The arsenal

Friday the 13th was a lucky day for Big River. On that date, the Richmond Ad Club honored the best in advertising with its prestigious cannon balls. Big River collected an arsenal of cannon balls for our work on behalf of the Virginia Lottery (including Gold for TV), a Gold Interactive for the new Classified Moto website and an award for our World AIDS Day work.

Terry, contemplating something awesome.

But our biggest honor on Friday night was having our own Terry Taylor recognized as “Ad Person of the Year” at the festivities.  Terry was called a “storyteller par excellence” and was acknowledged as a pioneer in social media with this popular blog and infamous Twitter novel. One of Terry’s nominators put it best:  “Terry has a professional pedigree more prestigious than a Westminster Kennel Club champion, but he remains as humble, honest and true as a terrier mutt.”

Below is our tribute to the legend himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6O8z8CPvF8

Big River’s executive creative director Terry Taylor was honored as “Ad Person of the Year” at the Richmond Ad Club’s annual awards festivities.  Terry was called a “storyteller par excellence” and was acknowledged as a pioneer in social media with this popular blog and infamous Twitter novel. One of Terry’s nominators put it best:  “Terry has a professional pedigree more prestigious than a Westminster Kennel Club champion, but he remains as humble, honest and true as a terrier mutt.”

Held this year in Dublin, Ireland, the sessions drew heavyweight speakers from many different industries such as product development, architecture, web design and advertising, to talk about the importance of ‘user first thinking’ and what ultimately makes the things we build meaningful to a user. Scott attended the conference and sent Tweets to keep those of us left behind up to date on the conference’s happenings.

The Dohm™ featured a mechanical fan that provides the soothing sound of rushing air and silences sounds much more effectively than a conventional sound machine.

Big River will help the North Carolina-based manufacturer prepare for the national roll-out of the Dohm™ by launching a new website, refining its packaging and assisting with point of sale displays. Later this year, the sleep conditioner, which was recently featured on The Dr. Oz Show, will be available nationwide in Bed, Bath and Beyond stores.

“We at Big River love to work with companies that are innovators in their respective fields. The folks at Marpac pioneered and evolved this technology and now have created a product that is head and shoulders above other competitors,” said Fred Moore, Big River’s president and CEO. “As brand-builders, this really excites us.“

“Marpac is pleased to be working closely with Big River,” said Marpac co-owner Gordon Wallace. “We loved their thoughtful, creative approach and fresh ideas.”

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About Marpac LLC  Since 1962, Marpac has combined ingenuity and craftsmanship to create high-quality sound conditioners known for exceptional sound, ease of use, and durability.  The pioneer in sound conditioning, Marpac is proud to manufacture its products in the USA, to maintain its small-company values, and to be dedicated to serving its customers.  Marpac still believes that the little things are very important.  Please visit www.marpac.com for more information.

The agency will create a branded presence for the Winery on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

“We are pleased to have Big River as our communications partner,” said Patrick Duffeler II, president and chief operating officer. “We are impressed with their creative approach to our business challenges.”

Williamsburg Winery, located on a 320-acre farm, began wine production in 1987. Its Governor’s White is the largest selling Virginia wine in the state. In addition to its winery and wine shop, the property also houses Wedmore Place, a 28-room hotel, the Gabriel Archer Tavern, a casual dining restaurant and Café Provencal featuring Chef Tim Westby-Gibson.

“This is a great fit for Big River, given our experience in the hospitality industry and growing expertise in social media. It’s wonderful that Williamsburg Winery has entrusted us to help them grow their businesses,” said Fred Moore, Big River’s president and chief executive officer.  “We look forward to working with them for many years to come.”

The ideal partner will have a visual design aesthetic (and supporting portfolio) that makes us melt, coupled with an insatiable curiosity for experimenting with digital execution.

If you’re a person with multiple interactive skills and passions, we have an opportunity that will provide outlets for all of them. Our small, nimble team has an immediate opening for someone who will take ownership of UX/ID in order for us to build jaw dropping and elegant digital experiences.

What we have to offer is the opportunity for you to bring your wildest dreams to fruition in a small, collaborative environment that is free of ego and bureaucracy. Our team concepts and prototypes together, and the best idea wins.

Any considered candidate will have/be:

• Deep experience in wireframing and site architecture.
• Strong, clean visual design sense.
• The ability to clearly communicate your insights, ideas, decisions and reasoning to a nontechnical audience.
• An almost perverse obsession to detail – how the user will relate to the experience down to the most minute nuance.
• A mastery of multitasking. This is probably not a good fit for someone who likes to be head down working neatly on one client/project to completion before moving on to the next.
• Experience with responsive Web design and mobile executions.
• Ability to quickly understand and refine client strategy and develop functionality that meets both client objectives and user goals.
• Experience presenting deliverables to external clients.
• Delusionally positive and an enabler of ‘yes.’

The ideal candidate has:

• Working knowledge of all web-standards front-end tools (HTML/CSS/JS)and frameworks (CSS grid systems, jquery mobile, etc).
• Knowledge of browser and platform constraints.
• Extra credit: experience working on interactive projects outside the browser (physical computing / installations), Flash /Actionscript experience and/or CMS experience.
• Excellent proofing skills a plus.

Responsibilities:

Execute traits listed above on a daily basis.

Big River is also an equal opportunity employer and a drug-free workplace.

About Us: Big River helps companies build brands by skillfully blending traditional advertising, public relations and digital, social and interactive media. We focus on helping our clients align their organizations to grow their brands from the inside out. Want to know more?  Check out our website: http://bigriveradvertising.com/

Please send resume to Molly Winegar at  mwinegar@yourbigriver.com.