SKM Group Blog

Loving It: Being an Ad Agency Art Director

Mike Brown — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:23 +0000

From TV shoots working with celebrities such as Terrell Owens, to creating a world with digital animators for Mr. Monopoly to live in, to designing a zamboni wrap or logos, being an Art Director is awesome, simply put. With clients who have varying needs and desires, the end goal is never the same. Shift someone’s thoughts to choose our client’s company over another; influence a sale; find a way to increase revenue. These are the challenges we are tasked with everyday in advertising. But, no matter who the client and what their goal is, they are still not the most important thing in advertising.

“The most important word in advertising is YOU,” says Mike Mathis, our Chief Creative Officer. “You the person watching a TV spot, listening to a radio commercial, viewing a billboard, print ad, online ad or direct mail piece.” He has instilled this philosophy in our agency and this is the #1 driving factor we at SKM Group consider when thinking up a concept or designing a layout. What is going to engage a consumer? What will they find funny? What will they trust? What will make them respond? By tuning in to the customer, you get a response and that’s the point. At the end of every day we are a business working to deliver positive results for our clients.

Still, the experiences an art director has with photo and tv shoots, the celebrities they may meet, the awesome logo they create, these are all great. Driving the consumer the buy that product, or choose that business is the real success. Keep the consumer in mind above everything else. I can honestly say that’s the best takeaway I’ve ever had as an Art Director.

Food Retail Has Gone Digital

Pamela Guggi — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:28 +0000

After returning from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) show in Dallas, Texas, one key topic stood out as a strong take away – like it or not, we are living in a digital world and there is no going back. As Terry Jones of Kayak.com stated in his presentation, “We are living in a self-service world where successful leaders must recognize that customers are now Internet savvy, time-starved and information rich.” As marketers, we must adapt our means of communication and find a way to speak to our customers through channels they are readily engaged in. Shiv Sing, global head of digital for Pepsico, talked about what he describes as “The Chaotic Ecosystem, where anyone can now send your customers any message, at any time.” If you don’t reach out to your customers, someone else will (and probably already has).

Throughout the show, the idea of a “new normal” in terms of consumers and their shopping patterns was discussed as something retailers must now embrace. Post-recession, there has been about a 20% increase in the number of shoppers who would be considered “deal seekers” and have adapted their monthly budgets to make do with less. We must take this into consideration when speaking to shoppers about deals and value – as they are now putting in more time and energy than ever before to search out the best deal in the market.

Each of the many speakers at the show hit on a different aspect of the grocery retail business and what’s new in the industry. As we walked the exhibitor floor, we saw new advances in technology, new product offerings (healthy ice cream – yes, it’s actually real and coming to you soon!) and new digital advances in how retailers can reach their shoppers in quicker, more engaging ways. There were a lot of new and exciting changes discussed in the grocery industry and through it all, one fact remained: today’s food shopper is equipped with more technology and information than ever before, and grocery shopping will never again be the same.

Missionary Award Winner – April

Sue Meany — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:30:25 +0000

We’re sending some congratulatory love to SKM Operations Manager, Patrick Herrrmann, for being chosen as our Missionary Award Winner for April. Earlier last month we made some significant improvements to the agency’s server and Pat was an integral part of the process, working over 80 hours in one week! His “no problem” attitude and role as a “man who wears many hats”, help make our agency as successful as it is. Well done Pat!

SKM Attends Insurance Direct Marketing Conference

Jill Fecher — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:00:24 +0000

We just returned from the JCG Insurance Direct Marketing Forum 2012 in New Orleans. The weather and the presentations were HOT! This conference featured some of the best insurance direct marketers in the industry today. The focus of most of the presentations was case studies that others can learn from and implement in their own organizations, which is always helpful when we are working with our clients on the best solutions for their marketing challenges.

Shannon Warner from AIG Benefit Solutions taught us how his company was successful in testing different online channels for their effectiveness – including email, Facebook ads, landing pages and online videos. They proved that you can never stop learning from consistently testing your messaging, segmentation and channel tactics. What works today may not work tomorrow and campaigns must constantly evolve to bring the best results.

Chubb & Son’s Chief Innovation Officer, Jon Bidwell, presented a case study about Chubb’s enterprise-wide social media presence. Chubb took an interesting approach by utilizing interns to come up with a plan to best use social media channels. The interns presented their ideas to the highest level executives in the organization to get their buy-in and it launched from there. Testing played a big part in their strategy as well since Chubb is a global company and what works in one country may not resonate in another.

SKM was an exhibitor for this conference and we were able to meet some great people to work with in the future. And since we traveled down on Sunday morning, we even got to spend some time in the French Quarter – exploring the rich history of the area, eating beignets from the famous Café du Monde, and picking up a gnome painting from a sidewalk artist at the French Quarter Festival.

SKM Makes It to the BETA Finals

Jeff Schaefer — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:00:37 +0000

SKM Group was recently honored as a finalist for a BETA Award. Sponsored by InfoTech Niagara, the BETAs annually recognize the best and brightest companies and individuals in the technology field in Western New York.

This year, SKM was a finalist for the Social Media Award, which identified the local organization making best use of social media within the past year. We were recognized for our comprehensive approach to social media for the agency that includes our blog, Facebook, Twitter, video, LinkedIn and monthly newsletter.

Social engagement allows for informing, sharing and connecting with an “on the go” audience. We maintain an active social media presence – across a variety of social channels – and know how integral it is to our business. We recommend employing the same standards to our clients in an effort to reach current customers and prospects.

SKM also values the importance of social media planning and strategy to best reach our audience with relevant and timely messaging. Implementing a strong social media plan can help businesses brand themselves in a format different from their competitors, which is why we have such a broad-based social media program at SKM that not only promotes our services, but helps us better understand how the various social platforms would benefit our clients.

A new BETA Award in 2012, the social media category was added because of the force social media has become in marketing. Congratulations to all the finalists!

For more in-depth information on our interactive capabilities, click here.

Thank You for Believing in Our Birthday Wish!

Sue Meany — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:00:32 +0000

Last year, SKM Group kicked off its 25^th Anniversary celebration at The American Cancer Society’s Cuisine for a Cure with one wish: more birthdays for those fighting cancer. To do this, we reached out to clients, vendors and friends in an effort to raise $25,000 for the Buffalo chapter of the American Cancer Society. In addition, we promised to match every dollar raised up to $25,000 to support cancer-related organizations across the country.

At this year’s Cuisine for a Cure, we came full circle and announced the completion of our fundraising goal! We were able to donate a total of $50,000 in the fight against cancer. More than just raising money, the SKM team participated in several local events supporting cancer research throughout the year. On behalf of all of SKM Group, I want to thank everyone who helped make this anniversary mission a success—we couldn’t have done it without you.

To commemorate our efforts, we presented a short video to recap all the events we participated in throughout the year. You can watch that video here.

To read about all of our 25^th Anniversary activities in detail, we’ve rounded our favorite blog posts for you:

“Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” Walk

TOPS 5K Run/Family Walk

Pink Fridays for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Ride for Roswell

Cyndi Practices Her First Pitch for Turn the Park Pink

Once again, thank you to all of our clients, vendors, friends and all of our dedicated employees for believing in our wish for more birthdays for those fighting cancer.

Smart Ways to Make Your Direct Mail Effective with a Downsized US Postal Service

Bruce Rice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:00:08 +0000

We are going to see more changes with the US Postal Service this year, including service delivery changes and facility consolidation/closures. The USPS is in the unenviable position of having grown bigger than the demand. They need to cut expenses and we are seeing proposed changes including plant closures, realigning the network to reduce redundancy, reducing the number of days that mail is delivered, along with some expected modest price increases. The picture isn’t rosy; a current USPS forecast shows that First Class mail volume is expected to continue declining rapidly through the year 2020, resulting in 1/3 of the volume they had seen in 2006. Standard Class mail volume (also known as “Advertising Mail”) will remain relatively flat at 2010 levels for the same period.

Without a doubt, the Postal Service must right-size as soon as possible. We can expect that some of these changes are going to have an impact on us, at least in the short term. But direct mail is still one of the best ways to reach your target audience and it also drives the most sales activity for many of our clients. Some smart mailers are using a few techniques to help manage their mail delivery and mailing costs:

Track mail delivery through Intelligent Mail® Barcode (IMB) tracking.
If you need to staff a call center to be there when the mail is in-home, then a mail tracking service is for you. The good news about IMBs is they are universal/system-wide, and every postal facility can scan them. You can get reporting to track your mail from the National Distribution Centers, to the Sectional Facilities, and to the final destination delivery. Plus you don’t need to build this tracking service yourself because many mailshops already have this tracking service available.
Commingle your mail with other mailers.
With a little pre-planning there may be significant postal savings through commingling your mail with other large mailers. You will need to opt-in to this service in advance and add at least one day to the production schedule for the commingling task, but there are generally several days in a mailing week where the commingle service is offered. We have saved some clients 1 1/2 cents or more per package in postage on commingled standard class mail. One downside with commingling is that you have fewer choices for the mail drop date. For example, a mailshop with this service may only offer to commingle on two days during the week. Commingling can sometimes expedite final delivery so it may not affect the desired in-home date.
Migrate creative testing to digital channels.
In an effort to be more conservative with their bread & butter marketing tactic, some mailers are choosing to make sure the messaging and offer are really compelling and effective in a digital format before they will use it in direct mail. We are not advocating for no testing, not in the least! We are simply sharing a philosophy that as the costs for mailing increase, some mailers are opting to only mail the sure thing.

You do have choices even when it comes to the Postal Service, and at SKM we will work with you to find a postal solution that works for you.

The Junior Farbers on Senior VP Micky Farber

Judy Lucas — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:15:57 +0000

We continue our “Meet the Bloggers” series with Micky Farber, Senior Vice President of Direct Marketing Services. Micky has been with SKM for over twenty years, managing relationships with clients and helping them get the results they’re after.

However, for a closer, more personal view of Micky, we thought we’d ask her three daughters. The focus group of three youngsters, Lauren (six years old), Maddie (nine years old) and Allison (11 years old) shared their knowledge about their mom:

JL: What does your mom do every day?

Lauren: She cleans the dishes.

Maddie: My mom goes to SKM Group (where she works). She works every day except the weekend.

Allison: She goes to the SKM Group and works every day but the weekend.

JL: What would you say is her favorite part of her job?

Lauren: Talking to people at work.

Maddie: I would say my mom’s favorite part of the job is working with Sue and being with everyone.

Allison: Working with Sue and all her friends at work.

JL: What does your mom like to do for fun?

Lauren: Play games with me.

Maddie: My mom likes to have peace and not hear us (the kids).

Allison: Exercise, go shopping, rest/sleep if tired, and ski.

JL: What’s the coolest thing your mom has done for you and your sisters?

Lauren: She got me shoes.

Maddie: The coolest thing my mom has done for us is to make slime with me for my experiment.

Allison: She took me on vacation.

JL: What do you and your mom like to do together?

Lauren: Go to a peaceful dinner.

Maddie: My mom and I like to go shopping together.

Allison: We go to Tim Horton’s almost every morning without any of my sisters.

JL: What’s your mom’s favorite food?

Lauren: Chicken

Maddie: My mom’s favorite food is salad and tacos.

Allison: Steak or tacos.

JL: What kind of music does your mom listen to in the car?

Lauren: Jason DeRulo.

Maddie: My mom listens to Taio Cruz, Bruno Mars and Rhianna.

Allison: Top 20 pop, Kiss 98.5 and other stations on the radio.

As you can see, each of our SVP’s daughters has her own unique insights about her mom, as well as her own unique bond. Just as Micky knows every client relationship is different, Mom knows how to best fit the needs and wants of her young ones in order to get the best result: a houseful of happy kids.

Missionary Award Winner – March & Q1 2012

Sue Meany — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:00:28 +0000

Skomer (and the rest of us here at SKM) would like to wish Account Supervisor, Claudia Bunny, a gigantic congratulations for being both the March and Q1 Missionary Award winner. Claudia’s dedication to our clients has proved that she is more than deserving of this honor. Nice work Claudia! We are very proud of you.

Sue’s Big Win at ADDYgeddon—WooHoo!

Bryan LeFauve — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:00:54 +0000

We are proud to announce that our President Sue Meany was presented with the David I. Levy Communicator of the Year Award at this year’s ADDY Awards! This prestigious honor recognizes outstanding achievement and service in the communications industry, an honor that is well-deserved for SKM’s leader.

Hosted by the Advertising Club of Buffalo, the ADDYs recognize exceptional advertising created in the Western New York area. The David I. Levy Communicator of the Year Award acknowledges a leader in the advertising community with a distinguished record of achievement over an extended period of time.

Sue is only the third woman to win the award and the first woman honored as the owner and president of an advertising agency. Over the past twenty-six years, Sue has transformed a small direct mail-based firm into SKM Group, a leading full-service advertising agency with numerous local and national clients.

It can be tough to imagine that Sue once sold vacuums door to door. Maybe it was this dogged determination, this understanding of the customer, this ability to connect to people that has helped her become a leader in the marketing community.

Even in a challenging economy, 2011 marked the most successful year in SKM’s history, working with clients to build their businesses.

Beyond helping our local and national clients build their businesses, Sue has donated hours and dollars to numerous charities and community causes. When it came time to celebrate SKM’s 25^th anniversary, Sue decided the year would be spent supporting a cause near and dear to her and her employees’ hearts: the fight against cancer. SKM worked to raise $25,000 over the course of the year from partners and friends, with Sue matching every donation dollar-for-dollar for a final contribution of $50,000 to cancer-related causes.

In addition, Sue has always been a strong believer in supporting the advertising community that has led to her success. Perhaps one of Sue’s greatest contributions in this area has been her example to women in business. Through her direct mentorship of dozens of women in the marketing communications field, Sue has left a legacy and an investment in our industry for decades to come.

We invite you to join us in congratulating Sue and celebrating her win with Sue’s favorite expression: WooHoo! No other expression best captures her passion, remarkable career achievements and all she has done for her employees. We’ll say it again: WooHoo!