Want Your Customers to Love EVERYTHING You Make? Find Out How!
First Impressions Start in All Sorts of Places, Even a Furry Upper Lip
We don’t need to watch the movie, we’ve got our own girl with the dragon tattoo. Her name’s Roni Ingraham.
Every now and again, we run across an idea that’s just too freaking cool not to talk about. Today’s idea is trading tweets for food.
If you have to ask what the Tour de Foothills is, you’re probably not into cycling.
Ahoy there Mateys! Join us in celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day!
With the election just two months away, it’s no surprise that politicians are polluting the media with negative advertising. Why? Because negativity works.
No one knows why Denise switched from film to design, but we’re sure glad she did.
If you can’t remember the last time you used the Yellow Pages, you’re not alone. More and more people are opting out of Yellow Pages advertising in favor of alternative advertising methods.
Summer’s the best time for movies and the weirdest time for advertising, and this year’s no exception.
Echo-Factory: The company that inspired the comedy, Workaholics
Breaking News: Exclusive interview with Britt, Echo-Factory’s Summer Intern. You won’t want to miss reading this!
Want to blow your boss away with your next Facebook post? Find out how here!
Twitter and Facebook both provide the opportunity to reach a wide audience or target select users. But, which one actually delivers results?
Thanks to a random social media post by a few of its employees earlier this week, Burger King is now facing a huge public relations nightmare.
Business Week recently came out with an article blasting advertisers for abusing the QR code. It’s true – nowadays, it’s hard to find an ad without a QR code.
Growing up, they tell you stories about tea parties in Boston, Paul Revere’s ride, and the Star Spangled Banner but they never tell you the story behind the ad agency. It’s an important story, especially for us.
For those of you who don’t know what a Choco Taco is, I’ll gladly explain. A Choco Taco is a delicious ice cream treat. Klondike, who makes the ice cream novelty, took a drumstick ice cream and made it look like a taco.
Known as “Moose” around the office, Mustafa is Echo’s project manager by day, and a crazed Dodgers baseball fan by night. He’s also the only Egyptian in our office.
One day to forget about your obligations and Go Skateboarding!
Cool Points, Customized Letters, and Drinking games…See how our creativity has grown since the beginning.
Drooling over Jack Lalanne, drinking giant cups of coffee and snickering at bad advertising. It’s just another day in the life of Echo founder Mike Schaffer. Read the full interview below.
This week, most of the office has been in Las Vegas for LIGHTFAIR International, the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been in the studio shooting bright colored helmets, gear and clothing – all made by one company, Troy Lee Designs (TLD).
If you want creative (and productive) employees, you need a fun work environment. But, how do you make your office more fun?
If you’re not in the ad business, you probably don’t know a lot about media planning and buying. You may even have some misconceptions about how media works. So, let’s clear some of those misconceptions up.
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about the new social networking site, Pinterest. For many companies, Pinterest represents a great opportunity to introduce your products/services to people who may never have seen them before. It’s also a good way to find out what people find interesting about your company and its offerings.
At Echo-Factory, we all have creative outlets – activities that allow us to express our creativity freely without rules, billable hours or time constraints. Here’s the creative stuff we do when we’re not at work.
Getting people to trust your brand is critical to your company’s success. But, how do you build trust? According to a new study, five values influence brand trust. See how you measure up.
Before this crazy thing called the Internet came along, the Yellow Pages was a necessity. Nowadays, though, people use a variety of media to find products and services, not just the Yellow Pages. So, if you want to attract potential customers, your best bet is to develop a presence in a variety of media.
This past Wednesday, we got the chance to give a talk about personal branding to the Southern California chapter of Princeton Alumni group. We got to meet some really interesting people and share our thoughts on building an effective personal brand.
This year was a great year for Echo-Factory. We won the IE ADDYs Overall “Best of Show,” the event’s highest award, and five Gold ADDYs.
Twitter’s been around for over six years now but a lot of companies (and people) are still clueless when it comes to tweeting. So, if you’ve just created a Twitter account for your company or are thinking about it, here are five things to think about.
If you’re hesitant to spend money on advertising because there’s no way to measure return on investment, online advertising provides a solution.
If you missed Friday’s blog post, I talked about how money can’t save an ad if it doesn’t have a sound strategy. Last night’s Super Bowl ads are further proof that money doesn’t make a good ad. Here’s the best and worst Super Bowl ads as well as a few that fall somewhere in between.
Every year, I look forward to Super Bowl Sunday. Not because of the game, but because of the ads. If you’ve ever watched a Super Bowl ad, you know why. Companies spend millions creating the perfect Super Bowl ad, but is it worth it? Does more money really make for a better commercial?
Tuesday was the 75th anniversary of Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It’s an anniversary that means a lot to creatives.
If you were anywhere near the Internet on Wednesday, you saw our website and thousands of other sites including Wikipedia and Google participate in a blackout protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its corresponding bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
If your resolution is to have a better business year, consider spending more on advertising. To help you figure out where to spend your money, here are the top five advertising trends for small (and large) businesses in 2012.
In the last few years, business-to-business (b-to-b) companies have begun to realize what business to consumer (b-to-c) companies have known all along. Image matters.
If you’re a small company, you probably can’t afford a TV campaign. But, you can afford to upload a video on youtube and other video-sharing sites. However, like TV, you’ll have to compete with a lot of other videos for attention. So, how do you get people to watch?
We just finished shooting an online video for Buckle Down, a company that manufactures trendy belt buckles and other fashion accessories. If you haven’t gotten a chance to see it on youtube or Facebook, you can watch it here now.
Coming up with a good tagline can be challenging, but, when done right, a tagline can enhance your company’s image and overall marketing.
Lately, I’ve been writing press releases, some for clients, others for our agency. Why? Because the press release is one of the best marketing tools available. It’s free publicity for your company. There’s only one problem: everyone loves the press release. And, since publications only have so much space, you’re forced to compete with a ton of other people to get your press release picked up. However, there are a few things you can do to make your press release more attractive to the media.
If you’re gearing up for the big Shamrock Series game between Notre Dame and University of Maryland, you’ll get to see the new Notre Dame helmet. It’s a kick ass helmet covered in 24-carat gold leaf that we had a chance to shoot in our studio, making it look as impressive in photos as it does in person.
You don’t have to be in a creative industry to brainstorm. Everyone does it. We’ve all been in a meeting where someone says “why don’t we do a quick brainstorm?” and then opens the floor up for ideas. The trouble with this type of brainstorming is that it usually leads to really bad ideas. Why? Because no one’s had time to prepare so people just end up saying whatever pops into their heads.
Halloween is just another excuse to eat lots of sugar, play pranks and dress up like Rambo or sexy nurse #3. But, the holiday actually gives us some good insight into marketing.
This week, we were in Orlando, FL for the 58th Annual NALMCO Convention and Tradeshow. If you haven’t heard of NALMCO, it’s the interNational association of lighting management companies.
So much has happened over the last few months, we thought it was time for an agency update. You might want to grab some popcorn, this may take awhile
On a day when the internet is filled with outpourings of gratitude for a man who left us yesterday, we wanted to add our voice of thanks to the choir.
A good public relations strategy doesn’t just involve sending out media releases. In fact, media releases are just a small part of an effective pr campaign.
“The medium is the message.” When media theorist Marshall McLuhan made that statement, he believed the medium was more important than the content it presented. While I don’t agree with McLuhan, I do think the media you choose is just as important as the content presented.
Recently, a friend asked me “Why’s it called Echo-Factory?” I didn’t know so I went to my boss (and co-founder of the agency) for an answer. She said it’s to remind us that advertising is about serving clients, not serving ourselves. Too often, agencies and people (like me) forget that.
We’re kicking off a new series about designers – each month we’ll attempt to figure out how and why designers do what they do. Today, we’re putting the spotlight on Echo-Factory creative guru, Dea Goldsmith, to talk about everything from where she gets inspiration to what she eats when she’s stressed.
With a labor day weekend upon us, there’s no better time to talk about vacation. In advertising, there’s a stigma against taking vacation time, especially in the creative department. We compete to see who can stay at the office longer. We’ll skip lunch, work weekends, pull all-nighters and never take a single vacation day.
In college, I would sit with hundreds of other advertising students and listen to successful ad people talk about their agency experiences. Most of them mentioned hard work, long hours and collaboration. But, they left out a few things I wish someone had told me as a new creative.
From skate breaks to appendectomies, here’s 5 little-known and under-appreciated facts about Echo-Factory.
We’ve mentioned before that, as an agency, we don’t want to be pigeonholed. We believe the fact that our client-base ranges from action-sports manufacturers to aerospace retailers is a good thing for both our agency, and our creative output.
Tuesday night, Mike and Mustafa were asked to talk to a marketing class at Cal State San Bernardino. While the advice they offered was targeted to students, it can also be useful for small (and large) business owners. Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday’s presentation.
The results from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) Annual Awards Competition are in – and they’re really good for Echo-Factory and Altura Credit Union. The campaign we developed for Altura’s iChecking product won a MAC Gold Award – beating out advertising campaigns for credit unions all over the country.
We entered our Altura Credit Union iChecking / Taylor Swift campaign for the MAC awards, and we’re thrilled to be Best of Show finalists.
Recently, we entered Advertising Age’s Small Agency of the Year competition. Echo-Factory, along with other ad agencies across the globe, created a portfolio of work and submitted it to be judged by some of the best in the ad business.
Most people have a hard time stepping outside of their comfort zones. When it comes to advertising, companies are the same way. At Echo-Factory, we do our best work when clients give us freedom to step outside of the comfort zone. We end up creating ads that are unique, ads that get people talking and lead to big results.
If you’ve ever wondered how agency creatives come up with ideas, now’s your chance to find out. Echo-Factory’s Facebook page offers an inside look into the creative process.
Superbowl Sunday reminds us all of the power of advertising. Take GoDaddy.com. In 2005, no one had ever heard of the domain name registry company, until it ran a 30-second commercial during that year’s Superbowl. Since then, GoDaddy has captured almost 50% of the market share for domain name registry.
Location, Location, Location. It’s super important in business, especially when your business is a Southern California advertising agency. To succeed, an ad agency needs a location that works for its clients. That’s why we chose the Inland Empire.
Social media is the new hotness in the world of marketing, and as with any popular trend it’s brought with it a truckload of buzzwords, hundreds of self proclaimed social media gurus and loads of hype. So, let’s cut through all that and look at three things that social media can do for any business.
You may not be aware, but the world of advertising is having a bit of a kerfuffle over whether advertising creative and media buying should be separate, or unified disciplines.
At Echo-Factory, we build websites. But what many business owners don’t understand is that often, launching a website is just the beginning of a process.
The city of Upland is launching a brand new Certified Farmers Market tomorrow, and needed some help getting the word out about it.
Echo-Factory will be donating 2 customized versions of our award winning voodoo doll to the 2010 Charity Auction at the Lake Arrowhead Country Club. If you need to say, “sorry” – and who doesn’t – there’s no better way.
Earlier this year, we had the opportunity pro-bono work for the Claremont Educational Foundation, designing their 2010 fundraising brochure. The foundation supports the Claremont Unified School district, providing funding for technology, music & arts programs and general funding to Claremont’s public schools. We were honored to be able to work with them.
We’ve never thought of ourselves as a Madison Avenue style ad agency – but we are apparently getting close to Boardwalk. A while back, Mike took some photos for a MagLite law enforcement campaign, and just a couple weeks ago one of the photos was used on the gameboard of the soon to be released Monopoly: Law Enforcement Edition.
For the last few years, Echo-Factory has been doing the photography for Troy Lee Designs’ annual product catalog. This year, one of our designers made debut appearance as a motocross model.
The Business Press — the business unit of the Press Enterprise — was kind enough to profile our agency. They talked about our growth, the fact that we’re an agency run by creatives and discussed our focus on new media and the web.
The truth is, there are good agencies and bad agencies. And beyond that, there are agencies that could be good for one business, but a horrible match for another business. So, as a business owner, how do you find the right agency?
Echo-Factory has created a niche in advertising for companies in the energy efficient retrofit business, a position we’re happy for our agency to take.
Mike’s advertising photography for the California Lotto, Mag Lite, Boot Barn and Troy Lee is featured in the May 2010 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.
Echo-Factory just won the “Best Of Show” at the Inland Empire Addy Awards, along with medals for all seven of our ADDY entries.
What do Taylor Swift, Altura Credit Union and Echo-Factory all have in common? Generally, not too much, but right now they’re all key components of an advertising campaign.
Friday, we launched a brand new site for one of our clients, Tricia Hill from Articulations Pilates Studio. You should check it out. Beyond the fact that it’s beautiful and intuitive, there are a couple rather neat things about Tricia’s site.
For many small business owners, advertising is a daunting prospect. They know it’s something that needs to be done, they’re just not sure how to go about it.
That’s why we thought we’d create a brass tacks guide to getting your business advertised – what you need to do, the pieces you can do yourself, the bits you’ll need to hire a professional (hopefully us) for and – the answer everybody’s looking for – what it’ll cost.
The holidays are a challenging time, so we thought we’d give our clients a bit of help. Enter, the Echo::Factory Holiday Survival Kit, including such essential items as the Funbrewer, Giftmaker, Joybringer & Jobkeeper.
What exact purpose do these enchanting items serve? I’m glad you asked.
Mike’s in a book! Lou Jacobs Jr., author of more then thirty photography books has a new project in the works and has chosen Echo’s very own Mike Schaffer to be featured in his latest work along with nine other prominent commercial photographers.
We’ve moved. Packed up our desks and left Upland for the verdant office parks of Rancho Cucamonga. The truth is, we ran out of space. So to get some more, we moved in to a new office park that more than doubles our office space and lets us bump up the size of our photography studio.
This year we decided to pick a different season for our agency season’s greetings. In honor of the current season, we sent out a Corporate Halloween Disguise Kit. In the kit were some stylish spectacles with a refined proboscis and a lovely faux cigar.
You’d think with an in-house photography studio, we’d be masters of Flickr. Sadly, this has been far from the case. But today, Mike remedied our lack of Flickr participation with a batch of behind-the-scenes photos from some of our recent projects. You can get a brief taste from our Mike’s Hard Lemonade session below, and plenty more in our flickr gallery.
A big part of working with new companies is understanding that they are necessarily fickle. Not fickle out of spite or indecision, but fickle because success in new business demands flexibility. Case in point – when we launched Amber Pollard’s Lunch à la Mode website a year ago, she never expected to sell her handbags directly from the site.
Echo::Factory sponsored ASR’s OFFICE BOOYZ SK8 contest this year. Actually, it’s more accurate to describe it as a non-contest. The premise of the event was to have all “full time desk jockeys” that work in the skate industry get together and humiliate themselves in front of their peers by staging a mock-skate competition. All were welcome to participate and anyone could win a prize, no matter how horrific the skater.
Not that long ago, we took a little detour from our usual type of work to explore our spiritual sides—by which I mean we designed the newCalvary the Brook website. We here at Echo seem to have an affinity for helping young businesses grow (maybe because we can relate so well), and we made no exception for the young Grand Terrace based church when they asked us if we’d be up for designing their website almost a year ago.
We just launched the PEERS Alliance website, an organization that’s working to have ARRA Stimulus dollars directed towards energy efficient retrofit projects in American businesses. Not a bad goal if you ask us.
You’re visiting the brand new Echo::Factory site. So brand new that things are still a bit rough around the edges. We’re working hard to get all the kinks worked out – but until then, pardon the occasional broken link or missing image.
Love the new site? Hate it? Have a something you’d like to see? Let us know – just shoot an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Thanks!
Kali Protectives came to us looking to build a rider component to their website. They wanted two things – a site that would let them showcase the latest exploits of their pro riders, and a site that would let aspiring amateurs create profiles and try to convince the company that they were worthy of sponsorship. In short, they wanted us to build a small-scale social networking site for athletes. Today, you can see the results at kaliriders.com.
Somehow, we managed to launch a new site without mentioning it here. Gensun Casual Living is a Southern California designer and manufacturer of high-end outdoor furniture.