Traction Marketing Group

Some thought it was a great idea, others not quite so.  Changing our name from Smith & Associates to Traction Marketing Group was a bit of a step out there, but it's been very good to us and so has the move into Warehouse127!

Seeing the need to refresh, we took it upon ourselves to shake our brand up a flip over a new leaf.  We immediately realized a name-change was an easy and needed/desired way to kick that off.  The trends in the ad agency world over the last 15 or so years has shown us that, unless you're so big that you just can't do so, it's a good idea to have a good name NOT tied to the owner/s.  This led us to the task of our management team working up a list of potential names and narrowing down (over the process of a couple months) to Traction Marketing Group.

So we had our name, then we needed an ADDY Award winning logo.  We promptly designed that and set forth the "look & feel" for our brand.  Our management team continued to meet on our collateral materials and website to make sure they all exuded what we believed we were and wanted to be... Traction.

From that point on we finally decided to move into a new office space.  I had been thinking and dreaming for quite some time about dropping the traditional office gig and getting us into something unique... and "Traction-y".  After finding Warehouse127, a nasty grungy abandoned warehouse, I spent the better part of a year designing and molding it to what you see here.  We were ready to start our first year and actually become Traction!

We moved into the warehouse and assumed our new identity.  Traction was born.  We also aligned my move into a new title as President / Creative Director with this pivotal time to make it the omega trifecta.  This created the buzz that set forth an extremely successful first year for Traction.  Well planned and perfectly executed!  (as far as anyone on the outside could tell - hehe)

Here I'd like to just outline some big things we accomplished in our first year as Traction.  I plan on continually looking back through the year and updating the below list of our accomplishments and note-worth mentions.  We're extremely proud of ourselves and each other and frankly are a little worn out... but ready to ramp up for 2008!  It's going to be big and we're heading straight for it!

Traction's First-Year At A Glance

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»  NEW NAME AND IDENTITY DECIDED UPON AND CREATED

»  EMAIL CAMPAIGN, MYSPACE PAGE AND FLICKR ACCOUNT LAUNCHED FOR OUR CLIENTS, VENDORS AND FRIENDS TO TRACK OUR PROGRESS ON THE MOVE

»  TRACTIONOKC.COM DESIGNED AND LAUNCHED

»  SUCCESSFUL MOVE INTO WAREHOUSE 127 - IN THE SNOW!

»  LOCAL ART IS SELECTED AND HUNG TO ADORN THE WAREHOUSE FOR THE FIRST YEAR

»  NEW ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE JILL FARRAND HIRED

»  OPEN WARE-HOUSE PLANNED AND THROWN FOR CLIENTS, MEDIA, VENDORS AND FRIENDS

»  TRACTION BRINGS HOME 11 ADDYS INCLUDING 5 IN INTERACTIVE CATEGORIES AND 2 FOR OURSELVES (TRACTION LOGO & TRACTION WEBSITE)

»  TRACTION AWARDED DISTRICT ADDY FOR TLC DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGN

»  TRACTION SPONSORS AND HELPS PUT ON THE INTERNATIONAL VISION EXHIBITION

»  A BIG STORY IN THE OKLAHOMAN RUNS ABOUT WAREHOUSE127

»  AMERICAN QUALITY EXTERIORS LANDED AS NEW CLIENT

»  MAGNETICMAIL LAUNCHES AS TRACTION'S FIRST ONLINE WEB2.0 PRODUCT OFFERING