In addition to his daily responsibilities at DaviesMoore, Jory is also a fantastic photographer. He has been hired as a set photographer on several films to date. His latest was on the set of “The Dry Land,” starring America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, Ethan Suplee, June Diane Raphael and Melissa Leo. The film was recently accepted into the Dramatic Competition at Sundance. Previously, Jory worked on “Trudell” and “Frozen River,” both of which were also accepted into Sundance. Congratulations, Jory! Keep up the good work.

Throughout the month of December, Jason’s art will be featured at the Flying M in downtown Boise. His collection is comprised of the personal projects he’s worked on over the past year, most of which was created for indie rock bands or for concert promotion. Art and prints are for sale. Be sure to grab a coffee and check it out.

On October 17, Michael Reagan’s grandpa crossed the final finish line at the age of 97.

Bruce Grove’s enthusiasm and zest for life, his can-do attitude, and his refusal to let age alter his activities or outlook made him really special. He could be used as a textbook in growing old gracefully - demonstrating how to seize the day, every day (in fact he spoke to high school classes on the subject).

Throughout his career in forestry, which began in 1929, he was highly committed to the work he loved. After he retired in 1978 after forty-nine years as a forester with the U.S. Forest Service and Hoff Lumber Company, he threw himself into many new activities with the gusto previously given his work.

He immediately took several classes at BSU (which irritated him as he was a proud Vandal, but University of Idaho Boise didn’t have a Boise Center then). Mycology, the study of mushrooms, really captured his imagination and gave him a new reason for spending more time in Idaho’s forests.

“I loved weekends with my grandparents in McCall when my brother and I were little,” Michael remembers. “Our grandpa loved the woods. He passed along his passion for hunting morel mushrooms, which has become an annual family tradition in my family today. Well into his eighties, I remember him scaling steep banks to get to the prized fungi.”

Needing a winter activity, Bruce learned to ski at the age of 66 and joined the Prime Timers, a group of seniors who skied together midweek. He was thrilled with skiing - the mountains, the physical challenge, the competition. He relished NASTAR races and took pride in his “Best Crash” trophy. That trophy represented his philosophy of life - to just “go for it” no matter how old you are or what your limitations might be. He continued skiing, sometimes four times a week, until the age of 88 when doctor’s orders forced him to quit.

Following a few summers of playing tennis, (which he started at 67), Bruce found his real passion: race walking. Within a short time, he was a fixture at all the local running races, not only winning his age division, but very frequently being in the top five walkers of all ages. He then began a crusade for senior equality in the races, pushing for age group categories beyond 65+. His tenacity, determination, and letter writing finally resulted in race policy changes.  As he got older, his race times got faster, ultimately walking at nearly an eleven-minute mile pace.  At age 80, he “walked” the Race to Roby Creek beating most casual runners. His times from the Idaho Senior Games shattered National Senior Games qualifying times. As the years piled up, so did the awards. So many ribbons and medals hung from every appendage of a nine-foot sailfish, which he caught in Acapulco. His final race was at age 90.

Pictured with the big fish: Michael Reagan, Bruce Groves, Scott Reagan

“He was a bull in a china shop, but had a heart of gold,” explained Michael’s brother Scott. “If you ever asked for something, he would jump up and get it - sometimes giving himself a slap in the butt to get it in gear.”

One of the Reagan family’s favorite stories involved Bruce’s Ford Pinto, the grandkid’s Star Wars collection and a five-gallon bucket of roofing tar. Scott remembered:

One day, circa 1982, we were going to hang out with Grandpa while he was doing some roof work. We brought all of our Star Wars toys, which consisted of a dozen or so prized characters and an X-Wing and Tie Fighter. Michael and I were happily buckled up in the back (unaware of the tragedy about to unfold or the general danger associated with riding in the back seat of a Ford Pinto hatchback), while our toys were on the floor of the passenger seat. The five-gallon drum of liquid roofing tar got to ride shotgun in the passenger seat. One quick stop and the Pinto along with our Star Wars universe instantly became a rolling tar pit.  Many tears were shed as Grandpa Groves selflessly tried to revert our Storm Troopers from tar-stained-brown back to Princess-Lea-virgin-white.  And Grandpa’s sad, little green Pinto oozed brown goo from then on.

Family stories abound, many illustrating his ‘no problem, can-do’, fearless attitude. Nothing stopped Bruce. He had had a lifetime of perpetual motion and excellence.  Yet when two major strokes slowed his step at 94, he never complained and he refused to quit. Bruce remained active and unfailingly kind, good-natured, witty, and determined.

“He was the definition of passion and persistence,” said Michael. “His example is one I will try to live up to everyday for the rest of my life.”

Read the In Remembrance article featuring Bruce V. Groves in the Idaho Statesman.

Wow, where did the summer go? I’m not sure anyone here at DaviesMoore can tell except to say that we have been very fortunate to be busy! As readers of our blog are well aware, we have had the pleasure this summer to begin working with the Idaho Lottery. With the University of Idaho and the Idaho Transportation Department, the Lottery is our third statewide client and we are enjoying the challenge of effectively marketing to our diverse chunk of the planet called Idaho!

As recent headlines indicate, Idaho is far from homogenous - demographically or politically - and the media landscape is ever-changing. Creating effective strategies and media plans for our clients is proving to be more challenging than ever but as crazy as it sounds, it’s a lot of fun. Effective marketers in Idaho must throw away business-as-usual tactics and find ways to use both traditional and new forms of media creatively.

At our recent company retreat, we took time to examine our mission statement. A common theme that came up is our promise to build, value and maintain our partnerships with our media and production vendors across the state and to leverage the creative thinking they can help us bring to our clients.

Creativity is an oft-used word in this business and many look to the ads that we produce to measure creative thinking. We, however, are committed to thinking creatively, not only in the messages we develop, but also in the strategies we employ and the plans we implement. We challenge all of our fellow marketers to use the brains of their media reps, printing partners, production houses, web developers and promotional suppliers to advance the effectiveness of the work we do for our shared clients.

If you’re like us, you can feel the tide turning on this economy and there has never been a better time to help consumers make good decisions to buy products and services from our clients. Whether spending entertainment dollars to see another great Idaho Steelheads team, enjoying the thrill of winning a prize or jackpot from the Idaho Lottery, experiencing the quintessential residential campus life provided by the University of Idaho (which is welcoming its largest freshman class in history), savoring a refreshing Pepsi product, or taking comfort in insurance products from the state’s largest Independent Insurance Agency, Premier Insurance, we’re helping steer consumers to some of the most noted brands in Idaho. We introduced a new Wendy’s product in stores from Jerome to Rigby using not only conventional media, but e-coupons and product sampling as well. As fall approaches, families will be driving new fuel-efficient vehicles from Tom Scott Toyota, relishing the delicious baked potato sides made with real Idaho Potatoes by Teton Valley Ranch, and enjoying a true Idaho golf experience at Jug Mountain Ranch! Idaho consumers are alive and well and continue to participate in their community as evidenced by the record-breaking participation in this year’s Duke Family Foundation Windfall Classic Golf Tournament benefitting the YMCA Summer Camp at Horsethief Reservoir.

At DaviesMoore our entire family of consultants, writers, planners, producers, accountants and artists are more thrilled than ever to be in the business we’re in and working with our diverse clients and media and production partners. This time of year is so critical to many businesses and we’re proud to be part of it all!

Thanks to everyone for a great summer… wherever it went!

We’re in the final stages of completing our business card designs. We’ve really been wrestling with finding the perfect design. We want our cards and all of our identity collateral to be simple and professional, but not boring. Production value is really important to everyone at DaviesMoore, so we want to practice what we preach to our clients. Really, this video we found on YouTube explains what we’re going through.




We do need our business cards. We’ve got a lot of things cooking and we are all hoping to wrap this thing up soon. But we need to remember that, according to this guy, perfection can’t be rushed. So, hopefully we’ll have something brilliant to show you in about 25 years.

By Michael Reagan

All this talk about the abundance of experience we have at DaviesMoore is really starting to show. Every day at work, I am impressed by my co-workers whose unique skill sets and perspectives are really making work fun and interesting. It seems all of the design and copywriting coming out of DaviesMoore is being done with more confidence, precision and collaboration.

We have been fortunate enough to have a ton of logo and branding work lately — the holy grail of graphic design. Whether we’re continuing to develop our own brand as a Boise advertising agency or doing new logos for several of our clients in Idaho and one in Louisiana, it’s been so cool to watch everyone work together to develop some of our most creative logos ever. 

What’s not so cool is the sign of experience that’s growing above my left temple. Yep, one single, long, course gray hair.

Oh well, I guess my first gray hair means I’m getting smarter. I wish my growing waistline was a symbol of something cool.

Walls painted: check.
Databases, servers and systems in place: check
Boxes unpacked: check
E-mail and phones set up: check
Focused on doing great marketing and advertising, not on moving: check

Finally. The dust has settled. We’re finding our groove. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know one another — and more importantly — working with each other. While so much has changed, it’s reassuring (for both the MMG and Davies Rourke folks) to know that we have a lot in common.

Not only is everyone committed to doing great advertising, we are discovering just what a diverse combination of talent and experience DaviesMoore now possesses. Most importantly, it’s still a great place to work. We’re still the laid back and relaxed people you used to know. And that’s what makes DaviesMoore a real Boise advertising agency. In other words, we’re authentic. We’re true to who we are and where we want to go. Yes, we’re professional. Sure, we’re organized. Of course, we’re creative. But what makes us an authentic Idaho ad agency is the fact that we’re honest, fair and relationship driven … not like them slick big city folk.

We’re about substance and style. We’re about building an impressive portfolio and creating advertising, branding and public relations campaigns that deliver impressive results for our clients here in Boise, around the state of Idaho, the Northwest and the nation.

As kids growing up, many of us at DaviesMoore saw life like a television show or a movie.

Early in our first brainstorm, someone threw out “sexy” as a joke to describe the new agency. After the laughter quieted, something about it resonated (we have no idea why). Later, during the strategic phase, we identified a goal to be bold. And part of being bold is taking risks.

We knew we wanted to do something totally different than either MMG or Davies Rourke had done before. We wanted to pay homage to the classic, quintessential ad agency since our agency dates back to the early 1950s, but do it with a contemporary twist.

During the creative direction phase, we got really excited when someone mentioned the television series, Mad Men, as a source of inspiration. Using images from other popular television shows, we let the inspiration of the archetype ad agency craft the spirit of our photo shoot, as well as the art direction of the site. We each portrayed the character of our position at DaviesMoore as if we were in a television drama—paying homage to the ideal of a modern, yet classic ad agency that is a bit, well, sexy (don’t laugh!).

Yes, we may seem a little moody with our bright key lights and warm colors, but we believe this art direction will help set us apart from the previous agencies that MMG and Davies Rourke were before. Sure, posing like rock stars is a little risky, but so is launching a new brand. And who doesn’t like to feel sexy?

The DaviesMoore Creative Team (top: Michael Reagan, Ernie Monroe bottom: Jason Sievers, Aaron Grable)

The DaviesMoore Media Department (left to right: Nikki Reynolds, Leo Morgan, Brooke Smith)

The DaviesMoore Account Team (top: Tyler LaDouceur, Jory Sutton bottom: Edward Moore, Jeff Nielsen, Carolyn Sali)

The DaviesMoore Finance Team (Roger Finch, Vicki Ward)

Taking these photos was a lot of fun. Getting everyone together to hang out in the dark was yet another great bonding exercise, and we’re pleased with how these images turned out. Congratulations to Jory for his time and talent to make the photo shoot a success.

Also, we’d like to especially thank the folks at c308 for all of their hard work to make our website sing. Thanks to On The 45 for their assistance with ux and search engine optimization. Thanks to Brian Harrison of Idahoadagencies.com and our followers on Twitter for playing along.

This has been fun … and the fun is just starting!