By GREGORY ZELLER //
After 16 years of quality storytelling, a veteran of Long Island’s PR wars is closing one book, and starting a whole new chapter.
Putting its rebranding money where its mouth is, the Huntington-based boutique agency known formerly as the Communication Strategy Group has renamed itself Brandtelling – maintaining years of successful marketing efforts while putting its unique “brand storytelling” mantra front-and-center.
It’s a full-on rebrand, featuring a comprehensive new website, a smart new slogan (“Story First”), a shiny new corporate logo and a social media overhaul – no mean feat for a multimedia master that butters its bread on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
But the physician-heal-thyself moment was essential, according to Principal and “Chief Brandteller” Arthur German, who noted that “many industries saw a pivot due to the events of 2020.”
“It just seemed like the right time for us to pivot, too,” Germain told Innovate Long Island. “It’s always been our goal to help companies with their brand storytelling – this seemed like a good opportunity to adopt a new name for the agency.”
Arthur Germain: Story first.
There were other factors leading to the rebranding, including “interest in the ‘brandtelling’ name,” according to Germain, who registered that trademark years ago and was forced to play that IP card earlier this year, when a larger and very-well-regarded communications firm introduced a new “brandtelling” service (recognizing Germain’s IP rights, the larger firm renamed its new offering).
“One of the things I realized was we had to use the name more, to get it out there,” the innovator noted. “This seemed like the right moment to adopt it as the name of the agency – a chance to drink my own champagne, which I prefer to eating my own dog food.”
Communication Strategy Group wasn’t exactly the Alpo of Long Island marketing. Over a decade-and-a-half, the agency had carved an impressive niche, and “Communication Strategy Group” was actually “a fine name,” according to the owner.
“It certainly reflected what we did,” Germain said. “But it was rather broad.”
In addition to zeroing in on the agency’s unique service propositions, the rebranding also gave Brandtelling a chance to play up its unique approach. For instance, unlike many competitors, Germain eschews the practice of creating proposals – “not a really effective use of time” – and instead kicks off creative processes with what he calls an “open book session.”
“Sure, I can write a marketing proposal,” Germain said. “But it might not be what the client really wanted, it might not say everything they expected, it might have to be rewritten over and over.
What’s your story: Brandtelling will find it, and share it with potential clients.
“Instead, we do a small, paid engagement where I ask questions of all the key stakeholders,” he added. “Then we come back with a series of recommendations as to what they really need, whether it’s a refreshing of the brand, a refreshing of the content or a full rebrand.”
This “keeps everybody honest,” he noted, rather than “spinning through endless cycles of proposals.”
“It really is a better deal for companies,” Germain said. “They can spend so much time getting proposals from multiple agencies, and then it’s an apples-and-oranges thing – no two proposals are alike, because no two agencies are alike.”
With the open book sessions, potential clients “have skin in the game” and are “forced to make a decision up front” – a better approach for clients “who are a little more agile and a bit more creative.”
“And it’s a more thoughtful approach than just blindly writing proposals,” he added.
Brandtelling’s own rebranding was “not as expensive as you might think,” just a few thousand dollars to farm out the new website design and create new print collateral (Germain keeps his overhead low by keeping his staff small, just half-a-dozen “senior contractors” who’ve “worked with me forever”).
The innovator also relied on input from the No BS Agency Owners Master Class, a private Facebook group of marketing professionals, and “some fantastic clients that gave me some really amazing feedback” on proposed language and website design.
Besides that, it was a lot of sweat equity, invested by Germain himself.
“This is what I do for a living,” he noted. “So, there was a lot of my own time spent rewriting the copy and putting it all together.’
The end result is a new brand that more accurately reflects what the PR pro has always done – discover a client’s true story and share it in ways that attract prospects and ultimately turn them into buyers.
“We always tell customers that the name (of the company or product) should be reflective,” Germain said. “That’s how technology companies start to tell better brand stories that can be remembered, repeated and rewarded.
“That’s the real goal,” he added. “And now, it’s in our own name.”
