Wag’n Tails / brand platform / campaign / experience
The Next Mile
this one had my whole heart
Of all the things I made at Wag’n Tails, this is the one I still want to talk about.
Six weeks before Groom Expo, it did not exist. There was a vehicle update. There were smart people doing work customers could not see. There were separate problems. I became convinced it was one story. Then I got a little carried away.
Act One
Six weeks before Hershey, there was no campaign.
So naturally, I decided we needed an entire brand platform.
About six weeks before Groom Expo in Hershey, I was brought into the conversations about what we would take. The early Ultimate Groom vision had been scaled back. Engineering was discouraged. The larger vision had not been fully realized.
What was in the room was a pile of separate problems. Customer trust was already public. Negative sentiment. Quality concerns. Customer-care frustration. Quality, production, and innovation had new tools and processes, and customers could not see them. Engineering wanted to hear directly from groomers. There was an updated vehicle, and no larger story around it. I believed the trust problems were human. People wanted to feel heard.
very normal amount of time to build an entire platform.
- Ultimate Groom, scaled back
- engineering, discouraged
- trust, already public
- quality work, unseen
- a van, and no story
This is the part where a reasonable person probably would have made a few signs.
Everything was happening. Nothing was connected.
I met with the teams. There was no name yet. People were already improving the vehicles. Customers were already saying what needed to change. Engineers wanted to listen. Quality and production already had systems. The company already had business resources that went past the van.
Most of the pieces already existed. My job was the thread.
I saw they belonged in the same story.
That was the work. Not seven new programs. The opportunity was to connect work that was already happening. Not to invent a new promise.
The product was still part of the story. It just was not the whole story anymore.
- Customer feedback
- Internal teams
- Improvements
- Proof
- Back to the customer
conversation, not broadcast
The old path ran from the company, to a message, to a customer. This one had to come back.
Somewhere between a customer feedback problem, an engineering conversation, and a tradeshow deadline, I fell in love with the idea.
The name was a kind of permission. We are listening. We are improving. We are not done. It could acknowledge the progress without pretending the work was finished.
On the page, the public language became Listen, Learn, Build, Keep listening, under a line the site still carries.
- Better doesn’t happen by standing still.
- We build. You drive.
- There is always a next mile.
- Listen. Learn. Build. Keep listening.
The montage
Then the idea started leaving the notebook.
Plot twist
The van was not the campaign.
The van was not actually the story. Quantum was the proof.
The updated groom vehicle was tangible for Hershey. The story was not “here is a new van.” It was simpler than a launch. We listened. We learned. We changed something. Here is the evidence. Tell us what comes next.
Updated Quantum was the first visible proof. Same familiar workspace. Thoughtful changes shaped by groomers in the field. Propane came off the build, replaced by a furnace that draws heat from the chassis fuel system. The rooftop air conditioner sat lower, an 18,000 BTU Dometic. Fewer openings. One exterior charging and power port.
Then we built the world.
Against all reasonable project-management advice, we built a world.
Six weeks from an idea to a place. Mockups first. Then something a person could walk into. Digital, then physical. Hershey was the week it had to stand in a room. The updated Quantum was there to be opened and questioned. Around it, the invitation was a conversation: what was changing, what still needed to change, and what the business needed past the vehicle.
The campaign became a place.
then
then
then
then
then
The big scene
And then people walked into it.
The show had to be more than come see our vans. Fifteen minutes on going mobile, pricing, growth, financing, planning, the next step. A groomer’s experience had to be able to reach engineering, quality, product, and customer care. The page asks for a starting point, then one form. It says real people read what you send.
The van was part of the business. It was not the whole business.
It was not a tradeshow campaign.
It became a way to talk about the work. Once it had a name, other things had a place to stand. Website messaging. About Us. Customer-centered storytelling. Careers. Feedback spaces and sessions. Business coaching. Ambassador opportunities. Vehicle launches. How innovation and quality were talked about. Internal communications. Community messaging. The relationship after the purchase.
It had to mean something inside the company, too. Engineering, quality, production, customer care, sales, service, operations, leadership. If customers were going to believe we were listening, the building had to recognize the story. A story the building did not recognize would have been another ad.
It was built to become a mantra, not just a campaign.
The Next Mile
- Website
- Vehicle launches
- Customer experience
- Feedback
- Internal communications
- Employee engagement
- Business coaching
- Innovation language
- Brand storytelling
I did not love it because it was pretty.
I loved it because marketing took a pile of unfinished things and helped everyone see how they connected. That is the work I want to keep doing.
This is one of the things I am most proud of in my career. Honestly, in my life. It reminded me why I loved marketing. Not impressions. Not a polished deck. A complicated collection of people, problems, ideas, hopes, and unfinished work, and a way for everyone to see the possibility.
I watched it move from something I could only picture to mockups, language, the web, internal conversations, physical spaces, and a tradeshow. That reignited my passion.
I didn’t create The Next Mile because everything was perfect. I created it because I believed it could get better.
Project details
- Role
- Marketing Lead / Director of Marketing
- Timeline
- Six weeks before Groom Expo, then it kept going
- Responsibilities
-
- Strategy
- Naming
- Messaging
- Creative direction
- Website
- Customer journey
- Tradeshow experience
- Feedback strategy
- Internal communications
- Product storytelling
- Cross-functional leadership
Post-credits
The next mile was never really about the next mile.
I thought I was building a campaign. I was reminding myself what kind of work I wanted to make.
There is always another version.
Would I recommend developing a brand platform six weeks before the biggest show of the year? Probably not. Would I do it again? Immediately.
keep going
See more work → Next project The Website Was Never Just a WebsiteThe early screens are the first pass of the page. The later ones are The Next Mile and the updated Quantum, as they existed in this work.