Strategy is the act of putting truth to work. It’s not magic. Everything you need for a solid strategy lives in the world already — in a brand’s history, in the quiet of an employee’s everyday, in unrealized thoughts, and overheard conversations between strangers. But it takes discipline to find it and creativity to define it in a way worth listening to.
It all starts with learning about people. Whether we’re unspooling a brand into something new or finding the best way to go to market, we need to know what people care about before we decide what to do about it. We listen and observe to uncover insights that make us think differently about the problems at hand. It cracks open world-shifting doors others have skipped past, and illuminates what matters most.
We identify who we’d like to reach and seek to understand them as people. Yeah, demographics are nice, but we want to know what they’re excited about and what makes them get out of bed in the morning. Our approach is steeped in empathy because if we don’t care about them, why would they care about us?
A well-defined problem is a problem half-solved. We strip away marketing jargon and take a critical look at what we’re actually trying to do and why. Everything we put into the world should be providing a solution.
An insight is an observation with a point of view. It starts by watching and listening to all those little moments in the world, and it transforms when it helps us see people and the problem in a new and more interesting way.
We bring it all the way home. After we know the who, the what, and the why, we identify the where, when, and how. We put together an easy-to-execute roadmap that tells us how it’s all going to get where it needs to go.
We think about strategy as a discipline split into two major camps: brand and connections. Brand strategy sets a foundation. Connections brings intentionality around the execution. Both play in the land of people and insights, but they land on slightly different deliverables to deliver value for your marketing. Together, they answer who, what, why, where, when, and how for every project.
THE WHO: Understanding the people who make up a brand’s consumer and community, as well as the important people behind the brand. We use people-first research to get below the surface into an audience’s motivations and beliefs.
THE WHAT: Working as a partner to the creative team to land on lightning bolt ideas rife with ownability and audience fit. Brand strategy illuminates the whitespace for wild thinking to grow.
THE WHY: Creating a tie back to brand, culture, and people every step of the way. Every deliverable runs through a gamut of whys: why does this idea matter, why would anyone care about it, and why is it right for us?
THE WHERE: Finding the right channels to make certain the people we want to reach actually get to see what we make together. We create a marketing mix of all the right owned, earned, and paid levers to fit our intended goal.
THE WHEN: Mapping out key events and phases of the campaign to ensure we build momentum that maps to the intended consumer journey. We pay attention to key cultural moments for our audience as well as internal initiatives and any existing media strategies at work.
THE HOW: Building a campaign strategy or go-to-market strategy that identifies any communications barriers and the strategies we’ll use to solve them.
Consumer Insights & Motivations
Brand & Product Positioning
Brand Architecture
Brand Strategy
Connections Strategy
Go-To-Market & Campaign Strategy
Consumer Decision Journey
Digital & Social Strategy
Influencer & PR Strategy
Content Strategy
Market Selection
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