Our Work

Substance Over Style

Despite its name and formidable reputation in design-oriented fields, FIT is also a powerhouse of serious education in business and technology. That’s right. FIT graduates are sought after in almost all creative industries. To business leaders, the quality of FIT’s alumni is unquestionable.

Yet, to the potential student seeking a business or technology degree, it all sounds suspiciously like the ideal destination for dressmakers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Every communication we create for this client promotes the expansive nature of the FIT curriculum moving beyond fashion to presenting the university as the premier institution for the creative industries teaching designers and managers both the liberal arts and the practical arts.

Have we gotten it right? Yes. Inquiries grew 90% in year one and robust growth continues today.

Aging Brilliantly

United Healthcare realized an opportunity to engage a niche segment of its audience and position itself as not only a leader, but as a stabilizing force in the shifting healthcare market.

Blur maintained UHC’s general market positioning, but leveraged critical insights for the target to develop “A Better You.” This integrated marketing program and event series embodied: the flavor of highly choreographed “ Black mega-church,” worship coupled with the pervasive better living mantra of self-help gurus. The concept was driven by a communications theme: You’re not getting old, you’re getting ready.

The event series connected with the target audience and generated excitement and word-of-mouth buzz. “A Better You” successfully delivered for United Healthcare by generating positive press coverage in the target markets, providing nearly 1000 qualified leads for the client’s supplemental Medicare plans and creating direct and on-going relationships between UnitedHealthcare and over 35 African American congregations nationwide serving upwards of 40,000 members.

A Challenge With A Twist

The Department of Tourism faced a serious decline in the number of U.S. visitors to the Turks & Caicos Islands. How does one boost tourist numbers without damaging the “undiscovered” image of a pristine destination?

Blur solved this dilemma by avoiding traditional “product attribute” travel advertising in a “me too” category almost completely focused on selling sun, sea and sand.

The campaign focused on what the choice of a destination said about the consumer, prompting vacationers to appoint themselves to a “private society” of “travelers in the know.”

Appoint themselves they did. A communications platform based on one strategic insight saw declining figures reversed, with a visitor increase of more than 37% in the first year of the campaign.

Banking Plus

Is there a need for Black Americans to use a bank that is “customized” for them?

Blur did a blend of qualitative and quantitative research leading to the strategic insight that Black consumers will prefer a “Black” bank if it is competent, competitive and has unique features benefiting the community. Blur translated this insight into a strategic communications hook: premier banking plus. The plus was explained as the bank’s inextricable link with the community it serves and a commitment to connect those customers to the nation’s financial markets.

The strategy proved successful. In year one after the rebrand, Carver posted record profits and growth including a $3.1 million increase in demand deposit accounts (+10.0%) and a $59.5 increase in total assets to $509.8 million (+13.2).

Intentional Delivery

How can the largest for-profit charter school management-company create a brand that articulates the depth of its resources and its ability to humbly partner with local educators? By being intentional.

Everything NHA does is intentional – its resourcing, structure, outreach, partnership development, discipline, efficiency, organization, and methodology. This approach allows NHA to provide both infrastructure and customized solutions for the communities and educational partners it serves. NHA has organized itself to be a powerful multi-dimensional engine while maintaining a sense of humanity by focusing every decision on the well being of its students.

Blur developed the strategic communications hook: Intentional Delivery and subsequently developed a logo which holds the positioning. The logo and branding platform created by Blur was well received by the client and lead to a greater internal understanding of the company’s attributes and a much clearer external perception of the NHA brand.

The National Education Association was at a pivotal time in its history: engagement by multicultural communities was low but not quantified. The NEA asked Blur to provide a baseline of awareness and attitudes toward the institution as America’s rapidly changing demographics were leading to majority minority populations in public schools.

The upfront research entailed focus groups, polling, message development and testing. Blur was fully responsible for conceiving the blended qualitative and quantitative research objectives, methodology, implementation and measurement. The results were used far beyond communications as programming was as deeply impacted as outreach.

For Blur the ultimate output of the research was an integrated marketing effort “This is why we are.” The campaign introduced diverse audiences to the relevance and integrity of NEA’s commitment to public education in America.

The results exceeded the client’s expectations: brand awareness increased 30% and positive opinions of the NEA markets grew by 29%.

Turning An Insight Into Growth

You could hardly ask for better market conditions than those of the African-American cognac market when Blur began work for B&B.

B&B’s consumer base was aging while African American affluence was exploding. Even though they only represented 14 % of the population, African-Americans accounted for a staggering 50 % of cognac consumption.

Why on earth were B&B sales declining in the midst of such favorable conditions? Blur recognized a problem common to much of the marketing targeting this community.

Advertisers have often made the assumption that affluent African-Americans respond to the same communications as the broader African-American population. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By identifying with the “anti-bling” section of that population—the “calmly affluent”—in a tone that respected their standing in society, we found them responding with their wallets.

Within one year, brand recognition grew 18%, trial grew 17% and purchase increased 14%. We’ll drink to that.

Allow us to reintroduce ourselves.

Metropolitan Community Church has led a pioneering effort to both create a safe space for LGBTI people to worship as well as to influence mainline denominations (Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Episcopalians) to shift their attitudes and policies toward this community.

MCC began this work over forty years ago has been very successful but outside of the institution, MCC is not well known and does not get credit for its groundbreaking efforts.

MCC hired Blur to develop a brand identity and an advertising campaign that would redefine the institution. Blur quickly identified MCC’s enduring social justice witness and activity as the core message to define the brand. Blur created a modern and chic look upgrading the institution’s look and feel dramatically and successfully re-introduced the organization on its own terms.