Rotolo Media Performs Direct Mail Campaign for Arthur Murray Dance Studios

Jennifer and Victor Holguin are good friends with Michael Rotolo and owners of the Arthur Murray Dance Studios franchise of Southampton, New York, playground to the rich and famous.
The Holguins approached Michael to conduct a direct mail campaign to take advantage of the upsurge in interest in dance after the appearance of television shows Dancing With Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, and movies like Strictly Ballroom.

We decided to go with a larger than standard postcard that would stand out among the mail better. We saved money by using stock photography that is supplied to the franchise by Arthur Murray Inc. corporate as part of the franchise package. By making the card itself a coupon for 2 free private dance lessons we monetized the piece with value beyond just an info piece of “junk mail” and gave people a reason to hold on to it. Rotolo Media also oversaw the mailing by contracting one of our affiliate mailing houses to label and mail each piece and comply the mailing as CASS sorted and certified to further save both postage costs and time through the mail system.

If you’re in the Southampton vicinity Jennifer and Victor would welcome you to stop by the studio and see what fun you can have through Arthur Murray Dance lessons. Contact them through ArthurMurray.com.

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

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Trikuti Hires Rotolo Media for Their Band Media Kit

When Trikuti, an enormously popular band with twenty-something Long Islanders, decided it was time to get serious about marketing themselves they asked Michael Rotolo for advice. One of the most important things he decided the band needed was the kind of media kit that they could proudly circulate to promote themselves. Bands that are seeking representation, air-play, and of course a deal with a major label, need to present themselves in a professional manner.

Trikuti band leader and lead singer, Scott Seader, understood this and put his trust in Rotolo Media. Although its all about the music when it comes down to it, if your not taken seriously and your demo never gets a listen, then what’s the point. Scott appreciated the need to put together a media kit that would distinguish the band from the myriad other home-baked discs that come across the desks of radio-station DJs, and record-label execs everyday. Its important for bands to understand that while they may be consummate musical artists they should seek the talents of a graphic artist to package their work and create attractive collateral printed materials to help the band gain notoriety.

Michael Rotolo had a ball in the studio with the band encouraging the guys, who had never done a photo-shoot before, to loosen up and get a bit zany. We cranked up the music and just had the guys get as kinetic as possible while Michael shot upwards of 200 frames. It was a fun afternoon and yielded a lot of great moments on “film” that the band will use for printed pieces, swag and their web photo gallery. We settled on creating a 4/1 glossy piece that shows the band in color on the front and then a description of the band and members on the reverse in black and white.

The piece is inserted unfolded into black folders with slits for holding the cd featuring four of their best songs to present to record labels and radio stations. When mailing to newspapers, fans, etc. the piece can be folded down in half with the cd in a glassine sleeve. For Trikuti this project was a necessary investment in their future, for not much more than a good amp, Scott made the decision to have Rotolo Media handle an important part of crafting their visual image. Now that we have some nice pieces under our belt and some good photos, the creation of additional printed materials such as posters, postcards, t-shirts, and other swag will be easy and the expense will be minimal.

To save the band some expense we decided it was best to supply them with print-ready PDF files that they could take to any Kinkos and print these pieces as they needed. The cd art was furnished as a 2-up template corresponding to an Avery cd label.

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

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Kristen Boyce Swags It With Rotolo Media

Its no secret that Michael Rotolo loves live music. So when one of his favorite local New York City country and soul music stars Kristen Boyce needed a t-shirt design he was all over it. Kristen’s known for singing her heart out and getting her fans to also so it was only natural to come out with the design you see here. Support this local fast-rising star and purchase her album From Detroit to Nashville here at CDBaby.com.

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

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Brigitte Designs Produces Direct Mail Piece With The Help of Rotolo Media

Dave Stetson and his wife Brigitte, owners of Brigitte Designs, wanted to reach jewelers with the news of their newly imported line of sapphire jewelry. Brigitte Stetson designs and manufactures overseas this gorgeous line called the Rainbow collection. This collection is comprised of pieces made entirely of naturally occurring colored sapphires. The sapphires are meticulously chosen and placed to create a gradual rainbow gradation across the length of the bracelets and the solitaires are explosive with colorful radiance.

Dave and Brigitte asked Rotolo Media to design a mailer showcasing in a very spartan manner this beautiful collection. They wanted an utterly clean design with nothing to distract from the pieces themselves. We decided to produce the piece as an oversized postcard of 5.5 x 8.5 inches with a high gloss aqueous coat for a nice sheen and to pop the photography. The pieces were photographed against a white background but were further silhouetted in pre-press to display crisply against the white background of the coated stock.

The Scriptina typeface was chosen for its graceful lines and carefully hand-kerned to complement the elegance of the jewelry collection. Rotolo Media was able to help Brigitte Designs save critical advertsing dollars by brokering the printing through one of our many trade-only wholesale printing sources. See these beautiful pieces at their website BrigitteDesigns.com.

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

Posts are available as content for your newsletter, website, or blog with permission and terms. Contact Rotolo Media for details.