02/23/10
Phire Branding wins 19 Awards at this year’s Addy competition
We are proud to announce a very successful night at this year's Addy Awards. Nineteen awards in all, we were lucky enough to win in numerous categories and in a variety of vertical markets. The Addy winners will move on to compete at Districts for further consideration. We'd like to thank everyone who helped put together a wonderful awards celebration this year. But most of all, we'd like to thank our clients for allowing us/helping us/working with us to let us do what we do.
Results for the 2010 Ann Arbor Ad Club Addy Awards competition include:
JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch
JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer Flash, Products
Clancy’s Website
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Regional / National
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Packaging, Campaign
Clancy’s Fancy Packaging
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B Flash, Services
Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Interactive
Phire Branding Company Website
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
OUT-OF-HOME: Campaign, Out-of-Home, Campaign
Flint Journal Outdoor
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Collateral, Brochure / Sales Kit
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Brochure
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Campaign, Mixed / Multiple Media Campaign
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign
Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales
Presentation, Catalog
Merillat Masterpiece Catalog
Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales Presentation,
Sales Kits or Product Information Sheets
Clancy’s Fancy Sales Brochure
Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B HTML/Other, Services
Second To None
Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer
HTML/Other, Products
Dale Earnhardt Website
Silver
Phire Branding Company
TELEVISION: Cinema Advertising, In-Theatre Commercials or Slides
Clancy’s Fancy Cinema
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Broadcast/Electronic, Interactive
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Website
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Collateral
Phire Branding Company Book
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Campaign, Single Medium Campaign
Phire Branding Company Advertising
Silver
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Local
Be Saline Campaign
Advertising, Awards, B-to-B, B-to-C, Community, Design, Interactive, News
01/29/10
New website: Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Phire announces the launch of a comprehensive website for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Working closely with the Earnhardt family and licensing partners, we were able to bring the Dale Earnhardt experience forward into a brand new experience. Starting with a survey of DEI employees, a web survey of 60,000+ fans, this site represents the Dale experience. Complete with CMS, a fully-functioning integrated store, videos, and more, we are helping give #3 a home on the web that's truly worthy. www.daleearnhardt.com. The site officially launched on 12.31.09.
01/22/10
The Intelligent Booth at IBS
At this year's International Builder Show, we helped three brands of the Masco Builder Cabinet Group make a big splash with a clean, interactive, powerful experience that was true to their exciting new offerings. With touch screens everywhere, evolved and cohesive brand messaging throughout, we led the look, feel, messaging, and many of the technical elements within the show. It also included live Social Media, Polls, and analytics throughout. We led collaboration with 3 other agencies and several vendors. The result was one their most successful shows ever - with a dramatic improvement over last year's leads and overall attention.
12/11/09
Website launch: Pitney Bowes.
We're proud to announce the launch of a new website for Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions. The site is complete with a Flash homepage navigation function, and is fully Content Management System driven. We think it does a nice job of showing a corporate B-to-B entity in a clean, fresh light. Click on the image to see the site.
10/8/09
New website launched for Second To None
We proudly announce the launch of a new website for Second To None, a leading mystery shopping organization. The website has some very cool new features, including a robust situational analysis with many opportunities to capture data.
The site is now available at www.second-to-none.com.
08/13/09
The answer is simple.
Nearly every situation and organization we walk into shares a common theme: communications have become more complex, more layered, and the sales process has gotten murky and difficult to manage. The common problem? The company is way too close to the products and services, and the day-to-day operation and politics. More often than not, we are there to simplify.
Easier said than done? Absolutely. Stakeholders talk about the reasons why they cannot change using similar language and patterns. Generally, it is people who are so passionate about their one piece of the pie that they fail to see the other pieces and their own individual passions. Our biggest early challenge is getting people to see the big picture and understand the greater purpose of the organization.
First, we strip away the years of cobwebs: the politics, the outdated reasoning, turn over of people – all the things that lead to an inward-looking organization. Then we talk with customers: the current ones, some prospects, and a few that left. We find out the true pain points vs. the ones that seem to be prevalent from the inside looking out.
A common thing that we find is that the company is no longer capable of seeing past the day-to-day tasks. Even mission and vision sessions have diminishing returns almost immediately because of their lack of implementation and tangible results. Unless the outside world sees your reason for being, it really doesn’t matter at all.
Too many companies also just go through a cosmetic rebrand. That is, they paint over the cracked paint and think they have made a difference. A true rebrand goes deep: scrapes the old paint off, sands thoroughly, cleans up, and then starts to repaint once again
It takes a lot more work, but the result is always cleaner, simpler, more evident to the outside world, and far more sustainable. And it begins to pay dividends right away.
05/28/09
11 thoughts for 11 years.
As I celebrate 11 years of being in business, I look back on some of the things I’ve learned.
- We get better every day. Back in 1998, I thought I knew everything there was to know about advertising. All I really knew was how to win awards. That is not the same thing as helping our clients prosper by any stretch. Every day, I learn something that we can apply across our client spectrum to improve their business.
- The client knows more than we do. We used to walk into a room and try to out-passion people about their own businesses. This is not our job. Our job is to take their passion, help take it to the next level, and help it spread in the marketplace.
- Technology should be wrapped around fundamentals. I’ve seen web firms come and go. I’ve seen online ad agencies come and go. I’ve seen SEO companies come and go. Hell, I even recall a couple of Second Life agencies. Technology has grown so much in the last 11 years, and even in the last 11 minutes. But technology is a means to deliver proven marketing fundamentals. It is not a fundamental on its own.
- The good days are good. Getting new business. Launching a campaign after months of work. Presenting a client with a plan and a vision and a brand that gets them re-excited about why they come to work every day. Those are good days, and they make it well worth it. Heck, they even make up for the….
- The bad days are really bad. Getting a budget cut. Not getting paid for our work. Winning a pitch and then finding out it wasn’t funded. Losing business for all the wrong reasons. Internal issues. These are the bad days. And they can really wear on you in this business.
- We get to meet some of the coolest people on the planet. Celebrities. Industry movers and shakers. People with little more than an incredible idea. Their stories are so different, but remarkably inspiring. There is no other business I can think of that allows such access to unique stories, goals, visions, and dreams within deep, meaningful relationships.
- You’ve got to have fun. As a small office, we tend to drive each other insane. So we have office games (including this one called Mickless that is so perfect, I believe I could sell the concept). We joke. We rib. And we get an incredible amount of good work done on behalf of dozens of clients.
- Take a long view of successes. When I think of client engagements, 11 years gives you the ability to see not only what worked immediately, but also what is sustainable from a marketing perspective. Every agency shows you their success stories. I’m not afraid to show failures as well. After all, are you going to trust someone who claims to have never failed? How then, have they ever learned to succeed?
- Times will always be tough. The last 11 years in the State of
- Share more. I used to be afraid of letting go. Letting go of industry secrets. Of the special sauce. Of our client list. Of relationships with other partners. It took me a while to see the light, but the more you give, the more you get back. So now I share freely, ask frequently, and open my business to anyone who wants to look. If you can replicate it, go for it. But you can’t.
- Eleven things on a list? Unnecessary. Brevity is still king. If you can’t sum up things quickly, you’re doing it wrong. This blog post has gone on way too long, and if I’m being honest, there was diminishing returns after about 4.
05/1/09
Website launch: Clancy’s Fancy
Today, we launched a website for Clancy’s Fancy, a niche but religiously followed hot sauce. It has been underground for a long time, and thanks to a concerted marketing campaign, we’re showing it to the world. Check out the site, and roam around the homepage for a while. We think it’s kind of fun.
04/21/09
Website launch: Ann Arbor Summer Festival
We are proud to introduce the new Ann Arbor Summer Festival website. Designed and built by Phire, the new site is 100% content managed by AASF staff. Check it out - we think it's pretty darn cool.
http://www.annarborsummerfestival.org
B-to-C, Community, Design, Interactive, New Work, News, Website Launch
04/17/09
Website launch: Ann Arbor CVB
After launching their first site five years ago, we are proud to announce the launch of the new annarbor.org. Now created with dynamic content, a CRM system, and loads of valuable information, it is the definitive source for everything Ann Arbor. Enjoy the view.
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