But more recently we have offered PR to some clients through doing the kind of work that get talked about and written about. Our work for America’s First Credit Union and Mannington Commerical has proved that our focus on creating great advertising and branding generates its own PR.

In February of this year, we launched the TV campaign for America’s First Federal Credit Union. Each of the five spots featured bankers going into sort of a confession booth on a downtown street to talk about the bad deeds they had done to their customers. Whether they were talking high rates and fees, cut services or bad car loans, the message is the same- that banks stick it to their customers, so it’s smarter to do business with America’s First Credit Union. To illustrate the contrast, we positioned America’s First as “Refreshingly unbank-like.”

These spots garnered lots of attention around the Birmingham area and credit unions all over the country. In June, they were featured in The New York Times, both in print and online. The article was soon picked up by The Huffington Post, The New York Post, FinancialBrand.com and other credit union trade publications and websites. It was also rewarding to be the cover story of the business section in our own Birmingham News.

Our belief that good advertising leads to PR also rang true with commercial flooring client, Mannington Commerical.

We were charged with designing their showroom for the NeoCon World’s Trade Fair. This tradeshow, hosted at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, is the largest commercial interiors tradeshow in the world. After completing several other projects to enhance their brand, we knew this was the biggest of all. Our hard work paid off, as Mannington’s showroom was named Best Small Showroom of NeoCon 2010 by the International Interior Design Association and Contract Magazine . This is a huge honor being up against so many showrooms and being in the good company of Herman Miller who earned Best Large Showroom at NeoCon.

The press from IIDA and Contract did not end there. The showroom design was spotted on several design blogs and trade publications, such as DecorGirl, Interior Design Magazine, even Mexico Design Magazine. And we are pleased that the final result caught the eye of Mannington’s other side of the business, Mannington Residential. We look forward to the exciting projects we will be doing for them.

So what’s our new answer those who ask if we “do PR:”  Sort of. We just do it by setting out to create work that is both strategic and newsworthy.

(The Birmingham News /photo by Linda Stelter)

We were recently featured in The Birmingham News.

By Roy L. Williams, business writer

Birmingham-based America’s First Federal Credit Union, created to serve steelworkers in the 1930s, took its rivalry with banks to a humorous level this year with a series of television commercials created by advertising veteran Paul Crawford.

Crawford, president and creative director of Scout Branding at 216 29th St. South, came up with a campaign for America’s First that pokes fun at bank fees, which critics say are too high. The five 30-second spots, mostly filmed in Los Angeles using unknown actors, have aired several times on Alabama television stations where the credit union has a presence.

The commercials gained national exposure last month when the New York Times featured them in an article about how some credit unions have shaken off dull advertising strategies and grown bolder in promoting themselves.

The America’s First ads are centered around a common theme: Actors posing as bankers who enter a booth that says, “Banker Confessions Taken Here,” and confess their guilt about hidden fees and charges.

In one commercial, a woman says it was her idea “to jack up fees and lower services,” then boasts about the perks she received. In another, a man admits that his bank charges “a lot of fees for nothing.”

Then he says, “How do I sleep at night? Did I mention that my bonus check had two commas in it?”

Each ad ends with the tag line, “America’s First Federal Credit Union — refreshingly unbank like.”

Crawford and America’s First officials say the attention gave an immediate boost to traffic on both Scout Branding and the credit union’s websites, and generated calls nationally. “We had told America’s First that this might get national attention because it is in your face compared to typical credit union ads,” Crawford said.

It’s not the first time that Scout Branding, a five-person firm Crawford founded in 2006 after spending nearly a decade at major advertising firms in Boston, Atlanta and Nashville, has made waves. In 2007, Crawford created a television, print and online anti-scam campaign for the U.S. Postal Service that aired in major publications and television stations across the country. Those humorous spots played off familiar scams, including a foreign lottery scam featuring a man speaking in broken English.

Right actors are key

Crawford, whose client base includes Alagasco, Children’s Hospital and Baptist Health System, said finding the right actors is critical for a successful commercial.

“We looked at probably 200 actors before deciding on the five we used in the America’s First campaign,” he said. “It took a lot of work. We put in six weeks of production before showing it to them.”

Crawford said America’s First’s marketing chief, Phil Boozer, and Chief Executive David Adcock knew the campaign “was out of the norm from what they had done,” but were willing to take a chance.

Boozer said the commercials paid off and accomplished their goals.

“These commercial let people know what we do as a credit union by showing them what we don’t do in a fun and humorous way,” he said.

Crawford said Scout Branding has benefited from a good team that allows it to accomplish many of the things that a bigger firm can.

“We don’t have a lot of layers of management that the bigger firms do and it allows us to get things done quicker and smarter,” he said.

Still, Crawford acknowledges that his firm, like many others, has been affected by the economic downturn.

“We weren’t hit as hard as most others are because we have always operated on a lean staff,” he said. “We could probably be twice in size but choose to remain small. The firms who can deliver good ideas on budget and on time will be OK.”

Scout with the IIDA Creative Excellence Award in Showroom Design

Scout Branding was just honored by the International Interior Design Association with a Creative Excellence Award for Small Showroom Design at NeoCon, the largest design exposition and conference for commercial interiors in North America. Considering that designers from all over the world compete to create the most inspiring design experience in over 700 showrooms, being singled out for this recognition is a huge achievement.

I thought it would be interesting to show our original presentation to Mannington compared to photography of the finished project. There are so many factors that can intervene with the initial concept and vision for a large project like this- budget, technical limitations, and building team consensus just to name a few. But with careful planning, attention to detail, and teamwork with the client, you will see that the transformation from concept to reality was seamless.

Starting with the overall view you will notice the drama of gunmetal walls and rich hardwood floors (Mannington Commercial’s new offering called Earthly Elements) contrasted with gleaming white lacquer displays and the brightly colored large scale patterns of the Sylvan and Monarch collections in front. The technique we employed was simple-create a visual focus on the flooring products and elegant displays by framing everything with dark tones. This allowed a unified and cohesive look to the space while drawing in the viewer with high-contrast lighting.

You will see here the concept vs. execution of several of the specific product displays. With the help of some amazing vendors we were able to make these displays come to life. The branches were transformed from our drawings into high density foam sculptures covered in white lacquer. The nest was woven here at Scout from samples of Mannington’s Sylvan Collection, and real ostrich eggs proved to be the right scale for it’s interior.

In the environmental display, arrows fabricated from different post-consumer materials products create a simple explanation of Mannington’s commitment to redirecting landfill-bound products into new flooring.

Thanks to Mannington and our whole team of vendors for working together to steal the show! You will see the showroom featured in Interior Design’s Show Daily, the IIDA website, and an upcoming feature in Contract Magazine.

The two notable front end features we implemented for them are an Advanced Search as well as a Choices That Work Search.

The Choices That Work Search feature searches by usage in different market segments.

The Advanced Search pulls in all the products within the selected criteria using javascript. The URL changes depending on the search so you can email or save your search criteria

If you select and criteria "By Color" - the results pulls in the Colorways giving you a visual representation of the different color selections.

We implemented these changes along with other user experience updates and fixed a lot of CMS issues for them. We’re very pleased with the speed and detail that the search feature has, as well as finally giving them the ability to browse products in a logical and advanced way.

Scout’s Creative Director, Paul Crawford was featured in Advertising Age’s Small Agency Diary. Click here to check it out.

On the other hand, there is a growing desire among many consumers to see more transparency, humility and openness in government and in the corporate world. There is a general perception that a culture of secrecy has played a role in our recent, high-profile corporate and political failings. This intersection between a consumer-driven push towards more transparency and the increasing allure that companies feel towards being involved in the two-way conversation that is social media is creating some tension.

I’ve noticed this tension when the subject of social media comes up with the companies we talk to (and they are all talking about it). Most of them want to find a practical, strategic way to apply it to their business because they know that ignoring would be a mistake. They understand that it is growing platform that they need to master before their competitors do. At the same time, they realize that it is not as manageable as pushing out a one-way message through traditional media. Engaging consumers in this relatively new and unfamiliar territory opens up a door to possible risks that can initially be a little daunting. The blue-sky brainstorming of innovative ways a company can better engage their consumers through Twitter, Facebook, etc. can quickly be replaced by even more vivid images of the worst case scenario that could come in the form of a public relations nightmare or worse. Companies are struggling with where to draw the line between the discretion they value and the transparency and openness that consumers value.

The one realization that working through a process like this usually leads to is that the person or group who is ultimately tasked with implementing the social media strategy needs to intuitively understand what kinds of company info can be released in the social media world versus information that should be kept closer to the vest. And depending on the company, they may need to possess a variety of skills including marketing, public relations, customer service and of course, the nuanced etiquette of social media. That is how the issue morphs into one of staffing, because employees like that, if they exist, may already be too busy doing their regular jobs.

As a jumping off point, the following five things should be written down before creating any corporate social media strategy:

1. Establish up front exactly what you want to accomplish through social media and how it compliments the company’s overall brand positioning and the rest of its marketing efforts.
2. Outline company information that is not for sharing through social media.
3. Identify potential downside risks and how to address them. For example, how should we deal with negative remarks? If on Twitter, a consumer says “X” about your company, what is the appropriate response?
4. For consumer product or service companies, decide whether Twitter could be used as a Customer Relation Management tool.
5. Identify the necessary skills needed for the person who implements the social media strategy and also identify who internally or externally can perform that task.

ScoutDoesWebsites.com

If you go there you can see that in fact, we have done a lot of websites. The site has a sampling of some of the many diverse sites we’ve done over the past couple of years. There are sites from the master-planned community builder Westervelt Communities to the e-commerce Asian boutique Mandarina.

We are always looking for the latest technology and trends to further help our clients express their brands. Here is a list of some of our capabilities.

Scout Branding’s Web Capabilities

Website Design and Development
Custom Web Development and Design
Content Management Systems
E-Commerce
Custom WordPress Sites
Web Application Design
Social Media Integration & Social Networking Website Development
Ongoing Site Maintenance and Content Updating / Management

Strategic Online Planning
Comprehensive Analytics / Site Statistic Tracking
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Marketing (Google Adword, pay-per click)
Strategic Online Media Promotion and Tracking
Strategic Social Media Planning and Implementation
Social Media Monitoring / Brand Buzz Tracking

Don’t see something you are interested in/need? Get in touch with us! We probably do it.. and if we haven’t before… we will.

That was my experience until I met Rusty, a yellow lab who spends his time with his owner Karen Cunningham serving as an animal-assisted therapy team for Hand-In-Paw. Here at Scout we have been designing all of the promotional materials for Hand-In-Paw’s Picasso Pets, and little did Rusty know that his mug was destined to appear all over Birmingham. He did exactly as he was told, patiently, and thoughtfully, all for little more than a few milkbones for pay. Within twenty minutes he had looked straight into the camera with his nose and paws bright blue, giving the photographer the exact endearing, loving-life look I envisioned.

Picasso Pets is a unique event that benefits Hand-In-Paw, a local animal-assisted therapy organization. Hand-In-Paw’s certified therapy teams visit local hospitals, nursing homes, and schools where they do everything from help children with developmental disabilities learn to walk, provide a listening ear to those learning how to read, or simply provide companionship. At Picasso Pets the animals “paint” with their paws and then an accomplished artist incorporates the animal’s marks into a final painting, which is then auctioned to support the program. This auction raises a substantial portion of the yearly budget for Hand-In-Paw, so the success of the promotional items to drive potential patrons to the auction is paramount. Scout is proud to donate our services to making this year’s Picasso Pets a success. And now we know that the exception to the art director’s maxim is a dog named Rusty.

I’m always looking for books with ideas that challenge the assumptions that I bring with me to work every day. Although, some of these books are a couple of years old, I find myself wanting to read them twice:

Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
Mavericks at Work - William C. Taylor and Polly G. Labarre
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
Zag – Marty Neumeir
Good to Great – Jim Collins
Tribes – Seth Godin
Twilight (just kidding!! Sorry Sara.)