Incite is very proud to be supporting the Youth Emergency Shelter Society (YESS) with their relationship marketing strategy. For those who have yet to hear of YESS, they are a relentlessly dedicated not-for-profit organization helping to shape the future of Edmonton by supporting and empowering youth in difficult realities. YESS offers distinctive and invaluable services through a variety of channels that range from immediate emergency shelter to ongoing support programs and individual guidance.

In order to help the youth they meet every day, YESS is always in need of donations. So, over the Christmas season, the Incite team rallied together to give YESS twelve days of Christmas. We went through our closets and cupboards at home and packaged clothing, food, and electronics into twelve boxes. We wrapped up the boxes to all look the same and delivered one of the twelve anonymously each day. Slowly YESS’ curiosity and excitement built. On the twelfth and final day, the secret was revealed! Although this undertaking was simple and inexpensive, it created a colossal impact. A few key elements triggered this outcome:

1. Understand the client’s core needs. Take time to understand what makes them tick and what would make a difference to them. The most impactful results are thoughtful and not necessarily expensive.
2. Be creative. It goes a long way in making an impact. Adding an unexpected twist causes people to pay attention and builds memories.
3. Step outside the comfort zone. Our interactions, especially in business, tend to default to the most neutral mode of operation. We fear how others will view our actions and if they will understand our intentions. What are we really risking?

Incite has and continues to learn from the talented team at YESS. They certainly know how to make an impact – not just on youth, but on everyone in their web. They inspire us to reach higher and consider how we can make a better impact.

"Can I walk to City Hall from here?"

"Do I need an umbrella in Vancouver this weekend?"

Seemingly enough, these are everyday questions one might ask another person, but with the recent introduction of Siri on Apple's new iPhone 4S, your mobile phone will be the one to answer.

Siri is voice-recognition technology taken to a whole new level. It's an intelligent personal software assistant capable of understanding natural language, as well as logic and reasoning.

As one could guess, Siri is impressive and in demand. Hackers are working to make Siri functional on older iPhones and all iPads. Amazon is reported to be feverishly developing a similar technology for its Kindle to compete.

Voice-recognition technology is not new, even on mobile phones, but gone are the days of being limited to simple voice dialling functions that required training it with your voice, and only accepting commands in standards phrases, such as "Call Scott Heist".

We went from talking with our mobile phones, to touching them, and now talking to them.

Apple is once again being a pioneer and continuing the intention of its brilliant but retired slogan, "Think different". So, what is your organization doing to approach what you do differently? It's no longer good enough to be the best, no matter how lovely Siri is.

Siri, did you hear that? Not to worry, press and hold the home button, Siri is listening. What are you going to say next?