Schupp Company Blog

MIBW 2009: Donna MacDonald, Schupp Co.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Article is from the St. Louis Business Journal

When Mark Schupp started Schupp Co. in 1995, he sought out Donna MacDonald, a former colleague at D’Arcy, to see if she would be interested in managing account services for the new ad agency.

MacDonald, who was working at Ralston Purina at the time, took him up on the offer, and that decision has worked well for both MacDonald and the ad firm.

Since MacDonald came aboard, Schupp Co. has grown from a 10-employee outfit to a staff with more than 45 workers. The agency had $40 million in billings in 2008.

Earlier this summer, Schupp received an Effie Award, one of only 24 given worldwide, for its Metro Decongestant M campaign. The Effies are the pre-eminent, international marketing award, recognizing a marketing campaign’s effectiveness.

Schupp’s clients include American Express, Medicine Shoppe International, American Association of Orthodontists, Franchise Concepts Inc. (Deck the Walls and The Great Frame-Up), Beech-Nut and Solutia.

The average client tenure for the company is eight to nine years, which is double the industry average, according to Mark Schupp, president of the company. He gives MacDonald a good deal of credit for that fact.

“Donna has played an integral role in growing our business and managing existing clients,” he said. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without her.”

MacDonald attributes her success in part to being equally “right- and left-brained,” blending her creative gifts with her analytical, business-oriented skills.

Her passion for creating a fun, team-focused environment has led her to plan group excursions, such as an overnight trip to Chicago to see a ball game at Wrigley Field. She also helped bring about a semiweekly “boot camp” at the agency, during which a personal trainer leads employees in two-mile runs and conditioning exercises.

MacDonald began her career at D’Arcy, where she did administrative work, media planning and account services during her five-year stint. Next, she took a brand management position at Ralston Purina, where she worked for nine years on brands such as Continental Baking, Chex cereal and some of Ralston Purina’s private label products. She likened the brand manager position to being “president of a small company.”

Outside work, she has served as a member of the board and the development committee for Central Christian School. MacDonald led a brand positioning project with the school, helping the team to develop marketing strategies based on research with current, new and prospective parents of students.

A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, MacDonald has returned to donate time as a visiting professor for a week. She has brought in colleagues to share real-world experience with the students to help prepare them for what their textbooks cannot. She also has mentored candidates for the Schupp Co. internship program who, if hired, worked under her guidance.

MacDonald sits on the steering committee/marketing adviser for Heart to Heart, a nonprofit devoted to women’s heart care issues. Someday, she said, she’d like to take on more community activities, including help for the abused.

MacDonald’s ultimate goals extend far beyond business success. When she eventually retires from advertising and marketing, she anticipates staying just as busy as an advocate for women’s heart health, abused women and children, education, and a number of causes she professes “a heart” for.

“I don’t think I’ll ever retire,” she said. “I think I’ll just draw my passion into new places.”

Posted in Schupp News | No Comments »

Skateboard Graphics Retrospective

Friday, August 14th, 2009

I’ll never forget the day I bought my first “real” skateboard. Standing across the counter at a local skate shop staring at the wall-to-wall spread of colorful wooden planks. Which board would replace my worn out Variflex? My requirements for my new skateboard purchase were pretty simple…it had to look kick ass. At the time, skateboard graphics were just starting to leave the conservative world and manufactures were beginning to realize that technological innovations in skate deck design were not as viable of a marketing ploy as the graphic on the underside. Kids didn’t really care if a board had a concave surface or a steeper tail. Young skaters needed a way to identify with their personal hero’s, or at least immortalize them in any way possible. Personality was punk and punk was attitude. As a pro skater, the place to personify that attitude was with the graphics on the underside of your own pro model.

$35 and 5 minutes later, my first “real“ skateboard became a Schmitt Stix, John Lucero X2 or “Behind the Bars” model. At the time, Lucero was not a world-renowned rider, but the X2 was his first pro model released under the new up and coming Schmitt Stix label. Besides a few snap shots in Thrasher Magazine and the occasional print ad, even though he was already a legend amongst his peers, I barely knew who John Lucero was.

What appealed to my 13 year old mid-western mind was the cool factor of the illustrated graphic on the bottom of his skateboard. The twisted demented jester graphic pried at my hell bent desire to break out of my suburban confines and unleash the fury of my youth upon the world…or at least the neighborhood.

Fast forward to present day…

These days, skateboards are all basically the same shape and size. They closely resemble the early freestyle type deck and it’s no wonder why. The actual tricks have elevated to a level of sophistication that have surpassed segregation from the original methods of style and performance: freestyle, street and vert.

Skate deck artwork has taken a turn as well. Today still, Like Lucero, riders themselves translate their own personality into signature graphics. But, the board as a canvas has come full circle. Art board companies have spawned and the amount of new school vs. old school collector decks have multiplied with the advent of commissioned artwork by world famous artists, fashionable skate deck only designers and the ability to turn the skateboard itself into a political statement.

New Skateboard Graphics written by J. Namdev Hardisty and published by Mark Batty Publisher is a diverse catalog spanning just over a decade and containing over 400 full color illustrations across 145 pages. With a reflective foreword by Michael Leon, rider interviews and an unbiased peek across numerous brands, anyone who has been a fan of skate culture artwork will enjoy the rich visual stimulation this book delivers.

Skateboarding may not be the only industry to have made a complete transition through artistic influence, but reviewing its history through mediums like this book is something I enjoy, and who knows, maybe some day a few of the decks I’ve designed will make it into volume 2.

Tags: marketing, products, sports, trends
Posted in Art, Culture, Miscellaneous, Recreaction, Style | 3 Comments »

Optimistic, Helpful, Encouraging Proactive…

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Optimistic, Helpful, Encouraging Proactive … conversations using these positive adjectives are harder to find these days, especially when people talk about their workplace. However, I am going to use this blog entry as my brag entry on some of the proactive actions made by Schupp Co. employees.

We have an internal team at Schupp Co. we call P.A.T (Positive Action Team) that tries to keep the company on track in supporting different volunteer opportunities, making donations, organization assistance, providing awareness, etc.

One of our biggest initiatives is an ongoing fundraiser for Our Little Haven. Our Little Haven provides a safe, healing environment for the youngest children recovering from abuse, neglect, abandonment or early childhood trauma in the greater St. Louis region. This fundraiser is simply being done by placing baby bottles around the office to collect donations. Something as simple as placing a baby bottle next to the vending machine has prompt many employees to throw that leftover change from a Twix and soda pop (Diet Dew rocks) into the donation basket.

If you would like to donate or simply check out what is stocked in the Schupp Co. vending machine, please contact me. I can provide you with direction to the nearest baby bottle in the SchuppCo office. To learn more about Our Little Haven organization, please check out their web site: http://www.ourlittlehaven.org/.

Schupp Co. employees also held a school supply drive for the month of July to donate to The Little Bit Foundation. Not only did we have some fun by holding a different Schupp Spirit theme week (stars & stripes, prom, sports & wild west) throughout the month to get in that school spirit, but we exceeded our supply drive goals by collecting 30 fully stocked, NEW backpacks that includes each student’s complete school supply list packed inside!

To find out more about how you can help support the Little Bit Foundation, please checkout their website: http://www.thelittlebitfoundation.org/index.html

I applaud my co-workers for all the positive suggestions and support they give everyday. It makes our daily goals feel more important and definitely more rewarding. Thanks Schuppians!

If you have a suggestion for the SchuppCo P.A.T. crew or you, your office, your corporation, your friends, etc. would like to join us in supporting a cause, please contact me. The more of us, the more support and good things we can accomplish! Cheers!

Tags: Our Little Haven, Schupp Co. P.A.T., schupp company, The Little Bit Foundation
Posted in Miscellaneous, Schupp News, Water Cooler | No Comments »

Beat the Deadline (to Death)

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Goddamn deadlines. Like this blog writing deadline that I’ve already missed… twice. Let’s face it. Deadlines suck. I’m pretty sure everyone would be much happier without them. I mean, come on, the name alone is a real puppy kicker. Deadlines. Sounds fun. Two things everyone hates – death and lines – together. Yay! It’s like the Coroners Office and the DMV combined to form a Voltron of suckitude. So, you know what? Screw deadlines. That’s right, deadlines are dead to me. So, from now on, I’ll treat it like any other curse word. No, not by using it constantly in casual conversation or as the punch line to jokes about your mom, but by disguising it behind shifty symbols. I’ll still have to produce work on time, but not on d3@d1in3 or by the d3@d1in3 or before the d3@d1in3. Heck, even “on time” sounds better than the d-word. Positive. Rewarding. It’s nice, but not nice enough. No, what we need here is some good old-fashioned word spinning. You know, like rebranding the estate tax the “death tax” but in reverse. The first thought is “lifeline” but that sounds too much like the last wish of a drowning man or a bad primetime game show. Not gonna work. Too desperate. Too stress inducing. Too Regis Philbiny. We need something ownable. So, help me out. We need to beat the d3@d1in3 once and for all. What do we call it instead? Any ideas? I’m listening, and I don’t want to rush you, but we need it by EOD. We gotta ???????? to beat.

Tags: deadline, work
Posted in Miscellaneous, Water Cooler | No Comments »

Satan’s Products, Made With 100% Pure Evil.

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Have you ever been out and about, whether it’s shopping, driving, at a bar or anywhere, and seen a product that just infuriates you. Something that just makes your blood boil and put’s you in a bad mood for a few seconds until it’s gone. I think there are products out there that Satan himself has created just to piss people off.

My list:

1. PT Cruisers – I hate this car, every time I see one I want to smash into it. Why would any one buy this awful piece of shit and actually want to be seen in it. I don’t know what it is about that car, but damn it’s just makes me angry every time I see one.
   
   
   
2. Ed Hardy and Affliction T-shirts – I might never want to go back to Vegas just for that one reason. Those stupid shirts are everywhere and I can’t believe anyone would wear that crap and pay that much money for that garbage. Those shirts are not a good style and they are actually a very easy way to tell the world that you are a douchbag.
   
3. Crocs – Seriously, what the fuck. They’re ok for kids, I get that. But if you are an adult wearing those things, you’ve told the world that you’ve given up.

And actually it’s not just limited to products, Satan has also created people that are just wrong and need to go away. I’m talking about you Lindsay Lohan, Jon Gosselin, Spencer and Heidi, Larry the Cable Guy, Rosie O’Donnell, and John Mayer.

Feel free to add to the list of Satan’s products/people.

Tags: people, popular, products, trends
Posted in Culture, Miscellaneous, Style, Water Cooler | No Comments »

Can I Get a “Woot!”?

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Before we get started with this post, you need to have fulfilled the prerequisite: understand the awesomeness that is the woot.com family.

A quick overview, courtesy of Wikipedia:

“Woot is an Internet retailer based in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, Texas… Woot’s main website generally offers only one discounted product each day, often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. Other Woot sites offer one original t-shirt per day, two selections of wine per week, and one closeout deal per day in cooperation with Yahoo! Shopping.”

If you have yet to witness the wonder of Woot, go check it out right now. Right. Now. Go! C’mon, I freaking gave you the link. Just make sure you come back.

…

See? Don’t you love Woot, too? Good. Let’s carry on.

I’m a HUGE fan of Woot. Their concept sparked a slew of copycats, their subtle pop culture references make me giggle with glee, their style is witty but personal, their business model has stood solid for 5 years, they sold me a refurbed iPod for cheap, and their vernacular was established on the right side of silly.

As much as I love it, I constantly struggle over how many people to enlighten with the glory of all that is Woot. The Twitter feed already has over 1 million — million! — followers. Spreading the word means I’ll have to compete with even more people for the elusive Bag of Crap (see Wiki’s explanation here). And more voters in the Derby means my “I’d want one” button click doesn’t mean as much. But here I am in shameless promotion…

I’m not the only one to attribute for Woot’s word-of-mouth success, though. On any given day, lots of wooters are wooting Woots. (Yes, grammar fascists, “woot” is a word of many forms. Deal with it.) Woots sell out often, and even after sell-out, the site continues to earn revenue from Google AdSense.

But that’s not enough for Woot. No, they want even more wooters wooting. They want an ad agency, which means they better have more woots for wooters to woot. You know what I say to that? “Hellooo, new business opportunity!!!” New business has been the hot topic of the year at Schupp Company, so imagine my delight at learning about Woot’s need.

Fortunately, they’ve pretty much put the RFP on their blog. Who is their audience? What is their budget? What has worked for them in the past? Other than word-of-mouth, I don’t know. But they have been clear about one thing: What they want. Or rather, the 16 things they want.

Now, that’s kind of a lot of things for one RFP, and I have a feeling Mark Schupp probably won’t foot the bill for any of ‘em. Thus, dear readers, I’m asking for your help. My love for Woot is profound. I would leap through flaming hoops at the chance to work on a campaign for them. Surely you know how rewarding it is to work on a brand you can really believe in. So help a girl out here, please.

If you are willing to purchase/create/steal any of the following items, let’s talk:

• A platter of petit-fours delivered by a trained bear riding on a unicycle balanced on another unicycle
• One of those potatoes that looks like a U.S. president
• A modest cottage in the south of France that also serves as a portal to the center of the Earth where the dinosaurs live
• A coupon good for free French fries for everyone, everywhere, forever

Those are the ones I think would really make a proposal shine. I’ve got some of the others taken care of, but I’m not disclosing which ones. (If you didn’t click the first time, you can see the full list here.)

…What? You think this is impossible? Or that I’m taking Woot too srsly? Pssht. Cynics never get anything done. We’ve all been given an assignment that seems farfetched, unreasonable or downright asinine. It took a big dollop of elbow grease and an extra helping of creativity, but you solved the puzzle with a resounding “Woot!” (Or maybe “Booyah!” is more your style.)

If nothing else, figuring out how to turn a heap of aluminum cans into a transforming, robotic, sword-fighting cougar will be fun! So let’s throw on our thinking caps (and shirts), and see what magic we can make!

Any takers?

Tags: internet retailer, marketing, social media, woot
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Social Media Diet

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Could you do it? No Facebook. No Tweeting. No Texting. No Facebook. No YouTube. That means you would actually have to pick up your phone and speak into it.

We had a “No Email” Day at Schupp Company. News Channel 5 came. We all sat in the kitchen at 5 a.m. talking, not emailing and pretending this was in some way a disruption of our normal behavior. (Forget that it was 5 a.m. and we were at work.) However, the minute we all went back to our respective offices *BING* I got an email. Lack of sleep was obviously clouding my better judgment when I decided to pick up the phone and notify the whole company that a certain AE had just broken the rules. Needless to say, she didn’t send any more emails that day.

But hitting send was a hard habit to break, even for a day.

In my opinion, social media can isolate us just as much as it can bring us together. When was the last time you sent an actual birthday card or wrote a letter?

When was the last time you got off your butt and walked your happy ass down the hall to have a face-to-face conversation with someone?

We, as marketers, are supposed to connect with people. We’re supposed build relationships. We’re supposed to bridge the gap between consumers and brands. Can you do that by simply friending them on Facebook?

Social media has quickly become the cornerstone for communication. And yes. It’s a great way to stalk friends and share pictures with family. But how does that benefit your client’s brand?

At a time when generic, mass communication disguised by Facebook and Twitter is the norm, does it make sense to take a step back and focus on good ole fashioned personal customer care and communication? Maybe that should become the next new hip thing? Think about it. Actually talking to a real person. Never having to press 9 then 2 then 00 to speak to a customer service agent. Never getting that message on your work computer that says you’ve reached maximum memory capacity.

Would it make our customers feel more connected to you? Would you feel more connect to them? How could it change your personal relationships?

Could you go one day without a text? Without an unnecessary email? Without a tweet or FB message? What if you made a conscience effort to pick up the phone more? What could it hurt?

Try it. Let us know how it goes. I would invite you down to the office to chat about it, but I don’t know you, you don’t know me. That might be awkward. Maybe just write a letter and stick it in the mail. I guess you could also call the office and leave me a message, because I probably won’t answer my phone if I don’t know who you are…

Tags: "no email" day, social media, trends
Posted in Culture, Miscellaneous, Online | 2 Comments »