What’s that beat reverberating through the halls at Riester? It’s the sound of celebration after two wins at the prestigious Drum Awards, which were announced on the evening of June 5th. The Drum, a leading global publisher for the marketing and media industries, hosts its international competition annually. Ahead of this year’s gala event in New York City, jurors from around the world awarded our “Green Means Go” campaign – not once, but twice – with Gold in the Sustainability category and Bronze for Government or Public Sector work. As a ‘best of the best’ international competition judged by an assembly of top-notch creative professionals, we’re honored by this worldwide recognition – and proud to share the spotlight with our clients at the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA); and our partners/stakeholders at California’s investor-owned utility companies, Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas®), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E®), Southern California Edison (SCE®), and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E®) who have embraced and amplified the campaign statewide.

The “Green Means Go” campaign educates Californians about accessible, highly competitive financing for energy efficiency upgrades, and includes a website that provides direct access to contractors and lenders with terms that provide more residents and business owners with the opportunity to invest in their homes and businesses – while taking collective action in the fight against climate change.

By collaborating with the amazing Jeremyville Studios, “Green Means Go” is filled with colorful Californian settings and characters, thoughtfully imagined with the state’s geographic and demographic diversity in mind. This creative detail is paying off, evident in click-through rates and overall campaign performance to date.

Since the campaign’s launch, more Californians than ever have been taking advantage of this unique program compared to the year prior, and our team is currently outpacing expectations for 2024. Recently, GoGreen Financing reached a significant milestone, with more than $100 million distributed for residential projects – and it truly feels like that’s only the beginning.

Our little GoGreen character keeps making us proud. This is not only to help thousands of Californians access financing for sustainable home and business renovations but also to advance to the American Advertising Federation’s regional ADDY awards. Now, he’s even made it into Communications Arts magazine’s Illustration Annual 65. Looking good, little green guy. We know you won’t stop til every home and business in California is as green as you are!

CAEATFA, Riester, And Jeremyville Studios Collaborate

The GoGreen Project was commissioned by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA). The aim of the project was to promote GoGreen Financing, which is an initiative designed to give more Californians access to loans that will help them make their homes and businesses more comfortable and sustainable. That means upgrading things like appliances, HVAC systems, and lighting solutions to make California a greener state.

The collaboration with Jeremyville Studios created an illustrated and animated vision of California that reflects the state’s vast diversity. We wanted to show California’s diversity through fun, funky, and familiar settings and characters that Californians from all walks of life could relate to. The result was a series of characters and settings that were not only attractive and unusual but felt familiar and inclusive to Californians from all walks of life.

How GoGreen Helped California Be More Sustainable

Financing and planning home or business remodels can be a huge pain. This project makes it easy – and even fun. It’s all about encouraging people to make their homes and businesses more energy-efficient, a win for both the environment and the wallet!

The “Green Means Go” campaign doubled online engagement, increased website views by 70% and even boosted loan applications by 65%. Did that help CAEATFA reach its overall goals? Not even close… They exceeded them by a whopping 240%!

GoGreen Financing Project Showcased in Communication Arts Magazine

Teaming up with the folks at Jeremyville Studios and the visionary clients at CAEATFA was something truly special. Not only have we crafted a killer message, but we’re also making a real impact on a sustainable future for all Californians. Visit https://www.gogreenfinancing.com/.

It’s May, the flowers are blooming, and the Riester team is busy celebrating the launch of a newly revitalized brand so near-and-dear to us, we let our skis and snowboards collect (a little) dust this winter as we helped an amazing group of clients bring it to life.

Hundreds of leaders from the Park City and Summit County, Utah community gathered to preview and celebrate the new brand for the city: Mountainkind.

The travel and tourism sector has seen big changes in the 20 years since Park City’s last major rebrand – and so has the town itself. Retiring Boomers and the rise of remote work – among many other factors – have contributed to booms in development and visitation alike. For residents, Chamber partners and visitors, “sustainable tourism” is no longer a buzzword – it’s a necessity – and one that goes right to the heart of the new brand.

Who are the Mountainkind?

Some were born in the mountains. Others simply visit when they hear the mountains’ call. They long to feel humble under towering alpine pines, or get inspired by the commanding view from a summit. And whether they’re longtime Park City locals or just visiting for the first time, Mountainkind speaks to a community that revolves around nature, seeks outdoor adventure, small-town culture, and brings a commitment to preserving everything that makes Park City and Summit County Utah so special.

With this new brand, Park City is happily inviting folks with the Mountainkind spirit in their soul – as well as those drawn in by the great vibes.

And now that the brand is launched, a whole lot of us here at Riester are ready to break out our spring hiking boots and mountain bikes in celebration.

Riester Clients Win Big at the 2024 American Advertising Awards

Riester’s commitment to developing breakthrough creative that changes behavior was rewarded nine times at Friday night’s Phoenix 2024 American Advertising Awards Gala, including three coveted Gold Awards for excellence.

The annual competition, held by the American Advertising Federation, is the nation’s largest and most representative advertising competition, with locally-awarded Gold Addy recipient work forwarded on to regional and then national competition for continued recognition.

This year’s award-winning work spanned several industries.

Riester client, The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) received four awards for excellence for Riester’s animated “Green Means Go” campaign. 

Designed to help California business, home, and multi-family owners obtain low-interest loans for energy-efficient upgrades in support of the state’s decarbonization and electrification goals, CAEATFA’s “Green Means Go” campaign was awarded in multiple channels and executions, including:

For digital excellence, CAEATFA and Riester received the Gold Award for the GoGreen Financing website. In the single Illustration category, the GoGreen Financing California Map won Silver. Finally, the “Green Means Go” campaign was awarded two Bronze Awards for excellence in both the campaign’s four :15 second animated commercials and for orchestration of the regional integrated advertising campaign.

Following on the heels of Riester’s redesign of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport website, Riester’s continued work with the City of Phoenix Aviation Department received a Gold Award for excellence in the Poster Campaign category.

Riester client SkiPro was recognized twice, including a Gold Award for consumer website for “The Avalanche Sale” website and a Bronze Award for logo design for the ski and snowboard company’s brick-and-mortar annual ski sale.

For Riester consumer packaged goods client Quest Products, the OTC healthcare products company received a Silver Award in the Television Advertising Regional/National category for Riester’s “Rock On” campaign.

Finally, on behalf of the AZ Health Care Cost Containment System, Riester was awarded a Bronze award for Public Service Online/Interactive for the social media posts in Riester’s “TalkHeals ‘Smile'” public awareness campaign, with the aim of reducing substance misuse among Arizona’s youth.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has completed its procurement process for the production and broadcast of candidate debates in 2024 and announced the selection of Riester in partnership with the Arizona Media Association (AMA) as the successful contractor. The collaborative proposal from Riester and the AMA —engineered to professionally produce debates for the U.S. Senate and Congressional, as well as Corporation Commission races for the 2024 primary and general elections—ensures optimal technologies, processes and productions for media outlets everywhere in Arizona that broadcast debates. The ultimate task for Riester and the AMA is to ensure the debates are available to all voters in every corner of the state. 

“In this new age of misinformation, Riester is highly motivated and honored to work with the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and the AMA’s hundred’s of media members statewide to produce the most professional, technically-sound debates that deliver uncensored and unedited candidate exchanges in English and Spanish to the communities they are competing to serve,” said Riester Founder and CEO, Tim Riester.

For more than two decades, Clean Elections has been the state’s only nonpartisan debate sponsor successfully producing hundreds of local, state, and federal debates. As a recognized voter education leader, Clean Elections is focused year-after-year on improving voter information accessibility and creating tools to support informed participation in elections.

“Many Arizona races are already a national topic, and the expectation is set for debates that provide visibility into the plans and policies of candidates,” said Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins. “Voters rely on Clean Elections to provide candidate debates that are nonpartisan, accessible, and fair. Our final decision on a partner for debates was guided by these principles, while keeping in mind a second, equally critical audience: members of the media who are stewards of civic engagement and providers of information to voters.” 

The selection of a debates production and broadcast partner is a key component to debates planning which started months ago and began with the evaluation of Arizona debate processes conducted by the Citizens Clean Elections Candidate Debates Work Group in 2023. The group summarized its findings in anticipation of the 2024 debates and will be referenced as plans are crystalized by Riester and the AMA. 

“When it comes to stimulating conversation among voters, nothing compares to debates which is why we have been working on them since last year,” said Clean Elections Voter Education Director Gina Roberts. “We believe that the combined competencies of Riester and the AMA are solid footing to produce debates that will reach all voters and give all candidates a level playing field to make their case to their constituencies.” 

“We are committed to the most successful debate season possible,” said Arizona Media Association President and CEO Chris Kline. “We have been allies on other important public awareness initiatives with both Clean Elections and Riester, and because of that, this new partnership is incredibly exciting. This relationship will allow us to make every debate available to hundreds of local media brands on radio, TV, in partnership with newspapers and across countless digital platforms with the goal of reaching every voter in our state.”  

About the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (Clean Elections)

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission was established by Arizona voters to restore citizen participation and confidence in Arizona’s political system, to improve the integrity of State government and to promote freedom of speech under the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions. Visit www.azcleanelections.gov to learn more. 

About the AMA 

The Arizona Media Association is a 501-c(6) non-profit corporation that acts as the official trade association for Arizona’s local radio, TV, print and digital industry. Its mission is to futureproof Arizona local media and protect its critical role in community connection. The Arizona Media Association also underwrites the Arizona Local News Foundation to connect communities with more local news and information. Membership includes more than 350 radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, digital operations and associate groups.  Visit www.azmedia.org for more information.

About Riester

Driven by humanity, the founders of Riester innately care and as a result have created a passionate creative marketing company that understands, appeals and connects to peoples’ emotions to drive change. Composed of culturally diverse, internationally experienced, thought-provoking people, this studious, collaborative, talented and open-minded group is in the constant pursuit of creating more impactful campaigns. This has led to Riester being recognized by AdAge among the 20 Hottest Creative Shops to Watch in America and PRWeek awarding its Campaign of the Year honors to Riester. 

Riester is proud of its reputation as an expert in campaigns that truly connect with people’s emotions and motivate their positive behavior change. Our expertise in healthcare services, public health education and prevention, pharmaceuticals, educational attainment, voter education, consumer packaged goods and destination marketing was on full display at the 2023 ADDY Awards.

Riester won awards for the following clients and campaigns:

2023 Ad Person of the Year – Tom Ortega

The evening was made especially memorable when Riester co-owner and former chief creative officer Tom Ortega was recognized as Advertising Person of the Year, a recognition that reflects his magnificent creative career and extraordinary qualities as a mentor to so many talented creative professionals throughout the community.

Gold

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)

• Gold Addy for Animation, Special Effects & Motion Graphics: Substance Misuse Prevention TV

Silver

HonorHealth

• Silver Addy for Music: Metronome TV Commercial
• Silver Addy for Local Television Campaign: “Neuroscience Institute Campaign”

Talking Stick Resort

• Silver Addy for Installations: “Putt & Spin”

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)

• Silver Addy for Public Service Radio Commercial: “Breathing Exercise”
• Silver Addy for Regional/National Television Commercial: “Smile”

Arizona Department of Health Services

• Silver Addy for Public Service Television Commercial: “What Kind Are You”

Shmush

• Silver Addy for Animation: “Dog Health Biscuits TV”

Elevated Education

• Silver Addy for Animation Special Effects & Motion Graphics: “Brain Doodle”

Idaho Department of Health & Welfare

• Silver Addy for Public Service Campaign: “Idahoans Have a Choice”

Bronze

Talking Stick Resort

• Bronze Addy for Regional/National Television Commercial: “Turn It On – Beat”
• Bronze Addy for Regional/National Television Commercial: “Turn It On – Lights”

City of El Segundo California

• Bronze Addy for Regional/National Integrated Consumer Campaign: “Start Here” 

HonorHealth

• Bronze Addy for Local Television Commercial: “Loom”
• Bronze Addy for Local Television Commercial: “Metronome”

Arizona Department of Health Services

• Bronze Addy for Integrated Public Service Campaign: “What Kind Are You”

Global Blood Therapeutics

• Bronze Addy for Public Service Online Film: “Sickle Cell Speaks – Oxygen”

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS)

• Bronze Addy for Regional/National Television Commercial: “Bed”
• Bronze Addy for Regional/National Radio Commercial: “Connecting”

Citizens Clean Elections Commission

• Bronze Addy for Animation, Special Effects, Motion Graphics: “Maze”

Conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation, the ADDYs are the nation’s largest and most representative advertising competition. The annual show attracts hundreds of entries every year.

Since 2015, Riester has been a Google Premier Partner and a member of the Google Analytics Certified partner program (GACP). Riester was also a North American finalist for the 2018 Premier Partner Search Innovation Award. 

Recently, the Google Partners program has undergone significant changes for 2022, including redefining what it means to be a Premier Partner through new, advanced program requirements including rigorous certification testing across a wide range of Google products. Riester is proud to announce that we have been selected once again as a Google Premier Partner for 2022 under this updated and even more competitive program. With this status, we have been designated as being in the top 3% of agencies in North America demonstrating advanced acumen throughout the Google suite from Google Ads to Google Analytics/GA4, Optimize, DV360 and more. 

For clients, this verification is evidence of our long-standing track record of providing high levels of expert digital marketing guidance and service. Furthermore, this partnership enables us to receive more support and value from Google in the form of product betas, industry insights and trend reporting, all of which benefits Riester’s clients. 

“Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online.” – Davang Shah, Senior Director, Google Ads Marketing

RIESTER is a 2022 Premier Partner. RIESTER is among one of the top companies within its country and has met all of the Partner requirements.

Riester’s ‘My Time’ commercial for Global Blood Therapeutics’ (GBT) Oxbryta is the first-ever branded television commercial created specifically to highlight a new sickle cell disease therapy. Sickle cell is a condition that disproportionately impacts the Black community in the U.S. and around the world. It is a complex, debilitating disease and people who live with this condition often must also overcome the stigma associated with it. GBT’s new therapy, Oxbryta, is the first and only treatment option available for sickle cell patients that treats the disease at the source and works to prevent the sickling process.

Production of the ‘My Time’ commercial was entirely guided by the real experiences of sickle cell patients who have seen positive results from taking Oxbryta. Experiences that Riester’s research team heard first-hand from patients, some of whom were cast for this commercial. The 60-second commercial aims to encourage all sickle cell patients to imagine the possibilities that come with the use of the oral therapy Oxbryta, summarized in a simple phrase: “It’s your time to experience less sickling.”

On May 1, 2021, Riester purchased Moses Inc., an integrated marketing firm with a three-and-a-half-decade reputation for exceptional creative work locally and nationally. The move provides additional resources for Moses’ current clients and brings Riester added depth and experience in tourism, gaming, hospitality, healthcare, transportation and fashion industry products.

“We successfully helped our clients grow to the point of needing more resources than Moses could provide on its own,” said Moses’ founder and newly appointed Riester Senior Creative Partner, Louie Moses.

“After years of guiding clients to make unique and original creative decisions, it was time to make a bold business decision of my own, one that I know will position our clients stronger immediately and beyond.”

Louie Moses will play a proactive role in smoothly transitioning Moses’ existing clients to Riester, using his experience to advance Riester’s clients and mentor staff members.

“Our acquisition of Moses speaks volumes about our positive outlook on the future,” said Riester Founder and CEO, Tim Riester.

“We have been admiring Louie’s brilliant work for decades and believe advertising companies focused on strategic and creative communications will be positioned best for success after this unprecedented time in our industry’s history.”

Combining the two firms is a testament to the longtime respect between Riester and Moses, two of the most competitive, creative shops in the southwest.

We are grateful for our amazing clients, as well as our dedicated production partners, who all share in Riester’s 2021 American Advertising Federation Awards. This year’s winning lineup includes six Gold, two Silver and four Bronze Addys. They are each extra special given the whirlwind of a year which pushed us to reimagine how we work, but never compromised the quality of what we sought to create.

Once again Riester proved its abilities across multiple industries from public health communications and tourism marketing to consumer services and more. It’s a privilege to present this year’s award-winning work below.

Aunt Rita’s Foundation

HIV Testing Brochure – Bronze

Talking Stick Resort

Play in Style – Integrated – Gold

Elements of Advertising, Photography – Gold

Truly Nolen

“No Escape” Integrated Campaign – Gold

“No Escape” Campaign, Elements of Advertising, Music – Gold

“No Escape” TV Commercial – Gold

Carlisle Companies

ESG Website – Bronze

Arizona Together

“Tougher Than Covid” Integrated Campaign – Silver

Park City Chamber of Commerce/Convention & Visitors Bureau

“Dig Deep” Print – Bronze

“Winter’s Favorite Town” Print Campaign – Silver

A

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

“Personalities” TV – Gold

Riester

Holiday Party Poster – Bronze