Yield Branding

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Marketing for Pro-Demnity. We provide professional liability insurance solutions, risk services, and risk education to Ontario’s architectural firms.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

Our challenge was to refresh the corporate brand, develop our value proposition and realign it with the expectations of our stakeholders.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yield Branding assisted us with developing our strategic vision, mission, purpose, ambition and values. They helped us to develop a comprehensive brand value proposition that was the jumping off point for building out our visual brand guidelines and assets, including new typography, images, color palette, stationery, etc.

Part of our engagement included redeveloping our company website from scratch as well. The team developed new functionalities that could allow our visitors to download content, request support, or submit questions to our experts and specialist. 

Although our logo stayed the same, Yield Branding helped us expand our thinking and perspective on how to employ our identity and mark across our various channels and marketing communications collateral.

What is the team composition?

Brad (CEO) was our overall account director and lead, and we had an amazing account manager (Patricia) who was my day to day contact.  On any given day there was a team of 5–6 people working behind the scenes on our account.  

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

We selected Yield Branding through an RFP process. They stood out among other organizations for their very strategic thinking and expertise in brand development. We also liked that Brad is passionate about marketing and he was very keen to develop our brand around our stakeholders.

How much have you invested with them?

It was a significant investment of $500,000 CAD (approximately $398,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in March 2019 and we wrapped up last September 2021.

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

Yield Branding’s involvement helped us develop a sophisticated yet accessible brand and visual footprint. The difference between our new identity and our previous brand is night and day. We also used to get under 2,000 page views a month on our website, but after we launched our new, more interactive website, we are consistently exceeding 3,000 page views month-over-month.

All of their presentations and suggestions were creative, consistent to the brand and thoughtfully put together. It often made it hard for me to choose which concept to go forward with because all their design ideas were particularly strong.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

Yield Branding had really good creative leadership. It enabled the team to let their creative voice and interpretation come through. Our account manager maintained great timelines and set up well-organized plans for each of our 11 sub-projects. I loved that she was gently persistent in following up and keeping me on track. Lovely to work with. 

We corresponded through emails and phone calls. Our account manager was very quick to respond to all of our communications, usually replying within an hour. We also held regularly scheduled meetings to stay on top of project activities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yield Branding always came to the table with very innovative ideas. We're an insurance company so we're conservative by nature, but Brad challenged us and pushed our thinking to adopt newer approaches. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few instances when projects might have been better scoped which resulted in some cost overruns. Also, the tight timing on a few projects resulted in QA steps getting missed, but these always corrected immediately.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think leveraging Yield Branding’s strategic capabilities is a definite asset for any organization. Brad in particular, is very adept at helping an organization to define its value proposition. This activity alone can really pay off in spades - it requires working closely with the your internal team to determine why your company exists, what purpose you serve, and how you can make that more evident to stakeholders.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior director for member communications and marketing at the Ontario Medical Association. My role is to manage all the marketing and brand management as well as oversee a number of communications channels with our members online and offline. 

The OMA is the provincial body that represents all physicians in the province of Ontario, which is the largest province in the country, with the largest number of doctors. Our role is to represent them with the government in negotiating pay. We also provide them with other services to support their everyday business, professional life, medical qualifications, maintenance, and advocacy in some personal life support, too.

We do a lot of public marketing, advertising, and market research with our members being our primary targets. We also do a lot of work in terms of strengthening the brand of physicians with the public so that it keeps us strong in negotiating with the government.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

We needed a go-to agency for a couple of projects, so we hired Yield Branding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yield Branding had already been working with our sub-brand, OMA Insurance. We are a nonprofit, but we create and curate insurance programs for our members so that they can get business and personal life insurance at good rates, which we negotiate on a group basis. They had been doing a lot of product marketing for the insurance programs for a couple of years already.

When I came in, the program people had created a brand new product, which is a group retirement plan for physicians in Canada, the first of its kind. We wanted to create a really good marketing plan for that, which Yield Branding has worked on. 

There was also a master brand. We had to create an ongoing project to support the continuous efforts of building the brand of physicians. This meant going out with a message that was relevant but not necessarily tied to any specific call to action. Yield Branding has created something for us, The Value of Doctors campaign, which is completely tested and evidence-based. It was launched in January 2020, and it was in the market for a month before we had to pull it. 

What is the team composition?

We work with Ted (Partner & President) but Brad (Founder, Head of Strategy & Creative) is our key guy. He is phenomenal. We have worked with project managers and creative folks. My team works very closely with Yield Branding, so I would say there are about 6–7 members that we have worked with.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

Yield Branding was already the agency of record when I started at the OMA. They had been with the OMA previously for about a year or so, hired by a predecessor of my boss, but I had worked with Yield Branding for a different configuration 25 years ago.

All the agencies’ contracts were up last year so we had to go to market according to our procurement rule. They competed with a whole bunch of other people and won the ad agency vendor of record competition by a mile. It was not just because they showed all the work that we had been doing with them, but because they showed that they had all the capabilities that we were looking for.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in May 2019, and it is ongoing.

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

Even though we were only out for a very short time, the branding had a huge impact with the public and especially in advance of a pandemic. We won a bunch of awards for that campaign, and what’s more is that people really, really connected with it. It was almost like it was a good primer for COVID-19.

After a week in the market, at least a quarter of Ontarians had seen at least one of the ads. Three quarters described their overall reaction towards all the ads as very or somewhat positive. Even many of those who were not satisfied with the healthcare system and those who have less trust in doctors said they had an overall positive impression of the ads. 

All three ads scored 75% or more for believability, personal importance, and relevance. There was really good awareness and high positivity after a week. It had an impact on shifting perceptions of doctors, with 44% of Ontarians who said they had a more positive impression after seeing the ads, including 27% who were unfavorable towards doctors initially.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They are brilliant. I don’t think I have ever seen an agency manage projects so well. I can’t speak highly enough about them. End to end, the creative strategy, project management, and the courage of their convictions were solid.

I think we have met pretty much everybody that works on the account more than a couple of times. They aren’t one of these agencies where you only see the CEO and the creative head; you get to see whoever is working on the business.

Yield Branding shares my philosophy that whoever is working on something needs to understand and needs to be present when in discussions. I don’t want to have people second-guessing how to translate what anyone on my team has told them, and then they have to go back and tell their team. It is sometimes more efficient to have everyone in the room.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really impressed with how they went about the branding strategically and creatively. Yield Branding is honest and courageous. They don’t take any guff from us, and I mean that in the best possible way. If we start going down a rabbit hole that doesn’t meet with our objectives or our strategy, they will bring us back, keeping us on task and on strategy.

They make us feel like they are taking really good care of our business. They really care about doing a great job for us and really care about bringing their best game. It’s not difficult to have a heart for the work that we do because we represent 43,000 people who are saving lives every day. 

They put so much effort into everything, and I feel like they are an extension of my team. I don’t feel like they are listening because they have to or because we pay them to; I feel like they are listening because they really want to contribute to the work that we are doing.

I had previously worked in the government for 20 years and in the health sector which had a 25-million-dollar annual marketing budget — unheard of anywhere else. We had a lot of money to spend and as a result, I got to work with the best agencies in the country and Ontario. I was impressed by Yield Branding because they had matched anyone I had worked with during that time as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have difficulty finding anything. I would be nitpicking.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and forthright with them, and appreciate their honesty and forthrightness back to you. They will never bring you back something that is off your brief. They will always stretch the limit, and they will always bring you ideas that you didn’t think you needed. You need to give them latitude to do that because they will listen and will manage your business. 

Brad himself comes in really handy in that he has real courage when it comes to presenting his creative ideas. There are times where I wasn’t sure I could get behind something, but he won’t stamp his feet and dig his heels in. Instead, he will give it his best shot, which is what I like about Brad in particular. He is awesome.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CMO of a global data, analytics, and technology company. I was responsible for marketing and product strategy, and branding rollout for Canadian operations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

At that time, as a credit bureau, many of our clients viewed our organization as one that only contained ubiquitous data assets, such as name or tradeline. The truth was that the type of insights that the company drove inside the global economy, specifically in financial services, was much broader than the basic set of data that we were housing inside of the bureau itself.

The problem that we were trying to solve was to change the point of view of our clients so they could see those insights were truly valuable and differentiated.

We wanted our clients to know that we weren’t ubiquitous but we were able to help them drive their business more effectively. As a result, they could grow and tackle some of the challenges that they were looking at in the market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yield Branding started by going through an analysis of the perceptions and the attitudes of our clients, employees, and general market around the company; this included what we provided and how we did it.

They found positive attributes, but we weren’t able to bring them out due to the way that we were selling. At the end of the day, the client’s perceptions weren’t being reiterated around these key attributes.

After the analysis, Yield Branding put together a marketing strategy and plan for how we would drive more unique insights, and change both internal and external perceptions from our employees, clients, and partners.

The team ended up with a theme called “data in its most powerful form”, and it reiterated around 2–3 key elements. The first was a trusted steward of data, the second was the ability to understand client-specific challenges, and the third was to position that data to help clients tackle those problems.

The “data in its most powerful form” theme included visual branding through a combination of organic features combined with origami that reflected the brand themes and guidelines for our company as a whole. The team took the features in a new direction and a new creative that would allow us to show clients how we could take data, as people would do with origami, and form everything into new and different types of shapes. Those shapes represented both challenges and the ability to tackle them with insights.

A specific insight visualized in origami was a telescope looking into the sky, trying to see where, through the clouds, an organization was going. Another was a hound dog in a field trying to sniff out where it should be going or other animals that he was looking for. Lastly, we used a submarine that was trying to avoid the pitfalls of the rocks and quagmire that they were having to deal with in the depths of the water.

The origami shapes culminated in a series of campaigns that were rolled out over the course of 18 months. Yield Branding also was able to put different taglines with the logo to support these campaigns. They didn’t design any logo because the company was very strict about the existing one. Additionally, we did events and visualizations on YouTube that required lab production.

What is the team composition?

We had 1–2 people that were focused on marketing strategy and brand designers that we didn’t have on our team working on the creative side. We did leverage them to work on creative production, so they assigned us with project management. In total, there were about eight people from Yield Branding working on the project at any given time.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

We knew Yield Branding through friends, references, and smaller engagements. We decided to give the project to them because it was the right size for them. Previous to the “data in its most powerful form” campaign, we used them for marketing strategy and creativity. However, this was the biggest endeavor that we undertook with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June 2015–July 2017.

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

Our business objective was to be able to recreate a space for ourselves inside of the Canadian financial services ecosystem. Our growth rate at that time was about 3%. The implementation of the campaign and other strategies allowed us to triple that growth rate from a year-over-year revenue perspective to 10%.

Yield Branding was instrumental in helping us to sell more products and grow in a low-growth market in a very demonstrable way.

The origami campaigns positioned our organization very differently for our clients in a unique and inspiring way. Yield Branding definitely proved worthwhile and came up with a great campaign.  

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through regular touchpoints that were at three levels. The first one was at the executive review level where we needed decisions from the Canadian organization’s senior team. We presented output there and those happened on a monthly or bimonthly basis, depending on the cadence of the program.

We also had project management meetings to follow up on where we were with the project. They typically were led by me, various directors from my team, and the Yield Branding team. There were tactical day-to-day details happening, but we communicated via phone calls, Zoom, and WhatsApp.

In most cases, before the collaboration between the two teams, we set up a constant collaboration system that was built into Clarizen, which managed the process. We also used standard work backlogs in Excel. 

We had an excellent relationship with Yield Branding — it was very unique, open, and direct. They were very timely in addressing any of our concerns and ensuring they solved any potential risks or issues as quickly as possible. 

From a financial perspective, Yield Branding was very careful in making sure they stayed within the budget we set. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things that Yield Branding did particularly well was working hard at understanding the cultural fabric of our company. Their team's ability to work with lots of different types of people within our company distinguished Yield Branding from their competitors.

They were very careful in understanding the market for the services and specific individuals inside our organization, and what we were trying to accomplish.

The team understood the consumers’ impression that we were the trusted steward of data from coast to coast within the Canadian space. It was an important insight that we brought forward from the market. We wanted new products and markets, and to triple the growth rate year-over-year. They melded the insights to do that. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any engagement, there were issues that came up in the process. However, Yield Branding was very quick to let us know about the problems, and the potential impact they could cause on our budget and timelines.

They also understood the different personalities of our team members and navigated that carefully, given the fact that sometimes there were multiple opinions about the execution of the project. Overall, both areas were good.

Any advice for potential customers?

First of all, trust the process. At the end of the day, you need to know what you want out of the process. In our case, we wanted to change the trajectory of what our clients and employees thought about our organization. If you don’t walk in with an understanding of what your key marketing drivers are, it will be hard to measure them and be successful.

The key element of working with any organization is giving them the flexibility to design and deploy programs they need, use their creativity effectively, and make sure they understand that you have your own business objectives and parameters.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Polar Asset Management Partners. We’re an alternative asset manager. Specifically, we manage hedge funds for a diverse client base; diverse in both geography and type.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

In our most recent project, as part of a strategic review, we needed to revise our mission statement and value to reflect changes in leadership.

What was the scope of their involvement?

This was a renewal of a previous project they’d done for us. This time, they led an executive team through a series of in-person discussions. They managed diverse personalities to review our mission and particularly our values. There were five sessions total – both outdoor/socially distanced in-person and over Microsoft Teams.

Past projects have included websites and marketing collateral creation. The latter often required pitch books, monthly reporting, and client engagement tools.

What is the team composition?

On this project, we worked with Ted (President & Partner) and Brad (CEO). Because this was a renewal, there wasn’t much new content to create. It was more about reviewing so we worked with them. We’ve worked

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

Originally, we reached out to them to update our brand five years ago. We needed everything redone including names and logos. An old friend in the advertising business helped me narrow my choices to five firms and Yield Branding rose to the top.

We keep engaging them based on their quality of work on their initial branding and mission/values work. They’ve gathered a deep understanding of our values of the years. We haven’t moved to a bigger firm because of this knowledge and the quick pace they work at.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged them in January 2015, and the most recent project wrapped up in July 2020.

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

The initial rebranding was both top-notch and consistent with the values and mission we were trying to push forward. It gave us a great foundation for the changes we were making. It confirmed a cultural shift we were pushing. The next year was a great year for us.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. They pushed us to stay on schedule and delivered on schedule themselves. We give them high scores in this regard. The process was collaborative with great debates. Good consultants have great ears, listening to you and pulling the information out of you, rather than putting the information on you.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The reason we chose them at the beginning is sort of ironic. They were quite adamant that if they were going to run the branding work that we had to engage in their specific process of reviewing our mission and value set first. This was expensive, but it turned out to be super helpful to us in that it accelerated our internal mission/value work. Because they did that work, the brand lined up completely with it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a smaller business in a tough industry and the junior people cycle through pretty rapidly. We seem to be working with a new face pretty regularly, but it’s a relatively minor complaint.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Invest in them understanding your business and your mission/value set. It sounds expensive at the beginning but it’s the key to success.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President of the Georgetown Craft Beer Festival, a non-profit organization. My responsibilities include managing directors and volunteers; co-ordinating with local government officials, and assisting with organization development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Yield Branding?

We needed help developing overall brand strategy including our annual marketing campaign. While our directors bring many skills and talents to the table, we needed outside expertise to help establish a brand that would differentiate ourselves from our competition.

What were your goals for this project?

While we quickly gained local recognition for our festival, we needed help growing attendance by attracting guests from outside our immediate geographic area.

How did you select this vendor?

In the early stages we approached multiple branding agencies, and evaluated the completed projects detailed on their websites. We contacted Yield Branding and were impressed by their professionalism and enthusiasm for our project. It did not take long for our directors to choose to work with this company.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The progress began with multiple meetings with the company and our board of directors. The company spent a lot of time learning about our organization and understanding our goals and objectives.

From these meetings, Yield Branding presented a branding strategy that helped us communicate what set us apart - the time of year for our festival, and a focus on the benefits of our location. As our festival has grown so too has our branding strategy. The final strategy incorporated a solution for our logo, website, social media, sponsorship package, ticket design, and both print and radio advertising.

What was the team composition?

Our project was overseen by the Chief Branding Officer and President. We have had great working relationships with project managers over the years. From top-to-bottom we have always felt that our organization is important when dealing with the company.

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

Attendance at our festival has grown by more than 300%. Contributing to our attendance growth has been a steady increase of attendees from outside our immediate geographic area. Interactions on our social media platforms have grown each year. The end result has been an annual increase in the amount of financial support we donate to those in need in our community.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team at Yield keeps in contact with us on a regular basis as our project develops. Deadlines are set and met, culminating in an in-person presentation by Yield to members of our board of directors.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have always been amazed by the creativity of the team at Yield. Each year our marketing campaign takes risks, backed by a lot of research and years of industry experience. Every time we meet I walk away feeling better educated and optimistic for the future of our organization.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We have always been very happy with Yield Branding.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Philanthropy, Brand, and Communications at Canadian Feed the Children. We’re a charity that works both domestically and internationally to fight poverty.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

Our demographics and relevance within the market are changing, and we’re faced with a lot of competitors. We wanted to reposition our brand, shift our strategy, and redefine our visual identity.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first held a few strategy discussions, where Yield Branding reviewed our existing information and market position. We provided them with research that we’d conducted in the past, and they moved into defining our new visual identity. They thought about how our values would translate, aesthetically, through different mediums.

What is the team composition?

The two leads were Ted (President) and Brad (CEO). They were supported by a larger team. It was a tag-team between the two; Ted’s role was to understand our account and what we were looking for, and Brad came in with the creative side of things.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

They were recommended to us. Our partnership existed before my onboarding at the company.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration began in May of 2019, and the project is currently on hold.

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

I’d highlight their design expertise. Their strength is in creating a visual identity and providing multiple distinct options. Their understanding and use of typography are especially excellent.

They were very flexible and professional in their creative execution of the brand. They took an in-depth approach to the architecture and symbolism of the brand’s visual components. They also did a terrific job of guiding our board and staff through these changes.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

The project was managed by them and the project lead on our side. When larger group meetings were necessary for decision-making, those gatherings were organized without any issue. They’re definitely sensitive to the customer’s perspective and needs, so they organize schedules and workshops around the client’s schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d highlight their stellar use of both typography and color.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No matter what agency you’re working with, the more clarity and understanding you have about your goals, the easier it is for the agency to do their job. I’d recommend taking the time up front to provide them with background research or any available data; that will help them come back to you with something truly impactful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former director of marketing for Porsche Canada.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

Yield Branding was responsible for all of our branding, strategy development, creative execution, and high-level media strategy. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yield Branding did creative development for all of our launch campaigns, which involve 3–4 new products every year. They handled all the development and management of after-sales marketing campaigns as well; that involved working with a CRM, direct mail, and digital components. They also developed advertising around some of our special projects like driving events. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Brad (CEO) and an account manager. 

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

My predecessor hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Yield Branding was already on board in September 2011. The partnership stopped when we had to move to a global agency of record. 

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

It’s hard to speak to any specific metrics, but during our time together, all our metrics on digital engagement, lead generation, and sales improved year over year. It was all very positive, especially considering the fact that we occasionally experienced serious budget constraints and extremely tight deadlines.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

I really liked our relationship with their team. My previous challenge with other agencies is getting them up to speed on our brand and products. Yield Branding had been working on our business prior to when I started working with them, so they already fully understood our brand and products. I could roll into any meeting or presentation and get into it without a lot of setup and briefing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Them being small and nimble was important; it allowed them to react and turn things around quickly. They deeply understood our product, brand, and goals as well. They just got it, which made the whole process from the briefing to revisions so much faster. That was so key to our working relationship. They also had the strongest understanding of the after-sales side of the business than anybody I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In hindsight, there were things we could all have done better. It’s hard for me to point to specific areas though. 

Any advice for potential customers?

The key to any successful working relationship is fit. That applies to the client’s product and the vendor’s services they’re providing for it, as well as the chemistry between both teams. Yield Branding is small and nimble enough for you to be able to tell if it’s a good fit right away. The people you meet in the pitch is the same people you’ll be working with day-to-day.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is called ARHT Media, and we are a global leader in holographic telepresence. Effectively, we beam people’s likenesses around the world in real time, and I am the CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

The two challenges we were facing were both repositioning the company to emphasize new products and services that we were offering, as well as increasing our online presence in general.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team took a very methodical and strategic approach from the start, speaking with a number of our clients, prospective clients, and potential customers who chose not to contract in order to get an understanding of our business’ opportunities and core objectives.

From there they recommended some programs and methods of communication tied into branding that we could use to refresh our image on our website, and they gave us some specific SEO strategies for raising the profile of that new content.

What is the team composition?

They had a team approach to the work, including a project manager who was with us from beginning to end. The initial relationship involved their president, who stayed engaged throughout the work, as well as their head of creative who helped guide his team to provide the final recommendations.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

We spoke with a couple of agencies for the work, including Yield Branding, who was introduced to us through an existing relationship that the chairman of our company had. Right from the beginning, they seemed to have the best understanding of our business needs and the most enthusiasm about working with our product and brand.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent around $150,000–$175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started around March 2019 and we are continuing to work together.

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

It’s hard to measure the direct impact of their work because our company is growing so rapidly, but what I can tell you is that the feedback has been extremely positive from everyone who has come into contact with it, from investors to existing clients, and our own internal team.

Everyone is really enthusiastic about the assets we now have to work with because they have dramatically improved our communication in general, which is helping us on our marketing and sales side as well. Typically, when you make a big creative leap, there are people who love it and there are also detractors, but in this case, I don’t think there’s anyone at all who doesn’t like it.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

I wasn’t directly involved in the day to day process of their work, but our project management teams spoke very well of the agency and the working relationship that they established.

One of the things that we liked about them from the beginning was that they weren’t looking to throw everything we had out. They were looking to incorporate some of our better assets, and I think that made things both more efficient but also a lot more positive and collaborative as a whole.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their two key principals have a very long list of experiences in their industry working with big global brands. Because they’re a smaller agency, you get really personal attention, but they can also tap into their experience to provide really high-quality work. Their involvement in the work is extremely valuable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t think there’s anything, in particular, they could have done to make the project any better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their instincts. Their team has incredible instincts when it comes to strategy and communication. Some of their recommendations were pretty radically different from what we had been doing before, but we embraced that shift and have benefitted significantly because of it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Crazy Canuck Events that produced events such as Mud Hero, which is the largest obstacle running series in Canada. I was the CEO but sold the company a year ago.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

We wanted to generate excitement for the company and needed a professional look that people could trust.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yield Branding created our website and chose photos for the WordPress platform. Their team helped with the overall branding and appearance of our website. They crafted logos, our messaging, and one of our best YouTube videos, which had almost 20,000 views. Yield Branding also helped with our sales funnel, directing our strategies, users’ interactions, and navigation.

Their team also created a campaign for our fifth anniversary. They created posters, materials for our events, and assets that were available on event sites such as mud meters.

What is the team composition?

I worked with an account manager and the owner of Yield Branding.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

The owner and I had a prior relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000–$400,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2012 and ended the engagement in October 2016 due to budget constraints.

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

Their team skillfully built the brand, its look, and a sales funnel for our business. We were in a growth phase until 2016 when the market matured. However, we saw a decline that was less than our competitors. We stopped advancing our website, cut budgets, and doubled down on digital efforts but continued with the strategy that Yield Branding developed. The newest company owners use the same strategy that we did.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was definitely a strength of Yield Branding's. Their team was professional and met deadlines. They had excellent communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re creative, out-of-the-box thinkers. Their team was detailed with their requirements. Yield Branding brought an outside perspective that we needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re not as strong with digital advertising as they are with print ads. Their team focuses on branding and creating an exciting look and less on managing day to day digital strategies. They’re not set up to react quickly to digital changes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to them. Let them provide you with options but be realistic with your budget.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a federal agency working on a Canada-wide initiative for a new program that has not yet been rolled out.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yield Branding?

We need to develop a new brand for our new organization, and we wanted to have a forward-looking brand that all the employees could be really proud of.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The branding work included a new logo, brand guidelines, and a brand story. Then, we established a visual identity system to communicate those three things. 

They helped develop the things that stand behind the brand — the sum total of perceptions that our stakeholders have about our organization. 

They also conducted a survey of the employees to ask questions about which values they thought the organization should include. Their work included about 20 interviews with key internal and external stakeholders.

Later on, we worked with them again on a project connected to the work we were doing around our vision, mission, and values. They helped create a specific deck for meetings with our board and senior leaders.

What is the team composition?

Ted (President, Yield Branding) and Brad (CEO, Yield Branding) were the key players, and Josie (Senior Account Supervisor, Yield Branding) was our account manager. I really only dealt with those three. We had the same graphics specialist throughout the whole project.

How did you come to work with Yield Branding?

We hired a consultant to give advice on who should be invited to participate in a contest to select a vendor. The consultant helped select four groups that bid on the project. 

We selected Yield Branding for a number of reasons. They had good experience dealing with financial services, and they’d dealt with government agencies. Also, they had performed branding and logo work combined with survey services. Their presentation was very good, and they had a competitive price.

How much have you invested with them?

For the first project, the total value of the contract was probably about $205,000. For the second engagement, we invested about $17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked from December of 2017 through December of 2018. The second project took place from July to August of 2019.

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

We haven’t rolled it out to employees yet. However, we’ve gotten very positive feedback from government officials, our board of directors, and senior leadership. They had positive feedback about both the experience and the end result.

They were also quite creative. They helped us hone in on the essence of our brand. A big part of that was the excellent research they set up and conducted with the employees who would be coming on board.

How did Yield Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a thorough, professional process for project management. First, they presented a plan about how brand development would proceed. As they started to execute, they were on-time and on-budget. We asked for a couple of extra items and they were able to work with us on those. 

Overall, their account management and billing were very good. They would send a summary each month, which we could discuss before they invoiced us. 

We communicated through face-to-face meetings, telephone, and email on a day-to-day basis. They used a secure portal to showcase information and receive feedback. For example, board members could look at things and comment back. This was very, very helpful for gathering feedback (e.g. looking at drafts of the logo). 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their thorough, professional approach and unique insights about our brand stood out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was done well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are good listeners. So, make sure you’ve got your key stakeholders in place for them to talk to. A large part of their process is conducting 15–20 stakeholder interviews. They’ll be able to gather valuable insights if they’ve had a chance to interview the right people. 

You should also work really closely with them to make sure you're comfortable with the project timeline. If you tell them what you want to do and when you want it done, they will get it done.