AW Spotlight: Meet the 2016 Addison Whitney Summer Interns!
Every summer, Addison Whitney welcomes an outstanding group of college students into the office as our summer interns! This year, our class consists of four interns representing three schools from around the area – these four will be working in the marketing, brand strategy, market research and verbal branding departments, and we are excited to have them on board this summer!
Now, let’s learn a little more about the AW summer 2016 intern class!
Name: Trish Drees
Department: Marketing
School: UNC Chapel Hill
What is your favorite brand? My favorite brand is Lululemon because it offers high quality products that empower its customers (and it makes me feel like I am better at working out than I actually am).
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? I hope to learn the keys to setting up a successful Google Adwords campaign, and how to analyze the information gathered from the campaign to reach more people efficiently.
Name: Dustin Dodd
Department: Brand Strategy
School: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
What is your favorite brand? Taco Bell – Taco Bell is a brand that knows how and where to reach its target audience. The brand is successful on basically every relevant social media platform and was one of the first brands to successfully utilize SnapChat. More importantly, Taco Bell understands its brand identity and lives by it unapologetically.
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? I hope to learn the processes behind developing relevant and functional brand strategy. Whether it be a brand positioning project or a complex brand architecture project, I am looking forward to learning what it takes to create a successful brand.
Name: Taylor Jennings
Department: Market Research
School: Wake Forest University
What is your favorite brand? Hershey’s – because I have the biggest sweet tooth of all time and I can’t get through the day without having a piece of chocolate.
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? I’m hoping to learn the behind-the-scenes action of branding. I don’t think a lot of people realize or know what all goes into the process of making a brand. I’ve already learned so much in my first week and am looking forward to learning more.
Name: Natalie Cascario
Department: Verbal Branding
School: Wake Forest University
What is your favorite brand? My favorite brand is Amazon. One man's idea of how to take advantage of internet turned into a fast-growing brand that now, two decades later, is a common household brand.
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? I really hope to improve my understanding of brands and the overall branding process.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands. To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Intern Intro: Meet the 2015 AW Summer Interns!
Every summer, Addison Whitney welcomes an outstanding group of college students into the office as our summer interns! This year, our class consists of four interns representing three schools from around the area - these four will be working in the marketing, brand strategy, market research and verbal branding departments, and we are excited to have them on board this summer!
Now, let's learn a little more about the AW summer 2015 intern class!
Name: Caroline Beuley
Department: Marketing
School: University of Virginia
Favorite brand: Diet Coke - because Taylor Swift can't be wrong and also because it's more important than water and food to my daily functioning.
What do you want to learn this summer at AW? I would love to learn about online, and especially social media, marketing strategies that companies have effectively implemented and how they accomplished them because I think social media is so relevant for the recent and incoming generations of marketing employees.
Name: Alexandra Irvine
Department: Market Research
School: Wake Forest University
What is your favorite brand? Starbucks - Coffee is my love, and Tyvek - My Dad and Brother work for DuPont and I just love the way Tyvek rolls off the tongue.
What do you want to learn this summer at AW? At AW I hope to learn how exactly market research is used to help create strong brand names and the benefits to using such an approach.
Name: Caroline Lewis
Department: Brand Strategy
School: Wake Forest University
What is your favorite brand? My favorite brand is Starbucks because think it is really fascinating how the company managed to transform the coffee industry and the way that the majority of Americans drink coffee. Starbucks chose to center their brand not only around their product, but also their atmosphere. Because of this, they have built a huge following of loyal customers who love to visit its stores for both its food and drinks as well as its ambiance.
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? More about branding and brand strategy.
Name: Drew Maurer
Department: Verbal Branding
School: Davidson College
What is your favorite brand? Levi's and Coca-Cola - I like how both brands are able to play on their heritage and a sense of nostalgia without coming across as saccharine or overly sentimental. I also like how both brands favor direct, striking visuals.
What is one thing you hope to learn this summer at AW? The thing I’m most looking forward to learning this summer is the nuts and bolts of branding, and how the process of branding works beyond what the consumer actually sees as the end product.
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.
Jobs: Past and Present
Ask someone who Steve Jobs is and they’ll say the founder of Apple, the guy who gave us the iPod, iPhone and iPad, among so many other things. Some, like myself, will go as far as saying the guy who taught us the importance of a strong, consistent brand.
Tomorrow with the opening of JOBS, the official Steve Jobs movie, the world will get a look into the life of the great Steve Jobs.
To celebrate, let’s take a step back in time and enjoy a clip from the 2001 WWDC where Steve Jobs first unveiled the truly revolutionary iPod.
Still need a little more Steve Jobs? Check out the official trailer for JOBS. If you’re not already excited for this movie, I think this trailer will do the trick. Enjoy!
Musical Festivals: A Branded Experience
In the 1960’s and 70’s, when music festivals began to rise in popularity, they were predominately about rebelling against commercial and corporate gimmicks, and primarily focused on peace, love and, of course, music. Fast forward to 2013 and corporate promotions and branded experiences are as synonymous with music festivals as the music itself.
Music festivals have become a multi-billion dollar industry and an excellent opportunity for brands to reach the hundreds-of-thousands of festival goers each year. Sponsorships for these festivals by big brands payoff for all parties involved. The festivals reap the benefits which, in turn, helps provide a better festival experience for attendees, and the attendees benefit from the amenities and giveaways (often festival essential) from the brands. What’s in it for the brands? Well, they gain awareness – and a lot of it.
A summer 2011 Havas Sports and Entertainment study and found that out of 2,244 respondents, only TWO didn’t notice any sponsorship while at a festival, 36 percent said they were more likely to purchase a sponsor’s product after experiencing their activation at the festival, and a whopping six out of every 10 brands on site could be recalled by fans.
Fredda Hurwitz, global VP of strategic planning, marketing & communications at Havas Sports commented: “Our research does much to dispel the view that music festivals are a dangerous arena for brand sponsors, and suggests brands are a welcome part of the festival experience if they develop activations that add value.”
Creating a memorable, exciting or unique experience at a music festival is what will set a successful sponsorship apart from those following the not-so-impactful route of traditional signage. When a fan attends a festival, they are seeking an experience, and that doesn’t stop at the bands they come to see, but is carried over to the brands they choose to interact with. There isn’t a right or wrong way to approach a festival sponsorship; to be successful, it just has to make sense. With summer music festivals kicking into high gear let’s take a look at three different types of brand sponsorships from one of the most popular (and branded) music festivals, Bonnaroo. You’ll see that each of these approaches provides a different, but equally creative way to promote brands.
- L’oreal Garnier Fructis: More than 80,000 people travel to a remote 700-acre farm in Tennessee each June for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Knowing the attendees would be outside day and night listening music on multiple stages, Garnier Fructis provided practical services, such as free hair-washing and styling in a 40- by 40-foot air-conditioned tent. In an area where trees are scarce and the temperatures regularly reach 90+ degrees, the desire to cleanse yourself of yesterday’s sweat all of a sudden becomes pretty strong.
- Philips: Philips sponsored a silent disco at Bonnaroo. The company provided 400 of its new CitiScape Collection headphones for guests to wear to listen to tunes being spun by two DJs. In this situation attendees were able to experience firsthand the sound quality and silencing ability of the headphones in a fun, party-like atmosphere.
- Ford: Ford dubbed its tent at Bonnaroo "Destination Escape," playing on the name of its Escape vehicle that was displayed outside the tent. Inside, festivalgoers could cool off in the air-conditioned space, listen to live performances and charge their phones. While this essential phone charging service is not directly tied to what Ford’s Escape vehicle provides its users, it certainly generated a ton of exposure for the vehicle.
For additional info on other branded experiences at Bonnaroo, check out Bizbash’s slide show here, and to learn about sponsorships at other festivals, the online pub has produced a similar list extending past Bonnaroo.
Cable Networks Rebrand to Stay Ahead of the Game
TV is a tough business, and the competition for both viewers and advertisers is cut throat. After all, they’re the two factors in keeping a station afloat. So with the ever-growing popularity of DVR, online programming, social media and an impressively long list of channels, the cable landscape is changing. And with that so too have the networks’ branding challenges.
Cable used to be defined by clear-cut niche programming and stations that replayed old movies, and syndicated sitcoms, but to keep up with each other the lines have blurred, and original (not to mention more diverse) content is starting to pop-up on cable networks at every click; which is exactly why networks are feeling the need to rebrand and reposition their brands more than ever before.
There is a growing list of channels overhauling their identities, but let’s take a deeper dive into these three examples below and see what they did to help set their networks apart from the competition.
In May 2012 TV Land the original station for those of us who love old sitcoms introduced an updated logo and new tagline “laugh more,” both of which were developed to broaden the TV Land brand and the programming it offered.
The logo speaks to the modernization of channel, and showcase that TV Land is about combining acquisitions and creating original sitcoms – all intended to make you, that’s right, laugh more.
E! Entertainment, one of the original purveyors of pop culture gossip (and everyone’s guilty pleasure) announced at their April 2012 upfront presentation that they would be introducing an updated logo and tagline. The new logo and tagline are intended to speak to the fact that E! has always been the epicenter of pop culture, and that the network’s next chapter is all about never letting anyone go a minute without their pop culture.
E! is also looking to rebrand itself on air by introducing scripted series and adding to its already existing reality and documentary series.
Of the three examples, Comedy Central’s rebrand is certainly the most drastic and has the best story to tell. Their old logo, the globe with buildings coming out of it, was hard to adjust into the digital age. One blogger wrote that the old Comedy Central logo was “like showing up in a Hawaiian shirt at a Fortune 500 company.” The old logo no longer fit the identity of the channel nor did it reach their younger audience.
The new logo, a “C” tucked inside an upside “C” bears a striking resemblance to the copyright symbol, which some have said shows the new Comedy Central logo subtly suggests that they’ve got a lock on laughs. Clever and funny, don’t you think? While at first glance this logo may not seem to capture what Comedy Central stands for, I bet now you might think differently.
Welcome Garrett Lee Jobes
We are so excited to welcome Garrett Lee Jobes into the world, and congratulate Allison and Andy with their new blessing. Garrett was born at 8:15pm on Wednesday, May 11, weighing 7lbs, 10oz and 20.5 inches long.
Allison is a member of Addison Whitney's Verbal Branding Department, and our entire team has been speculating on what this creative gal would name her son. Garrett is the fourth generation of Lee in their family.
Congratulations Allison and Andy. We can't wait to meet the new addition!!
Welcome Emmerson Rose Everidge
The entire Addison Whitney team would like to welcome Emmerson Rose Everidge to our family. As our newest "designer-in-training", Emmerson will learn from the best, our very own Kristin Everidge, Manager of Visual Branding.
Baby E was born April 28th at 7:53am, weighing 8lbs, 10oz and 20 1/4" long. Congratulations Kristin and Brannon. We are so happy for you!!
Introducing Insperity
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For those of you who have been following our recent tweases (Twitter teases) noted by our hashtag #AW3095, you already know the news. For everyone else, it’s our pleasure to introduce Insperity, formerly Administaff.
Addison Whitney has been working with the Insperity team since February 2009 and is so proud of its team’s hard work throughout the process, and especially at the launch some members of our team were lucky enough to attend.
We are excited to begin our Insperity series to highlight the key steps from throughout our more than two year relationship with the Insperity team. Throughout each post we will give you some insight into things we learned or just fun facts from each phase.
Here are some headlines to get you excited and coming back for a double dip of Brand Salsa.
- Market Research – gathering key insights from current and future customers
- Brand Strategy – who are we and what to do with all of these offerings and brands
- Verbal Branding – farewell Administaff, hello Insperity
- Visual Branding – Insperity’s new look and feel
- Brand Rollout – dancing in the streets of Houston
- What Makes a Great Project Team – we’ll tell you because we worked with a fantastic one at Insperity
Stay tuned!
Be a Light to the Village
For our December Helping Hands event, AW chose to sponsor the Christmas Village Toy Store at the request of one of our visual designers. It is a suggestion that many AW employees embraced, as the excitement of children at Christmas far outweighs our own as adults.
The inspiration came in 2006 for The Christmas Village Toy Store, a collaborative effort among several area churches that is designed to empower and develop at-risk urban communities in Charlotte. The store itself preserves and promotes joy and dignity at Christmas by engaging a free market system, allowing shoppers to pay a discounted price for desired items rather than be forced to accept “charity.”
Both those who donate toys or volunteer their time and shoppers who purchase toys contribute to store profits that are reinvested into the local community through educational grants and scholarships. Because of this, even the shoppers at the Toy Store are “paying it forward” into their own communities.
Addison Whitney was able to donate several boxes and bags full of toys for children ranging in age from infant to teenager. There were dolls, mp3 players, blocks, books, bath accessories and much more. In addition to donating toys, several employees, along with their friends or spouses, volunteered their time to helping the Toy Store prepare and run the shopping events. We were represented as toy pricers and parking lot attendants.
We would like to say thank you to Warehouse 242 and the other Charlotte-area churches who are part of the Christmas Village Toy Store for allowing us the opportunity to give to such an amazing organization. We look forward to being part of the initiative in the future, whether as individuals or as a company.
A Fresh Start
Sarah is a Charlotte-area junior who has been a Girl Scout for ten years.
She is now in the final stage of earning her Gold Award.
Much like the Eagle Award is to the Boy Scouts of America, the Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA. Only about 5% of eligible Scouts successfully earn the prestigious award. The Scout must complete 30 hours of leadership work, 40 hours of career exploration, and the 4Bs Challenge during which the scout identifies key needs in her community. After those steps have been taken, she must complete a service project. This service project must extend beyond GSUSA and provide a lasting benefit. It requires a minimum of 65 hours of work.
Sarah says that the homelessness crisis in Charlotte has been a passion of hers for many years, primarily due to her mother’s involvement with the Urban Ministry Center for almost half of Sarah’s life. Because of this, it was an easy decision for Sarah to determine her Gold Award project, as she has grown up working with homeless people.
For her project, called “A Fresh Start,” she is compiling 85 laundry baskets full of basic household items, including dish detergent, washcloths, hangers and sponges, to be donated to the upcoming residents of Charlotte’s newly constructed Moore Place, a housing facility built by the Urban Ministry Center. Moore Place will be Charlotte’s first permanent supportive home built to give a roof to chronically homeless men and women. Sarah’s aim is to provide these baskets as a house warming gift and starter pack.
As a Helping Hands event for November, Addison Whitney collected enough goods to fill two laundry baskets with the household items. These items will benefit two new residents of Moore Place and will make a dramatic impact in getting these new residents settled in their new homes.
Sarah plans to help the residents move in and hopes to continue working with them long after their first bottle of laundry detergent runs out.
If you’d like to put together a basket for Sarah’s project, please visit her website.
You can read more about Moore Place here.