Scott Design won Silver and Bronze Summit International Creative Awards for Adobe Systems Education marketing campaigns.

Scott Design received a Silver Award for the Camp Adobe NECC Tradeshow Event Materials in the B2B Media Campaign category and a Bronze Award in the B2B Media Campaign category for the Adobe Digital School Collection Online Campaign.

The Summit Creative Award was created to recognize and celebrate the creative accomplishments of small and medium sized advertising agencies and other creative companies throughout the world with annual billings of under $30 million. Over the last decade, the competition has established itself as the premier arbiter of creative excellence for firms of this size.Using rigorous evaluative criteria, it is the only competition rewarding those firms truly deserving of top recognition for creativity. Submissions are evaluated based on the strength of their big idea, the quality of execution and their ability to communicate and persuade.

The Camp Adobe campaign also won a Silver ADDY Award and a Silver Davey Award.

The Adobe Digital School Collection online campaign also won a Bronze ADDY Award.

For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

In a recession, it is even more important than ever that your marketing strategy produces both immediate and long-lasting positive results. The key to successful development and implementation of a marketing strategy is to focus on a set of priorities and then ensure that all your marketing tactics directly support your priorities.

In order for your organization to be successful, the 4 most important priorities should be the following:

1. Increase your revenue: Your strategy should include marketing tactics that contribute directly to sales, including direct mail, advertising, e-commerce applications, tools for your sales force, animated demos, and other marketing pieces that can be used to get your message out to potential and existing customers.

2. Reduce your costs: Make a move to less-expensive forms of marketing, for example, relying more on e-mail than direct mail, buying online banner advertising instead of print advertising, developing online sales demos instead of sending salespeople to make pitches, improving your website content instead of relying on customer support call centers, and working on SEO instead of using pay-per-click advertising to get found by online searchers.

3. Increase your market share: A well-implemented marketing strategy includes ways to make it easier for customers to find your solutions and be converted into customers. Loyalty, referral, and recommendation programs, along with awareness marketing tactics can bring more people into contact with your solutions, and help existing customers find more solutions of value to them. Additionally, making the sales process easier for the customer by storing information and pre-filling online forms and landing pages removes the barriers to repeat purchases.

4. Increase shareholder value: Knowing your target market, what their “pain points” are, and what solutions they are seeking can help you with product development. Keep an eye on user forums, make sure your marketing and development teams get up-to-date feedback from customer support and sales teams, and look for opportunities to capture new markets within your industry. There may be another problem that you can help your customers solve with a new product or solution that you can develop.

Although there are countless pressures during difficult economic times, marketers who keep their eye on their priorities will emerge even stronger from the downturn than their competition.

AdAge takes a look at mobile advertising and its best uses today. In the current economic downturn, the instant response offered by mobile computing, including click-to-call and click-to-SMS, offer the concrete results advertisers are demanding for their investments. Screen sizes and resolutions are still too small to offer a true branding experience on mobile, though mobile advertising can be an effective part of a bigger overall marketing program. To read more, take a look at the full AdAge article, “Recession May Move Mobile Away From Branding.”

As Silicon Valley companies think about how to market during these challenging times, there’s something to be learned from the challenges that the American car companies currently face. For example, most recently we have heard that General Motors has bailed out of its contract with Tiger Woods, who has appeared in Buick advertisements for several years. The official story is that Tiger wants to spend more time with his family and he’s cutting back on his business engagements, but most assume that GM is making every move to cut back on expenses and hold on to cash.

GM is making the right move, but it needs to go even further in revising its advertisements during these tough economic times. GM, along with Ford and Chrysler, must create ads that more clearly explain to American consumers why they should stick with the Big 3. Executives flying to Washington D.C. in private jets to ask for $25 billion in loans did not do the trick!

For television, print, and online ads…lose the glitz and stop trying to appeal to consumers’ innermost desires (for a fast, cool, and powerful car). The usual “car zipping along a mountain road” ad won’t cut it. Those days are over. Every ad needs to directly address consumers’ pain points: What they want is better gas mileage, improved safety, better-built cars (with less maintenance costs)…all at a value that rivals foreign imports.

Anything that veers from these pain points needs to be de-emphasized or removed completely. And give us a hint of the future…maybe have an ad showing a factory being re-tooled to build next-generation, fuel-efficient cars. No more celebrities, no more style over substance – inform and persuade. It’s time for the Big 3 and their ad agencies to get back to basics.

And our marketing here in Silicon Valley should focus on the basics as well: Clearly and concisely explain in all your materials – website, social media pages, e-mails, landing pages, solutions demos, eNewsletters, and banner ads – how your solutions solve the business challenges that most concern your customers. Focus on your customers’ pain points and educate them about your role in dealing with that pain – and cut anything that veers from that main focus.