We are deeply honored to have won MarCom’s Platinum and Gold in the website category. Our web branding of Linda May Properties — a consistent award-winner — took the Platinum, while our website for Anoush Catering —another frequent award winner — earned the Gold.

We are deeply honored to have won MarCom’s Platinum and Gold in the website category. Our web branding of Linda May Properties — a consistent award-winner — took the Platinum, while our website for Anoush Catering —another frequent award winner — earned the Gold.

Accuracy, Fairness and Credibility

From individuals to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies, the MarCom Awards is the largest of its kind in the world with over 6,000 entries each year. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) provides the judges, who are known for their accuracy, fairness, and credibility. Even professional organizations that run their own competitions enter their work in the MarCom Awards which is a true testament to MarCom’s reputation.

One notable difference between the MarCom Awards and other competitions is that the application process does not require any written description of the project’s value by the entrants, because the judges want to base their perception of the creative excellence and value of the entry on the entry itself, rather than on the entrant’s imaginative description of the project’s value.

Judging Criteria: Quality, Creativity and Resourcefulness

With MarCom, the size and reputation of the entrants don’t matter, as the work is judged on its merit alone. The entry’s perceived budget is also taken into consideration by the judges. There’s something really thrilling about accomplishing a lot with less, as well as the innovative use of resources at hand.

Judging takes place over an intense, two-month period in ‘judging rooms’ in Washington, D.C. and Dallas, Texas. The judges are senior-level, experienced marketing professionals who are either freelancers or have their own company.

It’s All About Brand Strategy

Linda May Properties’ branding challenge was that they’ve been Coldwell Banker’s top luxury real estate seller for years, which made them the primary target of their competition (and the competition’s increasing digital agility). Linda May Properties needed to refresh their brand in the minds and hearts of their existing and potential clienteles, and increase engagement with their audience. We were compelled to create the extraordinary “Live Your Luxury” experience for visitors to the website — the web videos we produced were of primary importance to this end.

Anoush Catering had a different sort of branding challenge, in that its sister company, LA Banquets, an event venue company, was well-known, but people didn’t realize that Anoush catered offsite events, too. Anoush needed to make sure their target audience understood the robust catering side of their business. Our approach included a visual focus on Anoush’s fusion fare, most of which is based on Mediterranean cuisine, and on their offsite venues.

Transforming Challenges to Golden Opportunities

We say, “Bring it on!” No matter what your branding challenge may be, there is a powerful solution. We’ll take that challenge head on, and turn it into an opportunity for your brand identity to convey you clearly and engagingly. That positions you to be as good as you truly are, which compels your targets to take action. We’d be honored to help you meet your branding challenges for a stronger brand position.

2015 promises to be an exciting (and disruptive) year. Everything is changing fast … especially, the way consumers interact with their online environments. Paradoxically, the digital age is requiring branding and marketing to become more human.

In reviewing what the branding and marketing gurus are expecting to happen in the New Year, we see some inspiring trends. Put on your helmet, and fasten your seatbelts. Here we go.

2015 promises to be an exciting (and disruptive) year. Everything is changing fast … especially the way consumers interact with their online environments. Paradoxically, the digital age is requiring branding and marketing to become more human.

In reviewing what the branding and marketing gurus are expecting to happen in the New Year, we see some inspiring trends. Put on your helmet, and fasten your seatbelts. Here we go.

The Vernacular of Human

In 2015, we will need a new language, a vernacular of human. We need a standing-in-the-grass-barefoot dialect that connects us to our global system. How we communicate, co-act, collaborate, innovate, interplay, interrelate, and live with our customers depends upon it. Are we using language to force, manipulate or trick others to act? Or are we using language to share understanding and knowledge so that everyone can understand and feel empowered to act — to draw closer together?

It’s impossible to address human-speak without addressing listening, because this common language of human is a language of listening. It has a lot of space between the words. The Vernacular of Human is a language of invitation, curiosity, playfulness, respect, care, and clarity. How are you listening to your customers? How are you learning from them? Listening and learning from your market needs to be built into your brand's strategy, and social media provides the perfect platform for tuning into this conversation.

It’s Time to Actually Care

As Tim Sanders wrote in his internationally best-selling business book, Love is the Killer App, “The old, loveless ways don’t work anymore.” Customers want to know you care.

From personal brand to company brand, it’s your care for your customers that’s going to build loyalty. Care can be expressed in many ways, from personalizing the customer experience, and creating meaningful content to providing a seamless experience across platforms, and beyond. Your imagination (or ours, if you’ve hired us) is the limit, and nothing less.

Mark Schaeffer, Executive Director of Schaeffer Marketing Solutions asks, “What does marketing look like when the internet surrounds us like the air that we breathe?” Just imagine. Innovation is in the air.

The Social Revolution Is Real

In an interview on Robert Thomson’s Leader Inside Out podcast, thought leader, Tom Peters, said that “being a social organization is no longer an avoidable topic. We must talk about this. It’s incredibly for real. It’s a revolution.” Peters mentioned that MIT Management professor Douglas McGregor’s futuristic take, “Empower or die!” (circa 1940s) is now the name of the game. Branding strategies must include the design to become a social company that empowers the underserved. Although this is tough, gritty work, an art, and a balancing act, it’s no longer optional.

Peters also said that the use of social media to this end is an electronic form of his well-known creed, MBWA or "manage by walking around," i.e., “being in touch with the action.” And everyone has got to do it. In 2015, there will be many more ways for people and their companies to be “in touch with the action,” as new social media platforms and advertising opportunities open up. What's more, it’s going to be important to mix it up.

As well, it will be increasingly crucial to be a participant in your customers’ lives, rather than communicate ‘at’ them as a disparate entity. How are you going to empower your customers to act? Yes, 2015 is The Year of Participation … the year of a being a truly social company in every way. It truly is the time to empower or die.

Social media maven, Tara Hunt, talks about the importance of being an active participant in customers’ lives and offers 5 key principles for doing just this in her book, The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business. Miss Hunt's key takeaways include:

1. Stop talking, start listening - focus on individuals, and understand the needs of a community
2. Become part of the community you serve
3. Create amazing customer experiences
4. Embrace the chaos - communities are made up of people, and people are not predictable
5. Find your higher purpose - what can you give to the community, and still be profitable?

Content Your Customers Will Thank You For

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, shares her approach to digital marketing in 2015. “We’re taking the notion of ‘brands are publishers,’ and pushing the boundaries of that further,” she said. “We’ll focus on enormous empathy, and customer experience … We’ll focus on more relevance, and new inspiration (rather than just the tried and true). And we’ll focus on being generously useful. 2015 really will be the year we create and curate content our customers will thank us for.”

Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, stated, “The days of preaching to customers, rather than exciting and informing them, are rapidly coming to an end. And marketers that can effectively connect with prospects will win.”

Words As Currency

Social content is the rising marketing star. Excellent content can be used in many different ways, but content must be outstanding in order to be dynamic, flexible, and useful. Words are thoughts first. Furthermore, thoughts are the substance of every brand. They can be molded, carefully crafted into just the right words, and then those words shape worlds.

According to Ann, writing matters more now than ever before, and this is especially true in the video/podcast/Instagram world. “Good writing is like an iceberg — use your best words to convey the depth under the surface. That means you’ve got to choose those words well, and write with economy, and the style, and the end reader in mind. (There’s that empathy thing again!)”

Longer Copy, Too, in 2015

An interesting phenomenon catalyzed by Google, is taking place in this world where everything seems faster and shorter. Copy needs to be longer. Longer, really? Yes. As David Wells states in his Inbound Now article, 10 Online Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2015, “Over the last few years, marketers increasingly appreciated a long copy over short one, and we’ll see this trend blooming in 2015. The length and value of the content will be more essential than ever for effective SEO – Google already labels content of less than 200 words as "thin content," and [the search engine] has two special algorithms in force, Panda 4.0 and Pay Day 2.0, that are specifically aimed at reducing the ranks of low quality content.”

Visual Storytelling Will Take Off As Never Before

Ekaterina Walter, CMO at Branderati, said in TopRank Online Marketing’s blog post, 21 Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions in 2015, “In the age of infobesity and increasing digital noise, visual storytelling will continue to emerge as a strategy for not only standing out, but also for nurturing and growing vibrant and engaged communities. The ability to craft visual stories that inspire emotion and spark the movement will help companies get noticed, and amplify their message throughout those communities.”

Additionally, the use of short-form video is growing exponentially. Facebook videos have exceeded YouTube in this regard, but visual storytelling will increase everywhere across media platforms. There are already many fabulous apps for visual storytelling, and we’ll see more of this in 2015.

More Mobile

Some predict that mobile will supersede the use of desktops in 2015. Whether this will actually come to be or not, mobile usage will continue to grow, and along with it, marketing opportunities targeted to consumers on the go. The beauty of mobile for marketers in 2015 is that it will allow for a more intuitive, human-based interaction with customers.

"Pay to Play," and the Math Behind It

Free advertising is going away. Free ad space is dwindling, and it’s no longer a free-place market. 2015’s Pay to Play environment will require more money allocated for online ads.

And marketing analytics will bloom. 2015 will be the year of hyper-segmentation and micro-targeting. Jay Baer, President of Convince and Convert, said in TopRank’s Online Marketing blog, ”It’s already happening, but 2015 will be the year of paid amplification. With content marketing reaching near-ubiquity, the success pendulum will swing toward boosting consumption of content. That will put a new focus on math, testing, and optimization as content production and content distribution become equally important.”

Back to Basics

Pam Didner, Global Integrated Marketing Strategist for Intel Corporation, said, “Digital marketing will continue to morph, and promotion channels will be further fragmented. The major change for 2015 is NOT about digital marketing. The major change will come from marketers going back to basics: Reevaluate the target audience. Determine what works, and what doesn’t. Reprioritize and be smart about resource allocation and investment.”

So, while the tools are rapidly changing, the marketing basics remain the same, and are essential to guiding all marketing efforts.

Time Trumps Money

There has been a growing trend of companies outsourcing their marketing. William Aruda reported in Forbes that “time trumps money,” and that 2015 will see this trend continue as companies realize that outsourcing can be much more economical, efficient, and effective. If time truly is money, then it might be time to outsource your branding and marketing so that your internal time and energy can be focused on what your company actually does.

You probably have a lot of questions about what 2015 will hold, and what you need to be doing with your brand and marketing initiatives. Give us a call, and we can talk about designing a brand strategy that yields the greatest return, based on the above insight, as well as our own successes.

Winning the Davey Awards’ Silver for Visual Appeal is thrilling, but the visual appeal of our “Live Your Luxury” campaign for Linda May Properties — a top 1% international luxury real estate team in Beverly Hills — is only the tip of the branding-berg. Nine-tenths of the campaign lies in its cohesive strategy, designed to compel people to feel Linda May Properties' expertise within the luxury real estate industry, along with their personalized care, and their “always on” mentality.

Winning the Davey Awards’ Silver for Visual Appeal is thrilling, but the visual appeal of our “Live Your Luxury” campaign for Linda May Properties — a top 1% international luxury real estate team in Beverly Hills — is only the tip of the branding-berg. Nine-tenths of the campaign lies in its cohesive strategy, designed to compel people to feelLinda May Properties' expertise within the luxury real estate industry, along with their personalized care, and their “always on” mentality.

The Largest and Most Prestigious Awards Competition for the “Davids” of Creativity

In its 10th year, the Davey Awards honors the best web, design, video, advertising, and mobile from small firms worldwide. The advertising and interactive agencies that entered their creative in the Davey Awards cannot exceed $25 million in annual billings.

The Judges and the Judging

The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. AIVA members include executives from organizations such as Condé Nast, Disney, GE, Keller Crescent, Microsoft, Monster.com, MTV, Push, Publicis, Sesame Workshops, The Marketing Store, Worktank, Yahoo!, and many more.

The judges evaluate the distinctiveness of each entrants’ creative, and award both gold and silver in each the different categories.

One Big Idea and a Little Rock

The Davey Awards statuette — approximately one foot tall and 5 pounds — is custom-designed and handcrafted to represent a modern interpretation of the David and Goliath story icons, a fitting tribute to the accomplishment of all of the Davey winners. As Davey Awards states, “one big idea and a little rock” can fearlessly slay a giant brand identity challenge.

In the case of our campaign for Linda May Properties, the informiddable giant was its own sustained success, which had ‘inspired’ its competition to step up its game. Our client needed to remain visible and audible to its existing clients, while attaining and holding onto potential clients in the digital realm. If you’re facing a giant (or three), let us know how we can help.

The holidays are, of course, the busiest shopping time of the year. That means they’re also the time when consumers have the most contact with brands. In October, SDL published a report that found that 90% of holiday shoppers expect consistent brand experiences. How can you optimize your branding and offerings to engage consumers, and, in turn, sell your products? Here are five key elements to making your brand experience consistent — and excellent — this holiday season:

The holidays are, of course, the busiest shopping time of the year. That means they’re also the time when consumers have the most contact with brands. In October, SDL published a report that found that 90% of holiday shoppers expect consistent brand experiences. How can you optimize your branding and offerings to engage consumers, and, in turn, sell your products? Here are five key elements to making your brand experience consistent — and excellent — this holiday season:

1) Engaging Messaging and Design

The premium on quality creative increases during the holidays, when consumers are overwhelmed with choices. Brands that develop language and design that capitalize on and connect with consumers via holiday themes and experiences stand out. In November, Whole Foods rolled out a new campaign called “Values Matter," a play on words that allows the company to communicate its commitment to sustainable products, and highlight relevant sales and deals at its stores. The campaign features dozens of online videos, messaging on its shopping bags (“The highest standards are always in season”), holiday-themed displays inside its stores, and a donation request at checkout.

2) Relevant Product Information Online

The SDL study found that 60% of consumers engage in “showrooming”: that is, the testing and researching of products online prior to buying them in the store. To ensure your brand engages in successful showrooming, it is crucial that relevant and valuable product information be presented on your website. Price, benefits, characteristics, attractive photography, and product reviews are all elements that inform a buyer’s purchasing decision, and the better you can present these attributes online, the more likely you’ll sell a product. The website for Nordstrom, a long-standing leader in customer service (more on that below), offers a straightforward user experience with products and deals categorized in intuitive ways.

3) Optimized and Relevant Mobile Applications

Along with showrooming, the SDL study found that 40% of people under the age of 40 research products on smartphones. So, not only should your website present valuable product information, it should do so in a way that is optimized for consumers on the go. For example, the Nordstrom smartphone app nicely adopts the content and user experience from the desktop site creating a simple and intuitive smartphone presence in both the mobile browser and app.

4) Unified Online and In-Store Experiences

With the prevalence of showrooming and research on smartphones, it is crucial that what a consumer sees online is what they get in the store. It’s no good if you provide an extraordinary online experience, but once the consumer arrives at your storefront, the product or brand experience is poor. A unified and strong correlation between your online and in-store experiences demonstrates an efficiency and consistency that customers value. Kohl’s, one of the leading department stores in America, excels at presenting unified online and in-store experiences. The product categories on the website align with the departments in the retail stores, and any sales or deals receive the same creative treatment online as in the store. The company’s stores are also WiFi-enabled, and kiosks are utilized to help facilitate in-store shopping.

5) Outstanding Customer Service

Holidays are a time of joy — and stress. Shopping, family gatherings, travel, and more make the holidays a time when patience wears thin. Customers want ease and efficiency when buying a product, and outstanding customer service is more of a commodity during the holidays than at any other time of the year. Develop ways to get your customers the products they want and need by developing initiatives that streamline that experience. LL Bean is known for its outstanding customer service, including a 1-800 number where callers can promptly speak with a customer service representative to discuss and resolve issues with products.

So, when you’re planning your brand strategy for this holiday or next, use these five elements as a guide. With the ever-increasing number of touchpoints a customer has with a brand, it’s crucial your brand experience is consistent and compelling in its delivery across them all —especially during the holidays. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can optimize your seasonal branding, contact us.

We’re exceptionally proud to have earned W3 Awards’ Silver for Creative Excellence on the Web for the videos we produced as part of our integrated branding campaign for Coldwell Bankers Realtors® Linda May Properties, a top 1% international luxury real estate team located in Beverly Hills.

We’re exceptionally proud to have earned W3 Awards’ Silver for Creative Excellence on the Web for the videos we produced as part of our integrated branding campaign for Coldwell Bankers Realtors® Linda May Properties, a top 1% international luxury real estate team located in Beverly Hills.

The W3 judged the videos on content, technical execution, implementation, and overall experience.

W3 Levels the Playing Field

When it comes to the W3 Awards, size doesn’t matter. The W3 is the first major web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

Sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), the W3 panel of judges is amassed from an elite group of professionals from the acclaimed media, interactive, advertising and marketing worlds. AIVA members include executives from AgencyNet, AvatarLabs, Big Spaceship, Block Media, Condé Nast, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Fry Hammond Barr, Microsoft, MTV Networks, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Wired, Yahoo! and many others. Simply put, the judges are highly qualified, which makes winning all the more significant.

The Challenge

The big challenge with branding Linda May Properties was that their success inspires the competition. They’ve been in the top 1% of Coldwell Bankers Realtors® internationally for the last 28 years. With the rise of social networkingand increasing industry shift toward the web, competing teams were beginning to implement a variety of technologies to enhance their brand exposure locally and internationally. Thus, our client needed an integrated, well-defined campaign — one that superseded those of the competition, in order to establish new clientele, and cultivate long-term relationships with existing clients.

The Key to Our Client’s Success Led Us to the Solution

Linda May Properties’ team, with each member playing a strategic role in ensuring a smooth process from client inquiry to beyond the close of escrow, is its key differentiator. People buy from people, and if there is an entire team of experts working on the client’s behalf as is the case at Linda May, all the better.

To position their brand, we created videos that introduced their core team of experts with complete transparency. It was this opacity that painted an instantly embraceable portrait of their unwavering customer care, personalized attention to detail, highest ethics, legal understanding, and unparalleled strategic marketing expertise in the field of luxury real estate.

This transparency personalizes the real estate experience, imprinting Linda May Properties’ brand in the hearts and minds of their target market, and winning us W3’s Silver for Creative Excellence on the Web.

All successful marketing initiatives begin with a comprehensive brand strategy focused on customer experience, which is why Linda May Properties’ brand identity has been so successful. In addition to earning W3’s Silver for Creative Excellence on the Web, our “Live Your Luxury” campaign for Linda May Properties won the 2014 Interactive Media Award’s™ Best In Class in the Real Estate category.

What are your big branding challenges, and how may we help you? We welcome you to let us know!

There is no such thing as a 'customer for life.' Companies have to work hard to win, and keep customers. What used to be thought of as the customer’s loyalty to a brand has reversed to become the brand’s loyalty to the customer experience.

There is no such thing as a 'customer for life.' Companies have to work hard to win, and keep customers. What used to be thought of as the customer’s loyalty to a brand has reversed to become the brand’s loyalty to the customer experience.

According to Raconteur’s 2013 IBM study, The Customer-Activated Enterprise, "customers are the 'new' business advisers." The study also claims that 90% of senior leaders expected extensive collaboration with customers within the next five years.

Everything You Do

Customer experience is the foundation of customer loyalty, comprising both emotions and feelings. When your customers enjoy a consistently positive experience with you, you earn their loyalty … for a season. But loyalty is a frail construct in and of itself; it requires continuous re-examination of your customers’ emotional and physical responses to your brand in action. Furthermore, it necessitates a dynamic customer-experience system to be built into your branding strategy.

According to a 2013 report by consulting company Interbrand, Apple and Google have become the world’s two most powerful brands. Mike Elgan reports in Forbes' BrandVoice that one of the key factors for the success of both companies' brands is that they "give millions or billions of people around the world small, positive experiences very often."

Does your brand strategy include creating opportunities for your customers to engage with you as often as possible? Have you designed ways to give your customers "small, positive experiences" at every touch point?

Some companies are even beginning to have appointed "Chief Customer Champions" who specifically focus on customers, a stark contrast to traditional models that leave customer care to middle management and entry-level employees.

The Customer Empowerment Imperative

The Internet has given consumers a way to know everything about a company and its products, and to air grievances or sing praises loudly, quickly, and publicly. Alex Cheatle, Chief Executive of lifestyle concierge and loyalty solutions provider Ten Group, says:

The Future of Customer Loyalty

"The future of customer loyalty lies in engaging the emotional involvement of consumers using data, and successfully responding to mobile and social trends," says Duncan Stirling, cofounder of KEM Investments Ltd in London. Customers want a streamlined experience across channels, tailored to them. The old ways aren’t working anymore. Loyalty programs are no longer enticing. More and more, consumers are turning to mobile apps first. Raconteur reports that "there is a tendency for a more focused user experience to accomplish tasks more efficiently."

If you want to give your customers what they want and build customer loyalty, you’re going to have to leverage the data, and find the right usage scenario to add value to your consumers' lives via mobile apps, and other means.

That is why we design comprehensive brand strategies that keep customer experience and loyalty at their core — from these, all initiatives fall naturally into perfect place.

We’re deeply honored to have won Summit International Awards’ Platinum for Marketing Effectiveness in the website category for our branding of Anoush Catering, Southern California’s premier Mediterranean caterer.

We’re deeply honored to have won Summit International Awards’ Platinum for Marketing Effectiveness in the website category for our branding of Anoush Catering, Southern California’s premier Mediterranean caterer.

Beyond the Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Summit International Awards (SIA) was created to honor agencies that have exceeded the usual fare to create something truly impactful. SIA is one of the oldest and most prestigious organizations to administer marketing awards, using stringent evaluation criteria with blind judging processes.

The Judging Criteria

The judges evaluate whether the creative successfully influences, changes or reinforces the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of the target audience. The Marketing Effectiveness Award judges weighed the strength of both the big idea and the creative approach. They also took into account the strategic planning used to overcome barriers, as well as how the creative execution of the website moved the audience closer to action.

The Challenge

For the past 27 years, Anoush Catering has been well-known as the place to fulfill your catering and venue needs but remained unrecognized for its international, Mediterranean-inspired food. This challenge limited the Anoush business model from flourishing as a catering company outside of its sister company, LA Banquets (previously known as 'Anoush Banquet Halls'). With the rise of LA Banquets, Anoush needed a well-defined catering brand positioning to establish a new clientele outside of its venue business.

The Opportunity

With the introduction of its sister company, Anoush discovered an opportunity to maximize its catering business by repositioning itself as a qualified catering company that can serve alongside its available wedding venues and banquet halls, as well as partner exclusively with off-site venues.

The Solution

Our focus was on establishing the Anoush brand as a premier, full-service catering company for large-scale events, and to highlight their exceptional partnerships with notable venues across Southern California.

The strategy was to present Anoush’s credibility and recognition as a leader in providing quality food and event services. We also needed to highlight the Mediterranean culture without alienating a mainstream audience. We embraced Anoush’s values as a family-owned business, and their family-centered culture brand. Lastly, we needed to convey Anoush’s vibrant personality and enhance employee, chef, and partner engagement.

Anoush Catering’s website had to satisfy two criteria. First, it had to function as an online lead generation tool. To do this, we had to simplify the user’s experience in order to get them to contact Anoush as quickly as possible. The second, was to illustrate the Anoush story, and reinforce the brand's culture.

Well-Earned Platinum

We’re grateful for organizations like Summit International Awards. Their rigorous standards elevate our industry, as well as promote innovation.

The importance of brand development and strategy is so often overlooked, but in the case of Anoush Catering, strategic rebranding with business objectives overcame an enormous obstacle to expanding their business.