Adding to our ADDYs: The District Awards

We are proud to announce that our QualChoice TV commercial and our
QualChoice TV campaign have both won district ADDY Awards! The district
includes all of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and parts of Louisiana, so to win at
this level is a great honor.

After receiving gold at the local ADDY awards for our QualChoice TV
commercial, which won for TV Single Entry, and our QualChoice TV campaign,
which won for TV Campaign, both entries went on to win the regional bronze
ADDY awards in their respective categories.

Congratulations to our wonderful client for a superior collaboration, to our staff
for great work and to all other district winners. We are thrilled to be in such good
company.

Arkansas Tech Gets Real

The agency has been working with Arkansas Tech University for almost as long we’ve been around and together we’ve produced some award-winning work. Though we’ve always been excited to go through the creative process with Tech, we simply can’t wait to unveil our latest campaign, so we’re giving you a sneak peak.

It’s not your typical campaign with TV spots featuring beautiful, sweeping views of the campus, and we’ve stepped away from telling our story from the perspective of a current Tech student. And, while we think the campus is beautiful (it’s had more than $185 million worth of improvements in the past 15 years), we’ve decided it’s time to get real with prospective high school students.

So, we’re letting them talk about what they are looking for in a university and it just so happens that no other university in the state scores higher than Arkansas Tech in treating its students (and prospective students) as individuals.

Jon Hodges, serving as both broadcast producer and art director, worked with Waymack & Crew to create a spot like none other in higher education.

Check out some production stills and come back to see the spot next week!

Safe Places to be featured in PBS series

Last year our interns had the privilege of working with Little Rock nonprofit Safe Places. Over the three-month project they were able to update their website and marketing materials to attract donors and educate clients. Now “The Visionaries”, a public television series, will be doing a documentary on Safe Places. The series seeks to highlight the rarely told stories of nonprofit organizations from all over the world that work to make a difference in their communities.

Safe Places has provided long-term help and support to victims of family violence since 2002, and has survived on a tight budget. Set to shoot this spring, founder Kathy Findley is excited at the prospect of the documentary inspiring new donors to Safe Places, from both inside and outside the state of Arkansas. The Visionaries, Inc. is a charitable nonprofit itself and raises all the funds for production from tax-deductible contributions.

To learn more about Safe Places visit www.safeplaceslr.org, and to learn more about the Visionaries series, visit their website at www.visionaries.org.

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!