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Caribou Coffee: Make The Cup Case Study
caribou coffee , food , coffee , beverage , webby , user generated content , bouisms , award winning , retail , facebook , twitter , youtube , social media , app , interactive
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Caribou Coffee: Make The Cup Case Study

Caribou Coffee Make The Cup

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Visit the site: www.cariboucoffee.com/makethecup »

Solution

Colle+McVoy realized that Caribou’s broadest reaching media vehicle was its cups. Millions of cups each year serve as walking billboards or “owned” media. With the brand relaunch, we created a series of cups featuring handwritten “Bouisms” highlighting things worth staying awake for. Building on that momentum, we created MakeTheCup.com, which allowed consumers to tell us what they stay awake for, and possibly land on the next generation of Caribou cups. The consumer promotion spiked site traffic by 26 percent, and 150 of the best submissions made it to millions of new Caribou cups.

Challenge

Despite being the second-largest premium coffeehouse in the world, Caribou Coffee is dwarfed by Starbucks when it comes to ad spending. With such a large spending gap, we needed to find a unique promotion to engage customers in our “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” campaign.

Land O’Lakes: Appealing To The Next Generation of Moms
land o’lakes , cpg , case studies , baking , twitter , facebook , youtube , flickr , food , interactive , website
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Land O’Lakes: Appealing To The Next Generation of Moms

Land O'Lakes Site Redesign

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Visit the site: www.landolakes.com »

Solution

A completely redesigned landolakes.com helps consumers interact with the established brand in new ways. Built to appeal to both less-experienced, tech-savvy moms and more-seasoned cooks and bakers, the site features a modernized color palette, engaging photography and better social connectivity. The Test Kitchen section highlights the brand’s expertise with tips, photos and how-to advice. Intuitive searching gets you to great recipes quickly. And recipe pages are designed with the user in mind, featuring enhanced functionality, while themed collections trigger more ideas. With more than 3,000 recipes and 5,000 pages, sharing the simple goodness of everyday food has never been more user friendly.

Challenge

Land O’Lakes has been a key ingredient in America’s kitchens for generations. But there was an opportunity for its interactive experience to connect with a new generation of consumers — and continue to make sure longtime visitors felt right at home.

People For Bikes: Bikes Make Life Better - Projection Art
people for bikes , bike , cause marketing , award winning , recreation , youtube , social media , viral , tv , television , film , broadcast , video , content
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People For Bikes: Bikes Make Life Better - Projection Art

Bikes Make Life Better

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We all know that when people ride bikes, life is better. In this short video, we bring this idea to life as riders trigger projectors throughout a city, transforming an urban environment into a vibrant, colorful world. A world made better, by bikes.

Caribou Coffee: The Adventures of Jack & Gourdo
caribou coffee , food , coffee , beverage , retail , youtube , social media , video , product launch , tv , television , film , broadcast , content
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Caribou Coffee: The Adventures of Jack & Gourdo

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What would happen if a pumpkin and a gourd possessed the gift of speech? You’d get the Autumn Adventures of Jack & Gourdo, that’s what. Jack and Gourdo are the irreverent ambassadors of Caribou Coffee’s Flavors of Fall lineup of handcrafted drinks and bakery items.

Take Me Fishing: Master Casters
take me fishing , fishing , boating , recreation , sports , viral , youtube , social media , website
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Take Me Fishing: Master Casters

TMF Master Casters

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Visit the site: www.takemefishing.org/fishing/videos/master-casters »

We wanted to attract younger people to fishing in a whole new way. Capitalizing on the success of the XGames and shows such as Jackass, we created a series of videos featuring fishing in a whole new light. One of which features an expert angler hitting clay pigeons out of the air at a gun range with his rod, reel and lure.

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Erbert & Gerbert’s: Candle Cannon
erbert & gerbert’s , retail , restaurant , youtube , social media , viral , video , food
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Erbert & Gerbert’s: Candle Cannon

Erbert & Gerbert's Erbert & Gerbert's Candle Cannon

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Visit the site: candlecannon.com »

How do you celebrate 20 years of making great subs? With a 20th Anniversary Blowout, of course. We built the world’s largest air vortex cannon to get E&G’s customers excited about this tasty milestone. 850,000+ (free) online views later, our client is still celebrating.

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Erbert & Gerbert’s: Human Flipbook
erbert & gerbert’s , retail , restaurant , youtube , social media , viral , video , food
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Erbert & Gerbert’s: Human Flipbook

Erbert & Gerbert's Erbert & Gerbert's Human Flipbook

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Visit the site: humanflipbook.com »

150 T-shirts + 1 overworked iron ÷ 30 seconds = the world’s first Human Flipbook. Looking to connect with its core collegiate audience, what started out as a late-night TV spot running on Comedy Central and MTV went on to become a viral online sensation. Hundreds of blogs posted about it. Millions of people viewed it. CNN covered it. And Erbert & Gerbert’s Q4 sales were up in an otherwise flat quick-serve restaurant category.

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Explore Minnesota Tourism: Minnesota in Six Words
explore minnesota tourism , blog , welcome
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Explore Minnesota Tourism: Minnesota in Six Words

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Lee Hanson

Just how far do you need to go to showcase how awesome the Land of Sky Blue Waters is? How about 1,500 miles, give or take a few.

Showing off the North Star State—the Gopher State, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesnowta, especially Minnesnowta, these days—was just what Explore Minnesota asked us to do.

But here’s the thing: We didn’t want to churn out a standard-issue tourism spot filled with a montage of prairie, lakes and more prairie and more lakes. That’s not how things are done here at C+M. Instead, we challenged ourselves to find six words that would seamlessly tie together compelling Minnesota-centric activities. The words that bubbled to the top were: spin, try, hold, rock, share and catch. Each word was the focus of its own 15-second spot.

Over the course of last summer (and deep into fall) we set out to bring this campaign to life. It was a fantastic experience. During 11 full days of shooting (not in a row), we covered more than 1,500 miles and captured exactly 52 different shot set-ups.

It was an amazing experience set against the backdrop of an amazing state.

Minnesota. Explore it.


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An Analysis of Social Media Engagement Tools

Grant Olson

Maintaining a social media presence has become an essential part of the marketing mix for just about any consumer-facing brand. In fact, enterprise class corporations now have 26 employees on average creating social content on their behalf (Owyang, Jeremiah. Social Media Management: An Industry Perspective).

Although marketers realize that a social media presence is crucial, social media (or community) management is still a young discipline. Over 80% of enterprise-class corporations’ social media programs are less than three years old (Owyang, Jeremiah. Social Media Management: An Industry Perspective). The exciting part is best practices are still being forged all the time. This includes the emergence of a handful of social media engagement tools that aim to help social media teams listen to and interact with their communities.

It’s important for marketers to stay abreast of the tools that can make us more effective while engaging in the social space. That’s why we’re constantly evaluating social media engagement tools. Most of these tools include features like:

  • Conversation streams from various social networks to keep an eye on what’s being said about your brand
  • The ability to flag or assign posts for follow-up and facilitate collaboration between team members
  • Publishing capabilities for multiple social networks to broadcast content to your community
  • Post-level analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your content

Of course, you should always keep your specific social media objectives in mind when evaluating these tools. But, to help narrow the list, a recent evaluation from Colle+McVoy identified three frontrunners: Hootsuite, Buddy Media and SocialVolt.

In our particular case, we were looking for a tool with a good balance of collaboration features, real-time listening, post-level analytics and publishing capabilities across multiple networks.

HootSuite provides the most bang for your buck. It offers solid analytics, a decent user experience, and standard collaboration features like assigning community posts to team members for follow-up, for $5.99/month, plus $15 per additional user per month.

Buddy Media is a true enterprise solution, with a scalable offering that spans just about every social network. It is one of the few tools that provided options for publishing to a YouTube channel.

SocialVolt is solid across the board. Although more expensive at $1,800 per month for the professional edition and a website that leaves you needing a live demo for the full picture, we were still very intrigued.

The most important thing we learned through our evaluation is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. No silver bullet. It’s extremely important to articulate your goals for the social space and tailor your team and tools to them. We did arrive at a clear decision for the tool that best fits our particular needs: HootSuite.

HootSuite provides all the necessities a social media team needs in a clean and intuitive interface. Collaboration is streamlined. Publishing capabilities include almost all social networks and post types. Analytics are integrated across the board. Customizable conversation streams on the home screen allow you to keep an eye on the conversation. And, perhaps an often-overlooked benefit, the training necessary for a team to use the tool would be minimal.

If you’re part of a social media team that could use some streamlining, there’s a good chance one of these tools could make your life easier. Just don’t forget to consider the whole picture before jumping on the bandwagon of any single one. It’s a long list.


Nestlé Purina: “Talking Dogs” TV
nestl purina , work , nestle , tv , television , film , broadcast , video , content
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Nestlé Purina: “Talking Dogs” TV

Nestle Purina PVD Fortiflora TV

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Solution:

The star in our cast is Mishka, the talking Husky and YouTube sensation who is known for saying “I love you.” The ad is a fun and memorable way for owners to learn about how they can help their pets get back to being themselves with FortiFlora Nutritional Supplement. In addition to TV impressions, the ad is receiving hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.

 

Challenge:

Pets bring so much happiness to their owners, and yet GI upset can get in the way of happiness for both pets and their owners. A recent study by Purina reveals that almost one in every four pets had some kind of GI incident over the past year, and that nearly all of their owners wanted to have something on hand to help manage GI upsets when they occur. We needed to demonstrate to pet owners that with FortiFlora Nutritional Supplement from Purina, they can be ready for GI upsets and return that happiness to their pet.

Now Hiring: Art Director
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Now Hiring: Art Director

Position Summary

As a junior to mid-level art director at Colle+McVoy, you’ll be responsible for wowing our creative directors with your ideas, design skills and entertaining YouTube video finds. You’ll spend a lot of time with a copywriter dreaming up ridiculously big ideas. Once you and your writer friend strike gold, you’ll be responsible for bringing your big idea to life. Sometimes you’ll work with outside vendors such as photographers, retouchers, illustrators, directors, animators, editors and print vendors. You may even work with an animal trainer or a chainsaw juggler at some point, if you’re lucky. So, if you’d like to work for an agency that has a sweet rooftop deck overlooking downtown, a beer trike and was named one of the Best Places to Work by Advertising Age and Outside magazine, then show us what you’ve got.

Click here for full description and application.

Colle+McVoy is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Explore Minnesota Tourism Ad Wins National Mercury Award
press release , news , explore minnesota tourism
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Explore Minnesota Tourism Ad Wins National Mercury Award

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 31, 2011 – Explore Minnesota Tourism, Minnesota’s tourism promotion office, was awarded the prestigious 2011 Mercury Award last night by the U.S. Travel Association for the “More to Explore” television ad, created by Colle+McVoy, its advertising agency partner. The spot, which launched last spring, was recognized as the best state tourism TV ad broadcast in the country this year.  

“It’s very exciting to have our ‘More to Explore’ spot named as the best state tourism TV ad in the country,” said John Edman, director of Explore Minnesota Tourism. “We wanted to stand out among tourism ads by being fun and memorable, and our ‘More to Explore’ ads definitely achieve that.”

Showcasing a variety of fun things to do in Minnesota, the ad features playful graphics, a catchy song and quick sketches of Minnesota activities to convey the message that “There’s more to explore in Minnesota.” It also features cameo appearances by Twins baseball player Joe Mauer, Minneapolis indie band Solid Gold and other Minnesotans as they sing about all there is to see and do in the state.  The spot has become Explore Minnesota Tourism’s most buzzworthy initiative with extensive traditional and online media coverage in major Minnesota media markets, the generation of nearly 28,000 YouTube views within the first week of airing and over 45,000 views within one month, and yielding over 28,000 page views on exploreminnesota.com.

“By choreographing the more to explore concept, we created a vivid and memorable spot, which was very well received,” said Eric Husband, group creative director, Colle+McVoy. “We are grateful for partners such as Explore Minnesota Tourism who champion great work that stands out.”

In addition to the award, John Edman was elected vice chair (and next national chair) of the National Council of State Travel Directors.

Video and audio files can be downloaded here >>

C+M Revamped Land O’Lakes Site Makes Brand Stand Out
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C+M Revamped Land O’Lakes Site Makes Brand Stand Out



MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 16, 2010 - With the launch of a new Web site, the venerable 85-year-old LAND O LAKES brand has been infused with digital flavor and is poised to take on new and emerging technologies that develop in the future.

Colle+McVoy, digital agency for Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods business, today announces the launch of the new www.landolakes.com, which creates a sustainable online presence for the Dairy Foods brand and connects it with a younger demographic via a more relevant interactive experience.

"While the LAND O LAKES brand has been a key ingredient in American’s kitchens for generations, the new site makes our brand more relevant to emerging and growing families and helps us grow our business," said Joan Cowan, director of marketing services, Land O’Lakes. "We are now better connected to our consumers, and we’ve laid the foundation for interactive marketing success in the future."

Besides better connectivity, the revamped site, with more than 6,000 pages of comprehensive information, has a new overall look and feel. This includes a modernized color palette, engaging photography and simplified browsing to make the site more inspiring and relevant to consumers, while still maintaining the value of the Land O’Lakes heritage.

"We’ve created an interactive brand experience that better reflects the rich Land O’Lakes story and helps make the lives of our technology-savvy and busy consumers easier," said Craig Pladson, director of interactive strategy, Colle+McVoy, which oversaw the strategy, creative, production and development, and launch of social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. "Extensive research and strategic planning went into building the site to make sure that consumer needs are anticipated and understood, so that cooks and bakers get the inspiration and support they need."

The centerpiece of the new site is the revamped Test Kitchen area, which allows users to have improved access to the expertise of Land O’Lakes. The company is now better able to share findings from its real-world Test Kitchen, the place where recipes are conceived, prepared and perfected by a team of experts. The new area is designed to guide people at home in their kitchens with tips and techniques, answers to submitted questions, and a blog about topics shared by the experts. The Test Kitchen will also continue to build a following through each of the social networking sites and offer help to users via social network channels.

Additional site features include:

- Recipes that are easier to find, read, share and discuss

- A more simplified, predictive search tool

- Visual walk-throughs of many recipes on the blog

- More relational content (e.g., side dish pairings for meals)

- Streamlined ratings and reviews

- Greater variety of recipe collections

- Tips, photos, videos and how-tos relevant to next-generation consumers

About Land O’Lakes

Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a major Minnesota-based food and agriculture company, and is a leading producer of quality dairy products. The Land O’Lakes consumer Web site, found at www.landolakes.com, supports its retail products, LAND O LAKES® Butter, Spreads, Deli Cheese, Dairy Case Cheese, All-Natural Eggs and other licensed dairy products such as Half and Half, Seasonings, Cocoa and Cappuccino mixes. For more information, visit www.landolakes.com, www.facebook.com/landolakes or follow on Twitter @landolakesktchn.


C+M Launches Caribou Coffee Fall Effort With Jack & Gourdo
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C+M Launches Caribou Coffee Fall Effort With Jack & Gourdo

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2009 - A wisecracking pumpkin and dimwitted gourd are the stars of a new Colle+McVoy campaign for Caribou Coffee, the second largest company-owned gourmet coffeehouse operator in the United States. The comical characters were created to promote the company’s Flavors of Fall lineup of handcrafted drinks and bakery items.

Breaking today (Sept. 8), the campaign features The Autumn Adventures of Jack & Gourdo in a series of online videos, in-store signage and point-of-purchase elements, which highlight special features of the seasonal offerings through funny and often irreverent conversations between Jack (the pumpkin) and Gourdo (the gourd).

"Jack and Gourdo are meant to be fun ambassadors of fall," said Eric Husband, group creative director, Colle+McVoy. "Caribou Coffee is serious about coffee, but they never take themselves too seriously—they’re not afraid to have some fun. Jack and Gourdo is a great example of this."

Components include five spots of varying lengths breaking today on Caribou Coffee’s YouTube channel, which can be viewed at http://www.JackAndGourdo.com/. Colle+McVoy collaborated with Minneapolis-based Puny Entertainment to develop the video animation.

The campaign promotes Caribou Coffee’s lineup of limited-time-only products, including the drinks Wild Pumpkin, Wild Pumpkin Cooler, Wild Caramel Apple and Wild Caramel Apple Cooler drinks, as well as food items such as Maple Scone, Reduced Fat Cinnamon Bundt Cake and Pumpkin Bread.