We are proud supporters of PADS of Elgin, which provides safe shelter, support services and advocacy to homeless individuals in Dundee, Elgin and Hanover Townships. Charles Falls has been on the board for several years, and we love to help them with invitations and programs for their biggest fundraising event of the year, Stars Dance for PADS of Elgin. At this event, couples from the Elgin area learn dances from area dance instructors and compete (think Dancing with the Stars, but with more everyday type people dancing).

This year, after taking dance lessons three to four times a week, for almost two months, from the very talented and very dedicated Levi Grant of  Vargo’s Dance in downtown Geneva, IL, our very own Charles Falls and his wife Barbara graced the stage with a rather endearing Foxtrot and Lindy Hop. Charles and Barbara highly recommend Levi and Jamie Vargos to anyone — just ask and you’ll see. For now though, watch Charles, complete with a top hat, and Barbara, complete with class and style, wow the audience and earn perfect 10s (at least from his tables of friends, family, and colleagues).

Although voting has closed, you can still make a contribution to PADS in this dances honor here. Thanks, Charles, for the hard work you put in preparing, for inviting us to support you in your passion for PADS, and for entertaining us for 2 minutes. Also, don’t quit your day job.

This morning, when I was totally working and not watching YouTube videos, I stumbled across an ad that immediately caught my attention. If you’re a fan of the NBC show Parks and Recreation, it should catch your attention too. The distinguishable voice of Parks and Rec’s Ron Swanson, played by Chicago-area native Nick Offerman, describes five types of girlfriends that are hard to keep up with. The idea is that Axe shower gel provides you with the invigorating ingredients you need to keep up with your demanding girlfriend.

The humor is dead-on for the intended audience, Offerman makes the perfect spokesman, and while exaggerated, I’m sure many men out there can relate to these situations. I can’t speak for the product itself but I’m sure they perform admirably amongst men’s body washes; meaning they make you smell less like a gym bag and more like a decent human being. As for their revitalizing properties, I’m a little skeptical.

Here is a link to the playlist with the five minute-long spots for each type of girlfriend (there’s a few other spots mixed in): sporty girl, flirty girl, high maintenance girl, party girl, and brainy girl. Embedded below is the minute-long spot for “Sporty Girl” which has one of the best lines of all the commercials.

“Nothing says I love you like breaking the bridge of another man’s nose. Now hit the showers…and claim your trophy”.

A man approaching his 40s and 50s has one medical procedure on his mind that he would gladly avoid; a prostate exam. Just the mere idea of the procedure is enough to make the manliest of men cringe. You’ll never hear a story about how pleasant the procedure was or how kind the nurse was. In fact, most men prefer never to speak about it again.

With that being said, it is also one of the most important procedures that a man can get. This 15 minute screening can add years to a man’s life. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in America, affecting 1 in 6 men. Even after hearing those staggering statistics, most men will remain extremely apprehensive to the idea of the screening.

So how in the world do you promote prostate screenings if the majority of the patients refuse to get the procedure?

Unlike most campaigns, the target audience wasn’t exactly who we targeted. Men, as stubborn as they can be, will listen to the women in their lives. So that’s who we targeted in one of the ads. The ad focused on a woman challenging her father to “Man Up” and get his prostate screened. Every variation of the ad focused on challenging men to “Man Up” and get the exam.

The results were incredible. In fact the results were so good last year (additional exam dates needed to be set-up), that we used the same ad concept this year. It didn’t fail. 94% of the men who scheduled a screening “Manned Up” for their prostate exam! I guess a few weren’t man enough.

After a month hiatus, the Technology Meeting has returned. This month’s meeting brought about a plethora of new ideas and technology. The quick recap below highlights some of the things presented in August’s meeting.

Bo.lt

Bo.lt is a website that allows you to edit other websites, without needing programming knowledge. To clarify, you don’t actually get to go in and revamp CNN.com, but you can edit its appearance to your liking and share your version via Bo.lt’s short-link. You can delete/edit text, remove ads, rearrange the interface, add comments, or wipe out the page entirely (although the purpose of that is beyond me). So if you wanted to share only one piece of a website, Bo.lt allows you to do that. Here’s an example of a website edited using Bo.lt.

Quick Drag – Firefox Add-On

If you’re looking to shave a few seconds off your web-browsing time each time you click, then “Quick Drag” is a great Firefox Add-on. Basically this Add-on extends the functionality of the drag-and-drop mouse gesture. Using Quick Drag allows you to quickly load URLs, search selected text on a page, and even save an image on a page without the use of keyboard shortcuts or right clicking. You simply click on what you want and drag it. Selected text will show up in the search results of a new tab and images will save straight to your Downloads folder.

Tribalfish

Tribalfish attempts to bridge the gap between social interaction and deep customer engagement using high-quality content. Essentially, Tribalfish allows you to post a short message that viewers can click on for an expanded post, without being directed to an outside website. People can browse these messages by various topics they are interested in whether it is healthcare, real estate, sports, or just about anything else. Tribalfish also has a “Groups” function where users can join, receive updates, and post messages.

TweetReach

TweetReach is a web program that allows you to get a quick snapshot of just how far your tweets reached. All you have to do is type in the desired Twitter username in the search box. TweetReach then gives you a snapshot of the past 7 days of that user’s activity along with stats such as reach, types of tweets, and exposure (impressions). TweetReach takes into account the @ mentions and retweets that your account has received and includes those as impressions. So if one of my followers retweets me, the impressions of that retweet would be included. This is based on how many followers my retweeter has.

Google Hotel Finder

Google Hotel Finder allows you to do exactly what the name says, find hotels. The difference between Google’s program and your average hotel finder, is all of the features available. Google Hotel Finder has the standard “search by location” option, but it also allows you to see popular locations; perfect if you are unfamiliar with the area. You can also keep a short list of hotels that you can come back to review at a later time. If you’re looking for the best price, Google let’s you compare the current price with the hotel’s typical price.

Additional features include limiting hotels by price per night, star rating, and user rating. However, one of the most unique features is the map view. Google gives you a preset view of all the hotels within the area. You can then adjust the shape of this area to your liking. Clicking on the hotel listing or “dot” (in map view), will give you a snapshot of the hotel’s information along with images and reviews.

YourGroups

YourGroups is a way to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers in private. Members of your group can post messages to the group wall, “buzz” each other, share photos, and schedule meet-ups. When sending a buzz or scheduling a meet-up, you can choose to include the whole group, or only certain members of the group. YourGroup is great for sharing things with a limited amount of people, in the privacy of your own group.

A lot of times our creative pursuits outside the office help us find new technology. Since that’s the biz we’re in, we like that!

You  might remember a little post I wrote about the creatives here at DC. Danielle has a fabulous shop on Etsy called Whimsy Garden. When she decided to start showcasing her work at craft shows, she was a “cash only” kinda stand. But now, she is able to accept credit cards thanks to her little friend “Square”.

Square is a credit card reader that attaches to your phone through the headphone jack. With just a few steps, you can easily set up shop! Then you can use their free app to accept any Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card from your lovers…..I mean patrons at a small fee – similar to PayPal. This is an awesome deal for someone like Danielle, who gained around 50% more business this year by accepting credit cards at her booth. Of course, this app wouldn’t be so fabulous if it didn’t work for both iPhone/iPad users and those of us who are still using Android (ahem…Danielle). Either way, it’s worth checking out if you are in this kinda biz.

It’s no secret around here the creatives are often feeling the creative flow both inside and outside the office. For example, our last eblast featured an article about the great Wally Ottenhoff IV and his “Will It Rain App”. When I want to ride my bike to work, you better bet I use this app to see if it’s a good idea or not before I leave the house in the morning. Works like a charm.

And he’s not the only Demi & Cooper Creative who is also creative outside the office.

I’ll start with Danielle Murray. She is one of the brains behind the print work that comes out of our office. Outside of work, she likes to be a little more hands on with her creativity. Danielle runs an Etsy site called “Whimsy Garden” where she posts all sorts of beautiful handmade items. If you are ever in the market for a new bag, coin purse, hair accessory, iPhone case, or new jewelry, you should check her out. Actually, you should just continually check her out because she is constantly adding new items to her shop!

And then there is me, Deanne Mroz. I think it’s safe to say that I have Creative ADD. I enjoy being as creative as I can be both in and out of the office. Outside of work, I run my own blog where I talk about all the things I do on a daily basis. It’s filled with a mishmash of all things creative—from oil paintings to screenprinting. I think Danielle put it best when she said that if I had to channel my creative energy only into one place, my head would explode. If you are looking for me on the web, you can find me in a bunch of places. Not only do I run my blog, I have a photography site, a Zazzle site where I sell skateboards and Pritteful Palette Merch, an Etsy Shop where I sell paintings, a second Etsy Shop where I sell (what I like to call) “Happenings” AKA custom cards, a YouTube page where you can see all of my crazy painting videos along with my award winning Amazon Commercial that won their Your Kindle Commercial Contest in 2010, and….um…I think that’s it. So ya…..ADD. Now you see my point?

Fact of the matter is, if you are looking for some creative peeps, you have come to the right place. DC loves creatives. And we love DC too .

The Sherman ICE App that we developed has been live on iTunes for a little over two months. It has been performing increasingly well in terms of downloads. The success of the app has been due to some nice local press, social media mentions, and our traditional advertising.

However, we also wanted to make sure the ICE app was advertised where the iPhone users were; on their iPhones. This is where we have had tremendous success. With an inexpensive budget, we can reach iPhone users while they are using their mobile device. With a single click on a mobile ad, users can reach the iTunes page where your app is ready to be downloaded.

So once your hospital purchases our ICE app, it’s time to start mobile marketing. Check out the case study here.

Memorial Medical Center has the #1 Emergency Department in the Springfield area. How can you express this incredible achievement without being boastful? You let the patients say why you’re number one based on their experiences. From this simple idea came a remarkable campaign that was not only successful but also inspiring & heartwarming.

The Memorial E.R. Stories campaign succeeded on a statistical and emotional level. At the date this post was written, we have read through 82 stories all submitted by patients of Memorial’s Emergency Department. Some stories left us smiling, some inspired us, and others left us teary-eyed.

We knew this campaign had a lot of potential so we used our concept of web herding and spared no advertising medium. We created a landing page dedicated solely to the E.R. Stories campaign. Content on this site was almost exclusively patient-driven. We introduced online banner ads, a custom Facebook tab, print ads, billboards, pay-per-click, bus wraps, radio ads, a commercial, and topped it all off with t-shirts for the story submitters.

Normally we would recommend dedicated URLs on ads for tracking purposes, but the client was concerned about keeping the brand consistent so we didn’t. So as the website got underway we carefully watched for specific trends. It was clear when an ad was running based on jumps in web traffic as various pieces were introduced. During the peak of the campaign, visits to the website were about 500% more than during the launch. Page views were up 200%.

Another interesting statistic involved a close competitor’s foot traffic. A competing area hospital opened up brand new facilities in late-November; just prior to the start of the Memorial E.R. Stories campaign launch. The patient visits to the competing hospital did not improve even though brand new facilities were introduced.

The Memorial E.R. Stories campaign has done its job, but won’t end just yet. Soon we will be turning three of the E.R. Stories into commercials. The patients from the chosen stories will have a chance to share their story in a commercial. Choosing just three stories will be a near impossible task, but it’s a task we look forward to. It was a real pleasure to work on such a captivating campaign.

Ed McDowell, VP of Marketing & Communications at Memorial Medical Center, was ecstatic about the campaign stating, “With more than 40 story submissions through the first five weeks of the campaign, the results speak for themselves. We could not be more pleased or excited”.

We could not be more pleased or excited either.

Below are just a couple images from the campaign. Check out more images and our case study for the Memorial E.R. Stories campaign here.

President Barack Obama is gearing up for the 2012 Election the digital way. His microsite dedicated to his 2012 campaign, barackobama.com, includes a variety of digital marketing tactics.

The site leads with a video which is obviously hosted on YouTube. You can submit your email address to receive e-blasts, get text messages, or get connected via Facebook. You can volunteer, donate, check up on events, purchase Obama 2012 swag, and join groups dedicated to his campaign fundraising. At the time this post was written, Obama had accumulated over 19 million Facebook Fans and 7 million Twitter followers; so we’d say he is doing a pretty good job at being social.

Obama has the right idea when it comes to digital marketing. Something we call “Web Herding” incorporates all of the concepts stated above, and even a little more.

Obama’s 2012 Campaign Launch Video Video

If you call up our office, don’t expect to speak with Ms. Demi or Mr. Cooper (although some telemarketers have tried to be clever and ask, at which point we promptly put them in a voicemail box that tangles them into a never-ending labyrinth of questions and required spoken answers, and that never recognizes what they say, until they give up, hang up, never to call again). Anyhow, Ms. Demi and Mr. Cooper do not exist, and never have—in human form anyway. Demi and Cooper were the four-legged friends of the owners who started the company. Charles Falls, the pres and founder of the company has a portrait of Cooper, one of the founding dogs, hanging in his office.

We are a dog-friendly company. This is obvious if you browse our website profiles and check out how many people feature or mention their pups. And if you visit our office, you know that we even have an honorary co-worker or mascot that “works” at the office every day—Indy, the friendly German Shepherd who retrieves office supplies for us and even has learned how to alert us when the printer ink is running low. She also brings us coffee to order. While most of that isn’t true, she is quietly there every day, and she is a good dog.

My husband Wally and I, who both work at Demi and Cooper, have two dogs: Ellie, a Chocolate Lab, and Buttercup, a Golden Retriever. Ellie loves Wally and her toys, and Buttercup loves Ellie and chasing her tail. Buttercup is not the smartest of dogs. Although Golden Retrievers are supposed to be the top of their training classes, she failed puppy school. Really. After a grueling 10 weeks of classes where Buttercup worked her hardest at distracting the other dogs and even the teacher at one point, we took the final test and were told to retake the course—not a surprise to any of us, by the way.

We have a one year old son (Walter Ben Ottenhoff V—big name for a little guy, but he carries it well). He loves to beat up on the dogs—especially Ellie. She tried avoiding it at first, but soon accepted it as inevitable and now lies calmly still while he pulls her ears, tail, and even her oversized jowl. He just sticks his hand right on her lip and gives a good tug. And she lies there and takes it, as though getting up and moving away has become too much of an effort.

I suppose my point is, although my dogs are good dogs, I don’t think all dogs are meant to be immortalized in a business name. Aside from the fact that Buttercup and Ellie Advertising doesn’t sound as cool, I’m just not sure what kind of confidence the dogs’ personalities would inspire. Buttercup and Ellie Advertising—We’re not so bright, and you can beat us up if you want.

Cooper lived a full life and passed a few years ago. From what I’ve heard, he also was a very good dog. Charles told the story once that when his kids were little, Cooper became their protector. If utility people came to work on the house, Cooper always positioned himself between the worker and the kids. While he was a nice dog, no one was going to have the opportunity to mess with his little ones. I never met Cooper, but that image alone shows me why he was honored with a business name. It stands for the kind of company I’d want to work for and with: Demi & Cooper Advertising—we’ve got your back.

The next time you talk to Charles, you can ask him for more stories about Cooper. I’m sure he’s got loads of them, as well as more recent stories about his current family dog, Calvin.

Be sure to give your family dogs a pat tonight from your friends at Demi & Cooper!