And, we're blushing...

Following the announcement of the ADDY Awards, we found out that we've been bestowed with yet another honor by the largest educational advertising awards competition in the country. The Higher Education Marketing Report awarded little 'ole us with an Educational Advertising Award for work done for Arkansas Tech University - Ozark Campus. Gee, thanks!

The ADDYs are Awesome

This past Saturday, our agency attended the Arkansas Advertising Federation's ADDY Awards in both central and Northwest Arkansas. The awards recognize excellence in advertising while promoting a high creative standard in the industry. The Sells Agency team is honored and excited to announce that we received nine total awards!

We won the prestigious Gold award in two categories, TV Single Entry for a QualChoice TV commercial, and TV Campaign for the QualChoice TV campaign. We also took home the Silver for the ABC Financial Website and the Find it in Fayetteville logo, as well as Bronze for the QualChoice Overall Campaign, RX Solutions Media Kit, ARVEST Greater Kansas City Television, Fayetteville A & P Television spot, and ABC Financial Image Campaign.

It is always a good time when we have the opportunity to get together with our friends in the advertising community and acknowledge the great work that is being done throughout Arkansas. We are thankful to have our hard work recognized, but we're most thankful that this hard work produces measurable business results for our clients.

Congratulations to Arvest on 53 percent increase in SBA lending

2010 was a good year for the Sells Agency and our clients, and the good news just keeps on coming. Arvest Bank recently announced an increase in Small Business Association (SBA) loans at the end of its fiscal 2010, up 53 percent from fiscal 2009. The SBA is a government agency that provides support to small businesses by acting as a guarantor on loans.

In 2009, the bank’s SBA portfolio was $49 million. With the increase, the portfolio is now at a record $49 million. Arvest is proud to have provided funding for over $36 million in SBA loans in 2010, far exceeding the national trend of increased SBA lending. Arvest attributes much of the SBA loan growth to the bank’s availability of local lenders and knowledge of each of its individual markets, and to renewed national interest in SBA lending programs.

Jackie Randle, senior vice president and SBA loan administrator, said, “Arvest is proud to be one of the state’s largest SBA lenders and this increase in our SBA loan portfolio is a strong indicator that we are here to help the communities in which we are located.”

Congratulations to Arvest on their SBA lending success in 2010!

Self-Promotion Through Press Release

On Tuesday, one PR industry veteran wrote a release entitled "The Most Amazing Press Release Ever Written." The reaction to this release, which was written as a spoof on the traditional, formulaic press release and only serves to recognize its own excellence, has been mixed.

While some see this release as a waste of time and a good reason to not spend money with this particular PR firm, others hail it as a clever way for the firm to garner attention for itself. Whatever your opinion, this release and its author have certainly garnered their fair share of media exposure, from CNBC to Huffington Post to social media. We salute this effort’s originality!

2010: The Year in Review

Is it January already? The year's end always seems to sneak up on us. As we wave goodbye to 2010, we can’t help but reflect on the past year and see just how much we’ve grown and changed. Here at the Sells Agency, we’ve been fortunate enough to see a 17 percent increase in capital billings, three new additions to our staff, promotions of three associates and two brand new clients.

We’ve welcomed both ABC Financial of North Little Rock and SheltAir of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to our client roster this year. We’ve also been busy with several multi-channel marketing campaigns, including those for two clients who we started working with in late 2009 – US CosmeCeuticals and QualChoice.

Several of our staff members had their hard work rewarded with promotions in 2010, and we expanded our team as well. Lauren Carrigan, Allison Drennon and Jason Rogers received promotions, while Sarah Kurrus and Kati Wessinger joined the Little Rock office. Casey Wormington also joined our Fayetteville office.

We are thankful both for our achievements and all the fun we had in 2010. Best wishes for a wonderful new year!

Groundbreaking PR Coverage

We believe that public relations and media relations are as important as advertising when it comes to the long-term success of one's business. Fortunately, our clients believe it, too.

We help businesses build relationships with media all over the U.S. right from our Little Rock and Fayetteville offices. Recently, Sheltair, one of our clients based in Florida, held a groundbreaking ceremony in Panama City for their new FBO (fixed base operation) facility. The need for the new airport where the FBO is located has been the topic of much debate, but Sheltair's general aviation facility is being built specifically for the long-term convenience of general aviation pilots and we are proud to have helped Sheltair gain coverage on WJHG that addressed this point.

Click here to check out the story.

We Owe It To Our Clients

Check out this article posted today on ArkansasBusiness.com citing the Sells Agency's "significant growth in 2010." We'd like to thank our many wonderful clients for another great year as we look forward to the new challenges of 2011.