The hog, stud and bunnies from the Kansas State Fair’s “It’s a Wild Ride, Baby” campaign have even more reason to party. The campaign was recently recognized as the best overall in its division by the International Association of Fairs and Expos (IAFE). Did we mention that it also received accolades for best color newspaper ad, best radio spot, best television spot and first place for exhibit display? Well it did.

The campaign theme encouraged folks to head to the fair and “Pick Up Some Bunnies, Check Out the Studs and Hang With the Hogs.” Take that as you may, we were talking about fair critters. The irreverent tone and whimsically illustrated animals must have struck a chord. It appears as though the campaign designed around people-watching did more than draw folks to the fair. It captured judges’ imaginations. We thank our fab partners at the fair for their courage and willingness to go with creative that doesn’t play it safe. Thanks for believing, baby.

Listen to radio spots

So Nice to Be Naughty

Fueling Our Tanks

Our agency chief operating group – or COG – recently added two members: Chris Parks, senior art director, and Ashley Bowen Cook, brand director. Sonia and Deanna announced the news by doing cartwheels through the office. Well, maybe not actual cartwheels, but they definitely were smiling from ear to ear. “The COG provides strategic leadership for the agency,” says Sonia, “and we welcome the thinking power of these two. Chris’ passion and flair for creative brand building and Ashley’s solid client relationships and ability to get things done are tremendous assets."

Broadcast News Names
Sonia to Hall of Fame

GG Recognized Among
Best Places to Work

Anyone who’s been to our place knows we’ve earned enough Lucite to create a promotional-products spin-off company. But of all the honors and accolades, this one ranks among the highest. It’s based on anonymous feedback from our team members.

Best Places to Work, sponsored by the Wichita Business Journal, measures everything from employee engagement and feeling valued to being able to trust one's coworkers and management. It recognizes Greteman Group’s 20 years of dedication to the industry, clients and community.

Team members especially appreciate the agency’s support in leading a life of wellness and balance. That includes twice-a-week lunch aerobics, weekly yoga, a GG Snack Attack healthy-options bar, and an onsite elliptical machine and trampoline. Office manager Carol Farrow says, “It’s nice to sweat with your co-workers over something other than a deadline.”

Laughter relieves stress, too, of course, and the Fun Committee sees to it that play gets mixed in with work in the form of themed parties and (late afternoon) beer Fridays. We also work to provide plenty of professional development and team-building. Periodic lunchtime Oxygen Bars, AE Brown Bags and Design Intervention internal meetings foster collaboration, communication and training. We have much to learn from one another.

A good chunk of our good intentions involve a determination to live healthier. Whether that means losing that spare tire, skipping the super-sized French fries or no more glue sniffing; taking steps to improve your wellbeing is always a noble goal.

Beyond living up to our own resolutions, that woefully rotund bottom that you pledged to lose also hurts your employer’s bottom line. Unhealthy habits create unhealthy employees. Unhealthy employees have more trouble concentrating, have to take more sick days and contribute to rising healthcare costs. So an organization should probably have a vested interest in the health and wellbeing of its employees, right?

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines turned to us to help develop a campaign that encourages its team members to kick out the bad habits and trade them for good ones. The initiative includes free access to exercise facilities, healthy lunches in the cafeteria and better vending snack options, in addition to providing the support and incentives that make its employees actually want to get out there and get healthy.

For our part, we created a six-poster campaign built around the “Wellness Works” theme. It encourages call-center employees to eat more veggies, drink more water, quit smoking, de-stress, exercise and just feel better. Bright, fun illustrations remain true to the company’s brand, while helpful hints suggest positive ways to stick to those resolutions. The campaign, which kicked off in early 2009, features a new poster each month. With motivation like this, all of those good habits should be forming in no time.

There’s Nothing Micro About This Site

Lawyers get a bad rap. But they’re more than just a punchline to a joke. They’re people, too. Plus they serve an important purpose: To know the law so you don’t have to.

We partnered with the prestigious firm Jackson & Wade – known online as JetLaw.com – to create a microsite specifically for its international aircraft-transaction services. It enables visitors to explore sample transactions and match their specific needs with the attorney best suited to deliver the desired results. By working from the maxim that clients hire attorneys, not law firms, the site emphasizes each attorney's unique area of expertise.

Jackson & Wade liked the microsite so much, they decided to make it their official corporate website. That's a challenge we like. We reworked the site’s navigation and implemented a tool for easily adding partners’ frequently published articles. We launched the upgraded site this month.

So if you’re looking to lease a jet in Europe or buying a used aircraft from Chicago, check out Jackson & Wade’s new site. They’ve got your back.

Maximize Your eMail Marketing

If your inbox is anything like ours, it’s constantly being flooded by email marketing messages. While some of the messages in this eclectic little catchall may be useful, others, well, leave much to be desired. But one thing is clear; the appeal of email marketing is undeniable. It’s an inexpensive and easy way to create highly targeted messages. And once you throw in the ability to track the results of your emails – who opened it, when and if they clicked any links – it’s little wonder why.

eMail marketing can be incredibly effective during these economically trying times. However, there is a fine line between being savvy online marketers and pain-in-the-you-know-what spammers. The influx of email messages creates some pretty serious challenges that you must overcome in order to generate any response from your effort.

As we prepare to celebrate Greteman Group’s 20th anniversary this April, we find ourselves reflecting on two decades worth of smart, creative work. Starting out as a hothouse for dynamic design, we evolved into the full-service branding agency we are today. We’ve carefully built a team of experts to efficiently handle the full range of projects necessary to serve a large company with multifaceted needs. Central to our all-star team is Chris Parks, senior art director.

A well-rounded artist capable of tackling virtually any design challenge, Parks displays particular genius for building brands with swagger, brands that push the envelope and revel in their unconventional attitudes. Beginning as an intern here in the early ’90s and continuing on to other firms and ventures, Parks honed an illustrative style influenced by everything from custom car culture to comic books. This unique, recognizable style has earned Chris a cult-like following.

As co-owner of his own firm, Parks worked with a wide array of clients – Big Dog Motorcycles, Vespa, the Sedgwick County Zoo. The identities he created still line Douglas Avenue – a main Wichita thoroughfare – from Lady Luck Salon to Devlin Rod Customs to The Anchor, a bar and grill. Each is unique, distinctive and delightfully unconventional.

“I’m very fortunate to be part of such a dualist agency,” Parks says. “On one hand, it’s a blast to take on the challenge of a major creative campaign, making the pieces fit into a smart, attention-grabbing, strategic whole. But it’s also refreshing to work on a smaller concept, with fewer boundaries. The two types of projects really feed off each other. It keeps you loose and your design chops supple to face a variety of situations.”