In the summer of 2011, JPMorgan Chase & Co. switched one of its two employee health care providers from Aetna to Cigna Health Care (the other remaining as United Health Care). Cigna needed to introduce itself to employees of JPMC and brand the company — prior to the open enrollment period in fall of 2011 — as the preferable provider focused on treating the employee as a unique individual. The customer-centric positioning developed for this brand message revolved around the advertising theme of GO YOU (“you’re a person, not a number”) celebrating the employee’s singularity and speaking to the need for a personalized relationship with Cigna. 

Media included collateral, interactive, outdoor / shelter, and point of sale materials. 

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

The Monster Career Ad Network™ is a recruitment media product developed to aid employers in reaching not only the millions of active job seekers on Monster’s network of career management sites, but also the broader pool of passive candidates who are not actively looking for a job but are open to new opportunities that match their backgrounds and interests. http://bit.ly/kn1AHt

The Career Ad Network enables the creation of targeted and creative job advertising campaigns, by…

• sourcing job postings automatically from Monster or MonsterTRAK,
• developing the postings into a creative ad,
• targeting that ad toward appropriate candidates via strategic placements throughout the Web.

The campaigns target candidates where they spend time online, whether they are actively looking for a job or are open to new opportunities if prompted by seeing relevant job postings outside of the traditional job search environment. Career Ad Network is capable of dynamic targeting based on job title, occupational category and location, presenting potential candidates with specific job postings likely to be of interest to them.

Once a candidate clicks on the ad, he or she is taken directly to the job posting on Monster or MonsterTRAK. Employers can track Career Ad Network value by detecting how many job views resulted from targeted ad placements and monitoring actions taken including: apply online, view all company jobs, save this job, and send to a friend. During its trial phase, Career Ad Network increased job page views for jobs posted on Monster Worldwide career sites by as much 45%.

I originally concepted this product with the working title, “Employment Ad Network”, and first presented the idea with a series of print executions that explained the concept. Working with designers at Monster Labs LLC and in the Czech Republic, the initial prototype site featured an interactive spinning cube to represent the various types of potential target candidates. 

After some refinements and a name change, the network was successfully launched, and an overview can be seen at: http://bit.ly/kn1AHt

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New York came to CPS Direct and asked for a modest campaign targeted at benefit plan administrators to increase their market share during insurance open enrollment periods. Although Empire BCBS had over 4 million members in the greater New York City metropolitan area, research showed that many plan administrators and potential members had very low awareness of BCBS, and some were under the impression that the company was out of business — even though BCBS was the largest health insurer in their market based on number of members and provider network size. 

The campaign I developed was simple in concept, based on a straightforward multimedia effort (newspaper print, B2B mail, and interactive) to create high awareness of BCBS as a viable option when it came time for enrollment. The design and copy positioned BCBS as a forward-thinking, innovative, experienced, reliable and financially stable insurer with a very large provider network, well worth consideration. 

The client was so happy with what was originally conceived as a small tactical campaign that they invited CPS Direct to present a full pitch in their New York City headquarters for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield’s account as Agency of Record, competing against four well-known New York-based image/awareness ad agencies.

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

An agency’s response to a potential new client’s RFP can take any number of forms. In the case of Enzymatic Therapy Inc., a large marketer of nutraceuticals & supplements, the client held out the promise of first-year billings in excess of $1.5 million — a substantial amount for a small start-up agency like Blue Ant LLC. 

Because the client had requested a reply that could easily be photocopied for distribution, I drew on my previous consumer magazine experience in New York City to create a 44-page, 8.5” x 11” full color “magazine” complete with editorial masthead, print advertisements (the agency’s work for other clients) — even a crossword puzzle at the back. 

Choosing a one-off magazine as our response allowed me to deliver a visually dramatic message using a medium familiar to all and one well-adapted to arranging text and graphics in a cohesive and easy-to-view format. The client’s reaction was very positive, and resulted in Blue Ant LLC being invited to make a full and formal presentation as a finalist.  

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

The iTask suite of web-based tools from The Garvey Group allowed a client to remotely access and control various available options such as inventory control of their printed materials, online materials ordering, Variable-Data Printing and Print-On-Demand, online reporting of usage and forecasting, receivables reports, item history reports and other fulfillment processing functions.

It was my task as Creative Director to organize and explain this complex array of web-based functions into a cohesive and balanced message comprehensible to marketing managers (rather than IT specialists), invent a memorable and descriptive name, “iTask”, for the overall product, and direct the design of sales-oriented collateral that could help Garvey representatives present a compelling case for using the service. 

The iTask story was told so successfully with this collateral brochure that both the brochure and the text are still used today by The Garvey Group to explain and market the features of this complex but powerful tool — see the current product website: http://www.garveyitask.com/

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com  

There are various sales and direct marketing rules still quoted as inviolable gospel: never use humor when you're talking about money; in direct mail, the letter is always the most important component; if you use an envelope teaser, make sure it delivers the most important benefit. 

This compact direct mail package offering a Visa card from Valley National Bank of Arizona broke every one of them. 

 

No letter, just a slim brochure; no benefit mentioned on the envelope, and quirky humor not seen before on a credit card solicitation (and not often since). Mailed to bank customers and targeted prospects living in the tri-state area served by Valley Bank, the package generated an unheard-of 9% response rate: over four times the industry average. 

A single print ad, with a single insertion. A target audience of one man. A simple, heartfelt personal message from one local fisherman, speaking on behalf of his fellow New England seafarers. 

These were the elements that came together to create a singular pointed message sponsored by the non-profit Northeast Seafood Coalition and addressed to President Barack Obama while he was vacationing on the island of Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod. The full-page ad, written in the form of a letter by Russell Sherman, Captain of the fishing vessel 'Lady Jane', explained in simple terms the plight of local fishermen being driven out of business by draconian federal rules, and asked for the President's help in facilitating negotiations for a compromise that might satisfy the interests of fishermen, environmentalists and the Dept. of Commerce alike. 

The ad was concepted, written and designed within five calendar days, including protracted revision sessions with directors of the Seafood Coalition intent on conveying a data-rich message to support their goal. The ad's publication coincided with a protest by a a flotilla of fishing boats that was heavily covered by print and broadcast news media, helping to leverage the ad's effectiveness. 

The result of this advertising effort was a series of renewed initiatives by the Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Senator John Kerry and U.S. Representative John Tierney to achieve a negotiated compromise with the Dept. of Commerce and the N.O.A.A.— efforts which have now resulted in a promise of "immediate special attention and assistance" from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce (full story link: Commerce Dept. Announces Help for Fishermen ).  

Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

Online sexually-oriented contact with minors has become an increasing worry for both parents and law enforcement alike. To offer parents a viable alternative to unrestricted Web access for their children, the ZKid Network was formed. ZKid provided an ad-free, subscription-based closed internet environment (VPN) for children that excluded predators and inappropriate materials. ZKid retained Blue Ant LLC as its agency to develop and refine the brand and deliver a hard-hitting message to parents through print and direct mail, sales support, and a Web site useful to parents and investors alike. My launch ad (print) shown here ran in Parents, Parenting and other similar magazines.

The marketing challenge was to create a strategy that spoke consistently — although not simultaneously — to practitioners and patients alike. Because the service was not initially advertised directly to patients, MDs and practitioners needed flexible, persuasive, easy-to-use, prefabricated marketing materials to sell the product. Therefore the marketing strategy fell into the area of “B2B2C” — Business-to-Business-to-Consumer, including B2B and B2C segments: dual Web sites, for example, targeted respectively at patient and practitioner. 

An interesting feature of this campaign was the use of an unusual technique dubbed a “Radiomercial.” This consisted of three 30-minute infomercials disguised to sound like “live” listener call-in talk shows to an actual doctor. The “caller’s” questions were written by the agency and performed by actors and staffers in a recording session, as were the “answers” (performed a real M.D., Dr. Stephen Bittiker). Because of careful scripting, editing and sound effects, the pre-recorded shows sound virtually like authentic call-in talk shows. If an actual listener called the on-air number, he or she would reach an in-bound telemarketer who would offer to send more information.

 Hear a sample selection of the radio below: 

Final-Asheville_NC.m4a

(download)

Click here to download:

Final-Asheville_NC.m4a (2.91 MB)

 Want to know more? Email zink.creative@gmail.com 

(download)

Click here to download:

Business of Living- trimmed.mov (1.48 MB)

Household Credit Services Inc., Household Bank N.A. and Household Bank f.s.b. — all divisions of Household International — were clients for a number of years, during many of which the companies had no brand to speak of. The client, finally realizing that a brand was crucial to retaining and growing market share in the financial services and consumer credit marketplaces, commissioned a branding initiative that was to last well over a one-year period, beginning with an extensive perceptual mapping study to determine the companies' place in the minds and emotions of current and potential customers. 

 After a brand positioning had been determined, expressed in the tagline "Household. For the Business of Living", a multimedia campaign was developed to introduce the brand to the marketplace. To avoid placing the entire expense of the campaign and associated creative work on the shoulders of any one division, the costs were shared across various divisions including Alexander Hamilton insurance and HFC. The campaign rolled out with television supporting a direct mail campaign soliciting new credit card customers.