Author: Abby Otting

Branding Design Thinking

The Time for Change? Always.

Is your brand’s story ready for a new season? Spring fever. I’m feeling it. Aren’t you? That tingle of excitement, anticipation and wanderlust started rising in late March and is in full force now that the solstice is getting near. It can’t be helped—we’re biologically incapable of resisting the warmth of rising temperatures and the energy that comes with longer, light-filled days. The lush greenness of the natural world has made itself known, and the earth has recreated herself one more time, a new and incredible variation on a beloved theme. This desire for change usually has me re-evaluating everything from the trivial to the...
Posted by Abby Otting
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The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your Brand:

My first encounter with the idea of “brand” as something more than just a logo was during a summer internship at PBS. My desk was in a storage room made into a makeshift office within the broadcaster’s Alexandria, Virginia headquarters. This was long before Google Alerts, and every morning I would scan through a stack of newspapers from major cities across the US for news about anything PBS. One of my duties was to compile the daily press clippings, make copies of them, and deliver them to the organization’s executives and the marketing leaders who worked in my division, Brand Management. The place was exactly...
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The Great Bullet Journal Challenge of 2017:

At the beginning of this year, a few of us at Intrinzic decided to take up a bullet journal challenge. Some of us had already been testing the waters of this DIY-take on the classic paper planning systems and others were looking to use it to kickstart their own organization goals. Excited to see how different personality types and skill sets would approach journaling and personal organization, Senior Designer Courtney Morgan and I took on the task of documenting everyone’s progress from January through June. Who would follow through in maintaining their journals every week? Who would be the most creative? And, most importantly, who...
Posted by Abby Otting
Public Relations Uncategorized

Startup Success:

Were you part of the recording-breaking crowd that attended an [FC Cincinnati](http://www.fccincinnati.com/) game this year? Cincinnati’s newest professional sports team seems to be taking the city by storm and is making its mark, [setting attendance records](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/07/17/fc-cincinnati-outdraw-every-mls-match-with-record-crowd-of-35000/) in its inaugural season that outshine even the major leagues. I’ve never played soccer, nor did I grow up around soccer fanatics, so to say that I know little about soccer is an understatement. I do find the organization and it’s success interesting though. Enough so that I thought it would be worth attending a FC Cincinnati session at [Cincinnati PRSA’s Media Day](http://www.cincinnatiprsa.org/media-day/). The football club’s President and General...
Posted by Abby Otting
Public Relations

The Integration Imperative:

There was a time when a PR professional could say: “I just do public relations” for this client or company. And maybe, back in the proverbial day, that was true. You could operate in a silo, faxing news releases to your carefully cultivated contacts at the newspaper, TV stations and magazines on your list, securing placements, calculating the ad equivalency, patting yourself on the back and sending a bill. That’s no longer the case. I was reminded by this fact at the [Cincinnati PRSA](http://www.cincinnatiprsa.org/) Media Day last week, where keynote speaker and industry colleague Aaron Perlut showed examples of amazing, disruptive campaigns that were successful...
Posted by Abby Otting
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Cincinnati Design Week:

For those who may have missed it, the [AIGA Cincinnati Design Week](http://cincinnatidesignweek.com/) event, [“Bending the Boundaries of Interface](http://cincinnatidesignweek.com/#openfieldcreative)," contained great nuggets of user interface (UI) thinking and strategy, which was shared by the panel of experts at [Openfield Creative](http://www.openfieldcreative.com/). The discussion challenged us to rethink our traditional definition of user interface and user experience (UX). Since interfaces are evolving so rapidly, we should approach UI in a broader sense, deciding how we can design a specific experience for someone, regardless of the interface or even lack there of. Here are five insights I compiled from the perspectives of the panel: #### 1. Approaching UX is...
Posted by Abby Otting
Design Design Thinking

Staying Inspired:

As a graphic designer, my job hinges on creativity. Staying inspired can be an exhausting and daunting task. I have found that being inspired doesn’t necessarily rely on waiting for inspiration to hit, but actively searching for it…in other words, staying motivated to be inspired. When I am feeling the pressure to be inspired, I have found that I can replenish my creative juices before they run dry by incorporating three simple practices into my routine. ### 1. Never stop learning. My peers are my biggest source of motivation. This industry is constantly evolving at a rapid pace. By staying on top of what others...
Posted by Abby Otting
Branding

Intrinzic Insightz:

'Tis the season…for all things pumpkin! Every fall, more and more companies introduce a seasonal spin on their core offerings. We’ve seen the good (the PSL), the bad (pumpkin Pringles) and the ugly (pumpkin spice toothpaste) when it comes to brands rolling out a pumpkin product. While some fall flat, there are several that integrate well into the brand. In honor of the official kickoff of the season, we thought we’d focus this week's edition of Intrinzic Insightz on pumpkin promotions that seamlessly connect back to the brand and are a smart strategic move on behalf of the company. > I think [Sam Adams](https://www.samueladams.com/craft-beers/harvest-pumpkin-ale) has...
Posted by Abby Otting
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Constructive Criticism:

Marketing, advertising – and more broadly, creativity – is a tough business. Clients, users, audiences, co-workers and others subjectively review the work we create everyday. Feedback, both good and bad, is ubiquitous. In my role as the primary conduit between clients and creative, understanding how to give and get feedback is crucial to keeping both parties happy. Here are a few tips: ### Giving feedback Providing “good” feedback doesn’t have to be difficult. Sometimes client-service people are in a position to relay feedback from a client team and other times we’re advocating for the client position before sharing. In either case, three simple rules can...
Posted by Abby Otting
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Pursuing Intrapreneurship:

Cincinnati is quickly becoming known as a hotspot for startups. Around the city, startup support companies and inspirational conferences are the new norm. We are very familiar with the term “entrepreneurship” in this city, but what about “intrapreneurship?” When I learned that this year’s [Bold Fusion](http://hypecincinnati.com/bold-fusion/) topic would be intrapreneurship, I jumped at the opportunity to attend the conference. ### What is intrapreneurship? Intrapreneurers are disruptive. Not disruptive like that kid in class who prevented everyone from getting work done…Disruptive like bringing to light topics and ideas that a team might not have originally seen. They take the norm of the company - whether it...
Posted by Abby Otting

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