overview
FULL-SERVICE CAMPAIGN
Michigan has incredible fish—and incredible people catching and raising them. We helped Michigan Sea Grant turn MI Fresh Fish into a statewide campaign designed to introduce more Michiganders to the people, places, and benefits behind locally caught and raised fish.
Client
MI Fresh Fish
Services
Logo, Print, Ads, Writing, Illustration, Photo, Video
The challenge
Michigan’s commercial fishers and aquaculture producers had a great story to tell. The challenge was getting more people to hear it. MI Fresh Fish needed to make locally caught and farm-raised fish approachable, relevant and easy to understand—while addressing everything from health and sustainability to where Michigan fish comes from and where consumers can find it.
Our Solution
We built an integrated campaign that could work just about anywhere. We helped shape the messaging, photographed and filmed Michigan fishermen and fish farmers, developed digital advertising, created educational materials and carried the MI Fresh Fish story into events, posters, displays, giveaways, a wrapped trailer and more. The result was one recognizable campaign with a lot of ways for people to discover Michigan fish.
Brand Identity
MI Fresh Fish
We built a campaign-ready visual system around the MI Fresh Fish identity, using the Michigan shape and custom fish mark, paired with bold blues and clean type.
Palette
Type
STORIES IN MOTION
Brand Awareness Videos
Commercial Fishing Video
Before sunrise, we climbed aboard with Michigan commercial fishers to capture what a day on the Great Lakes actually looks like—from working the nets to bringing in the catch.
The finished video puts viewers on the water and introduces them to the people and work behind commercially caught Michigan fish.
Fish Farming Video
We traveled to three Michigan aquaculture farms to interview producers and document how Michigan fish are raised—from feeding and water quality to the people managing the operation every day.
The result helps explain aquaculture through the people actually doing it.
The People Behind the Product
Stock photography wasn’t going to tell this story. We built a custom library of images showing Michigan commercial fishers and aquaculture producers doing the real work—on the water, around the ponds and inside their facilities.
Those images became the visual foundation for the campaign, appearing across digital advertising, landing pages, posters, event materials, and social content.
FROM CAMPAIGN TO EXPERIENCE
Take it on the Road
Campaign on Wheels
MI Fresh Fish wasn’t meant to live only on a screen. We helped extend the campaign into a mobile experience that could travel to expos, educational events, and communities across Michigan with real-live fish in a mobile tank.
We developed the graphics for a fully branded trailer that turned the MI Fresh Fish identity into a rolling piece of outreach—giving the campaign a highly visible home wherever it went.
TOOLS FOR THE ROAD
Building the Whole Experience
Pocket-Sized Storytelling
We condensed the campaign into an easy-to-carry guide covering Michigan seafood, producers, aquaculture, and key consumer insights—giving visitors something useful to take with them after the event.
Fish Tank
A live fish display gave the campaign something digital media couldn’t: a chance to get people face-to-face with the subject.
Wrapped in MI Fresh Fish graphics, the display became a natural stopping point for families and an opportunity to turn curiosity into conversations about Michigan fishing and aquaculture.
AWARENESS TO ACTION
Taking Michigan Fish Statewide
Insights In. Great Creative Out.
Before developing the campaign, we surveyed more than 200 Michigan residents to better understand how often they ate fish, what influenced their purchases, and what mattered most when choosing seafood.
Those insights gave us the foundation for campaign messaging focused on taste, health, freshness, and Michigan-grown and caught fish.
Then we turned the strategy loose. Monte developed playful, attention-grabbing creative for Google and Meta that paired fish photography with headlines like “Not fishy. Just delish-y.”, “Get hooked on Mi Fresh Fish.” and “Why Mich fish? Ninja speed.”
The ads connected awareness with landing pages designed to help Michiganders learn more about the benefits of fish and the producers behind it.
Shore Tasty Illustration + Photo Booth
We illustrated a fishing boat and translated it into an oversized photo experience that let visitors become part of the MI Fresh Fish story.
At the expo, the installation gave families another reason to stop, participate, and take the campaign home in their camera roll (and with a polaroid!
