We’re no strangers to using athletes as spokespeople. So when our partners over at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s (IDHW) tobacco cessation program, Project Filter, came to us wanting to update some previously created player cards (think larger versions of baseball cards), we were definitely game.
To put our own personal twist on this project, we did a couple of things:
Affectionately referred to them as “hero cards” across all sports represented by our amazing roster of athletes. (Though they are traditionally called hero cards in racing.)
Illustrated the athletes in the most baller, comic-book-style out there in an effort to better speak to younger audiences.
Check out more of the amazing process (and athletes):
This was a project we were stoked to take on with a partner who’s doing great work within our community.
If you’re looking to refresh past campaigns, but aren’t quite sure where to start, drop us a line!
Have you ever heard a new song for the first time and thought “This song sucks. How did it even make it to the radio?” Then you hear the same song 20 times over the next week and all of the sudden you and all of your friends love it?
This is because the song has become familiar to you. No longer are you walking down a sparsely lit forest trail of musical randomness. You know the forks, turns, and summits; and you know there are no surprise wild animals lurking near. You are safe.
Similarly, when a brand or business that you love and use rolls out new branding or packaging, it might make you feel a bit offended or uneasy. After a while, however, the new look merges into your everyday life with no harm done.
Often, when a company reaches out to us for a re-brand or a brand refresh, they ask for a complete overhaul. They want something new and exciting—out with the old, in with the new.
The updated brand may feel “new and exciting,” but after it arrives total panic sets in because everything now seems unfamiliar. Companies often feel like their existing customers or fan base will not recognize or adopt the new identity, and they fear the business will take a hit.
Like Follows Like
This concern is valid. According to Psychology Today, familiar things are just more likeable.
“Familiar things—food, music, activities, surroundings, etc.—make us feel comfortable. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that familiarity breeds liking. Generally speaking, things that are familiar are likely to be safer than things that are not. If something is familiar, we have clearly survived exposure to it, and our brain, recognizing this, steers us towards it. Thus, one could say that we are hardwired to feel that the “known devil is better than the unknown angel.”
So, we often caution our clients when they come to us asking for a total brand overhaul. We know that many people struggle with change. And, if there is already strong affinity to the brand, a drastic change can definitely impact business.
Our recommendation (and execution) is to carefully craft the new branding with respect to the old brand and the market in which it lives. This can be accomplished by dropping subtle notes of similar colors, typefaces, or just a hint of mood borrowed from the original. If done correctly, the existing brand audience will more easily accept the changes and the upgrades will invite a new and broader demo to the party.
Get the Right Mix
Take Puff Daddy’s (aka Diddy, aka Sean Love Combs) 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You” for example. It’s likely Sean Combs would not have had the breakout success he did without borrowing familiarities from The Police classic “Every Breath You Take.” It’s a perfect way to connect with people that already loved something and mixing it with something you’d like them to consider loving. The bridge is basically half built.
There are several examples in the world of branding that follow this notion. As time goes on, brands begin to age and fall off the design-trend-wagon. Smart brands adapt with new, refreshed branding that keeps their existing audience loyal while attracting new followers or users.
If you’re thinking your company needs an updated brand, consider this blog before you completely ditch your old branding. Think about how you can save some of the good stuff about your branding for the next iteration. Need help figuring out what to save and what to trash? We can help you with that.
Incyte Diagnostics is a Pacific Northwest leader in bloodwork, pathology, and laboratory testing. The organization began acquiring other labs and expanding into new markets, and desired a brand image update to represent them through this new phase of business. We worked closely with Incyte’s team as we erdesigned their brand identity, pathology reports, advertising, trade show materials, and website.
We rendered Incyte Diagnostics’ brand image in a custom typestyle, with the central letters surrounding a dot symbolizing a sample under a microscope. The logo conveys Incyte’s innovation, professionalism, and technical services.
Expanding The Brand With Growth
While lab reports for hospitals, healthcare providers, and patients are a critical product of pathology labs, most lab reports are visually unappealing and confusing. We set out to create a clean, easy-to-read lab report that would set the industry standard.
After interviewing pathologists and physicians regarding their work with lab reports, we re-designed Incyte’s reports to deliver critical diagnostic information in a clear, concise way, so the report formats visually reflected the quality of Incyte’s diagnostic services.
After launching the new brand and report format, Incyte opened more new accounts in the first month than the previous year, resulting in a 40% increase in monthly sales spurred by the new brand image, better product delivery, and a re-inspired sales team.
Further branding and marketing consisted of redesigning Incyte’s website, and a print advertising campaign to launch the updated brand.
In spring 2020, the company opened a new clinical lab facility and patient service centers to provide convenient and comfortable locations for blood draws and other specimen collection procedures. We created the brand images for these new aspects of InCyte Diagnostics, building on the brand impressions and equity started by our initial branding work.
Each year, as part of our Partner116 program, 116 & West provides a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit $50,000 of marketing services. The services provided through this program range from website work, to logo redesign, to brand awareness campaigns, designed to meet the business needs of our partners.
For 2021, we selected Inclusive Idaho, a local nonprofit dedicated to inclusion and equity in Idaho. Our work for Inclusive Idaho centered around a campaign designed to get people to act. The campaign we developed for our partner was called “Light Up Idaho,” and was a comprehensive campaign including resources and tools to inform people about Inclusive Idaho and support their action in driving change.
Light Up Idaho is a call to Idahoans to have difficult conversations about race, sexism, homophobia, and other dividing topics. The impetus of these talks is to spread change by speaking up, and then sparking the light in others to do the same.
Creating a Better Idaho
We felt like this campaign would allow the people of our state to hold each other accountable for enacting change in our communities. If we want our children to grow up in a better place, the change has to start within.
The metaphor for this idea came to life in a video ad which ran on television and on digital platforms, including a fun edition for TikTok. The video depicts an 8-foot wooden Idaho—handcrafted by our team. We installed lightbulb sockets on the Idaho, which were wired on the back with 150 feet of string outdoor lights.
The Campaign Comes to Life
As the commercial begins, hands reach into frame to screw in filament bulbs into the wood. As the lightbulbs are screwed in tightly, they light up. Each lit bulb represents a difficult conversation, where one speaks up against injustice. Diverse sets of hands move into frame and light the bulbs. As more lights turn on (conversations are had), the light spreads. Finally, the last bulb is lit, and a crowd of people stand to see the state of Idaho, alight and beautiful.
To support what’s happening on screen, the voice over tells the audience that it’s not enough to stay silent when someone says something racist, homophobic, sexist, or abelist. In order to create a brighter, more beautiful state, we have to speak up.
We continued this idea through the tagline, “Spark Change. Speak Up.” To further activate the campaign, we created street banners, window clings, organic social posts, vinyl stickers, and yard signs.
We also developed a landing page for the campaign on the Inclusive Idaho site, and wrote, edited, and designed digital resources for Idahoans to support and guide them in having difficult conversations, as well as provide educational material about inclusivity and equity in Idaho. These PDFs could be downloaded for free.
It was important for this campaign to be as inclusive as possible. Idaho is home to a large Latinx population—some small towns have a population as high as 45%. Each video had a Spanish script as well as closed captions in English and Spanish for those who are hearing imparied. We also designed Spanish versions of the street banners.
These street banners (in English and Spanish) hung in the heart of Downtown, capturing driving, walking, and biking commuters.
The culmination of the campaign occurred at TreeFort Music Fest. TreeFort is a 5-day indie rock festival. It’s made Boise a destination, and includes other community avenues such as “ComedyFort,” “StoryFort,” and “YogaFort.” The Inclusive Idaho booth displayed the 8-foot lit up Idaho from the commercial. Volunteers handed out Light Up Idaho yard signs, as well as vinyl stickers and blinking green lights—to help illustrate the light—in a branded little bag.
An Agency Comes Together
Almost every single person in our agency worked on this campaign, making it a truly collaborative, integrated campaign. Every piece of the campaign was handcrafted by us—from the initial idea pitch, to the media plan. The media plan included a bonus interview with KTVB on Idaho Today, further adding value for Inclusive Idaho.
While we came across some pretty big challenges (like how to build a giant wooden Idaho, wire lights on it, and then figuring out how to move it), we always found a way to get it done. This campaign exemplifies our collective creativity and individual skill sets, and how well we come together to create work that we believe will make a difference.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention our incredible production partner, North by Northwest. They lit and shot the spot beautifully, and did it for nothing but high fives. We’re so thankful for our partners. Not only for the work they do, but for believing in Inclusive Idaho and the importance of their message.
The Results
Our media partners were generous. They provided Inclusive Idaho with 341 PSA (free) spots in the Boise, Twin Falls, and Lewiston areas. KTVB also provided an opportunity to interview Inclusive Idaho on Idaho Today! It was a unique opportunity for our nonprofit partner to get some face time with our community.
Light Up Idaho garnered 130,866 impressions via connected TV (Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, etc.), and 52 clicks. We rarely see many clicks on a connected TV campaign, and were thrilled the spot received that many in just 13 days.
We also ran the video ad on social media. The spot was placed on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok in :30 and :15 versions. The ad received a total of 2,617 clicks across the three social platforms and 436,579 impressions.
The campaign resulted in thousands of unique clicks to the Inclusive Idaho website, as well as hundreds of downloads of the free resources.
Light Up Idaho!
We created the spot so that it could be run throughout the year, especially during the holiday season when families around the state sit around the table together. Our hope is that this spot will encourage people to speak up, especially to those we love the most.
We’re proud of our work and proud to help such an important organization. If you’d like to know more about Inclusive Idaho, please visit their website at inclusiveidaho.org.
We can help you make your next campaign come alive!
It’s November. Black Friday looms, a giant storm on the horizon coming ever closer. Businesses of every shape and size ready for the oncoming torrent. Over the years, the Black Friday maelstrom has collided with the Cyber Monday tsunami—it’s the perfect storm for making a lot of money.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed much of the Black Friday commerce online, even with Cyber Monday hot on its heels. According to a Wall Street Journal article, in 2020, Black Friday online sales hit $9 billion.
Last year’s Cyber Monday was still enormously lucrative. Forbes reported 2020 Cyber Monday sales numbers at $10.8 billion. Small Business Saturday, which falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday was also a huge day for retailers last year. Americans spent nearly $20 billion that day.
WWW.ECOMMERCE-IS-UBER-IMPORTANT.COM
So what does all this mean for you? For starters, check out our guide to Black Friday. It answers questions regarding whether or not you should participate in the annual super sale, what you can do if you can’t afford to run a sale, and what you can do if you can’t afford to promote your sale.
Secondly, our suggestion this year revolves around one giant thing: your website. If you want to participate in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday festivities, you need a website built to handle e-commerce.
In 2021? The prediction is that it will bring in $11.8 billion in sales.
The combination of Black Friday moving further online and Cyber Monday building momentum speaks volumes. Money talks, people, and it’s telling you to make sure your website is capable of completing sales transactions! This goes for small and large businesses alike.
MOBILE-RESPONSIVENESS IS A MUST
Additionally, those online shoppers are beginning to shop more and more on a mobile device. According to MarketingDive, during 2020’s holiday sales events “Shopping on smartphones jumped 25% to $3.6 billion, making up 40% of total online spending on Black Friday.”
For any business trying to jump, or even refine their presence, in the world of e-commerce, developing a site that works seamlessly on a mobile device is essential. Your potential customers should have no trouble finding what they need and purchasing it from their phone.
If you’d like a piece of that potential $11.8 billion, do an audit of your website and how people search for and find products, especially on mobile.
Though it’s too late to get a website set up for e-commerce for this year’s sales, we anticipate online sales continuing to increase.
For future website development or a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales strategy, contact us.
