Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category
IPad— The new retail experience.
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Technology, Tips and Trends Series, Updates, social media
For all of you denim loving fashionista’s across the web. Gap has really stepped up into the iPad space with an amazing experience in the 1969 Stream app, which was launched earlier in this month. Watch the video below and be sure to turn on the sound! Also, a great article about this revolutionary step in retail can be found on the Adage.com site. It makes us wonder, who will be the first hospitality company to embrace these new app opportunities?
The Importance of Reinventing Yourself (Your Brand) in a Constantly and Rapidly Changing World
Posted by Bob Prewitt | Filed under Advertising, Design, Hospitality News, Tips and Trends Series, Updates
I went to a Bob Dylan concert on Monday night at Temple University in Philadelphia. It was awesome.
I first saw Bob Dylan in 1964. That was awesome too.
Yet, I saw two entirely different concerts by the same guy who rendered his music in two entirely different ways.
His essence hasn’t changed. Bob Dylan will always be Bob Dylan, the great singer/songwriter whose songs have been described by Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer Music Critic, as “imbued heartbreak with the fatalistic power of myth.”
But he never stops changing the way he goes about presenting himself and his music. This last iteration is spectacular.
Perhaps Dylan’s most famous reinvention was at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when he offended folk purists by appearing on stage with an electric band consisting of Sam Lay, Mike Bloomfield, Barry Goldberg, Jerome Arnold and Al Kooper.
That’s one great band, and history has proven that Dylan’s willingness to experiment and “reinvent” himself at the time was a great idea.
Now he has created a band that is as tight as any band I have heard since The Band. They create an almost three-dimensional, pulsating sound—much of which is based on phenomenal guitar work by Charlie Sexton.
What makes that so special is that Sexton played with Dylan from 1999 to 2002 but was never permitted to let loose because Dylan was playing a lot of lead guitar.
Now Dylan plays mostly keyboards and harmonica and lets Sexton be his lead guitar player and significant partner—a major and important part of the show.
What a great way to reinvent himself at 68 years of age—letting someone else share the lead, allowing the team to shine.
I am sharing this because I think it is important for all of us to understand the importance of reinventing ourselves. In the world of marketing, it is important for all brands to reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant in these constantly and rapidly changing times.
I’m not saying you should change the essence of who you are. All brands should stay true to what makes them special. But if you are not changing, growing and enhancing, then you are slowly dying.
These days, we may find ourselves with our heads down, plowing through overwhelming amounts of work. But it’s important to stop for a moment and pop our heads above the crowd to see where we are and where we want to be.
So take a look at your brand and see if there are ways to make it more relevant to the world of today and tomorrow. As long as you don’t mess with the essence of the brand, change is a good thing.
For more information on partnering with Dana to reinvent your brand, contact bprewitt@danacommunications.com.
knowledge. ideas. RELATIONSHIPS.
Posted by Jared Zech | Filed under Advertising, Design, Hospitality News, Interactive, Tips and Trends Series, Updates
Throughout our 30 years in business, Dana has had many clients and, therefore, many relationships. We thought it might be fun to take a look at the successful (and unsuccessful) relationships we’ve forged over the years and identify the common threads. In doing so, we’ve compiled a useful—though not exhaustive—list of ways to start building a strong relationship with your agency.
Recognize that creative is a subjective art.
Creative is one of the grayer areas in a client/agency relationship. Some creative decisions are subjective (“I like the second headline option best”), but others are based on things like past successes, best practices and rules for design and copywriting. So before you dictate creative changes to an agency, it is important to have an open-minded discussion about the “why” behind their decisions. You might be surprised to uncover the reasoning behind each element of an ad, email, brochure and so on.
Ask our opinion.
The best relationships we’ve had are the ones in which our clients asked our opinion–and not just about what we’re doing for them, but also about their other marketing activities. It’s good for brand consistency. And, if your agency specializes in a specific industry, they will bring a wealth of their own experience to the equation. You certainly don’t have to take the advice, but the more great thought that goes into any marketing activity, the better it will be.
Use our brainpower.
Do marketing planning with your agency. You’d be surprised how many clients develop a marketing plan and then hand it over to the agency to execute. Often these plans are developed entirely by the Director of Marketing and in a very tight time frame. Incorporating the agency into the planning process will alleviate some stress and add a wealth of knowledge. And while you might find this hard to believe, we actually prefer to implement a plan that we buy into over one that we had nothing to do with—especially if you’re going to hold us accountable for the results.
Communicate and measure.
Clearly communicate your sales and marketing goals to your agency. As a team, figure out the best ways to measure the results of your marketing efforts. Analyze the results together to improve your marketing going forward. If you don’t care about the results of your marketing, chances are that your agency will have a hard time caring too.
Respect—it’s a two-way street.
Agencies do their best work for clients who respect their expertise, their time (we can only do so many “rush” ads) and the budget. If you don’t respect us, fake it. Trust me, we’ll do better work if we don’t feel like just another vendor.
While there are many other ways to build an effective relationship with your agency, we’ve found that the clients that have exhibited those listed above are the ones for whom we’ve garnered the most successes—and the most fun (not a coincidence).
“An idea is salvation by imagination”
Posted by Liz Jordan | Filed under Hospitality News, Travel, Updates
- Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
This Frank Lloyd Wright quote emblazoned the souvenir t-shirt my daughter purchased during our recent visit to Fallingwater. We were puzzling its meaning as we were called for our 90-minute tour of this architectural icon. Wonderfully preserved and the epitome of organic architecture, Fallingwater was the summer home of the Kaufmann’s—who had to be the most accommodating clients of all time. They let Wright pursue his vision, way past budget, and the result shows both his brilliant mind and his many idiosyncrasies. (Not to say the Kaufmann’s were your average American family. They displayed pieces of junk found on hikes next to original Picasso sketches and Tiffany lamps and entertained the likes of Albert Einstein and Frieda Kahlo!)
Fallingwater makes a great road trip destination. It’s location in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands is scenic and close to other attractions like Kentuck Knob, another Wright gem, and plenty of outdoorsy activities like whitewater rafting, hiking and biking along the Great Allegheny Passage. Ohiopyle is the hub for these activities, but we preferred the quiet charms of nearby Confluence, where we watched the mist rise eerily off the Yough (pronounced YOKE) as we dined at River’s Edge Cafe. Seven Springs and Nemacolin Woodlands are nearby resorts—plenty of b&bs too if you want a more laidback base.
‘Buying the Intern T-Shirt’, My Last Day Interning
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Updates
Hello Internet,
Only minutes remain between now and the weekend, a time usually looked upon with great joy. By the time lunch rolls around, no pun intended, most are ready to clock out. Eyes glazed over from a long weeks worth of harsh illumination from the computer screen, the arrival of 5:00 on Friday is as anticipated as the final countdown before a school child’s summer recess. Do I feel the same? Yes and no. Like anybody else, I am excited to go home, for, it is the weekend. Lying just ahead are two days of relaxing, catching up on past due things, and the immersion of any number personal pursuits.
But today I feel different. Today marks my last day as an intern here at DANA, and my first experience in a “real-world, post-college” job. I started my internship 10 weeks ago, shortly after the end of the school. Not knowing what to expect, but wanting to make a good first impression I came in on my first day wearing dress clothes and a tie. Immediately after walking through the door I noticed how overdressed I was. From that day forward I did things the DANA way, casual and relaxed, but still ‘down to business’.
During the ten weeks I spent here at DANA, I have seen a lot, done a lot, and experienced even more. Interning at DANA has given me more than a taste, practically a full meal, of agency life. During my short-lived tenure I bounced around from department to department: filing invoices and moving boxes for accounting, organizing magazines and calling contacts for the media department, and making comps, contact sheets, and learning about the printing process from the creative team.
These past ten weeks have definitely given me a strong foundation in the basis of how an agency works. I am glad for the experience, even if all of it wasn’t fun and games. I did my fair share of data entry, some of which I was unable to complete. I still have a box full of business cards to input to the database. In that sense, thank goodness this is my last day. For the most part however, things went well. I was able to meet new people, learn new things, try to make people laugh, and see advertising from the inside.
Thanks for reading my posts and being interested. If you would like to keep in touch with me please do so, all my pertinent info can be found online at www.jacobstephens.com
Goodbye
-Jake
‘Buying the Intern T-Shirt’, The Office is Abuzz
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Interactive, Uncategorized, Updates
Hello again everybody,
Friday means blog day, and in that case, welcome to another edition of my Jake-the-Intern blog. This morning was a big morning in the DANA office. Last night a number of senior members from the DANA team arrived home from pitch to a potential client. After a solid week plus of hard work from nearly everybody, we were happy to hear the pitch went well. But, what made the morning even better, was a phone call from the client informing us that we have been hired on four distinct fronts, and are in the running for their agency of record!
Becoming an agency of record for this client would be a huge feather in the collective DANA cap. Speaking of caps, this new client is known to have real feathers in theirs. Sorry I can’t give you more details, rules are rules.
Personally, it was interesting to see the pitch process come full circle. During the last two weeks I played my part and prepared research materials about the client, their competition, and web demographics amongst others. As I watched the all the pieces come together in turn, it was neat to see an idea flourish into something tangible.
On another front, today I learned a lesson in comp making. Always always always triple check your pages before you glue them down. In the midst of making a double-gate fold brochure for the printer I mistakenly switched around a number of pages, ultimately rendering my final product worthy of only the recycling bin. In my defense, yesterday was the first time I made a comp of anything. In the end, I fixed my mistakes, even if it took re-doing 2/3rds of the project, turning a mish-mash of pages into a cohesive final project, just how the designer intended. Next time, I’ll make a miniature print out to follow from the get go.
Sorry there aren’t any pictures this week. It seems that I have been neglecting my digital camera and needs new batteries.
Be safe,
-Jake
‘Buying the Intern T-shirt’, Party Up in Here!
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Interactive, Uncategorized, Updates
Happy Friday interweb. The weekending countdown is on, and what better way to end it than with a mildly humorous and occasionally informative blog about being an intern. This weeks topic…the DANA summer barbecue!
This is how we do.Preparing the food. Notice the apron.
On Wednesday night, the DANA staff came from near and far; really, some people came all the way from North Carolina, to the garden-scaped Lambertville backyard of DANA’s president Bob. As people meandered inside and out, there was an uplifting feeling in the air. The dress was casual, as was the conversation. For most of the evening and into the night, the DANA staff talked, laughed, joked, debated, chattered, gossiped, babbled and rattled on. Set against a refreshing summer evening and the musical styling’s of varied acts like Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, and Steely Dan the DANA staff enjoyed the bountiful smattering of food that was available.
part of the meal
To eat, we had salmon, lamb, ribs, approximately twenty-three different types of pasta salad, fruit salad, a “leafy green” salad, potato salad, and other summer favorites like cookies, brownies, chips, dip, raw veggies, and from all reports a smokin’ hot buffalo cheese dip. Mostly everything was “super delicious”
Enjoying the conversation
Upon entry guests were encouraged to have an umbrella drink. Thankfully it didn’t rain because those umbrellas were a little too small. Aside from that, the bar was stocked with beers and fine wines for everyone to enjoy. I was given a root beer. I think it’s pretty exclusive I was the only one to have it. Maybe it was imported?
If you learn anything from this, as I hope you would, know that hospitality people know how to have a party. From food to the drinks, to the atmosphere and attitudes, the night was a great success on all accounts. And if you are wondering what to do with hotel shower caps, take a tip from seasoned professionals and save them. They come in very handy when you have lots of dishes to cover before refrigerating.
Take it easy Internet,
-Jake
‘Buying the Intern T-Shirt’, My empty cubicle
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Uncategorized, Updates
Welcome back Internet. Today is a sad day, for at 5:00PM EST, I will have an empty cubicle. My only other cubicle mate, Stacy, will be moving on to another job, in another town, in another state starting Monday. And as for me, I will be left on my own. If I had my way, I would turn the space into a private office. All I would really need is a door. Oh, and a nameplate of course! As per the suggestion of a co-worker, I will be getting saloon doors. If you want to get a matching set, here is the link. http://www.saloondoorsemporium.com/.
In other related DANA news, I have been diligently working on a large research project for a potential client. Now I can’t really give you any specifics, but I can tell you that I have been busy learning about cultural tourism, feeder markets, visiting trends, and local attractions. I have to give thanks to the Google Insights machine for all its help making pretty graphs and the statistical data.
Aside from that I have been enjoying my time here at DANA. I can usually count on refilling the water cooler every week. Too bad there isn’t always someone ‘water cooler talk’. I was expecting that to be a bigger part of the ‘office’ experience. But in the long run, I guess that doesn’t really matter; the cake that was sitting on the kitchen counter more than made up for the absent cooler talk.
On a final note, the more I think about how I portray DANA to the outside world, the more I think you could use another perspective. Sooooo, today I took the liberty of playing paparazzo. Below are some candid shots from around the office. Sorry about the quality. It’s tough being sneaky in a bright blue shirt.
Outside the main door.
Some of DANA's creative department
This is one of DANA's Art Director's. He told me not to photograph him, so I had to.
This is DANA's Senior Interactive Developer Max. He requested to stay anonyous
High above Hopewell
Way in the back there is DANA's president, Bob. I snuck this picture from the 3rd story fire escape
This is Jorge. Now I have a use for all that fish food.
So long Internet,
-Jake the Intern
‘Buying the Intern T-Shirt’, Digging Deeper
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Updates
Hello again Internet,
As Jef I. Richards once said, “creativity is an advertising agency’s most valuable asset”. Having been here at Dana for another week, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me how this is true. To see it, all I have to do is direct my attention anywhere aside from the current status of my computer.
Recently, my creativity has been slowed to a halt. As we continue to gear up for our 30th anniversary, I have been assigned to the important, yet absolutely mind-numbing experience of data entry. Yesterday, I was briefed in the basics, before being sent out to tame the beast known as Salesforce. A customer relationship management application, Dana uses it to manage their past, present, and future accounts. There must be at least a-zillion. After 5 hours yesterday, I updated accounts A-C. If that pace continues I may be stuck here this weekend, and forced to forego my beach plans after what seemed like 40 days and nights of rain here in Jersey.
On a side note, I have also been doing some media filing for Dana, the person, not company. The media closet has a broken light that kind of flickers, so I usually work in the dark. Most days, she piles up a mass of magazines for me, minus the Spanish GQ. She keeps that for herself.
Take a look at all those mags!
Still, things are not all bad. This morning I was given a crash course on SEO advertising campaigns, everything from keywords to click-throughs. It seems interesting; definitely something worth exploring more if I am given the opportunity. After that I did some more basement filing, wherein if it were not for the expertly placed rubber padding, I would have smashed my head on some very low ductwork. The resulting fall backwards would have seen my way into a pile of boxes including an old ‘scanmaker 800’, an LCD screen, and a Gateway computer where I would probably still be. Luckily for me, that is not the case.
On the way to the archives...
This is an example of one of many archive shelfs
Major injury avoided, having reflected back on the later part of this week has taught me something. Even though what I am doing my not be overtly creative, it has to be done. Creativity may be an agency’s most valuable player, but it is still only a player on a team.
Until next time,
-Jake
First Impressions, Buying the Intern T-Shirt
Posted by JStephens | Filed under Advertising, Culinary, Dana News, Hospitality News, Updates
Hello Internet.
My name is Jake Stephens, the summer intern here at Dana Communications. I’m so excited this day has come. Today I get to tell you, the millions, my story. It’s only been three weeks, but I feel that I’ve paid enough dues to gain access to posting on the acclaimed Dana blog. Either that, or I’m just filling space. Regardless, take the next few minutes to read my story. Chances are, you may even learn something new.
For instance, did you know that my desk came with a jar of Betta Bites fish food?
A welcoming gift from the good people here at Dana.
After feeding the imaginary fish every morning, I never know what to expect here at Dana. As an intern I do all sorts of things, granted, some are better than others, but there is no shortage of variety. Be it the complex assembly of ‘hello books’, the fun-filled fulfillment of a 200+ piece ‘high-end’ direct mailing, or ventures deep into the basement to file archives. If nothing else, this internship has character. I’ll take it one step further. Dana as a whole has character.
Only 60 more to go!
I made 209 pretty personalized boxes.
Set in the middle of downtown Hopewell, NJ in a former home of a historic bank, the Dana office has a certain quality unmatched in modern construction. The large round conference table is as inviting as the heavily reinforced triple locking steel vault where my co-workers tell me all the interns have to eat lunch. I just wish the light switch were on the inside.
Everybody said I eat here because they want me to stay safe.
It is fascinating to see the elaborate symphony that is advertising. Trust me, I have a front row seat twice weekly. From concept to completion, the advertising process is surely a team effort. Before publication or launch, you can bet that what you see has traveled back and forth, over and again to ensure what the client needs and wants is what the client gets.
I am eager to learn more about world of advertising. So far I think I’m off to a running start. Until next time internet,
-Jake
