A complex story and a varied audience
Great marketing can be powerful. Great programmatic marketing can be transformational, but only when it engenders real insight about consumers. For agencies and marketers, the promise of digital marketing is the ability to know your audience so specifically that you can connect with them in a highly personalized and relevant way. This is the promise The TradeDesk (TTD) delivers. However, before working with Baker they found it difficult to articulate their promise in plain English.
As the fastest-growing demand-side platform in advertising technology, the company’s diverse stakeholder groups each held their own distinct level of understanding of the ad tech industry. Baker helped the company articulate their story in a way that would appeal to and be comprehended by all — from those deeply entrenched in the field to those less familiar with its sophisticated terminology. We defined their value proposition and arrived at a strong positioning. We wrote a brand story that captured their true essence — uncovering the business drivers and critical insights that shape the company today and will help guide its tomorrows.
Involving employees on the road to differentiation
Employees played a critical role in revealing TTD’s brand. It was a top priority of the company’s CEO, Jeff Green, to make sure his people felt included in the creation of the brand. We gave team members at all levels the opportunity to participate. In the end, their extensive involvement in the process facilitated greater buy-in and the ability for employees to better embody the brand while servicing clients.
Individual interviews and group work sessions were conducted with groups of employees in New York and Ventura, CA. In addition, we carried out telephone conversations with other employee groups from key offices around the world. Coupling this with a competitive review and other forms of primary and secondary research, Baker successfully unearthed the company’s values and critical insights about TTD’s business, its people and technology that informed our brand development.
Conveying true value and transparency
With insight and a clear vision for the future, TTD’s mission to transform the way advertising works became apparent. With a pure buy-side loyalty and focus, the company puts control and power back into the hands of agencies while giving the agency’s clients incredible visibility into where their dollars are doing the most for them. TTD’s technology establishes a new norm, a paradigm of connection. For the first time ever their ad tech platform enables relevant, one-to-one marketing to happen. All of this we captured in the new tagline: “True buying power.”
The simplicity of the tagline contrasted with its deep meaning. It represents TTD’s offering — a superior demand (buy)-side platform that provides an unsurpassed level of expressiveness, running 4 quadrillion permutations per campaign versus the 5-200 allowed by others. TTD gives ad buyers the ability to target an individual with no limit. This is an unprecedented advantage. By making learning and improving powerfully accessible with every impression, placement, ad creative and campaign, the company is making marketing performance-focused and delivering meaningful insight to agencies, marketers and the industry.
Helping people to work smarter and succeed is at the company’s core. It is at the heart of how TTD is changing the advertising industry for the better. This is the purpose of their technology platform and the idea that inspires them to come to work every day.
A strong spirit of alignment for a new chapter
The brand development and messaging gave TTD a platform to speak more clearly and concisely about who they are, what they do and most importantly — why they do it. Because of the extensive employee involvement throughout the process, when the brand story and tagline launched it resonated well and generated alignment, understanding and enthusiasm within the company. The timing could not have been more perfect. The new positioning and messaging gave the company a compelling story for its initial public offering, which they filed shortly after culminating the brand work.
“Baker was an incredible partner to us during this pivotal moment. You made our complex story easy for people to understand. It helped make our public offering a big success. The ‘true buying power’ tagline is exactly the advantage we provide. We can’t thank you enough.”