TD Ameritrade’s quarterly offers have played a large role in their quest to increase deposits among existing clients. Ervin & Smith has been responsible for the concepting and execution of these campaigns, including the TaylorMade campaign above. The goal was to play up the giveaway items while tying them to the TD Ameritrade brand. This successful campaign featured direct-mail, e-mail and online components.

Vehicle Service Group asked Ervin & Smith to create a campaign that would convey the benefits of its industry‑leading Revolution lifts. The team responded with a strategy that set VSG apart with bold messaging and convention‑defying visuals. The campaign stood out dramatically in trade media, told the brand story and connected with prospects in a meaningful way that caused them to recall this campaign more than any others, according to a readership study.

Camp Bow Wow, a premier doggy day camp provider, asked Ervin & Smith to develop a marketing strategy and plan that would help them increase revenue and overall awareness. After conducting focus groups and female-only chat sessions, we developed a targeted direct-mail, radio and e-mail marketing campaign that saw an immediate boost in awareness and camper reservations. Plus, the execution of building and in-store signage helped reinforce the brand image and campaign message.

Lincoln Benefit Life asked Ervin & Smith for help in launching two new life insurance products. The goal was to get independent agents excited about presenting these products to their clients as a dynamic duo that could have a powerful impact on their financial lives. The result was the superhero campaign, complete with a custom-illustrated comic book.

Trustworthy

Cute Car

Sucker

Metro Credit Union was experiencing growth during a time when many mortgage companies were closing their doors. To create awareness of this fact, build trust and convert consumers to their credit union, Metro tasked Ervin & Smith with creating a series of radio ads. We created 30-second
spots covering Metro’s mortgage assistance, high standards of banking, lowest-ever auto rates, and their take on bank fees, which broke through
the airwave clutter.

While Valvoline Instant Oil Change (VIOC) wanted to keep the bulk of their Web content the same, they also wanted a fresh look for the site’s home page. Ervin & Smith took on the challenge and revamped the page so that it would put VIOC’s services, discounts and locations front and center. By putting the most in-demand components in prominent places on the home page, and creating interactive elements to keep users interested, the result was a more usable and relevant experience for visitors.

When Cy Wakeman, keynote speaker and executive coach, hired Ervin & Smith to “make her famous,” increase demand for her as a keynote speaker and help her land a book deal with a large publisher, we took her seriously.

Using Wakeman’s proprietary content, our public relations team developed a strategic plan that positioned Cy as a thought leader in the leadership industry.

Campaign efforts have been successful. Cy has been mentioned in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, MSN.com and The New York Times. She has authored articles in Forbes and More Magazine and is a regular contributor on FastCompany.com.

Her book will be hitting stores in September.

When Catholic Charities was given five days’ notice that George W. Bush would be visiting their organization’s Juan Diego Center in conjunction with his immigration reform campaign, they called Ervin & Smith for help.

Ervin & Smith spearheaded all media relations efforts and worked in partnership with Catholic Charities to plan for the national media spotlight. Efforts included planning and coordination of a media breakfast, tour coordination of the Juan Diego Center, White House Press Corps logistics and execution of event collateral.

In addition, we coordinated with White House Media Affairs and the Secret Service to prepare and secure the location for the president’s impending visit.

Media impressions for Catholic Charities were a staggering 250 million, increasing national brand awareness of the Juan Diego Center and Catholic Charities of Omaha.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) asked Ervin & Smith for help in overcoming its image as a local commuter school and increasing student recruitment. Ervin & Smith planned and created a complete brand campaign, including general brand standards, that revamped UNO’s image, employed alternative communications venues that appealed to the target audience, and offered a long shelf life.

Our strategy was to present UNO as the “total college experience” – stellar academics, plus comfortable student housing and a lively social scene. Messaging was distributed through teen-friendly media, including school events, text messages, Facebook and YouTube, and guerilla techniques such as a street team revving up Maverick football fans. The first phase of the campaign successfully changed perceptions about UNO within the target audience, boosting applications and admissions. Phase 2 refined the focus on UNO academics with updated photography, captivating copy and a new website, all of which continued and strengthened the Mojo brand.

Immanuel Senior Living (ISL), Nebraska’s premier provider of senior living, wanted a fresh, new website that showed how much ISL cares about making “the rest of your life, the best of your life” true for its residents. After completing use case studies and a competitive analysis, Ervin & Smith created a website that appealed to both future residents and their families, as adult children (usually daughters) often research these communities for their parents.

Ervin & Smith was hired to help launch CoGoJets, a new shared private jet concept, through branding, public relations, securing media coverage, providing product strategy and planning, and developing a website as the hub of their new service.

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When Vehicle Service Group created a groundbreaking new suite of products designed to increase lift speed, decrease energy usage and minimize setup time for mechanics, they came to Ervin & Smith to create the new brand and build a launch campaign. With an understanding of how prospects run their businesses and use their lifts, Ervin & Smith developed a name and brand that resonated with the target audience, and the launch campaign achieved results far beyond what the client anticipated.

In order to increase the applications and enrollment, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) challenged Ervin & Smith to develop a multimedia campaign that really spoke to high school students. The goal was to position UNO as the total college experience. These radio spots launched as part of that campaign. Their use of irreverent humor and the Maverick Mojo theme resonated with the audience and helped significantly increase applications in the first and subsequent years of the campaign.

Paint yourself red.

You’ll know them by their Maverick Mojo.

It defines the college experience.

Ervin & Smith was hired to create a brand launch campaign and special events to announce and promote the joining of two powerhouse financial companies, TD Waterhouse and Ameritrade.

We created an integrated campaign to announce the new brand to TD Ameritrade’s 4,000 employees and the financial industry.

Ervin & Smith also planned an executed a media event to announce the new company and the new executive management team to Wall Street at the NASDAQ in New York and to major financial media outlets, including CNBC, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.

The launch event garnered coverage from many major financial media outlets, including Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, CNBC, RobTV and Bloomberg TV, AP, Dow Jones Financial Wire and Knight-Ridder. Media impressions reached more than 16 million.

The Ms. Smith brand was developed to give Ervin & Smith’s marketing to women division a unique identity while keeping this division closely connected to the agency’s core brand.

Ervin & Smith developed and implemented a social media public relations strategy in an effort to generate online buzz about the EarCheck device among those in the blogging community. The goals of the campaign were to increase awareness and ignite conversations about the EarCheck device among key audiences, particularly the highly influential mommy blogger community. Our campaign included the development and distribution of a multimedia news release, the promotion of special offers via sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and personalized blogger pitching.

After developing capabilities for active traders to trade complex options online, TD Ameritrade wanted to promote this feature to the right audience. Because complex option traders are a niche group, Ervin & Smith developed a concept that only complex option traders would understand. The “butterfly spread” is a complex options strategy. Showing this idea in the form of a Rorschach blot created a clever visual that appealed to the desired audience.

The Scott Campus facilities at the University of Nebraska at Omaha are not your typical college dorms. The company that manages the high-quality and well-run campus housing facilities wanted their branding to reflect that. Ervin & Smith delivered a family of logos highlighting what makes Scott Campus different from the rest.

Ervin & Smith was tasked with developing a creative advertising campaign to target fee-only and fee-based advisors. The objective was to communicate the benefits of working with Ameritas Direct, a company specializing in no-load life insurance and annuities.

The campaign reinforced the message that sending your clients to another financial advisor for advice is bad for business.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) sought to raise awareness of the adult-learner programs offered through its Division of Continuing Studies (DCS). Ervin & Smith created an online microsite that focused on the information and messaging that would have the highest impact on the target audience – giving DCS more exposure and helping change the perception of UNO as a college only for traditional students.

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When Valvoline Instant Oil Change decided to use a postcard campaign to encourage lapsed customers to bring their cars in for overdue service and to reach out to former customers who may have been going elsewhere, they hired Ervin & Smith to create effective pieces.

Capitalizing on Valvoline’s bold brand colors, our team created messages that spoke in the “voice” of the recipient’s vehicle, using personalization to create the sense of an urgent need to return to Valvoline.

TD Ameritrade hired Ervin & Smith to secure top-tier media coverage on the topic of long-term investing. The result was the TD Ameritrade Spotlight, an online reporter tip sheet that included surveys on timely investing topics and access to TD Ameritrade’s subject experts. More than 200 media placements in top publications such as Forbes and BusinessWeek were secured in the Spotlight’s first four months, greatly increasing TD Ameritrade’s national exposure among key audiences.

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Ervin & Smith was tasked with developing a polished brand look for Brodkey’s that could be executed throughout seasonal jewelry catalog designs. We led all aspects of creative development and execution, from layout concept to production and product styling to photography.

In 2006, Ervin & Smith began work for TD Ameritrade to help deepen the financial relationship between women and money. Out of that initiative came the Save Yourself program in conjunction with financial expert Suze Orman.

Ervin & Smith’s research work for the program included several female-designed chat sessions, which helped to frame messaging and future marketing initiatives. The agency was involved in all areas of marketing and communications, including multiple versions of the saveyourself.com website, e-mail campaigns, print collateral and event marketing. In January 2009, Ervin & Smith worked with TD Ameritrade and Harpo Studios to create the financial sponsorship and programming portion of Oprah’s “Best Life Series.”

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) approached Ervin & Smith with the challenge to create a student recruitment website that would increase interest, applications and enrollment. Launched in 2009, the new BEaMAV.com successfully reinforces the message of the “complete college experience at UNO” in a more graphic, user-friendly and interactive format that allows students to create their own UNO story.

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