For more than ten years, Bozell has provided marketing communications for VT Industries, the leading manufacturer of architectural wood doors and postformed laminate countertops. Our services have included development of brand identity, business-to-business advertising, home center support, customer loyalty programs, sales support, public relations, trade show support and collateral.

VT countertop sales were steady but slow and the product was viewed largely as a commodity. Based on customer feedback, VT and Bozell determined that VT countertops needed to be shown in various applications to demonstrate that these were not the laminate countertops of the 1950s.

Bozell developed an extensive library of imagery showcasing the variety of design possibilities with VT countertops, from the classic, upscale look of stone to trendy retro designs. The imagery highlighted the unique benefits of VT brand laminate countertops: a combination of exclusive edge profiles and high-end laminates from all major laminate manufacturers. The images were used to introduce the “new” laminate countertops to the residential building market, targeting kitchen and bath dealers, fabricators and builders. We used trade print ads, a design idea book for builders, a product offerings catalog and technical spec sheets.

Sales reps reported several prospects that had decided to purchase based solely on seeing the ad. Others used the design idea book as an entry point to calling on high-volume builders, building relationships with these key customers.

When VT introduced three new countertop edge profiles, Bozell developed a trade print ad, collateral materials, an in-store display for fabricators and home centers and a media kit that positioned the new profiles as an affordable alternative to solid surface or stone. Feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive and initial sales of the profiles are strong.

Client: Tnemec — Since 2002, Bozell has provided marketing and communications for Tnemec Company Inc. Tnemec is one of the largest privately held coatings companies in the United States. Tnemec manufactures more than one hundred architectural and industrial coatings. Their products are used in the Architectural, Industrial, Water and Wastewater Processing, Water Tank and Processing and Manufacturing industries.

A United Brand
Tnemec came to Bozell with a fragmented brand. They needed our help in uniting the look of their Tnemec brand with their two other brands, StrataShield Floor & Wall Coatings and Chemprobe Masonry Coatings. The goal was to create a look for each brand but also have them look and work together, like a family. Each brand needed to stand alone, yet also have the capability to work in conjunction with pieces from the other brands. We developed brand guidelines which included logo, stationary, photography and collateral guidelines. We updated collateral pieces such as industry brochures, application guides, color cards, product data/criteria sheets and product flyers to incorporate the new look and feel of the brand. In 2006, Tnemec assigned us to a comprehensive catalog project which involved developing the functionality and design for a package which included a ¾” binder, 2” binder, presentation folder, CD/DVD holder, tabs, a table of contents page, page lifters, a pocket folder insert page, and product sample envelopes. Along with this process, Bozell was a consultant to Tnemec as they did an extensive overhaul to their Web site. We provided insight on how to carry over their brand look and feel to the design and functionality of the new site.

Lead Generation
Tnemec was unsatisfied with the number of leads being generated from its current media placement of the “Premier Finishes” print campaign. Lead response was low and leads could not be pre-qualified. As a result, sales representatives began to consider the leads useless. The agency re-evaluated the various trade publications and their audiences to determine where to resume the campaign to achieve increased success in lead generation and recognition among the primary target audiences (commercial architects and specifiers). The goal was to find publications that were specifically targeted to both the commercial architect and specifier, contained a strong editorial focus and be perceived among architects as top of mind. Based on agency findings, it was recommended that Tnemec utilize a publication that was specifically targeted to the commercial architect and specifier, had stronger editorial focus in B2B and was top of mind with architects. The same creative was placed in the newly recommended trade publications. In one month’s time, lead generation via BRC increased by over 300%. Tnemec was also recognized by the publication with an Award for Excellence in Advertising.

Public Relations
The Bozell public relations team has assisted Tnemec with several key marketing initiatives such as trade media publicity, media monitoring and analysis, tradeshow support, Web site content, crisis communications and planning and media training.

Feature Articles
Bozell has authored numerous articles based on presentations and interviews with Tnemec technical service engineers for placement in industry publications. The common theme in all of the articles is the technical innovation which has led to major market advances in specific architectural and industrial categories.

This article, which appeared in the September-October issue of eco-structure magazine, is based on a program presented at the 2006 American Institute of Architects National Convention and Design Exposition in Los Angeles titled “Impact of SCAQMD Rule 1113 on High Performance Architectural Coatings” and several Tnemec project profiles. The presentation was given by John Miller, director of sales development for Tnemec Company, Inc., who is a National Association of Corrosion Engineers certified coating inspector and Construction Specifications Institute certified document technologist. Bozell wrote the article from a PowerPoint presentation and interview with Miller.

Web Site Content
Working with the company’s knowledgeable technical service representatives and research and development staff, we have developed an extensive portfolio of case histories for each of the company’s core markets. Content consists of high-visibility projects in several specific categories, along with product performance data measured by criteria such as color and gloss retention, resistance to ultraviolet light, weathering, abrasion, corrosion and impact.

In addition to project profiles, Bozell worked directly with each of the company’s 37 independent sales agencies to develop introductions, curricula vitae, contact information and project profiles for each office and its staff. In addition to highlighting the experience and technical expertise of its coating consultants, the agency profiles provide a way to align Tnemec’s sales network with architects, engineers, general contractors and project managers in their respective markets.

Cabinetmaker turned inventor Bill Friegang had been building cabinets for more than three decades when he finally decided to create a tool that would remove one of the biggest hassles from his job: scribing. The QuickScribe Tool System is a set of professional-grade, cabinetmaking and woodworking scribe tools. These tools allow for perfectly shaped installation of cabinets, countertops and much more.

Although the QuickScribe, the initial product in the tool system, was developed almost 15 years ago, little had been done to promote it. Friegang dabbled with a few small ads in trade publications and gained a small amount of distribution through trusted friends. Friegang came to Bozell to gain product reviews, recognition within the industry and exposure to distributors.

This QuickScribe was a unique, professional-grade tool and a real money, but faced stiff competition from many small tools on the market.

Bozell leveraged Friegang’s vast experience in the field and targeted trade publications and online outlets that are respected for providing honest advice to professional builders. Bozell PR created a new product press kit and developed a national communications plan that culminated with a presence and media exposure at the Association of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) Trade Show.

The combination of an innovative product and a strong communications program turned out to be very successful. The national product push before the trade show garnered stories in influential trade publications such as Wood Digest, WoodshopNews, WoodWeb,  and many more. Friegang was especially pleased by an article in the Journal of Light Construction, a publication that he had tried to gain access to years before. Since Bozell began working with Friegang, the QuickScribe Tool System and its instructional videos were featured on www.ebuild.com and the Home and Garden Television Network’s Web site. Friegang was able to track online purchase increases that correlated with the airing of these online stories. At the AWFS trade show, several potential distributors approached the QuickScribe booth.

In Friegang’s words, “The thought of thousands and thousands of people reading your finely written news release on the ebuild Web site really makes me smile! Dollar for dollar, this campaign has been many times more effective than paid advertising would have or could have been.”

More than 70 million dogs live in the United States and every one of them has to do its “business”.  Dog owners know that they will be the ones who get stuck holding the bag.

To combat this offensive inconvenience, the Doody Dangler was invented. It is a leash enhancement that allows dogs to carry their own loads and attaches the doggy doo bag to the dog’s leash, allowing dog owners to retain a free hand.

Pet accessories typically can’t compete in a news cycle filled with political scandal, Hollywood hype or the rollout of such mega products as the iPhone. So, we took a different approach that relied on word of mouth marketing, a unique pitch kit and targeted at local and pet industry media.

A Bozell artist created a retro-looking cartoon hero, The Dangler. Our product pitch kit featured the Dangler’s tongue-in-cheek adventures and included fake dog doody and a comic strip that humorously illustrated the product.

The Dangler received media hits on National Public Radio, Pet Product News, Tails, The Chicago Tribune and more.   The Doody Dangler is now sold at independent pet stores across the country and on the Internet on several pet product sites.

As I was driving to work the other day, I started daydreaming (when I get so consumed in thought that I forget driving the last 5 miles…scary but true) about how cool it would be to car pool…and then I think…no, better yet, it would be VERY cool to take a high speed train – a rail system that could start in downtown Omaha and stretch west on Dodge until you hit Lincoln. Now THAT would be awesome. Not only would you be able to read a book, you could bang out a proposal, or eat breakfast while catching up on the phone with Dad, or sleep. Rather than get caught up in the crazy, stress ridden insanity of driving in morning rush hour.

You might ask at this moment, what does this have to do with design? Where am i going with this?

Well, after daydreaming about Omaha’s first high speed rail system, I found myself moving overseas in thought – to a place called the Eastern Docklands. http://www.easterndocklands.com/

A place in Amsterdam that used to be an old grungy wasteland of deserted shipyards. Something where architects saw a diamond in the rough, and got together with large groups of architects, designers and artists to create a neighborhoods of row houses along the canals (old docks) that allowed, as one of its many perks, its inhabitants to KAYAK to their jobs across the bay in the downtown area.

Docklands Rowhouses

Now THAT sounds like my kind of commute! In the warmer months at least. We had a chance to see this neighborhood when visiting Amsterdam a couple of years back, and I fell in love with the design of the housing – very funky, modern, green (eco), eclectic and ALL very different from each other in style.

The architects commissioned artists to design all of the bridges arching over the canals – some were crazy sculptures let alone functioning paths across water; and some were so insane in the steepness or angles, that there is no way this would ever pass codes in America…which of course, made it even cooler.

(below i am trying to make my way up a super steep bridge and wondering why on earth I stopped using the stair climber at the gym…)

This was a place that I fell for in a quick second…the amazing design, the sculptures that were functioning bridges, the fact that you can have a commute in a kayak, and the eco materials that many of these places used.

It is truly a designer’s dream to live in such a community and I can only hope that we bring an ounce of their ideas to the design of any future eco developments. Heck, I still dream about it.

Until we meet again Docklands, or until Bozell opens an office in Amsterdam, I will be daydreaming of commutes where all i hear are sea gulls above my head, and the sound of splashing water.

There are numerous reasons why a person should obey the speed limit. Safety. Legality. Even energy conservation and a smaller carbon footprint. I ignore them

I drive fast.

In a world full of vices, it’s about all I have left. I love to drive. Every time I get in my car to commute, I have 25 miles from point A to B. About twenty of those miles are on eight-lane highway. Might as well make the most of them. So I drive.

But not last Wednesday night. As I merged onto the interstate, I fell a few cars back and a couple of lanes over from one of Omaha’s finest. That was it for the late rush hour rally.

I’m allergic to boring. And nothing sounds more boring than driving I-80 while doing the speed limit behind a cop. I thought I was in for the dullest night of my life. I was wrong.

I hadn’t been behind the squad car for more than a minute when I noticed a set of headlights in my rearview mirror. It was an SUV. And it was doing 20 miles over the limit. About the time it passed me was also about the time the driver saw the cop.

Hello, brake lights.

The guy was in a seven-passenger Suburban and suddenly had the unenviable task of making himself inconspicuous. He dropped back in traffic, made a couple of lane changes, and ended up behind me.

Soon enough, another set of headlights was making a move in the outer lane of what was now a group of more than fifteen cars with Officer Friendly leading the pack. The driver of that car also found his brake pedal. After a few seconds, he fell in line with the rest of us.

This happened ten times before I found my exit, but I could have watched it all night long. I suppose this is the same reason that America’s Funniest Videos is still in production after two decades. No matter how many guys you see take a baseball to the groin – “Ball three!” – it never ceases to be disturbingly hilarious. But I digress.

That night, I was looking forward to something. I was stymied. I ended up enjoying something else even more.

The next time you’re trying to solve a business problem, take that into consideration. Undoubtedly, someone’s going to screw up your plans. You will be thwarted. The easiest or most enjoyable path will be blocked.

When it happens, you can use it as an excuse to produce mediocre results. Or you can check your rearview mirror, watch the idiots behind you, and find another solution.

     Bill Bernbach once said: “I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.” But in tough economic times when CFOs begin to question and cut budgets, many marketing people feel the pressure – or are outright asked – to justify their brand advertising through scientific measurement.

     This is dangerous ground.

     We can measure practically anything in this business: awareness, preference, recall, linkage, attention, motivation, ad nauseum. We can tell you where a reader’s eyes focus when seeing an ad for the first time. We can tell you when viewers are bored or entertained during commercials.

     But it’s a slippery slope when someone asks you to prove a campaign’s ROI. You can throw millions of dollars into a black box to do this. And the owner of that black box will give you a very thick report detailing a campaign’s effectiveness. I’ve seen those reports. I’ve worked for agencies whose clients took a lot of money out of their media or production budgets in order to have those reports produced. Personally, I’ve never trusted any of them. 

     Why? One simple reason. Since we’re just coming out of an election, let me borrow a concept from politics: exit polling. Exit polling is simple. A person with a clipboard stands outside of a voting location. After someone votes, Clipboard Guy asks how they voted. Tally up the answers and you have a fairly decent idea of how each candidate is doing.

     Now, apply that methodology to an ad. Put someone with a clipboard next to a reader or TV viewer or radio listener. After each ad or commercial, have them ask one question: “Will the ads you just saw make you buy a particular shoe/switch your checking account to another bank/stop at the grocery on the way home just to buy the new flavor of Pop Tart?”

     If you think anyone would actually admit that they were influenced by an ad, I have a black box ROI calculator I’d like to sell you for a few million dollars.

     No one would admit it. Would you? Would you admit that your thought process was so easily manipulated that you would actually spend your hard-earned money on something you saw on TV for thirty seconds or read about in the latest issue of People?

     I can only think of one exception to this: people who actually work in advertising. We’d be the first to say, “Yeah. I totally bought these new adidas because the ‘Jose +10’ campaign was so freaking cool.” Other than us? Nobody.

     Again: advertising is not science. If no one will tell you that they based a decision on an ad, there’s no way to directly correlate a brand campaign to ROI. You can take all of the peripheral data and information and run all of the algorithms you want, but it still becomes guesswork. It’s a very expensive best guess. And in a down economy you don’t have the money to spend on advertising, much less black box research.

     So when your CFO asks you to prove the return on the company’s investment, tell her there’s only one way to do that. Tell her you’re going to stop advertising. Kaput. No more. Tell her it’s the only way to show the correlation between your job and the company’s stability or growth.

     I bet you get your budget back.

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, is being featured in PRINT’s 2008 Regional Design Annual, the most comprehensive survey of graphic design in the U.S.

PRINT, a bimonthly magazine about culture and design, recognizes the best design, illustrations and photography being produced throughout the U.S. each year. This highly-competitive competition received more than 20,000 individual entries for the 2008 Regional Annual. Bozell’s entry, the Bozell Culture Calendar ’07 is showcased in the December 2008 issue.

The culture calendar was designed by Bozell designer Aaron Christensen to benefit the United Way of the Midlands. Christensen gained inspiration for the calendar design from Bozell’s unique work environment. Each month features a different aspect of the Bozell culture, including ping-pong games and a hot-dog eating contest.

Bozell won four awards at AIGA’s THE SHOW this past Friday, November 7. Winning entries were:

• GOLD: Krista’s Creations website – http://www.letter-photo.com/
• BRONZE: Creighton University Fine Arts Faculty – A Portfolio of Creative Works
• BRONZE: Bozell New Employee Handbook
• BRONZE: Bozell Holiday Office Charms campaign

http://nebraska.aiga.org/

It is really amazing to look at color trends and the things that influence and choose them – Fashion being the biggest determiner and initiator of years past. I always thought it would be amazing to be on whatever “international” team of well-traveled jet setters making those grand choices for the world.

This year the color trends seem to follow the economic extremes – extreme and filled with opposites:

“For instance, ecological concerns mean fabrics are being made with less dye, giving them an almost vintage look. So vintage colors look very right. On the other hand, exuberant economies in countries like China and India draw us to ethnic brights – sunny yellows, true turquoises, warm oranges. Both look very cutting edge.”

There are also collisions between technology and what is natural. I think it is very interesting how the Beijing Olympics can have an effect on the color of a living room sectional in Dallas, Texas. YeeHaw.

Check out this website for more interesting information on color trends…i love it! and am very anxious and READY to put away the baby blue and chocolate brown combo. Ack. It’s soooo yesterday…  :)

http://www.colormarketing.org/Media.aspx?id=1032&

Cheers for now,

Jill