We’re wishing our clients a new year distinguished by free, unfettered flight. We’ve mailed ready-to-color, original-illustration, owl and eagle masks plus a large set of colored pencils. The masks do more than reinforce Greteman Group’s market niche – aviation marketing. They also communicate our nonprofit holiday giving: the Eagle Valley Raptor Center, which helps injured raptors regain their wings. If you didn’t receive our mailing, you can join in the fun. Bring the black-and-white creations to life with color and to then share by posting photos on social media and tagging them with #MyWings.
ABOUT THE EAGLE VALLEY RAPTOR CENTER They come in boxes and crates. Birds of prey injured, poisoned, starving or orphaned. They leave flying free, wings in the wind. Ken Lockwood and his nonprofit Eagle Valley Raptor Center take in more than 100 birds each year, nurse them back to health, then return them to the wild.
Greteman Group wishes its clients a new year distinguished by free, unfettered flight. And clients can’t miss the message.
They’re calling and emailing to say they didn’t have any trouble spotting the agency’s holiday greetings this year. The padded, oversize sky-blue and white envelope stood out from other festive mail delivered to their desks. Beautiful script with the words Wings in the Wind promised something special. Tucked inside they found a 10” x 12” card holding ready-to-color owl and eagle masks plus a large set of colored pencils. The original illustrations play off the stress-relieving adult coloring books that are such a rage.
The masks do more than reinforce Greteman Group’s market niche – aviation marketing. They also communicate the agency’s choice of nonprofit holiday giving: the Eagle Valley Raptor Center. It helps injured raptors regain their wings.
Recipients are encouraged to bring the black-and-white creations to life with color and to then share them by posting photos on social media and tagging them with #MyWings. You can join in by downloading online versions at https://www.gretemangroup.com/press/MyWings.
“Birds of prey exhibit such power and grace,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “They inspire us to conquer the sky and soar with them. Restoring injured birds to health and returning them the wild, where they belong, gives us joy. The overwhelmingly positive feedback we’re hearing from clients further adds to that.”
ABOUT THE EAGLE VALLEY RAPTOR CENTER
They come in boxes and crates. Birds of prey injured, poisoned, starving or orphaned. They leave flying free, wings in the wind. Ken Lockwood and his nonprofit Eagle Valley Raptor Center take in more than 100 birds each year, nurse them back to health, then return them to the wild.
I agree with my father, Paul Bowen, who moderated the panel and introduced its members as true ambassadors for aviation.
Never underestimate your power to influence. As the aviation industry struggles to encourage more people to consider the left seat as a professional power position, we’d be wise to consider the lessons learned by those who’ve built illustrious careers that soar well above the ground. The December Wichita Aero Club “Great Pilots” panel, moderated by my father, aviation photographer Paul Bowen, provided a platform for storytelling – a sharing of passion, talent, networking and friendships. And it showed how one generation influences the next.
Panel moderator Paul Bowen cautioned the room full of aviation enthusiasts to just get up and leave when they needed to, saying, “Trust me, Clay won’t run out of stories.” In this vintage photo, Lacy’s pictured with Bill Lear and actor Danny Kaye.
Veteran aviator Clay Lacy benefited from a grandmother who let Orville Sanders build an airport on her farm. His mom would take the young Clay to watch takeoffs and landings. He was flying at age 12. “Sanders was kind of a loose guy,” said Lacy, “which was good for me. He’d let me fly anything.” By age 19, Lacy snagged a job as copilot with United. He later sold jets for Bill Lear, then revolutionized air-to-air filming for the movie industry. Lacy quit logging flight hours when they exceeded 50,000. He’s been flying for seven decades.
Clay Lacy estimates he’s flown 300 or so different aircraft types. He said 30 years ago he picked up a copy of Jane’s World Book of Planes and tallied up 285 planes he’d flown. “I was maybe a little crazy,” said Lacy.
Legendary P-51 pilot Lee Lauderback, whose father was a Navy pilot, followed close behind. “I started flying late – at the age of 14,” deadpanned Lauderback, who started with gliders and soloed in a Cessna 150 on his 16th birthday. “I hocked everything I had to buy my first sailplane,” he said. He went on to become corporate pilot for Arnold Palmer and log more than 21,000 flight hours, with 9,000 of those in his beloved P-51 Mustang – which he also uses to provide upset training.
Angela West serves as director of operations for Lee Lauderback’s Stallion 51, the world’s premier P-51 Mustang flight operation and Unusual Attitude Training. Her love of the Mustang rivals Lauderback’s. The four-day Gathering of Mustangs she orchestrated in 2007 drew 200,000 people from around the world and continues to be talked about today.
Angela West, who gamely stood in for a flu-stricken Patty Wagstaff, said she became fascinated with aviation while in school. When she told her parents, who had never been around planes, “They were like, ‘Yeah, right.’” Once West took her first ride in a Cessna, she knew her career would involve flying. Somehow. Some way. Like her parents, her friends also didn’t get the attraction. A friend asked, “Are you running drugs or what?” West went on to become a pilot and to manage corporate events for Kermit Weeks at his renowned Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida.
Clay Lacy dedicates his book, Lucky Me, “to past, present, and future aviation pioneers and to all who possess an insatiable passion for flight. May your stories travel through time for the enjoyment of generations to come.”
Each took very different career paths. Recounting those would fill books. Speaking of which, you can read Lacy’s – Lucky Me – online. He’s quick to say that it’s not an autobiography: “Other people wrote the majority of it.” But then he adds, “I like it.” The man who became Mr. Learjet in 1964 sure has the stories to tell. The Next Generation: Pay It Forward
Lee Lauderback and Clay Lacy have both flown with Paul Bowen on aerial shoots and are longtime friends of Bowen. The Wichita Aero Club event brought Lauderback and Lacy together for the first time.
Lauderback noted that aviation is a more expensive and complex field to enter than it used to be. His advice to young aviators: “Don’t give up. Keep cracking the door open until some sunshine comes in.” He also acknowledged the influence Clay Lacy had on him. Lacy owns a purple P-51 Mustang, which he flew in the Reno Air Races. When Lauderback was a kid, he purchased a P-51 model and painted it to match Lacy’s aircraft. We all need role models. Including ones flying purple planes.
Lee Lauderback has an affinity for raptors. He’s pictured here at a demonstration with his P-51D Mustang Crazy Horse.
During this season of giving, consider how you can donate time, talent or treasure in making a difference for an aspiring aviator. Take the time to speak with students. Let them sit in the cockpit of your aircraft. Give money toward a scholarship. You could be inspiring the next Lee Lauderback, Clay Lacy or Angela West.
It’s not often that you have the opportunity to spend an evening listening to aviation greats tell how they started in the industry, who influenced them and the mutual admiration they have for one another. I had that opportunity this week when Clay Lacy and Lee Lauderback made their way to Wichita for the Wichita Aero Club On-Air Summit. Lacy is known for his 50,000-plus flight hours in hundreds of different aircraft. He’s the high-time turbine pilot ever. Lauderback has logged the most hours in a P-51 Mustang, which is currently about 9,000, making him the world’s high-time P-51 pilot. I always enjoy my dad Paul Bowen’s stories, too.
And even this word falls short in describing Clay Lacy. If you fly, you know his name and at least some of his countless accomplishments.
But Lacy and his team want to remind you that there’s more to Clay Lacy Aviation. A lot more. Our adrenaline-triggering, fast-moving video, prepared for NBAA 2015, highlights the company’s experience, expertise and broad range of services.
It leaves you breathless at the scope of achievement that is Clay Lacy Aviation. It pays just and well-deserved homage to the man, then reels off the company’s capabilities, including its new Van Nuys facilities, opening in 2016. Enjoy.
Pilots may be fun-loving and adventurous on the ground, but once they’re in the seat, they’re all business.
They have a lot to take care of, in every phase of flight, and they have to get it right. Signature Flight Support wanted to acknowledge the heavy responsibilities as well as the skill and knowledge required. And let pilots know that, once they land at a Signature FBO, they can rest assured someone’s got their back.
Our ad creative surrounds a pilot with the endless checklist that occupies his thoughts while in the air, then delivers the promise of superior Signature service once he’s on the ground: You’ve got the flight. We’ve got the support. So they can relax.
With our help, the Greater Wichita Economic Development Council brought a bit of Wichita’s Eisenhower National to the 2015 NBAA convention.
GWDEC needed a fresh new booth to accommodate the growing number of participants. Our ICT airport aviation display provided inspiration for the design.
At the convention, the booth’s dominant wall served as a beacon, drawing in passersby. And the new space was a huge hit – a natural gathering place and hot spot for Wichita aviation partners to set meetings and spread the word about the Air Capital’s expansive capabilities and deep expertise.
The booth formed the perfect backdrop, confirming Wichita’s place as a modern, progressive aviation center.
For a new video highlighting our cool client work, we scouted nifty locations – modern flight-inspired bridges, compelling architecture, the historic downtown. Rustled up some fun props: old maps, vintage cameras, retro luggage, funky shades, even a classic Jag.
Then we took GiGi out to capture footage of a brand on the move. She’s admiring our aviation history display at Wichita’s Eisenhower National Airport or checking out the public art.
It’s a short piece that draws on both still and video footage, with snappy snippets of our client work pop in and out to the beat of a catchy tune. The video shows how one well-planned and executed piece of creative can be repurposed to serve diverse platforms and multiple engagement channels.
We love smart people who shake up the status quo. Which means we’re crazy about new client SmartSky Networks. From their base in Charlotte, N.C., SmartSky’s senior aviation and telecommunications executives are leveraging disruptive communications technologies to transform how we use our time in flight. Say bye-bye to the high costs and frustrations of current lackluster systems. And hello to unfettered Wi-Fi access.
SmartSky’s new 4G beamforming technology delivers a signal that locks onto an aircraft. Which means no sharing your signal with nearby aircraft. 60 MHz of spectrum gives users full-throttle, unrestricted web access. You can do it all: stream, chat, text, call, game and videoconference.
Some of the leading names in aviation are partnering with SmartSky to provide hardware sales and installations: Duncan Aviation, Jet Aviation, StandardAero and Textron Aviation. Satcom Direct serves as the exclusive customer service and support provider.
Watch for a nationwide rollout of SmartSky’s innovative air-to-ground network in late 2016. We’ll be there, doing our part. And smiling broadly.
Wings in the Wind, Greteman Group’s 2015 holiday greeting, stands out with fun superhero masks that recipients get to color themselves. With the included set of colored pencils, of course.
Right about now we’re all being inundated with holiday cheer. Cards come pouring out of the mail sack. Generic messages crowd your inbox.
There’s a lesson to be learned from this avalanche. It’s a good time to stop and ponder: Which messages actually connect?
Bombardier Aerospace’s elegant three-dimensional die-cut card finds its way to a prominent spot on many a C-suite counter.
As you open and prop up for display the endless cards, do any of them draw you in? Which, if any, do you actually read? Can you say why? Ditto for the inbox. As you delete immeasurable Good Healths and Glad Tidings one after the other, do any give you pause? Make you smile? Tug at your heartstrings?
Shine Through the Jumble
You sincerely do wish peace and joy for your clients, and the holidays are all about warm feelings and heartfelt desires for good health and an excellent new year.
But boring doesn’t equal sincere. If your holiday message – whether physical or electronic – gets lost in the deluge,
Recipients are still playing with Greteman Group’s Gift of Lift from 2012. The box contained die-cut pieces that could be assembled and re-assembled to form all manner of aircraft – from the realistic to the fantastical.
your customers won’t even know you were thinking about them.
It’s too late for this year, but it’s not too early for next year. Use the cards and messages you’ve been getting as inspiration for your 2016 holiday greetings.
And here are a few of the memorable greetings we’ve done for our clients over the years. Perhaps they’ll provoke a eureka moment.
Meanwhile, have a great holiday. Come back refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to make 2016 even better.
Aviation clients – and even those who have nothing to do with aviation – couldn’t resist playing Greteman Group’s online aviation trivia contest. They also received a set of trading cards with handsome illustrations of vintage aircraft.Each year, Signature Flight Support issues a catchy animated greeting that uses scenes and symbols from the FBO network to form a holiday greeting. You can bet flight departments the world over look forward to seeing it in their inbox.
Doers and dreamers from aviation’s earliest days broke free from earth’s pull. And changed lives round the world. We want modern-day tinkers and techies to continue pushing boundaries forward. Inquisitive minds now have a new space in which to play. It’s called GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative.
This two-story, 15,000-foot hands-on exploratorium resides on the Wichita State University Innovation Campus. Think of it as part manufacturing plant, part design studio and part garage workshop. The lab, located in the Experiential Engineering Building, welcomes everyone with an idea, but especially hopes to coax those working to advance flight.
Innovation Finds a Launch Pad
GoCreate offers inventors, artists, engineers and entrepreneurs of all ages and backgrounds both the room to work and sophisticated tools they might not otherwise have access to. A composites room, electronics lab, wood shop and metal fabrication. Waterjets, laser printers, 3-D printers, saws, air tools, lays, textiles, commercial sewing machines. I dare you to be in this invigorating place and not want to build something.
Staff provides a collaborative, supportive sounding board. And, at times perhaps, even helping hands. Everything has been designed to provide an environment where imagination sparks ideas that collide and catch fire. An entrepreneurship office further completes the circle by helping aspiring inventors to market their ideas.
You check in at the front desk as you would a health club. The industrial-looking space has concrete floors, stainless tables, storage lockers, small private studios and a material crib store to purchase supplies. Hours accommodate people with day jobs or other constraints on their time. It’s open early, late and weekends.
One of the drivers of GoCreate has been John Tomblin, the executive director of the National Institute for Aviation Research and vice president for WSU’s Research & Technology Transfer. John has an incredible vision for the space. As he talks about early inventors and aviation pioneers, he advocates similar transformation by leveraging GoCreate. Its potential is limitless and world changing.
Collision. Cross-pollination. Creation.
Our agency served on the team that helped launch the center. Koch named the space and engaged Greteman Group to brand, position, design a web splash page and create a video. We also created a one-of-a-kind giveaway contest that started the creative community buzzing and building. Energizing? I can’t stop talking about it.
Invite with elements to build logo or something else.
What Would You Build?
The unveiling of this large-scale logo mockup on October 30 gave the public its first view of the GoCreate identity. It represents disparate elements coming together in unexpected way. Interlocking to create something original and strong. Three-dimensional logo kits were handed out to see what others could come up with. The results are being shared through the end of the year on Instagram using #GoCreateWSU. Entries will be judged on originality with the winner awarded a six-month GoCreate membership. It will be announced on January 8, 2016.
Liz Koch at podium standing by oversized 3-D version of new GoCreate identity.
Endless Possibilities
Liz Koch was on hand to unveil the GoCreate identity and share the project’s vision: bringing people and ideas together to spark innovation and growth. Koch Industries and the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation donated funds to help establish the center. The gift provides scholarships and training stipends to qualifying applicants based on financial need, as well as mentoring support through fellowships. It will especially target science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) groups and organizations such as Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas – young people perhaps low on resources but high on motivation and smarts. Other organizations that may assist in providing programs: the Kansas Cosmosphere.
GoCreate opens in 2016. You can learn more at GoCreate.com.
The GoCreate press conference and unveiling made for a great day in the Air Capital.
Wichita’s Who’s Who and area press came to the WSU Innovation Campus on October 30 to learn about the community’s new makerspace.
We’re wishing our clients a new year distinguished by free, unfettered flight. We’ve mailed ready-to-color, original-illustration, owl and eagle masks plus a large set of colored pencils. The masks do more than reinforce Greteman Group’s market niche – aviation marketing. They also communicate our nonprofit holiday giving: the Eagle Valley Raptor Center, which helps injured raptors regain their wings. If you didn’t receive our mailing, you can join in the fun. Bring the black-and-white creations to life with color and to then share by posting photos on social media and tagging them with #MyWings.
