BCP Mag

We love Michigan. Anytime we can assist a client in reaching their goals and help promote business in this state, it’s extremely satisfying for us to do so.

I give you Michigan Apples. Apples are Michigan’s largest and most valuable fruit crop, with an estimated economic impact of $700 million annually. Along with a website overhaul, we developed a new logo for the Apples folks to use in their promotional materials.

Check out the photo below and view the results in a local Meijer supermarket. Seeing our designs come to life is something special that never gets old!

Did you know that the Greater Lansing Food Bank…

-provided more than three million meals this year, nearly half of which went to children?
-rescued more than 500 thousand pounds of food this year?
-maintained 90 community gardens featuring more than one million square feet of space?
-entered its 31st year of helping feed the hungry?
-can feed a family of four for six days with just a $60 donation?
-collected, purchased, and distributed food through 22 Ingham County pantries, as well as 36 human resource agencies, including community kitchens, shelters, and other food pantries?

For some, daily life serves as a stark reminder of the challenges found in society; specifically, the threat of hunger. The right to food is a basic human need.  Fortunately, there are local organizations that are doing their best to wipe out hunger year-round, such as the Greater Lansing Food Bank.

The GLFB has been in existence since 1981. Originally known as the Greater Lansing Food Alliance, the organization has expanded to become not just a food pantry, but now includes services such as the Garden Project and Food Movers. The former began in 1983 and quickly established numerous community gardens and backyard gardens for low-income residents, while the latter specializes in rescuing perishable but wholesome food from restaurants, commercial kitchens, bakeries, grocery stores and delivers this food to pantries, agencies and subsidized housing complexes.

None of the GLFB’s efforts could be accomplished without the generous giving of local citizens, coming together to provide support by donating and volunteering to sustain this worthy cause.

Do your part this year and help eliminate hunger. Visit www.greaterlansingfoodbank.org for more information, or contact their offices directly at (517) 853-7800.

Listen to Joe Wald, interim executive director of the GLFB, explain just what the food bank means to the community at Spartan Podcast (www.spartanpodcast.com/russ/JoeWald.mp3).

What are the odds that three women in a 10-person office would all show up in black and white sweaters on the same day? Patty had the inspiration to take a photo, post it on the blog and invite your captions. So hey, it's audience participation time! read more

The recent “Design Days” held here in East Lansing at Michigan State University saw Liam Keating, a tablet designer for Condé Nast in the United Kingdom, as a featured speaker at the College of Arts and Letters. Keating works in London on tablet versions of WIRED UK, British Vogue, British GQ and Vanity Fair.

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Hello again! It is Pete from BCP back on the ol’ blog. I come to you today with a quick example of some of our latest work and how it well it incorporates some of the social media trends of today.

The Michigan Apple Committee has a website which we proudly designed.  Check it out here: http://www.michiganapples.com. As well as highlighting a sleek design and many informative sections on growers, news and where to buy Michigan apples, the top portion of the website has easy-to-view links to the organization’s social media, which include an RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Here is a snapshot:

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Ah yes…social media. Once an optional part of any business strategy, now deemed a necessity by today’s constantly evolving world of communication.

Besides working on social networks here at BCP, I also have had the responsibility of maintaining campaigns for publications as well as my band. So where do we begin?

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We’re surrounded by it. It has been called a nuisance. A scam. A conspiracy. Our popular culture has been shaped by it; our lives directly influenced by it.

Love it or hate it, advertising IS and forever will be part of our daily lives.

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Back in the days when Mad Men actually walked the earth, it was probably easier to explain exactly what an "advertising agency" did.

It's not quite as clear-cut anymore–a realization that usually hits me when I'm writing a proposal and trying to describe our capabilities without it sounding like we do everything but hang drywall.

It's not just that the Internet has changed everything (although it has). I think it's also that the arts of communication, marketing and advertising overlap more than they used to. Let's face it: every organization, large or small, public or private, is selling something. And every written, spoken, video, web or other communication that comes from an organization either contributes to that selling effort or detracts from it.

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For the past 20 years, BCP has worked hand in hand with the Greater Lansing Food Bank, lending creative support during the annual holiday envelope campaign and throughout the year. And each year, we watch in awe as the community comes through to help their neighbors in need. read more

So I was standing in front of my open closet this morning and an analogy struck me. (Someone here who shall remain nameless called it a “chick-like” analogy, so be forewarned.)

When an organization approaches marketing on a project-by-project basis, itʼs kind of like buying a clothing a piece at a time. Itʼs a good way to end up with a whole bunch of elements–each of which may be perfectly fine pieces–that have nothing to do with each other. You know, a closet full of clothes (or disparate brochures!) and nothing to wear. read more