Nika Worlund (00:01)
it was my first time in New York. So
this new business director, she took me to Dean and Deluca and beauty and Essex, which was like super hot back then in 2013. And then next day we went and we presented. And so we got to the office, we plugged in our laptop. I started talking through the slides and literally five minutes in.
this VP tells me, well, but this is not what we need. And for a baby strategist me.
to hear that in the very first minutes of the presentation, I felt terrified. I didn't know how to proceed. I didn't know how to pivot from all of my upcoming slides, which were dissecting this issue we believed they
Nika Worlund (00:46)
Welcome to Design Bigger, the podcast for designers and studios ready to think bigger, design bigger brands and land bigger projects. I'm Nika Worland, an Exbig agency brand strategy director who took her blue chip client expertise and built a freelance career helping independent agencies around the globe. This is the podcast where I share the tricks of the trade for lean design thinking to set you up as a world-class creative talent. As a translator between business and creatives, I'll show you how to speak client, hack top agency frameworks and think like the best studios out there.
If you're ready to design bigger, hit subscribe and let's get started.
Nika Worlund (01:21)
Hello, creatives. This is Nika, your host here.
Although I should probably say hello creatives and account people and client servicing people because this episode is going to be interesting for all of you, not just designers. We are going to be talking about pivoting into a new category of expertise.
No matter what size of an agency you are, where you're located.
All agency end up developing a specialty in one or two categories. Maybe your first breakthrough project was for a tech brand, and then suddenly the briefs you're getting are from tech brands who want to be like that one you did. And you find yourself becoming the go-to agency for tech brands.
Or maybe you're working with CPG brands and you have great expertise in packaging design and your team is built to deliver die lines and are really good
with print.
Everyone has that one to two areas where they shine. And very often, you also have that other industry you always wanted to work in, right?
It is also very smart to have a diversified client portfolio.
think everybody learned during COVID, that you have to have your eggs in different baskets, right? Agencies who did predominantly hospitality work.
realized that maybe we should have diversified and had some other like CPG brands in it
But also I think
it's exciting to work on something different. So no matter who I talk to, there's always this one category they would love to do something in, right? And actually a couple of weeks ago, I had a meeting with an independent agency who specializes in charity, kind of finance, corporate, medical,
industries. So I would say all three sound very important and very serious. And they were saying, Hey, we would actually love to do something hospitality. And so I thought, Hey, this is a great topic for a podcast because this is the question I am asked all the time. do you have expertise in this category? We would really love to.
Get into it. Can you help us? Can we use your case study? Can we use your expertise?
And sometimes, you know, it works to just hire an independent freelancer and use them as kind of the way in, right? The foot in the door. There's also a more classic new business strategy.
that outlines how to branch out into the new category when you don't have expertise in that category yet.
And I know that many agencies would probably think that the first thing to do would be to go and pitch But it's pretty risky
because you don't have credentials to support your and of course there's a lot of overlap between different categories, right? If you're working for real estate developers, branching out into...
hospitality will be easier because the deliverables are similar, right? there is way finding, there is signage, it's kind of space branding, there is overlap and you can take a case study from a different category, find.
transferable skills and talk about that. But if you're going for a more established brand, a smarter way to go about it is to actually build your expertise in that category with small brand case studies, So there are kind of six steps to this new business strategy. The first is,
You pick your North Star, right? Your dream client. Say
You always loved menu designs and restaurants and cafes and coffee shops, and you would love to do something in that space. And you have a local restaurant that you would love to redesign.
So that becomes your North Star.
So what you want to do is to then find stepping stones projects that help you.
get the big fish in the end.
So these stepping stones projects, are the brands in the category that are small enough that they wouldn't necessarily mind the fact that you don't have a ton of experience in this category.
and they would just love professional design work done. And you can establish a relationship with them or define the terms where maybe they don't have the budget that you necessarily want, but they will allow you to be more free and creative in your work. And so this kind of relationship gives you more freedom.
and you ultimately create your perfect case study. And they get this amazing design work, but maybe, you limit the number of design rounds and the number of concepts and everybody wins. So for example, if you want your local restaurant as a North Star,
You go and find a new coffee shop that's just opening up or an old donut shop
that hasn't been redesigned since the 80s. And you go and you work with those businesses and brands and you do work you're really excited about, they end up with an amazing new brand identity and you end up with a great case study.
So that is kind of your step two.
So after you have done this step two, which is identifying those stepping stone brands.
Step 3. Stocking people on LinkedIn
So once you have found these brands
that would want you to do work for them.
on a smaller budget, but you are confident that it will look amazing in your portfolio, you find their brand director, marketing director. Sometimes it's the founder, know, it's a small business.
and you just shoot them a message and you say, hey, we're an agency. We would love to work in this industry. We're currently building a portfolio in this new category and we could offer you a better rate and we could deliver some incredible work for you in exchange for a really great case study
And so very often small business owners would be thrilled to get a message like that because ultimately they can't afford very often.
like a proper brand identity, Especially if we're talking about.
the beloved local businesses, like the local small coffee shops and donut shops and bakeries that you drive by every day and you see that they could benefit so much from a little facelift.
And before you message those decision makers, know, really research them, really understand, like see where they went to school.
look at their posts and find out what they're passionate about, what they're interested about, if you find them on Instagram, it's even better.
And then make sure that you use the information you've gathered to write a really good message to them or when you meet in person to ensure that you kind of find those connections. For example, last year I have pitched on a winery in Napa and before going to the meeting and that was already, a pitch so.
we were just preparing for the presentation.
We have found this post by the brand director who was going to be in the meeting and was one of the decision makers in the room. And she was writing about the quiet luxury trend, which was very hot last year, which was all about how
know, lecture used to be very opulent and the vert, was all about like a blingy Rolex watch and a Ferrari. And remember when everybody wore t-shirts with the DNG logo and blue Vuitton pattern bags
And last year, the fashion trend of Quiet Luxury has really spilled over to the CPG and other categories with packaging that was very minimalist and clean and simple. And you could see then fashion, Like Gwyneth Paltrow and, gosh, what's her name? Was it Sophia Richie?
Yeah, Sofia Ricci wedding look, you know, it was all about quite luxury and very like understated elegance and beauty and.
This brand manager has written how it would be so great, you know, if this trend was adopted more by brands So we actually went back and changed some of our slides. One of the concepts was very much in line with this quite luxury trend, but we rewarded the concept name and the story wording to make sure that we're
overtly saying words, quite luxury. And when we were in a room and we were talking about it, we could definitely see her head nodding. She didn't know that we found that post on LinkedIn and she felt very connected with everything we were saying.
So do your research.
And ideally you would be able to ask them a few questions on the phone or via LinkedIn or via email and kind of get an understanding of what the brand is struggling with because you can assume from far away based on, you know, general trends in that category, what they might be struggling with, but you will never really know unless they tell you. And it is hard to find that out.
You can ask them openly, What is your brand currently struggling with? And they might tell you, or they might feel that you're being too pushy and salesy. You never know. So it's an art, but try and figure it out. And...
to encourage you to seek that information before next step. I'll tell you a horror story. So was 25 years old working at an agency in London.
that specialized in spirits. most of my clients were Scotch brands, which was really fun.
but because our main client was this big spirits company.
Our agreement with them prevented us working with other spirits brands.
We were their agency of choice and they did not want us to take all of the learnings we have uncovered through working with them and go to their competitor, even if it's a smaller competitor. So we literally couldn't work with any other spirit brand in the world.
So what we decided is to go after the beer category. It.
wasn't their competition because the beer consumer occasion is very different from a spirits consumer occasion. It's a different tempo. It's a different time. It's a different setting. So they would be totally fine with us going and approaching a beer brand. And at the same time, there were a lot of learnings.
that were transferable and a lot of skills and expertise because those both categories are alcohol.
And so our new business director.
reached out to this, ⁓ gosh, I don't remember, he was very up high, like VP of brand of this international beer brand. And their headquarters were in New York and we were in London. And so she said, okay, we need to go with a bold point of view on their brand. And I remember I was so scared.
Any change on the brand like that would be like a huge decision for the owning company.
but we didn't really know and we weren't in a position to ask direct questions like, what are you currently struggling with? So I have developed this point of view. It was a strategic presentation, looking at the category, talking about our credentials and spirits and how our learnings are transferable and what we can bring to the beer category, what we thought beer category was lacking. We looked at the consumer trends and
you know, everything. And so we flew to New York for three days. it was me and our new business director. And, you know, we had a day before the meeting and a day after the meeting and it was so great. We went to all of the places we wanted to go. And I, you know, I think
it was my first time in New York. So
this new business director, she took me to Dean and Deluca and beauty and Essex, which was like super hot back then in 2013. walked through a central park and we had lots of delicious food and coffee. And then next day we went and we presented. And so we got to the office, we plugged in our laptop. I started talking through the slides and literally five minutes in.
this VP tells me, well, but this is not what we need. And a baby strategist me.
to hear that in the very first minutes of the presentation, I felt terrified. I didn't know how to proceed. I didn't know how to pivot from all of my upcoming slides, which were dissecting this issue we believed they
And so he was very nice. He let us finish. in the end, he said, ultimately, we are not looking to change anything in this area.
You know, we have an agency of choice right now that we're happy with.
And I don't think we're going to be working with you guys, but thank you so much for your thinking. This is really good thinking and we'll keep you in mind if we ever need this kind of work.
gosh, that was a hard pill to swallow. So the day after this, you know, we kind of wandered around New York. We still had a good time, but we were pretty disheartened. So to avoid that, this was a very expensive investment, right? It took me probably like a week to develop the presentation.
the tickets, the hotel, all of the credit card expenses. It was an expensive investment
and it didn't bring any ROI. So from then on, I would not make any assumptions unless I can get some sort of confirmation from the client that we are going with a point of view.
that is truly helpful to their business. So when you to them LinkedIn, ask for a phone call, ask for a quick coffee, hear them out, ask lots of questions, Once you have done that and there is interest and there is a need, then you move step number four, which is a chemistry meeting. The chemistry meeting is a meeting where
you're kind of feeling each other out.
So bring your design team, not all of it, but bring your creative director or if you're a creative director, bring yourself, maybe your account person or partner.
get together with a client and essentially this is the presentation where they want to hear your point of view.
You still don't know much about the business. So don't rush to design anything, right? At this point, this client is not prepared to see any designs. They kind of just want to know, what are you thinking? And so at a chemistry meeting, usually we would share
a little bit about us and the credentials. We would share some case studies that we find relevant for them. We would share our point of view on what's happening with their category. And then some interesting ideas about how consumer trends are shifting or the wider cultural context, how that is shaping their industry and their brand.
And based on all of that, you tell them, you know, if we were your agency, here is how we would reposition you for growth. Or this is the kind of brand we would create to make sure you resonate with this new type of consumer.
So this is really like a hundred percent strategy presentation, Everything you're sharing is thinking, zero design.
except for some design case studies.
but thinking is also not the only thing that's important in that meeting. It's called a chemistry meeting because it's about a relationship, right? Do you like each other?
Do they feel like you're a good fit? So also if you feel like, okay, we don't have experience in hospitality, but we're so passionate and we would give you an incredible deal and we would give you our best talent
and we would create the work that we are proud of.
and don't be afraid to look a little bit hungry, right? Clients love the passion and hungry agencies. So that's why it's a chemistry meeting.
Now once you go and do a couple of projects like that,
Make sure you share them. That's step five is working loudly. Working loudly means putting your case studies online, but not just on your website because...
you need to meet the potential clients where they are. And they are on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Pinterest.
Founders who are creating new brands are probably on Pinterest for new inspiration.
directors of more established brands are probably on LinkedIn reading, learning from their industry peers. And all of us are on Instagram or TikTok. So that's a good place to shout about what you've done. So yes, of course, put it on your website as well because it is so important once the client is in the shopping mindset, but make sure that
you are putting your work out there in places where you can be found.
And once you have done these five steps, you can then gather your few case studies in this category and go approach your North Star Dream Client.
So that's it. That's kind of your classic new business strategy for entering a different category. It probably will take you a couple of years. It probably will take you a few sacrifices, Like any pivot in any area of life, whether it's a career pivot, relationship pivot, it's a risk. It's not necessarily effective, but often,
If done right, it pays off.
So it will probably mean
sacrificing time and money and energy risking and probably meeting with a few brands that will be a waste of your time.
But once you have those few case studies, that's it. That's your foot in the door It diversifies your portfolio of clients. It makes you more resilient. So even if you are very happy with the...
category you operate right now.
one basket.
and use strategy to go and feel out all of those potential stepping stones, clients. Don't waste your time designing.
So I hope I inspired you to go and explore new territories.
Go after your dreams and get a few.
new exciting jobs in the pipeline.
If you want more tips and tricks like this, please subscribe to this podcast. It helps me so much. Rate it, hopefully at five stars if you enjoyed this.
if you want to learn even more, go to my website at nicowarland.com.
and sign up for my weekly emails. I promise I'm not gonna spam you. I don't really have time to write spam. honestly don't know how people.
write like 20 emails a week. I'm not there yet. So you will get a nice short and sweet email every week. I will be adding more content to my emails with industry trends, commentary on the recent events in branding.
as well as my upcoming training.
You can also follow me on Instagram at nika warland.
So that's that for today.
Go create something big and beautiful
And remember that the best designers, the best creative directors, the best account managers, the best new business directors, they're all strategic.
