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Mobile App company SimpleDeal has become a household name for Long Beach California restaurant goers looking to access immediate deals via their cell phones. The success of the app can be largely attributed to the excellence of the young company’s strategic promotional branding campaigns. The Winners of the 35th Annual Telly Awards have just been announced and it seems that one campaign in particular has caught the attention and much deserved recognition of many.  The “SimpleDeal Presents: Smiley's Idea” video has just taken a Bronze Telly within the Online Video Category. With nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this year’s Telly Awards has been one of the most successful and competitive in the long history of the Telly Awards.  

Created and submitted for the award by StaticJoe Studio is a non-verbal, yet exceptionally expressive, animated digital short that features SimpleDeal’s mascot “Smiley” arriving at the idea to create the mobile app.  This video is up there in the ranks with this year’s esteemed winners that include companies, agencies and organizations of all sizes, from large multinational media companies to small ad agencies and local production houses.  A few notable winners include BET Networks, Bloomberg, Bravo, Conde Nast Entertainment, Dell, Discovery, Disney, E! Entertainment, ESPN, FOX,  Coca-Cola, and Warner Brothers. The story was co-produced and co-created by StaticJoe Studio’s Brian Jouan and Rob Torres .

“Prior to creating Smiley as our animated mascot for the SimpleDeal mobile app we did a lot of market research surrounding simplicity, sincerity, and the general public response to animation. We wanted our promotional branding to match the overall company messaging. Real people saving a beloved industry.” States James McKinney, Founder and CEO of SimpleDeal Mobile App. “We are overjoyed to see that the final product of our work truly resonated much further than we could have anticipated with taking home the Bronze Telly Award for this category.” 

The SimpleDeal Mobile App is 100% free to users and has been available for iOS since January 10th, 2014 and Android phones are coming soon. The app operates via your phones GPS and allows you to point your phone at a restaurant and see the deals that they are running for the day. Promoting community and restaurant offerings without taking a chunk of profits like their market competitors. The app also enables users to have access to items such as the restaurants wait time, what time it closes, view menu items right from your phone, and bonuses where from time to time, with ongoing use your meal for the evening may even be on SimpleDeal. Participating restaurants can list with SimpleDeal for $39.00 per month and are able to load in as many deals or offerings as they would like and change deals out daily. 

“We were tasked with creating a sound storyline for the video that truly grasped the idea behind the mobile app. Our goal was to connect with the viewer and make them relate to Smiley.” States Brian Jouan Creative Director of StaticJoe Studio Inc. “We all have our favorite local restaurant that we just can’t wait to share with friends and family. That’s Smiley. Smiley’s a foodie and knows these places well. It made so much sense for Smiley to be the creator of the app to help share these wonderful restaurants with new customers walking by. With this story, we wanted to touch on the neighborhood mom and pop restaurant that struggle to gain new foot traffic.”

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and web commercials, videos and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

A prestigious judging panel of over 650 accomplished industry professionals, each a past Winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents. The judges rate each entry on a 10-point scale. Generally, entries with a score from our judges of 9.0 or higher are awarded a “Silver Telly” statuette, our highest honor. Entries with an average score of 7.0 to 8.9 from our judges are awarded a “Bronze Telly” statuette for outstanding achievement. Entries do not compete against each other. Rather, they compete against a high standard of excellence. This is SimpleDeal’s  1st  Telly, StaticJoe Studio’s 3rd Telly, and Brian Jouan’s 8th personal Telly overall.

“A lot of phenomenal, industry changing companies started in a garage. As a lot of great tech companies before SimpleDeal have started in a garage. We wanted that home grown concept to truly resonate.” continues Jouan.  “Smiley has that same passion and drive, the one where you roll up your and sleeves make a change with your own two hands.”

For more information on the SimpleDeal App please visit http://www.simpledealapp.com/. 

About SimpleDeal
SimpleDeal is a mobile app launched by Founder and CEO James McKinney in January 2014. The mobile app enables restaurants to reach people as they are in the process of making their buying decisions by using their phones to point and show an immediate deal powered by the phones GPS. SimpleDeal is available for both iOS and Android with the initial launch solely for restaurants within the Southern California area with national expansion growth plans.

About StaticJoe Studio
StaticJoe Studio, Inc. is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company with a primary focus on storytelling with motion design. Their services include all aspects of video production. Although the company’s primary focus is on post-production, they have the capacity to develop and manage projects from concept to completion.