Now, after a 35 year advertising career, we’ve settled on a simple mission statement:

“Have fun rescuing clients from killing their customers with irrelevant, incoherent and ignorant, forgettable, flat and futile marketing messages.”

Practically speaking - “We help clients craft and deliver the message that moves their customers to action.”

After a couple years of creating really nice ads for some really nice clients I landed a client who actually had a tough marketing challenge of selling grinding balls. No magazine or newspaper, no radio or TV station could reach their market. In my naiveté, I proposed mailing a sample of their product right to the actual customer. (I thought I had invented direct mail).

Well, despite the innocent mistakes and foolish assumptions made by a novice direct mail guy, the client actually became the Western United States’ leading provider of grinding balls as a result of our direct mail campaign. That first success taught me a lesson I’ve clung to for these past 34 years.

“Get the right message understood by the right people and action follows.”

It's no more complex than that. So my question as I face any communication challenge is simply; “Who needs to know what, to motivate them to do what you want them to do?”

Once you answer that question, then its simply about developing and delivering that knowledge into the head and heart of your prospect. Still, seems pretty simple.

Over the years, we've been asked to motivate people to stop by, drop in, return this card, call now, vote, click, visit, download, remember, act now, come by, feel, understand, share, link, like, join, change and yes, even repent.

We've developed one-shot direct mail pieces, fully integrated media campaigns, industry unifying movements, public awareness campaigns and long-term corporate communication programs. We've been called upon many times to help pioneer new industries.

Why us?

Because with us, creativity is more than design, more than concept, more than idea, creativity is results – it's getting your client, customer or prospect to feel, know or understand what they need to feel, know or understand to move them to action.

That is Merrell Remington.

Merrell Remington Founder Kent Merrell

With over 35 years directing some of the finest creative talent available anywhere in the country, Kent and his teams have developed trendsetting marketing and advertising campaigns for extraordinary clients.

Clients such as VISA International, Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter, Disney, USPS, The National Forest Service, Zion's Bank, Wells Fargo, JC Penney Financial, Buena Vista, Comcast Cable, Nucor Steel and a multitude of terrific local and regional clients have all profited from the Merrell Remington innovative approach to crafting and delivering messages that move an audience.

Recognized nationally and internationally for their skill in marketing and advertising, Merrell Remington has been awarded 26 Echo awards (the most of any single agency in the country), the coveted Henry Hoke Award, the USPS Golden Mailbox, numerous Addy's and countless individual industry awards for successful campaigns. All summed up – for Merrell Remington Results Matter.

You too can benefit from the Merrell Remington brand of disciplined creativity.

Our work demonstrates our commitment to imagination. Yet, measureable responsiveness of Direct Marketing forces us to use disciplined creativity in all we do. We've never seen a media rate card give discounts for sorry ads. Nor has the post office offered postal discounts for lousy direct mail. In direct marketing, creative performance is measured every time our work hits a consumer's hand or a customers eyes.

Mrs. Fields Cookies came to Merrell Remington because as they put it "We wanted an agency that would not only produce beautiful appetizing work, but because it is hard to track the effectiveness of the signage inside a retail store, we wanted a team with the discipline of direct marketing that would naturally care about the effectiveness of their work as much as the beauty. For us the beauty that matters are sales."

Learn a bit more about the "discipline of direct" and "disciplined creativity."

Contact us at:

Merrell Remington & Associates
1050 East 3300 South, Suite 204
Salt Lake City, Utah 84106
801-975-0109
Email: kent@mrdirect.com

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What's the biggest threat to a great idea?

Surprising as it may be, we have learned that the biggest "great-idea" killer is a "good" idea or even a "mediocre" idea - a "safe" idea as we often times refer to them.

With the discipline of direct set deeply into our soul we will stand firmly on the side of a successful "safe" idea, we will even champion successful "good" ideas. More than not, the "safe" idea is keeping our clients profitable. Yet, we will not cease to push to test potentially "Great" ideas. Most of the creative executions showcased on this website are the "Great" ideas that won out over the tried and true "safe" ideas that were getting tired and had lost their ability to inspire.

Every great idea doesn't necessarily work however - having mailed and tracked hundred's of millions of direct mail pieces mailed, the one thing I know without a shadow of any doubt whatsoever is that "Nobody Knows until we try it."

With so many years of success behind us, the fear of failure so common in corporate America, is not part of the Merrell Remington culture. Smart testing is not risky, smart testing is smart. Not testing is risky.

Be Personal, not just look personal.

Over a century ago, one of advertising's pioneers, John Kennedy summed up advertising as being "Salesmanship in Print".

Since that time, savvy advertisers have tried to employ the elements of a well-crafted sales call in their mass media efforts. Highly targeted direct mail is the closest marketers have come to emulating the personal sales call through the media.

All the tricks of the trade have been employed to make the direct mail communication "look personal." Short of actually writing a personal letter, the best employment of technology was to insert the prospects name to make it look like the message was personal.

Until now the dream to actually "be personal," has remained mostly unfilled.
For years we have been able to "be personal," it was just logistically difficult and typically very expensive, and therefore seldom done.

Now you can "be personal," not just "look personal" as you communicate one on one with your prospects and customers.

Variable Digital Printing from Merrell Remington allows our clients to tailor a variety of messages targeted to uniquely different individuals and combine them into one print run so you speak to each recipient individually.

Elements of your data dynamically trigger full-color images, logos, copy, offers, and even design options including background color or text placement. Each of your prospects will receive the message relevant to their needs. Response rates soar!

There are only 7 things needed to make relevance so appealing.

Great campaigns start with bright and confident clients - clients with a vision. The vision may come from any number of sources, but when the vision comes, the bright client recognizes it as an opportunity and the confident client is willing to seize that opportunity. Only when that happens can a legendary marketing campaign be launched. These clients are typically the genius behind innovation, these clients push to meet their marketing objectives more powerfully, more efficiently and more effectively.

Variable Digital Technology is driven by visionary clients.

Variable digital graphics opens up a whole new world for designers but no technology yet invented will compensate for good old American roll up your sleeves salesmanship. To maximize the power of variable digital your creative team must first understand direct marketing, they must be "salesmen." The creative team in the digital world has to also understand how the data interfaces with message - and the needs of the recipient - and the relevancy of the message - as well as all the nuances of the digital process.

In other words - "You still have to craft a message persuasive enough to close the deal" - all the principles of direct marketing need to be implemented and then variable digital becomes the tool to pull it all together.

Here are 3 of the essential considerations with a database and how they interface with digital marketing.

1) The first consideration is the accuracy of the name and address - List hygiene is the term used to describe cleaning up bad names and addresses in a database. We employ all the latest tools including CASS, DPV, NCOA, etc., to maximize the accuracy of your data. We have also developed a proprietary verification process utilizing our exclusive national database which has proven to increase data accuracy by over 22% in several national database tests.

The simple truth you're after is this: Does the person I am mailing to actually live at the address I think they do and is the address good enough for the postman to actually deliver.

Sounds elementary enough, yet even among very sophisticated mailers, large percentages of their mail is undeliverable. We recently ran a campaign using a list that passed through our proprietary verification process. We reduced the mailing quantity by nearly 32% and still generated a 13% increase in net numbers of response. The response rate grew 39%.

2) The second consideration is the appropriateness of the prospect you have targeted. Is <Jon Doe really a married man, 45 years old making $78 thou a year living in a condo or is he a broke bachelor living in a van down by the river. And by the way, does he really want to buy a subscription to Women's Day?> This is simply good targeting, and using a reliable list source, anybody should be able to do this one.

What do you do however when the list you are using is your own list or a purchased list that doesn't include that kind of data? Sometimes we are fortunate and we can append the data that will give you more flexibility with your personalization. Other times we simple take the data you have and craft the messages and graphics to maximize the appeal to your prospect.

3) The third consideration is a propensity to respond profile. Typically your list will not have an indicator that tells you which of all your prospects are most likely to respond. Countless clusters, models and profiles have been developed by "the experts" to help mailers refine their targeted audience. Merrell Remington has utilized a proprietary database screening tool called Intelematch. Developed over 15 years by a team of seasoned marketers and database experts, Intelematch will take a database score it by response propensity and purchase propensity. Once your data is scored, you are free to select by any of 20 ranks of response likelihood. This program was initially tested with a Fortune 500 company mailing in excess of 3 million pieces a week, and is now utilized for many mailers including national stock brokerages, educational establishments, technology companies and financial institutions and insurance companies.

Then can you take something you know about a prospect and modify the creative around it. This is message driver or it is graphic driver or is it just prospect driver.

Once you get past the three previous mundane but necessary steps to delivering the best most comprehensive data possible, you gotta look at the data.

When you look at data you are looking for three things - 1) Data that can drive the graphic look, 2) Data that can drive the actual message and the positioning of the message and 3) Data that fully personalizes the message.

Graphic driving data: this can be done with simple geographic data such as an address including city and state, or more complex demographic data such as age, marital status or gender. This data allows you to select what pictures fonts and colors that will best get the attention while you present a general offer.

Message driving data: this is the information that indicates which of your products the prospect may be interested in purchasing, what makes and models, which needs your products will satisfy, what price ranges are in range, etc. Will the prospect purchase your product for his daughter or son or to impress his girlfriend?

Getting Personal data: this is personal account information such as interest rates, account balances, purchase histories, and other like information. This becomes a genuine personal communication where you talk one on one with details. Variable digital communication is at its best with this type of data.

Thanks to companies like Canon, Xerox, Oce and the like, there is no shortage of quality machines that can deliver well crafted, finely targeted variable digital messages. The challenge comes before the printing file hits the press. The data files with their wealth of knowledge must be merged with the creative files so carefully crafted. This is where the creative genius demonstrates the ability to bring the two together. Experience in making the two work hand in hand is where variable digital reaches the majesty to which it is born.

Efficiently getting the magically crafted message off the end of the press and into the hands of the prospect depends on decisions and plans forged long before any ink/toner ever hits paper. The main delivery methods, USPS, UPS, FedEx, the Internet, etc. all have their own sweet spots and potholes. Having delivered hundreds of millions of targeted messages into the hands and hearts of our clients' prospects, we've learned how to lick'm, stick'm and click'm so the message gets where its intended to get.

Now's the time to apply one-to-one strategies that develop a personalized dialogue with each customer and prospect in your database. This is where you put up or shut up. If you offered something, deliver. The efficiency of this delivery is essential to the success of any long term relationship with your customer. The more personal it is, the more thoughtful you appear. The more thoughtful you are the better the relationship you develop. And, well, relationships are everything!

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We’ve never had the luxury of having a client who could outspend the competition. We’ve always had to outthink them.

Most of the marketing strategies behind these campaigns are too complex to address here. So let is suffice to show and briefly tell. That is the only way we know how you can see for yourself how we out-thought the competition.

CompHealth’s efforts to recruit physicians willing to become temporaries took a major step forward with this coloring book mailing. CompHealth is led by physicians who felt that all marketing efforts should maintain a very formal, conservative appearance. Yet, during a temporary lapse of their mental faculties, top management approved the mailing of this coloring book. Aimed at 4th year family practice residents, we out-pulled the control packaged by eleven to one despite the fact that most of these last-year residents had job commitments long before graduation. Several even filled out the reply card in crayon. In addition, we found that many of these residents passed the mailing along to 3rd year residents who responded the following year.

This “Popcorn Bag” mailer has been one of the most successful and fun campaigns we have created for the cable TV industry. Millions mailed each year. Traditionally, it is sent to non-cable subscribers in order to generate new customers. The response rates vary across the country, but are consistently high in each respective area. They range from 3% to 9%. During the early years, the free popcorn offer included un-popped popcorn packaged in a clear video cassette case, complete with a pour spout on top, and was delivered by the installers to the individual homes as they hooked up cable in these homes. Over the years, as microwave popcorn has grown in popularity, it has replaced the “video” packaged popcorn.

In an effort to recruit radiologists to become Locum Tenens Physicians (temporary Doctors), we sent this X-Ray to radiologists across the country. The image of a Doctor’s skeleton and the message was on an actual X-Ray, and was intended to be read on a light box. It generated more than seven times the response than the control package. From the test alone, and within about six weeks, CompHealth generated tens of thousands of new contracted business from the Doctors and clients this mailer recruited. It became the most cost-effective mailer CompHealth has ever sent.

The question, “What’s it worth to keep a customer?” prompted this campaign. With cable TV systems suffering high levels of customer turnover each year, we felt that our cable clients might profit as much from efforts to maintain customers as from acquiring new ones. This campaign became a national effort after three years of successful testing in regional markets. It not only reduced customer turnover by approximately 26%, but also generated overwhelming customer satisfaction. In 6 different customer satisfaction areas measured, recipients of the “Owners Kit” averaged 64% satisfaction whereas non-recipients averaged only 42%. The multi-mailing campaign included many elements that strengthened TCI’s relationship with their customers.

So when was the last time you had an "Oh My!" response as you were going through your "Mail Moment" - those few minutes or seconds where you sort your mail. Everybody has a mailbox and everybody has a "mail moment" where you open, save for later or trash your mail. As direct marketers we know we only have seconds or fractions of seconds to capture the attention of our prospects and hopefully get our way into the first two stacks.

Its more than just getting the attention, it's a matter of not wasting that attention by changing the subject once you have your reader engaged. Often a direct marketer will use some gimmick to get your attention - even deceptively and then start a sales message unrelated to the attention getting gimmick used.

This is poor form and a waste of energy. At Merrell Remington our objective is to capture the attention in such a way as to begin the sales process immediately. By the time our readers are engaged, we are well into the sales message.

Take a look at a few of the "Oh My" campaigns.

Before the big box stores became as common as the corner grocery store, one of the pioneers in big box retailing, Price Savers, (Now Sam’s Club), gave us the assignment to generate more traffic in five of their Southern California big box stores. We created this egg carton mailing which incorporated the offer of Free eggs and a Free shopping pass to encourage customers to stop by and shop. We presented the offer in a very creative way showing some of the many national name brand product logos on the eggs inside the egg carton shaped mailer. We sent 280,000 mailers and generated a 9% response rate. From that mailing over 25,000 people came in to get the free eggs, over 23,000 signed up for permanent membership, and the average sale by those who dropped in to pick up the free eggs was $57.00. This translated into $1.3 million in immediate income..

Following the devastating Yellowstone fires, we created this campaign for TCI Cablevision of Wyoming. The campaign asked prospects to sign up for cable TV, with $5.00 of the hook-up fee being donated to plant seedlings in the Yellowstone National Forest. The campaign included newspaper ads, bill inserts, door hangers, POP displays, and direct mail. The campaign was successful in every way. It received national recognition and generated great public relations for TCI and the state of Wyoming. It also pulled a 10% response rate and produced enough revenue to plant nearly 118,000 seedlings – covering 365 acres – the first year. This campaign was repeated, without a decrease in response, for three more years.

Power Charge Battery Treatment works with the electrolytes in deep cycle batteries making it possible for them to take full charge faster and maintain the charge longer. Our challenge was to get golf professionals at large country clubs to try Power Charge in the deep cycle batteries used in their electric golf carts. Many other lesser treatment products had made the golf pros skeptical of any such claim. We created this package with the small film strip to cut through the skepticism and make our claim credible. This campaign generated a 28% response rate and has the distinction of earning us our first Gold Echo Award from the Direct Marketing Association.

When Coca-Cola Foods and PACE Membership Warehouse teamed up for a promotion, the objectives were: 1) to find potential new markets for Coca-Cola’s Hi-C fruit drink line and 2) to generate new members for PACE. The promotion consisted of mailing this die-cut “punch pitcher� to 15,000 businesses and residents. It offered a free carton of Hi-C fruit drinks to those who visited a PACE Warehouse in their area. In order to identify high-potential markets for Hi-C products, we mailed to nine different types of businesses and six different consumer groups with varying demographic profiles. The overall response rate came in at 7%. This mailer was extremely successful both in helping Coca-Cola Foods find new markets for its Hi-C line, and in helping PACE generate many new members.

Prime Option MasterCard hired us to develop an annual “thank you gift� for their MasterCard cardholders who had been with them for a year. We created a custom music CD featuring two nationally known New Age artists. We were able to create the package, the music and complete fulfillment and stay under a very tight budget. The campaign not only built great amounts of goodwill, but incremental usage of the Prime Option MasterCard exceeded expectations.

Toe Jam - that's what the post office called this piece we created for Featherspring International and mailed very successfully for years. A couple years after this campaign was replaced with a more 'postal compliant' piece, we were sitting in a regional postal forum in Austin, Texas when the presenter held up this piece as a demonstration of what was now "non-compliant" as new strict guidelines were being enforced. When the laughter ended, I couldn't resist raising my hand and asking if it had been a successful piece for the client. When no answer was provided by the presenter I meekly admitted to being its creator and shared the response rates which had never been matched with any conventional package.

Capturing the attention of your prospect is obviously the first and most important job of any advertising message, when creative is at its best, it not only captures the attention but begins the selling process by setting the stage for the rest of the sales message. The relevance of the attention getting device to the benefit offered is essential if you wish to maximize the sales experience.

“You seen one grinding ball, you seen train loads of ‘em.” And they all lack any real sex appeal. So we tried to have a little fun by making the ball more than just another chunk of steel. Being one of our very first direct mail pieces ever, we didn’t know you were even supposed to track responses. Yet, this high-impact dimensional mailing pulled so well that sales went crazy. Since it was the only advertising Nucor was doing, our campaign was given the credit. This campaign launched Nucor’s Grinding Ball operation, and established them as the Western States’ leading Grinding Ball Mill in less than six months.

We were given the challenge by Alcoa to promote and create interest for their new designer colored aluminum siding, “The Horizon Collection.” The real challenge came when they needed the direct mail campaign completed and mailed in January with the actual product not being available until spring. We overcame this challenge by creating a Blueprint with computer-enhanced photos to show the color possibilities available within the new “Horizon Collection.” This may seem unimpressive today, but consider how you would dare do this without PhotoShop? How about without your desktop computer?

We again pushed technology, the six new colors were introduced to contractors who were then invited to request more information. It was mailed in a white tube along with a letter and reply card. The campaign generated over 15% response.

Of the many concepts presented to the client, this dimensional package was the most hair-brained idea we’d ever proposed. Yet this full color, die-cut, hand assembled scale model of Blaine Hudson Printing’s new press was almost like printing money. The $23,000 marketing expense generated $610,000 in immediate contracts. Throughout the first year, contracts generated by this mailing piece exceeded $3.4 million.

With an average sale of over $200,000, Retail Planning Associates (RPA), has a real sales job on its hand each time it stands before prospect. This dimensional campaign was designed to introduce potential clients to RPA’s capabilities to plan and produce highly effective retail store designs. Who could resist picking up an age-old toy: the Viewmaster? Seven of RPA’s beautiful store designs were featured on the 3-D reel shown in the Viewmaster. The accompanying brochure offered a do-it-yourself-kit and other information. We generated impressive results. Even now, years later, RPA will approach a potential client only to be asked, “Wasn’t it you that sent us that Viewmaster a couple of years ago?”

How do you sell a spokesperson? That was our challenge. Dian Thomas is a public relations spokesperson specializing in food and related products. Her style is to create fun, exciting new ways to present those products, thus renewing interest, and ultimately, increasing sales. Our goal was to get Dian in front of companies and their respective public relations agencies. The target was 250 public relations firms and food-related companies. We produced and sent one of Dian's creations, a "Kick-the-can" ice cream package, as a demonstration of her creative prowess. The kit included everything needed (except the ice) to create homemade ice cream in the office. The campaign landed Dian several national PR tours as well as a regular position on NBC's "Home Show" every Monday Morning.

Here's proof that anything can be sold through the mail – even Christmas Trees. This campaign, which included a do-it-yourself package for growing Gourmet Christmas Trees, sold out Silver Mountain’s supply. In fact, it generated a response rate of 22%, with orders of Christmas trees that exceeded supply by nearly $800,000. The free seedling, which was part of the offer, was planted in a 3-quart sauce pan and sent to those who responded. The seedling was accompanied by an owners manual and order form. This campaign won both an International Echo Award and the coveted Henry Hoke Award for the most creative solution to a tough marketing problem.

Many of the campaigns we developed utilizing technology are now very commonplace in today's world. We pushed the boundaries of possibility when we introduced them. When it comes to personalization, presenting a cool idea is not even the half of it. Understanding the audience, the delivery limitations and requisite message for success all play into the personalization strategy. Its not just how to slap a name on a piece of paper or on a website.

TCI expects big results from their first quarter acquisition campaigns, as this helps to set the foundation for a successful year. Several states used our “Take ‘Em All” multi-media campaign for new customer acquisition. The campaign included direct mail, newspaper, radio and television. The “Clapper-board” direct mail piece was customized not only for each state, but also for each local cable system within the state. Customized information included pricing, premium channels, local telephone numbers and offer expiration dates. Similar customizations appeared in newspaper, radio and TV ads. The campaign was a big success with an overall response of 6.45% - much higher than previous campaigns with similar offers.

“Hey! That’s my name and address in the headline… and in the stories… and in the captions… “ When the recipient saw his or her name in the news, how could they resist reading it? This cable acquisition campaign was developed to creatively show the excitement and value of cable television. It utilized the most sophisticated personalization techniques to get the addressee’s attention. We maximized the computer technology by personalizing both sides. There are 47 occurrences of personalization which include first and last names, addresses, cities, states, streets, prices, deadlines and local cable names and local cable system phone numbers. The campaign was an overwhelming success, generating over 4% response.

In an effort to Zig Ziglar’s new three-day workshop called “Born to Win,” we created this personalized “Birth Certificate” package. On the Birth Certificate where the newborn vital statistics would be, we laser printed the character traits that attendees were promised to obtain through participation at the “Born to Win” seminar. The unique presentation of the sales message, and the promise to become a new person, was so well received that the campaign successfully filled these workshops month after month. That is quite a feat, considering that average cost for a person to attend the three-day seminar was over $1,500.

Breakfast of Champs

At a national sales conference, LTCFP put on "The Breakfast of Champions" kickoff meeting featuring a personalized "Breakfast of Champions" Wheaties Box for each agent. Each box showcased the agent with his picture on the front, biographical information and sales performance statistics.

The Breakfast of Champions box was very successful in demonstrating to each agent that they were important enough to the company that LTCFP would go to the work and expense to demonstrate they were considered a "Champion."

Originally LTCFP planned to have the cold cereal actually be the breakfast, once the boxes were set out the evening before the breakfast meeting, the CEO elected to provide a breakfast buffet so as not to make the agents ruin their boxes by opening their personalized box. The boxes became the keepsake of all keepsakes and were a great way to reward, encourage and motivate agents.

Knead some Dough?

Granite Credit Union opened their new Sandy, Utah office with plenty of dough to go around - dough came in, in the form of new accounts, deposits and investments, and dough went out in the form of loans and the very tasty bakery goods that warmed the tummies of the hundreds of visitors that crowded the branch during the two day grand opening.

OFFERS TO MEET EVERY DOUGH KNEAD!

Whether the members or prospective members kneaded a place to store their dough, manage their dough or whether they kneaded to borrow some dough, during the grand opening, we made offers singular to the individual kneads.

Kneading to start with a highly targeted list.

We took Granite's current member list and developed a profile identifying the characteristics of the varied GCU members. This profile served as a guide to help us identify which of Granite's members should receive which product offer. Typically this is called "cross-selling." We prefer to call it cross-selling. So what's new about that?

With this profile we then selected an additional 10,000 potential members living within a given radius of the new branch location and targeted them with individually tailored offers.

In other words, we identified residents surrounding the new branch that had the same characteristics as the GCU credit card holders and offered them a GCU credit card. Those residents that looked like the GCU members with mortgages got a mortgage offer. The residents that looked like GCU members with auto loans got auto loan offers, etc.

Visually arresting graphics were used to get the prospects attention. The prospect's name was written in the flour by the dough on the bread board. Their name also showed up as the sprinkles on the donut, in the cream cheese on the bagel and out of the jam on the slice of bread. When we told the prospect that we had products with their name all over them, we meant it.

Piano top or life preserver?

Sometimes neither the piano top or any other traditional life preserver is the best solution.

What happens when new emerging technology needs to be introduced to the world? Where do you go when no precedents have been set and there's no one to follow? You lead, and that's why companies come to Merrell Remington. Why? Because we lead rather than follow.

With new technology, new markets, new ground to be blazed, old thinking is insufficient. We not only embrace and push new technologies in the development and delivery of creative marketing messages, we are called upon to help introduce those new technologies, those new products, those new processes to the market.

Working in the financial arena does extend certain limitations when it comes to our style of hard-hitting, almost outlandish, creative. But even the very well-respected and distinguished Zions Bank encouraged our creative team to rise above the “safe and traditional” as we introduced their new Zion’s Visa/ATM Debit Cards to a market yet to have ever learned of this technology. Our introduction campaign invited customers to “swipe” their purchases with their new cards. Materials included bill inserts, newspaper ads, and several posters, but the very successful “Better Than a Pocket Full of Chickens” direct mail effort helped lift the entire campaign an extra notch above the traditional financial marketing. The mail campaign alone generated over 8% response.

We did on-demand before on-demand was demanded.

This campaign was created to help TCI introduce Viewer Controlled Television (VCTV) to a select group of homes in a Colorado test market. The brochure was mailed in a movie reel tin, along with a package of microwave popcorn, a business reply card and a personalized letter. In spite of the fact that VCTC was a new and untested program, this unique mailer generated an incredible 38% response rate. In focus group interviews that followed the introduction of VCTV, customers said, “We knew that the service was going to be first class just based on the quality of the advertising materials they used.” Eventually, because of the success of our test markets and the development of the on-demand technology, these services have become common-place in nearly every home in the country.

From its infancy, the 3in4 Association has relied on Merrell Remington to use our discipline of direct to maximize the effectiveness of their messaging to the world. One example is the development and delivery of the most recent Public Service Campaigns offered to television stations across the country. Creatively showing how 3 out of every 4 of the television station's viewers would be impacted by long term care, program directors from stations nationwide were influenced to air this year's 3in4 Association public service announcements. The 3in4 message was successfully delivered to millions of viewers across the nation.

We all understand that the internet has changed the world and we must remember that it has also changed the way our customers perceive us. Today, most consumers’ first stop when researching a product or service is to "look it up on the internet" or "Google it", and that’s where the relationship between company and customer begins. Understanding that fact is the first step in understanding the importance of managing our internet presence.

Putting up a basic website simply isn’t enough. In order to have a strong internet presence a company must go beyond just a website; it must consider Social Media sites, Product Review sites, online Press releases and numerous other sites that may contain references to the company. Managing your company’s presence in this new arena is possibly more important than the traditional Advertising, and Public Relations efforts of yesteryear. Unfortunately, creating and managing your internet presence can be costly and distract from your company’s core mission.

OLINS has the expertise, tools and resources to help.

As an independent sales professional you understand the importance of your reputation in your profession and your community. You are essentially building the brand that is "you" and you need to build that brand on the internet as well as your local community. Today, most consumers’ first stop when researching a product, service or sales consultant is to "look it up on the internet" or "Google it", and that’s where the relationship between you and customer begins. You need to manage your presence on the internet; Your website, Social Media sites, Product Review sites, etc... and you need to do so without distracting from your core sales efforts. That’s where OLINS can help, we have established an individual internet presence for hundreds of sales professionals, let us show you how.

OLINS – Your partners in success... one to one.

As an executive today you know the importance of managing your company’s internet presence. There was a time when PR and advertising were the bulk of a company’s public persona, but for many companies their internet presence has surpassed the traditional marketing and PR channels. This is not limited to high-tech companies, today’s consumers turn to the internet for information and peer opinion, whether the source is social media, professional reviewers, peer review sites, or simply a Google search to see what’s being said, the internet is often the first step in building a relationship with a new customer.

Managing your internet presence internally can seem like a daunting and expensive task, but OLINS can make it easier for you. We have the experience and tools to help you manage your company’s internet presence effectively and efficiently.

OLINS – Your partners in success... one to one.

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The internet has become a leading resource for consumers and potential franchisees alike. Google, social media sites, your own website, and peer review sites are all important factor in shaping the opinions of potential franchisees, you need to ensure that you are represented positively and accurately in that environment. Today managing your internet presence has become as important as effective PR or good advertising, it is too critical to manage as an afterthought. You cannot afford to allow this important channel to go unattended. OLINS can help you build and manage and internet presence that will help you expand and succeed. Having established and managed the internet presence for numerous highly successful organization and hundreds of independent sales professionals, we have the experience and the tools to ensure that you are poised for success online.

OLINS – Your partners in success... one to one.

In order to be competitive an Agency needs to fulfill their clients’ needs efficiently and effectively. Clients want the continuity and convenience of one agency for all their needs... they may settle for using specialized agencies for PR and internet, but it’s not their preference. Turning away portions of business because you lack expertise in a specific area is not a sustainable long term strategy, but neither is building expertise that you cannot effectively leverage. What’s the solution? OLINS.

We have the experience, tools and resources to help you manage your clients website and social media presence, plus the ability to track and report results effectively. Leverage our resources and expertise to provide your clients with the service the desire.

OLINS – Your partners in success... one to one.