Don't miss ADWEEK House at Cannes, June 16-19. Join us as we celebrate our 45th anniversary and explore the industry's now and next. RSVP.
It turns out using the product is a key ingredient to winning new business.
Newly launched agency Hubbub Manufacturing landed its inaugural client LegalZoom by transforming their own experience on the platform into pitch-winning analysis and creative. The online law service’s account review preceded the platform’s Initial Public Offering on June 30 that necessitated an entirely new brand campaign.
“Out of all the agencies they looked at, [LegalZoom] was excited that we were customers and could speak from our own personal experience,” Melissa Ploysophon, associate creative director of Hubbub Manufacturing told Adweek. “We founded our agency on LegalZoom, so we were able to draw from what felt true to us. We didn’t have to go far to find the insight.”
The “Let’s Make It Official” message is designed to move beyond merely explaining the platform’s variety of services to explore its humanistic qualities.
“We wanted to bring that emotional side to something that can feel yucky to do, like legal paperwork. It is a daunting task just for people to get started,” Ploysophon said. “We didn’t want to talk about all of those logistics, but we wanted to focus on how it made you feel.”
Going after the side hustle vibe
The agency designed the creative to focus on LegalZoom’s three core offerings: starting businesses, protecting intellectual property and organizing estate plans. Because of the pandemic, the company is “seeing a huge rise in new small businesses formation,” she said. With this gig economy, there has been a huge uptake in its LLC business, she added. “It was really going after that side hustle vibe.”
While Hubbub Manufacturing may have sprinted out of the gate with its first client, the agency’s origination was several years in the making. Last year, Ploysophon, Isaac Clemens, Jon Korn and Warren Cockrel finally decided to stop merely discussing their own ventures and instead actively make them happen. Clemens, now serving as managing director, is credited with driving their vision into fruition.
“We all previously worked together at Heat SF and grew super close,” Ploysophon said. She added this new agency perfectly encapsulates LegalZoom’s side hustle mentality of “let’s just try it and see what happens,” she joked. “So far it has been really great and really fun.”
Collaboration and accessibility
The small core team has proven to be beneficial. “A big selling point has been telling clients we are not going to win the business and then bring in a junior team to create the actual work,” Ploysophon said. “With LegalZoom we were able to work with them very closely as a collaborative team with all of the principal owners and by making ourselves really accessible.”
Close connections are another advantage in starting a new agency from scratch. LegalZoom’s CMO John Buchanan, for instance, previously worked with Clemens and Cockrel, who is now serving as executive creative director. All leaders are actively reaching out to former colleagues and clients to solicit business.
While at first glance it may seem challenging to get all leaders to agree on anything, Hubbub Manufacturing’s name selection was an easy decision, Ploysophon explained. “There are a lot of agencies out there with all of the founders’ last names. We wanted something that didn’t sound like an average agency.”
As such, they decided to “mash together” Hubbub to reflect their fun and playful side, while Manufacturing refers to the notion that they create ideas. “We wanted the thing we manufacture to encompass our personalities and the type of work we like to do.”
Still, Ploysophon admits there is a difference between working at an agency and now managing one. “As a creative I never had to look at as many spreadsheets before,” she joked. Her top priorities are hustling for new business and raising the agency’s visibility.
“And figuring out our angle because there are so many new agencies popping up, with boutique shops here and there. It is about carving out a niche for us in the market, all while maintaining that fun Hubbub culture.”
