Nyack Hospital : Give and Grow

When we heard about the Give and Grow Program through The Journal News we knew we wanted to be involved. Knowing this ad was going to run in September and October and that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month we chose to highlight The Breast Center at Nyack Hospital for one of our submissions.

We did research on breast cancer in women to inspire us, we wanted to have a real impact on the readers and felt the ad should be a public announcement reminding women to get their yearly mammograms. This is where we pulled in the headline, "1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with cancer," a statistic that certainly got my attention. The body copy supports and reinforces the headline message, "By the time you can feel a lump in the breast it is often 0.4 inches, or one centimeter, in size and contains roughly a million cells. It is estimated that a tumor of this size may take one to five years to develop. During that time, the cancer may metastasize, or spread by lymphatics or blood to areas elsewhere in your body."

Once we had the headline and copy down we needed a visual. After some different visual ideas I came up with the perfect image, a simple pink string around a woman’s finger. Using Dana, our Junior Designer’s index finger we took lots of shots and with a little photo retouching we added the image into the layout. We chose to create the ad in black and white to show the bold importance of having a mammogram while keeping the ribbon pink as a focal point and because the pink ribbon is so iconic.



I hope the ad we created reminded women to the importance of making their yearly mammogram appointments.

–Melissa Behrens, Art Director, The Byne Group



SPCA of Westchester : Give and Grow

The Give and Grow program sponsored by The Journal News was really the perfect fit for us. We always try to give back, not only to our clients, but to our community as well. Now we could give back with a 10"x10" pro bono ad for a charity of our choice that would run in The Journal News for free.

We chose SPCA of Westchester as one of the organizations to create an ad for because of their stellar reputation for providing care and permanent placements for animals in need. They are also involved in countless community programs revolving around animals. I’m a huge animal person and these organizations give all of our communities and friends hope.

We met with Lisa Bonanno, Development Associate at SPCA of Westchester, and took a brief tour of the large facilities in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Lisa wanted to focus the ad on "The Lonely Hearts Club" – a new program at SPCA of Westchester that is dedicated to placing animals who are older or have special needs – both socially and physically.

After thorough research of regional shelter and animal service ads, we decided to take a surprisingly brighter and hopeful approach rather than focus on the negative. We decided to make the ad entirely from a dog's point of view.

Zach is the pooch we decided to feature. He's a 2 year old handsome fella who’s part of The Lonely Hearts Club program. So cute, he surely deserves a forever family of his own and think he would have much to say if he could, so we decided to become his voice.

The ad’s headline gives you the big story – Zach is lonely without a family and the supporting copy is his brief story of coming to SPCA of Westchester, how great they’ve been to him, how he would love to move onto his forever family, and that you should come visit him and his friends. The remaining copy tells you more about the organization, it's importance to the community, and highlights contact information for you to take further action. The SPCA of Westchester has a photographer they use on a regular basis who provided the photo. [snootydog.com] We decided to silo the dog out of the photograph and set him on a warm yellow background for high color impact in a newspaper that is mainly black and white.


We believe the ad was successful and are grateful to have been a part of the Give and Grow Program. The SPCA of Westchester loved the ad as well. It is currently on display at the front desk for everyone to see.

–Amanda Holt, Creative Director, The Byne Group

The "KEY" to Keywords

10 Tips to Maximize Your SEO Using Keywords

Our clients are always asking us for ways to improve traffic to their websites. “One of the 'KEYS' to improving their SEO” we tell them, "is to use keywords correctly.” Here are 10 tips to help you unlock the keyword puzzle:

1: When setting up your website, make sure you have descriptive content on your home page that will be recognized by search engines. This means using words and ALSO phrases that pertain to your particular service or product.

2: A little research could be the KEY! Make a list of words and phrases that describe your service or product. Now go to your competitor’s site or a comparable service present online and see how they are or aren't utilizing keywords. Looking at comparable sites (if designed wisely!) is a great way to see if you're missing an important phrase or keyword.

3: Do a bit of research about how your customers or users might describe your service or product. You might be surprised that your definition and theirs contain different descriptions AND different keywords or phrases you may want to incorporate.

4: DON'T use slang or "industry" terms unless you provide an industry service or product. Use keywords that the general public would likely be using to find you.

5: If your service or product is contained to a "location," make sure that location is stated somewhere on your home page. We all hate when we pull up a service thinking it's local and it's halfway across the country. If your service is national or international... well, you should state that too!

6: Is your copy live? Images of text are not going to help your SEO. Make sure your keywords are not images but live text, including your menus.

7: A good way to "ADD" keywords to your existing home page is to put an additional list of keyword links at the bottom of your page that are descriptive and bring users to subsequent areas of your site. This is also a useful tool for your SEO when designing a new site.

8: DON'T over do it! In this case, less is more. Cramming as many keywords or phrases that are not relevant to your service or product can actually lower your rankings. Choose wisely, and if you are unsure, you can get help from experts (like The Byne Group), to guide you.

9: Now, make sure your hierarchy of web pages in your site also follow these rules and contain keywords and relevant phrases for your service or product. Follow all the same general guidelines as for the home page.

10: And finally, if this all baffles you, just call us at The Byne Group and we’ll help you unlock the keyword puzzle!

–Amanda Holt, Creative Director, The Byne Group