Invitation for the League of NH Craftsmen Fair Preview Party
Sullivan Creative won an award for direct mail excellence for a postcard invitation to the Annual League of NH Craftsmen Fair Preview Party. The Preview Party provides supporting members of the League an opportunity to get a first look at the fine craft on display and purchase before the Fair opens to the public the next day. Sullivan Creative designed a fun, attention-getting postcard featuring a photo of beautiful hand crafted shoes, inviting the recipient to step out and celebrate the spirit of the maker at the Preview Party.
Despite the sluggish economy, the attendance for this event increased slightly over the previous year. More importantly, the amount of sales that occurred in two of the exhibitions during that evening represented about 25% of the sales for the entire nine days of the Fair in these two venues.
Exhibit Display and Postcard for STR
Sullivan Creative won an award for a display exhibit and postcard developed for STR (Specialized Technology Resources). STR provides testing,auditing, and inspection services and asked Sullivan Creative to help them establish a stand-out presence at a major private label manufacturer trade show. We created a theme, Accelerate Your Store Brand Success, and designed a 20-foot exhibit that featured a unique turtle and hare graphic. We also developed a corresponding postcard that was mailed to the pre-registered attendees and prospects, as well as other signage for the exhibit booth. The exhibit drew lots of attention and resulted in several new business leads for STR.
Building attendance for two events during a down economy
Sullivan Creative won gold and silver awards for developing successful integrated media—traffic generation campaigns for the Annual League of NH Craftsmen's Fair and for the IBM Cognos Forum.
The nine-day Annual Craftsmen Fair is a vital revenue-generating venue for the more than 350 craftspeople (all members of the League) who rent booths at the Fair to sell their crafts. This is also a critical event for the League itself, as its operating expenses for the next fiscal year depend on the revenue from Fair ticket sales. Working within a limited budget, Sullivan Creative's campaign employed an integrated promotional strategy of print advertising, TV, radio, web, public relations, direct mail, and social media (primarily Facebook) and negotiated non-profit media buys. The campaign was built around the theme of celebrating the "spirit of the maker" and featured fine craft pieces and their makers – the juried members of the League. All of the integrated marketing materials directed people to the League's website for more information and to purchase tickets online. Despite the economic downturn, which affected travel and tourism to the state, attendance as high as previous years and craft sales were better than budget projections. The campaign also brought in people who had never been to the Fair before.
Forum is the annual global IBM Cognos user conference. For this event, Sullivan Creative established a design and guidelines for all event materials that supported the event theme, Ignite Knowledge, Ideas, Connections. This global audience acquisition campaign involved a schedule of print direct mail and audience-versioned emails over a nine-month period. Our design incorporated a high-impact visual identity – a bright, bold fireworks image – for the materials, and our copy for all of the emails, postcards and registration brochure had a strong call to action and positioned Forum as a dynamic, existing event to take performance to the next level. The messaging also addressed the economic downturn, offering valuable reasons for justifying attendance. As a result of this campaign, Forum met its attendance goal.
Fundraising piece for a non-profit theatre
Sullivan Creative received an award in the Cheap for Good Cause category for an annual appeal mailer developed for Red River Theatres. Red River Theatres is New Hampshire's only non-profit, full-time movie house showing independent and locally made films. Sullivan Creative created a self mailer that would stand out from other charitable solicitations. The two-color, self-mailing piece included a movie trivia quiz to draw interest, and succinctly presented the importance of donations to the Annual Fund, along with a contest for dinner and movie tickets. A mail-in form was included. We also developed an online form for responses to the quiz and contributions. The self-mailer and web page component helped to keep the overall costs down. Red River Theatres achieved a 5% response rate, leading to almost double the dollars raised from the previous year.
Showcasing its elements for marketing success
Sullivan Creative received a gold award for a low-cost, self-promotion piece, called the Elements of Marketing Success. We created four cards, each with a two letter element, similar the the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. Each element featured a clever positioning statement about the importance of being heard (He), being seen (Se), being smart (Sm), and being succesfull (Sc). The cards were designed used bright, bold colors and strong type, and featured Sullivan Creative's website and email. This bold, clean design was also used for the trade show booth graphic. Sullivan Creative used the booth at two shows and handed out the cards at several meetings. As a result of our use of these materials, we received potential leads and also were selected to design and develop a comprehensive arts website, which we completed in the November 2009.