Marketing Muse from Silver Square

Companies to Watch Awards Program Photos

The inaugural Companies to Watch Awards program was such a great success that we wanted to share a few photos from the event. We thoroughly enjoyed planning and working at the event and are excited for next year!

Angela next to the entrance sign

View of the ballroom

View of the stage

Table decor

Floral centerpiece

Karli and Angela enjoying the event

Contact us so we can help you plan your own event that people won't stop talking about!

Things you need to pull together a successful business event

by Angela James, Account Manager @ Silver Square

Last night was the big event and it was a huge success! A successful event begins with the location. The location for the Indiana Companies to Watch was held at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. This is a great venue for many reasons. The ballroom is beautiful and elegant which fit the look and feel of this event. The size of the building was perfect for hosting an event with more than 500 attendees and the location is convenient especially for any out of town guests being located in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. The most important detail for planning the event is the people you are working with to plan your event. The staff at The Roof is excellent in the service they provide and they are wonderful to work with. They are very accommodating, extremely organized, offer multiple ideas to help you plan and are very flexible with any last minute changes.

Once the location has been finalized, determining a budget, choosing a theme and a setting a time for the event is crucial. The budget and theme are important building blocks for putting a successful event together. Hiring a coordinator to help plan your event and create a detailed plan is key. They will manage all of the details and this will also allow you to enjoy your guests during your event.

Designing the invitations, determining the number of attendees and managing the number of RSVP’s will be the next step in the process. Your coordinator can help to manage the RSVP’s and determine a seating chart if it is a formal event. They can also be in charge of coordinating a florist, photographer, caterer and any entertainment. We were thrilled to work with Wild Orchid Events for creating our centerpieces for Indiana Companies to Watch. The centerpieces were beautiful! Watch for pictures tomorrow…

Silver Square was proud to be a part of Indiana Companies to Watch 2008. Contact us if you would like us to help plan your next or even your first business event. Whether you are planning a client appreciation part or a large corporate event, we would love help make your event a success!

Using the Web to Generate Buzz

by Karli Kujawa, Junior Art Director @ Silver Square

In addition to the number of print items we created to promote the inaugural class of Indiana Companies to Watch, we also designed a few pieces to promote the program on the web. As with the print ads we made rotating web ads that announced the program, how to enter, and important deadlines. We maintained the look of the other pieces to keep the promotional efforts consistent so that people would begin to recognize the Companies to Watch brand.

Once the banner ads were completed for the web, we designed a header and footer for an e-newsletter that would be emailed to sponsors, guests, and potential award recipients. This newsletter was a means of keeping the Companies to Watch program fresh in their minds, as well as, keeping people informed of upcoming deadlines and general information about the program.

Next, when the paper invitations were mailed we also wanted an e-invitation that was similar in style that could be emailed to potential attendees. The e-invite needed to contain the same information as the printed version in the same style, but fit into one flat layout as shown below.

Finally, we created a web banner with the Companies to Watch branding which was emailed to winners so that they could place it on their websites to acknowlege their award.

This web campaign was a great success and another way for Companies to Watch to spread their message to their intended audience. Contact us to see how we can help you increase your web presence to reach a larger audience.

Creating buzz for a special event - a print list

by Karli Kujawa, Junior Art Director @ Silver Square

Since this is the inaugural year of the Indiana Companies to Watch awards program it was crucial to have a number of printed items that both explained what the program was, as well as, displayed the program's branding. As we talked about in yesterday's blog, the Companies to Watch branding incorporated spotlight imagery to reference the 50 Indiana businesses that have a place in the public's spotlight.

We started off by designing a fact sheet to distribute to eligible businesses that explained what the program was about. Since this was the public's first look at the program it had to have the Companies to Watch branding, but it also had to include a great deal of important information. This was achieved by creating a two-sided 8.5" x 11" flysheet with the branding as the header and footer and the information in the center.

Also in February we designed a call for entries postcard. It was the public's first look at this new program so it incorporated the Companies to Watch branding, a short explanation of the program, how and where to apply, and deadlines.

To further spread the word of the awards program, ads were placed in local business publications like the Indianapolis Business Journal in order to get more businesses to enter. We designed ads for these publications in March and April. They included the branding, key information, and the program sponsors.

Next, we designed the invitation for the awards reception. We wanted the invitation to be professional, yet elegant. We kept the same Companies to Watch branding, but applied it to a unique paper called "Shine". This gave the invitation a hint of irridesence and glamour without overshadowing its purpose. We also had to create and coordinate the printing of separate invitations for the general public and award recipients, as well as an insert for select people invited to a special VIP cocktail hour.

All the printed materials turned out nicely, especially the invitations on the special paper. As a result of these efforts the awards reception has had more people R.S.V.P. than ever anticipated.

Branding for Companies To Watch

by Karli Kujawa, Junior Art Director @ Silver Square

Silver Square is excited to be a part of the Indiana Companies to Watch awards reception this Wednesday, August 27 at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. We have worked closely with the Indiana Small Business Development Center to design branding and promotional materials for this event, as well as, coordinate many of the details of the reception which we will discuss later in the week.

With the branding of this prestigious event, we wanted to highlight the accomplishments of the businesses being presented with awards. To do so, we chose an abstracted image of a spotlight as the main design element. This icon for the event would be used later in invitations, ads, web banners, name tags, table decorations, and signage. Since the imagery was contemporary, we chose a more classic color palette so as to not overshadow the spotlight. A deep royal blue was used as the background color to represent the night of the event, and gold and white were used as the spotlight and text colors.

The finished result was elegant and professional, yet festive enough to express the celebratory feel of an awards reception. We look forward to seeing it all come together this week. Watch for photos!

Be resourceful

Sometimes, you are just not dealt a good hand of cards. Sometimes, you have to be resourceful.

I volunteer a lot. Of late, most of my volunteer hours are for one particular organization due to the commitment level I have. As a board member, I'm actively helping run the organization. As for my role within the board seat, I'm helping secure sponsorships. We have some big events coming up this fall and we had one sponsor on board since this past June... then this week they pulled. We have also had a tough time finding a few key industries to participate in these events and we're getting to crunch time. So what did we do? We simply changed the game plan.

One of the women on the committee threw out some ideas for change in order to still have a great event but got resourceful on multiple ways to accomplish the goal. She had great ideas and, I think, things may even be better than what was in the plan. It also opens the door to more relationships our organization can establish and cultivate. It's a great alternative when you just don't get the best luck of the deal.

I'm happy to be part of a group of women that, when given some less than ideal situations they instead said "Well, how can we change things and move forward?" instead of "What now?" and spend time complaining about the challenge instead of doing something about it.

Next time you're faced with a less than ideal situation, use it as a chance to look at things in a new way. They may even get better with your changes.

Mohawk paper announces new website and tools

Mohawk paper announced their new site - and it's super cool. It's worth a quick peek to see the beauty, and it's worth another 10 minutes to check out their environment calculator under the environment navigation tab.

Index cards - my new favorite tool

I have started a new relationship with index cards. They are my new best friends. The plain ones are very useful, but the colored ones (and even the more fancy designer ones) are extra fun... but they are also extremely useful.

My mind has been on overload for a few months now. I have things I want to do personally and professionally and some of it's just not getting done, or, it's not getting done well. Keeping index cards near me (especially the fun ones) is making my life easier. Now, when I write down an idea for someone else, like a client or a volunteer project, I write it on the index card and stick it in the folder related to the client/project. This gives me some peace knowing my idea made it out of my head and in to the world in some fashion. It's still up to me to do something with that idea or thought, but at least now it's not forgotten and I can tackle the thought once I'm able to concentrate more time and attiontion to the task.

Give it a try - index cards have to be one of the more least expensive marketing tools you can use, so even if you test my process and you personally don't like it, you'll only have invested about 79 cents.

Here's to your next great idea!

Pageflakes

by Angela James, Account Manager @ Silver Square
Pageflakes is a free web based tool that enables you to pick the information feeds you want to read keep them organized. Pageflakes allows you to add just about any web content you can think of—email, video, picture, news feeds, movie times, maps, or a personal blog —or you can create your own custom flakes. You can also connect with your social networking tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. If you're looking for one-stop browsing, this is it.

Design For All

by Karli Kujawa, Junior Art Director @ Silver Square

I have studied art and design my whole life both actively and passively. Some of that time I did not recognize my quests as looking for good design, but merely searching for things that I thought were "pretty." As I grew up, I realized how much happiness I got from surrounding myself with objects that were well designed. Design also extends beyond making products look good to making them easier to use. By surrounding yourself with ordinary objects that someone has worked with and tweaked so that they fit seamlessly into your lifestyle, there is a sense of calm order that can then spread to other parts of your life.

Target has been the most vocal proponent of design for everyday life with their "Design for All" campaign. Their foray into design-centered products and marketing began in 1994. Rather than driving traffic though the door using celebrity-endorsed products, they focus on the designers themselves to get people into the store. This way, even housewives and bankers, nurses and lawyers feel connected in some small way to the art world. They flock to Target because the prices are competitive with other discount retailers, but the experience is more Manhattan than Midwest.

While some artists and designers are disgusted with the "mainstreaming" of design I think it is a big step in the right direction. To people that have been studying design all their lives, the design of everyday life may not be all that exciting, but I am thrilled that people outside the design world are interested and talking about it even if it is because Target introduced them to the concept. I hate when people think of art and design as elitist because that is the complete opposite of its intent. A good designer always has the end user in mind and wants his/her product to enhance the user's life.

Here at Silver Square we put this theory into practice in the work that we produce for our clients. Every website, logo, and ad is an opportunity to create the most visually appealing solution which relays critical information in the easiest to understand manner. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your company make a visual impact with your marketing materials.