COHN was awarded a Gold Key and two Silver Keys at the event, and we are very proud to accept BMA’s recognition.

COHN won gold for its entry “COHN Trains A Global Industry On Social Media,” a multi-dimensional marketing and educational initiative that occurred at the International Council of Shopping Center’s annual RECon conference in May 2011. COHN also won silver for its work with Mont Blanc Gourmet, titled “Turning what-ifs into must-haves,” and its own re-branding efforts, titled “New Brand. New Site. New COHN.”

In the news release announcing our BMA wins, our President and CEO Jeff Cohn spoke about the prestige of these awards.

“We are proud and very happy to be recognized by the BMA this year. BMA Colorado is one of the most important industry groups for us because it has a large reach and influence in the region, and the award entries are always outstanding and very competitive,” Jeff said.

The Business Marketing Association (BMA) is a national organization that unites professionals who specialize in business-to-business marketing and communications. The Colorado Chapter has more than 550 members and is one of the largest and strongest chapters in the country.

“The BMA Board of Directors would extends our congratulations to the winners of this year’s awards program. It is a fiercely competitive program that truly recognizes the very best in business-to-business marketing for 2012,” says Marilee Yorchak, CAE, Executive Director, Colorado Business Marketing Association. “With our emphasis on results and the quality of entries, the BMA Gold Key Awards one of the most coveted by marketers in Colorado.

Retailers Need to Think Mobile First - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/12572.html

• Highlights: At the Results 2012 Mobile discussion, several mobile execs talked about the need for retailers to think about their mobile experience first, and then back those learnings into their desktop experience.
• Why we think it matters: At COHN, we have usually thought desktop first and then iterated into mobile. It presents some interesting arguments to think in the reverse, and develop mobile sites first and then the desktop experience.

Tips for Cheap Social Contests - http://mashable.com/2012/04/13/tips-effective-social-media-contests/

• Highlights: Have a goal, pick the right target, pick the right (not always the best) prize
• Why we think it matters: How many times have the clients come to us and said, “We need a social campaign that is inexpensive.” Well, here are some thoughts from our friends at Mashable.

2012 Tech Trends You Can Ignore - http://www.imediaconnection.com/article_full.aspx?id=31439

• Highlights: Pinterest, Kinect for Markters, Having a branded app for that
• Why we think it matters: Too often, we all get enamored with the latest and greatest. Here are a few counterarguments for some popular marketing trends and tools we’ve seen pick up steam this year.

Four Ways to Create A Worthless B2B Website – http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2544/four-ways-to-create-a-worthless-b2b-website

• Highlights: Think about your audience, how you convert them, then leave it alone (not sure we agree with the last one, but what do you think?).
• Why we think it matters: In the next few weeks, our teams will be working on number of B2B-focused websites. Let’s be mindful of this article.

Emails like it’s 2012, not 1999 - http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/7563/email-like-its-2012-not-1999

• Highlights: Suffice to say email has come a long way since the late 90s.
• Why we think it matters: We are doing more and more email here at COHN. It’s always good to know the latest and greatest we could be doing with it.

Have a great weekend!

The COHN Digital Team

Name: Debbie Berschling

Title: Senior Account Director

Years at COHN: 3 years

1. What was your favorite toy as a child?

A Light Bright, Easy Bake Oven or Fashion Plates—I always envisioned myself as artistic and creative until it came to showing any real talent for it, and I realized that others were naturally better or worked harder at honing those skills. Instead, I decided to do something related so I would still be close to the creative process, working in account services.

2. You recently bashed Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” at the office. Tell us a guilty pleasure music selection that you love but are slightly embarrassed about. 

Touche. Have your pick at any one of these gems…”If I Were a Carpenter” by Johnny Cash, “Laid” by James, or “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray.

3. Tell us about something you do every single day, without fail.  

Wake up. Some days are better than others.

COHN has brought in Jason Michael as a senior public relations strategist and Tina Edwards as a digital account manager.

Jason comes from Fleishman-Hillard in St. Louis, where he managed public relations for such high-profile clients as Chevrolet, Emerson, LivingSocial, Panera Bread, Papa John’s and Visa, Inc.

Tina comes to COHN from Avocet Communications and before that Sitewire in Tempe, Ariz., where she managed projects for Sage Software and Darden Restaurants. Tina brings to COHN significant experience in digital project strategy and management, social media strategy and public relations.

“Anytime you’re able to bring in team members that have accumulated truly exceptional expertise like Jason and Tina have, you feel very lucky as a business owner. Our public relations and digital teams have already felt the positive impact of these new additions, and I see a very bright future for Jason and Tina at COHN,” said Jeff Cohn, president and CEO of COHN.

Senior Public Relations Strategist Jason Michael

As the former sports editor for the Christian County Headliner in Springfield, Mo., Jason is an avid sports fan and must still maintain sources from his hometown of St. Louis, as he somehow knows all major St. Louis sports news before it’s officially announced. He is a graduate of St. Louis University, and he currently lives in Boulder, Colo.

Tina, also a resident of Boulder, enjoys hiking, skiing, visiting farmers markets and hitting triples in her not-so-serious kickball league. Originally from Tucson, Ariz., Tina is a graduate of University of Arizona, and she has been enjoying the newlywed life since being married in November 2011.

Name: Teri Springer

Title: Senior Art Director

Years at COHN: 4 years

What is the last movie you went to see? Give us your Roger Ebert review!

Harry Potter, grown up

The last movie we went to see was The Woman in Black. Since my boys dig Harry Potter, they wanted to check out Daniel Radcliffe in a horror movie. I thought it was a great old fashion ghost story (without all the blood and gore you see in most horror movies these days).

I give it “two thumbs up” for making a scary movie that doesn’t lean heavily on excessive blood and gore.

Coming from a design person, I’m expecting a glorious answer from you. What is your favorite color – and WHY?

I thought it was Dusty Blue until I painted my family room “Pumpkin Pie.” It was the scariest color to paint the most occupied room in the house, but it is THE BEST COLOR!

It’s warm, friendly, and makes me smile when I walk in. Bang!

Teri's family room walls are painted "Pumpkin Pie"

What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

Most mornings, I hit the peepers with some eye drops and walk down my stairs backwards (not Linda Blair/Exorcist style—it’s just that 20+ years of dance, many 80s aerobic classes and eight years of karate have taken a toll on my body).

Then, I head straight for my caffeine fix.

“We’re especially proud to have COHN as our newest partner agency, especially given their innovative and progressive spirit and their high caliber of work across all major advertising disciplines, including PR, digital, branding, B2B and B2C,” said Al Moffatt, President and CEO of Worldwide Partners.

Headquartered in Denver, COHN is the only Colorado-based agency that has been accepted into Worldwide Partners.

“We’re incredibly flattered to be asked to join such a prestigious group like Worldwide Partners. Although we’ve done work outside the U.S., our affiliation with Worldwide Partners now gives us an ability to having partners and influence in almost every nation, continent and region of the world,” said Jeff Cohn, President and CEO of COHN.

Name: Andrea Drabczyk

Title: Digital Project Coordinator

Years at COHN: 3 years

If you weren’t mastering the world of Digital, what would you be doing? What did you want to be when you grew up?

That’s a good question… I’m pretty sure I dreamed of being everything from a veterinarian (that is, until I learned how they take dogs’ temperatures), to a princess, to a lawyer when I was younger. I’m really happy I ended up in the digital world because I really enjoy what I do everyday, but I have to admit if the opportunity ever arises to pursue my dream of being a princess, I don’t think I could pass it up.

Who is your favorite character (from a movie, TV show, book, story, etc.) of all time and why?

If you know me, you know the answer to this question – Harry Potter. I absolutely love Harry Potter! I started reading the books in fifth grade and have been a fan of the wizard ever since. I can’t even tell you how many times I have read each book and watched each movie. I love the magic and imagination, the adventures and how Harry always seems to find a way to outsmart every situation.

What is your favorite thing about your life?

My family. I’m lucky because I have a pretty big family that I get to see often. It’s a lot of fun whenever we are together because I have a ton of siblings and we’re all very different and vary in age (I’m the youngest) but get along well.  Someone always has something exciting going on so there is never a dull moment.

27 shopping centers in 16 communities (see list below) are the first shopping centers in the country to have this cutting-edge program and we want to celebrate its launch with a community service initiative that will award a nonprofit group a $10,000 donation.

How can groups make $10,000? The goal is to generate 30,000 new ValuText members by May 31, 2012. We are looking for community ambassadors for the ValuText program to help build our membership base, simply by spreading the word about ValuText through email, social media, meetings, events, word-of-mouth, enrolling members, etc.

The first 10 participating groups to reach 1,000 users will receive a $1,000 donation and the group that generates the most users (minimum of 10,000) by February 17, 2012 will receive a $10,000 donation!

If you are interested in participating in the ValuText community service program, please contact Lisa Wieting at 303-839-1415 or lisa@cohnmarketing.com.

Click here to view the ValuText video

Participating locations:

As we looked ahead at 2012, we knew it was time for an overhaul of our brand. It had been several years since we reviewed our identity. Our website was painfully out of date. And, we were hardly telling our brand story of what we do for our clients and how the agency has evolved in recent years…even recent months. It was the proverbial case of the shoemaker’s kids walking without shoes. In this case, the marketing and PR firm was putting its own needs last. And, it was time for real change, not just for the fun of it, but to tell our story in the best way possible.

We started with a thorough review of our own internal brand strategy. This led to an internal team brand launch to ensure we had buy-in throughout the company. From there, we began the work of rethinking our external brand identity, which led to some really big changes:

-Move from Cohn Marketing to COHN (and in some cases, COHN, Inc.)

-Drop the use of the square brand icon

-Add our key service lines to the logo: Brand, Strategy, Creative, Digital, PR and Social

-Define a set of colors that best represent our brand

-Establish a new logo and brand expression style guide
From there, we began work on our new website. The new site had to achieve three key objectives:

1.  Tell our full story of what we do as a company, and how we excel at meeting client marketing and PR objectives.
2. Tell that story in a compelling, beautifully designed way that reflects our design and art direction capabilities.
3. Ensure that the site leverages the latest development technologies and reflects our digital capabilities from ease of use to smooth functionality to search optimization and easy updating.

The new site, which can be viewed at CohnMarketing.com, does a great job of achieving these objectives and then some.

I am really proud of our entire team at COHN for their efforts in this important branding initiative. Led by Ali Lego, the creative team of Jesse Pixler and Teri Springer, project management via Andrea Drabczyk, and with the guidance of our new head of digital, Michael Barber, this site brings to life the new COHN brand in a compelling way.

Bring it on, 2012! The team at COHN is ready to make big things happen for our clients, old and new. Our new brand and website proves that in a superlative way. Great job Team COHN!