Cole & Weber United - News

Cole & Weber Rethinks Advertising 6/12/2008: ONE Magazine recently gave us the opportunity to share how we, as a creativity company, are re-thinking advertising after 76 years in the business. Read the full article
Capella University hires Cole & Weber United as Integrated Agency of Record 6/12/2008: Seattle, Wash. – Cole & Weber United announced it has been named agency of record for Capella University after a four-month review process. Capella, an accredited online university, offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 89 areas of study. Cole & Weber United will be responsible for all Capella’s advertising and direct marketing work that was previously handled by multiple agencies. “This win furthers our case for integration,” said Mike Doherty, president of Cole & Weber United. “We are very good at developing strategic ideas that can be leveraged across media to achieve a client’s business goals. In this case, we will be further building a differentiated Capella brand while addressing the university’s lead generation, enrollment, and retention goals.” For the past two years, Capella has been a client of Cole & Weber’s Performance Marketing Group. “We’ve had a great relationship with the Performance Marketing Group and are excited about working with the Integrated Group of Cole & Weber as well,” said Brad Frank, director of marketing, Capella University. Capella will also utilize Cole & Weber’s proprietary tool SMARTLead – which allows client and agency teams to monitor and analyze campaign effectiveness and optimize programs through real-time, online reporting. “Capella is an industry leader in quality higher education for adults. We’re thrilled about deepening our relationship with the university,” said Doherty. “Their decision is a testament to our unique combination of performance marketing and creativity.” Note to editors: About Capella University Founded in 1993, Capella University is an accredited,* online university that offers graduate degree programs in business, information technology, education, human services, public safety, and psychology, and bachelor’s degree programs in business, information technology, and public safety. Within those areas, Capella offers 89 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 16 certified programs. The online university currently serves more than 19,000 students from all 50 states and 56 countries. It is committed to providing high-caliber academic excellence and pursuing balanced business growth. Capella University is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capella Education Company (NASDAQ:CPLA), headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information, please visit http://www.capella.edu or call 1-888-CAPELLA (227-3552). * Capella University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), http://www.ncahlc.org. Capella University, 225 South Sixth Street, Ninth Floor, Minneapolis, MN 55402, 1-888-CAPELLA (227-3552). About Cole & Weber United Cole & Weber United is a full-service marketing agency known for creating innovative campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to solve business problems. Founded in 1931, the Seattle-based agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. For more information, please visit www.cwunited.com. Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP’s Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs.
Cole & Weber United Wins Gold Effie 6/5/2008: The Seattle-based creativity company Cole & Weber United (http://www.cwunited.com), part of WPP’s United Group of Creative Agencies, was awarded a Gold Effie in the Beverages/Alcohol category for their Jug Simple campaign for Carlo Rossi Vineyards. Read the full article
WPP Agency Awarded Top Prize in Beverage and Alcohol Category 6/5/2008: The Seattle-based creativity company Cole & Weber United (http://www.cwunited.com), part of WPP’s United Group of Creative Agencies, was awarded a Gold Effie in the Beverages/Alcohol category for their Jug Simple campaign for Carlo Rossi Vineyards. The “Jug Simple” executions worked to re-imagine the Carlo Rossi brand in the public eye with a fully-integrated, consumer-facing advertising, PR, and word-of-mouth campaign that played out on the local and national level. Cole & Weber’s campaign celebrated the iconic Carlo Rossi jug by using them as building blocks to create and design a custom furniture line. “We are honored that the Jug Simple campaign was recognized for the results it delivered,” said Mike Doherty, President, Cole & Weber United. “We applaud the Cole & Weber team on this accomplishment and for re-energizing a fantastic brand.” The Carlo Rossi campaign spurred an increase in sales among a younger audience of 21-29 year old wine drinkers, rejuvenated a tired sales force allowing them to maintain shelf space in a crowded category and created well over 12MM unpaid media impressions due to the uniqueness of the campaign. Effie award winners are determined by a pool of judges who score Effie entries based on the following criteria: 70 percent accounting for the Strategic Challenge, Idea and Bringing the Idea to Life and 30 percent accounting for the campaign’s results. The judges’ scores determine which marketing efforts will be awarded a gold, silver or bronze Effie trophy. About Cole & Weber United Cole & Weber United is a full-service marketing agency known for creating innovative campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to solve business problems. Founded in 1931, the Seattle-based agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. For more information, please visit www.cwunited.com. Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP’s Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs.
Cole & Weber United tapped to handle multicultural marketing for Pabst brands 8/16/2006: Cole & Weber United announced today that it has been chosen as agency of record for Pabst Brewing Company’s multicultural brands, beginning with Colt 45. The Seattle agency was awarded the work after creating a successful integrated campaign entitled “Remember Rainier” for the company’s Rainier brand that included a ½-hour television program and a short film. “Being new to the company, I was intrigued with Cole & Weber United’s innovative approach after reviewing the work they did for Rainier. They were able to reinvigorate the brand and get people in the Northwest excited about the beer again,” said Brad Hittle, Chief Marketing Officer at Pabst Brewing Company. “We’re confident they will inject similar energy into our multicultural brands.” Cole & Weber was selected as one of the company’s strategic agency partners focused on multicultural marketing and has been tasked with creating campaigns that attract new consumers to the brewer’s stable of well-known brands. The agency will be developing an integrated campaign that includes advertising, events and non-traditional marketing to break in 2007. “This is a great win for us because these brands have such rich histories and there are opportunities for our new executive creative director, Todd Grant, and his team to do some cutting edge work,” Cole & Weber United co-president Mike Doherty said. About Pabst The Pabst Brewing Company is the fourth largest brewer in the U.S. and has over 160 years of rich brewing heritage. The Pabst Brewing Company portfolio includes brands such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, Colt 45, Schlitz, Old Style and Lone Star. For more information visit: www.pabst.com. About Cole & Weber United Cole & Weber United is a full-service marketing agency known for creating innovative campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to solve business problems. Since its founding in 1931, the agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. Seattle-based Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP’s Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs.
Cole & Weber United hires Todd Grant as new Executive Creative Director 5/16/2006: Cole & Weber United announced today that Todd Grant, has been named executive creative director and partner. Grant, who was former creative director at Publicis of the West, will fill the position left vacant by Guy Seese in March. “This is an important hire for us as our agency continues to evolve to meet the needs of our clients and an ever changing media landscape,” Cole & Weber United co-president Brad Harrington said. “Todd has an amazing body of work and a great creative reputation but more importantly, he is interested in taking his creative acumen into new and more unconventional mediums which is something this agency has been focused on for quite some time” After attending Art Center College of Design, Todd spent 2 years at the NY office of ChiatDay where he worked on Reebok and New York Life. He then headed to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where he was awarded the Marget Larsen award for Art Direction in 1997. At Goodby Silverstein & Partners he began working on Anheuser-Busch where he and his partner created Louie & Frank, The Budweiser Lizards. Over the next couple of years, 6 of the Lizard spots placed in the USAToday’s Superbowl Top Ten Poll. The campaign was also named USAToday’s most popular television campaign for over two years. The New York Times and ESPN polls also weighed in and pegged the commercials as the most popular Super Bowl spots ever. Todd has also produced notable work for HP and was responsible for the campaign that launched the “invent” tagline worldwide. At ChiatDay/SF Todd primarily worked on the Addidas account and most recently, at Publicis of the West, he was responsible for T-Mobile, HP and the Washington State Lottery. Todd has received recognition from every major award show, both nationally and internationally. About Cole & Weber United Cole & Weber United is a full-service marketing agency specializing in solving business problems. Since its founding in 1931, the agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. Seattle-based Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP’s Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs.
Cole & Weber United promotes Elliott to Creative Director, Partner 3/31/2006: Cole & Weber United announced today that Jim Elliott, has been named creative director and partner. Elliott, who was formerly associate creative director got his start at Cole & Weber as a copywriter in 1998. “This promotion recognizes Jim as a driving force behind Cole & Weber’s world-class creative reputation,” Cole & Weber United co-president Mike Doherty said. “He’s been involved with most of our highly effective, award-winning work over the past eight years, and we know his leadership will help carry on that tradition of producing innovative, creative work.” In addition to producing internationally recognized print and television campaigns for brands such as Nike, ACLU, Venge Wines, the Science Fiction Museum and Woodland Park Zoo, Elliott’s work on the fully-integrated, “brand environment” marketing initiative for Rainier Beer earned the agency a Gold Clio in the first-ever “hybrid” category, as well as Best-in-Show Gold at the National Andy Awards, a Gold at the Art Director’s Club of New York, the Grand Prize at AICP’s Battle of the Brands, Brandweek Magazine’s “Guerilla Marketer of the Year” and two Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards. About Cole & Weber United Cole & Weber United is a full-service marketing agency specializing in solving business problems. Since its founding in 1931, the agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. Seattle-based Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP’s Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs.
Press Release Cole & Weber Red Cell Becomes Cole & Weber United 10/12/2005: Our new name is Cole & Weber United… and no, we aren’t starting a professional soccer team or an airline takeover attempt... at least not yet! Our name is changing because our network is changing. There are nine of us Red Cell offices that are breaking off to create a new WPP global network that is a better expression of what Red Cell originally envisioned. Andy Berlin, the new Chairman of the United network, has hand-picked nine of the top agencies in the Red Cell Network that share common goals: an unrelenting drive toward excellence in creativity and strategy, and a maniacal focus on innovation in marketing. These companies represent great diversity, which we embrace, embody and celebrate. Worldwide homogeneity… you won’t find it here. What you will get is: • Nine offices filled with entrepreneurs, all among the very best in their markets; • The ability to provide our clients with a wider range of unexpected solutions to their communication needs; • An organization that, unlike “micro networks” that are expanded with a watered-down version of a home office, has nine home offices; • Marketing entrepreneurs who have chosen to come together, rather than being thrown together; • and The power and prestige of the WPP network, backing our success. The official name of the new network is Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies. But you’ll know us simply as Cole & Weber United. The other agencies consist of: • Berlin Cameron in New York • Sra. Rushmore in Madrid • LDV in Antwerp • WM in Buenos Aires • Red Cell in Milan (to be renamed) • HHCL in London • Les Ouvriers in Paris • Bates in Oslo (to be renamed) At some point we may add a few more top agencies to the mix, as we still have a few more regions we would like to cover including Germany and China, but our intention is to stay small enough that every company adds unique value and is big enough to service clients looking for global coverage and perspective. For more information about us or our new name, give Mike Doherty or Brad Harrington a call at 206-447-9595.
Performance Marketing Group Forges New Territory 9/10/2005: Cole & Weber United has many fields of expertise, one of which is direct response online advertising – or as we like to call it, performance marketing. Our new Performance Marketing Group (PMG) finds customers through innovative creative work, tactical account planning, strategic media placement, data analysis and proprietary in-house technology. Being that we’re in a creative industry, we’ve even invented a new way of billing. The PMG is the purest form of agency accountability. We operate strictly through cost-per-lead or cost-per-acquisition models; therefore, our compensation is directly tied to our clients’ success—we get paid only if you get results. Lucky for us we specialize in lead generation through online advertising, utilizing media such as Web banners, search engines, rich media, email, affiliate marketing, incentive placements, sweepstakes and content sponsorships. Within this unique billing structure, the PMG typically shoulders strategic planning, creative execution, media and optimization costs prior to the client spending a dime. Our in-house team, comprised of account and project managers, creatives, and technology and media services, then captures and validates lead information according to client needs. Next we provide that information, for a fee, to our clients, who only pay for qualified leads or customers. In short, we provide our clients with customers. Using this system we’ve been able to generate almost 1 million qualified leads a year. Impressed? The University of Phoenix sure is. UoP decided to take advantage of the PMG’s wealth of experience in the online education segment more than seven years ago. Since then Cole & Weber United has helped make UoP the CPL (cost-per-lead) market leader in their segment. In doing so, we’ve become one of the top three lead producers for UoP, and have been for the last five years. We produce quantity and quality in terms of leads, meaning higher volumes and profits for our media partners. We also represent 15 of the nation’s top online educators, and even manage our own online education portals: www.therightdegree.com and www.degreereview.com.
Planner Adam Smith Wins National Award 9/1/2005: “Not only is he a handsome young lad and the proud father of an 8-month-old boy, but according to this year’s national US Account Planning Group competition for “outstanding planners with less than three years experience,” Adam Smith is officially the “Pick of the Litter,” an honor bestowed upon him at the AAAA’s annual Account Planning Conference in Chicago this August for his strategic marketing insights and direction that helped make the grand opening of Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame a cosmic success.
In the summer of 2004, the first-ever museum dedicated to the science fiction genre opened its doors to an enthusiastic Seattle public, eager to explore the mysteries of the unknown within its walls. A few months prior, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (SFM) approached Cole & Weber United to help launch the museum.
Adam’s extrasensory sci-fi intuition swung into full problem-solving mode, and soon the overarching challenge became clear: “How do you pique the interest of the rabid SF fan and the general public, when it is widely assumed that SF is strictly the domain of the dateless and the dweeb-ish?” explains Adam. “To drive ticket sales and membership, the advertising had to build awareness and interest for the SFM launch with the general population while remaining authentic and credible to the SF enthusiast.”
Finding the sweet spot for success became a late-night supernatural obsession for Adam. He reviewed transcripts and reports from focus groups previously conducted by the client. He started researching science fiction literature theory. He reviewed online lesson notes and lectures from college literature programs that teach science fiction as part of an English major.
In short order, according to Adam, he learned that “science fiction resonates with people because it creates a fictional world that is different from, yet consistent with, the world we live in. It blurs the lines between fact and fiction … I knew that if we could make the general public feel what happens when imagination and reality collide, and ask themselves ‘Is it real?’, then we would be successful.”
Armed with those insights, the Cole & Weber United creative teams disappeared into space and, several days later, returned safely to Earth with an integrated campaign promoting futuristic products and services that were supposedly “coming soon.”
“From print ads and billboards,” explains Adam, “to faux storefronts and live-action ‘alien coverups,’ our executions drove an unprecedented attendance, where ticket sales exceeded expectations by 18%. By connecting the SFM to those things people love the most about science fiction, we drove fans that didn’t know they were fans to the museum.”
Congratulations, Adam. You are a keen young Jedi.”
Cole & Weber United Asks Seattle To Remember 6/10/2005: It seems like just yesterday, but it was more than three years ago when we hired a bright young Executive Creative Director named Guy Seese. A devout lover of beer, one of Guy’s first objectives was to land a beer account. Just a short time later it was so, and Rainier Beer flowed plentifully through the halls of Cole & Weber United. Next we were tasked with doing something that had never been done – a campaign that would be considered anything but typical. Today, as the award season is coming to a close, we are proud to say Cole & Weber United is being recognized for doing just that.
Our campaign for nearly forgotten Northwest icon, Rainier Beer, didn’t just reinvigorate the brand, it started a movement. It all began with the invention of two local Rainier aficionados, Tim and Chuck, who discover a box of classic Rainier commercials. Based on their stories and adventures, we wrote and produced an 11-episode late-night TV show for UPN11. But a TV show alone wasn’t enough. So we built a Web site, redesigned the 1970s 16-oz. pounder can, created Rainier’s first new TV commercials in more than 20 years, produced new POS, scheduled events and appearances at “Rainier Bars,” and designed a press kit so amazing it was even auctioned off on eBay. To top it all off we bought a 1975 red pickup and illuminated the streets of Seattle with a giant neon red “R” that stood proud in the truck’s bed.
Less than a year later, a 17-year sales decline was reversed and we’re being honored by some of the ad industry’s best, including:
A Gold Clio award in the Content & Contact category

Both a Gold Mixed Media National ADDY and the Best of Show award

A New York Art Directors Club Gold in the Hybrid category and Yahoo!'s “Big Idea Chair” award

The Grand Prize at Advertising Age’s Battle of the Brands at the Madison+Vine conference

Most of these awards, some of which are in their first year of existence, were created to honor such non-traditional and extraordinary campaigns. Proving Cole & Weber United is, once again, at the forefront of the industry.
To see the entire chronicles of Rainier, click on the featured creation story and see for yourself what all the hype is about.