the things we do for love

You’re not the first to ask that rhetorical question and you won’t be the last. To oversimplify, branding is a function of marketing and advertising. A brand (noun) is how people perceive your organization. Branding (verb) is the process of manufacturing the perception you want people to have of you.

Okay, So What Do You Do? Basically, what every ad agency does.

strategy

writing

design

video

social

paid media

Research

Measurement and Reporting

Analytics and Insights

What separates us from other shops is our perspective and willingness/ability to take appropriate, calculated risks. Our thinking and philosophies drive how we approach the work. Here’s what that looks like for all of our services.

strategy: WEIRD WORKS. WILLY-NILLY WASTES.

It’s expensive to blend in. That said, advertising shouldn’t be a shouting contest. Grab attention and then do something meaningful once you have it. Know who your audiences aren’t. Expand your tribe.

Strategy gets thrown around a lot. To us, strategy means intent. The best way to take risks is to look before you leap but still jump. No ad, post, or bit of content will ruin your brand if it’s got thought behind it combined with basic common sense.

WRITING: THANK YOU FOR PROVING PEOPLE STILL READ.

Words wield tremendous power — that whole pen is mightier thing. They inspire, delight, evoke, educate, and entertain. The key to good copy starts by making sure each piece of content clearly expresses:

What you want your audiences to know
What you want your audiences to feel
What you want your audiences to do next (hint: it’s not always “buy stuff”)

Once you’ve nailed down the structure, it’s time to apply your brand voice. People read aloud in their heads. (Yes, we know you verified that just now.) Voice keeps content conversational - not too dry, not too sensational, and definitely not too salesy. Your voice produces copy than can’t be copied.

Design: Art meets architecture.

People who say graphic designers “make things pretty” grind our gears. Design performs multiple jobs. On the most basic level, design serves to attract and guide the eye — through techniques like negative space and hierarchy. Below the surface, design signals the brain. Things like color, type, (a)symmetry, and photo choices evoke the thoughts and beliefs which connect us all as people. Don’t even get us started on the user experience of tactile things like menus, merch, or a gazillion others.

Not to wax poetic, but good graphic design adapts. The rigid “brand standard” guides of old inhibit exploration and innovation. Don’t mess with the logo. Use consistent type. Stick to the primary and secondary colors. End of list. What’s most important — especially in the Scrolling Age - is that each design “feels like you.”

video: Show and tell. (But keep it concise.)

Video usually wins in every scenario. It’s in demand. It can also be as cheap as you want (both in price and quality). Therein lies the current challenge. How does a business strike a balance between frequency and quality while sticking to a realistic budget?

Unfortunately, no magic formula exists. We combat the issue by creating the most compelling content possible. Weird analogy coming in 3…2… Treat video like a baseball player. Social media is Triple A. If a video performs well, send it up to the minor leagues of paid digital advertising. If the video succeeds in that environment, call it up to the big leagues of broadcast. That way you know you have a winner before shelling out the big bucks.

Social: Three BILLION people use Facebook.

Take China out of the equation, and we’re talking half the planet’s population on one platform. But just because you can create content that unites (or, let’s be honest, divides) friends and family, doesn’t mean you can create content that elevates your brand.

Social media management boils down to four things:

Content creation (text, photos, custom graphics, video, etc.)
Paid media (boosted content or ads)
Analytics and strategy (observe results and adapt)
Platform optimization (there’s more than Meta — like LinkedIn or TikTok)

Oh, and all this is happening in near-real time. It takes a team.

paid media: A.k.a. the en vogue term for advertising.

We apologize on behalf of our industry. Terms change but the meaning remains the same. Paid media means buying time or space to attract eyeballs, earholes, or both. In other words, ads. Paid media falls into two, possibly three categories: traditional, digital, and social.

Think of traditional media as the stuff you viewed before the Internet. It includes TV, radio, billboards, print, collateral (e.g., brochures), or any other old-school format.

Social media refers to buying audiences on social media platforms. It could range from a boosted post to paying an influencer to talk about your product. (Admittedly, that could fall into PR, but we’ll keep it simple.)

Digital media pertains to, well, everything else. Banner ads, SEM (like Google AdWords), streaming audio, or even native content falls under this category.

Here’s the 101 version of digital media. We see too many clients politely nodding because they’ve never had the nuts and bolts explained.

In digital, we buy audiences, which is significantly more advanced than demographics. Instead of say, targeting women 25-34 in the Fargo-Moorhead region, digital allows us to find women interested in X who live in the 58104 zip code. (And that’s like the bare minimum. Digital gets bonkers fast.)

How can we buy “behaviors” and “interests?” Enter Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). DSPs use a tin-foil-hat inducing amount of data to identify people’s interests. Websites serve up ads if the user meets pre-set criteria. This is why the ads you see on a page might be completely different than someone else - even in your household.

H2M uses two different DSPs to get the most out of Google’s Display Network as well as 60 other major networks. Once placed, we monitor performance and optimize after the algorithms do their thing.

H2M AdIntel: Research + Marketing Insights

Focus groups tell directors what they want to hear. Surveys live or die by the wording of each question. Learn differently.

H2M AdIntel mines all forms of online social activity and chatter to understand what people truly care about when it comes to the topic at hand. Honest and emphatic posts by people sitting safely behind their keyboards provide a treasure trove of candid information.

You can use fancy words like social anthropology or consumer psychology if you must - but understand there is an easier way.

What do you want to know?

The viability of your product?
General attitudes about your brand or a competitor’s brand?
What geographical location could garner the most success?
Consumer appetite for a particular business idea?

Put Our Insights to Work

Having lived the agency and research life for more than 30 years, H2M AdIntel has worked through decades of traditional research processes, both quantitative and qualitative. But then the digital world pulled back the curtain. Online chatter and activity in our present digital age has exposed the thoughts, feelings, opinions, motivations, and struggles on an individual level.

We have built a model that delivers actionable insights quickly and accurately. You can avoid working with multiple research providers as we are able to not only provide you with actionable research, but also recommendations on how this collected information can be applied to your marketing activities.

Discussing five-star reviews and angry comments isn’t enough. It takes experience to sift through the information to discover commonalities and trends. What’s more, any insights must inform action. Data rich; information poor, anyone?

We've been in your shoes, and we know what you're up against. Our goal is to give you more insights to take action, and fewer headaches.

Online Audit: Curious about your firm's actual online strength and esteem? We can audit and analyze your business’s — or your competitors’ — online presence paying special attention to differentiation, knowledge, and relevance. All this helps to have a better understanding of what is influencing audiences online, what could strengthen your campaigns, and move your brand forward toward greater success.

Digital Monitoring: Know what risks and opportunities exist for your business or monitor the success of a new campaign, merger, or announcement.

Data Word Clouds: Time-stamped word clouds graphically illustrate how a campaign is performing, including audience sentiment over time.

measurement & reporting: Strategize and track what’s important.

If you’ve read this entire section, you might recall how we regard strategy as intent. It’s the same when it comes to measurement and reporting. Throwing a wall of data generally results in infinite questions and zero answers.

We track and test ads based on metrics determined ahead of time. What matters most? Clicks, engagement (e.g., likes or shares), website traffic, or anything else that’s relevant. Those are the figures we pay attention to first and foremost when we present quarterly or bi-quarterly reports.

We also ask a more important question: “Is your engine working?” At its core, we want to know how business is doing. It borders on arrogance to assume one post or one ad is the reason for a sale. Despite what others may tell you, 100% accurate attribution isn’t possible. Data tells you what; it doesn’t tell you why.

Until our AI overlords figure it out, look for positive correlation between a marketing presence and improved business results.

analytics & insights: Data is daunting and meaningless on its own.

People feed into the narrative that human beings operate rationally. We don’t. “But numbers don’t lie.” Oh, they can and do once in human hands. That’s not to suggest data doesn’t provide value. It absolutely does. Without intent, information lacks context. What were we trying to accomplish? Did we? Okay, let’s do more of that. We’re below expectations? Why? Let’s try something else.

Looking at data as a puzzle rather than absolute truth spurs curiosity, which leads to learning, which activates change, which ultimately leads to better outcomes over time.

Frankly, it keeps us humble. Data creates motive to kill our darlings when necessary or spare ideas others would subjectively sentence to the gallows.