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Fresh Produce values impact over invoices |
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By Jamie Ziemer
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
A Brandon marketing firm is standing out among its competitors by picking up on an industry trend.
Fresh Produce recently won the South Dakota Advertising Federation’s ADDY Awards’ newest category of nontraditional advertising. The business also won Best of Show.
Fresh Produce’s winning submission came for its work promoting South Dakota State University’s student cash cards called Hobo Dough.
 Ted Heeren and Mike Hart are the owners of Fresh Produce, a Brandon advertising agency. (Inertia/for the SFBJ)
Ted Heeren, co-owner of Fresh Produce, said that nontraditional advertising, which includes word-of-mouth, guerrilla and buzz marketing, is more interesting and less invasive.
“The ideas are not easy to pitch or communicate,” he said. “I think it’s a more relative way to communicate with people ... something in real life,” he said.
However, nontraditional advertising can take longer than planned.
“You think them up, but you don’t know how long it will take,” Heeren said. “The payoff is more sweet when it works.”
The ADDY awards have helped the marketing community know Fresh Produce is here, said co-owner Mike Hart.
“Makes you feel like you’re going in the right direction,” Heeren said.
Tim Gilbert, former administrator for SDSU card services, heard about the company after the college bookstore hired Fresh Produce for some promotional work. Gilbert also had known Hart for many years.
Gilbert was looking to give the Hobo Dough program a face-lift. Fresh Produce had a grasp of the audience SDSU was trying to reach, he said.
“Overall, what I really enjoyed about them is they ran it less like their business and ran it more like a partnership with their clients,” he said. “They were as interested as I was in having success.”
Heeren and Hart started Fresh Produce in 2004. The two say their business is an idea cooperative. Their goal is to create valued ideas.
Their concept is to pull in a talented pool of freelancers instead of hiring full-time employees. “It’s sort of an anti-agency,” Heeren said.
The cooperative leads to more original thinking, he said.
“We worked in a traditional agency,” Heeren said. “There was this lack of freedom. It seemed like there must be a better way.”
The duo spent the first year performing live radio ads for potential clients. It was a natural start for the business because the pair’s previous radio experience in Brookings provided lots of contacts. From there, Fresh Produce expanded into print ads, Web sites and other areas.
Hart and Heeren said they never will think they’re more than an advertising agency.
Heeren said larger firms have a tendency to treat every project as their Mona Lisa or try to create an ad that will “revolutionize the planet.”
“There’s a shred of humility,” Heeren said. “We won’t ever take ourselves so seriously. I think that’s what keeps us real. Our motivation is to communicate to people, not make the most money.”
Having a smaller business makes the company value its clients differently, Heeren said.
“We haven’t found a client that’s too small,” he said. “When we see opportunity, we go for it.”
Mark Glissendorf, vice president of multimedia services at Lawrence & Schiller, said the ADDY awards are good recognition for businesses, especially ones just starting out. Still, winning an award doesn’t mean a company has staying power.
“It’s a great motivator for doing the work and is an opportunity for a young company to go up against established companies to have their work judged on an even playing field,” Glissendorf said.
Longevity for advertising and communication firms comes from delivering results for their clients.
“Any time somebody wins an award from bringing creativity out of the box, that’s good for all of us,” Glissendorf said. “Those messages have to drive the desired result for the company. The company that can do both of those will be the one in the Yellow Pages 20 years from now.”
Erik Helland, president and co-owner of Landscape Garden Centers, hired Fresh Produce for a commercial campaign that launched in late March.
“Another ad agency had led me to them just because we were looking for something that was a little bit clever and unique,” Helland said.
Helland said he will continue to work with the company on additional projects.
“They’re very unique and very clever,” he said. “I hate the cliche of ‘thinking outside of the box,’ but they don’t put it together in generic content. It doesn’t look like other companies.”
The Fresh Produce file
What it does: Writes and produces radio and television advertising promotions
Owners: Ted Heeren (left) and Mike Hart
Founded: 2004
Location: 1308 Cedar St., Brandon
Employees: Four full-time; seven freelancers
Q&A with Ted Heeren and Mike Hart, co-owners of Fresh Produce:
Q: How did you come up with your Web site and what impression do you want to leave on people after they visit?
Heeren: “This is the ideas business. In an effort to embrace and celebrate our roots we developed the Web site to show the viewer what really happens at Fresh Produce. We are who we are. We don’t go out of our way to fool people into thinking that we belong on Madison Avenue. We’re not afraid to be from South Dakota. Hopefully, the Web site helps people see that we don’t take ourselves all that seriously. Arrogance slows you down in this business. It clutters up your mind. We’ll never be as good as we want to be.”
Hart: “I love the fact that our site embraces our rural routes. We’re not Madison Avenue ... We’re prairie folk. We work hard, and we do it with a big dose of humility. That's truly something to be proud.”
Q: What other industry practice are you doing that is capturing people’s attention?
Heeren: “We don’t take part in many ad-industry practices.”
Hart: “Many of our clients have worked with other agencies in the past and have been confused by their billing practices. We work hard explaining to our clients the financial side of our relationship so there are no surprises. I believe our clients really appreciate this openness.”
Q: Where would you like to see the business in five years?
Heeren: “On Madison Avenue. ... Kidding. ... My romantic and naive vision is that in five years we have a little farm outside of town where we develop the latest and greatest communication art of all time. We make the barn into a think tank. The silo is a studio. And when we’re done for the day, we hit the garden for some weeding. I would also like to have a few chickens out there. My dad raises a breed that actually lays colored eggs. Maybe he’ll donate a few.”
Hart: “I’m sure we'll be in a new location. ... We’re outgrowing our current home. But my hope is that five years from now, we’re developing deeper relationships with our current clients, growing right and still enjoying a small, tight-knit group of people that love to hang out together.”
Q: What is the most rewarding project you’ve done so far?
A: Heeren: “I received a call from a client (friend) this morning (April 2). He told us that he loved one of the ideas we helped him develop. I can’t talk about it, but it was a rewarding feeling. Also, Mike and I wrote and produced a little tune last Thursday night (March 29). It wasn’t for a client or anything, just for kicks. I’ve probably listened to it 20 times since then. It’s a real corker.”
A: Hart: “Starting Fresh Produce with Ted. ... Serving our clients by bringing ideas to the table is something I enjoy every day.”
The Heeren file
Name: Ted Heeren
Position: Co-owner of Fresh Produce
Age: 30
Hometown: Norway Center
Background: Graduated from Beresford High School and earned a broadcast journalism degree at South Dakota State University
Experience: Worked for a radio station in Brookings and as a copy writer in Sioux Falls
Family: Parents, Jim and Franie; four sisters, April, Heidi, Heather and Molly
Hobbies and interests: Gardening, rock ‘n’ roll, playing horseshoe, curling, hand modeling, fine arts, pizza and the Chicago Bears
The Hart File
Name: Mike Hart
Position: Co-owner of Fresh Produce
Age: 33
Hometown: Brandon
Background: Graduated from Brandon Valley High School in 1992, earned a bachelor’s degree in human development in 1997 and a master’s degree in counseling in 1999 from South Dakota State University
Experience: In radio, on-air work, programming, sales; in restaurants, marketing, operations; and in sound production, DJ work, recording, live sound
Family: Wife, Jennifer; the couple is expecting their first child on May 26
Hobbies and interests: Music, playing percussion in several ensembles and teaching drumline at Brandon Valley High School |
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