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Winona Avenue is a main corridor between downtown Warsaw and Winona Lake, and on Wednesday Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce presented its latest facade grant to Orange Marketing Group, 1042 E. Winona Ave., Warsaw.
Rob Parker, Main Street Warsaw executive director and Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said they’ve given out three facade grants as of Wednesday, as far as being paid out, with two or three more to go.
The Winona Avenue facade grant program is new this year, and Parker said it’s “absolutely” worked out like he thought it would.
“Each one of these facade improvements have created a much more dynamic feel to Winona Avenue. It looks a lot better. It increases the property value, and that’s really what we’re about: Trying to help this corridor become something that we’re proud of instead of something that people avoid,” Parker said.
A business on Winona Avenue has to be a Chamber member in order to apply for the facade grant “because it is 100% funded by the Chamber. As a nonprofit in our community that is also engaged in community development, we believe that this investment is extremely beneficial, not just to Winona Avenue but to the entire community,” Parker said.”
The approximate geographic borders for the Winona Avenue facade grant include Winona Avenue from the railroad tracks to the roundabout, and extends over to Market and Smith streets.
The maximum facade grant a Winona Avenue business can receive is $10,000. The facade grant to Orange Marketing Group was for $7,500.
David Phelps, Orange Marketing Group chief executive officer, said the whole entryway to his business is new - stairs, doors and windows. The other side of the building also has a new door and entryway.
“We removed an old ramp that had been here, and old railing to put in greenspace, and we’re going to put plants in, in the spring because it’s too late in the year to plant plants, obviously,” he stated.
New gutters were put in, and they redid the asphalt for Orange Marketing Group’s parking lot.
“We made it look newer and fresher and more professional,” Phelps said.
Orange Marketing Group has been at the Winona Avenue location for about four years. Phelps said they were at another location for “15 years, 12 years before that.
“We’ve been an entity since 2014 was when we started, and we’ve been doing marketing and advertising for most of the orthopedics but then others in the community as well since that time - digital, print. We’re a full-service agency. There’s nothing we can’t do,” he stated.
They also have a partner in the Winona Avenue building who is a software development company.
“So we build software apps and software solutions, websites, different things as well. It’s all part of what we do. We look at full service,” Phelps said. “We want to help clients not just do a task, but think about it strategically. Why are you buying a billboard? What’s the point? What’s the messaging, what are you trying to do, where’s the billboard located? That kind of thing.”
Similar questions apply to the digital realm as well: Why are you posting on social media? What time of day? Why are you doing it? Who’s your audience? Are you advertising to the right people?
“We think more strategically. Most firms are very tactical, we try to be very strategic and plan and help the clients get a vision before they actually start doing the work,” Phelps said.
He said they also do a lot of work for nonprofits as well. By volume of clients, half of Orange Marketing Group’s clients are nonprofits.
“We love helping them tell their stories and be successful, too,” he said.
For the orthopedic companies, he said they’ve launched products for J & J, helped with the brand redevelopment at Zimmer Biomet and more for 15 years.
Orange Marketing Group’s building is not a big, elaborate building, but Phelps said that’s because 90% of his employees live somewhere else. He has one employee in Warsaw/Winona Lake, one who lives in Carmel and the rest live across the country and overseas.
“They are all employees. We’re not hiring other agencies. They all actually work for me but they all decided they wanted to go live somewhere else because they work remote and it works. It works for me,” he said, noting they talk every week all the time.
Check out their website at orangemktgroup.com
