Valley Concept Designs

If Cedric Smiley had his way, you’d see more colourful characters on Nova Scotian streets. Smiley’s company, Valley Concept Designs in Antigonish, helps organizations liven up their marketing programs by developing corporate characters - life-sized, walking characters, like mascots.

 
Smiley can create a character from scratch or work with an existing one. “There are a lot of companies who already have a character in their logo, but they don’t do anything with it,” says Smiley. “We develop that character, bring it to life.”
 
Characters help a company interact with people in a fun and memorable way, says Smiley. They’re great at public events, and can give away promotional items - T-shirts, Frisbees, hats - all marked with the company’s logo.
 
Smiley says a character can work for most any company or group who wants one. “From a superhero to a corporate business man, we develop a concept,” he says. “Whatever suits the company we’re working with. There’s a character in there and I can help them find it.”
 
Smiley’s enthusiasm is contagious. With the energy and rhythm of a spoken-word poet, he gives an example of how a theatre company might adapt Shakespeare as a youthful character. “William Shakespeare - a.k.a. the king bee - saying to BE a BEE or not to BE; that is TRULY the question.”
 
Smiley falls into characters easily. Before getting into promotions about 20 years ago, he studied theatre at Arizona State University in Tempe. And, he has been a character himself. Smiley was the first “Windfall Willy” for the Arizona State Lottery, and played characters for two sports teams. 
 
Smiley started Valley Concept Designs 10 years ago in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. So, how did he come to be living in Canada? “I met a pretty girl from Nova Scotia about four years ago,” he says, “and here I am.” The couple married and moved to his wife’s hometown of Antigonish, where they are now raising a baby girl.
 
And as far as he knows, Valley Concept Designs is the only company doing corporate character development in Nova Scotia. Smiley has some clients he’s working with, and is in the process of setting up an office on Main Street in Antigonish. He’ll share office space with Highland Multimedia, a website and print design company. The two businesses seemed a natural fit, says Smiley. 
 
While setting up his office, Smiley has been working with some local companies on character development.
 
I’ve got a moving company as a client, says Smiley. Their logo has a character in it already, a donkey. They like the donkey and want to keep it. Smiley’s job: to give life and personality to that donkey, and make it work for the company as a promotional tool.
 
“The next parade,” says Smiley, “they can get the family all dressed up. The donkey can be on the back, and jump down to hand out things to the crowd, such as T-shirts or key tags, something with their name on it.
 
“Now, people have seen the donkey. And then you decide where you want him to show up next. It’s about placement. It works the same for everyone.”
 
For a computer retailer whose clientele is students, he suggested a character of “world’s biggest geek.” They didn’t think of it this way at first, says Smiley, but you can show it’s cool to be a geek. “The character has all the latest gadgets,” he says, “I’m so geeky, I’m cool.”
 
Although he likes working with individual companies in developing their identities, he sees great potential in promoting umbrella groups, organizations that promote a geographic area or group of businesses.
 
“It has more public appeal,” he says. “It has more community.”
 
Back in Arizona, his company developed a character called “Mill Man” for a Phoenix merchants’ association. And he’s very proud of the slogan and tagline his company developed to promote the city: “HOT from PHX” and “You’re not cool if you’re not ‘Hot from Phoenix.’” The slogan was printed on shirts, mugs and other merchandise and sold in his retail shop.
 
Smiley brings enthusiasm, innovation and creativity to his work here. And he’s very positive about Nova Scotia’s Come to life initiative. He says promoting and branding the attributes of a whole area is just the kind of thing he does.
 
“I would love to be an official poster child for Come to life,” says Smiley. “We can present the whole concept from one end of the province to the other. We can be at events, giving out brochures, T-shirts. Be there with the character.” To Smiley, it’s all about giving life to the marketing campaign and finding opportunities for cross promotion.
 
In addition to developing promotional campaigns, corporate identities and characters, Smiley has also worked in product development.
 
For example in Spokane, Washington, he worked with the co-founder of Sports Saq in developing the Hoop Saq®, the world’s first sport-specific basketball bag. The specialized compartments in the bag are not only practical in that they hold tennis shoes, a basketball and sunglasses, but they also can hold promotional items like water bottles, and can be tailored with team logos or colours. Finding opportunities for promotion, that’s Smiley’s specialty.
 
Although work and his young family keep him busy, Smiley has seen quite a bit of the province since arriving here. He says he finds the pace slower and more laid back than Arizona. But even in this he sees potential.
 
Antigonish is a college town, like Tempe where he had his retail shop. “I think it’s a real untapped resource,” says Smiley. “I see lots of business opportunities tied to the students here.”
 
Ideally, he says, he would be able to work and travel between Canada and the United States. For companies interested in the US market, his background would be an asset. He is working on business connections here, trying to find his niche in the market. He looks forward to a future where he can spend his time in both Arizona and Nova Scotia.
 
Smiley is a big basketball fan, and he says come February when the NBA All Stars play in Tempe, that’s where he will be. “Summers in Nova Scotia, winters in Arizona,” says Smiley, “that would be pretty nice.
 

“As I find my place and some people to work with and for,” he says, “I think everything will fall into place.”

Feature story written by Susan Corning