AM820 News, the all-news AM radio station based in Tampa, FL, wanted to build awareness and position the station as the source for breaking news in Tampa Bay. AM820 News engaged Schifino Lee to develop messaging and an advertising campaign to gain listenership and enforce this unique positioning.

“Listening to AM820 gives you access to the fastest and most relevant reporting of breaking news, both local and national,” said Bruce Maduri, CEO of parent company Genesis Communications. “We realized breaking news is our competitive advantage and we needed to get this message out to as many potential listeners as possible within our broadcast area.”

Schifino Lee prepared a media campaign consisting of two :15 TV spots and a digital RSS billboard that provides up-to-date breaking news headlines. The producers at AM820 News are responsible for updating the billboard message with the latest breaking news using a new application which feeds data to the boards within seconds. AM820 was the first advertiser in the country to use this new RSS feature offered by CBS Outdoor.

Listen to our :60 radio spot

The Hispanic population increased from 35.3 million in 2000 to approximately 52 million people in 2012. That is 16% of the entire U.S. population and according to the U.S. Census this number will only keep growing as Hispanics are expected to make up 30% of the entire U.S. population by 2050. For this reason, it is vital for businesses to market to Hispanics.

Not only is the Hispanic population growing in size, it’s increasing its purchasing power. It is estimated that by 2015, their buying power will equal $1.5 trillion. If you aren’t reaching the Hispanic market, your company is missing the opportunity to gain loyalty from an increasingly powerful sector of the economy.

Notice how the word “loyalty” was mentioned. We say this because Hispanics are just as brand loyal as the general market, regardless of the current economic state. Brands must win their loyalty, but once you have it, they’re yours forever.

At Schifino Lee we are helping companies like Lowry Park Zoo further diversify their brand by reaching out to the Hispanic market, helping to move them forward and achieve customer loyalty for a lifetime.

Research findings at the University of Miami School of Business Administration show including an additional color throughout a firm’s annual report would have the same impact on an investor’s firm ranking as a 20 percent improvement in revenue from the previous year.

“The implication of these findings should point firms in the direction of good graphic design (of annual reports),” says Claudia Townsend, assistant professor of Marketing at the University of Miami School of Business Administration.

Schifino Lee takes this point very seriously when it comes to the design of company annual reports for our clients. We recently designed the 2012 annual reports Energy Insurance Mutual, Walter Investment Corp., Hillsborough County Education Foundation and The Lowry Park Zoo. All employed the right combination of graphics, color and design to maximize their organization’s perceived value.

Nothing wrong with looking good. In fact, it makes smart business.

Congratulations to our client Electric Supply Inc. on the ground breaking of their new 35,000-square-foot warehouse addition!

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Schifino is a Principal with Schifino-Lee, a full service marketing firm with a specialization in strategic branding, advertising, social media communications and integrated digital campaigns. As co-founder, she has been with the firm for the past 20 years.

Schifino serves on the Zimmerman Advertising Program Advisory Board at the University of South Florida. She is also an advisory board member for fellow CEO members of the Renaissance Executive Forums.  Schifino holds an MBA from the University of South Florida. She is a past winner of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” and was a 2008 Finalist for Business Woman of the Year.  Schifino-Lee was also a 2007 finalist for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year Awards.

Dr. Harry Coffman, world renowned author of the Book Good Enough, visited Schifino Lee to spread positive energy and world changing conversation.

The uncle of our VP & Director of Client Services, Roxie Clements, Harry resides in Portland, Oregon.  As a spiritual advisor to nations, presidents, governors, as well as world figures, Harry travels extensively – most recently to Israel.

His book has been published around the world, including in Holland under the title Goed Genoeg (www.ikbengoedgenoeg.nl/) in the Dutch language of Schifino Lee Principal, Paola Schifino – also shown here with Harry & Roxie. “In reading my signed copy of Good Enough I am enthralled by Dr. Coffman’s experiences as an angry but determined young man that have led him down his path of enlightment.”

The book is available for purchase on www.amazon.com and bookstores across the country.

We’re very excited to introduce to you our two newest additions to the Schifino Lee Creative team: Curtis Elliott, Director of Visual Engagement and Deniz Kayiket, Junior Art Director.

Curtis, born and raised in Southern California, got his BS in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of California-Orange County. He has over six years of advertising experience working on brands such as Taco Bell, PETCO, Sony, Del Monte Pet Foods, Smokey Bear, The Art Institutes, and branded numerous startups and small businesses.

Prior to Schifino Lee Curtis worked on Taco Bell’s rebranding transformation from Think Outside The Bun to Live Mas at DraftFCB. “This experience taught me how a brand is so much more than just a logo, and you must prove your brand strategy over and over again for people to believe in it.”

Deniz was born and raised in Turkey and immigrated to the United States when she was 12. She received her BA in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Tampa and worked the past two years in freelance design.

Deniz, who played volleyball professionally when she was a teenager, always remembers having a love for design. “I have been a visual thinker since I can remember and I always had a need to communicate and inspire people. It doesn’t feel as much that I chose the right industry but more so feels like this industry chose me.”

Please join us in welcoming Curtis and Deniz to the Schifino Lee team.

Social Media is an opportunity to get on someone’s radar and let that person know you’re cool, smart, funny, interesting and valuable to have around. Continuously providing valuable content keeps people coming back, increases trust in your brand and attracts visitors to your website. Once people get to know you better, they may even tell their friends about you!

That’s the value of social media – the potential to create a new relationship where there wasn’t one before. And then the ability to repeat that process over and over.

Coming up with the dollars and cents of your campaign is virtually impossible to nail down because there is guesswork involved. But, you can look at your analytics to see the number of referrers on your site that came from Twitter or Facebook or the amount of coupons given away in a Facebook offer. You can also look at trends. For instance, did your website experience a spike in traffic soon after you posted on Facebook?

Like any other marketing tool, social media requires strategy, planning, content development and continuous monitoring. If you’re thinking about launching a social media presence then it is imperative you get educated on the various tools and methods that are available or hire a professional to help you handle it.

The company has partnered with several culinary schools to sponsor scholarship contests for the students, who create recipes using Alessi products. In the “Alessi is Amore Pursuit of the Palate” student cooking contest, the best recipe is chosen by a chef from the school and the winners of these contests are then flown to Tampa to prepare their winning dishes on camera – which are uploaded to the Alessi website.

Schifino Lee helped Vigo-Alessi launch an integrated marketing campaign to grow its business and strengthen its market position as a top Italian foods brand. The branding campaign included labeling, TV ads, a new website and a $1 million media buy.

The newest idea for La Cucina Alessi came up when we suggested using the Vigo-Alessi kitchen and adjoining dining area for a pop-up restaurant concept, where chefs operate in temporary space.

The idea got the client thinking about a range of ideas, from bringing in different chefs to work in the company’s kitchen to Facebook raffles and sweepstakes to charity nights. To realize those ideas, the kitchen needed to remodel.

Read the full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/morning-edition/2013/04/vigo-alessi-revamps-test-kitchen.html?ana=e_tbay_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2013-04-05&u=vmqD6NOPcYHA8L1h0Cl0Ab7GGnj