Learnings for founders who are abt to work with a creative agency on branding ... (thread)

1/ Agencies don’t create your brand. You do. It’s your vision and you need to have one. It’s literally your or your cofounder’s job. The agency’s job is help bring it to life.

2/ What does this mean? It doesn’t need to be fully flushed out, but it’s important to come in with a POV on what your brand stands for and more importantly what it does NOT stand for.

3/ Most helpful exercise I’ve found is a mood board. There are many templates, but this is what I used for @drinksanzo

4/ My agency told me the “this not that” exercise was *particularly* helpful bc it provided necessary guardrails. Which leads to another point ...

5/ I love my creatives who say they want a blank canvas. But time and again I’ve seen the best brand work come when there are clear constraints.

6/ As well, giving clear guidelines creates 2 positive outcomes: 1) You get buy-in from the right agency partner 2) Frankly, you get more negotiating power over the cost of the engagement. Why?

7/ I can’t prove this to be true, but a “take” I’ve held is that agencies bake in high costs due to the need for multiple brainstorming sessions and protecting themselves from brand owners / founders who chg direction on a whim.

8/ If you can prove you’re a stable brand owner with a clear perspective, that’s fewer person-hours required on your SOW and lower $.

9/ IMO it’s really worth doing this work and soul searching in the beginning. Go down rabbit holes, read up on some history, watch/listen to convos with others about their creative process.

The process feels “right” when you’re having fun and can’t stop thinking about it. (end)