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In the classic teen movie plotline, a lovable but awkward protagonist encounters a catalyzing change. Often, it’s gaining the attention of the popular crowd, discovering they’re a princess, or just growing up. This internal development offers the character no choice but to embrace becoming who they truly are.
The final step marking their inner growth is a makeover. Sometimes it’s a matter of taking off their glasses and letting down their hair. Other times a team of stylists is involved. But the final reveal is always a climatic moment, completing the character arch and wrapping up the story.
It’s not just awkward teens that grow and change in demonstrable ways. Brands experience inner transformation and growth that can make their logo feel like a clunky old pair of glasses hiding their true identity.
The most effective makeovers and rebrands are the kind that represent substantial inward growth. This is the power of strategic branding. It’s not just an updated logo, it’s about showing changes that are more than skin-deep.
The Makeover Starts With Values
A strong brand starts with a solid foundation of clearly defined values. These values are the soil from which every visible representation of your company springs forth. They have to be specific and they have to be actionable.
When we became the agency of record for the Kansas Division of Tourism, its marketing needed some character development. The former tagline “No Place Like Kansas,” inspired by the movie Kansas is best remembered for, had passed its prime for locals who could argue there are similarities to Kansas in neighboring states. It was time to reimagine how we present ourselves as a state and reshape perception of travel in Kansas.
Our goal in a new campaign was to make way for striking new visuals and fresh messaging that truly uncovered the best that Kansas has to offer.
We started by identifying what makes Kansas what it is. The list is long, but it includes values such as:
Good Food
Being Inspired
Making Memories
Being Welcoming
Family
Local Atmosphere
Surprising
Adventure
From there, we concentrated the underlying principles into Kansas core values, such as authenticity, being caring, and inspiring curiosity. These are the ideals we seek to convey in all Tourism communications.
Even before we unveiled the new campaign tagline, To The Stars, we started shifting the tone, font, and colors of the messaging in digital ads to reflect the new direction.
The results were striking and immediate.
Strategically placed Facebook and YouTube ads generated over 230,000 impressions in Kansas and over 397,000 in surrounding states. Website traffic to travelks.com increased more than 40%.
The old glasses were off and audiences took notice.
How to Know When It’s Time For A Makeover
Just like an awkward teenager discovering a reason they have to grow, there’s a number of practical reasons organizations might need a rebrand:
- Moving into a new market where the name is a hindrance (e.g. Jayhawk Pizza setting up a location in Aggieville)
- Your logo is so old you don’t have a digital file of it anywhere. (Your business deserves better than photocopies of photocopies)
- There’s a change in the values and vision of the organization. (Or you never established them in the first place and your brand doesn’t represent you at all)
- If the brand was super trendy when it was released, there’s a good chance it looks dated now and doesn’t represent your organization well. (Maybe the glitter wasn’t a good idea).
Make The Makeover Work For You
To earn your own makeover magic, start with uncovering your organization’s values.
Ask tough questions of yourself and your leadership. Don’t assume you already know the answers. Giving the process the chance to work often yields unexpected results.
Begin with why your company exists, then ask these questions:
- What is your underlying purpose?
- What makes your company what it is?
- What sets it apart from others in the marketplace?
- How does your team interact?
- What unique strengths do you have?
- Think about a challenging time in your company, what got you through it?
Distill those down into underlying principles, or core values that inform brand elements like tone, color palette, key messages, tagline, and logo. Every choice has to be intentional.
If you could use a team of stylists to help your brand become what it really is underneath, hit us up! We love a good makeover.
Back when we went places other than our living room, we passed the time on long road trips playing the Alphabet Game. Eagle-eyed competitors elbowed for the best backseat vantage to spot the billboard with the next letter up in the race to the end of the alphabet.
With luck, a placement for Dr. Zacks’s Miracle Goat Gland Cure would come right after a billboard blaring the exit for Yabbering Yvonne’s Yard World. But more often than not, the game would end in frustration on Q or X, especially if house (car?) rules said license plates were off-limits.
The nice thing about billboards as advertising is that they have a built-in audience of eyes, and yes, they helped pass the time when screens in the car were just a Jetsons fantasy. But these days, we have a built-in audience watching screens of all shapes, making for a whole new highway for placing billboards with options in endless supply.
Placing marketing for your business on the internet is called digital marketing, and its return on investment for businesses is no Jetsons fantasy.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is any form of advertising that is placed online.
There are infinite means to do this, but we’re going to focus in on three:
Display Ads
Social Media Ads
Search Ads
Display Ads
Display ads use the same strategy as billboards. They are located off to the side of the main content on a website, taking advantage of the traffic on the page. Display ads are available in all shapes and dimensions, but the top-performing formats are rectangles that use short but compelling copy and interesting visuals to attract the eyes of the target audience.
A good display ad has a clear call to action that entices the web user to click to find out more about the content in the ad.
These examples show display ads in action:
Pine Landscape Center display ads on Better Homes and Gardens’ website
Social Media Ads
Social media ads are ads placed on, well, social media. According to social media software platform Sprout Social, social media ad spends amounted to $89 billion in 2019. That number is expected to climb to $102 billion this year, with growth every year thereafter.
Facebook is the behemoth in the social media room, but Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat, and explosive social entertainment platform TikTok also dominate the marketplace.
Maintaining an active social media presence is powerful because it builds brand loyalty. Organic posts help brands engage with their followers, forge relationships, and build goodwill. Putting dollars behind posts only makes that more powerful and grabs a wider audience to keep your company top of mind for consumers.
Last year, users spent an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media. It might as well be 1-70 through downtown Kansas City during pre-pandemic rush hour.
These examples show social media ads in action:
Networks Plus Social Media Ad as shown on LinkedIn
Search Ads
Search ads work by paying to be the answer to someone’s question. They are placed using identified keywords like “yarn world,” or “goat gland cure” and show up when an internet user enters queries on Google or another search engine with those or similar terms.
Search ads are a powerful investment because they are extremely customizable and locally focused. They are tailored to only reach the best customers, and you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. All that makes for a substantial conversion rate, which means more profit.
Like display, and social media ads, search ads are optimized for both desktop and mobile internet users.
These examples show search ads in action from Pine Landscape:
Digital Media Is Nimble
One convenient aspect of digital media as part of a marketing strategy is its flexibility. It is easily modified to adapt to world events and consumer sentiment. It doesn’t ever have to end up like a torn, out of date billboard by the highway.
Let’s say for example there’s a global pandemic. Businesses have to overhaul their service delivery in a matter of days. They have to tell customers they’re open or closed. They have to share what they’re doing to keep customers and employees safe. They even have to deliver a message of hope.
Digital media is the perfect medium for all of the above. That’s why when all of the above became a reality early this spring, we were able to help clients like Networks Plus and Pine Landscape Center shift their messaging.
These examples from Networks Plus and Pine Landscape Center show how quickly and conveniently the message can be adjusted to the circumstances.
Digital media is the modern frontier of advertising. If you’re ready to put it to work for you, hit us up!
The year was 1979. Television had been a fixture in American homes for 30 years. Families spent the evening gathered around the evening news, MASH, and The Jeffersons. The networks– NBC, ABC, and CBS– were the only programming option in town, so everyone watched the same shows at the same time every week.
But all that changed in a convenient explosion of choice and variety known as cable television.
In the course of a decade, cable’s popularity birthed cultural staples ESPN, TBS, and CNN. MTV burst into the lineup with the broadcast of its first music video ironically titled “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Dusty cabinet radios attested to that truth.
In the late 1980s, cable became available to local advertisers, giving businesses a way to target specific demographics such as age and sex. More channels emerged and TV entertainment fragmented further, bringing forth even more audience targeting capabilities to bear.
And then Al Gore invented the World Wide Web.
Since then, entertainment and media have only become more fragmented as the masses stream into cord-cutting culture.
Is traditional media still a good buy?
With endless entertainment choices offered by every streaming service imaginable, it’s tempting to write off traditional media. But older demographics with more money to spend still enjoy watching the tube, according to veteran media consultant Gary Fish of The Fish Agency.
Even better, the Topeka market is especially accessible for small business owners, offering wide exposure. The cost of advertising in Topeka has stayed about the same since the early 90s, making it very affordable.
There’s no doubt that TV commercials are still a viable marketing option for local businesses, but it should be part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Keep these factors in mind when investing in a commercial:
Excellence means more exposure
Local commercials have a bit of a … reputation. But that’s good news because you can stand out from the crowd with a quality production that pitches your product or service with class, humor, and up to date effects. We may or may not know a bit about those things *cough MotoVike Films is amazing at what they do cough*
Use your spot to entertain or emotionally engage potential customers. Make it about them. Do it well. Viewers will perk up and take notice.
Also, a quick word of advice: establish a Callrail number to use only in your commercial so you can measure its success by tracking the number of leads it generates. You’ll be glad to have that data!
Audience quality over audience quantity
Cable offers the chance to narrow your target audience by more than age and sex. You can create an audience by psychographic and qualitative targeting.
For example, it’s more than doable to create a list of networks that target your audience of women 50+ with a household income of over $150k. Keep in mind that you’re buying the quality of reaching your target audience rather than a large quantity of people.
Reaching fewer people, but more who are highly qualified prospects can be a more effective strategy for your media dollars.
Get in the market for a plan
Consumers need seven impressions before they remember a brand. That’s one reason why it’s smart to use multiple platforms to diversify your approach and layer on exposure. That’s where the value of a good marketing plan comes to bear.
A marketing plan will help you identify the most strategic platforms for your marketing budget. A plan will narrow all the possibilities to only the best methods for reaching your audience. Depending on your audience, TV can be part of a complete plan, but it should also include other mediums such as digital and email marketing, social media marketing, outdoor displays, print ads, and others.
For example, when we created a sexual assault awareness campaign on behalf of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation called Yes This Room, we knew we had to reach people from all different angles. We created a marketing plan with strategies including:
Statewide TV Spots
Social media marketing (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat)
Website display ads
Campaign materials (Posters, rack cards, conversations guides)
These strategies put the message in front of our target audiences in ways that couldn’t be ignored.
Your strategic approach will look different, but with a customized marketing plan, you’ll be reaching and influencing your audience quicker than it took for you to convince your sibling to get off the couch and change the channel.
How Winston-Brown used TV to conquer KC
A commercial that resonates with your audience is powerful. Just ask the very busy crews at Winston-Brown Remodeling. They have been updating homes in Topeka and Lawrence for more than 40 years, earning national recognition for excellence.
Last year, they established a new office in Kansas City, focusing some of their marketing budget on SEO and SEM, with a larger portion directed to circulating two commercials on one local KC network.
Spot one
Spot two
The results were stunning. They surpassed their goals and are now on track to double revenues in Kansas City in two years.
One well-known Kansas City figure was searching for a remodeling contractor, but hadn’t found one that was a good fit yet. While watching the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, they happened to see the commercial. They copied down the information and hired Winston-Brown.
It’s worth noting that Winston-Browns brand was already built out. They had a gorgeous website. Their logo was fresh and stylish. With those foundational marketing elements in place, they were already ready for primetime when their commercials aired.
Bajillion can help
One of the most important parts of finding success in marketing is knowing who your target audience is. If you’re not sure who you should be targeting much less where they hang out, what you want them to do, or how to capture their attention, hit us up. You’ll be in front of the right eyes in no time, whether it’s on TV or another kind of screen.
Are you a star?
Do you have what it takes to be an actor, model, or voice-over artist? Apply to Join our bank of talent! You could appear in our client work.
Radio is reborn and we’re on it
Bajillion is launching a podcast about talent attraction and building culture! Look for the inaugural episode of the Creating Culture podcast next week! Hosted by Bajillion President Andrea Engstrom and Senior Copywriter and Strategist Ronnie Murphy, the first episode focuses on how they built company culture intentionally as Bajillion started and grew. Future episodes will feature subject matter experts and business leaders talking about creating a culture that fosters big ideas and attracts and retains talent.
Stay tuned for an email when it’s available for listening! Don’t start dusting off your cabinet radios though, it’ll be available wherever you get your podcasts.
It’s a sweet time of year. The cold outside is no match for the warmth of the season that has us bubbling over with good wishes and glad tidings.
In the spirit of the season, we want to share how grateful we are to do what we do. Bajillion Agency and MotoVike Films are nothing without the people who allow us to do creative work on their behalf. It’s truly an honor.
Before all this warmth has us sweaty-eyed, we want to invite you to indulge in a trip down memory lane to look back on all the sweet things we got to do this year.
Pepperminty fresh digs
At the beginning of the year, our agency was housed in increasingly tight quarters, and it wasn’t from the candy. With a fast-growing team and a love for throwing parties, space just wasn’t working for us anymore.
In May, we made the move to a spacious converted warehouse downtown. The new digs have made a huge difference for our clients and our team. This video about sums it up:
Every day we’re trufflin’
We’re not going to lie, the creative process isn’t always sweetness and light. It’s messy. It’s hard. It can be sour sometimes. But the end result is always worth it.
These work samples emerged from our creative process this year and we are extra proud to share them with you:
GreenTouch Tree and Lawn Care got a full rebrand, including a logo, website, key messaging, and branding elements. The rebrand modernizes the company and brings the focus of their marketing to what sets them apart from their competitors.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation wrapped a five-year project testing a backlog of sexual assault kits. In conjunction, we partnered with them to launch a public awareness campaign that calls attention to the realities of sexual assault while combating misperceptions. The landing page features conversation guides that empower readers with a trauma-informed mindset when they help victims of sexual assault.
Kansas Turf is a fast-growing sports construction business expanding into new territory. They needed to rebrand with a neutral name and assets to reflect their cutting edge company. We brainstormed the name Mammoth Sports Construction, and built their brand from the ground up. The Mammoth website reflects the passion they have for athletics and community building.
Skinner Garden Store is a trusted Topeka business that was in need of an updated website, logo, key messaging, and identity suite. We modernized their logo while retaining its classic look to pay homage to the longevity of the business. Beautiful new photography featuring their store, staff, and products give customers a glimpse of what to expect when they visit Skinner.
Larned, Kansas wanted to grow local pride and community engagement. We partnered with them to develop the Love Larned campaign, complete with a video, social media posts, and a love letter sent to each household in the city, signed by the city itself. The results were overwhelmingly positive, with residents sharing why they love their city and how they will participate in the Say, Serve, and Spend initiative.
No fudge in these numbers
In 2019:
Bajillion designed, wrote, and built 28 websites
MotoVike Films produced 209 videos, including marketing videos, microcontent, graphic animations, training videos, recruiting pieces, hype videos, internal videos for Bajillion, MotoVike, and ActionCOACH.
The team drank about 11,000 cups of coffee (seriously, we counted)
Bajillion designed 23 brand new logos
The team sent about 23,000 messages in Slack
MotoVike Filmed in five different states and two different countries
Seven team members were added
Sweet treats in store for 2020
Bajillion is launching a podcast! Look for it in the first part of the year and tune in for business and marketing strategy discussions.
This year, a goal we have worked toward for three years came to fruition. You’ll start seeing the work we’re producing for this account emerge publicly in 2020. We can’t wait to share it with you.
From all of us at Bajillion Agency and MotoVike Films
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Rebranding is an investment. We’re excited to share that we’re now offering a new financing option through our banking partner.
As part of this service, Bajillion Agency gives a 5% discount to clients who qualify for financing. This discount offsets the interest.
Our banking partner is offering financing to our clients for up to $100,000 in a 5-year term loan.*
If your goal is increasing sales and enhancing recruiting efforts, this allows you to pay for it as you grow, instead of the lump sum upfront or in a year. Low monthly payments help manage cash flow.
With a 5-year term, here’s what that looks like:
$50,000
-$2,500 (5% off)
$47,250
Monthly payments: approximately $930 per month
If you want to explore this option, let us know and we’ll help you set up the connection.
*All loans and interest rates are subject to qualification.
Tax Strategy: Marketing as a Deduction
Can you believe the end of the year is in sight? As you’re thinking about next year, we have a tip to share.
For tax purposes, some of our clients opt to pay for their marketing expenses for the following year in advance.
It’s a decision influenced by cash or accrual accounting. If a business is paying a lump sum before the end of the year, it is 100% deductible regardless of when services are performed. We offer a 5% discount for payment upfront in full as well.
Check with your accountant to see if this works for you.
There’s nothing like a puppy. It’s a squirmy, licky, cuddly package of pure happiness delivered on four paws.
But holding a puppy is different than having a puppy. Cuddly packages of happiness also poop on your shoes.
That’s the story of happiness. It arrives with fresh bursts of light, beauty, and warmth. But when you’re not looking, it scampers aways to chew on a windowsill.
Happiness and puppies take work.
The good news is that with the right care, puppies grow up believing you invented bacon. They love you so much they follow you from room to room. As if you were the one who used to chew on windowsills.
Happiness itself can also grow with the right care. The journey of committing to your own happiness, and cultivating it on purpose is just as rewarding as growing a squirmy puppy into a faithful companion.
Happiness is not only worth it for its own benefit, it also grows your productivity, which makes happiness a business issue. Employers who help their employees prioritize happiness will reap the benefits in their bottom line.
It looks different in every workplace, but at Bajillion, we help our employees cultivate happiness by encouraging them to get in changes of scenery and work away from their desk. By hosting team share where everyone can come together to see the work we’ve created, and by singing and making music together at Bajillijam sessions, among many other ways.
Think outside the box and identify ways that may make sense to cultivate happiness in your own work environment!
Strategic happiness
Recently we heard three practical tips proven to help you grow your happiness. Credit to Neil Pasricha at the Institute for Global Happiness for breaking it down.
- Take a walk in the woods
Turns out it’s not just for puppies. Exposure to nature is good for the mind, body and soul.
- Read 20 minutes of fiction
Fiction helps grow your imagination because you’re creating pictures in your head of what you’re reading. A healthy imagination is a key to being happy.
- Journal your gratitude
Writing about what you’re thankful for is a powerful way to unlock feelings of happiness.
Practice these and we bet you’ll see a marked uptick in your happiness.
It’s important to remember that none of us are happy all the time. Life is life in all its dysfunctional beauty. Start to think of happiness in percentages, or shades of gray as our designers might put it. If you’re 30% happier, that’s going to have an incredible impact on your quality of life.
A big piece of this is recognizing actual happiness when it licks you on the leg. Don’t forget to stop and savor its warmth.
Happiness as a brand
When happiness permeates the culture of your business, it becomes part of how people see you. It integrates with your brand.
We had the pleasure of rebranding Jayhawk File Express, a records storage company expanding into Kansas City. The new name, Stacks Secure Records helped the business build equity in new territory without possible blackblow from college sports team affiliation.
As we worked with Stacks, we noticed the people at the businesses they served were HUGE fans. There was an entire board in the Stacks office filled with thank you notes. When a records managers had a baby, one of the businesses they served threw him a baby shower. Stacks’ customers were more than customers, they were raving fans!
The secret was the power of happiness. Stacks had cultivated a culture bursting with happiness and gratitude. They used their strength of being a locally owned business to make a point of forging meaningful connections with the people at the businesses they served.
The rebrand took that simple truth and showed it to the world.
The new name, logo, and branding got so much attention that Stacks was purchased by a larger competitor. Now that’s happy!
Pay As You Grow
Rebranding is an investment. We’re excited to share that we’re now offering a new financing option through our banking partner.
As part of this service, Bajillion Agency gives a 5% discount to clients who qualify for financing. This discount offsets the interest.
Our banking partner is offering financing to our clients for up to $100,000 in a 5-year term loan.*
If your goal is increasing sales and enhancing recruiting efforts, this allows you to pay for it as you grow, instead of the lump sum upfront or in a year. Low monthly payments help manage cash flow.
With a 5-year term, here’s what that looks like:
$50,000
-$2,500 (5% off)
$47,250
Monthly payments: approximately $930 per month
If you want to explore this option, let us know and we’ll help you set up the connection.
*All loans and interest rates are subject to qualification.
Tax Strategy: Marketing as a Deduction
Can you believe the end of the year is in sight? As you’re thinking about next year, we have a tip to share.
For tax purposes, some of our clients opt to pay for their marketing expenses for the following year in advance.
It’s a decision influenced by cash or accrual accounting. If a business is paying a lump sum before the end of the year, it is 100% deductible regardless of when services are performed. We offer a 5% discount for payment upfront in full as well.
Check with your accountant to see if this works for you.
Suppose you’re a superhero.
Not any superhero, an angsty one. Though your power helps you defuse explosive situations, they’re not the famed, fiery kind. Instead of crushing your adversaries with epic blows of righteousness, you create harmony and build trust.
Even more disappointing, you weren’t born a mutant. You’re a normal human with two ears and an extraordinarily developed ability to listen and problem solve.
Well hello there customer service superhero.
No, don’t click away in an angry superhero identity crisis. Customer service may not be the most…thrilling of superpowers, but it is the gift this world needs.
This is you. This is all of us.
Remember great power comes with great responsibility.
You already have it in you
Public perception of your brand is heavily influenced by customer service, good and bad. Even people who are not customers are influenced by what they’ve heard from friends and family.
That’s why exceptional customer service is the key to unlocking the world’s oldest, most powerful marketing superweapon: referrals.
These stakes are pretty high. Maybe not save the earth before it’s liquidated by a heinous villain high, but still high.
That means it’s worthwhile to develop the customer service powers that have been within you all along. Developing the full force of your power requires tapping into two capabilities you already possess: listening and problem-solving.
Listening
The power of listening rests in the innate need of people everywhere to feel understood and validated.
It’s such a forceful need that listening is used to broker peace between nations. It’s used by law enforcement to de-escalate crisis situations. It can even help you soothe the irate customer on the phone.
Even though it seems obvious, listening is hard. Its arch-nemeses, interruption and defensiveness, come forth more easily.
Here’s the key to helping someone feel heard: step outside your own skin to enter the world of the other person to see the situation and their need their way. Use humility and authenticity. Be patient. Wear a spandex suit if it will help.
Problem-solving
If the customer’s need has been correctly identified through superhuman listening, solving their problem should come naturally by using the expertise that put you in business.
Here’s where the marketing power comes out: publicly set expectations for the way customer problems are solved, then deliver on those expectations every single time. Like a superhero who shares a plan for how to save the world, then delivers with flourish and gusto.
The expectations can be outlined in a simple plan or promise featured prominently on your website and incorporated throughout the business culture.
But what about when customers set their own expectations that are unreasonable or not possible?
You don’t have to let them walk all over your cape. Here are crisis negotiation tips that can empower you to de-escalate a situation:
- Never agree or disagree with an individual’s feelings.
- Use time and silence to help cool hot tempers.
- Find something to agree on. Getting someone to say yes to one thing can help shift their mindset.
- No matter what, stay solutions focused. Phrases like, “here’s what I’m going to do for you” are handy for remaining noble when adversarial forces close in.
McElroy’s promises and delivers
McElroy’s has provided plumbing, heating, and air service for residential, commercial, and industrial clients since 1951. They’re trusted to deliver the best solutions for the best price.
McElroy’s service technicians are in customer homes everyday. Knowing their customers place a lot of trust in them, McElroy’s displays their brand promise on their residential service page. The promise states customers can count on them to:
- Arrive on time and ready to work
- Treat your home with respect
- Give you an honest assessment
- Leave your home clean with your issue addressed
The brand promise is a simple plan, but its power lies in its universal values that build comfort in customers. The customer’s expectation is set, and all McElroy’s has to do is deliver, which is where they excel.
Here are two actual Google reviews about customer experiences with McElroy’s.
See how closely they echo the brand promise? Showing customers what to expect and then actually delivering on it inspires delight and satisfaction.
No angst here, McElroy’s takes pride in being customer service superheroes. You can too.
If you need help branding your promises and making sure they reach your customers, we can help. We won’t even be angsty about it. Hit us up!
Say you’re looking to hire someone with a particular set of skills.
Your company has an open position and you want to attract applicants who are trustworthy and brimming with work ethic. Someone who not only meets the qualifications of the job but supplies strength to the team and matches up with your company culture.
You craft the job announcement with glee, visions of the perfect unicorn candidate prancing before your eyes. The virtual “help wanted” signs go up on the top job sites, and the resumes start trickling in.
But as you dig into the stack, your eagerness turns to gloom.
There’s not a single unicorn with work ethic among the lot.
One candidate submitted a collage consisting of pictures of her face instead of a resume. Another boasted of his ability to “make people happy with his sick beats,” while acknowledging he had none of the skills you need. One notable cover letter made it apparent the job would simply be a side project as the applicant pursued their dream of full-time competitive ferret racing.
Why?
They say good help is hard to find. But even though that was probably first muttered by a caveman looking for a hand starting a fire, it doesn’t have to be that way.
The workplaces that consistently attract the best candidates have a common strategy: they tell people who they are, and they do it in a way that makes them look like a cool, meaningful place to work.
Prospective employees, especially younger generations, want to be able to identify clearly with the meaning in their work. And everyone wants to be cool.
How to be cool. And meaningful
First, buy a leather jacket. But it has to be meaningful, so buy a vegan pleather jacket.
Kidding!
Start by thinking differently about your company’s branding, because it’s not only for your customers.
Good branding is the key to being meaningful to future and current employees. Your brand tells potential employees what to expect from their work experience with you. It helps solidify their perceptions of you by sharing your story and your working environment.
But how to be cool ? We like to say that excellence attracts excellence. That means using professional, adaptable visuals and powerful, concise words that provide a punch and speak straight to the type of people you want to attract.
When you establish those intangibles that provide meaning and a coolness factor with clarity and consistency over the long-term, your company’s reputation and visibility will improve. The unicorns with work ethic will be curious. They’ll notice that their own values match up with yours. They’ll want to join in. They will prance your direction.
But how can you tell a unicorn with work ethic from others in the stack? We want to share a fantastic free resource that we use ourselves.
The three overarching characteristics you want to look for in a possible employee is someone who is hungry, humble, and people-smart. These characteristics are outlined in the book “The Ideal Team Player,” by Patrick Lencioni.
The book is worth reading for any hiring manager, but there’s a set of free interview questions that give you the specifics of what to ask and what to look for during the hiring process to accurately suss out the unicorns who’ve applied. Check them out.
Don’t watch this video
A disclaimer. If you don’t want to disrupt your entire life’s plan to take up a new vocation laying sewer pipe, you’re going to want to skip this video.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
One of the biggest challenges facing Bettis Asphalt was recruiting new construction crew. Though the leadership of the company truly saw themselves as secondary to their boots on the ground and their love for their people was genuine, none of that was reflected in their branding.
But we got to channel that authentic energy into the work we did for them. Since rebranding, they’ve seen a marked increase in their visibility and ability to recruit qualified workforce in an industry where attracting talent is a tremendous challenge. All it took was bringing out the cool factor and emphasizing the values of the organization.
One microsite. Big difference.
One recruiting campaign that got incredible results was commissioned by the City of Larned in partnership with Pawnee County, Kansas. Community leadership wanted to bring new attention to the wonderful quality of life offered in the area and the abundance of jobs available at Larned State Hospital.
The community rebranding campaign included new visuals and logo, key messaging, a website and video. Additionally, we created a microsite focused solely on recruiting for positions at the state hospital, which is the lifeblood of the community.
The microsite invites applications by making an appeal at an emotional level. The site positions the curious job seeker as a hero and someone who can make a difference.
That strategy is a key takeaway for anyone who writes position announcements because job postings are valuable real estate for branding. Bring out the meaning in the work and entice new applicants by showing them how they’ll wake up every day to do a valued, important job in an influential environment.
A single Facebook post featuring this video brought over 1,000 new visits to the microsite, which resulted in 112 new job inquiries and applications over three months. For a workplace with 150 openings that had never attracted much interest before, that was a game changer.
We’re grateful we got to help both Bettis and the Larned Community bring out the meaning and the cool factor in what they do. To us, that’s what it means to Make Gold.
If you want some help making your own recruiting gold, we’d love to help. Hit us up!
Moving day video
Don’t watch this video if you don’t want to move anytime soon.
Kidding. Watch this 45 second window of pure joy for a look at our new building!
We’re so grateful and excited for the opportunity our new building gives us to continue bringing the best in infinite dreaming and honest storytelling.
We’re also pretty hyped about some sweet new tech that’s gonna help us keep being a cutting edge creative agency. Since connectivity is a big priority for us, we kitted ourselves out with a brand new beeper system.
That’s right, new pagers that will help us keep in touch with the clients we serve and prospective contacts both. So pumped.
You may be thinking “Guys, it doesn’t matter if you have an amazing new building, the best work, the most creative ideas, and the sincerest of intentions. If your communication tools are outdated, it’s a disservice to your business.”
You do have a point.
<Read on> email cutoff, link to blog
Ok, we don’t actually expect you to start paging us. We’re sure you can agree it’s easy to be sentimental for timeworn ways of doing things, but there are good reasons they fall out of use.
But this scenario is something we run into often. Smart leaders who’ve built their business or career using hard work and the same sales process, website, and other business tools for years.
Our job is to help them be even more successful in today’s world, so we gently coax them to let the pager, or any tool that no longer best serves them, fall by the wayside in favor of something better.
We love helping our clients harness emerging technologies that empower them to reach the people they’re striving to connect with in fresh ways. We love it so much, we’re going to let you in on a big “something better” tool right now.
Consumers are spending an average of six hours a day watching video . That’s about 37% of awake hours spent watching moving pictures.
No wonder YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google.
The irony is that average attention spans are shorter than ever. That means that effective videos have to be powerfully dynamic and immediately engaging.
That can be a hard connection to make even if you have the latest in beeper technology.
But it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips for using the recording machine (hopefully not actually a beeper) in your pocket to create valuable video marketing content through platforms like Facebook live.
- Keep it short. Short attention spans mean length is not value. Aim to make a video that’s less than a minute long.
- Keep your recording device stable. There are inexpensive tripods available for every phone model. In a pinch, rest your elbows against your front as you hold the phone in two hands.
- Lighting is key. Grab any lamp or light fixture, put it close to you, and make sure all bulbs are the same color. Balanced, ample lighting makes a huge difference in video quality.
Above all, be yourself. It can be nerve-wracking to get in front of the lens, but authenticity and enthusiasm will go a long way.
Endless options
Videos are a flexible communication medium that can bring out meaning in a big way, emphasizing the powerful elements of your organization in one cohesive story.
Let’s take a look at just a few different types of videos that offer distinct strategies for delivering strong emotional appeals that resonate with your audience.
Brand anthems: These types of videos utilize voiceovers combined with powerful imagery that both shows and tells the viewer the story of an organization. The narrative voiceover lends itself as an opportunity to shape the message the viewer receives.
Narrative anthems examples:
Kansas Ballet: “Start Small, Dream Big.”
Architect One: “Listen. Design. Inspire.”
Interview-led: Interviews offer the chance to let the people at the heart of an organization tell the story in their own words. Interspersed with dynamic visuals, these types of videos offer earnest credibility straight from the people who know the best.
Interview-led examples:
Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center: About
Hayden High School: Overview
Vibe videos: Exciting angles and stunning music leaves the viewer with a strong emotional impression and allows them to draw their own conclusions. This type of video doesn’t even require anyone to get in front of the camera, though that’s always an option.
Vibe video examples:
MotoVike Films: Three years, 300 stories
Bettis Asphalt: Grading
If all this talk of videos and emerging technology have you wanting to return to the age when beepers were the most complicated tool you had to deal with, give us a call. We’d love to help bring out the story of your organization in a big way.
We’ve got some really great clients who have amazing stories and we’re so fortunate to get to tell those stories. Recently, the Topeka Advertising Federation recognized the work Bajillion Agency and MotoVike Films have done for our clients with a combined 29 Addy Awards, including Best in Show for photography.
Check out the full list here!
It used to be that if you wanted optimal exposure for your tow truck company or plumbing business, all you had to do was name it A-1 Wrecker Service. Or if you were really creative, AAAA Plumbers Inc.
Stranded Ford Pinto drivers and regretful DIY sink repairmen would flip through the phone book and you’d be at their service, conveniently listed at the top.
Smart.
But now that phone books mostly reside in the dusty depths of history, businesses striving for exposure have to do more than exploit alphabetization. Self-taught pipefitters, Pinto drivers, and even most everyone’s moms use internet search engines to identify nearby services in their moment of need.
So how can you clinch that oh-so-precious real estate right at the top of a search for your business’s services?
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Or, as the cool kids call it, SEO and SEM.
SEO: The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. (whitepages)
SEM: The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through paid search engine results. (yellowpages)
Though Google’s exact ranking algorithm is a mystery, scoring in those top results requires a complex concoction of valuable content filled with plenty of relevant keywords that compels visitors to stay on your page for a long time.
There’s no easy trick for ranking high in organic searches. Coming in at the top for a given search term requires you to get into your audience’s head, then build a useful, intentional, and strategic website around that. Simple, but really hard.
Search engine marketing is a little more straightforward since you’re paying for your exposure. But to make the most of your dollar, you have to know the right keywords to get you in front of the audience you want.
Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s a free and easy resource to help your business be the answer to the questions your customers are asking.
Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to input a keyword (e.g. plumbers, tow-trucks) and find out the questions people ask around those topics (e.g. how do plumbers fix sinks? And why do tow-trucks use flashing lights?) Once you’ve identified the questions that are relevant to your business, develop your content around the answers to those questions. It may surprise you!
If you want to do even more to make your website stand out, we’d love to help you.
It might be a bit more complicated than thinking of business names that start with A, but it doesn’t have to be.
We get excited about helping our clients find the best strategy for gaining search engine exposure while making the most of their dollars.
Darting did it right
Darting Basketball Academy trains athletes in the foundational movements and techniques that make elite basketball players. Their camps are well attended and many graduates now play at the college level.
Search terms like Topeka + basketball + camp bring up Darting’s homepage, which is streamlined for users while capturing the energy of the game. The structure and overall excitement invites visitors to stick around, explore, and sign up for their email announcements.
That’s important. Search engines look at the length of time visitors stay on the page when determining result rankings. Google engineers infer that if visitors click to visit but then immediately exit the page, the website must not offer valuable or relevant information.
So a website that’s dynamic, with lots of content, while remaining easy to navigate are huge factors in showing up at the top of those Google search results. Money and time devoted to SEO and SEM are wasted if users don’t engage or can’t find what they’re looking for on your page.
Darting’s website was recently recognized by Elementor Site Builder as its top site of the month. Congratulations Kerry and all the team at Darting!
You’re sending your sales guy to that big networking event. He’s going to generate leads and build your position as an authority in the field. Sales guy has been with the company for a while now, but lately he’s been looking a little…haggard.
As he’s heading out the door, you take in his rumpled corduroy jacket and Christmas tree tie. It’s not a bad tie except it’s February. You notice he has grisly scratch marks on his face. He’d mentioned he got a new cat recently. He mumbles goodbye with a droopy wave.
You hope for the best despite the unease washing over you. Perhaps they’ll find the Christmas tree tie charming.
You’d definitely recognize if your sales guy wasn’t representing your business well. Do you know if your brand is representing your business well?
Everyone communicates the essence of who they are through their face, their style, and their personality. An effective brand does the same for your company
The face of your brand is your logo. Just like a person’s face is their most recognizable feature, your logo should be recognizable to customers even if they’ve never interacted with your company. Good logos are unique, meaningful, reproduce well within a variety of settings, and free of wounds from fickle felines.
Often we recognize someone just by their style, even when we can’t see their face. Your brand’s style includes identity components like company color palette and fonts, plus other cues like imagery and design that bring consistency. Company identity can’t be thrown together with whatever elements happen to be lying around. You have to be strategic to avoid the Christmas in corduroy vibe.
After getting to know someone’s face and style, we start to recognize the unique attributes of their personality. For your company, these are the values and attitudes that shape how you interact with your customers; qualities like your tone and values. Effective company brand personalities are authentic while remaining relatable and consistent.
Let’s take a look at a company that’s integrated their brand into their business really well.
Pine Landscape
We got to help Pine Landscape Center develop a new brand that remains true to their roots as a family-owned business located on their fourth generation family farm outside Lawrence.
Here’s their new logo or “face” of their business.
The logo celebrates the farm’s influence on the business with inspiration from legacy seed and farm supply packaging paired with the bold, clean lines of modern design. Its rounded corners and sharp lines speak to a well-executed landscape design.
We equipped Pine with an identity and style guide that includes other logo variations and badges that apply variety to their brand while remaining consistent.
We also gave them a color palette that honors the natural elements they work with.
Finally, we helped Pine refine their values and strengths into language that empowers them to communicate the essence of who they are–the personality of the business.
The language channels the authenticity and passion that they pour into their customers every day. It emerges in their brand’s tone, the key messages they present, and the emphasis they place on guidance and service for their customers.
Here’s an example of a key message that incorporates both the specifics of what they do and the values that power their business.
It Comes Naturally
Natural materials like mulch and stone are timeless. They don’t go out of style and they last. We feel the same way about integrity. It is a trait that is natural for us and it never goes out of style!
Pine seamlessly assimilated all of these brand concepts into their business practice, applying consistency in everything from their point of sale customer service to the wraps on their delivery trucks.
Plus they built this sweet welcome sign featuring their new logo incorporated with natural materials. Talk about staying on brand!
We’re really proud of the way they dove head first into building out the unique attributes of their brand, and we’re proud to call them our clients. Great job Pine Landscape Center!
We’re super stoked about the progress transforming what used to be a downtown warehouse into our future office space. We gave the media a sneak peek of the progress. Check out those stories:
Topeka Capital-Journal
WIBW TV
We’re having a party after we move in, and we want you there. We’ll let you know time and date a little later!
We’re thrilled with the recent addition of two new team members who position us for further growth and value for our clients.
Allie Deiter (left)
Our new digital media coordinator. Allie is a pro at making sure websites get prime exposure through search engine optimization and marketing. The world of digital media is ever changing, but Allie keeps on top of best practices to ensure the best results for our clients. Welcome Allie!
Rachel Whitten (right)
Our new copywriter. She brings a wealth of writing experience for all variety of voices and circumstances. Her background in public relations is also a new advantage we get to share with our clients. Welcome Rachel!
