Townsend Makes Columbus Food Industry Inroads
As I’ve ramped up operations at Townsend Creative Imaging, I’ve spent more and more time serving my great clients in the food industry here in Columbus and less time on this blog, as planned.
But The SkilletReport is still an important venue for my clients and my own food writing.
As the internet cannibalizes itself with generative AI, social media platforms are hoarding traffic and leeching ever more value from intellectual work.
This is why I consider my websites more important that ever. These are the venues where I have absolute control over my messaging and visuals, even as audience share is shrinking. Marketers everywhere are rightly focusing on narrower audiences who are truly interested in their products. It hurts to lose that vanity traffic, but finding a small, passionate audience beats the cheap eyeballs you get from “one weird trick” content.
That means if you’re reading this now, you are the exact audience I want for The SkilletReport Columbus and our parent marketing agency Townsend Creative Imaging.
The Burger Scene in Columbus Gets Stacked with the help of TCI
Stacked Burger Co. owner Jordan Lamatrice and the author outside his new restaurant, visual identity and brand messaging courtesy of TCI.
I’m excited to announce the imminent opening of Stacked Burger Co., Townsend Creative Imaging’s first branding client in Columbus. The clean, crisp logo and branding complements the simple and clean approach of owner Jordan Lamatrice.
Monday Nov. 18 you find Adam Townsend and his contingent of children at the grand opening of STACKED BURGER CO!
Jordan’s is a culinary mind almost pathologically averse to pretension. He won’t even call himself “chef” on his business cards, even though he personally conceived every dish on the menu and oversees the craftsmanship of each meal from scratch. From the bacon smoked in-house to the signature Beer Gut Chili, Stacked operates on the priciple that “simple” isn’t the same as “easy.”
It’s what I appreciate most about Jordan and his food.
This is the cover of a 15-page comprehensive brand guide for Stacked Burger Co. with multiple logo configurations, notes on visual identity and photography styling and detailed notes for printers including all necessary color codes. We also include a page on messaging and the core mission of the business. This is why I sometimes works myself out of a job; you can hand a highly-calibrated tool like this off to a less expensive employee, and they can manage your visual identity and messaging for you at an enterprise level, even with limited experience. Email atownsend@townsendcreativeimaging.com for a sample copy of the full guide.
Haute Cuisine on Your Home Range
The attention to craftsmanship and detail drew me to serving companies in the food industry. There is a lot of love and that goes into fod products, whether it’s crafting a perfect burger or developing flavors to upscale your home cooking. Bellisari’s Gourmet Convenience spreads and sauces exemplify that.
A notable Columbus foodie from a family of famous OSU and NFL football players, Annette Bellisari has launched a newsletter this fall under my direction and using lots of TCI-produced video. This approach has already driven great results for the company. Check out the video I filmed to illustrate her mummy jalapeño poppers for a Halloween promo:
You may notice the Bellisari’s YouTube channel hosts a ton of different videos from various contractors over the years. With my video equipment and expertise here at TCI, I was able to shoot one day of footage with my client, providing enough video and audio to link all her existing, disparate content into a single cohesive narrative that started earning her money right away.
(I shot the mummy poppers video above from scratch, however, along with related product photos for digital and print materials.)
The best part? Bellisari’s now has a year’s worth of compelling email newsletters that drive sales every week and can be repurposed year after year.
This is another sustainable marketing tool I’ve built and turned over to less expensive and less experienced in-house staff and contractors to operate.
Mom-and0-Pop Budget, Enterprise-Level Results
In Jordan’s case, he spent a lot of time vainly searching for his visual identity to express his big ideas about food. Once he hired TCI, we were able to work together over several months to guide the process to a visual identity that is crisp, clean and timeless.
TCI doesn’t reinvent your marketing operation if it doesn’t need it. Conversely, if you’re lost in the wilderness, TCI can build the complete visuals and messaging for your brand from the raw material in your head.
From visual identity; photos and video; slideshows; investor decks; printed sales materials; design and procurement; to brand narratives and email newsletters; Wordpress and Shopify architecture; social media strategy and PR, Townsend Creative Imaging is a passionate advocate for your brand.
TCI guarantees you avoid the “retainer limbo” some agencies base their revenue on. TCI doesn’t use practices to hold you hostage — no group hosting your site on our accounts or gatekeeping analytics, for instance.
In addition to the food industry, I serve clients like large metro nonprofits, universities, manufacturing plants, staffing agencies, tanning salons and all manner of B2B and B2C services.
Let us know what you need, and we’ll tell you how we’ll increase your revenue by optimizing your image and approach:
