Dreamers. Makers. Troublemakers
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PHILOSOPHY
What we do, and why
We are Dreamers. Makers. Troublemakers. We are Strategists. Creatives. Technologists. We’re organized as a Village, managed by a Brotherhood; an original business model created by Heraldist, that has had a major impact on the quality of our work. And it makes us sound a bit like a Californian cult. Which we’re (most probably) not.
WE DON’T WANT TO OVERPROMISE OR ANYTHING BUT
This might actually be the best thing that happened to you today
You'll meet a bunch of people, who will help you change your company's future. Strategists. Creatives. Technologists. Most of us spent decades helping companies build global, iconic brands. Before starting Heraldist, we were managing the creative, strategy & business departments of some of the most creative companies on Earth; companies like Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO, Ogilvy, McCann, Publicis, DDB, and more. And then, everything changed. We fell out of love with gigantic, boring, sometimes unscrupulous multinationals, whose only reason for existence was to get even richer.
And we fell in love with smaller but more ambitious tech companies, who are building products that can make the world a little bit better.
Have we told you how much we love tech?
Fun fact: we love tech so much, that we’ve established our own tech startups; we’ll tell you all about it over a beer, someday. But what's more important, is that we understand what you’re going through. We know what kind of challenges a tech company is facing. We do, because - among other things - we are a tech company. And that’s extremely rare, for a consultancy.
Of course that most of the marketing, brand, or creative firms in the world have no clue how to help you, no matter how much they’re trying to pretend they do. How many of the world’s most expensive consultancies have, at least, tried to found a tech startup? 0,0001%?
We love tech so much, that we have developed the world's first methodology specifically designed to help tech companies manage their reputation & growth, all in one place: it's called Perception Engineering™. It sounds a bit fancy, we know, but don't worry, we'll show you how it works. It's pretty awesome!
The Valley, Europe & beyond
We are a creative company with the heart in Silicon Valley and a creative studio in Transylvania (yes, that Transylvania, it’s a fabulous corner of the EU, have a look). We don’t shy away from playing with “the big boys”, from Uber to Forbes, Raiffeisen, Airbnb, National Geographic, and the European fintech giant Revolut, but mostly loves to play with ambitious, even early-stage startups from the Valley, Europe and beyond.
Some of our campaigns made it to USA Today, The Guardian, NBC, Stern, Business Insider, and have been seen by millions. We love to create stuff that is fun, important, powerful, stuff that people love to share & use. Whenever our clients are bold enough to let us do our magic, we come up with really cool stuff, that people notice & love.
Long story short: you’ll love working with Heraldist & Wondermarks because you’re getting top creative & strategic global talent, who can help you transform your business into an iconic, global company. If you’ve got some time on your hands, here are a couple of words about what we do and, more importantly, why we do it.
We’re Dreamers. Makers. Troublemakers
Not just a slogan. It’s what makes us, us. Dreamers aim high, even when times are tough. Makers work hard to make dreams real. Troublemakers challenge everything; because nothing new ever happened by accepting that things should stay as they are
Strategists. Creatives. Technologists.
All in one place. We shoot for the stars but we keep our feet on the ground. Because we understand the importance of being realistic. From brief to strategy to creative solution, we aim to create things that matter, things that make a difference, and we’re helping out companies that want to make a difference.
We love guerrilla marketing, so we take our chances.
We love tech, so we know how to build complex things.
We love strategy, so we think before we speak.
We love innovation, so we come up with new stuff.
We believe in what we do, so we do it well.
We are Dreamers. Makers. Troublemakers.
We are The Heraldists.
Let’s meet.
We’re made of stardust, and the world is made of ideas
…said someone, at some point in time. And it’s true. Even the stardust thing, can you believe it? Just like every little thing in our body is made of stardust, every little thing in the history of humans started from an idea.
From carving the wheel to putting a man on the Moon to putting minced meat in cabbage leaves to make sarmale – it all comes from that wide-eyed serendipitous moment where everything seems to fall into place and make sense; it all starts from the idea. We’re a company that believes in big ideas and their power to change the world.
We put strategic thinking behind every creative thing we do, and we put a whole lotta heart behind it too.
The secret to great ideas
At Heraldist, we believe that great work doesn’t care about your title. It doesn’t discriminate. Anyone can be/is creative. And anyone can teach someone something. So keep an open mind and be ready to learn (or teach). We believe that ideas can come from anyone, anywhere. Even from other bad ideas. So, please, speak up! We will listen.
The secret to great ideas is that there is no secret. It’s a mix of hard work, resilience, collaboration, creativity, curiosity, and the will to challenge the established. That’s where the ‘troublemakers’ thing is coming from. But most of it is hard work.
While everybody has ideas, we also know that ideas are worth nothing without action. It’s easy to have good ideas but it’s hard to have great ideas. And it’s even harder to turn great ideas into great projects, the kind that can change the future of a company.
It’s hard because it takes thousands of hours of experience to do it well; actually, most of the folks you’ll meet at Heraldist spent 10.000 up to 40.000 of hours perfecting their craft; decades of experience turning ideas into projects that can change companies.
And what’s even harder, is to get all these people to work together as a Swiss watch. And exactly that’s what Heraldist is really good at: bringing strategists, creatives and technologists to work together and solve complex problems holistically. And that’s rare.
Actually, we have to confess: we love problems. Solving problems is our guilty pleasure. Some people love cookies. Some love football. We don’t judge. We love problems. We use our super-creative brains to solve super-problems. So bring it on: marketing problems, product problems, even business problems, you name it.
Entrepreneurs, not just consultants
Startup founders love us. People with a bold, entrepreneurial spirit love us. We’re not just bragging. They don’t get along with most agencies but they love Heraldist. Because we understand them. And we understand them because we are them.
How many consultancies do you know that have their own startups? At Heraldist, we’ve got 8 startups, already launched or in development: we have launched an agency, a honey brand, a creative production studio, a tech production studio, a creative-school-in-an-app, a suite of marketing apps, a place-brand that we have created and that we manage and own, and a luxury brand that co-creates amazing things together with artists & artisans.
When you’re building your own stuff, you’re in a much better position to help other companies. You learn a lot from real life, not from books. Most people in creative agencies never had to design a business plan. Or a distribution strategy. Or to understand how retail really works. Or to build an app prototype and iterate 50 times to make it better. Or create a growth hacking plan.
We’re better consultants because we’re entrepreneurs.
Not just another creative company. Welcome to The Brotherhood
That includes our sisters, of course. But “brotherhood-slash-sisterhood” was a mouthful. And we’re a company led by a woman-CEO and more than half of the Heraldists are 'sisters’. So let’s call it even.
In case you were asking yourself, that’s where the “&” symbol is coming from: it stands for ‘The Brotherhood’. It means ‘together’. Because alone, each of us might be great; together, we’re an unstoppable force. We're a brotherhood, and that's something that will impact your business. It’s not just big words; it’s how we feel about each other.
The Brotherhood has been built on 3 things:
“Be Kind” - because life’s just too short to be a jerk.
“Be Real” - because life’s too short to try to be someone else.
“Be Great” - because greatness is a journey, not an endpoint
Greatness is doing your absolute best. Every. Single. Day. And not because you have to. But because you love to. Stay curious. Stay hungry. Stay brave.
And use your curiosity, hunger and bravery to help great companies create positive change in the world.
This weird place, that believes in kindness
A creative agency whose mission is to deliver a positive impact in the community? A creative agency that wasn’t built on money & glory? An agency that doesn’t aim to be richer, or more awarded than other agencies, but dreams to become a global agency of changemakers? What a weird place.
We come from different backgrounds, from different places on 3 continents, we’ve got different views, and together we form a family. That includes our clients. A family in which everyone has a voice and everyone can be who they want to be. That’s why everyone is encouraged to come up with ideas. Bad ideas are not bad. Bad behavior is.
The Village, an new business model created by Heraldist, but as old as humankind
Heraldist is built on an innovative business model. Paradoxically, it’s as old as humankind: we call it “The Village”. The senior members of The Brotherhood help the young ones grow in The Village. The Brotherhood will help them learn a trade. When they grow up and feel ready, they can make their own 'family' in The Village.
We currently have 12 such families in The Village: Heraldist Creatives, Heraldist Strategists, Heraldist Innovation, Heraldist PR, Heraldist Next, Heraldist Some Dudes, Heraldist San Francisco, Heraldist Homeland, Heraldist Madeira, Heraldist Brands, Heraldist OS, and Heraldist St.Brendan. Each of the families is a specialized, autonomous unit, working hand-in-hand with other families. The Village grows naturally and perpetuates The Brotherhood. In only 6 years, the Village grew from 1 to 12 families and The Brotherhood grew from 2 to more than 30 people.
This model doesn't only provide a nurturing environment for young talent. It tends to attract very senior professionals, strategists, creatives, technologists, people with 10-30 years of experience. They join Heraldist as partners and co-owners of a newly-established unit, and this way, they create a new ‘family’ in The Village.
Most of these senior professionals who join Heraldist, are approaching the peak of their career. They’re extremely talented and experienced individuals, who’ve managed agencies or departments in big global agencies, but no longer feel motivated to continue doing that. On the other hand, they don't want to become a lone-wolf kind of freelancer or start a small consultancy from scratch, either; it can be exhausting, and often it's just not worth it.
That’s why The Village model is great, because it’s "the third way". It’s not the enterprise model, scalable but impersonal. The era of the profit-driven multinationals is over. But it’s not the small business model either, personal but not scalable.
The Village model makes Heraldist as scalable as an enterprise but the spirit of The Brotherhood keeps it as personal and humane as a family business.
We're a bit like Switzerland; minus the billions & the chocolate
Actually, some of us do make their own chocolate, though. Anyway, here’s now it works: The Village - and The Brotherhood that runs it - is non-hierarchical, and it's collaborative. It's like a confederation. Kind of like Switzerland, you know? Each family is autonomous, but we're all part of a confederation of equals.
This is most probably the world’s first ‘Creative Confederation’ built on this Village model. We love it, and not just because we came up with it. Ok, mostly because we came up with it.
It’s different and it makes a difference. We can feel it. Our clients can feel it. It’s different because everybody cares. Our clients get to work with people who are co-owners of their Heraldist unit, not just employees. When it’s your thing, and you’re not just a cog in the wheel, you give your best.
Because it’s your thing. And that makes a huge difference in the level of quality we deliver.
We’re not driven by money & ego, but tell us what is the positive change you want to see in the world
Most creative agencies are build on ego. Or money. Or glory. Or money & glory. We care about people: the ones in the Brotherhood, the ones who trust us to manage their brands, the people in our community.
We just like people. We don’t really care about creative awards and making fortunes. What we care about is helping good companies grow, and our brothers & sisters flourish.
The 10% rule
Most creative agencies we know of, only get involved in social projects because they tend to be an easier way to win creativity awards. We thing that’s ok, if it’s what makes you happy, but it makes us a bit sad. We give back because it simply makes us happy. Moreover, we have pledged to commit 10% of our time to social projects, that can impact our community.
We’re probably the only creative company out there, crazy enough to constantly donate 10% of their time to the community. It’s been killing our profit margins: last year alone, 80% of the profit went into a not-for-profit educational project. Because we were stubborn enough to believe we can fix the world through creativity. That’s crazy. And that’s exactly why we won’t stop. Because this world really, badly needs a good Rebel with a cause.
The archetypal Rebel For A Good Cause
As opposed to big companies, whose main reason for existence is to generate profit for their shareholders, the reason for existence for Heraldist is to generate happiness: for our clients, our community, and our brothers and sisters.
We know how weird this sounds, coming from a creative agency. We pinky promise we're not (yet) a cult. But we simply love making people happy. How do we accomplish that?
We make people happy, by unleashing their positive, untamed creative energy, which can produce the change they want to see in the world. This is the true essence of who we are and why we are.
It’s not easy. Change takes effort. Change sometimes hurts. Most people don't even like change. It takes them out of their comfort zone. They call it 'comfort zone' for a reason, you know? But we realized that, what we think it'll make us happy is not always what we actually need to be happy.
We are prisoners of our comfort, prisoners of the ‘good enough’. We don’t like ‘the good enough’, and that’s exactly why we love change. Change is necessary, if we want to evolve, both as human beings, and as humankind, if we want to create meaningful things.
Heraldist = Change.
If you feel ready for change, we’d love to meet you.
A couple of things about you
The big agency dillema
Are you running a big company? You probably think you need to work with one of those big agencies, with the initials of some dead guys on the building. We won't even try to convince you that you shouldn’t. Actually, please go ahead and approach them. We can help with names and contacts.
They’ll tell you an impressive story, of the agency founded a century ago, by guys whose initials you see on the building. They'll invite you to their fancy office, serve you their fancy coffee, and show you their fancy team presentations, with their 3 layers of middle management, supposedly working on your brand. Enjoy the show, you'll end up paying for it big time, as soon as the first invoice arrives; high costs lead to high prices.
They’ll tell you about their global offices in New York and London and the network's multiple creative awards. They will ‘forget’ to mention that most of them were - as advertising people call them - 'ghost ads', made specifically to win creativity awards, but they delivered 0 business results.
They'll 'forget' to mention that most of the big names in the presentation will not actually be working on your business. And that there’s no actual expertise or methodology from the network that they'll be using. They’ll introduce you to their local senior team but, unless you’re one of the biggest spenders on the market, it will be the last time you see them.
Once the contract is signed, you will realize that you spent a fortune for your brand to be managed by a team of juniors, who will be learning on your business. They have to save costs, these agencies are multinationals that need to pay generous dividends to their shareholders, and they can only do that by saving costs on clients such as yourself. Excellence is not on the priorities list.
How do we know all this? Because we used to be them. Most of us have spent a decade or two working for them, managing global agencies and their departments, and handling their biggest clients. And then, we stopped. We realized that we want to help great brands make a difference. We want to help entrepreneurs build amazing companies, that can change the world. And we realized none of that was possible, unless we start from scratch and build something new, on new values.
And that's how Heraldist was born.
So go ahead and try how it feels like working with the giants of the advertising world. When you’ll be ready for something different, we’ll be waiting for you at Heraldist, a place where the senior partners - people who previously worked in the top management of those big networks agencies - will be actively working on making your business successful.
Kindness matters
Because we’re a Brotherhood, we treat each other brotherly, and we treat the office like a home. No bad language, no gossip, no negativity (unless you’re having a really s*itty day), and no ill intention.
That applies to ourselves and our clients. We don’t care if we end up losing money, we won’t have a second thought before firing a client that behaves disrespectful with our people. We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again. But we’re pretty sure you’re great, that’s why you’re here after all, isn’t it?
We’re all about being a true community and behaving like one (and that includes our clients too). We genuinely like to spend time together, and we don’t need ‘mandatory fun time’ to have fun (and again, that includes our clients too). Just get the barbecue started, and we’ll take it from there. And, just like in love, once you get to really know us, you’ll realize why it didn’t work out with all the other agencies you’ve been working with before.
When we said we’re a Brotherhood, and our clients are part of it, we meant it. Whether that means helping out with advice, with a shoulder to cry, or just with a beer when someone looks like they’d need it, being there for each other goes a long way in the Heraldist family. Together during the good times and the bad, people come first. And dogs come second. PS. We don’t bullshit. So all we said above is true.
Bold clients wanted
Troublemakers. People who hate the status quo. Because mediocre clients, with mediocre ambitions, work with mediocre agencies, that do mediocre work, and target it to people they think they’re mediocre, with mediocre expectations and mediocre tastes. That’s "the 99%". And if you think about it, 99% of absolutely everything out there is shit. 99% of all books, music, movies, ads. Clutter. Noise. Nonsense. Nobody sees it, nobody hears it, no one wants it.
But we believe in “the 1%”. And we’re working hard every day to be in the 1%. We don’t think that the audience is mediocre. Or stupid. We think people are the most interesting thing in the world. All people. And we also know that people are always love interesting stuff, made by interesting people, and interesting brands. Being interesting is hard. Most agencies don’t know how how to be interesting. But we are Heraldist. Dreamers. Makers. Troublemakers. We're different. We're "the 1%".
Think about it: you took the time to read a couple of pages about our philosophy. Either you do have a lot of time on your hands or we might actually be interesting. Let’s not get cocky, it’s probably the first, though.
SAY HELLO
We’re happy to answer any question you might have. Drop us an email at office@heraldist.com or use the form to send us a message.