Casey Wildeman - Lifesized Custom Die-Cut Standee

A lifesized cutout of her favorite child, YOU!

But wait, there’s more! If you order right now, we’ll throw in a set of 6 mini-yous for an additional charge! That’s right, make a big impression with this miniature version of everyone’s best friend. She can keep one mini-you at the office, one in her car, and one in her purse at all times.

Mini-you NEVER talks back, argues or leaves the toilet seat up. Mini-you doesn’t dirty up any dishes, doesn’t leave clothes strewn about and your mother will never step on Mini-you’s Legos.

Buy it today to take advantage of this generous offer. Thank you for supporting Evansville’s small businesses.

Seriously though, Happy Mother’s Day. (hint, hint: call your mother!) Yes, we would make you a life-sized cutout of yourself for Mother’s Day… but really?

Before. Check out these classy filing cabinets... ugh

Sometimes, you just need a bit more color in your life!

We’re in the middle of a mini-makeover for our showroom and office. Our makeover includes new displays for our showroom, a wrapped fridge and new paint (really fun colors) throughout the facility. All of this is going swimmingly well but it really highlights some of the uglier and more industrial ‘features’ of our office. Over the years, we’ve collected various mismatched filing cabinets that have languished quietly along with their neutral tones in the corner.

Are boring filing cabinets really that big of a deal?

While designing marketing materials for other companies, we began to look around at our own creative space. In this moment of self-reflection, we began noticing that all our walls were painted a soft neutral tan. We had some cool sign samples in the showroom but the showroom itself was stagnant and lacked luster. Our kitchen was devoid of style and personality. Our office area, full of crazy talent and phenomenal creativity, exhibited none of it on the surface. About the only area that was ‘fun’ was our production area with bright greens, yellows and oranges on the walls. Sign samples, some silly, some inspirational and some accidental, adorned the production area walls.

Thus began the great mini-makeover of 2012! Now, even our filing cabinets want to get noticed.

Like a fresh coat of paint on a wall, a wrap can freshen up your work space, car or kitchen. The filing cabinets were wrapped in 3M’s matte black vinyl (looks super-cool on cars too) and the doors were printed and finished with a glossy laminate. The combination of flat and glossy is a scrumptious detail. We love bringing those little details to design projects for our customers too.

After 55 years, we’re still a work in progress

Whether it’s a major remodel to make room for another wide format printer like we did in 2007, or the great mini-makover of 2012, we are proudly a work in progress. How about you? Does your brand need a refresher? Have your marketing materials stagnated? If so, give us a call (812-477-7763) and we can breathe new life into your brand.

Drippy orange vinyl on the door.

The other half of our kitchen is a warm yellow. Also featuring: wrapped table, wrapped fridge, and shelves from 1972.

Does this give you some ideas for your ride? We love vehicle graphics whether they are for your business, hobby or personal indulgence. Contact us about your idea!

Happy Birthday, Boss!

It’s Walter’s Birthday!

May your coffee mug be continuously full, may your peanut butter jar never empty, and may your ice cream cake never melt. Happy Birthday!

If you see him around today, let him know how much you appreciate him.

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.

About the Nationwide Tour

The Nationwide Tour identifies the next stars in professional golf and prepares them for golf’s ultimate stage — the PGA TOUR. The top 25 players on the Nationwide Tour earn PGA TOUR cards, which makes the Nationwide Tour the official proving grounds for future PGA TOUR champions.

From June 25 – July 1, the Nationwide Tour comes to Victoria National in Newburgh, Indiana. The United Leasing Championship will air on the Golf Channel. You can also purchase a grounds pass by following the directions on the United Leasing Championship website.

Vehicle Graphics from Sign-A-Rama Evansville

With our 3M preferred graphics installer, Billy Collins, Sign-A-Rama Evansville provides the highest quality vehicle graphics. If you’d like more information about vehicle graphics for your fleet, please contact us.

Dana Nelson (right) with big @fakeWalterV and one of the few remaining mini @fakeWalterVs that made it back from Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, the Chamber of Commerce held its annual Tri-State Business Expo. We love trade shows and expos. We love attending them, we love ‘working’ them, we love designing compelling booths and displays for them. Our booth for the 2012 Business Expo was a celebration of Evansville. With Evansville’s bicentennial as the backdrop and a giant walk-on floor map from 1887, we also had life-sized cutouts of Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, Evansville Icemen’s Blizzard, My Classic Car host, Dennis Gage, dogs from the Vanderburgh Humane Society, and of course, a cutout of Sign-A-Rama owner, Walter Valiant.

As we were planning our booth and starting to create some of the cutouts, social media strategist and connector of people, Dana Nelson, made the suggestion to create a fake twitter account for the Walter cutout. Brilliant. So, @fakeWalterV came to life and first made his appearance as the life-sized cutout welcoming guests to our Tri-State Business Expo Booth.

But it doesn’t end there.

In mid-April, we traveled to Las Vegas for the Sign-A-Rama World Expo. We really wanted to take the life-sized cutout along but fitting him into the overhead compartment was not going to work. Instead, we created 8 mini fakeWalterVs and set out to conquer the world!

Yes, there's only 6 pictured. It's Vegas and we couldn't keep track of ALL of them.

@fakeWalterV is now found in Australia, West Palm Beach, and who knows where else. We’re pretty proud of @fakeWalterV and how well he was received at the Sign-A-Rama World Expo. Take a look through his twitter timeline and check out all the (G-rated) fun he had. Whimsical? Sure. Fun and creative? Absolutely.

What impression does your marketing strategy give of your company?

How adaptable is your organization to changes in technology (e.g. embracing Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook as the marketing tools they are)? Is your owner, CEO and/or President willing to allow themselves to be put out there whimsically? Does your marketing strategy allow for flexibility? Does your marketing strategy allow for fun and creativity? Does your marketing strategy feel forced or does it flow as an extension of your company’s culture?

How you market says as much about you as a company as your marketing content does. So, what impression does your marketing strategy make about you? Need help with your marketing strategy? Need some creativity injected into your company? Give us a call. We love helping companies create strong marketing strategies from start to finish.

Where's Walter? Yep, he's winning awards.

Being a Sign-A-Rama since 1997 and an established company since 1957, these expos are always a great opportunity to learn and improve. There is always new equipment to investigate, new techniques to learn, new owners to meet and new relationships to establish. These expos are also a chance for the franchisor to honor the best of the best franchisees. With awards like MVP, Team Player Award, Store Appearance Award and the elite Hall of Fame, franchisees are always setting their sites on bettering their business, helping their employees to succeed and supporting their community.

This year, we were honored with two tremendous awards: Top Achievement in Marketing Award and The President’s Award.

Top Achievement in Marketing Award

In helping companies with their marketing efforts, it is nice to be recognized as a company that markets effectively. We take great pride in our local marketing efforts and are extremely pleased with this award.

The President’s Award

Wow. Shocked and completely humbled by this award. Jim Tatem, the president of Sign-A-Rama, selects these awards. Only two were given out this year with Ross Wade from Australia being the other recipient. I don’t really know what else to say about this one except: Thank you, Jim.

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.

You see, Kristina is the lone Make-A-Wish Foundation representative here in Evansville. It is up to her to make wishes come true for local terminally ill children. It is up to her to develop relationships with corporations and individuals so they can help her make those wishes come true. It is up to her to market the Make-A-Wish Foundation effectively. It is up to her to go to events and tell the compelling stories of kids like Owen George.

Oh yeah, on top of her passion for spreading the word about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Kristina also has a full time real estate job.

So when Kristina heard about our Signs of Support Grant Program that helps local non-profit organizations with their marketing efforts, the first thing she said to me was, “Step and Repeat.” Then she repeated it. And repeated it. For months.

We’re pleased to announce that Kristina Rhodes has her Step and Repeat Display. Now, she can take her Step and Repeat Backdrop display to photo-op events. This display is perfect for fund-raising events, celebrity hosted Make-A-Wish events and any where else a camera is taking pictures.

Make-A-Wish Step and Repeat display with Owen George and @fakeWalterV

We’ve had the Make-A-Wish backdrop up in our showroom for a few days and people love it getting their picture taken in front of it.

Need marketing and promotional ideas for you business or organization? Give us a call at 812-477-7763 or fill out the Request For Quote form – it’s quick, free and easy.

Youth First’s mission is to strengthen youth and families through evidence-based programs that prevent substance abuse, promote healthy behaviors, and maximize student success. Their whole objective is to prevent the bad and promote the good as early as possible in young people’s lives. They’re like preventative medicine for our community. Just think, if you could prevent disease from affecting your body, wouldn’t that make your quality of life better? In the same way, Youth First does this for our community by encouraging, training and supporting healthy behaviors and activities for the young people in our community. This will have tremendous long term effects on the quality of our community’s life.

We are very excited to be a small part of this organization’s plans for 2012. As a Signs of Support Grant Recipient, they will receive marketing materials to improve awareness of their events in our community.

To get involved, volunteer or donate to this incredible Evansville based non-profit organization, visit their website, youthfirstinc.org, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

About Signs of Support

The Signs of Support Grant program is intended to provide free and discounted signage to non-profit groups in Southwestern Indiana. For more information on applying for the annual grants, see our Signs of Support page.

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.