The Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting - A Recap.

What does it take to put on the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting?

It starts during the summer. Themes are discussed, a stage is mocked up, and a speaker is booked. This year, the Chamber’s theme revolved around the consistent exposure Sioux Falls receives as both a business-friendly city and a place with high quality of life. The forerunner in this praise: Forbes Magazine.

So the natural choice for a speaker? Steve Forbes.

Throughout the summer and into September, the staging is finalized, the design is set and the invites start going out. Schedules are coordinated, extra help is brought in. We build monster set pieces. It’s like being in Play Production, except the stage is massive and the talent does more than botch lines from As You Like It.

As we get closer to the date, work swirls in a fever pitch. Our building is filled with staging pipes and banners – printed in house by Jason – and speeches pass over an entire series of desks. Video reaches the final stages of production, and a handful of lucky HSers work late into the night.

And then, it’s the week of the show.

Though the program is Tuesday night, we begin setting up Sunday morning. The stage takes a day and a half to erect, video is double- and triple-checked, and the HS Dancers go through their final run-throughs. A skeleton crew stays back at the office while the real action occurs at the Sioux Falls Convention Center in a flurry of construction, rehearsal and anticipation.

An hour before the show begins, you’d have no idea that this has been a process of months. When the lights go down, you’re seeing the end of the work, and the beginning of a grand celebration of the area we call home.

By the end of the next day, it’s all gone. The room is ready for the next event. Hopefully, you attended. And hopefully, you gained a new appreciation for everything the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce does for us – not just businesses, but everyone.

If you could believe it, that’s not even the end. Because chances are, we’re already looking toward next year’s show.

Changing the conventional. Or, how to make a bus stand out.

A quick word from the corporate sponsor.

Constantly raising awareness. Moving toward a cure.

What’s that? Oh, yeah. We’re pretty excited about a pink bus.

Not just pink, though. PINK. As in, Avera McKennan’s new bus wrap – promoting the Avera Breast Center and featuring some of the region’s very own breast cancer survivors – is unmistakable and impossible to ignore.

After all – it’s bright pink.

Here’s the thing. Marketing and advertising have become so much a part of our every move that we begin to tune it out. We are inundated with visual and aural marketing at every turn. So it’s not just a fight to be noticed - it’s a fight to be relevant, with a message that people actually want to hear, promoting solutions, not features. Or, at least, to offer a change from the typical.

As marketers, we understand that our target doesn’t want to hear us. And it’s up to us to change that convention.

Which is why something like the Big Pink Avera McKennan Bus works. Not only does it promote a worthy cause - get mammograms! - but it’s also a bit jaunty. Jovial. A beacon of fun in an altogether too cluttered advertising and marketing landscape.

Buses are often seen as beat down. They’re driven hard and laid out to rest in some giant garage. We’re fighting to change that convention too, by turning them into a visual medium. They aren’t art yet, but how far are we from that? How far are we from accepting public transit as a focus of attention?

Because when you see a pink bus, is there anything you can do other than say, “Holy cow. That’s totally a pink bus?”

18 Years and Counting

The story goes something like this.

Every year for our anniversary – and any other event worthy of staying late and enjoying each other’s company: holiday party, staff retreat, etc. – Lynell and Tammy whip together a “Weird” Al Yankovic-style parody of a classic song.

Usually a dance is developed. Typically, there are costumes.

This year, for whatever reason, the theme was “Grease.” Maybe it’s because HenkinSchultz turned 18 this past Wednesday. Or maybe Lynell just had a wig she needed to use before returning it to the costume store.

Or maybe… well, who knows, really.

All that matters is that we had a lot of fun celebrating our last days as a child – and first days as an adult. We can smoke now! (But we can’t drink, and we’re still six years from renting cars.)

Anyway, thanks to all who have made the past 18 years so fantastic. And Happy Anniversary to us!

(Visit our Flickr page for the complete set.)

A Web Message From HenkinSchultz

(And now a message from the corporate sponsor…)

We’d like to take a moment to re-introduce www.HenkinSchultz.com.

What? Re-introduce? Huh?

Well, yeah. We’ve re-designed the site. It’s been up for a few weeks, but this is the official launch, my friends, so let’s rock this joint.

But it’s more than a re-design. It’s a re-imagining of what our Web site is here for: namely, providing content to current and potential clients and the community as a whole. Our clients wanted more access to the awesomeness we’re providing, and we were happy to oblige.

So we’ve got constantly updated portfolios, HenkinSchultz’s Greatest Hits, easy contact to all of our other outlets – Facebook, Twitter, Post Haste – and the same devotion to our people.

It works because we’re all in on it. Every employee has a chance to update as necessary. It’s crowdsourcing at its best: when it works together for one common goal and not against each other for a cheap fix.

So welcome. We like what’s going on over at www.HenkinSchultz.com. And we hope you do too.

(We return you to your regularly scheduled Post Haste post.)

Sandwich Artistry

This past week, Craig and Cami proceeded to take our pre-lunch hunger pains and rake them over the coals of agony as they turned our studio into a veritable sandwich shop for a Dakota Provisions photo shoot. Though we’ve done hundreds (thousands?) of photo shoots, this one was by far the most attractive.

If you like sandwiches, that is.

Check out their sandwich artistry below.

Setting up the shot.

The casting call.

You’d be surprised the difference that one tomato made.

Yeah - that’s a tasty beer in the background.

To see the set, check out our Flickr page.

ProTip: Those tomatoes look pretty fantastic, right? Well, those drops of faux perspiration aren’t coming from the tomato – they’re manufactured. Karo syrup, actually. See? Food photography is both artistic AND educational!

Post-It Notes as Creative Release

More often than not, the daily grind of office life leads us as creative types – not just here at HenkinSchultz but everywhere – to go off-grid. We naturally seek an outlet for our stray thoughts. Some of us blog, while others dabble in parody or some other kind of non-productive-yet-still-incredibly-important release.

It’s from this off-grid thinking that Tammy, one of our longest tenured designers, developed an inspired art series using the most pedestrian of canvases.

Post-It Note art.

Every weekday morning, Tammy doodles on a Post-It Note and displays it on a smiley-faced stress ball, which sits propped on the cubicle wall separating her and close friend (and similarly long tenured designer) Lynell.

Seriously. Every. Single. Morning.

It didn’t begin as anything so lofty, to be honest. It began as a little “Happy Birthday” message to Lynell. Which became, “Happy Day After Birthday.” Then, “Happy 2 Days After Birthday.”

As the days progressed the message became more and more interesting, until the birthday wasn’t even the main focus anymore. It’s currently 25 days before Lynell’s birthday. But equally important: It’s National Hamburger Day.

Just as equally important: Tammy’s making sure every day comes with a little creative release.

So, what do you do to keep things interesting?

(You can see a bi-weekly sample of Tammy’s Post-It Note Art on our Flickr page, or as part of HenkinSchultz’s bi-weekly e-Newsletter.)

Behind the Scenes: Filming with The RED ONE

You’ll have to excuse us if we get a little geeky for a minute.

A few months past, we were lucky enough to get our hands on a genuine marvel in digital video – The Red One, an HD camera that is poised to revolutionize digital video as we know it.

We put it to test – with help from Bill Gerring and the crew from Spectrum Films – on a recent Avera Heart Hospital shoot. And it was all we expected – and more.

Check us out, on location: playing with the fancy camera, executing beautiful videography, and rocking out with Avera Heart Hospital.

Hooray Sioux Falls!

There’s something to be said for loving where you live.

It’s one of the things that drives us at HenkinSchultz – and I’m sure it’s what drives all of us, in all of the agencies across this dusty village.

A love for this city. A love for the people who live here. And a love for the opportunity to be creative – especially when it comes to working on local projects.

Warning. Things might get a little sappy from here on out. It’s a passion, this city, despite the snark that says you’re not supposed to like where you live.

There’s a reason we’re all here in one place – here in flyover-country, where the hills are barely hills and the houses are still cheap. Where the financial crisis has barely hit us – at least, not in the way it has elsewhere – and where we’re relatively safe and happy and content.

Most of us couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

HenkinSchultz has worked (and continues to work) on some great Sioux Falls-related campaigns over the past several years – from the Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau to Downtown Sioux Falls to the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting.

We’re excited and proud to have our name associated with the most recent news from the Sioux Falls CVB – the release of a new video designed to promote Sioux Falls for conventions, events and sports tournaments. It was a fun project. Of course it was fun – after all, we love this place. And of course it was exciting. It gave us a chance to celebrate this city.

We’re not alone in this. Despite the size and perceived shortcomings, Sioux Falls is teeming with creativity, featuring a talent base you’d expect in a much larger community.

Go ahead. Ask the people who judge our yearly South Dakota Advertising Federation ADDY® awards. Ask the nationally-renowned ad peeps we bring in for SDAF meetings. We’re small town at heart, but we’re big time when it comes to talent.

Sure, there’s something to be said for loving where you live. But there’s even more to be said about the passion to create. It’s when the two come together that you truly realize how fortunately you can be to work with great people in a great industry in a great city.

Thanks, Sioux Falls. For being, you know, so flippin’ awesome.

So, there’s this thing called Facebook…

As a service to you, the loyal reader, the devoted fan of Post Haste and the people behind it, The HenkinSchultz Facebook Page is now open.

You’ll find all of the usual stuff you’ve come to expect from a Facebook page - blog posts, videos, sample radio spots, awesome pictures, hilarity from Corey the copywriter, witty comments from the legions behind the big white building, etc.

I guess, while we’re at it, we should remind you that we’re constantly Twittering, too. We have been for a while, actually: @henkinschultz. And, for even more awesomeness, we’re compiling all of our video spots in one easy to access location on YouTube.

So become a fan. We’ll be here, waiting to Facebook-it-up.

Cinco de Mayo and a Side of Beans

You know, if it was always just great ideas and fantastic design around here at HenkinSchultz, our brainmeat would turn to mush. Seriously. Mush. It would be eerily similar to those awesome Hulu commercials (shown here, somewhat ironically, on YouTube).

So, whenever we can, we turn to the concept of overeating to help assuage our throbbing minds.

Yeah potlucks!

So, in honor of the Mexican army that overcame a much larger French army back in the mid-1800’s, assuring a victory that countless Americans without any connection to Mexico celebrate each year on May 5th as “Cinco de Mayo,” we ate heartily in the spirit of Mexican cooking.

I’m still trying to digest all of those beans. (Ohh… the beans…)

(click to see Joe larger)

Happy day after Cinco de Mayo! (Seis de Mayo?)

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About HenkinSchultz

HenkinSchultz is an agency. An advertising and marketing and branding and design and production agency. All of those things, and then some.

But, underneath all that, we're really a bunch of thinkers. As in, we think about stuff, both pertinent and not, with and without boundaries, as if our lives depended on it. And this right here, Post Haste, is where we write about it.

Visit us at http://www.henkinschultz.com.

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Recent Posts

• Wishing for the Attainable
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• Penn and Misspeller
• Eat Your Brussels Sprouts
• Rhymes With Rice
• Embrace Losing, Embrace a Tree
• Buses Attract Attention, and Most Recently, Awards
• From the Mouths of Babes
• Needed: One Awesomewriter.
• To Inform and Delight

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