News

Tree Top: The Difference Is Local

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:11:14 GMT

Is all apple juice created equal? Tree Top, a 52-year-old apple juice brand that has not run TV advertising for 30 years, is ready to make a point that Tree Top stands above the rest.

Today, the brand begins running a TV spot -- first in West Coast markets -- that will spotlight Selah, Wash., where it sources its apples. The effort is designed to give Tree Top cachet as a locally grown and pressed juice and build loyalty in a market that has largely become commoditized and driven by prices, partly because of large numbers of apples imported from China.

The campaign does not get into specifics such as the fact that Tree Top is an apple grower's co-op, but the message is that the region's growers care about their product -- thus Tree Top’s brand tagline, “Real Fruit From Real People.”

The effort, via Seattle-based independent Cole & Weber and filmmaking team Everynone, launches with a TV spot called “Cool,” where kids react with simple wonder to things like hearing the ocean in an abalone shell, chasing a train, catching a bullfrog, making a bicycle roll by itself and other Tom Sawyer-esque exploits. The creative is juxtaposed with shots of Tree Top’s juice making, and the theme line “Made with a sense of wonder.”

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Tree Top's First Commercial in 30 Years a Nostalgic Return to Childhood

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:08:42 GMT

When kids call something "cool," it can mean a lot. In some cases, it's the ultimate stamp of approval.

Cole & Weber United and directorial trio Everynone produced this touching spot for apple-juice brand Tree Top, the company's first TV effort in 30 years, that shows kids engaging in activities and pronouncing them "cool."

The commercial, filmed in a retro, documentary style, is a good play both for kids who retain a sense of wonder and adults feeling stirrings of nostalgia.

Tree Top: Cool

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:00:14 GMT

A sense of wonder.

When kids call something "cool," it can mean a lot. In fact, in some cases, it's the ultimate stamp of approval. Cole & Weber United and directorial trio Everynone produce this touching spot for apple juice brand Tree Top.

It's the first TV effort for the company in 30 years, and shows kids going through a wide range of new experiences -- from the moment you held a conch up to your ear to the one where you touched a baby turtle. Filmed with a retro look in a mock documentary style, the spot is a good play, both for kids that have yet to lose that sense of wonder, and for adults that long for a bit of nostalgia.

Then Vs. Now: What Has--And Hasn't--Changed For Marketers

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:09:48 GMT

CMOs are constantly looking for ways to keep their brands relevant and competitive. New ways of marketing are being invented every day in a variety of spaces, from mobile to social and beyond. What’s more, marketers’ goals have expanded from simply raising brand awareness to facilitating consumer engagement. So what does it take these days for a brand to have longevity? Instead of looking forward, let’s for a change look back and compare a successful campaign from the past with one from the present.

One of our marquee clients in the ’70s was Boeing. We worked with it for more than 25 years until after the merger with McDonnell Douglas. Contrasting that work with...

Gamification: A Fad Or The Future

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:06:26 GMT

There is lots of evidence that brands see loyalty increases when they invite consumers to participate in an experience. Even Facebook “likes” increase with the smallest gesture of asking people for their opinion in a survey. People collect experiences and they value the involvement that an experience offers. For that reason “gamification” or the application of game mechanics to other types of experiences is interesting because it increases involvement and it’s been shown to create consumer loyalty. And as we all know, loyalty has real business value.

While we’ve seen success applying gaming principles to experiences we’ve built for Millennials, there seems to be an emerging debate as to whether or not gamification is here to stay or if it’s currently at the tail end of what Gartner Research deems a hype cycle.

The International Olympic Committee Wants to Send You to the 2012 London Olympics: Fan Perspective

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:26:30 GMT

By Deborah Braconnier, Yahoo! Contributor Network Mar 28, 10:03 am EDT

Have you always wanted to go and see the athletes compete in the Olympics? Would you love to see London this summer as it hosts the 2012 Olympic Games? Is the only thing stopping you your budget? Well, the International Olympic Committee may have a way around that. However, it will require you to get creative and put yourself on camera.

The International Olympic Committee is running a campaign called "Show Your Best to the World." This campaign is designed to celebrate the accomplishments of people all over the world, no matter what it is. Are you an accomplished athlete? Have you made your mark playing a musical instrument? Is your toddler a budding athlete or an amazing dancer? If you even come close to one of these ideas then it is time to get the video camera out.

The contest works by people uploading a short video of their greatest accomplishment. The videos are then published on the Olympic website for visitors to vote on. Top videos in each month can win prizes ranging from an Olympic watch to a Samsung Tab 7.1 tablet. But the big prize is a trip to the London 2012 Olympic Games and a chance to be featured on an Olympic television spot that will be seen worldwide.

However, if you want a chance to win the final trip to the Games, you need to get that video camera out and get busy. All entries must be submitted by April 15th in order to be eligible.

So, if you never could come up with a crazy video that you thought might win on America's Funniest Home Videos, this may be your chance to get your video out there and win an amazing trip to London. And don't think you have to be fantastic at an Olympic sport to enter. I have been going through the videos and have found everything from the traditional Olympic sports to waterskiing, treadmill running, stunt bike riding, dogs running up hills and everything in between. Nothing is off limits.

So, visit the official website here, check out the rules, grab your video camera and go out and have some fun. Who knows, you may just be lucky enough to find yourself spending your summer vacation in London.

Deborah Braconnier is a former athlete and avid sports and Olympics fan. She now works as a freelance writer and Featured Contributor for the Olympics and NFL and brings her love of sports to her writing. Follow her on Twitter @fwcdebora

Project Butterfly

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:04:26 GMT

Believing that being in social media doesn't make a brand sociable, Cole & Weber United along with The Palmerston Group announced the completion of a 6 city, 3 month qualitative study called Project Butterfly. The study aims to better understand what makes some people more sociable than others, the differences between sociable people and hyper-connectors, the role sociable people play in their communities and what brands can learn from sociable people to behave more sociably. The Palmerston Group fielded the study in Portland, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Austin, Minneapolis and Syracuse using online anthropology, ethnographies and a variety of social experiments. For more information, contact mike.doherty@cwunited.com or britt.peterson@cwunited.com.

Trailer link: http://vimeo.com/35015264

The Olympic Movement: Show Your Best

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:50:44 GMT

http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/42995/The-Olympic-Movement-Show-Your-Best

Seattle-based creative agency Cole & Weber United has created a global, integrated and highly social youth campaign for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) titled âShow Your Best.â The effort, which targets the next generation of Olympic fans aged 13-19, asks fans to videotape, upload and share their personal best via the Olympic site www.olympic.org/showyourbest. The videos can be shared via Facebook, YouTube, and Youku in China. Elements of the campaign include digital, TV, and mobile access. User submissions will be voted on by other users as well as Olympic athletes. Two winners will be selected to go to the Summer 2012 Olympic Games in London and will be included in a TV ad that will be broadcast during the Games A Digital Mash Up Creator allows participants to take their uploaded video and instantly see their best mixed into some of the greatest Olympic moments, and share it with their friends. Itâs all about building a correlation between an âOlympic bestâ and everyoneâs personal best. Not everyone can become an Olympic athlete, but everyone can strive to be their best at something. This campaign celebrates that effort.

With Emerald Theorem, Cole & Weber finds your happy hour

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:06:21 GMT

Seattle ad agency Cole & Weber has launched Emerald Theorem, a local site that aggregates content from Flickr, Twitter and YouTube to help find concerts, eats and happy hours.

Emerald Theorem “captures the social media pulse of Seattle,” according to Cole & Weber. The site includes YouTube videos, tweets and other local content about what is going on in the Seattle area. On Wednesday, the site included...

Which Form of Ad Speak Would You Kill in 2012?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:04:53 GMT

Mike Doherty, president of Cole & Weber United, says he’d like to eliminate all phrases with the word “framework” in them as in “messaging framework and strategic framework. It’s a way of sounding organized and like you know what you are going to deliver when you don’t really know where you are going. My other biggie is that I would like to eliminate acronyms from my life, such as GTM, MLT and CMG.” Using acronyms is lazy, he says, adding, “If people don’t want to take time to say the whole name then they shouldn’t have a long name in the first place. It’s like talking in ‘txt.’”

Op-Ed: ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ – Our Invented Ancient Tradition

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:38:40 GMT

As we get ready to watch the Super Bowl and, of course, dissect the ads that go along with it, I’d like to call attention to a subtle form of marketing that is (almost) as old as the big game itself. Because when we gather together on Sunday, beers in hands, remotes at the ready, we will be sitting down to watch...

A Seattle State of Mind: Eighty Years of Cole & Weber

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:00:05 GMT

http://ihaveanidea.org/articles/2012/01/09/a-seattle-state-of-mind-eighty-years-of-cole-weber/

A Seattle State of Mind: Eighty Years of Cole & Weber

Brett McKenzie
Chief Writer, SBN2

2011 seemed to have been a year of milestones in the advertising industry, at in our neck of the woods. Back in September we at IHAVEANIDEA celebrated our own tenth anniversary, and throughout the year a number of our agency friends also hit the big one-oh: La Comunidad in Miami and Buenos Aires just turned ten, and both John St. in Toronto and MMB in Boston turned ten earlier in the year.

So when I got a call from Mike Doherty, President of Seattle’s Cole & Weber United — and one of our favourite west coast shops — and he said that they were also celebrating an anniversary of their own, I thought “Cool! Just like us!”

It turns out it would only be “just like us” if this was the year 2081.

Yes, Cole & Weber had achieved a milestone that few other agencies had reached: an astounding 80 years in business. DDB? Ogilvy & Mather? Leo Burnett? None of these legends have been around the block as long as that little Pacific Northwest shop, founded as Wilkins & Cole Advertising in 1931 by Mac Wilkins, Arlyn Cole and George Weber.

Cole & Weber United, Seattle's First Ad Agency, Celebrates 80 Years

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:25:08 GMT

Cole & Weber United, Seattle's First Ad Agency, Celebrates 80 Years

By: Cole & Weber United via Marketwire News Releases

Posted on November 10, 2011 at 11:50 AM EST

Northwest Brands Reaped Benefit of Madison Avenue Move Westward

SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/10/11 -- Cole & Weber United, Seattle's first ad agency, celebrates its 80th Anniversary this month. The agency has played a key role in the growth of the Northwest's most well-known brands both past and present including: Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Weyerhauser, Microsoft, Tree Top, Darigold, Washington's Lottery, Nike, and Westin.

Originally founded in 1931 by Arlyn Cole, Mac Wilkins, and George Weber as Wilkins & Cole Advertising, the founders had the goal of bringing Madison Avenue to the West Coast. A few years later the name was changed to Cole & Weber as the agency grew and spurred its clients' growth. The agency's reputation and work has caught the eye of the industry both nationally and internationally. Its iconic Goose campaign for Wein Air Alaska (Alaska Airlines) has a place at the National Air and Space Museum, a TV commercial they created for Seattle Art Museum is installed at the MOMA Museum, and the International Olympic Committee has enlisted them to create its global youth campaign, which utilizes social media and specifically, facebook, to engage the next generation of Olympic viewers.

Mike Doherty, CEO of Cole & Weber said, "We're proud and excited to celebrate our founders, our heritage and the clients that made it all possible on this momentous occasion. While our founders pioneered marketing in the great Northwest, we aim to honor them by pioneering marketing in the ever-changing ad landscape."

Cole & Weber has evolved beyond traditional advertising to become a full-service creativity company helping clients all over the world build experiences that involve people with their brands.

"I had the pleasure of working with Cole & Weber for nearly a decade," said Saga Shoffner, an executive at Nike, a former client of Cole & Weber. "In that time, we didn't just create ads together -- we created experiences like Nike Goddess that brought new audiences into the brand and programs like the United Countries of Baseball that ignited a conversation among fans -- igniting a movement around Nike baseball fans that hadn't existed for a while."

To commemorate the anniversary, Cole & Weber "celebrated creativity" with several events. The agency staged panels featuring well-known industry creative directors who built their careers at Cole & Weber. Panel participants included Jim Elliot, Chief Creative Officer of Y&R, Tedd Baseler, CEO of St. Michelle Wine Estates, Scott Bedbury, CEO of Brandstream Inc, among many others. The agency also hosted a "Brew ha ha" for employees and industry colleagues at Elysian Fields in Pioneer Square.

Cole & Weber United is a creativity company known for creating innovative campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to solve business problems. Founded in 1931, the Seattle-based agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP's Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.cwunited.com.

Cole & Weber United Asks Seattle To Remember

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:35:59 GMT

It seems like just yesterday, but it was more than three years ago when we hired a bright young executive creative director named Guy Seese. A devout lover of beer, one of Guy’s first objectives was to land a beer account. Just a short time later it was so, and Rainier Beer flowed plentifully through the halls of Cole & Weber United. Next we were tasked with doing something that had never been done–a campaign that would be considered anything but typical. Today, as the award season is coming to a close, we are proud to say Cole & Weber United is being recognized for doing just that. Our campaign for nearly forgotten Northwest icon Rainier Beer didn’t just reinvigorate the brand; it started a movement. It all began with the invention of two local Rainier aficionados, Tim and Chuck, who discover a box of classic Rainier commercials.

Planner Adam Smith Wins National Award

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:35:10 GMT

“Not only is he a handsome young lad and the proud father of an 8-month-old boy, but according to this year’s national U.S. Account Planning Group competition for “outstanding planners with less than three years' experience,” Adam Smith is officially the “Pick of the Litter,” an honor bestowed upon him at the AAAA’s annual Account Planning Conference in Chicago this August for his strategic marketing insights and direction that helped make the grand opening of Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame a cosmic success. In the summer of 2004, the first-ever museum dedicated to the science fiction genre opened its doors to an enthusiastic Seattle public, eager to explore the mysteries of the unknown within its walls. A few months prior, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (SFM) approached Cole & Weber United to help launch the museum.

Performance Marketing Group Forges New Territory

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:34:40 GMT

Cole & Weber United has many fields of expertise, one of which is direct response online advertising–or as we like to call it, performance marketing. Our new Performance Marketing Group (PMG) finds customers through innovative creative work, tactical account planning, strategic media placement, data analysis and proprietary in-house technology. Being that we’re in a creative industry, we’ve even invented a new way of billing. The PMG is the purest form of agency accountability. We operate strictly through cost-per-lead or cost-per-acquisition models; therefore, our compensation is directly tied to our clients’ success—we get paid only if you get results. Luckily for us we specialize in lead generation through online advertising, utilizing media such as Web banners, search engines, rich media, email, affiliate marketing, incentive placements, sweepstakes and content sponsorships.

Cole & Weber Red Cell Becomes Cole & Weber United

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:34:10 GMT

Our new name is Cole & Weber United... and no, we aren’t starting a professional soccer team or an airline takeover attempt... at least not yet! Our name is changing because our network is changing. There are nine of us Red Cell offices that are breaking off to create a new WPP global network that is a better expression of what Red Cell originally envisioned. Andy Berlin, the new Chairman of the United network, has hand-picked nine of the top agencies in the Red Cell Network that share common goals: an unrelenting drive toward excellence in creativity and strategy, and a maniacal focus on innovation in marketing.

Cole & Weber United promotes Elliott to Creative Director, Partner

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:33:11 GMT

Cole & Weber United announced today that Jim Elliott has been named creative director and partner. Elliott, who was formerly associate creative director, got his start at Cole & Weber as a copywriter in 1998. “This promotion recognizes Jim as a driving force behind Cole & Weber’s world-class creative reputation,” Cole & Weber United co-president Mike Doherty said. “He’s been involved with most of our highly effective, award-winning work over the past eight years, and we know his leadership will help carry on that tradition of producing innovative, creative work.” In addition to producing internationally recognized print and television campaigns for brands such as Nike, ACLU, Venge Wines, the Science Fiction Museum and Woodland Park Zoo, Elliott’s work on the fully integrated, “brand environment” marketing initiative for Rainier Beer earned the agency a Gold Clio in the first-ever “hybrid” category, as well as Best-in-Show Gold at the National Andy Awards, a Gold at the Art Director’s Club of New York, the Grand Prize at AICP’s Battle of the Brands, Brandweek Magazine’s “Guerrilla Marketer of the Year” and two Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards.

Cole & Weber United hires Todd Grant as new ECD

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:32:36 GMT

Cole & Weber United announced today that Todd Grant has been named executive creative director and partner. Grant, who was former creative director at Publicis of the West, will fill the position left vacant by Guy Seese in March. “This is an important hire for us as our agency continues to evolve to meet the needs of our clients and an ever–changing media landscape,” Cole & Weber United co-president Brad Harrington said. “Todd has an amazing body of work and a great creative reputation but more importantly, he is interested in taking his creative acumen into new and more unconventional mediums which is something this agency has been focused on for quite some time.” After attending Art Center College of Design, Todd spent 2 years at the NY office of ChiatDay where he worked on Reebok and New York Life. He then headed to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where he was awarded the Marget Larsen award for Art Direction in 1997. At Goodby Silverstein & Partners he began working on Anheuser-Busch where he and his partner created Louie & Frank, The Budweiser Lizards. Over the next couple of years, six of the Lizard spots placed in the USAToday’s Superbowl Top Ten Poll. The campaign was also named USAToday’s most popular television campaign for over two years. The New York Times and ESPN polls also weighed in and pegged the commercials as the most popular Super Bowl spots ever. Todd has also produced notable work for HP and was responsible for the campaign that launched the “invent” tagline worldwide. At ChiatDay/ SF Todd primarily worked on the Adidas account and most recently, at Publicis of the West, he was responsible for T-Mobile, HP and the Washington State Lottery. Todd has received recognition from every major award show, both nationally and internationally.

Capella University hires Cole & Weber United as Integrated AOR

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:31:58 GMT

Seattle, Wash. – Cole & Weber United announced it has been named agency of record for Capella University after a four-month review process. Capella, an accredited online university, offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 89 areas of study.

Cole & Weber United will be responsible for all Capella’s advertising and direct marketing work that was previously handled by multiple agencies.

“This win furthers our case for integration,” said Mike Doherty, president of Cole & Weber United. “We are very good at developing strategic ideas that can be leveraged across media to achieve a client’s business goals. In this case, we will be further building a differentiated Capella brand while addressing the university’s lead generation, enrollment, and retention goals.”