I wish I could tell you as founder of an agency that works with businesses and brands on a daily basis to implement strategies across the marketing mix, including brand design, tone of voice, visions and mission setting, that this was a swift, smooth and concise project. But it wasn’t
Like so many experiences, it was at times arduous, confusing, distracting and challenging. However, the net result is exactly where we’re meant to be. Because it is the truest representation of who we are, what we stand for & how we help our clients.
During the pandemic we came to a crossroads. We had just started to really carve out a niche within our sector. Left with a significantly depleted pipeline we spent the time taking a look at everything about the agency. From our service proposition, IP, client roster to our motivations and whether we even had the fight and energy left in us for another 10 years. Our relationship is unique at the board level as myself and my fellow founders are extremely close, we have friendships formed over many years, that have been through a lot (for more on this visit “our story” HERE, FIRST PLUG) so this last point was probably the most important. What would motivate us to go another 10 years?
We nailed down 3 themes:
- Build a business that leaves an endured, positive mark on everyone that makes Marble their home.
- Work with people breaking ground, shooting for the moon and trying to do better.
- Make sure we push ourselves to actually contribute to the greater good as a business & deliver on it.
PS. We obviously want to make a living, a good one if possible, but I believe that’s assumed.
I like to think that the reason the re-brand (and all the collateral that goes with that) took so long was because we have been flat out pushing to achieve those three goals and we have come a long way.
We have two succinct brands now catering to two specialist sectors.
1. Marble: our B2B focussed arm of The Marble Group which will focus primarily on delivering integrated experience and marketing campaigns for the investment and technology sectors.
2. Marble Creative Studios: our in-development B2C arm of the business (site launching in November) which will continue our long standing heritage in bridging the gap from experiential & marketing brief to creative vision for consumer facing brands.
So that was the model, the niche and our USP. In the interim we doubled down on 10 years of delivering globally with ground breaking sustainable methods. We have folded this in to everything we do – in office, during projects, for our clients. Everywhere. We have an in house sustainability team headlined by Nastya (Plug 3, see more about this HERE)
We gave the culture to the team. Not only the social aspect, but our training ethos, goal setting, mentoring, KPI setting, value setting. We work together to make sure the values that we set out are still relatable to our team (Plug 4, visit Our People HERE) for more on our values
We started to gather the rewards you would hope for. Revenue growth, profit growth, Times best place work top 100, an awesome new client roster, retaining those that we can continue to collaborate with. However this is still a challenge after 10 years and we have long way to go to feel like we are nailing all of the above.
Ultimately we’ve been a pretty slow starter in many respects. 10 years in, we defiantly feel like we’re at the start of the journey, not the end of it. What you see with this new strategic and visual position is the foundation of our future. It represents who we are and where we want to go. Who we want to work with and how we want to act.
Hopefully this will be important to our clients. But either way its important to all of us. It gives you hope, and meaning, and an even better reason to get out of bed and do it all again.
Thank you to everyone for your help. There are countless reams of you. But here are some of the most important:
Shawn Soh
Dan Monteith
And of course my fellow co founders but especially Emi Perez-Fragero who has lived and breathed it every step of the way.
Hope you enjoy it.