Big night in the Big Apple

Travel to New York City always holds the promise to deliver a host of different sights, sounds, smells and unique memories burned to your mental hard drive. My recent visit on behalf of Bader Rutter did not disappoint.

The purpose for my overnight trek was to attend the Business Marketing Association of New York City’s ACE Awards ceremony at the legendary Edison Ballroom near Times Square. After picking up Best of Show in our local BMA program, as well as multiple first-place Bell Awards, we thought we would “take our act to Broadway,” so to speak, and enter our clients’ work in the prestigious ACE program. Our work was going up against some of the country’s largest B2B agencies, as well as such prominent national brands as IBM, American Express, GE and Google.

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Digital-savvy workers are in demand

If you visited JSOnline this weekend or flipped through the Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, you may have noticed the article “Digital-savvy workers are in demand,” which features commentary from our associates, such as John Komp, a new digital producer; Megan Rouleau, our recruitment director; and Greg Nickerson, our CEO. We’re so thrilled to have been given the opportunity to participate and offer our insight about the need for employees with digital experience.

If you’ve read through our career opportunities recently, you’d agree — Bader Rutter is looking for employees who have a digital understanding and can contribute to conversations about new media. And in the Journal Sentinel article, John sums up the reason why: “Digital is just becoming so pervasive across all communication channels.”

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Join us at the Humana Wellness Summit

Did you know BR employees can take a yoga class over the lunch hour? And that we can have a health assessment to help predict or identify any health concerns? This is just the beginning of the BR wellness program — an employee-driven program that offer resources, tools and activities to improve our health and well-being. And on March 29, you can learn how your company can create an effective wellness program, too.

Having a wellness program isn’t just about the perks for the employees. It’s about creating a happy, healthy, productive workforce and taking the steps to deal with ever-rising healthcare costs.

Take the Health Care Service Corporation’s Fitness Program as an example: 5,000 individuals participated in their fitness program in 2010. And you know what? The medical claims of the fitness program participants decreased by $1.02 million from 2009 to 2010! Crazy, right? Here’s another thought-provoking fact: Obesity and chronic illness costs more than $153 billion in productivity each year. Ouch.

Wellness programs are a great way to help curb these costs, and Bader Rutter has been able to create a successful wellness program without breaking the bank. And at the end of the of the month, we’ll be spilling our wellness program secrets.

Join us on March 29 for the BizTimes Humana Wellness Summit. Our VP and group leader Linda Hogan will be a panelist and has all the details about dealing with budget challenges and developing a wellness program that employees get excited about. For more information or to reserve your spot, go to http://www.biztimes.com/section/WellnessSummit. See you there!

A renovation for collaboration

Our philosophy at BR is simple: We thrive because of our people and our ideas. And we’ll be the first to admit that thinking creatively while sitting at a closed-off desk is like trying to breathe fresh air in a stuffy airplane cabin. Having surpassed the 200-employee mark, we decided to enhance our space and recently remodeled our creative wing.

We renovated to juice collaboration, brainstorming and inventive approaches to getting work done. We wanted art directors and copywriters swapping ideas while sharing the latest blends at our new coffee bar or hammering out a great new concept while kicking back in the new lounge. Put simply, we wanted our creative teams to communicate more easily and quickly than their previous workstations allowed.

Now our teams embrace the kind of closeness that allows neighbors to toss around fresh ideas as easily as spare sticky notes. And since digital is ubiquitous here, our creative and

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Stand out from the crowd

There are thousands of public relations majors in the country, and it can be hard to stand out when you’re a “dime a dozen” to future employers. To get their attention, I was told I needed to do a few things: Know how to write, know how to speak and get a top-notch internship.

This past semester, I was lucky enough to land an educational internship at Bader Rutter & Associates. For all of you PR majors scanning internship websites, fixing your resumes and updating your cover letter, I would highly recommend an internship like this one.

Working at an agency that has both B2B and B2C clients offers new experiences and insights into the role of PR. I was assigned to mostly B2B clients — and I must say, I never thought I would know so much about dairy conferences or insurance policies at 21 years old!

Sure, the press releases and pitches looked the same when written for B2B businesses, but I found that the content and angles were vastly different. Therefore, my Bader Rutter internship made me better-rounded in my chosen field.

In my classes, I find that we discuss B2C markets about 90 percent of the time and hardly touch on B2B.  This means that, as writers, we’re learning how to sell products by focusing on emotion and imagery. But I’ve learned that with B2B, the sales cycles are longer, and you need to build relationships and offer rational reasons for buying that are based on business value. I’ve learned to tailor my messaging in a very different way.

Of course, an internship is about what you learn, but it is also about your experience. This is not one of those places where everyone keeps to themselves and always has their eyes on a computer screen. I have never seen so much camaraderie during the holidays in an office than I did here.

My time at Bader Rutter was short, but sweet. The skills that I took away from this will no doubt help me in my future career. To all other students looking to get an internship where you not only learn but you also get to enjoy yourself, Bader Rutter couldn’t be better.

BR takes celebrating the holiday to a new level — the garage!

Last week, I attended my very first (of hopefully many) holiday party at Bader Rutter. During the weeks leading up to this long-awaited event, stories of parties-past swirled throughout the halls and offices. Needless to say, the anticipation was killing me.

If the holiday decorations were any indication of the fun ahead, I was in for the night of my life.

Click this photo to see the decorations photo album on Facebook.

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Please vote!

Please go to facebook.com/partnersforhumanity and vote for the Urban Ecology Center. If the ad we created for them has the most votes by Dec. 6, the Urban Ecology Center will receive a $500 donation.

Partners for Humanity is an annual program that’s centered on giving back to the community. Advertising agencies in Milwaukee — like us! — create pro-bono ad

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Veterans Day 2011

While the day November 11, 2011, is getting a lot of attention and has been nicknamed Spinal Tap Day and Nerd New Year, we at BR have been sure to remember our country’s veterans. Walking down the halls, you’ll notice signs posted on many office doors and cubicles. This was our little way of honoring those who have served. The photos you see below are just a small sampling of the many veterans our associates are showing support for today.

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United for a cure

Associates from Bader Rutter teamed up this past Sunday for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Milwaukee to show their support in the fight against breast cancer. Each person had their own reasons for attending, accompanied by a unique blend of emotions — excitement, nervousness, sadness, love and hope to name a few.

Below, a handful of BR attendees share their stories: 

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Lessons from my father

As Father’s Day approaches, it is the perfect time to reflect on the love, support and knowledge we’ve received from our fathers over the years. Every father is special, but for those of us who grew up in agriculture, dad always seemed to offer a little more unique, colorful life lessons.

We asked our associates what they’ve learned from their father, the farmer, over the years and received some great nuggets of advice. Read some gems below, including visual and written commentary.

• My grandfather was quite an entrepreneur. After living through the depression of the 1930s, he didn’t let that stop him from building a certified soybean seed business. I used to hang around him and his business and one philosophy he espoused was this: “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” He used to tell me that when you’ve lived through something like the Great Depression, you live for the day because you just didn’t know what tomorrow could hold.  – Greg Nickerson, Chief Executive Officer 
  

• My dad taught me many important things. One of my favorite quotes is, “Make sure you enjoy what you do. Then it never feels like work.” Another is, “Work hard but don’t forget to have fun along the way.” – Lori Hallowell, Vice President, Group Leader 

Lori Hallowell

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Our very own pig in a blanket

Never let it be said that Bader Rutter’s creative talents are limited only to print and digital formats. We also do pretty well in pig.

 

In order to both support the pork industry and raise money for the Food Bank for the Heartland, a nonprofit organization that serves more than 300 food pantries and shelters in Nebraska and western Iowa, Bader Rutter’s Lincoln, Neb. office is participating in the Pigs on Parade public art project this summer. The project is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association (NPGA), and afforded Bader Rutter the opportunity to decorate a 2-foot-tall fiberglass pig. What an assignment!

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Calling it a career

It’s my time to say goodbye to the business that I’ve been engaged in for the entire 35 years of my professional life. It’s gone fast. Probably because, as they say, if you find something you like doing, it never feels like work. I can’t say it’s never felt like work but it has been a very interesting and rewarding profession to be a part of for the last three and a half decades.

The changes over the years have been huge. I entered the field in January of 1977. There were still lingering elements of the Mad Men era around at that time. Even in 1982 when I arrived on the door step of Bader Rutter, the smoke and polyester abounded. To employ a creative department back then all you needed was a layout pad, set of felt tip markers a typewriter and some talent. That worked for a long time but it all began to change in the mid-to-late 80’s when Apple introduced the desktop computer to our industry. Back then it was incomprehensible to imagine how central it would become to everything we do. The people in our business who didn’t embrace the changes were eventually left in the dust. Many ending up at home watching The Phil Donahue show or reruns of The Rockford Files.

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A humbling recognition

It’s not too often we take a moment to talk about our agency successes, but a recent ranking has us pretty humbled.

Last week we learned that BtoB magazine ranked Bader Rutter and Associates among the top three medium-sized agencies in the country. We’ve had a good year increasing our revenue, building new client relationships and adding to our staff by 30 associates.

However, our focus is on delivering results for our client partners, and we will never forget that the only way we can achieve recognition like this is by having great clients who give us the opportunity to do great work.

Peer recognition like this doesn’t necessarily build business or pay the bills, but it sure is rewarding. We wanted to take a moment to share the good news and thank our client partners who have helped us get here.

Happy Holidays from the many faces of BR

Think back to September of this year. Can you remember what you were working on? Which project was hot at the moment? While summer was becoming a distant memory for most, the holiday season was top of mind for several BR associates.

That’s when a group of us started working on the agency’s 2010 Holiday Card. Nearly three months later we’ve got a pretty cool way to say Happy Holidays (if we do say so ourselves).

Take a look below. If you like what you see keep reading to find out how we were able to fit the mugs of 170+ associates in this year’s card.

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Come relax in Milwaukee

Feeling stressed? Come visit the Brew City. Bader Rutter is proudly headquartered in Milwaukee and we are thrilled to say we were just ranked the second most relaxed metro area in the nation by a pretty influential publication.

Forbes took a look at the country’s 40 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas, examining six areas that are closely correlated with stress, or result from stress: unemployment rate, commute time, number of hours worked per week, access to healthcare, overall health and frequency of exercise.

Associates at Bader Rutter have been enjoying the mellow Milwaukee lifestyle for decades and now we have another reason to tout our metropolis.

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