Donna Mercer Joins Artspace Board of Directors

Jul312009
Laura Gross

Donna MercerStrategic branding and advertising firm Howard, Merrell & Partners announces Chief Operating Officer Donna Mercer has been appointed to the Artspace Board of Directors. In this position, Mercer’s responsibilities will include strategic media counsel and espousing Artspace’s vision and values to provide leadership for staff and volunteers.

Other responsibilities include acting as a spokesperson for Artspace in the community, participating in fundraising programs and using individual expertise for special projects.

The Artspace Board of Director’s will benefit from Mercer’s leadership, management experience and strategic media expertise she has provided for clients for more than 20 years. Her work with clients ranges from SAS Institute, NC State Travel & Tourism and financial institutions such as BB&T, Fannie Mae, ING Direct and NC Economic Development. She currently holds the position of COO and Senior VP of Media Assets with Howard, Merrell & Partners.

“I’m proud to be a part of this organization,” said Mercer, COO and Senior Vice President of Media Assets of Howard, Merrell & Partners. “The arts are crucial to the development of a well-rounded citizen. It is vital that we keep the arts alive and make it accessible in our community.”

Artspace, a non-profit visual arts center in Raleigh, showcases exhibitions and educational programs through an open studio environment. The center opened in 1986 and strives to make visual art available and accessible to the public. Artists share their works in the center’s open studios, and the public can express their own artistic notions through educational programs and exhibitions.

Mercer recently received recognition for the Woman of the Year award from the Magazine Advertising Representatives Association. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Pest Management and a Masters of Science in Pathology/Microbiology from North Carolina State University.

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An Introduction To Social Media For Food Business Owners

Jul282009
Kipp Bodnar

This morning I was very lucky to have the opportunity to speak to a group of food business owners whose businesses range from grits milling to barbecue sauce manufacturing. It was a very engaged group with thoughtful questions. I gave a 20 minute presentation as an introduction to social media for food business owners with a focus on setting up a monitoring social media monitoring system.

Here is a video of the majority of my presentation. (See links below the video)
http://www.vimeo.com/5806054

Important links mentioned in the above video:

Google Alerts

RSS In Plain English

Google Reader

Twitter Search

Filtrbox

Only Burger

Foodzie

Freezer Burns

BoardReader.com

Technorati

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Fulton Celebrates 15 Years at Howard Merrell & Partners

Jul242009
Laura Gross

craig_fulton_img_4870-150x100Strategic branding and advertising firm Howard, Merrell & Partners honors Craig Fulton on his 15-year anniversary with the agency. Over the years, his dedication and commitment to Howard, Merrell & Partners, has added to the agency’s success.

Fulton is the agency’s office manager. He makesHeHemakesHe sure that Howard, Merrell & Partners operates like a well-oiled machine. Fulton does everything from overseeing and organizing office supplies, to coordinating the agency’s vendor needs. He also handles invoicing and confirms insertion orders for the media department, in addition to lending a helping hand to every department in the agency. In short, Fulton makes things happen.

“We are a fast-paced agency with client satisfaction as our number one priority. Accomplishing this goal is only possible by having a team of skilled professionals who demand the best of each other in order to produce strategic, creative work time and time again.” says Donna Mercer, Howard, Merrell & Partners COO.

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Mental Subtraction and the Whopper

Jul232009
Bruce Hall

Stimulating a strong emotional response on the part of the

viewer of an ad is critical if the ad is to be effective in

driving behavior. But that doesn’t necessarily tell us how to

create that emotional response from an ad. It just tells us we

want one.

Last week at our internal Lunch ‘n Learn, where we talked

about creative work, we looked at tv ads that had received

recognition in the business,and looked at how emotion worked

in those ads. Two of the most famous, and most-acclaimed,

were the original “Got Milk” ad, and the more-recent “Whopper

Freakout”. Both shared a common theme, taking away the brand

from the consumer rather than sharing it with him. I

suggested that the use of the counter-factual, absence rather

than presence of something, might have added emotional power.

It requires imagination, which can be a more powerful stimulus

than observation.

A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology now provides some solid data to support that

interpretation. For years happiness researchers have done

studies showing that acts of gratitude, such as writing notes

of appreciation, can have a significant positive effect on

individuals’ life satisfaction and happiness. Now the power

of the counter-factual has also been established. As described

in Mind Matters:

“The researchers show that people prompted to write about how

a positive event may not have happened experience a greater

uptick in mood than those prompted to describe the positive

event.”

In other words, feeling appreciation for a relationship you

have may not make you feel as good as imagining what your life

might have been like if you had never met the person.

If this trick of mental subtraction (What if I’d never met my

husband?) works for relationships, it seems logical that it

works for other things too (What if I couldn’t get a Whopper?)

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Twitter Brand Engagement: Best Buy’s Twelpforce

Jul222009
Kipp Bodnar

Best Buy announced that it is going to use Twitter to answer customer’s electronic questions through it’s Twelpfroce twitter account.

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This idea isn’t new. Answering customer questions on Twitter has been done for a while now and made famous by Comcast. With most cases, including Comcast the questions came from current customers who had accounts and a team of Comcast employees would look up their account to determine the problem. With Best Buy the scale is much larger. They are trying to help anyone with a consumer electronics question and have developed an system to allow employees from across the country to respond to these questions.

What is the point? From a branding stand point Best Buy is striving to become/remain the consumer electronics expert. It is hard to think of a more wide sweeping approach to do display this attribute that constantly answering questions in real-time for everyone to see.

This is a bold move and if they can make the experience genuine and not feel like spam it can be a huge success.

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Phineas in the news

Jul172009
Bruce Hall

phineas-gage

From the blog of the British Psychological Society, comes the news that:

“A pair of photograph collectors in Maryland, USA, have uncovered what they believe to be the first and only ever photographic record of Phineas Gage -”.

We on the other hand, have the first and only bronze bust of the skull of Phineas, with tamping rod in situ.
If you’re interested, here’s the link.

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United Airlines Customer Service Nightmare!

Jul152009
Laura McAliley

Here’s a great social media story about customer service:

Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell are on tour. Dave checks his guitar, of course thinking that it should arrive safe – maybe late, but safe. Not exactly. In fact, a fellow passenger saw United Airlines employees throwing his guitar around on the tarmac. And, to boot, United Airlines refused to pay for the damage they caused. So, like any savvy musician these days, Dave and the Sons of Maxwell documented the customer service nightmare with a song and music video on YouTube.com:  “United Breaks Guitars”

Here’s another example of how the internet is a key tool consumers use to let companies know when they mess up – royally. It’s proof that sites like YouTube.com offer a customers an outlet to air their grievances with others en masse.

Customer service is key; especially in a down economy. One bad experience can be easily shared with millions via the internet. And consumers are more savvy to online outlets than ever before. It is also an example of why businesses today monitor social networks and blogs so they can respond quickly, before an issue becomes viral. Keep in mind – the original video was posted just two days ago. After 48 hours it had nearly 1.5 million views.

United did respond to this video via twitter: “This has struck a chord w/ us and we’ve contacted him directly to make it right.” In fact, Dave Carroll created a second video to share how United reacted.

Oh, and Taylor Guitars has offered to replace the guitar – now that’s good customer service.

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Monkeys are smarter than you

Jul132009
Bruce Hall

You thought you understood packaging? think again!

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Augmented Reality Game

Jul92009
Scott Piggott

I posted recently about an augmented reality shopping application. Pretty cool. But then I ran across this video for an augmented reality game. Very cool. Now we’re starting to see this technology reach it’s potential.

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International Creative Recognition

Jul82009
Laura Gross

HM&P received the Graphis Poster Annual 2010 Gold Award for its poster series for INVISTA’S CORDURA® Baselayer fabric.  The work is featured in the Graphis Poster Annual 2010, which was published earlier this year.

“Graphis has always been a source of inspiration for me. The annuals, from Design and Advertising to Posters and Photography, are filled with people I admire and look up to. To be included, is an honor,” said John Moore, senior art director at Howard, Merrell & Partners.

Graphis, the name of The International Journal of Visual Communication, was first published in 1944.  It has become a compelling record of the most significant and influential work in Design, Advertising and Photography past and present.  The Graphis Poster Annual is recognized as the world’s most respected Poster competition.

“The CORDURA® Baselayer fabric campaign has received significant creative recognition from multiple prestigious sources,” said Jim Cobb, president and CEO at Howard, Merrell & Partners.  “Award-winning work is testament to our ability to develop creative that emotionally engages target audiences and delivers results.”

Along with the Gold Graphis Award, the CORDURA® Baselayer fabric campaign has won the W3 Silver Award from the International Academy of Visual Arts, 1 gold, 2 silvers and a Judge’s Choice Award For Total Body of Work from the Addy Awards, a Hermes Creative Award, and an Award of Excellence from the Silver InSpire Awards.

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