Using video to create a professional image

Hi there! It's Chris Teague, Creative Director for the WIN Firm brining news from WIN's underground marketing warehouse.

Each company I have worked with over the years wants to promote quality in everything it does... Having the options of social media today, many of our clients seek to engage audiences by using these new social tools. However, we are reminded everyday how important some of the traditional tools, like video, are to a company's professional perception. Yes friends, it is important to remember how important a visual image is to a customer's perception of your organization.

The example below demonstrates just how important one of our client's thinks video is to his company's success...



In the video above, Phil Bachman Toyota had the look, concept and script already laid out for us at WIN. All we had to do was deliver a HD, quality spot that separated the dealership from lower quality produced spots that the local TV stations were offering. Why? Phil Bachman spends a lot of money on TV broadcast advertising and deserves to have the latest and newest technology incorporated into their visual communications. Even though we at WIN did not create the script or concept, we still were able to deliver a bit of creativity by making sure the dealership's video stood out with quality filming.

You and I know the importance of maintaing a positive perception among our customers... Using old tools, like video, and incorporating new technology is one way WIN has helped our clients maintain the professional identity they represent. Please share with me some of the ways you are using old tools and incorporating new technology to demonstrate your commitment to communicating a professional identity. Feel free to email me your examples.

Take care everyone... Go do great things today!

Your guy making marketing simple,
Chris Teague

Back from Brasil!

Hi, I am Chris Teague , the Creative Director and Content Manager for the WIN Firm. Welcome to our firm's blog!

WIN Firm is back from Brasil and ready to rock out our new marketing program for start-ups and young businesses! After spending several weeks in Brasil and planning for a new year, we took some time off from blogging about our company and made sure we came out with innovative and engaging information for each you! So, we are here to announce the WIN Firm is driven to help you take your business to new heights!

Check out a recent thirty-second clip we created for a fun toy store!


Following the fever of the World Cup, we captured what fans in the U.S. did at a cool restaurant in Johnson City, TN!


I look forward to engaging each of you here on the WIN Firm's blog! Be ready to see what we can do for you...

Take care,
Chris Teague

On Your Mind?

Good day to each of you following The WIN Firm here on blogger and on our web-site. This is Chris Teague, Vice President of The WIN Firm, and I have some cool stuff to share with you today. Let's get moving!

Last post we brought you tales from a campaign designed to help a local charity make a bit of cash during these tough times. The campaign for those of you who may have forgotten is called the Dream Ticket. Today, we will explore the emotional elements at play in this campaign and why each communication message we craft for the campaign is written to engage the sub-surface so that the Dream Ticket remains fresh on YOUR MIND. As you continue reading below, you will see how understanding cultural communication is important to message crafting.

Our first audience is the NASCAR fan. We at The WIN Firm have quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to understanding the cultural persuasions of a sport based on left-hand turns and continuous laps. Yes, you may like the sport, but you do for cultural reasons. Did you know that? Seriously, any sport is liked or not liked due to our cultural mentality. In fact, we make judgements about products everyday based on our up-brining. Don't believe me? How many of you went out on St. Patrick's Day and aren't even Irish? My point: St. Patrick's Day is embedded into our culture due to the influx of Irish immigrants that built this country.

Though we left NASCAR for a moment to discuss culture, we are now back to the power of NASCAR culture and The WIN Firm's understanding of this culture. Our Dream Ticket is very appealing to the fan in this sport. Why? Because this sport is all about the driver and how the consumer or fan perceives the driver. Dale Earnhardt Sr. presently sales the third most merchandise in the sport even though he sadly passed away. Fans are loyal to their driver, which is not new information. However, our concept of creating a Dream Ticket plays on this loyalty. How? Stay with me.

When developing key prizes to give away in order to make our raffle successful, The WIN Firm conducted an extensive research campaign that involved attending many NASCAR races and walking among the crowd. Sales numbers couldn't possibly reveal as much information as our WIN Analyst Team gathered interviewing and spending time with the fans. At the end of the day, we discovered what fans drank, ate, size of TV they liked, their favorite driver, what races were their favorite, what their style of dress was outside the track and a whole bunch of extra stuff. The point is, we at The WIN Firm were able to create a prize package that appeals to the NASCAR fan because we walked with the fan.

Now, we have a prize package that includes a 50" Plasma Screen TV, Season Tickets to the most popular track in NASCAR and the convenience of owning a condo across the street from this amazing fan-favorite track. Oh yeah, we threw in a bunch of other goodies like a trip to Las Vegas and the chance to drive a car through the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Appealing? It is if you are a NASCAR fan.

You see, our prize selection was geared to our primary target audience. Why are prizes important? When selling a ticket for $200, you must create a value that well-surpasses the price of the ticket. Creating a price point is nothing new in terms of value creation, but it is very important and represents your brand. Therefore, we offer the NASCAR fan a chance of winning a Dream package: A package that provides this fan an experience like none other. Yes, you as a fan can win a prize greater than any prize offered for NASCAR. What are you waiting for? Sign up for the Dream Ticket and find out when you can have your chance to purchase a fan's dream: email chris@thewinfirm.com for details.

I hope you have been enlightened as to how we at The WIN Firm work on campaigns. We are an ideation and brand positioning firm because of our love of people. We are a team of people that hang out with you on a daily basis then explain and teach companies how to talk to you. We are more than web-based analytics. We are ideas in motion and you move a lot.

Blessings to All!

Chris Teague
V.P. The WIN Firm, Inc.
chris@thewinfirm.com
www.thewinfirm.com

Selling the Dream

Good day everyone!

This is Chris Teague from The WIN Firm. Yes, I am alive and well and have missed updating you on the events taking place here at WIN. We have been very busy the past few weeks creating a dynamic fundraising campaign to benefit a local charity here in our Johnson City location, Friends of Olde Downtowne. Being located in downtown Johnson City, we at WIN decided to help our area grow through a creative, emotionally engaging fundraising campaign. Ready to read all about the campaign?

First, we partnered with two condo owners that own condos across from NASCAR's most popular track, The Bristol Motor Speedway. The owners asked us if we thought conducting a raffle would help them sell their condos. We liked the idea and immediately began conducting research to determine our approach for marketing the raffle, developing a price point for the ticket and understanding the emotional elements needed to sell the tickets along with a bunch of other data and analytical stuff that is too boring to share, so I will spare you.

Next, we proceeded to utilize our researched information to create the campaign now known as The Dream Ticket. We call it the Dream Ticket because if you are a NASCAR fan, it is your dream ticket. So, what's all the fuss? We used the lottery concept of having the chance to win something of greater value than the price you pay as a starting point for developing the raffle campaign. Our first question was: Why would anyone buy a raffle ticket for $200 to win a condo at The Bristol Motor Speedway? After several brainstorming and thinking sessions, we came to realize the needed element to sell our raffle tickets and benefit our Friends of Olde Downtowne.

Following some creative thinking, our team at WIN began building value for our raffle ticket. We knew that the value built needed to reach NASCAR fans and the general public. You see, our audience for this raffle is the NASCAR fan and the person that cares about downtown Johnson City. Therefore, we have priced a raffle ticket for $200 that is worth nearly $300,000. Now that's a nice return, plus, you also get a tax break for purchasing the ticket since it benefits a charity.

Finally, after all of our work to create value we now have the elements that make our Dream Ticket awesome! In order to create a wonderful ticket you need to have wonderful business relationships. The first obvious relationship we developed was with The Bristol Motor Speedway as they too are important to us at WIN. The winners; oh yeah, there are two winners for the Dream Ticket, will receive the following experience:

2011 Season Tickets to the Bristol Motor Speedway
A 50-inch plasma screen TV to put in a new condo
A condo across from the Bristol Motor Speedway
Free parking spaces for the race at Bristol Motor Speedway
Pit Passes to meet drivers at Bristol
The Richard Petty Driving School experience
Tickets to the first race at Vegas Motor Speedway
Flight and Hotel in Vegas for the race
The winners will be announced and at the Carnegie Hotel
The winners will also be recognized at the Bristol Motor Speedway and Vegas Motor Speedway races

Wow! Can you say we worked hard to add value to a $200 raffle ticket that benefits our community through support of Friends of Olde Downtowne? Yes, we are very EXCITED about the Dream Ticket! The best part for us at The WIN Firm, is this campaign is all about helping our community grow through the use of our creative talents.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and keep coming back to read about our progress as we continue to work through this campaign and many others!

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. - The WIN Firm
chris@thewinfirm.com
www.thewinfirm.com
Skype: thewinfirm
Twitter: thewinfirm

WIN Firm's Dream Campaign

Good day everyone!

On behalf of The WIN Firm, I would like to thank each of you for following our blog! We have been absent for a few weeks due to client needs, but now have an update of our work to share. Are you ready for another post from me, Chris Teague? If not, take a moment to prepare yourself for an exciting adventure in the world of WIN marketing and as we say in simple terms: "Get READY!"

This blog post will be followed by a series of posts updating our campaign, The Dream Ticket. Demonstrating our charitable intentions and following our mission to help those around us, we at The WIN Firm have partnered with a local organization to help raise funds for them via a raffle. What is so special about this raffle? The special part is that the organization we have selected to help is NOT paying us a dime! That's right, we are not billing the organization at all. In fact, we are donating a bit of our own money to their efforts as well as the money we are helping them to raise through the Dream Campaign.

Once I have permission to list the charitable organization we are helping, I will list their name. However, each step of this campaign is going to revealed in our blog. Thus, today's post is our first update of The WIN Firm's Dream Ticket. Okay, ready for the breakdown?

We have created the concept of a Dream Ticket based on the lottery's proven model of selling a dream. We are reaching a certain audience for promotion as this ticket is loaded with value items that appeal to a certain audience. In fact, there are two key audiences for this campaign. Want to know what two audiences we are working to reach? Come BACK next week! Some of the ticket items include condo units, a trip to Vegas (fully paid for), season tickets to a chosen event along with a BIG TV. There will be more items as we progress, but for now, we have created enough value for our chosen audience to buy the Dream Ticket.

Thank you for reading today's post. Check back here next week around 3 P.M. EST for an update on The Dream Ticket brought to you by your community-driven marketing firm, The WIN Firm. We work so you WIN!

Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. The WIN Firm, Inc.
www.thewinfirm.com
info@thewinfirm.com

Where's the Content?

Good day! Welcome to another post by me, Chris Teague. On behalf of everyone here at The WIN Firm, I would like to thank you for taking a few moments out of your day to read our blog. Keep up with our posts and send us any information you would like us to cover: We’ll be provide you with information!

Do you remember any catchy songs or jingles from old ads? “Give me a Break; give me a break…” Does that song ring a bell? If you have been living since the early eighties is should. The jingle is from Kit Kat. I was in a wonderful conversation with a friend today, and he stated that advertising today absolutely blows! I asked why, and he replied: “It’s an insult to my intelligence. Too much art; not enough content.” Wow! After thinking about his comment, I completely agree. However, I want to share an example of a content driven strategy to compliment your art.

First, write an argumentative essay with five paragraphs stating your reasons someone should buy or use the product or service you are currently marketing. Make sure your essay is filled with a thesis statement and stresses key points in every paragraph. Of course, you need a nice introduction to grab the reader’s attention, so make sure you introduce what you are offering in such a manner that the reader understands you and wants to learn more.

Second, read the essay out loud and listen to your key points. Are they backed up with facts and supporting examples? Once you have completed this task, then hand your essay to a colleague. Have him or her read the second and final paragraph only then provide you with a summary of your argument. Did your colleague present a solid case of understanding your argument? If so, then you are good to go! If not, you need to work on your writing skills, but for now, you can move forward.

Last, take your key points from each of your paragraphs and write them down. Make a list of all supporting information as well and write that down. Now, find your three strongest points and their supportive examples and circle them. Are you ready for the design portion? Use a simple, clean design to compliment your points. Each component of your design should clearly relate to your three key points. Once you have done this, you have created an intelligent advertisement that is based on what people want: CONTENT.

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Chris Teague
The WIN Firm, Inc.

All WOUND Up!

Wow! It has been a crazy end of the year and start of a new year! Welcome to this new year of posts by The WIN Firm. This is Chris Teague, and I am the V.P. of our wonderful marketing/advertising firm. Today's post is a brief explanation of what we have been able to do during this challenging economy: Create new strategies and have fun doing it!!

Monday, I was having lunch and someone asked me "What I did for a living?" I simply replied, "I have fun!" Don't misunderstand me. Not all work is fun, but overall, working with The WIN Firm is fun. I am unable to speak for other marketers today, but all of the worry wrapped up in today's economic climate has only made us happier than we were at WIN.

Why would I be happy when clients are cutting budgets and leaving us with less billable work than we have ever experienced? Simple: I LOVE the challenge of seeing whether we are good enough to compete. The author, John Eldridge, explains in various books how men always seek approval from their father and want to be tested. Though Mr. Eldridge is specifically writing to men, his point about proving worth relates to all of us! We all want to know that we are good at something and can overcome hurdles in our lives.

This year, we are unveiling some AWESOME strategies for increasing a company's brand, market presence and bottom line. Please stay tuned as we UNVEIL our "secret strategies" that we presently utilizing for our clients. Our clients love the work we are doing and YOU will too!

The WIN Firm's posting schedule will be on a regular basis. We will post updates once a week for everyone. Posts will occur every Thursday, so check back with us next Thursday at 3pm EST. Please take our strategies and ideas. Use them to help you market your company. We are here to share what we do: Have Fun!

Be blessed in all YOU do!
Chris Teague

Chris Teague
V.P. The WIN Firm
chris@thewinfirm.com