Good Scrappy: The secret ingredient behind this hundred-year-old startup’s successful brand transformation.
- Ben Sampson
- Dec 16, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 31
When Michelle MacKay was appointed as the new CEO of commercial real estate juggernaut, Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK), she made swift work of shorting debt and realigning the business' strategy in less than a year.
As a known change-agent, she soon looked to the brand - challenging her team for a refreshed purpose and campaign to re-energise her people, all within a similarly tight timeframe.
Her CMO, Brad Kreiger, knew turning a ship of 52,000 people in a new direction would be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
Less than a decade ago, the company itself had formed by merging several smaller, nimbler, successful real estate operations together who were accustomed to dynamic change and fast problem solving.
But to make a change of this magnitude during a time when the entire sector was feeling the constant pinch of high interest rates, Kreiger would need to think differently in order to re-awaken the entrepreneurial spirit of the third largest commercial real estate company in the world.
His first move was to bring a creative partner into his experienced team, which was agile enough to work in lock-step with his marketers – someone with a ‘build it together’ mentality.
His next call was to Australia, where his Head of Business Development for APAC and EMEA, Anna Town, had been working with a lean, trusted crew of creatives called Ravman, conceiving their last successful post-Covid campaign.
Although on very different ends of the scale spectrum, Kreiger knew Ravman’s founder, Ben Sampson, and his relatively small agency shared a common bond – they were ‘scrappy, in a good way’.
‘In commercial real estate, being scrappy is about solving problems any way possible, being outcome-oriented, collaborative, adaptable, all while hustling,’ said Kreiger.
‘Merging from so many smaller companies, Cushman & Wakefield sometimes feels like a hundred year old startup, starting fresh on new challenges every day.’
While Cushman & Wakefield had been studying the brand extensively for years, they now needed to accelerate outcomes with a focus on research and internal interviews to find a clear purpose. But unlike most traditional research processes – they brought creatives in to visualize the findings early.
When the new purpose statement was presented to the executive committee in New York later that month, they already had an inspiring brand book based on their own peoples’ take on what made their business great – revealing a proud new purpose at the end: ‘Never settle for the world that’s been built, but relentlessly drive it forward’.
‘Our new purpose didn’t just check out with all of our people, it was super relevant to the entire sector that was doing it tough,’ said Kreiger of his new purpose.
‘We couldn’t just risk presenting words and quotes that might fall flat – we needed to deliver it differently and bring it to life – we needed everyone in the business to see themselves in it,’ he said.
Both Michelle Mackay and company President, Andrew McDonald, who were kept close to its conception, loved that it finally positioned their people as creative problem solvers who never settle for the status quo.
While the new purpose was circulated throughout the business, Kreiger had already begun rallying his marketing team and Ravman to California to progress their new purpose into a campaign.
After three days of creative development with thirty top marketing leaders from around the world, a young advisor who had caught wind of the new campaign fixed the new tagline to the foyer walls of their San Diego office - ‘Better never settles’. From that moment – a new brand campaign for the hundred-year-old company was born.
During pivotal conferences over the next month, from Dallas to Sydney, advisors from the full ensemble of Cushman’s sectors were filmed offering inspiring advice to launch the ‘Better never settles’ master brand campaign, featuring ‘Advice from those who never settle’.
Managing Principal for the Washington and Oregon operations, Alison Beddard, in her film offered her first line of advice - ‘While others run away from clients’ problems, we must always run to them’.
Deputy Chief Economist and Global Head of Forecasting, Rebecca Rockey, in her film offered this first line of advice - ‘Our most valuable assets are not buildings, but the ideas we have inside that drive things forward.’
Head of Investor Services, James Young, in his film started with - ‘Our biggest problem, is just the one we haven't solved yet.’ And Vice Chairman of Global Corporate Services, David Hawkins in his film reminded his clients - ‘It's not just who you know, it's how far they can reach.’
In 6 months, Kreiger’s team had successfully integrated a new purpose and transformed that into powerful brand work, which represented his people and complemented his CEO's vision.
Nothing the company did in creating this work was dramatically different, but at every stage they consciously thought about how they could do it more intelligently, more efficiently and more like ‘them’.
This work started with an aim to refresh the brand purpose for the future, but somewhere along the way it reminded their people who they were and why they chose this path in the first place – to be custodians of the built world and do whatever it takes to drive it forward, no matter how ‘scrappy’ they need to be.
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