Two Things is Doubling Down
By Paulo Ribeiro
Our approach to brand transformation has worked in multiple categories but, we are choosing to focus primarily on the active lifestyle space and audience.
Two Things Inc started up in 2018. The agency was founded as a vehicle to combine a deep strategy process with a creative culture to help clients evolve how they go to market. We’ve operated as a creative consultancy with a goal of breaking down the wall between product experience and marketing experience. Along the way we’ve worked with clients in the entertainment, sports, outdoor, transportation, gaming, food, and retail industries. We’ve been trusted to develop strategies to transform how those brands go to market. To bring those strategies to life we’ve helped our clients reimagine advertising campaigns, mobile UX, created new to the world 3D creation tools, conversational interfaces, tik-tok campaigns, reimagined media plans, built websites and designed research methodologies to measure effectiveness. In two instances we’ve breathed life into entirely new businesses.
We are proud of the work we’ve created together with our clients. We’ve learned and grown with each engagement. But TBH, too often we’ve had to learn on the job. There is a significant difference between the assignments we’ve explored with our clients and the assignments where our expertise led the way. Going forward, we are going to focus all of our energy on what we know inside and out.
1.
We are experts at designing new ways for our clients to Go To Market. We shine when helping our clients evolve how they Go To Market whether the need is driven by launching a new product, a desire to connect with new audiences or markets, or for any reason that requires building new creative muscles. We are at our best when designing the strategy and creative concepts to evolve how a brand is experienced.
We think hard about the business context, and also how the work will be made. We develop creative ideas to stand out from the noise in terms of their format AND their message. The fact that we consider the execution in our strategy work does NOT mean we need to be the ones making all the work. In many cases there are teams that are better at the craft of producing work (even if our clients are more comfortable working with us). So we are going to focus our attention on the moment of change and the systems to bring that work to life over time.
2.
We are creative people which means we can get distracted or curious about many different categories, but expertise comes from deep experience. We’ve had the honor of working with brands like The North Face, arc’teryx, Converse, Timberland, Visit Sun Valley, Nike and others on some of their most mission critical projects. This has given us depth of experience with the active lifestyle consumer that they target. So we are choosing to focus our work in the active lifestyle category.
Going forward Brand Transformation for Active Lifestyle Brands will be the agency's focus. This is a mission for us. Too many brands in this space have marketing that is stuck in the past. Sure, there are players like Nike that are constantly re-writing the brand playbook. But brand’s that are innovating in this space are the exception, not the rule. So much of the work is sleepy and backward looking, reinforcing historical brand equity but not doing a great job of reaching out to wider audiences. This may not be a popular opinion but it's true. It is a shame because us humans are at our best when we are connecting with other humans IRL. We need to shake up the category that is all about movement, outdoors and human connection. We’ll use all the modern tools of creativity to make this happen.
Stay tuned for more from insights@twothings.co.