Creative Agency Rebrands and Resets on 20th Anniversary
Powerhouse branding team continues partnering to make local companies competitive.
PHOENIXVILLE, PA—June 25, 2018—In 1998, two Stanford University students developed a unique algorithm and officially launched a small search engine company onto the World Wide Web that was itself, just a decade old. Google went on to become the de facto standard for using the Internet, the place most people start and a literal verb in our daily lexicon.
That same year, a 32-year-old creative director at Chester County, Pennsylvania’s largest business-to-business advertising agency, decided that small businesses deserved the same level of creative services as the fortunate few and incorporated Virtual Farm Creative. The original Virtual Farm Creative, Inc. team transformed a small barn in a rural setting into a high-tech studio and set about delivering strategic creative that reached client’s goals.
Creative Director, Todd Palmer and the VFC team are celebrating 20 years of successfully managing local brands with a new name, new identity and a renewed commitment as a full service, outsourced collaborative marketing department for clients.
IN THE BEGINNING
“From the beginning we were always about results,” offers Todd Palmer, the thirty-something that launched Virtual Farm Creative twenty years ago. “Being a creative resource is one thing, creatively achieving client objectives has always been our goal.”
Now 52, Palmer and the agency have not diverted from their mission of partnering with businesses to achieve defined objectives by executing collaboratively developed strategic marketing plans.
“Whether the goal is more conversions, aggressive growth, brand awareness or improving image perception, we always start with a detailed strategic plan that analyzes markets, competitors and targets, and clearly defines the scope of work,” says Palmer, who believes it’s strategic thinking that differentiates his agency’s offering. “We’re as creative with client strategy as we are with commercial design.”
ANNIVERSARY AFFIRMATION
This year, as Virtual Farm Creative turns 20, the company is reaffirming their commitment to partnering with businesses to employ those strategic plans in annual efforts that achieve results.
“The process is collaborative, but strategy is imperative,” continues Palmer. “I firmly believe we’re the most creative agency in our market, but the addition of plans that analyze conditions, define the scope of work, specify a timeline and communicate all costs maximizes our value to clients.”
Virtual Farm Creative, Inc, the full service brand management agency in Chester County, Pennsylvania is making business fun again and growing brand buzz for their clients!
BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS
Understanding the client offering, market, industry and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats prior to recommending a course of creative action is a Virtual Farm Creative specialty and a marketable difference from other design firms and developers.
“In 2018 we’re determined to streamline our client roster and work with each client even more closely to understand and execute strategy,” adds Palmer who positions Virtual Farm Creative as a comprehensive outsourced resource for clients.
With VFC, businesses don’t require an internal staff. We become the marketing department and clients get five experienced professionals all working off of a calculated plan for less than the cost of a single in-house employee.
EVOLVING, NOT CHANGING
At 20, Virtual Farm Creative is making furtive moves to communicate a more mature offering. In a scaled down version of what they’ve done for so many clients in the past two decades, the Phoenixville, Pennsylvania advertising agency is announcing a rebrand of their own.
The company that was known as Virtual Farm Creative will henceforth be known as VFC and the name change is accompanied by some ambitious rebranding efforts including a modernized identity, studio branding touches and the launch of a new website.
“The VFC brand conversion is as strategic as it can be while managing the brands of dozens of clients,” offers Darren Price, VFC’s art director. “We explored approaches, selected a direction and rolled out our own new set of standards that includes refined typography and a lively color palette to support a thoughtful identity.”
The revised VFC identity includes a logo that simultaneously communicates complexity and simplicity, illustrating one of VFC’s high-level offerings to clients—simplifying complex processes and making them marketable. The tagline Growing Brand Buzz™ conveys exactly what the agency does in three simple words and images of Apis mellifera, the western honeybee, provide a theme that supports VFC’s work ethic and mission.
Palmer observes, “We’re a lot like a hive, all working toward the same goal for our clients. Bees have a primal instinct and VFC has strategic plans.”
VFC’s longevity is relatively unusual in a competitive industry and the 20-year anniversary of the agency is also being celebrated with innovative changes to the studio now operating out of a 1800s farmhouse, the original East Pikeland General Store.
Look for the new VFC green—an innovative chartreuse—as it accents the historic building and is rolled out in clever new premiums and promotions to announce the recommitment, renaming and rebranding of a stalwart creative services company.
BE THE VERB
For 20 years VFC has been cultivating personalities for well-known local brands, delivering a combination of strategy and creative support to develop compelling brand stories, meaningful content and engaging conversations with the target audience. The VFC team is 24/7/365 focused on understanding client offerings and devising approaches for creating consumer action and reaching the client objectives of increased exposure, enhanced image, improved conversions, controlled expansion or dynamic growth.
Like Google, we want VFC to be the verb…
Most VFC clients are long-term and most employees are as well–some have been with the agency since the beginning. Production Manager, Melissa Rambo and Social Media Manager, Jocelyn Hinkle have both been contributing to VFC’s creative offerings for years.
Besides being creative and strategic, VFC is regarded for being responsive and, a lot like bees, diligent. Combine that with affordability and it’s an equation that’s difficult to match.
“Like Google, we want VFC to be the verb,” muses Palmer. “When businesses VFC their marketing effort they reach their objectives creatively and professionally. You can Google it!”
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Backed by years of solid agency experience, VFC is an innovative and energetic team of award-winning copywriters, designers, illustrators and programmers prepared to grow your brand and your business. VFC delivers strategic marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns for a diverse roster of clients from a 170-year-old, high-tech renovated farmhouse in the heart of Chester County, Pennsylvania. For more information call 877-GROW ART or visit VFC on the web at www.virtualfarm.com.
