Our creative director, my wife and partner, Deborah Irwin Pond, is a doyen of color in the marketing and advertising agency field. She sees things in colors that linear minds like mine cannot discern without being carefully guided. Her sensitivity extends to understanding how colors affect people and therefore how they should be used in creative advertising and marketing.

For example take our website. One of our objectives in creating the site was to convey a feeling of trust and strength. We want our advertising and marketing clients to feel comfortable with the advertising and marketing advice we give them. In the world of color and emotional impact in advertising, our Augusten Blue does exactly that. Not all the time but most of the time with most people.

For another example, take a look at the little cowboy with the big white hat that’s located on our WORK page. Deborah created this image in doll form for a Psychiatric Center. It was used to communicate with children who had been abused. It began the process of communication through the elimination of fear. Again, you see the generous use of blue with its message of trust and strength. However, Deborah combined that with a white ten-gallon hat. Why white? Because white is the color of purity and cleanliness – an emotion that these children are attempting to resurrect in their consciousness. There is also another quality to this little character. It speaks to the idea of safety and trust. Can you guess what it is? Call Deborah. She will fill you in.

Conversely the marketing color choices for the Calypso Resort Community (also on our “Work” page) reflect warmth and cheerfulness. These emotions are associated with good times and relaxation. Want to know more about how different colors in advertising and marketing can affect your business? Contact us at hello@augustenadv.com. We will give you the lowdown.

In our business, one of the great things that happens is the creation of a long-term client-ad agency relationship. It starts with doing a good job, making the right recommendations, creating profits for the company you represent. But it becomes much more than that as the years go by.  Over time, the ad agency’s emotional investment becomes stronger and stronger and the ties to the client become tighter.  In fact, all of a sudden, ad agency personnel find themselves in the position of working with the company longer than most of the client’s employees.

The most successful long-term advertising relationship we have had is with Hogan Homes in Victoria and later in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Today, Hogan Homes is the leading home builder in South Texas having built over 6,000 homes.

We still remember the day when Al Hogan visited our first office in Houston. He and his sales manager, Nelson Holz, wanted to be persuaded that we would be the best choice to help build his 11-year old company into the leading home builder in South Texas.  Our record of representing home builders and real estate developers was enviable even then but it had been carved mainly in large metropolitan areas e.g. New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Houston. Victoria, Texas was another matter entirely.  But Al and Nelson handed us the challenge and we ran with it.  Did we succeed?

Thirty-five years later, we received this email from Al.

“For 35 years I have collaborated with Ed and Debbie on market strategies, public relations issues, industry award presentations, and industry awareness of my company Al Hogan Builder, now Hogan Homes Texas.

Time seems to have flown by which I guess shows how much fun we had working together! They had a special place in our company’s success and have helped us work through the economic turmoil of the ’80’s and ’08 Great Recession.
I am very grateful for their assistance and friendship.

Al Hogan
Chairman”

Thank you Al Hogan – for everything

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER, an excellent source of social media advertising information, issues an annual report on how marketers and advertising agencies are using social media advertising to build their businesses. Here’s a quick summary of Social Media Examiner’s primary findings from their 2015 report:

• Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn hold the top spots for future advertising plans. A significant 66% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these social networks.

• Marketers want to learn most about Facebook. While 93% of marketers are using Facebook, 68% want to learn more about it and 62% plan to increase Facebook activities.

• Video becoming important. A significant 57% of marketers use video in their marketing. However, 72% want to learn more about video marketing and plan on increasing their use of video.

• Podcasting on growth trajectory. Only 10% of marketers are involved with podcasting. Yet 26% plan on increasing their podcasting activities and 43% of marketers want to learn more about podcasting.

• Facebook and LinkedIn are the two most important social networks for marketers. When allowed to only select one platform, 52% of marketers selected Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 21%.

• Only 45% of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective.

• Tactics and engagement are top areas marketers and advertising agencies want to master. At least 91% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media.