Light Inc. was founded by Michele Francis in 2000. She is a marketing veteran with a background in product packaging, creative direction, marketing film, television and radio productions, sports marketing, media buying and publicity. After many years working in corporate marketing and public relations jobs on the West Coast and Hawaii, she came home to Nebraska to start Light Incorporated, with plans to expand to the east & west coasts. An office is now located in North Hampton, New Hampshire to serve the New Hampshire, Boston and other east coast markets. Light is also working with California and Las Vegas area clients and will be opening an office in LA at the Triple Creek Film Ranch in summer 2006.
Michele attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and later became involved in the New Media Arts Program at the University of Hawaii starting in 1996. This was a ground-breaking program for web designers and world wide web strategists in the early days of Internet marketing.
"Putting my experience to work helping companies make profits is the exciting part for me. A beautifully designed website is great – but not unless it leads to revenue," says Francis. "My experience includes hiring marketing companies as well as working on staff with agencies, and I understand the concerns clients have about budget overruns and marketing that is a cost rather than a profit. My new company focuses on marketing campaigns that implement public relations strategies and provide a return on investment. Sometimes I refer to Light Inc. as the 'anti-agency.' If you have been burned by the arrogance and creative billing of some advertising agencies, you will find Light Inc. refreshing."
To accomplish this goal requires top design talent who understand the motivation and purpose behind great design: attract attention and then deliver a clear message that is persuasive! Light's design team is lead by Alicia Qualset (alicia@light-inc.com) and Traci Weiland (traci@light-inc.com).
Light Inc.: The Anti-Agency
Designing a Marketing Campaign
for Small Business in 2006
by Michele Francis
In the l990s and early 2000s, several things happened to bring marketing professionals to their senses:
1. Mass media fragmented. Cable grew, the Internet was exploding and network TV no longer dominated. The tivo was born and Sirius radio began to gain an audience.
2. The mass media shattered into thousands of facets to serve all types of consumers. There were magazines and web sites for any interest, Tivo and product placement in movies and on TV. We had to be more creative to gain household name status. Also, for the first time we had accurate data on American's lifestyles, interests, and income levels, and more importantly we had their home and email addresses. The time was ripe for niche marketing.
3. The economy forced the trimming of marketing budgets. Direct marketing grew. Infomercials arrived. The excessive and often ineffective big agency model started its decline.
Twenty years ago 75% of marketing budgets went into advertising and too much emphasis was on awards and design for designs sake. Today, approximately 40% goes into trade shows, promotional materials and direct mail, 35% to consumer promotions & the Internet, and a bit less than 25% to advertising. The focus is on results and ROI and with well-conceived marketing; the return-on-investment has improved.
Light Inc. works best with frugal managers and entrepreneurs who appreciate our unique approach. We applaud the executive who brings a conservative approach to marketing. We believe in operating from a plan and work hard to see the plan stays on budget. We will write and implement the plan with you and every stakeholder and salesman in the campaign. Our clients appreciate the accountability of direct marketing, and are as intrigued with public relations oriented direct mail, search optimization, internet content and customer follow-up as they are with TV. We like a plan that grows the marketing program organically with the ROI.
I have successful experience with infomercials—which is a great way to promote products or services that require a little education and more than 30 seconds to persuade the buyer. Infomercials work great for reaching adults 50+. I personally saw a product go from 4 million in sales a month to 14 million a month entirely with low budget production infomercials carefully placed market-by-market. It was thrilling and earned our client the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Midwest region.
Contact me today for a free consultation. We will both learn a little and I am sure, enjoy the experience of discussing strategies to grow your business. michele@light-inc.com
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