— We eat brand challenges for breakfast.
— Who We Are
Motto is more than our name, it’s a symbol of who we are. We’re a purpose-driven, strategic leadership and brand consultancy founded by Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger. We’re proudly among the .01% of creative agencies owned by women.
Historically, mottos were war cries of sentiment, hope, and purpose. Today, we create mottos for our clients that serve as a rallying call — a meaningful mantra that leads your company forward. Our strategy work builds on our culture work, and our branding work builds on our strategic work. By doing so, we partner with leaders and teams to create and re-imagine brands from concept to completion. We have garnered a reputation as one of the top branding agencies in the country for modern, growing brands.
Based out of New York City with a satellite office in Dallas, TX, we have branded hundreds of clients across the globe, which has led us to develop and refine a seamless process to help our clients navigate each step. Our fiercely talented brigade leads teams through leadership workshops and strategic brand development, the creation of verbal and visual identities, and leveraging brand to shape culture, process, and operations.
We’re the best at:
– Guiding your leadership to clarity
– Giving brands an ownable position
– Uniting who you are with what you do
– Creating cultures that inspire
– Capturing your spirit in a brand motto
– Turning your team into advocates
– Untangling confusion
– Crafting crushworthy brands
– Making brands that perform and scale
– Establishing your brand as a leader
– Expanding resources for teams
— Our Culture
When you meet our team at Motto, there’s one thing you pick up on immediately. We’re very different from one another.
Some of us grew up under democracy. Others under totalitarianism. We were born into privilege and disadvantage. Into cities and onto farms. Into “enough” and into never enough. We identify as female and male, a blend of both or neither. We’re parents of fur babies or human babies. Or parents who bring forth ideas and social change.
We’re college dropouts schooled in corporate boardrooms. Folklorists with MBAs. Logisticians who are artists. Facilitators who are motivators. Project managers who are nurturers. Some of us roam the streets of NYC. Others tuck themselves into a forest like Snow White. Yes, we’re different from one another, but there’s one big thing we have in common:
We amplify one another’s gifts inside Motto to wrestle vision forward for some of the coolest brand’s on earth.
After decades in the trenches, we’ve come to understand that while we are a branding agency, we’re not just a branding agency. Candidly, we’ve tossed around quite a few words. Leadership coaches? Brand innovators? Culture advocates? Therapists? We’re all of those things, according to what’s needed.
We encourage you to:
– Spend time reviewing our testimonials
– Get your hands on our book
– Review our case studies
– Read our articles (full of great tips)
– Listen to various podcasts and shows
– Read recent press
– Find us on best Creative Agencies, Clutch, DesignRush, TMD
Our Approach
— The Trenches
An agile track designed to get clarity fast.
Through a series of virtual, interactive workshops, Motto’s leadership team quickly draws out differing opinions to achieve alignment. Using the latest in collaboration tech, we facilitate in real time your unique DNA, differentiators, vision, and voice. You’ll be in awe at how well we captain your ship from indecision and confusion to clarity and confidence.
- Unite your leadership team
- Achieve brand alignment
- Find the “big idea”
- Define your differentiation
- Identify your tribe(s)
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— The Strategy
A compass for your brand’s development.
Motto’s senior strategists will create a strategic brand framework that aligns with the business goals and creates a high degree of cohesion for the master brand. The purpose of the framework is to define your brand’s meaning and message, and communicate the brand clearly so it’s easy to understand.
- Clarify purpose and vision
- Frame core values
- Define who, what, how
- Claim brand position
- Define the motto
- Know your archetype
- Craft attributes
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— The Words
A verbal identity to distinguish your voice.
Motto’s word wizards craft what your brand sounds like when it speaks. This is the articulation of your brand through the use of language, expressed through words. Serious or playful? Respectful or irreverent? Enthusiastic or matter-of-fact? We establish verbal pillars and guidelines to give you the words you’re missing.
- Define tone of voice
- Craft verbal persona
- Write brand story
- Create messaging kit
- Draft key copy
- Deliver voice guidelines
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— The Visuals
A visual toolkit to create your total brand experience.
Motto’s design team will develop a comprehensive visual identity system to reflect the brand’s strategic objectives, distinguish the brand among others, and bring the brand concept to life.
- Draft creative brief
- Develop style boards
- Define art direction
- Design brand identity
- Create graphic elements
- Develop brand guide
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— Why Motto?
What does who we are have to do with you, your business, and the future of your brand?
A client once summarized how Motto is different from other agencies. He said, “In a world full of ball point pens, Motto is a race car.” All the typical processes others use to develop and tidy up the outward-facing brand are actually the last phase in our client engagements. That’s because great branding is the result of deep foundational work that cracks the code on your business’ trapped potential. It’s not just logos and colors and fonts.
Motto’s clients get immediate value from our work together, because we drill deeper down than you’ve ever ventured into the DNA of your brand. We cultivate genuine alignment within your team.
This has a ripple effect across your business:
– Clarity of vision and purpose anchors the business to something bigger.
– Enables more creativity within the team.
– Accelerate growth by aligning on direction.
– Less money and time is wasted on marketing that fails.
– People are armed with values that guide behaviors and actions.
– Customers feel more connected, and partners feel more inspired.
– High quality employees get on board.
– Charging a higher price which leads to higher profits.
– Positive affinity is used to launch new products in categories that fit your brand positioning.
– Customer experience is delivered with cohesion and consistency.
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Obsessed
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Obsessed
We believe excellence is a thousand details executed perfectly. Our team is obsessed with the details both big and small. That's how we deliver extraordinary work.
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Rebellious
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Rebellious
We are waging a strategic rebellion against the status quo and we look for clients who want to push boundaries, confront wrongs, give a voice to the voiceless, or birth something unprecedented.
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Audacious
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Audacious
We are audacious, so we look for audacious visionaries who are positively contributing to the dialogue of business and culture today.
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No. B.S.
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No. B.S.
Time is money and we don't want to waste either. We trim the fat, cut to the chase and get to the heart of the matter. You'll find us refreshingly honest and solution-driven.