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.
07/13/09
Advertising through Social Networking?
“Paid advertising on online social networks in the US is expected to fall 3% in 2009.” (eMarketer, 2009)
With all of the attention and buzz social networking has received, that may come as a shock to many, and as an “I told you so” to those inherently skeptical of the medium.
Many companies are clearly still trying to find their way with social networking. It appears that some have a presence on Facebook or Twitter for no other reason than that they feel they should. However, other companies have seen great success in targeting and reaching both niche audiences and in more broad consumer based initiatives.
We feel that the pull back is temporary as companies refine and integrate their efforts, and that social networking will have a major role in the advertising mix going forward.
2009 may be considered the year that companies worked to develop their presence within social networking sites, establishing content and fleshing out their environments. To us, this is a logical first step, which must be taken before more proactively advertising and working to draw new people.
Because it is such a new and emerging medium, we believe many companies are waiting to see which will take the lead (Facebook? Twitter?), and which will fall off the map (MySpace)? This will allow them to better focus their efforts, and not feel they need to be redundant with ad dollars spent and information/content they generate and share.
Once companies become more comfortable with social networking, it’s natural that they may circle back and work to see how to best integrate with their advertising/marketing efforts. When they do, they will find that they have a wealth of information at their fingertips, including deep data to target users (friend networks, likes, dislikes, and much much more).
Companies will learn to harness this data to deliver custom advertising that works on a more conversational, one-on-one manner. This is not your traditional mass communication, rather, it’s a more nuanced, information based approach that will allow companies to micro target and communicate like never before.
Advertising, B-to-B, B-to-C, Community, Interactive, Opinion
05/26/09
Viral marketing: Catching lightning in a bottle.
In meetings, seminars, and even the occasional new business presentation, we get asked the following questions more than a few times:
- How can we get seen on YouTube?
- Can’t we just create something viral?
Both questions are pointing to the same underlying questions. How can one create something viral and ensure that it is seen everywhere? And furthermore, without a budget to back it up? Answer: can’t be done.
Consider the following stats:
- Every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube (YouTube.com)
- Some 53% of YouTube's videos have fewer than 500 views (TubeMogul)
- About 30% have less than 100 views (TubeMogul)
- Just 0.33% have more than 1 million views (TubeMogul)
In other words, you can’t ever count on anything becoming viral. It happens more organically, and in a less controlled manner than you can possibly image. Plus, without the benefit of sending people there via a more traditional media buy, it may never be seen.
If a video gets posted on YouTube and no one watches it, is it still a video?
YouTube is a perfectly good tool. But again, it is not a plan. Your odds of having something take off on YouTube are about the same as winning the lottery. Is that how you’d like to conduct business?
05/17/09
The Basis of Marketing: Changing the Conversation.
A small marketing firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan can change the world. We firmly believe that, or we wouldn’t be in business. We’re not looking to start a revolution, mind you. We just want to change conversations, influence perspectives, and replace misconceptions with realities – one organization at a time.
Marketing professionals, after some time, fall into two camps. There are those who want to affect people through pure creative – more of a gut instinct. And there are those who are very analytical and want to affect charts, and will only consider numbers when doing so.
Very few go back to the fundamental basis for what all marketing is aimed at: changing the conversation. Think about it: very few of your (or anyone else’s) decisions are unilateral. When purchasing a product or using a service, you usually consult at least one other person. Therefore, you have to affect both decision maker and influencer. If there are negative perceptions in the marketplace, these can be death to a brand whether they are real or imagined. If your perception didn’t come from a direct experience, chances are it came from a simple and seemingly harmless conversation.
Consider this: a recent study illustrated that a full 30% of all negative recommendations were given by individuals who never used the product or service they were asked about. This frightening statistic means that they are relaying others’ experiences in a kind of negative evangelism. Brands do a good job of steering initial conversations, but do little to provide defense of this negative conversation. And these tend to be the ones we recall the most.
At Phire, we are involved in the beginning stages of a corporate turnaround/rebranding effort for a new client (one of our specialties). The issue is not the reality… they have plenty of positive things happening internally. However, due to a lack of information and actively presented to the public, people have filled in the blanks themselves. These blanks went negative (they always do), and the negatives became the known truth.
It is not our job to change the organization. It is our job to change the conversation. And to do so, we must be bold, loud, creative, and above all – truthful. Then and only then can we move momentum toward a more positive direction, and give customers the talking points and experiences to complete the turnaround.
It takes a lot to change the conversation. But it is not a matter of pushing a 10 ton boulder up a hill. It is more like trying to convince thousands of people to each carry a tiny stone up that very same hill. And for them to tell all their friends to consider doing the very same thing.
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
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