One Artificial Quality Every Branding Agency Has

Artificial Agencies Everywhere

In a majority of branding and design agencies across the world, you have employees who maintain a series of different facades. And just as lower-level positions maintain these emulations, so do upper management and bosses.

What’s at work in these branding agencies is a complementary dynamic. The employees, managers, and bosses all permeate a specific facade in order to compliment who they might be interacting with at that point. Individuals conversing with coworkers on the same pay grade with them will act, speak, and behave a certain way that they might not replicate when talking to a manager. And vice versa.

An example of this at work could be two coworkers complaining about long hours, or two executives discussing layoffs. Both are conversations that undoubtedly occur in the advertising and marketing industry, and both are conversations whose audience you’d be selective about.

Now, you might be thinking why such an elementary procedure is being described. Obviously, you wouldn’t b*tch to your director about stuff you’d normally say to your coworkers. And there’s no way the management of a branding agency is going to discuss something like layoffs with lower level employees. Everyone would nominate Tim from HR anyway. That dude brought vegan lasagna to the last holiday party.

So why are we taking the time to explain this? Because, as we’ve proved time and time again, we’re an Austin advertising and branding agency that doesn’t follow norms. We break rules and ignore format. As the anti-template, it’s how we’ve earned our stripes. And this particular guideline from corporate America, the idea that you have to maintain certain personalities around certain people, is one we particularly dislike. So we won’t hesitate to tell you about all the ways we don’t follow it.

Setting the Precedent

Unless you’re one of the ballsiest and dumbest rookies to step into the advertising biz, chances are you’re not going to break this rule. You’re not going to walk into work Monday morning and start yammering about the graphic and raunchy details of your weekend in Vegas at your brother’s bachelor party. Unless you were working at our Austin branding agency. In fact, you probably wouldn’t have a choice.

Annie Jones and her marketing and design firm, Rock Candy Media, have never in their existence adopted this idea of facades. Annie talks to you the same way she would talk to an old friend. With absolutely no filter, and no regard for appearing a certain way. It’s an all natural aura that scares some people and attracts others. We’ve found that the latter tend to be industry-rattling companies, so it’s worked out to our benefit as a branding agency.

Annie retains such a transparent and steadfast personality, that at times it’s hard to imagine her as anything else besides her humorous, off the wall, lively self that she permeates in the office of our Austin design studio. So whenever Annie is addressed as Mrs. Jones, or her motherhood is referenced, it tickles a funny bone, particularly in the content department. At one point, a new writer started discussing politics with her, under the impression that it was a topic adults liked talking about. To their shock and surprise, Annie responded, “F*ck that, they should make me mayor”. It was from that point on that they knew she wasn’t your typical boss.

To turn it on its head, it’s like calling your professor or your parent by their first name. It just sounds funny. To us, the creative team at Rock Candy Media, she’s just Annie. And while we wish we could describe what “just Annie” means, it’s impossible. But if you want to find out, and learn what it’s like to join forces with a revolutionary branding agency, schedule a positioning analysis.

We wish we could tell you how to prepare, but there’s no getting ready for what’s to come.