Creative Blog.

Todd Mitchell 4/30/21 Todd Mitchell 4/30/21

Huddled Masses Website Development. How great people inspire great work.

Developing the Huddled Masses website was both fun and challenging. They had a few variations of older site desigs, and variety of brand segments that we needed to bring together into a modern and practical presentation that really represented their CEO Kristie and the team, as well as make it “fun” for their clients to engage as well. The “game pieces” theme fit into their basically helping their clients find and fit that “missing piece.”

Huddled Masses Website Development. How great people inspire great work.

Working with some of the best PR talents (Laura Goldberg @https://www.lbgpr.com, and Susanna Hinds) made the project high caliber, high energy, and top shelf professional.

The team at Huddled Masses are wonderful to work with, and as performance marketers, absolutely the terrific. Great people, that all inspire teamwork and great work.

Meet Huddled Masses

Performance marketing solutions that drive real ROI.

Digital advertising campaigns can sometimes feel precarious. One element or piece out of place and everything collapses.

Huddled Masses has a track record in helping clients find that critical piece of the digital advertising puzzle to pull it all together. Oftentimes it’s a piece that they didn’t even know was missing.

Kristie MacDonald, CEO—brings more than 15 years of entertainment marketing and research experience to her leadership role at Huddled Masses.

Visit their website

Todd Mitchell 4/30/21 Todd Mitchell 4/30/21

Direct Digital Holdings Branding and Website Development—The Value of a Great Team

Direct Digital Holdings Branding and Website Development

Having any design project start off with a fun, exciting, and enjoyable kickoff call is always a great sign. Mark Walker their CEO, and their PR firm (Laura Goldberg @https://www.lbgpr.com) are incredible. An engaging and driven conversation led to what became a very cool project. They know what they like and want, yet allowed the creative process to unfold. Developing the site included branding. A logo and site that captured an energetic “forward moving, colorful, and exciting vibe that makes it engaging, interesting, and simple. Responsive mobility was a must here also.

Meet Direct Digital Holdings

Direct Digital Holdings brings state-of-the-art supply-side and demand-side advertising platforms together under one umbrella company.

They deliver significant ROI for middle market advertisers.

They give advertisers of all sizes unparalleled reach within general market and multicultural media properties.

CEO and founder, Mark Walker brings nearly 20 years of experience in private equity, building relationships, and revenue generating operations for Fortune 500 corporations as well as start-ups.

https://directdigitalholdings.com

Visit their website

Todd Mitchell 4/13/20 Todd Mitchell 4/13/20

The Importance of Branding

A “brand” is a story. It’s a relationship, a label, a mark, and a meaning. It’s another word for a logo, but the logo is only a small part of a brand, and it has a lot of information behind it. A brand has a much wider narrative and descriptive nature that outlines every aspect of whatever it is. What it means, what it represents, why it is, how it is… the color, the font, and how things are said about it. A brand can turn a $2 piece of cloth into a $45 Nike t-shirt. THAT is the power of brand.

To your product, business, service, or idea— branding can be the difference between success and failure.

Think about a box of cereal, carton of milk, a t-shirt with a logo on it, or a pair of sneakers. Everything that exists by manufacture or in concept—by people—including many actual people, is a brand. Lebron James is a brand. Michael Jackson, the Pope, and even Donald Trump is a brand. The Boston Red Sox, Nike, Google, Dole, Subaru, Coca-Cola, etc… they are all brands. They all have a special story behind it, and they all have an effect on a certain number of people—personally, emotionally, and financially.

Imagine the effect historical figures have had even after thousands of years. Jesus, Lao Tzu, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Muhammad, and so many others have a deeply emotional meaning to so many people and have such an impact on millions. Each of us has our own personal brand as well. Who we are, what we are, what we do, what we believe, and our talents and abilities all branch out and touch others. We have an effect on the world and others. How we wear our hair, our clothing, and all of our choices—are all part of our personal brand.

And then what do we do as people? We are drawn to, follow, brag about or despise other brands. We wear them, we eat them, we discuss them… Think of all the “labels” right now you are wearing. Think of the brands of coffee, food, water, and products around your home or all around you— online, in stores… Brands, brands, and more brands!

So from a marketing perspective, that’s important to understand. When you are actively marketing a brand—a product, service, or idea—you need to have a thorough understanding of two key parts: The brand story, and the audience. When you understand both of those, you can first tell the correct—and hopefully interesting, engaging, and exciting storyline of that brand, and then thoroughly understand the people who want to see it, why they might want to see it, and what it is they need to see.

That way, you can put the two together, and then the relationship is born. That relationship Is the person and the brand. They go hand-in-hand and again, can be personal and intimate brands (for personal use) or consumer-based, financially motivated, and business related brands. And many of these brand relationships can and often do last a lifetime.

In marketing, advertising, and design therefore all aspects of the product, service, or idea needy to be perfectly assembled. A product has to have the right description and meaning, colors, fonts, packaging, ingredients, website, social media accounts, advertising and marketing plan, financial plan, growth plan, and more. A service has to have importance, value, uniqueness, and messaging that really connects with the audience, as well as all the aspects of a product above. An idea, yes even that, needs to have a tremendous amount of excitement, intrigue, value, and interest to even have potential to become a great brand.

There are BILLIONS of brands, and BILLIONS of failed or wasted and un-useful brands. But there are also BILLIONS of amazing, life-changing, inspiring, and powerful brands. And the difference often starts in the beginning in the planning phase, but can also be destroyed anywhere along the way. Think of any famous person that does or says something hurtful or foolish and “POOF,” gone is the brand… But heck, even the cigarette industry with its known super-deadly capacity, still remains strong. Branding!

So when we develop a brand—by thought and idea, or in actuality—all o the above criteria needs to be a part of that process to be effective. A lot of thought ideas, creativity and imagination, passion, and experience all need to be plugged into the process. Great brands are born out of creative and inspired thinking. And the miraculous part of that is that the best creative and imaginative process is deeply spiritual, creator-based (God or whatever your belief is), talent-based, and something you just can’t explain. It’s a skill that if nurtured, practiced, and literally allowed to flow through you—develops into the best personal or product-based brand that ever existed.

Here are a few starting points to start a killer product or company brand

1. Ideas first

A good thought process or discussion about the idea develops into many notes, concepts, drawings, and directions. Add awesome people to your conversation, and really explore and think and speak freely to let the process unwind.

2. Trust your inner Self

Begin with your self. Trust your self first and be really thoughtful and mindful of your ideas. Trust your heart and your own creativity and imagination and stick to that. Make sure you follow that deep inner guide. Trust that. This is where the brand begins—and should stay.

3. Team up with masters

It’s wise to seek relationships with masters. People you can not only trust—but have been there, have super high quality value, and even greater skills to really help guide you and contribute to great ideas. Learn from others, team up with others. While the idea is yours, it always takes a team. So hang out with winners, achievers, and go-getters.

4. Make action be your first priority

Ideas are great. But action is what makes the difference. Nothing exists without someone taking action. And I mean BIG action. Do it. Get started. Continue to take action. You must, must, must get the ball rolling, keep the ball rolling, and never stop. You are ALIVE and meant to live— to push on, to excel, exceed, and move. You have to put your ideas into action. Start with a single step today, plan for tomorrow’s, and after that… continually move, learn, grow, and change direction—but ACT!

5. Make your next best ally a creative professional

Unless you are one, you need creative talent. And GOOD creative talent—the best. The right logo, colors, fonts, websites, marketing, social media, printed material, and branding guidelines and management LITERALLY is everything. Any one of these parts if not done well will be the difference between success and failure. And like my own personal creative business model—make sure it’s someone you can really trust that puts your best interests first, will work harder for you than anyone else, is fairly and honestly priced, will work quickly, and values the relationship as if life depending on it. Second to that, but equally important is that they are passionately, spiritually, and powerfully experienced and extremely talented. The right creative team will be a caring, committed life-long partner, and will help you create the literal branding pieces you will ever need, make sure you remain consistent, change with the times, and continue to grow—and THRIVE! They will help you make more money, spend less money, affect more people.

6. Do the research—Without “analysis paralysis”

It’s important to see what else is out there. What else is being done, how it’s being done. Getting ideas, making sure there’s a market for it, etc… But don’t get hung up on “over” researching it. You can literally get mentally paralyzed by over examining or overthinking things and then never taking any action. So always be on the research, examination, and look out for what else is going on, but make it efficient—not a hinderance. Learn from it and ACT.

7. Create the what, why, and how

Create what many call a mission statement, elevator pitch, or creative brief. Write down WHAT it is in a very compelling, interesting and descriptive manner, WHY it is what it is or WHY you are doing what you are doing, and then HOW you intend on changing the world or marketplace with it—or HOW you intend on getting it out there (marketing plan). It should only be a paragraph, should be very concise, and VERY interesting and engaging. Run it by people you trust and/or admire and ask them what they think about it. “Test market” it to see how other might respond to it. See of someone might buy it before it even exists. But your mission—your statement—is probably one of the most important parts of the brand! If your what is lame, your why is trash, and your how is boring you can rest assured wasted time, money, and energy.

8. Market it well—and market it often

It’s also important to work with the right creative team to help you market your product, company or service today more than ever. With so many “channels” you have so many advertising, website, social media, event, email and other facets of delivering your message, you need to not only stay on track, be aggressive, and consistent—but know which ones will work specifically for you as well as which ones to avoid. You are now in a future of EXTREME traffic, competing with millions so your messaging needs to be perfect, and your audience reach needs to be crafted perfectly. And if done well, will establish a very solid future and successful outcome. You need to market your self, product, service, or company every day— and often multiple times a day to succeed. And the messaging needs to be perfect—not pointless rambling. So make the right relationship with key creative and marketing teams. They will guide and teach you.

Simple, practical, and inspired creative solutions. Free consulting. Free advice. Free first project for qualifiers. Creative strategies and solutions—made easy.

Todd Mitchell 1/14/19 Todd Mitchell 1/14/19

Branding and Identity—Some key questions.

Branding and Identity

Key questions to get started.

A brand, is an experience. It’s a meaningful, and passionately created existence. It can be a product, a service, or business. It can even be a person, a team, or a volunteer organization. And while some of the strongest brands are organically grown and naturally attractive, powerful and compelling some may take more work to craft. But in the end, the strongest brands in the world are effective and draw in a tremendous following. They get results and in some cases create a very powerful ever lasting “institution” with profound effects on the whole world. Think of a company like Nike that can turn $2 of fabric into a $35 t-shirt. THAT is what branding can do. Here are a few key takeaways to consider in developing your brand:

The name

If you have one—Name of your product, service, company, or business:

What does your name mean— where does it come from?

If you do NOT have one, what are some ideas you have? Name 5-10 ideas for a business name:

What business are you in?

List a series of “keywords” people might use to find you online (as many as you can):

The brand

If you have a logo— what does it represent?

If you do NOT have a logo, what symbols, icons, or graphics come to mind with your business?

Name three brands you are impressed with:

Do you have any websites you are impressed with?

When someone sees your brand (logo) what should it represent? What should it mean?

What bothers you most about your brand identity right now?

Do you own any copyrights, patents or trademarks currently?

Do you see your brand as a single company brand, or possibly a group of brands under one name (divisions)?

The mission

Your primary mission or purpose—your “elevator pitch”— a sentence that summarizes your business:

What values are important to you?

Why should people call you? What makes you the best?

What technologies or capital will you need to invest in to complete in the future?

What’s your top money-maker now?

What value do you bring to the marketplace?

The customer

Who is your typical, current customers— who will engage with you, and conduct business?

(Be specific here, age, location, business types, etc…)

Who SHOULD be your customers? (target customers)

What are your customers needs?

What different needs will they have in the future?

Who is NOT your ideal customer? Who we steer away from:

What social media platform might your audience be on?

The reach

How you GET business customers— how do they find you currently?

How do you connect with or communicate with your customers?

Do you use, or engage with social media? Which ones?

What events might you consider going to or having a presence at?

Where do most people find out about your type of business?

Do you own or have access to a web domain name currently?

Do you own or have access to a web hosting account currently?

The competition

Who is your top competition?

How are you different than your main competition?

The future

Where do you see your business in a year?

Where do your see your business in 5 years?

Where do you see your business in 10 years?

Get creative. todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com