The story of starting a movement.
The world needs more marketers (and humans) like Susan Somersille Johnson.
Because when she joined SunTrust as their new CMO, she wasn’t about to simply rebrand the bank. She wanted to change the whole friggin’ industry—for good.
Small detail: she didn’t have a banking background.
She came from tech. High up positions with a badass resume, but still: She had a lot to learn and a lot of people looking to her for leadership. And it wasn’t like banking was the easiest industry to be marketing in …
Exhibit: Human sentiment around banks:
So you know, no pressure.
There was so much work to do.
Research to understand the marketplace dynamics, competitive landscape, company culture and strategic direction, client desires and objections and perceptions. You know, all the things.
Susan tapped the best talent she could find.
The big guns—agencies from New York, Atlanta and even London.
Oh, and um…. us.
A small but scrappy band of misfits obsessed with how the human mind is moved by the power of language and story.
scribe team, sup
Our focus was on developing the voice and bringing it to life.
So we did just that, through:
Brand voice creation
After research, interviews, language audits, and mini-workshops, we synthesized and packaged up this puppy: A brand voice guide designed to help everyone communicate with precision, personality and consistency—everywhere.
Workshops and training
What would happen if bank people talk like ... people people? It might look a lil something like this video, which we made while helping SunTrust kick off its brand voice and story training for 200+ marketers and agency partners.
Consulting
We provided strategic narrative consulting across campaigns, including the SunTrust purpose statement (led by Brighthouse), their first ever Super Bowl ad (made by Strawberry Frog) and ongoing “purpose ambassador” messaging.
(Susan’s team said some nice things along the way.)
“I have never in my history of working with executives received as rave a review as I did from our CMO on this brand voice guide.”
— Sue, VP of Comms
And Susan’s big ideas became REAL:
A new brand
Standing for financial confidence.
A new movement
Attracting 5M people in 5 years.
Renewed progress
New accounts opening after years of decline.
She seems pretty happy about it.
“Your language is precise, powerful and poignant--which is so important in a cluttered market. You brought our Brand Voice to life, which gave us powerful tools to not only connect with our clients, but to build meaningful, lasting relationships. That's key in helping us build brand equity and drive business growth.”
— Susan Somersille Johnson, CMO
Like, really happy …
“Even more than that, your energy and thought-provoking questions inspire us to think more creatively and drive better results!”
— Susan, when we pried her for more
What we did, in short:
Brand strategy consulting
Competitive narrative analysis
Interviews and market research
Verbal identity
Brand voice guide
Brand voice and story workshops
Brand voice training program
Brand voice video
Messaging strategy
Agency partners:
Matt Coombes, Richard Parkinson, Kristian Foged, Zoe, Tom, Patrick, and all ya crazy Brits (at IncrediBull—>Text100—>Archetype)
Beth Knight, Chris Perkins and Scott Goodson (@ Strawberry Frog)
The amazing minds at BrightHouse
Jason Hughes and our friends at FARM
Kari Olivadotti-Peters for your sizzling scriptwriting, strategy and workshop facilitatin’ chops.