Our Case Studies
We Solve Problems. Here’s How We Do It.
01
The “Two Guys” Campaign, a Cult-Classic That Still Runs
Sonic Drive-In
Overview
In 2003, Sonic decided to launch breakfast. Until then the menu was built for lunch, dinner, and late night, so the company created an unconventional breakfast lineup made for eating in the car: French Toast Sticks, cinnamon-stuffed pastries, and the Pancake on a Stick, a sausage dipped in pancake batter and fried like a corn dog.
A new daypart needed a campaign that made those oddball items feel fun and worth driving for, on a budget that could run for years, not one flight.
Solution
Members of our team, creative directors on Sonic’s agency, led the group that conceived the “Two Guys” campaign. To sell the idea we proved it first: we rented a van rigged with hidden cameras and pulled up to competitors’ drive-thrus every morning, asking McDonald’s and Burger King for a Pancake on a Stick and filming the blurred-out reactions, real undercover footage.
Sonic bought it and asked us to cast professional talent, so we brought in two L.A. improv comedians, Pete and TJ, to play the guys in the car. The format was simple, endlessly repeatable, and kept the product as the sole focus of every spot.
Results
- Adopted as Sonic’s overall corporate campaign across all dayparts, and still running more than a decade later.
- Far more economical to produce: multiple spots cut from a single day of improv footage.
- Improved month-to-month sales and awareness, and characters that became synonymous with the brand. Sonic once tried to retire it and had to bring it back by popular demand.
02
RV Storage Brand, Scaled Across the Country
National Indoor Storage
Overview
National Indoor Storage started with one facility in Louisville and an ambition much bigger than one building. RV and boat owners had few good options: outdoor lots, chain-link fences, and no brand anyone trusted with the most valuable thing they owned after their home.
The founders needed more than a logo for a building. They needed a brand that could open in a new market and feel established on day one, without being rebuilt every time.
Solution
We built the brand from the ground up: positioning, name architecture, identity, facility signage, the website, and a launch playbook every new location could follow.
Then we went past storage. We designed and launched their online RV marketplace, giving owners a place to consign and sell through a brand they already trusted with their vehicle. One brand, two lines of business, one repeatable system.
Results
- One Louisville facility grew into a national operation.
- The RV marketplace turned storage customers into sellers and buyers.
- Today they run facilities across the country.
03
Enterprise Marketing Platform, Built to Scale to Millions
FedEx Office
Overview
FedEx Office runs more than 1,800 locations in the US alone, and leadership wanted to add marketing services to what those stores could offer small-business customers. A move that size is never small. They worked through a classic buy, partner, or build decision, years of research and trials, and landed on a pilot program with our team.
The bar was steep. To become a partner at that scale, we had to prove we could take in, manage, and service an enormous volume of customers in a very short window, with the FedEx Office brand on the line the whole time.
Solution
We built the engine. At its core is a content management and branding platform engineered to handle enormous volume: accepting, managing, routing, and fulfilling any marketing tactic a small business could ask for, from business cards and logos all the way to television commercials and media buying. Roughly thirty million dollars went into building and testing it, and it performed.
Around the platform we built a true do-it-for-you service model: online agency experience, a personalized marketing expert on every account, affordable subscription pricing with no long-term contracts, and a workflow that moved a customer from request to finished work without friction. The pilot ran under the working name MODsocket.
Results
- A platform proven to ingest and service customers at a scale of millions.
- A multi-year partnership that made marketing services a new mantra inside FedEx Office, with strong internal support and an evergreen contract.
- An in-store pilot that set up a nationwide rollout, with the brand positioned to scale as the preeminent marketing solution for small business.
04
Healthcare Staffing Software, Acquired by a Top Competitor
Clearview Staffing Software
Overview
Clearview had a transformational product for healthcare staffing and a hard market to enter. The category was crowded, the incumbents were loud, and the product had to win over three very different audiences at the same time.
One generic website was never going to do it. Each audience had its own problem, its own language, and its own reason to say yes.
Solution
We launched Clearview with three distinct sites for three audience segments, each with its own message, proof, and path to a conversation, all held together by one brand.
Around the sites we built a powerful digital presence: launch campaigns, content, and sales materials that made a new product look like the company the category should be watching. It put their product category on notice.
Results
- Three audiences, three sites, one brand, launched together.
- A new entrant that showed up looking like a leader.
- Their largest competitor acquired them 4 months later.
05
“Luckytown,” the Highest-Recall Campaign in Lottery History
Missouri Lottery
Overview
Lottery advertising all looks the same. The Missouri Lottery needed something that could capture the imagination of an entire state and change how people thought about playing, not just another spot about jackpots.
The challenge was to build an idea big enough to live beyond the screen and lodge itself in everyday language.
Solution
We invented a place. Luckytown, Missouri, a city where everyone is blessed with the best possible fortune and nobody realizes how special they are. We built a full campaign around it, and to make it real we actually incorporated a parcel of farmland with its own post office box, so Luckytown legally existed.
The whole idea was engineered around one mnemonic: tie the word “Luckytown” to playing the lottery, so that any time something great happened, people would say “you’re headed to Luckytown.” The tagline, your ticket to Luckytown, carried it.
Results
- The highest campaign recall in lottery history.
- The highest increases in game participation, revenue, and payouts the lottery had seen.
- The tagline worked its way into everyday life, earned national news coverage, and the campaign ran for five years.
06
Wealth Management Firm, Acquired at a Premium
Quintessence Wealth Management
Overview
Quintessence served high-net-worth families with a level of care the big firms could not match. The brand did not show it. The identity looked like every other advisory firm in the market, and the digital presence was an afterthought.
Leadership knew the firm was worth more than it looked. If a buyer ever came calling, the first impression would be the website, and the website was underselling the business.
Solution
We rebranded the firm around what made it different: the relationships, the discipline, and the quiet confidence its clients already felt. New positioning, a new identity, and a voice that sounded like the partners in the room.
We built the website and launched their digital footprint so that a prospect, a recruit, or an acquirer would all reach the same conclusion within a minute: this firm is a cut above.
Results
- A brand that finally matched the caliber of the practice.
- A digital presence that did the first meeting’s work before the first meeting.
- The presence we built helped position them for acquisition by Tolleson Wealth Management at a premium.
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