For an agency full of sports fans, our years of creating TV spots for ESPN have been a thrill, especially since we’ve been able to work on both comedic and heartwarming executions.
Little League World Series. Along with major sponsor, Honda, ESPN wanted to drive viewership of an event that was recovering from a recent scandal regarding over-aged players. To do this, we created two spots that veered away from the brand’s usual humor to celebrate the traditions and purity of baseball itself, especially as played by kids. The spot entitled “East Meets West” was licensed in multiple years, becoming the longest running spot in ESPN history.
Most Valuable Parents. ESPN had created a co-branded program for one of its biggest sponsors -- KFC. remerinc was tasked with creating a TV spot to introduce “Most Valuable Parents” – a celebration of all that moms and dads do to make Little League games happen. We did so with humor, kid’s playing the game, and a baseball tradition still in vogue today.
Put Your Team on ESPN. For a second co-branded program with KFC, we created a spot to introduce the idea of Little League teams gathering votes in an effort to get their team featured on ESPN. Again, it involved humor, with two kids from opposing teams attempting to one-up each other during a game.
Wholly owned by Bill Gates, Corbis was the second largest stock photography company in the world. In our five years as agency of record, we created B2B advertising, events, and promotions that made Corbis the talk of the industry on a global level, resulting in substantial upticks in awareness, preference and, most importantly, sales.
Day in the Life. Our first campaign for Corbis was aimed at advertising agencies, one of their largest client bases. To demonstrate that Corbis understood how agencies work, we created illustrated comic strip style ads that celebrated the endless battle between “creatives” and “suits” as they try to agree on affordable image solutions for their projects. To our great delight, these ads were found pinned to the walls of several agencies around the world.
Apple a Day. We created this promotion to give creative personnel at agencies around the world an exciting reason to start their day on the Corbis website. Every weekday for an entire month, creative professionals entered to win one of Apple’s latest computers by logging onto Corbis before noon. The result – tens of thousands of website hits, 22 ecstatic winners, and a degree of viral excitement that was far ahead of its time.
Keyword Campaign. Every search on every image site starts with a keyword. We sought to firmly associate conceptual keywording with Corbis in the minds of creatives – effectively taking ownership of this everyday process By creating a humorous dichotomy between a keyword and a photo, we connected with users “where they live,” – showing off Corbis imagery, eliciting some chuckles, and forging a new bond. The campaign was tested and ultimately executed globally in nine languages and 12 countries. It was also shortlisted at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.
Keyword Mania. To communicate the efficacy of Corbis’ “conceptual keywording” capability, we created Keyword Mania – a worldwide promotion that asked participants to look at sets of images and then guess the conceptual keywords that best described each set, all for the chance to win a MINI Cooper. The game was played online by thousands of creatives around the globe – and in person by the world’s top creatives at the Clios in Miami Beach and at Cannes. For participation and impact, Keyword Mania was the greatest promotion in the history of the stock imagery business, winning a Cannes Gold Lion for excellence.
The Bettmann 100. The 100th birthday of Otto Bettmann presented a golden opportunity to promote the Bettmann Archive – one of Corbis’s most important collections. The cornerstone of this effort was Bettmann Moments – a coffee table book featuring stunning archival photographs. In over 100 spreads, we juxtaposed images in ways that entertained, inspired laughter, and commented on social changes. Bettmann Moments was ultimately licensed for retail sale by Barnes & Noble.
Based on our work for ESPN, we were asked to create co-branded TV spots for parent company, ABC, spotlighting its coverage of college football and featuring Tostitos – a major sponsor partner.
We wanted to tap into the phenomenon of people not just watching college football at home, but watching in groups within a party-type atmosphere that is dependent on great snacks. To do this, we created two spots in which a “sideline reporter” interviews the host of a football viewing party, who explains the tremendous importance of Tostitos to the success of his event. One of the spots takes place at half time and the other when the game is over.
Rover offers a unique alternative for pet owners who don’t like the thought of leaving their four-legged friends at kennels, but also don't want to impose on their on friends or family. They asked remerinc to explain their solution in a series of TV spots that viewers would relate to and remember.
Home Away From Home. Humans think of their pets as kids, a fact we took to the extreme in three humorous spots. Each spot opens with humans speaking to what viewers assume is an unseen child. Then it’s revealed that the child is actually a pet. This method allowed us to set up the parent/child aspect of the relationship while presenting the many positives of leaving a pet not at a kennel, but in a home with fellow animal lovers.
Chapters was the first mega-bookstore chain in Canada and remerinc was hired to create grand opening ads to introduce a concept that was truly new to an entire country.
This is Big! For the first wave of ads, we developed humorous three-part headlines that spoke to both the sheer size of Chapters stores as well as the range of content and services found inside. Each ad also contained three images.
Positioning. We needed to communicate that Chapters wasn’t just large in scope, but also boasted music, a coffee shop, and many other non-literary offerings, making it truly unique in all of Canada. So we wrote the tagline, “Great books are just the beginning” – a phrase that referred to books but clearly indicated that there was much more to discover.
Now See This. Once a Chapters store was open, or when an additional store came to a city that already had one, a second set of ads used fanciful illustrations to showcase the worlds of imagination and excitement that reading brings to life.
remerinc CEO, Dave Remer, has been involved in promoting and fundraising for Boys & Girls Clubs of King County for over 30 years. He has served on the Board on multiple occasions and even wrote “A positive place for kids” – the organization’s longstanding themeline. When the Clubs need an advocate, remerinc answers the call.
The Best Investment. Donating to Boys & Girls Clubs is like investing in the future not just of kids, but of the communities they will soon be leading. We reflected that belief in a campaign that used a familiar investment visual – indicating that the Clubs increase positives and decrease negatives for thousands of kids every day.
Membership Campaign. Membership cards open the doors to Boys & Girls Clubs for kids of every background. So we made those cards the focal point of a co-branded campaign featuring bus boards, print ads, radio, and television. Each execution spoke to the values of membership and alluded to the campaign’s corporate sponsors. And each encouraged donations to help put membership cards in the hands of kids.
LunchBreak! One of the biggest fundraising events of the year, LunchBreak helps empower the Clubs to provide positive places for kids to learn, play, make friends, and discover their potential. We created a logo mark to be the anchor visual for invitations, save the date cards, posters, and other communications around the event. The logo was rendered in a childlike, illustrative style – effortlessly communicating that the event is hosted during a meal and benefits kids.
ESPN referred us to Little League International, who wanted a TV campaign that communicated their participation opportunities for boys, girls, physically challenged kids, across a wide range of ages... plus volunteers and parents.
The spots needed to be upbeat and fun – like baseball itself – so we decided to show kids actively playing and adults taking part by watching, coaching, providing snacks, etc. It was a big story to tell, so we created a total of four spots, each addressing a different theme. And since we needed to show nice weather while producing the spots in December, we shot them all on location in Florida.
Back to Basics produced foods that replicated the diet dogs have eaten in the wild for thousands of years. In-store couponing and presentations were failing to encourage trial in sufficient numbers, so Back to Basics called remerinc, based on a referral by Pet Supplies Plus.
Magalog. To tell Back to Basics’ big story on a budget, we created a magalog – an oversized tabloid- style pieces that was mailed to prospective customers. Each magalog unfolded multiple times, providing room to tell the entire Back to Basics story while creating a tactile, interactive experience for the reader. Anchored by an eye-catching visual/headline combination and 4-color photography, the magalog delivered increased trial both immediately and in the months that followed. In fact, it was so successful that Back to Basics asked us for multiple more magalogs over the next 18 months, each generating increased sales.
Getty Images was the strong category leader in stock imagery, but had lost some market share to it’s chief rival, Corbis, due in no small part to our work for that brand. When our relationship with Corbis ended, Getty hired us for some added creative firepower for a major marketing initiative.
Gestalt. Getty wanted to introduce its latest and most dynamic royalty-free imagery to current and potential clients… with an impact that went beyond emails packed with new image collections. We devised “Gestalt” – a worldwide online promotion that invited creative professionals to carefully study pictures and then determine which ones were hidden within Rorschach style inkblots, all for a chance to win their choice of six “fantasies.” Gestalt was played by thousands of creatives around the world and drove awareness of the newest image collection.
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union wanted to stand out from its competitors (both banks and other credit unions) in a category where parity of products and services is generally assumed by the public. Creating this separation has been our overarching focus as their Agency of Record.
State of Mind. We created an ongoing branding campaign that capitalizes on an Alaska USA attribute that no competitor can match – its Alaskan heritage and values. In TV, radio, and outdoor executions, we've shared stories of neighbors helping each other, the very essence of a credit union. Four years into this campaign, "State of Mind" is still going strong.
Safe Money. To help Alaska USA make a bigger splash with their certificate accounts, we created a series of OOH executions showcasing foolish ways to hide one’s money away and reminding prospective customers that there’s a smarter way to save. When the campaign ran, certificate accounts took off.
Bank Breakup. In order to increase membership, we created radio spots in which people “break up” with their banks, because their relationship isn’t working. This method allowed us to speak to specific issues under the umbrella of a humorous conversation.
Bumper Wisdom. Alaska USA wanted to inform current customers that they could get auto insurance from in-branch brokers. We developed an illustrated series of posters that paraphrased quintessential bumper stickers to create humorous messaging around the importance of having insurance.
As the number three player in the category, Pet Supplies Plus was being significantly outspent by mega-competitors PetSmart and Petco. On a limited budget, we were tasked with driving sales and loyalty via messaging across multiple media.
Brand Revamp. The pet category was filled with retail and manufacturer brands communicating the pets-as-family sentiment. We made ‘Voice of Pet” the cornerstone of our marketing efforts, but decided to give the pets a bit more of an edge. Specifically, we spoke to each pet’s desires, and how they attempt to manipulate their humans. In doing so, we created humor at virtually every touch point.
Positioning. Pet Supplies Plus needed a tagline that spoke to their value proposition. We decided on four words, "Great Prices, No Begging." This phrase promised savings while also alluding to good service without the coupon clipping required of others stores.
Brand Campaign. Combining cute visuals of dogs, cats, and other pets with their inner thoughts, we constructed humorous dichotomies while telling stories familiar to every pet lover. For the customer, this showed that Pet Supplies Plus truly understands pets, creating a short leap to the assumption that they must also carry everything pets need. Humor also brought a vital “likeability” to the brand.
Store Design. To make sure that the Pet Supplies Plus in-store experience matched the communications that attracted customers there in the first place, we brought the brand alive on walls, end caps, blades, shelftalkers, and more. We also advised on store traffic flow, signage, and product placement. The result is a store that can’t be mistaken for the competition – an easy to navigate haven where pets and people are equally welcome.
Private Label Packaging. We recognized a clear opportunity for Pet Supplies Plus to create an entry-level brand that could be leveraged across multiple pet and product categories. Since most manufacturer brands are similar to each other in terms of design, PSP had a chance to stand out. Our playful package design truly paid off the Pet Supplies Plus name and demanded to be noticed.
Dots was a fast fashion chain suffering from diminishing revenue. In an effort to jumpstart sales and create a stronger brand – and based on a referral by their private equity investor – Dots asked remerinc to concept and present multiple messaging options on an extremely fast track.
Live Your Dreams. Dots gave us this theme and asked us to bring it to life. To do so, we created “Dress Courageously” – an action oriented tagline that encouraged woman to confidently try new things, overcome obstacles, and keep moving forward toward something better. This tagline acted as the inspiration for all creative executions – including store posters that combined aspirational two-word headlines with tight visual crops of women making final fashion preparations before conquering their day.
One of the country’s leading and most innovative Design/Build mechanical contractors, McKinstry had grown so rapidly that their customers and even some of their employees weren’t aware of their complete range of capabilities. remerinc was hired to tell that story while streamlining their communications.
Positioning. We created “For the Life of your Building” to communicate three truths simultaneously; McKinstry services help buildings run efficiently each day, McKinstry’s range of services help from the beginning of a building’s life to the end, and McKinstry helps the people who live and work in a building to do so in a healthy setting.
Website. By creating a virtual building as the centerpiece of the McKinstry site, we literally showed people in the act of living, working, and playing in the many environments that McKinstry helps create. Visitors to the site could quickly learn how McKinstry positively affects not only structures, but the men, women, and children who inhabit them.
Fast Food is a crowded space, and Taco Del Mar needed to grab attention while competing with several advertising giants. They asked for TV spots that would stand out and help establish a likeable personality… and they invited us to go as far as we wanted to make that happen.
As Seen On TV. Infomercials tend to be funny by their very nature, so we lampooned four different varieties, using several invented pitchmen and pitchwomen. In each case, the presenter extolled the virtues of a Taco Del Mar product in typically overhyped infomercial style, complete with graphics true to the genre. The spots proved so popular that they actually created interest from potential franchisees.
Cruise West needed to separate itself from the competition in a category where everyone’s advertising and marketing executions tended to look alike. And it needed to do so on a limited budget. remerinc jumped in with both feet.
Brand Makeover. We decided to position Cruise West against mega-ship competitors by speaking to the closer, deeper, and richer experience of small ship cruising. At the same time, across a wide range of media, we concocted a humorous, adventurous personality for Cruise West that set it apart from other small ship companies.
Romancing the Experience. Upon becoming agency of record, we first wanted to rally the company’s employees by reminding them how special their product was. So we wrote a rallying cry for small ship cruising, based on the poem, “If,” by Rudyard Kipling. The poem celebrated the special nature of the Cruise West experience and proved so popular that it was also featured in external advertising. Internal excitement and morale was boosted while customer bookings soared.
Direct Marketing. Cruise West’s communication strategy had become so predictable that customers were no longer paying attention. Using witty, humorous, headlines combined with interesting visuals, we overhauled their entire DM strategy, creating new bookings while lowering the marketing investment to secure each booking.
To replace the company’s more-of-the-same brochures, we created the “magalog” – an oversized tabloid execution that featured numerous pages filled with colorful images and text that not only informed, but entertained as well. This innovative piece was impossible to ignore when received in the mail, increasing the number of both new and previous customers… and giving Cruise West a completely unique look within the cruise industry. The magalog was printed on organic paper which leveraged on the brand promise of being kinder to the environment.
UW Physicians wanted to increase enrollments, but had two big hurdles to clear; their story of excellence was too big to tell in conventional print or radio spots, and the public had a pre-existing belief that doctors from the UW were strictly specialists who didn’t offer primary care.
U-Card Campaign. We invented the U-Card, a single advertising symbol that represented access to UW Physician care for anyone who requested it. In print, the U-Card became a central visual when first introduced. Later, it became part of the brand’s visual signature. In radio, getting a U-Card was the call-to-action for a spot so successful that the client’s phone lines became overloaded, forcing us to cut back on the media investment to ensure that calls could be answered in a timely manner.
For over a century, Foster Pepper Shefelman had helped the Northwest grow through its representation of closely held businesses, publicly traded companies, municipalities, government agencies, entrepreneurs, philanthropic organizations and individuals. But they wanted to advertise with impact beyond run of the mill legal marketing, which relies primarily on attorney photos and a listing of awards.
Jobs Well Done. We created a campaign that celebrated the successes of FP&S clients, rather than their own. This excellence-by-association method used lighthearted photography and illustration that captured the reader’s attention and established a visual style that was fresh and unique in the category.
Though a relative newcomer to the wireless location space, Xypoint already had exclusive technology solutions for government mandated infastructure challenges. What they needed was to introduce themselves to potential clients in a memorable way.
Eye Of The Tiger. We created a double page spread for industry publications that celebrated Xypoint’s new kid on the block status. The ad used an impossible to ignore image and spoke of the importance of expertise over longevity. It also took advantage of a huge sports story that was the talk of the country.
Relief. Our research showed that E911 operators were heavy users of antacids because of the highly stressful nature of the job they did. When our client, XYPoint, came up with technology to make that job easier, we created an ad that likened this new innovation to the world’s most famous form of acid relief.
remerinc follows the same advice we give to our own clients – advertise! In a self promotional print ad, we offer a “Free” advertising lunch, using an image that clearly and humorously advises the audience that the offer has strings attached. Copy reinforces that warning, again with humor. For TV, we created a series of several :15 ads that use humorous 1-2 Punch headlines juxtaposed with classical music. The call to action – call remerinc.
iWitness is a patented personal safety app conceived by remerinc owner, Dave Remer, and developed within remerinc, in cooperation with offsite developers.
As a longtime player in wireless and location technologies, Dave realized that existing technologies, aligned correctly, could result in an easy-to-use, inexpensive safety solution that users could take with them virtually anywhere via their smartphones.
By capturing video of any incident and sending it to the cloud for safekeeping, iWitness arms its users with the one thing criminals fear most – an unimpeachable witness to their actions. And unlike guns or other potentially lethal forms of self-defense, it is appropriate for use by anyone, including children.
Find out more at iWitness.com
The app can be purchased at the Apple App Store and at Google Play .
Ruby’s Roadside Grill is a fast casual restaurant located in Seaside, Oregon and featuring a large and eclectic menu, anchored by gourmet burgers. It began as an abandoned gas station that Dave purchased in 2015. The remerinc team worked on color schemes, consulted on design, and helped plan the menu before Ruby’s opened in September of 2016.
Dave correctly intuited that dogs are a unifying factor for beach visitors, so he named the restaurant after his own Labrador. He also made it dog friendly, with a large outdoor space and even a dog menu. The 16-foot-long fire pit continued the beach vibe and was another hit with customers, further separating Ruby’s from its competition.
After two years of learning and experimentation, Ruby’s continues to grow and remerinc knows more than ever about a challenging category.
