Oh, you work in advertising? Allow me to show you the door.

How a new business model transcends a poor economy

If you’ve ever needed a barometer for the state of the U.S. economy, you don’t have to look further than the advertising industry. On the whole, we are one of the first industries to get taken down by an economic downturn, and one of the last to recover. It’s one of the main reasons this career can feel so stressful — aside from the knowledge that you could walk into work one day to find out that a client has disappeared, and your job along with it, you also have to contend with …

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Advertising, Ad agency, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Philanthropic advertising, Full Service Advertising, Marketing
A Note from Our Creative Director Regarding Race in Advertising

Addressing the lack of diversity in one of our biggest communication mediums

I’ve never been more aware of racial inequality than I am right now, and I suspect the same is true for a lot of people in our country. I’m learning about the experiences of people who don’t look like me, reading about a history of injustice that was missing from my classrooms, and exploring a world outside my personal sphere. We, as Americans, are witnessing a long-overdue

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Advertising, Ad agency, Marketing, george floyd, Winston Salem Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising
Spread the Word about Not Spreading the Virus

How advertising companies, agencies, firms and freelancers can help

Advertising is the ideal barometer for the state of the economy. Marketing budgets tend to be the first thing to go when an economic downturn hits, and those same budgets are often the last thing to come back. In a sense, if advertising companies, agencies, firms and freelancers are doing well as a whole, it’s safe to say the economy is doing well too. But when you see agency layoffs everywhere …

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Advertising, Ad agency, Local Ad Agency, Philanthropic advertising, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, Marketing, COVID-19, coronavirus, direct mail
Coronaviral Marketing: Doing our Part in a Pandemic

Helping agencies, businesses and philanthropic institutions fulfill their missions

Well, here we are. This is a highly strange time for all of us. The kids are home, and we’re doing our best to help them keep up their studies. College students are back home with their parents. Businesses are shutting their doors or adjusting they way they operate. Agencies are adjusting their flows to work away from their offices. Philanthropic groups are working hard to figure out they are going to help in this time of …

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RT FerrellAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Advertising, Ad agency, Local Ad Agency, Philanthropic advertising, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, Marketing, Copywriting, coronavirus
Our Small Advertising Company Has Big News

UpperNinety is Proud to Partner with Kaplan Early Learning Company!

Last December, UpperNinety was invited to participate in its first RFP response. We’ve been working toward the next rung of the success ladder for nearly a year, and we were delighted that word of mouth helped us punch our ticket to the competition. That said, it was our first time going through the process as our own advertising company. We’ve all been a part of these things before under the roofs of ad agencies, but we’ve never run the operation on our own. The company that put out the RFP was Kaplan Early Learning Company …

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, branding, brand refresh, brand work, kaplan early learning company
Inspiration Delivers Work. And Vice Versa.

UpperNinety just upped the look of its website. Not a full refresh, but more than just subtle changes. The site is not even a year old, but we felt it could work a little harder if we introduced our specific blue, which until now had only be available on our business cards, envelopes, letterhead and other internal collateral. Now that you’re here, take a moment to survey the addition of orange and blue …

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RT FerrellAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising
Out of Scope Doesn't Mean Out of Luck

Why Cheating on Your Agency Isn’t Cheating at All

Out of scope. Those three little words can cost your business a lot of money when it comes to advertising agency fees. Obviously, they will happen when a project expands beyond its original parameters, and there’s often not much you can do about it — you’ve agreed to increase the breadth of the specific assignment. But what about when an entire project falls out of scope?

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Ad, Advertising, ad, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, out of scope
Privacy Policy: How We Act as Freelancers for Ad Agencies

Staying True to Ourselves While Staying True to Others

We’ve worked with agencies across North Carolina, as well as agencies in LA, Seattle, Chicago, Calgary and more. But a question we’ve received on occasion asks how another creative firm such as UpperNinety can be trusted with the information they’ll learn while working with another agency. We often work like freelancers, but we also have our own clients, so it’s fair to worry about us trying to poach your clients while working for you. And, let’s be honest: The inner workings, client confidentiality and business information of an ad agency requires privacy. So what makes us worthy of your trust?

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, Freelance, Freelancer, Copywriting, Design, Art Direction, Marketing
Avengers: Endgame and Being Open to Creative Input (Um ... Spoilers?)

Being Open to Creative Ideas from Everyone Involved

As Avengers: Endgame continues to decimate box office records and tries to unseat Avatar as the top grossing film ever, article after article is popping up to tell us about what it took to make the film, how well received it has been with both fans and critics, and what the actors themselves think about the experience of creating the film. But of all the articles …

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RT FerrellAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, collaboration
Philanthropic advertising: doing good versus doing well

Philanthropic organizations like trusts, nonprofits and foundations often don’t have heavy-hitting marketing partners unless they are a big, established group. When they have a new program or initiative, they make a bunch of calls and see who is available to handle their one-off project. There’s no maintained relationship, and therefore no growing understanding between agency and client to …

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Advertising, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, Philanthropic advertising
Full-service advertising in Winston-Salem, done differently

When it comes to full service advertising in Winston-Salem, there’s a few options (and many more throughout North Carolina, for that matter). You can find them spread out over town. If you’re a large business, you probably won’t have much trouble getting through the doors at any of them. If you’re a small business, things get a little harder — even more so for startups. And…

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Company, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Advertising, Marketing, Local Ad Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising
On Being an Advertising Company in Winston Salem

Learning by Doing: How Bucking the System Can Help You Stand Out

Wait. Advertising … Company … in Winston-Salem?

At UpperNinety, we pride ourselves on not being an ad agency. But one of our first thoughts when opening our doors was how people would receive a “not advertising agency” here in the Triad. If we insist on calling ourselves an idea collective, how will people and businesses discover us if the term “advertising agency” isn’t lighting up the SEO of our website?

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising Agency, Advertising Company, Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, North Carolina Advertising, Ad agency, Local Ad Agency
The Super Bowl and Timing Your Creative Risks

What is the cost of a risk?

Well, as I imagined creating this post last week, it had a completely different spin. What I wanted to talk about was the huge amounts of money spent on Super Bowl advertising. It’s the one time a year when businesses feel safe in their creative risk, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars

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RT FerrellUpperNinetySuper Bowl, Advertising, Advertising Agency, North Carolina Advertising, Winston Salem Advertising, Greensboro Advertising, Full Service Advertising, Ad agency, Local Ad Agency
Finding the Advertising Sweet Spot

Ad agencies are not the enemy. Each has its ups and downs, but to be surrounded by the energy and creativity that bursts from them is invigorating — even downright intoxicating. It’s truly remarkable to see the ideas that pop out of them on a daily basis, and being a part of that culture is often an enviable experience. Though we are no longer a day-to-day part of them, it sure is fun on the days we’re there.

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RT FerrellUpperNinetyAdvertising, Advertising Agency, Ad agency, Marketing, Winston Salem Advertising, North Carolina Advertising, Full Service Advertising