The latest journey for our Attractics Division took us closer to home than usual, to the home of Mickey Mouse himself; Orlando. Baxter Healthcare asked us to employ our popular Custom Newsletter Tactic at the American Nephrology Nurses’ Association (ANNA) 43rd National Symposium. The traffic was phenomenal and lively, as it typically is at nurses’ conferences, and nearly 40% of 1,000+ attendees had their picture taken and walked away with their very own personalized newsletter full of Baxter’s clinical and product information.

Next stop, Washington D.C., then later this month Paris, where Attractics will be launching new video game and augmented reality tactics.
-Seth

Most consumers simply see Valpak as a brand that helps you save money. We see it as a brand that gives you the power to do amazing things for a little less. Watch “Coming Home” and “The Dragon Balthazar,” our new national effort to refresh a 40-year old American institution.

valpak.com/play

Graphis is the “international journal of visual communication” and one of the premier publications of global excellence in our industry. We are proud to be twice honored with gold awards in its 100 Best in Advertising 2012 annual for work we created for ZU Vodka and Molly Maids. Kudos to Michael Kovalchick, the art director credited on both entries.

I think it’s safe to say in any industry it¹s hard to take time away from client work and spend time on agency projects. With that being said, Attractics, our trade show and event marketing division, has been traveling all over the world for years, but only now finding itself online. I¹m excited to announce the launch of attractics.us.

As an employee I¹ve been fortunate to travel as part of the Attractics team to a dozen lively cities from Calgary to Istanbul, from San Francisco to Budapest. This division of Dunn&Co. is as unique as the experiences it provides and I¹m extremely proud of the team that makes it all happen.

Check it and see what we do at attractics.us.

I read a lot of advertising and marketing books. I think Hey Whipple should be required reading for anyone who works in our field, and Phil Dusenberry’s Then We Set His Hair on Fire is one of my all-time favorites. Well, gentlemen; make room on the nightstand. The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era by Teressa Iezzi and co-published by Advertising Age is flat out awesome. You might think judging by the title that the book is for copywriters only. You would be wrong. It’s “for . . . anyone looking to understand the new realities of the brand creativity business.” It’s a how-to for creating compelling brand stories in the digital age. There’s even a chapter with behind-the-idea stories from some of the biggest campaigns of the modern day including The Most Interesting Man in the World and The Old Spice Guy. Jon (one of our art directors) turned me on to it and I can’t thank him enough. Incidentally, “I’m on a horse” wasn’t in the original script. It was added during production.

- Glen

We’re excited to report a breakthrough in the fight to defeat ALS (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease). It’s truly big news and our partners at the ALS Association of Florida would like everyone to know. So we quickly penned a script, recruited a cast of beautiful friends, and are plowing into postproduction on our new Red Digital Cinema Camera . The spot will be ready in a few weeks and, if it follows the same pattern as our recent commercial for the Walk to Defeat ALS, will debut in Florida then migrate to other states. Check back soon to see the finished piece. In the meantime, help us wipe out this terrible disease with a donation. Visit www.alsa.org

-Glen

This is the pitch we mentioned in an earlier post. Only now we can reveal what it was for because we won. We couldn’t be prouder of our entire team. We’re honored to be part of the Lightning family. Here’s the official release:

“Tampa Bay Sports & Entertainment LLC, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Storm and Tampa Bay Times Forum, has selected Dunn&Co. as its new agency of record. The agency will produce a variety of media on behalf of all three brands, including TV, radio, print, outdoor, collateral and digital communications. The announcement follows an extensive agency search that began in December 2011 and included nine advertising agencies that were then narrowed down to four firms for the pitch.

‘We were very impressed by the strategic thinking and overall creative energy that Dunn&Co. brought to the table,’ said Lynn Wittenburg, Vice President of Brand Management, Tampa Bay Sports & Entertainment LLC. ‘They share our passion for the Tampa Bay community and for our brands, and we’re confident they’ll be outstanding partners as we work together in the months ahead.’

‘As fans, we’ve wanted to work with the Lightning for several years and couldn’t be happier to have this opportunity to support Mr. Vinik’s world-class vision for the team and its home,’ said Dunn&Co. President Troy Dunn.”

The Dunn&Co. production team was back behind the camera; this time for our friends at ZU Vodka. We’re developing a web series starring ZU ambassador and master bartender Daniel Undhammar. We don’t want to give away too much before the premier so all we’ll simply say is this: four solid days of shooting and sampling cocktails proved once again that we’ve got the best gig in the world. Stay tuned.

If you’re in need of an immediate ZU fix, check out our previous work for our favorite Bison Grass Vodka -The Reaction.

– Glen

It’s back to the Riverwalk for another Attractics show in beautiful San Antonio. This year we’re joining Baxter for ADC, and we’re proud to re-introduce the Custom Newsletter Tactic. For months before the show our in-house writers teamed up with Baxter to create an 8-page newsletter filled with scientific data and product information. Then, on the show floor, the attendees have the opportunity to take a picture that is placed on the cover and printed out for them to take away a few minutes later.

Over a third of the attendees ended up participating in the tactic and walking away with a personalized, educational newsletter. Which, in my opinion, isn’t too shabby.

The weather was lovely, the BBQ was top-notch, and the show was a rousing success. As they say in Texas, yee-haw!

-Seth

The ALS Association Florida Chapter is more than just one of the accounts I handle here at Dunn&Co. It’s also a cause and a group of people that I’ve come to care deeply about as I’ve worked with them over the past year and a half or so. So it was my privilege to once again serve as a member of the planning committee for the Tampa Bay Walk to Defeat ALS, which took place on Saturday, March 17th at the University of South Florida Campus.

As a committee member, I was thrilled with how smoothly everything went, from set-up to clean-up. The turn out was great, and ALS patients and their families felt that the layout of the event and the 1.7 mile walk route were easily navigable, a critical element for patients in chairs. Even one notoriously hard to please patient informed the Walk Manager that she “hit the nail on the head.” The weather was gorgeous, we had food trucks on the premises, a great DJ and fun activities for the little ones. Dunn&Co. had a nice-sized team representing at the walk and I was able to enjoy the stroll with my co-workers and their families.

As a Dunn&Co. employee, I was proud to know that this walk and all others in Florida are being promoted and supported by a beautiful campaign that we created. The campaign includes posters, print ads, web banners, outdoor boards, brochures, and a PSA urging people to “Put on your walking shoes. Because they no longer can.”

We also created a powerful ambient display involving individual podiums holding the shoes of a patient, living or deceased, accompanied by a card describing the life they lived in those shoes before ALS stole their ability to do so. It’s being set up at all the walks and Saturday was the first time I’d seen it set up in person. It was incredibly emotional…

When you’re involved in the every day nuts and bolts of putting together a campaign like this, you can tend not to see the forest for the trees. It’s all about details and deadlines, proofing copy and making sure photos are the right resolution, sourcing display materials and figuring out logistics. You get so used to seeing the elements as individual pieces, that you aren’t necessarily prepared for what it’s going to be like when it all comes together in the end.

So, as I walked around those 11 displays on Saturday morning, with the sun rising in the sky behind me, I got choked up. There were the trademark red Converse sneakers of Matt June, a fellow committee member who married his new wife Jackie this past New Year’s eve. And there were the well-worn khaki-colored boots of Beau MacVane, an Army Ranger who survived multiple tours, but lost his battle with ALS in 2009. I didn’t know him, but I know plenty of guys who’ve served, and the fact that ALS is twice as likely to affect those who’ve served in the military is very scary to me. There were the perfectly polished uniform shoes of Danny Sargent, who served as a Captain of the West Palm Beach SWAT team. There were shoes representing men and women, young and old, black and white and Hispanic. You look at them and think, “This really can happen to anyone.”

From idea to execution, the displays hit the mark. I received a great deal of compliments and thanks from the ALS Association folks that day, which I accepted on behalf of my team. But it’s bittersweet. I wish that the ALS Association didn’t have to exist at all and that there was no reason for us to do this work. But with no known cause and no cure, this evil disease demands otherwise. And as long as that is the case, this is the least we can do.

-Sarah