Included in their “Thought Leader” section, American Cemetery magazine features Dan Katz’s ideas about the power of creativity in marketing to create change for funeral businesses.
Los Angeles, CA — Perhaps the most challenging category to advertise is one that everyone will need but nobody wants: funeral care. And if customer acceptance isn’t challenging enough, it’s harder still for ads in that category to be recognized as “Excellent” in the advertising community
Northridge, CA-based Marketing agency LA ads recently won the prestigious 2012 Telly Award for “Excellence in Local TV Campaign, Business-to-Consumer” for its client, Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuaries. The four- commercial campaign entitled “Legacy” features older adults thinking about their own legacies and what stories about them will be handed down to future generations. Each commercial concludes “Whatever your legacy, it deserves to be honored at a place as beautiful as Rose Hills Memorial Park.”
The first commercial features a grandfather looking over his photo album with his young granddaughter. As she flips through the pages, the grandfather reflects on how his life has had purpose and that’s what counts. The second spot shows an elderly female photographer considering that it’s her children and grandchildren that are her real legacy, not her pictures. In a third commercial, a grandmother plants a tree in her yard with the help of her 6-year-old grandson. She reflects on how this tree will grow and bring joy long after she’s gone, a shared legacy with her grandson. The last spot focuses on a teacher’s final day before retirement as he thinks about the number of students whose lives he has influenced over the course of his career
“We’re proud and excited to have these commercials recognized by the advertising community,” said agency president and creative director Dan Katz. “It’s especially gratifying because funeral care is a difficult category to begin with. We are thankful that Rose Hills has encouraged us to step outside the boundaries of traditional cemetery advertising, such as direct response or expected testimonials, and explore different paths. This Legacy campaign touches on areas more audiences can relate to and appreciate.”
We’ve launched our new blog page, sharing insights, comments and rants about Marketing. You can read our latest blog post now:http://laadsmarketingblog.com/
After serving impoverished clients with free legal services for thirty years, public service law firm Bet Tzedek has undergone its first complete branding. Marketing agency LA ads developed a new logo and identity package, along with a theme line for Bet Tzedek that expresses the organization’s mission: Justice for All.
Established in 1977, Bet Tzedek was initially founded as an outreach program of the Los Angeles Jewish community to provide free legal counsel to Holocaust survivors and low-income seniors. It soon added services in support of the wider non-Jewish community. However, its name, which in Hebrew means “House of Justice” and original slogan taken from the Hebrew Bible often misled its audiences into believing Bet Tzedek served only
Jews. The new branding effort, while maintaining the organization’s name, both modernizes the image of Bet Tzedek and reflects the broad diversity of its audiences, which includes donors, volunteers, staff and clients across the full spectrum of Los Angeles’ residents.
Following a series of focus groups of staff, volunteers, donors and partnering law firms, the agency determined that the three “pillars” of Bet Tzedek’s brand are its high degree of professionalism, its value system based on the spirit of righteousness, and its forward-thinking commitment to innovation. From this, the agency developed a color palette reflecting the diversity of clientele and programs, a logo that symbolizes the torch of Justice, and
the tagline which features the last three words of the Pledge of Allegiance. As is often the requirement in a complete branding project to assure uniformity of brand across all the client’s communications platforms, LA ads produced a “Brand Bible” that describes logo usage, font and color application, brand messaging and sample executions.
Immediately upon the adoption of the new brand, LA ads created new advertising for Bet Tzedek highlighting the individual success stories of some of its clients. Currently featured in the new campaign are the stories of a woman who had been enslaved by her wealthy employers, a developmentally disabled man who was being removed from of his beloved group home of 30 years, and a senior with increasing dementia whose life savings
was stolen by his housekeeper.
Additionally, Bet Tzedek has launched a completely revised website based on the new branding program, which is both easier to use and tells the Bet Tzedek story in a much more compelling fashion.
“While we do branding assignments for many different clients in many different industries, this is one of the most rewarding projects we’ve undertaken,” said Katz. “Bet Tzedek is a savior to so many people without the means to pay for legal help, whose rights have been violated, and who wouldn’t have a voice in the system were it not for this amazing organization. The fact that we can play a role in the forwarding of their mission is hugely special to us.”
NORTHRIDGE, CALIFORNIA (June 1, 2011) — Marketing agency LA ads as been selected by Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuaries to create an advertising and marketing program for the English-speaking general market. Rose Hills, located in Whittier, California, is the largest cemetery in the world with more than 1,400 acres of memorial property. it provides funeral services to more than 9,000 families per year.
Centrally located in Southern California, Rose Hills serves a multi-cultural population. LA ads will provide the overall branding and marketing messages that will be the umbrella for all Rose Hills’ efforts in the coming year. Rose Hills will use additional specialized advertising agencies to reach markets in targeted ethnic communities.
“We’re honored to be working with Rose Hills,” said agency president Dan Katz, who has been working with funeral industry clients since the mid-90s. “As a memorial park and funeral services provider, Rose Hills is the crown jewel. What they do, others in the industry see and take note of.”
“Many people are surprised at the range of options available at Rose Hills that are creative, affordable and in keeping with the changing times,” said Katz. “The agency’s most important task is to communicate the value that Rose Hills brings to its families while making the Rose Hills name recognizable as the top choice for any kind of funeral.”
Rose Hills is owned by SCI – Service Corporation International, publicly traded on the NYSE,
Los Angeles, CA – LA ads announces its latest client acquisition, Vernon, CA-based Papa Cantella’s Incorporated, producer of fresh and cooked sausages.
Initially, the agency is charged with increasing distribution of the brand’s fresh sausages within the western states. Papa Cantella’s also produces cooked product that is sold from coast to coast.
Agency president Dan Katz commented, “We’re very excited to be working with Papa Cantella’s. it’s a great brand with a very successful track record, and their products are absolutely delicious. We’re looking forward, as are they, to the agency’s generating the kind of thinking that will propel them to the next level.”
initial plans are for the agency to create trial through coupon and recipe ads, while increasing brand awareness with mobile and guerilla event marketing programs. Marketing is targeted at gaining new customers while encouraging replacement of other meats for sausage in various
meals.
LA ads executives have a long history in working with packaged goods brands and bring their creativity and expertise to Papa Cantella’s, while exercising their mission as an Agent of Change (R)
Since its inception, Los Angeles-based marketing agency LA ads has declared themselves an Agent of Change. Now the United States government agrees, having awarded the firm a trademark registration of that phrase.
“We take ‘Agent of Change’ quite seriously, commented agency president and creative director Dan Katz. “It’s more than a clever turn, but defines our agency’s mission, which is to effect a tangible, verifiable, positive change in a client’s business and profitability. The status quo is never acceptable.”
Indeed, “Agent of Change” appears as the title on every agency employee’s business card. Katz said that each staff member, from clerical to production, is charged with improving the clients’ business within the scope of his or her work.
“Agent of Change” is listed as U.S. trademark registration number 3836190.
About LA ads
LA ads – A Marketing Agency – was launched twice, each time during a recession by veteran creative director Dan Katz. In 1991, the agency grew and evolved into PKPF, which was listed among the top ten independent advertising agencies in Los Angeles. Katz sold out of PKPF in 2004, but re-established LA ads in the recession of 2009 as a full-service marketing agency, an Agent of Change (R). Capabilities include strategic development, branding, advertising, media buying, direct response marketing, online marketing, public relations and promotions
For information, contact Dan Katz or Rolf Gutknecht, at (800) 991-0625, or visit online:
www.laadsmarketing.com.
When people need to get away to think, they often take a walk or go for a drive. Dan Katz goes flying. Katz, the president of ad agency LA ads in Northridge, gets his best ideas when tooking through the clouds. “When you fly, you have to be very focused. It’s suchy a consciousness shift that it actually frees up the subconscious part of your mind to do its work,” Katz explained. He believes his in-flight insights are similar to the great ideas that some people get in the middle of the night.
I have a lousy memory. I’m not sure if it’s because I popped a few brain cells during my college days…well, we won’t go into that. Or if it’s because I just get overloaded with too much information. It drives me crazy when I call someone and while I’m on hold, I get distracted and suddenly forget who I called. Now that’s embarrassing! But I know it’s not just me. We’re all victims of forgetfulness at one time or another.
The reason I bring this up is that our poor brains, not just mine, can retain only so much information. And the first thing that goes is the stuff that doesn’t grab our attention and burn itself into the memory banks in the first place. Like an ad for a funeral home, particularly when nobody’s dying. It’s just so much background noise that gets filtered out.
So what sticks? Things that break the pattern. The unexpected. That which is different. And therein lies the secret to all successful advertising. If it’s not different, it won’t get noticed, let alone retained.
A few years ago, my agency created the slogan “Dare to be Different” which was specifically targeted to funeral directors and cemetery operators. Our first ad in the series featured a grim black and white image of a vulture in a tree with the headline “Image is everything. How’s yours?” Its message pointed to the fact, based on first-hand research, that many people have a less attractive idea of the funeral business than what’s real – and the right marketing can address that.
We ran the ad in most of the funeral trades, and as outrageous as the photo was, it grabbed our audience’s attention. There was nothing else like it in the trades. (Yes, a few people were put off by its blunt message, but most got the point and appreciated its surprising approach.)
The next ad showed a hearse decorated as if for a wedding, with ribbons and tin cans off the bumper, and on the rear window, “Just Buried” was spray painted. Its headline, “Dare to be Different,” spoke to the need to step outside conventional boundaries to have any impact.
These ads helped put our agency front and center as a leader in creative funeral advertising. You see, we actually practiced what we preach and put our own money where our mouths are.
In the latest iteration of my agency, LA ads, “Dare to be Different” remains our motto. It’s what is necessary to rise above the noise level. More important, it’s mandatory if one wants to be remembered when a critical need suddenly arises and focus can be difficult. There’s only so much room in the cranium and all but the most memorable gets pushed aside.
So that’s my message to all advertisers in the funeral business. Dare to be Different.
I just dare ya.
There’s a debate now going on in the marketing world as to whether Marketing 1.0 (traditional advertising) is dead compared to Marketing 2.0 (Internet); or is that dead now that there’s Marketing 3.0 (social media).
Or is it all of the above. Or none of the above.
I get the feeling that while the proponents of one side are battling it out with advocates of another, the real question is left completely unanswered: what’s the Big Idea?
It’s ideas that drive people to act, not headlines, not fancy Flash animation, not even the Tweet-of-the-moment. People buy because they look to improve their lives, make pain go away, find a better future, satisfy their egos, or make the world better. That’s where the focus needs to be, not whether to add a new page on Facebook.
Here’s what I mean.
A few years ago, one of our clients, a Jewish cemetery, mentioned that they had a special repository for holy books. It’s Jewish tradition that books with the name of God be buried, not burned or destroyed. So synagogues would send damaged prayer books and Torah scrolls to the cemetery for burial. We thought this was a beautiful tradition and would give people a reason to come out to the cemetery that had nothing to do with death. It would also give local religious schools a reason to teach the role of the cemetery in Jewish life. Out of this we created a special book-burial prayer service, arranged for synagogues and religious schools to bring their students out to participate in the event, and developed a new curriculum dealing with end-of-life transitions. We used ads, press releases, flyers and phone calls to produce and publicize the events.
This was a big Idea brought to life. It touched families, schools, synagogues and the local community.
The media that we chose to promote these events were a product of the Idea, not the other way around!
As you develop your marketing for 2010, plan to let ideas drive the program. Don’t just take those old “Caring Since 1955” ads and translate them to the Web. Ask, what’s an Idea that can connect consumers to us? What are consumers missing that we can provide them? What programs can we offer that will get the attention of the local press? Be idea-centric and you’ll find much more valuable marketing solutions that can make every dollar go three times farther.
That’s the big idea.