“Tony is very passionate about the automobile industry and graphic design. I met Tony through a project we are doing on Street Legal TV and LSX TV. He is very knowledgeable about the restoration market and is a true asset to the automotive aftermarket. He is always hard at work and looking for ways to increase his companies overall market share. He is also pretty good at website design, I enjoy going to his site Blacktop Magazine. Which is a great representation of his commitment to the auto industry. – Lloyd Hunt, Sr. Account Executive, powerTV

“For me personally, it was a pleasure to work with such a great talent on all projects. Tony is a creative, independent thinker with a passion for graphic design, marketing and anything fast. His innate thirst for quality deliverables shines through in everything he produces. His talent and personality brought a sense of comfort and professionalism to the process for both our team and our client. His management style lead to the success of many products delivering them on time, within budget and exceeding expectations. I would recommend Tony to anyone who wanted a creative “outside the box” thinker with a fantastic talent and thirst for delivering outstanding visual arts and marketing collateral.” – Joe King, Director of Advanced Media, Visuart

“I have worked with Tony in many ways, he was my client, creative partner, and we served as board members together. What has always been clear to me is his passion for everything he does. Tony brings the ability to see the big picture and use his ‘in the driggersmoment thinking/creating’- which in turn holds the integrity of every project to an exceptionally high level! It has always been a pleasure to work with him!!” – RaShelle Roberts, Creative Business Coach, InVision

“Tony Colombini? Where do I start? Someone who is truly exceptional at there craft is one way to describe him. Tony has been an inspiration to me ever since I met him as his student in Typography class at Platt College. He taught me many things then, things that I still use today. Years later I ended up working under him as the Graphic Designer for Classic Industries in Huntington Beach. Tony’s management style is superb, his ideas for marketing and advertising are grand, and definitely not lacking in the creative department. His hot rod-esque design style and out of the box thinking will have you taking double takes as you gaze upon his work. Web or Print Tony will dazzle you with is wisdom. He’s a person with integrity, leadership skills and personality to boot. With his vast experience and know how in today’s Automotive Industry a company would be lucky to have Tony on their team. You can se some of his work at blacktopmagazine.com a site that’s produced and managed by Tony himself. I’m fortunate to have met him and till this day I seek Tony’s advice in both design and business. I’m Bret Dethlefsen and I approve this Recommendation.”

MARKETING STRATEGY
Tony Colombini was instrumental in developing a referral program at Platt College in Newport Beach. 2002 was a year marked with low enrollments. Tony Colombini came in and developed a program which exceeded our goals to increase enrollments within two short months. His idea was to capitalize on the experience the students have at Platt and developed a program where the instructors asked the students if they had any friends or family that they would refer. The goal was to get 50 qualified leads in a one-month period. The first month of the program was devoted to defining the challenge and the goals and develop the necessary tools. In the second month we introduced the program to the staff and by the end of the month we had 51 qualified leads which led to 10 enrollments. We are reviewing a continued use of the program and incorporating it to our other two campus’s. – Mark Buch, Platt College President/COO

BRAND IMAGE
“We recently bought North American Safety Products which features only one product; Hand Sense. Hand Sense is a hand cream which blocks the dermal layer of harmful ingredients including bacteria and chemicals. It lasts for four hours even with repeated scrubbing. Our challenge was to re-introduce the product to market. Apparently the previous owner neglected marketing to new customers for the past several years. Our goal was to present the product in a trade-show environment to re-establish existing customer relationships and develop new customer interest. We hired Tony Colombini’s team to prepare a mailer invitation that would be sent to the Health and Safety Industry Buyers attending the expo. They came up with the slogan “Where Have Your Hands Been”. The initial mailing created quite an interest and we had more than expected traffic at our booth. The result exceeded our expectations of orders and we are now looking to re-package the product with the “Where Have Your Hands Been?” theme.” – Rebecca Rinot, Owner

My mom circa 1950’s

INNOVATION OFFERINGS
Marketing a product or service on the internet has been a roller-coaster ride. Blacktop Branding’s design for the internet dates to it’s early roots in 1996. Shortly thereafter, Blacktop Branding founder, Tony Colombini was searching the web for a listing of car-shows in the area. An auto enthusiast since childhood, he was quite amazed not to find a comprehensive source. Aha! He went to find a domain name www.car-shows.com available and took the initiative to start the listing himself. As a hobby for four years a following had occurred. Car-Shows.com is a free listing of car-shows and car-clubs on the internet. As a free listing service a devoted following occurred. With an audience he found that the time was right to make it a profitable business. This was only a short time after the internet bust, and new ideas in marketing needed to be found. Car-Shows.com transformed to BlacktopMagazine.com, and now turns a profit with e-mail permission marketing, and social network content development.