The Diggity Dudes: a fresh face for a family band
93 Octane just completed a new logo for local band The Diggity Dudes. The trio’s whimsical songs bring a hip attitude to topics like brushing your teeth and minding your manners. Yes, you guessed it, they’re a children’s band, and their off-beat music has been featured on CBS 6’s “Virginia This Morning”.
The group was looking to polish their image ahead of their new album release, scheduled for release June 5, 2010. The logo ended up being a combination of two of the options presented to the band. The band felt the “type-faces” helped capture the personality of the group, but they couldn’t let go of the distinctive “double D” logo mark either. The combined logo let’s them use the elements together or separately, giving them the ultimate flexibility.
The project was in collaboration with Denise Bird of Bird Marketing, who is helping the band with publicity. “YOU GUYS ROCK!”, said Denise, after reviewing a first round draft of the presentation. Client “Diggity Donny” Atkins agreed. “These look awesome.”
Remembering Raymond
by John Lindner
Raymond once called me the “Chairman of Hugs” because of my notoriously soft touch when it comes to dealing with the human side of business. But the truth is, behind closed doors, he was much more of a softie than me.
Like many businesses, we faced difficult circumstances in the past year. And while a lesser man would have approached decisions primarily from a business perspective, his first thoughts were always for his staff. Every decision was made with their welfare as the primary objective. They came first, even if it meant he came last.
Raymond was generous. He never passed a panhandler without rolling down his window and handing them a $5 bill. And if he had no money, he’d borrow it from one of us. He supported innumerable charitable causes, and helped fuel our corporate food and toy drives at the holidays. And over the years, he championed multiple charitable projects for clients such as Tennis4life, Collegiate Schools, and Metro Richmond CASA, to name a few. Raymond had a soft spot for anyone in need.
Raymond was wise. He was the kind of person you would go to when you needed perspective. He had the uncanny ability to see past emotions to the larger picture. There were numerous times I came to question, rail, or complain. Raymond was famous for saying “Fair is a weather condition.” He was not interested in finding a fair solution, so much as the right solution, even if that meant accepting the short end of the stick.
Raymond was funny. You couldn’t write about Raymond without mentioning his famous, wry humor. He had the ability to see the humor in situations that no one else could. And whenever we got too serious, he was always there to remind us that “it’s only junk mail.”
There are many people who profess values to which they fall short. Raymond was not one of them. He didn’t like to talk about his values, so much as he lived them out. And what he left us is an example for all of us to follow.
Fiercely loyal, savagely funny, incredibly generous, Raymond passed away in his sleep on March 6th. His absence is a great loss for not just his family and friends, but for his family here at 93 Octane. We miss him dearly.
Memorial donations in Raymond’s honor may be made to the Richmond SPCA or the Daily Planet.
Looking to engage your audience? This 3D mailer is a slam dunk.
When Snagajob came to 93 Octane to develop a spring promotion, one idea was a slam dunk. The mini basketball backboard and ball set not only gave prospects an excuse to shoot some hoops, but gave them a daily reminder of snagajob’s benefits. Dimensional mailings can be an extremely effective way of engaging customers and prospects, while warming them up for follow-up telemarketing. Contact 93 Octane today to see how dimensional mailers can help accelerate your business.
AMF: Making a stand for holiday fun.
When we began concepting AMF’s holiday campaign, we knew it would be important to address America’s recent cost cutting trends. Our solution? A campaign that featured a “Charlie Brown” tree, with a reminder to parents families not to trim the holiday fun. The integrated campaign included direct mail, point of sale displays, bounce-back scratcher game pieces, in-center screen advertising, and online components.
The direct mail featured two ornament-shaped coupons, each good for a free game for up to 10 players, with staggered expiration dates. The savvy campaign generated nearly 50,000 redemptions, with over five players per coupon, for a total of 250,000 games, driving critical year-end traffic at a time that bowling centers typically see a break from league play.
Packet360: Avatar premier party builds industry buzz
How do you build buzz for your high tech education series? Well, why not leverage excitement around the opening of the most technically advanced film ever made? That’s exactly what Packet360 did, with the help of OKeefe Brands and 93 Octane.
Packet 360, who performs network analysis, design, implementation and support, conceived of the lecture series as a way to deepen their ties with the tech community and build goodwill among clients and prospects. Okeefe recognized the AVATAR premier could be the perfect opportunity to launch the series, and quickly moved to pull together the event plan. But with little more than three weeks till the opening day, they needed to pull in a partner who could respond quickly, and tapped 93 Octane.
Two days later, the creative team at 93 Octane put together the first of a two-pronged email blast designed to generate maximum interest. The emails were integrated with an online reservation system, giving organizers up-to-the minute information on response rates, and allowing them to tailor arrangements and follow-up communications.
Just days later, responders received a provocative invitation in the mail, complete with fraud-resistant watermarked tickets. The visual approach was even carried through to the event, where 93 Octane created AVATAR themed lanyards for event guests.
The results? The promotion generated a whopping 17% response rate, with over 200 people registering and over 150 attending with little more than week-and-a-half notice. But even more impressively, the event paved the way to new business meetings and contacts – and all during the December holiday season!
“Even with a daunting timetable, 93 Octane delivered beautiful work that was incredibly responsive,” said Packet360’s Rob Jefferson. “I can’t imagine having not partnered with them for this project.”
Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities: Creating a brochure that lives up to their name.
The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities asked us to re-design a promotional brochure for them that better fit the enhanced scope of their programming & incorporated their new tagline: ALL Issues. ALL Ages. ALL Across Virginia.
Our primary design challenge was to break up the “wall of words” from the previous iteration of this brochure and we chose people-centric imagery to accomplish this. We also formed visually distinct sections with plenty of white space to create smaller portions of content for the reader to digest.
The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities conducts programs that promote understanding and respect on all issues of diversity, for all age groups, all across Virginia.
93 Octane and O’Keefe Brands share space, ideas, clients
Proximity produces better dynamics, better ideas, better opportunities.
If you were a marketing company and wanted to share your office space, who would be your ideal partner?
How about another marketing company?
That was the conclusion direct marketing agency 93 Octane and branding firm O’Keefe Brands came to earlier this year when they discussed sharing the agency’s downtown office space. O’Keefe has referred many of its clients to 93 Octane for creative work, and the agency had room to spare, so the move made sense for both companies. read more…