Riester is proud to announce that our client, the Arizona Lottery, has been awarded a prestigious honor from the National Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). In September, NASPL, which serves as the guiding organization for the nation’s lottery programs, presented its “Best Website Award” for 2019 to the Arizona Lottery. Riester recently completed a redesign of the Arizona Lottery website creating a compelling user experience relevant to existing Lottery players by combining the power of real-time data, mobile behavior and consumer-focused website design. The award recognizes excellence in offering players valuable Internet information for improved player behavior, enhancing the Lottery’s image and player loyalty.

Riester’s vibrant and simple design was built upon the Umbraco content management system enabling content to be added ad hoc in a modular format without limiting the Arizona Lottery team to a specific design template. In order to educate Arizona residents, greater emphasis was placed on storytelling as a way of conveying how Arizona Lottery revenues positively impact the state’s population.

Riester’s website redesign for the Arizona Lottery contained more than 55 games and video promotions as well as content structured to teach new game players how to play and also give experienced game players immediate access to critical information like winning numbers. To drive gameplay revenue, cross-promotions were strategically designed to entice all visitors to explore new games and game types directly from critical information pages.

Needless to say, our Arizona Lottery client was beyond pleased with the honor. “The entire Riester team has excelled in strategizing and developing a website that is intentional, user-friendly and visually pleasing,” said Arizona Lottery Marketing Manager Shelby Alessi. “We are so proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish with Riester as our partner. While this award only recognizes the site from a player perspective, Riester also deserves recognition for providing a CMS solution that has made our day-to-day management of the website so much better.”

Built as a responsive website design, the new layout and navigation structure were coded by Riester to adjust automatically and appear in the most visually appealing and functionally relevant format tailored for the device on which the website is displayed. Mobile navigation was optimized for small mobile device screens, easily getting players to the information they seek with a simple slide of a finger.

Using custom-built document types for games that tied directly into the Arizona Lottery API, the website always displays real-time game data. Using the Arizona Lottery API data, the website displays a “Jackpot Alert” promotion on the website homepage whenever a game reaches a pre-determined jackpot driving visitors to participate.

We consider this a win-win for the Arizona Lottery and Riester!

Category innovator expands Riester’s in-house expertise

Growth by acquisition has been a core Riester strategy since it was founded. This month marks the firm’s 30th year in business, making the acquisition of Santy–a regional, full-service advertising and public relations agency–especially timely. Over the years, Riester and Santy have been friendly competitors with a shared commitment to stellar work and best-in-class client service.

Today, Riester gains all of Santy’s full-time employees, including experts in strategic planning, digital, creative and public relations. The firm is also delighted to welcome Santy’s top-notch clients in the categories of consumer-packaged goods, construction, communications, commercial and residential heating and cooling, dining and entertainment, social issue and healthcare marketing.

“We have always had tremendous respect for Dan and admired the advertising and public relations work his team created at Santy,” said Riester Founder and CEO Tim Riester. “Since early in 2019, Riester has been fortunate to earn a significant number of new clients, and adding Santy’s talented staff will help support that growth. Riester also has a deep expertise in the Santy client industries, making this move an immediate value for everyone.”

Founder of Santy and newly appointed Riester senior partner, Dan Santy, said, “There is no better group suited for the future of our current employees and for the continued success of our clients. Work will continue uninterrupted, and starting April 1, our clients will have instantaneous access to expanded services and resources from Riester. This includes additional executive-level perspective on their business with Riester’s experienced and established partners.”

Beginning April 1, 2019, Santy’s Scottsdale, Arizona – based staff will integrate into Riester’s Phoenix office, and Santy’s Brea, California – based staff will maintain that office and work in support of Riester’s Los Angeles office.

Youth voter education campaign wins ‘Best in Public Sector’ campaign

Riester and client the Citizens Clean Elections Commission were triumphant at the annual PRWeek Awards which celebrates the best of the best corporate, agency, nonprofit, and government PR teams and the work they produced during the entry period. The team won the top PRWeek Award in the nation for the ‘18 in 2018’ youth voter education campaign in the category of ‘Best in Public Sector’ campaigns. Only 45 trophies are awarded each year across all categories of competition, so each one is truly special.

Riester and Citizens Clean Elections Commission competed against the best of the best national brands and agencies, including Procter & Gamble’s “Always” feminine products “Period Poverty Campaign” which received runner-up honors and “HPV Vaccination is Cancer Prevention” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and “Covered In Art” by Covered California Fifth Open Enrollment.

Following the award presentation, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Voter Education Director Gina Robers said, “We are ecstatic to bring the PRWeek Award for ‘Best in Public Sector Campaigns’ for ’18 in 2018’ home to Arizona. Shining light on the importance of civic involvement before a national audience of industry leaders was gratifying. We will continue to challenge ourselves to best meet the needs of voters and are already collaborating with Riester on the next big idea to increase voter participation in our state.”

The origins of the ‘18 in 2018’ campaign came from Riester’s idea to capitalize on the last two digits of the year ‘18’ as a way of emphasizing that the legal voting age is 18. It quickly evolved into a multifaceted campaign that combined art and technology. Specifically, knowing that street art and social media were definite subcultures for this age group and a way to engage this audience, Riester designed the campaign centerpiece—an art installation of 10’ x 10’ multi-colored wings combined with an augmented reality (AR) mobile experience that led people to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission website to register to vote. With a few clicks on an app and a unique QR code, the wings begin to move and the person appears to be on the verge of taking flight; and why the mural is called Take Flight, with an implied: with your vote. The mural continues to be hugely popular and will continue to animate with AR through 2019. There have been thousands of pictures and videos taken at Take Flight installed in the Phoenix arts district as well as a popular concert venue in Tucson, Arizona. This win is especially meaningful to Riester, as the company marks its 30th year in business.

2019 Graphis International Advertising Annual awards excellence in design and imagery

When the 2019 Graphis Advertising Annual is published, Riester will have two campaigns featured. The Text 2 Quit Poster Series for Arizona Department of Health Services won Gold. And the EōS Fitness Brand Poster Series won Silver.

Known as an international bastion of excellence in design and visual imagery, Graphis reviewed entries from Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and North America. The Riester entries, which also won Addys from the American Advertising Federation, will be featured among some of the most well-known brands in the world.

“Both of these campaigns are based on strong ideas that are expressed through bold, clean design,” said Tom Ortega, Riester’s Chief Creative Officer. “We are grateful that these great clients gave us the opportunity to do this level of work.”

The Text 2 Quit Poster Series was part of a groundbreaking outreach program to initiate tobacco cessation through texting between tobacco users and quit coaches. The EōS Fitness Poster Series helped launch an all-new brand for the growing gym franchise. It also featured the photography of Blair Bunting and photo retouching of Randy Geske.

Along with advertising, Graphis judges and produces annuals for many other categories, including design, logos, photography, typeface design and branding. The online list of winners can be seen here.

Throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, David Robb established himself as a creative mastermind with such advertising agencies as Phillips-Ramsey and EvansGroup. When he joined forces with Tim Riester in 1996 to form Riester~ROBB, he put his fearless brilliance to work to inspire award-winning campaigns that pushed the boundaries of creative thinking and changed lives forever. This included one of the nation’s most successful anti-tobacco campaigns, known by generations to this day for its unforgettable tagline, “Tumor-causing, teeth-staining, smelly, puking, habit.” Throughout his amazing career, he was an illustrator, art director, creative director, commercial film director, and the best damn creative presenter who ever stood in front of a critical panel of clients.

The shelves of Riester are filled with awards that represent the work of Dave Robb and the teams he formed and led. Yet more than anything, it is his resonant passion for great work that continues to inspire us.

The Google Premier Partner Awards seek to identify the very best uses of Google products in digital marketing campaigns across the globe. In 2018, numerous submissions were considered by Google Partner judges before selecting Riester’s digital marketing internet search campaign for Truly Nolen to be among six finalists in North America. As the only finalist headquartered in the Western U.S., represented in the category of Search Innovation, Riester is humbled by the accolade but points to its strategic and creative partnership with the leaders of Truly Nolen for this success.

Three things are non-negotiable when it comes to digital marketing: content, strategy and adjustments in real-time.

Content

In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma raged across the state of Florida setting records as the strongest Atlantic storm on record outside the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. While Florida residents scrambled for safety, so did insects and rodents – taking harbor in homes and commercial structures across the state. Truly Nolen needed to help its customers and employees through this unprecedented emergency.

Strategy

Riester crafted a three-prong communications plan to:

• inform existing customers that Truly Nolen would be closed during the storm and unable to service appointments that had been scheduled;
• tell potential customers that Truly Nolen’s employees would be returning to serve them after caring for their own families during the storm; and
• educate the public about post-storm recovery best practices related to insects and rodents.

Adjustments in Real-Time

Riester activated an original campaign that used the Google ecosystem of products to quickly target and distribute Truly Nolen’s educational information during the storm. In fact, Hurricane Irma was the #1 top trending Google search term of 2017 in the U.S. and globally according to Search Engine Land. By using Google Analytics, Riester and Truly Nolen were able to monitor, adjust and improve the campaign in real time, and help thousands of Truly Nolen customers prevent a tragic hurricane from leaving a pest infestation in its wake.

Riester is a part of a select group of digital marketing specialists that Google celebrates as Premier Partners. Being a Premier Partner requires a commitment to not only learning the ins and outs of the newest products, but also applying them to solve problems and create opportunities. Riester’s digital media experts pass a series of exams to prove their ability is up to Google’s highest standards.

All of us at Riester have known for years that Mirja is a great innovator, strategist and motivator. On Saturday, March 5, the American Advertising Federation recognized her inspiring leadership by naming her the 2016 Advertising Person of the Year.

As devout members of the Mirja Riester Fan Club, we can tell you this was long overdue. And in addition to the pride we felt for her as she walked up to accept the award, we were celebrating what had already turned into a huge night for Riester.

Out of almost 600 entries, we won Best of Show for the DeNoble Files, a fully integrated anti-smoking campaign that was created for The Arizona Department of Health Services. And two Riester teams were recognized for Art Director and Copywriter of the Year. An award that is traditionally earned by individuals, Riester was recognizedfor its team effort on the DeNoble campaign. These teams included Ben Dveirin, Greg Trotter, Aaron Smitthipong and Andrew Enzweiler for Art Direction. And Troy Pottgen, Victor DeNoble, Bernadette Smith, David Kovacs and Tom Ortega for Copywriting.

In all, Riester carried home eight Gold Addys, 11 Silver and one Bronze. Plus we are very proud that an additional Gold and two Silvers were won by Riester production partners for work done on our behalf.

The healthcare marketing environment can be crowded and indistinguishable. One brand’s message can be interchangeable with the next. HonorHealth tasked Riester RX with clearly distinguishing its brand with a new campaign. So, to trumpet the fact that HonorHealth provides the very best care from compassionate professionals, Riester went with an artful interpretation. These are messages we were honored to tell.