Budgets make a lot of people run amok in fear, but you shouldn’t fear; budgets are your friend. This is not the be-all, end-all of advice for marketing budgets, but we hope that it helps you get started in the right direction.

Building a budget is not rocket science, but it takes time and analysis to determine where you want to spend your money. Consider these few things when working on your company budget:

1. Budgets don’t come from thin air.

Much of budgeting depends on your industry, business size, target market and overall company goals. You need to have these answers before you can even start thinking about spending.

Some areas to base your budget on:

1. Past Gross Sales (percentage of)
2. Forecast Sales (percentage of)
3. Current cash flow
4. Industry standards
5. Desired Market Share

2. The 10/5/2  rule.

10/5/2 are numbers used as a guide when trying to gauge how much money should be put into marketing.

Small businesses: budget around 10% of your total revenue towards marketing.
Medium businesses: budget around 5% of your total revenue towards marketing.
Large businesses: budget around 2% of your total revenue towards marketing.

3. Revisit the budget often.

If you want to stay on track, review it every month. This way you can reassess the situation and make any adjustments if need be. Everyone’s marketing dollars are limited, so efficiency and effectiveness with these dollars is key. Do the research before spending anything, especially things that are new. If you know something already works, don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

4. Know the peaks and valleys of your business.

Every business has its high and low seasons. Whether you look at them on a monthly, weekly or daily basis, determining these key areas will help you designate specific dollars to certain months of your business cycle. This will assist in the decision of whether to spend more or less during these time periods.

Develop a 52-week schedule of where your dollars will be spent, noting the type of campaign and duration of each one.

5. Look into your competition and determine their spending.

You can learn a lot from your competition. Where and when do they spend their dollars, and (estimate) how much they are spending? See what is working or not working for them, and turn it into a lesson for you. Don’t lose sight of your own business, but always keep your competition in the back of your mind. Knowing them can help you determine your own marketing spending and staying one step ahead.

After you’ve created your budget, pack your bags and be prepared for the long haul. Patience and consistency are very important virtues for any business person. After all, it could take up to 5 – 7 times for a prospect to see your campaign before they even consider being a client. It can become an expensive road if you don’t plan your marketing spending accordingly. A budgeted plan can set you up for success!

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Client: Tara McMullen Photography

Project details:
:: Business and Note card
:: Quantity produced: 1500 pcs
:: Production time: 2 weeks
:: Print method: Offset
:: Specialty: Foil Stamping

Tara McMullen Photography, wedding photographer extraordinaire! We happen to be clients of one another; she did a fantastic job with our wedding and we were very pleased with the photos we received. Very professional, fun and personable throughout the process. Definitely recommended!!

Now onto her cards. The substrate is a soft textured Strathmore Writing Ultimate White paper made with 25% cotton. It is an uncoated stock that has a soft, elegant hand feel. They were quite the pieces to produce to say the least – a two-spot colour offset job in metallic gold and yellow which then ran through a clear hot foil process to accentuate the yellow borders of her cards. The clear gloss reflection along with the uncoated finished stock create a really nice contrast.

Kudos go out to Chad Roberts for the clean and elegant design. We love creating specialty pieces; it’s fun, rewarding and showcases what capabilities we have to offer.

Client: Silverpoint Media Inc.

Project details:
:: Business card
:: Quantity produced: 3 names, 4000 pcs
:: Production time: 2 weeks
:: Print method: Foil Stamping

Silverpoint Media, who are video, animation and photography specialists, came to us with the opportunity to design and produce the print materials for their company re-brand. We wanted to go with something bold, clean and sharp, so with an open mind (and budget!), we were able to take these two key factors into consideration and produce an outstanding piece that has definitely left an impression.

If you want substance, this is the stock of choice – a jet black, suede finished 24pt card stock. The photos below don’t even begin to do the feeling of the paper any justice. The project consisted of three foil dies; one to create the clear foil of the Silverpoint logo on the front for a tone on tone, matte and gloss vibe.

Business card front side

The second and third dies created the silver foil for the name and address and a clear foil for the company name.

Business card back side

This project was a joy to work on, and we (and the clients) were extremely happy with the results. The finished card is one that screams both luxury and cool.

As a follow-up on the previous post, the London 2012 mascots were revealed last month (read about it here, but if you want more honest take on it, read this post) and I must say, I was pleased to have another chance to blog about it with fervour.

If you haven’t seen them, let’s take a quick look and meet Wenlock and Mandeville:

Image courtesy of www.london2012.com

What was that? Was that a tumbleweed blowing through? If you are wondering to yourself, “What are they?”, in the words of Michael Jackson, you are not alone.

Upon further research, I learned that they “were created from the last two drops of British steel used for the London 2012 Olympic Stadium”. How metaphorical!! But just like jokes, when mascots need an explanation in order for people to understand them, I would say they failed.

What are your thoughts on the English cyclops twins?

London 2012 mascots – London 2012 official website
London unveils creepy-looking mascots – Yahoo Sports
Reaction to London 2012′s mascots on Twitter – Vancouver Sun (my favourite would have to be by @LadiesSaladRan: Poor Olympic mascots, nobody seems to like you To be fair the blue one of them does look as though it was designed by Kotex.)

In the Olympic spirit, today I’m going to discuss the London 2012 logo, which in my previous post I labeled as a “monstrosity that makes no sense”. I was not exaggerating here – let’s take a look:

Just kidding, that was one created by someone drunk and/or high on acid – here’s is the real thing:

Oh wait, that is the actual logo.

So what’s the big deal about this logo, that is to represent the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London? Besides the fact that it is… insane? It cost £400,000. I know you are scratching your head trying to do a conversion into Canadian or American dollars right now, but let me do it for you: it’s a jillion.

Designed by international branding company Wolff Olins, the London 2012 logo created a huge controversy and uproar in London. I’ll vouch for this since I was living in London at the time of its reveal, back in the summer of 2007.

An animated version of the logo caused epileptic seizures so it had to be pulled. People compared it to Lisa Simpson performing oral sex on an animal. A petition was started to try and revert it to the bidding logo (which is this one). All in all, response was no good.

The attempt to attract a younger generation, represent London’s Euro skinny jeaned electro goodness and be different didn’t successfully appeal to me in anyway (although it did prompt me to write a post 2.5 years later). I can’t wait to see what the mascots are going to look like.

The Olympic (logo) games – rearrange the logo pieces to create something even cooler
BBC – Alternate Olympic logos from readers and views

Since Vancouver 2010 is just around the corner, I thought I’d babble a bit about the mascots behind these upcoming Canadian Olympic winter games. Through the years, there have been some pretty cool and interesting mascots to support the games – some good, some not so good. When they are good, people just go gaga over them. In fact, I was in Beijing at the end of 2007 and people (myself included) were going absolutely wild over Jing Jing and the gang. Almost every Olympic souvenir that was sold had the animals on them.

So what happened after the cutie Chinese crew left? Quatchi stepped in. And boy, is he the best mascot of any Olympic games EVER. He wears earmuffs and has a tattoo on his bicep!!!

I love how the Canadian games took on a quirky and sweet spin on their mascots. Sumi and Miga are great too, but Quatchi just stole my heart. The characters are reminiscent of a modern day Miffy, aren’t they?

If you’re curious to see some of the other mascots in past years (and trust me, they don’t hold a candle to our Canucks), here’s a good laugh. All images courtesy of ctv.ca:

Sydney 2000: 2 out of 5 stars (is it me or do they look extra naked?)

Torino 2006: 1 out of 5 stars (was this illustrator aged 10?!)

Barcelona 1992: 3 out of 5 (Cobi might be simple, but I guess he's got a bit of character)

Albertville 1992: 1.5 out of 5 (he is "half-man, half-star"... who comes up with these??)

Nagano 1998: 2.5 out of 5 (this must be from the same artist that did Torino, except he was 6 years younger at that time. They are pretty charming, though)

Beijing 2008: 4 out of 5 (finally, mascots I want to have on my paraphernalia!)

Now don’t even get me started on London 2012 logo… or as I’d like to call, the £400,000 monstrosity that makes no sense. But that’s another post altogether.

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If you like the Vancouver 2010 mascots, check out these fun links:

Which mascot are you like?
Play one-on-one hockey with the mascots
Get desktop wallpapers!

We met Jasmine, a classical pop singer, through our good friend Peaches of Lotus. In our first meeting, Jasmine was a typically quiet, shy teenager amongst a group of adults, who happened to be talking about her. And her potentially blow-up huge career. You see, Jasmine may be a petite 13-year-old with a cute face, but when she opens her mouth to sing, you’d think it you were in the presence of a young Sarah Brightman (yes, this comparison has been passed around the office).

Jasmine is releasing her first single, One Heart, just in time for the Art for the Arts Valentine Gala at the Rose Theatre in Brampton (tickets are available online). We had the pleasure of working with her and her family on the CD, and it was pretty fun trying to bring the wilder side out of Jasmine.

Check out her single (and her amazing voice) here:

We’re really happy with the final product – we designed and printed all the CD sleeves and CDs. If you’re looking for CDs or DVDs, we provide duplication services, watershield and thermal disc printing, packaging design and print, with no minimum orders.

What it’s like to be a teen again!

True Jazz is an artist management agency, founded by Leslie Wong, who happens to be a seasoned musician himself. These business cards are a part of his company rebrand, which includes a brand new website that we’re working on as well (with Silverpoint).

We designed these beautiful matte and spot lamination cards and are totally drooling over them. The colourless gloss damask pattern over the black matte turned out even better than we’d imagine.

As our sister company Papertalk Press posted, Latenightshooters are a collective of people who are passionate about making short films and videos, and Stak is on their ship designing the LNS brand and website.

We just finished designing and printing their business cards, which are of a cool metallic persuasion. With this type of metallic printing, you can turn pretty much any colour into a metal through the process of adding a special silvery metallic ink.

The holidays are here, and the past few weeks have been regular jobs scattered with holiday cards for our clients. This week we finished up the cards for our partner company, Silverpoint Media as well as our own.

To all the folks out there who haven’t started their shopping yet – we’re with you!  We now envy the folks that start their shopping in August… whatever your case may be, good luck out there, and all the best this holiday season. Lots of good food and cheer, from Stak!