So you've done your research, defined your target audience, established your objectives and determined what your message should be. What should you look for in creative? Everybody knows it's important to have your message stand out from the background noise of the marketplace, so you want to see something splashy or funny or clever or exceptionally striking in some way, right? Yes, but don't lose track of your basic marketing: the key is understanding your target audience. What motivates a teenager to buy a pair of sneakers is very different from what motivates a corporate engineer to purchase electronic parts or what motivates a senior citizen to choose a retirement home. If you understand who your targets are, what you want them to do and what will motivate them to do it (demographics, objectives and psychographics), you can craft the form and content of your message to have maximum influence on their behavior.
      This means that just being splashy, or funny, or striking isn't enough. You have to do these things plus deliver the right message to motivate the response you want. That's what creates sales results - the bottom line of any communications program. Believe me, it's very easy to get caught up in a terrific creative concept and forget that it's not quite the right message. That's the kind of creative that wins awards but, unfortunately, loses customers. Still, seeing awards down the line, some agencies will try to defend the concept as good creative. Which begs the question: does "good creative" mean good for you, or good for the agency?
       Without doubt, successful advertising still involves its share of smoke and mirrors (the intuitive response of your creative team) to tantalize your target audience. But effective programs still evolve primarily from marketing experience, psychology and good research.
      I should also mention that there are times when an exciting creative concept is just so much dead weight. In the B2B world, for example, your customer may be a professional buyer, whose job it is to find and try products just like yours. In that case, there is no need to create a desire for the product with a clever twist - the best approach will be a straightforward presentation of the features and benefits. A good buyer will know exactly what he's looking for, and the more clearly and simply you can state your case the better.
      As you scroll through the case histories in this section, remember that the story is not in the visuals (although some of them are pretty cool, if I do say so myself). The story is in the description of how the specific creative approach solves the specific marketing problem and why it's a better solution than something else which may have more raw visual appeal. As strange as it seems to say it, even simple design is not a simple design problem any more - it's a marketing problem first. And if you always keep that in mind, your marketing efforts will be the better for it!


Arts Council Lake Erie West is dedicated to bringing art into everyone's daily lives, primarily through classes for non-professionals in ACLEW facilities or at off-site locations. Their greatest communications problem was differentiating themselves from the other two major local arts entities, the Toledo Museum and the Toledo Arts Commission. The visual images of the latter two organizations are very formal and corporate looking, so it was decided to create a visual identity for ACLEW based on the playfulness of actually creating art. The resulting logo exhibits the paint splatters, cut and torn paper and stencil lettering often found in children's art classes (although put together more professionally) and sets ACLEW clearly apart from the other groups.


When Owens Corning acquired a company which produced phenolic resins, a key component of reinforced fiber glass materials, they folded it into the company as the Resins and Coatings Division. For the first time, the company had both matrix and reinforcement technology, and they stood at the forefront of reinforced plastic composites development. They wanted a visual signature (but not exactly a logo) for the division which would serve to identify the new business both inside and outside of the company and position them as the industry leader in reinforced materials. Our solution was a flexible horizontal banner element which could be used as a header or a signature and which could change length to adapt to different width pages. The Owens Corning corporate logo was tagged at the right end of the banner. The theme "The Cutting Edge" reflected the desired positioning. The division has since been sold off again.


Hause machines is a small but high quality manufacturer of all kinds of machines for all kinds of manufacturing. It had languished for years as a family business in a small community in northwest Ohio until a savvy investor identified them as a sleeping giant and purchased the company. We were hired to produce a marketing plan as aroadmap to the future, and part of the plan was to make the company look like the agressive, forward moving business its new owner hoped it would be. The new logo we designed as our first project reflected this thinking with its forward tilt, its beefy typography and the machine-like rotational energy generated by its outer shape.


The DeVilbissCompany, manufacturer of spray equipment worldwide and long one of Toledo's leading industries, had over the years developed significant export sales and wished to break that business into a separate division. We were asked to design a logo which kept the character of its basic corporate graphics with an international twist. Keeping the distinctive typography and familiar orange and black color scheme, we turned the traditional DeV ligature into a contemporary stylized globe. The globe by itself became a frequently used graphic elements in promotional materials, often with photos in one or more of the shapes. The company has since been purchased and moved out of Toledo by Ransburg.


Fifteen years ago, with area economic development agencies wrangling over jurisdictional disputes, a small local group formed to promote a regional identity which would transcend both political boundaries and territorial battles. The name offered: Lake Erie West. This identity would extend outward from the "Crossroads of America," the intersection of the nation's two busiest highways: I-80/90 and I-75. It would know no political boundaries and include many counties and municipalities and parts of two states at the western end of Lake Erie. Today that identity has been embraced by many regional communities, and even economic development agencies are acknowledging the wisdom of a non-political regional identy. This logo is commonly seen on literature from several communities and hundreds of companies in the Lake Erie West region.


Riverside Hospital had a brand new signature building on its campus; it had a brand new CEO; and it wanted a brand new identity to let people know what was happening. The identity system we delivered was friendly, professional, distinctive, functional, and gave a visual signal of the Riverside name. The color blue in American culture connotes cleanliness, cool precision and professionalism (and water, as well), so we used two hues of blue for the mark. The reverse white waves form a clean break between the more precise cross element and the friendlier wave forms.
       For twenty years the logo was a highly visible community presence on the side of the riverfront building, until its sale to ProMedica. The Riverside logo and accompanying system are no longer in use.


The J.B.Martin company is the world's largest manufacturer of velvet fabric, with headquarters in New York and production facilities in France and South Carolina. At the time they asked us to handle their marketing, however, their image within the industry was weak despite their dominance in sales. Our assignment was twofold: 1) to give them the proper image for a market leader and 2) to assist them in transferring certain velvet production technology to the advanced composites industry, where it could be used to reduce manufacturing costs of composite fabrics. This eight page brochure was the first step in our program.


Every year, the United Way annual campaign generates dozens of pieces of literature - yard signs, billboards, posters, flyers, ads, training materials, table tents - all created around a central visual theme. This program is one of several we created for the agency over a period of years. The slogan for this campaign was "United Way - the ONE WAY to Help the Most." We combined the ideas of United Way and a one way sign to reinforce the concept that United Way is really the only way to provide the most efficient use of your charitable dollar, therefore helping the most.
      Charities walk a fine line in communications between looking incompetent by producing poor material and looking like they waste money on advertising by producing pieces which are too glossy. The idea is to present a professional image, reassuring the donor that the agency is able to fulfill its mission effectively, but not look expensive in the process. One or two color (as opposed to full color) printing is one way to project the image of efficient use of marketing dollars.
      Imagery of people also requires a delicate balance, showing individuals in need but not looking so dour that it repels donors emotionally. The idea projected here subliminally is that these people are in need, but their cause is being addressed by United Way with your donations and their condition is improving as a result. Positive feedback, especially subliminally, satisfies donors with their gifts and make them more likely to give again in the future.


The Atkins & Pearce Company is the oldest American company west of the Ohio River, and count Eli Whitney as an early supplier during the days of the cotton economy. A&P braids materials (notably fiber glass) into such products as insulated sleeving, such as you might find inside the cord on your electric iron. All of their markets were classically mature and had low margins. They occupied several ancient downtown factory buildings in Cincinnatti, and were running 3,000 machines which were more than 100 years old. When they contacted us, they were on a long, flat sales plateau and had done virtually no marketing in years.
      On the bright side, their low overhead and fiscal restraint made them the low cost supplier in each of these same markets. Our charge was to make them more profitable and help them transfer their braiding technology into the advanced composites market. (For more on this, go to the Marketing section.)
      Following the development of a marketing plan, our first project was a corporate brochure to position them as leaders in their existing markets and as a player in advanced composites. The piece made reference to their beginnings with an old woodcut illustration on the cover and ended with a three-dimensional computer image of braid structure. Throughout, we presented contemporary images of their braided material juxtaposed with finished end products. Results? At the end of our first year with A&P, sales had doubled, from $10 million to $20 million. By the fourth year they had doubled again. By the fifth year, they had moved from their old buildings in Cincinnatti to their own brand new industrial park in Kentucky.


Atlas World Travel specializes in travel packages as incentive programs for corporate executives. In this slim brochure, we tantalized the target audience with photos from the most exotic of locations, presenting food, wine and adventure as a fantasy which can be realized. From golfing in Las Vegas to SCUBA diving in Bermuda; from Caribbean cruises to Bora Bora beaches; from Bangkok tea rooms to Paris coffee houses; lyrical copy and romantic photography paint an enticing picture of travel, adventure and new experiences as a performance incentive.



Owens Corning Fabrication Centers are regional manufacturing facilities which process a complete range of the company's glass fiber products in any imaginable way: cutting into shapes, compressing into sheets, drilling, molding into forms, laminating onto facings of virtually any material. These processed forms are used primarily as thermal or accoustic barriers in products such as autos, appliances, tools, equipment and machinery. The parts are generally OEM, and the target market includes manufactureres in a number of different industries.
      When we were asked to promote these centers, direct mail was our first option, since the targets could be easily isolated (engineers and engineering management at manufacturers in relevant industries) and numbered only in the hundreds. There were also good lists for all target industries. The target list was small and the possible return for each target high, so a relatively high unit cost was approved for the mailers.
      Since the targets were engineers, who like to touch and feel, we used actual products in custom shipping cartons. The dimensionality also had considerably greater impact than a paper brochure at the receiving end. The first two mailers were teasers, each with a shaped and faced glass fiber product shipped in a carton. The third mailer had nine different products, each processed in a different way, in an eggcrate interior and included a brochure with the complete story. The graphics on the inside lid of the mailers featured a bold list of products and processes the centers could provide.


Katie Cappellini's first run for public office was in Sylvania, a heavily Republican suburb, where she successfully took on the establishment to land a seat on City Council. Running without party affilliation, her message had to carry the day, and the aggressivetheme we created for her, "Rock the Boat," was so successful that voters gave her a wide margin of victory over her Republican rival.
      For starters, the bright orange campaign color was very unusual for a political campaign and stood out easily from the advertising of the other candidates. Her campaign promotion included T-shirt handouts, flyers, yard signs, newspaper ads and a series of direct mail postcards targeting different issues on which City Council was not making progress. In addition, we created a website to tell her story and showcase her columns as a regular editorial writer for the Sylvania Advantage.
      We also created a viral marketing program for teens who were new voters, which included a MySpace page, mailers, T shirts and flyers with edgy typography to appeal to that demographic. She had a high profile with this segment and her message of "Rock the Boat" was a perfect anti-establishment vehicle for this age group. A teen garage band, "The Boat Rockers," was formed and played at her events. Her victory was so solid that she was unopposed at the next election.


The Aeroquip Corporation relies heavily on the NASCAR racing program to promote its line of "performance" hose and fittings, and when we were asked to design a new line of clamshell pegboard packaging, we stayed within the metaphor, using racing photography as a background on the card hangers.
      When we discovered the cost of shooting a real numberred car with an identifiable driver, we realized we would have to go generic. A mockup grandstand (with an Aeroquip logo conveniently evident) was created as a background, and a Matchbox car hand-painted in Aeroquip colors was pulled across in front of it with a string (which was edited out of the shot later). The camera panned with the car, creating a blur of the grandstand and creating just enough realistic motion on the car itself that no one, including the client, realized that it wasn't a real race or a real car! The photo (royalty-free, of course) was such a hit that it was used in advertising and many publications.


With the acquisition of new resins and coatings technology to add to their industrial glass fiber reinforcement, Owens Corning had the total package of matrices and reinforcements for the composites industry. They were ready to talk about their position as a supplier in the advanced composites market.
      We produced this 20' trade show exhibit and appeared at several major composites shows on the west coast. Featuring end products with their materials in bath fixtures, recreational equipment and military armor, the company began to position itself as a major player by promoting their "expanding composite capabilities."
     This was one of dozens of major trade show exhibits we have produced for use around the country by Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Champion Spark Plug, Atkins & Pearce and other clients.



The Fremont Company, in Fremont, Ohio, is the world's largest packer of kraut. They can, bottle or bag a broad variety of beans, tomatoes and tomato products as well. They produce three brands: SnowFloss, Frank's and Wautauga, which supply different geographic regions from Wisconsin to North Carolina.
      After several years, we finally talked them into redesigning their outdated packaging. Frank's two color cans, in particular, needed a face lift (see original can at far right). We brightened their signature "cabbage green" into lime green and replaced ancient woodcut illustrations of cabbages with high quality product photos in full color using modern chef's utensils in the shot where possible. We also modernized the typography, matching type color with the color of the product inside.
      By retaining the essential color and familiar black half oval, we found no drop-off in sales to previous customers, but experienced a big boost in new buyers, thanks to the richer and much more appetizing photography.