Our company was born in 2007, in the midst of an exciting time in the advertising and marketing communications business.

The nature of the game was changing (and still is), with the digital age ushering in not just cool technologies and new media forms - but a fundamental shift in control of the message away from "Marketing Central Command" squarely into the lap of the user. We wanted to be an active part of drawing together the old world lessons that are timeless, with the new possibilities now before us... not be side-choosers or spectators.

We had another simple idea: that the founder's experience and expertise in branding, marketing, and advertising could be brought to a bear for all kinds of emerging companies and interesting brands, who otherwise might not be able to access top-level agencies and services.

So, on one unseasonably warm January day, in different parts of New York, we simultaneously gave up our cushy senior-level agency jobs, and, without so much as a “client in our pocket,” opened up with a blank slate.

If you are interested in the thoughtfully chosen words, poignant metaphors, and insightful gems of wisdom that express where we’re coming from and why, we would be happy to share that with you. But, since most of our clients really only care about one thing, here is how our philosophy statement concludes:

We do whatever is necessary to help sell our client’s products.

Musings
The Laws of the Jungle:
Blend in if you don’t want to get eaten.
Stand out if you want to attract a mate.


To get your brand noticed, you need to stand out. Be relevant. Be honest. Don’t try to please everybody, it’s impossible. And don’t try to be different, just to be different. Make sure there is always a conceptual rationale. A strategy. Be passionate about what you stand for. If what you stand for is dull, be the dullest. You will attract people looking for dull. AND THEIR MONEY IS GREEN, TOO.

What makes us different
We are structured like General Contractors for building brands. We match teams of talented people to particular clients, based on need and experience, instead of who’s sitting at their desk and available. There’s no dead wood. Our overhead is lower.

We have project leaders, instead of account people. You want to see account people? Watch Madmen. Today things move quicker and successful projects are based on team members keeping commitments.

We’ll take compensation via incentive-based contracts. We sometimes agree on a percentage of sales or small equity positions, as well as cash. Not to sound smug, but we don’t mind betting on ourselves.

We sell through from end-to-end and even help get products in to the marketplace. We help our clients succeed anyway possible.

A creative guy from Queens, an account guy from Philly, both cutting their teeth on Madison Avenue at the best shops in town. But they waited…accumulating decades of insight and experience, piling up awards for effectiveness, working alongside industry luminaries and for top shelf brands, to open Scarlet Heifer during the worst economy since the great depression. Needless to say, the founders are unconventional. Or, are they? (This conversation is better held with a few beers).

Steve Biegel, Partner, Creative Director
Steve's career has taken him around the world, not to mention every nook and cranny in NYC, by helping to shape indelible brands such as Canon, American Express and AIG, to name a few. After cutting his teeth as the first-ever junior copywriter hired by legendary ad agency Ammirati & Puris, Steve went to the Flatiron District to join Angotti, Thomas, Hedge to work on Foster’s Beer and Saab. Then he made his way to trendy SoHo and joined hot shop Kirshenbaum & Bond. Next he grabbed the E-train to Ogilvy & Mather where he developed disruptive work for AIG, which won him a trip to the Cannes Advertising Festival and the prestigious David Ogilvy Award. Next, he crossed town for Dentsu, where he authored and led creative development for Canon Powershot, helping it reach number one in its category. He is now a principal at Scarlet Heifer, in Tribeca, overseeing all aspects of the creative product to help grow brands, before going home and hopping on his computer to travel across the World Wide Web.

www.stevebiegel.com (more work examples)

Dan Howald, Partner, Managing Director
Dan’s career as an account management professional and strategist has included client leadership positions at major Madison Avenue firms (FCB, Waring & LaRosa, Grey, Young & Rubicam), the brand consulting firm Siegel & Gale, and independent agencies MSCO and Think 360 Inc. He has helped Fortune 500 clients, startups, local businesses, and International companies define and realize business-driving Brand Ideas. He has led agency relationships with companies such as RJR/Nabisco, Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Kellogg, Xerox, Marriott International, Guardian Life Insurance, Del Monte Foods, Unilever, and The Hain Celestial Group, among others. Dan lives with his wife and two children in Westchester County, NY. His weekends are filled year round with his involvement as a volunteer coach and administrator with several youth sports organizations, and the occasional gig he plays with his (classic rock) cover band.

Our main service is creating compelling and memorable brand stories that sell our client’s products or services. We have the capability to express that story in any number of ways, which vary by client, goal, and market situation.

Brand Identity
We design logos, write tag lines and create all kinds of iconography to help your brand easily and clearly differentiate from the competition. So subtle, yet so powerful, identities help define brands and create badges.

Brand Strategy
You can't get to where you want to go without a plan. A roadmap. Even a GPS navigator, which makes it easy to find your way, has a map. Unfortunately, there is no GPS for building a brand. Maybe one day. But, for now, we suggest a comprehensive study of the market and the development of a strategic plan to win, built by professionals who have been doing it for some time with great success.

Traditional Advertising
There's nothing traditional about advertising. Even when it's called "traditional" advertising. When it's effective, inventive, and atypical, it stands out and is memorable. We create TV, print, radio, newspaper, outdoor..., any type of media possible that positions our clients for victory. And it’s not just about the message. We plan, negotiate, and buy the media as well, or collaborate with a traditional media resource you already work with.

Digital Experiences
Aha! Everybody must be digital. Websites, micro-sites, webisodes, Social media, SEO, SEM, User Experience Design, e-mail blasts, banner ads - all must be considered, but they MUST have a concept. It's one thing to have people go to a site to blast aliens, it's another to get them motivated to purchase your product while interacting with the site.

Packaging and Retail
Scarlet Heifer helps clients succeed in any way possible. And while people who know us often refer to us as an advertising agency, we know that package design and retail displays communicate brand values as well. We put as much conceptual thinking into a packaging and retail design as we do a television commercial, for instance. Every touch point with a potential customer is important. And we don't stop there. We can even help you get on the shelves. We have specialists with ties to many major retailers and some smaller ones you may not have heard of. Yet.

Scarlet Heifer provides specially designed outsource service packages to help some of our clients succeed. Whether you are an in-house marketing department looking to bulk up your creative brawn, a digital company looking to infuse your offerings with powerful selling ideas, or a small company in search of a brand platform to launch your vision off of, we fly into action.

Digital Creative Solutions

Small Company Marketing Support

In House Marketing Staff Support

A few of our clients have commented on the work we have done on their behalf. Please see below for some of the examples of what they're saying. Each will have a corresponding e-mail address for you to contact directly if you'd like to learn more about Scarlet Heifer from their perspective.

Steven Asman, President & CEO, GustBuster (Consumer Goods)
"Scarlet Heifer created an online video campaign that helped increase sales on Amazon.com by 300%. They implemented a successful social media strategy and constantly helped increase brand value for my company. I can't say enough about their abilities."

gustbuster@aol.com

Greg Schor, CEO, General Counsel Solutions (Professional Services)
"We asked Scarlet Heifer to increase our presence online and to design sales materials, mailers, white papers and other communication items. They are top-notch."

gschor@generalcounsels.com

Bill Doyle, CEO, Dexter Systems (Software)
"Scarlet Heifer created an indelible visual branding solution for our company and then based the website design they created for us around it to give us an iconic brand symbol that can instantly identify our unique offering."

wdoyle@dextersystems.com

Greg Artzt, CEO, General Sentiment (Technology)
"Scarlet Heifer has been a crucial partner in professionalizing our brand, and creating awareness and excitement around our product offerings. Their knowledge and experience in the marketing and advertising worlds made them the ideal creative partner to help us focus and execute upon our strategic visions. Since we have started with Scarlet Heifer, our website traffic, lead generation, and sales have increased five-fold."

greg.artzt@generalsentiment.com

Amy Ogulnick, VP Marketing Director, The Disability Opportunity Fund (Non-profit)
"As a start up non profit, we needed a strong brand and a clear message. Scarlet Heifer delivered both, plus a whole lot more. They gave us a great name, defined our "story" so that we could articulate it to a wide variety of industries and provided us with the tools needed to implement and expand on the marketing concept. They delivered more than we expected and working with them has been a great experience."

Aogulnick@thedof.org