What do political campaigns and marketing a business have in common? Quite a lot, actually, according to Jim Mains, Temple Lentz and Noland Hoshino – the owners of High Five Media, Southwest Washington’s newest marketing company.
The trio launched the company in January, just months after working together on Alishia Topper’s 2013 Vancouver City Council campaign.
“Even before that campaign was over we realized this is a really good team,” said Lentz. “We do great work and we love working together.”
With its three owners, High Five Media represents 37 years of combined experience in community engagement, political campaigns and business strategy.
That combination, Mains said, will allow the company to serve its clients – businesses, nonprofits and political candidates – in a variety of ways.
“On campaigns I’ve worked on in the past, you would sit down in a room with a ‘kitchen cabinet,’” he said. “The client would have to go out and hire a strategist, or they’d have to go out and hire a designer or a company to do mass printing. We do it all.
“We jokingly call ourselves the ‘triple threat’ because together we can do the design work, the photography, the consulting, the strategy and the data analysis,” Mains added. “From a political standpoint, I know there is no company locally that can offer that.”
A different approach
With skills in social media and in organizing people, Lentz said that from a business marketing perspective, High Five Media’s ties to the campaigning world set the company apart from traditional marketing firms.
“We bring a campaign approach to whatever we do,” she said. “We set a defined timeline, we set achievable, measurable goals and then we go at it. There’s an energy that surrounds a campaign. We want to bring that kind of electricity to the work that we’re doing.”
With that energy, the owners – along with Business Manager Bryan Dainty – hope to position High Five Media as a firm that is known for embracing creativity and new technology.
“We have great respect for what is tried and true; it works for a reason,” said Lentz, when asked about traditional forms of marketing. “But by the same token, there’s a lot of new stuff out there that we can infuse the older stuff with to reach new and changing audiences in a different way.”
Another element that’s critical to High Five Media’s approach, Hoshino said, is simply having fun and doing work that makes the community a better place to live.
“What we love to do and what brought us together is doing good in the community, whether it be a political campaign, a nonprofit or an issue,” he said. “We stress that we are local and we are part of this community.
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“We are located here because we love it here,” Lentz added. “Our work is better because we’re here. We know this community, we love this community and we’re going to work to make it better.”
Hello Vancouver!
With community in mind, High Five Media will present the first installment of “Hello Vancouver!” a new, bi-monthly live talk show focusing on life in Southwest Washington, on Wednesday, February 19.
The show, following a late-night format, will feature a musical guest, interview segments and “a few surprises.”
“It’s a celebration of Vancouver,” said Lentz, host of the event. “It’s a show that’s about the great things that are happening here. We’re trying to approach what makes Vancouver special and unique.”
“Hello Vancouver!” will be held at the Kiggins Theatre in downtown Vancouver (1101 Main St.) at 7 p.m. Guests include Andy Silver, Council for the Homeless; Amy Foster, Vancouver Police Department; the Storm City Roller Girls; and two-time Project Runway winner Seth Aaron Henderson. The musical guest is River Twain.
There is no cost to attend.
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