Ricochet Ideas

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Anythink Libraries is the public library system for Adams County, Colorado, which is located just north of Denver. We serve the residents of Adams County with seven branches and a bookmobile.

What is your position?

I am the director of innovations and brand strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Ricochet Ideas?

Ricochet was part of the creative team that helped us launch the Anythink brand. We worked very closely with Ricochet on R-Squared, the Risk & Reward Conference that we launched in 2012. R-Squared was an innovations conference for librarians globally. Ricochet created the R-Squared brand for us, and the owner [John Bellina] was one of the speakers at the event.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

One of the reasons why we love working with Ricochet is that they tap into the DNA of an organization or a movement. Rather than coming to the table with a set of pre-envisioned ideas, they worked hard to understand the core of R-squared and then develop the brand around that.

We've done both brand development and staff training with Ricochet. Some of the work that we did with them helped shift our culture and the thinking of our organization as much as brand development. As someone who's worked closely with the owner and has looked up to him as a mentor, that cultural understanding has been one of the biggest things that I have learned from him personally. I learned to become aware of all of the factors that go into a project before even beginning to design a logo. That's something he's very passionate about and very good at.

How did you come to work with Ricochet Ideas?

Our relationship had started before the Anythink concept was developed. We had put out an RFP [request for proposal] for a website, a logo and brand guidelines. We had worked with the future owner of Ricochet when he was with another company, and we enjoyed working with him so much that we continued the relationship after he founded Ricochet.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We've spent somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 working with Ricochet.

What was the timeline of this engagement?

We worked on the brand and all the pieces that go along with that for a couple of years beginning in 2008. During that time, we began staff training, which we continued after the launch of the brand. On the R-Squared project, we worked with Ricochet from 2011 to the conference in 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

For more than 50 years, we were the worst-funded library system in the state of Colorado, and nobody knew who we were. We rebranded out of necessity. We didn't want people not to ever know who we were again. Anythink has become an award-winning brand. We won the National Medal for Museum & Library Service in 2010 – Michelle Obama actually presented our director with that award.

We won the John Cotton Dana Award in 2011 for upstanding public relations. We actually have visitors coming nationally as well as from all around the world. The Anythink brand and our library service have become very well known, and much of that started with a simple doodle and the help of Ricochet in breathing life into the idea.

The R-Squared concept and conference were very much a social media-driven grassroots campaign. We ended up having 350 people from around the world at the conference, and I believe there were 48 states represented. We had people from Canada and Sweden who came to Colorado for the conference even though we had never actually launched a conference before. Much of that was due to the incredible R-Squared Risk & Reward brand that Ricochet helped us develop.

What distinguishes Ricochet Ideas from other providers?

I think that one of the things for us at Anythink is we find partners that have the same values as we do. They are not vendors to us – they are truly partners. We believe once you're an Anythinker, you're always an Anythinker. That includes not just people who work here, but the people who work alongside us. Ricochet Ideas is absolutely an Anythinker.

Their owner is very passionate and very straightforward. He does think about the why and the purpose, not just for today but for the future. I think that visioning is incredibly important. It's not just about slapping a logo on something. Ricochet Ideas puts so much thought and passion and drive into helping its clients succeed.

Is there anything Ricochet Ideas could have improved or done differently?

No. They are perfect. I've always enjoyed working with Ricochet Ideas and, in particular, their owner, John Bellina. We learn much from each other. I think they have learned as much from us as we've learned from them, which is great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I used to work for an over-the-counter medication company that has since been acquired. We manufactured and sold OTC medication in individual packets mainly at the front end of other distribution channels.

What is your position?

I was the vice president of marketing for the two-plus years I worked with Ricochet.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Ricochet Ideas?

I was in charge of doing a brand restage and headed up our quantitative and qualitative marketing research. We needed to develop both the position for our products and the packaging design. We wanted to bring life to our brand using all the different strategies and tactics that any company needs to go from website to print and digital advertising. We needed to create the look and feel – the personality, if you will – of the brand.

I engaged Ricochet to develop all of that. From there, they also developed and executed all the advertising we did for the remainder of the two years I was vice president of marketing.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Again, the scope of the first project was simply to develop a look and feel for the brand. That moved directly into the creation of the website. We brought on a digital team, but they were just the programming side of the site while Ricochet developed the look and feel of the website and what the user experience was to be like. They also provided guidelines as to how we should develop and execute every page of the site.

Ricochet also helped us with our social media. We had an in-house person for social media but, again, because Ricochet had created the personality for the brand, the social media stemmed from the foundation they helped us create.

How did you come to work with Ricochet Ideas?

I had been introduced to Ricochet through a mutual friend – I have a background in various consumer goods products and have headed up marketing for several companies. I had met with the owner of Ricochet [John Bellina], and what I like about him is that he's a writer by trade and so can really dive into the creative side of a project, into the look and feel of a brand. He was able to take the strategy we had envisioned, and transform that into something creative. I like his style of working and what he puts in play to help clients get to that first point of a brand.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I would say in total during the two and a half years I worked with Ricochet, we spent in the neighborhood of $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

After we had the packaging design and the positioning completed, Ricochet came on board and did everything after that. It was a retainer-based project, but we turned to Ricochet for any creative work that we needed from the very beginning to the end. As I said, we did print, TV, radio, and a website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

We were a startup while I was working with Ricochet, so it's hard to identify what was gained in distribution, what was gained through advertising and what a customer sees on the shelf. We did do some advertising research that showed that our advertising stood out from our competitors. Our customers were very aware of our company and understood our products.

We were in a very large category of OTC medication and were able to stand out while spending much less on advertising than our competitors.

What distinguishes Ricochet Ideas from other providers?

Ricochet is super creative. They understood our strategy and helped us transform that strategy into a brand that was attractive to customers. It wasn't just being creative for the sake of being creative. It was being creative for a purpose. We viewed Ricochet as an extension of our team. They were right in step with our company and understood our needs. Again, their owner is super-creative, has a writer's mind and just does a fabulous job. I'll continue to work with him on future projects.

Is there anything Ricochet Ideas could have improved or done differently?

No. I can't think of anything. They were great to work with.