Rebranding the Unintentional Agency
It’s the start of an exciting new chapter for my team and me. I’ll get to that in a minute … but let me come clean first.
I never planned to get into the agency business.
When I opened shop 13 years ago, I was launching a software company. Our product was HRmarketer, the very first marketing software suite developed specifically for the HR marketplace. The agency was … unintentional.
As our software business grew, more and more of our clients began asking us to help them create marketing materials, write press releases and pitch their news stories to the media. Like any entrepreneur worth his salt, I responded, “Sure, we’d be happy to help.” At the time, I had more than 10 years of marketing and sales experience under my belt in the human capital marketplace, so I felt completely comfortable helping clients with their marketing challenges. And that’s how the agency—HRmarketer Services Group—was born. Unintentional. But challenging, fun and rewarding right from the start.
So here we are … 13 years later and the agency is thriving. And as I mentioned earlier, we’re starting an exciting new chapter—a chapter that’s beginning with the agency’s rebranding. Our HRmarketer Services Group will now be known as fisher VISTA—the marketing agency for the HR marketplace.
So, just to set the record straight, fisher VISTA is the name of our agency, and HRmarketer is the name of our software. Two distinct brands but two highly complementary businesses—each capable of standing on its own and worthy of its own identity.
Even today many of our software clients eventually engage us as their agency, and lots of our agency clients use the HRmarketer software to learn more about the marketplace. In fact, agency clients are often thrilled to learn that HRmarketer software “powers” a lot of the services we provide. Our strategies, messaging, marketing campaigns and content are all based on up-to-the-minute data and marketplace intelligence that simply can’t be found anywhere else.
That’s not an exaggeration. If you haven’t read about or demoed the latest version of the HRmarketer software, you need to. Really. You’ll be blown away like every other company we’ve shown it to. Learn more about our software here.
How Does the Rebranding Affect Agency Clients?
The good news is, it doesn’t! Clients will continue to be served by their devoted account managers and their talented support teams. If you’re not an agency client and you’re interested in learning more about us, please check out our new fisher VISTA site.
To anyone shopping for an agency, don’t rush in. fisher VISTA is just one of several agencies serving the HR marketplace (although we do pride ourselves on being one of the first and one of the best). If you’re interested in hiring an agency, talk with as many as you can. All of the major players in this space do great work, and we all have unique cultures and points of view. Do your homework and pick the agency you feel most comfortable with.
Finally … to all of our clients, thank you for 13 fantastic years. And here’s to making the next 13 even better!
- Mark
Labels: Fisher Vista, Mark Willaman
