Turning Lemons into Spiked Limoncello Punch – 2020 Year in Review

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to develop creative for the 2020 AMA Omaha Pinnacle Awards. The work generated my favorite quote that sums up 2020: “You took those lemons and made spiked limoncello punch.”

On January 1, 2020 I was happily imagining KidGlov’s tenth-anniversary celebration, having no idea what a wild ride the year would become. Here are the highlights:

Hello, new clients

We are pleased to serve new organizations from our five areas of expertise including nonprofit, healthcare, financial services, social impact and purpose-driven business. It has been our pleasure to help these organizations advance their brands:

• Bank Leumi USA
• Boys Town National Research Hospital
• CEDARS
• Child Advocacy Center
• Click 2 Computer Science
• CouncilWare
• GJ Global
• Gross Catholic High School
• Nebraska Cultural Endowment
• Nebraska Wine and Grape Growers Association
• Region 4
• Region 6
• Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation
• Southeast District Prevention Partners
• Snow Redfern Foundation
• Verdis Group

Hello, new team members

Our people are our everything. They are all handpicked because they are extremely talented, and they are a strong fit with our KidGlov culture. In 2020 we were pleased to welcome:

• Alex Mabry, Designer
• Mary Kate Gulick, Executive Creative Director
• Margaret Davenport, Copywriter
• Finley Peterson, Social Media Intern

Two of our existing team members also advanced in their roles. Please help us congratulate them:

• Erin Clark, Art Director
• Katherine Warren, Chief Operating Officer

Best places to work

We were once again recognized as one of Lincoln’s Best Places to work. Our summary report indicated that 100 percent of our employees are highly engaged and understand that our people are our most important asset. We’re extremely proud of the healthy, happy and productive culture we have developed. One of our team members summed it up well when they said, “KidGlov is all about creating a welcoming, safe and inspiring work culture which in turn helps its employees stay motivated and do the great work that we do. I’ve worked at some great places, but KidGlov is the pinnacle because I feel everyone genuinely takes the time to listen and make improvements for all employees.”

Best in Show and other accolades

Our vision at KidGlov is to “put the megaphone in front of the good guys.” While our focus will always be to achieve results for our clients, it’s fun to have that work recognized by people on the outside. We were pleased to win Best in Show at the AMA Omaha Pinnacle Awards for a campaign that we created for Farmers & Merchants Bank. We were also the top award winners for both AMA Omaha Pinnacle Awards and AMA Lincoln Prism Awards.

Change of address

Our Lincoln office moved to a new, larger office space in May. We’re looking forward to actually working there sometime in 2021! We, like many others, started working from home in March. We’ve become pretty good at working remotely, and unexpectedly found that it has opened up boundaries for us to start working with clients from across the country. (We even launched a new brand fully remotely for Adeo in Greeley, Colorado, in May.) As such, we made the decision to close our Denver office when our lease expired in August. While we don’t have a Colorado address, we continue to serve clients from the rocky mountain state as well as other regions.

Celebrating the challenge

I never in my wildest dreams imagined KidGlov would celebrate our tenth anniversary in the midst of a global pandemic. With the party postponed and other celebratory plans placed on the back burner, we looked at other ways to honor the occasion. We created the Agency for Change Challenge, where we invited organizations to apply to win $10,000 in advertising agency services. We opened the applications not knowing what to expect. We were overwhelmed by the incredible response. After evaluating 45 applications from Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa, we narrowed to ten finalists and finally two winners. Watch for further details to be unveiled in 2021 for work being developed for Child Saving Institute and Lincoln Community Playhouse.

Talking with changemakers

We were so inspired by the stories of our challenge applicants that we decided to share them with our new Agency for Change podcast. We launched 25 episodes in 2020 and have an exciting lineup planned for 2021.

Celebrating women in business

We also decided to celebrate Women’s Small Business Month in October. We highlighted several strong women leaders, shared insights and highlighted stories of successful women. The local media helped us get the good word out.

Effecting positive change

Our focus continues to be helping the organizations who are changing the world. This year we also doubled down on our own efforts to effect positive change. We continuously support organizations through in-kind donations and financial contributions. We officially changed our corporate status to become a Nebraska Benefit Corporation, and we submitted our application to become Nebraska’s next certified B Corporation. We joined other leading advertising agencies in Omaha to form the AdVance Omaha Fund, an initiative focused on closing the diversity hiring gap. We also initiated work on our own sustainability strategic plan.

2020 was not the year we expected. It was challenging and, at times, terrifying – but it also forced us to try new things and forge new connections. In spite of all odds, 2020 was the biggest year in our ten-year history. I am extremely grateful to the KidGlov team, our clients and our partners. But I’m also looking forward to ringing in the new year. I say cheers to 2021!

For anyone looking to literally turn Lemons into Limoncello Punch, here’s my favorite recipe courtesy of Food52.com.

KidGlov is a boutique, full-service, advertising, branding and content marketing agency and certified B Corp, with offices in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, specializing in nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing, financial services marketing, social impact marketing, and purpose-driven businesses.

Want more information? Visit our purpose-driven business hub to find a variety of case studies, helpful blog posts and Agency for Change podcast episodes featuring other purpose-driven business leaders. KidGlov is a content marketing agency and certified B Corp with offices in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, specializing in nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing, financial marketing, social marketing and purpose-driven businesses.