LeDuc Creative Adds Kara Grupe to Enhance Social Media Strategies and Communication.

News

For Immediate Release

Contact: John LeDuc, President, LeDuc Creative Co.

PH: (734) 769-9453

Ann Arbor, MI. May 2016. LeDuc Creative Company, a full-service marketing and advertising agency recently announced the addition of Kara Grupe as their new PR and Social Media Manager.

As an early adopter of social media, Grupe brings the passion and analytical understanding of the platforms, tools and channels required to strategically promote LeDuc Creative’s clients with a
prominent online presence. Her research and analytical abilities have helped increase the ranking positions of many clients and help them continue to establish themselves in their chosen industries.

Grupe’s previous experience as a horseback riding instructor and Equestrian Director have also given her a unique teaching perspective and problem solving abilities, enabling her to bring an individual and creative approach to any situation as seen in her success managing the various accounts at LeDuc Creative.


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About LeDuc Creative
Based in Ann Arbor for more than 35 years, LeDuc Creative has been providing our clients with high
quality and effective marketing and advertising throughout many diverse industries, from medical and manufacturing to academic institutions.

Our full range of services include traditional, digital and social strategies combined with attentive,
analytical thinking, and are implemented based on the individual needs of our clients to deliver better
results and a higher ROI.

For more information on the full creative and tactical capabilities of LeDuc Creative, call (734) 769-9453 or visit us on the web at: leduccreative.com.

So… What’s The Plan? It's Time to Craft Your Marketing Strategy for 2017.

So… What’s The Plan?

There are those who say life is what happens while you’re busy planning. The idea being that we need to play more and plan less.

That’s a nice thought, but not terribly effective when it comes to running a business.

At LeDuc Creative Company, we understand the importance of solid planning in order to achieve success. In fact, we come together as a group every Thursday at noon to have a little lunch, talk strategy and make a plan for the coming week or quarter.

And then - and this is the important part - we execute that plan. Because even the best laid plan is nothing without action.

As we head toward the autumn of 2016, we’re taking a good hard look at analytics, strategy and planning for 2017. For our agency, sure. But even more so for our clients. After all, they rely on us for their bread and butter (assuming they’re not gluten free or lactose intolerant) so it’s vital we analyze and plan for every aspect of advertising we do for them.

Our team is currently working with each client to create a strategy based on their individual needs. We believe that now is the time to analyze and put into action their plan not only for the remainder of this year, but well into 2017.

We’ve been recently inspired by one of our own clients, Mark Van Sumeren,  the Managing Director at Health Industry Advisor.

Mark published a book entitled A "Trip" To Strategic Leadership: A Heavy-Handed CEO's Journey of Self-Discovery and the Principles of Strategy and it has been a valuable resource for us in our own strategizing.

Through the character of Bill Ellis, a fictional character who’s all too real, he tells the story of a frustrated CEO who is well aware that for all of his strategizing, something is terribly amiss and his company is failing. The book follows his journey toward saving his company.  

Van Sumeren says, “My purpose is to convey several principles of strategic leadership, as well as an accelerated process of strategy formulation. These lessons are equally applicable to public and private companies, charitable and for-profit organizations, and large and small enterprises.”

In this new climate of advertising, there are far more avenues and options for marketing and advertising than ever before.

Recently, Proctor & Gamble reviewed their own marketing plan and realized that despite all of the hype, advertising on Facebook was not as effective in generating business as they’d anticipated. As a result, they cut back their spending in that area and made several significant changes in their online advertising strategies.

Are they using this extra money to engineer the direct piping of cleaning products into homes? Or having them delivered by special Proctor & Gamble drones? Who knows.

Whatever the case, when working to achieve the best results for our own clients, we want to be sure we’ve left no stone unturned.

Whether that’s social media, SEO, traditional marketing or any other of a myriad of marketing venues. We’ll even do sky writing, if that’s what’ll give you the most bang for your buck (which is unlikely).

So what’s your strategy for the rest of this year? We’d love to hear about it… and offer you our input.

At LeDuc Creative, We’re Not “Quitting Social Media”. We’re Changing Our Perspective.

In the fictional ad world of Mad Men, the debonaire Don Draper stunned its denizens with the decision to “quit tobacco.”  At a time when a one- or two-pack per day habit was standard, it was a revolutionary move. The agency stood to lose a lot of revenue.

The Don Draper character was the perfect vehicle for the metaphor of change. And changes were ahead for the 1960s world of advertising. Big changes.

These days, there is very little if anything left of the legacy of those 1960s chain-smoking Madison Avenue execs. The modern world of advertising has quite a different climate.

Many view the substantial force behind this new climate as the addition of social media and its ability to constantly change the landscape. (What’s new at 6:00pm can be old by 6:05pm).

But has social media really replaced traditional marketing/advertising?

With social media’s goliath presence, marketing professionals like us have felt pressure to shift the focus of our business from traditional marketing to a more social media based platform. As if traditional marketing should be relegated to the same resting place as traditional photography.

At LeDuc Creative, we know that’s just not the case.

Don’t believe us? Just ask Pepsi. At one point, they chose to reallocate their entire advertising budget from television ads to social media. The result? They lost a lot of money and dropped to third place in market share. It was a costly experiment.

We see advertising as an art. Within that artistic skill set is the ability to discern what will give the customer the best and most promising results. That knowledge comes from decades of experience; the kind of experience we have.

From designing logos and websites to developing branding unique to each client, we know great marketing begins with great design and writing. The kind of work that has  the power to move and elicit an emotional response and subsequent action. These are the elements of traditional marketing and they are timeless.

This is not to say, of course, that we see no use for social media in the business world. It has tremendous value. Facebook, for example, performs well as a business directory listing and as a way to stay in touch with our company fans and clients. But for companies who operate on business to business sales, how often does Facebook directly generate sales leads?

When you get right down to it, it’s not a matter of traditional marketing vs. social media. They are really playing in two different fields. (And arguably two different games.) 

LeDuc Creative will continue to do what we do best - provide the most thoughtful, high quality and effective advertising based on the individual needs of each client - whether the marketing angle is traditional, digital or a combination of the two.

So of course we’re not “quitting social media”. We’re just stepping back, taking a different perspective and shifting our focus back to the foundations of marketing and advertising to move our clients forward.

After all, that’s our passion.

The Good, The Bad And The Just Plain Out There - The Mysterious World Of Websites

The Good, The Bad And The Just Plain Out There - 

The Mysterious World Of Websites

Here’s the thing.

Creating an effective website is not rocket science. (Unless you work in rocket science.) Run a search on the magical internetwebtube and you’ll find countless posts and articles on how to do it.

It doesn’t seem that hard, right? It isn’t. The following link bears this out with many examples.

And YET, with all of this available information, there still exists a staggering number of websites that are simply awful. Unless, of course, you enjoy the following:

- Images and animations reminiscent of hallucinogenic-induced paranoia.
- Incoherent design, low-quality graphics and unreadable fonts that look like they were rendered by a third-grader.
- Key information buried deeper than your darkest secret.
- Difficult navigational structures that would make driving a Hummer on a tight rope easy by comparison.
- Unconventional colors that cross that thin line between “outside the box” and “irritating”.
- A lack of mobile compatibility.

Whatever the case, the world of websites is a wildly diverse one. A website can be a company’s best asset. It can also be its worst. And sometimes, websites are just plain out there.

It makes one wonder if they really want traffic. By deeming themselves immune to what works, they are immune to getting business as well.


#1. Learn your best marketing technique.

Is it search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click advertising, PR or something else? Once you get a handle on which technique has the lowest cost-per-acquisition, i.e. how much you’ll have to spend to get the customer, you’ve got a solid foundation.

#2. Skip the dog and pony show and get some solid design.

Dancing hot dogs and flashing lights won’t do the job; unless the job is to induce acid reflux and seizures. Hire design professionals who can tailor your site to focus on a few key features from which the majority of your customers will benefit.

#3. Have answers readily available to your visitor’s questions.

Is this the right place?  
How long has your business thrived?
Are you affordable?
How can I be sure your product or services are any good?
Where can I learn more about your services and company?
How do I contact you?

#4. By the same token, know the answers to your own questions.

Don’t make the visitor think. Thinking hurts. If you’re selling a product, convince them to buy and make it easy for them. If you offer a service, let them know how and why they can benefit from it.

Do you want them to:
Call you? E-mail you? Sign-up for something? Buy your product online?

#5. Give your visitors choices for staying connected.

Determine the preferred forms of communication and give your visitors a means to stay connected: e-mail, a blog, Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feeds, smoke signals, etc. Cater to the market that best reaches them so they’ll want to come back.

Hey, who invited that boring Google+ kid to the party?

On June 28th of this year, Google+ will be five years old. 

There are those who will acknowledge this milestone. Many, if not most, will largely ignore it. And then some will write yet another post explaining why Google+ should just die already.

Rather harsh words to wield at a five-year-old.

But not entirely unjustified.

Perhaps for social media junkies, the late arrival of Google+ to the party felt like the guest with that “special” something whose arrival everyone awaits. But for the rest of us, it felt more like Google+ crashed the party.  And then it didn’t even bother to bring anything. (Not even a token bag of chips.)

Of course, fans of Google+ would disagree. Listed below are some of what they deem “special” features:

1. Google+ has an impact on personalized search results so that if someone follows you, or follows someone who shares/reshares/+1s your content, then that content will show up higher in the search results.

2. With the circle functionality, you can group your contacts into personalized categories (circles) and then share content in only the circles where it’s relevant. You are also able to share circles with colleagues and then they can create circles based on those contacts. Other platforms can’t do that. (Neh neh, boo boo.)

3.  Google+ is interest driven. This makes it easier to find others that share similar interests so that when you connect with them, you already have things in common. And with the built-in tool called Hangouts on Air, you get the power of Google Search and YouTube helping you get found on the Internet.

4. With Google+, you can turn up or down the volume on certain streams so if the topic of a circle interests you more than another, you can turn up the volume on that one so that you’ll get more posts from that category. 

5. There are fewer distractions from ads, thus placing the focus on content. (Take that, Facebook.) Plus, Google+ posts are less prone to being lost in the noise, when compared to something like Twitter. 

Well, okay.

These may well be valid points. Circles are nice. Who hasn’t dreamt of turning up the volume on one? (Except maybe everyone.) And most of the rest sounds viable, though frankly I don’t see Twitter and Google+ attending the same party, let alone hanging out together. I mean, Twitter is twice Google+’s age.  And not much of a talker.

What it all boils down to is that these features just aren’t “special” enough for most of us.

We’re already stretched in all directions trying to maintain the current social media platforms into which we’ve weaved our lives, egos and TMI. And Google+ isn’t offering anything outstanding or different to justify our getting on board with yet another. According to critics of this platform, its design updates have actually done less to improve it. The mobile experience is lacking, which is a huge drawback. And despite its moniker, Google+ does NOT drive all SEO.   

And then Google took nepotism to a whole new level in 2013 when they upset the YouTube community by requiring people to have a Google+ account to comment on what was once a wide-open site for self-expression. They have since admitted defeat and require only a regular Google account now, but this did nothing to parley favor for Google+.  Rather, it positioned their legacy/love child as a spoiled brat that tries to gain popularity through bullying tactics and pulling rank. It’s just that sort of behavior that keeps one from getting invited to parties. And inspires hateful rants.

Google+ feels not just like another platform, but another thing to maintain and another thing to do. It’s simply too little, too late.    

Staff Spotlight

At LeDuc Creative, we believe “Creative Human Capital” is the backbone of digital marketing and advertising. Today, we want to highlight two members of our digitally driven staff who work tirelessly to bring our clients into the 21st century:

Lauren Maier, Resource Manager
“My background is in education; however, after teaching for six years, moving to Indiana and bringing our daughter into the world, it was time to change directions. I became the Resource Manager for LeDuc Creative, which has allowed me to expand my comfort levels and put my skills to the test, all while staying at home with my daughter, Penelope.

“I have watched LeDuc Creative grow for over twenty years, and I am proud of where we are today. There is no such thing as a typical day, as each one brings new excitement. I work behind the scenes to ensure all data and resources are accurate and up-to-date. There is never a dull moment at LeDuc Creative, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Jacob Hollenbeck, Graphic Designer
“I’m a graphic designer who enjoys helping small businesses thrive in a world dominated by corporate commerce. I take pride in getting to know the clients I work with, and I value the relationships I build over the course of a project.

“I have a degree in graphic design from Ferris State University and have been designing for LeDuc Creative since 2013. With an emphasis on problem solving and communication, my design process ensures that a company’s audience hears them clearly. Ultimately, my work helps clients bolster their business and strengthen their brand.”

About LeDuc Creative
Located in the heart of Ann Arbor, LeDuc Creative has been doing traditional, digital, and analytical advertising and marketing for over 35 years. We represent the best of traditional advertising and 21st century marketing, combining data-driven marketing strategies and cutting edge advertising techniques to serve our clients in a variety of ways.

For more information about LeDuc services and our “Creative Human Capital,” please visit http://leduccreative.us/.

A Brief History of LeDuc Creative

In 1972, John LeDuc took a job as a sign painter. He was commissioned to paint the outfield fence of the softball field in Lapeer, Michigan. The image was the Big Boy logo, but instead of holding a cheeseburger, he was holding a softball mitt and catching a fly ball. It was this job that would inspire John to pursue a career in advertising.

John went on to art school, but continued painting signs for Lapeer during summer breaks. While in school, he started painting album covers and when he graduated, John was offered a job as an illustrator for General Motors.

After a year at GM, John went back to Ann Arbor where he opened a studio making T-shirts and signs. It was here that John picked up his first client, Collected Works. Collected Works is LeDuc’s longest standing client and John remains good friends with the store’s owners Rich and Irene.

Eventually, John got married and moved to a location on Dewey St. with an art studio on the first floor. While working at Douglas Anderson Advertising, John LeDuc met John Benson. When Doug Anderson told Benson and LeDuc they would never amount to anything, the pair left the company to start their own competing agency, Benson LeDuc Studios. Over time, Benson LeDuc grew from a two man boutique studio to a 22 man agency with 5 Industrial accounts, a woman’s clothing store, a couple of bars and restaurants and 23 Taubman Shopping Centers.

In 1987, John moved to 1400 White St. where JLeDuc Co was born. The office was located in a studio built above the garage and John’s wife Julaine wouldn’t let people that she didn’t like into the house. Family friends “Peanut” and Michelle joined John as office administrators and project managers. Bill deMink (John’s brother-in-law) started working as a freelance writer and still remains with the company to this day.

In 1999, JLeDuc Co. was purchased and the company name was changed to Ideography. In 2001 John left Ideography to create LeDuc Creative Co., a creative consulting firm. By 2003 LeDuc Creative had transformed into a full service ad agency and the accounts from Ideography began to migrate over to LeDuc Creative Co.

Since 2003, LeDuc Creative Co. has transformed from a traditional ad agency to digital marketing and advertising company. LeDuc Creative has undergone many changes over the past five decades, but reflecting back on the past leaves John with nothing but optimism for the future. “Here I am at the ripe ol’ age of 60, enjoying advertising as much as ever,” John noted, “As my minister brother used to say: I can’t be knocked down, you can’t take away my joy, you can’t be beat me, because I got God on my side.”