Building upon growing optimism within the U.S. economy, Hydrogen Advertising of Seattle is experiencing a boom in its business and bottom line. A significant increase in advertising assignments has necessitated the bolstering of the agency’s staff, with three new employees joining the firm in January.




Scott Schmehl, Senior Art Director
Scott joins Hydrogen as senior art director, reporting to Tom Scherer, vice president and executive creative director, and participating in all aspects of the agency’s development of creative products. Scott has worked with a wide range of clients—from start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations—including T-Mobile, Starbucks, Microsoft and McDonald’s. In addition to receiving his communication arts/design degree from Northern Illinois University, he studied at Atlanta’s Portfolio Center, a renowned institution for advanced training in graphic design, advertising, photography and industrial design.




Lauren Meadows-Rose, Media Manager
An experienced media planning and buying professional, Lauren will manage media purchases for agency clients and will report to Deborah Taylor, vice president and director of account management. Lauren’s experience includes day-to-day media responsibilities at local agencies Copacino + Fujikado, OMD and LCI, working with brand powerhouses including Seattle Children’s Hospital, Washington Mutual and McDonald’s. A graduate of Washington State University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis on advertising.


Mark Tomas, Production Manager
Mark brings a high level of production expertise to all print, broadcast and online communications. In addition to his skills as a production manager, Mark has designed sets for the Emmy Award-winning PBS television series BizKid$, educating kids and young adults on financial matters and entrepreneurship. Before joining Hydrogen, where he’ll also report to Deborah Taylor, Mark held positions at the Hacker Group and Inland Printing. At the University of Idaho he studied both electrical engineering and computer science.



“It’s been an exhilarating start to 2012, with significant positive momentum resulting from a lot of planning and hard work throughout the course of last year,” said Rick Peterson, president, Hydrogen Advertising. “This year, our clients are asking us to partner with them on an increasing number of campaigns and in more sophisticated ways, allowing us to add some new members to the team.”

SEATTLE – July 26, 2011 – The financial meltdown is having lingering affects for Northwest businesses, including an overwhelming opinion – 82 percent – that businesses will “never trust financial institutions in the same way they did” prior to the 2008 financial crisis. This sentiment and other insights were discovered though a survey of senior Pacific Northwest executives responsible for business-banking decisions, conducted by Hydrogen Advertising of Seattle.

Other key findings include:

• A high number of Northwest business executives feel they are currently working with the wrong bank – only seven percent of respondents strongly agreed they were working with “the best possible bank for their business needs.”
• Despite a sense of being with the wrong bank, businesses don’t frequently switch banks – 55 percent of businesses have not changed banking partners in the past five years.
• An overwhelming majority of respondents were “not familiar at all” with a selection of regional banking brands Hydrogen Advertising highlighted in the survey.
• 75 percent of business leaders agreed that the “services and products of most banks are about the same.”
• Of the various commercial banking services assessed in the survey, businesses were most interested in banks providing a real person to answer phone calls instead of an automated system.
• 43 percent of businesses expressed that the ideal banking partner would have a dedicated representative assigned to their account.
• While many executives expressed an interest in partnering with a different financial institution, 63 percent of businesses have stayed with their current bank because of the “difficulties of switching banks.”
• There is ambivalence about the direction of the economy over the next 12 months with 62 percent of business leaders stating the economy will either “improve somewhat” or “remain about the same.”
• On a more positive note, zero percent of respondents were extremely fearful that their current banking partners were in jeopardy of “not being around for the long term.”

Hydrogen Advertising’s analysis of survey data indicates that national and regional banks in the Pacific Northwest are in the predicament of being less trusted than before and providers of undifferentiated products and services. While rates were certainly a consideration in choosing a bank, service-oriented and problem-solving offerings were more critical factors in differentiating banks in the eyes of business customers. Finally, regional banks may not be hemorrhaging customers, but this may be due to the fact most businesses consider the bank-switching-process as too arduous to be worth the effort.

“Regional business customers have, at worst, become increasingly distrustful of banks and, at best, are very ambivalent about banking partners, big or small,” said Rick Peterson, president, Hydrogen Advertising. “We view this predicament as an opportunity for forward-thinking regional banks to highlight their value-added service offerings, and to educate businesses that they do more than offer competitive rates – they understand their customers and function as in-the-trenches partners.”

The survey, conducted in June and July of 2011, was designed to mirror business size and number of employee trends in the Pacific Northwest. All survey respondents were senior executives responsible for banking decisions within their companies, across multiple industries located in Oregon, Idaho and Washington state.

About Hydrogen Advertising
Founded in 2001 by a group of Seattle’s most strategic and savvy advertising and marketing veterans, Hydrogen Advertising provides a full suite of marketing services. Collaboration is a hallmark of the agency’s approach and success—the Hydrogen team works as a seamless extension of its clients’ marketing departments. The agency’s forte is creating integrated marketing programs that deliver specific outcomes. Agency clients include The Polyclinic, Insight Schools, Kenworth Truck Company, eBay, Microsoft and Agilent Technologies. www.hydrogenadvertising.com

Contact:
Ray Vincenzo
Hydrogen Advertising
rayv@hydrogenadvertising.com
(206) 290-4431

Deborah Taylor
Hydrogen Advertising
deboraht@hydrogenadvertising.com
(206) 274-7808

Hydrogen Advertising has expanded the agency’s team with the hiring of Danielle Wakatsuki as account executive. Danielle will put her experience in marketing, strategic planning and account management to use for Hydrogen clients including Agilent Technologies, The Polyclinic and Insight Schools.

Prior to joining Hydrogen, Danielle handled strategic marketing efforts at Callison, an international architecture and design firm. There, her responsibilities included managing multi-million dollar proposals, developing collateral materials, and coordinating business development strategies for a wide range of markets such as healthcare, corporate and commercial interiors.

Before Callison, Danielle served as an account manager at The Matale Line, a Seattle-based communications agency dedicated to working with nonprofits, foundations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). She also completed internships at Parsons Public Relations and The Moyer Foundation. A native of the Pacific Northwest and graduate of the University of Washington, Danielle earned her bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis on public relations. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, exploring her Ballard neighborhood, testing new recipes, hiking and snowboarding.

“Danielle has amassed extensive marketing knowledge in a broad cross-section of industries,” said Deborah Taylor, vice president and director of account management at Hydrogen. “This experience, along with her ebullient, high-energy work style, makes her a wonderful person for our clients to partner with, as well as a great Hydrogen teammate.”

In September, Seattle advertising agencies Hydrogen and WongDoody hosted the North America Region Meeting of Worldwide Partners Inc. (WPI) at the Hotel 1000. The two-day meeting was attended by marketers from dozens of agencies throughout North America, all members of WPI. The event takeaway: in a post-recession world there is plenty of opportunity for agencies that can identify the customer trends and insights that will drive results. Strategy is king regardless of the medium through which it is delivered.

Kenworth means quality and our ad for the new, ultra-versatile T440 makes that point with vigor.

Business and fleet owners seeking a lower weight, top-quality, versatile truck are now seeing our new trade ad for Kenworth’s new T440, the company’s latest addition to its medium-duty family of trucks. Filling an important niche between heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and medium-duty Class 7s, the T440 delivers efficiency, maneuverability and up to 380 horsepower to handle most any application with the quality, reliability and durability you’d expect from Kenworth.

Hydrogen Advertising adds to its executive ranks with the addition of Deborah Taylor as vice president and director of account management. Deborah’s unique perspective is framed by her work on both the agency and client side. Most recently, she served as marketing director at Starbucks Coffee Company, supporting the company’s sales and marketing efforts in the U.S.

As an advertising-agency executive, Deborah held senior account and strategic planning roles, at an extensive list of top-tier agencies including Landor Associates, DDB, McCann Erickson, Young & Rubicam and FCB. Her marquee clients included Nordstrom, Boeing, Chateau St. Michelle, Tully’s, Washington State Lottery, Alaska Seafood, The Clorox Company and Darigold.
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Launching this week, The Polyclinic's new "Where You Come First" campaign confirms the benefits of having a health care provider that puts patients first. The physician-run Polyclinic—consisting of more than 150 primary and specialty care physicians in 14 Seattle area locations—offers a healthy dose of physician-independence that leads to better medicine, as showcased in the new work from Hydrogen.

Consisting of three 30-second TV spots, direct mail and outdoor advertising, the campaign illustrates that The Polyclinic is the right choice for people that seek and value collaboration in their family's health decisions and appreciate the relationship that physician independence delivers. The Polyclinic staff gets to know the person, not just the patient, which often leads to better diagnoses and superior outcomes.
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With the current school year rapidly coming to a close, it’s not too early to start planning for the next. Starting in May, Insight Schools, Inc. is helping parents make education decisions for the upcoming school year with a new advertising campaign demonstrating that online high school may be the ideal option for some students.

The new work includes a 30-second TV spot and direct mail. While appealing to both parents and high school students, the campaign emphasizes to parents that it is possible to see their children enjoy, and even thrive in, high school. Students seeking a personalized learning experience or students with schedules that make attending traditional high schools challenging may benefit greatly by Insight Schools’ online, accredited and tuition-free public high schools.
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The Greater Northwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society today unveils its new advertising campaign—“Is It MS?”—created by Hydrogen Advertising. The new campaign builds upon the just concluded “Why Here?” campaign, which dramatically increased awareness for this disease which is so prevalent in the region.

–> See the whole campaign

The “Is It MS?” campaign features strikingly beautiful images of the human body, both of men and women. The work demonstrates that while a person may look fine physically, multiple sclerosis (MS) may still be subtly affecting their lives with unpredictable symptoms. The core message is that if someone is experiencing any of a variety of symptoms—fatigue, dizziness and numbness, for example—that person or someone who knows them can call the National MS Society to learn more.
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N3300-Series and 6060-Series eLoads Print Ad

Development of sophisticated green technologies requires advanced testing products, such as those from Agilent’s Electronic Measurement Group. New print and banner ads from Hydrogen Advertising communicate to engineers that Agilent offers solutions capable of delivering real-world emulation of solar rays. Agilent solar-simulation products are used to design and manufacture solar arrays, fuel cells, inverters and other devices that enable companies to develop green technologies.
The new print and banner ads, currently running in green tech publications, online newsletters and engineering Web sites, feature the following Agilent products:

• • E4360 Series Solar Array Simulators;
• • N3300-Series and 6060-Series eLoads (electronic load testers); and
• • B1505 SMU Power Analyzers.

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