Augmented Reality

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.  We’ve all heard this. We’ve all read this.  Though, for the life of me, I do not know why we all read the back of the shampoo bottle.  Are we that bored while taking a shower?  I guess it’s our desire to quench our thirst for knowledge.  Like when one of my sons asked as a child if shampoo as a compound word.  Or maybe it just stems from growing up reading cereal boxes—back in the good ole days when you didn’t need to take out a short-term loan to buy cereal.  Nonetheless, you can imagine my surprise when I recently read an article that undermined a lifelong beauty ritual of mine and advocated to condition your hair before the lather, rinse, repeat loop.  BEFORE!  I think even Elle Woods would object to such blasphemy since she taught us all that “The rules of hair care are simple and finite. Any Cosmo girl would have known.” 

Alas, I did not.  But I do read more Seth Godin than Cosmo these days, so I’ll blame Seth.  (Bald may be beautiful, but I think we can all agree that it doesn’t make you a haircare expert.) 

This is an instance of what my old friend Jack and I would call a quadradigm shift.  It’s like a paradigm shift only the change in your usual way of thinking has double the impact; thus a quadradigm.  (I think it’s in the blog writer’s code that you’re allowed to make up new words when the millions that already exist just won’t do.)

Right Brain Marketing Moxie:  Sometimes you just have to make up a word to define something in a new way. Sure, Merriam-Webster might not have that very word in their dictionary, but once upon a time the word Google wasn’t a verb either. You can use your clever, right brain to add a bit of vocabulary vigor to your communication pieces. Communication still happens, it just won’t be boring…kinda like Elle Woods.

When you’ve lived in a house filled with boys, like I did, there were lots of paradigm shifts.  When you’ve lived in a house filled with teenagers, like I did, there were quadradigm shifts!  My reality was that there were tribes of teenagers in our home wiping out our pantry at any given time.  Proximity to said teenagers will actually force one who is say, generationally mature, to be open to things such as conditioning first, making up new words, and some mindless social media.

Please tell me you’ve also participated in some augmented reality. You know, like those silly Snapchat filters where you can apply an artificial object over a picture of yourself to bring the augmented picture to live. This is me…right now…making that ‘Why did I wait so late to write this blog?’ face. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that adds digital elements to the real world, smashing them together and creating something brand new.

After a rough day at the office, there’s just something about sending tedious texts to your friends or playing with a funny filter that just relaxes your brain when it was in overdrive mere hours ago. And if the statistics are correct, lots and lots of people spend countless hours augmenting their reality with the social media platform of their liking. It’s like putting a numbing filter on the harsh realities of tragic events like we all witnessed on the national news today. When you think about it, it makes me want to augment my reality, too.  So, why don’t we do just that?

Left Brain Marketing Methods:  Your donors are just like you. They have good days and bad days. They watch the same news as you and they want to make the world better for the next generation—just like you do! Your left, logical brain tells you that generous people that give to your organizations are seeking ways to improve the place they live. Use that information to tell the stories they need to hear to take action.

Merriam-Webster defines augment in this way:  ‘To add something in order to improve or complete it’.  Sounds good to me…let’s do it!  Where there is darkness, even a small glimpse of light can guide us.  Where there is hate, random acts of kindness show love.  Where there is despair, hope brings forth life.  You’ve seen it, too.  You’ll be walking down the street and smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk you’ll see beautiful flowers.  In the midst of rock-hard concrete, a seedling from another planter will find its way through wind and sun and rain.  And, like a miracle, just where you would think beauty would be lost, it was found. 


Take that natural example and give it hands and feet and you have your donors.  You probably had one walk into your very own office today. They made a donation because it was something they could do to improve the cause they care about the most—and they needed you to help them do that.  When the reality of what’s going on in the world seems harsh, you can augment it.  Your donors can augment it. You know how it works. Glass half full.  Make lemonade.  Be the change you want to see in the world.  In other words, augment reality. 

Snapchat or TikTok may be a great way to augment your superficial reality, but Community Foundations are a great place to augment true reality. It might be a quadradigm shift, but it’s definitely worth trying…and repeating. 

 All My Best,

Dawn
[email protected]
dawn brown creative, llc.