Over the past few months, Schifino Lee has been celebrating 1-, 2- and 3-year “anniversaries” with our clients on the launch of their new brands, new websites or other milestones. To commemorate these events, Schifino Lee has created special anniversary cakes and delivered them as gifts.

The initiative was kicked off in November, with Auditz celebrating the 1-year anniversary of the company’s website; next it was America’s Battery Recyclers, who celebrated the 2-year anniversary of its name and branding. December marks anniversaries for Jones Lang LaSalle’s Urban Centre branding, Fountainhead Practice Management’s website, and Franklin Street’s rebranding.

So far, the response has been nothing but positive (who doesn’t love cake). Clients are surprised and appreciative of the unexpected treat; and it reminds them to start thinking about updating and renewing the work.

In September, AACSB International of Tampa, Florida, introduced eNEWSLINE Live (ENL), a series of live-streaming videos that address global topics and trends in management education.

Hosted by John Fernandes, AACSB’s president and CEO, the bimonthly videos will feature experts from business education who will provide insight on a variety of topics. The first video, streamed in September, featured Steve Reinemund, dean of Wake Forest University Schools of Business in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Reinemund spoke on the topics of sustainability, corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership.

For information about ENL and upcoming video segments, visit www.aacsb.edu/enl/.

Reflecting the impact of a powerful new format and branding, radio station AM 820 News increased its share of listeners ages 18 and over by 500% in the four-month period between June 1 – October 31, 2011, according to recent Arbitron reports covering Tampa Bay area radio stations.

The Clearwater-based station, which offers an “all-news, all-day” format with nonpartisan delivery, garnered the following monthly share increases in the Tampa Bay market:

Genesis Communications, owner of AM 820 News, engaged Tampa-based branding and marketing agency Schifino Lee to better define its brand image and raise the station’s awareness through digital billboards, print ads, radio spots and social media.

“We are extremely pleased with the results of the new branding and marketing campaign,” said Bruce Maduri, president of Genesis Communications. “Our new format is proving attractive to a wide portion of the public, and this new campaign is letting them know about us in a simple yet compelling way.”

“Schifino Lee is proud of our work related to this campaign,” said Ben Lee, principal of Schifino Lee. “We’re continuing to implement new creative strategies to increase listenership.”

Launching a powerful new brand at one of its industry’s largest trade shows, Excellence Industries is touting the “power of partnership,” emphasizing the commercial refrigeration company’s ability to help its customers with everything needed to sell frozen and refrigerated products at retail locations.

Excellence Industries, based in Tampa, Fla., is the premier commercial refrigeration partner for brands such as Nestle, Pepsi, Good Humor, Ben & Jerry’s, Whole Foods, and Marriott. A key to its success is its skill in helping companies in the dairy, ice cream and food industries with all their refrigeration needs, from equipment manufacturing, branded graphics and logistics to leasing, servicing and recycling nationwide.

To emphasize this wide-ranging, customer-focused approach, the company hired Schifino Lee, a Tampa-based branding and marketing agency that has deep experience in business-to-business manufacturing and recycling – a powerful combination for the Excellence Industries message.

The company’s new branding was showcased October 2^nd at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) convention at McCormick Place in Chicago. Excellence Industries debuted a new logo, new tradeshow display and new collateral materials at the show, which will soon be followed by an enhanced web presence.

“We are very excited about how our new branding tells the story of how we help our partners,” said Howard Noskowicz, CEO of Excellence Industries. “With such a wide range of services, it’s important for us to emphasize one overall premise – we help our partners grow and manage their businesses.”

For Schifino Lee, the work builds on its success in creating new and refreshed brands for such companies as Vertical IT Solutions, Gerdau, USAmeriBank, Celestar and AM 820 News. Also, it ties into the agency’s skill in marketing for the recycling industry, with such companies as Kimmins Contracting, Sims Recycling, Association of Battery Recycling and EnviroFocus Technologies.

“As companies become more aware of the need to think about their products from cradle-to-grave, it’s important for service providers to consider recycling as part of their messaging,” said Ben Lee, Principal of Schifino Lee. “That goes hand in hand with forming a trusted, long-term partnership with customers. Both of these ideas are strong in our work for Excellence Industries.”

• Information about Excellence Industries is available at www.ExcellenceIndustries.com

ARMA Global is a rapidly growing company that supports the US Special Operations Command and other elements of the Department of Defense in successful implementation of foreign policy, material delivery and security objectives.

As they planned the company’s strategy, ARMA’s leadership recognized that their branding and marketing needed to attain the same standards of excellence that their operations and execution had.

To reach these objectives, ARMA selected Schifino Lee.

“Schifino Lee has a proven success record of creating brand communications that drive growth,” stated ARMA CEO, Todd J. Schweitzer. “Schifino Lee was the perfect fit for ARMA. We were impressed with their past performance of working with other companies in developing the right message to their customers.”

The new branding and marketing initiatives include a refreshed logo, new collateral materials and new website copy and imagery that represent genuine innovation for their industry. ARMA needed materials that communicated both the superior professionalism of the company as well as the “we have walked in your boots” experience of their personnel.

“ARMA serves those who serve our country,” said Ben Lee, Principal of Schifino Lee. “We are grateful for and honored by the opportunity to serve them.”

Veredus, a leading national IT staffing firm, was experiencing strong, positive growth and innovative transformation. They engaged Schifino Lee to bottle this energy into a new branding campaign that tells their story in a concise and compelling way.

Schifino Lee delved deeply into Veredus’ business with focus interviews, competitive research and creative strategy development. It was determined that the company’s branding needed to reflect their first-class people, energy and industry knowledge.

The tagline, “Talent To Transform”was recruited to convey this message.

Schifino’s creative team created an updated new logo, graphics and internal marketing campaign to lay the foundation with employees. Afterwards, Schifino Lee created customer-facing marketing materials including print ads, sales collateral and a new website: www.vereduscorp.com.All encompass a consistent look-and-feel and utilize custom photography featuring actual Veredus employees.

The new Veredus websiteenables visitors to submit a job, search for a job by key word and location, and obtain valuable tips for your resume and interview. It identifies the company’s many locations in each geographic region. The site also supplies a wealth of important information including career transforming guides, tips and tools.

“We wanted a website that encompassed our new innovative look and feel as well as: easy navigation, high functionality, and a convenient job search feature,” said David Hull COO of Veredus. “I’m also very appreciative of the consultation and advice we received from Amanda Koenn and the team. They were instrumental in not only getting the website delivered, but in reviewing and integrating our web video content.”

Formed in February 2007, Largo-based USAmeriBank provides banking services to mid-sized commercial businesses and consumers in the West Central Florida market, and Schifino Lee Advertising + Brandinghas been with them nearly from the start. Amidst a challenging financial market USAmeriBank tapped award winning advertising firm Schifino Lee in 2008 to reposition and rebrand the bank.

A thorough look at the competitive landscape ranging from local community banks to large national banks, and an analysis of customer needs in this time of turmoil provided Schifino Lee with a strong foundation for executing USAmeriBank’s unique new brand position, logo design, environmental graphics, collateral and website. USAmeriBank quickly became known as the Tampa Bay area’s bank of choice to their primary target market of business owners with $1-$10 million in revenue per year.

Utilizing consumer research led by Schifino Lee, the creative team positioned USAmeriBankin a way that made their audience feel confident that they would be working with a bank that is right for their business because of the bank’s expertise in providing financial solutions that help customers and communities grow. Schifino Lee developed a corporate image for USAmeriBank that positions them as larger, financially stronger, and better prepared than other homegrown banks and more personal and nurturing than the national and regional banks. Schifino Lee also helped differentiate USAmeriBank by communicating their unique business model to their target: They are employee owned and hire only the most experienced and knowledgeable bankers to build long lasting relationships with businesses and individuals. All of this has led directly up to their billion dollar success.

In mid-February USAmeriBank reached $1 billion in assets in just four short years. They managed a 23.6% gain in this past year alone including 7% since the start of 2011. They are ranked third most profitable and third-largest bank among 140 U.S. banks that were formed in the last four years. It is now the second largest bank on the Gulf Coast and well-positioned for continued growth.

Click to View: Share. Like. Buy.

“Share. Like. Buy” is an entertaining video that explores how many companies view the Millennial Generation, consumers between the ages of 18 and 34. Traditional companies who do not understand the thought process of millennials see them as walking contradictions. We agree that millennials can be contradictory, but no more so than consumers of other generations.

In this era of corporate corruption and implosion, it is hard for anyone to trust “the man.” In a world dominated by fast food chains, people of all ages struggle trying to keep a healthy diet. Many companies believe that these young consumers contradict themselves simply because they do not understand how to communicate with them. Being a technologically inclined generation who has grown up communicating on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, you have to connect with them socially. It’s less about offering the best deal or most innovative product and more about positioning yourself as a “friend” of your consumers.

When targeting the Millennial Generation, think of it as having a girlfriend. If you just do the bare minimum and show up every now and then, they won’t be around long. You need to show them attention. Ask how their day was. Tell them what you’re thinking, and care about what they have to say. Make them feel safe, like you’re not just telling them what they want to hear.

You also want to be a part of their social life. Meet their friends and know their interests (after all, the strongest references to millennials are their peers). Most importantly, be someone they would be willing to get “Facebook official” with, someone they would tweet after a long day.

It’s more than just talking to your “consumers” and informing them about who you are and what you do. Creating a dialogue with the Millennial Generation can lead to a long and loyal relationship.

Today, the concept of media planning has transformed. The goal is to intersect with people’s lives, not to interrupt them. Brands need to form relationships with customers that are emotional, not transactional. That is why the term “media planning” is waning and being replaced by deeper terms such as “media strategy” or “integrated communications planning.”

Moreover, a changed competitive landscape means that media strategy is just as important for small businesses as it is for large companies. The good news is that new media channels make reaching customers at multiple touch points accessible for all companies, small and large.

Nordin Benhalima, Media Director, leads the Integrated Communications Planning team at Schifino Lee. Through strategic insight and customer-centric plans, Nordin has directed multi-million dollar campaigns throughout the country and helped make Integrated Communications Planning an integral part of Schifino Lee’s experienced and passionate process to grow client’s business.

Under his media direction, Nordin has helped WellCare Health Plans grow into a multi-billion dollar company serving over 2 million Medicaid & Medicare members in 13 states.

In addition, Nordin has directed awareness, search engine marketing and lead generation campaigns for clients such as Gerdau, AACSB, Catalina Marketing, Jaguar of Tampa and Lifestyle Family Fitness.

Is your business growing with today’s changed media landscape? Contact Nordin today and learn how it can.

Imagine a “store finder” on a Website that allows you to see if your friends have checked in to a particular location. Or an online Yellow Pages that allows you to see reviews or comments your friends have posted in addition to seeing basic information such as location and phone number.

Facebook did more than imagine it… they created it. They launched a new Parent-Child Page management system for businesses and their local branches called “locations.”

Before “locations,” there was a third-party tool called Hearsay Social that was launched to address the corporate/local problem. Since then, the company has worked with Facebook to create a native Parent-Child Page management system, complete with API’s and a basic graphic user interface. The limited private beta program’s first public facing component is now live, using The Regal Entertainment Group as the first example.

 What does Locations mean for marketers?

 A business can display an interactive map, powered by Bing, on its corporate pages that allows Facebook users to find the nearest locations and also to navigate to the corporation’s local branch pages. Facebook users are able to search any address to pull up nearby locations represented by child pages and the faces of friends who’ve checked in there before. The purpose of “locations” is to hopefully drive more likes and foot traffic to their local branches and has the capability to potentially replace the “store finder” tab application that is found on most corporate websites. The child pages also features a link back to the parent page allowing for cross-page promotion.

 The new Parent-Child Page management system will allow corporations to easily manage their hierarchy of pages without having to add administrators to every page, install applications, or have to change settings simultaneously. The new app will allow for a simple way to coordinate marketing campaigns like offering coupons on the corporate page. “Locations” allows users to stay on Facebook rather than to leave the site in order to use a store finder on a client’s website. Once access to the Parent-Child system and locations is rolled out, it could increase Facebook’s utility as a Yellow Pages but with social recommendations. “Locations” has the ability to drastically change the ways in which corporations and their clients interact with one another allowing for more growth and potential.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal recently announced its Fast 50 Awards. Schifino Lee congratulates all of the winners. And we are particularly grateful and proud to be branding partners with four of this year’s honorees:

Our initiatives with these companies all began with an important question: Is your brand growing as fast as your business?

When a company is in fast-growth mode, a lot of things change. Increased logistics. Expanded customer service. Upgraded financial systems. Just about every facet of the company evolves and transforms as you grow.

The one thing that many growing businesses are slow to transform is their branding. As other facets of their business change, their image and message to customers – and potential new customers – can become outdated if the brand doesn’t keep pace with the times.

Frequently this “old” brand image will pigeonhole a company, or make them look smaller than they have now become. Growth can move a company into entirely new areas of competition, but they may appear “stuck” in their previous market space. The opportunity costs of an outdated brand can be huge.

Rebranding can address these issues by communicating who you are today

Rebranding can create new opportunities by getting customers to view you in new ways. It can address new channels of business and position you for future growth. Rebranding can also reenergize your team and company culture, as well as attract a new brand of employee.

To accomplish a successful rebranding, it is important to partner with a branding professional who has a proven track record in this specific area of expertise. Ask to see examples of their work and consult references before hiring anyone.

Most importantly, consider the future growth opportunities that could be available to your company if potential customers were aware of how your company has grown and how far your brand has evolved.

To promote the recent Hillsborough County Bar Foundation’s annual Law and Liberty Dinner, Schifino Lee combined symbolic art with inspiring messaging to highlight the appeal of the keynote speaker, best-selling author and TV commentator Doris Kearns Goodwin.

 In a phone conference with the Schifino Lee team, Ms. Goodwin said her speech would focus on the qualities that make an effective leader in time of crisis. Her examples would be Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1994 for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II and her 2005 bestseller Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is the basis of Steven Spielberg’s next film.

Goodwin’s phone conversation inspired Schifino Lee art director Eric Clark to create a stylized double portrait of Lincoln and Roosevelt that was used in advertising, direct mail and collateral for the dinner.

Clark said about his artwork, “The idea of a dual portrait of the two grew out of their shared values. We wanted the art to have an historic feel, but also evoke energy and fun because Doris Kearns Goodwin is a great scholar and a very entertaining speaker. The illustration mixes art deco style (which contrasts strength with delicacy) with contemporary digital execution that adds dimensional and thematic depth through subtle layering.”

When Goodwin saw the portrait she pronounced, “I love it!” immediately recognizing that the symbolism of the art paralleled her lecture, and the artistic elegance enhanced the theme.

With the speaker enthusiastic and the work receiving overwhelmingly positive responses from the dinner guests, Schifino Lee was proud to be a part of an enormously successful event that benefited an extraordinarily worthy cause.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal recently announced its Fast 50 Awards, recognizing the fastest growing companies in Tampa Bay. Schifino Lee congratulates all of the winners. And we are particularly grateful and proud to be branding partners with five of this year’s honorees:

• Vology
• Celestar
• Audio Messaging Solutions
• Franklin Street
• Socius

Our initiatives with these companies all began with an important question:

Is your brand growing as fast as your business?

When a company is in fast-growth mode, a lot of things change. Increased logistics. Expanded customer service. Upgraded financial systems. Just about every facet of the company evolves and transforms as you grow.

The one thing that many growing businesses are slow to transform is their branding. As other facets of their business change, their image and message to customers – and potential new customers – can become outdated if the brand doesn’t keep pace with the times.

Frequently this “old” brand image will pigeonhole a company, or make them look smaller than they have now become. Growth can move a company into entirely new areas of competition, but they may appear “stuck” in their previous market space. The opportunity costs of an outdated brand can be huge.

Rebranding can address these issues by communicating who you are today. Rebranding can create new opportunities by getting customers to view you in new ways. It can address new channels of business and position you for future growth. Rebranding can also reenergize your team and company culture as well as attract a new brand of employee.

To accomplish a successful rebranding, it is important to partner with a branding professional who has a proven track record in this specific area of expertise. Ask to see examples of their work and consult references before hiring anyone.

Most importantly, consider the future growth opportunities that could be available to your company if potential customers were aware of how your company has grown and how far your brand has evolved.

Gerdau evolves brand and engages Schifino Lee to create advertising campaign.

In 1901, the American League declared itself a Major League, six South Pacific British colonies federated and called themselves Australia, and the company that is now called Gerdau was founded.

Besides celebrating their 110th anniversary this year, all three of these events have something else in common. They all involve a crucial aspect of branding: what do you call yourself and how do you communicate this to your audiences in a way that is relevant for them?

The AL was originally a minor league known as the Western League. Then, when marketing innovator Charles Comiskey joined forces with Commissioner Ban Johnson, they rebranded as the American League. Most importantly, the AL eventually became home to our beloved Tampa Bay Rays.

Tampa Bay is also the North American headquarters for Gerdau. Gerdau’s history began in 1901 as a small nail factory in Porto Alegre, Brazil, called Pontas de Paris. As part of its 110-year anniversary celebration, Gerdau is introducing a new brand and visual identity that positions the Company for continued growth. In addition, the long steel and special steel operations of Gerdau in North America, Gerdau Ameristeel and Gerdau Macsteel, will now be called Gerdau.

Gerdau selected Schifino Lee Advertising + Branding to communicate this initiative in North America. Schifino Lee’s experience with rebranding campaigns for major divisions of AT&T combined with their team’s creative expertise communicating at a local level for brands such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Wyndham Hotels made them the best choice.

Schifino Lee’s campaign for Gerdau is built on the idea that, though Gerdau’s name has changed, one thing has remained consistent: the company and its people are committed to the communities it serves. Full-page print ads are running in over a dozen publications nationally.

Fledgling baseball leagues aspiring to be bigger. Former colonies getting together to become a continent. And one of the world’s most successful steel companies reaffirming their commitment to communities across America. It all really does go back to branding.

“Creativity Is a Fancy Word for the Work We Have to Do By Friday.” – David Ogilvy

When the Chief Marketing Officer of American Express asked his marketing firms to create something that would inspire people to choose his brand over Mastercard or Visa, the Creative Director and his team had a non-traditional solution: partner with Robert DeNiro and launch The American Express Tribeca Film Festival.

When Enterprise Rent-A-Car challenged its marketing firm to communicate how a rental car company could make customers feel so important that they would choose an upstart over the more established Hertz and Avis, the same Creative Director had a solution: the “Pick Enterprise, We’ll Pick You Up” campaign that helped grow the brand to #1 and over $10 billion in revenue.

When Bacardi wanted to launch the first line of flavored rums while still building its flagship brand, that same Creative Director, now with McCann-Erickson, developed the “Bacardi By Night” campaign and came up with “Shake Up Your Night” for Bacardi Limon, O, CoCo, and Razz.

And when the Florida State Fair wanted to get younger people excited about coming to the Fair, that Creative Director launched a campaign that used YouTube and Facebook as platforms for a contest to create real-life super heroes based on Fair attractions and food. This campaign raised Web site visits and attendance at the Fair by 20% while lowering the average age of Fair goers.

What do all of these success stories have in common?

None of them started life as a “TV idea” or a “Web idea.” They all started as a solution to a client’s business challenge. They all began as an idea that would engage and entertain, no matter whether people experienced them as an event (Tribeca Film Festival), 15 or 30 second mini-movie (a.k.a. Enterprise or Bacardi TV commercial), or social media interaction (Florida State Fair).

And they all had the same Creative Director: Evan Brownstein.

Evan had the privilege to work with great people at American Express, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Bacardi, Nestlé, and Claritin. At Columbia University Film School he learned how to tell stories from Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Terry Southern who taught him that when you work with great people, you can do great things.

Working with great people is what drew Evan to Schifino Lee.

Clients universally say that Schifino Lee genuinely listens to them and learns about their businesses. Then that learning is translated into creative work that is fresh and compelling—in both digital and traditional media. All with the goal of growing clients’ businesses.

Schifino Lee is proud to announce the appointment of Evan Brownstein as Chief Creative Officer. We welcome you to put his creativity to work for your business. Call us at 813 258 5858. Evan’s extension is 240. His email is Evan@SchifinoLee.com. You can connect with Schifino Lee on our Facebook page or via Linkedin. Let’s start a conversation and see where it grows…

Schifino Lee recently launched the website for Williams Schifino Mangione & Steady Law Firm. The new website for Williams Schifino provides an online legal services resource to current and potential clients along with direct access to Williams Schifino attorneys as they relate to these services. The Schifino Lee team sought to demonstrate the firm’s excellent reputation and abilities while creating an intuitive online experience that remains true to the firm’s client-centric approach to making the legal process more manageable. The new site is designed entirely with clients and potential clients in mind. Visitors can access in-depth information about each practice area and the attorneys in them. Since its launch the site has attracted considerable traffic and positive feedback from clients and industry leaders.

Schifino Lee also provided search engine optimization services in order to drive quality traffic to the site, and developed a robust content management system that makes updating the Williams Schifino website a breeze.

In order to support the new look expressed on the website, Schifino Lee refreshed the Williams Schifino brand message through new print advertisements. The new print advertisements are intended to position Williams Schifino as the premier corporate law firm in Tampa Bay. The Schifino Lee team sought to target business professionals in the Tampa Bay area in need of corporate legal services, by relating the confidence, training and skill needed to achieve goals in daunting activities such as skydiving and mountain climbing to the confidence, experience and skill needed in the courtroom. The new print advertisements illustrate that Williams Schifino is the aggressive, experienced and results driven law firm for a business to turn to when faced with seemingly insurmountable situations.

About Williams Schifino:
Williams Schifino is dedicated to providing expert legal advice in a timely and cost-effective manner. Our goal is to build long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. We are here to work in their best interests, to advise and represent them, and most importantly, to bring them optimal results. For more information, please visit www.wsmslaw.com.

For more information visit our website at www.schifinolee.com or please contact Ben Lee or Paola Schifino at 813-258-5858, exts. 224 and 223, respectively, or at ben@schifinolee.com and paola@schifinolee.com.

By recognizing the exponential boost in older Americans’ adoption of online technology, Schifino Lee Advertising & Branding helped Tampa –based WellCare Health Plans drive traffic and generate leads for their Medicare Advantage Plans, while also supporting sales channels and online enrollment.

The e-marketing strategy initiative was the product of a 7 month long project, which included a comprehensive breakdown of how internet-savvy the audiences for Medicare health plans are.

First, Schifino Lee studied the behavior and tendencies of Americans aged 65 and older; analyzing the good, the bad and the ugly of the “online enrollment web experience.” This analysis paired with calculated Search Engine Marketing, Lead Generating Media Placement and Comprehensive Web Content propelled Schifino Lee’s development into a fully trackable e-marketing plan.

Schifino Lee and WellCare crafted banner ads, e-blasts and keyword searches that drove over 240,000 web users to content- and art-rich microsites that launched on October 15, 2010, and ran until December 31, the end of Medicare open enrollment. Schifino Lee isolated 9 reasons to choose a WellCare Medicare Advantage Plan and made banner ads and microsites for each. Each one provided both a user-friendly online enrollment experience and tracking metrics that strengthened WellCare’s sales channels and conversion rate.

“It’s not just Generation Y utilizing the web anymore; now we see our parents and even grandparents turning to the internet for news, health information and entertainment ,” said Bryan Schulis, Account Coordinator of Schifino Lee who helped manage the campaign on a day-to-day basis. “There is no better way to connect and channel consumer interest than with integrated e-messaging for the benefit of our clients.”

By encouraging and harnessing the older demographics’ budding internet usage Schifino Lee has successfully bridged the gap between consumers in-need and valuable services.

For more information, please contact Bryan Schulis at 813-258-5858, ext. 234, or at bryan@schifinolee.com. For more information about WellCare Health Plans, visit the website at www.wellcare.com.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is the world’s premiere accreditation for business schools. Its annual International Conference and Annual Meeting (ICAM) brings more than a thousand educators and business leaders from over 45 countries together to discuss pressing issues and new initiatives in management education.

Last year, the conference was held in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world. Schifino Lee developed the conference’s strategic theme and graphic identity, “Lights, Camera, ICAM,” by taking cues from Hollywood to create an exciting environment while reinforcing AACSB’s global standards of professionalism and academic integrity. The theme encompassed bold colors, large scale photography of iconic stars and quotes from famous films.

Schifino Lee produced the conference’s event materials including banners, signage and collateral materials; and fashioned the layout design for The Exchange, a popular gathering spot which included sleek couches, Hollywood statues and contemporary wall artwork. Click here to see more.

AACSB’s Hollywood ICAM conference was the organization’s most well-received conference to-date, resulting in new ICAM conference standards that will be hard to top in this year’s upcoming event in New York City.

For more information on this event, please contact Amanda Koenn at 813-258-5858, ext. 209 or at amanda@schifinolee.com

For more information about AACSB, visit the website at www.aacsb.edu.

Advertisers/Agencies are licking their chops to reach potential customers via video on the most intimate form of media. Cellphone Networks are gearing up to handle the bandwidth and the amount of mobile video users that will hit nearly 24 million in 2010.

Much like TV, different content is going to be viewed depending on the demographic. The product or service is going to be key in the targeting process. Verizon’s V-Cast and Flow TV are leading the way for aggregating video content with many of the top providers.

For one of our clients Schfino Lee targets young, active males through ESPN Mobile where we found the click-to-call feature a valuable response tool.

Since yellow page advertising continues to decline, more local businesses are turning to new techniques to attract and retain customers. The directories, meanwhile, are scrambling to come up with new ideas to retain advertisers and it looks like mobile tactics might be their saving grace.

A study by the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) documents the growth of mobile users and their use of directories on mobile platforms.

So it looks as though our fingers are doing the walking, but please—not while you’re driving.

Theorising that one could travel within his own country, Jeff Deck stepped into his car and vanished… He found himself travelling the nation, facing signage that was not his own and driven by an unknown force to change grammar for the better. His only guide on this journey is Benjamin D. Herson, a friend of Jeff’s. And so Jeff finds himself leaping from town to town, striving to put right what once went grammatically wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home…

No, but seriously, this actually happened.  You can read the story on NPR and then go buy the book from Amazon.

We haven’t made a TV commercial in a couple of months, but we’re doing more video production than ever. Why? It’s the net, baby.

TV is the fastest growing content on the Internet. According to AT&T, video made up 10% of the content they delivered to customers. In 2008 it was 40%, and this year they expect it to be 65%. (more…)

Looking for a new IT company to handle all your business technology needs? We’ve got the answer—and it doesn’t involve taking a number or waiting in line. We’ll be right there is the new tagline and company positioning for Vertical IT Solutions, our client and Tampa’s leading business technology outsourcing firm.

Challenged with the re-branding of VIT, the Schifino Lee team revamped the company logo, tagline, messaging strategy, collateral materials and created a whole new website— from copywriting and design to full CMS programming.

To emphasize the fact that the VIT team does whatever it takes to get the job done, the lighthearted creative approach actually features four real employees as the face of the new brand—check them out on the new website: http://www.verticalit.com/

Today, CEO’s and VP’s are really getting creative when it comes to motivating their sales force. Schifino Lee recently completed an internal sales campaign for one of AT&T’s largest sales divisions, The Premier Client Group.

Our role was to create a sales theme based on relevant pop culture and extend last year’s mantra of championing change. Our concept spoofed the popular Transformers movies and characters. We created movie posters of their Regional Vice Presidents, AKA the Sellobots, for display in office and produced five videos to emphasize VP Optimus Anne’s vision of adapting to a changing market, in a fun upbeat way. Her call to action:
“Lead the Transformation. Be a Transformer.”

From a high-energy movie trailer, sent out to 1,000 reps via email, to life size Transformer robot cut outs of the core team at the annual 2010 conference, you could say we transformed ourselves from external marketing specialists to internal optimists!

Check out some of the elements from the campaign.

Watch video: www.beatransformer.com

Congratulations to Fiona May for being named an “Up and Comer” by the Tampa Bay Business Journal!

Fiona, who has done an outstanding job for our clients as a Schifino Lee media buyer, was named for the award in the under-30 age group.

The awards are designed to celebrate the accomplishments of rising professionals in the Tampa Bay area. Winners will be honored at a dinner held on November 5 at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina.

Hot off the press. We have acquired an exciting new client, Russell Johns Associates. Our initiative is to re-brand them by creating a new logo, positioning and sales materials so they can increase awareness and gain market share in their industry.

Russell Johns Associates is a leading outsourcer for the publishing industry, providing a wide range of services in such areas as direct-response advertising, recruitment, classified and small space advertising.

“The publishing industry has rapidly evolved in both traditional and digital media, and we want our branding to reflect the changing environment and our full capabilities,” said Heloise Povey, President of Russell Johns Associates. “We are excited about partnering with Schifino Lee to better tell our story.”

www.rja-ads.com

Schifino Lee congratulates our super “stick it out to the bitter end” ACD Christina Mullen on the birth of beautiful little Alice.  After a grueling nine-months of getting to know the porcelain God on a first name basis and living on ginger, the pain and wait is over. It was well worth it.  Now we have another cool Alice to add to the list. Remember the hit TV show, Alice. Of course, there’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Chains, Woody Allen’s movie, Alice and of course Arlo Guthrie’s famous song, Alice’s Restaurant.

Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7C0QGkiVo

Any other Alice’s you can think of?

“It’s Time for Real” is a fantastic animated infographic spot for an eat-local campaign out of Canada, ironically sponsored by international mayonnaise brand, Hellman’s.

Schifino Lee needs your help. Our new blog is currently in beta testing, but we don’t have a catchy name for it yet.  As this is clearly unacceptable for a creative agency such as ours, we’re having a contest to help us name the blog!  The winner will receive fame and fortune…well, mostly fame…and by “fame” we mean “a company-wide announcement”…and by “fortune” we also mean “a company-wide announcement.”  So flex those creative muscles and get your ideas to Andrea by Friday, February 13.