This past Friday we had the privilege of assisting Deerwood Bank with a 100 year anniversary at their founding bank in Deerwood. Throughout the brainstorming sessions while planning the event we collectively aimed to create a lasting visual memory for the communities of Crosby, Ironton, Trommald, Riverton, Cuyuna and Deerwood.
The video below showcases the event, where Deerwood Bank made their long standing customers the guests of honor and thanked everyone in the community for being a part of their 100 years of success. What was especially sweet in my designer mind was having the opportunity to drape the building. I’ve always wanted to do this, we finally did. I love how the tension of not knowing what is under the cloth builds value to the experience. We actually had the building draped in cloth a few days prior to the event, so much fun!
Looking back now I recall a few months ago driving around the bank on a Saturday, staring at angles, features of the building, and where we could naturally place this brand message on the bank. When I was taking photos of the bank to design from I thought for sure a police officer was going to drive by and say, “Um sir, just what are you doing?”
The canvas of opportunity was on the front of the bank, a natural horizontal plane that screamed to me “Put my 100 year message right here.” We did just that. Dain and I worked up the artwork for the 100 year celebration a few months back which features a solid 100 using the 1 and deer icon from the Deerwood Bank logo itself. And then placing the words Established 1910 to further communicate the purpose.
The end result is awesome. The signage fits the building naturally, and visually thanks the community for making it happen. The event also was published on the front page of the Crosby Courier newspaper. We were also aware of being a good steward of the bank exterior, so, should Deerwood Bank decide to remove the 100 signage with they officially turn 101 in March of 2011, we can do it, without leaving any exterior marks and/or holes. Pretty cool!
We’re fortunate to have the ability to work with Deerwood Bank now 100 years in. What a blessing, what an opportunity. Thank you to everyone at Deerwood Bank all the years prior to today who laid the ground work to make this celebration possible. And if you’re on the fence with your current bank, move your money to Deerwood Bank.
During the past 5 years in business it has been interesting to see one major theme that repeats.
We meet and land new clients generally when they need help. At the time of our first meeting they’re tired, frustrated, and just plain unhappy with the thought of spending any money on advertising/marketing/public relations without a plan. To their defense, they have good reason to be frustrated and here is why.
Our first step of business when getting to know a new client is pretty simple. I need to see their past, their present, and their future from their own perspective. When we create a road map to their future, it’s important we fully understand where they have been.
I ask to see what business owners have been messaging regardless of media, a bare all meeting where every newsprint, radio, point of purchase, billboard, website, and business card is reviewed allowing us to see the big picture of what strategy has been in place prior to that day.
In general we see “here and there” ad placements, but not as a campaign, mostly one time insertions. What’s troubling about “here and there” in terms of advertising is it does not allow the brand room for continuity of message. When I dig further I ask, “Why did you advertise in this way in this media?” A typical answer is “There was a special promotion.” Or, “this was a special section to promote such and such,” is common. This is scary. This type of ad placement is reactive to media running promotions versus the business deciding which direction they would like to advance.
The point underneath all of this is why my headline today reads, “Just because it’s cheap, doesn’t mean it’s good.” The first step to breaking free from the need to advertise in every section of every media is understanding what media actually is listened to, read, or seen, and why, when, and where our brand needs to be part of it.
Case in point, if you want to get a ton of radio ads for very little money, just place them all from 11:00pm – 3:00am. Sure, you’ll get a great deal on the ads and feel like you are getting a ton for your money, which you are, but you’re not getting the most important thing for your money, value. (Unless your area has a dynamic amount of overnight shift workers)
Next time you want to run a radio campaign do this. Ask for the most expensive ads. Why? These are the best ads available. They run when the radio station has the most listeners listening. Meaning, in regard to numbers, your chance to land new business also increase. Sure these ads cost more, but you get value in the quantity of listeners, not just airtime.
Same goes in the outdoor world. In the exact same area of road one billboard costs $350.00/month and another just up the road costs over $900.00/month. Why the difference? The $900.00/month billboard can actually be read at 70 miles per hour, and it’s not competing with another billboard positioned directly above it. Here again, in the outdoor world, I encourage our clients to purchase only the billboards that offer premier sight lines and easy to read efficiency. I would much rather forgo billboard placement than to place a message on a board that offers our clients absolutely no value in terms of people reading it. The main goal in billboards is to be read and understood, not just seen.
Newsprint is in this game as well. Newsprint is famous for special sections galore. There is always a special section, why? Because it’s a great opportunity to create editorial content to create a buzz in which to sell ads. But here is where my love affair with special sections end. When the editorial (the story) is so hard to read because all you can see is page upon page of ad wells after ad wells. Readers go to the newspaper for the content only the local newspaper can provide, local content. Place your ads in the local content consistently and the local people will see your brand. It’s that simple. It might be less expensive to advertise in a different section of the paper, but we must remember, does anyone, or more importantly, does your target customer read that section consistently?
This entire dilemma is the same on every ad placement media available, from bathroom ads, to tv ads, to vehicle graphics, to direct mail. Each ad media placement and buy needs to be looked at through the same lens. Does this placement offer us a fighting chance to position our message in front of our target audience to predispose them to think about our brand? That’s the bottom line, no more, no less.
In closing, here’s a few tips for placing ads that really stand out in the markets we serve throughout Minnesota. • Place radio ads in between 6am – 10am, and 4pm – 7pm. In between 10am and 4pm is hard to quantify who is hearing ads as the work day is in full process. Even with businesses who have radio playing in their workspace, it’s just too hard to track for my money. Following 7pm, a good number of people are heading to the next media of influence, that being TV for their update on their favorite sitcom and the local news.
• Place newsprint ads in your local section. Don’t be afraid of going too large either, but be sure you have enough dollars in your purchase to run more than one ad in the course of a month. I’ve seen 3 ads in three back to back weeks with additional ads running on the radio are a must to gain the attention you demand. Remember, local people like knowing what is going on in their community, place ads in the media that has this information.
• Don’t purchase a billboard without driving by it, at night, at day. If you can’t read the existing billboard design, most likely you will not be able to read yours either, the billboard just might be too far away. If there are trees blocking the billboard, don’t buy it. If it’s competing with another billboard above it, try to find another option if you can. Right hand read is better than a left hand read. Keep the message simple. This is not the place to say all things about your business. 5 words of less (3 is better), logo, website, visual if necessary. Think of a billboard in the way you think of a bumper sticker. Simple, straight-forward, fun.
When these simple steps (and believe me there are a ton more) are put into place, businesses start seeing the positive effects of advertising. It starts to transition the theory of advertising from being an expense to an investment.
And, if this still sounds overwhelming, drop us a line. We do this everyday, and we quite enjoy it.
Every designer has a goal, maybe even a few hundred of them. I’ve had a few since the time I moved to the Brainerd Lakes area in 1996. Generally speaking, these design goals come naturally from driving around town and seeing places for doing unconventional ad art if you just had just the right opportunity and timing.
The two billboards as you enter Crosby always intrigued me. They were so perfectly in-line left and right, so perfectly matched for each other, but up to this point they always featured different messages promoting different things for different companies. Same old, same old. For the most part past billboards in these two locations also featured non-enlightening messages for visitors and residents as they passed into the city gates. I recall billboards saying “don’t burn your garabage,” “click it or ticket,” “over the limit, under the influence.” Let’s be honest, these messages are good causes and important, but they never really set a good mood as you drove into town.
5 years ago we started working with the Cuyuna Regional Medical Center on the Medical Campus in Crosby. From that point in time I wondered and thought, “how can we use both of these billboards to create not only a welcome to the city, but a brand statement for the hospital.”
Well, it took 5 years to find that solution. When Peter Smith and I worked on a new campaign for the hospital, Pete said to me, “What do you think of this: Crosby Cares.” I knew he once again struck gold. And in that moment we had the two words that allowed us to bridge the billboard gap and create an uplifting message while driving into town. Since launching the billboards we have had countless people who have called and eMailed asking if we were behind it. I’m so grateful we were, it’s so cool.
It’s fun to live in the same community you work in. Everywhere we travel we have the ability to see our design not only promoting our client brands, but also collectively increasing the awareness of effective advertising art in our communities. And that my friends is why I do, what I do.
Until next time, let’s all be sure to exercise our creative license.
Happy weekend.
Aaron
(PS) If you see a spiky hair guy under these billboards applauding his own efforts, that’s me. I still get a kick out of it and a super wide grin every time I drive through the boards. Not sure why, I just love this stuff. I guess the judges at the AdFed competition didn’t mind it either as it won a Silver Addy Award. As the design now goes on to Region competition we silently hope for even more. (Well I guess that wasn’t real silent.)
On the night of Friday, December 11th, 2009, we took one night to celebrate our first 5 years in business with our clients and for the grand finale of the event we released RedHouse: The Movie. This is the visual summary of who we are, where we are, and what direction we’re heading. We thank our families, our friends, our clients, and our God for an amazing first 5 years.
7 days. 7 full days and nights of vacation. When Beth and I first thought over the idea of staying 7 days (that’s a full week you know) at one resort with Caleb and Ella our first response was “no way.” Chasing an almost 3 year old and tending to an almost 6 month old for 7 straight days at one place sounded more like stress than pleasure.
But then we thought about it . . .
While walking with Caleb at an RV park (visiting family) early this spring. I noticed how much fun he was having just walking, and kicking rocks. Caleb didn’t really care about the end destination where I was attempting to lead him (the lodge to purchase ice), he was totally captured in the idea of walking with daddy on a dirt road, kicking rocks.
That night I mentioned to Beth, “maybe we need to spend 7 days with our family, just us, no one else.”
Beth agreed, the next step was to determine which one Minnesota resort out of thousands to pick from we should look into lodging. Special note: we wanted to plan this trip over Caleb’s 3rd birthday to make the time special at the lake.
Moving forward, this was our checklist in which our decision on lodging needed to be made: 1) Within 30 minutes of home.
2) Small resort
3) Big sand beach
4) Something we could afford
5) Cabin with 3 bedrooms and bitterly close to the water’s edge
A friend of mine, Kerry Holubar, had mentioned many times to check out Tip-Top Resort on the Whitefish Chain, it also helped that Beth and I worked on a magazine feature story highlighting Tip-Top Resort about 5 years back, so the familiarity of the resort was there.
However, to be honest, it was difficult for myself to reserve the cabin at Tip-Top because I’m so visually driven. I checked out the website, ok, a few photos, but not enough visuals for my detail driven mind. Then I called, (yes, a real phone call, I know, scary.) and a brochure was mailed to our home. From the brochure Beth and I made the final decision to reserve our 2009 vacation opting for Cabin #4 with the bathtub, as bathtubs are important for the wee people you know.
Fast forward a few months and our time to leave for Tip-Top was now here, not even sure what to expect, the bags were packed, the groceries loaded, and the beach toys stored safely in the rig. (please note all of the above items were accomplished by Beth, I merely loaded the items in the rig.)
Off we headed to Tip Top.
At this point, I need to mention another item. I decided that this vacation, for myself, would be technology free. Meaning, no cell phone. (keep in mind my cell phone has the ability to yes, be used as a phone, but even more dangerous, keep up to facebook, twitter, linkedin, my blogs, my websites, check my calendar, worse yet, check my eMail, and if that isn’t bad enough, play a few games just to round out the experience. (nice phone huh?)
The decision was intentional as with that type of connection ability, it seemed pretty certain I’d never disengage from work. We also mutually decided not to pack along the laptop. Here again, even though the laptop is Beth’s, I find my way to squeeze precious moments (ok, hours) out of the day to stick my face in front of the monitor to make sure I don’t miss anything online.
It might sound silly, but the addiction of being always connected is a serious deal. Especially when I feel the need to be connected to everything, yet if I’m honest with myself, I might not really be connected (relationally) at all. (food for thought for future blog post.)
I was however able to bring along one piece of work technology, my camera and lenses! These are the “work” tools if you will. I say “work” because for whatever reason I rarely snap a picture with them at home. Terrible I know. So, I was looking forward to finally taking pictures of my life. (the video above represents the visual highlights of my photo fun at Tip Top)
I remember saying to Beth and about 2 days in “man, I’m so glad we don’t have to pack up and head back home tomorrow.” Each day provided great leisure time with family. Mornings Caleb awoke at around 6:00 am consistently. Which was great, one morning we had the opportunity to watch the sunrise on Clamshell Lake. That night, we were able to watch the sunset on Whitefish Lake. I enjoyed being with my son as the morning and evening light cast across the lake. As a photographer, we refer to this time of the day as “sweet light” as the early and late sun is what makes God’s creation even more inspiring. I tried to explain this to Caleb, he listened, but then generally told me that he could see Nemo in the lake. Or a barracuda. Funny.
Fast forward through 7 days of vacation we had countless hours on the beach, many trips to Crosslake for ice cream and pizza, a case of swimmer’s itch for me (that’s nasty by the way) morning fires in our living room fireplace (a real wood fireplace too!), and a beach side bonfire Wednesday night.
That swimmer’s itch brings up a good point. Sandcastle building. Never before have I taken the time to try to build with sand, man, it’s not easy. What I learned right away was there is no Command-Z (undo) in sand building. So many times I looked for my keyboard shortcut when the side of my sand Lightning McQueen fell down. After 4 hours of toiling in the hot noon sun in sand, it was finally complete. I went up to see if Caleb was up from his nap, he wasn’t, so I woke him up. We then went down to admire Lightning McQueen in the sand. Caleb in his respectful admiration began to climb on top of Lightning, and then jumped up and down on him until he was flat once again. It was still worth the four hours. (At least for me.)
So to get to the point, if you are a business owner, I am hereby here to say the following:
You owe it to your employees, your clients, your future, yourself, and your family to take a good period of time away from work, with no strings (even wireless strings) attached. Following the trip it was fun to see how much the time away had healed my lack of patience with work. It was fun to see how ideas started to fall into place without having to worry about it. It was fun to see that after a 4 hour meeting on the first day of my return, I was caught up.
Of course, when taking time away like this you need a strong team back in the office. I’m proud to say I believe we have one of the strongest. Dain, Kristen, and Kellie. Thank you for as well for allowing me to let you run RedHouseMedia in my leave. Job well done!
So the question now is, where next year . . . any thoughts?
— Posted by Aaron W Hautala, Creative Director, RedHouseMedia
We just received the link to this video from Mike Schwartzwald, world’s greatest pharmacist and a lover of all advertising media at GuidePoint Pharmacy in Brainerd. The video showcases how TRAVELERS took their brand icon, the red umbrella (Great choice of colors by the way…), and built a series of ads that consumers can walk through, engage with, and feel a connection with.
The technology is awesome, and the idea concept is beyond awesome. These are the types of ideas that make me go, “why didn’t I think of that!” So good.
Some folks comment, well, does anyone even know who the ad was for, to which I generally respond, “does it even matter?” Point being, people are interacting with an orange umbrella, they might not know who the ad is for initially, but the next time they see a online ad, a print ad, or a TV commercial with that umbrella, Bang, Boom, and Ka-Pow, the brain is firing on all cylinders and perceptions are being made.
Not to mention, when it comes down to it, would you rather trust your families well being to a super cool, innovate umbrella type company than a lizard with an accent? Think about it. Sophistication sells. Love this new generation of advertising. Party on!
Posted by Aaron W. Hautala – Creative Director – RedHouseMedia, Brainerd Advertising Agency
The following video showcases everything a brand, a business intends to be. Breaking their groove, making their moves, showcasing their original voice, talent, and charisma. Watch this entire video, start to finish, do not cut it short. The fellow that starts the dance is your business, do you currently have what it takes to bring in flocks of consumers to your brand? Are you standing out, in a good way.
Remember, standing out is easy, but standing out in a way that attracts the attention, the inspiration, and the hope of consumers is what separates successful businesses from luke warm businesses.
Choose to be worthy of a follow, prepare to be worthy of imitation. You can, you will. Peace out. AWH
Posted by Dain Erickson, Graphic Designer, RedHouseMedia
Just a chirp (long tweet) for designers, Photoshop users, creative thinkers and those who run with scissors.
I found a Photoshop keyboard shortcut yesterday that I did not know about. (for Mac) When you are working in Photoshop with the brush tool, pencil tool, or the paint bucket tool, you can easily select colors from your workspace by simply holding down the option key.
This is much quicker than manually scrolling your mouse across your screen to grab the eyedropper tool. Especially when you have to deal with the trials of working on a 30 inch monitor like I have. (Dripping sarcasm.)
The other option is to hit the I button.
Photo above is provided for you visual learners.
Caribou Coffee should be paying me for the product placement on the pencil holder cup.
In general we see “here and there” ad placements, but not as a campaign, mostly one time insertions. What’s troubling about “here and there” in terms of advertising is it does not allow the brand room for continuity of message. When I dig further I ask, “Why did you advertise in this way in this media?” A typical answer is “There was a special promotion.” Or, “this was a special section to promote such and such,” is common. This is scary. This type of ad placement is reactive to media running promotions versus the business deciding which direction they would like to advance.
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