Joe Gauder

We look to our achievements to our continued success as an agency. It has been shaping into another stellar year of graphic design, and it’s always great to see our work and our staff recognized.

Two great events – on the same day last week – honored our marketing communications and service towards our clients.

Nick attended the IABC Bronze Quill Awards. Like last year, the event combined both IABC Dayton and IABC Greater Cincinnati chapters. A keynote by James Czar and some lively entertainment provided an energetic award ceremony. Professionals were recognized with awards of Excellence and Merit; each category representing the highest level of accomplishment in business communications. The winning entries reflected the combined areas’ outstanding accomplishments in planning, execution and measurement.

Our work with Terrain SIM and Antioch University McGregor was recognized for the Award of Excellence in the Marketing Communications category of the Communication Management division. With the University’s goal of raising enrollment for the Fall semester, we conducted marketing research and used a variety of multimedia to execute the brand messaging. Messaging was represented graphically for the many facets of the campaign that included an email campaign, direct mail, social networks, and promotional items. With the effective marketing campaign approach, we exceeded the enrollment goal by nearly 10%.

Here’s a full list of Bronze Quill winners. Congratulations to all the entries!

That same evening Roger attended the Greater Dayton Advertising Association’s Mercury Awards. A ceremony honoring advertising professionals in sales and support roles.

Joyce Jones was nominated as the Best Print/Specialty Buyer. She’s that friendly voice you hear from Bing that takes our creative work and helps get the message out there. Without her production skills, quality assurance, and communication management, we’d have a hard time handling the efficient process and control point to deliver qualified product.

A list of the honorees and winners for this year.

Now that we tooted our own horn. Back to the daily task at hand, to produce award-winning marketing communications, with a friendly smile on our face.

Bing Design has hit the ground running. Despite the year of 2009 being so turbulent, we still provided excellent service, produced top quality print and electronic work for our clients, and created a refreshed identity for ourselves. We have put together some of our featured work for the Hermes awards coming up in February, and we invite our followers to view our portfolio showcasing many of the elements of marketing.

Not only do we look back, but we are looking forward! We have been keeping our eye on trends for the year, but the best way to predict the future, is to create it.

So, we are approaching 2010 proactively! Diving into the latest new media, engaging followers in the many channels of social networks, and collaborating with our clients to communicate trends and best practices that we feel can integrate in their respective industries. All this and still providing time for our Bingers to stay as flexible as yoga masters.

Looking back at the processes and marketing materials we have designed to take shape, we expect to have a good run with many of our valued partners and clients in the coming year.

Cheers to you 2010, we are bringing original ideas and adding value to them!

This is the time of year where client requests are always fast and furious. As we work steadily, we also take this time of year to get in the holiday spirit, where we unwind for the holiday season. Our annual holiday party brings us together outside of the office setting, where we partake in a fun gift exchange and an elegant dining experience.

Our gift exchange typically turns into an eventful showing of gag gifts and alcohol, but for all those tech lovers out there, Time magazine has the Buyer’s Guide for you. But perhaps you aren’t looking for the typical, tangible gift but more of a getaway.

Yellow Springs is a place like no other, and we at Bing are proud of our village! Approached by the Chamber of Commerce, we were pleased to design and produce an electronic GetawaYS Guide to spotlight the rich and rare collection of unusual shops and galleries where one-of-a-kind gifts abound. Highlighting for others what we see daily, brought new appreciation for the art galleries and unique boutiques, bookstores, wine stores, eateries, a gourmet grocer and the most unusual and creative toy store anywhere!

Produced in just days, it’s a beautiful guide to accompany a walk-through visit of the village of Yellow Springs and all it has to offer! Shop, Eat, Play and Stay in the Springs.

It’s hard to make things easy. And, it’s even harder to be visually appealing at the same time.

In the earliest forms of advertising, copy was king. Strong use of words and typefaces would be effective in your marketing piece, but not everyone understands concepts and information at the same rate. Some people can understand messages quickly while others need help to grasp what is being said. Visual aids are a way of further explanation. Nowadays, we’re able to relay much of what we once had to explain through the written word with the use of images.

Consumers have seen themselves moving away from wordy messaging and finding that most engaging piece of advertising in a graphic or photograph. You might recall a spoof we posted about how Microsoft would redesign Apple’s iPod packaging.

The very best visuals take a complex idea or series of connected ideas and make them instantly understandable. Just the right visuals make those ideas even more memorable. Use of visual tools led to longer retention of information. Visual aids allow a speaker to use verbal and nonverbal communication to solidify the message and provide a point of reference for the mind.

Visual representations of information, or infographics, are often used to support information, strengthen it and present it while leaving the amount of explanation required to a minimum. Using appropriate visual aids are the essential ingredients. Here’s a good reference to infographics to see how effective they can be without an explanation.

So when you have an advertisement that you want to convey to your consumers, give serious thought to using accompanying illustrations that will complement what you are trying to convey.

Here’s a video from the 2008 TED Conference of Chris Jordan on how he takes raw data and depicts it in his art in a more visual language. Notice how using visuals that integrate just enough to clarify his presentation. This makes for a powerful communications combination.

Sure. There are search engine optimization practices out there that you coordinate: targeting keywords in your industry, optimizing web pages and title descriptions, but let’s face it, the internet is big… real BIG, over one trillion pages. What if you don’t have the budget for an SEO strategy, you aren’t a big player in the industry or you have a small niche market that you want to advertise to?

The Google Local Business Center is a must visit for your business then. In general, it’s good to add any business to it, but certainly for businesses attempting to attract customers in their local community. As you may know, Google allows you to add your business to a directory and then enhance your profile with all kinds of information about your business, products, and services. This is a free listing and every small business should take advantage of it.

Google shows these listings when someone makes what is a geographic based search, for example “Dayton banks“. The results show in what is called the “Google 10-Box” above other listings. When someone clicks on one of these results they are taken to the profile through Google Maps. Check out Bing Design’s google listing.

Here’s a short clip showing the features Google Local Business Center added recently that can greatly benefit your small business, helping you to effectively promote, analyze trends, and cater to your niche.

Need some more advice? Check out a recent post for some simple tips you can do to improve your search results.