We are the digital agency
crafting brand experiences
for the modern audience.
We are Fame Foundry.

See our work. Read the Fame Foundry magazine.

We love our clients.

Fame Foundry seeks out bold brands that wish to engage their public in sincere, evocative ways.


WorkWeb DesignSportsEvents

Platforms for racing in the 21st century.

Fame Foundry puts the racing experience in front of millions of fans, steering motorsports to the modern age.

“Fame Foundry created something never seen before, allowing members to interact in new ways and providing them a central location to call their own. It also provides more value to our sponsors than we have ever had before.”

—Ryan Newman

Technology on the track.

Providing more than just web software, our management systems enhance and reinforce a variety of services by different racing organizations which work to evolve the speed, efficiency, and safety measures, aiding their process from lab to checkered flag.

WorkWeb DesignRetail

Setting the pace across 44 states.

With over 1100 locations, thousands of products, and millions of transactions, Shoe Show creates a substantial retail footprint in shoe sales.

The sole of superior choice.

With over 1100 locations, thousands of products, and millions of transactions, Shoe Show creates a substantial retail footprint in shoe sales.

WorkWeb DesignRetail

The contemporary online pharmacy.

Medichest sets a new standard, bringing the boutique experience to the drug store.

Integrated & Automated Marketing System

All the extensive opportunities for public engagement are made easily definable and effortlessly automated.

Scheduled promotions, sales, and campaigns, all precisely targeted for specific demographics within the whole of the Medichest audience.

WorkWeb DesignSocial

Home Design & Decor Magazine offers readers superior content on designer home trends on any device.


  • By selectively curating the very best from their individual markets, each localized catalog comes to exhibit the trending, pertinent visual flavors specific to each region.


  • Beside the swaths of inspirational home photography spreads, Home Design & Decor provides exhaustive articles and advice by proven professionals in home design.


  • The art of home ingenuity always dances between the timeless and the experimental. The very best in these intersecting principles offer consistent sources of modern innovation.

WorkWeb DesignSocial

  • Post a need on behalf of yourself, a family member or your community group, whether you need volunteers or funds to support your cause.


  • Search by location, expertise and date, and connect with people in your very own community who need your time and talents.


  • Start your own Neighborhood or Group Page and create a virtual hub where you can connect and converse about the things that matter most to you.

June 2021
Noted By Joe Bauldoff

The Making and Maintenance of our Open Source Infrastructure

In this video, Nadia Eghbal, author of “Working in Public”, discusses the potential of open source developer communities, and looks for ways to reframe the significance of software stewardship in light of how the march of time constantly and inevitably works to pull these valuable resources back into entropy and obsolescence. Presented by the Long Now Foundation.
Watch on YouTube

005 - Connect with Someone New Every Day

Don't let the name fool you. Social networking sites can be a powerful tool for business growth, if you use them to expand and

December 2016
By Kimberly Barnes

Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

Loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.
Read the article

Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

article-thedistance-lg It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.


775 Boost email open rates by 152 percent

Use your customers’ behavior to your advantage.

June 2010
By Jordan Drake

Rhett & Link: The Business of Viral

The self-proclaimed “Internetainers” are spoofing their way to success in branded online entertainment one viral video at a time.
Read the article

Rhett & Link: The Business of Viral

You may not recognize their names, but chances are good that you’ve seen them in action.

It might have been in one of their original music videos, such as “The ShamWow Song.” Perhaps it was in their Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip series. Chances are good that it was in the infamous Red House Furniture Store spot – one of many ads they’ve produced as part of their “I Love Local Commercials” campaign.

There are 243 videos in all, which have been viewed nearly 50 million times on YouTube since 2006.

Without question, the comedy duo of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal have mastered the art and the science of viral video.

Hailing from a small town in North Carolina, these engineering majors might seem unlikely candidates to be among the leading innovators legitimizing a new type of broadcasting online. Yet these savvy YouTube celebrities have found a way to monetize their passion for inventive musical comedy by bridging the gap between advertising and entertainment.

While social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are widely recognized as integral components to a successful Web marketing campaign, video content remains a gray area for many businesses. However, Rhett & Link’s reputation for creating highly popular content has brought household names – including Alka-Seltzer, Baby Ruth, Starburst, Hummer, Cadillac and McDonald’s and Coca-Cola – to their doorstep seeking custom videos and series.

Rhett & Link have invested little in their business endeavor beyond their own creativity,
but their ability to wield the true currency of Internet marketing – a dedicated following of more than 355,000 subscribers – have made the pair pioneers of branded entertainment online.

Fame Foundry’s Jordan Drake recently sat down with Rhett & Link to discover how they have harnessed the power of viral video to advance not only their own personal brand but also the brands of their sponsors as well.

[powerpress]

More from Fame Foundry

The Fame Foundry Podcast and the Fame Foundry Daily Tips for Business Growth are available now on iTunes.

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July 2013
By Jason Ferster

Attention! Five Techniques for Creating Ads that Engage

Metrics can tell you how many people view your ads, but how many of those people truly see them? Here are five ways to make sure your ads are getting noticed and getting results.
Read the article

Attention! Five Techniques for Creating Ads that Engage

"Half my advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half." This was the lament of 19th-century retail pioneer John Wanamaker. If you can relate, then take heart because you're in good company. Wanamaker is considered by many to be the father of modern advertising. Fast-forward more than 100 years to our modern digital era. We now have ability to measure consumer activities and ad engagement at a level of granularity that would make Wanamaker drop a lot of those "wasted" advertising dollars. But if we're honest, many of us will admit that in spite of the powerful analytics tools at our disposal, measuring ad engagement is still a bit of an art. Fortunately, there's another side to Wanamaker's story – and ours. He made up for his lack of metrics by investing in creativity and hiring the now legendary John Emory Powers to write ads for his stores as the first ever full-time copywriter. And Powers delivered, doubling Wanamaker's sales from $4 million to $8 million in just a few years – a few 1880s years. Dollars have always been the best kind of metric, right? So find encouragement in the stories of Wanamaker and Powers. Just as the search for better advertising analytics continues today, so does the reality that really creative, wonderfully executed ads still impact brand growth and sales. Here are five techniques for approaching advertising in a way that will engage your customers and increase your sales:

1. Get their attention.

When asked the secret to advertising, John Powers famously said, "The first thing one must do to succeed in advertising is to have the attention of the reader. That means to be interesting." Well said, John. The art of getting readers’ (or viewers’) attention begins with understanding them – what they like, what keeps them up at night, what motivates them to act, etc. While gaining such audience insights sounds like the stuff of psychics – or at least large ad firms with big analytics budgets – in actuality, we all have everything we need to get attention built right into our brains. It's human nature. We know exactly how to get the attention of other people in our lives: a romantic interest, a child, a coworker, a family member, a friend. We don't use the same tactics in every relationship but instead match our approach to the nature of the connection and what we know or intuit about that individual. I can vouch for these intuitive analytics from my own experience in the early days of dating my wife. The first time she laughed at one of my very nerdy jokes, I knew that more were sure to follow. Similarly, a parent's voice often changes in tone when addressing a misbehaving child. A friend knows just the right way to start a conversation when asking for a big favor. We just know how to get people in our lives to listen. Now consider your best customers. What characteristics define them as a group? What kind of values draw them to your brand? The answers to these and similar questions will help you identify what types of headlines, images and ideas will get their attention.

2. Tell a story.

Storytelling was the primary method of Powers. He didn't just say a product was great; he explained why it was great in credible terms that the reader could understand and embrace. Consider this ad he wrote for Murphy Varnish Company: best-goods Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. Skillfully told stories are timeless and make for great advertising because they get past our suspicion that we're being sold something. They communicate brand messages in human terms that viewers can relate to. So whether you're writing copy for a Google AdWords campaign, a full-page spread in a magazine, a banner ad or a TV spot, look for an opportunity to tell a story. Ram tapped into this power of story with its recent and very popular Super Bowl ad "God Made a Farmer." The ad very acutely associates the truck brand with the toughness and tenacity of the American farmer.

3. Create a content experience.

Great advertising does more than just tell us something about a product; it delivers a brand experience that will stick with us much longer than facts and features. Connecting ads with content is nothing new. Sponsored radio programs, advertorials in newspapers and product placements on TV shows have been around since the early days of those media. Now, interactive advertising, both online and mobile, is taking advertising content experiences to new levels by utilizing technologies never before available. It should come as no surprise, then, that digital publishing organizations are pioneering this content-driven ad future. Say Media's AdFrames placements let brands create experiences without the viewer having to leave their current web page. To promote its Mad Men collection, Banana Republic used this AdFrames approach to deliver a micro-magazine experience, complete with video about the collection and miniature articles about Mad Men style, all with the click of a sidebar ad. banana-republic-1 banana-republic-2 banana-republic-3 banana-republic-4 banana-republic-5 Screenshots courtesy of Say Media and Banana Republic.

4. Be relevant.

By tapping into a trend that's already popular, you can capitalize on people's interest in the topic to get eyes on your ad. But don't just regurgitate what others are doing. Add your own twist to bring something new to the conversation. Tide leveraged the meteoric popularity of Betty White and the trend of placing the lovable actress in slightly sassy situations to promote, quite cleverly, the detergent's ability to "Break the Rules of White." By tying in other pop-culture trends, like giving a nod to popular reality series Jersey Shore, Tide created the ultimate pop-culture mashup that positions the decades old brand as still relevant to new, younger audiences. tide-white-1b tide-white-2

5. Be smart.

There's a common maxim today that says marketing content should be simplified to an eighth-grade level. But while your choice of words should always be accessible to the widest possible audience, the core idea of your ad should never be dumbed down. You can communicate clearly without underestimating the intelligence of your audience. Brilliant ads are loved because they are brilliant. They leave us wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?" I had a such an experience recently. My city is filled with billboards for a colon screening campaign. The campaign brings some positive, even light-hearted vibes to the often uncomfortable topic of colon screenings. The logo for the "Love Your Colon" campaign very simply and very smartly flips the heart symbol to resemble, well, you know... colon-screening