Project Tag: Advertising

Deep roots. New growth.

Cintas

Product Launch

Launching a commercial restroom collection with designer roots.

CHALLENGE: Define the brand identity and deliver a cohesive set of marketing and sales presentation materials to launch Branch & Vine, a new line of high-end, style-centric commercial restroom essentials from Cintas. The materials had to wow new prospects yet stand the test of time.

IDEA: Embrace the visual and messaging potential of the Branch & Vine name – and the line’s use of natural forms, finishes and fragrances – to create a lush, nature-inspired look and feel for the launch materials.

STORY: Cintas is an industry-leading commercial uniform and supply company whose restroom supplies have traditionally scored high on functionality and durability but weren’t always compatible with style-forward spaces. That made it a challenge to connect with many independent businesses, such as restaurants and smaller offices and retailers who embrace contemporary design.

The solution? Create a more modern, versatile, and upscale line, one that would allow clients to create elevated experiences while lifting the burden of sourcing and maintaining premium restroom products and dispensers.

First impressions are everything – we needed to arm the sales reps with launch materials that would set them up for success when presenting the new collection.

The Branch & Vine collection takes its cues from nature, including soothing bamboo, texture-rich lava rock, elegant marble, and warm amber glass.

This inspired an integrated campaign and sales materials featuring stunning images of natural elements and textures, along with engaging messaging, to underscore the line’s sophisticated, organic, and home-like feel. Highlights included a 56-page Look Book and Demo Box that gave the new line proper importance.

The response from the field has been extraordinary. Sales reps are said to be “obsessed” with the materials. And naturally, so are we.

A 56-page “Look Book” was created for Cintas sales reps in need of an impactful showpiece for presentations.

Layered pages added interest and allowed for prominent product hero photography. Smooth matte paper was chosen for its natural feel.

Product sell sheets and a more detailed brochure were included in Brand Launch Kit along with the Look Book.

Designed to accommodate product samples and launch kit materials, the Demo Box was wrapped in smooth craft paper for an authentic organic look. Unique touches like a leather pull, stamped logo, and sticker mimicked the minimalist design of the product showcased inside.

Original product photography and moodboard images beautifully demonstrated that the product could inspire a restroom’s design or be incorporated into an existing restroom.

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Opening more doors.

Sibcy Cline

Brand Identity | Campaign | Video

A new direction for a classic brand.

CHALLENGE: After 62 years as Greater Cincinnati/Dayton’s leader in real estate marketing, Sibcy Cline needed a brand refresh and new agent recruiting materials. The challenge was, how do we update their long-standing logo and positioning yet still maintain a valuable emotional connection with the past?

IDEA: Reinterpret the logo without sacrificing recognition, while creating messaging that positions Sibcy Cline’s unmatched training, technology, support and experience as being at “At the heart of all great moves”.

STORY: As the largest independent broker in the region, Sibcy Cline is known for its commitment to its agents. Creative Department’s brand immersion process, which included interviews of current agents, revealed that their training program and agent support – including technology and tools – was unparalleled. The company stood perfectly positioned to leverage the story-rich mission, expertise, and reputation established over the last 62 years, and to gain momentum with new recruits and the communities Sibcy Cline serves. They just needed a brand refresh that would lead the way.

We started with logo exploration. The color red had been Sibcy Cline’s signature color for decades so there was a lot of equity in, and company love for, the color. The logo itself, however, was dated and not representative of the modern, technology-focused company they’d become. While our task wasn’t to completely reimagine the mark, there was opportunity to evolve it.

We decided to simplify it, using a clean font that works harder within the technology space. The lantern was their signature icon, conveying warmth and welcoming. We moved away from the lamp post to a more streamlined lamp, still preserving the suggestion of an inviting light that guides you to your new home.

Beyond the logo, the positioning and messaging were aimed at recruiting new agents, with the tag line “At the heart of all great moves.” as its foundation. We executed a robust collateral system that pushed out the brand, revealing it all in an inspiring video for the brand launch at the annual sales conference. The video received a standing ovation. The client continues to applaud the new brand, too, as recruitment efforts and home sales are stronger than ever.

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Walk. Waddle. Gallop. Give.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

Campaign | Event Signage | Video

Another wildly successful Walk.

CHALLENGE: A short walk can go a long way. Cincinnati Walks for Kids began as a way for patients, families and others to financially support the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the many children they help. But for 2016, the location of the walk was changed to the Cincinnati Zoo. Our job was to continue awareness and promotion of the event, but clearly communicate the new location.

IDEA: Our idea was to promote the event in a way that clearly said “zoo” in a memorable, energetic way. Use the equity in the Cincinnati Zoo brand to strengthen our appeal, creating a fantastic concept for the event – “Give Like Wild” – that started us on the path to a super successful campaign.

STORY: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is consistently ranked among the nation’s best, with both world-class clinical care and groundbreaking research. Their annual Cincinnati Walks for Kids is their largest single fundraising event, and it also serves as a much-needed celebration for patients, families, and staff.

Cincinnati Children’s is held in high regard in the community, considered to be a true local gem. But being a prestigious hospital creates the unintended and false perception that the institution doesn’t require donations to maintain its standard of excellence. The task was to remind Cincinnatians how important the hospital’s work is, and why it is worthy of one’s hard-earned money.

To create energy around the new location, we encouraged everybody to “Give Like Wild.” Based on that concept, we created a comprehensive campaign, including event graphics, outdoor, social media, website redesign, shirt design, and a video, encouraging everyone to join the walk and give.

Our campaign featured real Cincinnati Children’s patients and photos of zoo animals. Messaging was engaging and fun. Headlines invited people to “Walk, waddle, hop, skip, gallop.” Communication was simple and impactful, creating a unified message across the city.

And the result? Beast mode. The people of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky stepped up and close to $900,000 was raised for a very important cause. That was a step in a very important direction.

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Wild Ambition

Cincinnati Zoo

Integrated Campaign

Saving species. And the world.

CHALLENGE: Create a campaign to inspire potential donors to give to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s More Home to Roam $150 million capital campaign.

IDEA: Use storytelling and powerful imagery to captivate and educate audience on why giving would quite literally mean the world.

STORY: Launched in 2018 with a goal of $150 million, the Zoo’s More Home to Roam capital campaign will dramatically transform their animal habitats and expand.

While the Zoo’s initial messaging focused on how habitat expansion would improve both the animals’ and visitors’ experience, Creative Department worked closely with the Zoo to dig deeper into everything the campaign would mean. What we learned was that the Cincinnati Zoo plays a leading role in the conservation of endangered species around the world. In fact, if it weren’t for the Cincinnati Zoo, some species would be much nearer to extinction.

Shortly after our work on the project had begun, a United Nations Biodiversity Report sounded the alarm that nearly one million species face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken.

The urgency of the UN Report delivered clarity and confirmation for our messaging: the Cincinnati Zoo’s conservation expertise has never been more important. The More Home to Roam improvements would not only increase the reproduction and well-being of endangered animals at the Zoo, campaign donations would multiply its global conservation efforts.

Storytelling was needed to shine a light on the campaign’s greater importance: giving would truly mean the world.

Storytelling was needed to shine a light on the campaign’s greater importance: giving would truly mean the world.

A 44-page, oversized full-color brochure gave likely donors a fresh, close-up look at the Zoo, its mission, and the More Home to Roam campaign.

A rich color pallet and distinctive UV spot varnish underscored the power and beauty of the wildlife the Zoo works so hard to save.

An accompanying website reached a wider audience, providing strong messaging support with a quick way to donate.

Outdoor stressed the urgency of giving.

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Bloom-shaka-laka

Benken Garden Center

Brand Refresh | Campaign | Digital Design

Bringing new energy to a long-established garden center.

CHALLENGE: Breathe new life into a family-owned Cincinnati nursery in order to compete with big-box garden centers with volume-based, value-priced inventory.

IDEA: Modernize the Benken brand with a fresh, imaginative visual style and messaging, engaging both current customers as well as a broader, younger audience of plant enthusiasts.

STORY: Benken Florist & Garden Center is a Cincinnati institution. For almost 80 years, Benken has prided itself on quality and service, combined with a friendly, expert staff armed with a knowledge of plants and flowers unmatched in the city.

But while the Benken name reflects the dedication to quality established by Harry and Johanna Benken in 1939, chain garden centers were drawing customers away with lower prices and numerous locations across the city.

To support this effort, we undertook a brand refresh and pushed it out through site design, social media, display ads, and outdoor, deploying attention-grabbing headlines tied to rich visuals of beautiful plants and flowers.

A major driver was social media engagement. We wrote attention-grabbing headlines, tied them to rich visuals of beautiful plants and flowers, and shared them across social platforms.

To support this effort, we undertook a brand refresh, site design, social media, display ads, and outdoor, deploying attention-grabbing headlines tied to rich visuals of beautiful plants and flowers, We even proposed a series of truck wraps. It was beautiful work for a client that understands how beauty can improve lives.

We helped Benken attract younger consumers through aggressive social media and a spirited attitude.

Seasonal changes provided clear opportunities for engaging messaging and product promotion.

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Ending the silence. Stopping the stigma.

Lindner Center of Hope

Integrated Campaign | Video

Raising awareness and $50 million.

CHALLENGE: Inspire donations to the Lindner Center of HOPE (LCOH), a national leader in mental health care and research, and help them reach their most ambitious goal ever – $50 million. And at the same time, lift the shroud of silence and stigma surrounding mental illness.

IDEA: Using powerful statistics, storytelling and imagery, captivate readers and viewers with a campaign developed around the concept of a “Silent Epidemic”.

STORY: The statistics are nothing short of staggering. Mental illness is the #1 health problem facing our nation, yet research and access to treatment are severely underfunded, the mental health system overburdened.

Magnifying the problem, mental illness remains shrouded in stigma. So millions avoid seeking treatment and suffer needlessly.

Having served as a lifeline for more than 40,000 patients since opening in 2008, few places are as qualified as LCOH to effect lasting change in the understanding, treatment and management of mental illness. But to have the necessary impact, the non-profit needs the support of thousands of caring and generous people in Cincinnati and beyond.

Their goal was aggressive and exciting – to raise $50 million in donations and grants. To be heard, we knew we needed to stand out and be disruptive.

Though nearly everyone has a story of how mental illness has touched their life, it’s spoken of only in hushed tones in our society. The shame, silence and stigma cause millions to avoid seeking treatment.

To end the silence, we set out to start the conversation.

A 48-page full-color brochure revealed the breadth of the problem and asked for supporting donations.

The brochure alone has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, including a single donation of $250,000.

ChallengeofHope.org was launched to provide foundational messaging.

All communication, including :30 TV, print, radio, social media and murals throughout the city, directed people to the site, educating them on mental illness and the mission of LCOH. It also invited them to “Make Waves”, i.e., “sound waves”, by recording and sharing their stories on the site.

For the Center’s annual fundraising gala, a video told the emotionally gripping story of an LOCH patient.

The gala raised $3,721,000 in donations – the largest amount ever generated for a non-profit in Cincinnati by a single event.

Initially intended to run only once, the spot was so well-received the client continued running it locally for several months.

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A TEN-MILE WORKOUT FOLLOWED BY A TEN-MINUTE CHAT WITH FRIENDS.

FITWORKS

Brand Identity | Campaign

The perfect fit for a struggling brand.

CHALLENGE: Over the years, competitive fitness operations have come and gone. FITWORKS, an exercise and fitness gym with multiple locations throughout Northern Kentucky and Ohio was in a fight against newer, sleeker, cheaper fitness chains. How could they compete with that? They needed real transformation, inside and out.

IDEA: We set out to unify their brand and messaging system-wide, and strengthen the core of what they do and why. We started with the concept at the heart of FITWORKS equity: “fitness works.” That simple truth became the foundation of all brand communication.

STORY: To help our client meet their business goals, we brought serious strategic and creative muscle to the assignment. The business target was middle-class adults who found fitness centers intimidating and were seeking a more welcoming and laidback alternative. They were looking for a supportive environment rather than the aggressive “no pain no gain” approach to fitness.

But there were numerous barriers to business success – a very crowded market, and near constant member turnover, since 70% of people who start a gym membership stop using it after 90 days.

The plan was to motivate people to believe they could get the results they want, and live healthier lives.  We created the tagline, “Do what works,” a simple, clear call to action. Do what works so you can look better, feel better, and live healthier. But the path is different for everyone, so FITWORKS helps members choose the program that’s best for them: their “custom fit” fitness.

These concepts came alive in our campaign, as we focused communication on FITWORKS’ supportive approach, world class training, and laid-back staff.

We started by creating a clean new identity, and built a platform of complementary materials around it, from a website and social media campaign to print advertising and out-of-home. We also implemented SEO to make sure our digital presence remained healthy.

All with a consistent, target-friendly look and feel through art direction, graphic design, photography and copy.

The FITWORKS brand offered something unique and appealing to their target. Our creativity make that uniqueness work even harder.

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CINCINNATI BENGALS

Integrated Campaign | Video

Claim your place in the Jungle.

CHALLENGE: The Cincinnati Bengals asked us to develop a campaign that promoted the irreplaceable experience of being at the game, in person, screaming your heads off at Paul Brown Stadium, rather than at home or at a bar. A campaign that would drive on-site attendance. That was the challenge the team gave us.

IDEA: The idea started with an insight: For players and coaches, it’s all about the game. The speed, strain and sweat, it’s 100% intense. You wallop somebody before they wallop you. But what about the fans? Shouldn’t their experience be just as intense as that of the players? (Short of walloping anyone, of course.) We needed a campaign that pulled fans from their couches and barstools, to claim their seat in The Jungle.

STORY:  The Cincinnati Bengals enjoyed an era of success in the seasons between 2009 and 2013, winning their Division twice, and making the playoffs in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. And the entire city, in addition to the team’s ownership and management, was excited about the team’s great run.

But that success did not result in increased home attendance. Surprisingly, there were many open seats at Paul Brown Stadium. Fans had to be convinced that seeing the game in person was an irreplaceable experience, unmatched by anything you could see on a tv screen.

So the Bengals decided to make a change. The team had relied upon an internal department for marketing and promotion for decades, but after an agency search, we were selected to join the Bengals team. We were the Bengals’ first-ever outside advertising agency.

Increasing home attendance was our initial assignment. So we did our research, channeled our inner linebacker, and developed “Let’s Roar,” a stop-fans-in-their-tracks rallying cry.

It was a reminder that being at a Bengals game is a unique experience that beats watching at home or a bar any time. To take our new mantra to the fans, we made high-energy TV, outdoor, digital banners, social posts and radio spots.

The creative execution featured dramatic photography of fans overlaid with slashes of orange, and strong calls-to action. There was no mistaking the mark of the tiger. We’re proud that elements of that campaign are still in use today, showing the staying power of a strong creative message.

We’re proud that our support provided the foundation for the Bengals’ 50th anniversary season.

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Built to Support

HAAG-STREIT USA

Integrated Campaign | Video

Made in America makes a difference.

CHALLENGE: Reliance Medical chairs have long been known for their durability, stability, and unmatched quality. But many customers – mainly ophthalmologists and optometrists – were unaware that their products were manufactured in the U.S., using parts and materials from over 150 U.S. suppliers.

IDEA: Reliance chairs are built to support: not only patients, but also practices and – by creating U.S. jobs and using American-made materials – an entire country.

STORY:  What started as a single ad idea five years ago turned into a foundational big idea that continues to this day. Haag-Streit, an industry-leading manufacturer of ophthalmic instruments and equipment, came to us to to create an ad for Reliance Medical Products, a Haag-Streit subsidiary. The singular goal was to raise awareness that Reliance exam chairs, unlike many of its competitors, were made in the U.S., using parts and materials.

Our solution? Reliance chairs are built to support your patients, your practice, and an entire country.

But we – and our client – soon recognized that the idea of Built to Support had a life beyond just a one-time ad. We created an entire integrated campaign to celebrate the Reliance “Made in the USA” difference. An inspiring video, landing page, print ads and emails drove home the idea that our reliance on the American worker, American craftsmanship, and the American work ethic is the reason why eye care practitioners are able to depend on Reliance products.

Soon after the campaign launched, it was lauded by Reliance Medical’s largest dealer sales groups, as it provided them, too, with support needed to sell product. Sales have continued to steadily grow – showing that this campaign was even built to support the company itself.

A video, landing page, print ads, and emails showcased actual Reliance employees to drive home the Built to Support idea.

Trade show displays helped to demonstrate the range of ways we support eye care practitioners.

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The Reliance Premiere Collection

Haag-Streit Reliance

Campaign | Branding | Video | Digital Design

Built to last. Designed to love.

CHALLENGE: Reliance Medical Products exam chairs have long been known for their durability and reliability. We were tasked with launching a brand-new lineup of chairs that shifted the focus to style: they featured sleek new designs with a variety of upholstery options. Our target was physicians who care about the “aesthetics” of their office. This time, it was all about the look.

IDEA: The big idea was to compare the chair’s sleek look to trends in retail interior design, promoting the chair’s high end, premium look and feel. Customization was also key to the initiative. These chairs were “Built to last. Designed to love.”

STORY: Doctor’s offices don’t usually scream “style,” but the Premiere Collection sought to change that. New design themes plucked from spa and retail environments brought beautiful, modern aesthetics to Reliance’s already durable and reliable procedure chairs.

In every way, the Premiere Collection was a new opportunity for doctors to draw patients to their practices. The only thing left to do was convince practice owners that decades-old interior design didn’t have to be their future.

We concepted four chair styles: Industrial, Lucent, Woodland, and Harmony. The names and narrative for each came from a unique inspiration of visual elements and sensory appeal.

To highlight the bold new designs and features of the Premiere Collection, we created inspiring digital and print assets, from swatch books to trade show videos to direct mail. We also developed a digital sales tool for laptop presentations.

Of course, we communicated the benefit to the physician – setting one’s practice apart with designs that reflect a unique sense of personal style, making patients feel more welcome, and adding legendary Reliance durability to the office.

We succeeded at putting customization and modernization in the hands – and minds – of our prospective customers, making it easy to envision how the Premiere Collection could transform their practice.

The Premier Collection made its debut at the ASCRS show. The designs received rave reviews, and the sales team was excited about the interest and sales potential.

We created high impact direct mail featuring inspiration and photography for all Premier Collection designs:  Industrial, Lucent, Woodland, and Harmony.

Sales tools featured a swatch book and beautiful microsite communicating the benefits of modern aesthetics in a practice’s clinical setting.

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