Strange Fish and Sea Monsters: “Continue the Campaign” Marks New PSI Ads.

When I first had the chance to work with PSI’s Bill Price and Neal Peeler, we created a new brand image – maybe you remember reading the post about it. At the time, I wrote:

The new PSI brand campaign takes “Petrophysics that Pays Off” vividly to market. The company devotes more time – and expertise – coming up with a consistent, comprehensive interpretation that represents all the information gathered.

PSI (Petrophysical Solutions, Inc) asked Signalwrite Marketing back to create new ads for 2011. The deceptively simple campaign begins this month in magazines reaching the upstream part of the oilfield exploration and production market, the “geophysics” space out there in the world.

The word “consistent…” also means continuing the campaign. Keep building the brand at the same time you’re opening new sales opportunities. The way Lyn Pilch and Susanne Thiede-Barnet of the Pilch/Barnet agency wrote about consistent ad messaging is right in line with our combined thinking:

Investor-minded advertisers know that consistently repeating your message creates confidence in potential customers. This is the basis for brand image-based advertising. Consistency should be the bedrock of any effective advertising campaign. Without consistency, no advertising campaign can be effective.

The 2011 PSI ad set brings brand consistency to market with fresh touches thanks to Kay Krenek for design and art direction, and photographer Michael Hart.

We reinforced the ad messages (of using proven performance to reduce risks, of PSI expertise in shale plays) with a new map from the PSI collection at the top of each ad. My fave (top) is the 1612 Abraham Ortelius map from his Theatrum. Its portrayal of strange fish and sea monsters is perfect for conveying the idea of the risks that exploration professionals face every day. This outing, though, we used a contemporary Hart photo of PSI’s consulting petrophysicists to counter the risk.

The 1873 US Geology Survey map of Texas and Louisiana (bottom) clearly conveys the broad swath of opportunities available in shale plays when explorationists have hands-on, minds-on PSI people behind them. Completely different feel in this map/landscape photo set…still within the PSI brand.

“Continue the campaign” is a great watchword, an idea I’m glad to be able to deliver for PSI. Thanks to great clients and a fine creative team for the fish, the sea monsters and the broad open ranges of fresh advertising.

Oh, yeah: “Petrophysics that Pays Off” and “Discoveries Drive Value” are trademarks of Petrophysical Solutions, Inc. All the rights are reserved.

The Locke Bryan House Ad Returns – This One Channels Lichtenstein.

The last time Kay Krenek and I created a house ad for Locke Bryan Productions, the LBP gang ran it in every production directory in America for two years. Then printed it on t-shirts. Made posters out of it. And mouse pads (I’m on my second or third one.)

This year’s edition should be called a Bryanstein, maybe. Nevertheless, the Locke Bryan Productions ad concept has returned in a new 2010 version and it forms the second entry in the Houston production company’s “Art of Making” series house ad series.

The now-iconic visual of Principal/Director Locke Bryan (standing) and Producer/Director Mike Patterson (behind the camera) has received a new art treatment at the hands of Houston illustrator Mike Dean, in the style of American painter Roy Lichtenstein. Dean told me:

I read what Lichtenstein said about art. It doesn’t feel like the artist took himself too seriously so I had fun myself. Whether you consider the Locke Bryan assignment a homage or not, I got a kick out of doing the illustration.

Both the original Warhol-style house ad and this new version were conceptualized just for the gang at LBP. (We promise not to use this idea for any other client!) Krenek of course did the art direction. I did something swell; I’ll let you know what it was as soon as I find out. Meantime, I’m tickled to see this year’s new concept in print. And on posters. And mouse pads.

Thanks to everyone for the enjoyable project!

PS: Spiffy new logo, too - also by Krenek.

Petrophysical Solutions’ New “Discoveries Drive Value” Brand Comes True

A new brand look - and words - for Petrophysical Solutions, Inc., starts with a map.We started rebranding Petrophysical Solutions – PSI – this past spring. You may have read this post about early phases. Now the Houston-based consulting firm’s just-launched website puts the cap on its public presence.

Wikipedia points out that petrophysicists help oil and gas engineers and other geoscientists understand the rock properties of the reservoir. PSI is clearly in the value-add business, though, and there’s more to the PSI brand than the basic nuts and bolts of petrophysics:

In every Age of Exploration, discoveries drive value. Even if these words never appeared in ancient maps or Renaissance geographies, they’re what PSI petrophysicists do today and every day.

We used antique maps to connect with value-driving discoveries. Watch this new site – every month, PSI’s president will create a new post about a particular map and its impact on the Age of Exploration. We’re calling this blog section CARTOLOGY.

I’m grateful to have helped invent it and write it. But even more: Thanks to Kay Krenek for the outstanding conceptualization-and-design partnership that has led us to this unusual visual approach. Thanks to Brian Bearden and Michelle Webb of Zephyr Salvo for the web development work.

Above all, thanks to the client for a chance to bring something special in the way of a marketing approach to oil and gas consulting.

Rebranding PSI…

I don’t often get to use a 450-year-old map as part of a rebranding campaign. Now, in one headline, Petrophysical Solutions, Inc has launched a fresh brand platform. One headline and that antique map, which displays the Gulf of Mexico, now appear together in the Houston company’s first new ad.

Petrophysical Solutions, Inc (PSI) delivers single-well analysis, integrated field studies, seismic petrophysics, interpretations of large petrophysical databases and old log sets and other geophysical consulting capabilities.

The map comes from the cartographic collection of PSI’s President, Bill Price. It was created by Sebastian Münster in 1540. Titled “Tabula Novarum Insularum,” it holds the real key to the company’s rebranding. You see, Münster’s map was the first to name the Pacific Ocean (Mare Pacifum). First to show one of the earliest depictions of Japan (Zipangri). That ship? It’s Magellan’s Victoria, the only vessel of five to survive his round-the-world voyage. But Münster relied on accounts of the New World by Giovanni da Verrazzano to create that part of the map. That’s where the “Great Mistake” began. According to Price:

Verrazano sailed by the Outer Banks of Carolina. When he observed the sounds on the other side of the barrier islands, he mistook them for the sought-after Northwest Passage. Such was the desire of Europe to find an alternative route to Asia, they would grasp at anything that seemed to lead in that direction. Had Verrazano taken the time to investigate, he would have discovered his mistake.

It’s what can happen in the oil industry today: Too many companies buy into a “sail-by” or quickie interpretation. They’re misled by the fast (or pretty) look, then waste their valuable money on completing zones that shouldn’t be tested or worse.

The new PSI brand campaign takes “Petrophysics that Pays Off” vividly to market. The company devotes more time – and expertise – coming up with a consistent, comprehensive interpretation that represents all the information gathered.

We’ve just begun to roll out the message that better, more informed discoveries drive value. Thanks to the clients, as well as to Kay Krenek for design and art direction. There’ll be more to come…

“Petrophysics that Pays Off” and “Discoveries Drive Value” are trademarks of Petrophysical Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dancing Lesson

Jim Tidwell is not only the President and CEO of WEDGE Group. He’s also the largest individual fundraiser for the BP MS 150 Houston-Austin bike event (which is itself the largest Bike MS event in the US.

So – start with that. Contribute money to MS. At the same time, you’ll join the huge community of friends and colleagues which applauds Tidwell’s over-the-top antics for this good cause.

Once a year, every year, Tidwell makes a spectacle of himself…for fundraising. One year, he shaved his head for MS – and he’s kept it that way every since. He’s constantly trying to top the previous year’s clowning around.

Graphic designer Kay Krenek aids and abets this behavior by creating Tidwell’s annual flyer and – as you may note – this year they’re “Dancing with the Stars.” That’s Tidwell on the left. KTRK Channel 13 personality Dave Ward contributes to the star turn.

What I learned (again) from this year’s flyer is how critical attention to detail is to the concept. This could have been a hokey shot, played broadly…lotta laughs there. Instead, Krenek rounded up rather an impressive group, including photographer Mark Green and make-up artist Rebecca Stacy, to make Tidwell’s drag performance come off looking good.

The team shopped for Tidwell. Clothes. Shoes. (You’ve heard of Jimmy Choos? These are Jimmy’s Locomotives.) There were tryouts and fittings. Hours spent in the makeup chair. Until the new, remarkably classy Tidwell stood revealed as a terpsichorean eyeful. Tastefully done and just enough beyond a joke to make a bigger impact.

Coming to Houston – or starting from here – 18 April: the BP MS150. Get involved and do your part to keep Jim Tidwell off the dance floor. (No, Tidwell will NOT wear this outfit for biking.)

Krenek would want me to credit not only the photographer and the make-up artist, but also the retoucher (Ann Derby), the viedographer (Andrew Olson), the video editor (Shari Blakemore) and “the only place for ladies size 13 platform shoes” (Erotic Cabaret Boutique, Houston). Fun stuff.

Warhol’d Up

I can’t paint but I can help make art: Look at the excellent new Locke Bryan Productions house ad. I’ve had occasion to blog about Locke Bryan before (here and here). The reference to the art and style of Andy Warhol couldn’t be more pointed.

In adopting this colorful Warhol homage for their house ad, Camille and Locke Bryan are using its iconic style on behalf of film/video production. Without a willing client, the ad would never run. This one will, in film and video directories nationwide, for the next year.

The ad’s creators are Kay Krenek on art direction, Paul Hera on illustration and me (concept/copy). Being full of myself, I imagine Warhol’s wry nod from the spirit world…he was a marvelous marketer.