The Problem
Imagination had 25 years of content expertise, but clients and prospects didn’t see the whole agency. In an August 2020 review, 55% of clients used only some of our digital services, and most worked with the digital team on just one.
Our own website didn’t help. The agency’s 2020 landscape audit found it read like “a collection of ideas and content, with information often getting lost in boxes,” while every competitor claimed digital. Inside the agency, video and podcasts were still treated as tactical add-ons.
The Approach
By 2020 I led the digital group, about 20 roles across strategy, analytics, SEO, social, paid media, video, audio, design and development. My goal was to move that work from the edges of how Imagination described itself to the center.
Working with the agency’s marketing committee, I benchmarked Imagination against competitors positioned on brand experience, connected marketing and data. The opening was content strategy: lean into the expertise Imagination already had and unite every discipline under one content strategy umbrella, from creation and design to digital marketing, distribution and print. It’s the kind of read I now deliver as The Story Audit.
The positioning we presented in August 2020: “We are a content strategy agency with 25 years of proven expertise in helping organizations engage audiences by creating purposeful content distributed through the power of digital activation.”
What We Built
- A positioning statement and pillars built on one model: content strategy (the plan), content management (the stuff) and digital marketing (the promotion).
- A capabilities deck that opens with the new positioning.
- Sell sheets for 11 services, from video and podcasts to SEO, paid media and analytics.
- A pricing reference and a digital request form, so teams could scope and sell digital work the same way.
- New services, including landscape audits, embedded SEO and the Content Performance Score, a model that weighs a piece of content’s effort against its impact.
- A redesigned ImaginePub.com, organized around content strategy, creation, distribution and performance.
The Result
The new positioning became the agency’s sales story. It opens the capabilities deck, and the 2021 website was rebuilt around it.
- Elevated agency offerings through a more cohesive and strategic digital practice
- Positioned the agency for long-term growth with stronger internal alignment and clearer value articulation
