Howzabluz breeds and shows Russian Blue cats. Jill B Gilbert took cues from the owners and ran with it… creating the Texas cattery’s brand as a “cool cat” that brings to mind the Blues Brothers.
The business name “Howzabluz” and the fedora are a rich azure blue; the sunglasses and tagline “Russian Blue Cats” a deep charcoal gray.
The design has made its way to cat shows a few times since its introduction. The brand adorns T-shirts, tote bags, and stickers.
JIll B Gilbert recently reached a milestone: she has provided over 800 hours of volunteer work, saving non-profit organizations more than $USD 100,000. And she’s not slowing down—currently working on her next project!
Gilbert provided marketing communications, graphic design, and web design services on two dozen projects—many were multiple projects for the same client. The projects ranged from a highly-customized presentation for a sister organization to a U.S. National Park, to branding and logo design for childhood education and Head Start programs and a new high school, to custom presentations and brand guidelines for healthcare organizations.
Gilbert began working with volunteer matching organization Catchafire in 2021, during the height of the pandemic. Technology advances in the past 5 years made it possible to complete all of this volunteer work remotely—even for clients in the Houston area—with client meetings via Zoom or Google Meetings. She provided project deliverables in electronic format, using Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Acrobat; Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Apple’s Keynote slide software.
Gilbert remarked, “I have enjoyed working on projects with these non-profits. I am open to paid commissions and plan to continue volunteering marketing, graphic design, and web design services to worthy non-profits so they can spend their budgets to further their missions.”
You can read more about several of the pro bono projects in our blog.
P IS FOR PTERODACTYL is the perfect product for a social media ad campaign. The English language is difficult to learn because of the many exceptions to spelling, grammar and pronunciation rules. This silly, fun read-aloud book by Rapper Lushlife (Raj Haldar) and Chris Carpenter teaches kids the ins and outs of spelling and phonetics. Adults love it, too!
Who would buy this book? P IS FOR PTERODACTYL is attractive to parents with young children, parents with school-age children learning to read, and to grandparents, aunts, and uncles. More females than males would buy the book. Relatives would buy this book as a gift. Buyers are more likely to be college-educated, often with advanced degrees.
Digital marketing technology lets us target specific buyers, or personas. My marketing campaign targets a buyer called “90th Percentile Nana.” She is 55-65 years old, married or widowed, with two or more grandchildren. Her household income is in the 90th percentile of U.S. Households. She has an Amazon Prime account, a college degree, drives a luxury SUV, and has a designer Doodle dog. 90th Percentile Nana is in a book club and is tech-savvy, but prefers physical books to Kindle books. She is a foodie and an amateur chef who walks or exercises to stay fit.
Buyer’s goals:
The ad campaign goals are to create product awareness through advertising and generate sales leads. Facebook is a good fit for these goals, as it is the leading social platform with 2.7 billion monthly users; 54% Female, 46% Male. Facebook hits the sweet spot for 90th Percentile Nana’s demographics. Facebook has more users, and a greater percentage of users, in the target age and income groups than TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube.
A key element of a social media campaign is timing. SproutSocial shows the highest Facebook engagement times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Figure 1). The American Marketing Association recommends skipping Saturday posts.
I developed a two-week schedule for Facebook posts and News Feed Ads (ads that pop up on your Facebook feed) targeted at peak engagement times. Content and design strategies include:
Of the hundreds of social media metrics available, I selected a few to gauge the success of the P IS FOR PTERODACTYL advertising campaign:
Marketing pieces for the social media ad campaign use images optimized for Facebook. Collateral includes ads for desktop and mobile views, considering most people interact with social media accounts on smartphones—though 90th Percentile Nana might be more comfortable using a desktop or laptop computer. Marketing collateral also includes an original Acme Books logo for the ad campaign.
For further information on this digital marketing case study or to hire Jill B Gilbert for marketing communications advice or to design social media graphics, illustrations and ads for your company, please contact us.
My challenge was to design the packaging for a new energy drink and then create social media ads to post via Google Ads. The result is packaging for three flavors of Speed Whiz Energy Drink, a (fictional) energy drink that provides “All the Sugar & Twice the Caffeine” of normal energy drinks. The 500 ml aluminum can might account for the beverage’s high energy levels–most energy drinks come in smaller cans.
The Google Ads focused on the tag line, “All the Sugar & Twice The Caffeine.” That should get someone’s attention!
You’re probably wondering why I am interested in lip balm. Since I live in Houston, I need it when the humidity drops below 70% or if I have spicy food for lunch and wipe my lips too often. But seriously… my challenge was to create two marketing pieces for Cheetos Lip Balm. Cheetos introduced the lip balm in 2005—I am not making this up—and it was a marketing flop. Today, I think that marketing such a product could be a success because of the prevalence of social media marketing channels. After all, pickle- and bacon-flavored lip balms are available, as well as dozens of other sweet, spicy, and savory flavors of lip balm.
You can see my Cheetos Lip Balm blog post below. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek in places (pun intended). Enjoy!
The top three graphic design deliverables my clients request are new or updated brands, brand guidelines, and custom presentation templates.
PowerPoint has been around for more than 35 years. It still rules the roost as the leading slide presentation tool, despite the emergence of tools like Google Slides, Keynote, ZOHO Show, Canva, and Prezi. Organizations large, mid-sized and small use it to communicate all sorts of messages–sometimes well done, and other times not so well done.
With hundreds of free and paid templates available, many of my clients request custom, branded slide templates. Why? Because custom templates do a better job of communicating your brand.
A custom template allows you to showcase your brand. Your brand is more than a logo; it is your company’s personality. Your brand is how others perceive, interact with, and build trust in your company.
Your organization’s personality really shines when you ditch a deck of boring “bullet” slides for a mix of text and graphics. Use a custom template to consistently communicate your brand. See the template above, created for The Venture Mentoring Team. This template fits the organization’s mission, vision, and values, and takes advantage of their logo style and colors. It is a complete package that truly changes how they can communicate from now on.
If online presentation tools don’t meet your needs, if you want more than the built-in templates that come with your software, or have trouble finding a template you like, then a custom template may be for you.
I have designed dozens (hundreds?) of templates for PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote (for Mac users). If you need a custom, branded presentation template and don’t have the know-how to do it yourself, then consult a pro!
The Wisconsin Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (WAFCC) is an advocate for the State’s ninety free & charitable clinics. The organization provides state advocacy, education opportunities, consulting services, and telehealth services to clinics. WAFCC fosters collaboration, networking, and resource-sharing. They selected Jill B Gilbert for two branding initiatives–brand guidelines and a custom presentation template consistent with these new guidelines.
Brand guidelines are the rules an organization–large or small–follows to ensure their brand is consistent across various digital and print communications. These guidelines typically communicate the organization’s voice, style, logo, type, and colors.
They show the accepted use of the logo, any color variations, and placement, including very important “Do’s and Don’ts.” If an organization uses specific graphic styles, icons, or illustrations, the guidelines contain these, too.
Brand Guidelines are meant to be flexible, changing as the organization grows and changes. The WAFCC Brand Guidelines are a living document, soon to be updated with examples from the new slide presentation template.
The most common methods of communication are email, PowerPoint (/Google Slides/Keynote/Other) presentations, and social media.
Branding is important in slide presentations, because it sets the tone for your organization’s message. Consistent style and message are key!
Jill B Gilbert designed a template that was a great match for WAFCC’s message and style needs.
The physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), a New Jersey non-profit organization, provides Continuing Medical Education (CME) to nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and other medical professionals. Over 30,000 individuals subscribe to their service.
PPAHS needed advice on a new learning management system they plan to launch later in 2022 and selected Jill B Gilbert to help.
Jill pulled several tools out of her tool kit to help–experience designing and building websites, expertise in graphic design and typography, and, most important, the ability to assess PPAHS’s needs and create a plan for the new LMS website.
PPAHS was thrilled with the results, and plans to use Jill for future projects.
The Justice Hub School provides underserved youth in Houston’s Third Ward with academic and leadership skills to succeed in life. Jill B Gilbert was pleased to create a colorful new brand and a stylish custom presentation templates for this public charter school.
Our graphic design team created two templates aimed at different audiences–prospective donors and board members, and prospective students. Both templates employ Justice Hub’s new brand and color scheme. The image above shows the second, less formal, template on an iPad Pro.
I have a client that needs graphic design work for multiple brands, and wants all of their brands in a single portfolio. Their services generally target the same audience, and the audience can choose one or more services; these services do not compete with one another. My client seeks consistency in the way they portray the different services in digital and print media.
If your organization manages more than one brand, you have different options to manage them. Your branding strategy–key to your marketing strategy–depends on your target audience and customers.
Whether you already have several brands, or you anticipate new product or service lines, you can find a structure that works for your organization.
Two options for managing multiple brands are:
If the products or services aim to fulfill different purposes or have different visions, you may want to to separate your brands. If your products or services reflect an overarching vision or purpose, you might choose the parent/sub-brand option.
Your company’s vision, values, customers, and market position can guide your choice of options.
Procter & Gamble uses a multi-brand strategy, with individual brands for each product line. Some of their product lines include Tide, Gain, Crest, Pampers, Bounty, Swiffer, Oral B, and Gillette. Some of their products compete with each other, for example, Tide and Gain, but Procter & Gamble gets a piece of the laundry market share from both products, aimed at different consumers.
Adobe has multiple products under a single brand. Creative Cloud, their main product line, includes Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Lightroom, and more. Adobe markets Creative Cloud to very different audiences, and allows individual users and teams to select the apps that best meet their graphic design, photography, and other creative needs.
In closing, if your organization manages several brands, make sure that you have a clear strategy. And make sure to document this strategy and also provide clear brand guidelines so you can communicate consistently and clearly with your target audience.
Pruitt, Jeff, Approaches to Branding Multiple Brands, Inc. Magazine, accessed 02 November 2021.
Pruitt, Jeff, 4 Branding Structures When Multiple Products and Services are Involved, Inc. Magazine, accessed 02 November 2021.
Dearth, Brian, Multi-Brand Strategy: 5 Top Trends in 2021, Vaimo, accessed 14 January 2022.
Adobe Creative Cloud, accessed 14 January 2022.
Procter & Gamble Brands, accessed 14 January 2022.
