Combining Kristine’s 25+ years of marketing and public relations experience with Lindsey’s much shorter but intense 10 years of marketing and advertising experience seemed like a natural thing to do one year ago. While some people thought we were crazy, we knew we had the capacity to be much better together then by ourselves and with some exceptions that has been our experience of year one.

Clients have entered at a steady pace and each one has brought a passion for their business and a clear cut set of goals. We have been swept up in their passion and have been proud to represent them.

We’ve managed to create campaigns that have exceeded the objectives set by our clients and some of that work brought us a record of five gold Addy awards and two Amy awards this spring, which was very gratifying. Among other awards, we also claimed a third place and the “community choice award” this summer for the mobile app StreetWize at Startup Weekend TampaBay.

One year later we are now in our third office having outgrown the preceding two. It continues to keep the postman confused.

We’ve been blessed to share our creative space with some talented students from Ringling College of Art and Design and they’ve brought a tremendous amount of energy, technology and cold pizza to the office.

Giving back to the community has been very gratifying as well. We decided early on to have one pro-bono client each year and the “Invest In The Power of Girls” campaign, for Girls Inc. Sarasota, was a joy to work in every way. Lindsey invests her extra time in her professional association group, the American Advertising Federation, and Kristine is serving as President of the Ringling College Library Association.

As first years go, this was very different to the very first year Lindsey and Kristine spent together back in 1982 or the first year in Florida in 1989, but it has been equally as exciting and rewarding. Thank you for sharing in the journey and we hope to grow with you in years to come.

After a long night of perfecting their presentation Lindsey, Meghan, and Sheena Koshy, pitched their app Storedrobe in the Glidea Pitch Competition on Tuesday July 16th. Chosen as one of seven finalists, Storedrobe was only one of the many ideas presented to a respected panel of judges including Kelvin Thomas, Glide Interactive Owner and Chairman; John K. Carlson, Glide Interactive CEO; Dr. Larry Thompson, President of Ringling College of Art and Design; David Houle, Resident Futurist at Ringling College of Art and Design; David Adkins, Director of Systems and Digital Technology at Herald-Tribune Media Group; and Marcie McGeehan, Director of Sales and Marketing at The Ritz-Carlton of Sarasota. Storedrobe’s Glidea competition included a physical product, a lifestyle brand, and finance, productivity, and social networking mobile apps.

The prize for this idea-pitching competition is what all tech startups need most, the coding and development of product,  provided by Glide Interactive. Lindsey and Sheena were excited to be joined by two of their friends also included as finalist in the event. Fellow 2013 Busprenuer, Michael LaPlante, and Startup Weekend Tampa Bay StreetWize team member Matthew Foreman.

Storedrobe is the brainchild of Lindsey Nickel, Travis Miller, Austin Allbritton and Sheena Koshy created while working on StartupBus Southeast. Storedrobe hopes to answer the age old question - I am looking at a closet full of clothes, why do I have nothing to wear? Storedrobe allows users to track their wardrobe, match it to future purchases, and get advice from style mavens. The app takes the guesswork out of looking great.

To find out more information about Glidea Pitch 2013 or Glide Interactive visit www.glideinteractive.com.

On Friday, Lindsey took an early morning trip over the Sky Way Bridge to participate on the Miss Florida Pageant Competition media panel. Joined by respected media professionals Mike Foley of the Times Media Group, Trevor Pettiford of Bay News 9 and Peter Schorsch, editor of Saintpetersblog.com, Lindsey was excited to be able to impart valuable media strategy and tactics onto the 47 contestants.

The Miss Florida USA contestants were eager learn more about social networking, media strategy and how to improve what they are already doing. With questions focusing on how the media landscape has shifted in recent years, the standards of media and how they have changed, the do’s and don’t’s of interviews and how to capture the media’s attention for promotion purposes.

Meghan volunteered for the early morning drive and was tasked with keeping on top of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter updates. Using two phones and a laptop, Meghan certainly attained a large volume of content included in our blog and on our social media platforms listed bellow. For more behind the scenes action follow our Twitter handles @nickeltalks @awesomeprenuer and @creativideer and our Instagram @nickeltalks.

This past weekend, the creative team at Nickel Communications, including Lindsey, Andy, Jillian, Meghan, and Jessica, won 3rd Place and the Community Choice award for best new Startup business at the Startup Weekend of Tampa Bay for our crime watch application, StreetWize. It was a long weekend, filled with lots of caffeine (especially coffee for Andy, I think he had eight cups on Saturday alone!) and very little sleep.

Here is a little about our app that we pitched, researched, designed and developed with a group of 14 volunteer designers, students and professionals that we came to know over the weekend. StreetWize is an app that taps into emergency service communications and delivers it to your smart phone. Using your phones geo navigation technology, StreetWize allows users to access real time crime data reported in their location. While in the app, users can also respond with pertinent information about a committed crime or report a crime in progress.

 Everyone got some sort of prize, Lindsey receiving a brand new iPad Mini for the office, Andy, Jillian, and Jessica receiving gift cards, and Meghan gaining a spinning mop, which she was more than excited for.

Follow our Facebook page (Add Link) and our twitter @NickelTalks for more information and updates about Streetwize and our Startup Weekend trip.

This week our team including Kristine, Lindsey, Andy, and our videographer Nate set out to Osprey for the Treborstyle.com Trunk Show. Not only did the show feature the jewelry from Treborstyle.com, but was an introduction for designer Florence Lotz and her fashion line direct from Paris. Lindsey definitely enjoyed being surrounded by the exquisite jewelry and clothes, however I’m sure Andy and Nate could think of a few things they’d rather be doing that telling Lindsey what bracelet or bauble looked the best.

Not only were we tasked with admiring the accessories and clothing, but to create new video blogs featuring Marilee and Florence’s representation Cecil Georges as they talked about ways of pairing the jewelry and clothing together for every style and taste

Andy and Lindsey made the perfect “Vana White” assistants for Nate, becoming living light stands for all his photography needs. Who needs a traditional light kit when you can have human lamp stands that move with you!  Grunt work at its best.

Surprisingly Lindsey only left with 30+ gifts for her Christmas list, and one idea for her “BirVaryMas” gift. This is a special holiday created and celebrated by Lindsey and her husband where they combine their Birthdays, Anniversary, and Christmas with one big gift.

The Florence Lotz and Treborstyle blogs will be up in early June. Check them all at www.treborstyle.com!