The American Marketing Association reached out to several branding and marketing people and firms (including yours truly) and asked what we’re seeing and how we’re adjusting our approach to our work amidst the pandemic. You can see the quotes here. It’s an interesting time. Like all of you, I’m sure, I’m hearing stories from agencies whose business has fallen off a cliff, and some with an increase in activity. Three Over Four is feeling incredibly fortunate and grateful to be in the latter category. I’m not sure what to attribute it to, but client work has increased since COVID-19 really heated up in the U.S. Personally I’m wary of anyone predicting the future. Augie Ray, as he so often does, […]
Three Over Four on the Innovative Agency Podcast
By Aaron Templer
Had the pleasure of having a dialog with the Innovative Agency podcast last week. We talked about leadership, marketing, and the Three Over Four approach to building trust with clients and within the marketing industry in general. Check it out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/32-why-trust-is-important-in-marketing-how-leadership/id1419747902?i=1000439001014
A Professional Services Marketing Approach That Might Surprise You
By Aaron Templer
It was a privilege to deliver a Professional Services Marketing course at the Chicago headquarters of the American Marketing Association recently, and I’m really stoked to boil it down for a presentation at a Michiana American Marketing Association event next week. Professional services continues to be an important market segment for Three Over Four, and as we all know: if you truly want to solidify a concept or area of expertise, understanding it well enough to convey it to others is great way to get there. These engagements are great opportunities to share value and also return it to our clients. A funny thing happened along the way. I’ve come to realize that what drives effective professional services marketing isn’t […]
From I to We (Also, Stickers)
By Aaron Templer
November marks nine years since Aaron Templer launched his own branding and marketing firm. He and a group of marketing pros and clients from across industries built strategies, brands, marketing communications plans, and executed full-service campaigns while continually seeking new ways to deliver higher value to clients. After nine years of giving life and growth to others’ brands, it’s finally time to give life to his own. The time is right to make a move away from the I to the We. To shift focus from Aaron Templer to the team of marketing professionals Three Over Four has become. We’re excited and proud to introduce the world to Three Over Four: A strategy-first agency built to be the kind of […]
Emotional Influence
By Aaron Templer
Thought leadership of Leading Through Challenging Times focuses on emotional intelligence. Want to influence through tough times? Learn to manage emotions.
Stop branding. Start leading.
By Aaron Templer
Brand management and leadership share a common space: Influence. Can a brand share characteristics of a good leader? Or must it?
Process vs. Product
By Aaron Templer
I’m interested in the business-minded pursuit of understanding creativity. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I’m interested. One thought that keeps coming to mind: The creative processes that I’m most familiar with don’t start with outcome. I can’t help but wonder if this is why businesses are tripping over the concept and have such a hard time integrating it into their working environments. Business, by its nature, solves a problem for someone. If there’s no problem to be solved, there’s no market. No market, no money. The creative processes that business minds are trying to learn from start in a very different place. A place of expression, not fixing. Exploring the problem, not solving it. If you […]
A Social Contract For The Holidays
By Aaron Templer
A social contract is, by definition, up to all of us. Those of you with kids you know the situation. The daycare is closing, you white knuckle it during rush hour to pick them up (Why does my boss insist on dropping stuff on me late in the day! A 3:00 email about that—really?). You’re not the only working professional struggling to get there on time. You arrive to a line of idling cars, tensions can be high. Think about it from the daycare side for a moment. Late pickups have costs. Overtime for the staff, delayed hours for the janitorial crew, tired staff need to manage hungry, tired kids… it’s an issue. So what would you do if a daycare center came […]
A one night stand with Ignite Denver
By Aaron Templer
The whole Mudra crew was in a funk. Having just wrapped a 6-show run of Gyaan, a major production that dealt with heavy themes that we all put pretty much everything we had into producing and performing, we were down like Charlie Brown. Anyone who’s ever performed anything knows what kind of loss the day after the last show is. You might be glad the grind is over but there’s a big hole you now have to carry around where purpose, community, and satisfying creative expression used to be. Our hole was deep. It was like being dumped. So when Ignite Denver called with the news that one of their speakers had dropped out sick two days before their event, […]