Let's hear it for consistency

All too often, marketers make a big splash with a new program and then walk away well before it's taken root. This flash-in-the-pan approach to promotion simply doesn't add up for products and services that have any sort of drawn out purchase path -- like a new condo, for instance. So kudos to Vulcan Real Estate for having the wisdom to send bi-weekly emails to their extensive list of prospects about goings-on in South Lake Union (and an extra tip of the hat Vulcan's way for choosing Worker Bees and RMB Vivid to make it happen.) Rather than a strictly commercial message, the more subtle approach of spreading timely news about happenings in the area slowly wins over both current and prospective owners and tenants. Along with five or six news tidbits, each email concludes with a "home of the every-other-week" feature promoting a specific unit for sale at a Vulcan property. Want to get on the list? Sign up.

Do testimonial ads have to be boring?

We certainly don't think so. Our highly biased opinion may have something to do with the fact that patient stories form the backbone of a new consumer ad campaign for Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Inevitably, all hospitals do (or claim to do) pretty much the same thing. And, while you could run an ad saying "our technology is better than their technology," or "our doctors are smarter than their doctors," if you're a reasonably healthy person, you just don't care. That's why we turned to dramatic and provocative testimonials from Swedish patients. In this print ad, we talk about a minimally invasive procedure for heart valve repair that takes the place of the traditional crack-your-sternum-in-two open heart surgery -- something only Swedish and a handful of other hospitals can do. This and other stories are told again in radio commercials, and on a special web landing page created for the campaign.

Syncresse Email Marketing Campaign

Here in the internet age, creating email is more like advertising-the-way-it-used-to be. That's to say it arrives unsolicited and not always wanted. To overcome this natural apathy (if not, antipathy), good HTML email will employ the very old school techniques of a provocative image coupled with an equally intriguing headline. Case in point: the series of emails we recently completed for Syncresse, a producer of workshops on effectiveness training for women. The headline here reads: "To improve their professional performance, some women sit in a dark room and watch Powerpoints. This is our method."