Case Studies

 

Booth Hansen Associates

As a leading Chicago architectural design firm, Booth Hansen Associates wanted to establish a web-based presence—with the goal of bringing its services to market. Efforts focused on communications and marketing initiatives to achieve this industry awareness.

The industry awareness focus of the marketing dollars spent resulted in the following:

  • Recognition and awards from Netscape, Design Interact, and Communication Arts for www.boothhansen.com website design and content.
  • Significant website queries, causing Booth Hansen Associates to receive over 75,000 hits (in 1999) the first week after winning the DesignInteract.com award.
  • Client leads and inquiries from the website presence alone landed a WWII Memorial project within the first month of the website being active.
  • Accolades from designinteract.com with their Website of the Week award, “This marketing, recruitment, and business tool captures the spirit and vision of a Chicago architecture firm. The primary goal of the site is to enhance the firm’s international reputation: the main challenge was to develop a sophisticated presence and a thoughtful navigation that would reach the largest web audience possible. The result is a cleanly designed, easy-to-navigate site that imparts a clear understanding of the firms, strengths, capabilities, and culture.”
  • Expert positioning within the architecture/engineering/construction community resulting from Booth Hansen’s experience and core messages being readily available.
  • Invitations for speaking engagements at key industry conferences (e.g., American Institute of Architects’ annual national convention).

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Calyx Consulting

We started our naming process by identifying our core values, goals, and approach for doing business. When we came up with "Calyx" it struck a chord and we knew it was perfect. In nature, the calyx is the green leafy structure assisting and supporting new plant growth during the transitional period from bud to bloom. At Calyx, we play a similar nurturing role-listening to our clients' needs, setting and agreeing upon goals, and translating them into clear creative solutions invigorating a business into a period of growth.

The tagline was next. We wanted one that that fit our name, our core values, goals, and approach. Cultivating ideas-harvesting results is based upon our view of our approach that begins as nurturing and supportive and results in a harvest for our clients. We designed our logo based on the meaning of the word "calyx." Our business approach is bold and daring, not delicate like a flower. Therefore, our logo is bold, vibrant, and strong (i.e., based on geometric shapes).

Aside from simply the design aspect of our brand, we've woven our key messages of growth, nurturing, relationships, opening up of ideas, cultivating, harvesting, and support throughout our key messages in our collateral materials, website content, and presentation materials.

So, if we created our collateral materials with all of our ideas based on our core values, goals, and approach for doing business, and later just plopped in a name, tagline, and logo-the cohesiveness, connection, and most importantly our story (i.e., the Why Calyx?) would be missing. Our collateral materials would be good and well-written, but without synergy and certainly not compelling.

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Michigan Job Corps

Michigan Job Corps is a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor helping young people ages 16 through 24 get a better job, make more money, and take control of their lives. Michigan Job Corps wanted to raise its awareness and maximize the effectiveness of its media budget-with the immediate goal of increasing enrollment.

What Happened: "One Big Party"

Instead of following Michigan Job Corps' traditional outreach initiatives (i.e., advertisements), we conceived of a youth-oriented event calling it "One Big Party." Appealing to the young, edgy-confident, and "hip" attitude of the youthful core audience by speaking to them in the language of common interests-music and energy.

Given the boundaries of the remaining media budget for Michigan Job Corps, we conducted outreach to Metro Detroit businesses and organizations for event sponsorship to: 1) offset event costs, 2) raise the profile of Michigan Job Corps within the general business community, and 3) make peer organizations (e.g., Detroit Chamber of Commerce and Michigan Employment Training Administration) aware of Michigan Job Corps' outreach efforts.

After creating collateral materials supporting the event (i.e., event concept, messaging, announcements, vendor letters, and event poster) and arranging event logistics (i.e., location, time, staff, and materials), we secured publicity, event advertising, financial sponsorship, and arranged Metro Detroit's most popular DJs to perform.

"One Big Party" Results

  1. Exposed over 500,000 people to Job Corps core messages, Job Corps students, and Job Corps Outreach Admissions staff.

  2. Generated free publicity with an advertising equivalency of over $35,000.

  3. Five television appearances on FOX 2 Detroit (3 one-minute, 1 three-minute, and 1 four-minute segments), the top-rated television station for members of the Metro Detroit target age group and their families-featuring Job Corps staff and students, and the DJs.

  4. Radio segments on WJLB, the top-rated radio station in Metro Detroit for the target age group and the top-rated radio station for adults 18 years of age and older including:

    1. Live radio broadcasts from the event;

    2. Call-ins (i.e., requests and "shout outs") from listeners;

    3. Appearance of top-rated radio morning host in Detroit (Serch [sic], emcee of rap group 3rd Bass); and

    4. On-air promotions during the week of the event.

  5. Free print and online advertisements with Metro Times, the top newsweekly in Detroit its weekly print readership is over 350,000 people, with an impressions reach of 875,000 people.

  6. Following each television appearance, 50 calls into the event location requesting event information and Job Corps information.

  7. Following each television appearance and radio mention, 10 to 30 calls came into the Detroit Job Corps Center inquiring about the event and Job Corps.

  8. 500 people attended the event.

  9. Garnered enthusiastic support from Job Corps vendors and area organizations, with commitments of expanded support (programmatically and financially) in the future.

  10. Michigan Job Corps exceeded their annual recruiting goals resulting from "One Big Party".

  11. Client received a promotion and raise that doubled her salary based on the results of "One Big Party."

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Vertica

Vertica is a start-up healthcare staffing firm originally requiring awareness and brand launch within the ultra-competitive and crowded nursing-staffing/recruiting industry. Their two primary goals: (1) recruit healthcare professionals, and (2) land contracts with hospitals and nursing homes. We helped Vertica reach these objectives through five initiatives: developing their overall brand, creating a compelling website presence, developing the website content, adapting the materials for brochures, and designing a tradeshow booth. Our efforts focused on establishing relationships to gain the attention of healthcare professionals and hospital/nursing home administrators.

The marketing dollars spent resulted in the following:

  • Significant employment queries enabling them to reach their recruiting goals within the first three months.
  • Recognized as the “best booth” with the most traffic at the lead industry tradeshow—Nursing Spectrum.
  • Recognition and expert positioning within the healthcare industry.
  • Venture Capital queries.
  • Due to feedback and interest from hospitals and Venture Capital queries, Vertica changed its business focus from national staffing to international recruiting.

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* = while working with past employeers