Once upon a time in a creative land far, far away, account managers were viewed simply as project planners and not creative-types. These account managers were expected to know about budgets, timelines and client relations, with very little input on creative concept, design and implementation. But as the creative world evolved into a digital-centric universe, so did the role of its account managers. Digital producers emerged with an entirely new playbook, or shall I say, storybook.

My, what big ideas you have! Today's digital producers are active participants during concepting meetings, thinking strategically and contributing big ideas. We bring a unique skill set that combines project management expertise and a strong passion for digital marketing. Digital producers need not be shy about sharing ideas among designers and developers. After all, collaborating with a team is far better then strolling through the dark, scary forest all alone.

Mirror, mirror on the wall... As the liaison between clients and the creative team, digital producers must be sharp communicators. Just like the magical mirror in Snow White, delivering delicate news is sometimes part of the job description. Perhaps a client is hesitant to trust a remarkable design concept, or a developer wants to incorporate an ubercool feature that just isn't in the budget. Digital producers must tread lightly as they carefully determine who truly is the fairest of them all.

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This year's Charlotte ADDY Awards Show & Preview Gallery brought together a record 275 industry professionals to celebrate creative excellence in our community. The Mint Museum Uptown provided a gorgeous setting that matched the evening's award-winning, artistic achievements.

During the Awards Show, Studiobanks was presented with the following awards:

Awards are an important part of our industry as they benchmark creative excellence and online success. We happily accepted these awards on behalf of the collabortive efforts and partnerships with our awesome clients.

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In the wake of the current economic recession, marketing budgets are going to become a lot tighter in 2009. We already see evidence of this as companies search for the best bang of each marketing dollar spent. We expect this trend to grow as companies plan their 2009 budgets. With a renewed focus on ROI and effective marketing, companies will inevitably focus on their online marketing strategies for next year. With that we offer our “Top 5 Interactive Marketing Tips for 2009.”

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When discussing usability, I tend to bounce from element to element - menu this, font-size that and so on. The last year or two introduced some non-design elements to the conversation, like AJAX, accessibility and semantics. Not until the last few months, however, have I considered URL construction an important part of usability. SEO, sure, but usability? Never.

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I just finished reading two great books on branding, The Brand Gap and Zag. The book's author Marty Neumeier is president of San Francisco based Neutron, a brand consulting firm. I highly recommend these two books to anyone involved in marketing or running a company. I have already been able to apply some of their teachings into my work with our client's marketing strategies.

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The ADDYs are the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence. This year more than 50 Charlotte-area companies submitted over 375 entries of work to the Charlotte ADDY competition. Only 135, or roughly 35%, of those entries were honored with an ADDY Award. We are happy to announce Studiobanks received 7 of those ADDYs. We snagged 5 of the 12 ADDYs bestowed on website development. Studiobanks was the only shop to win a Gold ADDY for web development.

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Big thanks to AIGA and everyone that made it out last night for the AIGA Lecture By Your Next Door Neighbor. This was the first time our studio had ever been asked to do a lecture. It was exciting for us to see so many people in the studio to hear about our work.

In the lecture, we discussed our creative process and highlighted nine of our clients. Those who attended even got a sneak peek at some of our website projects that are in the works and haven’t launched yet.

If you missed it, here are some photos we took.

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Charlotte-based advertising agency STUDIOBANKS cashed in at the 2007 ADDY® Awards on March 8th, winning 4 Awards. The Awards Show and Gala was held at the plush CenterStage@NoDa Convention Center in the artistic district of Charlotte, where over 250 local and regional creative directors, designers and writers gathered for the annual competition. Nearly 50 area agencies submitted work, totaling 400 entries in the competition. STUDIOBANKS walked away with 1 Gold and 3 Silver—an encore to their Best of Show Award last year for website client Urbana.

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