“The biggest risk to creativity isn’t controversy, it’s mediocrity. Bland work doesn’t get criticized; it gets ignored. And being ignored is far more threatening for a brand today than being debated.”
LIZ TAYLOR, GLOBAL CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER , OGILVY
As I began writing this Thresholds of Change blog about the essential role a brand plays in effectively launching a new brand, product or service, I thought about how many times I’ve been part of these kinds of projects during my 17 years at Spoke. To say it has been in the hundreds is not a stretch.
Our team has ensured people “think positive” about sustainable molded fiber packaging, helped a university leadership program attract working professionals looking to get “unstuck from the corporate middle”, and even aligned a fiber internet provider’s "We dig deep" Midwestern values with their customers' values. Vastly different offerings. But each required strategically-sound brand delivery to reach the right consumer and drive the desired sales action.
I was recently reading an interview with Greg Hahn, founder of Mischief (2025 Adweek agency of the year). He describes how their ad agency mindset is to always play brand offense. His philosophy, backed by their client success for brands like Capri Sun, Miller Beer and Shutterfly: “Let’s do something because it’s right, not because it’s safe.”
Greg Hahn points out how so often a client's whim or nervousness can lead to the creation of an invisible brand built on mediocrity. The agency is just a vendor, not a trusted partner. The agency is told what to do. It begs the question, as Mad Men’s Don Draper would say to one of his clients, “Would you rather be a piece of hay in the haystack or the needle?”
A brand without “unexpected, compelling truths” is just flat, and that changes nothing for a company on the Threshold of Change. As Greg Hahn points out about brands, “Is playing it safe the biggest problem in advertising today? I think everything that is a problem in advertising today stems from this fear.”
Question: What was the sweat factor of your last brand effort for a product or service launch?
It wasn’t that the creative was off strategy or offensive, but while all your competitors were ‘Yinging,’ you decided to ‘Yang’ with a brand push that bypassed the “safe” or “expected” solution?
For one company leader, the nervous factor was at DEFCON 1 for a TV commercial that would launch his new personal computer to compete directly against IBM, an industry Goliath. His name was Steve Jobs. He was young. And so was his company: Apple Computers. They were on a threshold of change in the infancy of personal computers.
What was on the line for Apple? Survival.
Jobs was a rebel by nature. But a rebel with a cause. And he wanted to take down IBM with a TV commercial that would, as he stated, “Stop people in their tracks. I want a thunderclap.” He saw IBM as Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984. And since the commercial – directed by Ridley Scott – was going to air during the 1984 Super Bowl, the brand utilized an Orwellian theme that would attack IBM with one swift hammer blow.
What resulted was that an invisible product was made visible with what Ad Week considers the greatest TV spot ever created. Sales for Apple totaled $150 million ($474 million today’s world) in just the first 100 days after the commercial aired – just one time. Oh, and the actual personal computer was never shown. The rest is brand history.
Watch Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial
This brand story begins in 1984 with cable industry icon Bill Daniels. A newspaper article about a bank denying a group of 5th graders a small business loan for a project sparked the idea in Bill’s mind to start a bank just for kids. By 1987, Young Americans Bank opened its doors.
Fast forward to 2025. This was when Spoke’s fractional Associate Creative Director in Denver, Matt Bell, connected us with a new branding opportunity for Young Americans.
Young Americans were at the Threshold of Change in securing a place within the banking industry that was becoming highly competitive for reaching kids. Fintech brands such as Greenlight and NerdWallet, as well as traditional banks, were moving full speed ahead with products and services targeting a younger audience.
The key difference is that Young Americans is the only bank in the world just for kids and the educational programs to teach them financial smarts. That’s a big deal. Because no other bank offers services to teach kids the value of money and an actual bank where young people can apply that teaching to real life use through services such as loans. It’s a strategic direction Young Americans could own.
Bill was determined to create a bank that would provide kids with what they required to learn how to succeed in the world of free enterprise. It was a path they could follow to Take Charge of their financial future.
These powerful words became the brand foundation of a new “movement” Spoke created to help Young Americans compete and move ahead. While it was a position re-shift, we never lost sight of Bill Daniels’ legacy. It’s evident in everything from a new website and videos to brand guidelines we created for reaching a new generation of technology-dialed-in kids looking to take charge of their financial future – all at the only bank in the world just for kids.
From the inside:
Ciara Brewer, Spoke Account Executive/Marketing Technology Lead, and Trevor Mayo, Sr. Director of Innovation & Growth at Young Americans, recently had a conversion about the rebrand and what it was like to partner with Spoke:
Ciara: Could you share a little bit about your take on where things were for Young Americans before Spoke and the vision for why a rebrand was needed.
Trevor: Nothing had really been done to the Young Americans brand since '87. Gaddy Layden, our SVP for Innovation & Growth, wanted to start, as she puts it, “A movement, not just a change, but a movement within our Denver community and nationwide.” Until we had that brand consistency and brand awareness, we couldn’t take one step forward.
Ciara: So, why did you choose Spoke? What's it been like to work with us?
Trevor: We started with 10 different agencies across the nation. Our stakeholders who were part of the agency selection voted based on the initial brand ideas. Spoke beat everybody … by a lot. Spoke’s brand work is amazing. The workshops got all 14 stakeholders aligned. And you included us in a very collaborative process. But what makes the relationship stick is that we can have super serious conversations, but then five seconds later, we can laugh about something else. You’re just very caring people. And I think that's a great working team.
Ciara: What do you think would be helpful for any client to know before they begin a branding endeavor like the one for Young Americans?
Trevor: Rebranding is a journey, not an event. Two years ago, people here thought, oh, once we launch we're good to go. But they didn't realize it would be another year and a half of changing everything internally, externally, updating different things, and adding new
pieces. A rebrand is complex and truly an ever-changing journey.
Ciara: How can success for a rebrand like yours be measured?
Trevor: Consistency is one measurement of success. Another is awareness. Now when our customers see a logo for one of our programs such as Ameritown, they know this is part of the Young Americans Center or Young Americans Bank — that they all interconnect. That wasn't happening before Spoke.
Check out the Young Americans take charge brand
One of the greatest brand traps companies launching a new product or service fall into is making sure they say everything their competition is saying. “You make that? You sell it at that price? We do, too.” While it feels safe, it can be deadly to a brand that does everything except stand out.
This “copycat” syndrome is why so often the promotion of product or service offerings is driven by features. After all, if everyone's doing it, well, it must be right.
Wrong.
How can a consumer make an educated buying decision in this sea of sameness? At best, they are guessing. What’s required is a human connection that emotionally ties them to the brand. This isn’t marketing smoke and mirrors. It’s psychology-based.
“Your brand doesn't compete in the marketplace, it competes in the mindscape. When brands successfully connect with customers' emotions, the business results speak for themselves: customers with emotional connections to brands have a 306% higher lifetime value and are 71% more likely to recommend the company versus the 45% average recommendation rate.”
AVERI, 2026
Apple has always known that you can’t bore somebody into buying a product. It was how they successfully launched their first personal computer to go head-to-head with IBM. It’s also how they introduced the first iPhone using just one word: Hello. And that was all that it took to say “goodbye” to Blackberry.
At Spoke, the brands we can create to launch new products or services might make you nervous, even sweat a little more than you like at times. But our thinking, from strategy and planning to creative delivery, is strategic and works harder than other competitive brands.
As we continue with our Thresholds of Change blog series, I wanted to leave you with something to ponder: Change is constant. And it's inevitable. Be ready.
Reach out and let’s start a conversation. We have the experience and resources to serve as your trusted guide.
