The month of May has been a busy one. This month, we marked the end of a phenomenal project by launching a brand new website for KVC Health Systems—a locally-based nonprofit organization that does really great work for kids and families throughout the country.
After closely working with them for more than a year, KVC now has a family of six websites all newly branded with a handmade look and a message that “People Matter.”
As people who love downtown Kansas City, we believe there’s no more important project for the future of the city than the construction of the streetcar starter line. So when we were selected to design the new kcstreetcar.org, we were both tremendously excited and extremely proud.
Tivol, Kansas City’s iconic jewelry brand, has named Johnny Lightning Strikes Again its new digital agency of record. We will be assisting with a variety of creative initiatives, including the new Tivol.com that will be launching soon.
One of the most important questions we answer for our clients is how creative services can be leveraged to achieve their objectives. They know what an agency does, but they want to know what an agency can do for them. Since a lot of creative is subjective, we often find ourselves talking about intangible benefits — customer loyalty, emotional connection, and trust. Intangible benefits aren’t the whole story, however. Creative services, especially web and application development, can also provide a business with functional tools that make life easier.
In 2010, we were at a poolside event and met an MBA student from a Kansas City college. Since Johnny Lightning Strikes Again is in the business of growing businesses, the conversation naturally turned to a concept for a bar & restaurant that he and a few of his fellow students were considering pursuing. Philosophies were shared, business cards were exchanged, and plans to discuss it over coffee were made. These conversations are always exciting, but they also highlight that there are a lot of hurdles to jump over to go from a concept to opening day.
In this case, there was one thing that made us believe that they had the right stuff to do it, however. They wanted to start with the brand.
Dear Snow & Company,
One year ago we met and you told us about your restaurant/bar concept. You didn’t have a location or a brand (that’s where we were to come in), but you were passionate about starting something great…something that would last. A few weeks ago, you opened your doors and served your first frozen cocktail. Congratulations, and welcome to Kansas City.
Your friends,
Johnny Lightning Strikes Again
P.S. For those of you who are interested, we’ll post something about the work we’ve been doing with Snow & Company before too long. In the meantime, you can read an article about them here. Of course, if you’d like to check out Snow & Company in person, you can get the lowdown at snowandcompany.com.
We’d like to take a moment to congratulate our clients The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange and Manifesto for cleaning house in The Pitch’s Best of Kansas City awards. They were awarded Best Restaurant, Best New Restaurant, Best Place for a Business Lunch, and Best Cocktail Menu. They also placed high in Best Chef (Howard Hanna), Best Bartender (Jenn Tosatto), Best Martini, and Best New Bar or Club.
Impressive, right? To read about some of the work we’ve done with The Rieger, click here.
We are proud to announce that, for the second year in a row, Johnny Lightning Strikes Again has been nominated for The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s “Mr. K Award.” The Mr. K Award, named after famed Kansas City entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman, is given to The Chamber’s Small Business of the Year and is based on business growth, exemplary employee relations, and a strong record of service to the community.
We’d like to thank The Chamber and say that it has been a privilege serving businesses in the Kansas City area for your branding, web design, graphic design, and marketing needs!
Branding is a word that is used a lot – not just in our industry, but in the business world as a whole. But what is branding? It’s a slightly difficult question, because branding is often defined not by what it is, but by the most common applications of it. Branding is when you design a logo. Branding is when you design a website with a look-and-feel specific to that company. Branding is when you mark an animal with a branding iron. While all of these statements are true, none of them can really serve as a proper definition of branding.
Branding is the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design. It is a communication tool, used to capture the message of a company and deliver it through visuals. It is not something that a company does once and then checks off their list; it is an on-going process that enables businesses to increase their visibility and achieve their goals.
If you are from our hometown of Kansas City, MO and keep up with what’s happening in local fine dining, you’ve almost certainly heard about the recent opening of The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange. If not, The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange is a phenomenal new restaurant in the Crossroads Art District with a very rich history (guys – if you visit, be sure to use the restroom and see the plaque describing what Al Capone has done in there). What does this have to do with branding, design, or marketing? Well, we had the privilege of producing the website for The Rieger, which you can check out here: http://theriegerkc.com/. While you’re there, be sure to look for the key and unlock some information about one of The Rieger’s (and Kansas City’s) best little secrets.
Thank you to Ryan Maybee and Howard Hanna for bringing this restaurant to life and allowing us to be a part of it. We’re confident that you’ll be a Kansas City landmark for a long time to come!
