Mopdog

Upcoming Event with the Mopdog Team!

Lauren — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:22:28 +0000

Bill & Cheryl will be speaking at The Georgian Club’s Technology/Marketing Roundtable next month! The Georgian Club is providing a great opportunity for sharing ideas and networking with colleagues! Get your morning started off right with the Mopdog Pack! To get more information and register for this event check out The Georgian Club Website – http://www.georgianclub.com/

“5 Practical Strategies to Managing Your Marketing Messages with William Musial & Cheryl Musial of Mopdog”
Thursday, February 16
7:15a.m.-9:00a.m.

Mopdog’s Top 5 of 2011 & Holiday Hours

Susanna — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:20:16 +0000

Please note that the Mopdog office will be closed Monday, December 26th and Monday, January 2nd!We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday and new year!

One-fifth of the people

Lauren — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:52:39 +0000

Going through email this morning the Gmail “funny quote of the day” caught my eye. It was a quote from Robert Kennedy stating, “One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.” My immediate thought was 1/5, that is a lot of unhappy people!

In all seriousness, expanding horizons and opening others eyes is one of my favorite aspects of working on the Mopdog team. Every day we get to use our creativity to show others who may be against everything, that our new and innovative ideas may change their perspective. When clients tell us what they need we give them options and expand their needs into something they like and are proud to stand behind.

What to take away from Robert Kennedy’s words, minimize this statistic and work daily to help someone be “for” something at least one time.

Turkey Time

Katelyn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:11:33 +0000

The Mopdog pack got into the Thanksgiving spirit and decided to make some hand turkeys just for you! Since we get the opportunity to flex our creative muscles every day, we wanted to give you a turn.

Download our Turkey Dressing Kit and get started now.

Here’s a little Turkey Teaser of some of the Mopdog pack’s own seasonal creations.

How To:
Creating your unique turkey is simple!
Just trace your left hand where noted on the downloadable sheet. Then, make your turkey special by using the attached accessories… or go big and make your own!

Supplies:
Left Hand (1)
Scissors
Glue, tape or some sort of adhesive
Various one-of-a-kind accessories
Uninterrupted time (15 minutes)
Creativity (unlimited)
A link to our Facebook page (to share your masterpiece)

Turkey Design Inspiration:
“This isn’t just a turkey as you can plainly see.
I made it with my hand, which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love, especially to say,
I hope you have a very, Happy Thanksgiving Day!”

To see all of our turkeys, or to post your own, check out Mopdog’s Facebook.

A legacy to remember

Katelyn — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:47:12 +0000

I found out the news on my iPhone. Just like millions of other people worldwide. If you haven’t heard yet, Steve Jobs died yesterday leaving behind a unique and powerful legacy, one that could only be his.

It’s strange to think how one man, who most of us have never met, has changed all of our lives forever.

Jobs changed the way we listen to and buy music, the way we talk on the phone, or rather, the way we surf the Internet on our phones, he changed the way we watch movies and the way we use computers.

Here at Mopdog we spend hours every day working on products that Jobs himself had the creative genius to design and sell.

One of Job’s greatest strengths can be summed up by Larry Page, co-founder and CEO of Google: “He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it.”

So here’s to you Steve, and thanks for having a hand in making Mopdog and millions of other businesses, what they are today.

Be “Marketing-Smart” with QR codes

Katelyn — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:43:32 +0000

You may have noticed a small square black and white graphic, the QR (Quick Response) code popping up in advertisements, magazines, and other communications more and more lately. This unique graphic functions like a two-dimensional barcode and can be read by dedicated QR code readers and smartphones that have the QR code reader application. When the QR code is scanned, the smartphone QR code scan is directed to display some text, graphic or contact information, or connect to a web or video link.

Scan to view the case study

Mopdog just completed a project for one of our clients, EPI-USE America, Inc. using this latest technology to launch a new application during a client event. Over the course of two days, our team developed a fun promotion and created 31 websites to showcase the unique features of their new application, Skillscanner.

To learn more, click here to read our case study, or scan the QR code!

By using the latest smart technology with a creative twist, you can provide your customers with targeted product and services information that has measurable results! Now that’s being a marketing genius!

Mopdog Featured in The Marietta Daily Journal

Susanna — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:59:40 +0000

Bark for your buck: Mopdog Creative + Strategy finds inspiration in man’s best friend

by Katy Ruth Camp

KENNESAW — Ten years ago, Bill and Cheryl Musial’s two yapping Shih Tzus went from being an annoyance during the husband and wife team’s business calls to creating a marketing strategy that helped them become a global creative group.

“In the mid-90s, when websites were just starting to pop out — which it’s hard to believe there was a time without them — we were going by William Musial Advertising. That’s not sexy or fun,” said Cheryl Musial, co-owner and director of marketing strategy. “We were working out of the basement of our home in Acworth and had two Shih Tzus who were always barking, and they looked like you could put a handle on them and they’d be mops, so they started being called the mop dogs. So for kicks, Bill thought about changing the name and saw that no one had the domain, so we grabbed it and went from there. Our story is all about how re-branding can totally change a company.”

Once the name Mopdog Creative + Strategy stuck for the Kennesaw-based company, the duo came up with ways to play on the new branding and saw business begin to bloom.

“We had to come up with a marketing spin, and my background is in marketing and sales, so I did some research on Shih Tzu’s and found out they were the guard dogs for the Chinese emperors’ palaces, and would bark if they saw something on the horizon,” Cheryl Musial said. “We keep a low profile, keep our overhead low and are able to give a lot of bark to our customers’ budgets. Now we decorate everything with the Mopdog theme and it’s become memorable — people have heard of it. You want people to remember your name, and it has to be memorable so they automatically know you and come to you.”

The company was first formed in 1990, when Bill Musial graduated from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit with degrees focused on art direction and graphic design. In the two years immediately following his graduation, Bill Musial created a creative business with a friend and quickly gained clients and traction, Cheryl Musial said. But when Bill Musial’s business partner left the business, the Musials moved their business to the East Coast then moved to Atlanta in December 1994. They purchased their current space off Cobb Parkway, about eight miles north of the Big Chicken, six years ago.

Some of their largest clients include Healthcare Solutions out of Duluth, the Corridor Group of San Francisco and Kansas City, and the international natural byproducts company CP Kelco. Before the housing market crash, the agency served several large builders, such as Beazer, the former KB Homes and Forest Homes. But when the company began to be considered a real estate-only firm, they decided to stop taking on development clients to avoid the label and diversify, Cheryl Musial said, attributing that decision to helping them survive the crash.

The company has also been named to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Top 25 Small Businesses for six years in a row.

The couple are raising their two boys, age 11 and 13, in Acworth. Cheryl Musial said the company of nine staff members and a handful of freelancers stays in Cobb because the county has been good to them. The company therefore gives back to the community and has a vested interest in the success of Kennesaw and the county, Cheryl Musial said.

“Cobb County is a wonderful place to run a business because people really, truly believe in working together and it is such a diverse group of population to pull from,” Cheryl Musial said. “We’re involved in a number of boards and nonprofits. We may not always have a lot of cash to give, so we try to give our time when we can. I don’t see us moving outside of Cobb County, because it’s been a wonderful place to raise our children and is accessible to the airport for our global clients. About 70 percent of our business is outside of Cobb County, so that’s been an important factor.”

But the key to longevity, Cheryl Musial said, is having a strong team of employees and staying smart about which clients they decide to serve.

“We try to make sure we have the right people on the bus and clients that we like dealing with. But personally, it’s been a challenge over the last two years, as I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 2009 and was hospitalized this past summer with a severe infection, and Bill has challenges with his back, so it’s been hard knowing we have a team we’re responsible for and want to serve them. But having a strong team has been really important and they’ve helped to keep us going,” Cheryl Musial said.

As for the future, the company would like to continue growing and giving back to the community, Cheryl Musial said.

“We would like to continue to be strong, do creative work and give back to the community. … we just want to know that we are making an impact on our community and continuing with that steady cash flow — because as any business owner would tell you, cash is king and the past two years have not been easy on anyone. But we are working on all of those areas and hope to continue to make an impact,” Cheryl Musial said.

Read the article at www.mdjonline.com here.

Mopdog is focused on “Glocal”

Bill — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:06:21 +0000

Cheryl Musial recently co-chaired the first Leadership Cobb International Day. A number of Mopdog Creative + Strategy’s clients deliver services and products across the globe, so helping other business leaders to think globally while working locally (or – glocal) is part of what our team does everyday.

This day-long program, which included guest speakers from YKK, Inc., Heidelberg USA, Inc., Kennesaw State University, Chattahoochee Technical College, Georgia Department of Economic Development and Cobb County Economic Development, focused on how international businesses are being recruited to Cobb County, why businesses choose this area to build their operations and how is the community preparing leaders to work on a global basis.

Cheryl also presented findings from the 2010 Global CEO study completed by IBM discussing how leaders are Capitalizing on Complexity. This study of more than 1,500 CEOs from across 60 countries and representing 33 industries, has had wonderful application for Mopdog’s clients when we have assisted in the development of marketing and branding strategies. We have been focusing our clients’ marketing efforts on the key findings, including, how to embody creative leadership, reinvent customer relationships and build dexterous operations – all part of working (and surviving) in the new economic environment. Contact Cheryl to learn more how to apply these strategies to your efforts!

Two Err is Human.

Susanna — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:15:10 +0000

Sometimes we learn the hard way that June 6th does not actually fall on a Saturday. This normally wouldn’t be an issue if Saturday, June 6th hadn’t just been printed (with a super-cool spot varnish, I might add) on 1,500 invitations that are currently en route to black-tie gala invitees. This is how I learned anyway. The story may be a little exaggerated but in my early career it felt that catastrophic. I DIDN’T CHECK THE CALENDAR…UGH! Galas don’t usually get a huge following on a Tuesday, in case you ever wondered.

It’s every designer’s nightmare. Spell check didn’t catch it. Six people looked at it and STILL. We missed it. I call this overexposureitis. It can happen. I will spare you the details of the recent South Bend, Indiana billboard debacle advertising their public schools, but just know my heart ached for all parties involved. It was a reminder to all of us to check our work.

The truth is it happens to the best of us. In December I got an email promotion from Kohl’s advertising their “Doorbuster Memorial Day Sale.” And just last week I got the latest One Step Ahead catalog (every overprotective new mom’s favorite) only to see that they had misspelled “First Look: Sun Smtarties™ 2011″ right there on the cover. I am pretty sure that the higher ups at Sun Smarties were a little bitter about that one.

But still, I can totally see how it happens. We all get so caught up in meeting and exceeding deadlines that the finer details can sometimes slip through the cracks.

Here are some easy solutions for designers and clients keep from becoming their own cautionary tale:

1. Run spell check. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RUN SPELL CHECK.

2. Get a fresh set of eyes (or ten) on the project. Bother another designer for five minutes to look at your work. Pull Jim out of sales, Pam from reception and Ted from accounting to give it a look-see. Chances are that the two, too, to, your, you’re, who’s and whose that spell check didn’t catch, fresh human eyes will.

3. Read the copy aloud. It may seem tedious but you’d be amazed at what jumps out at you. Taking the time to do this has saved my hiney countless times.

4. Turn it upside down. Literally. Turning a layout upside down can make inconsistent leading, paragraph spacing and even kerning hop right off the page and smack you in the face.

5. Call the telephone numbers. Telephone numbers are some of the biggest pitfalls and spell check offers zero help in this department. So pick up the phone.

6. Email the email addresses. Click on the web addresses. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, I am required to include this. People tend to check a web address but not the email. And if you’re worried about bothering your client, trust that that pesky email or telephone quality-control check is way less of an annoyance than 2,000 misprinted business cards.

7. Make sure June 6th is a Saturday. Take the two seconds and check that the days of the week coincide with the dates you reference in your project.

8. Put a process in place. Proof approval stickers work well. Include a checklist that more than one person has to bless… before the client sees what will be their final proof approval.

9. Involve the client. Design and the creative process is a partnership. We all have the same goal of producing the best possible solutions. Give the client a checklist to work through and sign off on themselves. Proof approval forms are an essential part.

11. Go team! It’s a team effort, this business of ours. Enlist the skills of your team to help ensure quality.

12. Sometimes screwing up royally serves a purpose. When we know better, we do better. I love this quote by John Powell: “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” I can say with certainty that I now know when June 6th is!

A Video Goes Viral

Rick — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:51:09 +0000

You have probably seen this video and heard about it from multiple sources. A homeless man in Columbus, Ohio named Ted Williams is recorded using “his God-given gift of voice”. The video is posted on Youtube on January 3rd, then begins the viral spread.

January 3: Original video is first posted on Youtube. It begins to spread initially through Facebook according to the Youtube video stats.

January 4: Less than a full day in and already over 2 million views on Youtube. Everyone and their mom is on Facebook so naturally news organizations pick up on it. Then the bloggers and the internet echo chamber is in effect.

January 5: Williams appears on a local radio morning show where he is offered a voice over job with the Cleveland Cavaliers as well as a house.

AOL News detailed his job offers:

The Cleveland Cavaliers: A representative of the Cavs called into “The Morning Zoo” on WNCI, a local Ohio station, this morning to offer Williams a full-time voice-over job and a house.

The NFL: No offer has been made yet, but a director of post-production from the NFL told The Columbus Dispatch, “My boss said to me: ‘If you don’t get him hired, you’re fired.’ … I can’t make any guarantees, but I’d love to get him some work.”

The Ohio Credit Union League: Also on WNCI this morning, Williams was offered a $10,000 opportunity to do voice-over work for the Ohio Credit Union League, pending a background check.

MTV: Someone claiming to be from MTV called into “The Morning Zoo” to say that they’d love to work with Williams.

ESPN: According to WNCI, ESPN has expressed interest in Williams, too.

Radio: A Pennsylvania radio station is apparently interested in Williams.

Giving back: The television station WBNS-TV wants to use Williams as a narrator for One Day To End Homelessness, a telethon planned for Jan. 31.

January 6 – As of this posting the video has nearly 12 million views but has been taken down claiming “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Zeiger, Tigges”. There goes lawyers to ruin all the fun.

Quote on Youtube from the guy who took the video:

“Well everyone. You can give yourselves and Ted a high-five. He’s being given offers hand-over-fist over the air. He’ll be set for life.”

Behold the power of the Internet. Homeless on the street corner Tuesday. Flown to New York to appear on TV shows Thursday. Not bad.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy