MortarBlog

You may recognize the gentleman holding the cup of gourmet coffee as one Winston "The Wolf" Wolf.

He solves problems.

What, you may ask, is The Wolf doing on the Mortarblog? Did Will get careless with a firearm? Are people frantically cleaning the back seat of a 1974 Chevy Nova right now?

No.

The Wolf, as you may know, is played by actor Harvey Keitel, whose birthday is May 13th.

Someone else we know shares Mr. Keitel’s birthday.

Joe Louis? Great fighter. But not who we’re thinking of.
Stevie Wonder?  Right day, wrong guy.
Dennis "The Worm" Rodman? Dear lord, no.

We’re thinking of the newest Mortaron, Sara Eleanor Ransick.

Sara joined Mortar on Sunday, May 13, at 4:50 PM, weighing in at a very respectable 8 lbs., 1 oz.

Sara is a Taurus - we know she will grow strong like bull.

May she rebound like Rodman, sing like Stevie, have a jab like the Brown Bomber, and solve problems as dependably as The Wolf.

Remember, Sara (and the rest of you, for that matter,) the wise words of The Wolf:

"Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character."

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Am I the only person who didn’t realize the  ElfYourself promotion was designed to promote OfficeMax as a gifting destination.

Um. That’s a long freaking road to hoe.

What kind of person gives office supplies for Xmas?

Still, reports abound ElfYourself was a huge hit with traffic peaking at 11 people a second.

And there I was thinking the whole point was to make us feel good about OfficeMax. Apparently, that is no longer a viable marketing goal.

Read more about  Elf’s success on Ad Age here. Oh and see the thing itself here.

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Several blogs covered our new campaign for San Francisco’s St Mary’s Medical Center. Check them out:

St Mary’s Center Ad: A humorous approach to healthcare.
"…Of course, this ad campaign has humorously treated a very sensitive
aspect of human life and it could be dubbed as a path-breaking
advertisement in healthcare advertising.

MortarSF uses light hearted approach to healthcare advertising. Adland was the first to pick up the post. Their readers commented:

Come onnnnn. Not to be nasty, but the famous last words idea has been done a bazillion times. No, wait - quadrillion. - Plywood.

Well I like it. It feels fresh in this category and loads better than the last tagline I heard for an a & e clinic "Treat every illness like an emergency". I reckon consumers would appreciate this light-hearted approach. -  Genau

See also St. Mary’s Medical Center unveils "QuickCare ER",  Adhurl and MarketingBlurb picked up the release.

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TicketsNow, the world’s largest and most secure
marketplace for sports, concert and theater tickets, has launched a new
website with the assistance of San Francisco integrated agency Mortar.

TicketsNow is the latest fast-moving company
to re-brand its offering using the Mortar360 approach to brand
development.

“Getting great seats to fantastic events is the new
social currency. People who care about live entertainment turn to
TicketsNow for access to the events that they must see,” comments Mark
Williams, one of Mortar’s Founding Partners. “Because of the ease of
comparison shopping, loyalty in online ticketing is scarce. TicketsNow,
with its new brand identity, has a real opportunity to convert
indifferent consumers into long-term customers.”

“Through
extensive research, consumers told us that attending great events was
all about the experience,” adds Kenneth Dotson, Chief Marketing Officer
of TicketsNow. “That’s why our new brand identity focuses on the
experience and why our new online destination is designed to add value
to the consumer’s total event experience both before and after the
event.”

Mortar’s work for TicketsNow included a complete rebranding including logo, stationery and a refreshed website. Visit http://www.ticketsnow.com to see the work.

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