Cirque’s show Saltimbanco embarked on a tour of over 40 arenas across Canada and the United States. The new tour model allowed Cirque du Soleil to bring its shows to additional cities, giving more people than ever the opportunity to enjoy a Cirque du Soleil show in their own city. The tour made a stop in Kansas City, and our goal was to gain media coverage of the event and also increase ticket sales for the tour stop by reaching out to area residents in and around the Kansas City Metro area.

Known nationally for the spectacular acrobatics, costumes, lighting and make-up, this was the first opportunity for Kansas City residents to see Saltimbanco in their own city.

Cirque du Soleil was competing for coverage with other arts events taking place in the Kansas City area, including the stage edition of the hit Disney movie, High School Musical, and Fringe Fest, a six day celebration of theater, dance, fashion and food.

After developing a targeted media list of entertainment publications and local news and radio shows, we distributed an exciting HTML press kit, including hyperlinks and photos, announcing Saltimbanco’s first tour stop in Kansas City. The release highlighted the uniqueness and previous success of the 14-year tour, and basic event and ticket specifics.

Saltimbanco received multiple media hits, including front page placement in the Kansas City Star and Conexion Latina, articles in other local print publications, an online photo gallery and spots on each television network.

More than 15 minutes of broadcast coverage was aired and the combined circulation of the print stories exceeded 1.4 million. Ticket sales for the five day run met the goals of the campaign.

Berkshire Hathaway is well known for having the most expensive stock price on the market. The company is also well known for its annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. This event has become a lot more than a stuffy shareholder’s meeting. It has become a destination event for thousands of shareholders and Warren Buffett fans throughout the world. This year roughly 40,000 people came to listen to the ‘World’s Richest Man’ and to attend the exciting and high profile events during the weekend celebration.

Borsheims is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and is one of the nation’s largest independent jewelry stores. Borsheims hosts many events during the shareholder’s week and has grown to be one of the most popular destinations for visiting shareholders. Of course, the annual meeting weekend has become one of the most important sales times of the year for Borsheims.

To leverage the event to the fullest, we created and managed a special blog, Twitter account, YouTube channel and Flickr account devoted to providing a real-time experience of the Berkshire Shareholder Weekend. The focus was to inform and entertain as well as act as a surrogate experience for those shareholders who could not attend the event. The blog served as a two-way communication channel between the company and the shareholders and among shareholders themselves. Every year Bozell provides a full-time, on-site blogger for the event to write blog posts, and shoot and post photography and video.  In 2010, Bozell’s on-site blogger also contributed to the event’s Twitter account.

In 2010, BorsheimsBRK.com, the event blog, was promoted to prior attendees and media via email marketing and press materials. The blog garnered significant traffic, coverage and comments during the three-day event.

Relying on the incredible search traffic media buzz surrounding the event, the blog boasted some impressive statistics. It enjoyed more than 19,000 pageviews over the weekend, reaching thousands of shareholders in 55 countries.  During the three-year lifespan of the blog, Bozell’s social media staff has contributed 17 videos, more than 1,500 high resolution event photos and more than 440 pages that have been indexed by Google. The blog also proves to be a valuable communications channel and source of feedback to Borsheims enabling shareholder questions to be answered quickly and accurately. Not to mention it was a very effective outlet to promote and profile some of the special merchandise and discounts available to shareholders.

When the largest privately held bank in the nation wants to celebrate its 150th anniversary, one thing is fairly obvious. It’s got to be big. That’s the exact realization Bozell came to when they began work on First National Bank’s 150th anniversary campaign.

We’ve all seen the stereotypical anniversary campaign. They’re two parts historic photos, one part folksy music and a heavy dash of sepia tones. While they might appeal to the history buffs among us, they don’t score very high on the relevance meter. That’s when we realized First National’s 150th anniversary campaign had to address how the bank truly interacts and impacts people’s lives today.

The campaign featured modern day customers, employees and community leaders  telling their stories in a testimonial format. While this format is nothing new, behind them are highly stylized animation techniques and graphic design that gives the campaign a fresh, compelling and modern feel.  The brand message is tightly integrated across all channels, retail promotions and offerings making it the most comprehensive effort in First National’s history.

Consisting of television, out of home, newspaper, online and other media, the  year long campaign was supported by a wide array of community events, sponsorships and public relations campaigns.  Tracking research showed an increase in “consideration” scores among non-customers and a dramatic increase in switching preference.

A major building products manufacturer faced a tricky question: Which product form and which packaging of that form should be sold in home centers when the product is sold to two very different groups: Do-It-Yourselfers and professional installers?

Understanding their preferences would drive manufacturing plant usage and capacity issues, as well as marketing and promotions. We developed and conducted a nationwide online study consisting of consumers and pros. Respondents were encouraged to participate through a sweepstakes offering home center gift cards as prizes.

Study objectives included:
1) Validate or disprove previous company studies that examined consumer product preferences.
2) Understand the purchase drivers for consumer and professional segments, uncover similarities and judge the impact of discrepancies.
3) Determine implications to purchasing intent of the various product and package forms to maximize sales potential.

Analysis of findings determined that consumers and professionals have entirely different preferences when it comes to this product’s form since they perceive the value of the product based on their own set of needs. Using information and analysis from the survey, the company is currently reconfiguring packaging and form, as well as distribution, to better fit the needs and preferences of both types of customer.

Mooney Airplane Company planned to unveil two new models of airplanes at the Oshkosh Air Show and wanted to get invitations into the hands of select people who would be prime candidates to test fly the new models at the show.

Through analysis and modeling, Bozell SmarTargeting culled an email database of hot prospects that met specific selection criteria from within the overall Mooney prospect database.

After identifying the prospects we created and sent an exclusive email notice containing a link that clicked through to a flash-based experiential microsite evite.  The microsite combined visual sizzle with the meat of the offer – which was the opportunity to set up a test flight at the show.

The open rate exceeded the industry average by a factor of 3 and a 66% click-through rate was significantly above national averages.

Mooney manufacturers high performance, single engine, piston aircrafts. In fact, they make the fastest single engine piston aricraft on the market. Mooney owners are passionate about their aircraft and the history of the company. These rabid fans love to talk about their aircraft and discuss anything Mooney.

We developed and launched a new application within their website to allow these “Mooniacs” to contribute their thoughts and photographs to improve their own Mooney experience. Hundreds of these enthusiasts have registered to become part of this select group.

Each photograph and blog post can be read by anyone who visits mooney.com. To leverage the enthusiasm further we also created a widget that Mooniacs could embed in their own web site, blog or social networking page.

Leveraging the passion of enthusiasts has created immense value for Mooney and their online presence. They are now able to capitalize on the power of user-generated content to help sell their product. This word of mouth form of marketing holds as much value to potential owners as would a brochure. Perhaps even more. This additional content has also dramatically increased the amount of content available for search engines to index (adding some 2,500+ pages), creating more than triple the number of possible entry points to mooney.com.

While NCAA.com and other media sites do a tremendous job of covering the game action, the role of the College World Series site (www.cwsomaha.com) is to provide deeper information about event logistics, tickets and activities before and during the Series to those who plan to attend.

Filled with ticket and event schedule information, an FAQ section, parking and shuttle data, photo galleries, trivia polls, e-cards as well as other things to do in Omaha during the Series, the site becomes a primary resource for visitors and fans. RSS feeds, social bookmarking and widgets enable fans to receive and sort information in a variety of different ways. Additionally, viewers are able to subscribe to mobile text message alerts to keep up-to-date while in town.

During the 2008 series, there were over 100,000 visits per day from 72 countries – ranking the site among the top 1% of all active web sites on the net in terms of traffic.  The site holds the number one ranked position on ALL major search engines on the key search term College World Series.

Obviously we (especially us in Media) are continuing to be at the forefront of what more traditional media outlets are doing to adapt to the change in the media landscape and what plans they have for engaging consumers in an environment where they can get any information, anytime, and in multiple ways.  Below is an example of what some of the most “traditional” national print publications are investing in to ensure they continue (and hope to gain) their current/future audiences:

“The Wall Street Journal’s print edition and The New York Times Online will both introduce new elements Thursday morning as The Journal makes a play for new ad revenue and The Times tries to increase its allure to web surfers.

The Journal is running an advertiser’s cover wrap on Thursday for the first time in its history, covering one-third of the front page and all of the back with an ad for Dell. Cover wraps are common among New York City’s Post and Daily News tabloids; just Tuesday, the Daily News distributed copies free to commuters wrapped in ads for the new Tomb Raider video game. But The Journal has traditionally declined to obscure its front page with overlaid ads.

Michael Rooney, chief revenue officer at Journal parent Dow Jones, said the move was part of an ongoing series of recent changes, and not just since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the company. “We launched the Weekend Edition, we launched Personal Journal,” he said. “There’s lots that has happened over the last five years.”

Dell and its agency Enfatico are pulling out of some long-term magazine buys, but remain heavy users of print advertising.

The Times Online, meanwhile, is finally activating Times Extra, an alternate view of the home page that offers links to related coverage from other news sources and blogs. Using the home page, some of the most valuable real estate on the internet, to link to competitors such as Fox News, The Wall Street Journal Online and the BBC will mark a big departure for the news brand that many consider the newspaper of record.

That’s a big part of the point, of course, as Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and other Times executives told Ad Age over the summer. The broader idea is to weave the Times more tightly into the internet by making its content friendlier to application developers, building community and offering links even beyond its border.”

Source:  AdAge MediaWorks

Slipstreem Aerodynamics produces the Showtime 100, an aerodynamic add-on for semi trailers that helps reduce drag and increase stability. As a result, truck owners save fuel and wear and tear on the engine, tires, and trailer. Drivers experience improved truck handling, and the device requires no driver interaction when backing into a dock – a big advantage over add-ons produced by other manufacturers.

We were involved in developing a new look and feel for Slipstreem Aerodynamics, including a new logo, website, brochure and other materials. Their website included an animated presentation to illustrate just what the Showtime 100 does. The updated logo complemented the clean, “green” design that we used to help reinforce the fuel savings and reduced wear and tear on truck and trailer parts.

Additionally, we developed a savings calculator which demonstrates immediate, customized product benefits by allowing truck owners to calculate their fuel savings using the Showtime 100.  The website even includes a demonstration video which shows the product in action.

Finally, a product brochure reflects the same design and information as the website for use in sales meetings, for mail delivery and general promotional purposes. Business cards  and letterhead complete the production.

This dynamic website allows customers to create custom products based on the artist’s unique photography. Customers can select images from Krista’s vast image library and assemble words out of the “letters” in the photographs. It was our goal to deliver a top-quality website experience that could showcase their custom work through a very fun and intuitive user interface. We wanted to create an experience that is as fun as the end product.

We developed an interface that was intuitive and smart enough to only let users pick compatible options when configuring their order. The site was even able to display examples of the customer’s selection and provide a visual clue to what the final assembled pieces look like. These features were combined with a convenient and secure checkout process that promoted great customer service.

Since its launch, the site has achieved great success. Not only has the site achieved triple its traffic, but the site won a Gold award at the Nebraska AIGA’s THE SHOW 2008 – one of only four Gold awards given at the show.

Site:  http://www.letter-photo.com