We’re thrilled to introduce Molly Hop, envisionit media’s new Digital Media Director. Molly has previously held leadership roles at agencies such as Starcom Media Vest Group, Critical Mass and Razorfish. She’s championed digital strategies and driven results for a variety of brands including General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Kellogg’s, Moen, and Best Buy.

Besides bringing wonderful experience and intelligence with her to envisionit, Molly just so happens to be quite funny and fun. It’s win-win!

A bit more about Ms. Hop:

Where are you from?
Holland, Michigan.

What do you do at envisionit?
As the Digital Media Director, I work with the web marketing team to develop strategies to drive traffic, create engagement, and promote the brand communication platform.

Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.
I have enjoyed the people since day one. They are smart, friendly, witty, and passionate.

If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
My choice would be tons of crab legs, a baked potato heaped with butter, and apple pie for dessert. Yum.

What’s a book you could read over and over again?
My three favorite books are East of Eden, Pillars of the Earth, and Are you my Mom?

We’re very excited to announce a new EIM partner—Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet. Kalamazoo is a local Chicago company that makes hand-crafted gourmet outdoor kitchens of uncompromising quality. Gourmet, outdoor, grilling … well, you can see why we’re so excited!

Kalamazoo makes some amazing products. At the center of their suite of outdoor kitchen equipment is the Hybrid Fire Grill—you can cook with gas, charcoal, wood or any combination of the three. It’s this unrivaled innovation that Kalamazoo wants to share with discerning home chefs everywhere, so they can reach their full culinary potential.

So far, our target market is generating buzz about the new site, and Kalamazoo’s superior products. We’re looking forward to driving more big results for Kalamazoo and, as we’re virtually neighbors, we’ll be looking forward to grilling up some delicious summer creations together, too!

We’re proud to announce the launch of American Osteopathic Association’s microsite Mini-Medical-School.com, just in time for National Osteopathic Medicine (NOM) Week, April 15-21, 2012! The microsite was designed to introduce young children to osteopathic physicians (DOs) while teaching them the basics of health and fitness. With the activities defined by the AOA, EIM turned them into an online environment to engage and educate children on the world of osteopathy. This initiative is in direct alignment with the AOA’s continuing drive to properly educate children in the areas of medicine, health and fitness.

The site features information about the Mini-Medical School, the American Osteopathic Association and a cartoon host guiding you through six interactive activities. These activities span a variety of games including a bone health drag-and-drop skeleton, medical instrument matching, hygiene and germs multiple choice, complete the organ sentence, nutritional food group identification and an exercise-focused word search.

Those interested in building their health and fitness knowledge can enjoy the Mini-Medical School website at home or on the go, as all of the games are iPad compatible. The experience should prove to be a fun and engaging way for both parents and teachers to educate kids on a very important topic. There may even be a few valuable refreshers in there for adults, too!

We’re happy to announce that we’ve been selected as an Official Honoree of the 16th Annual Webby Awards in the Restaurant category for the Roots Handmade Pizza website! The Official Honoree is awarded to the top 15% of all submissions. With nearly 10,000 entries from the United States and more than 60 other countries, we are very honored to be included in this select group.

The Webby Award signifies our ability to deliver first-class web design while accomplishing all the clients’ goals and objectives. Roots achieved its goal to break through the heavy competition in the Chicago pizza scene and deliver a website that rivals the nation’s top pizza restaurants.

Congrats to everyone at EIM who worked on Roots this past year, and congrats to our friends at Roots Handmade Pizza. The collaborative effort helped us to achieve this award.

We are excited to announce the launch of the brand new Knight Hawk microsite! Near the end of 2011, we were approached by Smart Targets LLC (a federally licensed dealer of professional tactical supplies and training materials) to create a visually stunning, informational, and educational new microsite showcasing their exclusive product: The Knight Hawk Portable Pop-up Target. When developing this microsite, we wanted to make sure that the visitor was able to quickly view the product and all of its great features- all while using SEO best practices.

The Knight Hawk Target is a “smarter target” than the simple pulley system or knock-down targets that are currently used in the industry, and far less expensive (not to mention hundreds of pounds lighter) than the hydraulic pop-up targets sometimes used. This target is perfect for Military and Law enforcement training professionals, allowing them to seamlessly set up multiple targets in multiple areas of the training facility with its portability feature. It also has a programmable remote and instant feedback feature that is perfect for setting up training facilities, or for any shooting enthusiast. The instant feedback system will stand up in 50 mph winds, yet can be knocked down with something as light as an air-soft gun (we even tested it with Nerf guns at the office and it worked).

The Knight Hawk Target has received support from Top Shot Season 2 Winner Chris Reed, as well as various board members of the NTOA, MTOA, and various law enforcement departments across the country. This product really is one that is going to change the future of Military and Law enforcement training as we know it.

Check out the Official Knight Hawk Website to Learn More!

We are excited to announce the second piece of an interactive program for Fibre-Craft Materials Corporation’s Springfield Dolls line. Following the launch of the SF Style Club interactive microsite, we’ve just launched the second part of the piece, an ecommerce sister site for Springfield Dolls, where you can buy all your favorite dolls, fashionable clothing, accessories, and furniture!

The online store features easy-to-navigate product categories, a searchable catalog of all the fashionable doll products, and a wishlist to save all your outfits for safekeeping or online shopping on a rainy day.

We made sure the ecommerce system syncs to an existing inventory management and shipping component. This ensures that the inventory numbers within the store and the warehouse correspond at all times.

Ready to get shopping? Visit the Springfield Collection store now!

We were so excited to meet Vlad, and even more excited that he decided to come join the team! Without further ado, ladies and gentleman, our new Senior Analyst—who would be happy to brave the crowds of Wrigley with you at the next Cubs game.

Vlad Chaykovsky

Where are you from?

Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, but lived in Columbus, Ohio for most of my life.

What do you do at envisionit?

Senior Analyst.

Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.

The atmosphere here is really nice, everyone is so supportive and relaxed.

What did you want to be when you grew up? 

A veterinarian.

Fill in the blank: My favorite thing about Chicago is …

Going out to a Cubs game!

Nu Finish, a longstanding envisionit client, came to us wanting to grow their online presence and breathe new life into their several-year-old website.

After performing a full audit of the website analytics and competitive online landscape, we identified some areas for opportunity for the Nu Finish website, including consumer education, fresh unique content, and revised architecture driving users to critical pages.

To showcase Nu Finish’s car-care expertise, we added a Car Care section featuring information on car wax versus car polish, as Nu Finish’s product is wax-free, which educates visitors on the benefits of using a car polish over a wax. A new How-To video section, embedded from the Nu Finish YouTube channel we created, equips users for product application and creates fresh, search engine-friendly content to help capture “how-to” based keyword searches. We also added a Testimonials section with an online submission tool, to leverage all the great consumer feedback Nu Finish receives.

Keyword research helped us update content, metadata, and marketing messages with stronger calls-to-action and discoverability through organic search.

Not only did organic search traffic increase 111% for “wax versus polish“ searches, but bounce rates and site engagement times improved significantly. Also, the number of visitors proceeding from the Home page to the valuable Where to Buy page doubled in Q3 over the same period last year.

Now that we’ve revved the engine of Nu Finish’s online presence, we invite you to see the Car Care site for yourself!

As Controller and Director of Marketing, respectively, Amy and Ben have been indispensable new members of our team, crafting up innovative marketing plans and keeping track of lots of numbers (don’t worry Amy, we know you do more than that). See what they like about working at envisionit! And what (and who) their childhood selves wanted to be as adults!

Amy Russell

Where are you from?
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

What do you do at envisionit?
Controller.

Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.
Working with such engaging people.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Dancer, which I still am when I’m not crunching numbers.

Fill in the blank: My favorite thing about Chicago is…
Living by the lake.

Ben Cox

Where are you from?
I was raised by horses in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

What do you do at envisionit?
I’m Director of Marketing, so I drive the strategic marketing bus. I’m responsible for understanding our clients and making sure we deliver delightful experiences that matter.

Tell us something you’ve enjoyed about working here so far.
Far and away the people. I love the youthful energy and genuine passion. And working beside seasoned marketers is equally rewarding and challenging.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Indiana Jones.

Fill in the blank: I’m really good at…
Making my three boys laugh until they drool.

Movember is closing in on its final stretch throughout the U.S. and right here at envisionit media. Our “mo bros” Tyler and Ari have proudly worn mustaches for four full weeks now. What do they cite as the toughest parts of Movember? Looking like a creep, being surprised to see their mustachioed reflections in the mirror every morning, and the itchiness–at first. But for such a good cause–promoting men’s health awareness–it’s all been worth it. Thumbs up to these two for their efforts, and for letting us post silly pictures of them each week!

If you’d like to contribute to their Movember teams, you can do so here for Tyler and here for Ari.

EIM "Mo Bros" At Your Service