Why We Rebranded—After Our Spring Web Refresh

During spring of this year, Kicks did a refresh of our website. We changed up the templates, layouts, how we presented our work, Once the site launched and we spent some time on it, we came to a harsh realization: it wasn’t us—not at all. 

It came down to practicing what we preach. We tell clients constantly to define and differentiate their brands with messaging, content, and designs that are truly representative of their brand, what they stand for, what they believe in, what they care about, like, don’t like, and want to achieve… Yet there we were with a website and a brand that felt like a shell of who Kicks Digital Marketing truly is. 

Why We Did It

We spent some time—okay lots of time—discussing why we liked working at Kicks. Why we thought we were different when everyone thinks they’re different. What made our work significant and what made it sing. We went on long walks, held pow wows on front porches, picked apart what we liked and what we didn’t, and we learned that as an agency, and a team, we had bigger, better, braver ideas swirling in our minds—so we threw caution to the wind, and we acted on them. 

We didn’t want to be another agency because we’ve never felt like one. We’ve managed to dodge the stereotypical ideals, heriachires, and egos, and have operated on our own definition of what it means to be a creative, digital agency. It didn’t take long for us to figure out, we’re sort of… the anti-agency. We’re not what you think of when you think of marketers, and we think that’s a good thing. So we decided to be bold, show our true colors (which we absolutely adore and hope you do, too), and make a brand we’d be proud of. 

How We Did It 

As a small but mighty agency, we decided to lead with that and prove whatever a large agency could do, so could we—but in our own, somewhat quirky yet professional way. We tore down the structure of our old site, our brand, and our former mantras, and in essence, stripped ourselves down to the bones so we could rebuild our body. 

We started with our colors: 

As a group of bubbly, vibrant, witty, silly, clever people, we thought our former muted colors just didn’t match our personalities. We took the colors we had and flipped them on their heads, unveiling a vivid, bright spread of hues that made us (and continue to make us) giddy. 

Then we moved to our messaging: 

We have never felt our content was weak, but it wasn’t always us. It was service-minded, results driven, and industry centric—but it wasn’t coming from the voice of our wildly creative, fun-loving crew. We wanted users to get an idea of who we are and what we stand for immediately, so we took our taglines, messaging, and content and overhauled it to present our services from our point of view. 

Out with the old: 

We strategize, create, and deliver Digital Experiences

Who we are helps define what we do.

We’re industry experts who’ve been in the marketing world for decades, absorbing a wealth of knowledge along the way. Over the years, we’ve learned dipping your toes in rather than diving head first produces the best results, creativity is worth more than following a formula, and intention behind action is king. We’re driven by collaboration, which means our clients are our partners, not just our business; fueled by being the best, not the biggest or the loudest, and we combine resourcefulness with imagination to make big ideas possible.

In with the bold: 

Strategy Inspired by Creativity. 

The Anti-Agency

We believe in inclusivity, humility and understanding, originality over uniformity, and we don’t abide by the saying, “it’s just business.” We believe good ideas can come from anywhere and clients can be creative. We never settle for what works, but strive to discover what works best, which means we don’t treat projects like production lines, value trends over fads, and champion for work that’s different, not expected. Because it’s not just business—it’s your business, and we believe it matters.

And we turned the volume up on design—way up 

From a more color-blocked design, to amping things up with some fresh ideas and creative displays:

What We’re Hoping 

We’ve known for a while we’re a little different, operationally, creatively, and well, pretty much holistically. We’ve always felt it was our strong suit, and we’re excited to have defined it in a visual way. Our new brand is a product of the entire Kicks team—you’ll find a bit of all of us infused within it, and we hope our clients, potential clients, friends, family, peers, and colleagues get as much of a kick out of it as we do.