SDSU Foundation Announces Historic Campaign

November 3, 2010

image_sdsu.jpg

We were proud to partner with the South Dakota State University Foundation recently on a historic, record-setting announcement.

The South Dakota State University Foundation recently set a campaign goal of $200 million, an unprecedented amount for a state university in South Dakota. The original goal of It Starts with STATE: A Campaign for South Dakota State University, was $175 million to $190 million, but the amount was raised due to the campaign’s overwhelming success so far.

The foundation asked HenkinSchultz to work with them on a grand announcement of the campaign’s goal. We worked closely with the foundation’s staff to coordinate the event, which included invitations, video production, staging, T-shirt and collateral design, live streaming video on the web and more.

Congratulations to the South Dakota State University Foundation on its goal and the opportunities that lie ahead!

By amie

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, HenkinSchultz

Generation Gap

October 5, 2010

The Center for Active Generations isn’t just for the elderly. But the organization’s leaders were concerned its current advertising and marketing materials weren’t reflecting the breadth of services offered to people of all ages. The organization turned to HenkinSchultz for help in revamping and revising its look. The result was not only a fresh new advertising campaign, but also a new name and tagline.

Active Generations posterAt its headquarters on 46th Street, for example, the organization houses a fitness center that anyone can join. A variety of community programs, social activities and education classes are available at the center. Additionally, the Center for Active Generations supports families with resources on housing, employment, volunteering and more.

As HenkinSchultz began to look at revising the organization’s logo and other materials, it became clear that its mission and goals have evolved over time. The name without a tagline worked well when the organization began, but a tagline was now needed to accurately describe the organization.

First, the organization shortened its name Active Generations. But perhaps the most important element was the addition of the tagline “Opportunities for a Lifetime.” And that perfectly reflects the organization’s goals of supporting people of all ages.

By amie

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Design, HenkinSchultz

Wishing for the Attainable

September 7, 2010

A recent Harris Poll asked U.S. adults which they’d most want to be: richer, thinner, smarter or younger. Interestingly, the two most popular choices are the most attainable.

People want to be rich or thin, and realistically both of those can be achieved through a lot of dedication and hard work. Of the respondents, 43 percent chose richer and 21 percent chose thinner. Just 14 percent chose smarter, and 12 percent chose younger. Take all the ginkgo biloba you can find, it’s not going to make you smarter. And Cher can sing all about turning back time, but we’ve seen how well that’s worked out for her.

The results of the poll varied by age group. For example, it was less common for people ages 18 to 34 to wish for youth (4%) compared to people 55+ (19%). People 55+ still wish for riches (34%), but they do so less than people ages 35 to 44 (53%). That’s an interesting phenomenon; perhaps the older age group has accumulated more wealth, while people in their 30s and 40s are more likely to still be raising a family.

What do these little insights mean for advertisers? Think about who you’re marketing to and what wishes are still within their reach. People like to dream, but they still like their fantasies to be in the realm of possibilities.

By amie

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing

Let Your Voice Be Your Guide

August 24, 2010

Your company probably has a brand standards guide – a booklet of standards for how to use logos, colors and other graphic specifications about your brand. But how much do you think about the voice you use to talk to your customers?

Honing in on an irreverent, honest tone for its new product line is why we admire the new advertising campaigns for U by Kotex. Kotex boxesYes, that’s right, we like ads about tampons and pads. The brilliance about these ads is that Kotex took an outdated way of talking to its customers and (ahem) flushed it down the toilet.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Kotex used its own footage from previous advertising campaigns to poke fun at the absurd way the brand previously has talked about periods – women wearing white, twirling on the beach, dancing. Let’s be honest here. Dancing is about the last thing women feel like doing at that time of the month. Based on research of its key targets, Kotex rethought its brand voice. With U, Kotex is encouraging women to talk honestly, and, well, be less ashamed, about their periods. And women have responded positively.

OK, so you may not be selling feminine hygiene products. But it does matter how you talk to your customers. Are you speaking in a way that makes your customers want to listen?

By amie

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Criticism

Penn and Misspeller

August 10, 2010

Penn and Misspeller
It turns out that even criminals need to be branded. According to a recent CNN story, thieves with a clever nickname have a higher chance of being caught and prosecuted. It’s a long-standing strategy that’s helped law enforcement officials publicize crimes and nab culprits like Pretty Boy Floyd.

More and more, criminal nicknames such as the Barefoot Bandit are given careful consideration so the public will remember them. The methodology to catch branded bandits today is akin to a well-mapped marketing strategy.

This makes me wonder: could branding office mishaps help curb the occasional office faux pas? If I hang some “Wanted” posters around the HenkinSchultz office, would fewer people swipe my writing utensils and more people clean out the microwave?

Nah, that probably wouldn’t work. They’d probably just take away my writing privileges.

By amie

Filed Under Off Topic, Advertising, Marketing

Buses Attract Attention, and Most Recently, Awards

June 15, 2010

We were pretty excited when we first began working with Avera McKennan to design bus wraps for Sioux Falls transit. Turns out, some other people were excited about it, too.
Avera Bus Wraps
Avera McKennan won a 2010 Silver Aster Award in Outdoor Transit for its bus wraps. The Aster Awards, which are given by Marketing Health Today, celebrate healthcare marketing professionals who demonstrate excellence in advertising. HenkinSchultz also worked with Avera Health, Avera McKennan and Avera McKennan Foundation on the following campaigns that won Aster Awards:

Award: Silver for Newsletter/Internal – Series
Avera Health, All of Us Newsletter


Award: Silver for Publication/Internal
Avera Health, Avera Quality Report


Award: Silver for Publication/Internal
Avera McKennan Foundation, Human Touch Newsletter


Award: Bronze for Special Events
Avera McKennan Foundation, The Big Grape Benefit 2009

Congrats to all the Avera staff members, who are great to work with on fun, award-winning marketing campaigns.

Avera Quality Report

Avera Human Touch

By amie

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, HenkinSchultz

KFC Doubles Down, prepares for a bust

April 20, 2010

What’s the difference between flash and substance?

Let’s ask Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Since 2005, Kentucky Fried Chicken (or KFC, depending on the day) has seen its market share drop. It’s not a drastic drop, but it’s enough of a drop to raise concern – especially as the fried chicken industry expands and challengers Popeye’s and Chick-fil-A rise to fill market share.

According to a AdAge report, KFC is down to 30% of the chicken market. Add to that over a 1.5 billion dollars in growth, and a LOT of people are either switching from (or outright shunning) the Colonel.

Double DownAnd that brings us to KFC’s recent flash: The Double Down.

The Double Down, if you haven’t heard, is a sandwich – and that term is being used VERY loosely – that uses two fried chicken breasts instead of bread. Inside is a cheesy goo mixture of bacon and grease.

It’s really nothing more than a marketing ploy – the same type of empty strategy that KFC has used constantly through the last several years. It brings to mind the grilled chicken experiment, which was more “Oprah’s talking about our grilled chicken!” than “we believe you should eat grilled chicken because it’s what you want.”

On the other hand, Chick-fil-A offers healthier options as a matter of principle – not as a marketing ploy. They are enjoying the ride as an underdog, pushing the horses to a cultish status. They use better chicken. They employ people you actually want to buy chicken from. They serve it in stores you actually want to eat chicken in.

Chick-fil-A isn’t depending on decades of market dominance and flashy hype machines to sell chicken. It’s depending on substance.

KFC? Well, they’re doubling down on their bet that you’ll eat anything. And while sales may spike for a short amount of time as people rush to try this monstrosity, they’ll soon fall back to where they were.

Flash vs. substance? One gets you attention. The other gets you loyalty.

Which do you think KFC would rather have?

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Criticism

The Internet of Things

March 17, 2010

ReadWriteWeb has been spending a healthy amount of time researching and discussing The Internet of Things, a concept that describes how, in the future, there will be more things on the Internet – sensors, devices, automated systems – than people.

A new video from IBM’s Smarter Planet group illustrates what The Internet of Things will mean to our future, specifically the social and cultural change that will occur as a result.


Our place as marketers in The Internet of Things is still being developed, and because of this there’s a propensity for fear. The technology is adapting far faster than we can keep up with, which leads to brash and unseemly forays into interruption marketing. We fight to be a part of the answer, and in doing so we bypass working with the system by working in spite of the system.

So what’s our responsibility?

As The Internet of Things becomes more automated, it will also seek out better ways to become more monetized. Which will lead to more opportunities for marketing. Which will lead to more ways in which a person is interrupted during their life.

It’s a slippery slope, and this is where our part will come in – our responsibility to understand, both for our clients and for the customers they serve, that not every channel needs to be interrupted.

That, by choosing the right channels, standing by permission marketing and understanding which options will help a brand (rather than hurt it in ways we may not even understand), we can continue to lead our clients to effective marketing.

All without taking advantage of society and its quickly fracturing attention.

(Via: ReadWriteWeb)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Technology, Marketing, Criticism, The Process

HenkinSchultz: Official Google Advertising Professionals

March 11, 2010

It’s about Analytics and Ad Ranking and CPC and Quality Score.

It’s about CTR and Keywords and Region Targeting and Content Bids.

It’s about CPM and Impressions and Ad Groups and ROI.

But really, it’s about understanding the basics - and the subtle (and sometimes complicated) nuances - of search engine marketing as it pertains to Google AdWords. And, furthermore, about presenting our clients with added opportunities for promotion and awareness outside the traditional printed and broadcast mediums.

So we finally got around to taking the test. And here we are: official Google Advertising Professionals. (And we’re pretty stoked, by the way.)

We get to show off the badge. But our clients get the real prize: an added level of knowledge and awesomeness from their chosen marketing partner.

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Technology, Marketing, HenkinSchultz, The Process

Where Is the Line? (On Advertorials and Front Page Ads)

March 9, 2010

No one would claim that the garden variety advertorial is a journalistic endeavor. Situated alongside a publication’s content, however, it can often be mistaken as real – especially if designers have taken great pains to replicate font, layout and details.

Advertorials happen. They happen all the time. Whether you think they’re effective or misleading, you probably rarely give them a second thought.

That is, until they begin appearing on your front page.

Alice In Wonderland

Historically, newspapers and magazines have held the front page as an Advertising Free Zone. It only makes sense. No one buys a publication because of the ads on the front; they look to the cover as a de facto table of contents. That’s where the impulse to purchase is created.

But with the decline in advertising revenues, publications have begun allowing more and more leeway. Small banner ads appear near the bottom of the front page. Plastic covers promote wireless services. Post-it notes offer coupons. Ads are creeping into that valuable space, precisely because it’s valuable. Precisely because magazines and newspapers can’t sell the insides as much as they once could.

So, you can imagine, if you offer a newspaper $700,000 to print a full front-page wrap, there’s a good chance they’re going to take it.

Alice in WonderlandThat’s what Disney did with the Los Angeles Times. The ad – a four-page wrap that mimicked the Times’ front page – was designed to “create buzz, and to extend the film’s already brilliant marketing campaign,” said John Conroy, spokesman for the Times. It also pushed the day’s headlines to a second page.

It’s not the first time the Times has slipped advertising in under the radar. Last April, an ad for NBC’s Southland gave only minimal indication that it was, indeed, an advertisement – and that was long after the “article” would have been read.

Newspapers: a Vehicle for Journalism or Advertising?

Which begs the question: where is the line? When does journalism begin and advertising end?

According to the American Society of Magazine Editors, ads and editorial content require a clear separation, and front-page ads not allowed. But when faced with the decision between selling a lucrative front cover ad and the ASME’s minimal repercussions (a letter or reprimand and exclusion from the National Magazine Awards), there’s often no more than the approval of a publisher standing in the way.

More than anything, newspaper and magazine readers place their trust in the publications they’re consuming. When ads are placed in a way that blurs the line between editorial and advertising – when advertisers seek to gain attention through deception by designing an ad that looks like real content - that trust is taken advantage of.

In other words, the content of the ads should be considered – not the location.

The Times ad reaches the news outlets because it’s on the front page. But it’s clearly an ad. It steers clear of deception simply because it’s too big to be believable. No one read that and thought, “this is a Los Angeles Times article about the movie.”

However, an advertorial clearly wants to be seen as content. Its entire premise is dependent upon a reader seeing it as an article. Posing as something it’s not, the advertorial plays upon the trust of the reader.

In other words, outrage seems to be misguided because the definition is so hazy. The line is smudged. Possibly irreparably. And it’s up to us – as advertisers and publishers – to, once and for all, redraw the line. Clean it up. Set some standards.

The balance, really, stands between editorial honor and the need to keep the lights on. We can take sides, fighting against either the stuffiness of journalistic integrity or the demons of advertising greed. But both sides have their arguments. Because without determining where that line is – the line between honorable content and the advertising that helps pay for it – we may lose the trust of our readership.

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Design, Criticism, The Process

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