McNelis Media

What I would like to do with this post is give an idea of the advertising process we use at McNelis Media. For an example, I will use one of our recent clients, Creekside Bar and Grill. Creekside is a new restaurant and bar on Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, SC. They contacted us towards the end of April, and were in need of a logo, print advertising, and a website. They needed these things in a hurry as their opening date was slated for June 5 and needed to ramp up their advertising to the opening day. We met with the owners and came up with a custom advertising package based on their needs. Although all of these things happened in conjunction with each other, I will break it down into different sections: Logo Design, Photography, Print Advertising, and Website Design to give an idea of our work flow. Please follow along over the next couple of days as I post the different sections, or just contact us for a quote on your own project.

Part 1: Logo Design

A logo is the foundation of any business or individual’s advertising campaign. Your logo will brand your business or your product and gives people a subconscious idea of the type or quality of goods and services you provide. After the design, your logo should be prominently integrated into all of you advertising.

When we first met with the owners of Creekside, we asked questions regarding not only what type of restaurant they were going to be, but also questions about their intended target market. We learned that their target market is 30-40 year old young professionals. They wanted to market their rooftop bar as a happy hour hot-spot. The food and service was to be upscale, but in a casual atmosphere. They wanted to be equal parts bar and restaurant, and were to have 17 HD TV’s and an incredible sound system. As a bonus, they also had a mock up of a logo idea drawn on a cocktail napkin.

After gleaning as much information about the restaurant itself and their target market as we could, we went to the drawing board. We start the process by selecting a font for their logo. We scoured the our font libraries and the internet to compile a list of fonts we thought would be a good fit. After compiling the list, we sent them to the owners:

The folks at Creekside were great about a speedy reply (due to the looming advertising deadlines) and replied immediately as to which of the fonts they did and did not like. They all four agreed on the same two fonts, so came up with a few mock up logos:

, and incorporated their ideas from the cocktail napkin:

As it turned out, we were going to be unable to use the fishing rod in the logo because of restrictions from neighboring restaurants, but they loved the combination of these fonts. We met again and sat down in front of the computer. They wanted to cock the letters around a bit to give it a more “fun” look, add an oval around the text, and with a few more tweaks (ie. the beer bottle for the “&” symbol), we had our logo two days ahead of the deadline:

After the design, we coordinated the incorporation of the logo into all of Creekside’s marketing materials: hats, t-shirts, golf shirts, signage, floor mats, mirrors for the bathroom, koozies, tip books, and vinyl lettering to name a few. We also had the logo we needed to incorporate into the rest of our advertising plan.

Part 2: Photography

The next step in the advertising process for Creekside was some photography for use in print advertising as well as on the website. The main thing the owners wanted to showcase was the view of Shem Creek from the rooftop bar. Photos of the inside would have to wait as it was still under renovation. We decided sunset would be the best time for a photo of the view. The first evening I came, there was a thick layer of smoke over the entire city from the wildfires in Georgia. No matter, I came back the next night (the wind changed and the smoke cleared) and had a great sunset. Later, after opening, photos of the inside, the bar crowd, and the food are to be added. Clicking on the following thumbnail will bring up a small gallery from the first shoot.

Part 3: Print Advertising

For Creekside’s print advertising campaign, the owners wanted to exclusively use the Charleston City Paper as its demographics and distribution hits their target market directly. We wanted to slowly build up the advertising, starting with quarter page ads and slowly ramping the size up to full page for the grand opening. To start with, they wanted to mainly build the buzz around the rooftop bar as a happy hour spot while also highlighting some of the food. Click on the thumbnails to see a full size version of the ad, starting with a few of the quarter page ads:

Then ramping up to the half page before the soft opening date:

And then to the full page for the grand opening party:

After the grand opening, the happy hour crowd was booming, so we started featuring lunches in the ads:

For the rest of the year, we will be doing a campaign of both half and full size ads.

Part 4: Web Design

During the other parts of our advertising process, we were developing the website for Creekside. They wanted the website to do have three main areas: the menu, directions to find the restaurant, and an area they could update themselves regarding daily specials and special events.

We made the menu updatable, so they could keep the website current as their menu changed.

For the directions, we used a google map to make the website interactive, while still allowing users to find the restaurant.

For the specials and events section, we built them a “blog” which they will be able to update themselves as well.

You can see the full website here: www.CreeksideBarGrill.com, or if you’re hungry around lunchtime or thirsty around happy hour, go down to Creekside and check it out for yourself. Tell them Will from McNelisMedia sent you…

 

~ by will on June 12, 2007.