20nine

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and Founder of The Fox Hill Group, a marketing management consultancy for tech start ups. When I hired 20nine, I was CMO of Fluent (Nasdaq: FLNT), a provider of performance advertising solutions for enterprise consumer brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 20nine?

The company was in hyper growth mode (50 - 250mm in 3 years) and had just been acquired. Our branding hadn’t evolved in the 10 years since the company was founded, and we needed to project an elevated look and feel for our prospects to experience “the new Fluent” as an enterprise level provider of performance marketing and advertising solutions and the dominant player in our space. My goal with the project was to enable our sales team to sign deals faster, and at million dollar plus contract values from day one (versus slowly growing accounts from 10s of thousands and then up from there, which was the usual case)

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I asked for referrals within my network based on brand work I observed and admired. We narrowed it down to two premium providers. 20nine won because they were more risqué in their approach / willing to push the envelope vs the same old stuff you see from tech companies.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our work with 20nine was extensive and ongoing. Based on quantitative and qualitative research, 20nine came up with mood boards that set the stage for our new logo, color palette, and overall visual identity. From there they built us a killer new website, a TV-grade entertaining commercial for the company (not a boring explainer video), and an ad campaign that included 2 Ad Age cover takeovers. Lastly, 20nine conceptualized and produced an exceptionally creative brand launch event / experiential activation. The ad campaign and event won numerous awards, and was critical to achieving our goal (7 figure deals out of the gate)

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Multiple professionals spanning account management, creative strategy, design, development / coding, etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We continued to scale, we “looked the part” when it came to selling mega deals to large brands and notably signed a 7 figure deal with a 1 million dollar prepay with one of the worlds largest publishers 2 weeks after the brand launch. Our solutions were transactional in nature so our new brand played a huge part in making this happen (ie, we didn’t have an extensive consultative sales process).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They provided excellent clear communication and on-time delivery of assets. Everything was executed flawlessly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I mentioned before that 20nine is risqué. There are a lot of shops when you get to this price level that are considered tried and true in our industry (SaaS martech and adtech) but the output is conservative. 20nine understands that advertising is about emotional connection and it doesn’t matter if you’re selling a pair of sneakers or a multimillion dollar ad platform - there is a person on the other side who you need to make a connection with and get excited about what you’re throwing down. That’s why I chose them and they came up with really phenomenally creative work that pushed the envelope while staying true to what we were marketing. And the entire industry noticed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I actually wish that they sold me harder upfront. As in, by the time we had our new website up and Ad Age covers ready to go I wanted to do an event, but hadn’t planned for one in our original plan. They had recommended it but didn’t forcibly sell it at the beginning. We ended up pulling off an event that was something amazing and that folks will never ever forget, but it wasn’t part of our original plan or budget as a result of them being a bit low pressure up front. But by the time it was time for us to do an event, given the quality of what they produced to date, the entire exec team (even the head of finance) was pumped to spend on a next level launch event to yell from the hilltops about the new brand 20nine built for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CEO of PointRoll, an advertising technology company that helped advertisers with their online creatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 20nine?

We needed a company that could help us with our rebranding efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

20nine handled the complete rebrand and relaunch of the company. This involved developing new strategic positions, strategic messaging, brand voice, and website.

The biggest challenge that we had with the relaunch was taking customer information, customer sentiment, and the outlook and needs of the market and synthesizing all that information into a brand campaign. 20nine did strategic work for us in developing that story, which involved conducting extensive interviews with our customers, internal stakeholders, and partners. They also did the design work and messaging work across our sales materials, website, and events.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Greg (President & CEO) and 10 other people from 20nine, including a design lead, a strategy lead, an executive creative director, a client services director, an art director, and an engagement lead.

How did you come to work with 20nine?

We found 20nine through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $300,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2013–January 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The company was successfully repositioned, and it ended up increasing its growth to 30%–40%, ensuring a successful exit for the business.

How did 20nine perform from a project management standpoint?

20nine performed well in terms of project management. They were essentially an extension of our team — there were weekly status calls, and they worked in our office a couple of times a week throughout the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've worked with a lot of different strategy agencies, and 20nine was the best at distilling complicated situations and needs into a very marketable, differentiated, and simple message. They also had a rare combination of being able to strategically build a messaging infrastructure and also creating some of the best design work that I've seen yet.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no complaints. If I was a bigger company, I’d definitely hire them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Pet360 was a content and ecommerce pet industry leader selling both products while providing education via authoritative content. I was CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 20nine, and what were your goals?

We were a company operating PetFoodDirect (ecommerce) & PetMD (content) and our plans were to combine those two concepts into a NEW concept combining commerce + content + community. We hired 20nine to help us figure out how to bring those together, key points for differentiation, and what brand to create.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

RFP into the community.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

included research, investigation, design, brand creation and overall consumer positioning.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

the breadth of the organization of 20nine worked on our project with its many facets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We launched the 'new' brand Pet360 and it was a great success.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

weekly meetings and ongoing checkin points as we developed the brand + positioning while we gathered and conducted research.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their ability to create something positive and meaningfully new out of nothing.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

no - it was great.