Using the parlance of our time, Ben’s right. At its simplest understanding, the Brand Concept is your vibe. Who is your organization on an emotional level? I would ask you in our process… “What do you want your audience to 

 about you when they think about your brand?” It must be simple. It must be understandable, and it must resonate loudly with your audience.

First impressions being what they are, it is our job, once a Brand Concept is established, to develop your identity and collateral materials around this concept.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s really that simple, and that important. The concept rolls up all the brand strategy work we do, which is deeply understanding the following:

Your brand pillars, unique value propositions, etc

What adjustments are necessary to realign your brand with changes in the market, or your offerings

The Brand Concept is meant to entice your audience at the top of the funnel, AWARENESS, and make your brand memorable in a significant way that makes a strong impression. 

A well positioned company is not afraid of their competition 

A strong concept is a statement that only you can make, which makes a strong first impression and stakes a claim that your competition simply can’t.



When Louisville Collegiate School asked us to refresh their brand, we landed on the concept of “Limitless”. If you attend the school, or send your child to Collegiate, their world and their options become “Limitless”. Since they did not want us to redesign their logo, we used illustration, photography, and copywriting to build out the concept. The cornerstone of the concept is the photography and the design. We took photos of school kids looking out on the world from behind, out at their future and the possibilities inherent in their education. The design breaks out of their borders, and the copy is very inspirational.

"Limitless" ties Collegiate’s unique approach to education with the results it produces. Collegiate removes the limits. It allows students the freedom to explore different subjects and extracurricular activities in a way few schools can (or even attempt to) match. Collegiate also expands their worldview, and exposes them to ideas, people and cultures far beyond the confines of it’s campus. This approach helps students believe anything is possible, and gives them the foundation to make that belief a reality.




Most people remember their first school field trip to the Kentucky Center, seeing either an orchestra performance, Broadway play, or other memorable event. These are the moments that impact us most, to see, hear, and experience the arts and how they move us and impact their lives. The concept was embellished with an identity system that brought all their sub-brands together in an energizing new system.

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? There it is, thrumming through every building, street, lane, and alleyway. The restless, boundless, joyous artistic spirit in our community.

For over 30 years, Kentucky Performing Arts has been tapped into that energy, feeling the vibes, listening to the rhythms and working every day to bring Louisville and the surrounding community the best of the performing arts - from childhood to adulthood and every step in between.

We’re driven by that energy - it’s who we are.

Having a distinct brand concept brings tremendous value to your organization. It is an investment that will last years, and works to accelerate your communication objectives.

It gives your creative expressions a central theme, and guides the development of that work

It gives your internal culture a boost by giving your staff aspirational but achievable brand goals

It saves time and resources in developing ad campaigns, social media content, and other time-consuming marketing tasks

It is tuned to speak directly to your audience, their needs and motivations

It creates value for the company, as a strong brand is one consideration in business valuations

 if you think our approach is a match for your needs.

Positioning Your Company for Differentiation

Branding

Marketing Strategy

Why Your Brand Deserves a Concept

Many times we are approached to help an organization achieve their marketing goals, but to them, the challenge feels insurmountable. Strategies and tactics have gotten messy or confused for them. Inevitably the conversation starts with these types of comments:

“We’re spending $$ on PPC, but our results have bottomed out.”

“Our competitors have recently upped their game, and now we seem like a weaker competitor.”

“Our offerings have changed or improved, but we don’t know how to communicate them in a way that resonates.”

A big part of the value we bring to our partnerships is structure. We know from our years of experience what dependencies are necessary to get great work done. Showing you how we get there is very important. Leadership teams are rarely comfortable with “trust the process”. Therefore we enjoy building sophisticated roadmaps to help you understand priorities, timetables, and dependencies. This helps everyone understand when you can expect your branding and marketing to function on a much higher level.

 roadmap to shape up branding and marketing is fairly simple and straightforward. It looks like this much of the time, unless we're inheriting existing marketing programs:

➡️ Brand Strategy ➡️ Brand Identity ➡️ Content & Collateral ➡️ Website ➡️ Marketing & Agency Services

This is rarely enough information for communicating to your leadership team, so during our work together, we’ll put together more sophisticated roadmaps. Here are some examples.

Example 1: Two Year Alignment of Multiple Service Offerings

This client had finished a large strategic alignment of their various B2B service offerings, as well as adding a service line that is completely new, requiring a different strategy. This was a two-year roadmap, outlining quarterly priorities.

Example 2: Rebrand Internal and External Rollout

In this example, the client had completed a comprehensive rebrand, and needed to understand what it was going to take to communicate to their internal and external stakeholders, eventually rolling in to ongoing marketing and business development.

This nonprofit client had two very important fundraising events in the fall and winter and had just completed a new brand identity. It was critical to ensure the new identity was deployed with quality before starting an intense marketing campaign. Our audience needed to understand what they were seeing was their favorite events, just modernized.

Build it in a spreadsheet or other tool to allow for detail, but then build a simpler one for clarity and simplicity. Less is more.

Priorities and dependencies are critical to communicate.

The plan will always change. Don’t get hung up on dates or timelines that are unreasonable. Communicate in phases or time periods instead of strict dates (unless there is an event that is immobile)

Someone may not be excited about how long a particular phase might take. Don’t change the roadmap for them, especially if a date is unreasonable. Under promise and overdeliver and you will win a ton of trust.


Auditing & Roadmapping

Roadmapping Your Strategic Initiatives

Non-profit Marketing

Copywriting

Art Direction

Photography

Advertising

Reporting & Analysis

Dare to Care

Marketing Campaigns

Digital Marketing Optimization

Jack O'Lantern Spectacular + Winter Woods Spectacular

Researching and planning is key to effective marketing strategy. We use data, insights, our gained knowledge and research born from curiosity to plan inventive, value-drive marketing plans for our clients.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy: Case Studies

01

Dare to Care

02

Jack O'Lantern Spectacular + Winter Woods Spectacular

Marketing Strategy: Blog Posts

Why Your Brand Deserves a Concept

Roadmapping Your Strategic Initiatives