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To help Yoshino stand out, we knew we needed to understand the competitive landscape. We dove deep into research with a thorough executive discovery, competitive analysis, UX review, and SWOT analysis. We took what we learned and used it to inform our creative decisions for the brand and asset development.
We studied four major competitors in the portable power station space, looking at both visual identity and brand voice. From color palette to market positioning, this helped us identify opportunities for Yoshino to stand out.
We took a magnifying glass to competitors’ websites to identify any commonalities in design, language, and the customer journey. This informed our recommendations to ensure Yoshino provided a clean, user-friendly experience that could be unique but still fall in line with customer expectations.
Cameron has a well-designed life plan kicked off by graduating from UW with honors. His roadmap includes a well-balance set of career, family, and lifestyle goals. After 14 years of running his own business, he is architecting his path to sell it by the time he turns 55. His professional goals are aligned with providing for his family, all the while maintaining a healthy lifestyle by enjoying back-country activities, traveling, and practicing photography to document his adventures along the way. Cameron fits squarely into the Yoshino Outdoor Adventure consumer category.
The market research we performed helped us craft four audience personas that hit on the major use cases for Yoshino products: outdoor family, off-grid adventure, home backup, and industrial.
Yoshino is an innovator moving toward the aspirational goal of a 100% green-energy future. We developed a brand voice that spoke to these core capabilities and values, which we then wrapped up nicely into the brand anthem: Power Beyond.
We produced a wealth of original on-location lifestyle and product photography assets, as well as a brand launch video that told the story of Yoshino while focusing on the benefits of its products to the customer. Separately, we directed the creation of a product animation to convey the high-tech nature of a Yoshino power station.
Working with some of the most experienced brokers in the region, Capacity brings unmatched knowledge to its work. Through both visual identity and voice, we wanted to build a brand that reflected that. Clear, bold, and confident.
The skyline represents ingenuity, growth, and Capacity’s unwavering pursuit to go further and higher. It’s an evolution of the previous logo that demonstrates a maturing and refinement that’s in lockstep with the brand’s Pacific Northwest footprint.
Capacity’s brand can show up just about anywhere, from project banners on construction sites to leasing signs on vacant buildings. As such, color plays an important role in identifying and drawing attention to the brand in areas where it could otherwise be missed. We modified the original Capacity blue and complemented it with a new, bold yellow. This combination provides high visibility, for both logo and text, whether up close or at a distance.
The large outdoor signs advertising the various Capacity-represented properties are arguably the most important part of the brand’s visual identity. In addition to standing out vibrantly against the typically gray backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, they needed to be clear, concise, and easy to read from far away. In addition to the new color palette, we selected typography specifically to meet this goal and designed a simpler, punchier text layout to make the best use of the real estate available (no pun intended).
There was only one choice for an anthem we seriously considered. “Power of place” is simple, impactful, and clearly connects the Capacity brand to what it does. It also hints at the importance of the company’s role in Portland and the Northwest. It’s not just the power of place, in general, but the power of this place, and the power of the people here who make it all work.
Our goal was to help Zest visually break away from the competition and clearly establish itself as friendly, vibrant, and different. We chose a bold-but-welcoming color palette, developed an expressive logo, and directed the production of custom illustrations to help tell Zest’s story. This was supported by a brand voice that honed in on the concepts of being refreshing and compassionate.
We started from scratch with pencil and paper, then experimented and iterated over multiple rounds. The wordmark that was eventually selected is a gesture to the support Zest provides its customers, with the lower stroke of the Z extending horizontally to elevate its neighbor e above the baseline. A lettermark was also created to serve as a favicon, social profile image, and app icon.
Typography has carefully chosen to communicate a sense of refinement and inclusion. It’s friendly, welcoming, and creates contrast between the display and text fonts.
Given the name Zest, orange seemed an obvious choice—it also helped surface the brand from the industry’s sea of drab tones. This was balanced with two cooler blues and a calming off-white, paying close attention to accessibility guidelines to ensure legibility.
In an industry that relies heavily on stock imagery, we knew going in that we wanted to use custom illustrations to present Zest as new and different.
We designed Zest’s website to reflect its personality and mission, making it bright, approachable, and easy to use.
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
Our goal was to present the OpenRange as something so impressive, you had to see it to believe it. Our anthem of “Open Unbelievable” captured this idea while playing off the name of the product. It also matched perfectly to our creative concept of a Sasquatch family camping trip, which gave us a fun, eye-catching way to illustrate the product’s features and benefits.
To present the OpenRange as the easy-to-use meal prep solution for the modern camper, we wrote, directed, and produced a 1.5-minute launch video that demonstrated the product being used in a real-life — albeit slightly exaggerated — scenario. To keep the budget within the client’s constraints, we developed a story that could be told in a single location and without dialog.
During the video production, we also captured still images that carried the characters and narrative into other contexts. The goal was to efficiently build a database of images that would not only be used in the immediate campaign deliverables, but also for future advertising, as needed.
We designed and developed a campaign landing page and announcement email, both built around our core creative concept and using the image assets we created.
We developed a collection of social and display ads targeting the outdoor enthusiast market.
"We were stepping into new territory with a product in a new-to-us category. With the advertising market being heavily saturated we needed to cut through the clutter and we knew the Blue Collar team was perfect for the job. And they sure delivered! From the ideation to the attention to detail with props and costumes to the fast turnaround and end result – they crushed it! People will be talking about this campaign for years to come."
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
“We were looking to own the digital bike space – launching two new bike racks – for a short time period and we wanted omnichannel consistency. A tremendous amount of work went into the design and development of the new StageTwo and HangTight bike racks so it was only right that the launch be given the same amount of respect. Blue Collar shifted into high gear and topped the podium. Not only were the ideas they brought to the table fresh and on-brand but they presented the level of stoke we were looking for.“
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
“We were looking to own the digital bike space – launching two new bike racks – for a short time period and we wanted omnichannel consistency. A tremendous amount of work went into the design and development of the new StageTwo and HangTight bike racks so it was only right that the launch be given the same amount of respect. Blue Collar shifted into high gear and topped the podium. Not only were the ideas they brought to the table fresh and on-brand but they presented the level of stoke we were looking for.“
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
I so appreciate Blue Collar giving me the opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at the photo shoot. It was incredible to see the amount of thought and preparation that went into each shot, and how passionate each member of the team was about what they were doing. Everyone involved clearly cared deeply about the images they were capturing and the story they were telling with those images, and it was a privilege for me to see them in action. And certainly the highlight of the day was getting the opportunity to fly in one of TacAero’s tailwheel planes, what an amazing experience!
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
We built a simple, information-packed website centered on lodging (with a back-end that could be easily handed off to a local marketing team). Once the site—replete with monthly blog, video, and event updates—was complete, we reached out to top site referrers in an effort to bolster link building and foster SEO and referred visitors.
Our main consideration was mobile optimization. After 18 months, more than 70% of all traffic was originating on a phone or tablet and ExploreHoodCanal.com had driven more than 1,300 clicks per month to local lodging provider pages—a strong indication of visitors’ intent to plan a stay.
We created a colorful, interactive event booth including branded giveaways and marchandise to feature at local events. We even created a totally custom oyster mascot suit. We represented Mason County tourism at a number of summer events, reaching and educating an entirely new audience segment and driving hundreds of potential lodging bookings while collecting email addresses.
Snackable content wins. We created a collection of trip itineraries and local insiders guides to inspire trips and guide visitors off the beaten path. We also elevated stories from the region, educating visitors on the local businesses, flora, fauna, history, and geography. They emblazoned social media and our monthly email.
In tandem, we created the Wild Side Explorer Video Series. It boosted brand awareness, fortified partner connections, and gave our audience a true peek into the down and dirty of an adventure in Hood Canal.
Site traffic increased by over 10% from 2016 to 2017. The email list saw 417% YOY increase in subscriber growth with a 15% average click-through rate. We were able to earn a 10% increase year over year for the county lodging tax—a true reflection of increased tourism and health of the travel industry in Mason County.
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The design work is beautiful, the marketing strategies are creative, and their responsiveness is outstanding. Most importantly, Blue Collar is very sensitive to our budget limitations and manages to always deliver a high-quality product.
Instead of creating stories that uplifted and illustrated their long-standing, powerful brand strategy: Confidence in Hand, we went out into the world and found them. After days of diving deep into our adventurous rolodexes and making phone call after phone call, we found three guys that lived Confidence in Hand every day.
We built a simple, information-packed website centered on lodging (with a back-end that could be easily handed off to a local marketing team). Once the site—replete with monthly blog, video, and event updates—was complete, we reached out to top site referrers in an effort to bolster link building and foster SEO and referred visitors.
Our main consideration was mobile optimization. After 18 months, more than 70% of all traffic was originating on a phone or tablet and ExploreHoodCanal.com had driven more than 1,300 clicks per month to local lodging provider pages—a strong indication of visitors’ intent to plan a stay.
We created a colorful, interactive event booth including branded giveaways and marchandise to feature at local events. We even created a totally custom oyster mascot suit. We represented Mason County tourism at a number of summer events, reaching and educating an entirely new audience segment and driving hundreds of potential lodging bookings while collecting email addresses.
Snackable content wins. We created a collection of trip itineraries and local insiders guides to inspire trips and guide visitors off the beaten path. We also elevated stories from the region, educating visitors on the local businesses, flora, fauna, history, and geography. They emblazoned social media and our monthly email.
In tandem, we created the Wild Side Explorer Video Series. It boosted brand awareness, fortified partner connections, and gave our audience a true peek into the down and dirty of an adventure in Hood Canal.
Site traffic increased by over 10% from 2016 to 2017. The email list saw 417% YOY increase in subscriber growth with a 15% average click-through rate. We were able to earn a 10% increase year over year for the county lodging tax—a true reflection of increased tourism and health of the travel industry in Mason County.
"
The design work is beautiful, the marketing strategies are creative, and their responsiveness is outstanding. Most importantly, Blue Collar is very sensitive to our budget limitations and manages to always deliver a high-quality product.
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Instead of zeroing in on the story of the knives, we dove into the stories of the three rugged, march-by-the-beat-of-your-own drum guys. This is when the knives came to life in ways we could never tell in a studio or a product description. This is where Confidence in Hand truly makes sense—in the angry oceans, the expansive skies, and deep in the woods. We were there to capture it all.
We created three full-blown blog posts that became the epicenter of these stories. Replete with photos, video, and an honest retelling, this is where we drove traffic from all other channels. Embedded within these posts (and elsewhere, too) we embedded powerful calls to purchase.
The Wells Fargo Careers site is chock full of engaging information and resources for job seekers so we amplified their presence with a UX exercise and reimagination of what their site could do. Using full-width design, we brought our story to life with color, escorting the user through the value proposition of a job at Wells Fargo while providing them ample opportunity to click through and get their application process started or find a story that better suited them.
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
We built a simple, information-packed website centered on lodging (with a back-end that could be easily handed off to a local marketing team). Once the site—replete with monthly blog, video, and event updates—was complete, we reached out to top site referrers in an effort to bolster link building and foster SEO and referred visitors.
Our main consideration was mobile optimization. After 18 months, more than 70% of all traffic was originating on a phone or tablet and ExploreHoodCanal.com had driven more than 1,300 clicks per month to local lodging provider pages—a strong indication of visitors’ intent to plan a stay.
We created a colorful, interactive event booth including branded giveaways and marchandise to feature at local events. We even created a totally custom oyster mascot suit. We represented Mason County tourism at a number of summer events, reaching and educating an entirely new audience segment and driving hundreds of potential lodging bookings while collecting email addresses.
Snackable content wins. We created a collection of trip itineraries and local insiders guides to inspire trips and guide visitors off the beaten path. We also elevated stories from the region, educating visitors on the local businesses, flora, fauna, history, and geography. They emblazoned social media and our monthly email.
In tandem, we created the Wild Side Explorer Video Series. It boosted brand awareness, fortified partner connections, and gave our audience a true peek into the down and dirty of an adventure in Hood Canal.
Site traffic increased by over 10% from 2016 to 2017. The email list saw 417% YOY increase in subscriber growth with a 15% average click-through rate. We were able to earn a 10% increase year over year for the county lodging tax—a true reflection of increased tourism and health of the travel industry in Mason County.
"
The design work is beautiful, the marketing strategies are creative, and their responsiveness is outstanding. Most importantly, Blue Collar is very sensitive to our budget limitations and manages to always deliver a high-quality product.
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
From our research, we knew that our core demographic is highly engaged on Instagram, stays on top of her email inbox, and is the primary trip planner for her family and friend group. So we crafted our marketing strategy around reaching her with relevant and timely information on the platforms she frequents. We also work hand-in-hand with a PR firm to ensure our strategies are in lockstep and mutually beneficial.
Guided by a new Visit Hood River tourism initiative, our team commenced a site overhaul by developing an SEO and UX optimized channel from scratch. The new digital space presents a welcoming, unique experience for inquisitive, first-time Hood River visitors, to enlivening the stories of local businesses. The culmination of best-in-class front-end components and freshly branded design elements amounts to a digital space we’re ever-so proud to present.
“Blue Collar Agency is a creative powerhouse, consistently producing refreshing, original content for our brand and strategy. They excel in their ability to listen to the demands of the destination marketing industry and drive strategy while adapting to the ever changing needs. Blue Collar agency is truly an extension of the Visit Hood River team.”
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
Seattle and Portland breed the type of travelers that are up for poking around the hidden nooks of Hood Canal. Adventuresome college students, military families, and millennials abound—once we nailed down this target audience, it was all about building a campaign just for them. Our creative is whimsical, awe-inspiring, flexible, and promises adventure no matter who is seeking it.
We built a simple, information-packed website centered on lodging (with a back-end that could be easily handed off to a local marketing team). Once the site—replete with monthly blog, video, and event updates—was complete, we reached out to top site referrers in an effort to bolster link building and foster SEO and referred visitors.
Our main consideration was mobile optimization. After 18 months, more than 70% of all traffic was originating on a phone or tablet and ExploreHoodCanal.com had driven more than 1,300 clicks per month to local lodging provider pages—a strong indication of visitors’ intent to plan a stay.
We created a colorful, interactive event booth including branded giveaways and marchandise to feature at local events. We even created a totally custom oyster mascot suit. We represented Mason County tourism at a number of summer events, reaching and educating an entirely new audience segment and driving hundreds of potential lodging bookings while collecting email addresses.
Snackable content wins. We created a collection of trip itineraries and local insiders guides to inspire trips and guide visitors off the beaten path. We also elevated stories from the region, educating visitors on the local businesses, flora, fauna, history, and geography. They emblazoned social media and our monthly email.
In tandem, we created the Wild Side Explorer Video Series. It boosted brand awareness, fortified partner connections, and gave our audience a true peek into the down and dirty of an adventure in Hood Canal.
Site traffic increased by over 10% from 2016 to 2017. The email list saw 417% YOY increase in subscriber growth with a 15% average click-through rate. We were able to earn a 10% increase year over year for the county lodging tax—a true reflection of increased tourism and health of the travel industry in Mason County.
"
The design work is beautiful, the marketing strategies are creative, and their responsiveness is outstanding. Most importantly, Blue Collar is very sensitive to our budget limitations and manages to always deliver a high-quality product.
"Sigma and Blue Collar have a long and collaborative history. They know our business well and all of their work reflects the richness of the relationship. When the time came to upgrade our website, they understood the goal of improving engagement with our current customers and attracting new ones, inspiring loyalty in both. With the new site, SIGMA stands out in a smart, attractive, and impressive way. Almost immediately, we saw results that spoke to the goal. As the person responsible for budgets, deadlines, and end results, I must mention that every member of the BC team, both on the creative and account sides, made the process as straightforward, transparent, and painless as possible. Thank you, Blue Collar, for beautifully positioning SIGMA for the future!"
Nearly all the US hazelnut crop—99%—is grown in Oregon. Known for being a delicious complement to chocolate, hazelnuts are often found in butters or as a holiday treat. But these nutrient-packed nuts have much more to offer, something many consumers aren’t aware of, at least those living outside of the Pacific Northwest.
Hazelnut Growers of Oregon tasked us with changing that. They needed a full refresh of their Oregon Orchard CPG brand, from messaging to packaging, to bring hazelnuts to a national stage. Our challenge was two-fold: attract the attention of nut-curious shoppers and win over grocery store executives who are wary of adding products to what they may perceive as an overstocked category.
To start, we interviewed chefs, home cooks and bakers, industry veterans, and grocery store executives to better understand hazelnuts as an ingredient and how they fit in the ‘nutscape.’ We also conducted a survey gathering insights from more than 800 health-minded consumers. Lastly, we pored over market research related to upcoming health and grocery trends with an eye toward courting the Millennial and lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) consumer groups. This research led to our final creative, built around an adventurous mascot: Hazel the Health Nut.
Shanice has a well-designed life plan kicked off by graduating from UCLA with honors. Her roadmap includes a well-balanced set of career, family, and lifestyle goals. 14 years into her position as a corporate CPA, she is architecting her path into a firm partnership. Her professional goals are aligned with being the best Mom on the planet, all the while maintaining a healthy lifestyle by enjoying travel, cooking, and finding her personal best, an average 8-minute mile run. Shanice fits squarely into the LOHAS food and beverage consumer category.
We analyzed the brands of seven major competitors in the premium nut category. We looked at logos, color palettes, typography, and brand voices to uncover opportunities for Oregon Orchard to stand out.
By interviewing both internal and external stakeholders, we pieced together the perception of hazelnuts across chefs, home cooks, and grocery executives. We also looked for opportunities for where the hazelnut could shine and tout its impressive health attributes.
We redesigned their packaging from the ground up to be brighter and more fun. The packaging brings Hazel to life and shows the brand’s new spokesnut doing “very Oregon” activities like hiking, yoga, and skiing.
As the Health Nut campaign rolled out at groceries across the US, we supported it with a series of online ads and a dedicated campaign landing page.
Hazelnuts have a hill to climb in terms of consumer awareness, and we found the perfect partner in Blue Collar to help us reach the peak. From market research to creative concepting to execution, they transformed our brand and gave it the energy and excitement it deserved.
