Statsig’s Outdoor Launch Campaign in San Francisco

Division of Labor launches a new Ad Campaign for Statsig

If Karl Malden was driving the Streets of San Francisco today, he’d be seeing a whole lot of outdoor advertising for Statsig. (If you don’t know The Streets of San Francisco, click here for the best mid-70’s TV show intro ever.)

Statsig builds software that helps product developers, well, develop products. Startups to Fortune 500s rely on Statsig feature flags, experimentation, and analytics to help them, test and launch new products and new product features faster and more reliably than ever before.

Another one of our Series B startup clients told Statsig about Division of Labor and that’s, like, the best compliment an ad agency can get. Forget the award shows and Cannes Lions; when clients tell other clients your campaigns moved the needle, that’s gold.

The communication strategy we used follows a proven success model Division of Labor has executed with other Series B startups. Basically, technology companies with highly targeted products utilize a broad outdoor media buy combined with targeted digital and social media to build awareness with our key target while also building secondary awareness among a more general population. This drives website traffic and instigates consideration while the digital media and social channels (along with good salespeople) can drive trial. But it also seeds the ground for companies and decision-makers to be more receptive when their developers ask to bring Statsig into the company.

Of course, the key to all of this working is creating messaging that is unignorable and taps into some little bit of truth that makes product developers go: “Those people get me!” And getting this right happened thanks to great collaboration with Statsig’s internal communications team led by Elizabeth George and Brock Lumbard along with Margaret-Ann Seger, GB Lee, Skye Scofield and Statsig’s founder Vijaye Raji.

“Our research shows that while our customers are highly engaged in the technical world, they also take time offline, and that is where we plan to meet them,” Statsig founder and CEO Vijaye Raji said.

The core idea for the campaign is the core idea for the product; build, measure, learn, repeat.

Messages talk about the importance of testing product features with thoughts like, “Don’t think, test.” Other boards praise the power of product testing with lines like “A/B testing saves V/C money.”

The campaign utilizes Statsig’s signature 3D iconography that brings to life the lab-like environment the brand believes in. Brex handled the out-of-home media buy and, like they did with previous Division of Labor projects for Stytch and Hirect, they did an amazing job finding great boards and unique properties we could have some fun with.

Please keep your eyes peeled. And check out the launch story here in Geek Wire.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; the ad agency for startups, based in San Francisco, twice named Small Agency of the Year by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services a variety of clients and specializes in startups that have obtained Series B financing or higher. They also offer freelance services. Click here for a free consultation.

Why Every Series B Startup Can Benefit From an Ad Agency Relationship

*Stytch’s founders and their internal team worked closely with Division of Labor Advertising to create their hugely successful first advertising campaign.*

The people who work at ad agencies are generally not Rhodes Scholars, rocket scientists, or Mensa members. They didn’t graduate from Stanford, Penn, or MIT. And if you’re the CEO of a Series B startup, you may be smarter than many of them. But intelligence doesn’t make great advertising. Insight does. And ad people know how to connect emotionally with people and make them want things.

Yes, it’s sometimes hard for really smart people to relinquish control, but if we could give you one piece of advice when running a Series B start-up it’s this: Stop solely collaborating internally on how best to market your product and bring in an ad agency to help you and your team get the job done.

If you have the money to build an internal agency, that works too. Keep them independent and hire experienced talent and internal agencies are amazing. But before you spend the millions, spend a few thousand. Why?

We don’t know everything

And that’s a good thing. You all know too much; about the product about the market about the technology about the details. Your target audience doesn’t think about your product 1/100th as much as you do. Neither do we. But an agency can help find that little piece of truth, that one thing that will make people sit up and go, “Ooah, what’s that?”

Strategic Planning: Sure, you can draft a business plan, but can you craft a campaign strategy that weaves seamlessly beyond just digital and social clicks? An ad agency does more than just draw pretty pictures; they map out the entire journey, sorta like a GPS with a PhD in marketing.

Copywriting: Anyone can string a few adjectives together, but crafting copy that’s actually memorable is an art form. Your product or service may be as exciting as watching paint dry, but in the hands of the right creative team, even insurance can be entertaining.

Design: Product design is not graphic design or art direction. You probably have great product designers and UX designer on staff. But that’s not the same as a conceptual art director or a designer who can bring a campaign to life and create a brand that’s unignorable.

Media Planning: Buying Ad Space is Not a DIY Project. Ad agencies are like real estate agents for your content, securing prime advertising spaces and negotiating deals that make your budget stretch further than your yoga instructor doing downward dog. We’ve seen countless campaigns get messed up because the wrong media is bought or the timelines aren’t clear or the specs are wrong or the assets are shipped incorrectly. Yes, you’ll pay a small commission. But do it right or don’t do it.

Data Analysis: Ad agencies don't just throw darts in the dark and hope for the best. They dive deep into the data, analyzing the performance of your campaigns. They can adjust the messaging and adjust the target media to get the absolute most from your media spend. At the same time, we do not blindly follow data. We use it to craft holistic campaigns. If advertising was pure science, we would have written the algorithm and retired a long time ago.

That’s it. What an ad agency does for you isn’t exceptionally complicated But it’s a skill like any other best left to the experts. You trust them to know their craft and you’ll benefit from their perspective.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offer brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.

Why is every Series B startup brand blue?

Why do so many tech startup brands look the same?

There’s plenty of research that shows how blue is the world’s favorite color. Studies going back to 1941 indicate that universally, bluish hues are the most preferred. Even Republicans generally prefer blue. But why? And does that mean blue is the right color for your startup branding palette?

A seven year study conducted by psychologists Stephen E. Palmer and Karen Schloss, published in 2010, reveals that a person’s preference for a given color can be determined by averaging out how much that person likes all of the objects they associate with that color. For example, how much you like the color orange depends on how you feel about pumpkins, traffic cones and Cheetos, among other things. For green, it depends on how you feel about brussell’s sprouts, dollar bills and the lawn.

“If you look at all of the things that are associated with blue, they're mostly positive,” explains Schloss, an assistant professor of psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Which is also where this writer went to college and met his future wife. Just sayin’.) “It’s really hard to think of negative blue things.”

So should the fact that people overwhelmingly like the color blue be the reason your company chooses a blue color palette? The short answer is, hell no. Millions of people who like the color blue do not drive Fords, use IBM or purchase Viagra from Pfizer. (All massive blue brands.) The first rule of marketing and advertising is not: “Do what everyone else is doing.” The first rule is “Do what you can to stand out, not blend in.”

People also see blue as a responsible, corporate color. It connotes trust. It’s a color to be taken seriously because so many Fortune 500 companies use blue as a primary color. So isn’t a predominantly blue brand inherently responsible and able to be taken seriously? Again, hell no. Too many other factors influence the way potential customers see a brand. And the first one is, do they even notice the brand? And if you’re one of thousands of tech startups using a sans serif typeface over a blue, grey and black palette, fewer people are gonna even notice you, let alone pass judgment.

DIG INTO THE BRAND GUIDELINES

We often have clients that say their main color is blue, yet when we look into their branding documents we find these incredible arrays of secondary colors. So we build campaigns off the secondary colors because for Series B startups just beginning to advertise, people don’t know the brand, nor the brand color, nor anything else for that matter. So this is the time to use colors and design that helps your ad campaign yes stand out.

Besides the secondary color palette, there’s often graphics or blog design guidelines that can inspire what the main brand can become. Often these guidelines were put together early and without much purpose and there’s no harm in adapting things as you launch an initial campaign.

**One of the hundreds of OOH boards we created for the tech startup Stytch.**

When we dug into the Stytch brand guidelines, we found the stitched color lines on the very last page. This became the basis for our design and campaign, even though Stytch is a pretty blue company. They knew the brand could stretch beyond a single color and that potential customers had no brand experience anyway.

When we worked with PagerDuty, Collins had developed an amazing non-blue brand design that still evoked trust and security, two core tenets of the PagerDuty brand. So when we created the digital and outdoor campaign and re-designed the website, there was no way anyone was gonna use the most basic color on the planet.

**Blue stands for trust, but what color is the red Cross logo?**

Just look at a quick Google search of blue brands in the universe. You’re not gonna own the color blue. No one is gonna think of your startup when they see blue. Yes, blue stands for trust. But the Red Cross is red, so?

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Why Series B Startups Should Spend Money on Marketing, Especially Now

*Brands outlive products. History has proven that a million times over. Photo by Pixabay.*

According to Crunchbase, in recent months, Series B funding to U.S. startups has fallen sharply. So far in 2023, investment is on track to come in at the lowest quarterly level in more than three years. So if you’ve got it, congratulations. Capitalize on it. With most Series B startups valued between $30 and $60 million, you have to start acting like a brand and not the creator of a product.

History has proven that brands outlive products. Always. Name almost any company you like and they no longer rely solely on the product they started with. (Yes, Coke. But you’re not Coke.) Whether you hire a digital marketing agency or start a project with a creative agency or hire a freelancer, here are a few reasons to go all-in on marketing:

Rising Competition and Market Differentiation:

Your product may be better than the competitors, but if competitors are out-spending you in terms of marketing dollars, no one’s going to care. People don’t always know what is better. What matters is what is perceived to be better. And name recognition is always perceived to be better. When you invest in marketing, it's your chance to create a brand identity, and your brand is a product unto itself. Every chief marketing officer, digital ad agency or successful brand manager will tell you the same thing. Products come and go, brands live on.

Scaling Customer Acquisition:

You've clearly already got some traction in the acquisition game. Use those customer assets to your advantage. Well-targeted ad campaigns using look-alike audience targeting will build awareness within a market segment. It's not just about making sales; it's about expanding your reach and becoming a force to be reckoned with. And your current customer profiles can help. Execute a digital marketing campaign combined with a targeted awareness campaign in a specific market and you will increase awareness if you create messaging that doesn’t bore people to tears.

Investor Confidence and Future Funding:

The people that gave you the Series B money want to see you out in the market. When they see you pouring resources into marketing, it shows them you're serious about growth and you know how to scale. Marketing builds your reputation, boosts brand perception, and gives you the upper hand when it comes to securing future funding rounds. When they hear the buzz about your videos, ads, and billboards, they feel good about their investment. As an ad agency that specializes in Series B startups and tech companies, we’ve done a lot of billboards in the 101 corridor between San Francisco and San Jose combined with targeted campaigns reaching I.T. Decision Makers and their associates. Make sure the message is engaging and you will succeed.

Expanding into New Markets:

Marketing is the best way to expand into new markets. Adapt what has worked and support your sales staff. Potential new customers are far more likely to take a meeting or consider your product if they’ve heard of the brand. Especially in the B2B space. And by tailoring your messaging, promotions, and initiatives to resonate with local audiences, you'll increase adoption rates in previously uncharted territories.

Customer Retention and Engagement:

Attracting new customers is crucial. But let's not forget the ones you already have. You’re a new company, which means you need to work hard to establish brand loyalty. Happy customers become your biggest cheerleaders, spreading the word about your awesomeness and bringing in new customers through the power of word-of-mouth. Market to them. Spend money to make them feel good about the brand so they tell their friends.

The message matters:

With Series B funding, you’re no longer in the “struggling startup” phase. Fear of failure should be much, much lower. It’s time to take risks with your messaging to get attention. We remind our clients at Division of Labor, when you’re creating awareness-building advertising and lead-generation campaigns, don’t worry if someone writes you an email or doesn’t like your video. Who cares what your friend’s mom says? Get attention. Make it emotional, honest, self-deprecating, edgy, ballsy, funny. Swing big. Now that you have a few bucks to spend, just make sure no one can ignore it.

Cover Photo: Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/drug-store-drink-coca-cola-signage-on-gray-wooden-wall-210126/

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6 Tips for Series B Startups Hiring an Ad Agency

**Every Series B Startup needs a marketing plan and a great ad agency to implement it.**

Finding the right ad agency partner can be a daunting task for startups, particularly for those in their series B phase. A good creative agency, like the team at Division of Labor, can help a startup reach its target audience and increase brand awareness. But, let’s be real, a crappy ad agency can result in a waste of resources ineffective campaigns, and a short tenure for the chief marketing officer. To keep heads from rolling, here are six tips to help you find the right ad agency for your needs:

Define your goals: Before you start looking for an ad agency, it's important to clearly define your marketing goals and what you want to achieve. This will help you find an agency that specializes in your industry and has the right credentials to meet your needs. You’ll also need to have some ballpark figures on your media, strategy, and creative budget.
Look for a strategic partner: An ad agency should not only create effective ads but also provide valuable insights and strategy to help your business grow. Look for an agency that will work with you as a partner, not just a vendor.
Consider the agency's portfolio: Look at the agency's portfolio and case studies to see if they have experience working with companies in your industry and if they have a track record of success. This will give you an idea of their capabilities and what kind of results you can expect. Analytics that show success with one client’s business are not a guarantee of success for your business. But it’s the strongest indicator that the agency knows its stuff.
Check references: Ask the agency for references from current or past clients. This will give you a better idea of their work and how they interact with clients. Make sure to speak with several references to get a balanced view.
Evaluate the company culture: The relationship between a startup and its ad agency can be a long-term one, so it's important to make sure the agency's culture aligns with your company's values. Look for an agency that shares your passion and understands your vision.
Be realistic about budgets: It's always a good idea to get quotes from several agencies to compare prices and services. This will help you find the right balance between cost and quality, and ensure that you get the best value for your investment. No one wants to overpay for goods and services. But, hey, would you go to the cheapest dentist? Or would you prefer that the person drilling into your tooth charges what they charge because they know what they’re doing? Just a thought.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offer brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.