April 2008

Iron Produces New Chihuly at the de Young Campaign

When the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco invited us to work on an integrated marketing campaign for a new Chihuly exhibit we were excited for two reasons: Dale Chihuly is one of the most world renowned living artists we’ve had the opportunity to promote, and this would be his first museum exhibition in San Francisco.

This dream pairing of a ground breaking contemporary artist with one of the most forward thinking museums in the world provided us with an envious opportunity: to produce a cutting edge, effective campaign with local and national reach.

Beginning in June, the campaign print ads will run in such high profile magazines as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest and Sunset Magazine. Online we are hoping to reach the younger art enthusiast with banner placements (check out the chosen design) on Yahoo! and SFGate.com. To reach the core local audience we also developed newspaper ads, rack cards, street banners and cable cars ads.

“Happy Car Buyer” New Spot Launched by Del Grande Dealer Group

This month we’ve been racing to put together an exciting new TV Campaign to help launch three new San Jose car dealerships. The challenge we faced was common but tricky: how do you differentiate a car dealership?

The simple truth is the new ownership really is focused on doing everything it can to make your experience a good one. And thus the first concept, “Be a Happy Car Buyer” was born. The premise? New owner Shaun Del Grande wants to make sure every visitor to the stores has a happy car-buying experience. The first spots are running throughout the San Jose and Silicon Valley areas. Look for the second spot, entitled “Yes!”, to air in the coming months.

Breakthrough Broadcast Stimulates Record Growth for Bay Area Job Specialist

Question: How do you stand out from the crowd, with only a fraction of the budget? Answer: Cutting edge creative.

The Challenge: BAJobs is a job site focused on the San Francisco Bay Area. When BAJobs contracted Iron, the market was flush with big spending, national competition like Monster and Hotjobs. And things were further complicated by less direct competitors like Craigslist. BAJobs faced the classic but foreboding challenge: stand out from a lot of competitors, even when some of them are spending a lot more money than you are.

The End Result: After a year-long radio campaign:

  • BAJobs’ client base had grown by over 10%
  • Year-over-year sales had increased by nearly 25%
  • Site traffic had grown by 40%.

CFO Tom Torreson stated “Without Iron’s focused brand strategy and unique creative execution, we do not believe we would have achieved what we have.” Take a listen to one of our favorite spots and judge for yourself.

Gary Snoman: Viral Phenomenon

A local VC firm with a small budget wanted to make a big splash. Who’d have thought an irreverent animated short about a self-made, self-satisfied snowman would, well, snowball!

The Challenge: Blueprint Ventures is a technology investment firm, which had done very little marketing in the past. In December of 2005, the firm contracted Iron to produce an online animated short, in hopes of gaining some brand awareness in the industry.

The End Result: The Gary Snoman series has become a viral phenomenon, spreading from viewer to viewer all over the world. Viewings over the last three years have numbered in the hundreds of thousands and mentions in the San Francisco Chronicle and a wide array of online publications have elevated it to one of the most anticipated annual holiday entertainment events in the Private Equity world. The ultimate result: the Blueprint brand is now known throughout the industry.