February 4, 2023
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Advertising
New Holiday H-E-B Spot from Plot Twist Creativity | Check It Out
Plot Twist Creativity Posted On November 28, 2022


It’s that time of year again for another H-E-B holiday spot created by the magical team over at Plot Twist Creativity. 

Chris Smith from Plot Twist, stated, “The spot was the latest in a series of H-E-B Holiday spots showcasing great Holiday meats but also highlighting the great service from their in-store Partners. Customer service is one of the places they have a real edge on their competitors, especially around the craziness of the Holidays. The song is a re-recording of a duet by Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton called “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.” It was done by Shindig Music in Los Angeles. We looked at a few other songs, but kept coming back to that one because the energy and message were right on.

Check it out…


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Advertising
The LOOMIS Agency Wins 7 Davey Awards for Advertising Excellence
The Loomis Agency Posted On November 9, 2022


The LOOMIS Agency scored big at the 18th Annual Davey Awards show, landing 7 awards recognizing the shop’s advertising excellence.

The Davey Awards is an international creative award show focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small advertising agencies. The Davey Awards is sanctioned and judged by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising and marketing firms.

The LOOMIS Agency won a Gold award in the Magazine/Design & Print category for a Texas Dairy Queen print ad called “Turnover” featured on the back cover of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. The agency also brought home five Silver awards on behalf of Golden Chick for four of its television commercials and an outdoor board. Additionally, the agency won a Silver on behalf of United Methodist Communications (UMCOM) for a digital outdoor board in Times Square.

“The LOOMIS Agency is honored to receive this recognition from the Davey Awards,” said LOOMIS Executive Creative Director, Tina Tackett. “It’s always gratifying to be recognized by your peers for the hard work and creativity that goes into producing great work for our clients.”

ClientAwardTitleCategory
Texas Dairy QueenGoldTurnoverConsumer Magazine/Design & Print
Golden ChickSilverWicked WingsGeneral Food & Beverage TV
Golden ChickSilverCampaign RefreshGeneral Food & Beverage TV
Golden ChickSilverBuffalo Chicken FriesGeneral Food & Beverage TV
Golden ChickSilverSummer SandwichesGeneral Food & Beverage TV
Golden ChickSilverCrispy BillboardOutdoor/Environmental Billboard
UMCOMSilverConnect with JoyOutdoor/Environmental Billboard

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Advertising
Imaginuity Acquires Beacon Advertising
Imaginuity Posted On November 8, 2022


One of the largest independent marketing services providers in the Southwest fuels further growth through acquisition

Imaginuity® announced the acquisition of Beacon Advertising, a deal that includes Evan Meeks, co-founder of Beacon, becoming Executive Director of Client Partnerships at Imaginuity. Already one of the largest independent marketing services providers in the Southwest, the combined operation will do business under the Imaginuity brand.

Beacon Advertising was founded in 2015, and serves clients across the restaurant, retail, and B2B space, building brands with creative solutions in broadcast, digital, social, print, POP, and packaging. The Beacon team and its leadership will further strengthen Imaginuity’s business and their support of over 3,300 client locations across North America.

“This acquisition is accretive to our integrated service offering by adding more marketing talent and multi-location clients to our growing agency,” said Taylor Calise, CEO of Imaginuity. “We’re especially excited to welcome Evan and his extensive brand management and media agency experience to our executive team.”

Imaginuity provides integrated marketing services complemented by its proprietary AdScience® customer data platform that collects and analyzes data along the customer journey.

“Blending our team into Imaginuity means we can provide our clients broader marketing services along their customer journey from traditional media to online media, all the way to conversion on any device,” added Meeks.

The combined operations will employ nearly 120 team members and will report 2022 capitalized billings of approximately $200 million. Imaginuity is headquartered in downtown Dallas.


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Advertising
The Ward Group Says Don’t Be Scared of a Bit of Beneficial Brand Building!
The Ward Group Posted On October 1, 2022


Where Have All the Brand-Builders Gone?

In the current state of marketing affairs, digital media has become such a behemoth that brands left and right feel the need to dive head first into the world of digital and trackability. In a way, as we sit in the second decade of the 21st century, digital media has become almost synonymous with marketing and advertising itself. Marketing intelligence and trackability is the rage – metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost per acquisition (CPA) carry the day, and brands are increasingly impatient to see the payoff that comes as a result of their marketing spend. More than that, advertisers feel the need to have their business performance tied back to ad exposure, to prove the value of each advertising medium and of every dollar spent. The thought is becoming, “If a medium can’t be tracked, it must not be worth running.” Don’t get us wrong, our media stewards at The Ward Group also love to dig into the analytics and prove out the value of our advertising efforts, but we are also aware of the bigger marketing picture. If there’s anything we’ve learned in our almost four decades of existence as an advertising agency, it’s that the benefits of building your brand over time are unmatched. In other words, don’t sacrifice long-term growth for the sake of short-term analytics.

Yes, Digital Media is Awesome – But Don’t Discount Branding

We get it. It’s fun to look at numbers and metrics and see all the results your advertising is driving. Digital media such as pay-per-click and paid social media can provide so much depth of analytics that it’s easy to forget there exists other types of media that can help drive business performance as well. The only downside to more brand-building, awareness mediums compared to digital media is the lack of trackability. As marketers, we’ve been trained to seek short-term payoffs for our efforts, time and money. But, as the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Only by taking the time to build your brand can you gain the sort of staying power that allows you to thrive over the long term. Those who choose to overlook this crucial piece of marketing and advertising are likely here today, gone tomorrow.

Mediums like TV, radio, out-of-home, print and others are still very viable, often critical options that can advance your brand beyond the smartphone screen and into the collective conscious of your target audience. This is especially true for local advertisers. Digital media can be a great way to capture a user for a moment, but outside that brief interaction they have with your brand, there isn’t much impact to be had in the way of a memorable brand experience in, say, a digital display banner ad. Meanwhile, more traditional mediums such as TV and radio provide a much more meaningful, impactful exposure to your brand. Given enough time and frequency, and with the right media buying partner in place, these mediums can put your brand in the minds of your target audience for the long haul.

Attribution Isn’t Everything

We understand that it can be scary to accept a degree of ambiguity with the impact of your advertising investment. Just like we’ve been trained to seek short-term results, we’ve also been conditioned to expect that every conversion should be tied back to ad exposure and spend. However, this ignores the fact that the overall media mix works together to drive conversions, rather than any one medium on its own. As John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things.” It may be tempting to see a high ROAS from Google Ads or Meta ad campaigns and push all your marketing budget to those platforms. But what if the upper funnel was driven by a radio or a TV campaign? Since those mediums don’t show up in your Google Analytics reports, does it mean they didn’t have an impact on your marketing performance? Of course not! It’s important to look at the overall media mix as a cohesive process that leads consumers through the entire sales process from awareness and interest to purchase and trial. Unfortunately, despite advancements in marketing intelligence, there is no way to attribute all sales or conversions back traditional media ad exposure. It’s best instead to consider what these mediums are designed to do – generate mass awareness, which then helps your digital mediums thrive. If your only concern with your media performance is attribution and measurement, you’re missing out on opportunity to drive brand awareness and set your brand up for long-term success.

Find the Right Media Mix

In our 37 years of existence as an advertising agency, we’ve worked with too many brands to count. The brands who have demonstrated the sort of staying power and growth that all brands look for are the ones that execute full-funnel media strategies and measure each level of the funnel accordingly. Trackability and analytics have their place in the overall funnel, but they can’t work alone to drive your brand. Time and patience still have an important place in the brand-building process, and with the right media agency at your side, the power of brand awareness can take you to heightened places. Contact The Ward Group today to get started!


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Advertising
Is Your Brand Socially Awkward? Spire’s Mike Stopper Offers 10 Signs It May Be
Spire Agency Posted On August 22, 2022


To me, one of the best things about social media is the opportunity to be in front of customers each and every day. By following you, they are literally giving you permission to consistently interact with them and provide another page in your brand story.

But for many B2B brands, their social media program is underdeveloped and even, shall we say, socially awkward. For the most part, it’s lack of experience with the media—not just by marketing, but perhaps by the whole organization—where the problem starts. And that lack of understanding turns into lack of commitment. And lack of commitment becomes complacency.

So the question is, how committed is your B2B brand to social marketing? It’s easy to find many B2C brands who truly embrace the power of social media. But it seems to drop off significantly when looking at B2B. Why is that?

“Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.”

— Felicia Lin, Taiwanese American Writer

Social media is actually the #2 most successful tactic for B2B marketers behind only SEO, according to Sprout Social. And Datareportal found users spend an average of nearly 2½ hours using social media each day. So done right, social media can be an incredibly effective B2B marketer too.

Another thing that’s great about social media is that it can be activated quicker than most any other forms of advertising. As we bring brands into the agency, social media is often one of the first things we implement for a brand refresh or rollout.

Knowing how to use social media is not the same thing as knowing how to use social media as a marketing tool for your business. So, what are some signs that there may be some awkward tendencies in a B2B brand’s social media? Here are 10 things that instantly tell us that a brand is in need of some serious social love.

1.   No engagement

Our first step is to look at the engagement a B2B brand is receiving in relation to its total number of followers. So, what is engagement? Social media engagement is the measure of comments, likes, and shares received as a result of your posting. Quite literally, it is your audience telling you what they think, or don’t think, about your content. It’s shocking how often we see B2B brands with tens of thousands of followers, yet engagement you can count on one hand. Equally shocking is how long the trend has likely been occurring, and yet no one sounded the alarm that there might be an opportunity for improvement.

All brands want to rack up a ton of followers. But ultimately, the greatest measure of social media success is an engaged audience, not just a big one. Engagement is proof that you’re building a positive brand experience, and developing meaningful relationships with new and potential future customers. And as a B2B marketer, you can’t really say you know your customers if you’re not getting the affirmation of their engagement.

“A lot of people use social media to share mundane things or for self-glorification. I try to use it to share interesting things with people.”

— Ashton Kutcher, Actor and Entrepreneur

2.   Inconsistent posting

When it comes to content, it’s quality, not just quantity, that you should be striving for. But there still needs to be some level of quantity to posting. It’s not unusual to see a B2B brand post, then several weeks or even months pass before their next post. It’s a clear sign that the brand is not working with a content calendar that is planned out in advance. And it’s also a sign that no one in marketing is truly owning, or at least prioritizing, social media.

A content calendar for the month should really be planned at least 30 days in advance so you can get a holistic view of how individual posts interact with other content. It also ensures you have a drumbeat of content to keep followers engaged with the brand.

According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing 2022, out of 3,400 marketers surveyed, the majority of them post between one and six times per week. As we introduce B2B brands to social media, we start with consistently posting at least two times per week with quality content and then growing from there.

3.   One-dimensional content

When you think about your friends, those who you are closest to are generally those who you have lots of things in common with. And those who only talk about themselves are those you typically become less and less friendly with. The same can be said for brands. Without a mindset focused on customer engagement, it’s easy for B2B brands to create content that’s all about them. The idea is to develop several channels of content that speak with your customer rationally and emotionally. After all, Sprout Social found that 45% of customers unfollow a brand because of irrelevant content.

4.   Wrong brand voice

Brand voice is the distinct personality a brand takes on in its communications. The tone for social media can definitely have more of a customer relations vibe than a print ad might. In essence, it can sound more human. But it should still be professional and align with your overall brand voice. We unfortunately find that with many B2B brands, social media takes on an entirely different voice, one that tends to be far younger and less sophisticated than what the brand portrays in its other marketing communications. On the other hand, it can also be robotic or confusing because of non-marketing influences within an organization (ahem … legal).

The strongest brands are those that have the most consistency from touchpoint to touchpoint. So ensure the voice is consistent across all channels.

5.   Too wordy

Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Social posts that are too long are generally the result of lack of understanding, and the inability to be single-minded. When social content is too long, you alienate a great portion of your followers right off the bat.

So edit thyself. Posts should be short and sweet, as shorter posts receive more engagement. In fact, Facebook posts with 80 characters or less receive 88% more engagement. Recommended character counts for Facebook are between 30 and 80 characters, Twitter is 71 to 100, LinkedIn 50 to 100, and Instagram 138 to 150. As our general rule of thumb, we try to limit content to one sentence, or two at the most, if edited down.

6.   Liking your own posts

Engagement should come from your customers and employees, not you. An obvious sign that a brand is struggling with engagement is when the marketing manager in charge of social is the first—and sometimes the only—person to like the post. And worse than that is when the social media manager does not realize they are, in fact, liking the post as the brand, not themselves. There’s nothing funnier, or more uncomfortable, than seeing your feed read, “Spire Agency likes a post from Spire Agency.” In both circumstances, it comes across to a follower that you are patting yourself on the back. It also signifies there is not enough of a follower base to create the real engagement your brand needs.

7.   Not measuring or monitoring

Social media is magical for marketers because of the real-time analytics. We’re able to learn tons about our B2B buyers by looking at insights like engagement numbers, demographics, and interest categories. But when we ask questions about the numbers, it seems many B2B marketers are not looking at the data at all. Having a social content calendar is nice. But measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of that content is the big “a-ha!” that social media brings to the marketing mix.

As mentioned earlier, you have to recognize that when you are receiving little engagement, there is a problem. Looking at each post and seeing what performs best (and what underperforms) is all a part of learning your customer. So brands must have a monthly recap report that looks at the effectiveness of their content and spend.

But don’t forget to look at your competition, too. As we do an initial social media evaluation for a brand, we look at followers and engagement of competitors and how it stacks up to our brand. There is nothing more terrifying for a brand manager than when we show them how a competitor is schooling them in engagement. But there is also nothing more optimistic than showing them that their competitors are not much better, and with a stronger social strategy from Spire they can truly own their industry’s social space.

“The social media landscape changes incredibly fast, so you have to be open-minded and nimble to keep up with it.”

— Alexis Ohanian, Reddit Co-Founder

8.   Not spending

For the longest time, brands fell in love with social media because they saw it as “free advertising.” And while organic social, meaning unpaid content, has its place, the truth is that social media is paid media. It’s no secret that most social platforms operate on a pay-to-play model for brands.

Without boosting content, you simply will not have enough eyeballs on your content. And without viewers, you should not expect to have any type of sizeable engagement. Hootsuite found that the average reach of an organic post on a Facebook Page hovers around 5.20%. That means roughly one in every 19 fans sees the page’s non-promoted content. In our agency experience, that number is actually quite a bit less.

It’s sometimes quite depressing to see just how few people see a B2B brand’s posts. And it’s even more heartbreaking when we present these facts to a new client. Without a boosted-ad budget, and a follower campaign soon after, you simply cannot make social media effective for your brand fast enough.

9.   Single platform

In assessing brands, we look at their activity across all social platforms. It’s not uncommon to see a B2B brand only utilizing one or two social platforms. When asked why they alienate the others, the answer is oftentimes, “We like to focus on these few exclusively.” The problem is, we don’t hear the word “customer” in that answer.

It sounds strange, but buyers are humans as well. They have a work life, as well as a personal life. And they use an average of 6.6 different social media platforms each month according to Datareportal. As B2B brands, we don’t know what social platform our customers are using when we post our content. So ensure your content is spread among multiple platforms to intersect with buyers where they are, not where you hope they’ll be. The process of elimination may eliminate a sale. That’s why we lean into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram as a starting point for all our B2B brands.

10.   Exclamation marks

When it comes to B2B voice, our team functions under the social directive of “You get one exclamation mark a month … and it’s only in case of emergency.” An excessive use of exclamation marks generally signifies discomfort in writing by the content creator. They either don’t have anything impactful to say so they fill it with exclamation marks, or they don’t understand the brand voice. This simple punctuation mark generally symbolizes unbridled enthusiasm or just plain yelling. B2B brands should not be either.

Social media has been around since 1997. But even after 25 years of it, we’re all still learning every day. So, while algorithms and back-end measurement seem to change weekly with Facebook and others, you’ll want to ensure the foundational part of your social media program is working the best it can, so your brand isn’t the one in your industry that’s socially awkward.

Mike Stopper is Executive Vice President of Client Service and Planning at Spire. In addition to being an award-winning social marketer, he is also AAF Dallas’ most-awarded account director for the last eight years.

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Advertising
TMA’s Amanda Levine Tell Us How to Create Great Branded Music with a Major Artist
The Marketing Arm Posted On August 19, 2022


What if the song of the summer — the one that seemed to have everyone downloading, cranking the volume, and singing along — was your brand’s? With the right artist and the right partnership, it could happen.

The power of music to set a tone, form a mental association and create memorability is unrivaled, so it’s no surprise that many advertisers leverage this power.

What may be a surprise to some is that, once upon a time, artists avoided advertisers for fear of ’selling out’. Times have changed and, over the past decade, many artists have lent their talents to record original songs and covers for brands. Consider the iconic Justin Timberlake-helmed McDonald’s anthem, I’m Lovin’ It or Zedd and Aloe Blacc’s reimagining of Candy Man for M&Ms.

Stepping into this type of work can be a little complex. It requires time, patience and, yes, money. But when done right, when you combine spectacular musicians with a rich creative brief, magic can happen! Here are a few tips based on our experience working on projects of this type.

FINDING THE RIGHT ARTIST

Many artists who record hit tracks don’t solely write the songs they perform (and sometimes they don’t write them at all). Just because you love their body of work, don’t assume their songs were penned by them. Do your homework to find the right artist that has the team, talent, audience and desire to partner with you. Word to the wise: make sure you’re asking the right questions to an artist’s representative before you commit to working together.

Trust and respect are paramount. When a brand hires an artist, they must respect their process while the artist needs to appreciate that this is a commissioned piece of music meant to represent the brand. Many artists aren’t eager to collaborate on their music – if that’s the case, this probably is not the right artist for you. And if you are a brand that won’t take input from the artist, consider whether you want a celebrity musician or you’d prefer a studio musician that specializes in creating brand music.

Ensure that there’s enough time to discuss creative direction and goals before a recording session is booked. Give very clear direction of what you want to accomplish with the track, including any lyrics or keywords that should be included and the tonality/vibe you want from the song. Also, schedule time for recording revisions, editing, mixing and mastering.

LICENSING AND COSTS

The majority of successful artists and writers have contracts in place that assign exclusive administration or ownership of everything they write and record to their labels and/or publishers. This will likely prohibit you from owning the final product. If this is a problem for you, consider working with musicians who are independent or who have control of their music.

Fees vary based on the level of talent and how you intend to use the new song. This could affect your ability to work with an A-List artist due to the producers and studios they use, as well as their label and publisher partners. It also depends on how eager they are to work with you versus how eager you are to work with them. Fees will be far lower for independent artists and artists who are self-sufficient in creating new music.

The above may deter you and many avoid this because it is complicated. With focus and an experienced navigator, though, you can do something that few others do.

Thanks to streaming services, the myriad avenues available for distribution and the power of social media for promotion, there has never been a better time to create something memorable that could be associated with your brand.

Amanda Levine is Senior Director of culture marketing and an expert in music procurement at TMA.
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Advertising  / Public Relations
BizCom Harvests More Healthy Growth Winning Salad and Go Account
BizCom Associates Posted On July 14, 2022


Dallas-Fort Worth PR and marketing communications agency BizCom Associates today announced the addition of Salad and Go to its world-class client roster.

Salad and Go is a gourmet salad drive-thru restaurant chain on a mission to make fresh, nutritious food convenient and affordable for all. With more than 50 locations across Arizona and Texas, Salad and Go provides customers with quick, affordable, healthy and delicious meals from a chef-curated menu. Each location features a variety of nutritious options including salads, wraps, soup and more.

The rapidly growing chain embraces philanthropy at the core and this passion for service is made clear by the company’s work in Arizona, where additional ingredients are purchased directly from farmers and suppliers to donate 4,000 salads each week to those in need.

BizCom has been retained by Salad and Go to support the restaurant’s rapid growth and evolution with an integrated PR and marketing communications program. Salad and Go’s continued success has it on track to nearly double in size by the end of the year, with more new locations across Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma slated for openings throughout 2022.

“Salad and Go is revolutionizing the world of fast food, and we’re honored to support their philanthropic mission to make fresh food as accessible as possible for all. We are determined to amplify that message and increase brand awareness alongside record-setting expansion for the road ahead,” said BizCom Co-Founder and COO Monica Feid. “BizCom pushes the boundaries of PR, just as Salad and Go redefines how freshness and value can coexist. Our extensive experience in the business and food service industries can position Salad and Go for continued success, and we look forward to this healthy partnership.”

More information on BizCom’s range of services is available at bizcompr.com.


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LOOMIS Refreshes Golden Chick Ad Campaign as Restaurant Brand Thrives
The Loomis Agency Posted On July 12, 2022


In the world of Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), the numbers don’t get much better than they are right now for Golden Chick. With double-digit same-store sales increases and a big boost in average unit volume pushing system growth past 200 units, the Golden Chick brand has found its way to the top half of Restaurant Business’s Top 500 list and was named a Next Gen brand by Nation’s Restaurant News.

Golden Chick CMO Howard Terry credits the strength and efficiency of the company’s operational response to the pandemic, along with marketing and advertising efforts, as key drivers of the brand’s growth in 2020, 2021, and the first half of 2022. Terry notes that the brand’s surge in sales began with the launch of its award-winning man-on-the-street-style campaign called “One Taste and You’re Golden.”

Since 2018, the campaign had focused on capturing authentic experiences of first-timers as they discovered Golden Chick’s taste and quality, something research showed overwhelmingly created instant Golden Chick fans and repeat customers. “Our campaign has been highly effective at differentiating Golden Chick from our larger competition,” said Terry, “but coming out of the pandemic, we knew it was time to dial it up.”

Health guidelines during 2020 and 2021 forced a shift in production, but now it was time to refocus on taking Golden Chick back out to the people. Research confirmed the consumer appeal of the campaign’s interviewer, Marty. Originally cast for his personable, friendly approach and improvisational abilities, Marty continues to riff off the customers’ comments but is now accompanied by brand ambassador sidekicks. “Marty is known for his crowd work. We wanted to give him an even greater chance to bring the funny in this new round of spots,” said Group Creative Director Kim Smith. “Putting him back out on the street and pairing him with the sidekicks changed things up, giving him more opportunity to do just that. He knew we wanted to breathe new life into this already strong concept, and he delivered.”

“This campaign has always been about capturing authentic responses to that delicious first bite and sharing those reactions with a smile and laugh. We just needed to do that in a new way.” — Julia Proctor, Group Account Director

LOOMIS partnered with Brian Bain and Jake Springfield of Tempt Films to infuse a new visual energy, capturing a more organic, on-the-street spontaneity. Filming took place in historic Downtown McKinney and Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park.

According to LOOMIS Group Account Director Julia Proctor, the first-taste surprise and delight at the heart of the concept works so well because it rings true. “People just don’t know how incredibly tasty Golden Chick really is,” Proctor said. “This campaign has always been about capturing authentic responses to that delicious first bite and sharing those reactions with a smile and a laugh. We just needed to do that in a new way.”

The spots will run in 19 DMAs in TX, OK, LA and FL on network, connected, and cable.

About Golden Chick
Founded in Texas in 1967, Golden Chick is a family-oriented, quick-service restaurant that prides itself on perfecting its Golden Fried Chicken, Golden Roast Chicken, Big & Golden™ Chicken Sandwich and Golden Tenders®, along with offering a variety of other chef-inspired menu items. The brand was ranked the #4 chicken franchise by Entrepreneur, included in Nation’s Restaurant News’ Top 200 Restaurants in 2019 and is ranked in the top 200 of Restaurant Businesses’ Top 500 Chains for 2020. With dine-in, drive-thru, catering and home delivery service capabilities, the Golden Chick restaurant chain has more than 200 locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.

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Employee Retention: What if it Isn’t All About You? | LOOMIS’s Mike Sullivan Weighs In
The Loomis Agency Posted On June 1, 2022


By Mike Sullivan

I’m always thinking about employee retention. Thinking about how to keep good people is one of the most important things I do as CEO. Over my 22-year stretch at LOOMIS, we’ve managed to keep our people twice as long as the advertising industry average. We’re proud of that. But we also work hard at it. That’s why a recent article from Inc. magazine caught my eye.

The article references a recent Gallup report called the “State of the Global Workplace.” In it, Gallup reports that roughly “7 in 10 employees are struggling or suffering in their overall lives, with negative emotions at an all-time high.”

70 percent. That’s a stunning number.

The article goes on to offer suggestions for how companies can help their employees deal with mental health challenges and their overall well-being. That may not be our default commitment. But it should be if we want to hang on to our people. Today, employee retention is as much about helping your employees stay healthy as it is keeping them happy.

Meaning is the key.

Last year, 25 percent of the American workforce turned over. Of the remaining 75 percent, a vast majority had or were presently considering a move. That puts nearly everyone in your company at play.

Talented people across the country are hungry to be part of something great and meaningful. But they are also incredibly stressed out about the state of the country, the economy, inflation, their families, paying for college, trying to buy a house. The list goes on and on.

In the midst of that turmoil, we’re all trying to find meaning in the work we do. Ask Millennials and Gen Z and that’s at or near the top of their list. Very few of us can change the world individually. But as a company? As a group of inspired people committed to building a nurturing culture and combining our talents to achieve the extraordinary? That’s something to make Monday mornings exciting again. That’s what people are searching for. Twenty-five percent of the workforce didn’t jump to jump. They’re looking for something better.

It’s time to get personal.

For lots of reasons – many of them good – companies often shy away from making things too “personal” or “individualized” for their employees. It seems more important to foster a sense of fairness and equality with everyone being treated the same. In certain aspects of employment that is exactly as it should be. But I’d also argue when it comes to our employees’ individual development, a new approach focusing on each person’s personal growth trajectory could be a mutually beneficial catalyst to push both our people and our companies forward.

In this hiring environment, any efforts directed at employee retention have to start with the employee. That may sound obvious, but not as much as you’d think. Most companies think company first. Understandably so. Employees? Usually down the list somewhere past shareholders, owners, sometimes even past clients, and vendors. That needs to change. Almost 100 percent of the workforce is in play. Helping our employees become the best versions of themselves is the greatest investment we can make right now.

When was the last time you asked your employees what it is they want from their careers? Have you ever asked them about their aspirations? Their ideas? What they think could improve the performance of your organization? It’s so easy to get caught up in looking at the big picture that we lose sight of all the individual pieces that make it up. What if we shifted our focus from what we need, to what our people need?

Custom leadership development plans.

We wrote about Custom Leadership Development Plans back in January as the trend we most wanted to see to address employee retention in 2022. Since then, we haven’t been able to stop thinking about them. Most employers have a “one size fits all” mindset for training and career development. What if we started experimenting with individualized development plans that take into account what our employees want from their work experience, their career, their personal lives, and the impact they want to make congruent with their values. Imagine – a movement toward maximizing individual performance in service to something bigger.

We’re in the process of designing our own Custom Leadership Development program now with plans to launch it late Summer or early Fall. Think about your own team. What can you do to help them perform at peak levels? Even more, what can you do to help them be happier, healthier, more fulfilled human beings excited to come to work and energized to do everything they can to fulfill both the company’s purpose and their own?

How many people do you think are leaving that company?

MIKE SULLIVAN is president and CEO at LOOMIS, the country’s leading challenger brand advertising agency and a top Dallas advertising agency for digital, social, mobile and user experience. For more about challenger branding, advertising, and marketing, leadership, culture, and other inspirations that will drive your success, visit our blog BARK! The Voice of the Underdog and catch up on all of our posts.

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Tegan Kicks Off 2022 With Award Winning Streak
Tegan Digital Posted On May 19, 2022


Tegan Digital continues to make a huge impression in the digital marketing industry. In the last quarter alone, the Tegan team has brought home six awards across multiple projects for excellence in design, marketing and communication. The local Dallas agency has evolved well beyond web development since its launch in 2011, and now thrives as a digital-first, full-service agency.

This year, Tegan’s work with The Birthday Party Project received a silver ADDY from the American Advertising Federation’s 60th annual prestigious ADDY awards. Kelsey Mason, an Account Director from Tegan, and Jessica LaTour, head of Media Planning, represented the agency at the evening’s ceremony at the Dallas Perot Museum.

“It really was a privilege to be considered among the best agencies in the city,” says Mason. “And of course, bringing home some hardware on behalf of the Tegan team and our clients was a pretty great way to end the night.”

Tegan partnered with the Dallas non-profit in 2020 for a fresh rebrand and a new website, hopeful to design and develop a digital platform that best represented the heartbeat behind the organization’s mission. The new site is exactly what a birthday party should look like, complete with bright colors, confetti, smiling faces and playful animation. Since its debut in the spring of 2021, The Birthday Party Project’s site has received more than a dozen awards across multiple award shows, including a gold placement from the Horizon Interactive Awards early this year.

The Birthday Project | Read Case Study

Tegan’s partnership with another Dallas non-profit, the Legacy Senior Communities, continues to receive recognition for outstanding work. As the Legacy’s Agency of Record, Tegan operates as the organization’s marketing arm, taking the lead on ongoing marketing initiatives and executing new digital strategies. The Tegan team launched an omnichannel marketing campaign to promote the Legacy’s Midtown Park campus in the fall of 2021. Creative work included paid display banners, paid search, connected TV, direct mail and email marketing. The campaign’s success continues to bring new visitors to the Legacy every day, and earned a gold placement from both the Horizon Interactive Awards and the Hermes Awards.

“We’re proud of all of our partnerships, but there’s something uniquely special about our long-standing relationships with Dallas clients,” says John Herrington, VP Client Services. “To do the work we love, in a city we love, feels like a dream come true.”

The Legacy Senior Communities | Read Case Study

The agency brought home additional awards for two of their Dallas-based partnerships. The Safe Harbor Water app Tegan created for Safe Harbor Marinas received gold recognition from the Hermes Awards, and the new website they created for Chartwell Partners earned a gold placement from the Horizon Interactive Awards.

Tegan’s winning streak is nothing new for the agency. Last year, the team celebrated its most decorated year yet, bringing home 30 awards for multiple completed projects. 2021 also marked the Dallas agency’s tenth anniversary, a coveted milestone in the digital marketing industry.

It’s an exciting time for our growing agency, and we don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.”

Safe Harbor | Read Case Study

Chartwell Partners | Read Case Study


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