There are too many potential pitfalls: too many i’s to dot, too many numbers to slot, and too many other packages shouting from the shelves. Often it’s a small canvas, so form and function must work together seamlessly. And in certain segments, the biggest challenge can be striking the right balance between eye-catching design and regulatory compliance.

When you have a trusted packaging partner like Campbell, Harrington & Brear, your life becomes simplified. Whether you need a new design or an update, we’re ready to apply our decades of packaging design, testing and production experience toward meeting your needs.

Over the years, we’ve done a lot of packaging for a lot of products – from food and computer software to grass seed and beer. We’ve designed packaging for everything from prescription products to peat moss. That’s a broad base of experience.

But it goes beyond having the packaging design chops and the detail orientation necessary to see a project through to a pretty, accurate conclusion.

For consumer products, we collaborate with leading research firms on studies that test food labels on simulated store shelves, tracking eye movements to determine not only whether the designs are influencing the shopper to choose one brand over another, but also which elements in the design (brand mark, photograph, product descriptor) are most effective in capturing the consumers’ attention.

We also facilitate consumer focus groups on behalf of food manufacturers to gain insight on perceptions about core products and brands, and to explore the potential of new products being developed.

When you blend that degree of experience and elbow grease with a keen attention to detail and a profound understanding of the process, you can be sure your package will not only be pretty and accurate, but effective as well.

For more information, call Angela Wenner, (717) 846-2947, or send her an email.

This is the opening round of a three-tier, national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the oldest national advertising trade association. AAF represents a national network of 200 ad clubs across the country and 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The Charleston competition is expected to attract nearly 300 entries.

All across the country, local entrants will be vying for recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local winners will compete against other winners in one of 14 District competitions. District winners then advance to the third tier, the national ADDY® Awards competition.

Under Campbell’s guidance, Campbell, Harrington & Brear has won more than five dozen ADDY awards, including two for Best of Show, as well as numerous regional, national and international awards in a range of media.

“I am really looking forward to seeing, appreciating and evaluating the great work produced by the talented Ad Club members in the Charleston region,” Campbell says.

But to continue being the area’s most successful Realtor, Rick had to become the area’s most progressive Realtor, too.

So we suggested that Rick and his team develop a phone app as part of their marketing strategy.

What is an app?

Apps act as mobile websites for the ever-changing landscape of smartphones. Typically, an app is developed to be downloaded onto mobile devices. The cool thing about apps is they make it easy for your target audience to immediately discover your new services and promotions. Plus, apps can be changed or updated quickly and easily. Apps also build brand loyalty, which is especially important in this digital age.

In addition to serving as a quick portal to your products or services, apps can also play a key role in promotional launches or B-to-B customer service.

Bottom line: With apps, immediate customer interaction is just a tap away.

About The Rick Smith App

We proposed something that would deliver a real market service, while driving leads to the Rick Smith Team and providing user data in real time.

The result is a branded app that feeds local and national MLS listings to a prospective home buyer’s cell phone and provides multiple search capabilities.

For every property that a home buyer is interested in, a phone call or email can be sent directly from the app to the Rick Smith Team, whether it is a Rick Smith listing or not.

Consumers want instant gratification, and marketers want to connect with those consumers at their peak moments of need or interest. This app provides both, and by positioning Rick as the first agent in York County to come out with an app, we reinforced the Rick Smith Team’s brand as the leader in the marketplace.

To support the launch of the app, we created newspaper ads and a digital billboard announcing the app to the marketplace.

The app has resulted in hundreds of searches leading to increased phone and email activity for the Rick Smith Team.

To try the app yourself, text RST3 to 87778, or visit www.ricksmithteam.com and click on the Download App icon.

A well thought-out app might be able to help you better serve your customers while better defining your brand. To discuss whether an app is appropriate for your business, email Angela Wenner, director of new business development, or call her at (717) 846-2947.

Campbell will help to select the most outstanding of 150-plus entries for the local ADDY Awards competition (covering Florence, Georgetown and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina), the first of a three-tier, national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF).

The AAF is the oldest national advertising trade association, representing 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The AAF has a national network of 200 ad clubs located in ad communities across the country.

Under Campbell’s guidance, Campbell, Harrington & Brear won more than five dozen ADDY awards, including two for Best of Show, as well as numerous regional, national and international awards in almost every medium … corporate design, print, packaging, and broadcast.

Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants will be vying for recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local winners will compete against other winners in one of 14 District competitions. District winners then advance to the third tier, the national ADDY® Awards competition.

Says Campbell, “I am honored to be selected to judge the Coastal Carolinas ADDYs competition.  The AAF-Costal Carolinas has a great number of advertising agencies, design firms, marketing organizations and PR companies that produce wonderful work … I can’t wait to see it!”

For more than three decades, Campbell, Harrington & Brear has been offering a full range of marketing and communication services to help clients cut through the confusion. Their services range from website design and construction to digital media, social networking and search engine optimization, as well as traditional disciplines such as TV, radio, outdoor and print advertising.

Think it’s a good idea to do your own media buying? You are making a big mistake.

Fact is, if you’re placing your own media, you’re wasting your company’s money.

Don’t take it personally, but effective media buying is a profession. And just like Tom Brady can pass better than you and Pavarotti can sing better than you, a professional media buyer can strategically plan and cost-effectively buy media better than you too.

Our director of media strategy spends his entire day immersed in media alternatives, analyzing data, interacting with sales reps, ferreting out the truths beyond the promises, and drafting strategic plans that allocate media dollars in the most effective way for optimal results.

And with the rapidly evolving world of new media, the role of a media professional who understands this dynamic arena becomes even more essential.

Moreover, today’s media professional is able to ensure that your new media will interact and dovetail with your traditional media in ways that create greater impact.

Here are additional reasons why you should have a professional media strategist draft a well-conceived plan and place your media for you:

• You will be spending your money more efficiently by utilizing someone whose knowledge base is rooted in the how, where, when and how often of media.

• You will not be wasting money on media you shouldn’t be buying, like publications your target market doesn’t read, billboards in poor locations, radio stations that attract the wrong listeners, or search engine marketing that is poorly conceived and executed.

• A professional media buyer can help you obtain value-added packages due to strong relationships, negotiating savvy and volume buying.

• And with a professional media strategist, you don’t have to answer all those calls, meet with all those reps, and evaluate all those community requests. He does it for you.

Here’s the bottom line: Even if you don’t need our creative services, consider the value of enlisting our media purchasing services. It will save you money and hassle and maximize the return on your media dollars.

To discuss our media purchasing services, email Angela Wenner, director of new business development, or call her at (717) 846-2947.

For nearly a decade, seed-stage companies have been turning to LSGPA for funding, entrepreneurial expertise, and access to a vast network of connections within the life sciences universe. The firm’s uniquely qualified team offers years of collective entrepreneurial, operational and corporate governance experience, having helped start and build companies time and time again.

But like that busy doctor, they didn’t have time enough to treat their own brand. And they knew it was time for a check-up.

They discovered us through our website, brought us in for a consultation, then asked us to help them “find their blind spots.” What we discovered was a company with a strong, accurate idea of who it was and the space it commanded. “They knew themselves very well,” says Angela Wenner, Campbell, Harrington & Brear’s director of new business development. “They weren’t grasping for an identity, but they were having trouble articulating that identity.”

What they needed, we determined, was an overall polishing of the brand and the development of tools – both traditional and digital – which would allow LSGPA to efficiently execute a consistent marketing strategy. Our goal was the creation of a more current, cutting edge presentation platform, more in line with – and attractive to – the type of burgeoning high-tech companies they seek to serve.

We advanced the logo, taking its basic footprint and giving it dimension. We crafted a slogan – Leading Ideas to Market.^SM – that more clearly conveys their mission and role in the commercialization of life sciences innovations.

But our most important service was helping them take advantage of newer, better, more efficient marketing media tools available for pushing information outward toward their audiences. “They really hadn’t had a chance to focus on high-potential tools such as social media or a website that clearly and effectively serves information and is optimized for search engine visibility,” explains Angela.

Their new website, designed, written and built by CH&B, launched November 1 and now serves as a full presentation of the refurbished brand and the tremendous resources LSGPA has to offer.

If you think your brand needs a check-up, email Angela.

Years ago, several electrical contractors formed an alliance enabling each of them to select from a pool of more than 300 of the best, most thoroughly trained commercial/industrial electricians available in Central Pennsylvania. As a result, each member stands ready to handle the electrical needs of anything from small commercial shops and offices, to mid- to large-sized manufacturing facilities, to nuclear power plants.

From building a voice and data network, to installing a security system for a new bank location, to wiring anything from a big screen TV in a company lobby to a whole new factory, every one of these electrical contractors can mobilize a crew of these outstanding electricians to meet any customer’s needs at a moment’s notice.

There was a problem, however.  An issue that eluded them for years.

How do you market this arrangement?  How do you advertise a group?  How do you promote something that seems like a non-entity?  Also, how do you brighten electrical contracting and make it fresh?  Despite their previous marketing forays, no one knew much about them.

Enter CH&B. We developed a completely fresh and unique marketing model.  We took the alliance and totally repackaged and repositioned it with an entirely new image, a new edgy name – wiredworks.net – and a new brand umbrella.

All of our messaging – from logo to outdoor – uses bright, zappy colors, bold zippy modern graphics, and a zingy slogan … “when your electrician isn’t working … wiredworks.net.”

Through the use of outdoor – for significant name recognition and initial introduction of the brand – and humorous (yes, humorous) TV commercials, we direct potential customers to a single, cool, highly SEOed wiredworks.net landing page that tells the full story of the alliance and invites the target audience to either select a contractor individually via a link or go directly to the alliance for selection guidance.  Either way, within 24 hours you can have onsite as many electricians as you need for as long as you need them.

Think you need to rewire your image and message? Contact Angela Wenner, our director of new business development. She will develop answers for you that can build your business.

“Not from around here” as they say, Christian had no idea of the tradition, nostalgia, smells and sounds that make York Bike Night a must-do event for thousands of people each year in late September. What he was hearing was the sound of hundreds of bikers converging into a four-block area to show off, meet up, hang out, and simply enjoy the camaraderie that naturally happens when bikers get together.

This year’s Bike Night featured a Grand Marshall that legends are made of: Beese Wendt, a seven-time National Hill Climb Champion who happens to be from York County. A 1976 Sports Illustrated article described him this way:

“An intrepid gentleman named Beese Wendt helped build the Jefferson hill, and holds the record for climbing it. His given name is Truman, but years ago the other riders tagged him with Beese (Bee-zee), sort of short for BSA, because he was fighting faithful to his trusty BSA bike. It is a classic 1949 Vincent, painted bright purple, although Beese swears the aerosol can said burgundy. For Beese Wendt to ride a purple Vincent at Jefferson is akin to Buddy Baker driving a flathead Ford with fender skirts and a Continental kit at Darlington. Despite years of hillclimbing, Beese’s bones are intact. “Got a lot of bruises, and once I hit that darn concrete shed at the top of the Muskegon hill and tore all the cart-ridges out of one of my knees, but that’s all that’s ever been hurt bad,” he says.

“But I don’t know,” he adds reflectively. “Last year was like all the others. I traveled 10,000 miles, and all I got is a car that’s wore out, a bike that’s wore out and a body that’s wore out. I just don’t know….”

The 2012 commemorative Bike Night t-shirt was designed by CH&B’s Mark Leinaweaver, who captured the flavor and excitement of  the 1960’s era Hill Climb competitions where Beese became legendary. Within a few hours, the T-shirts were sold out, vendors headed home and only the hard core partiers remained. I’ll bet Beese was around somewhere, in a smoky bar, telling young riders stories of the good old days.

A few blocks west, Christian shut down his iMac and headed home – for a quiet martini, and a soft pillow.

When properly executed, SEO allows your site to leap-frog competitor sites and appear on the top pages of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

That’s because SEO is the science – as well as the art – of understanding how search engines go about their business. SEO experts know what search engines look for and value as they sift through billions of sites, finding, then ranking the most appropriate for each individual search.

The problem is, while “experts” are a dime a dozen, real expertise is rare.

Recently, we were asked to perform an SEO audit on a company website that was underperforming, despite their efforts to elevate search performance. Our analysis revealed many problems, including scores of coding errors in the HTML – a red flag for search engines – as well as a host of “black opps,” dubious optimization techniques that may provide short-term juice before running dry, and can, over the long term, get a site blacklisted.

Further, the site ignored social media and the role it can play both within your site – providing continuous content – and outside. As Stephen Marcum, our director of media strategy explains, “What people are saying about you and your products or services can have a dramatic impact on SEO.”

Finally, the site was abusing keywords, stuffing them in ways that today’s search algorithms patently reject.

What does this have to do with your site?

• If it’s not performing well in search, start by making sure your site is, as Stephen says, “fresh, new and engaging.” Start adding informative, relevant content regularly.

• Invest in SEO expertise. It will begin with an SEO audit. Says Stephen, “A properly executed audit becomes a portal to understanding where your website stands in terms of search engine visibility, and a platform for creating and executing an SEO strategy.”

• That audit will then allow a reputable SEO specialist to assemble an effective plan, using a range of formulas, techniques, coding strategies and frequently overlooked SEO tools such as social media and reputation monitoring and management.

• We repeat, hire “a reputable SEO specialist.” Not someone who heard about SEO a few months ago, then added a new bullet to the business card, but someone like Stephen who eats, breathes and sleeps SEO … and has done so for years.

To learn more about our SEO and reputation management services, call Angela Wenner, director of new business development, at 846-2947, or email her at angela@chbadv.com.

If indoors…

1. Drop to the ground. Take cover by getting under a sturdy table or other piece of furniture and hold on until the shaking stops. If there isn’t a table or desk near you, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.
2. Stay away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and anything that could fall, such as lighting fixtures or furniture.
3. Stay in bed if you are there when the earthquake strikes. Hold on and protect your head with a pillow, unless you are under a heavy light fixture that could fall. In that case, move to the nearest safe place.
4. Use a doorway for shelter only if it is in close proximity to you and if you know it is a strongly supported, loadbearing doorway.
5. Stay inside until the shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. Research has shown that most injuries occur when people inside buildings attempt to move to a different location inside the building or try to leave.
6. Be aware that the electricity may go out or the sprinkler systems or fire alarms may turn on.
7. DO NOT use the elevators.

If outdoors…

1. Stay there
2. Move away from buildings, streetlights, and utility wires.
3. Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings, at exits and alongside exterior walls. Many of the 120 fatalities from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake occurred when people ran outside of buildings only to be killed by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake is seldom the direct cause of death or injury. Most earthquake-related casualties result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.

If in a moving vehicle…

1. Stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle. Avoid stopping near or under buildings, trees, overpasses, or utility wires.
2. Proceed cautiously once the earthquake has stopped. Avoid roads, bridges, or ramps that might have been damaged by the earthquake.

If trapped under debris…

1. Do not light a match.
2. Do not move about or kick up dust.
3. Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or clothing.
4. Tap on a pipe or wall so rescuers can locate you. Use a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort. Shouting can cause you to inhale dangerous amounts of dust.