We help restless brands find the best way to use advertising to solve problems, build awareness and drive sales at the same time.

And execute the advertising required to do it.

Yes, we do:

Brands that are famous have a much higher likelihood of being successful than brands that are not.

For us, there are two types of creative advertising.

Creative messaging: the creativity that has to do with art, copy, typography, video etc. This is where most of the talk about creativity is focused.

Creative thinking: this is the kind of creativity that involves media agnosticism, problem-solving, strategy, and the occasional asking of stupid questions to get at the right answer.

To cite an example:

Creative messaging was to name a coffee shop Starbucks and make the logo a two-tailed mermaid.

Creative thinking was the “idea’ to create distinct assets that had nothing to do with coffee in the first place.

We do both.

Any agency that’s ever participated in a new business pitch has been asked this question.

And any agency with an ounce of integrity has answered:

“There is no effing process.”

In other words, no agency has ever answered it that way.

There are processes for developing strategy (see ours below), there are processes for developing media plans, but there is no process for giving birth to an idea.

That just takes talent.

But maybe you were asking about our process in a more general state. In that case, the way we go about your advertising looks very similar to the way your doctor goes about curing hemorrhoids.

FIRST WE DIAGNOSE

You tell us about your problems, goals and everything you can about your company / brand. We do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions. We think about all of it for a little bit. Then we stop thinking about if for a little bit.

THEN WE PRESCRIBE

We come up with creative ideas to solve your problems and goals. We test those ideas for their ability to go beyond sales goals. We share the most interesting and exciting impactful ones with you. All this looks like a pitch deck.

THEN WE APPLY

You say yes to an idea. We make it happen.

THEN WE REAPPLY AS NECESSARY

We take what works and make it even better

We create wherever creativity is needed. Which includes, but is not limited to, print, out-of-home, radio, television, digital, experiential, product development, I.P, apps, websites, emails and email campaigns, advertorials, PR ideas, and urinal splash guards.

The only thing that separates us from other agencies (or any agency from any other agency for that matter) is who we are, what we stand for, what it’s like to work with us (which you’re probably getting a good sense of already), and our work. Everything else is flubdub and flim-flam.

We work well with:

1. Challenger brands who don’t have the time, money, and patience it takes to become more established by playing it safe.

2. Smaller brands who are tired of playing the short game with performance marketing and are ready to start building a brand for the long term

3. Well-funded new brands who understand the importance of combining brand awareness and direct response and are willing to test-launch campaigns in isolated markets

4. Tired or threatened established brands in need of a resurgence.

5. Any brand with a problem other agencies either can’t solve or won’t touch.

Everyone here has worked in almost every type of industry (with the exception of Pharma).

Some of which include, but are not limited to:

Auto, Healthcare, I.T, Finance, App, Toys, Ecommerce, Package Goods, Travel, Toiletries & Cosmetics, Apparel & Accessories, Food & Food Products, Home Furnishings & Supplies, Retail Entertainment, Financial, Insurance & Real Estate,

And if we haven’t worked in your industry, we’d actually consider that to be one of our advantages. Few industries are so specific that they wouldn’t benefit from a fresh perspective (with the exception of Pharma of course).

Our involvement can range from simple coordination to strategic oversight. You might also find us resembling something pretty close to your own internal marketing department (without paying for health insurance and matching 401ks).

Our pricing is generally quoted and tailored per project. Our default pricing model is to come to an agreed-upon percentage of the media and production budgets. Oftentimes, that turns into a fixed monthly retainer with a defined scope of work. In some cases, we have offered hourly rates which, depending on the task, hover around $185 USD per hour as a blended rate. All of our billing does not include production costs for items, such as: video and media buying.

Yes.

It is our policy to never offer creative solutions to a problem we have not diagnosed ourselves.

Like many agencies, we have our own trademarked strategy process:

We call it the Smart Awareness and Sophistication Strategy

Or SMART A.S.S for short.

It’s kinda like a formula for rule-breaking designed to help brands stand-out

It does this by analyzing your brand, product, and service, its place in the current market, comparing it to over 180 years of advertising history, and digging deeper for tensions and human insight.

Any more details would probably bore you to tears.

In order to solve problems effectively, we prefer to remain media agnostic.

That being said, we know enough about media buying to know who to work with and who not to work with.

We only work with top media planning and buying agencies.

We have a saying around here:

“Brands are important. But branding is bullshit.”

The idea of getting your branding right before going to market is a relatively new one. It’s also not a smart thing to do.

Strong brands are built by doing outstanding product advertising. Not the other way around. Always have and always will.

As Bob Hoffman puts it:

“You don't get people to try your product by convincing them to love your brand. You get them to love our brand by convincing them to try your product."

If you want us

When it comes to your social media strategy you have two options.

You can either post things worth liking or create something worth posting about. Something that cuts through the noise and amplifies your message beyond social media. We focus on the latter.

We don’t just come up with ideas. We execute them. At good prices too.

1. Look at our work. If you don’t like the way we solved other brands’ problems, you probably won’t like the way we solve yours

2. Pitching takes a lot of time (in a short amount of time) and money. We prefer to give that time to the people giving us money.

3. Without the right amount of time or money there is rarely an adequate opportunity to penetrate to the core of the specific situation, and thus shape a plan best designed for your needs and opportunities.

4. In the rare moments that we do a pitch for free, we keep things super simple with high-level ideas and just enough examples to show you how we think.

As long as the “P” in RFP stands for “proposal” and not “pitches” then sure, go ahead.

Creative problem solving is what we do best. We like to stay inside our wheelhouse.

That being said, we work with some of the top media planning and buying agencies, account planning, strategy and PR firms, event management and performance marketing companies. And our involvement range from simple coordination to strategic oversight.