Colorado's first MMJ PR shop opens its doors

Let's all take a few seconds to get the weed jokes out of the way, then marvel for a bit as we find ourselves in one of those "the future is now" moments. If you ever imagined that you'd drive down a Denver street and see medical marijuana dispensaries everywhere, then surely you imagined the corollary: a day when all those stores would need their own communications firm. Enter Grow Room Communications, who announced their Colorado opening this week.

A release on PRWeb (there was no direct contact info on the release) positions Grow Room Communications as the "...first and only business development and public relations firm exclusively focused on the medical marijuana industry..." Washington, D.C. and 14 states have MMJ dispensaries, and they're stating a willingness to work with any and all.

Has MMJ really grown up so fast? It seems like just yesterday that these stores started opening, but it looks like market maturity is on overdrive. We're looking forward to seeing how it all turns out in this strange new world. In the meantime, where did we put those rocket slippers we bought yesterday?

Mayor Hick's "cold shower" ad makes Gawker Media political ad roundup

Regardless of which camp you fall into, political ads can provide a degree of entertainment — especially if someone at Gawker Media is willing to wade through them all and compile the best ones. Among the honorees was John Hickenlooper's "cold shower" spot:



Pretty tame by today's declining standards. Our creative director gives points to the Hickenlooper camp for their use of color and typography in their overall campaign identity. He found it a refreshing change from the usual block type and red-white-and blue color palette. Do you believe any other local political work belongs on the list?

Jeremy Fulco's dual roles bring Creative 303 and Player's Bench closer to the customer

As content manager for Creative 303, Jeremy Fulco is responsible for gathering and managing all text and images for every client deliverable. But on evenings and weekends, he laces up for Creative 303 client and Denver-based hockey retailer Player's Bench as a sales associate. Like the rare player on the ice who can skate like a forward or a defenseman, Jeremy provides a critical link between agency, client and customer that is bound by the glue of hockey passion.

A former college player from Michigan, Fulco landed the sales job at Player's Bench not long after coming on board here at 303. The advantages were obvious: his in-the-trenches view of what customers were responding to gave him insight into our efforts to boost online sales at PlayersBench.com. And Jeremy's rapport with Player's Bench leadership helps Creative 303's design team be more responsive to client feedback, which shortens overall creative production time. Player's Bench CEO Rick Boh and COO Mike Callahan are, like Jeremy, former players. Culturally, the company prides itself on being a "by the players, for the players" retailer whose employee immersion in the sport results in a better consultative buying experience.

"Being in the sport takes over your mind, body and soul," says Fulco. "To have that connection with your client and their customers gives you a deeper understanding of and commitment to the relationship."

It's the perfect alignment of individual interest and team strategy, and a prime example of how boutique creative agencies can forge the intimate local bonds that keep teammates like Jeremy in service to their passion and in touch with the needs of two critical audiences at once.

DC Shoes branding officer turns personal passion into viral gold

We came across this sick viral for DC Shoes. It's not hard to see why this video turned into a marketing coup for the brand. It definitely made that empty parking lot across the street look totally different. Check out the video, and an accompanying article from Ad Age below:

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Five years ago, DC Shoes founder Ken Block decided he needed another challenge beyond being his footwear and apparel company's chief brand officer. So at age 37, he embarked upon another career: rally racing. But it wasn't just a lark. Mr. Block, who oversees product design and development as well as marketing, was actually good, winning Rookie of the Year honors on the Rally America circuit, and getting a sponsor in the process.

But the rally-racing marketing executive also recently gained fame with another, perhaps dubious, honor, as having made and appearing in one of the top 10 viral ads of all time.

Read the rest here...

Senior creatives leaving big shops to start boutique agencies

This NYT article about top-level creative talent leaving big agencies to start their own projects struck a chord here at Creative 303. Our CCO and founder John Meyer — who also bailed on a big shop to start Creative 303 — found it quite resonant. Excerpt below...there's also another great article on the same subject over at Ad Age. Enjoy!

Co:, with a colon, is the name of an agency being opened in New York by Ty Montague and Rosemarie Ryan, who surprised Madison Avenue in March by disclosing that they would leave their senior posts at the giant JWT for an entrepreneurial venture. The name — perhaps one of the pithiest for any agency — is meant to suggest the Co: business model by evoking words like co-creation, collaboration and co-venturing.

Fittingly, Mr. Montague and Ms. Ryan had been co-presidents of the North American operations of JWT, part of WPP; she arrived at the agency in 2004 and he joined a year later. Mr. Montague had also been chief creative officer for North America. They joined a lengthy list of top executives of large agencies who have recently left to open their own shops, take ownership stakes in smaller agencies or, in some instances, quit advertising.

Artist Laurie Maves interprets Creative 303 in original painting

Creative 303 recently commissioned the amazing Laurie Maves to paint a piece of artwork for our office. We sought her out because of her unique, fresh, and timely perspective on the work she does. In her own words: "I believe artists have a special responsibility in creating art to be as green as they possibly can, and use their own creativity to explore new ways of presenting the mundane and ordinary to the world in new and challenging ways."

That kind of perspective really drew us to Laurie. Check out the finished work below:

John Common adds musical shine to Ignite Boulder

We sent our social media intern @eric_alex to look in on this week's Ignite Boulder, which dares some of the most brilliant, insightful and outrageous people in Colorado — from teachers to waitresses, ad geeks to meteorologists — to meet Ignite's one major requirement: be interesting. The presentations are often over the top, as you can see here:

Probably the coolest part of the whole experience was the intermission performance by John Common and the Blinding Flashes of Light. Our friends over at bieMEDIA and 511 Productions worked with him to create a promotional video in January for the release of his latest album. It was humbling to get the opportunity to see him and his amazingly talented band perform.

Overall, a great night of fun with some of the most interesting, unique, and creative people in Colorado! We'll definitely be hitting up the next one, as well as the smaller but equally awesome Ignite Denver.

Check out some of the amazing photos taken by @bradcrooks here.

Creative 303 too busy creating for clients to create for ourselves

Sorry we've been MIA — there have been some big changes here at Creative 303 and a ton of new business that has kept us constantly on the move. We've finally found a moment to breathe/blog, so here it is. We'll be updating you on all the latest Creative 303 news, so look out for new posts this week!

WPP Ogilvy apologizes for BP

As BP's efforts to end the 40-day-old oil spill still show no signs of success and the Obama administration announced a criminal and civil investigation into the spill, the company is promising it "will get it done" and "make this right" via print advertising.

Since late May the company has been running full-page ads on a consistent basis in major daily news publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Washington Post. It has also been running local ads around the Gulf states with information on the clean-up effort and how to contact BP, a spokesman for the oil giant said. The spokesman wasn't sure how long the print campaign would continue but said the company's communications plans were still "evolving." WPP's Ogilvy, BP's creative lead agency, which did not create the print ads, referred calls to the company.

Top Three Beer Companies post decline first time in 28 years. Wow.

The $100 billion U.S. brewing industry is staggering into its crucial selling season from its weakest position in years. Sales for 11 of the biggest brands fell in the four weeks ended May 16, according to SymphonyIRI, and only four of the top 30 -- Keystone Light, Modelo Especial, Yuengling and Pabst Blue Ribbon -- posted gains. Meanwhile, despite massive measured-media support, category titans Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite all declined.

Creative 303 takes over creative for PlayersBench

Rick Boh – Founder & President PlayersBench | John Meyer – Chief Creative Officer Creative 303

PlayersBench has selected Creative 303 in Denver to handle its creative duties and all of its online business following a review last week. Creative 303 succeeds a Boston shop on the business. “It’s a very important piece of business for us”, said John Meyer, Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Creative 303. “PlayersBench came to us looking to get to the next level and expand their online capabilities”. PlayersBench, one of the nation’s largest distributors of Hockey and Lacrosse equipment, is currently in four states, with its largest retail presence in Denver. Creative 303 creates high profile work appearing across various traditional and digital channels.

Recruiting at Colorado Academy

Creative 303 was at Colorado Academy today for the “Draw Your Own” class. John Meyer, Chief Creative Officer of Creative 303 in Denver, Colorado took charge of Mrs. Brink’s 3rd grade class. His challenge was to share and demonstrate to a group of 20 kids how to draw a penguin. Drawing on his fine art background and a long-ago summer internship with Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, he led the class in a 30-minute drawing exercise. The drawings were judged by Creative 303 art director Jordan Holloway. The top winner for her drawing was Momo. Creative 303 was asked to come back and give another workshop. We are looking forward to our Summer interns...who will be joining us around 2025.

1200 sf ft of pure awesome.

new design studio in montreal.

great coupon for the HOW conference in Denver

Free CS5 class at the HOW conference here.

New kid on the block...

Hi my name is Alix and I am currently an advertising major at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This is my first internship (and my first time blogging about anything) so I am really excited about all these firsts!! I'm pretty fascinated with advertising and give everyone who is a part of it props because it is a very integrated and time consuming process, much more so than I realized. There is never a dull moment and always something exciting going on. What other job combines creativity, art, strategy, planning, and events all in one?? I'm really excited about my opportunity and know that there are many more exciting things to come!

We will be attending this. You Should Too.

TYPO

Great Commercial Shot with only One Camera: Olympus PEN

Another Great Ad for the World Cup

World Cup Advertising

As an avid futbol fan, i am very excited to see the World Cup this year. It is being broadcast from South Africa. There have been some videos from puma, addidas and nike on the subject. All work seen so far has been stunning. So stunning that Ad Age did an article on the matter at hand: HERE.

Luncheon by Design

On Wednesday, John and Liza attended the Denver Art Museum’s annual Luncheon by Design which featured an amazing presentation by the legendary fashion house Hermes. The presentation featured an Hermes craftsman, flown in with the presses from Lyon, France who has worked for the company for over 40 years. He demonstrated the process of printing and finishing an Hermes scarf, while telling the fascinating history of the company. The luncheon hosted 175 guests who were treated to a delicious lunch and a stunning setting, complete with six spectacular, ten foot square ceiling décor pieces made from scarves, and elegant table arrangements. Each place setting was completed with a set of NorthCreek note cards, designed by Creative 303, wrapped in an Hermes orange silk ribbon, that highlighted the elements used in the new ad campaign created by Creative 303.

Totally Sweet Neighbors Moving In!!!!!

My head is literally exploding with excitement that is Moe's Original Bar B Que. This is the most radical thing that has happened on Broadway between 5th and 6th in 10 years. Words cannot come to fruition because of jaw dropping awe that is Moe's Original Bar B Que.

Too Much?

Mark Evan's Work

http://www.markevansart.com/

just go there. amazing work.

Social Media Awareness

Cool Article in Advertising Age.

really _______ typographic logos

these are pretty clever and cool. please take 5 min and check them out.

mad men season 3 available now.

i was reading ad age this morning and i saw the lucky strike package. i just thought of the mad men developing that idea. the article is a decade by decade breakout of advertising firsts. click to read here.

google news

google is threatening to pull out of china loosing 2.3% revenue, which only adds up to 500 million. only. read about it here. cool to see the outsourcing come to a halt. way to lead by example google.

just amazing

real life art blows my mind. naturally this did: CHECK IT

loving the throwbacks

soda throwback cans in ad age

CS5 Launch

i'm sure everyone in the graphics world is excited about the release of cs5. according to the cs5.org website it is to be released on april 21. here at 303 we are working on quad core machines with snow leopard OS which means a 64 bit platform. well cs4 and back are written on 32 bit platforms so they are processing SLOWER than a duo core. excited to see what i5 and i7 processors will do with a 64 bit version of adobe.

RED Cameras

in my quest for being on the top of the game, when it comes to technology, i recently came across the red camera. this camera company, i love. they came out of no where, offered an amazing product at an amazing price. most 720p studio cameras with 1/2 chipset are $5,000.00 or so. that is a 2k camera, or 2000+ pixels wide. just to give you a reference standard television is broadcast in 480i, which is 480 pixels across. the red cameras come at you with a base model of 2/3 chipset and with 3k resolution for $5,500.00. and everything with the red camera to top notch, aluminum body, great lenses, etc. becoming a top end production company requires 2 things, skills and equipment. getting into a business with 2 cameras, 4 lenses and 2 MCP's for under $22,000.00 is kind of amazing. and the real thing that blows my mind is the RED EPIC 617 28k camera. which is 28,000 pixels wide. just mind blowing the resolution on that. literally can't find a screen to place that resolution.

hilarious.

check this out.

creepily interesting...

The North Face has i'm assuming the factory labs came up with this marketing strategy. The New York Times posted this and it is very interesting and creepy. knowing that TNF knows where i am at all times, kinda invasion of privacy.

"it's just..."

'Just' is one of those nasty Four Letter words

'Just' is quite rightly included amongst the C2 wiki list of Alarm Bell Phrases. It's a dangerous word that should be used as sparingly as possible. As a developer, it's a word you hear far too often: "this will just take a few days", "it's just a couple of web-pages", and of course the ultimate: "it should just work."

'Just' is a vague, almost condescending diminutive. Nine times out of ten, it means this:

I do not know, but it is in my interest to estimate optimistically.

Generally, you'll find that if you have a definite idea of the size of something, or the amount of effort required, the word 'just' quickly vanishes from your vocabulary. Not because the thing is necessarily large, but because even being certain that something is small removes the need to qualify its smallness: it becomes what it is, no more, no less, no 'just' required.

good article

banner ads, to many graphic designers, are a thing of annoyance, but this article in adweek exlpains how to have fun with banner ads...

not to be political, but...

yesterday, obama talked about the 2010 budget. well in 2008 our GDP was about 13.5 trillion and our debt was 8.7 trillion, which is 64% . well with the new budget for 2010 we have a 3.94 trillion dollar budget with 2.19 trillion dollars in our pockets. that means there will be a 1.75 trillion dollar deficit added to our federal debt. if china calls in to the US we are screwed. we did it do the british over the suez canal and china can now do it the US. not sure if it is a good time to be a young person. the future does not look grim. maybe we will go the way of denmark with 90% tax rate? we have to make this budget up some how. i think it was stated that if everyone american citizen puts in $175,000 we will be back at sea level. do you have that kind of cash lying around?

ipad

as with a lot of people, we were all busy watching the keynote of the ipad being brought to life. after much analysis of the product I have come to decide I do not need one. having an iphone and mac computer. it is interesting, the battery is an amazing advance, but everything else has kinda been around. and what I can't believe is there is no isight camera. the ipad would have been the perfect tool for skype-ing. for $500 to have a slim tab to skype with family members would be great. to have a screen that big with resolution that they can now put into those cameras. it would have been an amazing device...but i guess to keep the price point at 500 was hard enough. they should release an option to have a camera.

my two cents.

aesthetically...it looks beautiful with the exception of the bezel...but i guess for the power button...not sure.

thank you for bringing this to my attention...

the denver egotist brought something to light that i have books on but would love a website instead. this article is a great thing for burgeoning web designers, graphic designers, art directors, and so forth... it is as follows the article explains all of these shortcuts that are in Photoshop (Ps) that you always mouse to. like, cmnd + shift + (.) increases your type by 2 points. time saving is an understatement. check it out, will do you some good.

The Big Swinging....Technology

This article in Ad Age reminds me of my Commencement Speech for my undergrad. Raymond Kurzweil was the commencement speaker. he spoke of the singularity, and how present it really is. what he talks about is how technology and price points are increasing/decreasing at an incredible rate. as technology gets better, the price goes down. something that really hit me was the iphone 3Gs. in 1999 the Pentium 3 chip came out. with it came with 500MHz of processing power and less then 256 MB of RAM. that was ten years ago. the iphone 3Gs comes with 866MHz and 512 MB of RAM. and it is about 1/20th the size. it is so crazy to think how fast technology moves. also, that computer was $5,000.00 US. the iphone OFF a plan is $600.00 US with the plan $200.00 US. it blows my mind to think what technology will overcome in 2020. hell, i am excited to see what apple comes out with in the next 3 years.

Guy Kawasaki "The Art of Innovation..."

cool work by Guy Kawasaki. HERE.

Adrian Shaughnessy

I am reading one of Adrian Shaunessy's books right now. And he has some great quotes that, even in my short time in the business, are completely relatable. i.e.

"During the time that I ran a studio, and despite having some blue-chip clients and, at one giddy moment, 40 members of staff, I never employed account handlers. Why? Because 'account handling' was something done by advertising agencies and big soulless design groups as a way of distancing their clients from the messy business of creativity, and this was the opposite of what my studio stood for. We believed in letting out clients see the blood on the floor.

But in truth, account handling was what I mostly did: hand-holding nervous and mistrustful clients; listening to them; placating them; remonstrating with them; and sometimes admitting to them that we'd screwed up. But although this is what I did, I refused to call it account handling. I called it: looking after clients, and showing them what we do, and letting them know where and how their money was being spent."

I am enjoying his book immensely.

Big Ups for Small Creative Cos.

This article published in ADWEEK today, explains how small business in the creative industry will grow in 2010. Interesting article for sure.

new year, new...

here at 303 we are excited for the new year.

we are starting out with new hires, on the management side.

more info to come soon.