Category: Giant Fun

Giant Giving: Our Commitment to Community

Posted on September 17, 2024 by - Company Culture, Giant Fun, News

Community is powerful, and when channeled for a worthy cause, our community comes together to make a difference. Since 2019, it has been our pleasure to channel our collective impact for good through Giant Giving, an initiative that allows us to support and give back to causes that are near and dear to our hearts: childhood cancer and donating blood.

Giant Giving: The Beginning

Back in 2019, sweet Lucie Mertz, daughter of Giant Voices partner Jena Mertz, was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma.

Over the course of her rigorous and aggressive multi-year treatment, Lucie required 180+ lifesaving blood transfusions, over 150 of which were platelets, which Memorial Blood Centers can now collect at its Duluth Donor Center.

Today, Lucie is a spunky school-aged cancer-surviving warrior who keeps her family on her toes and the rest of us smiling.

Throughout their journey, the Mertz family encouraged their community to support Lucie and other childhood cancer patients by donating blood. Millions of kids and adults depend on life-saving blood donations. This small act of selfless kindness is a lifeline for so many. 

Giving Blood: A Perpetual Need

Every two seconds, a patient somewhere in the world needs blood, and the only way to supply that blood is through donations. We haven’t cracked the code on artificial blood creation, so it’s up to all of us to take care of our fellow human beings. 

Blood donation graphic. One pint, three lives. Your donation matters.
Blood donation graphic. Spare 15 minutes. Save 3 lives.

Blood donation facts & stats

  • 62% of Americans are eligible to donate blood, but only 3% donate regularly
  • Blood consists of three important components, all play different roles:
    • Platelets: Control bleeding
    • Red cells: Carry oxygen throughout the body
    • Plasma: Promotes clotting
  • There are actually 8 blood types: A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+, O-
  • After donating 1 pint, your body replenishes your blood naturally
    • Plasma: 24 hours
    • Platelets: 48 hours
    • Red cells: 4-6 weeks
  • Blood donors can give whole blood (red cells) every 56 days
  • Platelet donors can come every 7 days, up to 24 times a year

Giving blood is a simple and effective way to support your community. From door to door, a whole blood (red cells) donation generally takes about 45 minutes. You’ll check in, complete a vitals check and spend about 15 minutes in the chair donating and another 10-15 minutes enjoying snacks and drinks while you relax and give your body time to adjust. 

Giant Giving: By the Numbers

Giant Voices employees outside a Memorial Blood Centers mobile blood donation bus.

Giant Giving is our way of showing gratitude and bringing joy to patients, families, caregivers and friends who are spending time in the hospital or clinic. If we can rally together to ease even a little of the stresses around battling cancer or repetitive visits to the clinic, we’ve done our job. 

This year, we’re extremely proud to share that we knocked our goals out of the park, inspiring new donors to give blood with Memorial Blood Centers for the first time and collecting enough gifts, gift cards and financial donations to put smiles on hundreds of faces. 

  • Mobile Blood Drives:
  • Holiday Giving
    • Amazon Gift List: 100% fulfilled for 3 years running
    • 100s of gifts given
    • 100s of gift cards given
    • 3 Families sponsored
Giant Giving holiday gifts for childhood cancer patients.

None of this would be possible without the generosity of our community of Giants—including our families, friends, neighbors and the local community—and our supporting clients and partners.

“The support and generosity we’ve received for Giant Giving is beyond appreciated. This initiative is powerful, and we’re so proud to support our community in these important ways. Please consider joining us!” – Jena Mertz, Giant Voices Partner and Director of Operations. 

The Future of Giant Giving

Join us for our upcoming Fall Giant Giving Blood Drive on October 2, 2024. When you donate whole blood, you’re able to give again in just 56 days. If you give during our fall drive, you’ll be eligible again right after Thanksgiving.

Please consider donating again, as the holidays are often an especially critical time for blood donations. And don’t stop there. You may be eligible to give up to 6 times each year—that’s potentially 18 lives impacted by your generosity. 

We’re incredibly proud to partner with Memorial Blood Centers, a non-profit organization that is the sole supplier of blood products to 19 hospitals in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. When you donate, you’re supporting patients and healthcare providers around the entire region with a lifesaving gift. Thank you!

Celebrating Women’s History Month: 5 Giant Ways We Uplift and Support Women

Posted on March 14, 2023 by - Business Tips, Giant Fun

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re exploring the history of this annually declared month, the achievements of women in business around the world and how Giant Voices uplifts and supports women at our company and throughout our region.

Throughout history, women have often been the unsung (or sometimes silenced) heroes of monumental movements, accomplishments and changes that shaped and molded our world.

From the suffragists fighting for voting rights in the early 20th century to women climbing the corporate ladder and breaking patriarchal norms in business, women have fought tooth and nail to build a better world and pave the way for women today.

Every year during the month of March, we recognize, reflect and celebrate these ground-breaking historical, political, societal and cultural achievements of women through Women’s History Month.

It all started in California during the late 1970s, when the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration to generate awareness around the historical and cultural contributions of women. 

After years of women and historians lobbying for national recognition, in 1980, President Jimmy Carter officially declared that March 8 was the start of National Women’s History Week.

As the movement continued to gain national and global momentum, Congress then declared March as Women’s History Month in 1987.

What was once a week-long event has transformed into a tangible and communal month-long celebration that brings women together from across the world.

At Giant Voices, we are particularly excited to recognize and celebrate the ambitious and brave women who have created opportunities for women to thrive in business and everyday life. 

A Brief Look Into Women in Business

Did you know that before 1988, women weren’t able to acquire business loans without the co-signing of a male relative?

Fortunately, this antiquated and discriminatory law was eradicated when the Women’s Business Ownership Act (bill H.R. 5050) was passed and signed into law. According to the U.S. Small Business Association, women own or co-own 45% of all businesses in the United States today.

The number of women-owned businesses, as well as women in leadership roles and influential positions, has continued to rise over the last few decades.

For the first time in history, women CEOs run more than 10% of Fortune 500 companies (53 female CEOs in 2023). A monumental achievement considering just two decades ago—in 2002—that number was only 7.

While women may still have roadblocks to achieve true equality, gender equity and adequate representation in some areas, we’re excited to see the strides that women in business and leadership have made since trailblazers like Sarah Breedlove (better known as Madam C.J. Walker), Oprah Winfrey and Arianna Huffington became renowned entrepreneurs. 

Less Talk, More Action

At Giant Voices, we’re committed to fostering change and taking action to uplift, support and empower women in business. We’re taking charge in several key areas.

Building a Well-Represented Team

It’s not by design, as we have exceptional men at Giant Voices, but our team happens to consist of mostly women.

As a company that prioritizes gender representation and expanding the opportunities for women in business, we are passionate about hiring talented, creative and ambitious employees—no matter their gender or how they identify.

We believe by focusing on building a strong company culture where people—but especially women—feel acknowledged, appreciated and supported, our business and organization benefit from long-term success. 

Inspiring Other Women With Entrepreneurial Ambitions 

Giant Voices aims to become the norm, not the exception, when it comes to successful, women-led organizations.

Our leaders—Pascha, Lisa and Jena—are all ambitious entrepreneurs, involved community members, supportive partners and engaged parents.

They strive to be an example and show other women throughout our community and region that they, too, can do it all. Balancing your professional and personal life, while going after your dreams and achieving your goals, will often be hard but it can be done! 

Supporting Women in What Used to Be Male-Dominated Industries 

Historically, women have been underrepresented in male-dominated industries like mining, engineering and technology.

However, with the growth of women in business, we’ve seen a rise in women stepping into leadership roles in industries with traditionally male workforces.

Women in these fields are ambitious, goal-oriented and hardworking, and they bring a different perspective to the table. These women offer incredible value when it comes to uncovering the best way to achieve business goals.

The Giant Voices team continues to make meaningful impacts in industries that are generally male-dominated. We have proven time and again that we are experts in marketing these fields and are committed to earning trust, recurring business and delivering exceptional results. 

Prioritizing Meaningful Connections with Women in Business

At Giant Voices, we work, collaborate and connect with women in a multitude of industries. From mining and engineering to economic development, technology and tourism, our team has their hands in a broad spectrum of metaphorical industry honey pots. And we love it!

Our connections with female leaders and forward thinkers like Rachel Johnson, President and CEO at APEX, Julie Lucas, Executive Director at MiningMinnesota, and Vicki Worden, President and CEO of the Green Building Initiative, (among so many others!) give us the opportunity to work together to make an even bigger impact within our community and region.

As Michelle Obama once said, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can achieve.” 

Recognizing, Celebrating and Reflecting on Our Achievements

At Giant Voices, our women-led organization and team have achieved much to be proud of over the past ten years of business.

From expanding our team and moving into a larger office space to bringing on Jena Mertz as partner, seeing our work manifest as an Involta Billboard in Times Square and Pascha Apter—Giant Voices Founder and CEO—being recognized in the TCB 100: People to Know, our company has evolved, grown and accomplished so many incredible things, but the foundational structure has remained steady.

While we’re always looking towards the future and creating new goals, we also know how important it is to recognize, celebrate and reflect on how far we’ve come as a company founded, managed and operated by a team of primarily women. 

10 Giant Highlights from 10 Years in Business

Posted on July 13, 2022 by - Giant Fun, News

We’re celebrating ten years in business this month, and to mark this milestone we’re taking a bit of a walk down memory lane. Read on for some of our favorite Giant memories from the past decade. 

2012 – A Giant Rebrand

Giant Voices evolved from The JPG Group—a marketing and advertising firm founded in the mid-80s in Virginia, Minnesota.

Pascha Apter joined The JPG group as an account executive in 2005, became a minority partner in 2008 and purchased and rebranded the company in 2012, making her one of the first women to wholly own a marketing firm in northern Minnesota. 

As a single mother to two young children at the time, Pascha’s decision to become an entrepreneur in a fast-paced industry was a huge risk with a huge payoff, not just for herself, but for every Giant along the way.

Pascha and her small team of Giants officed out of a charming space in Canal Park, taking Duluth by storm!

2013 – Lisa Bodine Becomes Giant President

When Pascha founded Giant Voices, she knew she needed a partner—someone to help share the heavy load of business ownership and provide the yin to her yang.

Pascha had worked alongside Lisa Bodine on several regional initiatives through the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce and while Lisa worked for Involta and the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX).

When Pascha approached her with an opportunity to become president and partner of Giant Voices, Lisa immediately agreed—and the rest is history.

Lisa’s sales and business development expertise and deep network of industry relationships have been invaluable to Giant Voices for the past decade, setting a trajectory for rapid growth.

2014 – Visit Cook County Goes Giant 

2014 was a year full of new client acquisition success stories. One of our favorites is being awarded a contract with Visit Cook County, a relationship that continues to thrive today!

“We are personally invested in the success of all stakeholders in Cook County, Minnesota,” said Pascha.

We are incredibly proud of the award-winning work and record-breaking accomplishments we have made alongside the VCC team of marketing experts. 

2015 – The Giant Creative Team Expands!

After three years in business, 2015 required what was effectively a hiring explosion at Giant Voices.

Most notable was the hiring of Cory Southerton and Sally Carlson—two of our incredible creative team members who proudly work at Giant Voices still today.

Cory was only 19 when we joined Giant Voices, and it felt like forever before he could officially join one of our many agency happy hours.

2016 – Pascha and Lisa Travel to Africa! 

Business experts always caution that owners should never travel together—what if something happened? Would the company survive?

When Pascha and Lisa had an opportunity to travel to Africa together with their spouses, they couldn’t resist the temptation. They left the company in the capable hands of Barb Darland and Jena Mertz and set off on the journey of a lifetime.

After countless small plane flights, safari adventures, surviving an elephant stampede, and many other exciting yet frightening happenings, the Giant leaders returned to Duluth inspired and ready to tackle client and operational challenges alike.

2017 – The Giants Move to Downtown Duluth

After five years of record growth, the Giant Voices team was pushing the limits of our small Canal Park office. Lisa and Pascha explored significant renovations but ultimately decided that a new space would be a better fit for the rapidly-growing company.

They selected a 6,600-square foot space on Superior Street, putting Giant Voices directly in the heart of Duluth’s business district.The two-story office, formerly known as the ACE Hardware building, was completely renovated into a modern workspace.

It includes several conference rooms, expanded collaboration areas for staff, areas to showcase work and art, a fitness room and a kitchen. Apter also commissioned a hand-painted mural depicting the iconic Duluth skyline while incorporating a little Giant flare.

2018 – Pascha Recognized by Twin Cities Business

Pascha earned huge industry recognition when she was named one of the TCB 100: People to Know in 2018.

Pascha was recognized as an influencer in the business community and as a strong leader and savvy entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising.

Pascha’s fierce passion for helping her clients reach their financial, operational and marketing ambitions inspires creativity and innovation.

We’ve always known she’s incredible, and it was amazing to see her featured so prominently and among such good company. 

2019 – Jena Mertz Becomes Partner

Jena Mertz had been an essential part of the Giant team since 2013, bringing experience in sales and marketing to help Giant Clients strengthen brand awareness both internally and externally.

Jena also always had entrepreneurial ambitions, and she was thrilled to make that dream a reality with Giant Voices.

As a partner, Jena focuses on managing growth opportunities for Giant Voices while also overseeing all client relationships and developing strategic marketing plans that drive sales and operational growth for key client engagements.

2020 – Giant Voices’ Digital Marketing Team Executes a Complex Lead Scoring Strategy

The Giant Voices digital marketing team manages a database with nearly 100,000 contacts on behalf of a Giant Client.

We’ve leveraged the organization’s CRM investment to deploy a lead nurture framework and scoring methodology designed to identify, rank and grow qualified leads.

As contacts engage and interact with various assets, they earn a higher lead score and move down the funnel from Prospect to Lead to Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified Lead.

This process gives the client a stronger understanding of each contact and has helped nurture prospects into thousands of viable leads that are passed to the sales team.

Oh and we survived a global pandemic….

2021 – Involta Billboard in Times Square

Seeing our clients succeed is truly why we exist at Giant. We have been an extension of the Involta team since the inception of Giant Voices—and for a majority of the 15 years Involta has been in business.

We’ve partnered over the years, helping align marketing with sales, as the rapidly-growing managed IT and data center service provider transformed into a national powerhouse.

Our team has helped shape the marketing strategies that grew Involta’s footprint from one market to six, and we’ve helped build narratives for Involta’s ever-growing line of hybrid cloud solutions. 

When Involta was acquired by the Carlyle Group, a growth-focused global investment firm, the Giant Voices creative team developed the billboard creative that was featured in Times Square during the holiday season.

We couldn’t be more proud that our work was featured so prominently at a national level. A Giant win-win, for sure!

A GIANT Space: Explore Our New Office

Posted on June 7, 2017 by - Giant Fun, News

May marked a GIANT milestone for Giant Voices.

Since the day I launched Giant Voices, I’ve dreamed about moving my team into an expansive new space. Don’t get me wrong, our Canal Park space was charming and historical—but also full of challenges.

Our team has grown extensively in the past year, and Lisa and I knew our current space was not going to work for much longer.

We began the process to remodel the Canal Park space but quickly realized that would only be a temporary fix. We were bursting at the seams!

We had designers sharing desk space. We had a single conference room to offer clients. There was no space to expand. No room to grow. Even a beautiful, reworked space wouldn’t do the trick.

It was incredibly important to us to stay in the heart of Duluth. Our local roots are strong and we wanted to remain centrally located. We considered multiple local spaces but fell in love with the former Ace Hardware space on Superior Street.

A Space to Grow

Lisa and I are so proud that our vision has come to life. In many ways, it’s even better than we expected – and if you know how ambitious we are, that’s really saying something. We could not have done this without the expertise of Wagner Zaun Architecture, McGough Construction and many sub-contractors.

Their work transformed the 6,600-square-foot space into a beautiful, modern—and dare I say sexy—collaborative workspace.

We already love being downtown Duluth. We love being a part of our city’s thriving business district and joining so many fantastic local businesses. It’s a different kind of busy and we’re fitting right in. We’ll miss the proximity to Lake Superior, the Lakewalk and our friends and neighbors in Canal Park, but downtown suits us just fine.

Here are some of my favorite elements of our new office:

  • Multiple Conference Rooms – We are so excited to host client meetings in our new conference rooms. We can feel the ideas, creativity and strategy bubbling already.
  • Collaborative Meeting Spaces – Sometimes, casual meeting spaces are necessary to think differently about a project.
  • Beautiful, Handmade Wooden Tables by Lars Woodwerks – We can’t thank Lars enough for his exquisite, handcrafted works of art. They’re beautiful, functional showpieces that make our space truly unique.
  • Fitness Center – Productivity starts with taking care of yourself – and some of the best ideas pop up during a workout. Our new fitness center will allow our Giants convenient access to solve problems while building strength.
  • Modern Workspaces for Our Giants – Is there anything better than starting fresh? Our Giants are adding their creative touches to make the spaces their own.
  • A Fabulous Mural by Local Artist Brian Olson – I’d be remiss if I neglected to share this stunning mural by Brian Olson. Bright colors, Duluth’s beautiful skyline, and our powerful core values. I can see it from my office, and it inspires me every day.

Strengthening Our Services

In this new workspace, we’re going to take our work to the next level. It’s already started. The Giants are working together better than ever before. We’ve got the space to spread out, and it’s bringing us together.

Giant Voices is a strategic marketing firm. Helping our clients reach their financial and growth ambitions is our main focus. Our unique, strategic approach to marketing services builds market-leading brands, improves customer relationships, increases web traffic and creates strong company cultures.

Our services include:

  • Strategic Planning
  • Branding
  • Advertising
  • Public Relations
  • Web Development
  • Social Media
  • Lead Generation
  • Collateral

GIANT Leadership

My business partner, Lisa Bodine, and I leverage over 40 years of leadership in business, sales and advertising with traditional and cutting-edge digital marketing expertise to generate GIANT results.

Get to Know Lisa

Lisa Bodine is simply amazing. I’m lucky to have her as a business partner and partner in crime. She spearheads business growth and dissects business issues with incisive strategic insight honed by 20 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and organizations in the healthcare, information technology, manufacturing and nonprofit sectors.

Her experience spans sales, marketing, operations analysis, business development, board steerage and public and legislative affairs. She harnesses her formidable skills and fierce competitive instincts to solve Giant Clients’ sales, logistical, legislative and other challenges on time and on budget while also growing revenue.

A Little About Pascha

I’m fiercely passionate about helping clients reach their financial, operational and marketing ambitions. With more than 20 years of experience, I help clients scale their enterprise to achieve revenue growth through strategic and creative development and execution. I enjoy identifying, assessing and closing financial, education and communication gaps for my clients.

It’s my personal quest to stay educated on the latest developments in the marketing industry. I earned a B.A. in Mass Communications from St. Cloud State University and have completed several nationally-acclaimed business courses with the Aji Network and the High Performance Academy. I use this knowledge to strengthen and grow my team and help my clients reach their ambitions.

If you are looking for a partner to help you reach your giant growth goals, you’ve come to the right place.

Pascha Apter, Giant Voices Founder + CEO