New York Blood Center Enterprises

Helping save lives, one prick at a time.

Blood donation has always been seen as a civic duty, and for generations, people stepped up and participated in blood drives across America to ensure that when there was a need, there were reserves of live-giving blood. However, there has been a recent downward trend in donation as Millenials and GenZ have moved away from blood donation. This, coupled with the brick wall in donations created by the COVID pandemic, has created a critical need to stimulate donations, as well as teach younger generations the importance of good blood donation habits.

Research suggests a number of reasons that people shy away from donating, and fear of needles was surprisingly dominant among those reasons. But the fact is, giving blood is a relatively simple, and painless experience.

So we set out to demonstrate the absurdity of this fear. People tolerate all sorts of things on an everyday basis that hurt more than giving blood. A tattoo. A pierced ear. A stubbed toe. If you’re not phased by any of those, then you have no excuse not to donate blood.

We’ve created an integrated campaign running across TV, Outdoor, Digital, Radio and Social Media to bring this to life in order to bolster the vitally needed reserves of blood across the country.

MIAMI BUSINESS SCHOOL

The University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School

Engineering the Ultimate Business Class Upgrade.

Helping the Miami Business school graduate to a higher level of success.

In the fall of 2017, the newly-minted administration at the University of Miami Business School undertook an ambitious mission: rebranding themselves as the Miami Business School. And they partnered with us to build every dimension of this brand.

A graduate degree in graduate degrees.

The top levels of the graduate-level business institutions are crowded and increasingly competitive field. So finding ways to leverage the unique advantages that a business degree from the Miami Business School could offer to a prospective candidate was our first task. Additionally, the Miami Business School has worked diligently to develop programs in the most relevant emerging fields, creating an entirely new graduate program in the area of Sustainability.

Generating leads for a new generation.

We created an integrated and multi-tiered marketing program to build the awareness of the brand, as well as implemented a wide array of digital tools to generate leads and aid in the successful recruitment of the most qualified candidates.

Bringing the future of higher education to the future.

We have helped the Miami Business School transition to a more digitally-centric marketing landscape, even crafting an entirely digital magazine for the school this year.

Invincible Boats

When you're serious.

Dissatisfied with the offerings from the open-ocean, center-console boat manufacturers, serious angler and diver Alex Lipworth founded Invincible Boats in 2006. His goal was to create the boat he had always wanted and no one else built. As passionate boaters and anglers, we at Markham Yard were perfectly positioned to bring this attitude and spirit to life through a marketing campaign, sales materials, social media and merchandising. Together, we launched Invincible to greater lengths, providing comprehensive integrated support to the creation of a new line of performance offshore catamarans that have set a new standard for the entire marine industry.

Mellow Mushroom Pizza

A 45-year-old who refuses to grow up.

Venerated Atlanta dining institution Mellow Mushroom Pizza selected Coconut Grove, FL based Markham Yard for its branding and marketing duties to help support and grow one of the most successful restaurant concepts in America today. Founded in 1974 by three Georgia college students, the brand has subversively spread its counterculture brand to a family of stores over 100 strong spanning fifteen states. The core philosophy of the founders has helped maintain its unique culture and environment as it has organically grown, and now the company stands poised for a new level of success.

Santa Margherita

Helping a legendary brand uncork something extraordinary.

Crafting a sparkling debut for a venerated brand’s newest varietals. Popular Italian vintner, Santa Margherita, tapped Markham Yard in early 2019 to help them launch several lines of sparkling varietals, Santa Margherita Prosecco and Santa Margherita Sparkling Rosé. Working with renowned fashion photographer, David Michael Adams, we embarked on an unorthodox and audacious journey to capture the luxurious floating euphoria of the product. A comprehensive integrated campaign connected social media, events, digital placements, OOH in Miami, New York and Los Angeles as well as merchandising on-premise. Due to the success and positive reception of this launch, Santa Margherita has since expanded the “Uncork Extraordinary” brand positioning we developed to encompass its entire portfolio.

IT’SUGAR

IT'SUGAR

Creating the $57 million candy bar.

Helping IT’SUGAR craft a winning recipe.

IT’SUGAR founder Jeff Rubin had previously started Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC and FAO Schweetz, in conjunction with the eponymous toy store. And when we met him in 2005, he was preparing to open a candy store called IT’SUGAR in Atlantic City.

He knew he needed something unique and different, and that’s where we came in. Together we identified a larger cultural context that might make what he was doing more relevant. More exciting. And sell more than just candy. We needed a point of view.

We say “Yes” in a world full of “no.”

In a world where we are constantly told what we shouldn’t eat, say, think or do, we found there was an opportunity to celebrate the kid inside each of us. We felt that there was a place for the unapologetic embrace of the sheer joy candy brings into people’s lives, and a rebellious push back against the sensibility of the rest of our day.

Nothing exceeds like excess.

Together, we built a brand that is a little rambunctious and a lot of fun. It conforms to nothing but the pursuit of happiness and takes nothing seriously except candy and old Saturday Night Live skits. People think of candy as something for kids, but the fact is: Everyone wants it. And that’s something to celebrate.

The sweet smell of success.

We have curated every touch point of the IT’SUGAR brand, from marketing, to the in-store graphics, to product development and package design.

Together, we worked with IT’SUGAR to launch their very first store, and are proud to say we continue to help them thrive now that they have 100 stores worldwide and are still growing. And in 2018, our unique strategy and hard work helped result in IT’SUGAR being acquired by private equity group BBX Holdings for $57 million. That’s a lot of gummi bears.

Porsche

Connecting Stuttgart to Santiago, San Juan and Santo Domingo.

To help a venerated global brand think locally, we built a connected hemisphere from scratch.

Porsche Latin America came to us in 2015 with a challenge: To create an efficient and centralized marketing enterprise that faithfully represented their legendary brand, while at the same time, translating their essence in ways that spoke to the diverse locales across Latin America and the Caribbean in their own unique ways.

As huge gearheads in general, and Porsche fans in particular, we know this is something we were born to do—to make this a tremendously successful partnership.

Together, across 22 countries, we have created a unified and organized structure that serves not just the pan-regional needs of a global brand, but supports each market with its own local needs as well. We have put in place a dedicated, multidisciplinary team across mass media, digital, social media, events, sponsorships and activations.

Our work has been one element in creating an unprecedented level of engagement across the region, helping propel Porsche in 2018 to the most successful year of global sales in its history.