Embracing change to recharge your business: behind BECG's launch of Lovethat

At BECG, we entered these uncertain times as a single company specializing in communication in the built environment industry. We’re exiting the pandemic as a house of brands with four new businesses coming into the family and to a new shelf of awards.

While there are multiple factors that came together to create this perfect storm, one fundamental quality enabled that chain of events: acceptance of change, and acting on the opportunities that come from it.

The new digital

During the pandemic, we’ve seen the acceleration of digital communications, forcing organizations of all types to innovate. With everyone spending more time online, it’s much less about individual touchpoints. Success now depends on creating journeys and experiences that reflect audiences’ relationships with our clients’ businesses.

Digital became important like never before, but it had to adapt at pace, which might sound strange considering how reliant we are on digital technology and social media.

At the start of 2021 we conducted a benchmarking survey of digital marketers in the built environment industry. From research and strategy to content and digital innovation, this was the first of an annual survey placing the spotlight on challenges and opportunities within the ever-growing field of digital marketing.

Considering the climate at the time, it was surprising to see that just 40% of respondents had a digital-first marketing strategy encompassing all channels. 35% were working towards one.

Digital was clearly a real priority: 67% recorded their digital spend increasing over the last 12 months, while 63% will increase the amount of budget they dedicate to research and insight.

Our own offerings have evolved too. Where once we would offer an FAQ page, we set up two-way dialogues via live chat. Where once we created social media ads, we now develop holistic experiences, and the long-term means to secure rewarding engagement. Today, instead of just creating a virtual consultation website to help a launch, we now deliver longer-term community and stakeholder engagement.

From in-house creative to a whole new brand

Change also brought about an unexpected spotlight on our in-house creative services, providing yet another golden opportunity to elevate and enhance what was perceived as a complimentary service. With revenue almost doubling in the last two years, we not only witnessed an increase in demand of our small in-house creative team (with utilization increasing from 48% to 70%), but an appetite from within the business to sell those creative services in a more prominent way.

It wasn’t a creeping sensation that maybe we should look to reposition the creative offer, much more like a megaphone held up to our ear, telling us that we’d be crazy not to! With the addition of three new businesses to the original BECG, we had to grow the team. But rather than hire for right now we decided to think longer-term.

We could have tried promoting creative services more across the group, but that would have restricted us with reach and client base. We work with clients who just didn’t see us as a creative muscle they could flex on larger campaigns and brand projects, so that just didn’t feel the right fit for what we wanted to achieve with our creative offering.

We worked with the business group to create a value proposition for the creative services that took us away from in-house process and firmly into the realms of agency life and packaged the creative services offer with its own brand, Love That.

Enabling the creative offering to have its own authentic voice and promotional platform allows us to complement the existing business but not stifle opportunities for growth in other areas nor muddy the messaging and position of the group as a whole. The brands within the group complement each other, allowing them to stretch out independently of each other as well as coming together to produce integrated services that pack a punch.

For us, building a brilliant brand requires bravery and flexibility as well as a keen eye for opportunities. Through that core sentiment the additional steps will follow, both visually and commercially.