We had some fun putting together this little holiday video… And eating the supplies for the holiday video…
Drake Cooper “Be Merry” from Drake Cooper on Vimeo.
We also put together a holiday recipe book filled with tasty things to eat and drink this holiday season. You can download it here. All recipes are ones that we at DC make in our homes this time of year.
Enjoy! And cheers to a merry holiday season.
What happens when you go from being picked first, to picked last? What do you do when you once stood on top of the mountain looking down, and are now standing on a hill peering up? Time for a change.
Pepsi, for the last few years has been pitching the idea of their Pepsi-Cola brand to be rainbows and sunshine, straying away from the sugary, carbonated sweetness that made the brand the soda giant that it is today … or wait. Is not? Last year, Pepsi sank to number three, behind Coke and Diet Coke. For the past three years, Pepsi has been focusing on positioning itself as a natural, health-conscious brand, detouring from its celebrity child, Pepsi-Cola.
Last year, the company spent 153 million on advertising (about a third of what it was spending from 2005). This year change is a comin’. The company not only has decided to shift back to its prized product, Pepsi-Cola, as the focal point of its advertising, but has also increased proposed tv advertising expenditures by 30%.
Pepsi’s new campaign is geared around the concept of “Summer Time Is Pepsi Time”, working in conjunction with large amounts of tv advertising and a sponsorship deal with X Factor. The change they have made has allowed for North America beverage sales to increase 2% in the first quarter of 2011 (WSJ).
This brings me to a book I read during my undergraduate career – The Dip by Seth Godin. If you haven’t read it yet, do so. When things are no longer producing desired outcomes and what was once thriving is no longer – a change is necessary. Most products go through a “dip”, a change in likability or favorability. As a company, a product or a service – a choice has to be made. Do you succumb to the thought, the action of not being the first choice, or do you change to get back where you want to be? Building your brand or becoming, being or maintaining the crème of the crop position is about being able to adapt and change. If something is not working – change it.
The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the advertising event of the year. Over 20,000 pieces of creative advertising material from across the world are judged at this event. If you receive an award, you have welcomed temporary greatness. Temporary, because you better believe your competition is brewing and boiling with ideas to surpass your last.
In the advertising business, we live, breath, eat, sleep, read, BECOME competition. It is the light to our day, the wake to our hardly sleep, the coffee in our cup. When events such as the Cannes take place, we glue down our derrieres to see what the world has to offer; who can we beat or strive to become. We sit and analyze every word, action, prop and placement – what could we have done, what would have we done. This industry is not for the faint of heart. If we see someone do something extraordinary, we are driven and determined to one-up them.
The beauty behind events such as Cannes is that it exponentially increases the creative edge of any great agency. We can’t help but want to get back to the office to explode into a rapid fire of creativity. The great and memorable ads, such as Apple’s 1984, have set the stage for creative genius. Every year, something newer is launched, like 2005’s Sony Bravia, 2008’s Monster.com “stork”, to this year’s Puma: After Hours Athlete, the Outdoor Grand Prix winner Jay-Z’s “Decoded” (Droga5) and the Grand Prix winner, Nike: Write the Future (Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam); each surpassing the last, in one shape or form, creating a memorable experience, noting its place in history.
Some detour from competition, from strength in progress, however, we invite it. Competition fuels greatness. We are passionate about providing the best options to every client that walks into our door. They do not come asking for mediocrity, copy-cats or stagnant ideas. Props to our industry comrades for your wins, for you have given us fuel to our ever-burning fire.
Creative Job Openings
In traditional Chinese medicine, health is managed by treating the seven basic emotions. Anger lives in the liver; worry in the spleen; pensiveness in the stomach; sadness in the lungs; fear in the kidneys; and joy and shock both affect the heart.*
At Drake Cooper, creative health is managed by cultivating the following seven vitals. Moxie, imagination, beer, tenacity, hard work, levity, and style.
We are looking for a Senior Writer and a Production Designer with mega healthy, wowy-vitals. For more information, give our job posting a thorough examination.
Stethoscope not included.
*Source: HowStuffWorks.com
Another award season down, another successful evening of fun and mingling with talented creative peeps in Idaho. This year we’re happy to report that Drake Cooper took home 17 Rockies at the Idaho Ad Federation’s award show. Among the total were 6 Golds, 11 Silvers and a dozen citations of excellence. This year we also took home 3 Silver NW ADDYS® at the 2011 Northwest ADDY® Awards Competition.
We share these awards with the following DC clients: Idaho Travel Council, CBH Homes, 44º North Vodka, Bodybuilding.com, United Dairymen of Idaho, Idaho Department of Commerce, Keynetics, Idaho Department of Agriculture Idaho Preferred, Kount and Boise Bicycle Project. Here’s how it all shook out:
Gold Rockies
- Bodybuilding.com | LIFT LIFE Magazine Campaign
- Idaho Travel Council | Idaho WINter Installation
- Idaho Department of Agriculture Idaho Preferred | Trade Show Booth
- CBH Homes | Shiny New Awesome Web Video Series
- 44º North Vodka | Consumer Marketing Materials
- United Dairymen of Idaho | I Like Milk TV Campaign
Silver Rockies
- Idaho Travel Council | Idaho WINter Installation & Campaign
- Boise Advertising Federation | 2010 Rockies Award Show Collateral
- Boise Advertising Federation | 2010 Rockies Award Show Campaign
- 44º North Vodka | Distilled By Earth & Sky Newspaper Ad
- 44º North Vodka | 44º North Vodka Website
- Idaho Department of Commerce | Skinet.com Interactive Magazine Digital Insert
- Keynetics | Keynetics Website
- Keynetics | Keynetics Identity/Stationary Package
- Boise Bicycle Project | Boise Bicycle Project Event Posters
- Kount | Kount Business Cards
- Idaho Department of Commerce | Lewis & Clark in Idaho Website
Congratulations are also due for Dave Cook and his talented cohorts over at Stoltz Marketing Group for reeling in the “Best of Show” award for their work on the United Way Treasure Valley campaign. Big ups to Dave on a personal note for receiving the Silver Medal Award and forever being enshrined into the IAF Hall of Fame.
A complete listing of the IAF Rockie Award winners can be seen here.
It just looks like a 3D-kinetic-paper-sculpture thingumbob. Or, Behind-The-Scenes of the Idaho Winter Campaign.
In traditional print advertising, placement is key. It’s all about reaching the right audience at the right place, at the right time. Different media outlets and publications are combined to achieve a desired reach and frequency level, and all that. That is so old school, though.
When Drake Cooper was asked by the Idaho Division of Tourism to find new ways to bring the Idaho Winter Adventure to life, we decided it was time to get off the page and get out into the real world. With the primary target of neighboring Northwest metropolitan areas, we installed a giant paper snow sculpture in one of the most heavily traveled areas, the Bellevue Square in downtown Bellevue. With a holiday foot traffic of over 120,000 shoppers a day, this opportunity proved to be a no-brainer considering that a print ad may take up to one month to reach just 400,000 impressions.
Under the call-to-action moniker “Tear it up,” shoppers are treated to a visually arresting installation constructed by Hens & Chicks Collective as an artful reminder of Idaho’s wide-open winter escapes and jaw-dropping snow assets, and adventure possibilities.
(This is the trailer for the Tear It Up Installation. The making-of-video is even more awesome, with behind-the-scenes look at how Hens & Chicks Collective work.)
At several kiosks on site, visitors were prompted to visit the Idaho Winter website every week in order to enter to win a series of impressive prize packages in any of Idahoʼs deluxe key resort destinations. Even Jake Moe, co-founder of Powder Magazine, was on hand to answer questions about Idaho snow. Visitors to the website could check out current powder conditions, learn about other Idaho resorts, watch the behind the scenes video on the massive snow sculpture, and share with friends via Facebook and Twitter.
Call it luck, or some insider strategery, the installation launched just 50 yards from the grand opening of the Bellevue Square Microsoft Store. This event drew large crowds and long lines along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and celebs like Apolo Anton Ohno, Dave Mathews Band, and Miley Cyrus. This flips the idea of distribution—the audience comes to us.
One further nod to Microsoft was the integration of Microsoft Tag technology for the QR codes on the display. This allowed people to access the Idaho winter website by simply using their mobile devices to snap an image of the code, go online, and enter the contest.
The results? With over 21,000 website visitors, 11,000+ sweepstakes entries, 6,119 partner opt-ins, 20 promotional offers (both online and at Bellevue Square)—the winter installation “ad” thingumbob is going strong.
High-Fives to all the suppliers and partners that donated over $30,000 in prizes.
Shout-Out: Idaho Division of Tourism, Idaho Film Office, Ski Idaho, Sun Valley Resort, Brundage, Schweitzer, Grand Targhee, Horizon Air, Smith Optics, EpicQuest, Kemper Development Company, Vision Marketing, Kira, Sara, and Shannon with Hens & Chicks Artist Collective, Mitch Mattraw with Cabfare productions, Lisa Gerber, Jennie Myers, Joe Quatrone, Josh Mercaldo, Justin Yonk, Lindsay Shumate, Amanda Cash-Crowley.
Simplot Custom Foods Branding and Messaging
In the business-to-business side of the food industry, what goes into building a strong brand is all about putting other brands first.
As a division of J.R. Simplot Corporation, Simplot Custom Foods is riding on an 87-year legacy of building some of the largest restaurant brands. While Simplot is mostly famous for perfecting french fries and potatoes for thousands of restaurants, they’re a new player in private label retail and consumer packaging goods.
Drake Cooper was tapped to help establish Simplot Custom Foods as a “one-stop frozen food megastore” for buyers for supermarkets and national brands. Not only could they offer hundreds of vegetable blends, potato products, meals, sandwiches, and bowls in over 200 configurations—Simplot Custom Foods also provides extensive packaging capabilities, R&D resources, and a widespread, already-in-place distribution network.
While this is all good, hurling around statistics and logistics was only going to add to the clutter in this competitive set. The goal was to create a brand identity and messaging that put the retail customer and buyer first.
The messaging articulated the key insight in a simple new tag, “The Goods Behind Your Good Name.” This simple statement speaks to the business reality of being able to provide frozen food of such a high caliber that any brand would be proud to put its name on the label. Think of it as the matryoshka-doll brand strategy, where all the good things are on the inside.
The new messaging, brand identity, multi-quad tradeshow booth, and trade ad were unveiled to the public at the annual Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) show on November 12th in Chicago.
And to pull it all together, a new website designed and launched during the tradeshow: www.simplotcustomfoods.com
Congratulations and thanks to Simplot Custom Foods.
Shout-out: Mona Teffeteller, John Drake, Jennie Myers, Sean D. Young, Chad Connally, Karma Jones, Amanda Cash-Crowley.
Drake Cooper ID Featured In Design Collection
All of us at Drake Cooper were more-than-pleasantly surprised to see our Drake Cooper business card design featured in 1000 More Graphic Elements from Rockport Publishers. This collection authored by The Grant Design Collaborative features a wide variety of printed pieces using “unique finishes and materials” that “create a viewer experience and transform a printed piece into a gift waiting to be opened.” The thousand pieces featured elements such as unique printing materials, graphic embellishments, manipulated surfaces, bindings, and more.
The Drake Cooper business card design consists of printed shells of super-thick 140 pound Panache smooth white stock with a simple logo with spot foil. The contact for each employee is then hand stamped by each employee, as-needed, using a metallic ink pad. This approach allows for branding that communicates Drake Cooper’s indie attitude with one-of-a-kind cards.
Big thanks to The Grant Design Collaborative and big kudos to Jennie Myers, Karma Jones, and Bindery Services, Inc.
Hey us, it's we.
Order 1000 More Graphic Elements here.