Tony Durket, left, and Gary Meads of Meadsdurket advertising agency. (photo/alandeckerphoto.com)

Consumers are so inundated by television commercials, radio ads, billboards and newspaper advertisements that it is difficult for any product to stand out among the mass. But executives with some of San Diego’s award-winning advertising agencies have ways to overcome these challenges.

At Greenhaus Advertising, winner of 20 out of 54 awards at the San Diego Ad Club’s 2005 Creative Show, principals Craig Fuller and Beth Callender credit their success to making their clients’ business goals their own.

"It is our responsibility to imagine and create entities our clients cannot," says Fuller.

Creating a new advertising campaign for Village Home’s newest land development site, Granby Ranch in Colorado, won Greenhaus a "Best of Show" award in the professional category at the Creative Show.

"Ads were designed to grab attention," says Fuller. "This ad was envisioned as an affordable place for families to vacation year round."

Since most of the resorts in Colorado have gone upscale, Greenhaus wanted to characterize Granby so the consumer could picture the fundamental nature of going to camp. "As a kid, I remember feeling whimsical, giddy and unencumbered while camping and the campaign portrays that essence," says Fuller.

Over at Meadsdurket, Gary Meads and Tony Durket say their marketing strategies are bound by strategic discipline and conceptual freedom. "The special ingredient in developing an award-winning campaign is coming up with a fresh idea; start with something brilliant," says Durket. "It takes a great team to help take the idea to the next level.

Meads and Durket won a gold, three silver and three bronze awards at the Creative Show. The pair say an important consideration in working with clients is looking at their marketing strategy. They give Pick Up Stix as an example. It had been focusing its television marketing efforts on becoming a dine-in restaurant, but not having much success. "It’s Asian take-out," says Durket. "The current strategy was not effective, so we repositioned them in the market. The take-out box is now the symbol of the commercials."

Greenhaus Advertising’s ad for the Granby Ranch in Colorado was an award-winner at the San Diego Ad Club’s 2005 Creative Show.

The 60-second, animated commercial features Pick Up Stix’s new dish, Yin and Yang Shrimp. The audience sees an open Pick Up Stix take-out box oozing with steam. Two shrimp pop out, then two red peppers, and finally, the yin and yang symbol with the tag line, "Anything but Ordinary."

"It’s fun, it’s creative," says Durket.

Humor can make a product memorable to its target market. Meads and Durket wrote the script for a series of television commercials for Hoehn Motors. The ad positions Bill Hoehn and his wife traveling through Germany by train, trying to communicate in German, but not very successfully. Only the audience knows what Hoehn is really saying thanks to subtitles. The tag line is, "Bill can’t speak German, but he sure can sell German."

"We work with a variety of clients and that’s what makes this business exciting," says Durket. "To create something amazing, you need to make it fun. I believe my staff is the most creative when they come to work ready to play."

Coming up with strategies to effectively market sporting goods firms like Callaway Golf and TopFlite, or graphic communication companies such as Encad, a Kodak company, Matthews Evan Albertazzi rely upon a simple premise: "the single nail theory."

"The idea is to boil the campaign down to its essence in a single message," says John Meyer, senior art director. "One nail can create a lot of impact."

The agency won a silver award for its print campaign series for Speedplay, a maker of high-performance bicycle pedals. Looking to give Speedplay a competitive edge, the agency invoked a clean, dynamic approach by providing a compelling message using only three features of the product. Each received a two- to three-word description forcing the focus to be on the product’s attributes.

"The idea behind this campaign was very innovative," says Meyer. "I wanted to grab the consumers’ attention so they would stop the page."

The first picture highlighted the pedal’s ability to clear corners, known as "cutting corners." The second described the "variable float" of the pedals, providing comfort and mobility. The third showed the pedals’ "dual-sided performance."

Advertising agencies say developing smart ad campaigns starts with a solid team that can develop a tight, polished advertisement which evokes personality, fun and feeling. Meyer says his company makes compelling ideas come to life by listening to a client’s needs, conducting market research and developing creative briefs.

"Advertising is about decoding the emotional impact people have while experiencing events in life," says Fuller – and that’s what creates an award-winning campaign.