Overlap Wins 5 2023 AZIMA TIM Awards

Overlap was thrilled and humbled to have been honored with five marketing awards at the 2023 Arizona Innovation Marketing Association (AZIMA) TIM celebration in October in Tempe. Two members of our leadership team were selected to receive exclusive honors, and three of our digital marketing projects took home Mastery and Excellence accolades.

The AZIMA TIM awards are named after Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, a computer scientist and inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee is also known for creating the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP.

Only the best and brightest digital marketers and agencies are recognized through the AZIMA TIM award program. The 2023 TIM awards celebrate work completed between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

The Arizona Innovation Marketing Association (AZIMA) is a community of over 1,200 digital marketers and technology innovators. The organization offers monthly events with actionable insights, continuous learning, and unparalleled networking.

Judges grade submissions on a five-point scale evaluating creativity; clarity; performance; and overall experience. If enough points are earned, awards can fall into either Excellence or Mastery categories, with Mastery being the most prestigious.

Dale Castro: Interactive Person of the Year

Overlap Co-Founder and Chief Creative and Strategy Officer, Dale Castro took home the Interactive Person of the Year award. This honor recognizes a leader that demonstrates superior executions of multiple interactive marketing techniques.

Dale led the Overlap team through several key projects in 2023, including two content websites for Brown and Caldwell, Brown & Caldwell Water News and Brown and Caldwell Water Jobs, where Dale managed the information architecture and UX/UI strategy. Dale also managed the redesign and migration of 11 websites to create the new Elysian Living site, and led on branding, application design, information architecture, and overall strategy for client Nodit Health.

His accomplishments are even more impressive considering Dale suffered a stroke in January of 2023. The heart and soul of our agency literally couldn’t speak. It took months before he was able to return to work in the same capacity.

“As a leader, you hope your actions speak louder than your words,” Dale. “When I couldn’t speak, it challenged me to be a better listener.”

Dale came back rejuvenated with clarity about who he is, what he should be doing, and who he should be doing it with.

“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be with the people I’m supposed to be with. My team allowed me to ‘turn off,’ which goes against every fiber of my being. Sometimes, being the best leader means getting out of the fucking way and trusting those around you.”

Erin LaBere: Interactive Rising Star (from an Agency)

Overlap Managing Director, Erin LaBere was named the Interactive Rising Star (from an Agency). This award honors an interactive achiever working for an agency who innovates, collaborates, and drives results. This couldn’t describe anyone better than Erin.

Extremely skilled in strategy, Erin has over 14 years of experience helping her clients understand how things work and come together. She credits her ability to build relationships to hard work and a consistent pursuit of personal excellence.

Erin achieved some truly incredible results in 2023, specifically for three different clients she was able to drive:

• 265% increase in AZ traffic from Google My Business
• 74% YoY increase in organic sessions
• 213% YoY increase in top 3 rankings for non-branded keywords

“When Erin joined the Overlap team, it took our potential to a whole new level and profoundly raised our ceiling,” explains Overlap organic search specialist G Gabor. “She has shown me how beneficial SEO/Analytics is to development, and vice-versa. She makes the whole team better by challenging us to keep up with her knowledge, work ethic, and pride for what she does.”

Content Marketing Campaign - Mastery - Demers Glass

Overlap worked with client Demers Glass to create a resource library targeting non-branded, low-volume search terms. The goals were to expand brand awareness, increase organic page views, and improve conversions (phone calls and form submissions).

This content marketing strategy was able to drive incredible YoY results*:

• 2023 page views: 20,859 (up 179% from 7,453 in 2022)
• 2023 organic page views: 17,668 (up 250% from 5,042 in 2022)
• 2023 organic conversions: 103 (up 232% from 31 in 2022)
• 2023 organic conversion rate: 20% (~3 customers per month, 300% increase from 2022)
• Ranking for keywords on page one in 2023: 174 (up 358% from 38 in 2022)

*Jan 1-Aug 7 data, comparing the same date range for YoY differences.

These results were achieved by creating and publishing two new informational blogs each month ranging from 1500-2000 words. We focused on anchor text, header tag optimization, internal linking, and strong visual imagery that allowed for optimized alt text. Balancing SEO with user experience, we ensured a good UX by designing the pages so readers could skim through the content quickly and still learn about the topic at hand.

Consumer Website - Mastery - Elysian Living

hen Overlap started working with Elysian Living, they had a separate website for every apartment property. While this allowed for a custom approach to each community, they were spending way too much time managing 11 websites. They also weren’t taking advantage of the power of one authoritative domain.

Overlap brought all 11 property websites under one roof: elysianliving.com. Each site came with its own set of challenges, and every property had multiple stakeholders with different opinions and goals. Through our work, we drove impressive results:

• 39% increase in website sessions YoY
• 74% increase in organic search sessions YoY
• 100% increase in keyword ranking
• 407% increase in organic search clicks
• 1000% increase in lead form submissions

To do this, we tapped into a variety of services: creative, development, SEO, content, marketing strategy, analytics, and more. We designed the new site from scratch, developing it with a headless CMS for max speed and performance while integrating with necessary 3rd party platforms across multiple property management groups. We also ensured accessibility for admins to make quick updates.

Web Application - Excellence - Willis Tower Watson

Overlap was challenged to create a full-customized enterprise-level design system to help our client, Willis Tower Watson implement organization-wide standards that were easy for their developers to follow.

Relying on the “atomic design” method, our developers built the component library starting with basic elements like buttons and links, and then re-used them in more complicated components like date-pickers and modal windows. This approach makes code more maintainable by keeping changes isolated.

Custom components included a built-in library of code templates where dev teams can configure elements per project requirements. Their developers can easily obtain code for components based on color, mode, style, etc.–and then copy/paste. Devs can add a personal touch while maintaining brand integrity. The project is independent of 3rd party packages thanks to handwritten CSS & JS.

The build process for this project accounted for WCAG 2.1 AA standards–rules that make websites more accessible to users with disabilities (ex. screen readers and accommodations for vision problems).

Ultimately, the system was rolled out to 45,000 internal employees worldwide, serving to standardize design and branding processes across four product teams.

While Overlap is increasingly proud and honored to be an award-winning digital marketing agency, we get the most satisfaction when we deliver for our clients. Everyone on our team is driven to build meaningful relationships through hard work, dedication, and having fun.

Overlap is an uncommon agency. We want to work with good people to solve challenging problems and move the needle. When you work with us, you’re not just getting an award-winning team with fast knowledge and experience in the digital space, you’re also getting experts who are enjoyable to work with and will absolutely obsess over your business.

Ready to work with an award-winning digital marketing agency? Let’s talk.