We are thrilled to announce that our latest non-profit web design project has picked up top honors at the Interactive Media Awards (IMA). The NewSchools Venture Fund website won the coveted IMA Best in Class Award with an overall score of 484 (out of a possible 500) in the ‘Nonprofit’ category. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism.

How The Judges Rated The Site

• Design: 96/100
• Content: 97/100
• Feature Functionality: 100/100
• Usability: 93/100
• Standards Compliance & Cross-Browser Compatibility: 98/100

Total: 484

Congratulations to Iron Design Director Alice Bybee for, well, the design! Additional kudos to Sam Evans for his standards-compliant coding prowess. Respect!

Find out more about the NewSchools project.

You may have heard the phrase “You don’t get credit for trying.” Well, this year, Iron gave people just that. Our holiday puzzles were sent to two thousand people with the promise of a donation to the SF Food Bank, for every puzzle solved. And while the puzzles received rave reviews, fewer solved them than we hoped. So we made our gift based on how many people tried. (Hey – it was the holidays!) Those who did solve the puzzles enjoyed a chuckle, as they uncovered set-up/punch-lines like “It’s been such a busy year, we had nary a moment to put together our holiday card… so we made you do it.” But everyone who took a moment to check them out had a hand in feeding a hungry San Francisco family. Thanks for the support!

Check it out!

Is the reading public finally ready for some cowboys killin’ Nazis? Yes, yes we are.

Introducing: Paris High Noon.

An explosive new site designed by our very own Art Director, Dave Caraker to promote Trent Tano’s manuscript. Boasting a bold graphic interface and a clever interactive character and timeline slider, this site is sure to bring Tano’s book some serious street cred. Check it out! 

(psst…Trent is seeking representation so if you know any literary agents and publishers, please pass it on!)

Poor fit is cited as the most common reason shoppers abandon or return clothing purchases online. In fact, according to retail consultant Kurt Salmon of the NPD Group, the return rate for apparel sites often exceeds 20%, and 75% of those returns are due to poor fit. And sites like Zappos, who practically beg you to return purchases by offering a no-hassle/free shipping policy, claim return rates as high as 35 percent.

The direct costs of return shipping and handling aren’t even the worst of it. The major concern for retailers is the loss of profits in the opportunity. Annette Kramer, principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers, explains that “just by taking the garment out of the sales cycle for a week or more, a retailer can lose 20% of the value of the garment, particularly if it is a high-fashion or seasonal item. Worse still, consumers who receive an ill-fitting garment are much less likely to buy again at the same store.”

For years, internet retailers have been trying to mitigate the risk of returns by offering shoppers better tools to make informed purchase decisions, such as size charts, front/back/side view shots, and 360-degree videos. Some of the more innovative e-tailers, such as Banana Flame have even gone as far as using augmented reality in an attempt to simulate the fitting room by projecting clothing on to the shopper standing in front of a standard webcam. However, this tool presents an image far from reality (note: my paper doll cut out below).

The fact is, no matter how appealing the product itself may be on screen, people still prefer to try on clothing before they buy it and will visit stores precisely for that reason. Unless, of course, we can create technology that can mimic the emotional experience of brick-and-mortar shopping, which is exactly what the high-tech firm, Fits.me claims to have done.

The new technology built by Fits.me  allows users to create a robotic mannequin replica of their body to try on different sizes of clothing. Users enter their body measurements, then are presented with a digital form that mimics their shape and size. Antony Comyns, e-commerce manager for Hawes & Curtis, Internet Retailer Magazine, says Fits.me, “…provides [customers] more assurance that ordering from an e-commerce retailer will result in a properly sized garment. As a result, the conversion rate has more than doubled among [international customers] who use the Virtual Fitting Room.”

No doubt, this will be an extremely valuable tool for internet retailers and shoppers alike, but what if you’re like me and you’re completely clueless about your body measurements?  And, really, who owns a paper measuring tape? Well, you’ll be happy to know that come this November another inventive company called UPcload plans to release a piece of software that can capture 20 exact body measurements of a user standing in front of a standard webcam within 40 seconds. Body measurements are then compared to the exact measurements of the clothing size and the user is given an accurate size suggestion, fitting suggestions (loose or tight), and presented images of models with similar body types wearing the clothing. Think about it. This means e-tailers can now simulate the fitting room salesperson, virtually up-selling and suggesting clothing ‘that would look great on you!!’ Imagine returning to the Levi’s store and being presented with images of your body type already wearing your favorite 501s. The possibilities for ecommerce personalization are endless, not to mention the overall improvement of customer satisfaction ratings.

If Fits.me and UPcload prove successful, they will have certainly revolutionized the way we shop online. I’ve signed up for UPcload’s Alpha testing set for next month. We’ll see if UPcload’s bold statement that you will ‘never return clothes again’ is in fact true. Stay tuned for my review!

Check it out! Visual Media Alliance’s recent quarterly newsletter included a write-up about the Outstanding Achievement Award we received this summer from the Interactive Media Council. The award was for excellence in design and usability of the Dockers Macy’s microsite. We were honored to be recognized, as well as included in VMA’s publication!

What does it take to keep your copywriting fresh and engaging? Recently, ABC television asked the same question. As the network prepared to launch their fall line up, their promotional messaging wasn’t connecting as well as they wanted it to.

So they called on Iron to deliver lead-in copy for four programs, including Modern Family, Body of Proof, Suburgatory and Man Up! With shows ranging from half hour comedy to one hour drama, they were four very different assignments. And often times, with a compressed timeline (ABC had only a week), an agency’s copy department will begin to lump a group of products or services together, with common messaging elements increasing efficiencies. But in many cases, those products or services have very different things to offer very different targets – and while it makes for harder work, it’s important to keep that in mind at every stage of the process.

Case in point, from the outset, we defined a specific messaging positioning for each of the four shows we were assigned, and tethered our thinking to that positioning – assuring we were able to present unique, ownable concepts for all of them.

The toolworks.org website launch completes our rebrand for Toolworks, a self-supporting nonprofit that is devoted to helping people with disabilities connect with the opportunities in their community. After redesigning their identity and stationery system, we created templates for their day to day operational needs, brand guidelines and began work on bringing their brand to life through their website.

With a stream-lined site structure and media-rich content, the new website enables Toolworks to spotlight their client success stories. Our strong attention to accessibility ensures past, present and future clients and supporters will also be able to navigate the site with ease. We built the site on top of WordPress, an easy to use content management system, to allow Toolworks the flexibility to maintain the website themselves, with support from Iron when needed.

The new website allows Toolworks to focus on running and promoting the social ventures that allow them to provide social services to over 500 individuals with disabilities every year. Their latest endeavor, Bakeworks, was featured on Huffington Post San Francisco.

Patelco, one of the country’s largest credit unions and a long time client of ours, celebrated their SF branch grand re-opening last Wednesday and an early morning line of 100+ people eagerly waited to get a look at the brand new interior. Or maybe they were there to collect the $75 being awarded to the first 75 people through the doors. This was just one of the offers we cooked up this summer to promote the branch and its move.

At the end of July, Patelco closed their current SF main branch doors and moved on up the street to 124 Second. With this new branch location opening just 75 yards away from the old, the goal was to make existing members aware of the move, so daily banking routines weren’t disrupted, as well as bring in potential members.

In July, we targeted existing members with a direct mail flyer notifying them of the branch move and promoting the “First 75 in, take $75 out” offer with a QR code. Upon scanning the code, members were taken to the sitelet we developed earlier in the year for the Patelco Pays Your Way campaign. And a pop up prompted visitors to enter their information to receive a voucher and chance to win the $75. Additionally, visitors had the opportunity to take a look around and learn how Patelco celebrated their anniversary by giving back to the community.

We also created a series of bold, eye-catching posters for the new branch windows directing anyone passing by to visit the site. All patelcopays.org visitors during the promotional period, not just current members, were eligible to redeem the voucher.

Last week, we were honored by the Interactive Media Council with an Outstanding Achievement Award for excellence in design and usability of the Dockers Macy’s micro site.

This robust online shop-in-shop experience is one of our finest achievements in ecommerce design and usability. Utilizing elements from the new Dockers brand launched by DraftFCB, we were able to design a micro site that spoke to the khaki retailer’s target of 35+ males, and enticed them with entertaining interactive features, including a “Fit Guide” and “Style Finder Survey.”

From the day of its launch, the micro site captured attention and interest in a way that transcended the standard online retail experience – encouraging Dockers shoppers to explore the full range of Dockers products, and bettering the likelihood of a sale.

It’s an honor to have our work recognized by the IMA, and even more so to have been given the opportunity to work with two terrifically talented and savvy teams at Dockers and Macy’s.  We’d like to personally thank Dockers for bringing us aboard, as well as Macy’s for their development prowess!

For international brands it can be a challenge to introduce themselves to new and unfamiliar markets. A new market often demands a new perspective on the brand – a new take on what is being offered or how it is being presented, based on what people respond to in that particular region.

Take Bticino – an extremely large Italian manufacturer of high-end light switches, wall plates and other electrical device peripherals – as an example. They contacted Iron in 2009, as they began the process of introducing their products to the US market. Given the brand’s prominence in Europe, the company had plenty of experience framing its message of sophistication in different languages – but where the company was struggling was translating their VISUAL language. While European countries can often share an aesthetic sensibility, the US is isolated from that cultural network. In short, to customers in the US, Bticino’s marketing materials seemed strange rather than sophisticated.

Over the course of a year, we set about translating Bticino’s message of sophistication both literally and visually, redesigning the company’s website, brochure, catalog, print ads and every other consumer touch point (see a small sample of our work below). With a cohesive marketing arsenal, the company has been able to expand target market saturation from San Francisco to Los Angeles and is in the planning stages of opening an office in New York. We’re excited about how the work turned out and are looking forward to our next international challenge!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our first major digital collaboration with Dockers. Earlier this month the new Dockers microsite went live on macys.com, fusing branded content with a robust e-commerce engine.

The Dockers microsite features an interactive fit guide, a quiz to help users find the pants for every occasion, as well as news on the latest products. The Flash-based application seamlessly integrates with the macys.com backend, giving customers an immersive brand experience and then direct access to the products of their choosing.

After helping Levi’s kick-start its wholesale interactive business, Iron was seen as the natural choice to design the experience. The microsite is part of a major brand overhaul for Dockers, as the San Francisco khaki company reinvigorates its entire product line, targeting a younger, more progressive audience. We’ll follow up with news on Dockers micro-sites at JCPenney and Kohl’s soon!

NewSchools Venture Fund is a nonprofit venture philanthropy firm working to transform public education for low-income children. Our challenge was to build a digital presence that would stand tall among Silicon Valley audiences and reflect the innovation and transformative results for which they are known. The site needed to portray the true face of NewSchools and tell a narrative to potential entrepreneurs, funders and the thousands that will visit. The new site has an integrated array of features including a blog, picture galleries, videos and other key resources. You’ll also find case studies of the great work NewSchools ventures have done.

As part of our commitment to working with companies dedicated to social good, we recently launched a new brand identity for local start-up Genability. Genability is focused on making electricity usage more elastic, distributed, renewable and clean. They are currently building the world’s most complete and accurate database of energy prices, as well as the next generation of cloud services for managing, forecasting and optimizing energy.

The logo we developed explores the use of Fibonacci spirals and kinetic energy. We wanted the mark to create a sense of motion and energy to represent the give and take of the network Genability will build.

To learn more about Genability, visit www.genability.com

How do you thank the communities and people who have supported your business for the past 75 years? How about with some groceries, gas, coffee and lunch… all for FREE! Patelco is celebrating their 75th anniversary and this is how we’re helping them to say “thank you”.

Yesterday, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, and Patelco Credit Union executives, kicked off the Patelco Pays Your Way campaign by visiting Lucky Supermarkets in Oakland. The team personally handed out $75 Lucky gift cards to 75 lucky grocery shoppers. This was the first in a series of Patelco Pays your Way events that we’ve helped coordinate.

Patelco Pays Your Way events will continue every Monday through Friday between March 15 and April 15 with Patelco representatives popping up at select Lucky Supermarkets, ARCO stations, Tully’s Coffee, Jamba Juice, and Panera Bread locations throughout the Bay Area.

In addition to helping individuals cover the cost of every-day purchases, Patelco is also offering more than $40,000 worth of prizes to its memebers as well as a chance for members and non-members to win $50,000 with one toss of a cupcake.

To find out where the Patelco Pays Your Way team may strike next, visit www.patelcopays.org

With over 350,000 apps in the Apple Store, we thought it was high time we joined the mobile revolution. As part of a complete naming, strategy and branding project, we are thrilled to announce the launch of Zipongo for iPhone.

Zipongo is a fun, interactive game with tools for tracking, sharing and exploring new foods, activities and even your sleep habits. The app, and asociated web site, use game theory to engage users and incentivize healthier lifestyle choices. Let the revolution continue!

This month we launched a new brand identity for Toolworks – a nonprofit organization that creates social and economic opportunities for people with disabilities. Our objective was to refresh the overall look and feel of the brand – from the group’s printed materials to its web presence.

In order to develop the new creative we helped reposition the organization, developing a fully-fledged strategic brief. The goal of the creative became to embody the new strategy, while capturing Toolworks’ unconventional spirit and uninhibited commitment to getting the job done. As such, the visual language we developed needed to reference the organization’s boldness and passion while presenting a unique, modern front.

Simple, elegant, san serif typography is treated with a progressive color palette and the interlocking double “O” motif suggest cooperation, strength and partnership. All key tenets of the brand strategy. The web site is under development and we’ll follow up with news of its launch in the coming months.

I know you thought the day would never come when a jean would focus on shape, not size! Too good to be true? Perhaps not anymore. Levi’s® listened to women from around the globe and studied more than 60,000 body scans, and as a result they have created a new line of custom fit jeans using a revolutionary fit system based on shape, not size!

The line launched in Levi’s® retail stores last fall and is now available at macys.com. We’ve refreshed the Levi’s® microsite on macys.com to include the Curve ID experience. The microsite includes education about the 3 new fits and a quiz that will help you determine which Curve ID fit is right for you. Check out macys.com to experience Curve ID for yourself.

It’s no secret that social media and digital technology are changing the world, specifically the world of fashion retail. Just months ago, many fashion brands were being mocked for their reluctance to jump on the social media bandwagon. With Fashion Week wrapping up in New York, the industry’s recent embrace of social media (and digital technology) is turning heads. You might say that social media is this season’s hottest ticket beating out the beloved skinny jean.

On February 16th, Style Coalition and TheFind announced the winners of the 2nd Annual Fashion 2.0 Awards. Nominated by industry fans and peers, the Fashion 2.0 Awards recognize the most innovative fashion brands for their achievements and communication strategies across social and digital media channels.

Sweeping the competition, fashion brand DKNY won four of the eight awards presented. Obviously a force to be reckoned with on the digital front, we can learn a lot by watching them in the coming months. We are very excited for our friends at Levi’s® who won the award for Best Facebook!!

When the The First Tee of San Francisco approached us, they had a unique challenge. They needed donations from individual donors and corporations to keep their program running, yet they had no official fundraising program, and no way to recognize the people who support them financially.

After launching into a brand strategy overhaul, we quickly designed event invites and new membership materials, as well a series of email newsletters. The result? The consistent, sophisticated branding led to increased First Tee Club membership and a staggering 2000% ROI following the first mailing of the membership brochure. They now have the tools they need to pursue funding and to recognize and maintain contact with those that provide invaluable financial support. Check out their program and help keep kids out of the rough.

After months of work, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of the new Levi’s microsite on macys.com. Until now, the Levi’s brand had been represented by a series of static banners that bore little relation to one another, or the brand as a whole. Our challenge was to leverage the Levi’s brand and develop a more engaging user experience.

After conducting a thorough audit of the Macy’s web site we identified several key opportunities and then:

• Designed a Levi’s-branded microsite, which incorporates Levi’s brand imagery and builds on current marketing and advertising campaigns
• Built an immersive interactive experience that brings the Levi’s brand to life, while presenting consumers with an array of attractive products
• Incorporated interactive fit details as well as video and voting functionality
• Integrated the Macy’s database into the microsite, creating a seamless, brand-based shopping experience (with a projected increase in online conversions of up to 30%)

The microsite is part of our ongoing work with Levi’s as we help them to deliver a consistent brand message across their major retail accounts.

Read more about our interactive projects.

This month we launched the brand new La Cornue USA web site, telling the company’s illustrious history and developing a rich interactive experience that reflects the passion that has driven the brand for over 3 generations.

Today, over a century after its first appearance, La Cornue remains without rival and their new site places the peerless products at the center of a compelling brand experience. As well as marveling at the beauty of the products on display, users can design their own range (see screenshot above), order from a selection of gorgeous accessories, or find a dealer near them. The new site has helped keep the brand in high demand in challenging times for many luxury products.

Today we launched an innovative new blog for Purcell Murray, helping the appliance distributor to fulfill its online marketing strategy and leverage the incredible content the company produces.

Featuring video, recipes and an array of cooking tips and techniques, the blog helps to position Purcell Murray as a trusted advisor for the anyone serious about finding the right appliances for their home.

The blog also gives the company’s SEO results a massive boost, with daily updates that keep them high up the organic search rankings, and keep users coming back time after time. While the blog represents just a fraction of the integrated marketing work we have done for the firm, it highlights the importance of using new technologies to capitalize on existing strengths.

Find out more about our integrated marketing work.

This month we designed the latest Levi’s SilverTab catalog, bringing the sub-brand into line with Levi’s national marketing efforts.

The 16-page, Fall 2010 catalog features product and brand-focused imagery, promoting this premium line of denim to retailers across the country. The catalog marks a year-long collaboration between Iron and Levi’s as we help the global denim manufacturer to present a unified brand presence across its major retail accounts.

Iron launches exciting new Levi’s microsite: read more.

After the redesign of their main website by Iron Creative, the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco (BGCSF) wanted to ensure their Camp Mendocino site aligned with the new look and feel. They turned to Iron again to reinvigorate and strategically streamline the Camp site.

We designed and developed the site with an integrated CMS, dynamic content and 3D elements that harken back to the main site. The prominent “call to action” buttons help facilitate the user experience and lead people to the pages deemed most important by BGCSF. The seamless integration with Facebook and YouTube encourages continued social interaction with the site as new sessions of camp are completed.

As an international marketing force, Specialized adheres to exacting brand standards. However, many of its product lines need to have a life of their own. The Designs for Women section of the company’s web site embodied the challenge – the need to separate the offering from a male-dominated brand backdrop, while maintaining enough consistency to leverage the basic brand values.

The Solution? By making subtle design adjustments, we set the Designs for Women section apart from the rest of the site. And by prominently featuring bold, empowering visuals and copy, we made the female target feel welcome.

Read more about our interactive projects.

This month we published the latest in a series of interactive maps designed to reconnect city dwellers with some lesser-known but action-packed urban parks. The latest map – a collaborative effort between The Trust for Public Land and The North Face – is the second installment in an ongoing effort to help city dwellers enjoy nature without having to leave town. The map features the five boroughs of New York and includes over 20 parks.

The maps can be viewed at Planet Explore, The North Face’s online community designed to help individuals and families learn about and participate in outdoor activities and events in their area.

Read more about our interactive projects.

KIPP Bay Area Schools (KBAS) is made up of seven tuition-free college-preparatory schools that are located in under-served neighborhoods across the Bay Area. With a different website for each of the schools, KBAS did not have a singular point of contact or consistent look for the breadth of information about the schools, enrollment and employment opportunities.

Iron redesigned the web site so that it now serves as a clearinghouse for information and provides a more comprehensive overview of the schools, the Regional Support Office and KIPP as a whole. The integrated CMS gives KBAS complete access to update the content of their site.

This week, while at the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau 99th annual luncheon, we found out that our Art SF 08 campaign won the CTTC’s Tourism Marketing Excellence Award.

The campaign, which showcased the city’s incredible summer of art, featured national print ads, online banner ads, a microsite (above), rack cards and posters throughout SFO. We’re always thrilled when industry insiders recognize and reward great work. A huge thanks to Lynn Bruni and the rest of the marketing team at the SFCVB for bringing us on and making this happen!

Find out more about our advertising work.

The featured logo is for the Feld Institute, a seminar-driven organization training attendees to improve individual aspects of their lives by understanding how those aspects fit into the larger whole. The logo itself embodies the ideas of integration and balance, and recalls the origins of those ideas, in eastern philosophy. We’re looking forward to seeing the new book when it comes out next spring!

The problem is, we are just not getting out into nature as much as we should. In fact, there’s clear new evidence that says that children who play and explore outdoors feel less stressed and may develop more confidence and greater social skills. It’s just that problem The Trust for Public Land and The North Face wanted to address. How do we get people out into nature again?

The two organizations came together and decided it’s high time someone promoted the incredible diversity of local parks and outdoor spaces, right here in the city. And so Iron was commissioned to write and design the “San Francisco Urban Nature Guide: 2009.” This handy pocket map features nine of the city’s lesser-known, but fun-filled parks, with suggestions on how to make the most of our time in the great outdoors. The guides are free and being distributed through The North Face stores this summer. It’s time to put on a pack and hit the park!

Check out some of the following NEW features we designed into the site:

• Sophisticated back-end development allows the site to act as a key fundraising and marketing tool
• Integrated CMS gives the client complete control over the content of the site
• Revised look and feel ensures consistent brand implementation
• Improved and easy-to-use online giving feature, complete with corporate match information and options for recurring gifts
• Interactive maps and full Clubhouse listings
• The option to sign up to learn more and receive an e-newsletter
• Extensive new photo galleries

It was a privilege to work with such an important organization. Our goal was to redevelop the site as an engaging and dynamic communication channel, ensuring the look and feel meshed perfectly with the organization’s re-brand.

Read more about our nonprofit work
Read more about our web design work

But this was a symptom of an age-old advertising problem: good radio is hard to do and it doesn’t have the portfolio cachet that TV does. So the hardest thing to do well always falls to new, less experienced writers. In other words, most agencies aren’t very good at radio in the first place – and the need to do it in half the time has simply shined a light on that fact. On the other hand, agencies that specialize in the “theater of the mind” are more in demand than ever.

Listen to more of our radio spots here

Last night Alice (pictured above) and I performed at Pecha Kucha in San Francisco. The theme for the evening was “CAUSE” and the event was part of San Francisco Design Week.

The format of the event is simple. You present 20 slides and talk about each for 20 seconds. Our theme was cause/affect, the graphic design competition we developed on behalf of the local chapter of the AIGA: the professional association for design. It was an incredible experience and gave us a great chance to get together with a bunch of do-gooders all doing incredible work.

It was one of those fantastic moments when a client took time out of their busy schedule to call and thank us. Why? Well, their phones had been ringing off the hook as the ad campaign we had been working on started to click into high gear. This was the pinnacle of a six month effort which saw us radically improve their Bay Area media buy, revise their marketing strategy, and redesign their print campaign.

We are excited to see how the campaign helps the organization strengthen its position as the premiere destination for seniors, and we look forward to developing their marketing materials further.

Read more about our advertising work
Read more about our nonprofit work
Read more about our media buying experience

The campaign, which showcased the city’s incredible summer of art, featured national print ads, online banner ads, a micro site, rack cards and posters throughout SFO. Our fingers are crossed!

Read more about our advertising work

I was lucky enough to attend the event and was thrilled to learn it raised a phenomenal $550,000! Click here to see pictures from the event. With this money, the Clubs will continue to run vital programs that help kids succeed in school, build strong character, develop healthy lifestyles and graduate from high school with a clear post-secondary plan.

We’re also putting the finishing touches to the organization’s web site, which is due to launch in the middle of the month.

Read more about our nonprofit work
Read more about our web design work

The seminar, entitled: “Making a Difference. Designing for Social Responsibility”, gave a broad overview of the topic encouraging us, as business and community leaders, to promote the spirit of philanthropy and volunteerism.

The seminar was well attended and I was suprised by the commitment and diversity of the group. If there’s one thing I took away it was that more and more people are passionate about incorporating some degree of social responsibility into their daily practice.

Read more about our work with nonprofit organizations.

That was pretty much the case when Ocarina Networks contacted us. They had a fully functioning site. It just wasn’t representing their brand values any more. So they commissioned us to give their old site a facelift. They also wanted the new site to be built using a fully functioning content management system (CMS), and they threw in an ultra fast turnaround time for good measure!

In just 8 weeks we restructured their old architecture, sourced a suitable CMS (joomla), designed and deployed their new site. Check out the result here.

But what did they miss? Only 40% of the visitors knew the piece was sponsored by Office Max. And only 30% of that 40% said they would be more likely to make a purchase from Office Max. Granted, you’re still talking about connecting with 24 million people in exactly the right way. But then there’s that other 168 million.

The problem is the rules – the rules say that viral marketing has to fly under the radar. They say that once people register it as marketing, they won’t forward it to a friend. But the rules are wrong. The problem with flying under the radar is that hardly anyone sees you. It is true that pieces of negligible value can be killed by a prominent logo or offer. But the real rule is: create content that people love so much, they’re proud to be a part of your brand.

Then leverage this incredible awareness tool by injecting it with a direct response component. Give people a coupon for forwarding it. And do it now, while people are hungry for this stuff. Because in six months or a year, there’s going to be so many viral “must-sees” out there that consumers will hit their saturation point and you’ll be playing the same game you play with radio, TV and print.

So nothing’s changed but perception. Oh, and the price. The perception I just mentioned has caused radio rates to drop off substantially – which means efficiencies have increased substantially. It’s hard to say how long this will continue. But it’s easy to see that right now, you have an unprecedented window of opportunity to get tremendous reach and frequency. Need help? Give my reel a listen and give us a call.

The details of the competition are simple: all work entered must promote or support social good. All we ask is that it doesn’t contribute directly to the profit of a commercial organization. And to qualify, work must have been produced between November 1, 2007 and June 19, 2009.

Join us on Facebook and find out more!

“It’s simple. In today’s market, brands matter. In fact nonprofits, NGOs and social organizations are starting to spend big bucks on marketing… And they have to. There’s calls to buy green. Support this cause. Threats of recession… It’s no wonder that donor fatigue has set in.”

The article’s Author, Noelle Weaver, warms to the theme, “Organizations have to move beyond mailing out a cute, fuzzy brochure when 223 other nonprofits and corporate cause marketers are competing for the same dollar.”

The irony is that nonprofits often struggle to justify marketing spend to their key stakeholders. Marketing has long been seen as a barely necessary evil in the sector, yet those same organizations constantly complain that “no one knows their brand”.

Yet many succesful nonprofit organizations have already made the switch and avidly follow the laws of marketing simply because they’ve learned from the corporate sector’s lead: success is determined by the way a potential donor perceives your organization. And if you’re not actively managing that perception, your chances of success become rather slim.

The exhibition is part of a larger initiative called the SoftSpot – which is a collaborative MFA Design Thesis Project, with the intention of inspiring positive social change through the use of design. Ultimately, the group wants more designers to become involved in creating a higher quality of life.

Check out the SoftSpot’s Facebook page. Check out their official site.

General Rules

• Develop an editorial calendar
• Don’t get rid of any content from your blog that is still relevant
• Use the blog as a response mechanism to common client questions – you can then give the client even deeper content – allow comments to these to add value and knowledge
• Ask guest bloggers to post and offer to reciprocate
• Conduct interviews
• Encourage comments on the blog – we should do everything we can to encourage this – this builds indexable content but it can take years to develop
• The more people who blog in the company, the better (but these should be good bloggers!)
• Ideally post two-three times a week

Using Google Analytics

• Ideally you want a bounce rate (people who leave directly after viewing a specific page) under 40%
• Ask: “Where are the visits coming from?”
• Facebook is becoming a good way to drive traffic – people trust this site and the bounce rate tends to be low from referred sources
• Be aware: if a blog post has a very high bounce rate consider deleting it if it is not helping to build your brand, develop leads etc

And as the medium grows in popularity, and advances in technology make its implementation cheaper and easier to utilize, more and more people are seeking to integrate video into their online strategy. This month alone we have been commissioned to integrate, or produce, videos for four clients. And while straight video has immediate impact, we are going to see an increase in interactive video, that allows users the chance to effect their own outcomes, and chose their own scenarios. If you’re not familiar with interactive video check out this simple example we generated for our holiday card this year.

While this isn’t new (fans of the medium will all remember the Subservient Chicken), cheaper costs and faster download times, mean it too will play an increasingly important part in people’s web strategy. Why should you care? Well, the real Holy Grail for web-based marketers is of course the “viral” campaign. An interactive piece so entertaining and compelling that viewers are prompted to email it on to friends, generating an authentic “buzz” that helps propagate interest for a given brand. With media budgets shrinking by the day, who’s not in the market for some free brand buzz?

• Need more on info about viral? Check out Selling It: The Path to Viral Success
• Get some more viral ideas

This month, with the launch of sanctuaryws.com, we completed our latest financial services Web site. The clean, minimal design – which features bold, high-contrast black and white photography, contrasted with an elegant color palette and minimal typography – is intended to invoke a feeling of calm amid these troubled economic times. While the overall design lends the site a distinguished tone, the embedded Flash components bring a sense of sophistication and interactivity.

In its first week the new site brought record numbers of visitors for Sanctuary and continues to form the foundation of their marketing outreach efforts. We look forward to working more closely with the Sanctuary team in the coming months.

• Find out more about our financial services work

The innovative design we developed features a dynamic color palette and fluid mark, which is intended to evoke a Möbius strip. We chose the Möbius Strip – which has only one side and one edge – to reference the interconnectedness of our ecosystem and our essential role within it. The mark also references timelessness, strength and stability, while the color gradients call to mind energy and motion.

Check out some of our other nonprofit work

Our challenge was to craft a story that reflects the single-minded, client-centric focus of the bank, while simultaneously appealing to the diverse needs of their high-net-worth clients. The result? A straight-talking, business-like brochure that relies on the strength of the message and the integrity of the brand, rather than any linguistic or graphic gadgetry. In uncertain economic times, it’s a little bit of what we all need.

• Take a look at our other financial services work

One solution is to produce a limited number of cutting-edge pieces that deliver on your brand promise, while generating a lasting emotional connection. And that’s exactly what we have been able to do working with the forward-thinking management team at Springboard Forward. Check out the latest piece we produced for them (below). This dynamic brochure features an accordion fold, a clever die-cut cover, and a clear foil emboss, to reaffirm that Springboard is a “fundamentally different” organization.

• Read more about the re-branding project
• Check out some of our other nonprofit work

By pairing complementary, vivid colors with natural motifs, we were able to design a system that is both distinct and approachable. Simple hang tags keep production costs to a minimum while building a comprehensive brand identity. And the logo itself features organic letterforms combined with a clever mark, that comprises a leaf and cross, to symbolize the natural remedy kits within.

The client has been bowled over by the design and looks forward to rolling out the product in the coming months. We are in the process of completing the project with a new Web site for the firm, due to launch in Spring 2009. We’ll keep you posted!

Straight after its launch, Astia CEO Sharon Vosmek emailed us to express her delight with the video’s reception, “Let me start with how amazing the response has been to the piece you created. People LOVE it. Thank you so very much! We are thrilled!”

• Read more abut the Astia it Conference branding project

So why did we choose to shift to radio this month, when we know the spots will be heard in Marin, Sonoma and other areas where we can’t possibly expect listeners to make the trip to San Jose? Well, it’s frequently a close race between cable and radio, for the simple reason that radio is so inexpensive. With radio, we may be reaching people all over the Bay Area, but we’ll be reaching the same number of San Jose consumers (if not more), as we would with a cable buy.

Of course, the switch to radio at this stage begs the question of why we launched on cable. And the answer is: visual impact and brand awareness. The cable spots allowed us to connect with our consumers in a more visual, visceral way – they provided an interaction that goes further than a radio spot can, in terms of message retention. But now that some brand awareness has been built, we’re able to leverage that awareness and gain the cost efficiencies afforded by radio, by running continuity-minded spots that feature the same tone and voice as the cable spots. Take a listen:

As soon as the cards arrived, Springboard Forward’s spokesperson Jerri Jensen sent this wonderful email, “Our business cards and letterhead just arrived. This stuff is AMAZING. These cards are so much better than I imagined. I’m so glad you have continued to push us into the “fundamentally different” territory in line with our strategic positioning. Thank you so much for all you’re doing for this organization.”

It’s great to hear such glowing feedback for such a humble piece of marketing material. But it proves that an organization’s brand strategy can, and should, be delivered at every touchpoint.

• Read more about the re-branding project
• Check out some of our other nonprofit work

This exciting project builds on our ongoing program of work for the Cancer Center and gives us an opportunity to develop and strengthen the brand further.

• Download a PDF of some of our recent SCC work

In August we began working on an exciting collaborative project with The North Face and The Trust for Public Land, designed to get people out of the retailer’s store and into some of San Francisco’s lesser-known parks.

In-store maps will feature 10 parks you probably haven’t heard of, encouraging consumers to make the most of their North Face gear in some unexpected places. Below are our first round of creative concepts, featuring a standard map right through to an interactive “park calculator.” We’ll keep you posted as the project takes shape!

This is our second Web project for TWP and it continues our excellent relationship with the firm and the wider financial industry.

• View the new site here
• Read more about our financial services work

We chose a simple, elegant design, printing directly onto die-cut aluminum, to evoke the beauty of the Gaggenau product line. The card is presented in a sleek jacket to further mirror the aesthetic and sensory experience of owning a Gaggenau appliance.

• Find out more about Gaggenau

The Paine & Partners site was built using a combination of PHP, Javascript, Flash and CSS, to deliver a seamless brand experience. The new site is a welcome addition to our work in the industry and we are proud to add Paine & Partners to our growing list of financial services clients, including: Thomas Weisel Partners, Blueprint Ventures, Trident Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Astia.

• Visit the Paine & Partners site
• Read more about the brand redesign

Gary Snoman: Viral Phenomenon from Iron Creative on Vimeo.

In today’s fast-paced world, there are a lot of things competing for our attention. We’ve got IM windows open, a screaming email inbox and the phone ringing off the hook. Which is exactly why it is so important to use humor to connect with our consumers – even for just a few minutes.

Even hard-nosed business types are embracing the power of a little levity to help get their name out and reconnect with former clients. Take this rough cut of a holiday message we developed for Trident Capital as an example. It’s done in a traditional style, but is very much at the cutting-edge of corporate communication.

• Read more about our viral success stories
• Read more about our financial services work

This month we launched a new brand identity for a local nonprofit organization, visually bringing to life their place at the intersection of working families and the businesses who employ them.

The new logo we developed for Springboard Forward literally represents the crossroads we have all stood at some point in our working lives. This powerful metaphor also quickly and graphically represents the innovative role the organization plays in helping people identify and realize their career aspirations.

The mark itself, which was designed by Iron Design Director Alice Bybee, represents dynamism, new perspectives and new paths through life. We are excited to be working on a collateral system for the organization as we help build and strengthen the brand in the coming months.

We recently completed the second television spot in our campaign for Capitol Volkswagen/Hyundai/Suzuki. Now, while it moves in a new direction graphically, it maintains the overall aesthetic of the first spot. And in fact our reason for recommending this direction (which we call “White World”) to the client was that it allows us to maintain a consistent look and feel as we go, while playing with visual elements of a fundamentally different nature.

We believe it’s this “changeable same-ness” that allows a campaign to develop instant recognizability, while at the same time staying fresh over months and even years.

During its opening week, a stunning 32,000 people were wowed by Dale Chihuly’s fantastic creations. That’s almost as many people as attended the museum’s reopening in 2005, and marks a milestone for stand alone attendance numbers.

This blockbuster show, combined with a truly integrated marketing campaign, added to a fabulous location for art lovers, should be the recipe for a successful summer for our favorite museum. We’ll keep you posted on how the campaign plays out.

Astia Venture Conferences Promo from Iron Creative on Vimeo.

As a resource for fast-growing, women-led enterprises, Astia has built a network of advisors and VC’s like no other. And while their offering is truly exceptional, they were having trouble articulating it in a hip, cool way that matched their organization’s culture. So with the “It Conference” (their annual showcase) around the corner, they established a partnership with Iron. The goal? Tighten the core Astia message and build a sub-brand around the conference. Oh, and do it in two weeks.

Luckily, we don’t believe in spending months and months toiling over a strategic positioning. Why? Because Iron is an agency run by Creative Directors. We’ve spent our lives winning awards for successfully framing offerings in terms that connect and grab peoples’ imagination. So as we dig into a company’s inner workings, we recognize the building blocks for that process at a speed no left-brained type can.

Suffice to say, ten days later, Astia had a slick new identity for the conference, along with the language they’d need to more effectively sell the conference (and Astia as a whole) to their myriad targets.

• Breaking News: check out the it conference viral email

The ‘addition’ symbol in the logo alludes to the company’s position which we determined during an extensive strategic process carried out earlier this year. Essentially, Paine & Partners’ unique approach allows the firm to identify opportunities other firms do not or cannot see. And it is this hidden component that is artfully reflected in the logo, while the ‘addition’ symbol alludes to added value.

In Bruce Mau’s “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” the Canadian design legend plainly states “Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.” And for a long time we felt the same way. After all, our clients are more focused on real world results. Does the work sell more products, drive more traffic, build greater brand recognition? These are the metrics by which we are really judged – not the number of gleaming gongs displayed in our office.

This may sound like a sour grapes condemnation by folks who’ve been edged out in scores of creative competitions. But that’s just not the case. We’ve won dozens of creative awards in our past lives. Take this Lombardi Sports spot for example – written and produced by Iron CD John Walsh, back when he was freelancing for Hub Strategy.

It won the whole ball of wax in the National Admark awards – and while it was certainly good for Lombardi’s business, helping to establish them as THE Bay Area sports retailer, that would have been the case whether or not it had been entered in the Addy’s. That said, when talking about awards, it’s important to distinguish what kinds of awards you’re talking about. In our opinion, creative awards like the Addy’s are nice, but mean little. On the other hand, American Marketing Association awards (alright, we just won one) mean a lot – because they are judged based on results.

So we’re not saying we shouldn’t be ego-maniacal award-mongers. We should just make sure the awards we’re winning are the right awards.

Checkpoint / The Wall:
This piece features a bold, unconventional look and feel, intended to invigorate attendees at Checkpoint’s annual meeting.

Capital Volkswagen / White World
Here we developed a friendly but minimalist world, where the message and the product would stand out, unfettered.

Astia / it Conference
This was a viral piece, that needed to surprise and entertain people, while branding Astia’s conference as an unconventional new experience.

Lombardi Sports / Miles Per Hour
This spot needed to maintain consistency with the overall Lombardi campaign – based primarily on irreverence.

Purcell Murray / Pro Range & Showroom
These two spots made the most of a shoe string budget, carrying the brand Iron had developed for Purcell Murray, into a Cable TV environment.

Clothing Broker / Security
This spot evolved very naturally out of the Clothing Broker brand promise: “We save wherever we can, so you save big on designer fashions.

Purcell Murray / Gaggenau Steam Oven
Here, the client requested a very conservative, conventional aesthetic.

Still, we’re occasionally asked to do pro bono work. While the prospect of helping a good cause is often compelling, experience has taught us that doing free work can often end up costing the client in ways they might not have imagined. In fact we just started working with a new organization who were so frustrated with the lack of attention and shifting timelines they were getting from their pro bono resource, they were happy to find funding to get the job done right and on time. Without a little “skin in the game” clients can also become complacent about the true value of the services they are receiving and ultimately the true value of their brand.

If you are considering trying to get some design work for free, simply ask yourself if you can afford to have your work bumped when a paying client comes along. Long lead times can mitigate the risk, but investing in your brand might be a better long term bet.

These days, in many cases, the media outlets offer everyone the “agency discount.” But in reality, they’ve eliminated the discount, and anyone who is willing to spend hours and hours negotiating will get the best rate. The so-called discount is just a fiction offered to close a sale. So is the existence of an agency discount the “myth” to which my title refers? Nope. In fact, the myth is that the agency discount was ever of much value in the first place. Think about it: in the old days, people got the same rate from an agency as they would get for themselves. So why did they bother? The answer is: they wanted an expert’s advice and an expert’s results-driven process.

Of course, that used to be free and now you have to pay for it. Or do you? Consider this: when we began buying the media for our biggest client we increased their print circulation by 15%, while decreasing their cost per point by 10%. Plus, we doubled the number of paid publications in their mix (dramatically increasing the effectiveness of their placements) and found so many holes in a $600k cable contract that they realized they had to reallocate those funds. When we looked at the value of their new buy, we’d earned our 15% commission more than three times over.

Long story short, we encourage folks to focus a lot less on the agency discount and a lot more on true agency value – because 15% is just the tip of the iceberg if your agency knows their stuff.

• In 2007, 16.1 million visitors came to San Francisco, showing an increase of 2.4% over 2006.
• Visitors spent $8.2 billion in 2007, which was an increase of 6.2% over 2006 and an all-time high.

Joe D’Alessandro, SFCVB President and CEO, says, “Tourism continues to be San Francisco’s most vital industry. Visitor dollars provide the largest financial impact to the local economy and its imperative that we continue to fuel this source by strengthening our marketing efforts to promote San Francisco and the Bay Area as [a] premier destination.”

All agreed, Joe. We are thrilled to see that SFCVB is seeing such positive results in its marketing efforts. Even more thrilling is the idea of playing a role in bringing home the bacon for San Francisco.

We saw early on that our work for San Francisco institutions was getting remarkable results, so it made sense to make the area a specialty. But why did we have that success? Well, I could say it’s because I’m a San Francisco native and I have my ear to the city’s volksgeist. But I won’t, because the word “volksgeist” is really, really pretentious.

And more to the point, regardless of my intimate knowledge of the San Francisco demographic, I am the only native San Franciscan in the agency. Instead, we believe that the secret of our success in the San Francisco market is more a product of our agency’s philosophy – that advertising should be VERY smart.

We just don’t believe people will take an interest in an advertising message unless there’s an element of discovery – what lots of folks call an “aha” moment. And in a city like San Francisco, where just about every heartbeat has a college degree or better to go with it, this approach to advertising tends to resonate. So if you’re advertising here, you’d better be doing it with that in mind.

Last night, Iron’s campaign for the de Young Museum was awarded the 2008 Excellence in Marketing Award by the American Marketing Association. After a blockbuster opening in 2005, the de Young had experienced a decline in attendance of nearly 10% every four months, continuing through the spring of 2007, as the Vivienne Westwood exhibition wound down. With no exhibitions of note upcoming, the summer looked bleak. Iron was hired to create some new “brand buzz,” and more importantly, reverse the declining trend in attendance.

During the four-month period after the launch of the new campaign, average monthly attendance rose by 12% – a turn-around of more than 20%. As such, the campaign is a great example of the value of an integrated campaign that takes full advantage of print, outdoor and collateral.

Iron has also produced stunning campaigns for the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Legion of Honor (completed November 2007), and this summer’s blockbuster Chihuly show (June 2008).

For more details on the de Young Campaign, click here.

When a client asks for advertising, they are asking to break through the clutter and grab the attention of an otherwise disinterested prospect. This is not the forum for a conservative approach, and to recommend such an approach is just plain irresponsible. However, there’s a reason we call it a risk. Effective advertising often connects with the majority of the target at the expense of putting off a minority. For instance, we recommended San Francisco Honda go with a voice that was downright wacky:

Now, when a client asks for a business card or a tri-fold brochure, there is no reason to take a risk. These communications are going to people who are already paying attention. So the upside of taking a risk is removed, leaving only the downside.

So, in short, you take a risk when you have to.

How does an emerging photographer make a bold impact, yet still let his images do the talking? The answer: commission Iron to design an iconic portfolio site that garners awards from industry gurus and creates a brand strong enough to hold its own in the overcrowded marketplace.

The result? We were delighted to hear that Eric Percher’s new site made it into this year’s prestigious PDN Photo Annual, giving Eric a huge boost and a ton of welcome publicity. Bravo Eric!

You engage the target personally and precisely – to the point where they forget the 999,999 other options, even if it’s just for a moment. This takes two critical tools: The Right Message and The Right Voice.

To achieve The Right Message:

• Be mindful that messages should get to the point – simply, quickly, and effectively.
• Pinpoint the thing about your client that people want and can’t get anywhere else.
• Refine and reshape that thing until the consumer has to choose it over the competition.

To achieve The Right Voice:

• Remember that it’s about more than building a brand; it’s building brand personality. (It’s personality that the target should identify with – either in terms of who the target consumer is, or who they want to be.)
• Know who you’re talking to – figure out if they like Bill Cosby, Bill Maher, or Bill Shakespeare.

Of course, this is all easier said than done – which is why we’re here. Check out this skit for an exploration of the wrong voice and how it can kill a sale:

Simple task, right? Attract tourists to San Francisco. Tourists get the experience of a lifetime (and spend a little cash along the way). Everybody wins. What made this project the most difficult was perhaps the incredible lineup of artists and exhibitions. So the question was, how to balance such a star-studded lineup? Take a look at what we were working with:

• Asian Art Museum – Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty
• Contemporary Jewish Museum – designed by renowned “starchitect” Daniel Libeskind (also designer to the new World Trade Center), opening its doors June 8
• SFMOMA – Frida Kahlo
• de Young – Chihuly
• Legion of Honor – Women Impressionists

These visiting exhibits embody an extensive range of cultures from all over the world. After digging into this project it became clear that in many ways, San Francisco already mirrors this fusion of foreign and domestic customs. Why not flip the deck on this idea – let’s present San Francisco as a piece of art in itself, and as such, the ideal host to these rich cultures.

And so…ArtSF08 was born. With a prominent media run in publications such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Los Angeles Magazine, the campaign had to appeal to the most sophisticated and well-traveled reader. The result: check it out here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How do you brand an organization that embodies a pioneering spirit that’s almost antithetical to branding itself? An organization of such startling originality, it builds its home out of copper to resemble a vision of the future Buckminster Fuller would have been proud of.

Our brief was to help determine a cohesive strategy for the de Young museum and develop an integrated campaign to help drive traffic back through the plate glass doors. Not an easy charge. We had to ask ourselves, what characterizes the de Young? And even San Francisco itself? The short story: audacity, creativity and, of course, originality. The beauty of the de Young campaign was realized through its simplicity. A detailed grid was used across all printed materials to capture the multifaceted nature of the organization and it’s stunning collection. A stark black background allowed the art and typography to vividly standout, while the flexibility of the grid allowed us to pair art with nature and stunning architecture – a literal vision of the museum’s character.

The media run painted the streets of San Francisco with Street Banners and Cable Car Wraps. For those who were unable to visit the city during this “aesthetically enriching” (thanks, Gavin!) media run, we also provided Rack Cards for local businesses and Print Ads in publications such as Los Angeles Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, and Diablo Magazine.

The result? In the four-month period after the launch of the de Young campaign, average monthly attendance rose by 12% (!!!). Audacity, creativity and originality at work.

So you can imagine our skepticism when Steven Johnson of Addison Ashley told us “My company’s not like that.” But once he told us how he ran the company and what he believed, our faith in the mythical can-do IT company was restored. And we set out to find the message and the voice that would do the same for the rest of the world. First, we defined the following key messaging points:

1. Listening Skills – They actually find out the client needs and issues before they start work.
2. Accountability – They do what they say they’re going to do, when they say they’re going to do it. (Eyebrows raise)
3. Responsiveness – They know you wouldn’t be calling them just to say “hi”. So they get back to you right away… not several days later. If it’s urgent, within 30 minutes.
4. Efficiency – They partner with key resources like internet and phone providers so they’re ready to move, or get your office set up within 3 days. Less if you need it.

From there, we built a “proof is in the pudding-backed brand.” And to add impact, we leveraged the fact that Addison Ashley really could put their money where their mouths were, by recommending they offer a “2-day test drive.” (A free trial, at no risk.)

Over the following months, we developed a complete identity system, including logo, stationery, brochure and a website that communicated all of this. Now, the next time your email goes down, you know who to call.

Content
Quality content remains the best way to attract people. There are three questions to ask: Where will the content come from? Does it provide indisputable value? How can a regular flow of quality content be maintained?

Context
Context means investing time in knowing how your users will want to engage with their community — then enabling them to do so. In short it means serving users the right experience, at the right time.

Check out this Energy Action Plan

Connectivity
Communities thrive on activities that are relationship-based. It’s not about mass communications but more about micro-interactions. It’s important to design experiences that support thousands of micro-interactions. This means you are making a commitment vs. trying to produce a one-hit wonder. If you’ve invested in building a community framework, you need to play host if you’re lucky enough for guests to arrive.

Continuity
Communities that thrive often evolve to meet the needs of users. Communities such as this and others need to be flexible to evolve while still providing a valuable and consistent user experience which can be sustained.

The takeaway: building communities requires a lot of work and demands a variety of skill sets. It also, crucially, has to be built around a brand or cause that has the strength to galvanize entire groups of people. If that sounds like it might apply to your organization, it might be worth the hard work that inevitably lays ahead.

The study, headed by Adrian Sargeant, the Robert F. Hartsook Professor of Fundraising at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, found that many nonprofits don’t understand the importance of differentiation in their overall strategy.

With the completion of the renovation of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, the Musee National of the Chateau de Versailles was ready to showcase not only one of its crown jewels of architecture, but one of its most infamous queens – Marie Antoinette – with a worldwide tour. So they chose the Legion of Honor as host to an exclusive U.S. exhibition of Marie Antoinette’s ”home away from Versailles”, the Petit Trianon.

The timing couldn’t have been better – Sophia Coppola’s 2006 blockbuster, featuring Marie Antoinette, managed to envisage her as a pop culture icon. Through this resurgence in popularity, her former reputation has undergone some severe reevaluation (it was, afterall, her unpopularity amongst the French people that got her killed). In asking Iron to promote Marie Antoinette at the Legion of Honor, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco was effectively asking us to tell a renewed story behind the Queen of Fashion.

What a fun project – getting to know the notorious queen who came to be synonymous with excess, opulence, and above all, high-end designer fashion. After some research, we discovered that through her love of fashion, Marie Antoinette showcased many of her political views in her personal style – particularly evident in her teetering pouf hairstyles.

Because Austria, her homeland, was still somewhat on the outs with France – people (ahem, her husband King Louis XVI) often wouldn’t listen to her. So she put her opinion on display for all to see. The woman recreated entire battle scenes and other historic events within a hairdo.

How progressive is that? Unfortunately, her love of fashion – and her love of making a statement – were ultimately her downfall. And so…Iron rebranded Marie Antoinette as not only the Queen of Style and Taste, but of Controversy and Revolution.