Portsmouth NH Marketing & Branding
DARCI CREATIVE, LLC
47 BOW STREET
PORTSMOUTH, NH 03801
PHONE: 603.436.6330
FAX: 603.436.9330
EDARCI.COM
INSIDE OUT BRAND MARKETING
Welcome To DARCI CREATIVE
Welcome. Our philosophy is to create ideas that impact and endure by jumping in, listening well, sharing and questioning.
At DARCI CREATIVE, we go straight to the heart of the matter. This involves getting inside your head and inside the core of your vision. A successful branding campaign is an inside job. Done well -- how you are perceived is exactly how we planned.
We’re here to help you harness your knowledge, expertise and insights into a well-crafted brand strategy that lasts and resonates with your audience. We’re a boutique agency by design so we can always cater to our client’s needs and build partnerships that lead to growth.
Look Who’s Being Creative
About DARCI CREATIVE
DARCI CREATIVE was founded by award winning Creative Director and Copywriter, Darci Knowles. We’re located in beautiful downtown Portsmouth with a spectacular view of the Piscataqua River and the iconic Moran family tugboats.
Our corporate culture reflects a strong belief that creativity is Queen. Creative thinking is what drives us and what sets us apart. True creative is original and we strive to make each of our campaigns unique and fresh to power our clients’ brands to the fullest.
Our foundation is built upon Darci’s years of experience in the field. She is the recipient of several national Telly Awards for outstanding television advertising and dozens of regional and local awards for excellence in marketing creativity. Past and current clients range from non-profit agencies, healthcare and banking, to professional services and manufacturing. Please view our portfolio for a sampling.
Inside Out Brand Marketing
It starts with you.
Because before you can build a strong brand out in the marketplace, you must look within. How do you define yourself and your company? How do you want to be seen in the world?
A lot of people don’t take the time to strategically identify what makes them different. The upfront process to identify your unique value proposition is not for the faint hearted. It takes time, dedication and, it’s a team effort. And did we mention it takes time?
We live in a rush-rush world where everyone wants instant gratification. But the big guns, the major corporations, understand the value of upfront planning and research. And even then, the direction needs testing. Did we mention it takes time?
Here are four basic questions we would ask you as a new client, and one you can ask of us:
- WHO ARE YOU?
- WHAT DO YOU WANT?
- HOW ARE YOU PERCEIVED
- WHERE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
- WHY US?
How do you define yourself and your company? How do you want to be known?
Do you know what people think and feel when they hear your name? Do the right people even know your name? Are they seeing your brand often enough to formulate the right ideas about who you are and what you do?
This is the kind of analysis we embark upon when you become our client.
Think for a moment about Frosted Flakes. What comes to mind? Tony the Tiger? Sweet crunchy flakes? They’re g-r-r-r-eat? Fun mornings at the kitchen table when you were a kid? Exactly. That’s because the marketing team at Kellogg’s planned it that way. They crafted their brand around the experiences they wanted to conjure about their product. And years later that branding still sticks.
This is the kind of success story we strive for at DARCI CREATIVE.
Consumers today are bombarded with marketing messages. Our approach is not linear. We do not recommend the same strategy twice. Because you are uniquely you. To get the results you seek, your communications plan must be strategically integrated while projecting what is unique and memorable about who you are and what you offer.
At DARCI CREATIVE, we know what really works. Assessing and defining your brand characteristics is an essential piece in creating a brand identity for your products or services that will influence purchasing decisions. Branding is an educational tool for buyers; it helps them identify what they want to buy. The more consciously you choose an identity for your brand based on your mission and values the more success you will have in drawing the right buyers to your products and services in the marketplace.
Marketing & Branding Portfolio
A Brand is an experience — not a logo. Yes, logos are an important component to establishing your brand, but everything you put out there contributes to the experience. So if you’re not strategic about what you say, how you look, what you promise, then you lose the opportunity to gather your tribe.
The work we’re showcasing here is a mixture of past and current campaigns to help you get a flavor for our style. We want you to see how we merge with our clients in a way that lets us become their voice, their instrument for creating a memorable and effective Brand experience.
Locate DARCI CREATIVE
DARCI CREATIVE
47 Bow Street, 3rd Floor
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603.436.6330 - OFFICE
603.436.9330 - FAX
FINANCIAL PORTFOLIO
Piscataqua Savings Bank is a gem. They have a strong Brand experience, they just needed an agency that could capture that and reflect it outward. When they came to us, they needed a new Branding strategy. We’ve worked closely with them to create a new Brand Position that reflects their historic culture and philosophy. “Portsmouth’s Local Bank. Since 1877” simple but … timely, and says it all.
After our first full year of marketing the Bank, they reported record numbers of new deposits and home mortgages. These are the kind of results that are possible when agency and client are working together.
The work we did for Granite Bank years ago exemplifies how we like to inspire our audience. This “Do You Believe” campaign was very successful in attracting customers to this newly formed bank because it had heart and conveyed a very positive message. Additionally, we relied on illustration and humor to catch people’s attention and attract new customers to the Bank.
Cate Street Capital needed assistance with Brand Positioning as they set out to attract investors for environmentally sustainable projects.
“Intelligent Investing for a Sustainable Future” and “Turning Green into Gold” are the kinds of strong Positioning lines you can count on from DARCI CREATIVE. And, when used properly, can be very effective in establishing your Brand.
HEALTHCARE PORTFOLIO
Wentworth Douglass was an agency of record account for Darci during her Cyr & Knowles’ days. During that time Darci won numerous awards for her creative work for the hospital, including a “Best of Broadcasting” award from the Boston Ad Club for TV Production Techniques/Cinematography and a national Telly award for her commercial entitled, “The Beach.” Click here to see the spot.
This TV spot was part of a comprehensive campaign Darci developed for the newly established Seacoast Cancer Center. She got to the heart of the matter by conducting several focus groups with patients, family members and caregivers.
BARD needed help with a new product launch that included a strong Trade Show Promotion. BARD, a medical devise and surgical equipment manufacturer, benefited from a fresh creative approach that included Direct Mail, Magazine Ads and Trade Show Promotions for their FemoStop and Bilisystem product lines, as well as other marketing components for their Vascular Systems Division.
MANUFACTURING PORTFOLIO
Infinite Imaging does a lot of things for a lot of people. Their challenge is how to communicate what they do so that folks would stop saying “I didn’t know you did that!” So DARCI worked with the team at Infinite to identify specific target markets that were being tapped but offered room for growth – lawyers, engineers, architects, and contractors.
DARCI’S work for Infinite included a new Brand positioning line of “Welcome to the Digital Age,” a newsprint campaign, online ads, radio and direct mail.
Darci has developed numerous marketing materials for Admix, an industrial mixing equipment manufacturer, including a new website, a distributor rewards campaign, and innovative online audio campaigns to attract new customers.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO
Attorney John Lyons turned to DARCI for advice on penetrating new markets using television advertising. It was important to John and his team that the commercials reflect their core belief of compassion and dignity in the work they do for their clients.
DARCI developed strong scripts and employed the simple, clean look known as “white limbo” to create very effective TV spots you can see here.
The core strategy was the television campaign but was supported by a new website with a memorable URL: “getlyons.com” as well as online ads that mirrored the look and feel of the television campaign.
Darci worked with JSA Architects in their early days. The firm was already very savvy in terms of knowing that they wanted to uniquely target the educational, healthcare, senior living, hospitality and interior design markets.
They wanted to be perceived as a project management/solutions group, so Darci developed the Brand Positioning, “Beyond Design.” The work showcased here also includes a five-part direct mail series that spoke specifically to each of their target markets.
Piscataqua Landscaping is another client who has developed a strong Brand over its many years in business. This year marks their 30th anniversary so we worked with them to develop a new Brand Identity and several Public Relations components to honor this milestone, including an upcoming anniversary event and an Extreme Makeover Giveaway all tied together with the positioning; “Celebrate Beauty.”
CONSUMER PORTFOLIO
A well-known local ice cream stand needed some help getting the word out that they were re-opening with all the same great flavors and family friendly atmosphere. DARCI CREATIVE put together a promotion that built in frequency and rewards beyond the delicious ice cream and frozen yogurt.
The promotion was simple, but effective, and included point of purchase displays, cone cards (buy five cones and be entered into a drawing to win Red Sox tickets) and a radio campaign that included a live remote broadcast.
Casey Function Center was a new kid on the block and came to DARCI for some help in getting the word out that a brand new, moderately priced function hall offered an alternative for your event.
This is a great example of being strategic on a limited budget. First things first, DARCI helped them put together some Branding to apply to all communications materials that looked polished and professional. We created a well-optimized website that was supported with brochures and some strategically placed print advertising. And they’re off!
Top Shelf was opening a second store by the same name and acquiring a third (the well-established Federal Cigar in Portsmouth) and needed some attention getting tools to get the word out.
DARCI developed a series of email blasts to help draw people to the stores around specific events. Some of the blasts utilized click-throughs to a coupon/invitation to help engage our audience. The blasts worked and now business is booming.
NON-PROFIT PORTFOLIO
Darci played an integral role in the Market Square Steeple Fund campaign designed to raise one million dollars from private contributions to save and restore the city’s symbol. Over the course of her work on the campaign, Darci wrote and created dozens of print ads featuring individuals and businesses that generously contributed to the campaign. This on-going consistent messaging brought momentum to the campaign and inspired others to give, so the campaign goal was effectively met.
Other components to the campaign that Darci spearheaded included the development of the website and a series of audio cards.
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