Shaping the Future: Taking Companies and Brands Further

Written by
Melissa Lohrer

Shaping the Future: Taking Companies and Brands Further

We believe brands have the power to shape culture and impact lives in profoundly positive ways. Our role as a branding agency is to deeply understand what moves people, visualize a new reality, and make it happen.

As the role of brands continues to evolve and the world of branding is redefined, we are staying ahead of it—reinventing our offerings, identifying more effective strategies for brands, and helping our clients to stay future-ready.

Here’s where we see the future going, and how we think the brands and partnerships can have the biggest impact on what tomorrow looks like.

The future is responsive

We’re excited by how the role of branding is shifting beyond shelves and apps into the fabric of audiences’ lives. Right now, brands have an opportunity and responsibility to participate meaningfully.

“Social changes are placing importance on purpose-led branding and values. Smart brands are realizing they have a responsibility,” says our co-founder Paul McDowall. “They could once prove their values through grand actions or investments, but now they’re becoming intrinsic in the relationship and experience.”

Our partnerships focus on the role our clients play in culture. Through cultivating this understanding, together we can maximize the significance of brands in the real lives of their audiences.

From helping large corporations define their sustainability narrative to defining brand purpose, values and actions for a new brand, the ability to be responsive becomes critical in any situation that’s bigger than a brand alone. It’s just as key to brand new progressive organizations as it is to forward-thinking legacy brands.

We’re most energized and inspired by the brands that are innovating better tomorrows in response to what their consumers—and the world—demands of them. We’re excited to continue forging partnerships in industries where change is needed so we can continue to shape brands and their impact in the world around us.

Seizing the defining moment

Throughout our 20 years, the world of branding has evolved—and we’ve evolved with it. Our team has grown to include human beings who are smart, thoughtful, and empathetic, but who also shine light, ignite, and energize. We’ve developed lasting relationships with brand leaders, who place their trust in us at moments when the path doesn’t present itself with clear direction.

“We’ve never been interested in the one off briefs but instead, really understanding the core of an organization so we can drive long-term impact,” says Paul. “We want to understand the beating hearts behind a company so we can do the work of architecting their future, not just providing short-term solutions.”

The way clients engage with agencies is changing. Undergoing our own journey to be “future ready” has allowed us to step back and define what we do best. We partner with brands at defining moments, Creation / Amplification / Transformation, to spark their next evolution. It’s an approach rooted in who we’ve always been—and one that’s becoming even more impactful as the role of brands shifts.

“Our role as an agency is not to provide just clear-cut solutions, but empowerment,” says cm co-founder Catherine Clark. “We’re partnering with clients, committing to them, and striding alongside them into the future."

Forward-moving steps

If the future is just a series of forward-moving steps, every decision takes your brand in one direction or another. Making brands future-ready has never been more relevant than it is right now. We’re working with brands as they take the reins and shape the future at large.

Great brands, and great leaders, adapt. We’re excited to work with independent thinkers to explore brands’ abilities to push the world further and shift paradigms when by taking on an entrepreneurial approach and meeting challenges with grit.

The process for meaningful evolution is never linear and always human. With strong partnerships built on trust, clients and agencies can get there together.

“These vulnerable times of change are also filled with potential,” says Catherine. “We can help make magic happen and forge meaningful relationships here.”

It’s why we’re leaning into industries and initiatives where the opportunity to make change is looming large. We’re lucky to stand by the side of Harman, an innovative connected technology company, who is shifting the narrative around tech in the auto industry to focus on connection when we’re all in need of a sense of community. We’ve partnered with The OKC Thunder to build community with the world of fans and amplify shared values. And in our continuing work with PepsiCo, we’re creating a global sustainability narrative to help them better serve the planet and its people.

The future’s uncertain, but it’s also wide open. Our current cultural moment is full of potential. How can brands seize it to play a more impactful role in peoples’ lives and shape the future? That’s the question that gives our work meaning beyond metrics. We’ll always be evolving as an agency, but we’ll never stop looking for the answer

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Shaping the Future: A Conversation with our Founders

Shaping the Future: Taking Companies and Brands Further

Shaping the Future: Taking Companies and Brands Further