Happy Birthday Mike!

Today we are celebrating the 49^th birthday of our fearless leader, lovingly known around the agency as Marketing Mike.

Some of you may be thinking, "Wait a second, this guy looks too cool, with his untucked shirt, rolled up sleeves and casual sunglasses placement, to be the leader of such a professional team like the Sells Agency."

Or you might be thinking, "This guy... is he REALLY 49? That baby face doesn’t look old enough to run an agency."

You also could be thinking, "Hey, I went to college with him, and how in the world does a theatre degree from Hendrix prepare you for a career in advertising?"

All valid thoughts, but do not fear because in honor of his birthday we have compiled

The Top Ten Reasons Why Mike Is The Best Boss and Agency Owner Ever:

10. His extensive knowledge of both the 80’s and Monty Python bring a perspective to his work that can simply not be found anywhere else.

9. He can have a phone conversation anywhere. Seriously, anywhere! Just trust us on this one.

8. He’s a man of principle. Vegetables and desserts should never mingle. Ever. No matter how delicious.

7. He’s older than us, so we feel young and cool at least five days a week.

6. Mike has the power of time warp. How else can you explain his being comfortable leaving at 2:55 for a 3:00 meeting in Conway?

5. It is easy to work for someone when you know for a fact that your boss is freakishly smarter than almost everyone on any subject.

4. There is no meeting too important to be interrupted with “You guys haven’t seen this YouTube video!?”

3. He has an insatiable appetite for caffeine, so we can be sure that’s he’s up should we ever need him at 3 a.m.

2. Without Mike, what excuse would we have to call Bob Bob?

1. No matter how much we tease him, he hasn’t fired us… yet.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Need to Zash some cash to a friend in a flash?

Arvest Bank is offering a new payment service and we don’t know how we ever lived without it. If you have a DVR, you know what we mean.

It’s called ZashPay, and it’s an electronic person-to-person payment system that allows people to move money directly from their bank account to a friend’s with only their phone number or email address. The service allows you to pay others from your online account without the need for third party tools like PayPal.

At Arvest, it’s free to sign up for ZashPay and there is no fee to receive money. Sending money costs only 75 cents per transfer. Recipients get a text or email message letting them know they have a payment waiting and they have 12 days to claim it for deposit into their bank account. If unclaimed by the recipient (like that will ever happen), the payment is canceled and the funds stay with the sender.

Oh, it works the other way, too. Just have your friends Zash you the money they keep forgetting to repay for that dinner or joint birthday gift or rent or…

Pretty cool, huh? For more information on ZashPay, check it out on Arvest.com.

ATU's Accelerated Degree Plan

Arkansas is currently ranked 49th in the country for adults with college degrees. This is not a fact that we are particularly proud of, but we are proud of one of our clients that is working to change it. Arkansas Tech University kicks off their Accelerated Degree Program this semester, providing Arkansans who have earned some college credit a new option for completing their bachelor’s degree.

This 100 percent online degree completion program allows students to obtain their degree while working completely from home. It gives students the flexibility to complete courses on their own schedule within a given semester, but still allows them access to the support of Tech faculty and staff. The program is in response to the governor’s mandate to produce more college graduates for the economic success of the state.

The Sells Agency helped Arkansas Tech develop and execute an online news conference to educate the media on program specifics and bring awareness to the public for the Accelerated Degree Program. You can watch the news conference by visiting Tech’s Livestream account here.

Goodbye Interns!

It is with both sadness and pride that we are saying ‘good-bye’ today to our last two Career Clarity interns. We aren’t glad to see Jillian and Wes go, but we are very proud of all the hard work they have done this summer.

While here, Jill served as our copywriting intern and Wesley as account services. They got to see first-hand how an agency works and also got to tour several vendors. From television stations to printers to production studios, they had a behind-the-scenes experience of how we create our product.

The interns also spearheaded our TaMolly’s Research project this summer, traveling all over the state to conduct interviews and gather information on a new client’s business. Now that we are in the process of putting together a marketing plan for this client, we are so thankful for all their hard work that has made getting to this point possible.

TaMolly’s was just one project out of many that these two were involved in. Others include work on Carlton-Bates, the Fayetteville Guide and the Jacksonville Business and Visitors Guide. For a look back at Jillian and Wesley’s work, you can view their ‘Intern Insight’ blogposts here and here.

Thanks so much to Jill and Wes, we have loved having you and know you will both go on to do great things!

Kickin' it with Camille

Here at the Sells Agency we don’t exactly pride ourselves on our athleticism. We aren’t in any cool kickball or softball leagues, and we would much rather have a potluck than an office-wide “Biggest Loser” competition (trust us, we had a major fail with that earlier this year). However, there’s a new kid in town and we’re concerned that she may try to whip us into shape.

Camille Flores joined us this month as a media assistant. Originally from Chino Hills, California, she comes to us by way of the University of Arkansas where she was a four-year letterman and captain of the women’s soccer team.

Camille graduated with a degree in advertising and public relations and most recently completed an internship focused on media planning and buying, as well as developing and executing media strategies. She also has experience as a marketing assistant working with ESPNU and as a marketing intern for the U of A Athletics Department of Marketing.

Yes, she is very impressive and we are so excited to have her here as part of our media department. And with a real athlete hanging around, who knows – we may be flexing more than our marketing skills soon. Welcome, Camille!

Fayetteville Guide

A glimpse into the making of the Fayetteville Guide, from production artist Kati Wessinger.

One thing that I love about working at the Sells Agency is the fact that no two days are ever the same. Well, that and the fact that everyone seems to enjoy eating as much as I do!

As a production artist I've had my hands on a lot of different projects including numerous brochures, outdoor boards, logos, tradeshow booths and much more. It's quite exciting! Recently, I finished one of my favorite projects yet, the 2011 Fayetteville Guide.

This 100-page guidebook covers everything someone might need to know about living in or visiting Fayetteville, Arkansas. If you flip through the book, you will see what a beautiful place the city is. There are articles on tasty restaurants, great schools, scenic trails and so much more. You'll see and read more things about Fayetteville than you ever imagined, and that's the whole purpose. If it opens your eyes to new attractions in the area, it has succeeded.

But from my perspective, I see something different. When I look at the finished product, I see all of the people behind it. I see months and months of hard work. I see photos that were edited in Photoshop until they looked good enough for the guide, type that is perfectly consistent from page to page, and tables that are neatly organized. I see lots of phone calls, hundreds of conversations and maybe even a few heated discussions (no, that never happens). Most of all, though, what I see is teamwork.

This book didn't just happen overnight and it wasn't created by just one person. The client had a vision that she shared with our account executives. The information was gathered by and articles written by our copywriters. The style and layout was planned by our art directors. The photos were selected and perfected by production artists. It was proofed and re-proofed and re-proofed by almost everyone at the agency. We all had a part, whether it be big or small.

I loved working on the Fayetteville Guide because it was a project that I was able to invest a lot of myself into from the beginning, and even though I'm happy that we now have a hard copy of our hard work, a part of me misses the process.

Luckily, there’s less than a year left until we start this entire process over. Fayetteville Guide 2012, I'm ready for ya!

Intern Insight: On in 5! Behind the scenes at KARK News Channel 4

Another Intern Insight today from Jillian Oyler-

What’s a good learning program without field trips? And, from a highly professional standpoint, who doesn’t like a good excuse to venture out of the office every now and then? After taking those good, strong points into consideration, PR account executive Emily Canada scheduled an intern tour to KARK Channel 4 to witness a live newscast.

We were lucky enough to be there for KARK’s News at Noon program. News director, Rob Heverling, was nice enough to take time out of his day to be our personal tour guide. We started our tour on the newly renovated set, and then made our way into the control room right before the show started. (FYI, if you were that kid who wanted to push every button in the elevator, a job in this room may be the one for you.) I’ve never seen anything like it! There were three people in this room running the show, and my mind was constantly wondering how each of them remembered which button to push while watching so many different televisions at once. I was very impressed and intrigued by how something that looks so technical to me seems so simple and natural to them. We watched the show for about fifteen minutes and then moved on to see the newsroom, account executive offices and the rest of their workspaces. It’s amazing what you learn behind closed doors. Thanks, KARK for letting us visit!

Christmas in July Winners

July has come and gone, and while there seems to be no end in sight for these astonishingly hot temperatures, our Christmas in July celebration has come to a close. Without further ado, our lucky winners are:

Terri Leming Davidson - Cat butt magnets

Andrew Webre - Nose shower gel dispenser

Lauren Chesney Anderson - Batterfinger

Larry Pineda - Defrosty ice cubes

Chris Minshell - Cookin’ with Coolio cookbook

Congratulations to our Christmas in July giveaway winners! We will be in contact soon, as we are sure you can hardly wait to get your hands on these prizes.

Thanks to everyone for “liking” the Sells Agency on Facebook. We appreciate your support and hope you will encourage your friends to “like” us also.

As we welcome a new month, the agency is also welcoming a new member to our team. Camille Flores joined Sells Agency today as a media assistant. Stay tuned for more about Camille later this week on the blog.