Gift Box: A Thank You

We just finished up an amazing event and I love to close out the event with a thank you.  This time around, I had custom cookies made by my go-to baker here in Danville, Junebug Bakery.  I wanted the cookies to match our brand style and colors.  

To build the package, we started with a small white shipping box and used one of our custom ROAR stamps to showcase our branding on the outside of the box (the majority of these were being shipped).  Brown kraft tissue paper and natural crinkle paper filler were part of the packaging as well.

Each person received 3 amazingly delicious shortbread cookies; a logo, a thank you and a star.  They were all packaged up with matching ribbon.  Included were our business cards and taped a personalized note on the inside of the box with wasbi tape that of course matched our colors.

I'm so excited for everyone to receive unexpected treat.

These are so easy to do and can be themed for a specific event and branded.  Imagine sending something like this as a room drop to your guests after an evening event.  Change up the packaging just a little and add some milk on ice and it would be an old fashioned treat.

Do you have an idea for one?  Let us know, we'd be happy to help.

DIY Branded Notebooks

Happy Saturday!  I decided to get a little crafty this morning and play with my camera this morning.

I love moleskine journals.  They are different than the notebooks.  The journals don't have as many pages, have a softer cover and you can easily flip through the pages.  

When I rebranded ROAR events, I had some stamps made with our logo.  I thought this would be an easy way to make stationary more my own.  Well - I made these moleskin journals more my own.  With the help of some Wasbi tape, some black ink, stamps and one business card - I now have 4 custom branded ROAR notebooks.  

Everyone needs to look at a little creative inspiration through out the day - don't you think?  And these will do just that.

Encouragement: Nothing Is Gonna Stop Us

Did you notice anything this week on the blog and the ROAR events website?  How about a completely new look and feel.  A major departure from what it looked like.

I've been wanting to redo the ROAR website for about a year and a half.  Last year we were all set to do it, but the vendor that we lined up wasn't the most honest person.  Took our money and ran to be exact.  It really messed with my head.  I'm a really loyal and trustworthy person and I just couldn't wrap my brain around why someone would do that.

I could hang out and continue to have a pity party with myself, but I wanted a new website.  I picked myself up, dusted myself off and you know what?  Something wonderful came from it.  It made me stronger and I was able to find the right person to convey the brand and the look and feel we were going for.

The old website didn't have any pictures of our work.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great website, lots of content, but it didn't feel like me or this company that I've created.  I'm a creative person and I don't think that showed through.  

Now, we have pictures galore.  We have a section where we showcase hotels and hotel specials (that would be the Hotel Wanderlust section).  

The person behind our new look and feel is Amanda Genther of Amanda Genther Designs.  She's in Chicago so we did everything over email and Skype.  She pushed me and I wanted her to push me.  She kept me on track and focused - thank goodness.  I probably drove her nuts with all my crazy ideas - but she kept me on task.  The website was a labor of love, a 4 month labor of love and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

The Hey Caryl blog started out as my personal creative outlet.  It's been hard trying to maintain two different identities so I made the decision to have the Hey Caryl site become the blog for ROAR.  At this point, I'm not sure how it's going to change, but I do feel like a weight has been lifted having a single identity.

The quote above sets the tone for ROAR events - Who is Going to Stop Us?  Because right now, it feels like we're going to be unstoppable.

Now it's your turn to be unstoppable!

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Events: Branding Fruit

Branding Fruit - kind of a strange title for a blog post don't you think? 

But how many times have you ordered whole fruit at an event for a break?  Tons - right?

When you're at the grocery store and your cruising down the produce aisle, you stop and pick up a banana.  What do you see on the banana?  A sticker to identify the brand of banana.  When you swing by the apple section - same thing.

This could be a huge branding opportunity for a company, and it's so easy and inexpensive (besides the cost of the fruit of course).  Just print out stickers with company logo or marketing message and slap it on the fruit and voila - instant branding.

Absolut Vodka did it with apples when they were launching their Absolut Orient Apple Vodka.

Simple, out of the box and unexpected which makes it even better!

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