Who doesn't love a good print ad? I know I do. I love the ones that aren't afraid to reach out and grab your attention through a striking image or creative wordplay. I especially love the ones that find that boundary between what is and what is not acceptable and confidently place their toe right over that line.
A campaign to build excitement (and some controversy) by playing a the bright colors of the advertising against a darker, humorous tone of life's big events. The things you thought in the back of your mind while wishing someone a happy birthday, or congratulating them on their promotion — well, they were on full display in this campaign.
This ad appeared as part of a weekly football fan pick 'em contest. The promotion was sponsored by Mark Schlereth's Stinkin' Good Green Chile.
For a paint-by-numbers institution, this ad was edgy compared to most marketing for the school. It designed to attract a younger audience to the new Visual Communication program — and it worked. A lot of internal debate was involved to get this published, and it made the 'suits' nervous given that their traditional client was a working adult aged 35+.
The ad channeled the retro vibe of Rat Pack-era Las Vegas. For a Colorado Casino that promoted itself as the only Las Vegas-style casino in Cripple Creek, this campaign came up aces.
Remember at the beginning of this gallery when I mentioned eye-grabbing images. Well, 10 years ago covering a car in a football texture and retaining the basic tonal values was no easy deal. Still, the client looked at it and said 'This is agency quality work!' which is admittedly funny to me as I was working for the agency he hired to do just this kind of work.
When you're a sales rep trying to land a big-time advertiser, you call in the big guns (me). This ad campaign was quickly bought by Land Rover and made the rep a pretty penny in commission. I saw none of that of course, but the resulting ads and response rate for the client were pretty darn cool.
When a home builder who makes economical housing wants to start an old fashioned neighborhood, how do you promote it? Especially when the area is ethnically diverse. You build an ad campaign that elicits the pride of home ownership and faith in the American dream. It also helps if you creatie it so that it's highly templated so you can drop in images that cater to specific demographic profiles on a whim.
Social media is big, and the simple truth is that most small businesses have no idea how to tap into its power. So what does a newspaper do? It creates print ads that pimp their effectiveness ad promoting companies on Facebook. Okay, so there's a bit of sarcasm in that comment, but hey, it worked and they got people to pay $40 a month for something they could have done themselves for free — now that entrepreneurial thinking!
A simple ad done very well to promote a weekend getaway to a Boise State Broncos football game.
Now this one was really fun. Fortunately the client loves to have fun in his marketing—which is both odd and wonderfully refreshing given that he is a financial advisor. This ad campain ran to promote his annual pig roast. Large ads like the image above were placed in local papers a couple weeks out, with smaller ads in the form of coupons for free admission run leading up to the event. The pig roast was, of course free, but that didn't stop people from clipping the coupons and bringing them in for a free plateful of roasted pig, baked beans, and corn on the cob.
