The Backstory For The Ideasicle Firebrand Joint Venture
“Oh Will, this is so stunning. I feel like I want to wear it.” - Cindy Connelly, Board Member at Rogerson Communities.
Starting at the end with Cindy’s wonderful quote after she saw the brand anthem video that came out of the Ideasicle Firebrand process. Firebrand is the combination of Ideasicle X, our virtual web application designed for virtual idea generation, Ernie Schenck, renowned and award winning creative director and writer, and Conductor, a full service production company. This group of Super Friends have the singular goal of developing brand ideas with A-list creative talent all the way through to a brand anthem video, and all for $100,000.
We sorta stumbled on this idea, as is the case with many ideas. Here’s how it happened.
Firebrand Backstory
Rich Schreuer is a market researcher with Echo Cove Research. He had just completed a rigorous “Brand Positioning Study” for Rogerson, where he surveyed all of the different constituencies within the Rogerson sphere—clients, donors, residents in subsidized housing, and family members of residents. He tested multiple broad positions for the brand and messaging was starting to emerge.
But they needed an activation partner to bring these insights to life. Rich knew about Ideasicle X and introduced me to Rogerson Board Member, Cindy Connelly (quoted above), an established marketing-savvy professional who was surprisingly open to new ways of working. I did a Zoom call with Cindy and pitched her the Ideasicle X model and our ProXy Service with the intent to come up with brand ideas inspired by Rich Schreuer's research. Went well. Then we did another Zoom call where she had a lot of questions (she’s very thorough). That also went well.
She then pitched Ideasicle X to the Rogerson CEO, Walter Ramos, and VP Marketing, Courtney Barth, who were both intrigued and set up a larger pitch presentation to their Branding and Marketing Committee of the Board of Directors (7 people). Rich Schreuer (the researcher) was also on the call. Went incredibly well and the next day we were awarded the job.
Originally the scope of the assignment included the following:
1. Additional Research
Interviews of key INTERNAL Rogerson decision makers. Rich had done a great job with outside audiences, but I wanted to know what the people who worked at Rogerson thought of the organization. So I conducted ten 30-minute Zoom interviews with the CEO on down and provided a report, which became the foundation for our creative brief.
2. Round 1 brand ideas
I recruited a creative team consisting of Ernie Schenck, David Baldwin, Monica Taylor, and one other woman I can’t reveal, but who is equal to the creative shine of Ernie, David, and Monica. We presented 10 different taglines and opened it up to discussion. Click any ideas to expand:
3. Round 2 brand ideas
Rogerson provided consolidated feedback (I made them consolidate their feedback to force hard conversations on their end and to give us clear, actionable feedback). We used that feedback as our inspiration for another round of 10 taglines. Click any ideas to expand:
Approved Idea
The Rogerson board did a great job during the second round presentation of going through all the work (from both rounds), debating the pros and cons of each, and above all being honest with each other. I warned them prior to beginning our process that reviewing the ideas would serve as a form of “therapy” for all of them. It’s one thing to agree on an abstract strategy; it’s quite another to agree on a consumer-facing idea. Rogerson was no different and I believe they are a stronger board as a result of the healthy discussions that took place. Anyway, here’s the winning idea, chosen during the second meeting (rare):
4. Manifesto
As part of the Ideasicle X process, one of the assigned creatives on the taglines was ALSO assigned to write a manifesto to bring to life (and make actionable) the approved tagline. Ernie Schenck wrote a beautiful manifesto against the approved idea, “The art of well-being.”
That was the end of the project. Or so we thought…
That was all in the spring. Then early this summer Ernie reached out to me with an idea to create an offering where brand idea assignments don’t stop with the manifesto, but instead go all the way to a produced video (light bulb moment). I loved the idea but we needed a production partner we could count on.
Serendipitously, an old friend, Mike Wilmot, reached out to me and wanted to get together to get me up to speed on his new adventure at a production company called Conductor. Mike and I go way back, as do Margie Sullivan and I, Mike’s colleague at Conductor, so we found a date and met for a drink (or two) in Boston. We caught up and then both sorta pitched each other our wares. Good meet-up, but it didn’t occur to me that Conductor would be the perfect partner for Ernie’s idea until weeks later. Once it hit me, I approached Mike with the concept and he loved it, and he arranged a meeting with he, Margie, and the Conductor CEO Noah Lydiard, and me and Ernie.
They loved the idea and were all in. The only thing we had to do is make sure Conductor could deliver high quality 2-3:00 videos under a certain price (the price was a key selling point - we wanted to keep the entire shebang under $100,000). They found a way to do it. We found our partner!
At this point, we needed a case study. And, having recently completed the Rogerson brand ideas/manifesto project, I figured I’d approach them about turning their manifesto into a compelling video. They agreed!
rogerson brand video
Rogerson Communities brand idea video in support of "Art of wellbeing" brand idea. Written by Ernie Schenck and produced by Conductor.
Firebrand is born
And now Rogerson has a brand idea and a video, Ideasicle has a new offering called “Firebrand,” and we and our partners have a fantastic case study. Soon the world will soon have more compelling brand ideas in the marketplace that our clients, like Cindy, will hopefully want to wear.
We see Firebrand as an elegant and efficient brand-development solution for rebrands, startups, and big companies launching new products/brands.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post.