Nov 11, 2019

So Much Better

Changing Healthcare For The Better. It’s not just a tagline for Baylor Scott & White Health. It’s the mission behind everything they do. Now in its second year, the tagline was once again a central driver of the campaign message. Since Baylor Scott & White Health is focused on making people better so they can live a better life, Launch set out to create advertising that feels, looks and sounds better, too.

“Healthcare advertising is mired in a sea of sameness, full of sympathetic images of nurses and doctors with patients in the hospital,” said Ben Day, Director of Creative & Brand Management at Baylor Scott & White Health.

Finding the right team to help bring the idea of better to life in a meaningful way was key. So Launch partnered with award-winning director, Jaci Judelson and director of photography, Colin Watkinson. Both known for creating beautifully engaging and emotional commercials, Judelson and Watkinson were the ideal pair to capture stories that would connect with viewers in a memorable way.

The result is a series of spots that merge the past with the present, showing what a patient’s life looks like today while hearing the back story of how they got better with the help of Baylor Scott & White Health.

“We want to inspire Texans to take charge of their health, be proactive and worry less. This is why we show our patients thriving after treatment,” said Day.

CREDITS:

Client: Baylor Scott & White Health

Director: Jaci Judelson

Director of Photography: Colin Watkinson

Production Company: Tool of North America

Principal/Creative Director: David Wilgus, Launch Agency

Principal/Creative Director: Diane Seimetz, Launch Agency

Creative Director/Art Director: Dean Oram, Launch Agency

Creative Director/Copywriter: April Steinbach, Launch Agency

Producer: Jaime Roderer, Launch Agency

Account Director: Jason Giles, Launch Agency

Account Supervisor: Macy Barbee, Launch Agency

Editor: Jack Waldrip, Charlie Uniform Tango

Sound Design: Jake Kluge, Russell Smith, Charlie Uniform Tango

Music: Nick Patronella, Charlie Uniform Tango

Aug 15, 2019

We have liftoff!

The new launchagency.com is officially live. This is the fifth iteration of our agency website, covering almost 20 years of launching and relaunching.

It took longer than anticipated (don’t all websites?). That’s partly because of our ongoing client workload, and partly because we wanted to take the time necessary to build a site that’s representative of Launch, its people and the work we produce.

The purpose of the new site is to showcase our creative work and the process behind it. We want to attract potential clients who share our value of creative ideas to help move their businesses forward. In addition, we expect the site to continue attracting talented professionals who want to join our team. We also needed to provide a peek into our culture. Agency culture is not synonymous with “beer tap and ping-pong table.” Rather, it’s the way people work and play together. By building social feeds in the site design we’re able to show what being at Launch looks like in real time.

To give a fresh perspective on Launch, we engaged the talented designers at Caliber Creative and the developers at Elodin Design to help bring our story to life. Many thanks to both multi-talented teams.

Look for more exciting new work and new news coming soon. Be sure and bookmark the site, tell two friends and come back soon.

May 23, 2019

Our Star Rises

We are so proud to celebrate our AAF Shining Star, Diane Seimetz Duncan! She is joining a talented group of women who are community leaders, C-suite executives, co-founders, executive VPs, strategic masterminds, media mavens and more. They are breaking glass ceilings and elevating the Dallas advertising community to heights we have never seen before!

THE 2019 AAF DALLAS SHINING STARS:

Alayna Oram, Corporate Director, Marketing at Omni Hotels & Resorts

Allison Burzlaff, Senior Copywriter at TracyLocke*

Amanda Abrams, Creative Director Team One

Amanda Guerra Koch, Director, Connection & Insight Strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi

Amy Vollet, SVP, Executive Media Director at The Integer Group

Audrey Berger, Principal at Quadratic*

Cheryl Huckabay, Managing Principal – Brand Media at The Richards Group*

Diane Seimetz Duncan, Principal at Launch Agency*

Erin Bryant, Sales Director at Pandora

Karie Scuiller, Account Director at Caliber Creative

Kathleen Colditz, EVP, Customer Engagement Strategy at The Marketing Arm

Kim Moss, Chief Media Officer at TM Advertising*

Kimberly Tyner, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Spire Agency

Krista McCrimmon, Creative Director at Johnson & Sekin*

Luann Boggs, VP of Business Development at bloomfield knoble advertising*

Mary Price, Brand Media, Group Head at The Richards Group*

Megan Ward, Director of Project and Resource Management at Firehouse

Paloma Fuentes, Brand Manager at Richards/Lerma*

Pam Watkins, SVP, Business and Media Strategy at MCC

Robin Thomas, Director of Media at Chili’s

Sandi Edgar, Marketing Specialist at Temerlin Advertising Institute,* AAF Dallas Education Chair

Sarah Beddoe, Vice President, Marketing at Pizza Hut

Shelia Lemon, Founder, CEO & President of Citrus Advertising

Suzanne La Forgia, Senior Vice President of Captivate*, Past President of AAF Dallas, 2nd Lt. Governor of AAF Tenth District

Tracy Armstrong, Senior Manager, Brand Communications at Southwest Airlines

*denotes corporate members of AAF Dallas

#AAFdallas #2019Shiningstars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

May 22, 2019

The 4A’s of Achieving Ad Agency Awesomeness

Launch has been a proud member of the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) since 2003 and it “helps us most by having smart, passionate people we can consult…to provide steering and insights to help manage our agency,” says Michael Boone, Principal at Launch Agency. Through our membership with the 4A’s, Launch gained legitimacy when we were first starting out as a smaller agency. Today, after 16 years of growth, Launch uses the 4A’s differently: as a tool to run our business and understand the latest business trends.

May 15, 2019

Launch Awards Scholarship to UNT Students

Congrats to our 2019 Launch Scholarship winners at UNT 👏 We recently presented our annual $1,000 Launch scholarship awards to Madeline O’ Mary for Art Direction and Gaby Pesqueira for Graphic Design. Both students currently attend UNT College of Visual Arts + Design and were recognized for creating an outstanding body of work. Launch established this scholarship in 2007 to inspire creative excellence and make a positive impact on UNT graduates who will, in turn, positively impact our design and advertising community.

Apr 23, 2019

Launch wins silver in 2020 Graphis Poster Annual

We swung for the fences with our Texas Rangers Triple Play event poster campaign—and hit it big with a silver award in the 2020 Graphis Poster Annual. It’s an honor to be featured in one of the world’s premier advertising and design annuals. Check out our winning entry, blending old-world storybook design with modern-day Rangers baseball, here.

Mar 21, 2019

Happy 16th Launchiversary!

Launch celebrated its 16th anniversary last night by treating the entire team to dinner at Al Biernat’s. Time sure flies when you’re launching brands and building a talented team.

It’s been 16 years since Creative Directors, David Wilgus and Diane Seimetz joined forces with Account Lead, Michael Boone. Years later, these three are still having a blast with many of the same clients and crew that have been on this crazy ride with them right from the start.

Mar 7, 2019

Launch scores three 2019 Dallas ADDY Awards

Congrats to our Baylor Scott & White Health and Park Place Dealerships teams for taking home two silvers and a bronze at the 2019 American Advertising Awards Gala at The Bomb Factory.

Our Baylor Scott & White team was awarded a silver for the “Never Settle” TV spot and a bronze for the Changing Healthcare For The Better OOH campaign. Our Park Place Dealership team took home a silver for the annual Texas Rangers Triple Play event.

High fives to our team and our clients for creating such great work this year! 🏆

Jul 10, 2018

How Technology Has Changed the Creative Process (and Why It’s a Good Thing)

Technology has come a long way since the typewriter era of advertising. It’s hard to believe that in 1990, 99% of households had no internet. We’ve seen massive technological advancements over the past 40 years, from the Internet of Things to cell phones to blockchain, which have impacted not only our personal lives, but the way we market products as well. Things like digital video, which only got a dedicated platform with YouTube in 2005, have exploded in just a short time. New research reveals that almost 60% of advertisers’ budgets are allocated to digital video, and nearly half of these advertisers plan on upping this spend over the next year, a shift from the dominance of cable TV ads in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Launch Principal Dave Wilgus understands this shift – indeed, he’s lived it. Growing up, Dave had a passion for art, design, and film, which led to the start of his advertising career with an internship at TracyLocke in the late ‘70s. While the casual jeans-and-T-shirt uniform of his early advertising days is the same, just about everything else has changed. “This is going to make me sound ancient, but when I began my career the technology being used in advertising at the time was primitive compared to what we use today,” Dave says. “Before computers, we drew marker comps by hand to illustrate advertising ideas for client presentations. I still carry a few Xacto blade scars from the early days.”

Does tech help or harm creativity?

Now, of course, things that took ages to create can be done much more quickly thanks to technology. But what’s been the real impact of technology on creativity? And has technology made it easier or harder to be creative? The answer lies somewhere in between. “We believe that great creative starts with a strong consumer insight,” he says. “Our creative approach is always closely tied to consumers’ needs and identified through listening and research. Technology really allows us to collect more targeted audience data than in the past and that helps us get to better insight-driven ideas, making it easier to be more creative.” Of course, problems arise when large companies abuse customer data instead of respecting customer data privacy, generating distrust between brands and consumers. It’s this trust that has become crucial to building a successful brand – more than one in three consumers cite trust as their top reason for shopping with a certain company. “This aggravation has birthed new technologies like ad blockers to keep advertisers away, making it harder to be creative,” Dave notes.

Limitations breed opportunities

While it’s only natural that consumers would take steps to protect their privacy, there are still plenty of non-invasive opportunities for advertising professionals to experiment with delivering messages. “Our creative philosophy has not changed, but our processes have evolved to put new emphasis on creative collaboration involving diverse technology expertise,” he says. It’s collaboration that has always been at the heart of advertising, and that collaboration will help agencies adapt to future technological changes. “The creative process is really about breaking down those siloes,” Dave says. “We might include a traditional writer and art director team along with an interactive designer, social content creator, and digital media expert on a new project. Harnessing the collective energy and technological expertise of the agency leads to better ideas.”

Embracing Tech to Create Great

Bringing these areas of expertise together often leads to innovative uses of new technologies. Dave points to the recent “JFK Unsilenced” ad from Irish agency Rothco on behalf of the Times of London as one example, which uses artificial intelligence and thousands of data points to help Kennedy deliver the speech he’d been scheduled to give on the day of his death. “I grew up here in Dallas and my father-in-law was a reporter waiting at the Trade Mart for Kennedy to deliver the speech,” he says. “Being able to hear JFK’s actual voice give that speech is a powerful experience and is a great example of how to use technology to engage a worldwide audience with a brand whose mission is to deliver innovative storytelling and insightful journalism to the global community it serves.” The creative use of AI in this spot points to the limitless potential of technology to make messages that would have never before been possible. And more traditional digital paths are opening to marketers, like the recently launched IGTV, which presents new avenues in the realm of video. “We have to be hungry for what’s next and always looking for ways brands can leverage technology to attract and engage consumers,” Dave says. “Of course, the ultimate challenge for creatives in the future will be the same challenge we face today – engage and influence people who don’t want to be interrupted by ads!”

May 22, 2018

Launch Scholarships Awarded to UNT Communication Design Majors

This past Saturday, we had the pleasure of awarding Mycaela Erben and Regan Weinrich with the 2018 Launch Scholarships at the UNT Communication Design graduation ceremony. Based on a portfolio review, these scholarship awards of $1,000 each are given to the top portfolios for junior design majors. Both Mycaela and Regan achieved outstanding bodies of work, and we believe deserved recognition!

Launch Scholarship winner Mycaela Erben Launch established the annual scholarship in 2007 to inspire creative excellence and make a positive impact on graduates who will, in turn, positively impact our design and advertising community. “We love the caliber of students coming out of the UNT design school,” says Launch Principal Dave Wilgus. “Attracting talented people has always been one of our core values and supporting UNT’s College of Visual Art and Design keeps us closely connected to some of the best talent in the country. We are proud to continue to support these students in their design pursuits.”