PR, Marketing + Advertising

Mobile coupon innovator Samplesaint gains traction, creates jobs

Just six months after moving from Chicago to Cincinnati, mobile coupon innovator Samplesaint continues to catch major consumer brand and retailer attention. The startup's evolving technology is fueling its growth from eight to 25 employees since coming to the Queen City. “We've had tremendous growth in product development. In terms of hiring, we've brought on a lot of IT and marketing folks. We have 25 employees, but we're not done yet,” says company founder and CEO Lawrence Griffith, a Cincinnati native. Samplesaint was built on its mobile phone couponing technology that allows coupons to be easily scanned. It bypasses the more cumbersome process of printing digital coupons or requiring retailers to manually enter coupon codes from a phone. Samplesaint is more than couponing. It offers a range of mobile marketing, consumer insight, research and experience services. Samplesaint's technology also includes access to a database that ties to retailers' point-of-service, allowing then to immediately identify and determine the redemption and expiration dates of coupons. The company has already worked with major consumer brands, including Lipton, Breyers, Dove, Hellann's and Ragu, Griffith says. “The integration of three pieces are what companies are most excited about: our ability to acquire content, geotargeting and data collection,” Griffith says. “And we can work within their existing systems.” Samplesaint, which still has an office in Chicago, moved to Cincinnati after a $250,000 investment from CincyTech. It was one of the first companies that CincyTech investment attracted from out of state, as well as the first African-American owned company in which CincyTech has invested. Rahul Bawa, director of digital/IT for CincyTech, says the venture development firm recruited Samplesaint from Chicago because of its unique approach to mobile marketing. “Samplesaint has pioneered innovative mobile technologies,” says Bawa. “The company offers new ways of delivering content for consumer-focused companies and their brands. There’s a growing need in the marketplace for mobile-based marketing, and Samplesaint continues to explore ways to serve it. And with our emphasis on consumer marketing in this region, a company like Samplesaint belongs here.” By Feoshia Henderson Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Ameenah C. Hall

Covington Arts District receives state recognition

The Behringer-Crawford Museum, the Frank Duveneck Arts & Cultural Center and The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center and other galleries populate the Covington Arts District, which was one of five Kentucky cities awarded certification by the state to help market its arts collectively.  Out of 26 applicants, Covington was one of five cities chosen by the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) for the state-wide honor.  “Covington Arts is in the midst of creating a new marketing campaign that will align with a city-wide the mayor is putting together,” says Katie Rentzke, interim art director for the city of Covington. “We will also be working with the KAC to reach specific benchmarks and they will help us utilize our assets and collaborate with the state-wide initiative.”  The opportunity to be certified at a state level coincides with the city's decision to rid itself of the pre-existing Art District zoning boundaries that were initially created to encourage art and technology businesses to take root in the core of downtown. Those boundaries were challenged because of rigid land use zoning restrictions. In contrast, the new state certification calls for mixed-use development. As a result, the city has defined the new Arts & Cultural District to encompass the entire downtown of Covington, spanning from the riverfront to 12th Street and from the Licking River boundary to the 71/75 interstate, and including all of Devou Park. Since the program is still in its early stages, it hasn’t yet been decided if funding will be given to certified communities and exactly what kind of marketing approaches will be used, but Rentzke thinks it will help bring more tourism to Covington.  “Covington has already had a long-standing support of the arts, this just acknowledges that and lets everybody in the state and country know,” says Rentzke. “It will also increase cultural tourism, which will bring people to the city to spend money. Cultural tourists tend to stay long and get more involved because they want to see what makes the city special.”  By Evan Wallis 

ShareThis creates Social Quality Index for web publishers, advertisers

ShareThis, the Cincinnati-founded company behind the ubiquitous green button that lets you quickly share web content, is expanding its relevance through a social analytics tool. The company created the Social Quality Index, which measures the quality of websites by measuring their sharing activity across 27 content categories. “The whole point of SQI is to be able to give advertisers more bang for their buck," says ShareThis Social Media Manager Tom Spano. "What we’ve done is come up with a grading system based on an algorithm that measures the quality of a website’s content (via sharing).” The Social Quality Index comes as web analytics tools are becoming more sophisticated, and search engines like Google and Bing are emphasizing websites with quality and relevant content over ones arbitrarily stuffed with keyword and links. The SQI will also help measure the quality of pages on social media sites like Facebook by looking at metrics like content sharing engagement, which tells advertisers more than a pure number of followers. It also identifies users with higher purchase intent and those more likely to share content widely. “It’s basically a quality versus quantity tool,” Spano says. The ShareThis tool determines a site's social traffic score by looking at metrics including outbound share and inbound clickback traffic, and comparing them to page views. The SQI could prove valuable to advertisers as a number of studies have shown that people trust shared content more than traditional placed advertising. “There is a definite need for this in the advertising space. It’s a great struggle to wonder if the ads are getting in front of the people who need to see it,” Spano says. By Feoshia Henderson Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Strata-G joins NY based marketing agency

Strata-G Communications, one of the leading advertising and public relations companies in Cincinnati, will merge with Eric Mower + Associates, one of the largest marketing agencies in the country. The downtown-based agency has more than 35 employees, all of whom stay on staff and be overseen by the two founders of Strata-G, Jeff Eberlein and Tony Magliano. The firm now joins the ranks of a company that has offices in New York, Atlanta and North Carolina, to expand the EMA to more than 250 employees and an estimated $250 million in billing in 2012. "The combination of EMA and Strata-G makes good business sense in many ways and brings two excellent agencies together. Combining our full-service capabilities, including strong digital and public relations expertise, and enlarging the footprint our organization makes, means more and better resources to clients, greater opportunities for employees, and a bigger profile to attract new and larger clients, regionally and nationally," says Eric Mower, chairman and CEO of EMA. Strata-G launched in 1994 when Eberlein and Magliano acquired the six-person graphic design firm, Hsiung and Associates. It has grown by serving clients such as the CVG airport, White Castle and Convergys. EMA is an integrated marketing communications agency with specialized expertise in business-to-business marketing and public relations. Both firms have a long history of community engagement and providing pro-bono services for local organizations, such as Madcap Productions and the Requiem Project. To celebrate the merge, the two companies have formed an online fundraiser named Coming Together For Good, which will donate $1 per unique visitor to Habitat for Humanity, with a max contribution of $5,000. "This is a wonderful opportunity for our employees and our clients," says Eberlein. "As part of EMA, a much larger organization with a more significant footprint, we are positioned for greater growth, enhanced services and the ability to provide more career opportunities for our staff."   By Evan Wallis

HighStreet buys building, grows brand

The Cincinnati start-up HighStreet, a full-service design studio and urban lifestyle store, and one of the best gift-shopping destinations in town, just made their home in Cincinnati a little more permanent. HighStreet opened more than 10 years ago on Reading Road in an unlikely spot across the street from Staples. It has since grown into the go-to store for design help and home goods from furniture to lighting and wallpaper to awesome coffee table books you won’t find anywhere else. The broad collection of products and services blends modern and London styles to help consumers realize that they can be creative when designing their own spaces. After two years of negotiations, co-founders Leah Spurrier and Matt Knotts purchased the building that houses their 8,000-square-foot store. They plan on using the extra two floors to expand their already award-winning business. “We’ll have more than double the space,” Spurrier says. “We have some great plans for the rest of the building.” HighStreet offers art direction, interior design and product design services and Spurrier is excited that the extra space will give those services room to grow. The second floor will be stocked with more of HighStreet’s home goods, hand-selected from vendors from all over the world. Spurrier and Knotts also plan on offering framing, floral and even industrial antiques. But changes will extend beyond the interior. Spurrier says plans include making the massive space into a new Cincinnati icon. The third and top floors of the building house a large loft-style apartment space, which Spurrier plans on finding a complimentary small businesses to occupy. “It will be a more user-friendly design center for people who are serious about renovating their houses,” Spurrier says. “It will be much more open.” With more space for warehousing, hosting events and offering more products, Spurrier and Knotts are poised and ready to elevate the stakes at HighStreet. “We always wanted to grow,” Spurrier says. “This gives us the space we need to.” By Evan Wallis

Empower’s Jessica George named AdWeek’s rising star

When Jessica George joined Empower MediaMarketing in May 2008, she knew she was charting new territory. As head of the company’s new Word-of-Mouth Marketing unit, not only was she starting a department from scratch, but she also had to help the rest of the company understand the importance of its mission. Read the full story here.

Local firms join as one

A partnership between local PR and design firms seems to be a perfect match, just like, say peanut butter and jelly. Micah Paldino, founder and CEO of Public Relations, Branding & Jabber, and Emmit Jones, founder and CEO of SYN/TAX, a graphic design firm, worked on a project together more than a year ago. Soon after, they were sharing a 300-square-foot office space. Now, after more than a year of sharing space, the two companies are becoming one and relocating to a larger office space, a sixth floor spot on Seventh Street, between Vine and Race. The joined company will be called Peanut Butter & Jelly, keeping the PB&J acronym from Paldino’s company. The expanded offerings make PB&J a multi-dimensional branding and pr firm. The expanded office space will allow them to do all the production for their campaigns, which includes video for commercials, printing, social media and any medium that is needed to best convey their messages. “We find the right media for a message,” Paldino says. “You might have a message that is really creative, but may not be best in print, so we could come up with ideas, like short videos for smartphones.” Paldino and his firm were the brains behind the 10,000 Busken’s Bakery donuts giveaway during Midpoint Music Festival, as well as campaigns for Yagoot, which utilized the fabrication skills of local collective Such & Such. PB&J is continuing to form partnerships with new clients under its new name. Paldino expects the merge will go well, not only because the professionals have already been working together, but also because of the effort he makes to get to know clients and partners. “You really should know the person you’re working with before you sign a contract,” Paldino says. “Which is why I really don’t force my business one people. If I think I can help a business, I’ll tell them why. I have to know the client and product before I’m passionate about it.” By Evan Wallis

A Twitter push to keep Chiquita from splitting town

Cincinnati and Charlotte, N.C., are similar in size and culture, and now they are going head to head in an effort to gain the favor of Chiquita. The fruit company is considering moving its Cincinnati headquarters, taking more than 300 jobs with it. Using Twitter to communicate directly with the company's chief executive officer, Fernando Aguirre, both cities are fighting for the jobs, in what is now being called, 'The Tale of Two Hashtags." Read the full story here.