Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Time to Stop Texting and Driving

Texting and driving has become an epidemic of deadly proportions. Working with the Ad Council, The Concept  Farm has created an integrated campaign with many different executions under one unified theme, “Stop The Texts. Stop The Wrecks.” Our goal is to get America to share their ideas on how to fix the problem and optimize our messaging to change behavior and save more lives. Please visit stoptextsstopwrecks.org to see the work and share your thoughts.stoptextsstopwrecks

Posted by Matt

The Concept Farm has been named on Ad Age’s first-ever Best Places to Work list in Marketing & Media. Only 30 agencies across the U.S. made the exclusive list and, of those, we were among only 10 that were profiled for the story.

It’s great to see the Concept Farm get the recognition it deserves for being such a unique place that values creativity, collaboration and a sense of humor.

For our clients, this great work environment translates into better ideas, more efficiently executed. No drama. No waste. http://bit.ly/9cS9S2ad-age-best-places-logo-200px1

Posted by kristin

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

The Concept Farm—Digital Brand Builders

The Windstream Green Truck

The Windstream Green Truck

According to Nielsen, TV is still king. But for how long? And how many advertisers can afford a sustained TV effort? Sure viral is a niche, and social media is as well. And display is a lousy creative medium. How many people are actually watching time shifted TV online? Search holds me hostage. None of these issues are that important taken individually. When you put them all together, deal with the problems, and you look at the gross Brand Building potential, Digital becomes your # 1 communications channel. And it must be # 1, because Digital is the preferred way that people choose to consume Brand information today.

At the Concept Farm, Digital and Brand Building are one and the same. We recognize the need (and corresponding expense) for traditional media in many cases, and we do it very well. However, the rise of online video and social media has brought forth the need for Brand Building skills formerly reserved for big traditional media based efforts.

At the heart of our Digital Brand Building is the fact that people gravitate to, and spend more time with the most “likable” brands. Digital gives clients the ability to present the multiple “likable” facets to a brand that traditional advertising does not.

The greatest opportunity online to enhance your brand’s “likability” is through digital video. Online video, more than any other digital medium, creates the need for strong Brand Building strategic skills. Whenever we set out to increase a Brand’s “Likability”, we begin with research that helps us uncover the passions and aspirations at relate purchasing in the category. From these category passions and aspirations, we are able to identify Brand Insights that create differentiation and preference. But only when great creative is applied.

Windstream Communications is a great example of how passions + aspirations + insights + great creative leads to effective Digital Brand Building. Research told us what we already knew. People dislike telecoms and cable companies. Drawing on the inset that people trusted local providers much more than out-of-town carpet baggers, we leveraged the small town roots of the multiple-billion telecom operating in 17 Southern and Midwestern states. As a result, the “Green Truck” was born, providing consumers with all the connectivity to the world that they can imagine. And we’ve won every Time Warner and Cox battle that we’ve waged along the way. All because of the extreme “likability” of the brand we’ve created in a world of Digital shopping (with a hefty but shrinking TV budget).

Posted by Blake

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Not All Sports Audiences Are Created Equal

Jon Last had a great post last week on the MediaPost Marketing:Sports blog. Jon makes a great point about level of fan engagement and how it can increase ROI for sports sponsorships. As we know with our work for ESPN, Versus and Disney’s Wide World of Sports Resort, reaching a fan base with a true passion and affinity for your brand (or your sport) with more targeted messaging and media will result in much more visceral impact. They’ll remember the work; they’ll share it with friends; and, ultimately, you’ll see them act on it. That level of engagement will see more sales, more viewers, or more revenue for sponsors. http://bit.ly/ahnT0e

Posted by kristin