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Each year, the startups in our accelerator program are paired up with some of the most talented and renowned design firms in Cincinnati for the duration of the program. On Friday, June 28th, our startups were paired up with their agency partners for the first time at the POSSIBLE office for our first-ever Brand in a Day event. The agencies brought between two and five experts in their respective fields, from CMOs and CEOs to User Experience Designers and Copywriters. The teams attempted to revamp whatever it is about the startups’ brand that isn’t clicking, whether that was a logo, company name, brand manifesto, tagline, or mood board. The brands will continue to work with their agencies and evolve up until Demo Day on October 2nd, but Brand in a Day was their accelerator within the accelerator to give them a jumpstart. Here are the startup-agency partnerships (some companies are still operating in "Stealth Mode"):
1. Hyperquake and Stealth #1
2. POSSIBLE and Stealth #2
3. Rockfish and Stealth #3
4. Resource and Stealth #4
5. LPK and Stealth #5
6. Empower MediaMarketing and Dónde
7. Rocket Science + Design and DWLLR
8. GoDutch and Awesomatic
9. We Have Become Vikings and Co-Ed Supply
10. gyro and Accrew
We had a spectacular setting for the entire day at POSSIBLE’S office: sprawling views of the Ohio River and Paul Brown Stadium were framed by a crystal-clear blue sky. And with the conference rooms at POSSIBLE named after inspirations like “Jobs,” “Gandhi,” and “Seinfeld,” Brand in a Day was bound to be a success.
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Some of the most astounding visual transformations came in the form of new typefaces, logos, and color schemes, but each team came to a better understanding of their brand identity through the agencies’ expertise and guidance. Some wrote brand manifestos defining who they want to be as a company, some drew hierarchies of need to further define for whom they were building the product, and some talked to create better team dynamics and facilitate agency work in the future. Regardless of the tangible deliverables that the agencies chose to focus on, each team got a solid start on their agency-startup relationship. At noon when they came to present their deliverables, the progress in just four hours was incredible. The collaboration, brainpower, and creativity that our agencies poured into the Brandery companies on Friday were truly remarkable.
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After the presentations, the teams’ workspaces were littered with the remnants of their hard work: post-it notes, large and small, whiteboards covered in brainstorming activities, empty coffee cups and soda cans. Feeling exhausted, but accomplished, the teams retreated back to the Brandery to—you guessed it—get back to work.
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