When CEO Jennie Ellis launched Recruiting Bandwidth in 2012, she focused on helping companies hire fast, filling seats for startups when their growth outpaced staffing resources. Three driving forces - a decade of economic growth, the Fourth Technology Revolution, and shifting cultural views around work - have reshaped the modern hiring landscape. Employees and candidates know they’re in demand, they have more choices, and higher expectations for employers. In the war for talent, recruiting is no longer a numbers game.
Recruiting Bandwidth evolved too, from an on-call recruiting vendor to a strategic partner delivering a full scope of offerings: employer branding and talent management strategy, tech-enabled recruiting infrastructure, candidate experience journeys, and digital hiring campaigns.
By 2019, Recruiting Bandwidth had not only doubled in size, it had outgrown its original brand identity.
Recruiting Bandwidth launched a brand refresh, hiring multiple vendors to handle various parts of the project: naming, design, and web. Several weeks in, the process felt disjointed, inefficient, and the results were disappointing.
Jennie sought me out as a senior-level thought partner who could translate the strategic pivot from recruiting firm to strategic consultant into a brand that would resonate with clients and employees. She needed someone with both strategic and creative chops to lead the rebranding effort, freeing her to focus on the business.
With deadlines looming and dollars spent, I worked quickly to get up to speed and get the project back on track. Working closely with Jennie and the Practice Director, I helped refocus and restart the project with new strategic clarity, stakeholder alignment, and a go-forward plan.
During the first two weeks, I focused on:
2020 Strategy Articulation
Assessing the current situation and vendor capabilities
Refining goals and go-forward plans, ensuring stakeholder agreement
Articulating the opportunity for the brand pivot, re-naming, and relaunch
Authoring a creative brief and aligned external vendors
Identifying brand touch points in need of refresh: mission, values, name, logo, website, and all marketing collateral
Over the next four weeks, I took on a hybrid CMO/Creative Director role to develop and articulate the new brand identity across all touchpoints.
As a first step, Jennie and I worked together to define the firm’s strategy for 2020 and beyond. With that as a foundation, I crafted a new rebranding plan and creative brief to align the outcome to their strategic business goals.
During the initial assessment phase, I consolidated the list of vendors, aligned the remaining vendors around a clear vision and plan, and worked closely with them to ensure they delivered on brief, and on time.
As acting creative director, I helped articulate and translate the CEO’s vision and strategy across the entire brand ecosystem.
With any brand change initiative, stakeholder and employee relations are a large part of my consideration. It was important to the CEO and I that ‘Bandmates’ (Bandwidth employees) embraced the strategic pivot and brand refresh. I helped to share the purpose, plan, and progress across the organization, solicited feedback, and demonstrated how Bandmate input helped influence the new brand. The result: excited employees who couldn’t wait to show off the fresh, new Bandwidth brand.
I delivered the new Bandwidth right on time to kick off the 2020 relaunch and direct marketing campaign. In the new campaign, Jennie Ellis reintroduces Bandwidth’s expanded services and capabilities, a message that is amplified by the modernized brand, website, user experience, and compelling, story-driven content. The campaign targeting clients and prospects has generated new interest and is helping to drive a robust pipeline of sales leads and qualified candidates.
The new Bandwidth is a bright and engaging showcase for branding best practices. Excited by the changes, Bandwidth’s sales and recruiting teams now have the tools they need to demonstrate the firm’s breadth of capabilities and vibrant culture.
We needed a brand reboot and Mandy was just the right person for the job. She audited our existing assets, interviewed our senior team and got right to work. While she had a clear vision for how to pivot our brand, she carefully balanced gathering our input along the way and leveraging her prior experience to get the work done efficiently. Mandy managed outside vendors and internal expectations with grace. We now have a new name, logo, website, pitch deck and are excited for our future.
