Three lessons from a genius creative director
Here's what opened my eyes to how powerful brand can be
Hey team,
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to work under a genius creative director.
(He prefers to fly under the radar… otherwise I’d shout about him from the rooftops more.)
Anyway. He was the architect behind Hiber’s initial brand when I was there. He also laid the foundations for Treatwell’s brand, among others.
I got the chance to spend two years working with him — and it was easily two years where I learned the most about brand in a real world, boots-on-the-ground way.
I’ve gotten a lot better at brand since then (practice makes perfect, after all). I’ve learned more. I’ve built my own knowledge around it.
But, for today’s letter, I thought I’d share some of the core fundamental lessons I learned that still ring true to all of my brand strategy, voice, and copywriting work today.
Lesson #1: Brand isn’t self-indulgent.
Brand has a bad reputation of being a naval-gazing exercise that doesn’t return any real ROI.
(And no, I’m not making that up. I was at a conference last week and chatted with an investor who said “The return on brand is questionable.” It left me fuming — especially after he talked about some brilliant swag he’d given out at a conference — an act which is, in itself a brand move… but I digress.)
The truth is, brand is actually a strategic investment that makes your marketing distinct and memorable.
You obviously have to dig a bit more into your business personality to find out what makes you authentic. That part can be a little self-indulgent.
But let’s be real — you’re also trying to sell something. Authenticity alone isn’t a magical magnet. You also have to be relevant and trustworthy. You have to consider your audience’s POV.
A solid message + strategic brand voice and visual style helps a lot.
Lesson #2: Brand is about brain space.
My old boss used to tell me “Our goal is to capture brain space.”
At the time, we were introducing new technology to a pretty old-school space, and our sales team was doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to finding leads, nurturing them, and closing deals.
We were on the hook for pipeline, sure — and we delivered through a 6-month long nurturing funnel, event organization, and other initiatives.
But our big mission wasn’t to “generate demand”. It was, to echo the words of Schwartz, to, help funnel a pre-existing demand back towards our business.
In other words: Our marketing was meant to show people that we knew what we were talking about. That we were a leader in the space. That we could be trusted. And that when the time came, we were the obvious choice for a project.
Our goal was to bring in leads. But more importantly, our goal with brand was to cement long-term demand with our product.
Lesson #3: Brand/messaging is about a singular idea.
If brand is about creating brain space… how do you actually do it?
My boss showed me that it’s about taking one idea and executing on it really well.
At Hiber, that idea was simplicity. Everything was simple. The words we chose were simple. The punctuation we used was simple. Page layout was simple. The core idea behind everything we did was “This makes things simple.”
That was it. We didn’t have eight million messages. We didn’t have endless messaging. We didn’t have… I don’t know… anything complex, I guess.
Instead, we lived and breathed this idea of “simplicity” every single day. It was the core idea that we rallied around. It made it easy for me to know what every piece of content needed to communicate.
Obviously, at the time, we were a single-product company. I’ve since gone on to work with larger enterprise brands with like, 30+ products and offices in 25+ countries. These massive companies need more complex messaging documents that cover the ins and outs of every product…
… but what makes their brand effective is that they always come back to one core idea that’s really easy to understand.
The takeaway: Brand makes your marketing more powerful — but you need to commit.
One of the things I respected the most about my boss was that he took brand seriously. He was obviously biased as a brand-builder, but he was uncompromising in his standards. Everything we did had to support the brand vision.
He was the first person who taught me the value of brand governance, but it’s a lesson I’ve seen since.
My most successful clients — the ones who manage to stay consistent and make sure every piece of marketing builds their reputation — are the ones who have an internal Head of Brand who has internal muscle to advocate for brand at every step.
They’re seen as leaders in the business that support a long-term vision and goal, not the arts and crafts department.
That respect makes a difference. I’ve got one client in particular that’s been elevating their brand profile over the last year… and it’s cool to watch their authority in the industry become inevitable.
It takes time. But not as long as you think. And it’s oh so cool to watch it take off.
Pssst. Want some help building a brand that makes your unique value obvious? I’ve just launched BrandStack — a new agency that helps post-PMF B2Bs do exactly that.
The easiest way to burn money on a brand is to go into it without a plan. Our one-day Brand Exam workshop will help you find what’s working, where there is room to grow, and build a blueprint on how to get started.
Hit reply and let me know if you’re interested — we’ve got space for ONE engagement in September.
I came across this page while doing some copywriting research for a client. Thought it was a super cool way of using animation to complement storytelling.
How Rhode uses worldbuilding to sell their products. B2B has a tooooon to learn from B2C in this regard. I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter about food as a status symbol… maybe it’s worth a newsletter at some point.
Some things to look out for when hiring a consultant/agency.
I finished The Feather Thief last week and it was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in a while. If you’ve ever thought fly fishing was boring… this will open you up to a whole underbelly industry you didn’t even know existed.
