Tweet

Lesson #4: Giving Back Can Bring Your Game Forward

Article Overview: “Recently, I’ve been looking at all these athlete endorsements. It’s really cool that these guys are making all this money, but is that really going to make a difference?” asked van Stolk.

Lesson #4: Giving Back Can Bring Your Game Forward

“Recently, I’ve been looking at all these athlete endorsements. It’s really cool that these guys are making all this money, but is that really going to make a difference?” asked van Stolk.

For years, van Stolk has made a conscious effort to support charity work, especially efforts that support women and children in developing countries. He gives, on average, 12 to 15 talks a year, with all of the speaking fees going towards these causes. “I get a feeling, from when people pay for the speeches, it makes them feel good, too,” says van Stolk. “They know the proceeds are going to something, and it makes them feel good. It's a double whammy.”

Still, you would never know it by looking at the Jones Soda website. Van Stolk almost never talks about his charity work, and the company never issues press releases about his charitable activities. Why? “We don’t really like to talk about it, because it’s not something we’re trying to push,” says van Stolk. “It's not something we're putting in front and saying everybody should do this. From our perspective, if you just do things and do what you believe in instead of telling people, it becomes more legitimate and more real.”

More recently, however, van Stolk has become more willing to use his charitable giving to his advantage, even incorporating it into a new marketing strategy.

“I’m going to switch our marketing fund from an athlete endorsement to cause endorsements and take the same amount of money I was going to spend on an athlete and give it to an organization,” said van Stolk. “Why? Because it’s never been done. I’m going to promote them like I promoted an athlete - because I think that’s cool.”

To that end, Jones Soda started supporting organizations like Vitamin Angel Alliance, a non-profit organization that gives vitamins to kids in developing countries to help prevent blindness. “I want to be the beverage company that gets away from seeing Britney Spears on the commercial,” he said. “Who cares? Who really gives a rat’s ass? I want to say, ‘Brought to you by Vitamin Angel Alliance and Jones Soda.’ That’s sick. No one’s ever done that.”

Van Stolk says he made his decision based on what he saw as overuse of an old tactic. “When you look at the X Games right now and all those endorsements, I can’t see that people really care anymore. I talk to kids, and it’s just noise,” he says. “When it wasn’t noise, it was important. There’s a cycle in everything. And if it gets too saturated, back the bus up.”

He was not sure if his new strategy would work, but he was sure of one thing: it was at the very least something worth trying. “I want to see how it works,” said van Stolk. “If it doesn’t work, then I’ll use the same line that Steve Jobs uses: ‘Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes.’”

Related Articles
  The Gravity of Failure
  How A Game Of Rugby League Can Teach You To Make Your Online Business A Success.
  Manage Fear of Failure
  Lesson #4: Learn From Your Mistakes and Make Less
  Changing the Game

Article Tags: amount of money, athlete endorsements, beverage company, blindness, britney spears, charitable activities, charity work, conscious effort, developing countries, double whammy, endorsement, jones soda, marketing strategy, new marketing, non profit organization, proceeds, speeches, support women, supporting organizations, van stolk



Related Forum Posts
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement
Congratulations, Evan! - Hope you have a wonderful honeymoon! Bring back some of that sunshine for us!
Re: I will be away - Hi Guys Thanks for the good wishes. I had a really relaxing time and as soon as I get caught up will upload some pictures of the Big Game we saw on some of the drives. No lion GT as these parks are privately owned and they don't want predators who will eat the herbivores that they have paid a lot of money for . Saw some elephant though and rhino which was great. MichelleJ
Re: What are some fun games for small business owners? - i second Bohnanza Game (aka "the bean game") as a great game for practicing negotiating skills...
Re: I'm Back - Welcome Back! Hope you are doing great and looking forward to hearing from you.. Jude


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Steps For Starting A Small Business

Listen to Your Inner Melody

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.