Paulo Ribeiro's (Wieden&Kennedy, Redscout, West) expertise is helping brands like Nike, TNF and Venmo develop new strategies to earn more attention and revenue. Photograph by Chloe Aftel Paulo began his career in brand advertising first in NYC and then in SF at Hal Riney+Partners, the first creatively led agency, during the dot com boom. At Wieden + Kennedy he was head of global brand strategy for Nike and Electronic Arts through the era of digital transformation. He led the evolution of innovation agency Redscout to better serve Silicon Valley, working with Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn’s positioning and expanding Gatorade’s portfolio from beverages to food and digital products. He was the Managing Director of one of the first Venture Studios-West SF, which was founded by Jack Dorsey to accelerate the growth for many of the world’s most disruptive startups. His portfolio included Venmo, Jawbone, Twitter, Braintree, Anki, Tumblr and many others. More recently he led the creation of the Wieden+Kennedy Lodge the innovation agency, within the W+K Network, with Nike's secretive innovation Kitchen, Samsung and Verizon as clients. The fruits of that labor contributed significantly to W+K earning Global Agency of the Year two years in a row. He is the founder of Two Things, a brand transformation agency that focuses on the active lifestyle category. Two Things serves clients such as The North Face, Timberland, Visit Sun Valley, Mad Hippie, Converse and Arc’teryx. Paulo Ribeiro's expertise is in building strategies to evolve brands. ↗ 2017 AICP Innovation Award ↗ 2016 Adweek Creative 100 ↗ 2012 One Show Pencil - BulletStorm ↗ 2011 Effie - Dante’s Inferno ↗ 2011 4A’s Jay Chiat Award-New Product: Gatorade G-Series ↗ 2010 Clio - Nike Livestrong ‘Chalkbot’ ↗ 2010 - D+D Yellow Pencil - Integrated Campaign ‘Its’ About You’ Select Awards Featured in publications such as: ↗ Creative Boom—Coverage of Novella Launch ↗ Ad Age: Brookfield ↗ Muse by Clio—Brookfield ↗ Communication Arts—Brookfield ↗ Egotist—Stay Sunny ↗ Little Black Book—The North Face: Discover Your Trail ↗ Graphic Design USA—Stay Sunny ↗ ↗ The Drum—Two Things Launch ↗ Adweek—Paulo Leaving W+K Scoop ↗ Fast Company—Paulo leaving W+K Scoop ↗ Adweek—Two Things Launch ↗ Fast Company—Two Things Launch ↗ ↗ Shots Magazine—Lodge Profile ↗ Fast Company—Lodge Principle Profile ↗ Fast Company—Nike Live Design ↗ Fast Company—Anki Lost In Reddit Profile ↗ Monocle—NeedyBot ↗ Meta/Oculus—KFC The Hard Way ↗ TechCrunch—Anki Lost in Reddit ↗ Business Insider—Soylent + WK Lodge ↗ Creative—Soylent ↗ Retail Dive—Soylent ↗ Portland Monthly—NeedyBot ↗ Adweek—100 Creatives Whose Brilliant Ideas will make you jealous ↗ ↗ NYT—Paulo to MD Redscout ↗ The Guardian—Nike Chalkbot ↗ Campaign Live - Nike Livestrong 2010 Integrated Titanium Cannes Lion ↗ Adage - Nike Livestrong 2010 Integrated Titanium Cannes Lion ↗ WSJ—EA Dante’s Inferno ↗ Blog—Dante’s Campaign Profile ↗ Kotaku—Greed (Dante’s) ↗ Joystiq—Greed (Dante’s) Selected Press Speaking Engagements Paulo has spoken at many festivals including Fast Company Innovation Festival, Samsung Galaxy Media Days and Electronic Arts Sales Meetings. He has been asked to speak at leadership retreats for Electronic Arts, Gatorade, Pernod-Ricard, Nike and Target among others. He is frequently asked to present insights and perspectives to boards and investors. Speaker fees vary depending on the length of the presentation, whether preparation is necessary and the amount of time necessary onsite. Travel and expenses will be covered separately. Pro-Bono can be discussed for non-profits or other worthy causes. For Speaking Engagements: talk@twothings.co For Advising: hello@twothings.co Images from the Archives He's earned many accolades' including being listed as one of the Adweek Global Creative 100, he is a Cyber Lion Winner, has won Clios, D+AD Pencils, Effies, AICP Innovation Awards and more. Awards Press He's earned many accolades' including being listed as one of the Adweek Global Creative 100, he is a Cyber Lion Winner, has won Clios, D+AD Pencils, Effies, AICP Innovation Awards and more.

Two Things | The North Face | Discover Your Trail | Found authenticity and discovery on and off the trail. Explore the Next Generation of Trail. Client // Arc'teryx Assignment // Brand Strategy, Go-To-Market Strategy and Campaign, Brand Marketing Process and Systems, Campaign Architecture, Budget and Process Definition, Insights, Analytics and Metrics The strategy, ideas and systems for the first ever global brand marketing push on the march to $1BN. The North Face is legend in the outdoor adventure space. But the approach they pioneered—sponsoring the exploits of extreme outdoor athletes—is no longer as ownable or relevant as it once was. What they need today, is a new chapter in their story. One that is true to their adventurous spirit. But can speak to a broader, wider, more diverse audience. Arc’Teryx first approached us in 2022 with a new parent company at their backs and on the precipice of launching the footwear category which for any outdoor brand is the ultimate frontier. The brand had an elite, loyal, but niche fan base. Their product line justified a luxury price point—often double the mainstream competition. Their marketing team was homegrown, insider and very well versed in the product marketing playbook that had driven loyalty with their core. They needed a new playbook to connect with a significantly wider audience, without losing the loyalty of the passionate insiders, and they didn’t have much time with their global footwear launch less than a year away. Actions and Results With time being of the essence recruiting of a much larger executional team internally was being managed in parallel to developing the campaign and the systems to maintain them. As part of our process to operationalize strategy, constant onboarding and inclusion of new hires became a rolling process we orchestrated at every milestone. Deliverables and outcomes included: Brand positioning Campaign architecture and messaging structure Channel strategy and tactical guidelines Experiential concepts for events Membership guidelines and ideation Production planning and identification of production partners Budget strategy and breakdowns (global and NA) Measurement and analytics strategy No Wasted Days was introduced to the public in October of 2023 and continues today. To quote parent company Amer Sports: “No Wasted Days is Arc’teryx’s first ever global brand campaign and the biggest marketing moment in Arc’Teryx history.” LINK. It provided the tailwinds for Arc’Teryx to exceed $1B in annual revenue for the first time and it did all of this by reinterpreting the strengths of the brand in a more powerful, holistic and sustainable way. We are proud to have built the strategic, creative and systems foundation for this moment of growth. Next Gen's love of trail differed greatly from motifs past. There was very little talk of testing limits or overcoming adversity. Instead, it was more about the trail making them feel whole and human. Or in other words, like a kid again. Out there in it, with their friends, enjoying the moment rather than fretting about the past or the future. With the work, we wanted to tell real stories about real athletes. But, in the process, broaden the definition of what it means to be an outdoor athlete. So we focused our narrative lens on trail lovers that advertisers typically ignore: hike clubs, people of color, underrepresented communities, and people with different body types. These true stories of Next Gen trail lovers is only the beginning. In the months to come, we'll be exploring activations that actually help people discover their trail. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you out there. Strategy The first assignment was to develop a brand strategy that could flex globally across categories as well as to define the positioning for their first ever foray into footwear. We conducted our own research which resulted in an internal brand playbook to guide brand marketing, product innovation and digital experience From internal positioning we developed their first ever global brand campaign (No Wasted Days) and defined the process for internal teams to develop the work internally from a brand level down to product features.

We've focused our agency to deliver fresh, creative strategy and effective go-to-market plans for the outdoors and active lifestyle markets. 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 . back to insights →

Weekly blog articles about strategy, brand transformation, and creative insights across the outdoors and active lifestyle markets. Sign up to receive today! Insights Insight Two Things is Doubling Down Our approach to brand transformation has worked in multiple categories but, we are choosing to focus primarily on the active lifestyle space and audience. Insight Your Brand's History is NOT Your Brand Strategy Why your brand’s past is not what your customers today care about. Insight What Can the Active Lifestyle Industry Learn from Silicon Valley? What does startup land have to teach brands way over in the active lifestyle space? Not everything. Not even most things, but there are a few really powerful ideas that if applied correctly can help a sleepy brand wake the hell up. Insight Brand X's and O's X marks the unforced error for Twitter. And, what can we learn from it? Insight The Urban/Rural Boundary is the Opportunity Cities hold a key to unlock the outdoors. Why is this massive opportunity so often ignored? Insight Include the Critics, Naysayers, and Roadblocks in the Process Why it never works to build a marketing strategy and get other departments to buy-in later. Insight The Terrain is Unsettled and Varied Generating smart ideas is *not* the hardest part of developing effective work. Subscribe to our newsletter ↗ subscribe ↗ Lessons, Tools, Tips and a few rants on creativity and marketing in the active lifestyle space* *What the hell do we mean by “active lifestyle”? We are talking about brands in the outdoor, sports, sports lifestyle and adventure travel business whether they make equipment, apparel or experiences for people to connect IRL move and explore the world. Brands that serve the active lifestyle market generally have a strong sense of purpose and an engaged community of customers. Their employees are also often a real community of like minded people. They are more likely to balance purpose and corporate social responsibility in the core of their operations than many other business categories. Subscribe to our newsletter ↗ subscribe ↗ Thanks for subscribing! Lessons, Tools, Tips and a few rants on creativity and marketing in the active lifestyle space* *What the hell do we mean by “active lifestyle”? We are talking about brands in the outdoor, sports and sports lifestyle business whether they make equipment, apparel or experiences for people to connect IRL move and explore the world. Brands that serve the active lifestyle market generally have a strong sense of purpose and an engaged community of customers. Their employees are also often a real community of like minded people. They are more likely to balance purpose and corporate social responsibility in the core of their operations than many other business categories. Subscribe to our newsletter ↗ subscribe ↗ Thanks for subscribing! Lessons, Tools, Tips and a few rants on creativity and marketing in the active lifestyle space* *What the hell do we mean by “active lifestyle”? We are talking about brands in the outdoor, sports, sports lifestyle and adventure travel business whether they make equipment, apparel or experiences for people to connect IRL move and explore the world. Brands that serve the active lifestyle market generally have a strong sense of purpose and an engaged community of customers. Their employees are also often a real community of like minded people. They are more likely to balance purpose and corporate social responsibility in the core of their operations than many other business categories.

Is your marketing stale? We use data, insights, and strategy to yield creative marketing tactics for outdoor lifestyle brands, giving you the best ROI and ROAS. Two Things to remember: 1. You can't spend your way to effectiveness 2. Ideas that stand out in message and format 1. You can't spend your way to effectiveness Media is a rigged game. Your brand has to break through or else it doesn't exist. 2. Ideas that stand out in message and format Structure follows strategy (not the other way around). Powerful insights from asking the right questions 1 2 C reative that stands out in message and format 3 A Go-to-Market plan that is nothing like the competition’s The best brands don't copy their competition. They lead. Two Things to remember: 1. You can't spend your way to effectiveness 2. Ideas that stand out in message and format 1. You can't spend your way to effectiveness Media is a rigged game. C reative that stands out in message and format 2 Your brand has to break through or else it doesn't exist. Structure follows strategy (not the other way around). Powerful insights from asking the right questions 1 2 C reative that stands out in message and format 3 A Go-to-Market plan that is nothing like the competition’s Powerful insights from asking the right questions 1 2 C reative that stands out in message and format 3 A Go-to-Market plan that is nothing like the competition’s Powerful insights from asking the right questions 1 A Go-to-Market plan that is nothing like the competition’s 3 The best brands don't copy their competition. They lead. start a conversation → case studies →

X? Twitter? The debate rages on. So what does this have to do with brand value and creative strategy? Find out how marketers can use X as a cautionary tale. Brand X's and O's By Paulo Ribeiro X marks the unforced error. And, what can we learn from it? What the hell does this have to do with the Active Lifestyle Business? Nothing. And everything. This spectacular implosion has everyone talking about ‘Brand’ and this gives us an opportunity to break down what a powerful brand is (and isn’t). From Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Twitter (really?!? Does anyone believe Elon’s ceded control of anything?): [Tweet from Linda Yaccarino] Um, ok…. First, let’s establish what we mean when we are talking about ‘brand’ An intentionally strategic focus that guides the services, experiences and messages from a company. The purpose of that strategic focus is to form an emotional connection in a consumer’s mind of what the brand’s values are. People align with brands that share their values. That emotional connection delivers real monetary value to the company. Actions speak louder than words (or images, no matter how well designed) Exhibit A: Many Nike sneakers and smaller brands are made in the same factories using the same materials with often very similar form factors. When the Nike sneaker is sold for $175 and a comparable Saucony sneaker (made in the same factory) goes for $105, that $70 difference is the real value of the Nike brand. The thing that makes the boneheaded Twitter to X shift so damn fascinating is that it was made by an absolutely legendary brand innovator: Elon Musk. Exhibit B: Every single move by brand Tesla, particularly in the early days, served as a master class in how to build a focused brand through consistent ACTIONS instead of through say advertising impression for example. Instead of car lots, Tesla’s were hyped in small ~1,000 sq foot footprints in malls. Forget test driving, many could barely hold a single car you could sit in. This yielded the amazing benefits of saving money on real estate and showing up in a completely differentiated way from the competition. Customers used iPad screens where they virtually designed their car, or signed up for a waitlist. Potential customers logging in from home had all the same tools and soon learned they didn’t even have to go to the mall. The waitlist highlighted scarcity (which is Luxury’s playbook to increase margins). They gave everyone on the waitlist sneak peaks and special content—allowing customers to feel special. And we all heard about it. The waitlist spawned rabid, vocal fans who snowballed the company’s marketing through word of mouth. They were not just buying a car, they bought into a movement. Elon as Founder leaned into even more audacious pursuits like designing the HyperLoop to ferry people between SF and LA in minutes and then gave away the plans (hello, PR mentions). He built a real rocket company, SpaceX, which generates endless PR, this in turn delivers credibility back to Tesla. The Tesla brand now has permission to enter into a range of businesses including some very expensive and technically complex ones such as home and corporate energy storage. All of this because of a singular brand focus: delivering the future of transportation. I could write for a month and not be able to adequately convey how good the bird logo is and how bad the X is. Full disclosure, I’m biased. My friend and former collaborator Martin Grasser Designed it. And Jack Dorsey co-signed with this. Agreed. Exhibit C: Twitter is a communication platform. A tweet is (was?) a short burst of information first 140 characters and over time added a bit of imagery and/or video. But always short, focused, timely communication flying around the internet. With this it's easy to see how that focused brand position provides permission to grow into sharing other types of timely information…or connections…or moving money. All of this focus was encapsulated in that elegant blue bird. Prof G estimates the current value being thrown away to be in the range of $10B (or more). Conversely, what is X? Well, it's everything they say. Right but what is it for? Everything. Ok, cool. When I need everything I’ll make sure to use that. For the next decade or so though, I’ll use products that have PROVEN their focus and expertise to me over time. I’ll make decisions faster where I don’t have to think too hard about their values or what they do well. In the outdoor arena brand identities (name, logo, etc…) like Patagonia and The North Face were intuitively appropriate (good enough for those demanding environments) AND over time they were imbued with meaning and carried that value. Dave Lane has a nice backstory about why the Dead Bird became arc’teryx’s logo. But he’ll be the first to say that they initially chose it as a logo because it was unlike anything in the market. But now… Well the dead bird is completely imbued with the credibility of intensely tested products with high design. Nike was an academic choice (and a bit obscure) choice when it came out, but it is now imbued with decades of performance and empowerment proof. Whereas, On Running’s proof of cushioning as good as running on air is more recent. In all cases these brands have value PRIMARILY because of the actions taken by the companies to prove their credibility in a focused way. And now, well let’s just say none of those organizations are dumb enough to throw that value away. A brand can launch with the advantage of a thoughtfully designed and wordsmithed brand identity and/or campaign (like the blue bird was for Twitter). But regardless of whether a brand got a headstart or not, the real value is created over time by consistency of actions. Brand equity is built and proven by a focused brand strategy. Recently, there hasn’t been any focus from the brand formerly known as Twitter. This will be fun to watch because if we all learn from mistakes, then we stand to learn quite a lot from a dumpster full of them. back to insights → [Retweet from Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square]

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Why it never works to build a marketing strategy and get other departments to buy-in later. You need to include everyone for exceptional work. Include the Critics, Naysayers and Roadblocks in the Process By Paulo Ribeiro Why it never works to build a marketing strategy and get other departments to buy-in later. We often get approached by an executive or department who wants to use our strategic expertise as leverage to convince another department to change how they Go To Market. The conversation will start with a breakdown of the business opportunity which is where things should start. But eventually the real friction will become clear. There is another department or leader who has different priorities or doesn’t see things the same way. Sometimes we’ll hear about it during the onboarding conversations or discovery but by the time we get to stakeholder conversations it will become clear that there isn’t internal alignment. To be clear, a lack of alignment by itself isn’t necessarily a problem. If managed productively it can be a strength in that different leaders have access to different data and priorities which can become the roots of a powerful new strategy. We absolutely NEED those tensions to get to a new strategy. But that is a different post. This post is about the doomed to fail assumption that we can develop the strategy in a silo and it is going to be so damn smart that the rest of the company will get onboard. We’ll unfurl the deck and they’ll follow the Piper because of the sheer genius of the ideas. They’ll see how thorough our collective work is and that will drive alignment and the company can move forward. Cue the end credits. That never works. back to insights → This assumption is almost always well intentioned. It is also almost always wrong. It is wrong because it assumes that what needs to happen is to convince another leader or department. A great brand strategy works across departments which means it needs to be aware of the challenges facing each department. I’m not writing this post to talk about how to make the work a treaty between departments. I’m writing this to dispel the idea that the marketing team, or product team or design leadership alone can figure out a new way forward and then deliver it to the other departments needed to implement it. Great strategy isn’t a compromise. Great strategy is aware of each of the stakeholders needs and finds a solution that will benefit the whole company because it solves problems in the order that they need to be solved. Often that means that one department’s priorities will need to wait in order for a more acute problem to be solved. That is how great teams function and you don’t get this kind of buy-in without including everyone with a stake in the decision. A few rules we operate by: A representative from each department that is critical to bringing a solution to life needs to be involved at each milestone. Disagreements need to be surfaced with all the relevant context. Lean into the uncomfortable because you might learn something. Don’t avoid it. We don’t move forward until there is commitment cross-functionally. BTW, disagreement is fine. But when a decision is made to proceed there needs to be universal commitment. Change in how a company Goes to Market requires cross-functional buy-in. Not after the ideas have been developed, but early.

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Internal Agency + External Agency and the work still needs work. Paying 2X and Getting Less Than ½ By Paulo Ribeiro Internal Agency + External Agency and the work still needs work. Why do many clients literally pay TWICE for creative marketing that should be provocative and effective but is often uninspired and category-generic? It is rare to find a client side marketing team that doesn’t have internal creative staffing. At the same time most of those companies ALSO pay for new ideas or execution from an outside agency. Bean counters would expect that double the resources should create at least double the benefit. But the opposite is more often true. 3 REASONS YOUR CREATIVE ISN'T THAT CREATIVE A Tired Brief A business goal is a business goal. An inspiring creative brief that is going to lead to interesting, novel ideas that deliver on that business goal is a totally different thing. So many internal creative teams are briefed on business goals like: “We need people to understand our new technology. So let’s tell them about it.” And that habit extends to the brief that they deliver to the outside agency. This kind of brief hampers thinking right from the jump. A powerful creative brief is built on TENSIONS. Unresolved and contrasting issues give creative people space to play. Things like: The disconnect between a brand that is all about travel and exploration but constantly showcases its home turf. Or a brand built on the notion of innovation when the bulk of its sales come from a single product. Or the desire to build community while bots are plucking up all the limited edition drops. Yes these are real examples which is why they are so specific. Unpacking a very specific problem and then asking creative teams to solve for them is guaranteed to deliver ideas that at the very least don’t look, feel and sound like what your competitor is doing. An uncomfortable truth: your marketing challenges almost exactly match your competitors’. Every footwear company is working on the same problems: fit, traction, cushioning… This consistency of marketing challenge is true in most established consumer categories. It just is. To break through, you’ve got to solve for those challenges in a differentiated way. Leaning into unresolved tension is the best starting point to unlock a breakthrough. Not Enough Contrast in the Team Internal agencies don’t cut costs, but they institutionalize critical product expertise and this tradeoff is worth it. BUT, these internal teams are often made up of the brand’s hardcore fans. And this leads to organizations filled with people that have the same deep, but narrow worldviews values and ideas. They are too close to the thing to have unique or divergent ideas. The formula for interesting ideas in terms of staffing is that you need contrasts in all the ways. Different backgrounds, skill sets, interests and then you mash these people up because they will challenge one another and build different kinds of ideas, tools and stories. Blurred Lines This is the big one. Great creative talent is great creative talent. It’s real and let’s just call that a given. Some people are significantly better at creative ideas than others. But this is also true. The way to get to breakthrough creative ideas isn’t by having a single expert develop the one idea. It is…. By having many ideas. Great ideas are developed by generating tons of ideas and throwing away most of them. Every great creative director, inventor or storyteller will explain this in their own way. Ok, so what does this have to do with this post? back to insights → There is a proven setup that enables this to happen. A team of idea generators and a smaller group (sometimes just a single Creative Director) to edit and shape the best work from the options on the table. And when there are no good ideas on the table to redirect the idea generators. This is a solved problem! It has been solved for literally hundreds of years. Renaissance masters used this setup in their workshops, The editorial department of every great magazine did. Film studios have always sourced script ideas this way. From Pixar to Wieden+Kennedy to Lego the organizations that consistently spit out novel ideas use a version of this system. But a funny thing can happen when agency teams and client-side creatives mix and no one addresses the question. Who is generating and who is shaping? This shouldn’t be a controversy or uncomfortable discussion but if it doesn’t happen early it ends up being uncomfortable and often political. And the work suffers. It can work to mix teams from the agency and client side or have them each play a specific role. But it is critical that the person or team doing the creative directing is assigned and that it is assigned to people with the experience to do that. Too often hierarchy between the buyer and seller gets in the way of the buyer getting what they paid for. It’s ok to let the agency do the creative direction if they are best equipped to do it. It’s also ok for an internal creative director to do it. But have this conversation and have it early. There might be other reasons for stale marketing when there is serious investment being made but these stand out to us. While the playing field has shifted, the rules of the game haven’t. There are ways to make sure you get a solid return on your marketing investment. It's a simple conversation if you have it early. Two things that sum up what we are talking about. “You’ll never stumble upon the unexpected if you stick only to the familiar.” “When it comes to creative endeavors, the concept of zero failures is worse than useless. It’s counterproductive.” Ed Catmull, Creativity Inc

We develop creative Go-To-Market strategies for companies to enter new markets, attract new audiences and develop new ways to serve their customers. Strategy We develop strategies for companies to expand their market. + Execution We build teams, culture and processes to operationalize that strategy over time. The Brand Transformation Agency We work with brands who need to build a new product, connect with a new audience or because their Go-To-Market approach needs an overhaul. Sample Engagements include: Designing innovation strategy and teams Internal creative teams Creative marketing for startups Brand experience and product design We’ve been responsible for some of the leading innovation and creative cultures in the US and have learned that the most impressive ROI is realized when a brand owns the work itself. Our engagements are designed with the goal of building a new capability within our client’s organization and we work towards that end in mind. Strategy We develop strategies for companies to expand their market. + Execution We build teams, culture and processes to operationalize that strategy over time. The Brand Transformation Agency We work with brands who need to build a new product, connect with a new audience or because their Go-To-Market approach needs an overhaul. Sample Engagements include: Designing innovation strategy and teams Internal creative teams Creative marketing for startups Brand experience and product design We’ve been responsible for some of the leading innovation and creative cultures in the US and have learned that the most impressive ROI is realized when a brand owns the work itself. Our engagements are designed with the goal of building a new capability within our client’s organization and we work towards that end in mind. start a conversation → working with us →

The biggest opportunity for outdoor brands is to create bridges to the outdoors and to start with what is at hand. The Urban/Rural Boundary is the Opportunity By Paulo Ribeiro Cities hold a key to unlock the outdoors. Why is this massive opportunity so often ignored? So many of the brands we work with have a desire to be more inclusive. More and more frequently they have a stated mission to share the outdoors (and sport and breathing fresh air) with a wider group of people than those that have historically have had access. Corporate social responsibility is often behind this. Just as often it's straight up business that motivates: growing the size of the market a brand serves. This post isn’t going to get into litigating values. For the record we are supportive of both of those motivations. This post is focused on an opportunity the size of the Empire State building that is constantly missed. We’ve been asked to think a lot about how we might grow the audience and user base for multiple brands, in multiple categories with different brand histories, challenges and capabilities. All of this against a backdrop of the massive population growth of cities. For decades cities have been growing as a rebound from the growth of suburbs that the Boomers drove. While there has been a lot of noise recently about cities like NYC, SF and Chicago losing population in 2022 that is already starting to reverse with people coming back to offices (slowly). Los Angeles, San Jose, and Washington, DC all experienced migration gains in 2022. TL;DR, cities keep growing. The Gen Z and even Millennials are much more likely to be renters as compared to their parents and grandparents at the same age. They are less likely to own a car, or even have a driver’s license. Their work often involves staring at a screen for hours on end. The pitch to move their bodies during their downtime shouldn’t be that hard as evidenced by the radical growth in almost every sector of outdoor activity since the pandemic. If we really want to encourage movement and be inclusive in the outdoors. The most powerful tool we have is to rethink what the outdoors can be. What are the easy local “onramps” to the sports that are best done on massive fields or above 10,000 feet? So many heritage outdoor brands are stuck showcasing the most remote, world class edge of the world environments. Those spaces can inspire the hell out of many, but they are often disconnected from someone who hasn’t grown up in a culture of mountaineering (or skiing or insert any pursuit that requires travel and piles of expensive gear). When a brand exclusively leans into that world, the door is closed to starting a relationship with someone new to the space. Why are brands missing this? There is such a lack of creativity by active lifestyle brands in the places that have the biggest concentration of human beings: Cities! Most cities sprouted up because of their proximity to some amazing natural feature: The ocean, a river, a lush valley. And just because it started to fill up with buildings those features are still there if you know where to look. The biggest opportunity for outdoor brands is to create bridges to the outdoors and to start with what is at hand. [Mont Royal, Montreal] [Willamette River, Portland, Oregon] [The Hudson River Valley which leads to Manhattan Island] Creativity is the art of combining two things in an unexpected way: If your brand history is in climbing - what could you climb downtown? If you have retail outposts in cities - how can they become knowledge centers for what is within a few miles and accessible by public transportation? If you have a rugged brand what could you build in an urban area that lasts? How might you spend your brand dollars on improvement projects that last for decades rather than ads that last for days? When we talk about inclusion in the outdoor category the most potent way to think about it is by relooking at what we include as outdoor exploration. If we want people to move their bodies on a progression of challenges that might end up in the backcountry…then might we use our platforms physical (stores) and digital to help them start? EVO hotels are a rare example of experience innovation for active lifestyle brands as an urban outpost of trial and community. Please share examples of doing something (anything) innovative and we’ll be sure to compile and share. The city of LA set the bar really low with La Sombrita . If the bar is this low then what are you waiting for? Physical Retail locations might be the single most underutilized marketing tool. They are a literal toe-hold in the largest markets. These true stories of Next Gen trail lovers is only the beginning. In the months to come, we'll be exploring activations that actually help people discover their trail. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you out there. back to insights →