Name
Whippet
Age
Born in London in 2001 and then
launched in Melbourne in 2011.
Appearance:
Red, white, blue, green and gold
(well, we are Australian and British).
What exactly do you do?
Oh, an elevator pitch! Okay, bring it on…
We’re a brand communications agency that starts with the store. We work with retailers to solve their brand, marketing and communication challenges. All done through intelligent thinking, engaging creative and design… plus a little bit of magic.
When you say 'starts with the store', what exactly do you mean?
Well, most other agencies tend to do ‘just their bit’. So, for instance, a typical ad agency will be campaign focussed; they create awareness in above-the-line channels, but mainly lead customers only to the front door.
A retail interiors agency will be architecturally motivated, passionate about space and 3D aesthetics, but brand communications often take second place.
Go on...
Well, we have a ‘store-first’ philosophy, we join the dots of your brand across the entire customer journey, leaving no gaps in its effectiveness. We make sure your brand is strongest where it matters most; at the pointy end of the customer experience. We really do have unrivalled expertise in - and passion for - retail. Between our Melbourne and London offices, we’ve worked with dozens of major global retailers and retail brands, and many of us have worked client-side too. Honestly, there aren’t many retail challenges we haven’t seen…and solved.
So what do you mean by 'brand marketing' and communication challengers?
Okay. Let’s say for example you have an above-the-line campaign on TV. It’s driving customers to your store, but the store itself is a bit confused. Or, maybe the space your interiors agency created a while back now looks tired, doesn’t work practically and lacks strong brand messaging or a connection to your marketing comms. Or, it could be that your promotional point-of-sale and ticketing is dated, inconsistent and impractical.
Some of this definitely sounds familiar.
So, we’d take a helicopter view of your entire brand communication output starting with your brand strategy, then make recommendations based on improving the brand experience for the customer AND making things better for your business. And if you’re unsure what the exact problem is, we’ll tease it out and work out a plan to tackle it.
So how exactly do you fix it?
We might employ a broad range of creative activities, or perhaps just one or two tweaks. From brand identity to bus ads, TVCs to ticketing, press ads to point-of-sale, eDMs to environments, we identify and solve your brand problems wherever they may be. At the end of the day, we want every interaction your customers have with your brand to be meaningful – so they engage, buy and keep coming back.
Sounds good, but aren't you just going to try and change our brand logo?
Ha ha. A lot of people expect that. There are often good reasons to change a logo but more often than not, especially in the retail space, changing what’s around the logo has a more lasting effect. We see a brand logo as the cherry on the cake of the overall visual identity so we take the idea of changing it very seriously. Having said that, if we identify your logo as a ‘brand challenge’ we’ll certainly let you know.
Phew! Also, we've already got a brand strategy in place that we're happy with and wouldn't want to change.
No problem. We don't just fix what's broken. We make good brands even better. We believe good strategy is the starting point for all effective brand communications, so we’ll happily work with yours. And if you feel it still needs some improvement or fleshing out, we can help resolve and future-proof it too.
Um...is size important? Compared to some of your clients,
you might think we're small potatoes.
Haven’t you heard? Size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with what you’ve got.
We transform brands big and small. We don’t judge by size; we’re all about that hunger for growth. And we quite like potatoes.
You're not wrong
there! That's
exactly how
we see ourselves
Sounds like you're the sweet spot
in the agency landscape?
Will you work with our other agency or our internal studio?
Absolutely. We pride ourselves on playing nicely with partner agencies and love to work alongside the teams that drive the brand internally. Teamwork, dreamwork and all that.
Who will we be working with on a daily basis? Will we have access to
the creative team?
We’re a tight-knit team so you’ll get to know us well, with consistent account management and creatives on hand to talk through concepts face to face.
My last agency struggled to deliver on time and rarely seemed to
give us what we asked for. How can I be sure you'll be different?
When we say we’re going to do something we, we do it. And we do it right. We keep our promises and deliver the best possible solution, on time and on budget. You can count on it!
How refreshing!
It helps that we’re independent, with no big agency network looming over us, cracking the whip and distracting our attention.
My last agency always ended up charging more
than they estimated, too.
Fear not. There are no nasty surprises with us. We estimate very carefully,
not simply throw you a cheap price to win the work. We reconcile at regular
intervals throughout every project and always let you know how costs are tracking. It’s very rare for a project to end up beyond our predicted budgets.
They also spoke in riddles and we sometimes didn't know what
they were talking about. You're not going to confuse me are you?
What do you mean, you don’t know the difference between a brand onion and a brand doughnut? Don’t worry. That’s not our style. Our clients love working with us because we challenge but always listen. We make things easy. We’re straight talking and down-to-earth, never pretentious or ‘swanky big agency’.
Thank goodness. Do you all wear black polo necks with
cool glasses and drink martinis?
Only on dress-up Fridays.
I like what I hear. Where do we go from here?
Upwards and onwards! Send us a message at
hello@whippet.com.au and we’ll be right back to you.
