STRATEGIC MARKETING

Legasea Arts provides integrated services across strategic marketing, brand development, graphic design, creative direction, content development, entertainment production, artist development and fine art.

Depending on the assignment, that may include:

• Marketing, positioning and audience strategy 
• Brand identity, messaging and graphic design 
• Campaign concepts and creative direction 
• Pitch decks, presentations, EPKs and promotional materials 
• Website and content strategy 
• Artist development and entertainment marketing 
• Live-event, media and production support 
• Fine-art commissions, exhibitions and original artwork 

Every engagement begins with the story, problem or opportunity—not a predetermined medium.

Art Works. On Purpose. means bringing strategy and creativity together to make work that communicates clearly, connects with people and accomplishes something meaningful.

LegaSea Arts works at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, marketing, brand, audience and creative direction.

That can mean helping define what a company, organization, artist, project or idea actually stands for. It can mean repositioning something that has lost momentum, developing a marketing strategy, identifying an audience, clarifying messaging, planning a launch or campaign, or simply helping solve a problem that hasn't been solved yet.

We don't begin with a predetermined deliverable.

Our work is particularly well suited to:

· Brands and businesses trying to clarify or strengthen how they present themselves.

· Artists and entertainers developing an identity, audience, release, production or next stage of their career.

· Arts, culture and entertainment organizations looking for strategy that understands both the business and the creative work.

· Nonprofits and community organizations that need complicated missions turned into stories people can understand and care about.

· Entrepreneurs and founders trying to turn an idea into something people can recognize, understand and support.

· Creative teams and agencies that need outside strategic or creative leadership.

And sometimes we work with someone who simply knows something isn't working.

Figuring out why can be the assignment.

  Among them:

· Brand positioning

· Marketing strategy

· Audience development

· Messaging and communications

· Campaign strategy

· Creative strategy

· Launch strategy

· Artist development

· Entertainment marketing

· Community engagement

· Content strategy

· Promotional strategy

· Customer or audience experience

· Creative direction

· Strategic partnerships

· Presentation and pitch development

· Naming and concept development

· Repositioning existing brands, projects or programs

· Turning complicated ideas into understandable stories

· Identifying why existing marketing isn't working

· Finding opportunities that may have been overlooked

If the problem doesn't fit neatly into one of those categories, that may actually be a good reason to talk.

Marketing services make things.

Marketing strategy determines what should be made, why, for whom and what it needs to accomplish.

A social campaign, advertisement, website, event, video, poster or press release may ultimately be part of the solution - but deciding that before understanding the problem is backwards.

Strategy establishes the purpose.

Execution gives it form.

Yes, when it makes sense.

Our. background spans strategy, marketing, creative direction, graphic design, entertainment, production, writing and audience development, so an engagement can continue from strategic development into creative execution.

In other situations, We develop the strategy and work with your existing staff, agency, designers, producers, developers or other partners to implement it.

The objective isn't to manufacture more work for myself. It's to determine what the work actually requires.

Yes. Every engagement begins with a complimentary initial conversation.

It gives us an opportunity to understand what you're working on, where you're stuck, whether we can help and what the most useful next step may be.

The initial consultation is an introductory conversation rather than a working strategy session. Research, analysis, recommendations, planning and other substantive work begin with a paid engagement.

Absolutely.

Sometimes what you need isn't an agency or a six-month engagement. You need another experienced person in the room.

Consultation can range from a focused working session around a specific problem to ongoing strategic counsel for a company, artist, organization or project.

Paid work begins with a two-hour minimum engagement at $250. Half-day, full-day and team sessions are quoted as complete, time-fixed engagements rather than billed minute by minute.

Not every question needs a campaign attached to it.

We work on the actual problem the way it works best: start with the goal and create a strategy to get there. Tactics work after it is understood how itwill work, how much it will cost and how long it will take.

Before the session, we'll ask for enough background to understand what you're trying to accomplish, what's already been attempted and where you're getting stuck.

Depending on the assignment, our conversation may examine:

· What are you really selling?

· Why should anyone care?

· Who actually needs to care?

· What do they currently think?

· What do you want them to think, feel or do instead?

· What's standing in the way?

· What makes this meaningfully different?

· What story are you telling now?

· What story should you be telling?

· And what should happen next?

The objective is not to fill a session with marketing terminology. It's to leave with greater clarity than we started with.

More formal strategic engagements can include written findings, positioning recommendations, messaging frameworks, audience definitions, campaign concepts, creative briefs, strategic roadmaps, presentations or other agreed-upon deliverables.

We'll define that before the work begins so you know exactly what you're getting.

Yes.

For clients who need continuing strategic or creative leadership without adding a full-time executive position, ongoing advisory relationships can make sense.

These may include regular strategy sessions, campaign review, creative oversight, problem-solving, planning and consultation as new opportunities or challenges arise.

Ongoing engagements are scoped individually and include opt-out and notice terms designed for that specific relationship. Those terms define the remaining work, payment and handoff responsibilities so both parties are protected if the engagement ends.

It depends on the scope, but the pricing is not a mystery.

Paid work begins with a two-hour minimum engagement at $250. As planning examples, complete company marketing audits begin at $1,500; pitch decks, music EPKs and brand guides begin at $2,500; and brand development packages generally range from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on depth and deliverables. Artist development and other highly variable work are custom quoted.

Most work is priced as a fixed fee for an agreed scope, set of deliverables and schedule - we do not charge by the hour. Time-fixed consultations are priced for the complete reserved session rather than in small billing increments.

The objective is to give you a clear price before the work begins and keep our attention on the quality and value of the outcome rather than on watching the clock.

Most fixed-fee projects and time-fixed consultations require 50% to schedule and begin the work, with the remaining 50% due when the agreed work is complete.

The precise payment schedule will be stated in the proposal or agreement before the project starts. Agreed source and completed output files are provided after the final balance has been paid.

No surprises.

These are transparency guides, not project quotes. The accompanying Strategic Marketing + Consultation Price Guide provides additional sample ranges.

Every engagement receives a written scope and exact price before paid work begins.

Yes.

Depending on the scope, a strategic marketing plan might address positioning, objectives, audiences, messaging, channels, content, campaigns, partnerships, timing, creative direction, measurement and priorities.

But, we don't believe a useful marketing plan should become a hundred-page document nobody ever opens again.

The plan should be detailed enough to guide decisions and simple enough to actually use.

· What you're working on

· What problem you're trying to solve

· What you want to accomplish

· Who you're trying to reach

· What already exists

· What you believe isn't working

· Your approximate timeline

· Your approximate budget or budget range

· What kind of help you think you need

Don't worry if you can't answer all of those. Sometimes figuring that out is part of the work.

Before paid work begins, the written quote or proposal will identify:

· The objective and agreed scope of work

· Deliverables and what you will receive

· Timeline, milestones or scheduled session length

· Total professional fee and payment schedule

· Client responsibilities and approved outside costs

· Applicable review, revision, delay, rescheduling, usage and delivery terms

If the signed proposal or agreement differs from the general price guide or FAQ, the signed document governs the engagement.

Yes. Positioning is often one of the most valuable parts of the work.

Before deciding what a brand should say, we need to understand what space it can credibly occupy.

That means identifying what makes it distinctive, who it matters to, what alternatives exist and what idea you want people to associate with you when you're not there to explain yourself.

A logo can identify you. Positioning gives the identity something to mean.

Yes, but those services have their own process.

Strategic consultation frequently leads naturally into brand development, naming, identity, messaging, graphic design or creative direction. When it does, we can either expand the engagement through a mutually approved change or quote that work separately.

The strategy should inform the design - not be invented after the design is finished.

Yes. In fact, getting strategic input before launch can prevent expensive problems later.

We can work through positioning, audience, naming, messaging, launch strategy, creative direction, promotional opportunities and the overall story before you're committed to decisions that become difficult or expensive to change.

Yes. Sometimes the thing itself is good but the way people understand it isn't.

Repositioning can involve changing the story, sharpening the audience, clarifying the offer, reorganizing priorities, changing presentation or finding a more relevant cultural or competitive position.

Starting over isn't always necessary. Seeing it differently often is.

Yes.

Artist development is a particular area of interest and experience because it requires strategy without sanding away the thing that makes an artist interesting in the first place.

That can include lessons, representation, positioning, visual identity, audience development, releases, live presentation, marketing, promotional campaigns, press materials and long-term creative direction.

Because artist-development needs vary so widely, those engagements are custom quoted.

The objective isn't to manufacture a persona. It's to make what is already distinctive impossible to confuse with anyone else.

Yes.

Organizations doing meaningful work often have one particular communications problem: the people inside the organization understand the mission so deeply that they forget how much explanation everyone outside it requires.

Strategy can help turn complicated programs, missions and objectives into clear human stories without reducing their substance. 

Yes.

We can work as independent strategists, creative leads, outside advisors or additional senior resources alongside an existing team.

Sometimes an outside perspective is useful precisely because I'm not inside the organization every day.

Then knowing where not to spend it becomes even more important.

Good strategy should help establish priorities. We would rather identify three things worth doing well than recommend fifteen things simply because they're available.

Budget is a constraint. Constraints can be overcome to produce very good decisions.

Yes. Possibly. But first we're going to ask why you need them and quantify realistic opportunities.

Followers aren't necessarily customers. Reach isn't necessarily influence. Engagement isn't necessarily loyalty.  If social audience growth supports the larger objective, we'll treat it strategically. 

If something else would create more value, we'll tell you that instead.

No one can responsibly promise that. Virality is an outcome, not a strategy.

We can create work designed to be relevant, distinctive, timely, shareable and culturally aware.

But, if someone's principal marketing promise is 'I'll make you go viral,' you should probably ask a few more questions.

Paid media can be incorporated into a larger strategy, but the specific scope of media buying, placement and ongoing management should be established for each project.

Our primary role is making sure the advertising has a reason to exist before money is spent putting it in front of people.

Thoughtfully, but coherently.

We establish what success means before deciding what to measure.

That might be revenue, inquiries, ticket sales, attendance, awareness, audience growth, engagement, subscriptions, press, partnerships, conversion, retention - or something much more specific to the assignment.

Metrics should answer a question. Not simply produce a dashboard.