In our Creative Cultures series, writer Crystal Henrickson spends a day inside companies to learn how hiring, onboarding, and company culture play a role in employee happiness. From startups to design firms and all in-between, we’re pulling back the curtain on what it’s like to work in inventive and productive environments.
In the vast land of startups, the laser-precision focus is often directed atproduct, with less thought to building a brand. But when it’s time to go to market, that can cause difficulties for young companies who don’t yet have the in-house expertise to articulate what and who they are.
Cue Skyrocket, a digital branding agency in Vancouver, specializing in developing and telling the full brand story of startups, festivals and social organizations.
“We’re a full-stack shop: we have developers, designers and strategists. We can develop apps and websites, but the focus is on brand. We work on who a company is rather than simply what it does. We craft its message internally and then use this core message to share the brand story with the target audiences,” says Content Strategist Misha Berveno.
Passion projects
One Skyrocket community-based client is the Get Georgia Reading Project. Bringing together more than 2,500 businesses, organizations and individuals, this non-profit addresses a hard hitting question: Why is the 3rd-grade literacy rate at a stunning 34 per cent in the state of Georgia?
With a project goal to make reading proficiency among all 3rd graders a reality by 2020, the organization started working with Skyrocket to architect a website that would rally the community, increase funding and ultimately raise the literacy rate.
“One startup we’ve just sent out into the world is a company called Fathom,” co-founder and Creative Director Michael Parks, shares proudly. “We brought them through our Discovery process and then created a holistic brand experience — from name to identity to their microsite and larger web experience.”
Fathom is made by a company called RX Networks that provides an embedded technology in cell phones all over the world. They’re relatively unknown as they aren’t a front facing brand. They’ve recently developed a game changing technology for the IOT/Beacon space that locates and tracks beacons in three dimensional space.
“Everything in the beacon space was friendly and light and they wanted a name that was approachable and friendly. We were pushing them toward the name “Fathom” because of the illumination it brings to that whole industry is that deep, and there’s so much potential there.”
Relationships matter
Our team “spreads like peanut butter,” explains Mo Dhaliwal, Director of Strategy and co-founder.
“Different people might focus in different ways…We were doing a lot of project work, which was great, but the odd time we would be working with a startup and we’d do some great work for them and kick them out the door but there was always that bit of angst of ‘If only we had more time with them’ or ‘If only we were really able to bring this to fruition.’”
Whether a large or small client, Skyrocket prefers to work out a relationship in such a way that it’s not there to only build a brand or a website, but it’s there to help its clients grow their business.
This is less a group of people working together, and more a group of people doing things together that include work. When looking for the right fit in a new team member, Skyrocket proceeds keeping the following characteristics in mind.
They must be forward looking, whether working with corporate clients or social impact groups; be striving to improve the human experience for individuals or community; they must love to learn and consider themselves a lifelong learner; and equally as important, demonstrate excitement and passion in their lives as this carries over into the projects they will soon be working with the team on.
Are you ready to take your career to the next stratosphere? If so, Skyrocket is hiring! They’re looking for an Account Manager-slash-tech-savvy cyborg. If you’ve got a finger on the pulse of digital, marketing, branding and business news, tractor-beam focus and you know your way around a few acronyms, including CRM, CMS, UX, UI – then check the FreshGigs job board to learn more and apply.