As a communications company, our purpose is to attract attention to our clients and tell their stories through advertising, public relations and so on. For the most part we stay behind the scenes, but occasionally the work we do for others attracts attention to us as well. That happened recently when the Business Journal of the Triad profiled the agency in this story: In bloom: W-S ad agency stays true to itself to keep clients happy.
If you get our e-newsletter, Bloomination, you know that we were recently chosen as the marketing partner for Primo Water Corporation, an exciting, fast-growing Winston-Salem based company. Obviously we’re excited about this new relationship—and so is Primo. Here is the press release they issued announcing it:
Primo Water Selects The Bloom Agency as Marketing Partner
WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Primo Water Corporation, transformer of the outdated office water cooler into an Energy Star rated stylish home appliance and developer of a bulk water recycle/exchange program at retail, has chosen The Bloom Agency to be its integrated marketing partner. The agency, like Primo Water, is based in Winston-Salem.
Established in 2004, Primo Water has grown quickly to achieve a retail presence in all 48 continental states, with new stores being added every week. The company, which sells three- and five-gallon bottles of water, recently shipped its 10 millionth bottle.
Primo Water’s distinctive business model makes it easy for consumers to have safe, convenient, affordable purified water in their homes. Consumers return their empty bottles to store locations in exchange for a substantial credit on new bottles of Primo water. Rather than being destined for the landfill, the bottles are sanitized and reused by the company up to 40 times. When the bottles are no longer usable, they are shredded and the plastic sold to other manufacturing companies.
In 2008, Primo began to market hot and cold water dispensers and has since become the national leader in this appliance category. Primo water and dispensers are sold through major retailers, including Walmart®, Target®, Lowe’s® Home Improvement, Costco®, Sam’s Club® and Kmart®, with a combined presence in more than 12,500 retail outlets.
“Having Primo water and a Primo water dispenser at home is simply the best way to drink perfect tasting water.” said Billy Prim, Primo Water’s founder and CEO. “With millions of families using these appliances in their homes, making the water available at retail locations across the country gives them the ability to choose a healthy, environmentally responsible lifestyle.”
The Bloom Agency has begun its work with Primo Water by collaboratively developing a strategic marketing plan. The plan incorporates brand development, point of purchase advertising, packaging, promotions, print and broadcast advertising, public relations, and interactive marketing.
“We are honored and delighted at the opportunity to support the growth of this exceptional company,” said agency president Art Bloom. “Primo Water is an innovative, fast-moving entrepreneurial business.”
Bloom noted that Primo Water is building on the experience gained through Blue Rhino®, Billy Prim’s earlier venture, with many of the same talented people in key positions, and augmented by some of the best business development experts from the retail world.
“With talent, experience, a robust infrastructure and a unique business model, Primo Water is positioned for great success in what is bound to be a growing category,” Bloom said. “Retailers are receptive to products that reflect consumers’ desire for healthier lifestyles and their concerns about cutting down both needless waste and expense in their lives. Primo Water’s solution addresses those desires and concerns.”
“The opportunity for Primo is tremendous. Our goal is to significantly increase our retail presence and consumer awareness of both our three- and five-gallon water and our industry leading water dispensers,” said Kelly Lockwood Primus, vice president of marketing for Primo Water. “We are confident The Bloom Agency will help us get there. Their people are strategic, passionate about their work, open-minded, and full of smart, edgy ideas. We like the memorable, effective branding they have created for their clients and look forward to working with them to grow our retail and household penetration.”
(And by the way, if you aren’t getting Bloomination and you would like to receive it, sign up here.)
Drawing takes practice. Great drawers draw things like the Mona Lisa and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Art Directors, on the other hand, draw people like this:
And that’s okay.
Most Art Directors, myself included, used to know how to draw. Really — we knew how to draw people and animals and vases and fields of corn. Then we started directing art and such. That meant “drawing” headlines instead of heads, and layouts instead of landscapes. And that’s okay, too. Because these were just ideas, and clients knew their finished product would look nothing like my crazy sketches they waited three days to see. They knew it was only a concept and actually used their imaginations to fill in the details, knowing the finished piece would be much better. The idea was king, and the execution of it an exciting collaboration of creative and client vision.
Read More >>
“Mass marketing is doomed.” – Bob Garfield, author of The Chaos Scenario: Amid the Ruins of Mass Media, the Choice for Business is Stark: Listen or Perish, on NPR.
Bob Garfield talks and writes about marketing on NPR and in Advertising Age as well as a number of other media outlets, and he’s not alone in thinking that mass marketing is on the way out. In general, he and many others say that the internet, DVR, satellite radio and other new technologies will so fragment the audience that marketing to the masses will no longer make sense. After all, with targeted marketing you can spend a little to reach the 100,000 people who really want your product instead of spending a lot to reach 10,000,000 people and hoping the right 100,000 hear the message.
But do people really want advertising that’s geared toward them? Well, as it turns out, they don’t. Especially when the companies doing the targeting are tracking their customers’ online (and offline) activity in order to find and advertise specifically to them.
Read More >>
I’m a firm believer that though we can’t always control the events that affect us, we can always take charge of our responses. I would say that the ability to see a range of possibilities in every turn of events and to make the best of things is probably a quality shared by effective marketers.
A popular definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” This deep and lasting recession shows that companies which persist in doing the same old things are often getting different—and disappointing—results.
Read More >>