How to Be Reeeeeaaaalllly Selective.

Advertising > Photography

Shooting Downtown Mooresville was tricky. First of all, while there are a lot of beautiful historic buildings, not all of them are. As I explain in other posts, Downtown has enough interesting architecture to be hecka charming, but not enough to be wall-to-wall amazing. Time and development chipped away at the charm. So the first thing I did was to shoot Downtown’s architecture and capture the character in a little “best-of” collage. I actually created this for the first rendition of the website, but it worked out so well, I ended up using it all over the place and mostly as a footnote to things like the email newsletter. 

The really tricky part was making Downtown look populated because it wasn’t yet (as I explain in my breakdown of the brochure work). I’ve alway been in love with the reportage style of run and gun. I blame this all on Doug Menuez, who I worked with on Mizuno in San Francisco. He’s so good. My NC source (every time) for the candid eye is local photographer, Jeremy Deal. During the brochure shoot, he made the most of some impromptu staged situations so it’d look totally natch. I just want to share some of his work here so you can see how we framed Downtown as a place that was busy, proud, historic, successful, and fun.

DAVE SOPP – Creative

Yep, that’s me. I’ve got over 20 years of marketing strategy, graphic design, advertising art direction, and illustration experience. Want to use some of it? Email me at dave@davesopp.com

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How to Fake It 'Till You Make It.

Strategy > Branding

Downtown Mooresville is a special place. Its charm (and untapped potential) lured us away from San Francisco when we were looking for better schools and a less hectic lifestyle. We took a look at Downtown, found an old home a block and a half away, moved, set up shop in the old telegraph office along Broad Street across from the old train depot, and quietly kept doing what we were doing back in The City. Only this time, with a freight train passing by and blowing its whistle every day at 1pm. It was so loud you couldn’t plan any phone calls around that time slot. It was awesome (not sarcasm). The old Downtown was only a few blocks long on Main Street, and wore charming but warehousy treasures over its shoulder along Broad Street, too. 

FINAL: The first thing we did was define Downtown Mooresville as, well, Downtown Mooresville. The final logo could easily represent Downtown’s railroad past, but also make sense with shops you’d find there (fashion, restaurants, bars, hairstylists, hardware, etc.), and event that would be held there. It had to play nice with everything you threw at it.

It’s hard to not meet people Downtown. Heck, most of them were neighbors as it turned out. One of those neighbors turned out to be Kim Atkins. She’d had successful career in the printing business and became a shop owner on Main Street. It didn’t work out. Rather than do what anyone would have done (curse Downtown and never return), she did the opposite and was elected the Executive Director of the Downtown Commission. Our boys went to the same elementary school and had become inseparable pals.

Downtown Mooresville was founded in 1873 along a rail line (yep, trains still use it!). In the 1960’s, Duke Power created the man-made Lake Norman while at the same time, the I77 was created to offer a faster way to motor to Charlotte down south, and Statesville up north. The lake was to the west of Downtown and offered about a jillion miles of lakefront property opportunity. The I77 freeway divided the town in more ways than one. Downtown was considered the poor side of Mooresville. Lake Norman (LKN) was where the money was. Hot-Cha!

BEFORE: Oh, there was clearly nothing happening Downtown when we started this project. Open shops had huge gaps of vacant, papered-over storefronts between them. That’s real bad for encouraging foot traffic and look at the mess. By code, closed businesses had to have their windows papered. So we had the idea to paper them with interesting facts about Downtown. It would pull people through to all the open shops, entertain and educate visitors, clean up the overall look of Downtown Mooresville, and cover up it’s vacancy problem. And, being black and white, it’d be affordable. So many problems solved with one easy solution!

BEFORE: The many brochures (and identities) of Downtown Mooresville, all in circulation at the same time when we started working with them.

Cut to modern times and it’s still the same. One side of Lake Norman has all the Red Robins, Super Targets, and Olive Gardens they can handle. While our side (I live in this part, remember) is a little weathered, but has all the heart and soul of what this town used to be. It didn’t help that Downtown was all but empty, lacking both shops and people. The most going concern though, was really going. Soirée was situated in a beautifully restored building in the center of Downtown and was a destination on any night of the week. The problem was, the few shops and business Downtown were never open when Soirée was pulling in the public. Worse yet, the town was so divided that (and I’m not exaggerating here), 85% of the fancy people on the Lake side didn’t even know Downtown existed!

FINAL: The first step – getting our house in order. With some selective photography we presented the Downtown we wanted people to see. All beautiful old buildings and historic charm. We dressed up Main Street with some handsome, attention-getting, hard-working street banners, nailed down our identity and made ONE exciting brochure.

Sorry. Lots of backstory, but it’s super important (especially if you’re a small town in a similar situation). Downtown was quiet, but not dead. They launched a VERY aggressive event schedule to get folks over the I77 to our side, but they didn’t really have a brand to hang it all upon. Some merchants were calling Downtown “the Dirty Mo” on their social media. Some called it “DoMo” (Downtown Mooresville). Messaging was all over the place and none of it was cohesive or sticking. So Kim asked us for ideas on what to do.

The first thing I recommended was nixing the idea of a clever name altogether. People didn’t even know there WAS an old Downtown in Mooresville. Calling it fancy things would just confuse the issue. It was Downtown Mooresville, so just let it be Downtown Mooresville. You can always make a fun nickname later. They brought us on for branding Downtown and the  next thing I did was lie through my teefs.

FINAL: Next it was time to promote Downtown as a destination. Clockwise from the left: 1. By working closely with the pubs we advertised in, we were able to create uniquely branded templates. 2. Our award-winning program to celebrate fans of Downtown Mooresville. 3. Our first piece of Downtown merch. 4. We created a photobank of amazing images that we could use to show folks what we saw in Downtown Mooresville.

Downtown was tired and mostly empty, but not dead. And with a roster of new events, we had to make it seem like there was a secret party going on over here that the Lake people weren’t privy to. In a nod to our railroad history, I designed a vintage/modern logo lockup with the tag line, It’s Happening Downtown. And that was the big lie. Sort of. It was GOING to happen, it just hadn’t actually happened yet. Operation “Fake It ‘Till You Make It” was in full effect. We started running monthly event ads in the local papers. We installed street banners, made bar coasters, put up signage at our local ballpark. We started doing spreads with an event calendar in the local magazines. We rebuilt the website. We got on social media. All the stuff you need to do before we got really creative.

FINAL: From 2009 to 2017 we’d spread the word about Downtown Mooresville. Clockwise from top left: 1. The website we designed for Downtown. 2, One of many posters we did to promote their crazy amount of fun events. 3. A magazine ad designed to introduce newcomers to Downtown. 4. One of many little quarter page newspaper ads promoting monthly events Downtown.

For example, we made calling cards for Downtown merchants and employees to hand out to other shop and restaurant owners whenever they happened to find themselves in a business they wished was Downtown. A bakery, a great Indian restaurant, that kind of thing. It said, “If you’re reading this, your business should be Downtown.” One the back was an invitation to call Kim Atkins to discuss retail opportunities. OMG, even if you weren’t looking to relocate, it sure made it look like shit was going down in Downtown Mooresville. Super buzz worthy, and it worked. Despite our launching during a recession (always fun), within a year, Charlotte was airing a live prime time news segment about Downtown’s revitalization. Finally, it really was happening Downtown. Lie turned truth.

We’d go on to make fun event posters, TV spots, and even more special little programs. Our custom-made Downtownie™ loyalty program would win an Innovation award from the State of North Carolina. Best of all, Main Street filled up. At its zenith, it reached 95% occupancy. Morning, noon, or night, people were coming to see what was Happening Downtown.

DAVE SOPP – Creative

Yep, that’s me. I’ve got over 20 years of marketing strategy, graphic design, advertising art direction, and illustration experience. Want to use some of it? Email me at dave@davesopp.com

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How to Shoot Regular People.

Advertising > Photography

Regular people are hard to photograph. They’re nervous, self-conscious, and most have never been in a photographer’s studio before. Which is why we didn’t take Continuum’s employees to one. We made a pop-up studio in Continuum’s break room. The idea was to have everyone roll in one at a time, make them comfortable, take some shots and let them go before the next employee came in. It didn’t go like that. And thank goodness.

All these people actually LIKED each other, so in the end, it was like a party with folks hanging out for a bit after their turn to tease the next one up or try and make them laugh. It was a hoot. It also didn’t hurt to have local photographer, Jeremy Deal, behind the camera. I met Jeremy the way you meet most people in our small town. I needed a photographer for a Downtown Mooresville project and he was recommended by a frame shop owner on Main Street. I’ve shot with a lot of excellent photographers during my career in San Francisco, and I saw right away that Jeremy had chops I thought I’d never find here. Also he looks like Liev Schreiber, which is cool.

We shot everyone expressing a range of emotions, too. It was fun, and in the end we had a big bank of photos to use whether our communications were being sassy, competitive, mean to our competition, or friendly (of course). You’d think everyone would be super demanding about what photos we used, but surprisingly they trusted us to only use their best sides. Which we did. :-)

DAVE SOPP – Creative

Yep, that’s me. I’ve got over 20 years of marketing strategy, graphic design, advertising art direction, and illustration experience. Want to use some of it? Email me at dave@davesopp.com

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How and Why You Should Avoid Cliches.

Advertising > Print

So the new logo we made for Continuum projected communication company reliability, know-how and strength. But everything else had to communicate “We’re your local choice.” Early on we thought about having the advertising feature well known locales around each town with our Continuum service bands flowing through and around them. I still think that would have been kinda cool, but in the end it was really problematic for one hilarious reason. Continuum’s footprint covered three towns that don’t necessarily like each other! Davidson thinks Mooresville is full of low-class hicks and Mooresville thinks Davidson is full of snooty buttholes. Nobody thinks about Cornelius. Crying laughing emoji.

FINAL: Folks, meed Amber, Steven, and Jorge. All real people making Continuum great on a daily basis. It was so fun to draw out everyone’s personalities you can see more from the shoot here.

HOW SHITTY IS THIS? Right? Yet communications companies persist in feeding us this crap. Oh, and yes, I stole this image so I could purposefully leave all the Shutterstock watermarks all over it. This is Continuum’s competition so the bar was set pretty low to beat it. Trick is, how? What do you replace it with? Well, if you have a good story to tell, use that.

It all ended up working out for the best. We got to focus on what being local really meant, which was more than location. It was about familiarity. It was about being a company staffed with your neighbors. It was about proximity. If you had a problem, just call Amber. She’ll tell Jorge, and your problem will get fixed that day by someone who’s glad for your business. Heck, Leslie will even follow-up later with a phone call just to make sure you’re good.

And in the end that’s one of the reasons why we featured Continuum’s employees so prominently. But it wasn’t the only reason (and this is my favorite part about doing what I do). I don’t like solving one problem – I like solving all the problems with one solution. These employees were (and still are) lovely people. They’d been through a LOT of public scorn since the company was purchased and they deserved to be heroes for a change. Also, how do you differentiate yourself from the big, faceless, out-of-town providers? Put a face to your business. I love, love, love hearing stories about how Continuum’s employees get recognized in at the grocery store, or that someone’s girlfriend doesn’t want him in so many ads because all her friends’ hearts get sent aflutter. That tells me the ads are working AND that these folks are being rewarded for being awesome at work in a way they never were before. Win, win, win, win.

FINAL: Here are some print examples of how we used our fun employee photos. We also bought pre-movie slide show space at the local indie theater in Davidson. So imagine sitting there in your comfy chair and seeing your neighbor larger than life on the big screen? We made these folks celebrities and that turned them into brand ambassadors. I love how this one solution solved so many problems, including ones we hadn’t even thought of it solving.

And this brings me to measuring the success of a campaign. Go to any agency website and tell me if their ads did anything more that bring down CPCs or increase CTR. Good advertising should do more than you can ever measure.

DAVE SOPP – Creative

Yep, that’s me. I’ve got over 20 years of marketing strategy, graphic design, advertising art direction, and illustration experience. Want to use some of it? Email me at dave@davesopp.com

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