• Julie Krooswyk joins DVA

    Julie Krooswyk has joined DVA Advertising & Public Relations as traffic manager and account coordinator. In these roles, she will be responsible for managing internal and external agency/client deadlines, managing client relationships and expectations, and ensuring that materials are produced on time and on budget.

    Prior to joining DVA, Krooswyk served as an account manager at Every Idea Marketing in Bend, as a marketing traffic and project manager for Kindercare Education in Portland, and as traffic manager at Haugaard Creative Group in Chicago.

    “Julie’s background in traffic and account management align perfectly with the skills needed to succeed in this critical agency role,” said Mary Angelo, agency partner and director of client services at DVA. “In the time that she has been here, Julie has already helped streamline processes and procedures, and proven to be the ideal person for this position.”

    Krooswyk graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, with an emphasis in public relations.

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  • Leading outdoor industry outfitter C.C. Filson hires DVA for brand work

    Seattle-based outfitter C.C. Filson, which has been manufacturing “Unfailing Goods” for men and women who work and play outdoors since 1897, has hired DVA to research, write, and design a new signature brand book.

    The “Filson Operation Manual” as it is being called is equal parts brand book, company anthology, and an encyclopedia that attempts to capture and distill more than 120 years of heritage and history into a single, purposeful piece.

    DVA was hired in large part due to its strategic branding expertise, storytelling capabilities, and intimate knowledge of the Filson lifestyle.

    “While Filson’s reputation soared during the earliest days of the Klondike Gold Rush, and flourished in the heyday of Pacific Northwest logging, it’s roots run much deeper than that,” said DVA creative director Gary Fulkerson. “Today, those earliest seeds have been sown into a globally recognized brand that remains true to its heritage and commitment to quality, honesty, and customer service.”

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  • DVA BOLSTERS AGENCY WITH ADDITION OF CREATIVE AND DIGITAL TALENT

    Ryan Crotty and Will Gryna bring national experience to region’s largest ad agency

    (BEND, Ore.) — DVA Advertising & Public Relations, a full-service marketing agency specializing in the travel & tourism, golf, financial services, and healthcare industries, has hired Ryan Crotty and Will Gryna as senior art director and senior digital strategist, respectively. The hires bring DVA’s staff to 13, making it the largest Oregon advertising agency east of the Cascade Range.

    A 20-year veteran in the graphic design field, Crotty most recently served five years as senior art director at Mandala, another Bend-based advertising agency. Prior to that, Crotty held creative director, art director, and graphic designer positions at agencies and corporations in Bend, Rhode Island, and New York City, in addition to his own freelance design business. In his role as DVA’s senior art director, Crotty’s responsibilities will include conceptual campaign development, graphic design, and art direction for all agency clients.

    Gryna most recently served as a partner manager at Facebook’s Chicago office, where he advised and counseled large advertising agencies on how to best invest their clients’ marketing dollars across the Facebook and Instagram platforms. Prior to Facebook, Gryna held digital consultant roles with Sprinklr and Rise Interactive in Chicago. At DVA, Gryna’s responsibilities will include developing and managing digital advertising strategies, performance monitoring, and campaign optimization for all agency clients.

    “Individually, Ryan and Will each bring specific skills, experience, and leadership that strengthen DVA as an agency and make us a more valuable partner to our clients,” said Mary Angelo, partner and client services director at DVA. “Together, they bolster our capabilities in the creative and digital disciplines, provide immediate and long-term impact to clients, and continue to build our position us as strategic leaders in the industry.”

    About DVA Advertising & Public Relations

    Founded in 1990, DVA is a full-service, 13-person agency based in Bend, Ore., that services clients throughout the West. Some of DVA’s current clients include Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Bend Memorial Clinic, BestCare Treatment Services, Chambers Bay Golf Course, Doubleback Winery, Filson, SELCO Community Credit Union, Visit Bend, Visit the Santa Ynez Valley, and Visit Walla Walla. For more information call 541-389-2411, email hello@dvaadv.com, or visit www.dvaadv.com.

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  • Tour of Walla Walla rolls back into town

    Tour of Walla Walla, the bicycle stage race tradition of two decades, is back on track after cancellation last year.

    More than 300 competitors are registered for this weekend’s races, which take place over three days, starting Friday.

    Race coordinators Michael and Kathryn Austin got a boost with some assistance in marketing from Visit Walla Walla after last year’s race was sidelined from the devastatingly long winter and its effects on travel.

    “Visit Walla Walla got involved with this as soon as it was canceled last year because we were so disappointed that an event that brings in so many people went to the wayside,” Visit Executive Director Ron Williams said.

    With registrations in the past as high as 40, the 307 who had registered by late Wednesday morning was an encouraging sign of success, Williams said. About 300 registrations have been needed in previous years for a break-even event, which includes prize money for respective winners in their categories.

    About 450 people are expected in town for the races, which include Saturday’s downtown Criterium and road closures through central portions of the neighborhood.

    Williams said Visit Walla Walla marketing agency DVA Advertising & Public Relations helped with email marketing and paid social media advertising targeted toward cycling enthusiasts.

    Visit also created a “landing” page to link participants with schedules, critical information and other activities of interest for those coming to support racers.

    See the original story by in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin here.

     

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  • How Your Brain Interprets Logos

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  • Cascade Cycling Classic DVA CC

    EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

    Pay disparity between men and women is an issue that has not gone away. The 2017 Cascade Cycling Classic, the longest consecutively run elite stage race in the country, is not immune. The Elite Men’s overall winner was scheduled to earn a $2,951 payday for his efforts during the five-day stage race. The Elite Women’s winner was to receive $225 for the same effort over the same five days.

    As a result of this disparity, DVA Advertising & Public Relations set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the top three overall elite female finishers in the 2017 race, with a goal of raising $15,954 – the difference between the total Elite Men’s and Elite Women’s prize purses.

    “What kind of message does it send to young women who might be interested in cycling, that their male counterparts are earning more than 13 times the amount of prize money for the same or similar effort?” said Justin Yax, a partner at DVA Advertising & Public Relations. “As an agency of cyclists, and as fans of the sport and its importance to the Central Oregon community, we felt there was an opportunity to step in and help out where the UCI was restricting the good intentions of race organizers.”

    To the credit of race organizers, the Cascade Cycling Classic has distributed equal prize money for both the men’s and women’s elite winners for the past six years. in 2017, due to restrictions placed on the distribution of prize money by the International Cycling Union (UCI), race organizers had little flexibility when establishing the following prize money payouts for the Elite Men’s and Elite Women’s overall winners:

    All money DVA raised was distributed to the top three overall Elite Female finishers, proportionate to the current payout amounts. The first place overall finisher received 45 percent of the money raised, the second place finisher received 33 percent, and third place received 22 percent.

    We kicked off the fundraising effort with an initial contribution of $500, and hopes other individuals and organizations throughout Central Oregon and beyond will see this as an opportunity to help level the playing field, so to speak, with regard to this year’s Cascade Cycling Classic. In the end, more than $15,000 was added to the women’s prize purse, including $6,500 in community donations. More importantly, our efforts were noticed by UCI President, Brian Cookson.

    “We are hopeful this fundraising effort will send a clear message to all the women competing in the 2017 Cascade Cycling Classic that they are appreciated, respected, and valued,” said Yax. “Gender equality and pay disparity continue to plague this country, and the more awareness we can bring to the issue, the better. The outpouring of support has been nothing short of remarkable, in the first 24 hours alone we received more than 70 donations ranging in size from $10 to $1,000. And perhaps more importantly, the community is engaged in an important conversation about equality.”

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  • Lessons Bend Breweries can Learn from the Chicago Beer Industry

    By Natalie Ulum

    In a city that is already home to roughly 200 breweries, competition for tap handles and shelf space is fierce. Chicago’s Goose Island breweries were acquired by Anheuser-Busch in 2011, putting the Windy City in a national spotlight, and giving local brewers hope that they could also be recognized across the United States one day. But Rebecca Skoch of AdWeek found that it hasn’t stopped more hopeful entrepreneurial brewers from entering the increasingly saturated market.

    If you live in Bend, this probably sounds familiar.

    Bend boasts roughly one brewery for every 4,500 people and has been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 5 Beer Capitals in the U.S., a truly impressive statistic for such a relatively small city. Local favorite 10 Barrel Brewing was acquired by Anheuser-Busch just 3 years after Goose Island. In addition to breweries, there are also wineries, cideries, and distilleries that call Central Oregon home and also compete in the local craft beverage market.
    Because of the similar market climates in Chicago and Bend, local brewers can look to the Windy City for ideas that could bring them success here on the west coast. Skoch highlighted two strategies breweries in Chicago have utilized to stand out among the competition: taprooms and food.

    Taprooms
    Opening a taproom or brewpub is a great way to reach a local audience and build loyalty that will open up retail and tap space for a brewery and expand future distribution opportunities. Chicago entrepreneurs have also found that opening a taproom has been a financially stable first step to expanding their business because the brewery profits directly from its success.

    Food
    Chicago brewers are thinking outside typical brewery food. They have a new way of approaching the taproom experience that makes the food just as important as the beer. Some brewers have made their fare more elegant, while others have differentiated themselves by crafting beers that pair with their food, or a food that is already popular.

    Skoch also interviewed the beverage director at Heisler Hospitality in Chicago, Michael McAvena, who summarized the keys to success in a crowded brewery market, saying:

    “To start now and grow, based solely on Chicago-only beer sales, breweries really have to get things right. They have to brew great beer, they have to have a good business plan, they have to have good financial backing, their cost has to be right, their brand has to look good, and they have good sales people on the street… If they’re staying locally focused and keep checking those other boxes… they’ll have an opportunity to compete and succeed.”

    Investing in professional marketing and public relations services from an agency like Bend’s DVA will help an entrepreneur take their brewery to the next level and check all those boxes. It can improve the quality of beer a brewery produces by allowing brewery owners to focus on their craft and aid in attracting enthusiastic employees. DVA offers many services that can help a brewery “check the boxes” McAvena said will allow a brewery grow and thrive a jam-packed market, and their experience has shown two especially impactful ones are branding and marketing.

    Branding
    McAvena stated that an attractive brand is key to the success of a brewery in Chicago. DVA has an exceptional design team that can craft a brand concept that captures what makes a brewery unique and has lasting quality. Developing a branding strategy also takes branding to another level. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to make that business everything to everyone, and lose their individuality in the process. DVA experts know how to leverage those precious few qualities that truly differentiate a brewery from all the others, and make a plan for how a business owner can consciously support that uniqueness every single day. One great example of excellent branding strategy comes from Cruz Blanca, a Chicago brewery that was ranked the #4 best brewery in the United States. They differentiate themselves from other breweries in Chicago by gathering inspiration from the explosion of cultural diversity in 1860’s Mexico City, pairing new interpretations of classic Austrian, German, and French beers with smoky Mexican tacos.

    Marketing
    A good business plan is perhaps the most important key McAvena outlined, but it can be more difficult than he makes it sound. DVA offers strategic planning services which helps a brewery owner strengthen their business plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, and create a plan that optimizes them to achieve an entrepreneur’s goals. It also communicates the focus and goals of the brewery to employees and empowers them to be “good sales people on the street.” DVA can then take a good business plan to the next level by using marketing strategies that strengthen it. They create marketing campaigns that stand out and become recognizable in the Bend community, such as the St. Charles Cancer Center’s “Treating the Big C” campaign, because they approach marketing in a way that is not only creative, but is also strategically targeted to achieve actual business goals.

    Chicago brewers have found many ways to gain a competitive advantage in the beer market there, from differentiating themselves by the food they serve to instilling a more stable financial structure. But if local brewers can learn anything from looking at Chicago, it is that although the brewery market in Bend is crowded, there is still room for more hopeful brewers or small breweries to succeed if they can communicate their unique voice to customers and get the right mix of business strategies.

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  • HEALTH INSURANCE IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

    To say that people are disenchanted with the health insurance industry is an understatement. It’s no longer front page news, either. In light of the current political climate, and with uncertainty still looming over Obamacare 2.0, the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and healthcare reform in general, we’re seeing the effects this uncertainty is having on our clients in the health care and affiliated industries.

    Perhaps nowhere is this topic more complicated, and more emotionally charged, than in the health insurance arena.

    As any goal-oriented, data-driven, insight-minded agency would do for its clients in a situation like this, we needed to understand the root of the problem – where these frustrations were originating – and what could be done to mitigate consumers’ fears.

    So we asked them. We talked to health insurance consumers around the country, as well as to human resources professionals responsible for making the health insurance decisions for organizations large and small. We found out what their pain points were, what they liked, what they disliked, and their general perceptions of the health insurance industry as a whole.

    We knew the public was unhappy with health insurance, but we didn’t know just how dire the situation was. Yes, the future of health care is UNCERTAIN. Yes, customers and administrators are increasingly FRUSTRATED and SKEPTICAL. But we certainly didn’t expect to hear responses as vitriol as these:

    “Shady, untruthful, and confusing.”

    “Complicated and money-grubbing.”

    “Necessary evil.”

    “I analyze the data regarding employer premiums as well as premiums on the market. I review salaries for executives working at the main insurance providers. Usually while drinking a glass of wine to dull the pain.”

    “A mystery wrapped in a puzzle.”

    “The health insurance industry is more concerned with their bottom line than with serving their customers.”

    “A scam.”

    “Huge increases to premiums. Severely bloated salaries for their executives.”

    “Scumbag money swindlers!”

    It sounds bad, and that’s putting it nicely. But there’s a silver lining. Reading between the lines of these pleas, a tremendous opportunity exists for one health insurer to step up and take ownership of the problem. To become the biggest part of a complex solution by simply choosing to hold themselves accountable to higher standards.

    Which is how, as an agency, we arrived at the following INSIGHT>FACT>STRATEGY progression.

    The INSIGHT: Individuals and plan administrators don’t believe that health insurance companies are working with their best interests in mind.

    The FACT: [LUCKY HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY] exists to take care of our customers.

    The STRATEGY: WE HEAR YOU.

    WE. HEAR. YOU. Three simple words that when used together, convey empathy, compassion, sincerity, understanding, and dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. But it’s one thing to merely hear someone. It’s another thing to lead by example. So the phrase “We hear you” needs to be part of a broader movement, something along the lines of, “We hear you. We’re different. And here’s what we’re doing about it.”

    It’s a position that not everyone is willing – or even able – to own. But for one lucky health insurer who jumps on this opportunity first, their long term prognosis calls for a full recovery.

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  • outdoor recreation marketing

    Outdoor Recreation Makes America Stronger

    The Outdoor Industry Association recently published a study we found very interesting.

    “Investments in outdoor recreation on public lands and waters earn compounding returns in the form of healthier communities, healthier economies and healthier people.

    More than 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt foresaw the crossroads at which we now stand. He said, “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets that it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.”

    From our national parks to local green spaces, from alpine lakes to transcontinental rivers, America’s outdoor recreation assets are its citizens’ common trust. Our public lands and waterways belong to every American, and they are the backbone of our outdoor recreation economy. They hold the promise of prosperity and well-being. It is as much our responsibility to invest in them as it is our right to enjoy them.

    From the smallest rural towns to the most densely packed cities, outdoor recreation powers a vast economic engine that creates billions in spending and millions of good-paying American jobs. Likewise, it is an underappreciated and underfunded weapon against crime, poor academic performance and rising health care costs.

    We are fortunate to live in a nation of iconic natural beauty, inspiring landscapes and bountiful waters. Going outdoors to hike, bike, camp, fish, hunt or just walk around the neighborhood orients us to the natural world. In the outdoors, we come together with friends and family, make lasting memories and find solitude and contemplation. And a growing body of research shows that being outdoors delivers health benefits that are, in many cases, on par with pharmaceutical treatments.

    By enjoying these places, we invest in our own well-being and affirm our shared history. In challenging times, when disagreements appear sharper and differences seem harder to bridge, it is the outdoors that reconnects us.”

    Read the whole study here. *images and content from Outdoor Industry Association.

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  • golf marketing bandon dunes chambers bay

    Golf Digest ranks our clients as the best

    We think our clients are the best, but it’s nice to hear it from other people, too!

    No surprises here, Bandon Dunes and Chambers Bay find themselves in the top 25 of Golf Digest’s latest 100 Greatest Public Courses.

    Pacific Dunes #2
    Bandon Dunes #7
    Old Macdonald #10
    Bandon Trails #14
    Chambers Bay #24

    Check out the whole list here.

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