We didn’t actually find our new senior project manager. We beamed him up. We’re happy to welcome the newest addition to our team, Aaron Thomas-Arnold. Aaron has more than 10 years experience managing tech projects as diverse as ecommerce websites, software apps and web video. He is certified as a Project Portfolio Manager, and a graduate of the electronic media program at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He also holds a diploma from Music Tech in audio engineering and concert production. Welcome Aaron!

The site also gives prospective clients a peek at Ideopia’s broad tactical capabilities, which include web site design, public relations, social media, advertising and web marketing.

Ideopia’s b2b accomplishments include 19 years of successive growth for a medical equipment manufacturer; a 40-fold increase in sales for a national computer hardware distributor; and sales and market share growth for clients through two recessions.

More information about Ideopia/B2B is available from new business director, Mike Bober, at 513-947-1444.

Bucking convention helped Ideopia win three Gold Medals for three clients in the Aster Awards, a national competition that recognizes excellence in healthcare marketing.

Ideopia’s campaigns for Mercy Health Partners, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati and medical manufacturer Haag-Streit USA, bested 3,000 other submissions win top honors.

Results for all three campaigns resulted from an analysis of creative strategies used by competitors. For instance, common themes featuring doctors and patients were eliminated. This allowed Ideopia to create work that cut through the clutter. To see photos of the award-winning campaigns, visit our blog. For in-depth information about Ideopia’s approach to healthcare advertising, read “Hospitals: A Brand New Approach.”

Banning medical images from its ads was a winning strategy for advertising agency Ideopia. The Cincinnati-based company took the top prize in three categories in a national competition evaluating healthcare advertising.

The award-winning LENSTAR® ad by Ideopia.

Its campaigns for Mercy Health Partners, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati and medical manufacturer Haag-Streit USA, beat 3,000 submissions to capture gold medals in the Aster Awards.

Agency co-founder Bill Abramovitz says ads have to grab attention to succeed.

“Your strategy could be brilliant, but the way you execute it must break through,” said Abramovitz. “Otherwise your marketing is nothing but very expensive wallpaper.”

He banned doctors from the agency’s campaigns after completing an unscientific survey of hospital billboards. The majority used photos of doctors, patients or medical equipment—regardless of which hospital they were promoting or where they were located.

Ideopia's billboard for Mercy Health Partners

His rules for healthcare marketers are similar to the advice he offers clients from other industries:

• Start with a brand differentiation that is valid today and will hold true in five years.

• Be honest about the validity of your brand—is it true and rooted in the basic values of your organization?

• Ensure that your message is meaningful to your target audience.

• Ask whether you can create a powerful communication based on your brand and marketing strategy.

Ronald McDonald House Charities website by Ideopia

About Ideopia

Founded in 1992 Ideopia Advertising and Interactive is a spam chucking, cow patty annihilating, branding, public relations, web marketing, web design and social media agency that believes in branding with out boundaries. With headquarters in East Gate, Ideopia lives in the cloud at www.ideopia.com.

Contact: Liz Vogel (office) 513-947-1444, ext. 18, (cell) 631-741-7700, email: lizv@ideopia.com

Ideopia's Liz Vogel, Director of Public Relations; Angela Corbett, Marketing Assistant; Emily Babel, Graphic Design; Susan Abramovitz, President

“Everybody deserves and needs to be mentored,” said Ideopia co-founder Bill Abramovitz, whose agency works on social media, healthcare, business-to-business and business-to-consumer campaigns. “Whatever you do in life, we learn a lot ourselves by teaching.”

Mount St. Joseph graduate Emily Babel transitioned from being a co-op student to joining the agency’s graphic design team.

“It felt awesome to get the job offer,” said Babel who graduated last year. “I never job-hunted anywhere else. I knew before I even graduated that I’d be working for Ideopia.”

She says her experience as a co-op student taught her how advertising agencies really work. Her time at Ideopia gave her the opportunity to discover what she wanted to do with her career.

Abramovitz feels the agency gets as much as it gives to its student workers, “They bring us a whole new energy and reference points from their peer group. The best thing that can happen for us is what happened with Emily. Someone works for us, they flourish and they become an employee.”

The co-op program also lets Ideopia employees develop their management skills. Mentoring students offers team members the opportunity to learn how to train and guide people with less experience.

Even when co-op students don’t stay with Ideopia, Abramovitz believes they serve as ambassadors for the agency, “They keep in touch and spread the word about Ideopia to other organizations.”

The award was presented at a ceremony at the College of Mount St Joseph. Agency co-founder Susan Abramovitz accepted the award along with Ideopia Public Relations Director Liz Vogel, former co-op student Emily Babel and current co-op student Angela Corbett. Past winners include: GE Aviation Legal Operations, Proctor & Gamble, the American Red Cross and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, among others.

“The best thing about my co-op experience is the people I work with,” says Corbett, who is about to celebrate her one-year anniversary with Ideopia. “I have wonderful mentors, a supportive environment and people dedicated to my success.”

About Ideopia

Founded in 1992, Ideopia Advertising and Interactive, Cincinnati’s, is a spam chucking, cow patty annihilating, branding, public relations, web marketing, web design and social media fur ball of fire. With their squirrely new mascot, they’re advising organizations to grow their nut piles by thinking smaller, squatter, and puffier in the cheeks. Online at www.ideopia.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Liz Vogel (office) 513-947-1444, ext. 18, (cell) 631-741-7700, email: lizv@ideopia.com

Dano, Spokes Squirrel for Ideopia Public Relations, Cincinnati

Said Bill Abramovitz, Ideopia’s CEO, “Dano is a crafty and industrious addition to Ideopia. His unique talents will enable him to handle our nanotechnology clients and the press conferences in confined spaces.”

Dano was born in São Paulo, Brazil, to father, Mojo, a martial arts fighter, and Mago, a plastic surgeon specializing in tail reconstruction. After graduating from the University of São Paulo, Dano entered the Brazilian fashion industry, where, after a few sneaky moves, he became Chief of Squirrel PR.

Ideopia is a creative branding agency that develops integrated advertising, interactive and social media programs for a wide-range of local, regional and national clients.

In Cincinnati, Dano is president of the Squirrel Public Relations Society of America (SPRSA); a major donor to the Squirrel Fine Arts Fund; and a frequent guest at area country clubs.
Dano, 28, lives on a nut farm near Hyde Park, and enjoys extreme sports, like darting in and out of heavy traffic.

Liz Vogel, Ideopia’s PR Director, wrote a feature story for our client, the Suffolk County Fire Academy and for the Suffolk County Office of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services. The five-page color spread in Fire Chief magazine highlights a specialized team of volunteer and career firefighters dedicated to responding to major disasters like Katrina or Haiti.

Also, on the PR front, Liz and marketing assistant, Angela Corbett, took the PR lead in organizing a successful event with Stryker Medical and the Wellington Orthopedic Group. The seminar featured former Cincinnati Reds Great, Johnny Bench.

One of three college students honored statewide, Babel received her award for an essay entitled “High Heels, Swim Suits and a Casual Atmosphere.” Said Babel, “It felt great to know that my designs were helping families and making a difference.”

For its commitment to cultivating college students and interns, Ideopia was named a distinguished employer along with General Electric, Target, Procter & Gamble – Germany, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Incidentally that rumor about Ideopia forcing interns to wash our cars is just not true.

For Emily the transition has been especially easy. A recent graduate in graphic and interior design from the College of Mount St. Joseph, Emily worked at Ideopia as a co-op student and part-time employee for the past two years. She’s worked on creative for the Ronald McDonald House Charities Cincinnati, and our medical and food clients. Emily is an avid runner, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and a wicked web animator. And recently she won the Coolest Co-Op Award (see below).

Eric is an Ideopia newbie, but his work with animals has helped him fit in with our team seamlessly. Eric graduated this past May with a degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. While there he reported on a variety of entertainment, social and technology topic for one of the nation’s largest student newspapers. He also worked in public relations in the Ophthalmology Department at the School of Veterinary medicine. Eric looks forward to making the transition to humans.