Loaf of Web

Death of the Phone Book

2010-01-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

When is the last time you opened the Yellow Pages to find a business listing or location?

How many times have phone books been delivered to your home, and those phone books just stayed there, soaking up rain and weather, until finally someone tossed them in the garbage can?
Are we witnessing the death of the phone book?

Outdated, Clunky and Cumbersome

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last five years, it's common knowledge that people are turning to the Internet for fast and efficient information.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo now provide faster, more relevant company information, and do so more efficiently - even better, there is very little waste associated with "online" information.

At Freebairn and Company, we believe companies should begin to re-think how much advertising budget they associate with traditional Yellow Pages, and consider moving these dollars to Local Search Engine Advertising programs.

Why local search?

Local search makes sense for a variety of reasons:

Users are going online to find company information
The information online is usually more up-to-date
Users can find additional information about a company such as customer reviews, BBB ratings, driving directions and more...
It allows users more efficient ways to compare similar companies
Enhanced flexibility with regards to advertising information

Companies choose to advertise to be seen.

Doesn't it make sense to go where the eyeballs go?

YKK AP Wins Design Award

2009-08-21T16:08:00.006-04:00

YKK AP® Wins International Design Excellence Award With Aid Of Agency Video

YKK AP's ThermaShade sunshade has won the IDEA Silver award in the Commercial & Industrial Products category in the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards.

One of the key contributors to YKK AP's winning entry was a video produced by Freebairn's interactive designer, Kit Becker, agency creative director, Mack Kirkpatrick, and Richard Braunstein, product development manager for YKK AP.

"Building components are not the type of products that typically win design competitions," says Richard Braunstein. "ThermaShade's strength is the way it adds to the energy efficiency of a building and at the same time offers an architectural element for building design. I think the video we created did an outstanding job of showcasing ThermaShade's benefits as one of YKK AP's sustainable building solutions which support a strategic energy policy for the United States."

The IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards) program is an international competition honoring excellence in industrial design. Entries are invited from designers, students and companies worldwide.

Digital Dawgs

2009-07-02T15:01:00.004-04:00

The University of Georgia's Terry College of Business proudly kicked off the 2009 Peachtree Road Race with this outdoor message of encouragement to participating Georgia Bulldog students, alumni and friends. The digital billboard, designed by Freebairn art director Don Patton, is located in the heart of the race on Peachtree Street. It shows legendary school mascot "UGA" with rotating headlines which read, "Go Dawgs Go" and "Run Dawgs Run."

Soon after the conclusion of the race, a new design will appear for the University's Executive MBA program in Buckhead.

Chris Neilands, Marketing Director for Terry's Executive and Evening MBA programs says, "This is a terrific opportunity for The Terry College to make a strong impact before a very large audience of prospective MBA candidates. And cheering on the Dawgs is always fun."

Capturing Baddour.

2009-05-22T12:46:00.002-04:00

Freebairn and Company recently completed a week-long photo shoot at The Baddour Center community for adults with intellectual disabilities in Senatobia, Mississippi. Art director Jay Hatfield and account manager Jean Cobb joined Atlanta-based photographer Ralph Daniel to produce stunning visual materials for The Center's multi-media branding campaign. Parke Pepper, Executive Director of Baddour, helped make the shoot a great success by granting and coordinating an all-access approach to residents, staff and facilities throughout the 120-acre campus.

Months ago, during Freebairn's research phase for marketing The Center, a family member of one of the residents gave us an excellent insight when she said, "It's a magic place. Capture Baddour, don't create it."

Good advice, and we're taking it!

At the Corner of Miracle and Enrichment

2009-05-05T13:58:00.002-04:00

Freebairn recently made the trip to Senatobia, Mississippi to present the 2009 / 2010 communications campaign for The Baddour Center, a community for adults with intellectual disabilities. Jean Cobb led off by reviewing the agency's analysis of information gained through interviews conducted with the Baddour staff, residents and their families, members of the board of directors, and vocational center customers. Sandy Chapman covered media recommendations, Mack Kirkpatrick and Jay Hatfield presented a number of creative options for tag lines, logos, brochures, newspaper and magazine ads, web banners and radio. Christian Griffith demonstrated new Internet looks and content for Baddour and discussed ways to achieve more effective search engine optimization of their web site. John Freebairn presented public relations opportunities for reaching prospective residents, donors and additional customers for Baddour's packaging and fulfillment services.

The new work was enthusiastically received, and production is underway.

Christian Griffith (shown here) observed that even the street signage says that something very special is going on at Baddour.

Hot Stuff.

2009-04-16T14:24:00.009-04:00

Each year, Agri-Marketing Magazine publishes a special edition to commemorate the National Agricultural Marketing Awards. This special edition also serves as the official program for the event. Traditionally, an advertising agency from the host city of the NAMA Show is chosen to create the cover. This year's awards convention was held in Atlanta, and Freebairn & Company had the honor, thanks to the quality of work we produce as well as our extensive agricultural advertising and marketing experience.

{click image to enlarge}

Freebairn art director, Jay Hatfield's new cover design dramatizes the NAMA 2009 theme of "Hot Ideas, Sizzling Solutions" by punctuating it with a striking visual that underscores Atlanta's reputation for being a city bursting with excitement. Jay scoured several antique stores until he found what he wanted, then he made his ingenious Photoshop skills pay off with a "Hotlanta" thermometer that's sizzling off the charts in intensity.

Freebairn also seized the opportunity Agri-Marketing presented to showcase work we’ve done for our crop protection client, MANA. We placed one of the MANA ads in the NAMA special edition along with a (frankly, self-serving) snipe inviting other agricultural companies to take advantage of our expertise by joining the Freebairn client roster.

{click image to enlarge}

Vintage Freebairn

2009-04-09T12:53:00.000-04:00

When a friend of the agency saw his winemaking hobby snowball its way toward success, he turned to Freebairn art directors, Don Patton and Jay Hatfield, for label designs to showcase his distinctive products. Their creative explorations drew accolades from our most appreciative entrepreneurial vintner.

DiggBar Shortens Web Site URLs

2009-04-03T14:35:00.006-04:00

Looking for a shorter URL to send in Twitter?

The good folks at Digg.com, the website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, have just released DiggBar, a tool for creating short urls quickly and easily right from the browser.

To see it action, open your favorite browser and place, "digg.com/" in front of any web address to create a shorter version for emailing, twittering, and more.

DiggBar Example:

To shorten this URL:
blog.freebairn.com/2009/03/freebairn-speaks-to-uga-ad-club.html

Simply put "digg.com/" in front of it as:
digg.com/blog.freebairn.com/2009/03/freebairn-speaks-to-uga-ad-club.html

Notice, the new generated link is:
http://digg.com/u184e

(click the screenshot above to a view larger image)

You can now use this short URL for any of your social networking needs.

Social Networking Takes Off

2009-03-30T11:39:00.009-04:00

From the March 27, USA Today:

"Social networking is fast becoming a staple for a growing number of adults as Web use surges. One-third of adult Internet users have a profile on a social networking site, up from 8% in 2005, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project."

At Freebairn and Company, we are embracing this new paradigm of communication and finding productive, efficient and interesting ways to provide exposure for our clients within these trusted networks.

Show Time!

2009-03-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

The Freebairn Players, Internet strategist Christian Griffith, together with art directors Jay Hatfield and Don Patton, pull on the headphones to display their voice talents in a recording session at Atlanta's Doppler Studios

The versatile trio helped produce a :30-second radio spot for the agency's client, MANA, that is set to run on the Chicago Cubs radio network.

Listen Below: Growing with Bumper fungicide

Freebairn Speaks to the UGA Ad Club

2009-03-25T11:02:00.010-04:00

Tuesday, March 24, 2009, three of us headed down to Athens, Georgia to speak to students in the University of Georgia Advertising Club.

Speaking to the group was Jean Cobb, Account Management Supervisor, Sandy Chapman, Media Director, and your humble narrator, Christian Griffith, Internet Strategist.

The goal of the presentation was talk a bit about Freebairn and Company, and what makes our agency unique and different, as well as, offer some insight into the advertising agency industry, what graduating seniors can expect, and to explore some of the emerging technologies and advertising tools that are starting to showing up in the client campaign mix.

I've always believed that Freebairn and Company is special, but Jean's portion really drove home the importance and advantages of being a full-service agency, with all of the advertising disciplines under one roof, working together as a team each and every day.

So many agencies now-a-days are scattered across the country, and campaigns split amongst different sister companies, creating fragmentation and less-than-optimal campaign integration.

It's a lot easier to create synergy and integration when everyone is together.

Sandy spoke about the world of media and some of the interesting elements associated with planning and buying media properties. Touching on newer concepts such as behavioral marketing and campaign analytics, Sandy provided very real, relevant and current trends that will only continue to grow as junior advertising professionals enter the marketplace.

I followed Jean and Sandy with a brief presentation on Internet Marketing, and more specifically, Search Engine Marketing and Social Networking.

It's always difficult to present on these topics because although those of us in the business are aware, many people still are not up to speed with regards to search. The landscape changes so quickly, and there are very few college courses associated with concepts like pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, and Internet advertising in general; and of the courses that are available, most are overly simplistic when teaching concepts and techniques.

That might have been the case with me as well at UGA.

My challenge throughout this year will be to develop an Internet Marketing presentation that is exciting, informative and SIMPLE to understand for clients, in-house team members, and any other audiences with an interest in learning just what the heck it is us nerdy SEOs are doing to increase traffic to web sites.

We enjoyed visiting the UGA AdClub, meeting and eating with some of the students, and gaining a better understanding of the new generation entering the advertising business.

We thank the AdClub for having us, and wish all the members much success in their career development.

Do you Yapta?

2009-03-24T14:54:00.008-04:00

Have you ever booked a flight early, only to see the prices drop at after you've already purchased the ticket?

Ever wish you could decide what you want to pay for travel?

Yapta Wants to Be Your Personal Travel Agency

Yapta is a web-based travel service that monitors airline ticket prices, for any flight you specify, on most major airlines anywhere in the world.

You set a price you are willing to pay, and Yapta will monitor the ticket price for you. When the ticket prices drop to, or below, your specified threshold, you'll be alerted via email.

As an example, I needed a flight to Seattle for August, and being that it was only February, the prices for travel on AirTran were far more than I want to pay at $429.00.

So, I logged into Yapta, added the Airtran flight information, set my price alert level to $300, and then waited.

Two weeks later, during an airline price war, I received a Yapta alert email showing the ticket price had dropped to $299. The email even provided a direct link to the flight, making it very easy for me to hop over to the AirTran web site and make my purchase.

But that's not all, Yapta will continue to monitor the flight information, even after purchase, to ensure you are getting the best deal.

If the ticket price drops again, Yapta will alert you and even help you with the airline voucher process.

Ask that of your online or "desk riding" travel agent and see what you get.

Check out Yapta on their web site at Yapta.com

Loaf of Web?

2009-03-23T10:21:00.003-04:00

What is a Loaf of Web?

To make a loaf a bread, chefs compile a list of ingredients, massage the dough, bake the gooey mixture, and Voila - a loaf of bread.

Freebairn and Company's blog, Loaf a Web, has a similar concept. We discover interesting and unique web-based "ingredients" to help us work smarter. We then massage these new ideas, tools, and services into potential client, and in-house productivity ideas.

Bake them in our brains for awhile, and thus creating cutting-edge, current, and unique ideas for both in-house productivity and/or client campaign expansion.

A loaf of web.

The world of advertising is in a state of transformation. Loaf of Web will keep you hip, smart, and current.

What else could you ask for?