If you haven’t seen this video… you must.
Zach Anner is a young man who has cerebral palsy, but that hardly defines him. In this clip to help promote a new show called “Speechless”, Zach shares his thoughts on the condition and all of the things those of us not afflicted might want to think twice about. He’s brilliant and incredibly funny. Thinking that we need to cross paths. 🙂
Want to know more about CP? Try here.
If you’re a designer, it’s not often that your clients pay more attention to aesthetics than you do. For Drs. Ken Dembny and Larry Sterkin of CPSS in Wauwatosa and Mequon, it’s a way of life. They’re two of the most accomplished cosmetic surgeons in Southeastern Wisconsin and their tastes come with high expectations.
Sometimes, unifying a brand needs a simple graphic tool — like a banner.
As you can see from the work, adding the transparent banner with logo, tagline, doctors and contact info makes for a great way to get a lot of information in a condensed space, while providing consistency across many marketing mediums. It also compliments bold beautiful models that “steal the page” when it comes to key focal points in any particular marketing platform.
“We certainly weren’t afraid to sell ‘sexy’ in our marketing, but sometimes, you get a situation like we faced with Brookfield Square, ” states JSH&P Creative Director Mike Farley. “They banned one of our ads, saying that it was too racy. The funny thing of it was, was that it was directly across from Victoria’s Secret! We let the brand banner extend down a bit further to get it approved. Go figure.”
Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery Specialists is one of Milwaukee’s premier cosmetic surgery practices for men and women. The reputations of both Dr. Ken Dembny and Dr. Larry Sterkin are exemplary, both of whom have been listed in Milwaukee Magazine as Top Docs multiple times.
I’ve worked on dozens of fundraising campaigns, for various churches, non-profits and educational foundations. I’ve helped raise millions of dollars for causes that I thought worthy of the effort. Each one, reaching it’s targeted goal. These successes have taught me a lot about what motivates folks to contribute to your vision, both the fundraising team and to those that break out their checkbooks. The best, and most inspirational lesson in fundraising for me, came from the most unlikely person and place, and I thought I’d share his wisdom with you…
Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice
I rarely watched it (I presume with Trump’s Presidential campaign, that it’s in re-runs now), but I happened to stumble across the show a few years ago when Gene Simmons, the demonic rock star from the band KISS, was a contestant. True to the format of the show, the men were pitted against the women in a contest to promote something with one of the “stars” from the losing team getting fired at the end of the show. In this particular episode, Donald gave each team the task of simply selling hot dogs at Times Square (with a charitable organization getting the proceeds) — most revenue wins and the members of the team spared from being “fired!” The cameras capture all of the drama between cast members as they plan, prep, work and scheme the event, ensuring that we watch and boost the show’s ratings.
The women were lead by Omarosa, a take-charge gal who’s “famous for being famous”. The men were lead by C-list actor Stephen Baldwin — apparently Celebrity Apprentice has to dig pretty deep for its talent. I digress. Which celeb was on which team was not important, but the approach that each team took, turned out to be a great exercise in succeeding or failing at fundraising.
The ladies turned to an oldie, but goodie… “America, hot dogs and sex”. How could the quintessential American food, sold by attractive women go wrong? “Exposing more cleavage” seemed to be at the heart of their strategy. Be big. Be bold. Be fun. Be sexy. Who wouldn’t want to buy a hot dog from a voluptuous woman on a hot Summer day? It works. Kind of.
Meanwhile, the men were struggling to come up with an angle of their own. They even came up with a cool team name — Team Hydra — you know, the scary Greek mythological beast? Given enough time, they’d probably have made awesome t-shirts to wear to make themselves feel even more special. But that’s not especially a good plan for fundraising. It forgets what the purpose was in the first place. The purpose was NOT to sell the most hot dogs… but to make the most money. Period. That was the goal.
As they argued about what marketing message they needed to deliver to beat the girls, a booming voice yelled a choice curse word from an adjoining room in the hotel suite they were in, “Shut the f*** up!”
Gene Simmons had a plan… and a moment of clarity.
He got on the phone, called a few of his celebrity friends and asked them one very simple question, “Could you swing down to Times Square tomorrow and buy a hot dog for $10,000 for my charity?”
They said, yes.
While Omarosa and the female contestants sold individual hot dogs like, well, hot dogs, they raised about $10,000 at the end of the day. Pretty good. Team Hydra, on the other hand, took in over $50,000. You see, to successfully fundraise, you need to get big donors on board first. It’s that simple… and crucially important.
Gene Simmons: Rock star. Fundraising guru.
When you set out the thermometer that gets displayed on the street, you should have it over half-full to begin with (if not more), because you sought out your strongest contributors first; getting them to understand your mission. Once done, the final goal is almost assured because the little guys, like you and me, will contribute en masse because everyone wants to be part of a winning cause. By allowing everyone to see the apparent success of the cause at the start, the smaller contributors will be motivated to help you see the achievement toward your final goal.
When I got started in the “ad business” in Minneapolis, I was witness to a major shift in how great creative work was done, where it was done, and what clients it was done for. You see, prior to the mid 1980’s, “all” of the good work in the industry, according to the One Show, The Clios, Ad Age and Cannes, was being done in the major urban centers of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London. Certainly not the Twin Cities… that is, until Fallon McElligott & Rice came along and changed all that.
Key, in their initial pitch for business was simply inventive creative ad work for the kinds of small clients a small agency can pitch and win. And in their case, the Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. The work won awards because no one had considered that pitching for parishioners could be great creative.
Tom McElligott’s work changed my life.
I started seeing every client with new respect and new opportunity. Every client had a voice, a brand, and it was up to “good folks” like me to help them unleash the very best that they could muster. And in doing so, perhaps net themselves new prospects who in turn, might turn into loyal fans — or in this case, worshippers.
Grace 242 is a very different kind of church and they wanted a very different kind of announcement.
A couple of years ago, we were asked to help launch a new local church. The work represented above is a sampling of the many types of brand oriented work JSH&P did when Grace 242 was first founded. We love that they were eager to see something “different”. Over the years, we’ve done work for many churches and faiths — figuring that we had some creative freedom and that ultimately, “we’re all on the same team!”
G242.org is a Christian community of followers of Jesus, based in Mequon, WI. Interested? I’m sure Pastor Tim would be happy to share the Good News, and with a little prodding, sing our praises, too!
Billion dollar international businesses are always looking for a great designer in Cedarburg, Wisconsin… aren’t they?
The age of the Internet is truly amazing.
However, for all of it’s marvels, this client from a few years ago was actually the product of “old school” contacts and referrals. A good friend of mine, Michael Beightol from Coyote Marsh & Associates, contacted me about assisting him with a new opportunity. Years before, we had done some work together on a European firm who wanted to make a splash in the American market. Turns out, his brother (in Washington, DC) had connections to a firm with a similar situation.
Wallah! Madrid meets Wisconsin.
The work we did, from website to marketing kit to trade advertising, still holds up pretty well today. That’s the hallmark of world-class design. It’s also the product of good relationships married to a good client. Never forget to cultivate your personal relationships to build your business… even from unexpected sources!
Globalvia is a multi-national corporation based in Madrid, Spain that facilitates and builds some of the biggest infrastructure projects around the world, like bridges, tollways and light rail systems.
Mark Koenig, my upstairs business neighbor and all-around-good-guy, also happened to be one of the leaders of the Cedarburg Soccer Club. A collection of 200 Cedarburg families whose kids played soccer. Just like so many other youth sports organizations, it was local and competitive at introducing and developing kids to the sport of soccer. But Mark was tired of getting their best kids “poached” from other area soccer programs.
He had an idea to make the club more than just Cedarburg. Why not form something that could attract families and kids from all over the North Shore area? And the happy by-product, would be more families, better coaches and more money for the organization to construct better facilities to promote soccer even further.
All they needed was an identity that could bring out their very best. Suffice it to say, we accomplished that task and then some, as the myriad of mini-vans that sport an North Shore United window sticker can attest.
We set out to create an identity that was every bit as strong as any professional sports franchise. North Shore United branding helps remind us that doing world-class work, even for small clients, can reap very satisfying returns.
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