WICHITA, Kan. – Art Director Meghan Wolfe has been named president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Wichita chapter. Her term officially begins July 1. AIGA serves as the oldest and largest member organization for design. It advances design as a strategic advantage and vital cultural force.
“AIGA holds great meaning for me,” says Wolfe. “It’s a resource for ideas and information, a reminder of best practices and a way to network with career-oriented creatives.”
Wolfe has served on the board and various committees for the chapter for the past three years. One of her first duties as president was attending a leadership retreat in Baltimore, titled “Lead by Design.” Attendess represented 73 creative communities nationwide.
“It was incredibly inspiring to be in a room full of creative leaders and to know I’m now a part of that,” Wolfe said. “We walked away with a wealth of resources to use in leading our chapters, advancing our professions and building our communities.”
Wolfe joined Greteman Group in 2013 and, in her role as art director, helps guide diverse projects, from identity and masterbrand development to website design and interactive ads. Whether helping an airline recruit pilots or building a nonprofit’s donor base, Wolfe makes the message stand out and connect with the right people.
“Meghan brings tremendous passion and commitment to everything she does,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “The chapter will benefit from her leadership.”
ABOUT GRETEMAN GROUP
Greteman Group has developed an international reputation as an aviation-specialty marketing agency based in Wichita, Kan. – the Air Capital. Leading aircraft manufacturers, flight support, aftermarket services, fractional ownership, insurance, in-flight Wi-Fi, regional airlines and airport analytics entrust their brands to Greteman Group. These include FlightSafety International, SmartSky Networks, Executive AirShare, Wichita Eisenhower National Airport, USAIG, Piedmont Airlines, Aviation Partners and Associated Aircraft Group. It also supports causes and clients such as The Saint Francis Foundation, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Mark Arts, the City of Wichita, GLMV Architecture, MKEC Engineering, Hutton Construction and Verus Bank. Greteman Group has won Telly, Internet Advertising Competition, Metro and Business Marketing Association Pro-Comm awards. It has been recognized in such publications as Adweek, Advertising Age, Aldus, Communication Arts, Designing Identity, Identity, Graphic Design USA, Graphis, Hotels, HOW, Novum, Print, Step-By-Step, and by such organizations as the Mead Top 60, Kansas City Art Directors, Strathmore, International Festivals, Graphex Art Directors, and The National Library Council, American Advertising Federation, American Institute of Graphic Artists, Public Relations Society of America, and American Marketing Association. The firm is a founding member of the Wichita Aero Club. Greteman Group is a longstanding member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and is a certified women-owned business enterprise (WBE). The agency celebrates its 30th anniversary April 1, 2019. gretemangroup.com
By Ashley Bowen Cook, vice president at Greteman Group, a marketing communications agency based in Wichita, the Air Capital.
If you haven’t attended a National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) regional forum, do yourself a favor. Go. Sonia Greteman and I just attended the forum in White Plains, NY. The Westchester County Airport (HPN). Once again, it was a great experience.
Like the big annual conventions, these get-togethers provide a platform for expanding attendees’ knowledge about everything from cybersecurity to safety initiatives. Where they really stand out, though, is as a dedicated opportunity for networking. Because they’re smaller, you have less ground to cover. The mood is more relaxed and everyone wants to talk. Since it’s a one-day event, energy levels run high.
The Next Generation of Business Aviation
NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen kicked off the opening session by talking about our industry’s pervasive sense of optimism and how we galvanized as a community against air traffic control (ATC) privatization. He spoke about his and NBAA’s commitment to growing the business aviation workforce, promoting safety and enhancing professionalism. He was especially passionate about doing better recruiting young people into business aviation.
NBAA President Ed Bolen speaks at the Regional in White Plains, New York.
“We need to do more and we are committed to doing that,” Bolen said.
NBAA’s second forum of 2018 drew 190 exhibitors, 2,700 attendees and aircraft ranging from single-engine pistons to ultra-long-range business jets. On the static, potential aircraft buyers can compare the latest business aircraft side by side in one convenient location. We kicked the tires on some of our personal favorites: the Bombardier Global 6000, Dassault 8X, Embraer 300E and HondaJet. Rather than an exhibit hall, a chalet on the Westchester County Airport property was filled with 10’x10’ booths for attendees to easily check out products and services, catch up and get the latest news.
Agency President and Creative Director Sonia Greteman stands in front of a Leonardo helicopter at the NBAA Regional in White Plains, New York.
A History of Innovation
Sonia was fascinated by Leonardo’s latest-generation AW109SP GrandNew light-twin helicopter. It includes a digital glass cockpit, composite material fuselage and cutting-edge global navigation satellite system. The eight-seat AW109SP serves a number of business-aviation uses including light transport, medevac, and search and rescue. Its advanced avionics help reduce pilot workload and enable the use of night-vision goggles.
A Showcase for New Products
Clay Lacy Aviation’s debut of the new Quest Kodiak 100 Series II turned our heads – and many others. Its amphibious floats made us want to head to the nearest lake or river. With 10 seats, you could have come along, too.
Forum networking isn’t just about developing sales leads or reinforcing existing client relationships, although that is a big part of it. It’s also about coming together as a community in support of business aviation’s role in job generation and as an engine for economic activity.
Clay Lacy Aviation’s new Quest Kodiak 100 Series II on static display at the NBAA Regional in White Plains, New York.
Upcoming NBAA Events
The next NBAA regional forum will be at the San Jose (CA) International Airport (SJC) Sept. 6. See you there? Of course, I know you wouldn’t dream of missing NBAA-BACE, which will be Oct. 16-18 in Orlando. With 25,000 attendees and 1,100+ exhibitors, it’s just a bit harder to run into each other than at the forums. But, let’s try.
We need to stop calling the visual and verbal messages we create “content.” The term devalues and commoditizes the key role creative plays. It slaps a generic term on what should be a very non-generic product. One copywriter in our office says it’s akin to calling wine “liquid.” It tells you little.
We’re guilty of it, too. When we ask a client who will be supplying content for a website¬ or social media – them or us? – it implies it makes no difference. That it’s simply pictures and words on the page. Stuff that fills the holes.
But it matters a great deal. These hole fillers are what attract customers trying to find an answer, to solve a problem, to buy a product. I’ve always loved the Bill Lear quote, “Strive for simplicity. You never have to fix what you leave out.” This is true for your marketing messages, too.
Add Muscle to Your Meaning
Let’s call it “creative” or at least “branded content.” Creative implies imagination and inspiration. It takes a point of view, sharing new information and freshening old. It gets to the heart of who you are, what you deliver and why you exist. It communicates your essence. Branded content at least suggests you are tailoring your messaging, that you are treating it with care.
Creative doesn’t passively fill space. It educates and motivates. Sells products and raises money. Changes minds and opens hearts. It requires storytelling and a healthy dose of mission-driven brand journalism. It keeps the wants, needs and interests of your audiences front and center. It drives what you develop and share with the world.
It involves publishing with purpose, not simply filling the various communication buckets set before you. Creative must be relevant and helpful. You find it at the opposite end of the marketing spectrum that leads to spam and cold calling. Creative, while subjective, can and should be rigorously tested. Use A/B testing to compare multiple versions. See how adjusting the variables – subject lines, headlines, format, layouts, visuals – affect open rates and engagement.
Watch Your Words
Words should have power. “Content” has been stripped of its potency. So let’s leave it behind.
By Deanna Harms, executive vice president, at Greteman Group, a marketing communications agency in Wichita, the Air Capital.
I last shared news of Doc, one of only two fully restored, flying B-29 Superfortress bombers, back in 2015. I have an update for you. Volunteers Josh Wells and Franklin Berry were on hand at the June meeting of the Wichita Aero Club to catch us up to speed.
Wichita Aero Club’s June 6 speaker, Josh Wells serves as communications specialist for Spirit AeroSystem, and communications and communications and marketing leader for the nonprofit group, Doc’s Friends. He also serves on its board of directors. Photo credit: Ricardo Reitmeyer with the Visual Media Group.
Doc will have a new home this fall. Construction of a 30,000-square-foot, $6.6 million hangar on the Wichita Eisenhower National Airport campus began this April. Structural steel is going up now. Plans call for Doc to arrive at the hangar site in mid-October, with construction complete in November. The facility will be a mix of working hangar (where you can watch the plane being serviced), STEM education (the Cosmosphere is helping write the science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based curriculum), and eye-opening aviation museum.
More Than an Aircraft – A Sacred Bond
How is it that we feel so connected to some aircraft? The B-29 Superfortress known as Doc doesn’t just elicit curiosity. It’s a showstopper. People flock to it. They stand in line for hours, if needed, to board this break-the-mold aircraft. And some choke back tears.
Like 93-year-old Jerome Micka who flew 29 B-29 missions during WWII, with his last one dropping supplies to U.S. prisoners of war. Owen Hughes, the 99-year-old artist who painted the plane’s original nose art. Hughes served in the European theater in WWII as a sign painter. In early June, he got to ride on Doc – the first time he’d ever been on a B-29. We preserve history for many reasons. But to honor those who made that history is probably the best reason of all.
Doc’s Disney-inspired nose art
A Long Climb Back
Doc was part of an nine-aircraft squadron named for Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and the Wicked Witch. It was among the 1,644 B-29s built in Kansas during World War II. While Doc, built in 1945 toward the war’s conclusion, never saw combat, it survived 42 years sitting in a California Mojave desert target range. In 2000, owner Tony Mazzolini brought Doc to Wichita after talking to Jeff Turner, then Boeing Wichita general manager and later Spirit AeroSystems CEO. “Jeff said, ‘If you can get it to Wichita, we’ll get it put back together,” Wells recounted. The plane was in so many pieces, people coming to see the aircraft would laugh as they left, not believing the volunteers could ever get the puzzle back together.
During his time in the U.S. Air Force Tony Mazzolini was a flight engineer on the B-29 Superfortress. In 1987, he found Doc serving as a target for weapons test and set out to save it. Photo credit: Paul Bowen.
In 2013, aviation enthusiasts and business leaders led by the then-retired Jeff Turner formed the nonprofit Doc’s Friends. They went to work generating the resources needed to make magic. Through the years, hundreds of skilled workers and retirees from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, veterans and others have volunteered more than 300,000 hours on Doc’s restoration.
A Three-Stage Plan of Attack
Wells outlined Doc’s trajectory in three phases. One, raise money to restore the plane and get Doc flying. Two, operate it as a flying museum. Three, find a permanent home.
In 2016, Doc flew for the first time in 60 years. This past year, this fully restored, flying B-29 bomber (one of only two in the world) attended eight airshows and special events. Its first was AirVenture in Oshkosh last July. Doc just returned from a 5.5-hour flight to Reading, PA. Franklin Berry, who serves as a flight engineer on Doc, reported there were no squawks, that the aircraft “flies flawlessly.”
Doc sat decommissioned in the Mojave Desert on a target range – yes, used for bombing practice – for 42 years until Tony Mazzolini and other aviation enthusiasts came to its rescue. Doc’s all-natural aluminum reflects like a mirror. In it, we see our history. Photo credit: Paul Bowen.
During peak wartime production, Boeing Wichita produced four and a half B-29s a day. Compare that, Wells said to Spirit AeroSystem’s current production rate of two fuselages a day that get shipped out on rail for completion elsewhere. Those early B-29s flew out of Wichita. Doc is one of only two B-29s restored to flying condition. The Commemorative Air Force has the other, Fifi, based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There are only eight left-seat certified pilots for both Doc and Fifi, so they draw upon the same crew.
Innovation in Flight
Many see the B-29 bomber as a tool that helped end a global war that led to the deaths of more than 50 million people. It dropped the world’s first atomic bombs. The Enola Gay bombed Hiroshima on August 6. Bockscar hit Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
How did the B-29 play such a pivotal role? Flying up to 350 mph at more than 30,000 feet, the B-29 could fly faster and higher than most interceptor aircraft. It extended the range to 4,000 miles and the payload to 20,000 pounds. It was the first pressurized, all-electric, long-range bomber. The B-29’s advanced-for-the-times technology makes Doc an excellent flying classroom, educating and connecting with audiences young and old.
Speakers Josh Wells (left) and Franklin Berry (right) stand in front of a real-life Rosie the Riveter. It pictures 92-year-old Connie Palacioz, who riveted B-29 nose sections when she was only 18. She put more than 1,700 rivets into Doc’s nose. Only seven of those original rivets had to be replaced. “She did a pretty good job,” joked Wichita Aero Club President Dave Franson. Photo credit: Ricardo Reitmeyer with the Visual Media Group.
In spite of these advances, Wells said the wartime B-29s that were churned out were relatively unsafe and built to be expendable. He said more pilots were lost to mechanical failure than to enemy fire. “The engines were trying to kill you,” he said. Doc’s restoration, though, was just the opposite. It was done with longevity in mind. They plan to fly Doc another 30 or 40 years.
Fueling History
The goal is for Doc to pay its own way. Doc burns about $3,000 of fuel a flight hour so a recent four-day trip took about $28,000 just for the gas. “We go to airshows to make money,” Wells said. You can check out Doc’s schedule here, including its participation once again in EAA AirVenture, July 23-29. “We want to be the bomber of choice for airshows,” Wells said.
Speakers Josh Wells (left) and Franklin Berry (right). Photo credit: Ricardo Reitmeyer with the Visual Media Group.
You Can Go Home Again
This iconic aircraft has returned to its birthplace and will soon have a home deserving of its place in history. Doc’s Friends are hard at work raising the remaining $1 million or so needed to fund Doc’s new home. Wells said the project is both on schedule and on budget. To learn more about Doc or to donate, please go to B-29Doc.com/Donate.
WICHITA, Kan. – How well does an industry known for its innovations in aircraft speed, range, safety, comfort and connectivity do when it comes to digitally marketing its products and services? Greteman Group, an aviation-specialty marketing agency based in the Air Capital, wanted to know. And thought others in the industry would be interested, too.
The agency conducted an Aviation-Specific, Digital-Marketing State of the Industry survey April-May. It sent the survey to more than 300 aviation industry contacts representing the C-suite, owner, president or executive level. Social-media outreach also encouraged aviation marketers to participate. Sixty-six individuals that fell within our aviation executive profile completed the 10-minute survey. All respondents who provided their email address received a report the agency distributed on May 30.
“Our goal was to showcase where we as an industry stand when it comes to fully utilizing digital marketing and advertising,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “We expected the results to be enlightening, and they were.”
While analyzing the survey results, the agency had several ah-ha moments when comparing aviation to other B2B industries. While aviation is on par with trends in some areas, in others it lags behind. One example: search engine optimization (SEO). While respondents reported a belief that SEO impacts lead generation, most aren’t measuring its effectiveness. Another example: for an industry that typically has long sales lead-times, marketing automation is not being fully leveraged to boost sales. However, the survey revealed a desire for change. Aviation marketers appear ready to start implementing digital tools that help them better measure and improve their marketing efforts.
On July 12, the agency will host a livestream to dive deeper into the results and share insights on how to improve digital marketing strategies. Aviation marketers can sign up for the livestream at https://bit.ly/2Jhpzvi. Also, anyone interested can download a copy of the survey results at https://bit.ly/2H6SywJ.
“The quality responses we received should start some rigorous conversations on digital marketing,” said Jordan Walker, Greteman Group digital director. “Implementing the right targeting tactics, ramping up analytics, optimizing campaigns and landing pages – opportunities exist to really maximize marketing dollars through digital media.”
We’re guilty of it, too. When we ask a client who will be supplying content for a website¬ or social media – them or us? – it implies it makes no difference. That it’s simply pictures and words on the page. Stuff that fills the holes.
