Marc Burckhardt, Illustrator

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Burckhardt Studio, Inc.
Austin, Texas
Assignment: St. Supéry Vineyards

Marc Burckhardt's distinctive style is clearly both an advantage and perhaps the biggest challenge in marketing his work to prospective clients. Utilizing the cultural symbols found in everything from Byzantine icons, Mexican retablos, American folk art and circus sideshow banners, the Austin, Texas-based illustrator employs the language of historical styles to convey modern ideas and themes. His work has been commissioned by National Geographic, Rolling Stone, TIME, Major League Baseball, Arena Stage, Comcast, The New York Times and Random House. Yet it's clear that finding the right buyer for his particular style is key to winning new assignments.

Targeting Potential

"It's obviously about hitting the right person at the right time," Burckhardt said, "But I think it's also the fact that ADBASE has allowed me to get very fine tuned with the kinds of people that I'm hitting. As well as getting as much information as I can about what they do, and how to reach them."

Burckhardt does several mailings a year, one large and several smaller follow-up mailings. He won the assignment for St. Supéry Vineyards and their Meritage Wines when designer Melanie Doherty in San Francisco received his mailing. He credits ADBASE's in-depth data for the win.

"I think the real advantage of ADBASE is that there's a lot of data and a lot to work with. Anyone can buy a mailing list from a variety of different sources. What ADBASE provides is specific information and the ability to access it yourself, and go as far as you want in terms of tracking down the specifics of a person - their website, what kinds of clients they handle. Frankly, I use it for a good deal more than just mailings," Burckhardt said.

"If I'm going to a particular city, I can get information on how to reach people that I might want to see while I'm there. If someone calls me for a job or with an inquiry, I can quickly - when I'm on the phone with them - look them up on ADBASE and get all the information I need to know about the kind of work that they're doing at their agency. And I can find out a good deal of background about who's working there... who's been added... who's left their staff in recent months. There's just so much information that's provided."

"With advertising agencies, for example, it breaks it down into the categories and specific clients that they have, right there in the ADBASE website. So you don't even have to click through to the agency's website to get information on pretty important stuff."

"I just completed a job for a major music festival and can use the ADBASE Record Company database to take samples of that job and send it out to people who have a specific interest in that subject matter."

Customizing is Key

"I've always used mailing lists in the past, but the major ones that I've used in the past really don't provide you with the ability to customize with the specific information that ADBASE does," Burckhardt said.

"They talk about the categories, job titles and a lot of the same things that ADBASE has to offer. But in terms of having the ability to do it yourself and to have access to that information 24/7 - the difference is night and day."

"I think ADBASE has done a great job of putting together their product and keeping it updated and keeping it accessible. It's probably one of the best marketing tools I have available to me because it does provide me with all that information. Like most things in life, it's what you make of it. And there's a tremendous amount there to dig into."