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Minneapolis agency Solve earned a Silver Award in Advertising Age’s “Small Agency Of The Year” competition at the recent Small Agency Conference in Portland, Oregon. The award focuses on independent agencies with less than 150 people and is based on creative work, client results and business growth. Solve, founded in late 2011, was the youngest agency to win an award. “We’re proud of the recognition from Ad Age and honored to be seen as one of the country’s top small agencies,” said John Colasanti, Solve CEO. “As a start-up, our clients have put a lot of faith in us over the past two years…this industry acknowledgement reinforces their belief in our capabilities,” Colasanti added.

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Solve is happy to announce the hiring of Ryan Murray, Account Director. Ryan joins Solve from Fallon Minneapolis, where he spent six years managing and guiding brand strategy for clients including Cruzan Rum, The Phoenix Coyotes, The Cosmopolitan Hotel of Las Vegas and Purina. At Solve, Ryan will be the lead on True Value, helping the iconic American hardware brand connect with a new generation of DIYers.

Before advertising, Ryan worked in the film business at the Endeavor Agency in LA and as a Commercial Director’s Assistant. He’s a University of Wisconsin graduate and attended cinema school at the University of Southern California.

Ryan is smart, strategic and resourceful. He’s an optimistic, team-oriented person with boundless energy and passion. We’re thrilled to have him on board. Welcome to Solve, Ryan.

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Hardware Retailer Moves Outside The Store And Into People’s Lives

Solve has steered clear of convention in its new campaign for Chicago-based hardware cooperative True Value. The campaign breaks nationally this week and is Solve’s first work for True Value since winning the account in February 2013. Advertising in the hardware and do-it-yourself category is full of marketers touting helpful advice and featuring smiling, apron-clad employees in product-laden store aisles. Solve recommended True Value build a brand platform focused less on themselves and more on the needs and aspirations of people looking to handle home improvement projects. “People receive deep emotional satisfaction from doing a project themselves,” said Corey Johnson, Solve President. “By positioning True Value as an enabler of that satisfaction, the brand can claim its rightful place as the retailer that best understands what DIY customers are looking for,” added Johnson. The campaign centers on two television commercials that feature people in situations where they reap the benefits of True Value’s enablement. The spots introduce the campaign line “Behind Every Project Is A True Value,” which both reinforces the brand’s role and hints at the real motivation and value behind completing a home improvement project.

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Brand’s First-Ever Campaign Carves Unique Position In Organic Food Marketplace

Solve has helped Organic Valley, based in La Farge, WI, take its next step toward becoming the premiere brand in the world of organic dairy products, an industry filled with many competitors that don’t traditionally generate a high amount of advertising. The new campaign, which launched across six different test markets on March 11, features an actual Organic Valley farm family and was filmed on a real Organic Valley farm.

Organic Valley is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2013, and was founded back in 1988 with a noble mission of keeping family farmers on the land. After a quarter-century of life, the farmer-owned cooperative is looking to grow its business into the mainstream grocery aisles. Despite its desire to capture a new audience, it was important that the work of the campaign felt authentic and remained true to who they are as an organization.

“While it’s easy to dismiss using real people and go straight to a casting agency, we set out to make every inch of this campaign feel authentic, from the family sitting at the table to the cows and the pasture grasses they’re munching on,” said Eric Sorensen, Solve Creative Director. “What we ended up with was an uplifting piece that tells a great story, leaving consumers with an impactful message about the organic milk they drink.”

The campaign workhorse comes in the form of a television spot, which will be used to drive awareness across the test markets it’s running in. It features a farm family, and centers around their little girl who decides to make a pie out of mud and grass seeds that she ultimately intends to feed to one of her cows. It also introduces “Bringing The Good,” the brand’s new tagline. “This spot represents just one of the many ways Organic Valley brings the good. It’s a reflection of the company and its people, and we hope it helps further their goal of spreading the organic movement across America,” said Solve Creative Director Hans Hansen. In addition to television, the campaign will also include radio, digital and a complete packaging makeover, with print following in the fall.

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Agency To Help Hardware Retailer Contemporize Its Brand

Solve has been hired as brand agency of record by True Value Company, one of the world’s largest retailer-owned hardware cooperatives, headquartered in Chicago. The win follows up a strong 2012 for the fast-growing Minneapolis agency.

During a competitive review, True Value asked three undisclosed agencies to develop a brand position founded on the company’s rich history and independent owner base to help power the nearly 3,300 retailer-owned True Value hardware stores into the future. According to Blake Fohl, True Value’s VP, Marketing and Chief Customer Officer, “In addition to demonstrating a deep understanding of our brand and store owners, Solve brought exciting, actionable insights into our emerging customer and a compelling, potent creative platform.”

“True Value is an iconic American brand and a true pillar of the communities it serves,” said John Colasanti, Solve CEO. “The cumulative energy of thousands of entrepreneurial retailers is formidable and we’re looking forward to harnessing that passion,” added Colasanti. The agency’s duties will include brand/customer strategy, multi-media creative and media strategy/planning.

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