How does one attract cultural and business interests from two continents to increase investment and tourism?

The answers coming soon.

A part of BGC Partners, Inc. [NASDAQ:BGCP], Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms, with more than 11,000 professionals in over 300 offices globally. 

Until recently known as Newmark Knight Frank, the firm formed a new global services business unit to coordinate and enhance expertise delivery to multinational clients through three hubs in New York, London and Hong Kong.

The new unit needed a means of marketing itself beyond the range of services historically provided by the firm.

They sought to communicate:

"how we optimize real estate assets globally and the effect on corporate operations, while also demonstrating the difference in our methodology and our service delivery."

We began by performing a key message and symbology competitive analysis of the largest direct competitors of the Newmark Knight Frank business unit.

Beyond a recitation of functional services offered by the new unit, the client needed a verbal and visual expression of the primary benefit offered to clients.

Our work determined that leadership of the firm and the new business unit were expert at distilling clarity out of ambiguity, of effectively translating global conditions, and operationalizing client real estate assets into opportunity enhancing client margins.

We translated these smart capabilities into a benefit that no competitor verbalized or claimed, a benefit expressed in such a way that the expression itself could be owned as an intellectual property in the U.S., the European Union, and globally:

Property Wisdom

To extend the client's difficult-to-forget opportunity, we created a visual symbol for the new Global Corporate Services business unit - a well-traveled briefcase - drawing upon the primary color of the firm's existing visual identity.

Signaling to the viewer global coverage and over a century of commercial real estate experience worldwide, the case includes vintage luggage tags from a variety of global business centers.

Ambition

The American Bar Association looked to create a magazine for intellectual property law specialists, to grow reputation and extend the influence of its Intellectual Property Law Section. As members of the ABA's IP Law Section work to protect and defend intellectual property rights, and as we create intellectual properties for use as communications and marketing assets, at some point we were bound to come together.

Action

Rather than focus on the function of this specialized legal expertise, we moved the conversation to the snowballing client and societal benefits created by those creating IP breakthroughs, and the IP professionals protecting them.

This strategy pointed to the obvious name of their new magazine aided by metaphor: LANDSLIDE. We lifted the IP Section's existing tagline out of legalspeak, "lawyer members of the IP Law Section of The American Bar Association," to one telegraphing professional aspiration AND client benefit: Creativity's Lawyers.

Own the Conversation® Results

WHISPER created a new entry-point story to engage larger audiences, both lawyer and business professional: "LANDSLIDE: for Creativity, and Creativity's Lawyers"

Joseph M. Potenza, ABA-IPL's representative to ABA's House of Delegates was prescient:

"...IP law touches nearly every aspect of business, trade & commerce... LANDSLIDE will be a force in the IP world."

Within weeks LANDSLIDE attracted 25,000 subscribers, soon expanded to bi-monthly publication and creation of the LANDSLIDE webinar series. Of 63 ABA-published periodicals, today at a subscription rate of $295 LANDSLIDE is valued at more than double the second most highly priced ABA periodical.

For this LANDSLIDE, mass and impact continues to grow.

Ambition

Among a number of organizations seeking a voice among British Commonwealth expatriates located in greater New York City, an events host and organizer seeks to grow awareness, increase event attendance and attract corporate sponsors in support of a variety of philanthropic causes. The client seeks to become the most effective connector of people, business and philanthropic cause in New York.

Action

We repositioned the organization by drawing upon a sports metaphor familiar among Commonwealth expatriates: CAPTAIN'S KNOCK. The term - well-known among Commonwealth nationals - originates from the sport of Cricket when a captain from the batting team has a turn at bat that wins the game. In this context, the term is most often applied to a spectacular performance by a team's leader that wins the game or match. In a similar way, high-performing business leaders are able to direct organizations to successful results. CAPTAIN'S KNOCK was launched through online, print and mobile.

Own The Conversation® Results

Since launching this new brand property, Captain's Knock® has become a brand asset attracting sponsors from both sides of the Atlantic such as BBC, Bloomberg, Virgin Atlantic, HSBC, American Airlines, DHL and Goldman Sachs, with it's events drawing overflow crowds at venues such as the New York Athletic Club, with over $1 million raised in support of philanthropic causes with a 300% boom in ticket sales. Captain's Knock events have become hot ticket affairs, attracting as headliners the foremost of Commonwealth athletes from around the world.

A review of the agency's primary product - labeled education programs - led to an assessment of the market reputation and narrative of JMH Education Marketing, a 30-year education content provider.

Our task was to attract a large untapped audience of corporate prospects, by building off the firm's decades of success with a select group of Fortune 500 and public interest clients.

Our work uncovered a commonality of individual and corporate interests in encouraging reward outcomes for people, by aligning organization and individual human values as the inspiration for healthier lifestyle choices on issues of health & wellness, financial literacy, career options, and environmental awareness.

Working with a forward-thinking CEO, we created a new entry point for understanding the value and benefits JMH provides its clients through its quality-of-life content products, by repositioning, renaming and remessaging the agency on a basis of reward and inspiration:

carrotNEWyork
inspire ME

Creating for the individual beneficiaries of JMH products, a New Me.

Our work assisted in reframing the culture of the agency so that values are commonly understood and expressed. We created communications assets to re-introduce the agency through traditional and new media by print, platform and social.