Episode Transcript
Rob Broadfoot 0:19
We’re back. Episode 15, Rob.
Yeah, 15.
Don Mock 0:23
Yeah, it’s an exciting number.
Rob Broadfoot 0:25
It is exciting.
Don Mock 0:26
For today’s chat, I thought it might be interesting for us to talk about dream clients, and whatever that means. Dream clients. Dream projects. Dream industries, whatever. Whatever the dream might be, right?
Rob Broadfoot 0:38
Right.
Don Mock 0:39
I think as you mentioned, before we started recording this, you could go a lot of different directions.
Rob Broadfoot 0:43
Yeah.
Don Mock 0:44
Sort of freeform conversation about what gets us excited or things we enjoy, or just the concept of, you know, dream clients. I don’t know. What does that mean to you, when you think about it?
Rob Broadfoot 0:53
My dream client would be Sleep Number beds. Sorry, that’s awful.
Don Mock 0:58
Well, all the NFL players evidently are sponsored by, have you ever noticed that? That’s like a legit NFL sponsorship is Sleep Numbers. Yeah, they all get Sleep Numbers.
Rob Broadfoot 0:59
So, 14.
Don Mock 1:09
14, what?
Rob Broadfoot 1:11
That’s my sleep number.
Don Mock 1:12
Oh, I have no idea.
Rob Broadfoot 1:13
I don’t know what it is.
Don Mock 1:14
I don’t even know how it works.
Rob Broadfoot 1:16
Alright, dream clients. Yeah, so I guess my first thought, when we’re talking about it, was to me if I think about it, in terms of not necessarily what we’re working on from a category standpoint.
Don Mock 1:33
Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 1:34
Or product standpoint, or service standpoint. But, I thought about it, the type of client, the type of person that I enjoy working with, or that we enjoy working with.
Don Mock 1:43
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 1:44
And we’ve alluded to this before in another podcast. But, the idea that doctors are the worst patients. You wouldn’t represent yourself in a court of law.
Don Mock 1:54
Correct.
Rob Broadfoot 1:55
All of these ideas. To me, dream clients are the ones that trust us to do our jobs.
Don Mock 2:01
Yes.
Rob Broadfoot 2:02
And that believe in our expertise and appreciate our efforts and creativity and all that stuff.
Don Mock 2:09
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 2:11
And understand and trust that we know how to help them.
Don Mock 2:15
Yeah, absolutely. Are we allowed to name names here? Can we name drop somebody? Or do we want to keep it anonymous? What do you think?
Rob Broadfoot 2:15
You do you.
Don Mock 2:17
Because the first thing that comes to mind, obviously, for me, is Dr. Ross Bakker. Well, we were working on all that stuff, right?
Rob Broadfoot 2:27
Yeah.
Don Mock 2:27
And the direct quote. Well, I say direct quote. But, now through the memory filter, I’ve probably bastardized it, is I remember. We were doing a presentation for her, and we are talking specifically about higher ed, right? One of the local universities in town. We’re doing a big recruitment campaign for them and things like that. And I believe something along the lines of; “I don’t really get it, but I know it works.” Something, right?
Rob Broadfoot 2:54
Right.
Don Mock 2:54
It was like, but she recognized it wasn’t for her.
Rob Broadfoot 2:57
Right.
Don Mock 2:57
She’s not a 16 year old, or a 17 year old.
Rob Broadfoot 3:00
High school.
Don Mock 3:00
High school student who’s really good at math, right? Who’s thinking about engineering or whatever. So, it was, I often see the billboards, I often see this, and I don’t really understand it, but it’s not for me, and I know it works. And it was something along those lines. It was like, oh my God, this is amazing recognition.
Rob Broadfoot 3:01
Yep.
Don Mock 3:18
Even though you are the client, the work is not actually for you. It’s for your target audience, right?
Rob Broadfoot 3:24
Right.
Don Mock 3:25
So, that I always thought that was kind of interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:27
Yeah, for me, that’s it. Those are the fun ones.
Don Mock 3:31
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:32
Also we talked about too, if people get a little bit nervous.
Don Mock 3:35
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:35
That’s a good thing.
Don Mock 3:36
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 3:37
When they’re nervous, and when they’re not afraid to go, this makes me nervous.
Don Mock 3:40
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:41
Say that, followed immediately by, but, I trust what you guys are doing.
Don Mock 3:45
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:45
I trust you to do it. So, I sort of came at it that way. And we have we have a lot of those clients.
Don Mock 3:50
We do have a lot of highly educated, super smart clients that keep us on our toes.
Rob Broadfoot 3:54
And the ones that don’t, we don’t really keep around.
Don Mock 3:58
Yeah well, I mean.
Rob Broadfoot 4:00
Sometimes, they come and go.
Don Mock 4:03
Well, it’s good to be challenged. It’s good to have those intellectual debates about strategy and whatnot. But, it’s also great to be recognized when it comes to branding, advertising, whatever. We are subject matter experts, right? We do have the credentials and the experience to know what we’re talking about, and to bring that point of view and position to why this works or why the answer to this communication objective, this is the correct one. That type of thing.
Rob Broadfoot 4:30
I think that’s balanced out with, and we say this to clients all the time. We’re really good at what we do. But, nobody knows your business better than you.
Don Mock 4:39
Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 4:40
Oh, and that rhymed.
Don Mock 4:41
Oh. Put it on a t-shirt.
Rob Broadfoot 4:42
But, it’s important to note that we’re not coming in and saying we get it. We know everything there is to know.
Don Mock 4:43
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 4:43
Nobody knows your business better than you do.
Don Mock 4:44
Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 4:44
But, it’s once you give us the knowledge and tell us what we need to know, then that’s when you know the trust is handed over.
Don Mock 5:00
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 5:01
Alright, well, let’s think about dream clients from a different perspective. If you could work on, put you in the hot seat.
Don Mock 5:08
Uh, oh.
Rob Broadfoot 5:08
If you could work on any single brand or product or service, not knowing anything about their marketing department, or people or personalities or anything like that, but just one brand, product, or service that you would love to work on, what would it be?
Don Mock 5:24
I’m going to stay true to form and I would probably say, a sports league.
Rob Broadfoot 5:30
Okay.
Don Mock 5:31
Or another creative industry. You said that doctors are their own worst patients, right? So, I would pick probably Marvel Comics, or DC Comics, or one of those type of lines. I think the ideation, what, you’re giving me funny faces.
Rob Broadfoot 5:44
Well, that’s like saying I would work on Chevy and Ford?
Don Mock 5:48
Well, saying one or the other. I’d probably work on DC because they’re in a much worse state of affairs.
Rob Broadfoot 5:57
Okay.
Don Mock 5:58
I mean, personally, I’m more of a Marvel zombie and definitely more of a Marvel comics fan. But, I think DC is in more distress? So, it actually might be more of an interesting creative challenge to bring it back. I think fans in that industry, and I’m super down the nerd cave right now, though, have an appreciation for both. It’s not like there isn’t exclusivity, like I would only drive a Chevy, and I will never drive a Ford.
Rob Broadfoot 6:21
Right.
Don Mock 6:21
And creative teams hop from side to side. I mean, even on the entertainment side, James Gunn, the director a lot of Marvel movies is now heading up DC, right? So, I mean talent flip flops from the television movie side all the way down to literally the publisher side, and comic book side. So, I think the the concept of advertising and branding creativity is pretty far in the house of ideas is what Marvel’s tagline is kind of unofficially been for years and years, right? So, I think that could be super fun to work on.
Rob Broadfoot 6:21
Well, you mentioned sports teams. So NFL, you’ve worked on that?
Don Mock 6:39
I have worked on.
Rob Broadfoot 6:53
So, give us a couple of those little stories, and tell us what you did.
Don Mock 6:59
Yeah, this goes a few ways back. But, as I’ve mentioned on the podcast, I think before. I’m from San Francisco, big 49er fan. I always joked that I would never work on the 49ers, because I don’t think you could work, that’s too close to home. But, I did have some branding experience working with the Miami Dolphins and then also the San Diego Chargers. So, a lot of people don’t know this, but the San Diego Chargers, their original 1960’s logo actually has a horse in it. It was a shield.
Rob Broadfoot 7:54
Really?
Don Mock 7:29
It has a horse and a lightning bolt, right? Yeah, but at the time, we’ve got the Broncos. We got the Colts. We got the chargers. Which has a horse.
Rob Broadfoot 7:37
Right.
Don Mock 7:37
So, they kind of abandoned the horse in favor of the electricity and the lightning.
Rob Broadfoot 7:54
All lightning bolt.
Don Mock 7:44
All lightning bolt. Right. But, therein lies the challenge. The problem that I was hired to help solve, which was their merchandise is kind of lacking. Because it’s only that little curved.
Rob Broadfoot 7:53
The curved lightning.
Don Mock 7:54
The lightning bolt from the helmet, there’s nothing else there. So, the challenge was, can we go back to our roots? Can we do some fun stuff and develope? Do we bring the horse back? Do we bring that sort of, so did a lot of design logo brand work around the exploration of the horse being brought back and things like that. So, that was one initiative. The other one was working on the Dolphins. They still had the 1995 logo. So, they’ve rebranded since, but there was two different design paths. There was one, do we go back to the simplified 1970’s perfect season, vinyl cut version of the dolphin, right?
Rob Broadfoot 9:21
Right.
Don Mock 8:34
That didn’t necessarily, it was very simple. Or do we go future forward, which is kind of where they ended up now, which is with a very streamlined, simplified dolphin. I don’t want to get too down in the weeds. But, the the 90’s version of the Miami Dolphins logo, very awkward. Has the helmet on it, has an M on it, is like in some instances holding a football. It is very weird. So, it was a lot of cleaning up and simplifying the brandmark and things like that. So, sports leagues, lots of fun to work on.
Rob Broadfoot 9:05
Yeah.
Don Mock 9:05
But, I think that was more from a design perspective. I think dream client now wouldn’t necessarily only be identity and branding. I think it’s also about community and getting season ticket. What’s the tagline for the team? What’s the vibe of the team? What’s the advertising communication of the team? It’s more than just the mark.
Rob Broadfoot 9:26
Well, I think in recent local sports, history. I think we both agree that as big founding members of Atlanta United, the MLS soccer team here, locally. Shout out to whoever did all of that, great development because they’ve done an amazing job. Not just of creating the mark and all of the materials around it, but I think you talked about experience. The fan experience.
Don Mock 9:53
The game day experience?
Rob Broadfoot 9:54
Well, not just that, just even the communications experience from day one when they first have, however many years ago, first announced that we were getting a team.
Don Mock 10:04
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 10:05
The build up to when we actually played, I think it was two years, or a year and a half before anybody ever stepped foot on a pitch. But, I think in general, that was a really great case study of how to build a sports franchise from the ground up.
Don Mock 10:20
Totally.
Rob Broadfoot 10:20
All the way across the board.
Don Mock 10:21
Incredibly successful.
Rob Broadfoot 10:22
Yeah.
Don Mock 10:23
As I believe, they’re top 10 in terms of fan attendance, like worldwide and whatnot?
Rob Broadfoot 10:28
Yeah.
Don Mock 10:28
Like, it’s pretty incredible what they’ve done.
Rob Broadfoot 10:30
Pretty incredible.
Don Mock 10:31
Alright. Well, let’s flip the script. You put me on the hot seat. What is your answer to the concept of dream service, brand, client, industry, whatever the case may be, or what comes to your mind?
Rob Broadfoot 10:44
So, I would say, I would pick an outdoor recreation company brand. I think just because I enjoy that type of thing, being outside. That’s definitely, I look at companies like REI. I think that would be a great client.
Don Mock 11:01
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 11:01
I know that’s all internally done.
Don Mock 11:03
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 11:04
But they do great work. And that’s cool, I think an opportunity like that, because you have not only sort of the retail experience, but then you have the travel experience.
Don Mock 11:13
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 11:13
There’s so many different things that they do. And I think that would be a really fun client to work on. Because that also crosses skiing and hiking.
Don Mock 11:24
Biking, canoeing, all sorts of crazy stuff.
Rob Broadfoot 11:27
Yeah, so I think that would be a super fun one to work on, probably.
Don Mock 11:31
Yeah. I can see the gears are still turning in terms of what you want to do.
Rob Broadfoot 11:34
Well, I’m thinking here. I’m trying to figure out how to, we’re working on on a couple of projects right now with some marijuana companies.
Don Mock 11:46
Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 11:47
Right. Many states, not ours. But, many states are legalizing across the country. It’s an interesting study in companies. It’s still the wild west very much. So, it’s sort of calming down and people are staking their territories and starting to figure it out. But, it’s still a race. Who’s gonna be the big national brand.
Don Mock 12:09
Yeah. Coast to coast.
Rob Broadfoot 12:10
Coast to coast brand.
Don Mock 12:11
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:12
And companies are making headway there. But again, it’s still very much.
Don Mock 12:16
It’s fragmented.
Rob Broadfoot 12:17
Yeah, it’s fragmented. It’s an odd industry because of the local laws versus the federal laws.
Don Mock 12:24
Sure. Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 12:25
But, to me, we’re working on a couple of projects around that right now that are super, super fun. Because it’s wide open.
Don Mock 12:33
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:33
Creative standpoint.
Don Mock 12:35
Wide open spaces.
Rob Broadfoot 12:36
Are wide open.
Don Mock 12:36
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:37
And almost, it almost gives you license to be kind of wacky.
Don Mock 12:41
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:42
Which is fun. So, that’s a pretty cool thing to work on.
Don Mock 12:46
Yeah, it is pretty fun. It’s going to be interesting to find out who ends up being that coast to coast national brand, right? Because there’s a lot of flavor triggers that are from state to state and a lot of strains, varieties that people are familiar with.
Rob Broadfoot 12:46
Right.
Don Mock 13:02
But, that doesn’t necessarily promote consistency, like, when you buy, I mean, this is a terrible example. But, when you buy a Coors Light in Portland, Oregon, and when you buy a Coors Light in Sarasota, Florida. That’s exactly, you know what you’re getting.
Rob Broadfoot 13:16
Right.
Don Mock 13:16
There’s consistency there. But, right now, I think from a brand perspective, there’s no consistency from state to state. From strain to strain. From brand to brand, things like that. So, it’ll be interesting when, I feel like whoever gets that green rush first is going to end up having that brand allegiance.
Rob Broadfoot 13:16
Yeah.
Don Mock 13:16
Because there’s going to be that understanding of what consistency is, right? Right now, I think a lot of consumers purchase what they know, because that’s what they know. I know that sounds obvious, but there isn’t a lot of you know what you’re getting, right? You don’t try out a lot of different things.
Rob Broadfoot 13:51
Right.
Don Mock 13:51
So, once you do get that brand that goes nationwide, it’s gonna be an interesting time I think.
Rob Broadfoot 13:56
I try to think of other industries in our lifetime that have gone from..
Don Mock 14:02
From zero?
Rob Broadfoot 14:04
Not even zero, but straight up illegal. Like, you can’t have this.
Don Mock 14:08
Yeah, absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 14:08
You cannot do this. You cannot have this to perfectly legal.
Don Mock 14:12
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 14:12
And you can walk into a store in certain legal states, and buy it. I’m trying to think if there’s been any other, anything else?
Don Mock 14:18
I can’t think of anything.
Rob Broadfoot 14:19
I can’t really think of anything.
Don Mock 14:21
Yeah, it has been remarkable how fast a lot of that has happened, I guess. But, everything seems to be exponentially going faster and faster. So yeah, it’s interesting. So, I think, just broadly, it’s the answer to what’s the dream client, or, there isn’t necessarily one. It’s kind of a mishmash of personalities. It’s a mishmash of services, and industries, right? I was waiting for one of us to say our next dream client is you, the listener? But, I felt like that was too cheesy.
Rob Broadfoot 14:56
But, you just said it.
Don Mock 14:57
But, I just said it anyway. Alright, I guess we could edit it out. Yeah, probably not going to.
Rob Broadfoot 15:00
We’re not going to. Alright. Well, on that note, thanks for tuning in. As always, you can find us on the interwebs at mocktheagency.com, or on the socials @mocktheagency.
Don Mock 15:11
Yep.
Rob Broadfoot 15:12
And if you can figure out how to leave us a comment, please do so. We’re happy to take any sort of feedback or ideas that you want to hear us talk about it and we’ll see you next time. Thanks everybody.
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