Brand experience design is the discipline of making every encounter with your organization express the same identity with precision and intention. The website, the annual report, the merch, the ad campaign, the email signature, the tradeshow booth, how you speak with the press. Each one is either building your brand or quietly contradicting it.

Most organizations get individual touchpoints right and the connections between them wrong. The website looks polished but the event materials look like a different organization. The board deck is beautiful but the fundraising emails are generic. The visual identity is strong but nobody enforces it, so each department improvises and the brand fragments. Consistent execution requires clear creative direction, systems, and process.

We provide all three.

Working from the positioning and messaging that define what your brand means, we design, direct, and govern how it shows up across every channel. We manage designers, developers, and production resources… either assembling the right team for the project or raising the performance of teams you already have. The result is a brand experience that compounds: each touchpoint reinforces the others, and the cumulative effect is recognition, trust, and a brand that compounds.

View our brand portfolio

Marketing Excellence

Agency management Campaign design Consulting CMO Creative direction Positioning and messaging Product UX design Visual brand strategy Website design

Synopsys Software Integrity

The Next Us worked with the Software Integrity business unit as an embedded team member to help the company position itself successfully in the application security market over a two-year period of rapid growth and expansion. We helped Synopsys integrate its storytelling and visual brand across all marketing and sales touch points and iteratively assimilate the assets of five major acquisitions: Coverity, Codenomicon, Protecode, Seeker, and Cigital.

During this engagement, Synopsys moved from a niche player in the application security space to one of the largest based on revenue, reputation and solution breadth. It also evolved its Software Integrity marketing approach from pure lead gen to a thoughtful mix of demand generation and brand-building at every step of the marketing funnel.

Responsibilities:

Onsite marketing lead responsible for all aspects of brand strategy and outbound marketing
Functional manager of all in-house creative resources and outside agencies
Development and management of all core Synopsys Software Integrity outbound communication tools, including platform and product positioning, messaging architectures, sales decks, tradeshow training materials, visual brand style guides and templates
Design of Software Integrity cross-channel brand campaigns
Liaison to Synopsys Corporate Marketing for the year-long redesign of the Synopsys.com corporate website, including referring the final selected design agency and representing all Software Integrity technical, marketing, visual design, and information architecture needs and requirements

Agency management Brand positioning Campaign design Consulting CMO Creative direction Marketing strategy Merchandizing Messaging Product UX design

Zazzle

The Next Us worked with Zazzle as an embedded team member to help the company navigate a major transformation of its product, external brand, and internal culture.

In 2012, Zazzle was already a one-of-kind maker platform with a stellar track record and a bold vision for the future. The Next Us worked hands-on with the Zazzle leadership team on brand repositioning and served as interim Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for two quarters.

As part of this project, The Next Us consulted on brand identity redesign and product experience redesign, and led the cross-channel marketing strategy and creative direction for Zazzle’s 2012 holiday campaign, which exceeded revenue and profitability benchmarks.

Agency management Brand strategy Consulting CMO Creative direction Outbound marketing strategy Product design Product development methodology Strategic planning Vision

Nextag

The Next Us worked with Nextag for 4 years as an external brand consultant and embedded team member responsible for all brand strategy and outbound marketing.

Nextag was an early e-commerce pioneer with an incredible track record for profitability and resilience. Since its inception in the late 1990’s, the company used its data science and lead gen capabilities to help thousands of retailers and content providers maximize their revenue across every device and digital ecosystem. During our engagement, the company also managed a network of over a dozen consumer e-commerce sites worldwide.

Major responsibilities:

Brand strategy, brand identity design, and messaging for all Nextag major consumer brands: Nextag, Wize.com, and Price Machine
Positioning, rebranding, site design, and launch for the Wize Commerce corporate parent
UX design consulting and ongoing optimization for all the brands above
Onsite Brand Director responsible for all aspects of brand strategy and B2C / B2B outbound marketing (1-year appointment)
Functional manager of all in-house creative resources and outside agencies

Brand identity design Capital campaign design and execution Consulting CMO Consulting Development and Marketing Lead Events Positioning and messaging Website redesign and evolution

Community Youth Center San Francisco

The Next Us has worked with CYC continuously since 2019 as strategic advisor and consulting Head of Development and Marketing. Over the past six years, our key responsibilities have included:

Leading the rebranding, repositioning, website redesign, and messaging development for the agency’s 50th anniversary
Leading the design and execution of the Richmond Community Hub capital campaign
Creating serial cornerstone content assets, including multiple annual reports, Executive Director and board speeches, annual gala materials, and major donor brochures
Leading the business requirements, design, and/or configuration of key development and marketing systems: Asana, WordPress, Classy, Slack, Constant Contact, Salesforce NPSP, ChatGPT, iWave

Board facilitation Content strategy Messaging Positioning UX Strategy Values WordPress development

Coral Reef Alliance

For the CORAL website relaunch, The Next Us led positioning and messaging, sitewide content development, UX strategy, and WordPress development. Long-time partner Todd Schulte Design led the gorgeous visual design work. The new website helped CORAL break its online and general giving records for the 2021 annual campaign.

Brand voice Consulting CMO Content systems and training Creative direction Marketing strategy Positioning and messaging Website redesign

Small Magic

The Next Us worked with Small Magic (formerly Birmingham Talks) for a 4-year engagement on positioning, marketing and communications strategy, development strategy, internal capacity development, and brand. For the renaming and relaunch of the brand in January 2024, we led the content strategy and site map for the new website and referred Todd Schulte Design and CloudCatch, who led the exceptional design and WordPress development for the new site. The Next Us also assisted Small Magic with functional management of marketing and the optimization and integration of key operational systems including Asana, Salesforce, Slack, and ChatGPT.

Scale good.