Wendy Verna has weathered numerous economic cycles during the 28 years in which she has operated Bella Vista-based marketing firm Octo Design Group, but what she faced in March when Covid-19 caused an economic shutdown was unprecedented.
Much of Octo’s business comes from traditional events and other marketing activities that have either gone away due to safety restrictions or been drastically altered. In mid-March, Verna said she heard from key client Dyventive, a Hawthorn, Pennsylvania-based provider of software and connection assistance for events such as conferences, shareholder meetings, everyday presentations and holiday parties. All of Dyventine’s work had dried up due to the closures, and the company said it would not be providing Octo with any business. Other key Octo clients such as Philadelphia International Airport were also crippled by the pandemic.
“I had several proposals in with the airport,” Verna said. “They just aren’t spending. Their budget is frozen and they are not the only one. This is not like 2008. We are still waiting for things to come back but we don’t know when that will be. So I had to pivot.”
Verna created, on the fly, a new business within her business. Called Goody Guru, it is designed to spice up the world of virtual events, where human connection, spontaneous interaction, and shared experiences can get lost over a Zoom call. It involves providing packages to enable virtual event participants to experience the same level of engagement and interaction as they would at a traditional in-person event. The packages include customizable branded apparel to wear on screen, team building/game scoreboards, promotional materials, educational collateral, food and happy hour vouchers.
“You have people doing 25 different things these days,” Verna said. “They could be changing a diaper, answering email, helping kids with school work or participating in calls for work. So I wanted to make the person who gets the box feel indebted enough to where they get online and participate in the event.”
Organizations paying for Goody Guru are often seeking help with fundraisers, sales meetings and networking events. Boxes are shipped to the homes of participants with the goal of keeping them engaged in the program through interactive activities. A major Octo client is the Girl Scouts, who can no longer meet in person. So Goody Guru brings the fun to the homes of the girls, sending boxes that allow them to participate in online activities. Comcast Corp. has also used the service for internal programming.
Verna is partnering with Media Copy, a printing company in Media that’s owned and operated by longtime friend Richard Lee.
“This is all about creating jobs,” Verna said. “Rich can bring some of his people back to work and I have actually hired new people to work on this.”
Within three months, Verna created a website, brand, social media pages, marketing materials, portal to accept orders, and worked on legal and financial issues while Media Copy retrofitted its facility to fulfill the orders. Launched in June, it now contributes 25% of Octo’s revenue and could allow the company to recoup much of the revenue lost to the pandemic.
Verna calls herself the poster child for the Paycheck Protection Program. Her $42,900 PPP loan through Covenant Bank (now C&N Bank), allowed her to pay her three employees, rent and utilities for a few months. That provided the necessary breathing room to recalibrate her business and create Goody Guru. During that time, some of her clients were able to figure out their own paths forward and employ her marketing services in new ways.
“I have not worked this hard in five years,” Verna said. “But I feel like I am taking the steps to protect me, my staff and my clients. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t pockets of fear in this environment. Business owners are control freaks by nature and there is a lot you cannot control right now. You can’t worry about what things are going to be. You have to live for today.”
Jeff Blumenthal
Reporter