We are entrepreneurs, innovation experts and strategic advisors.
Our experienced team works with companies to bring new ideas to life and help them grow.
With the widespread use of smartphones and the onset of app-based desktops and tablets, people are developing virtual homescreens in their minds that reflect the homescreens on their devices of choice. These homescreens only have room for around 12 apps, and 9 of the spots are already taken.
“With over a million Apps already available, yours needs to meet a real need or desire in a unique, easy-to-use way.”
Mass marketing was an efficient way to generate brand awareness for years. The Internet fragmented mass media, rendering it less efficient. But it was social networks that changed everything. Early adopters and key influencers can be the lightning fuse for socializing your brand growth. But beware – they can destroy your brand in 140 characters.
“Key influencers talking about your product gives consumers the confidence they need to buy something new.”
The disaggregation of mass media has rendered the old "marketing funnel" model more and more difficult to drive adequate returns on marketing dollars. However, the explosion of social media has created an entirely new model that multiplies expensively acquired primary customers into masses of followers.
“To achieve the scale and influence benefits of socialization, you must build virality into your marketing, enable consumers to connect and use crowdsourced content to proliferate your brand.”
Innovation (In`no`va´tion) is defined as the introduction of something new and contrary to established customs, manners or rites. It drives entrepreneurs to greatness and corporate leaders to despair.
Failure rates are extraordinary. Success is elusive.
Hover over each of our services below to learn more.
We use social media, content marketing, personalization, and e-commerce to build highly-engaged online communities, driven by the influence of early adopters to help inflect revenue and scale quickly. In today’s post-social network world, it is critical to “socialize” your marketing. The vast majority of our work is in support of the large projects in which we are engaged. We build and manage social network pages and sites, including active engagement. We are highly focused on measurement and return on investment, and have developed a broad-based advanced analytics reporting system that measures both influence and scale. Influence measures things like the number or "shares," likes, comments and connections. Scale measures things like registrations and e-commerce transactions.
A huge benefit to our client is the fact that we can handle all the aspects of e-commerce to support early-stage testing or ongoing management. Our e-commerce platform is built into our Digital Gravity platform, and it connects directly with our financial accounting systems and our operations. We can even provide in-house fulfillment, at least during the early stages of a new business.
If you think of a business where e-bay and Amazon meet Facebook, Pinterest and Google, you will begin to understand the breadth of our social commerce capabilities.
Over the years, we have built fully-integrated transactional e-commerce businesses for clients in a diverse range of categories including travel, apparel, luxury home goods, specialty foods and much more. Our largest and most recent clients have included Purina and General Mills.
We live, work and play in Virginia Beach, VA. Our clients love to visit us - especially in the summer.
In today’s world, Its important that more than half The BrandJourney team of around 25 people are under the age of 30 and only two are over 50. The offices are located in Manchester (UK), Virginia Beach and Cincinnati.
We cover all the disciplines needed to operate a successful start-up or rapid growth business and our incredible team treats every client as though their business is our business and visa versa. We will be adding short profiles of our team members to the site. For now its important for potential clients to know that we work hard and we play hard. At the end of the day we are determined to deliver on time and on budget but we will always do it with a smile and having fun will always be as important as working hard.
For all client-related inquiries, please contact Matthew Hayes, Head of Client Services.
Email: Matt.Hayes@brandjourney.com
Mobile: +1-757-777-7654
Partner, BrandJourney Group
Creative and Solutions Delivery
Mark taking about David:
David is at his best when he is starting new things. He calls it “the first 20 million dollars” and he’s devastatingly good at it. I’ve heard David described as a maverick but he reminds me more of a “special forces” leader. David can talk, but what you don’t realize is that he also listens intently. He can annoyingly recall detailed conversations whether they took place 5 minutes ago or 15 years ago and he applies his stored knowledge to the challenge immediately in front of him. For an extrovert, David is surprisingly analytical and after a while you realize that there is method to his madness. David expects no more from others than he expects of himself, which is how he motivates people to do extraordinary things. David has command of many business disciplines. His range is so broad, it’s scary. But if left to his own devices, David would spend his days dreaming up ideas, writing copy or telling stories. Creativity is his first love in business.
David values his relationships with others because he believes shared victory is the glue that holds the universe together. He has the tendencies of a workaholic but make no mistake, his incredible wife and his girls are the most important thing in David’s world, along with his parents and his siblings and their families. He is generous and thoughtful and incredibly attached to his family, his Jewish heritage and to Israel.
David is the kind of guy you want to go to battle with. In a pinch, he’s got your back. And somehow deep down you know that with David, we’ll all win in the end, even if the journey is a bit of a roller-coaster.
Email: David.Wolfe@brandjourneyventuring.com
Mobile: +1-757-515-5555
Partner, BrandJourney Group
Strategy and Thought Leadership
David talking about Mark:
In many ways Mark is the Ying to my Yang. Where I am unorthodox and slightly maverick in nature Mark takes a more measured and patient approach to business. However, spend a few minutes with Mark and you will soon learn that he is a phenomenal strategic thinker, a great listener and that his humility belies his brilliance. He has built businesses from scratch and spent almost 7 years as an entrepreneurial advisor to Proctor & Gamble out-lasting most outside consultants by some distance. He understands big businesses (both their strengths and their weaknesses) and he knows how to get things done quickly in organizations where the pace can be slow. He stays abreast of the latest thinking through his insatiable appetite for learning, and for a guy with as much as "experience" as he has, he sure knows a lot about social media.
Our Ying and Yang relationship works because at our very core, we share a common set of values. Mark is a dedicated family man who cares deeply about the people around him. He puts others before himself and is involved in local (Cincinnati) and national philanthropy.
If you're considering the future of your business and particularly how to grow it, there is no better person to have on your team than Mark. Mark loves boats so I'll end with a boating analogy. Mark is like the rudder and the captain all in one package. He maps a course, stays on course and is always prepared for the unknowns of the open seas. At the same time, Mark is measured in his risk taking ensuring you understand the risks before you set sail. Once you set sail, nothing will stop you or him. Having Mark at the helm, masterfully establishes order around the adhocracy that surrounds me. When Mark and I partnered to form BrandJourney in 2010, the only downside I was expecting was that I would feel a little stifled since I had not had a partner for 12 years. Surprisingly, I feel liberated. Mark will do that for you.
Email: Mark.Dawes@brandjourneyventuring.com
Mobile: +1-513-520-0727
CEO, Journey9 UK
Marketing Services
David talking about Laura:
They say that when you want to get something done, “give it to busy person”. I say, “give it to Laura”. She is a powerhouse. Laura, as you may have realized, is my little sister. A few years ago, when Laura became frustrated working for someone else; it was an easy decision to help her start Journey9 UK. Within months she was picking up world-class accounts and building a team around her that I am proud to say is now a major force in events, experiential marketing and social media.
What makes Laura so remarkable is that, in three years, she has not only built J9UK into a multi award-winning agency, but she has also had her second child, been an ever-present mother and also been responsible for several charity events.
It's a marketing truth that people buy on emotion and justify with logic. Perhaps that’s why Laura is just so good at what she does. If you need emotion in your marketing, Laura will deliver. You’ll shed tears when you are supposed to cry and laugh when you are supposed to laugh. Laura is wired into the world via social media. I used to joke that Laura is so good at social marketing that if she or one of her clients does something today; we’ll read about it tomorrow. But it’s not a joke anymore. Laura is that good.
Most bios end with something like – “Laura is married with 2 young boys” In Laura’s case; her boys are never an after-thought. They are the center of her world. One is an incredible swimmer and the other is the cutest little boy on the planet. And if you don’t believe me, just follow Laura on Twitter.
Email: info@journey9.com
Mobile: +44 (0) 161-831-0250
The logos you see on this site are all companies and brands who have afforded us the honor of working with them. As you can see, they range from some of the world's largest companies to small start-ups and non-profits. The common theme to our work has been described by one of our clients as “making the impossible possible” and by another as "doing things that other companies are still talking about – often after we have delivered extraordinary results." We achieve our success in the “new ideas” space where most companies and agencies struggle. Inevitably, not all our projects succeed, but 100% are executed with vision, creativity, speed and attention to detail. We recognize that “time” is the greatest enemy of innovation, so we work rapidly and we are not afraid to say, "No, this doesn’t work." In fact, over the years, its hard to differentiate between the value we’ve created from the success of our clients and the value we’ve preserved by preventing them from pursuing lost causes.
We love what we do and we love to present case studies. Just let us know your areas of interest and we will customize a case study presentation for you.
Want to hear what we think of your business problem and hear ways we can help? We’ll spend an hour with you, working through your next steps-free of charge.
David.Wolfe@brandjourneyventuring.com
+1 757-515-5555
Mark.Dawes@brandjourneyventuring.com
+1 513-489-5567
info@journey9.com
+44 (0) 161-831-0250
2609 Production Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
757-631-7757
Quay House
Quay Street
Manchester M3 3JE
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0) 161-831-0250
