This year, VSAers are embarking on an ambitious journey to redesign logos, websites, apps, packaging and more. It’s our contribution to businesses, brands and society by exploring potential solutions to the many types of expressions and experiences in the world we think have the potential of being better. We have not been commissioned for these solutions, but rather it’s our passion for great creativity that motivates us.
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In some instances, we’ll be considering what exists today. At other times, we’ll consider the opportunity for something yet to be solved, but we see it as critical for the future.
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Visit design4better.co to see the ever-evolving sketchpad for ambitious concepts that push design and organizations forward. From bold ideas to new interactions, we create with curiosity and purpose.
Ever.Ag, a leader in agricultural software, data, analytics, and finance, recently unveiled a new campaign that challenges the limitations of phrases like “farm to table.” The campaign highlights how its solutions help folks working in the global food supply chain manage and optimize the intricate and delicate ecosystem of everything that happens in between the table and the farm.
Boasting decades of hands-on experience, the new Ever.Ag brand name better represents the depth and breadth of its capabilities. This 360 campaign found the connecting thread of a story encompassing so many of Ever.Ag’s proven successes in the industry.
Ever.Ag has a diverse customer base that spans the agriculture supply chain. Farmers rely on it to manage risk, food manufacturers use it to help reduce waste, and retailers use it to inform sustainability efforts. This new campaign needed to speak to all of those people and businesses and demonstrate exactly how Ever.Ag can help people drive progress and efficiency in these constantly evolving industries.
Ever.Ag is making a difference in the world around us by envisioning a more fruitful, durable farming ecosystem. This campaign captures the essence of their capabilities without losing sight of the central story—it’s a lot to do, so Ever.Ag does a lot.”
To help create the campaign, Ever.Ag tapped VSA Partners, a creative and strategy agency that designs for a better human experience. VSA’s reputation for making the complex compelling was a perfect fit for telling Ever.Ag’s story and ensuring that its messaging would resonate with a wide range of audiences.
“At the end of the day, Ever.Ag is here to help the people we serve,” says Toby Lee, Chief Marketing Officer of Ever.Ag. “VSA Partners knows how to take a truly intricate business and find the human story. We’re really proud of how this campaign turned out and the tone it sets for Ever.Ag’s exciting future.”
VSA worked with Ever.Ag to create a powerful narrative that would lean into the trust that comes from generations of know-how and deep partnerships, as well as Ever.Ag’s innovative technology and visionary data that tackles the industry’s biggest challenges. By upending phrases like “pasture to plate” and “seed to store,” VSA set the stage for conveying Ever.Ag’s vast capabilities and for communicating its status as a premier intelligent supply chain and risk management company in agriculture.
“Ever.Ag is making a difference in the world around us by envisioning a more fruitful, durable farming ecosystem,” says VSA CEO Anne-Marie Rosser. “This campaign captures the essence of their capabilities without losing sight of the central story—it’s a lot to do, so Ever.Ag does a lot.”
Chief Growth Officer Ariadna Navarro was recently featured on MarketScale, discussing her views on how businesses can move forward with integrating AI into their operations in an ethical and sustainable way.
Ari outlines her approach with four pillars: transparency, boundaries, accountability and education.
Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber was published in SmartBrief. His piece, “What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Luxury Brands,” explores how B2B marketers can tap into the same tactics used by high-end consumer goods to create stronger brands and relationships. Read the intro below.
Consumer marketing tactics are frequently regarded as irrelevant by business-to-business sales operations. B2B, after all, is all about thoroughly educating customers and forming deep sales relationships. And it typically has a longer sales cycle than applies to most consumer marketing.
But there is one category of consumer products that faces very similar challenges to the B2B space and may provide a roadmap for how to create more demand: luxury.
Luxury products are outliers in the consumer marketing realm. Just like B2B products, they too require significant differentiation and relationship building. However, unlike many B2B organizations, marketers in the category heighten this relationship with strong brand-building and enhanced customer experiences—not just to acquire new customers, but to turn people into superfans who purchase repeatedly and consistently advocate for these products.
I believe these tactics can offer a wealth of opportunity to B2B marketers.
A personalized touch is a hallmark of both luxury and B2B. Both types of buyers want to be recognized by name and expect special treatment. Whereas B2B often relies on the salesperson to personalize interactions, luxury starts this journey of meeting personal needs much higher in the funnel.
Highly specialized and personalized communications from the start go a long way toward establishing a transaction further down the line. In many ways, it takes the pressure off the salesperson of having to build the relationship from a cold start, warming the customer with a sense that the company as a whole understands them and their needs. But more importantly, it claims some of the loyalty for the brand itself.
From the earliest marketing interactions, successful luxury elevates the perception of being a part of something bigger than one’s self—something that sets you apart from the masses. Whether it’s a cologne with a slightly odd smell or an interior with an unexpected combination of styles, or even a handbag that might be perceived as gaudy, luxury products demand your attention and impart that attention on the buyers themselves. It essentially changes the conversation from “Should I buy this?” to “How can I live without it?” The customer arrives asking the salesperson not how you fit into their life, but rather how they fit into your world.
B2B can easily employ similar tactics. From adding unexpected, custom-feeling design elements to your product to upgrading packaging for a luxury feel to inviting your customers to an exclusive event, B2B marketers have a wide range of opportunities to enhance the look, feel or other memorable element of either the product or the marketing. The result is a vibrant and enjoyable product experience that helps buyers justify their choice, motivates other employees using the product, and boosts their reputation among their peers.
AdForum interviewed VSA Chief Growth Officer Ariadna Navarro to get her thoughts on the future of AI and creativity, and how companies can set ethical, responsible guardrails around the technology. Check out an excerpt below.
It’s a little of both right now. We encourage everyone to use it, but with guardrails and guidelines to keep the work honest, human, and original. At the moment, AI is best suited to things like exploration, evaluation, and experimentation. It can reliably accelerate existing processes—from research and analysis to idea generation and content creation—but it’s equally susceptible to misinformation, redundancies, and both legal and ethical issues that we’re only beginning to understand.
In other words, AI is an exciting, new option in our toolkit, but it’s nowhere near a replacement for any of the ways we work yet.
The accessibility factor is core to AI’s success. It’s incredibly rare for a tool to possess both the low barriers to entry and the near-infinite possibilities that AI represents. The open format and widespread availability of this generation’s AI tools have given them access to an unheard-of volume of perspectives, permutations, and information that’s driving its rapid evolution, but that also comes with increasing risk.
While the exponential growth and innovation of these nascent phases is exciting, it’s also why we can’t afford to lose any more ground in understanding and safeguarding against the dangers and threats it could pose.
VSA’s Marisa Rondinelli, a director of strategy, was recently published by the Association of National Advertisers. Her piece, “Why TikTok Trends Are a Marketer’s Best Friend,” explores why brands should take social media trends seriously, and how doing so creates better products and stronger customer loyalty. She also lays out actionable steps that brands can take to improve their social listening and quickly respond and capitalize on social media trends. Read an excerpt below.
Today’s viral TikTok trends featuring unconventional hacks, secret-menu items and #challenges have led to the emergence of ”TikTok products.” Born from real users rather than the boardroom, these trends are forcing brands to respond, wreaking havoc on supply chains and angering retail workers. Despite this disruption, here’s why they’re the best thing to happen to your business—and how to make the most of it.
As marketers, it’s our job to be the voice of the consumer. We research and we listen, we plan and we predict. Yet we often get it wrong.
Consumers are complicated and unpredictable. Their beliefs don’t match their behaviors, and their preferences don’t translate to purchases we think they will. So when they tell us what they want, it’s on us to listen—and respond.
Yes, these viral-born products, hacks and ideas can create a diversion from approved marketing plans and leave brand and product managers scrambling. Brands may even feel trapped—held hostage by the whims of TikTok trends. But if we look past the initial chaos that’s created, we can see them for what they really are: a gift. Because at their core, they’re built of the stuff marketers’ dreams are made of.
First off, these are authentic endorsements of the brand from trusted voices. Organic exposure from influencers is valuable enough—couple that with the virality of a social media trend, and you have grassroots marketing at its finest. Remember when nostalgic millennials discovered the magic that happens when you put ice cream in a Fruit Roll-Up? These are moments that build both ownership and brand awareness for your business.
Second, these trends are novel solutions rooted in unmet needs. Social media has created a way for brands to connect with customers like never before and what once could only be obtained in listening sessions is now a dialogue that runs 24/7. When trends like the cottage cheese and mustard sensation that captivated the protein-craving community emerge, brands can learn in almost real time what their customers want and how they’d prefer that need to be met.
Lastly, these trends showcase sizable demand that equates to strong conversion. It’s the kind of clear ROI signal you rarely get from other forms of marketing. Take the Peter Thomas Roth eye tightener that has repeatedly sold out since the original viral video gained over 50 million views in 2021. Trends pay off.
To capitalize on these moments, there are a few ways brands can ready themselves for maximum impact:
Top up social listening capabilities to get wind of trends sooner. Better yet, bring creators into the conversation early by creating influencer networks, hosting co-creation sessions, or offering product-previews in exchange for feedback and usage ideas.
Chief Growth Officer Ariadna Navarro recently appeared on “The Unified Brand Podcast,” hosted by Chris Outlaw.
During the show, Ari shared how brands can increase their Moments of Impact® (MOIs) by investing in the brand interactions that matter, and using their brand as a filter to decide which moments have the greatest significance for brand recognition and loyalty.
Thanks to Chris Outlaw and ”The Unified Brand Podcast“ for having Ari on. Listen to the full episode.
