Content Strategy & Branded Storytelling

Gambit  Measuring  Tapes

Gambit Measuring Tapes was a local startup formed by union glaziers who set out to create a more functional product for the working professionals within their trade. Glaziers use laser levels everyday to assist with large commercial window installation. To do so, they must use a tool to locate and capture the broadcast laser and then measure it with a tape. Their solution, create a tape measure with a specialized window and material capable of both locating the laser and taking a swift and accurate measurements without the hassle and use of a second hand - important for those standing on girders.

becoming
a brand

Like any new product trying to enter niche marketing segments there were numerous challenges to overcome right out the gate. The most difficult of these came from the target audience, who for the most part were set in their ways and not afraid to share their opinions about it. The second major difficulty stemmed from the fact that there is an industry standard for tape measures that spans across the professional trades - the Stanley Fat Max. You can find it in nearly every toolbelt on the job, meaning our leading competitor was a corporate giant who has been at the top of the tape measure game since it started.

There was one clear choice to make at the launch of the campaign - create a connection with the audience through content based on a system of shared beliefs and broadcast it in the places of their natural aggregation within the digital spaces they reside, reinforcing the idea of trust and belongingness.

The
research

As a strategist helping to promote a new product into a very niche market, it required a large amount of research.

  • Luckily, the group of individuals that started the company where still actively working in the glazier union and had many personal connections within the trade. This provided a great level of firsthand information target audience data.

  • Because if the pre-existing market saturation, the decision was made to focus specifically on glaziers due to their everyday use of laser leveling technology.

  • The next step was to begin charting their points of natural aggregation and creating a behavior map detailing their patterns and places.

  • From the data collected we were able to distinguish which social media platforms to use and the threads, hashtags, and groups wherein union glaziers and other tradespeople naturally reside when in the digital realm. It also provided great insight into the socioemotional behaviors of those individuals, furthering the leverage of our campaign.

Create an image.
define your style.
Tell your story.

Moving forward, it was important to generate a branded style guide in order to maintain content consistency and generate a voice that both fit the brand and connected with their audience - aided through the use of my image templates and editorial calendars.

Make it happen

As it came time to launch the campaign my role shifted as I took on the job of content creator. Using images from on the job sources and product demonstrations paired with my writing skills, we were quickly accepted into the community.

Measuring the results.

  • Find the KPI s that represent the data that matters, and don't be afraid to adjust on the fly. Data changes on the regular and often fluctuates sporadically before revealing its truths.

    For example, there were a significant number of family and friends that were interacting with the content on a regular basis. As a result, their data was misrepresenting that of the targeted audience during the initial analytics - location, gender, and time of day to name a few.

  • Understanding that it is difficult to measure the nurturing of digital connections solely using social media analytics is key. That data and information often leaves the social platform and moves into sales.

    Once someone has bought into the brand, they are most likely to have navigated away from social media and purchased on a separate platform. Nurturing that connectivity creates loyal customers and brand advocates, which is even more difficult to show empirically.

  • It is important to set realistic and iterative goals from the start. The overall goals of the campaign should remain a constant, but Kpi goals should and will change with the inflow of information.

    It is very hard to set engagement benchmarks before you have established a baseline of data. Additionally, the goals within the campaign itself will change as time passes. The initial takeoff goals are not going to be the same at the end of the year.