the blog

Last night while sitting in front of the tube a commercial grabbed my attention. It featured a little kid posting a lost dog poster and North Carolina Tar Heels grad Tyler Hansbrough spreading the word quickly using a mobile network and multiple social media apps. Of course, the word is spread quickly and the dog is found and returned to the adorable little kid. The spot is great, heartwarming and well done. However, the spot also proves how social media connects people and elicits a powerful response when used correctly.

This is not going to be one of those blog posts that says social media is the answer for everything, because it is not. However, what this post will try to demonstrate is that when used appropriately, social media is the most powerful way for you to get your message out to a bunch of people you’ve never met who actually care.

So, how do we translate a lost dog message to businesses?  By looking at the process.

When undertaking a social media initiative you need to identify the following things:

1. Your message, make sure it is something that people will care about (Lost Dog)
2. Target audience that will help to spread the message (Tyler’s friends)
3. The correct social media forum to broadcast your message (AT&T’s social network)
4. A simple way to communicate what your message is and what you would like your audience to do (Can You Help Find This Dog?)

After that, social media will do the rest (as long as you’ve identified the correct components). When used correctly, social media has the potential to spread your message to an exponential number of people. And, the good news? Anyone can do it. That’s the beauty of social media, it puts the power into the hands of pretty much everyone. Well, anyone with access to a computer or cell phone!

So I pose this question to our readers, what has social media done for you? If the answer is nothing, then you aren’t using it correctly.

One of our clients, Project 7, was recently featured in the latest Global Innovation Report from GDR Creative Intelligence, a London based trend analysis and forecasting consultancy. GDR Creative Intelligence has a client list that doesn’t stop, with the likes of the London Olympics, LVMH, Starwood Hotels, Harrods, Sony, Orange, Nokia and Nike just to name a few.

Every year, GDR puts out a Global Innovation Report that showcases the hottest and latest in product trends… and low and behold, our design graces the pages of the food & beverage section. So exciting to see out product in the same publication as some of the great of packaging!

You should follow us on Twitter here.

On Monday, I had the pleasure of flying with Tyler Buschman, of sock puppet fame, to the happiest place on Earth – Orlando! We were traveling to shoot a video for one of our fantastic clients: Filtration Solutions Worldwide (FSW). Currently, we take care of all of FSW’s advertising needs, ie. video, print, web, etc! FSW manufactures an ingenious little item called the FS2500. The FS2500 is a bypass oil filter for diesel engines of all shapes and sizes that, drum roll please, actually works. The FS2500 stops 99% of engine wear and tear through a patented filtration technology, which means its a secret…. and for those of us that have a girly side, it keeps oil from getting yucky! (see the picture of me and my “oil” finger, it is still stained today… that will teach me to finger paint in engine oil. No judgements, it was for the shoot!)

The shoot went really well. It was a grueling 48 hours that included 4 a.m. wake up calls, ridiculously, hot and humid weather (did I mention I had huge hair?) and being stuck in the Orlando airport for 10 hours due to inclement weather – shout out to the Chocolate shop, yum and I did get a picture of Tyler with Snow White, he was touched! But it was well worth it – we are going to make a great video for our client. The footage turned out great, even the footage obtained while stalking the residents, buildings and vehicles of downtown Orlando… to the police force of Orlando, thanks asking us nicely to stop filming… but we were allowed to shoot, so there!

While there, I saw the cleanest, biggest garage ever. I suppose you would need something like that if you were the Lynx public transit system of Orlando, operating 272 40,000 lb buses – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The skilled employees of Lynx were super helpful on the day of the shoot, accommodating all of our pleas to stop and do over so we could “get it on film.” A huge thank you goes out to Roy and Greg of Lynx, they put up with me all day and even kept smiling.

In all seriousness, video is one of the most impactful marketing tools a company can have. But, it takes a great agency to be able to pull off a video in a short amount of time, that is creative, with limited funds, in a remote location and with big hair! 29 Agency is that agency. Stay tuned for updates on this project and to even potentially see the video.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

The National ADDY® Awards took place on Saturday, June 6th in Washington D.C. With over 60,000 total entries a year, from all over the world, the ADDY® Awards is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry. Everyone who is anyone in advertising was there: Publicis, TM Advertising, BBDO, GSD&M and McCann Erickson, just to name a few. And while these “Goliaths” of advertising did well, and took home a few awards, a new-comer stormed on to the scene, continuing their golden packaging streak started at the Dallas ADDY® Awards earlier this year.

So, who is this “David?” US!!!!!!!

Consumer goods are our passion. We love coming up with new ways to present old products and fresh ways to introduce new ones. We are honored to have been acknowledged by our peers in such a talented field.

Project 7 is our national gold winner. A true passion of ours, Project 7 is a consumer life-style brand that gives back 50% of the profits made through the sale of bottled water, gum, mints and T-shirts. The brain child of our very own Tyler Merrick, Project 7 is working to change the score in seven areas of need: Build the Future, Feed the Hungry, Heal the Sick, House the Homeless, Help Those in Need, Hope for Peace and Save the Earth.

Our quest for gold began earlier this year at the Dallas Addys, where we won three golds and one Special Judges Award. It was then off to the District level which resulted in a gold and bronze. Our next stop with at Regionals, where a gold win guaranteed our automatic entry into Nationals… and the rest is now golden history.

Thanks to these acknowledgements and the success of the brands we helped create, we are emerging as the packaging design expert. With a roster of industry-image shattering brands, like ADDY® winners Project 7 and Before Grain, we continue to build consumer identities using both our (hopefully) limitless creativity and extensive packaging design expertise.

So, if you know someone who needs to put something in to some sort of package, tell them to call us!

You should follow us on Twitter here.

We produced an educational film for Texas Health Resources called Germ Ninja (You can check it out in our “work” section). We tend to enjoy ourselves a bit on these types of projects (possibly way too much), and we thought we’d let you get a glimpse of our production. This is us in action. Check it. >: )

We shot and filmed this little gem for Project 7’s earth day celebrations. It was one of the first times we got to use our shiny new Red Camera and as usual, the shoot was a blast. Check it, tell us what you think, and if you happen to dig the earth, go buy a sexy shirt at Project 7. 50% of the proceeds go directly back to the cause you buy for.

This isn’t just further promotion (though I suppose it amounts to the same thing), but those shirts are the most comfortable I own, and apparently 5 plastic bottles are recycled into each one. I don’t know what kind of voodoo black-magic was conjured up for that idea, but if comfort was the goal, they succeeded.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Videos, images, insanity, oh my! Welcome to the official 29 Agency blog.

We’ll be introducing our team over the coming weeks, and giving you a look into our fascinating and glamorous lives.

We’re a design agency located in Southlake, TX. We make all kinds of cool crap for print, web, television, and carrier pigeon, and we try not to take ourselves too seriously.

We’re all in-house, we’re all passionate, and we’re all a little chemically imbalanced.

We just picked up a few Gold Addy awards this year, and a Judges Special Award (I think that’s what the “optional” bribe was for), and we’re excited to brag about it. I hope we get some next year too, so we can become increasingly arrogant about our work. If we don’t, I promise to try and find something else to strut around about.

Stay tuned for updates, entries and blogging galore. We built this thing to use it, and use it we shall.

We love you. Yes you personally.

You should follow us on Twitter here.