Capabilities

All the full service you’d expect from, well, a full-service shop. Media planning and buying. Creative development. Strategy and research. And implementation across all channels.

The strength of this team? They turn data into actionable insights. Integrated customer data solutions including data management, database architecture and development, business intelligence, and analytics – supporting customer relationship management, loyalty, and return on investment across digital and traditional marketing channels.

Our clients often ask us to help them solve complex brand architecture puzzles, so we’ve developed a collaborative, workshop-based process that combines insights from our proprietary research tool, Brand Geometry, with the business realities that so often drive brand architecture.

While having a strong logo is important, brands need more. A logo is simply a signature, a symbol that stands for a brand, and while we do many of them each year, it’s always in conjunction with an identity. Our identities are a suite of visual and verbal elements that work together, build on one another, and create a full expression of what a brand stands for – something a logo can rarely do on its own.

Being a worthy cause or a cause worthy of support is relevant to 1.5 million nonprofits and more than 30 million corporations vying for time, donations, and customers. Our cause offering includes branding, strategy development, creative design, digital strategy, social media strategy and content, message development and training, and partnership cultivation and activation.

We have an in-house motion graphics studio, a on-staff director/cinematographer, a growing number of content creators, and the in-house resources necessary to edit and record voiceovers (live in the studio or patched in from anywhere–most recently Bulgaria), perform sound design or effects, and provide digital radio spot delivery service through our state-of-the-art editing and recording studio.

Most of the time we play offense, but when we play defense, we play to win. From product recalls to allegations of employee abuse to natural disasters of all descriptions, our crisis management experts work fast and hard to turn negatives into neutrals, compress the news cycle and fight firestorms on social media.

Alongside our brand management, creative, strategy, and media disciplines, we add the talents of dedicated digital specialists whose areas of expertise include business analysis, user experience architecture, production, project management, analytics, and code development. Our team has won over 200 industry awards for digital innovation, effectiveness, and creativity. And we’ve worked with companies and organizations across many industries, categories, and geographic locations.

We develop and execute direct response TV, direct response radio, direct mail, email, online marketing campaigns, and direct response product placement. All our campaigns have one goal: to drive response and deliver positive return on investment for our clients.

We can take your message out to the field. Integrated programs for consumer and trade. Concept through execution of promotional platforms, point-of-sale and visual merchandising, experiential branding, event and trade show marketing, and product launches.

When you consider that design is where The Richards Group originated, you have to expect our design group to be among the most recognized in the country. (And they are.) Logos and brand identity, website design, in-store and event design, package design, environmental design, and graphic standards and systems – this group does pretty much everything except advertising.

We disregard stereotypes, clichés, and assumptions used for marketing to Hispanics and instead strive to be an accurate, contemporary reflection of the evolving U.S. Hispanic landscape. This includes understanding nuances among Latinos, acting on important new trends, recognizing alignment with the general market, and leveraging human truths.

Unlike most agencies of our size, we never disconnected media from creative. This has allowed us to build a strategic practice that focuses on experienced collaboration, data and technology excellence, and creative problem-solving. At our place, the media team sits side by side with art directors, copywriters, strategic planners, public relations pros, and data analysts – not in a separate building or separate city.

We also don’t follow the herd when it comes to titles. We’re intentionally flat and virtually titleless, so where others may use titles, we use years of experience. We find that’s more impressive to our clients.

If you want to find your target, you have to go where they go. Strategic and technical consulting, content-management-system-powered platform development, software development kit integrations, audience engagement via push and mobile ad solutions, audience segmentation and targeting via location-based (geolocation) and behavior-based solutions, app store strategies and promotion, digital wallets, and mobile commerce implementations.

When you pick a naming partner, you have quite a few choices: public relations firms, freelance copywriters, even computer software programs. So why pick Flying Start? Simply put, we are a dedicated naming and verbal identity firm. We’re known for developing names that work – names that create opportunities, open doors, make connections, and stay top-of-mind. We are fluent in branding, linguistics, and customer research. We know you need a compelling name. You need it quickly. You need it on budget. And you need it to sell itself.

Our public affairs expertise includes issues analysis and advocacy, opinion research, grassroots coalition building, community and civic affairs, and government relations.

Public relations’ job is to pick up where paid brand communication leaves off. By engaging the media, influencers, celebrities, and thought leaders, we help spread education about, lend endorsement to, put a spotlight on, or add texture to our clients’ purpose. Our PR – also known as “earned media” – experts understand how to strike mutually beneficial alliances to “earn” our clients’ way into conversations that matter. Services include communications strategy, media relations and social media engagement, internal branding, thought leadership affiliation, social influencer engagement, community relations, speechwriting, presentations, event planning, crisis management, and communications and media training.

Today, consumers expect a more personalized experience with brands. This makes applying data and insights to every touchpoint more important than ever. Whether converting prospects into customers or working to build loyalty through a one-to-one relationship, our roots in direct marketing and customer relationship management make this customer-centric focus second nature.

We will put all our SEO capabilities and specialties – including content strategy, conversion optimization, Wikipedia strategy, answer engine optimization, and local SEO (micro-moments) – to work to enhance your target’s user experience and strengthen your brand’s position against the competition. Quite simply, our SEO team’s job is to help you own search engine results. That means more than technical fixes and keyword strategy for a higher ranking: It means owning a big chunk of the results page. It’s having a comprehensive knowledge graph, product carousel, and map pack (locations) and appearing as the decisive number-one choice to potential customers and clients. And it means we continue to stay on top of the latest algorithms, platforms, and innovations in search.

Through full-service search management and enterprise-level technologies, we can quickly position our clients within the most relevant results through paid and organic search optimization. The Richards Group’s search team has worked with Google and Yahoo/Bing as partners for almost two decades and is a member of the Google Brand Council, participating on their Advisory Board. We are also a member of Bing’s Product Advisory Group to help spur innovation and results for our clients.

Where there’s digital, there’s social. Holistic social media practice that includes social media strategy, social listening, and reputation management; influencer outreach; community engagement; paid social media; app development; social media management platforms; and reporting

By aligning with the sports people love, the entertainment they crave, and the causes they champion, brands can reach consumers at the points where they are the most engaged. Our disciplined approach takes clients from partner identification to activation.

Our proprietary discipline called Spherical^® branding builds conviction and consistent execution around a core brand idea.

Marketing solutions to address the cultural insights of African-Americans in addition to the unique mindset of the urban audience. Includes strategic planning, consumer research, digital communications, advertising, direct marketing, media planning, and grassroots marketing.