End of Week Motivation

At Paramount, we understand how easy it is to get overwhelmed. With all the hustle and bustle of daily life, sometimes things pile up over your head before you realize it. However, when you're doing something you love, as we are, it is important to step back and remember the big picture. Every so often, we'll stumble upon something that makes us remember why we do what we do. We wanted to share an example of this with you, in the picture below (credit From Up North):
Woody Allen got a lot of things right - this quote was one of them. Sometimes life is overwhelming, but don't forget the reasons you do the things you do. To us, we embrace our ability to build inflatables, design car wraps, and print banners for our customers. We know that our creations help our customers to succeed at what they love to do. This is the reason we come to work every day! It is also the reason we try to always be innovative... even if it creates failure from time to time.

Special thanks to all of our customers for allowing us to do what we love - help you succeed. An additional thanks to all who called last week for our #socialmedia special deal! Forgot to call? Don't worry, we'll have another special offer soon.

Missing Our Project Updates?

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to share with you quite as many projects as we typically do lately. However, there really is a silver lining. The lack of projects posted here on our blog is a good sign: it means we're really, really busy. We've got all kinds of exciting projects going on right now, and we promise as soon as we have a little moment of downtime, we'll share them with you! Meanwhile, help to keep us even busier; call us and mention social media, and we'll give you 20% off your product order!

We already shared a few of our Insight and Fiesta Bowl pictures, but just in case you were looking for more information, the picture on the left is a cut out of an article that appeared in the Phoenix Business Journal on January 7th. Unfortunately, we can't share a bigger version here, but be sure to check out the online article if you are a Phoenix Business Journal subscriber. If you're not, what are you waiting for? Sign up today to read awesome articles like this one.

Need Something Printed?

As a thank you for reading, we'd like to extend a special offer to all of our blog readers, Twitter followers, and Facebook fans. From today (January 19) until next Tuesday (January 25), receive 20% off all products! We've offered a few specials before, but this one is huge, so don't miss out.

At Paramount, our products include vinyl banners, backlit signs, inflatables, digital prints... and the list goes on! Chances are, if you have a large format printing need, we can create it for you. And for the next six days, we can do it at 20% off! All you have to do is call (602) 306-1300 or email info@paramountpromotions.com and mention social media - we'll take care of the rest!

Not quite sure what you're looking for? No worries. Leave us your email address or phone number, and we'll contact you to best determine your needs.

Are you ready?? Start ordering!

Top 10 Hot Brands of 2010

It seems as though AdAge has recently been all about recapping 2010. At Paramount, we love them for it! We already wrote one article about the big (design) happenings of 2010 - but AdAge has provided us the inspiration to write another! AdAge recently published the "Hottest Brands of 2010", and they found some good ones. However, to narrow it down even further, we decided to provide you a Paramount exclusive Top 10 Hot Brand List of 2010! At the beginning of 2010, most of these picks would have never been listed on a Top 10 Hot Brand List. However, thanks to some creative advertising choices, they made the list. Know of one that should've made the list? Share with us in our comments!

10. 5 Gum
9. PopChips
8. Redbox
7. Droid
6. Ford
5. Conan O'Brien
4. Groupon

...and the final three:









3. iPad

2. Dos Equis










1. Old Spice

Who would have guessed Old Spice and Dos Equis as the top two a year ago? Definitely not us. However, the power of advertising astounds us again!

To Wrap or Not To Wrap?

At Paramount, we like to stay up to date on the services we offer to our clients. Thus, we're constantly searching to find out the "buzz" on vehicle wraps, digital printing, large format printing, and all of our other many options. Today, we stumbled upon an interesting debate. "Do vehicle wraps work for B2B?" To us, this was a very interesting question.
It does make sense that many people equate vehicle wraps with B2C, or Business to Consumer. A Google image search for vehicle wraps shows that many of the first results are consumer product or service brands:
With options for real estate, sound systems, and home water systems, it is not surprising that people assume vehicle wraps are only practical options for B2C advertising. However, consider a few facts:
1. Assuming you find a company you can trust, vehicle wraps will never damage the paint of your car. In fact, vehicle wraps help to protect your car from sun, and other sources of external danger.
2. Placing an attention-grabbing vehicle wrap on a car will draw planned audiences that are appropriate to your business. Because you are able to choose exactly where the car goes, you know what neighborhood of consumers will see it.
3. As for the B2B vs. B2C argument, it comes to a rather simple question. Do business owners and executives drive? Yes, of course they do. It is rather silly to think that only consumer product brands can use vehicle wraps, because in high-traffic areas, you never know who will drive by your newly wrapped vehicle.
Of course, it is probably no surprise that we argued for the use of B2B vehicle wraps. The part that is surprising to us was the fact that people were doubting the effectiveness in the first place!

Insight Bowl Galore!

First of all, special thanks to all who participated in our Insight Bowl Contest. We were very excited to give away four tickets to one lucky winner! In addition, we'd love to share with you some pictures of all the work we did for the game. The Insight Bowl is one of our biggest projects, so we are proud to showcase the work that we complete. Pictured below are a few of our favorites - but keep your eyes out for more to come on Facebook!

In Case You Missed It

2010 was one for the books - the design books, that is. From logos, to advertising ploys, to TV networks, there was a lot to keep up with last year! Just in case you missed anything big, we'll provide you a nice, neat compilation of the year's biggest stories in design right here. Know a story that you think was bigger? Share it in our comments!

1. Goodbye, Cable!
This one was a long time coming. With options like Hulu, Netflix and other full episode players available online for instant television show and movie streaming, we all wondered when we'd see the end of cable's reign. In 2010, for the first time ever, cable saw a decrease in the number of subscribers. With online video watching numbers soaring, it is difficult to measure exactly where each of those subscribers went, but it is quite clear that the answer was not to a TV.

2. Refresh Your Advertising
Super Bowl Sunday - an exciting, anxiously-awaited day for football fans and marketing gurus alike. As one of the most-watched annual television events, advertising spots during commercial rates come at a premium, and thus are only paid for by those companies that can afford it. Advertisers bring out their best and brightest for collaboration on these spots, but this year, there was one exception. PepsiCo decided to refrain from advertising at the Super Bowl in 2010. In a project called Pepsi Refresh, Pepsi chose to launch a campaign meant to support community-building projects. Refresh helped Pepsi to gain more shelf space at local stores, but so far evidence towards a sales increase is lacking.

3. Logo Letdown
Do you have any emotional attachment to your favorite brand's logo? If your answer is no, you may want to double check your thoughts. Apparently, some people do get quite attached to logos... even logos not of their favorite brands. At least, that seems to be what the verdict is after Gap changed their logo. Gap fans and haters alike were in outrage - their logo, in fact, was so harshly accepted that it disappeared within a few days. Next time you consider changing your logo, consider the consequences!

4. Are You With Coco?
If you are, you are one of 4.2 million - which is how many people tuned in to Conan O'Brien's first TBS late-night talk show. At least he ended his deal with NBC on a positive note... kind of? Actually, Conan was quite resentful towards NBC, and responded by hosting wildly expensive episodes until the end of his reign. Meanwhile, he created quite the brand for himself between the two stations. We're interested to keep track of how the TBS show will keep the audience interested.

Well, those were our picks for 2010. What were yours?