Have you seen “Small Business Revolution — Main Street”?
It’s the show where a whopping $500,000 revitalization prize is awarded to one city, by Deluxe Corp. This month, Small Business Trends connected with Amanda Brinkman from the program to discuss its third season, which begins later this year with co-host Ty Pennington. We discuss Brinkman’s role at Deluxe, what businesses can learn by watching their past and upcoming content, and how they’re using Facebook Live.
Third Season of Small Business Revolution-Main Street
A creative visionary in marketing and media, Amanda Brinkman has innovated for brands like Reebok, BMW, Sony, Toro, Virgin Mobile and more. Her work on BMW Films kicked her career into overdrive. Brinkman currently works with Deluxe Corp. as chief brand and communications officer, and in 2015 she made a bet that an authentic program — branded as the Small Business Revolution championed by Deluxe — would garner more results than she could buy with traditional advertising.
The show, named “Small Business Revolution — Main Street”, chronicles the program’s impact on communities and countless lives. The winning city for the show’s new season was announced on Feb. 27, 2018 via Facebook. Content from the two previous seasons have gained 11x the reach and impressions of a traditional media buy with the same spend.
Brinkman is honored to serve on the boards of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Make-A-Wish, the Children’s Theatre Company and the Women’s Business Development Center’s (WBDC) Chicago Board. She also passionately volunteers for an array of causes, including the Special Olympics, Feed My Starving Children, People Serving People, the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota, the Jeremiah Program and more. She’s also a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable. Engage with her on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @amandakbrinkman.
Small Business Trends: What is the Small Business Revolution all about and which city won Season 3?
Amanda Brinkman: The Small Business Revolution is a movement. We are creating a revolution across the country to celebrate small businesses and their critical impact on our economy and our communities. This year marks the third season of “Small Business Revolution – Main Street”, which annually awards one small town with a $500,000 revitalization for its Main Street and its small businesses. We received thousands of nominations from towns across America and spent the last couple of months visiting and researching the finalist. After naming five finalists and inviting the public to vote for their favorite, Alton, Illinois was named the winner.
Small Business Trends: How has Facebook Live been helpful even before the third season of ‘Small Business Revolution — Main Street’ begins?
Amanda Brinkman: Facebook Live has been an incredible tool for energizing our passionate Small Business Revolution audience and engaging with them in real time — especially at key points throughout the program. For example, when we visited 10 short-listed towns in January to determine our five finalists, we did a Facebook Live broadcast from each town with a local representative. It was an amazing way to shine a spotlight on all of the communities and share with our followers the amazing communities we were visiting. We’ve also used Facebook Live to make major announcements, such as the reveal of our five finalist towns for Season 3 and the inclusion of Ty Pennington as our new co-host. It’s fun — and effective — to have everyone learning the news simultaneously and weighing in with their comments.
Small Business Trends: Let’s hear a recap of what Deluxe is, for those who don’t know.
Amanda Brinkman: Deluxe was founded more than 100 years ago with a legacy in the check-printing space. Today, it is a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions, serving 4.4 million small business customers across the country. Deluxe provides small business services and products such as website development and hosting, email marketing, social media, search engine optimization and logo design — helping small businesses with marketing so they can focus on the aspects of their business that they love most.
Small Business Trends: When does the new season air? How does Ty Pennington fit into the show?
Amanda Brinkman: Season 3 will debut this fall on Hulu, YouTube and SmallBusinessRevolution.org. Seasons 1 and 2 are both on SmallBusinessRevolution.org where you can see what’s at stake for Season 3, and how small businesses in these inspiring communities have overcome challenges with help from Deluxe. We enlisted Ty as a co-host for Season 3 because of his proven track record of working on projects that help transform and improve lives, homes and communities. Now, he’s going to help us transform an entire community!
Images: Deluxe Corp.