Showcase: Scholarship Worksheet Keeps it Simple

Walla Walla University’s new scholarship program gives students instant feedback on what they’re eligible for—and has proven to be an important part of their marketing successes.

When they asked us to develop a simple piece to communicate this complicated message—we recommended an interactive visual piece that is available in print and on-line (click here to view the online version).

Very often, a visual is the best way to convey complex information quickly.

Client Showcase—St. Anthony North 40-Year Collateral Piece

This is the final piece in a campaign to promote St. Anthony North Hospital's achievements via its 40-year anniversary. This printed piece serves as both a direct mail and a brochure that tells the hospital's story and casts a vision for its future. The campaign theme, "We," celebrates the team's efforts in reaching this milestone, while creating enthusiasm for the hospital's future. It pairs well with the employee video, where we build on a reality-style production to show what "we" means. 

The campaign included transit, outdoor boards, mall displays, building banners, kinetic typography, Web content, videos, and print ads. 

The focus of the messaging was not just about their accomplishments and plans for the future, but was a way to celebrate the achievements of the team, which always infuses energy into an organization.

We can't wait to see what they do together in the next 40 years.

How are you celebrating the achievements of the people who make your business successful? What company do you know that does this well?



Independent Colleges of Washington Uses Animation to Tell Their Story

Washington's private colleges are a cause we love to support because of the way they change lives and help our state's citizens.

About 40,000 students attend these ten schools—yet the schools receive less than 2% of the state higher education budget. This saves the state more than $330 million per year in operating subsidies—while increasing choice for those attending college. Contrary to what many think, these schools serve an economically diverse student body, providing quality education to students from all demographics and income backgrounds.

We developed this animation for them to help them bring their story to life—and reinforce their key brand messages using a medium that works well on the Web and with social media.

Communications Can Restore Sense of Purpose and Meaning to the Workforce

How can we recognize our volunteers? That was the question posed by St. Anthony North Hospital as they prepared to launch their 40-year anniversary campaign.

We assembled this simple animation pairing words and photos to respond to their request, and love the magical qualities represented by these compelling still images. Hiring one of our partner photographers in Colorado, we commissioned her to tell a visual story that captures the generous spirit of these volunteers. Within a week, we had pulled this together, designing it in a way that allows it to be used not only for the anniversary, but for recruiting and recognizing volunteers in the future.

Communicators build culture by the words and images they use—by the stories they tell. This is one of the areas I find most rewarding in our work. It's easy to focus on new products, services and programs, because of their news value. But we all need to remember how important it is to take time to reinforce behaviors that are essential to your corporate culture.

Here are ways to use an animation like this:

• Post it on your Web site
• Post it on your You Tube site
• Show it in orientation, or during the recruiting process
• Show it at events
• Post it on Facebook and other social media sites
• Show it on in-house monitors or TV channels
• Distribute links to it via email

We often find that reminding people of the deeper reasons they chose their profession pays off in significant ways for companies—restoring a bit of soul to the corporate world.

What kind of culture-building communications have you seen lately that worked?

Client Showcase—Tips on Conveying a High Tech Image

When Littleton Adventist Hospital installed one of the first 13-second Stat Scanners in the country, they asked us to incorporate this message into a series of ads that helped position their emergency center as high tech. By mixing a re-enactment with a brief description of how the equipment benefits their patients, the ad depicts how the hospital is leading the way in bringing innovative technologies to the community.

It's not always easy to convey a "high tech" message in health care. Here are some tips:

1. Don't include visuals that are unsettling for consumers. By and large, people don't want to see themselves in typical health care settings—having procedures done, blood drawn, surgery or tests.

2. If you are promoting technology, make sure to make the prevailing message one of how it benefits the consumers. Most people don't want to hear about the bells and whistles of a new piece of technology, but are interested in what it can do for their condition or disease.

3. Engage the power of story. Real stories or possible scenarios, told in language people can understand, are almost always effective.

Health care organizations sometimes err on the side of conveying too much technical information, or too much of the softer side. Either one has its risk. We recommend balancing these messages, and making sure that you look at them from an "outside" perspective.

Do you see examples of hospitals that are positioned as high or low tech? High or low "touch"?

Client Showcase—North Ridge Medical Practice Steps Ahead of the Competition in their Promotion

This new campaign for North Ridge Medical Practice in Colorado combined direct mail with a mini-animation ad—
allowing for targeted advertising and putting them ahead of their competition by having a more Web-friendly, social media-friendly promotion. The presence of the mini-animation ad also delivers information in a format that consumers are showing preference for.

Physicians who can deliver strong, targeted messages using contemporary media will likely experience immediate growth in their practice if the message is right and the market has pent-up demand. You can see how they've used this on their  Web site—and how it not only brings the Web page to life but reinforces their key brand messages.

Have you seen other physician practices breaking out of the print ad-only approach to promotion?

Spine Billboard Wins Gold Aster Award

We just learned that the successful “Get your back back. In Walla Walla.” outdoor board we developed with Providence St. Mary Medical Center Regional Spine Center has received a Gold Award from the Aster Awards Competition which honors excellence in medical marketing.

The Aster Awards, one of the largest national competitions of its kind, received approximately 3,000 entries from the United States, Canada and South America.  Participant’s entries competed against similar-sized organizations in their category.

Gold Awards reflect a score that ranks the creative work in the top 5% of entries submitted. Judging criteria includes creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal.

Here are a few of the distinctive attributes of this billboard that contribute to its success:

• Short, seven-word headline works with image to create instant understanding that this is an ad for relief of back pain.
• Alliteration in the headline makes it memorable.
• Use of the city’s name connects with local readers, and makes it clear to regional readers that the service is in Walla Walla.
• Vivid colors tie in with the center’s corporate colors, but are also vibrant and suggest health.

Hospital Anniversary Campaign—Entertain, Celebrate and Communicate with Video

We departed from the more serious style of the anniversary campaign interviews (which will post next Monday) to produce something fun that showcases the hospital employees, who were happily cooperative with some of our creative directing. We loved being able to capture the wonderful spirit of the people at St. Anthony Hospital North, and think this video not only does that, but can help generate internal enthusiasm for this celebration.

Whenever a production can be entertaining, it increases its chance of being distributed virally. While this one will be posted on their web site, You Tube channel and Facebook page, we hope viewers will also send their friends links to the video.

Check back next week for the final installment of this campaign: testimonial videos featuring the leaders of St. Anthony North.

Hospital Anniversary Campaign Incorporates Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography is a new way of telling your story. It’s essentially a mini-ad that can be used in a variety of ways. Here’s how St. Anthony Hospital North used it as part of their 40-year anniversary campaign:

• Posted on their You Tube Channel
• Posting it on Facebook
• Posting it on their hospital Web site
• Sending links virally—to employees, physicians, donors and key stakeholders

Click the links below to see some of our other kinetic typography projects:

• Dimensions Pain Management 
• Independent Colleges of Washington

And check out some of the other ways that companies are using animation: 

• Good Magazine Infographics 
• (Starbucks)Red Campaign 
• Starbucks Tribute Days 

Check back tomorrow to see our outdoor advertising solutions for this campaign. 

Hospital Anniversary Campaign—Mall Displays and Exterior Banner

If you joined us yesterday, you saw the evolution of the icon for our client's 40-year anniversary that is launching this week in Colorado. Here's the winning campaign icon; you can see how it was applied in the designs below.

For the mall displays, we decided to break the rules that suggest using 7-10 words on outdoor advertising. We didn't intend for viewers to read every word on the ad, but instead to walk away with an overall impression of how much St. Anthony does in partnership with its community. 

Note that on the bottom of the display, you'll see a QR code. Viewers can use a smart phone app to scan the code, which takes them to a special 40-year animation (check back later this week to view the animation, or if you click to enlarge the ad you can scan it now). The print ad echoes this design and also features the QR code.

What do you think. Did we meet the goal?

Print Ad

 

Mall Display

As a part of the overall media buy, we like to use a client's facility to communicate, since it's a cost-effective way to reach people already interested in the organization. There are no media buy fees, and it reinforces the campaign message with the staff, who are important advocates. Similar interior banners on stands are located in the two main entrances of the hospital.

Exterior Banner

Check back tomorrow to see what we developed as part of their social media campaign.

Case Study—The Evolution of an Icon for a Hospital Anniversary Campaign

What's a 40-year anniversary about? For St. Anthony North Hospital in Denver, Colo., it is an opportunity to celebrate milestones, honor their staff, confirm their distinctive role and cast a vision for the future.

A combination of outdoor, print and social media provided the platform for communicating their contributions to and partnership with their community. The message—We: You, me and St. Anthony North, Side by side for 40 years—celebrated the past as a shared achievement and staked out their independence as a separate entity from their founding hospital,while still honoring their shared history.

For their campaign which is launching this week, the client wanted an icon that would appear on the various campaign pieces to create continuity. Before we began working on the icon, we established these goals:

1. Must have 40 in it, to clarify the anniversary aspect of the message
2. Must differentiate the hospital from its founding facility, which has a similar name
3. Must be flexible for use in many types of application
4. Must be simple
5. Had to work with the logo and corporate graphic standards

Here's our original idea shown on a sample ad.

Since the hospital is in Colorado, the first icon was created using rocks—reinforcing this region's beautiful natural resources. However, after gathering feedback, some felt this too abstract, so we went back to the drawing board and came up with some new icons. 

Which one is your favorite icon? Check back next week to see which icon the client chose—and to see a different campaign element featured each day, including the light-hearted employee video.

Client Showcase—WWU Work Study Ad Helps Students Find Jobs

Walla Walla University asked us to help promote the hiring of students through the work-study program, where the government pays a portion of their wages. This provides students with experience, and employers with a chance to “test drive” an employee at affordable hourly rates.

The headline gives an immediate relevant promise to a business (who wouldn't want to send part of their bills to someone else?), and the list of companies who have hired work-study students brings credibility to the program.

Client Showcase—Animation Can Fuel Web Traffic

We developed a promotional campaign for Dimensions Pain Management, a medical clinic in Colorado, and recommended the addition of kinetic typography to use in social media applications. We've not only found that the presence of an animation increases traffic on our own site, but in industries like health care and law, it's still fairly young and so is a way to get your message noticed. It provides a fresh way of conveying your message in a media that is versatile and can be used in many ways—from posting on one's site, YouTube and Facebook page to sending links via email.

The addition of motion and sound amps up a message and delivers it in a way that keeps the viewer's interest. Kinetic typography and other animations can be simple, like this one, or far more complex. They can be used for anything from a new service launch to infusing your Web page with new life. We've also applied them to seasonal e-cards like these: CMBell Company Holiday Animation, Gresham Savage 100 Year E-Card, Gresham Savage Holiday E-Card

We love working in this medium and think it holds a lot of promise for business—given the apparent appetite consumers have for productions like these.

Client Showcase—High Impact Brochure Markets Region to Businesses

In this project for the Port of Walla Walla, we made the pictures tell the story on this first-impression piece designed to promote our beautiful region to prospective businesses looking to relocate. Using a high-impact paper and printing technique, the piece went from handsome to stunning—and captured the spirit of this community that pairs history with a strong vision for the future.

If readers pay attention only to the images, headlines, subheads and bullet points, they'll walk away with an accurate and positive view of this area. This is a good example of making key messages apparent in the images and easy-to-browse copy. And for those who desire more, the body text presents a persuasive case for moving one's business here.

We've been so very lucky to be able to work on projects that we care deeply about—and this one holds a special place in our heart because it's for our very own community.

Stop by and see us if you're ever in the area!

Client Work Wins Three Service Industry Awards

The Service Industry Advertising Awards competition results were released this week, and I would like to take a moment to recognize two of our clients and my outstanding team for garnering one Gold Award and two Bronze Awards.

Our friends at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital received a Bronze Award for a two-part print ad series promoting NorthStar Lodge, their cancer treatment center.

 

California-based Gresham Savage Law firm earned Gold and Bronze Awards for their litigation direct mail piece and their 100-Year direct mail piece.

National judges evaluated nearly 2,000 entries for execution, creativity, quality and consumer appeal. The full list of winners can be found here.

Client’s Annual Report Makes Top 50 List and Garners Platinum Award

Key Technology’s 2010 annual report has been listed in the top 50 winners gallery in the 2009-2010 international LACP Visions Awards Annual Report Competition.

Other winners included companies like Cisco Systems, Munich Airport, Monsanto India, Office Depot Foundation, Direct TV, Xerox and Whirlpool.

The report also garnered the Platinum Award—the highest of four awards offered in each category—for annual reports in its industry. A panel of professional judges scored the project on eight aspects ranging from first impressions to message clarity.

The photo of the executive team, above, appears inside the report and mirrors the cover theme that evokes freshness, purity and quality—all outcomes that Key's product line helps achieve.

We have worked with Key Technology on their annual reports for more than a decade, and must say that they know how to inspire good work. We love helping to tell the story of this innovative, forward-thinking international company.

More than 4,400 entries representing 25 countries were received. LACP is the League of American Communications Professionals that helps promote best-in-class practices in communications.

Client Showcase—ER Radio Spot: Five Tips to Better Radio Creative

We developed this radio spot for this Colorado hospital that wanted to communicate a message about their emergency center’s Level 2 trauma designation. Because most consumers don’t know what this designation means, we used fictional dialogue to help them understand what it would mean to them in an emergency.

Radio can be a valuable part of your media mix, but make sure your creative works. Use this simple test to determine if yours does:

1. Get the audience's attention with the opening line. This makes them decide whether they want to tune to your message—or tune out.
2. Keep it simple. Resist the urge to try to convey too much, and stick to one key message for your ad.
3. Know your audience. Speak to things they care about.
4. Translate. Don’t expect consumers to know your lingo. Use language they understand.
5. Repeat. Repetition is essential if you want to saturate your market with your message.

Client Showcase—Real People Count on Memorial in TV Ad

The second television ad in a series for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, this ad continues to deploy a warm, personal mood like the first one, but features people in the community who have counted on Memorial in some of their most challenging moments.  Still images of local people are paired with voice-overs of them saying why they’ve counted on Memorial.

When it comes to conveying a message about your organization, no one can do it with as much believability and pathos as a real customer.

Client Showcase—Key Technology Annual Report

 

For a decade we've had the privilege of working with this innovative manufacturing company on their annual report. This year's starring photos were staged at a historic landmark overlooking the beautiful valley in eastern Washington where their international headquarters are located. This beautiful setting, paired with an abundance of fresh produce, helped convey their brand promise to deliver fresher, safer and purer products through new technologies that sort, process and remove defects.

The piece was printed on a suede-like paper that provides a richly tactile experience with the piece, and lends an organic air to it—reinforcing the message of quality and freshness.

Client Showcase—Hospitalist Brochure

The concept of hospitalists—hospital-based physicians whose exclusive role is to manage the care of patients who are hospitalized—is still new to many consumers, and many don't understand how a hospitalist might benefit them. To explain this, we developed this piece for the hospitalist program at Avista Adventist Hospital. We paired text that addresses likely consumer concerns with images from both our private stock collection and the hospital to create a custom piece that helps set a patient's expectations about working with a hospitalist—and allay their fears about this new way of delivering inpatient care.