“Small” regional brewery challenged “big” national brewery for its misleading advertising campaign.

A big brewery, in its national advertising campaign, was falsely claiming that its beer brands had won “four years in a row at the Great American Beer Festival.”

Our client was a small, commercial brewery in Chicago that had, in fact, been the winner two years in a row - two of the four years the big brewery claimed they had won.

The brewery owners constantly had to explain the fact that they were the true back-to-back winners and that the big brewery’s ads were deliberately designed to deceive the public. With a minimal budget, we developed a strong campaign to correct the misrepresentation.

We developed three comic-book-style ads that appeared in Chicago’s alternative newsweekly The Reader and in trade publications. The ads followed the adventures of our three brewer “heroes” fending off the “bombastic beer maker” who keeps trying to trip up the trio in an effort to take away the medals their brewery had won at the festival.

A large metropolitan bank wanted its chief economist to gain national exposure for his economic forecasts.

The question was how to position him ahead of the hundreds of other U.S. economists who likewise made economic predictions.

We developed a media relations program that focused on the excellence of our client's forecasting ability and the timeliness of his forecasts. Through distribution of resource (Rolodex) cards printed with his name, phone number and expertise, press releases, weekly economic forecast facsimiles and trade article placement, our client became known among the national press as a reliable and accurate forecaster.

Articles appeared on the national wire services, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, The Economist and several other national and international publications. The combined readership was well over 20 million.

A Chicago business area with increased competition had not kept pace with the residential shifts.

We undertook a marketing study of the area to fully analyze the problems confronting the community.

Our research showed that commercial development in the area had undergone considerable change during the last 15 years and had a solid base of key tenants to anchor growth and change. However, the neighborhood needed to put itself in a favorable position to take advantage of these advances. Two critical factors had to be addressed: unification and creation of greater synergy amongst the business owners in the community, and greater interest from residents in their community, its future and particularly in support of its businesses.

We developed a public relations plan to enhance economic growth in the area; to establish and reinforce the image of a thriving community; to convince local residents to support the business community; to draw new commercial tenants consistent with the desired image of the area; and to entice residents from surrounding areas to shop in the neighborhood.

Our activities included a well-defined media relations strategy using key business and community leaders to develop greater awareness of the area through a series of special events, advertising, direct mail and other pertinent marketing and communications strategies. We reinforced positive recognition for the area among local residents, the local business community, the Chicago area media and residents of surrounding areas who would be enticed to shop in the area.

A national manufacturer of bakery and deli display systems needed a new, updated look for its company-wide sales materials.

We developed a product marketing and public relations plan that included sales literature, catalogs, media research, trade magazine advertising and public relations. The series demonstrated how the client’s display systems effectively marketed bakery and deli items, as well as candy and prepared entrees.

An agricultural implements and structural steel company needed to update and refresh its brand image.

We developed new marketing materials to give the company a new, fresh look.  Materials included sales literature, catalogs, trade magazine ads, Website design and maintenance and public relations.