Better late than never…the bfw Christmas Story.

Posted on January 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

So, we were running full speed up until Christmas Eve, and the first two weeks of 2011 have been much of the same. And that’s a great thing. Unfortunately, we forgot to post our December Chillboard, a moving holiday tale written collaboratively by all of us here at bfw…three words at a time. It was fun to do, awful to read, and probably shouldn’t be made public. So without further ado, here it is…

bfw Chillboard - Dec. 2010

bfw Chillboard - December 2010

“A bfw Christmas Story”
“Long ago in sunny South Florida, there lived an albino alligator with a love for red velvet cake. He was not only confused by the color, but intrigued by the ambrosial southern dessert. Lacking time, direction and teeth, he glued candy corn to his mouth, and headed south to get drunk.

The candy corn melted all over his brand new bottle of Captain. Santa saw this and, in disbelief, brought another bottle—water, of course—and some dentures.

The reindeer shared a large corndog, frankincense and myrrh. Then, they all rested before they fired up some tasty elf feet…and then flew toward the sun.

Fearing the worst, they turned around and delivered all children a gift. The Christmas spirit was given a Richard Simmons DVD, Cher’s collected works, a Chia Pet and seven Band-Aids. The Band-Aids were Smurfette, Gargamel, Brainy Smurf, Oprah, Ochocinco, Paris and SpongeBob Squarepants.

When Santa farted, it was like a big explosion. At least he gave them warning. Paramedics soon arrived. Poor Rudolph’s nose went off like an Iranian nuclear Pez dispenser. Fortunately, he was flying to bfw Advertising, where Jim (CEO) was looking for interns. And Christian (president) hired Rudolph as Director of Design. The End! Merry Christmas.”

Here’s to a happy, healthy New Year from all of us at bfw Advertising!

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Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising in Boca Raton, Florida. Follow him on Twitter @PaulAmelchenko. bfw Advertising is a full service marketing and communications firm with strong competencies in new media. The South Florida advertising agency creates and builds client brands with strategic thinking and on-target creative executions. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com on the web.

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Happy Thanksgiving – bfw “Chillboard” – November 2010

Posted on November 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

bfw Chillboard November 2010

So what’s on our minds leading up to “Turkey Day 2010″? A turkey in a pilgrim suit. A jungle boogeyman. A rubber chicken. And, of course, many of the things we’re thankful for…family, health, booze, sex, oatmeal, The Onion, our jobs, Jim and Christian (CEO and President, respectively), blondes, margaritas, a non-yuppy puppy, and pearls. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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bfw launches Chinese version of Chromalloy.com – Beijing, China

Posted on November 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

In the U.S., we’re all very accustomed to seeing the words “Made in China.”  We import everything from China.  Pens, pencils, books, bicycles…even American flags.  (Seriously, I have one.  A Realtor stuck it in my lawn on the 4th of July.)

Interestingly at bfw, we actually have a client that exports products to China.  The client is Chromalloy, a global company that creates solutions to reduce the operating expense and extend the life of gas turbine engines (the kind of engines you find on airplanes, in aircraft carriers and in power plants around the world).

To help Chromalloy bolster its presence in China, we had to do something we had never done before: launch a website in Chinese.

Now, at this point, I’m going to let you in on a little agency secret that I’ve never shared with anyone: none of us here speak Chinese.  Aside from words like “Kung Pao” chicken, “Tsingtao” and “Yao Ming”, most of us would be totally lost on the streets of Beijing.   So, admittedly, there was a bit of a learning curve involved.

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Fortunately, we had some help.   The bfw interactive team worked closely with SynerGlobal, a leading language and content services provider.  Together, we localized and translated the site to be locally relevant and culturally targeted.

This may sound pretty simple, however the localization process is actually incredibly detailed.  Beyond your basic translation, the process required us to think through cultural considerations that affect GUI design and usability.  We had to evaluate imagery to avoid negative cultural bias.  And we scrutinized the color palette to be sure that it communicated the same brand image that we’ve established in the U.S. and Europe.

Bill Henkel, bfw’s Senior Manager of Interactive Media, provided a few more specifics: “bfw handled the dynamic portions of the website by means of XML and SQL database integration.  Future localization and publishing of dynamic content like press releases will be done via a proprietary back-end administration system.  This proprietary system was developed by bfw specifically to handle UTF encoded Chinese characters.”

All in all, it was a tremendous learning experience for us at bfw, and the project has been a 大 success.  (大 means “huge” in Chinese.)

You can view the site at: www.chromalloy.com.cn. And if you need a translation, check out the English version: www.chromalloy.com

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Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising + Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. Follow him on Twitter @PaulAmelchenko. bfw Advertising + Interactive is a full service marketing and communications firm with strong competencies in new media. The South Florida advertising agency creates and builds client brands with strategic thinking and on-target creative executions. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com on the web.

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Posted in B2B, Branding, Uncategorized, Web Design, Web Development

The bfw “Chillboard” – September 2010

Posted on October 6, 2010 | Leave a comment
bfw Chillboard - September 2010

bfw Chillboard - September 2010

So what was on our minds in September? Well, it looks like world peace, disco dancing, shark fishing, time travel and thunderstorms. Yeah, that sounds about right.

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Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising + Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida. You can follow him on Twitter @PaulAmelchenko.  bfw Advertising is a full service marketing and communications firm with strong competencies in new media. The South Florida advertising agency creates and builds client brands with strategic thinking and on-target creative executions. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com on the web.

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bfw and Agilysys create “The Art of Success”

Posted on September 21, 2010 | Leave a comment
bfw Art of Success Poster and Tube

The Art of Success poster was mailed to 5,000 hotel executives.

Beginning today, our client Agilysys is hosting a compelling series of webinars to showcase their hotel software solutions. Their audience: general managers and finance directors of chic hotels in NYC, downtown LA and other top metros. These people are successful, stylish and fully equipped with iPhones, Blackberry devices and Droids.

To connect with this group and drive traffic to the webinars, we wanted to do something different than the usual direct mail campaign. So we started thinking about the webinars, which are literally “demonstrating” something. That led us to the word “exhibition”, then “exhibit”, which made us think of art and art shows and all the cool, modern art in these fashionable hotels. Then Eureka!

The art of success.

To generate traffic, we sent a large framable print by a popular contemporary artist to 5,000 members of our target audience. It’s tagged with the theme “The Art of Success”, which communicates the true, shared benefit of all Agilysys solutions—they help your hotel succeed. At the bottom, the poster lists the webinar topics, dates and times.

The piece is actually cool enough to hang in your office, which gives it added shelf life. And the artwork carries the “subtle elegant” feel of all of our Agilysys branding work.

bfw Agilysys QR code

Scan the QR code with Microsoft Tag Reader on your smart phone, and you’re automatically redirected to a webinar registration page.

The call to action, includes a Microsoft Tag™ QR code. Recipients with a smart phone can simply scan the QR code (that’s short for ‘quick read’ code) using the free Microsoft Tag Reader app. Or they can visit a dedicated URL on their desktop computer. In both cases, they’re redirected to a registration page set up by Agilysys.

It’s a sophisticated, fresh take on the classic “direct mail” piece. More creative. More fun and more interactive. But still with all the trackable results and accountability you expect from direct.

So if you’re in the hospitality biz—or somebody who’s just interested in seeing the latest, greatest in hotel technology—sign up for one of the webinars. It’s easy…just scan the code.

Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising in Boca Raton, Florida. bfw Advertising is a full service marketing and communications firm with strong competencies in new media. The South Florida advertising agency creates and builds client brands with strategic thinking and on-target creative executions. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com on the web.

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There’s nothing generic about this generic company

Posted on September 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’ve been working with Hi-Tech Pharmacal for about ten years now. Hi-Tech is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets generic and branded prescription and OTC products. They specialize in difficult-to-manufacture liquid and semi-solid dosage forms and offer a wide range of sterile ophthalmic, otic and inhalation products.
 
Over the years, bfw has repositioned Hi-Tech from a low-cost product manufacturer to a high quality, experienced, trustworthy provider/partner company for pharmacists.

We implemented a pharmacist-targeted brand building campaign that included print advertisements, detail materials, group purchasing organization and distributor materials, trade PR, direct mail, newsletter inserts to buying groups, broadcast faxing, tradeshow booths and sales presentations. The result was brand growth and recognition as one of the 100 Most Innovative Companies in America by Investor’s Business Daily as well as a continual ranking in the top quarter of Forbes 200 Best Small Companies and Fortune’s Small Business list of America’s Fastest-Growing Small Public Companies.

At a time when many pharma companies are looking to merge and be acquired, Hi-Tech is focused on the future. With significant R&D investments and the development of drugs with total branded sales of over $3 billion, Hi-Tech will continue to bring a broad range of opportunities to its pharmacy partners over the next several years.

Our latest initiative in the brand’s development is the relaunch of Hi-Tech’s Website, which went live this week.

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Posted in B2B, Branding, Direct, Print, Trade, Web Design, Web Development

The bfw “Chillboard” – August 2010

Posted on September 1, 2010 | Leave a comment
The bfw Chillboard, August 2010

The bfw Chillboard, August 2010. As you can see, it was a hot month.

This month we started something new at bfw Advertising. We call it the “Chillboard” (you know, like “chill” + “billboard”).  The Chillboard is a huge white board that we all pass on our way in and out of the office. So we thought it would be a cool place to make a giant group mural.   A collection of doodles and drawings and whatever is on our minds at that particular moment.  At the end of each month (or whenever the board is full), we snap a pic, post it here, share it on Facebook, and send it to Harvard Business School to showcase our groundbreaking ideas.

It’s a fun visual history of our thoughts.   Plus, it gets us doodling—something that’s really important to the creative process.  Doodling before creating advertising is like warming up before you run a marathon, stretching before a set of power cleans, or making popcorn before you sit your ass on the couch.   It gets your brain and body ready for what you’re about to do.  It unclogs your mind.  It helps your ideas flow more freely.  And it’s fun.

So here it is, the inaugural bfw Chillboard, August 2010.  Stay tuned for more weirdness in the months ahead.

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Paul Amelchenko is Creative Director at bfw Advertising + Interactive in Boca Raton, Florida.  bfw Advertising is a full service marketing and communications firm with strong competencies in new media.  The South Florida advertising agency creates and builds client brands with strategic thinking and on-target creative executions. For more information call (561) 962-3300 or visit www.gobfw.com on the web.

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