Ann Arbor, MI, March 26, 2012 – re:group President, Janet Muhleman, announced today that re:group has been named the marketing communications agency for Citizens Bank. re:group will be responsible for developing Citizens’ advertising campaigns and providing support for branding and retail promotions.

“We are thrilled by the opportunity to work with the Citizens Bank team. We are impressed with Citizens’ commitment to providing their clients with personalized service and building long-term client relationships. We look forward to leveraging our twenty years experience serving multi-unit retail and financial institutions to help them achieve their business objectives,” commented Muhleman.

“The breadth of knowledge re:group brings, coupled with their financial services experience, provides us with a terrific strategic partner to continue building our business and enhancing our brand within the local communities we serve,” said Sherry Forbes, Chief Marketing Officer for Citizens Bank.

About Citizens Bank
Citizens Bank, a diversified financial services company serving communities in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana with 219 offices and 249 ATMs, was founded in Flint, Michigan in 1871 at the height of Flint’s lumber industry. Today, Citizens offers full service banking services including mortgage, consumer and business banking. For more information about Citizens Bank, visit citizensbanking.com.

About re:group
Founded in 2002 by Janet Muhleman, re:group is an independent, award-winning marketing agency located in Ann Arbor, Mich. re:group helps transform brands and grow business by taking a strategic approach to every client challenge and providing an integrated marketing solution. Services offered include: marketing strategy, branding, advertising, communications design, website development, search engine optimization and traditional, digital and social media services. re:group is a member of the American Bankers Association, Society for Healthcare Market Development and the International Franchise Association.
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For more information contact:
Carey Jernigan, vice president, re:group
734.327.6630
carey.jernigan@regroup.us

Ann Arbor, MI, February 24, 2012 — Following an extensive search that began last September, DTE Energy has selected re:group, inc. as its agency of record. Dave Whitman, director of advertising and brand communications, led the DTE Energy search team. “We were impressed by the strategy that re:group developed and the creative concepts that they shared,” said Whitman. “It was clear to us that they have a solid understanding of our communication needs.”

Janet Muhleman, president of the agency said, “It’s an exciting time to be working with DTE Energy. We are thrilled to have been selected and confident that we can help them achieve their objectives.”

DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. Its operating units include Detroit Edison, an electric utility serving 2.1 million customers in Southeastern Michigan, MichCon, a natural gas utility serving 1.2 million customers in Michigan and other non-utility, energy businesses focused on gas storage and pipelines, unconventional gas production, power and industrial projects, and energy trading. Information about DTE Energy is available at dteenergy.com, twitter.com/dte_energy and facebook.com/dteenergy.

re:group is a privately held, national, award-winning marketing agency located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that provides integrated brand management, including branding, marketing, design, interactive marketing, advertising, SEO, social media, communications and media services. Learn more at www.regroup.us.

Looking back over the year I am amazed at the what we and our clients have accomplished. We brought new brands to the marketplace: a new fruit and vegetable beverage called FaVe, and SignMeUp+, a running retailer customer relationship management system designed to help independent running stores compete. We helped roll out SignMeUp+ at The Running Event in Austin this month, and already 50 retailers are on board. In the franchise community, we welcomed Goldfish Swim Schools as they added their third location. It’s really great to work with entrepreneurs, to become a partner in their efforts and helping to make their vision become a reality.

For our other clients we have been able to help them compete in some challenging times. We helped HealthPlus of Michigan maximize their media spend through a value-added Tigers sponsorship and increased awareness of them in Southeast Michigan. Presbyterian Villages of Michigan worked with us to reposition the brand and develop all new collateral for their villages. Those are just a few of the clients we have worked with this year.

We have been very fortunate this year to work with some talented marketers. To all of them and you, we wish a delightful holiday season and more opportunities to work together in 2012.

Nina Abnee

Allstate’s Advertising Campaign

Nina Abnee, Executive Vice President, Leo Burnett-Chicago discusses “How a simple insight created Mayhem and the Mayhem that resulted.”

Thursday October 13, 2011, Holiday Inn Gateway Centre, Flint, Michigan

Program Highlight

Nina Abnee will give a behind the scenes account of the creation of Allstate’s “Mayhem is Everywhere” advertising campaign from strategy to casting to all the production details and what they learned along the way, especially about advertising in a world where social media is the court of public opinion. (more…)

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VIPdesk was the first company in the customer care and loyalty industries to provide home-based call center and virtual concierge services. Currently one of the leading providers of brand experience management solutions to national and international corporations, VIPdesk contracts with major retailers, financial institutions, travel companies and others to provide the highest level of concierge and call center services for everything from placing orders to customer care and issue resolution. By providing demographically-matched Brand Ambassadors to their client’s products/customers, they are able to ensure consistent, measureable performance. (more…)

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HealthPlus of Michigan is a health care insurance company with over 30 years experience in improving lives in mid-Michigan communities. They have over 200,000 members and offer a wide variety of plans including HMO, PPO, HSA’s, Medicare, Medicaid and individual plans. They have the leading market share in the Flint, Saginaw and Bay City service area. Recently, they expanded their coverage into the Detroit market area where they were not well known. (more…)

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INCREASE DEPOSITS DURING MICHIGAN’S CHALLENGED ECONOMY

United Bank and Trust is a Community Bank with 16 branches in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties in southeast Michigan. The bank was founded over 150 years ago with the intent of providing a high level of personal banking service to their clients and being a strong community partner. United offers a full range of consumer banking products including mortgages, investment, trust and estate services. They are the number one mortgage lender in Washtenaw County. They are also very committed to their business customers with a particular emphasis on helping small businesses. Their Structured Finance division helps many of their business clients access capital through the SBA and other government funds. In fact, they are the number #1 provider of SBA loans in Washtenaw County. (more…)

Recently, one of our own came in quite excited about using her iPhone – to pay for her coffee at Starbucks. More and more banking and financial services are being used via cell phones every day, and those companies who don’t make mobile services easy for their customers will make it easy for their customers to decide to go elsewhere.

From making bill or loan payments to transferring funds from one place to another, consumers already see the value of the phone’s mobility and flexibility. But what’s in it for the financial sector? (more…)

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Arbor Hospice is a non-profit organization that provides end of life care and support services to patients and families. They are one of only five CHAP accredited hospice organizations in southeast Michigan. Arbor Hospice is also differentiated in the market by the quality and tenure of their staff, their in-patient residence and their Pediatric hospice service. They are also known for offering free of charge grief counseling and support services to spouses, parents and children in their communities who are in need of their help. (more…)

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Eisenhower Center is a premier rehabilitation facility in the Midwest specializing in brain injury. They offer a campus-like community built around creating individualized programs to maximize the potential of their residents. Among the expert services available are: occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, psychotherapy, speech and language pathology, health education, and a Substance Abuse Prevention Program. (more…)

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Prematurity is a huge problem in this country, causing a multitude of issues in newborns. Premature infants can face physical and mental challenges that include blindness, breathing problems, delayed development, learning disabiltiies and more. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize the seriousness of the problem.

Our challenge was to create communications to spotlight the plight of premature babies, and to encourage employers and their staffs to join in the annual WalkAmerica campaign. After several years of creating posters, we felt that we needed to do something more inspiring and attention-getting. (more…)

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Building The Duskin Brand

Duskin Co., Ltd., is a $6 billion franchise conglomerate based in Japan. Its core business operates under the Duskin brand name and is Japan’s largest and most widely known franchise, offering residential and commercial rental cleaning products and services.

In 1989, the company faced lower brand awareness among younger consumers. That year, Duskin approached us for both an effective development process to add and support new products and a design update to its current offerings. (more…)