VANGEL has been named a winner in this year’s 32nd Annual Telly Awards competition. Our firm was honored for two 30-second television ads created for First Chance for Children, a Columbia nonprofit dedicated to building an early education system that helps every child arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed.

The Telly Awards is a national competition that recognizes outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials as well as the finest video and film productions.

To read about the strategy behind the First Chance for Children campaign, click here.

Thanks again to everyone involved with this project: the wonderful folks at First Chance for Children, the talented gang at Boxcar Films, and our fabulous local actors.

It’s interesting to me when friends from outside the advertising arena ask what I think about a new ad they’ve just seen or heard. I‘ve learned to give my opinion only after they’ve shared what they think. It seems they believe my opinion carries more weight since I work in the ad game.

The truth is, we’re all consumers. And as such, we’re all informed and persuaded by ads in the same fashion. The only difference is that we in the industry are usually a little more conscious of the processes and tactics used in marketing to shoppers.

So how can we, as consumers, decide if an ad is “good”? Good is a relative term. Whether an ad is measured as good or bad depends on who’s holding the yardstick. Was it good because it won an award for creativity? Was it good because it increased sales? Was it good primarily because it made the competition furious?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when evaluating an ad:

1. What’s my overall impression?
After viewing an ad, how do I feel about the company advertised? Image advertising (as opposed to product advertising) specifically tries to enhance the relationship between consumers and the company. Think about your feelings toward recent advertisements you’ve seen for companies and brands such as these: GEICO, Old Spice, Burger King, Sham-Wow, BP, Toyota.

2. Was the ad targeted at me?
Sometimes we might not readily understand an ad (or miss it completely) simply because it was not intended to reach our demographic, or segment of the population. Demographics can include factors such as age, sex, education level and income level. In other words, you will probably not see a pimple cream TV commercial during an episode of Matlock. Likewise, you’re not likely to see a print ad for mutual funds in a Disney KIDS magazine.

3. Was the ad memorable?
Do you remember the name of the product or company advertised? Many times I’ve seen or heard a commercial so creative or funny that I just had to tell someone about it…only to realize I didn’t remember who the advertiser was. Note: particularly unusual or funny ads have now become buzz-worthy or viral and have found an expanded audience on sites such as YouTube.com.

4. Was the message clearly communicated?
All advertisements are competing for our time and attention. Some, such as magazine advertorials, have more time to communicate with us while others have less time, such as a roadside billboard. In each case, the message must Speak Clearly. Anything that obscures the message or confuses the targeted audience only hinders the ad’s effectiveness. Possible roadblocks to clarity include a cluttered composition, too many selling points, the use of too many typefaces or graphic devices, too much copy, or even inappropriate attempts at humor.

When I’ve had occasion to speak with advertising or graphic design students, I urge them to be aware of the myriad ad messages they encounter. There’s something to learn from each ad. When one of these ads makes an impression on them (whether positively or negatively), I encourage them to break the ad down into its smaller elements and identify those elements that help convey the message, and those that impede the message.

5. Did the ad inspire me to take action?
This action could be anything from calling an 800 number, to voting for a specific candidate, logging on to a website, or simply remembering the name of a product so you can look for it later.

Of course there are several other criteria for determining the value or effectiveness of any ad, but the ones I’ve outlined here should get you started.

Normally having a negative connotation, the word “addict” can be the equivalent of “expert” in the world of social media. In an ever-changing electronic world, I wouldn’t go straight to “expert,” but I’ve racked up some social media miles managing several accounts for clients. And let me tell you, this medium has serious potential to create serious results for the right business ­­– if managed properly with their brand in mind.

Want to know how?

First off, don’t ignore traditional media. Clients come to VANGEL with questions such as, “How do I get people to ‘like’ my social networking page?” Well, the answer isn’t magic. It’s called advertising, and the tried-and-true methods of driving traffic to a website can also be utilized to encourage “liking” a business on social media in new and interesting ways. For example, take a look at how Wheat Thins is using social media to fuel their new ad campaign.

However, if there is one magical thing about social media, it’s the fact that all traffic can be measured, and detailed results are delivered instantly. Pretty cool, huh? After airing a national TV campaign, Wieden & Kennedy’s Old Spice spokesperson’s popularity blew up on social media, accruing nearly 120,000 followers on Twitter and over 850,000 Facebook fans since February 2010. Sales increased 106 percent since last year. (See: http://adage.com/article?article_id=145096)

In moderated doses, being addicted to social media can yield some serious results if done right and with the proper media mix. So you can feel confident in taking advertising advice such as this from an addict – I mean, professional like me.

There’s real power in a partnership… We learned this lesson in more ways than one with Columbia Water & Light.

When Columbia Water & Light asked us to create a strong, engaging presence for their Energy Efficiency Programs— one that customers could relate to and connect with—we said, “Sign us up!”

Based on focus group findings and conversations with Water & Light staff, we found that most people have a pretty positive approach to energy efficiency.  They want it to be simple and to save them money.  And, they understand that a mutually beneficial relationship between the customer and the utility is a good thing.  Everyone wins when the responsibility of energy efficiency is shared.

So, we came up with: You and Columbia Water & Light: it’s a Powerful Partnership.

The concept allows customers to feel they’re part of something significant—a collective experience of environmental accountability. Print ads, web ads, radio, TV and a designated website empower customers with simple actions they can take to save money.

And it’s worked.  The number of participants in the city’s Energy Efficiency Programs has doubled, sometimes even quadrupled, in the last year.

Saving money and saving energy: it’s a partnership that’s worth continuing.

Learn more at: www.columbiapowerpartners.com.

The second part of our frumpy-to-fabulous tale is where we get into the heavy lifting. (catch up on Part 1 here, if you missed it.)

To go along with the new name and positioning statement, we needed to freshen up the old Food Bank logo, which looked like this:

Notice I said “freshen.” As tempting as it can sometimes be to start from scratch, in this case, that wasn’t the best idea. Just like a celebrity with worldwide recognition, we didn’t want to do so much “work” that she wouldn’t even look like herself anymore. So instead of pulling out a blank piece of paper, we started tweaking the existing logo, a little at a time, until the overall look was a cleaner, more sophisticated version of itself.

The first issue at hand was the type. In the old logo, the Food Bank name was set in Helvetica. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with good ol’ Helvetica. It’s kind of like a little black dress—it looks good on everyone. But since the Food Bank is such a unique place, we wanted to inject a little more personality into the brand.

We ended up choosing a typeface called Hermes. A bit more distinctive, yet still a strong foundation for the rest of the logo.

While Hermes is a great font to use for the wordmark, it doesn’t work very well for chunks of body copy. Our solution was to choose a complementary typeface that would fill in where Hermes didn’t do the best job, and help keep all of the Food Bank’s brand materials consistent.

Enter Caecilia:

Caecilia’s a flexible girl, and comes in many different styles and weights, making her a great fit for not only the positioning statement, but use in brand collateral as well.

Next up, color. After lots of research, we came to the (very scientific) conclusion that everyone and their mama’s food bank logos feature shades of green. Yes, green makes sense, but its well, predictable. Purple? Not so predictable. And again, we didn’t want to abandon the feel of the old logo, so the purple stayed.

The question was, which purple? The old logo was lacking a consistent color across all applications. Now, if you’ve been faithful blog readers, you should know where this is headed. Yes, a PMS color! Since we were freshening up anyway, we chose a more subdued shade of purple that added some richness and sophistication to the logo.

For multiple reasons (versatility being key), the logo was kept to one color. But we did establish a complementary palette to be used throughout Food Bank brand materials. You know, it’s that whole consistency thing…

Our final order of business was polishing the logo symbol itself. Over the years, the Food Bank had realized that the detail in the basket of food wasn’t reproducing well, so simplifying and streamlining were at the top of the list.

We took as much detail out of the food as we could, while keeping it recognizable. We also took the crosshatch detail out of the basket and “rotated” the basket in order to achieve a side view of the handle.

Well, now, loyal readers, you’ve finally made it to the big reveal! Drumroll, please…

Tada! And with the positioning line…

We are thrilled with how our brand makeover project turned out, but more importantly, so is our client. Since the transformation, we’ve helped the Food Bank revamp their website, freshen up brand materials like business cards and brochures, and add the new logo to the building signage and Food Bank vehicles.

Man, someone should totally give us our own makeover show…