S&ME Inc. News

S&ME wins National Marketing Excellence Award

Raleigh – S&ME is a recipient of a ZweigWhite 2010 National Marketing Excellence Award. The marketing campaign called “We’re Talkin’ Trash” won third place for S&ME in the category Special Event Marketing.

Dianne Yusko, Corporate Communications graphic designer, designed and executed the concept of the campaign for the Raleigh branch’s use at a Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) conference held in the spring of 2009.

“Our general purpose for the We’re Talkin’ Trash campaign was to create awareness that we are a major player in the solid waste industry,” Yusko said. “Obviously, solid waste simply is not pretty or glamorous. We decided to take a fun approach and catch our client’s – and potential client’s – eyes with a campaign that was a little trendy and edgy.

“With our campaign materials, we wanted to first grab the attention of conference attendees and then present to them our expertise, knowledge and experience in the solid waste industry. Our goal was to create a “buzz” and to make S&ME memorable after the conference. It worked. We’re still talkin’ trash to clients today!” stated Yusko.

She said S&ME staff attending the SWANNA conference knew the campaign was working when the keynote speaker started his address with “We’re Talkin’ Trash!” And he had his sticker from us on his shirt.

Yusko added, “Just as obvious, it was clear the attendees knew he was talking about S&ME’s exhibit booth with our candy filled industrial trashcans, and other materials adorned with S&ME’s logo and giant purple “We’re Talkin’ Trash.” Those staffing S&ME’s booth wore T-shirts matching the theme.

The Zweig Marketing Excellent Awards were limited to firms based in the U.S. and Canada that derived the majority of their revenue from the practice of architecture, engineering, planning, environmental consulting or allied disciplines.

Entrants were required to develop the concept for the marketing campaign in-house. Graphic design, printing and mailing could be outsourced to a hired consultant. S&ME did all the graphic design in-house. ZweigWhite is an A/E industry national publication.