Patrick Hanlon has branding figured out. The lightbulb went off in his head while gardening in Connecticut in the early 2000s. What did all of the most successful brands in the world have in common? What elements were crucial to growing consumer loyalty? Apparently exactly seven elements: Creation Story, Creed, Icons, Rituals, Lexicon, Nonbelievers, and Leadership.
The main concept of Primal Branding is to look past the logo and recognize that true consumer loyalty resides in belief systems and aligned values. Long term value of consumers relies on the idea of their recurring interactions, whether it’s purchases, shares, or attendance. To build that level of inclusion, those people need to feel connected and fulfilled.
Each element within Primal Branding serves to support the acquisition and connection necessary for a brand to instill confidence and loyalty in its audience. Think of the creation story and leaders such as Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (Apple). Think of the icons we are exposed to on a daily basis like the orange Gatorade jugs we see at the end of the bench on a sideline at a game. Maybe you’re a Starbucks customer and love that every morning you order your beverage using language like Tall, Grande, or Venti.
Branding has become the basis for engagement strategy that reaches beyond direct paid advertising. It factors in lifestyles, actions, and senses across multiple platforms. The clutter in advertising demands the message and connection be stronger. The growth of social media and digital channels adds more and more touch point opportunities for engagement.
As a creative community, we will constantly have to fight the battle of branding being misdefined by the general public as a logo, but with every complete brand we launch, we’ll help make the world a slightly better place.
Well it snowed, but it didn’t stop 15 college students from walking the downtown corridor and visiting 6 agencies to learn what they do, what their office is like, what opportunities await in the future, and what dogs they have to pet. Students started at the South end of Main Street at Crowley Webb and headed North moving on to Luminus, The Revs, The Martin Group, dPost, and ending the day at Block Club.
This event was a great opportunity to see the variety in both sizes and styles of local agencies. Crowley Webb and The Martin Group being the larger of agencies on the stop offered a great look into the full-service, multi-department side of agency life. Luminus, The Revs, dPost, and Block Club each offered a look into the personality and grind that the mid-sized agencies bring to the local ad landscape (also dogs, these 4 all have dogs).
This inaugural event sold out in 24 hours. There is a strong desire from the local college student body to visit and learn about agencies in our area and uncover the mystery. AAF Buffalo will look to provide more of these opportunities in the future with the help of our member companies. We look forward to the next one!
In 2016 I organized the first ever BrandHack event which was a nod to my web/tech industry background. It went great, but lacked a bit of motivation and skin in the game since we used a case study exercise rather than a real case. So we sent out a call for non-profits in November of 2016 in search of a worthy benefactor of our BrandHack event. Enter Danceability, a local non-profit dance studio that services those with special needs between the ages of 3-70 years old. This year, 2017 marks the 10 year anniversary of the organization so we tasked our BrandHack student teams with updating the look of the logo, an event invitation piece and a poster design for the annual performances event in May.
We were hosted by the UB Art Department this year and had four student teams representing St. Bonaventure, UB, Buffalo State, Daemen, and Villa Maria. After last year we learned that each team would benefit from having a professional Art Director as their captain, enter April Brown from FARM, Jaime Applegate from NOCO, John English from LUMINUS, and Krista Roberts from Quinlan. This was a game changer as their direction gave the students the confidence and guidance to work through brainstorming, scheduling, and executing each piece.
The groups would have four and a half hours of active work time before making their 10 minute pitches before the judges would deliberate.
Throughout the day our two judges Dan Stout from FIFTEEN and Michael Tsanis from martin bounced from group to group answering questions of the project requirements and making sure the teams were on track. Robin, our representative from Danceability was also answering questions throughout the day helping make sure the organization was represented accurately in the work.
And of course we had a giant count down clock on the projector to add to the drama.
The judges deliberate
The judges critique each group
Event organizer Tim Bouchard & judges
What came of the day’s four and a half hour design crunch was some amazing work from each team. Congrats to all the students that poured their heart into these and the captains for steering the ship!
A word from Robin of Danceability: “Danceability was excited to be selected as Brandhack’s first nonprofit! If you are a start-up nonprofit, this is a great event for you to get your organization off and running with branding. I highly recommend it.”
Below are the results of the 2nd annual BrandHack!
WINNER: UB captained by John English
UB Team Pitch
UB Team w/ John English
1st Place UB Team
RUNNER-UP: Buffalo State/UB captained by April Brown
Buffalo State / UB Team Pitch
Buffalo State / UB Team with April Brown
2nd Place Buffalo State / UB Team
Daemen College / Villa Maria captained by Jaime Applegate
Daemen College / Villa Maria Team Pitch
Daemen College / Villa Maria Team with Jaime Applegate
Thanks for stopping by. If you weren’t at our Big Tip-Off event, you might be thinking, “Where the heck did the Ad Club go?”
Well, we’re still here and we’re better than ever. Today, we announced that our name is changing from the Advertising Club of Buffalo to AAF Buffalo (the Buffalo chapter of the American Advertising Federation).
Why the change?
In short, we wanted to better align ourselves with the American Advertising Federation at the national level, which we’ve been a chapter of for many years.
After a trip to ADMERICA, the American Advertising Federation’s national conference in California this past spring, we came away with a few things: a realization that we’re a strong chapter in the national advertising community, an appreciation for the national connections accessible to us through AAF, and new ideas on how to provide our members with the most value.
Most of our members haven’t realized that they’re also a member of AAF’s national network of organizations, which includes a host of resources, connections, and discounts. In fact, nearly 20% of our annual membership fee pays for access to AAF.
With input from our members over the last several months and unanimous approval from our board, we believe this is a natural and positive progression for our organization.
What to expect:
With our new brand, our logo isn’t the only thing that’s changing.
This move will help us transition our organization from a “social club” to a professional resource for members to gain greater exposure to the industry while staying current with the latest trends. This includes our first ever Spotlight Speaker Series, member-only Skillshops and more.
We’re evolving – and we hope you’re ready to do the same. To become a member or renew your current membership, please visit aafbuffalo.com/membership.
If you have any questions or comments about this exciting change, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@aafbuffalo.com.
On Saturday April 9, Daemen College hosted the annual student Portfolio Review, an engaging event for students and professionals alike. The event was made possible with the contribution of agency art directors, designers, academic professors, successful freelancers and many other seasoned professionals who dedicated their time to review the student portfolios in sessions of timed intervals. Participating visual communications students included students from Buffalo State, Daemen, UB, Villa Maria, and even Kutztown University of Pennsylvania!
The 1:1 portfolio reviews took place from 10am-3pm, with a break for a lunch at the midpoint. Students reported they received lots of valuable feedback from professionals, and would highly recommend the event to others, one stating, “It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
At the end of the day, professionals voted for the most effective portfolios for scholarship awards available to students continuing next year in their degree program. It was reported that all students had impressive portfolios, so it was a very tough decision!
The following students received the most accolades from the judges:
1st Place Angela Marini, Daemen Junior
2nd Place Samantha Lonczak, Villa Maria Junior
3rd Place Ali Casarsa, Villa Maria Junior
Congratulations to the scholarship winners and to all the students who participated in the event! And, thank you to the many professionals who gave up their Saturday to offer valuable feedback. We look forward to seeing more outstanding design work next year!
I was fortunate enough to be accepted to the Ad Club Board of Directors this past summer of 2015. Prior to that, I was only a member of the club for one year. Both years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the people I’ve met and the events I’ve attended. One of my goals when I joined the board was to try and help explore how to make events more interactive and fun. Being from the tech side of the creative world, I decided I would try and borrow from my friends in the tech industry and see if I couldn’t take the idea of an all day “hack-a-thon” and marry it with the design world’s creativity.
I enlisted the help of some wildly talented and highly regarded creative talent from the Buffalo area. Julie Zack (Designer: BrandEven), Mike LaDuca (Partner: LUMINUS), Monish Bhattacharyya (Creative Director: FourthIdea), and Michael Downey (Art Director: FARM). This crew would serve two very important purposes of helping shape and guide each rapidly compiled campaign idea as well as judge the final products and declare the winning Brand Hack campaign.
We had three main goals for this event:
Encourage team members to get to know each other. The teams were randomly assigned with an even distribution of talent types.
Bring students together with professionals so they can see and participate in the work flow process of a professional.
Make it challenging, but allow for creativity with no limitations other than theme and required deliverables.
Of course we had to make it worthwhile as well. Chelsea Turton, the board’s student liaison, created an amazing graphic of a rocket “idea” breaking through an alarm clock. We decided to build off that and after a few minutes of brainstorming, we googled “Rocket Trophies” and the rest was history.
We had 6 hours to fit in a creative briefing, production, presentations, and judging. The pressure was almost on me as much as the teams attending. We broke the day like this; 30 minutes for team introductions & creative brief, 4.5 hours for production, 45 minutes for 5 minute presentations (everyone went a few minutes over but it was ok), and 15 minutes for judging. Surprisingly, it actually worked really well!
The fluctuations in the day were amazing to observe. Early on before the briefing it was as loud as a high school lunch room. Everyone was chatting up a storm getting to know each other. Then after a moment of silence for the creative briefing, came the flurry of conversations as the teams started talking out concept ideas. Then, after Michael proclaimed around noon “You should definitely be into designing by now, 3 hours left!” the room went silent, like a good Thanksgiving dinner when everyone starts eating. It was pretty entertaining to watch as an outsider. Everyone gave great presentations and each team was very supportive of the others while they presented.
The challenge was to develop an awareness campaign that would help the fictional “Urban Food Bank” solicit donations year-round, rather than just the popular November & December Holiday months. A bonus would be to create an urgency for donating or funding toiletries which are an often overlooked aspect of the care provided by the bank.
I’m biased, but I think the event was awesome. Nobody seemed bored, everyone was engaged, and there was some really great work that came out of this.
And now I’m happy to share the campaigns that were dreamt up in 4.5 hours on a random Saturday in January by complete strangers. Starting with the winning campaign, the runner up, and the other great campaigns in no particular order. It really was amazing was great work came out of just 4.5 hours.
WINNER: “Roll Reversal”
Team Two’s campaign, “Roll Reversal”, is focused on increasing donations of toilet paper to the Urban Food Bank. This campaign is designed to target people when they are in a position to empathize with those in need of toilet paper, and usually have a mobile device in-hand.
We created vinyl wraps for use inside of public bathroom stalls to cover the full toilet paper rolls, making them appear empty, hopefully giving people that “Oh Shit” feeling of being out of toilet paper.
The ultimate goal of this campaign is to drive people to a landing page for the Urban Food Bank that is optimized for mobile conversions and provides an quick button to donate an amount of money equivalent to one roll of toilet paper.
Runner Up: “One More”
By giving just “one more”, you can change lives. “One more” is easy and is something everyone can do, but it makes a big impact. You’re filling a gap in your community by giving “one more” dollar or donation. Really show WHO the donations are going to by telling the stories of the people in need. Guarantee donations are doing good for your friends and neighbors. Make it fun, and something people want to do over and over. We would provide free bags that can be filled with donations and conveniently emptied at numerous drop off locations. We would utilize a number of tactics including a mobile app.
“Feed The Hunger Monster”
The goal of the “Feed the Hunger Monster” campaign is to increase food, toiletry, and monetary donations specifically in the spring to prepare for school being out in summer.
It’s tough to focus when you’re hungry or don’t feel your best. The monster is a physical representation of those feelings. “Feed the Hunger Monster” aims to show parents what kids can accomplish when they’re not worried where their next meal will come from, or if their classmates will mock them for their clothes or hygiene.
“Treats to Meals”
While you enjoy the delights of the season the Anderson family needs your help. Turn your extra money into meals for them by donating to the Urban Food Bank.Visit treatstomeals.com to help and donate.
“Metro Market”
MetroMarket makes it easier than ever to grow your community.
The MetroMarket truck stops by your home once a month to exchange food and toiletries for fresh fruits and vegetables grown in Buffalo’s own urban gardens.
We donate an equal shipment of fresh foods to Urban Food Bank.
By Tim Bouchard
![BrandHack 2017: Designing for Non-Profit Danceability [Recap]](https://aafbuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/brandhack2017_working.png)
In 2016 I organized the first ever BrandHack event which was a nod to my web/tech industry background. It went great, but lacked a bit of motivation and skin in the game since we used a case study exercise rather than a real case. So we sent out a call for non-profits in November of 2016 in search of a worthy benefactor of our BrandHack event. Enter Danceability, a local non-profit dance studio that services those with special needs between the ages of 3-70 years old. This year, 2017 marks the 10 year anniversary of the organization so we tasked our BrandHack student teams with updating the look of the logo, an event invitation piece and a poster design for the annual performances event in May.
