Giving back to the community…Ant Hill Marketing takes it seriously, as our support for probono client, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center illustrates. We’re helping this great organization – which does so much for those with barriers to quality healthcare – develop and activate their brand. Part of the activation process includes the development of a new website. In our effort to aid the up-and-coming talent enter Portland’s creative pool, we brought our friends at Portland Art Institute (PAI) on board. The result is a Web Raising – developing a site in a day. Crazy? No way. We get to mentor PAI students and the start of Virginia Garcia’s new website. Under Ant Hill Marketing’s direction, students at PAI will join together to help Virginia Garcia push their new site live. Check out the new site on April 25th: www.virginiagarcia.org.
Agency Life
There are great perks about working down in the Pearl. Great restaurants, great bars, great shopping… but when it comes to parking. There isn’t anything great about it. There is no better way to end your day… then to go out to your car after a hard day’s work and see that little yellow envelope greeting you on your windshield. Even worse is when you just missed the parking patrol by mere minutes. I like to think of it as our way of supporting the local economy. (We are definitely doing our part.) I snapped a few photos to remember these momentous parking ticket occasions. Here are just a few from the last couple of weeks…. (Yes, Siobhán wins the award for getting the most parking tickets.)
That reminds me.. better go feed my meter.
A mid-week stack of bagels, lounging in one of the bagel bins.
Here at Ant Hill, we have a delicious tradition we’ve deemed Bagel Monday. Each week our kind agency partners bring in a bag ‘o’ bagels and enough schmear to get us through. Come Friday, there are not many bagels left and all of our tummy’s are a little fuller. Some of our favorite flavors include: sesame, cinnamon, cheese and onion. Yum.
Kim prefers to bring in Kettlemen’s , with tons of lox spread where as Grant is a loyal Noah’s fan. Personally, I don’t care as long they’re fresh and there’s plenty of cream cheese to gobbled.
What’s your favorite bagel place/flavor?
Before + After
When we set out to update the Virgina Garcia Memorial Health Center logo, we knew we had to represent the undying passion, hope and inspiration the story of Virginia Garcia holds.
Starting with a mood board and brand position established through an Ant Hill-guided discovery session, we set off exploring. We had no shortage of starting points: a rich history, multi-cultural and diversity themes, medicine and compassion. In the thumbnail sketches, you start to see the seeds of these ideas.
Thumbnail Sketches
After several thumbnails and refinements, we arrived at 3 potential options to review with the team.
Initial Concept Review
During our presentation to the Virginia Garcia team, the themes of freedom, passion, joy, inspiration and Virginia Garcia herself were all discussed and weighed against our initial concepts. We all agreed the third concept – derived from and abstracted VG and a butterfly – was not only inline with the Brand position, but everyone’s expectations, as well.
After further refinement and an extensive color study, we arrived at a final mark that truly represents the Virginia Garcia Health Care Center’s passion and inspirational work. I feel we have not only created a mark to help them stand out among other NGO’s, but one that serves as a beacon of hope and health for the folks who need their services.
Final Logo
After the logo was approved, we unveiled it at an organization-wide meeting. We alluded to a big change in an all staff invitation, then made the unveiling central to the overarching message of change at the meeting. Attendees were given t-shirts with the new logo made of all the words associated with Virginia Garcia’s mission, as well as small buttons employees could wear until a wide-spread external launch.
Internal Launch Buttons + T-Shirts
We recently evaluated a handful of email marketing services to use for our agency and settled on one we felt had the basic capabilities we need, Constant Contact. So, I went online to sign up. The website offers a a free trial, but suggests you call the 800 number if you are ready to buy. OK, I’ll do that. But, the interactive voice response system asks you to hold for a communications consultant (what is that?) and doesn’t give an approximate wait time. After 3 minutes, I decide I’ll contact the company through email and ask them to call me to set up an account. The “incident” emails I receive say that could be 1-2 days. Not fast enough for me.
At that point, the company had given me three negative brand touchpoint experiences. It made me question the quality of their product and what kind of support I’ll get once I’m a customer. Maybe it was the name that gave me the impression it would be quick and easy to sign up. Plus, as an active online purchaser in both my business and professional life, I have a few expectations of how the process should work.
On the positive side, a customer service representative did contact me in about 3 hours and I signed up with the hope I’ll discover the brand’s value to my company. But, how many prospects or customers are they losing because the sales process is not set up to deliver what people expect?