IX Use Case: Rogerson Communities Taps Ideasicle X For A Unifying Brand Idea
We recently finished up a brand ideas assignment for a wonderful company doing wonderful things in Boston. We hope our work helps them make an even bigger impact in the world. Here’s their story.
the company:
Rogerson Communities. With more than 30 programs in the aging services sector, Rogerson Communities is a Boston-based non-profit executing a 160-year-old mission to serve seniors by developing and providing the full continuum of aging services -- affordable housing, assisted living, residential memory care, senior living communities, adult day programs, and a growing portfolio of housing and supportive health care services.
Client:
Courtney Barth, VP Advancement
Ideasicle X Product:
ProXy Service (2 Rounds of Ideas)
Application:
Brand ideas
Testimonial, in Courtney Barth’s words:
Rogerson is a nonprofit that develops and manages affordable housing, independent living, assisted living/memory care, and adult day health for older adults. We have a complex ecosystem and a layered “operating world” requiring different levels of expertise, requirements to market to myriad constituencies, and challenges the organization to speak with a unified voice.
Examples of our complex eco-system includes having ongoing relationships with multiple constituencies:
We have donors and could not serve older adults in all the ways we do without their continued support.
We support clients with managerial expertise we outsource to them.
We have the older adult residents in our communities as well as their families.
We have our staff, all the professionals attending directly to the residents, including front-line clinical workers, caregivers, administrators and more.
We partner with architects and builders who build/renovate properties.
We have relationships with governing bodies who regulate our category.
Each of these audiences experience Rogerson differently. The challenge was finding a single brand idea that would work for all our capabilities AND be relevant to our key audiences.
One of our board members was referred to Ideasicle X by our trusted research partner, Rich Schreuer from Echo Cove Research & Consulting. Rich had been essential in helping us structure surveys, qualitative and quantitative studies to gain essential customer and consumer insights around the Rogerson brand. We had reached a pivotal intersection. Do we now hire an agency to activate the brand? Or is there an interim opportunity to consider?
Schreuer was familiar with the Ideasicle X virtual model and its access to world-class creative talent. Moreover, he knew Will Burns, the company founder.
The introduction.
We initially met with Will over Zoom. He showed us the ProXy Service, in which he reviews our research, develops the creative brief, recruits, and manages the project team. From my experience in marketing and communications, I could not imagine having access to this level of talent for this manageable a budget anywhere else, so we said, “Let’s go!”
The creative brief: the truth is in here.
The first step was the development of the creative brief. Burns reviewed nearly two years of Scheuer’s background research in addition to marketing materials and strategic internal documents. He then interviewed nine people from specific disciplines across Rogerson. In his words, he wanted to get a 360 view of the organization because, “the truth is in here, we just have to find it.”
The Creative Brief Presentation was a pivotal piece of working with Ideasicle X. Will’s process is collaborative by intention. I believe it was essential for my senior management team to see how this part of the puzzle was unfolding. I wanted them not only to be part of making it happen, but to understand their role in contributing to its success. I believe one of the Board members, in response to Will’s presentation of the creative brief, on the Zoom call said, “Brilliant!” as soon as it was over. And it was. We were very confident and excited about the strategic direction we were headed in.
Brand ideas: Round 1.
Will Burns then drafted his creative dream team through the Ideasicle X platform. It included advertising super-stars Ernie Schenck, Monica Taylor, David Baldwin, and one other who remained the “secret sauce” (we never DID find out who she was!).
In one week Burns came back with 10 tightly packaged ideas for presentation; representing a range of work, impressions of where Rogerson might fit in the senior landscape, and how our consumers and customers might be thinking and talking about us as a result of each. Will warned us these presentations sometimes float into “therapy sessions” for clients, as crystalizing who Rogerson was with actual ideas tends to inspire real opinions to be voiced, discussed, bandied about, and pushed around.
It was a perfect forum for us as Rogerson. We are never shy or short on opinions and the first round of work was diverse and encouraged lots of discussion and feedback. We debated. We speculated. We had our therapy. We recognized we were not quite “there” yet, but well on our way.
The ball was now in our court to fully consolidate our feedback. He needed to brief his team for the second round.
Brand ideas: Round 2.
One week later 10 very different creative approaches were presented to my team, all inspired by our feedback. Each of the ideas were powerful options. Each had more gravitas and felt more purposeful than Round 1. I could see my team’s reaction was moving quickly to one or two potential options in a definitive way. These ideas were inspirational, it was clear. Our discussions crystallized and rallied around one powerful concept. We quickly (and easily) began to visualize how motivating it could be for donors, clients, staff and caregivers, older adults in our care….. for everyone in the Rogerson orbit. It was amazing to see how this second round of creative felt very focused and my team became animated around a rich and emotional concept.
Brand idea approved. On to manifesto.
After this second presentation it took but a few moments to land on: “Rogerson Communities. The Art of Well-being.” We had our galvanizing message and Rogerson brand.
Here’s exactly how the idea (and the other 20 ideas over two rounds) was presented to us:
Click to enlarge.
We approved this concept and within days, Ideasicle X and Expert, Ernie Schenck, drafted and crystallized our Brand Manifesto that really brought the idea to life and gave our brand a form of “contract” for which all of us will serve going forward.
Here it is:
Click to enlarge.
Activation begins.
We are now chomping at the bit to activate “The Art of Well-being” across the Rogerson Communities organization. We have multiple plans in place to do so that include a new website, a multi-media interpretation of the Manifesto, strategic digital communications, thought leadership messaging and so much more.
“The Art of Well-being” is about to touch everyone in the Rogerson orbit --- from staff and caregivers, vendors, developers, partners and donors, to extended family members, local community leaders, and important referral sources and many more.
For anyone wrestling with a branding project, I highly recommend calling Will Burns at Ideasicle X. Wrestle no more.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post.