Starting with research, we capture multiple stimuli and turn them into sparks of inspiration and actionable insights for you.
We are bursting with pride about the incredible work we get the opportunity to do every day

NOW Foods


Sandstorm recently launched the NOW Foods corporate site. Sandstorm created a site that better reflects the connection between NOW foods and their health conscious target. The redesign provided a flexible architecture for product navigation and a consistent presentation of the parent-brand’s product-line specific brands.

Crown Holdings (NYSE: CCK)


Sandstorm conducted in-depth user research globally to identify content, functionality, and engagement opportunities for the development of a responsive Drupal website that embodied the innovation and inspiration this Fortune 500 company's users craved, investors needed, and brand demanded.

Peoples Gas


Peoples Gas and sister company North Shore Gas are an invisible, but essential element of our daily lives. Before embarking on several major initiatives, they felt a need to understand market perceptions and create a unified brand under which all communications would fall. Enter Sandstorm. We lead a complete research-based repositioning that told us that people only thought about them when they had a problem, so we wanted to keep it that way. The result was the We Keep Life Moving brand strategy that was brought to life through campaigns for Safety, System Improvements, Energy Efficiency, ebilling, and customer support. We Keep Life Moving stands as their corporate mantra today.
See more Peoples Gas

Eckrich


What happens when you have focused all of your marketing efforts selling smoked sausage in grilling season when research showed that it is being used as an everyday ingredient, all year long. That was the Aha moment behind the Eckrich Everyday campaign. In a category with little product point of difference and even less loyalty, Eckrich now had a reason to differentiate themselves and increase their usage opportunity from 29% for grilling occasions to 71% as an everyday pantry staple. So, when we told the world through a fully integrated campaign of TV, radio, POS, social, digital, and those simple recipe videos, their market share jumped 2% points in the first year.

Weber Grill


Weber Grill, the embodiment of summer cookouts, asked us to improve the shopping experience for mobile, tablet, and desktop users. We led user experience research and the usability study delivered actionable insights to improve the overall site and e-commerce user experience.

CLR Brands


Jelmar solves tough household cleaning problems with their CLR and Tarn-X products. But their biggest challenge was cleaning up an outdated website that was nearly unusable on mobile. Our solution? Identify the unique needs of consumers through in-depth user research and usability testing, and design and develop a new Kentico website that incorporates UX design and marketing personalization.

Nicor


Sandstorm partnered with Nicor Gas to implement a multi-year marketing program, designed to provide rebates and incentives for Nicor Gas residential and business customers. Beyond building awareness, the campaign drove participation in the individual programs that make up the portfolio. Sandstorm developed an integrated multimedia strategy and campaign including radio, outdoor, online, print, blogger outreach, events, public relations, and social media.
Initial results garnered 156M impressions, exceeding campaign goals, while the website experienced an 88% increase in unique visits compared to nine months prior to the campaign launch.

Accuity


Accuity provides sophisticated data solutions to ensure fast, secure, and compliant transactions. Sandstorm partners with Accuity globally to infuse their authoritative brand image across a variety of marketing materials from infographics and white papers to digital nurture campaigns.

Schwartz


Treehouse Foods is one of the largest private label food manufacturers in the U.S. As margins keep getting squeezed, and branded items make up less than 50% of the volume but over 50% of the profits, a branded campaign for Schwartz’s Pickles was the plan. So how do you sell a premium branded pickle to restaurants when pickles are considered just a throw-in plate filler? By using food trends consumer trends and research that showed that consumers will pay more for a dish that included a premium pickle, we repositioned Schwartz’s Premium Pickles from a side to a low-cost value machine capable of elevating meals and boosting the bottom line. The brand got a makeover from the ground up – with a new logo to upscale photo styling and everything in between. Now you can look for Schwartz’s on the menu and enjoy a premium pickle the next time you eat out.

Ensono


Sandstorm stepped in to help rebrand & rename this infrastructure management services business. Their identity & marketing strategy developed around addressing current needs while engineering solutions for tomorrow. Once the new name, Ensono, and the marketing strategy were approved Sandstorm applied it across projects including: website development, collateral materials, promotional video, product campaigns and even assisting with design elements in their new office space.

American Medical Association


After collaborating on strategically marketing The American Medical Association’s publications under the new umbrella of The JAMA Network, Sandstorm continued to adapt the new strategy by crafting messaging & materials to address featured topics to targeted audiences. This included launching new journals, designing display ads, tradeshow materials & giveaways, and improving the UX for their mobile apps.

Illinois Vehicle Auto Insurance


Illinois Vehicle Auto Insurance wanted to increase completions of their online quoting tool. Sandstorm redesigned the tool, which included user and purchase flows, wireframe creation, usability testing, UX design and front-end development.

Signode


Sandstorm created a scalable web platform for Signode to transition its 70+ brands into a solution-focused go to market strategy. The new website guides users to get products to distributors as easily and frictionless as possible in 11 different languages.

American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM)


Sandstorm overhauled ACOEM’s website, to deliver SSO and integrations across ACOEM’s ecosystem of applications and sites and microsites as well as a searchable member directory with complex integrations with the AMS, pulling data in real-time.
The new site has a call to action-oriented navigation, designed to get users to the highest priority functions and content and a robust, integrated, faceted, and filtered search experience to improve findability.

University of Chicago Oriental Institute (OI)


Sandstorm leveraged the new branding that was being designed for the Centennial Celebration of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute (OI) and underwent a thorough UX and creative design process, with the goal of providing an interactive, high-touch experience. While showcasing the incredible depth of research projects and overall work of the OI, it was important to also drive users to engage with the OI (donate/make a gift, sign-up, join, register, etc.) So making sure the CTAs and conversion links back to the main OI site was key, while also elevating the Centennial as a major milestone for the organization.
Sandstorm created a rich user experience by incorporating an interactive map, showcasing the geography of research efforts along with integrated details and facts designed to engage the user.

National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA)


The National Marine Manufacturers Association's (NMMA) 20+ Boat Show websites needed the ability to be controlled by internal team members and easily updated design and UI each year. Sandstorm implemented fresh UI and key interactions for NMMA’s most critical features - boat loan calculator (#1 visited page), boat detail pages, including recommendations (you may also like) based on behavior. And implemented new UI design and layouts of NMMA’s largest consumer site - discoverboating.com including key interactions, features, and integrations.
Most importantly, all work is aligned with ensuring NMMA can take ownership of the end solution and be completely self-sufficient, reducing ongoing support costs.

Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)


Sandstorm led the technical, integration requirements, and solution architecture to deliver a fully integrated experience, including global site and subsites for chapters. As a chapter-led organization, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) is heavily focused on events, holding over 1,200 around the world each year for industry professionals and the association’s 14,500 members to network. In order to drive its growth, ACG turned to Sandstorm to design and develop a website platform that supports the global organization and its 58 chapters.

Elsevier


Sandstorm works with multiple groups across Elsevier (and its parent company, RELX) including work on the Gender Report, HESI Compass product, Clinical Solutions, ScienceDirect, and Entellect. Sandstorm helps these various groups with creating a launch strategy, branding, message creation, campaign creative, report design, data visualization, video creation, and launch and roll-out planning.

Metro Infectious Disease Consultants (MIDC)


Metro Infectious Disease Consultants (MIDC - MetroDash) and consultants work closely with Sandstorm to design and implement both its iOS and web app which is used by both physicians and medical coders. Specifically, physicians review their caseload in medical facilities, track patient visits, and record diagnosis information, which is then used for medical coding. Coders review that information and confirm ICD codes, prior to submission to a medical billing department.
Sandstorm has worked on multiple iterations of the iOS app and most recently has brought MetroDash’s vision for the web app to life. Sandstorm continues to serve as the go-to partner for the evolution of these applications.

Dell


Sandstorm worked collaboratively with Dell to create a sales enablement tool to support small and mid-sized businesses. Using Dell’s vast amount of data and 1-1 interviews with IT Directors, Sandstorm developed a personalized, engaging interactive experience for IT professionals to evaluate the total cost of ownership for their server purchases.