We do great work. We get compliments from clients, friends and strangers, receive awards, and overhear shoppers reacting to a new brand or package. These affirmations are pleasing, for sure. It’s always at the front of my mind, however, that our work must produce results; and there is a space, a sometimes anxious space, between faith that strategically sound, brand-focused beauty moves people and proof that said beauty moves people.
I salute the clients who make that leap of faith, and I am delighted (not surprised) when they are rewarded.
A couple of examples:
This past year, we launched a redesigned brand and website for Downeast Energy. In 2011, a challenging year for their industry, Downeast did well enough to fund profit sharing accounts and hand out bonuses and raises at a time when others were handing out pink slips.
We also launched a completely new branding and packaging for Gifford’s Ice Cream, and I was thrilled to see Lindsay Gifford-Skilling quoted in Inc Magazine noting that same store sales were up 19%. Woohoo!
Results. Tangible, quantifiable, and better than any trophy.
It’s always nice to receive awards. Recognition for the work we do is good for the clients, good for the ego, good for morale.
In the past month, we have received quite a bit of positive recognition: W3 Awards for NYA and Briggs websites, a Gold Broderson for the Gifford’s Ice Cream site, and the selection of several examples of our brand identity work for an AIGA Annual Exhibit in Portland. Kudos!
The real thrill, though, is less about that shiny heavy (sometimes expensive, sometimes ugly) trophy and more about the road that got us here.
Every day for almost 25 years we’ve been honing our craft, and every day we do our best to turn out exceptional, brand-focused work. So, here’s what I recognize: The true prize is just the simple act of coming to work at a job I love. I have the privilege of working with exceptional clients who trust us (and challenge us) to be brilliant and with a team that regularly renews that trust.
The rest is icing on the cake.
Steve Jobs taught me:
Genius is simple.
Genius is beautiful.
Genius is entertaining.
Genius looks easy. It isn’t.
Genius is active, not passive. It opens eyes. It challenges us.
Genius is unpredictable and obvious at the same time.
Genius changes everything and changes nothing.
It can change lives, but it can’t change life.
Genius is being aware of death, not afraid of death.
Genius is loving what you do.
Love is life’s greatest achievement.
Death is life’s greatest invention.
Work done by Briggs Advertising for Bath was recently recognized with an award for Outstanding Image Campaign by the Maine Development Center’s Maine Downtown Center.
We were hired to rebrand the City of Bath and worked with city government, Main Street Bath, and stakeholders from the community to develop identity and marketing campaign materials. This was a part cash/part pro bono project, and aside from helping the community we live and work in and creating some beautiful work, it was fun. People were vocal, brought strong opinions to the project, collaborated remarkably well, and adopted the logo and campaign to great effect. Continue reading →
I thought about trying to describe what it’s like to get on a boat, sail off the mooring,and stay “out there” for 2 weeks; but Wendy has done it better than I ever could, here and here. If there’s anything more soul satisfying than cruising the waters of Penobscot Bay with family, I’ve yet to discover it.
The paradox of branding is this:
You know yourself so well, you don’t know yourself at all.
It’s a mind bender, I know, but it’s pretty constant in the organizations we work with and, I believe, all organizations. On the one hand, no one knows your company better than you do. You create it, feel it in your bones, and live it every day. On the other hand, being that close makes it hard to see clearly in a way that makes it possible to articulate what the brand means – your true self – to others. Kind of like trying to take a picture of yourself in the mirror (at slow shutter speed, with shaky hands.)
Looked at from the other side, the paradox is:
A brand is known best on the inside, understood best from the outside.
That’s where Brand Discovery comes in. Continue reading →
We are all moved by the world we live in, by our environments. Our surroundings inform how we feel and what we do every day. Right now, Maine is just bursting with life. Fruits, vegetables, trees, marsh grass, flowers… everywhere you look, smell, feel, taste, hear, it’s lush, green, sensuous, sweet, inspiring… it’s ecstasy.
We take our inspiration where ever it comes from, and inspiration is in abundance, all around us today.
Wendy, my favorite blogger, has been capturing the highlights as we try to take it all in, chronicling the season in garden, food, and song.
The State Theater in Portland, ME has brought so much great music to us lately that we Continue reading →
Libraries need branding? Only if they care about connecting with patrons, expanding awareness in their communities, and… surviving.
We recently worked with Liz Doucett, the woman who wrote the book on library branding (Creating Your Library Brand,) and I came away with a new understanding of this critical community center and a sense of urgency about how libraries can no longer take their continued existence for granted. Here are my top three reasons why your public library needs to pay attention to its brand: Continue reading →
Convincing alumni to give money is a challenge that never ends. Annual Fund campaigns do end, however, and Bates asked us to help them with a last minute push in 2010. How many ways have they asked for money? Hmmm. Want to know what works? Stories. If you can tell stories that resonate, that capture the reality of what’s great about the place, if you can connect with people and move their hearts, the money part is easy. Easier, at least. Here is a true story about a small act that says big things about what it means to go to Bates. Producing this video (on a shoestring… or maybe a fishing line… or not much more than you can fit in that meter) and the accompanying email campaign was astoundingly satisfying. I love telling a good story.
