HZDG proves they know how to hustle to the finish line with their fully integrated marketing campaign for the Redskins 80th Anniversary.

For about four years, HZDG has worked with the Redskins on numerous marketing efforts including strategic logo development, website design and creation of various collateral materials. As part of the Redskins 80th Anniversary campaign, HZDG designed the tour bus for the 80th Anniversary Thank You Tour.

Starting May 24th, the Thank You Tour will begin making stops all along the East coast to show appreciation for Redskins fans. Make sure you check out their tour schedule so you don’t miss when they come to your town! The Redskins recently posted a video to debut their new tour bus—and it’s looking good!

As another component of the campaign, HZDG designed and developed the Redskins80th website, launched last Thursday. For 80 days (ending on July 29th), fans can vote for their top-10 favorite players to determine the 80 Greatest Redskins of All Time.

Need to catch up on your Redskins history? HZDG created a timeline wall featuring all milestones and achievements since the 1930s (on display at FedExField). Recently, the wall was accepted into the Annual Show, a yearly competition put on by the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington (ADCMW), to give recognition to the best print and interactive work.

Last week, HZDG proudly launched the Spark 101 website.

Spark 101—a division of the national non-profit start-up, the 114th Partnership—is an interactive destination where businesses can make and upload educational videos to be used by teachers and students. It’s mission is to motivate aspiring young professionals to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

HZDG was tasked with not only establishing Spark 101’s brand, but its online presence, too. From writing to design to development, HZDG created a user-friendly, clean, engaging digital tool that effectively speaks to and benefits three audiences: students, educators, and organizations. Students can use it to tap into the knowledge of industry experts; teachers to develop new lesson plans; and businesses to start developing a pipeline of prepared talent.

Currently, Spark 101 is being utilized by several school districts—as well as businesses like Lockheed Martin, Sprint, and Deloitte.

HZDG was proud to attend Monday night’s exclusive launch party for Sugo Cicchetti (chi-KET-tee). Created by the owners of Cava restaurants (Ted Xenohristos, Ike Grigoropoulos, Dimitri Moshovitis) and the owners of Mama Lucia restaurants (Jimmy Fragoyannis, Bruno Fabi), Sugo is a restaurant styled after the ever-popular cicchetti bars throughout Italy.

HZDG worked with the Sugo owners on branding their new concept including providing assistance with strategic logo development, menu design and collateral branding materials, such as the employee t-shirts and pizza boxes.

Work hard, play hard.

To know just a little about these men speaks volumes in terms of what to expect for Sugo Cicchetti. These are men with old-school values and a hardcore work ethic. These guys don’t mess around and they know what it takes to be successful. They are young, intelligent, honest, innovative, and forever looking for the next big idea to grow their business and share their passion.

Smaller plates = more variety

In Italy, cicchetti bars traditionally serve small snacks and side dishes, which in essence, combines aspects of Greek dining with traditional Italian cuisine. And who better to take on this concept than the top Greek and Italian forces in the area? To combine Greek and Italian cuisine means you will have Italian food served in a tapas-like style (or in small plates). Smaller plates promote sharing and variety—meaning more conversation and less over-indulgence; you are able to have an engaging experience with those around you.

It is no small wonder why Italian culture has adopted this style of dining—having strong family bonds and a deep appreciation for good food. Just look at the Old Italian phrase on the back of the Sugo T-shirts, “Vivere per mangiare,” meaning, “Live to eat.”

They simply know good food and how to make it.

We already know from the success of their existing restaurants—they know how to run a business. It is obvious they take great pride in their cooking and in their service, earning them great respect and recognition in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

Every food, every flavor, is chosen with the utmost scrutiny, having a majority of their products imported directly. Both brands are known for regularly changing up their menus and trying new recipes—all of which turn out to be unbelievable!

It is regular for their restaurants to bend over backwards for customers, including adding tables to make for larger parties or placing tables in unused locations to accommodate wait times. At Cava, you always feel like you’re being taken care of. It must be that undeniable Greek charm!

It’s all in the family

It is not uncommon to see family around their restaurants, enjoying a meal or conversing with customers. As with traditional Greek and Italian culture, family and friends are very important and are often involved in all aspects of life, including business. In fact, most everyone who works for the Cava brand is somehow related or is a friend of a friend. Cava proves that a brand can be just as strong as family—one that will only grow stronger with the addition of Sugo Cicchetti.

It is without hesitation that HZDG took on this project. After Monday night’s chic launch party with samples of the food, we can 100 percent say that we will indeed be back for more!

Sugo Cicchetti is now open in Park Potomac.

12505 Park Potomac Ave | Potomac MD | 240.386.8080 | EATSUGO.com (future website)

To showcase the area’s top professionals, the club holds the Annual Show - a yearly competition to give recognition to the best print and interactive work.

Judged by the industry’s brightest minds, HZDG has been accepted into this year’s show for 12 projects.

The Gold and Silver awards will be announced during the Gala Dinner on June 2nd at the Artisphere in Arlington, VA. We could not be more excited!

Congrats to the following projects!

Environmental: Redskins Timeline Wall

Logo: 77H

Direct Mail:

• 3D Delivering Happiness at Work Grad Kit

• Medical Emergency Professionals (MEP)

Self Promo:

• HZDG Client Gift

• HZDG Culture Book

Mobile/Website/Microsite:

• TheBeetleAccessories.com

• CuisineSolutions.com

• Dormify.com

• HalsteadSquare.com

• Redskinspowerboard.com

• HZDGbar.com

Just last week, the company kicked off their spring 2012 Specialty Leasing Campaign with an integrated LinkedIn campaign, targeting entrepreneurs and kiosk space seekers.

HZDG worked with the company on strategy, development and implementation. By supplementing search engine marketing efforts, the regionally targeted campaign is designed to capture the attention of summer promotions and event marketers, driving them to contact FRIT for short-term real estate needs.

As a leading emergency care provider, Medical Emergency Professionals (MEP) treats more than 400,000 patients annually at six facilities in Maryland and one in Connecticut.

Being the agency of record since 2008, HZDG has developed a distinctive brand that reflects MEP’s passion and unique approach to managing emergency departments.

The Diagnosis

Ready to expand their practice, MEP wanted to make an impression on hard-to-reach hospital executives to ensure MEP’s name will be in the mix when those hospitals plan for the future of their emergency medicine department.

The Treatment

HZDG developed a three-dimensional direct mail campaign that put a new spin on items familiar in hospital settings—delivering first X-rays, then giant pill capsules, and finally IV bags featuring clever messaging touting MEP’s benefits.

Each direct mailer included a QR code that gave hospital executives instant access to a personalized video. The mailer also unlocked the next tab on the multiphase microsite.

None of the items were available off the shelf; instead, the creative and account team went to great lengths to make this happen, including filling 150 IV bags with water dyed in MEP’s brand color.

The Results

The campaign made a big splash in the otherwise very traditional hospital market and effectively got MEP’s name out there. In addition, the video and microsite were designed to be evergreen marketing elements the client can use during presentations and pitches. Oh, and the campaign won a Silver ADDY^® at the 2012 ADDY^® Awards.

Last week, Spotify announced the release of brand apps that will live inside Spotify’s desktop app.  Brands including McDonald’s, Intel and AT&T will roll out apps that will be more enhanced than apps on Spotify to date.  AT&T, for example, will have an app that allows users to view maps and locations of where popular songs were recorded.

Music is definitely something that social network users can share and have conversations around. With the rollout of Facebook’s “Listen” button connecting to apps such as Spotify and Rdio, Spotify will be gaining even more traction on the largest social networking site.

Here are a few things brands can do with Spotify:

• Work with Spotify to create branded soundtracks and playlists for users to listen to and share. Releasing branded playlists throughout the year will help with brand awareness and in increasing the conversation about the brand around relevant and timely topics.
• Create contests or promotions using Spotify by asking users to submit a playlist around a specific topic.
• Feature playlists that support local bands and highlight a local community.

While brands cannot currently create a Spotify account that links directly to their Facebook fan page, Spotify is actively looking for opportunities to enhance the app for brands, including new advertising platforms and partnerships.

As we see an increase in the importance of content marketing and more and more brands partnering with entertainment outlets for content, keep an eye on Spotify– music generates conversation and brands will have more of an opportunity to take part in that conversation.

California Tortilla knows how to keep it fun!

Working with a brand like California Tortilla proves more exciting every year! Last night, the company held their brand launch party at the Longview Gallery in Washington, DC to reveal their fresh new look that HZDG helped create. The night was full of fun with California Tortilla food, cocktails, photo booths, giveaways and more!

The new design consists of elements that make up the brand’s new identity—including packaging, POP materials, menu boards, monthly promotions and more. HZDG’s long-standing relationship with the client added to the excitement of designing for the fresh new look!

HZDG staff was proud to attend the event in support of their client and see all the elements come together. The first location to implement all the branding updates is in Lancaster, PA - with more to follow!

For an exclusive peek at the new restaurant designs and photos from the event, check out our Facebook album, “California Brand Launch Party.”

Rockefeller Center Campaign Earns Facebook Recognition

Announced today, our “Love is in the air” campaign for Rockefeller Center has been accepted into the Facebook Studio! This means it has been reviewed and placed in a gallery amongst the best campaigns to run on Facebook.

Check out our “Love is in the air” campaign and if you like it, “Like” it! (We could win a really cool award!) You can also view the campaign photo album on Facebook, let us know what you think!

The Client

As the largest privately owned residential property management company in the Mid-Atlantic region, Southern Management Corporation (SMC) owns more than 70 apartment home communities, numerous hotels, office and conference centers throughout the Baltimore-DC area.

HZDG is proud to have SMC as a client for almost 10 years. While having previously built a successful website for the company, both parties felt it was time for a fresh update.

The Goal

The main driver for the redesign was to allow for easier apartment searching within the vast portfolio of SMC communities. This was achieved by building a Content Management System (CMS) platform which also allows for future growth and changes to the site over time.

The Website

To provide increased functionality, all community pages yield real-time availability through Salesforce.com and are accompanied by integrated maps. Potential residents can now conduct their search entirely online with the ability to view community videos and photo galleries.

To include a networking component, HZDG incorporated social sharing features into each community page.  Should a user have any additional questions, there’s a built-in Live Chat feature so they can chat with a SMC representative in real time.

The Results

Once the site was live, HZDG held a CMS training session with the client in order to teach them how to edit and update their website.  The SMC website is 100% user-friendly with a brighter, more aesthetically pleasing interface. With cool colors and clearly readable uniform text throughout, the site now reflects the true SMC brand.