The professionals at Madison's Bulldog MediaSoup feature their video promotions of our fair city on our fair marketing website:
Check out that header image. Nothing says "Friendly Hometown Hospitality" like an old barbed-wire fence keeping people out of an empty field. Maybe we're just trying to emphasize Madison's exclusivity....
Not to worry: the good folks at Leader Printing make up for mixed messages with this week's glorious full-color "Salute to Madison!" newspaper insert. (Jon actually didn't include an exclamation point, but I would have. Exclamation points are like big spangly earrings, or wearing purple when you are old—embrace the fabulous!)
Lovely family business pict—hey, wait a minute. What's that girl got on her shirt?
I guess Madison is mighty hospitable after all.
Cory-
Just because a family business is in Madison does not mean every aspect of that family revolves around Madison. If she had been wearing a shirt with a Bulldog on it would you have figured it was just another sneaky, under handed trick of the school board to promote the renovation/addition project?
Don't you think this little publication has the potential to promote more businesses in Madison, and reach more people, than any recent LAIC project?
By the way, tagging this as humor is funny.
Where are the pictures?
As a professional photographer, I might be a bit biased, but I think pictures would be nice.
Let me rephrase: The website should be better.
Let me tell you how simple this could be: A few years ago we were called by the owners of the 2nd Street Diner on a Sunday. They wanted pictures up in their party room for an event on Thursday evening. We had the framed pictures up in 5 days. We had to take the pictures, send them to the lab and get them framed by John Green. We did this project on top of a full studio schedule. Check out the pictures of Madison the next time you are in the Diner.
If we can do a project of this size in less than a week on top of normal work, the website should be able to be revised in less than a month. Add some pictures throughout the year. Don't leave link from the Aim High School that closed years ago.
Jim, a fart in a windstorm has more chance of getting Madison noticed than the failed efforts of the LAIC. But branding would tell me I look for a cover photo that sends the Madison message. I suppoe one could argue (as I suggest above) that the ORR shirt is actually a marketing choice to demonstrate Madison's multi-community cosmopolitan nature. But it simpler to read the photo choice as bad marketing, like showing someone wearing a Twins cap in a "Go Milwaukee!" flyer. A Bulldog jersey would be a fine marketing choice, as would a DSU Trojan logo, a Prairie Village t-shirt, or even a Madville Times shirt!
Isn't Rutland School an advertiser on your blog?!?!
Why yes, and thank you for your support!
Pictures are very powerful and they really leave their mark. It is not just in Madison that little snafus like this happen. A few years ago the College of Agriculture (that college North of here) published their (annual? semi-annual?, perhaps quarterly??) report. On the cover was then President Peggy Miller wearing a beautiful yellow pullover with DSU big as life across her chest. Just the wrong angle for either Peggy or the photographer as the "S" was not displayed. (We could refer to it as being visually silent) That image made the rounds on our Madison campus and made for some good laughs...
I noticed the little girls shirt right away. Not because it wasn't a Bulldog shirt but because it was an ORR shirt. It seems to me Madison stores serve quite a few of us that live in the outlying towns so it was nice to see our schools being promoted, even if it was just an oversight.
...and Erika, if that oversight creates positive vibes with Madison "customers" in the northern reaches of the county, all the better! There's something to be said for that hospitality. Still, if I'm the chief of marketing, I make sure my front page of a Madison flyer is all Madison so there are no mixed messages to new customers.
I wondered when you were going to post, Erika.