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O2 expanding to Summit County

Big news from O2!

As you know, our office is located in Grand County, as are many of our clients. In addition to Grand County, we’ve always been happy to provide our top-quality graphic design, web design, and marketing services to businesses near and far. That’s why we’re pleased to announce our plans to expand to Summit County, Colorado!

SummitCountyMap

That’s right. We’d like to formally offer our services to Summit County businesses (though we’ll still be working hard for Grand County and all our other clients either way!)

With our years of experience in resort and tourism marketing and design, we’re already the perfect fit for many businesses in Summit County. We’re happy to come meet in Summit, or if you’re ever in our neck of the woods, you’re always welcome to stop by our Fraser office.

So if you know of any businesses looking for marketing or design work in Frisco, Dillon, Breckenridge, Keystone, Silverthorne, or anywhere else in Summit County, let us know! We’re happy to provide websites, mobile websites, graphic designs, marketing, advertising, promotional items, logos and branding, social media, and any of our other services to our Summit County neighbors.

So contact us at O2 for more info or for a free consultation. Your mountain business deserves to work with a mountain agency!

Give us a call at 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for our last blog: small business marketing checklist

Credit Wikipedia for the map image

Small business marketing checklist

Starting or growing your small business can be a lot of work. In order to establish the market presence your business will need, there are a lot of bases you’ll need to cover. That’s where we at O2 can help. We’re an agency that works with new and growing businesses every day. Here are just a few things your business will need to be successful:

Your business will need a brand; a logo; an identity – something by which your market can recognize you. We can help develop your brand, and create a professional logo that’ll do more than just get your business recognized – it’ll make your business stand out.

Your business will also need marketing. Advertising campaigns, promotions, a marketing plan, signage, media, execution – all that stuff takes time and creativity. We can do all your marketing dirty work for you, from designing ads and media, to coordinating a campaign, to even researching and creating a marketing plan. We’ll help you figure out the most effective marketing strategies that will make your business really shine in your market.

Your business should also have a professional online presence. Customers these days expect businesses to have a website, and your business deserves a website that serves your needs: online booking systems, blogging features, e-commerce, photo galleries, and whatever other custom features your business can use to achieve success. Your online presence shouldn’t be limited just to desktop computers either – now that so many folks have smart phones, mobile websites are more important than ever.

And more and more, customers want businesses they can interact with online. They want to know what a business is up to; want to communicate; want timely updates and announcements. This can be achieved through blogging and social media. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms allow you to showcase your business, interact with your markets. (Oh, and social media campaigns are a GREAT way to attract new customers as well!) We can help you set up blogging and social media pages, and even manage blogs and pages for you, so you can focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

The point is, we at O2 can help with all the daunting details of marketing. We’ll help your business create the best campaigns, the best designs, and the best websites, and more. Contact us today to discuss all the ways our agency can help your business!

To contact O2 Creative, call 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for our last blog – O2 addicted to powder!

5 reasons your business needs a sign

There are virtually endless little details to consider when it comes to marketing a business, though there’s one marketing detail that every business should think of as essential: a sign. Why does your business need a sign? Lots of reasons, actually! Here are just 5 quick reasons why:

Signs are effective. Plain and simple! From a marketing perspective, signs get you noticed. They let your market know who you are, where you are, and what you do. As soon as your business has a sign, customers will instantly be more familiar with you.

Cooper Creek sign
O2-designed sign for Cooper Creek Square shopping center in downtown Winter Park

Customers judge books by their cover. For better or for worse, this is certainly true, especially with business signs. In a customer’s mind, a good business has a good sign. If your sign is professional, attractive, engaging, and fresh, then customers will think the same about your business. This is why it’s so important to design a quality sign that will accurately represent your business.

Of course, not every sign is necessarily effective in the ways your business wants it to be. If your business’ sign is not professional and engaging, then you won’t engage your customers as well as you could, should, and would with a good sign.

Worse yet, if your sign is bland or plain or dated or broken, then customers will think the same about your business. Even worse yet…

“A business with no sign is a sign of no business.” If you don’t even have a sign then customers may think your business has closed, may not think your business is legitimate, or may not even know your business exists!

The Foundry outdoor sign
The Foundry outdoor sign, design by O2

Signs aren’t as expensive as you think. No, really! There are quality signs for every business’ budget. Besides, a sign is a one-time cost (contrasted with the ongoing costs of many other marketing initiatives). A sign is an investment for your business, and continues to market your business for years after the initial cost, which leads us to our next point…

A sign is always working for you. It never quits! A sign reminds customers about your brand every time they see it – 24/7/365 (366 on leap years). Even when your business is closed for the day, your sign will still be marketing for you.

O2SnowSign
Even during a blizzard, business signs never stop marketing for you!

These are just a few reasons why it’s so important for your business to have a sign – and not just any old sign, but a professional, well-designed, high-quality sign that represents the quality of your business.

We at O2 would be happy to help you design a sign as well. We can create the coolest signs for all sorts of businesses both big and small. Our signs will represent your business, get you noticed, and never stop working for you!

To contact us at O2 Creative, call 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for our next blog: Reasons to hire a marketing agency

Reasons to hire a marketing agency

Folks often ask us, “Why should our business hire a marketing and design agency?”

Well, LOTS of reasons, actually. Between the time, money, energy, and experience it takes to effectively market your business, there are plenty of reasons why your business can really benefit from hiring an agency. Here are just a few:

Experience and expertise: We at O2 have over 30 combined years of experience in marketing and design. We do this stuff every day! If you aren’t sure how to market your business just yet, we can quickly and efficiently help you identify the marketing strategies that will work best for you.

We stay on top of all the latest marketing trends as well, so we can identify marketing ideas much more quickly than someone who doesn’t necessarily think about marketing every day.

Time: Small businesses usually don’t have much free time, and unfortunately, marketing takes time. Devising a strategy, coordinating ads, creating promotional items, writing content, managing a campaign – all that stuff takes precious time. That’s where an agency can help. Let us do your marketing work for you, so you can keep your time focused on operating your business.

Speaking of time – agencies can also complete marketing work much faster than trying to do it in-house.

It’s not as expensive as you might think: sure, hiring the biggest marketing agency in New York City can get pricey, but we’re a small business that specializes in working with other small businesses. We can create marketing packages that fit your needs as well as your budget.

Besides, hiring a marketer in-house can be expensive too. Recruiting, interviewing, training, salary, benefits – all that stuff takes lots of money and time. By hiring an agency to do your business’ marketing, you can contract for exactly the work you need without having to hire a whole new employee.

O2GoldenAspens

Objectivism: You know the old adage – “can’t see the forest for the trees.” If you’re busy with the day-to-day details of your business, it may be difficult to think about how to market your business in the big picture. A business can really benefit from the objective outside perspective that an agency can provide, especially when it comes to matters of marketing or design.

Resources: as an agency, we can help with your marketing, but why stop there? We can help you execute every element of a marketing strategy – designing a brand and logos, producing and coordinating advertising, updating blogs and social media campaigns, designing and maintaining websites, and more.

The point we’re trying to make is, there are are lots of ways our agency can help your business. Contact us today to see what we can do for you!

To contact O2 Creative, call 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for our last blog: O2 on the Wipe Out!

O2 on the Wipe Out

We at O2 sure are excited for this Saturday. What’s this Saturday? Well, this Saturday is none other than the Winter Park Wipe Out!

Winter Park Wipeout stickers
Winter Park Wipeout stickers, design by O2!

So what’s the Winter Park Wipe Out, you ask? Well, it’s  “The Coolest Race on Snow!” Contestants get to race throughout downtown Winter Park completing over 15 exciting obstacles and challenges: snow tubing and sledding, scavenger hunts, games and puzzles, food challenges, obstacle courses, and other fun stuff too!

WipeOutTubing2

To make things as interesting as possible, contestants are also encouraged to dress up in costumes while participating. From monkeys to bananas to superheroes to Scooby Doo, the creative contestant costumes make the event even more entertaining!

MonkeyBanana2

Contestants have a great time taking on challenges around Winter Park, and also receive a 2-for-1 ski pass to the Winter Park Resort, a coupon for $20 off a snowmobile tour with Grand Adventures, party beads at each challenge, raffle tickets, and other great offers from businesses all around Winter Park.

Winter Park Wipe Out is family-friendly, and it’s definitely a good time for all ages. Hot cocoa and s’mores are provided, and live music will be rocking throughout the event. For folks old enough to drink, beer is available for purchase as well.

 Philip And Catherine

Of course, the O2 guys will be at Wipe Out, helping out with the event and maybe even participating in a challenge or two ourselves. We volunteered and participated in last year’s Wipe Out, and it was such a good time, we can’t wait to do it again this year!

 Eric at wipeout

If you haven’t signed up yet, do it quick! Check out www.winterparkadventureseries.com or go to the Adventure Series Facebook page here. Hope to see you at Wipe Out!

To contact O2 Creative, give us a call at 970-726-8021 or email [email protected].

Click here for our last blog post: O2 on the river!

We won a Davey!

Award Winning Avertisng Agencies!

Big news for O2!

Lots of folks already know we’re O2 Creative, that cleverly creative marketing and design agency up in the mountains…but now we have something to add…

As of last week, now we’re O2 Creative, that AWARD WINNING cleverly creative marketing and design agency up in the mountains!

Yup, that’s right – we won a Davey!

We won a Davey Award!

Our design and marketing work has been recognized by the Davey Awards, an international creative award organization that honors small firms with big ideas – you know, just like “Davey” took out Goliath with a small rock and a big idea.

We submitted some of our favorite work we did for one of our favorite clients, The Foundry Cinema and Bowl. Our work has been awarded a Silver Award in Davey’s “Integrated Campaign” category, a category that features 2-5 pieces of work from at least two different mediums – print media, website and mobile web design, signage, etc.

To showcase the consistency in branding that we’ve worked so hard to achieve for The Foundry, we submitted 5 different pieces of work:

The Foundry’s exterior signage:

FoundryExteriorSign

The Foundry’s website:

The Foundry's website on various formats
The Foundry’s website on various formats

The mobile website:

The Foundry mobile website
The Foundry mobile website

Promotional posters for tournament bowling:

Foundry Bowling Tournament Poster
The Foundry Bowling Tournament Poster

And finally, a wood-fired pizza box packaging:

Foundry pizza box
Foundry pizza box

We wanted our logo and branding direction to be an extension of The Foundry’s retro-industrial building design. For the outdoor sign, we created a large backlit neon-style sign mounted atop The Foundry with metal scaffolding, similar to the signage of some of the more classic industrial buildings of days past:

rca sign

For the website and mobile site, we wanted a very clean, simple design that also retained the retro-industrial elements of other Foundry designs. We incorporated an “eroded” look for some of the web graphics, to give the website an old school, broken-in sort of feel.

The mobile site features simple icons so users can easily find movie times and other info. The website features a rotating photo banner, which is meant to visually showcase the unique guest experience at The Foundry. Up-to-the-minute movie times are also displayed on the website’s home page.

The promotional posters were intended to generate buzz locally for The Foundry’s tournament bowling league. We again kept the design simple. We used the tagline of “Where Local Legends Are Born” to further entice local bowlers into signing up. To help illustrate bowling and to further create attention, we included bowling pins dressed up as characters from one of our favorite bowling movies.

The pizza boxes were again kept clean and simple. We included The Foundry’s logo to consistently bolster brand awareness. We tastefully added The Foundry’s contact info, and also included stylized flames to bring attention to The Foundry’s unique wood-fired pizza.

Almost 4,000 firms from around the world entered their work in addition to ours, so we consider it a real honor to be recognized among so many other talented agencies. We don’t mean to completely toot our own horn about this, but we really are just that excited about being recognized!

With that said – we want this blog post to be a big THANK YOU – to the Davey Awards, to The Foundry, to all our clients, friends, family, and to anyone and everyone else who have helped us become an award-winning creative agency!

Thanks again, everyone!

Contact us at [email protected]

Read about print vs digital media here

Looking for a sign?

Business Sign Designed in Colorado

For most businesses, proper signage is one of the most important elements of marketing. Signs create an identity and a presence for a business. They’re critical for building brand awareness. And, all things considered, business signs are actually one of the more affordable marketing initiatives a business can pursue.

In many ways, a good sign is your business’s identity. Signs let everyone know who you are and what you do. They get you noticed and make your business more familiar to your customers.

O2 Creative Fraser Colorado
O2 Creative’s own sign, hanging big and bright over downtown Fraser, Colorado. Award winning advertising agency.

Business signs define your presence in your market. A sharp, professional, well-executed sign communicates to your customers that you’re a sharp, professional, well-executed business. Conversely, if your sign looks dated, cheap, or just cheesy, then your customers will think the same about you. And perhaps worst of all – if your business doesn’t even have a sign, then your market may not even know you exist!

Signs are also invaluable as promotional tools. For instance, a sign that includes your logo helps to build your brand and reinforce your market presence. Signs can convey important information, including info about your products, services, taglines, contact info, or other news and information.

Fraser Valley Hot Dog business signs
O2 Creative-designed outdoor signage for our friends at Fraser Valley Hot Dog

Signs are always working for you as well. They’re there 24/7 to keep your business fresh in the minds of customers. Even if customers don’t have an immediate need for your products or services, the constant exposure of your business sign will help them to think of you when they are ready to do business.

Indeed, proper business signage is an important part of a business’s overall marketing efforts. Signs are among the most cost-effective marketing efforts in the long run as well. Sure, a good sign will probably cost you, depending on how fancy you get. But signs are a one-time purchase that can provide years of effective marketing.

When you compare the cost of a sign to the ongoing costs of other marketing efforts, signage actually starts to look like a bargain. Whether customers see your sign for the first time and impulsively stop in, or eventually visit your business after noticing your sign over time, signs provide great return-on-investment either way.

The Foundry Cinema & Bowl exterior signage
Oversized backlit sign designed for The Foundry Cinema and Bowl, Winter Park, Colorado, Sign Designer, O2 Creative

So where can you get good business signs? Well, not to toot our own horn, but we can design some of the coolest signs around! We can work with virtually any business and any budget to create indoor and outdoor signs of all colors, shapes, and sizes. We can design signs for any building, location, or event. Heck, we can even put signs on your car! We’ll help you create a sign that helps to establish your market presence and represents the identity of your business.

Give us a call today at 970-726-8021 or email us at [email protected].

Click here for our next post – the business of business cards!

The business of business cards

Business card design and printing

What small card plays a big role for virtually every business? It’s the business card! (Aptly named, right?) Actually, business cards are critical to building and maintaining a market presence for all sorts of businesses.

yeti-business-cards1
O2-designed business cards, complete with logos, graphics, and Yetis!

Business cards are convenient. Usually no larger than 2 inches by 3.5 inches, these little guys can go just about anywhere – wallets, pockets, bulletin boards, countertop displays…you get the idea. They’re one of the fastest, easiest, most professional ways to share your business information to clients, partners, and prospects alike. And you’ll never know when or where you’ll have to share your business card with a new contact – don’t go anywhere without ’em!

Business cards do wonders for networking. You can easily exchange all sorts of contact info, from your phone number and email to your website and social media pages. Nowadays you can even include high-tech features, such as QR codes, that can direct smart phones to even more information about you and your business.

Business cards also play a distinctive role in advertising. A well-designed card that includes your business’s branding, logo, and other identifiable images and info will make you stand out when you share them with your contacts. They’re a crucial step forward in building brand awareness and market presence as you maintain and grow your business.

Did we say well-designed? That’s where things get real interesting. Business card design has grown leaps and bounds since the days of boring little black-and-white rectangles. There are virtually endless cool new ways to design a business card, including any number of colors, graphics, fonts, tag lines, shapes, sizes, or even unique materials from which to choose.

FoundryBizCard2
For instance, you could choose a card made out of colorful translucent plastic, like the ones we designed for our friends at The Foundry…
Tabernash-Tavern-Business-Card
…to even a distinctive wood-grain veneer, like the cards we created for Tabernash Tavern…
O2BusinessCards
…or even a thicker, multi-layered material, complete with your business’s logo uniquely stamped onto each one, like our own business cards.

The point is, even business card design should be clever and creative. Business cards can do more than simply exchange contact info. They create great first impressions and they help your business stand out in your market. They also bolster brand awareness, especially when your business card incorporates the same logos and branding as your other marketing media.

k9_bliss

If your business needs new business cards, or if you would simply like to redesign your old business cards, contact O2 Creative today. We can work with you to design truly distinctive cards that will reflect the personality of your business and really separate you from the rest of the crowd.

To contact O2 Creative, give us a call at 970-726-8021 or email info@o2creative. Or, just stop by our office some time, and we’ll give you one of our business cards!

Click here for the next post – the blog about blogs!

The rap on vehicle wraps

Have you seen a wrapped vehicle around town lately? Odds are you have – it’s difficult to miss them!

)2GrandLakeBrewTruckWrap
Grand Lake Brewing’s wrapped truck, designed by O2

Aptly named, a vehicle wrap is a custom design printed on special vinyl material. This vinyl is precision-cut and expertly applied, or “wrapped,” to the exact dimensions of a particular vehicle. Vinyl wraps cover every little corner and curve of the vehicle so perfectly that it’s often mistaken for a custom paint job.

A vinyl wrap is better than a custom paint job, though, in several ways. It’s much less expensive, it’s easier to apply, it actually protects your paint job underneath, and the vinyl can be easily removed or changed if you ever decide to change the colors or graphics on your vehicle.

O2GrandLakePlumbingTruck
O2 Creative also designed this truck wrap for Grand Lake Plumbing.

What sorts of colors and graphics are available, you ask? Well, just about anything! We can design a wrap that includes your logos, taglines, contact info, colors, images, or whatever else you’d like on your vehicle. Yup, that’s right – we can turn your vehicle into an eye-catching advertisement on wheels! Everywhere your vehicle goes, so will the promotional power of your distinctive vehicle wrap. Few other advertisements can organically create attention as well as a vehicle wrap.

We’re big proponents of using vehicle wraps as promotions, too. A vehicle wrap is an advertisement that goes everywhere you go! It’s a great way to gain brand awareness and generate buzz within a community. A wrap is always working for you, even when your vehicle is parked. Vehicle wraps get you noticed!

trailer_side
O2-designed trailer wrap for our friends at Rocky Mountain Catastrophe

And by “vehicle wrap,” we mean just about any sort of vehicle – cars, trucks, vans, trailers, you name it! We can professionally wrap a single vehicle, or an entire fleet. We are also able to create partial wraps or individual graphics as well. Your wrap can be as simple as a logo displayed on your door, or as extensive as a complete wrap that creates a whole new look for your vehicle.

Click here to read one of our other blogs

If you or your business is interested in vehicle wraps, contact O2 Creative today. Give us a call at 970-726-8021, or email us at [email protected].