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Finely roasted musings. Burnt offerings.

Archive for Capabilities

July 25th, 2017

The Power of Influence: Why Your Brand Should Be Doing Influencer Marketing

With more than a quarter of U.S. Internet users expected to have ad blockers enabled when surfing the web in 2017 and many people passing on live TV in favor of online streaming platforms with limited ad space, like Hulu and Netflix, it can be hard to get consumers interested in your brand, and even harder to gain brand trust. Brand trust is essential for building relationships with consumers, and can be hard to earn in today’s multi-channel landscape. But what if you could leverage a voice that your consumers already trust to get messaging across? Influencer marketing allows brands to partner with social thought leaders who have already amassed trusted followings to push brand messaging in a way that is genuine and unobtrusive to the consumer. Think about it this way: You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed, when you see your friend’s latest post: a pair of brightly colored drinks sitting on a wooden table; the sun shining down Read More

June 5th, 2017

Use It For Good

Firehouse and Grow North Texas recently launched a campaign to urge residents in low-income neighborhoods near the Dallas Farmers Market to use their Lone Star card benefits (aka, SNAP) at the Market. Traditional grocery stores are pretty much nonexistent in the area, so our goal was to let these people know that there was indeed a way to provide healthier foods for their families. While grant funds only allowed the campaign – which featured bus panels, transit posters and highly targeted Facebook ads – a one-month life, that short amount of time proved to be plenty. For the month of May, sales using Lone Star were up 147% versus April, and when the matching dollars (an additional element of the program) were included, the increase was 300%. Better yet, the momentum created by the campaign is expected to boost Lone Star sales into the summer. The most important result, however, was helping provide fresh and nutritious foods to a community Read More

April 6th, 2017

Mind the Millennial Gap

How many times has the ‘M-word’ come up lately in meetings? “We need to reach a new audience – the millennials.” “Why aren’t we getting traction with millennials?” “The millennials are the future. Find them.” These are phrases every marketer has probably heard from their leadership and/or uttered themselves. We get it. Millennials are important. And in some cases, they are the answer to solidifying the success of your brand. After all, they represent about $600B of spending power each year and are on track to surpass $1 trillion a year by 20201. There’s only one problem, all millennials aren’t created equal. There exists a wide gap between the ends of the millennial age spectrum (18 to 36). It doesn’t take a lot of mental gymnastics to realize that a father of two who has been married for 10 years and owns his own house might have different spending habits and media behavior than a teenager who is navigating things like Read More

March 30th, 2017

What an athlete looks like

Cheerleaders don’t always get the credit they deserve. So, we decided to use All Star Nationals – the biggest competition of the year – as an opportunity to give these cheerleaders profile pictures worthy of the athletes they are. Collaborating with Red Photo Booth and photographer Clay Hayner, we installed two photo booths at the All Star Nationals event, complete with customized lighting and framing. The response was overwhelming. Pictures from the photo booth began to show up all across social media. By the end of All Star Nationals, we had over 4,000 portraits of athletes, coaches, and teams. Of course, we couldn’t stop there. From those photos we created a video to pay homage to all of the athletes of NCA. Enjoy.

March 6th, 2017

Hey Siri, where’s my brand?

Voice search now constitutes 20%+ of all searches in Google. That’s startling growth since voice search made up less than 1% of searches just last year. Voice search encompasses searches in Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, as well as searches via the new category of digital personal assistants that includes Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. Since Amazon Echo and Echo Dot were the best-selling products for Amazon this Christmas, and Google Home users are estimated to have quadrupled over the holiday, I think we can safely assume that voice searches will continue to rise. Ranking at the top is imperative since voice searches usually return few (or one) results. In other words, second place doesn’t cut it. And that means marketers need to be leaning forward here, ready to answer, “How do I ensure my business will be found in this new search landscape?” The good news…we’re offering some simple steps toward improving your brand’s visibility in this new landscape. Read More

January 10th, 2017

Three keys to getting the greatest value from your client/agency relationship

So your two companies have gotten married, enjoyed a lovely honeymoon of back patting and optimism but now there’s this nagging feeling that maybe you’re not on the same page. That you’re not syncing well. Or maybe your efforts just aren’t delivering the results you’d hoped for. Maximizing the combined efforts of two separate organizations is the holy grail of collaboration and success. And much like said grail, it’s often just as frustratingly elusive. Aligning them so that they effectively operate as one marketing powerhouse doesn’t need to be overly complicated, but can be incredibly difficult to achieve without a few important and agreed upon points. 1. Don’t pay your agency to be busy. Pay them to achieve. For decades now clients have been inadvertently encouraging agencies to take longer and use cheaper talent on their business. Think about it. Anyone getting paid by the hour and wants to make more money inherently looks to find ways to add more Read More

February 4th, 2016

WHEN COWBOYS AND KINGS COLLIDE

The Cowboys are sports royalty. AT&T Stadium is their castle. We helped Service King storm the gates. Our thanks go out to the fine folks at Already Been Chewed.

June 29th, 2015

Spend Summertime in the French Countryside

June brought warmer weather, longer days and the debut of a new campaign for la Madeleine. Through customer watercolor illustrations and a refreshed tone of voice, we’re bringing the joie of the French countryside a little closer to guests. Radio spots and endorsements are running in DFW, Houston, Austin and Lafayette, along with outdoor boards in the Dallas area. All cafés also have new signage and POP featuring seasonally fresh menu items.

June 9th, 2015

CONTINUING TO BUILD

Have we mentioned how much we like working with the National Cheerleaders Association? Doesn’t matter because we’re going to say it again. We really, really, really, REALLY like working with the National Cheerleaders Association. And our latest print campaign for them is one more reason why. Stunning visuals, meaningful messages and yet another round of cheerleading work that doesn’t look or feel anything like most cheerleading work. Enjoy. Our thanks go out to the photographic skills of Clay Hayner and the retouching wizardry of Mike Campau.

May 11th, 2015

The Black Box

Summer camp catalogues. Every cheer company in the industry makes them the same way, sends them to the same people and delivers them at basically the same time. It’s a tough crowd to stand out in. So this time around, we and NCA decided to take a completely new, and much more mysterious, approach. Recipients of the Black Box were then sent to NCA’s new online camp catalogue. The first of its kind in the industry. You can check out the site for yourself at NCACamp.com. Our thanks go out to our friends at Colormark Printing and Tegan Digital.

Firehouse Agency