A Consistently Convenient Truth
Welcome to Summer 2006 at Virtual Farm Creative – where ideas continue to grow and flourish despite record rainfalls and thermometer popping hotness! We have relocated to a new home – a renovated farmhouse that was previously the area’s most quaint general store and, more recently, a celebrated bed and breakfast. We knocked down a few walls, splashed some paint around and ended up with a creative studio that accommodates our team better than the Bada Bing serves the Soprano crew. That is to say, we’re happy here and happiness isn’t only good for the soul, it’s good for the clients.
“The space that you work in really helps to define your creative style,” says the agency’s Art Director, Darren Price. “VFC has become known for effective, organic campaigns that achieve results and this move will help us to keep doing that on a larger scale.”
GLOBAL WARNING
Feel free to visit the Virtual Farm Creative studios any time for a tour and to experience the consistently creative truth that is warming up business climates for clients around the globe. Yes, in the past year– in the midst of renovation and relocation– this modest shop in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania has consulted with customers from Philadelphia to Portland, from Royersford to Romania, from Florida to France.
With state-of-the art fiber-optics networking, interactive conferencing and a new, spacious photography studio, the Virtual Farm Creative team began renovating the 3000 square-foot properties in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in October 2005. The historic structure sits upon one 
acre in East Pikeland Township and is only three miles east of the barn studio in which VFC began. The diversely landscaped, two-story is nearly 180 years old and now features a leading edge multimedia room, fifty-four inch conference room monitor, a production-ready digital print center and a 20’x36′ full-featured photography studio. Although the two-story, white and black stucco farmhouse retains historic appearances including the original hitching post and restored stonewall, the space rivals competitive advertising agency capabilities from Philadelphia to New York. Bada bing!
Just Launched
In the past year Virtual Farm Creative has completed several major web launches employing our usual practice of identifying client missions and objectives before strategizing an Internet marketing plan. With that plan we are able to develop, through a series of iterations and client creative meetings, a web tool that serves the customer and grows as they grow.
Consider Pottstown, Pennsylvania’s Budget Maintenance, Inc., a corporate services entity with four separate companies that serve corporate and commercial properties. Budget Maintenance required distinction between the companies while communicating the benefits of symbiosis. The result is four micro-sites melded together in a multimedia web experience that includes audio-visual presentations outlining the Budget Maintenance offering. As with any site VFC develops, the work required a significant amount of support branding, content development, copy writing, enterprise photography and programming. www.budgetmaintenance.com
BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE
On top of it all we’ve managed to inject our own site with 500CCs of creativity with focused support for our photography and broadcast capabilities. With the low cost of airtime, cable companies are also developing creative spots but it makes much better sense to integrate a client’s marketing effort within the agency’s marketing plan. When VFC develops a client’s broadcast spot we ambitiously synch it with the marketing mission and client objectives.
VFC’s BROADCAST capabilities are focused sidelights to an award winning agency’s cadre of professional services all aimed at bettering your business. We don’t implement audio and video for the sake of a sale or utilizing technology but, when the need is real, no one is more solid in strategy, confident in creative and excellent in execution that the broadcast and photography divisions of Virtual Farm Creative, Inc.
Along with our new full-featured photography studio we have also enhanced the PHOTOGRAPHY portal of our site, vfcphoto.com. The site now reflects VFC’s commitment to stylized commercial photography that – like everything else that we do – is consistently focused on client objectives.
When you visit VFC’s home on the web now you’ll have the option of immediately exploring the agency by clicking GET CREATIVE or you can discover our more specialized services in HOSTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, APPAREL or BROADCAST by following the links at the bottom of virtualfarm.com
MARKETING 101: Two Years of Advocacy
Virtual Farm Creative recognized, early on, the potential of the areas only focused business publication the Route 422 Business Advisor. Many of our clients were interested in reaching the business to business markets between King of Prussia and Reading so we have gotten to know the publication well over the years.
The Route 422 Business Advisor, in partnership with the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce, publishes 11,000 issues each month that are directly distributed to business owners and decision makers where Montgomery, Chester and Berks Counties converge.
Two years ago the Tri-Country Chamber asked Palmer if he would be interested in contributing a marketing article. He was, and that initial request has evolved into a monthly column that is now in its second year.
“I appreciate Todd’s efforts to be informative and educational in his column each month,” says Bill Haley, Route 422 Business Advisor editor and publisher. “I think that adds to his column’s credibility and to the credibility of the magazine.”
In a recent survey undertaken by the magazine, Palmer’s column was consistently rated “Very Useful” by the readership and indeed he routinely works hard to identify issues and challenges that business owners may be experiencing and he researches ways for them to solve them.
“Of course we would rather that they hire Virtual Farm,” says Palmer, former editor of a regional business journal himself, “but an educated business owner understands what they can effectively accomplish on their own and what is better executed by an agency. We are attempting to educate more decision makers.”
Look for Palmer’s Column, Marketing 101, monthly in the free Route 422 Business Advisor, which you can subscribe to by calling 610-323-6253.
BRAND New
COREPROFIT SOLUTIONS INC.
Profitability software solution provider to the banking industry required an image upgrade and brand standardization to propel their offering to the next competitive level.
MAINLINE KETTLEBELLS INC.
This traveling trainer with unique methodology and equipment wanted to communicate a professional offering while showcasing the strength, power and tradition of a company that uses traditional Russian workouts instead of machines.
WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
OF THE DELAWARE RIVER BASIN
Non-profit, non-partisan advocacy and public information organization whose stated mission is to promote sound water resources management within the Delaware River Basin.
Capability Spotlight
Customized Interfaces Keep the Production Out of Your Productions.
by Randy Janiszewski, FORMER Director of Ascending Technology
Let’s say you want a customized message on your web site that changes daily. For conventional sites, to get it changed, you have to notify your web developer, she or he then makes the change (when they can fit you in), lets you know that the change has been made, you verify that the change has been made, correct any mistake there might be, they remake the change, let you know of the new change, you check to verify the new change, and finally, after all is said and done, sit back and breathe a sigh of relief, and get ready to do it again in another day or so. Plus you’ll get an invoice for the web developer’s time.
Bit of a production, isn’t it? All to change a simple little message on your home page. What if you wanted to make bigger changes daily? Imagine the headaches, imagine the costs.
That’s why VFC offers customized interfaces for you to make changes to your site without having to wait on us. With a customized interface, it’s a simple matter of logging on via a password-protected web-based portal, making the change and hitting submit. If you see a mistake you made, simply go back and fix it. That’s it, because we have programmed your site in advance to accept the change in a style and format that fits with the rest of your awesome Internet presence.
The beauty is that it’s also completely guaranteed to work. Your changes are seamlessly integrated the first time, and every time and allows you to update page copy, calendar entries, captions, photos… virtually any page component can now be altered by you without contacting us! We also work with you and provide you with in-depth instructions on how to the interface works in the form of site documentation and we’re always here in case you get into trouble.
WHAT IS CMS?
Content Management System (CMS) allows an organization to develop dynamic web applications, which allow a variety of users with varying degrees of technical expertise to input, manage, and maintain the content of the web applications.
A CMS also allows different user types to view differing content depending on their role within the organization. For example, in a magazine or news environment, an editor would have different capabilities and permissions within the application than would an author. In an e-Learning situation, course developers, instructors, and students would each have their own views and capabilities within the application.
Find out how easy it is to update your website yourself by calling
877 GROW ART.
Intern Profile
Colleen Kelley will be entering her senior year this fall at Arcadia University where she is majoring in Studio Art with a double concentration in Graphic Design and Photography.
In her free time Colleen enjoys hanging out with her Brittany Spaniel, Casey and her boyfriend, Dan. After graduation Colleen and Dan are planning a trip to Europe and hope to visit England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
“Colleen is a bright individual with a very promising future in commercial design,” said VFC’s Creative Director Todd Palmer. “She’s clever, thoughtful and organized and a super addition to our creative crew.
FAVORITE MOVIE:
Caddyshack
FAVORITE SPORT:
Ice Hockey
FAVORITE FOOD:
A really good burger.
GUILTY PLEASURE:
Singing in my car.
FAVORITE BOOK:
1984, George Orwell
ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE I’D LIKE TO MEET:
Nick Drake or Keith Richards
FAVORITE QUOTE: “I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.”
Also of Note
CorePROFIT.com is bright and information-layered and allows users to drill down deeper and deeper for more detailed information. Arresting images that subtly allude to page themes are familiar to surfers and make technical information more accessible. LAUNCHED 0706
Express Data Systems kicked off their new ad campaign, which showcases lifestyle snapshot details to create an ephemeral feeling that whomever is reading the ad would likely rather be doing. The strong imagery and captivating headlines are effective and memorable.
In February Sly Fox Beer became the first Mid-Atlantic microbrewery to begin a full-scale canning operation starting with their signature Pikeland Pils and Phoenix Pale Ale. The canned products have become key to its expansion into New Jersey and New York this summer, targeting the resort and summer activity markets.
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