Today Martopia announced it has named Matt Sommerfield as Jr. Graphic Designer. Sommerfield brings a range of talent and expertise to Martopia including graphic design, production and new media abilities that promise to create new opportunities for Martopia’s clients. Before joining Martopia’s creative team, Sommerfield gained several years of expertise as a media and design specialist for one of the world’s largest product video companies, with a variety of both creative and media management responsibilities.

Sommerfield will be responsible for supporting Martopia’s creative department with creative concept and design, along with expanding integrated campaigns across a variety of new media and communication vehicles. He will be based out of Martopia’s Chicago area campus.

“Martopia’s dynamic talent with creative messaging ranging from clean and traditional to edgy and unexpected really got my attention,” said Sommerfield. “It takes a unique team and mindset to capture companies’ personalities and make them stand out the way Martopia does – and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

In the crowded and ever-changing healthcare technology marketplace, Martopia helps its clients stand apart from their competitors and show their unique value with new and creative ways to communicate.

“There are a lot of companies competing for attention in the healthcare marketplace today – and a lot of their brands look and sound similar,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “We focus on building the unique character of our clients’ brands and highlighting what their products and services mean to their customers. It’s imperative that companies achieve this kind of brand distinction to stand out and make meaningful connections in the healthcare marketplace and everywhere else – and we’ll be reminding them of this at HIMSS10.”

In addition to exhibiting, Martopia is hosting several media conferences and events for its public relations clients at HIMSS10 to launch important news to the healthcare industry. “Martopia specializes in healthcare technology marketing and public relations, so we have a strong presence at tradeshows like HIMSS every year. The media events Martopia hosts at HIMSS are always an incredible opportunity for our healthcare clients to demonstrate their expertise, innovation and leadership to both the media and potential customers. In addition to our booth, Martopia has a Vendor Suite on the Exhibit Hall floor to enable us to provide a comfortable, private space for our clients to meet with the media. We help our clients maximize media opportunities at HIMSS by proactively scheduling appointments with leading editors and reporters, plus hosting round tables with the most respected and coveted media outlets in healthcare,” concludes Hernandez.

Attendees and exhibitors can visit Martopia at HIMSS10, booth #4923 for more information. Prior to the show, interested parties can call 866.587.9944 to schedule an introductory appointment at HIMSS10.

Martopia, a growth catalyst firm™ that provides a unique blend of branding, marketing, public relations and interactive expertise to help businesses achieve their growth goals, today announced it has named Megan Wagner as Account Executive.

Wagner comes from a broad background of project management and strategic execution. Prior to joining Martopia, she managed marketing communications and national event planning for a Fortune 500 corporation. Her responsibilities included the execution of comprehensive branding, marketing and public relations programs.

Wagner will be responsible for managing integrated marketing and public relations programs, working closely with Martopia clients on a broad range of communication strategies to maximize results. She will be based out of Martopia’s Chicago area campus.

“Martopia’s progressive mindset toward communications strategies along with its exceptional focus on client service was a great fit,” said Wagner. “I’ve long been aware of Martopia’s continued growth and reputation for outstanding work, and I am proud to join such a strong organization.”

Command Performance And COMPETE STRONG Campaigns Demonstrate
Effectiveness Of Creativity And Strategic Marketing

Widely respected as one of the most stringently evaluated creative competitions, the W3 Awards is administered and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts to honor creative excellence on the Web. The W3 is the first major competition to match the smallest firms against the largest agencies with everything in between to recognize the creative and marketing professionals whose ideas and hard work provide the Web’s best sites, videos and marketing.
Martopia won awards for two separate projects at this year’s W3 competition. One of the W3’s highest honors, the W3 Gold Award, was awarded to Martopia’s Command Performance video. Martopia developed the video for a client’s integrated Personalized URL (PURL) marketing campaign that included branding, microsites, direct mail and e-mail marketing.
“The high level of execution required for the development of the Command Performance video is a prime example of Martopia’s interactive expertise,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez.
Martopia also received W3’s 2009 Silver Award for its COMPETE STRONG video, part of the agency’s self-promotional COMPETE STRONG campaign. Already honored with multiple creative awards, Martopia’s COMPETE STRONG campaign is a self-branded initiative that also features integrated PURL marketing. The video can be viewed at Martopia.com on the Home page under the COMPETE STRONG title.
“COMPETE STRONG is how Martopia leads by example,” says Hernandez. “Our COMPETE STRONG campaign has delivered the power of strong creative and strategic messaging for our clients’ businesses and has also helped contribute to Martopia’s continued growth and success.”

Martopia today announced it has advanced its design team with the promotion of Scott Nielsen to Art Director and the addition of Matthew Aldis as Graphic Designer. The changes come in response to Martopia’s continued growth in spite of slow market conditions and represent the resource and talent of a premier creative team to companies ramping up marketing efforts as the economy recovers.

Nielsen has spent nearly half a decade climbing the ranks of Martopia’s design team. His promotion to Art Director is largely due to his unwavering excellence and the continued advancement of his creative abilities. His talent has repeatedly delivered exceptional, award-winning marketing and communications for Martopia’s clients.

Aldis comes to Martopia’s creative department from a storied history in a variety of fast-paced creative environments. Prior to joining Martopia, Aldis worked as a Graphic Designer for a large Chicagoland organization, creating a spectrum of graphics and print material to meet weekly deadlines. Before that Aldis worked at a Chicagoland firm creating branded visuals as part of fully integrated, traditional and online campaigns and a Chicago marketing and publishing agency, overseeing projects from concept to press for a variety of national brands.

“We’ve always been proud of the level of talent in our creative department and spend significant time and resources ensuring we have both the imagination and expertise to help make our clients stand out,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “This promotion and addition represent our commitment to not only maintain the remarkable results we’ve provided for our clients thus far, but to take our work to the next level to continue to deliver even more.”

I recently read an article in Inc Magazine by John Kotter regarding having a sense of urgency during a recession. The article was interesting because Kotter pointed out the difference between productive and unproductive urgency for businesses during a downturn. He points out that unproductive urgency is often driven by the “fear of losing” instead of the “gut-level determination to win.”

Many companies have spent quite a bit of energy in the past months reacting to fear – even stopping all go-forward momentum to simply remain safe. This is understandable, but the companies that are able to rise above the fear are already crafting strategies to transform their companies and come out stronger. They will be ready to capitalize on the “new market” immediately when the economic turnaround gains momentum.

The world as we know it has changed during the past year, but how we react to that change will sort out the strong companies from the weaker ones. Companies that instill a productive sense of urgency and maintain their determination to win will emerge stronger.

One way your company can emerge stronger is to take this time to evaluate who you are and clearly define your BRAND. You might be very different from the company you were a year ago – and your customers are probably very different in their mindsets and buying habits.

Be sure to visit www.competestrong.com and register for Martopia’s BOLD BRAND MOVES Webinar. There has never been a better time to create a distinctive, powerful brand strategy that can take your company into the future. Martopia is offering a MASTERING BRAND PERFORMANCE white paper to those who attend the Webinar. This interesting white paper offers a 13-step process for Brand Exploration that you can use at your company to get discussions started.

Earlier this year, Martopia launched a Compete Strong direct marketing campaign that integrated with a personalized URL (PURL) microsite. The original campaign focused on the concept of competing strong in a weak economy. Martopia developed a 120-page COMPETE STRONG PLAYBOOK to provide strategies that would help companies achieve more results with less budget. This book was extremely well received and has helped many companies to rework their marketing strategies during the past several months. (We still have a few Playbooks left if anyone is interested in receiving a copy - just email us at info@martopia.com.)

Now that the economy is beginning to show signs of a turnaround, it is time to make bold brand moves. The latest Compete Strong campaign (2.0) recognizes companies must have a strong brand strategy and move with strategic confidence. Compete Strong 2.0 focuses on how companies can create distinctive and charismatic brands that stand out in today’s competitive marketplace. Many brands are vanilla and stay within the “norms” of their categories. Compete Strong 2.0 discusses how to get out of the box and elevate your brand’s performance.

Martopia is offering a new BOLD BRAND MOVES WEBINAR to help companies prepare for the economic turnaround ahead. You can learn more and register for the Webinar at www.competestrong.com. In addition, people who attend the webinar will receive Martopia’s new publication called, Mastering Brand Performance.

Awards Mark Martopia’s Second Competition Win This Month

Administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, the Hermes Creative Awards receives thousands of entries from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms and more from around the world. The mission of the organization is to set standards and recognize excellence in creative professionals for concept, writing and design and it has been honoring outstanding achievement and service to the communication profession since 1995.

Two Martopia projects were recognized with awards in this year’s competition. The first was Hermes’ Platinum Award for Martopia’s own Brand Book. The Brand Book was created to explain Martopia’s proprietary brand development process in a creative and interesting way. Traditionally, branding firms utilize diagrams and charts to illustrate their processes. Martopia developed the Brand Book to represent its brand development steps as part of a scenic road trip.

“Martopia’s Brand Book reads similarly to a coffee table book, filled with large colorful images and creative copy that takes our clients through the brand development journey. It provides interesting, light reading that brings the process to life - complete with landmarks and famous branding quotes sprinkled throughout,” says Erin Gerber, Martopia’s Vice President of Agency Services.

Martopia also took home the Hermes Gold Award for the Martopia COMPETE STRONG Campaign in the Communications Campaign category. COMPETE STRONG is an integrated campaign that includes personalized postcards, brochures and e-mails that drive recipients to dynamic Personalized URLs (PURLS) at www.competestrong.com. The campaign is a call for companies to refine their marketing and public relations strategies to achieve more with less. The campaign focuses on the imperative to compete strong in a weak economy through strategic use of budget dollars for the highest impact.

“We are extremely proud to be recognized for achievement in creativity and development that has impact across a wide range of mediums - from print to integrated campaigns,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “Our world class creative marketers and strategists constantly push themselves to lead the edge of design and communications technologies and we are honored to have our work so highly regarded by our peers.”

Branding And Creativity Recognized Out Of Entries Worldwide

The Summit Creative Awards are organized by Summit International Awards and were created to recognize and celebrate the creative achievements of both small and medium-sized advertising agencies and other creative firms worldwide. The organization has a 15 year history of distinguishing companies and individuals creating exceptional marketing, advertising, design and interactive communications and has earned a reputation as a premier arbiter of creative and marketing excellence. This year’s competition included thousands of entries from 26 countries around the globe.

Martopia’s own Brand Book was awarded Summit International’s Bronze Award in this year’s Self-Promotion Brochure/Mailer category. The Martopia Brand Book was product of a desire to introduce the agency to clients in a non-traditional way - communicating brand-building expertise by showing, rather than telling. Charts, graphs and statistics are replaced by an image-rich story that takes readers through the “journey” of building a strong brand.

“Our brand book has been extremely well-received by current and prospective clients and has played an integral role in the branding that has helped Martopia continue to grow. We’re proud to be recognized for the kind of creativity and strategy we deliver for our clients on a daily basis,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “Our world class team of creative marketers and strategists
works hard to create impact and results across a wide range of mediums - from print to integrated campaigns and more - and we’re glad it continues to show.”

Martopia, a growth catalyst firm that provides a unique blend of marketing, public relations and interactive expertise to help businesses achieve their growth goals, today announced it is has achieved three Awards of Distinction from the 2009 Communicator Awards. 

Organized by the International Academy of Visual Arts, The Communicator Awards recognizes creative and communication professionals for creative excellence, and has become one of the largest of its kind in the world. The competition is in its 15th year and is judged by an invitation-only body of preeminent industry professionals representing some of the world’s most recognized organizations.

This year, three campaigns created by Martopia were selected from a pool of more than 7000 entries to receive The Award of Distinction, presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement. All within the competition’s Print Advertising category, the projects recognized include a branding book for a Martopia client, an integrated direct marketing PURL campaign for a client and Martopia’s own groundbreaking brand book.

“Martopia is proud to be recognized for excellence in developing communications that show creativity and impact across a broad range of mediums - from print to integrated campaigns,” said Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “Our world class team of creative marketers and strategists works hard to remain on the cutting-edge of design and communications technologies.”