Services Overview
As a marketing leader, few things are more frustrating than
working with an agency you were really excited about once,
that you just can’t seem to get good work from now. They’re
doing great work for other clients; why aren’t they doing great
work for me?
Stone Soup has the experience and the expertise to help you
figure it out, and lead you to a much better place (which may or
may not include starting all over again with a new agency).
Agency Search and Selection
Using a unique approach to agency selection that balances process rigor with “creative freedom”, we enable what’s special about each agency to shine through, even when capabilities are very similar. It’s an approach that gets rave reviews from both clients and agencies.
Building Marketing Capabilities
Experiential Full and Half Day Workshops
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Explore what makes great client/agency work, types of agencies, how they work, steps in the creative development process, how agencies are compensated, and the client’s role in getting to great work. Designed for new marketers.
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Learn the purpose of a creative brief, the link between creative briefs and brand strategy, critical elements to include in a creative brief, and how to use a brief to inspire great creative ideas. Designed for marketers at all levels and senior leaders responsible for approving creative work.
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Learn the role of creativity in driving business results, the importance of the client/agency relationship, how to foster an environment for great creativity, how to integrate the work of multiple agency partners, and how to “course correct” creative work. Designed for senior marketing leaders.
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Gain confidence and learn simple tools for evaluating creative work, providing feedback that makes the work better, and “calling it quits” on an idea that isn’t working. Designed for marketers at all levels who work with agencies.
“Lunch & Learn” 60-90 Minute Sessions
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A showcase of award-winning work and the lessons marketers can learn from the best of the best in the industry from the U.S. and around the globe.
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The best clients get the best work from every agency. The best work, in turn, drives the best business results. Here’s how to be the client that gets any agency’s best work.
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A review of the research proving the link between award winning creative work and business results.
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Typical agency compensation models, the client-side advantages and disadvantages of each, and how to choose (or create) one that works for you.
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Insights based on the book, “How Brands Grow; What Marketers Don’t Know” by Byron Sharp. A summary of important research that might surprise you about how buyers buy and how sales grow.
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Implications of the Laws of Growth on creative development; how to create work that is distinctive and effective.
Consulting & Coaching
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Perfect for when you need an experienced marketer to step in as needed to help with the development of brand strategy, manage the sourcing, selection, and on-boarding of external agency talent, and lead the creative process.
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Stone Soup partners lead your team in working on a “real world” communication campaign, using a unique engagement model that is highly collaborative, fuels creativity, streamlines process, integrates the work of multiple partners, reduces fees, and increases speed to market.
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Senior Leader Coaching – Often what marketers learn in workshops is never applied on the job because senior leaders aren’t aligned on the learning principles. Stone Soup will work with senior marketing and other leaders to help embed the learning principles into the organization’s culture.
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Helping you build a customized roster to meet your needs and find partners who are perfectly matched to your brand and organization requirements, budget, culture, and chemistry.
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Sometimes the best agency for you is the one you’re already working with, but something’s gotten in the way of your ability to do your best work together. We can help by assessing where the problems are and guiding you through solutions that get you and your partners back on track and back to work quickly.
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Are you providing the kind of curriculum, content, and delivery of training proven most effective in building strong leaders of the creative process? We can assess your training program, identify areas for improvement, and propose modifications (including the creation of customized learning experiences) that close gaps and elevate marketing capabilities to "next generation practices.”
