Logic+Magic

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a pharmaceutical company based in the UK. I am the brand manager for a particular brand within our portfolio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Liquorice?

They help us with everything from strategizing and establishing plans for the year all the way down to small creative jobs for our brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve stuck with the Liquorice team for five years, and they have grown the brand with us and come to understand it quite well. They built our original website in 2014, and since then have handled every single piece of creative, every single post or promotion, every change to the website, etc.

In terms of our digital presence, we haven’t had any major overhauls since they first designed the website, but they help us add features and information on a pretty regular basis. Their team is working on a site map at the moment, as well as the continued management of our Facebook and Instagram posts and paid promotions.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Georgina (Senior Account Manager, Liquorice), and she works with another person as well. They handle the majority of our account, but we have also had contact with the owner of the company as well.

How did you come to work with Liquorice?

We started the engagement before my time at the company, but the reason we continue to work with them is that they are embedded in our brand and category so well, and we’ve developed a lot of trust with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay about £65,000 (approximately $86,600 USD) a year for their retainer and creative and media fees on top of that, so we’ve probably spent close to £1,000,000 (approximately $1,333,000 USD) in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started with the original web development in 2014 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They send me updates pretty frequently to see how stuff is performing. The majority of what we do with them is split into two main categories. We do a lot of work with third parties, which has been performing really well. Our social projects haven’t quite matched that, so we’re still learning with that, but overall, we are quite satisfied with the outcome of the project.

How did Liquorice perform from a project management standpoint?

I find them quite good at tracking their own performance and letting us know what they learn from that. Liquorice does a great job of making sure they give us the best value for our money, which is definitely a positive.

They’re also very responsive, usually getting a response to any questions or issues we have by the next, if not the same day. We didn’t have a consistent account manager with them at the beginning, but since Georgina has come on board, she’s been excellent, and the service level has significantly increased.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing that they’re really good at doing is delving into the data around our industry to inform the strategy that we implement. They really go above and beyond with that sort of research, which I think is quite unusual for that type of agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If a job isn’t included in our retainer with them, those jobs are often quoted quite high, and not always at a consistent rate between me and other members of our team in terms of deliverables. That is one thing I do think they could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a flavor house, which means we manufacture flavors. My position is head of UK sales and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Liquorice?

Our branding wasn’t as fluid as we wanted, and it didn’t really have a clear message, so we really wanted to do something different for our 10-year anniversary.

The goal was to address some of the challenges that a small flavor house has in competition by finding a brand that met our personality as a business and would help develop more recognition among our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Liquorice overhauled the brand and website design of a flavour house. Their team handled everything from logo colors and messaging to completely new wireframes for the company site.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had one primary point of contact, but we work with an IT team lead and creative director on their end as well.

How did you come to work with Liquorice?

They were recommended to us by someone we know who had worked with us before. It was really important for us to go with a company that we could trust with such a big project, so the recommendation played a big role in that decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent in the region of £65,000 (approximately $85,300 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019 and the project is currently ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The full branding went live in November and we’ve had two exhibitions with the new branding since then. Qualitatively, it’s a massive improvement. Quantitatively we don’t have a lot of metrics just yet as it's only been 4 weeks and the website hasn't gone live fully, but we have certainly improved our standards and allowed people to better identify who we are.

Our customers have given us feedback that the message is much clearer than before, and from a personal perspective, it’s clear that the team and I feel much more comfortable talking about our brand to customers because of the increase in quality.

How did Liquorice perform from a project management standpoint?

On the whole, Liquorice has done a good job with project management. There’ve been challenges along the way, and we’ve missed deadlines on both sides, but projects never run exactly according to plan anyway. You have to accept that. As an overall package, we’re very happy with their performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was refreshing to work with Liquorice because of the enthusiasm that they brought to the project. When every we would challenge them with questions, they were really passionate and engaged with the ideas they had given us, so we were able to have a really productive back and forth rather than just compromising on the quality or messaging of the designs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At a few points throughout the project, we would request extra bits and pieces for the project, and it could feel like they were more interested in making sure they got the money for the activity than in providing quality service. It’s not that I think they should give things away for free, but I do think they could maybe work to deliver that service in a better way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their ideas, because this team really knows what they’re talking about.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a retail business that operates 940 sites throughout the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Liquorice?

We wanted to change our marketing from basic promotional marketing to more storytelling.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They've done quite a lot over the past four years. They draw our point of sale, and work with us day-to-day. They've re-built our HTML website and redeveloped it on WordPress to give it more functionality, done research pieces, assessed how effective our in-store marketing and what it needs. They're doing an email strategy for us, and they also work with the B2B elements of our company as well. They also helped us launch our Instagram account.

What is the team composition?

I have one main point of contact, but I also work with retail directors, account managers, creative directors, and designers

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've delivered excellent results through a Facebook testing program, where we tested four different messages across four different constructs. We got good results in terms of driving customers into the stroe.

How did Liquorice perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We communicated via phone and email. I don't typically get involved in the day-to-day, but we have weekly status calls, where we talk about the projects and business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There's a personal touch, and it feels like a family business. It's doesn't feel like the bigger companies out there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to keep in contact with them every day. Communication is key. I would also push them to give you ideas because the ones they’ve come up with have been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the commercial director for Bath Fertility, an IVF company based in Southwest England. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Liquorice?

We sought to raise brand awareness, especially when we were entering an emerging market. Our business was expanding into a particularly competitive city. While it’s strategic to move into a saturated area, we now faced the challenge of increased competitors.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were going to be opening up a satellite clinic in Bristol, and we brought Liquorice in to help with the expansion process. Liquorice worked to transfer our expertise and brand momentum into the new area.

Working in conjunction with a third-party partner of theirs, they generated creative content for social media and physical advertising. Using real images of our patients and their babies, they tailored our marketing approach to our target demographics quite skillfully.

They also conducted PPC efforts to maximize our visibility on the web.

What is the team composition?

Although the team fluctuated depending on the task, we worked with five or six people in total. Their team consisted of an account director, a senior account manager, a designer, and the head of health. Their CEO also worked with us very closely.

How did you come to work with Liquorice?

We had heard about them previously because they’d worked on a similar project for another IVF company in the Midlands. We used Google to look into them further and saw the great health campaign they had executed for them. We had a lot of subcontractors at the time, but we wanted the work to be all under one roof. We met with Liquorice and found that they could consolidate it for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent roughly $92,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our brand awareness project lasted from August 2018–May 2019. We’re still with them for web-hosting and ongoing support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the last year, our brand awareness grew 20%. While we weren’t explicitly tracking KPIs, we can attribute most of that success to them. With a serious procedure like IVF, it’s quite difficult to discern the real conversion rate and why people come to us. Despite that, Liquorice worked diligently to communicate our brand to potential clients.

Their creative content was striking and evocative. They did an excellent job of expressing our brand persona and targeting a demographic. They

Before, our many subcontractors were almost at war with one other over the workload. When we handed the work over to Liquorice, there was no confusion because the project was seamlessly coordinated.

How did Liquorice perform from a project management standpoint?

They were on top of project management. Their communication was transparent, and they hit all deadlines. We were given frequent updates in the forms of meetings, monthly reports, and phone and email check-ins.

They were always pushing us forward—I never had to chase them. We could relax, and let them do their work. I really appreciated that proactivity.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt very much like a one-stop-shop—everything would be done under one roof by their staff, who actually took the time to get to know us. They took detailed note of the brief, and they really took ownership of the project from there. They were creative, and the strategy was always very clear. The engagement was stress-free.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were very satisfied with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a chance to come and talk to you, and you’ll be quickly converted. Until you have a company like Liquorice deliver a strategy for you, you won’t even know what you’re missing. You can trust that they will come up with something very clever.