by Jonathan Marshall

COVERPLAY, Jacob Tyler’s web design and brand strategy client and now Shark Tank entrepreneurs appeared on ABC’s hit TV show The Shark Tank last night. COVERPLAY business partners, Allison Costa and Amy Feldman impressed the Shark Tank investors with their business savvy and the potential of their product. COVERPLAY had the investors scrambling to come up with competing investment offers in the company.

Feldman and Costa created a sanitary cover that is used to cover a child’s play pen to protect them from bacteria and illness. The original idea came to Costa while staying in hotels with her twin babies, she realized there is a definite need for a slipcover to go over a child’s playpen. The inferior playpen provided by many hotels were full of germs and stains. Jacob Tyler Creative Group created the COVERPLAY brand and filmed the Video and pitch that was used to land their Shark Tank debut.

Feldman and Costa initially asked the Sharks for $350k for a 15% stake in their company. In the Shark Tank, the two San Diego business women had multiple ensuing offers from the Sharks, including attempts from all three investors at upwards of $500,000. Finally Allison and Amy chose to go with Barbara Corcoran, who offered $350,000 at 40% interest in the company.

XTERRA Wetsuits approached Jacob Tyler in late 2008 to re-brand the company for 2009 with a new look and feel and brand campaign to cross over all collateral. The goal was to increase their brand recognition in the triathlete market as a leader in wetsuit technology enabling the athletes to swim faster and win races. Of course, the MAIN objective was to sell more wetsuits.

XTERRA had never used an agency before for their marketing collateral and Web site and it was clear when you looked at the materials. There was no cohesive identity in either their Web or print media. The team at Jacob Tyler created a campaign called “First Out” attempting to make a statement that if you wear an XTERRA wetsuit, you’ll be first out of the water.

At our first photo shoot, we creative directed shots with a focus on action and models running out of the water, unlike their previous posed studio shots. The new action shots were to be used on all collateral moving forward with the headline “First Out.”

The old version of the site was dark and out-dated. The product shots were small and the site navigation was confusing. Sections weren’t  appropriately organized, as there was no secondary navigation. Lastly, there was no call to action allowing to guide the user to make a purchase or learn about the product technology. The site re-design, focused on the technology and “First Out” campaign. Some of the main changes included were:

A call to action on the home page showcasing new or sale items quickly link to “special deals” and convert users to buyers.

Site navigation was minimized to maintain the usability “rule of 5″.

Enlarged product views with the ability to see both sides of the suit, as well as view the suit both on and off a model.

A clean white background making information easier to read and print.

A quick user guide pop-up linked from each specific product showing users how to choose a suit based on height and weight.

The site was recently launched and now we will be tracking increases in sales from our Eblast campaigns and magazine ads. The main statistic we will be following however is the difference in conversion rate to sales on the new site vs the last version. We are betting big that it will be a large increase. Check out the new site at xterrawestuits.com

In late November 2008 I was lucky enough to be honored as one of San Diego’s most admired CEO’s by the San Diego Business Journal and attended a rather large event in downtown San Diego. One of my peers, Bella Heule was also being honored and I caught her walking by (we had never met) and flashed her my award (yes…only my award!). We began to speak and it seemed as if my timing was impeccable. They were moving locations and while they weren’t really considering a full re-brand, it was the right time to go for it if they could be convinced. Well, I convinced Bella and her full team to hire JTCG to handle the entire job. To be honest, and she would be the first to admit it, the San Diego World Trade Center logo, Web site, and collateral were terrible. There was no consistency to the look and feel, the site was completely unorganized and unusable, and they had no real strategy to set the world on fire in 2009. That’s where we come in.

Our first meeting in early December led to the launch of the new identity and World Trade Center San Diego Web Design. Here’s the catch, they were moving into their new facility and needed everything delivered and live by February 25th for the planned open house at their new location. That gave us 2 months to deliver a new logo, corporate collateral, brand and marketing strategy, and roughly 500 page Web site with a full content management system. Ummmm…what was I thinking?!?!? Okay…so I put a little stress on the staff and we pushed forward. Thank GOD the team at WTCSD was amazing to work with and extremely helpful in following through with requests and approvals. Anyway, we made our deadline and launched the site just in time.

The Web strategy JTCG established moving forward for WTCSD is to sell services and to build and retain membership. FIrst we had to create a new base site with enough functionality to get members using the Web site (Phase 1). We completed changed the logo and look and feel to create a “green” image and allow for site exploration. As well, we used the “rule of 5″ for main navigation to considerably consolidate and organize the site. Minimal uses of flash and video engage visitors and drive them to the most important sections of the site. Phase 2 will be completed by creating a social media platform that will enable members to get the most out of networking opportunities and to generate on-site content through the member base.

We are wrapping this up by adding on-site SEO this week and will continue to optimize moving forward. Anyway… we are extremely happy with the outcome and will make sure it’s a HUGE success. Check it out at http://www.wtcsd.org

COVERPLAY, the first slip cover designed for play yards, came to JTCG with an amazing product and a Web site that really didn’t tell the story. Furthermore, it wasn’t very user friendly and certainly didn’t resonate with their target market…moms. At first, the client requested just a face lift their current Web design. After close review and some market research, JTCG requested to do a full re-brand in order to make the most of the new Web site and marketing strategy.

The first site was very cluttered and flooded with a blue spotted background that took focus off the actual product. As well, there was no company logo and no clear message as to what the product was and its benefits. JTCG tackled the project by starting with the COVERPLAY logo design. It seemed clear that the logo could be more fun, colorful, and friendly. Also, we wanted something that would really catch a potential customers eye when walking down the aisle at target, kmart, or sears, where the item is currently being sold. JTCG designed a logo with a soft look and feel, a pastel color palette, and a visual of a baby peeking his or her head over the top of the letters, much like a child would do in a play yard.

For the site, JTCG wanted to keep the overall look very clean… for the same reason that COVERPLAY makes the slip cover product… to keep a baby clean and germ free. We used flash sparingly, but always as a form of interactive function. For example, the virtual room was created using flash to enable potential customers to see how the product would look in their very own room. We enabled the user to choose patterns while changing the color of their wall and floor or even to upload a photo of their room and place the play yard with slipcover inside it. Also, we use nomenclature that is more friendly to the market. For example, we changed “Testimonials” to “Mommy Reviews” and rather than showing the testimonial, we show the child photo that the parents sent in associated with each review.

We are very pleased with the outcome of the site and now all we have to do is finish the instruction video. I’ll post here again when we get it done. Check out the site at http://www.coverplayard.com.