BMA-Minnesota April Event Highlights Importance of Branding in B2B Marketing

MINNEAPOLIS, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The rules have changed in naming and branding for B2B marketing in today's digital age.  To help B2B marketers understand the five converging trends and how to know if their brand will sink or swim, Minnesota chapter of the Business Marketing Association (BMA-Minnesota) will host "Brand Naming for the Digital Age" on April 20, 2010.

The session will be led by John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founders of Pollywog, a naming and branding agency in Minneapolis. Stucker has more than 15 years experience helping clients create and develop their brands. His work is the recipient of several awards from institutions such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and industry trade magazines, How and Print. Treadwell's 20 years of experience include work on many leading brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Home Video and 3M.  Her work has won several creative awards including The Show, The One Show and the Art Director's Club.

"Branding has evolved enormously over the years for B2B," said Heidi Wight, vice president of programming for BMA-Minnesota. "With more and more products and services vying for consumers' attention, a powerfully positioned name and brand will help a business compete and succeed in the future."

Pollywog's presentation will address:

• What a brand name needs to succeed in the digital age
• Converging Trends Affecting Naming for B2B Marketers
• Is your brand working for you or against you?

The event will be held on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley, Minn., and will run from 8 to 9 a.m.  Registration and breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m. The cost of the event is $30 for BMA members and $45 for non-members. Attendees can register online at www.bmaminnesota.org through April 16, 2010. There will be a limited number of walk-up registrations also available. A member's only networking event will follow immediately from 9 to 9:30 a.m.

About Pollywog:

Founded in 2007, Minneapolis-based Pollywog is an unconventional branding agency with a state-of-the-art naming process. Pollywog has overhauled the traditional approach to naming and developed the world's first patent-pending brand creation process. Its unique perspective grew out of the founders' experience as creative professionals working for some of the world's largest advertising and marketing agencies.

About John Stucker:

John has been helping clients create and evolve their brands for over 15 years. In addition to his naming and branding work, John's broad experience in design and advertising has helped him develop a rare facility with both visuals and words which ideally suits him to lead naming and branding projects. Before founding Pollywog, John created strategic communications in virtually every medium from brand identity to packaging, print ads to Web sites. John has worked as a consultant, art director and designer for a wide range of agencies including Campbell Mithun, Rapp Collins Worldwide and BBDO. His work has won awards from such institutions as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, How magazine and Print magazine, and his brand identity work has been published in Print's Best Logos.

About Devon Thomas Treadwell:

Prior to founding Pollywog, Devon had been an independent consultant and copywriter/associate creative director with some of the world's leading advertising agencies, including J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles, and Young & Rubicam, Bozell and Campbell Mithun in Chicago. Over the 20-year course of her career, Devon has worked on many leading brands, including the Walt Disney Company, Paramount Home Video, Coffee-mate, 3M, Southwestern Bell, @Home, Berlitz, Best Buy, Harmon AutoGlass and Mexicana Airlines. Her creative awards include The Show, The One Show, the Art Director's Club, the Gold Addy, Print's Regional Design Annual, the International Advertising Festival of New York, and others. Devon holds a Masters of Advertising from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

About Business Marketing Association

Business Marketing Association is the leading professional resource for business-to-business marketers and communicators. The organization develops and delivers services, information, skill enhancement, and networking opportunities that help its members grow, develop and succeed throughout their marketing careers. For more information on BMA-Minnesota, visit www.bmaminnesota.org.

SOURCE BMA-Minnesota