Virginia Ad Agencies

My state is Virginia and though I have looked at over ten agencies. There is only one that has recognizable work on a national level for me. The biggest agency in Virginia that handles some big money accounts is Martin Agency located in Richmond. It actually impressively ranks to make the top five agencies in the nation, according to Adv Age, #3.

Ever wonder who worked on Geico? yup, this is them, alright. They created the well known little Gecko and also worked on Walmart's campaign "Save money, Live Better." In additon to their crazy account list, they are the agency who created the freecreditreport.com commerials with the lead singer in a band singing the songs about what happened to him when he didnt check his credit. Who doesn't know these commercials?

To extend the same campaign:
My add-on idea for this freecreditreport.com campaign is to have street bands, local bands, or hire bands to actually post around cities in areas with major foot traffic to sing these songs in person. It would just as funny, if not even more memorable and entertaining in person. Since this campaign speaks to everyone with credit or identity to worry about, I feel like it can be effective way to reach out even further.
Also, in cities such as Las Vegas and NYC, the cabs run videos with full sound on small TV screens int he backseat. It usually shows local ads. I thought this would be a cool place to show their current commercials and/or show the bands in the particular city it's featured in singing the same songs. (i.e. in NYC, they'd feature a band posted and playing at Time Square or Soho singing one the freecreditreport.com jingles)
Another add-on place that would work well is the gas stations TV's at the pumps. (Shell gas station here in SF has them)


These are all their clients:

o 1-800 CONTACTS
o Alliance for Climate Protection
o Alltel
o American Cancer Society
o Barely There
o BFGoodrich
o Discover Card
o ESPN 360
o ESPN X Games
o Free Credit Report
o GEICO
o Genworth
o Hanes
o Hoover
o Johnson Automotive
o JFK Presidential Library and Museum
o Microsoft Store
o NASCAR
o NEWSEUM
o Newspaper Association of America
o PING golf equipment
o Sun Life Financial
o UPS
o USTA
o Walmart

Swirl Agency Report

Swirl

Swirl is located in the Financial District of San Francisco at 1620 Montgomery Street #140. I have actually been to this agency and it is humble in size and location, but gives you a great feeling when walking through the doors. They have a wall full of awards, which pretty much leaves you speechless.

Their key idea is:

Swirl is a pioneering integrated marketing agency with one simple mission: find the right solution for the marketing challenge – not just “any” solution.

They mainly work with digital, print, promos & events, direct marketing, and collateral & logos. Some of their major clients are (or have been):

Jamba Juice

Ebay Motors

SF Giants

PG & E

Skype

AAA Travel

Oakland Raiders

AARP

Coinstar

The Marine Mammal Center

They won a 2009 Limelight Award in the “Best B2C online display ad” category for it’s Skype Face-to-Face “Holiday” ad.

For being a small, boutique agency, this place has created some great and new things. If you feel like checking them out, I would highly recommend it!

www.swirl.net

So I chose Venables Bell & Partners' Nestea campaign.

This is the original:

And this is mine:

New Jersey Agency Report

­­­Hammerhead

Hammerhead in Hoboken, New Jersey is a small but upcoming advertising agency. Their mission is to accomplish goals by exceeding expectations, leave their footprint on the creative landscape, develop strategically sound and emotion-inducing creative, and to deliver measurable results.

They consider themselves as a hybrid agency, with a combination of different personalities forming their creative employees. Their main work is in print, television, radio, collateral, and interactive.

They have had clients such as:

Bank of America

Nextel

IBM

Michelob

Dia

Mazda

General Mills

UPS

Honeywell

Pioneer

Subaru

Chase

Stouffer’s

Philips

Sea Doo

Mastercard

Toys R Us

Domino’s Pizza

Isuzu.

After studying this agency and their website, it is evidently becoming bigger and better. If you feel like checking them out, I would definitely recommend it.

www.hammerheadadvertising.com

done and... done

done, done, done.

Oasis of the Seas (Billy)

Okay, these are new executions.....

1. It's a world clock with Oasis of the Seas feel on it. It's an ambient and it says that it is a city.
2. This is how the ambient looks like, it looks like a billboard too, but it is a real clock so i call it ambient, it actually really works as a clock, not just picture.
3. This is the road sign that you usually find on the highway, but this time i want to make it as a billboard, i find this interesting, it says that it's a city, i don't know what you think.

SF Agency

Hey I just wanted to put out my pick for SF agency. I pick Razorfish. They are an all digital agency, which I love. here is their website: check them out.

one more with a drop shadow on the banner with text

Nooka for Liz

Ok, so this is hint for liz 3 versions with slight changes. The gradient looks smooth on my pdfs so I don't think there would be a problem with printing them.

ATTN Kamil: Flat Iron Bldg NYC

true blood syanne patty scottie

new rug. I added texture to make the font look more believable on there. Should I do the same for the the lock up as well?

AccuChek

Our guest from last week mentioned to switch the boxing glove to distinguish it more. I like the original look of it better though.

What do you think?

Ok, so... This is kind of a test. There's no ships on billboards on the buildings, cause I can't really use this picture. It is shot in the strong sun light and the shadows have a lot of contrast. To duplicate the shadows on the 3d text (This text is actually 3D) would take me forever and a little bit more.

I also wanted to make the text bigger, but people are in the way.

I had a hard time to find a picture of a square plaza with buildings around it (where i could place billboards), without people and without strong contrast shadows. I can't shot the Union Square cause there's stupid ice-skating ring in there. So If anyone, and I mean ANYONE has a picture of a square plaza that would work here, send it to me, pleeeaaassseee!

Oasis of the Seas (Billy)

Okay, so you said to think about another execution. So before, i only played with the "what's happening in there", but now i have a line on this one, the idea is now it's the earth in the morning! It has a central park, a lot of trees and because it is so big that it's considered to be something like a tiny island from up here. I am doing the central park because on the other one i am doing the rave party, so i am not doing central park twice. Let me know what you think, thanks!

Oh yeah, do I have to print stuffs out on Thursday? I mean our campaigns.

Oasis Billboard

Is that what you had in mind?

I kind of like it without the sky.

I'm going to attach CTA to both of them. The third ad, hopefully will be done tonight, or tomorrow morning.

Nooka Finals

Here are my finals for Nooka. Let me know what you think and i'll make changes as needed. Thanks.

I fixed the print a little bit. I tried to play with the logo and headline, but it looked too busy. I like it simple the way it is. I also did the billboard. The sides of the text on the billboard will be a bit darker tho, like on the print ad.

and Mac's Time Machine

Ok, so this is my nooka. For the print ad, i didn't know what color to choose. Should I use all of them for wild posting?

I'm not also sure about the font. First I used one that was more futuristic looking, but it look like crap. So I went for a simple sans serif font.

Oasis of the Seas (Billy)

Okay, so the 1st one is my updated web banner. I think it looks better this way, I played with the color so it goes with the rest of the campaign and has a more "Oasis of the Seas" feel. I also show how it'll look on the weather.com website.

2nd, 3rd, and 4th is the updated version of bus shelters and print. The guy who came in last week said he liked the concept but he felt like i should do 3 of these, not 2, and have the "The biggest floating city on earth" line down below and no headline, and I think i like it this way. So the 2nd one is the parade at the central park, as you can see (i know it is very small), there's no line anymore, but my point by taking off the line is to show that it is in the middle of the ocean and you can clearly see it. I changed the lightgloom into just a darker light, but you can still see it, and put the tone of the music (do i say it right? it's the thing that you usually find in a musical book)
The 3rd one is the Rave Party. I did the same and I make some addition close to the light to make it looks like a rave party is going on.
The 4th one is the carousel at the boardwalk, and have some movements of light around the small light to make it looks like a carousel is going on there. All these three (carousel, party, and parade), they really going to have it on the ship. Let me know what you think, thank you very much.

SF Agency Billy

Gumas Advertising.
99 Shotwell st
San Francisco, CA
94103 - 3625

What service they offer: Integrated Marketing, Avertising, Design, Public Relation, and Interactive.
Their main leader are John Gumas, Pat Demiris, Bob Badbury, Brendan Jones, Khai Nguyen, Xanthie Drankus, Dave Young.

Their clients are Skins, SF Chamber of Commerce, SF Junior Giants, Linear, US First, Blue Angel Vodka, Mattel, Critical Logic, myFICO, Burr Pilger Meyer, Avocent, Stockton Ports, Yonex, SanDisk, Top Grade Construction, Logical Homes, California Dental Arts, and Tomi Golf.

I will branch off one of their current campaign and bring it to class.

State agency Billy

The States is Texas and the Agency that I presented last week was Kolar Advertising. They've been around since 1989. They offer full-service capabilities, from strategic planning, research, identity/branding, advertising and media. To package design, point-of-sale, promotion, incentive and event marketing. To web development, interactive, guerilla, grassroots and every point of contact in between. Their motto is "Imagination, Integrity, Impact."

They clients are:

3m
Subway
US Army
Express Jet
Heritage Boots
Caritas
Cargill
Baylor University
Cimarron Hills
Extraco Banks
Aquatic
Austin

Last Week, i presented my favorite banner from them, it was from 3M micro projector. I made a billboard that goes together with that.

Anyway, before last week class i already chose my agency in SF and it was Gumas, i don't know why Kamil did that, but i chose that before. I am still doing that.

This is an ad for Tim's Oasis of the Seas.

I'm not sure if it is too much of the see/say. I also don't know if I should add an image of the ship above the logo (I tried and it looked bad).

That would be a print ad.

Another headline: "Other ships orbit us." would be for a billboard. And the third headline: "We make the horizon self conscious." would be a sticker on a window of SF restaurant called: "Carnelian Room", where from the window one can see the ocean horizon. (picture attached)

So tell me if this is the right direction and what should I change.

Tim, give me any suggestions.

SF agency research

GUMAS.

It's an agency at 99 Shotwell Street in SF.

They do a lot of online and interactive advertising.

Their clients:

Skins, SF Chamber of Commerce, S.F. Giants, Linear, U.S. First, Blue angel Vodka, Mattel, Burr Pilger Mayer, Avocent, Stockton Ports, Yonex, SanDisk, Top Grade Construction, Logical Homes, California Dental Arts, Tomi Golf, Critical Logic, myFICO.

They say they won many awards, but they don't specify them on their website.

I'm going to branch off the attached ad.

My late homework

My state was MA.

I choose an agency in Boston called MMB. They specialize in Interactive advertising, but they also do other medias. Their biggest clients are: Subway, eMusic, ESPN, Harvard Business School, L.L. Bean, International Found for Animal Welfare.

They won many awards:

Advanced Media Arts/Entertainment: Emmy Award for Harvard Business School, 2007 Mercury Radio Awards: Grand Prize for Subway, London International Festival: Gold Award for Subway. And others. Most of the awards are for Subway Restaurants ads.

I took one of their subway ads (the school sign) and I branched off it.