Jubilee celebrated its one year anniversary last month.

When I started Jubilee, I had two goals in mind.

1. Get the experience of starting a company and trying to grow a brand

Spreading the word on Jubilee's Taco Truck Tour!

2. Introduce Oasis to a new group of Nashvillians.

I’ll talk about the first more in later posts, but it’s the second that I’m really excited about now.  Having been in the smoke and mirrors field for most of my life, I’m overly sensitive to the debate over the effectiveness of marketing.

Does it really matter if someone is talking about your product if they’re not buying it?

I’ll be honest, for the first few months Jubilee was out there, I spent a lot of time thinking of how do you go from name recognition (I think the high-priced ad agencies call it brand awareness) to action?

It’s great to have more people talking about Oasis, but to really make a difference, we need to get those people involved (which is also now my day job, so I think about it a lot).

After a year of getting the name out there, three things happened in the past month that really excite me.

The Ladies of Whiskey Kitchen promoting Jubilee

First, the staff at Whiskey Kitchen, Virago and Tavern had a party where they raised money for a local charity…and they chose Oasis…raising over $500.

Second, Dan, a local restaurant owner of Freshii, offered to provide food for Oasis youth if we ever needed it…that’s a huge expense savings in the non-profit world for a youth event!

Finally, Sam, the owner of J&J market said that he was entering a triathlon this summer and had raised $700 towards his $1000 goal, all of which he was donating to Oasis.

Pretty cool of them, eh?

So here’s my challenge to you…what can you do to help?

Start small.

Post a link to Oasis’ new website on your Facebook page.

Then maybe do something a little more creative.

Maybe get your friends to meet at someone’s house for drinks, but you have to take the bus to get there and once there everybody gets online and buys a bus pass for a young person at Oasis as well (don’t worry, you can take a cab home).

Get a couple friends together and host a party…tell people to bring something from Oasis’ wish list instead of gifts.  If you get 15-20 people and each one brings a $10-25 item, you can really make a big difference quickly.  And I promise you every single guest that comes will say “this was a great idea- thanks for doing this”.

These are just a couple of ideas.  What are yours?  How will you make a difference?

Post your ideas!