To some, he’s known as ‘the Godfather.’ To others, he’s known as one of the biggest names in San Antonio advertising. But to us, he’s JG. Julius Germano, AMG’s COO, celebrated his 75th birthday on February 21 with a surprise party over lunch. The usual suspects chipped in, getting the conference room ready for the party complete with food from The Dogfather. The team had a blast, and we’re so glad to celebrate the momentous occasion with the man himself.

“It was a total and complete surprise,” Julius said with a laugh. “I had no idea at all. I really appreciate everything the team did to put it together and make this birthday a memorable one.”

Since 1918, Porter Loring Mortuaries has been providing San Antonio with funeral services, and has grown to become one of the city’s most recognizable names. Throughout those 100 years, their name has become synonymous with caring, professionalism, and dedication. 

This reputation has followed them throughout their hundred-year history. “I had the honor of meeting Porter Loring when we first pitched the account in 1999. He was such a wonderful man. So kind and caring,” comments Mary Aaron, senior art director on the Porter Loring account. “It’s no wonder the business has lasted so long. They’ve always been so humble.”

Mary, Kim Gresham (account supervisor and President/Owner of AMG), and Dirk Ronk (associate creative director), have been working to create a comprehensive strategy for the 100th anniversary celebration, crafting a new logo, developing TV spots, and even the company’s first fiesta medal. Dave Solce, social media manager, has also been hard at work combing through Porter Loring’s archives to find pieces of memorabilia from throughout the company’s century-long history. He’ll be using what he finds in a social media

AMG got off to a strong start in 2018 as we welcomed two new members to our already extensive client base: OnePlus Fitness and ValuMed Pharmacy.

For OnePlus, we were tasked with creating a website and brand voice for the new fitness facility opening in Alamo Heights. “OnePlus’s founder, Lufe Torres, is so passionate about what he does,” says Reed Hartman, copywriter for the OnePlus site, “that as soon as you sit down with him and he starts telling you everything about his gym and his philosophy, it’s clear that OnePlus is so much more than just a gym. We really wanted to capture that in the site’s look as well as the language we used when writing content.” Check out the OnePlus Fitness website here. 

ValuMed, a Fredericksburg-based pharmacy, approached us with a branding problem. So our creative team got together and crafted a new logo, brand voice, and positioning line for the company, and we’re now beginning a ‘soup-to-nuts’ rebranding campaign which will last through the end of the year.

Since 2011, AMG has been working with Food Management Partners (FMP), a San Antonio-based restaurant management company. Our work with FMP began on a few accounts, but now AMG provides design and copywriting services for nearly 300 FMP restaurant locations nationwide. 

Chances are you’re probably not familiar with FMP, the brand behind regional restaurants like Carrows Restaurants, Coco’s Bakery, Country Buffet, Don Pablos, Furr’s Fresh Buffet, Hometown Buffet, Hops, Old Country Buffet, Ryan’s, Tahoe Joe’s, and Zio’s Italian Kitchen. But FMP provides operations management of these restaurants in over 36 states. They also manage additional companies within the food industry, and have owned other national brands like Buffalo Wild Wings, Smash Burger, and Little Caesars.

“Working with FMP is like working with like 10 clients at once,” says Reed Hartman, copywriter on the FMP account. “Switching back and forth between so many brands that all have different voices and personalities is challenging, but that’s what makes it fun.”

AMG works closely with FMP to design and produce a variety of print and digital materials, including:

• Digital advertising
• Direct mail print
• Menus and

This quarter, two new smiling faces join the AMG family: Marisa Moss as our new traffic manager, and David Solce as social media manager. Marisa was born and raised in LA, and has a background ranging in everything from traffic management to production. Marisa loves the outdoors, sports, and enjoys helping others. She volunteers regularly at Grace House and works with prison ministry.

Dave is also a Texas transplant. Moving to Houston after graduating from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, Dave began working for Houston First, developing creative and working on campaigns for Visit Houston, St. Arnold Brewing, and Pi Pizza, just to name a few. Dave brings with him a wealth of knowledge, but most importantly he brings a new perspective to our social media strategy. He will be working on a variety of social media accounts, in addition to developing web content.

Welcome, Dave and Marisa, to the AMG family!

This week, Instagram rolled out a new feature that allows business profiles to sell products directly to consumers called ‘Instagram Shopping’. This new feature adds a new way for consumers to connect with products and brands.

Your viewers can now find products for sale within your images and be directed to your website to purchase. In the past, businesses have had to rely on creativity through links in their profile, clever copy and calls-to-action, and adding URLs in post copy, which never existed as an actual link.

How Instagram Shopping works

• Choose the photo(s) you’d like to feature.
• Tag up to five items per image, of twenty items per carousel.
• Add filters and captions.
• Post your image(s)!

How to set up Shopping

• Make sure your Instagram page is set up as a “Business Profile.”
• Your business must sell physical goods that comply with Facebook’s merchant agreement and commerce policies.

A new season brings a lot of new work. Check out some of our great new design and production work for Freetail Brewing Co., the Valero Alamo Bowl, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the South Texas Medical Center, Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, Coco’s and Alamo City Golf Trail.

When we were first asked by the South Texas Medical Center to create a brand new awareness campaign, we knew we had to do something fresh, different, and exciting. We not only had to craft new messaging to make consumers aware of the excellent care they could receive at the South Texas Medical Center, but we also had to update their look to match their new branding message.

First, we pinpointed the three main areas of focus in the Medical Center: research, healthcare, and technology. “These three key terms perfectly articulated what the Medical Center is all about,” Reed Hartman, Copywriter on the Medical Center campaign, said. “But we were still missing something. We needed a line about the end user, the consumer. That’s where ‘It’s all about you.’ came from.”

We then developed the final line, ‘Research. Technology. Healthcare. It’s all about you.’

From there, Tiffany Gabaldon, Associate Creative Director, and Chris Pawlik, Creative Director, got to work designing a cutting-edge look for the Medical Center’s materials.

“When we were concepting ideas for the new look, we wanted to create something that reflected the Medical Center as a whole, but that also reflected our campaign line,” Tiffany explained. “It

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Port Aransas, Texas. After a day of heavy winds, torrential rainfall, and devastating flooding, Harvey left the Texas Coast in bad shape. Homes and livelihoods were destroyed. Even the AMG team was affected. Janet Hancock, Media Planner & Buyer, lost her condo in Rockport, Texas, and Reed Hartman’s family in Port Aransas lost their home as well.

“The Cavender family came to me and said they wanted to help the relief effort in any way possible,” said Julius Germano, Account Executive for the Cavender Auto Dealerships and COO of AMG. Luckily, he had recently heard about a concert that George Strait would be performing at the Majestic Theater. All the proceeds of the concert would go toward Harvey relief.

Having worked with Strait before, The Cavenders jumped on the opportunity and assisted in underwriting the concert. In an effort to drive ticket sales and donations, AMG and Shootz Production group helped them produce two television spots to air before and after the benefit. Every member of the team was proud to work on the project.