Adventure™ is excited to welcome Samantha Mitzel to the growing creative team in our Saint Cloud office. Sam’s arrival had two immediate impacts on the agency. First, she brings a truly unique skill set that combines desktop talents with exceptional illustration skills. And, second, she instantly drew down the median employee age several years. We love her and hate her for that all at the same time.

Sam will be applying her illustration (along with package design, photo editing, concepting and brand development) skills on a variety of Adventure clients. Prior to joining our team, she honed her creative chops on projects for St. Cloud-based, Creative Memories, and a variety of other regional clients. She is a 2011 graduate of the Minnesota School of Business, where she received an Associate Degree in Interactive Media and Graphic Design. Welcome to Adventure, Sam!

Old Town^® Canoes & Kayaks is one of the true leaders in the paddlesports industry. As their agency of record, we are thrilled to be working on a variety of ongoing branding and marketing initiatives.

They’ve got a story to tell, and it’s our mission to give them a voice. It’s a story of passion, strength and dedication. Of quality, technology and craftsmanship. And while the Old Town facility features state-of-the-art equipment and engineering, the philosophy is decidedly old school when it comes to attention to detail, ensuring their products remain the best the paddlesports industry has to offer.

Adventure’s partnership with Old Town extends to brand strategy, product support, creative development and strategic development across all media. Look for more work to be showcased in the months ahead as we grow our partnership with the Johnson Outdoors Watercraft Group, which includes not only the Old Town Canoes & Kayaks brand, but also Necky® Kayaks and Ocean Kayak™.

About two out of three employees at Adventure™ are major cycling enthusiasts. And the remaining third will only be able to hold out for so long. It’s for this reason why we’re down right giddy to help our client, Park Tool, celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2013.

The ad you see here features Park Tool CEO, Eric Hawkins, striking a heroic pose and revealing the secret to his super strength. Even before this ad hit newsstands, Park got a major reaction when they teased it on their Facebook site. Within hours, close to 1000 fans from across the globe were showing their enthusiasm for the image.

One of our favorites responses came from Íslenski fjallahjólaklúbburinn – Forsíða (no, our hand didn’t slip on the keyboard). That’s the name of a mountain bike club in Iceland. They were hoping to get the ad as a poster for their clubhouse. We’re going to work on that.

In the meantime, raise your nearest water bottle and join us in a toast to the next 50 years of the world’s greatest bike tool company. And look for more fun things coming from Adventure™ and Park Tools in the months ahead.

Adventure Advertising would like to welcome Dave Schutz to our expanding staff as Senior Copywriter.

Schutz will collaborate with the agency’s growing creative staff on projects ranging from print and broadcast to web and social media. He will primarily split his time between The Adventure St. Cloud office and Minneapolis.

Prior to joining Adventure, Schutz served as Marketing Director for Life Time Athletic Events and as a Senior Copywriter for Twin Cities-based agencies, Initio Advertising, Scales Advertising and Papasea. A 1999 graduate of Ithaca College in Upstate New York, Schutz also spent time with agencies, Foote Cone & Belding (FCB) in NYC and Bates Advertising in Sydney, Australia. He has written for leading brands in multiple categories including outdoor-recreation, health care, technology, tourism and packaged goods. His experience spans print, interactive and broadcast work for clients such as 3M, Toro, OptumHealth, Nabisco, Frabill and Summit Brewing.

More importantly, Schutz brings a solid resume of endurance racing to the Adventure team, which he can put to use in training rides between the agency’s Brainerd, St. Cloud and Minneapolis offices.

We’re used to taking home some hefty hardware at the local ADDY® Awards Show. This year was no exception, with Adventure™ nabbing 20 statues, including one particularly special one.

Scott Mitchell, Adventure Advertising co-founder and Principal was awarded the Silver Medal for Achievement in Advertising when the Central Minnesota ADDYs Awards Show took place in February. The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the ad industry.

Scott’s career spans nearly thirty years with agencies in Minneapolis and Brainerd, MN. Since founding Adventure in 2005 with photographer, John Linn, the two have been no stranger to industry accolades. However, this one is particularly satisfying for Scott, not only for what it represents, but because Adventure’s Gina Nacey, who also received the award in 2008, has one less thing to hold over him.

Congrats, Scott!

To send “Happy Holidays” to our colleagues, clients, partners and friends, Adventure™ Advertising and Adventure™ Studios made a departure from the U.S. mail. Instead, we relied on our design talents, social media prowess and classic staff photos to create a digital holiday campaign that made people jolly. The fact that the campaign grew our online fan base significantly was a nice Christmas gift too.

Your Inspiration at Home (YIAH), one of our newest clients, is an Australian direct-sales company that markets culturally-inspired food seasonings, flavored salts and oils, dukkahs and much more.

To update their evolving brand globally and prepare for expansion into the U.S. market, YIAH turned to Adventure™ Advertising for a full rebranding and repositioning that included everything from logo design to packaging, a full product catalog, collateral and Consultant-recruitment materials, a consumer website, social media marketing and much more. Adventure™ Studios handled all the original photography.

The immediate results of their newly-launched, rebranded identity have been measurable beyond expectations. New Consultants in the U.S. are anxious to get in on the ground floor of a unique company; sales are on the rise; and all the activity has attracted key investors eager to join this thriving brand.

Adventure™ recently attended the 2012 National ADDY® Awards in Austin, TX to accept one of the most esteemed honors in advertising. We took home a National ADDY for “Red Bull Skate Athletes,” a photo series of professional skateboarders from Red Bull’s team.

John Linn, chief photographer for Adventure Studios, took the photographs while on assignment for Red Bull’s “Mississippi Grind.” At this event, Red Bull’s pros and several amateur skaters traveled the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans – on a barge that had been converted into a floating skate park.

The ADDY Awards is the largest creative advertising competition in the country, with more than 40,000 original entries competing from 200 United States markets. Of those 40,000, only 239 would go on to collect National ADDYs in 2012. Winning in Texas put Adventure in the company of the best and brightest advertising agencies and professionals in the United States.

They make a real difference in improving peoples’ lives, and we feel privileged and rewarded to contribute to their efforts. Please visit their websites to learn more.

American Cancer Society

Bridges of Hope

Common Goods

Fishing Hall of Fame of Minnesota

GREAT Theatre

Initiative Foundation

MiiR one4one

Mount Ski Gull

OAK (Outdoors Alliance for Kids)

P&G Purifier of Water

Port Group Homes

Sour Grapes

UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation

YMCA

Little Hotties’ turned to Adventure for a new brand identity because their previous
look was dated and strikingly similar to competitive commodity brands. They wanted
to boost shelf pull.

So we created a new logo, color palette and messaging to set Little Hotties apart from the competition and convey the excellent performance for which the brand is known. The result is sleek, sophisticated packaging and POS designs that get attention and quickly communicate the product’s applications and benefits.

Meteorologists predict a cold winter. Fine by us, because that means hot sales
for our client.