Sean: Now to the big news, Lydon has repositioned itself. Why—and more specifically—what does that mean?

Brian: Thanks, Sean. I think any company has to take a look every five to ten years—maybe faster nowadays—at what it’s doing and either invest in doing it better or pivot. Lydon was started in 1973 by my uncle as a graphic design studio. In the last 50 years we’ve seen major changes in technology that have revolutionized our industry and consistently pushed our company to evolve or die. So, we’ve steadily expanded our offerings into broader marketing solutions including strategy consulting and market research, and robust services like web development and SEO, email and direct mail marketing, SEM, paid search and more.

Sean: What role do you think AI plays in this era of evolution for Lydon?

Brian: Now it looks like AI stands to rewrite the narrative once more—and not just for marketing but across all industries. The good news is we’re no strangers to disruption—we’ve navigated it many times before and you discover that the more things change the more they stay the same.

I recently heard the founder of Wordware, a natural language integrated development environment, say that “AI will never understand taste or intent.” I absolutely agree. In fact, those two elements are core to any communication and arguably the two things that good creative does best.

So, “AI era” or not, creative excellence has been, and will always be, at our core. Our lineup of designers, writers and strategists has been hand-picked and is truly elite. And we firmly believe the right creative will be an even bigger differentiator in a world where bots spit out tasteless ads that are placed without supervision and lack the insights necessary to optimize for relevance. AI will absolutely help us automate and innovate to drive speed and efficiency for both our business and those of our clients—but, as they say, there is no accounting for taste.

Sean: You said you “do it all”—can you go into a little more detail for our readers?

Brian: Absolutely. Simply put, Lydon provides strategic planning, execution, tracking and optimization across all modern marketing channels. Real end-to-end marketing. Clients shouldn’t think of us as just a “design firm” any longer.

Rick: I’ll add that measurability is more critical than ever before. Fortunately, the capability to track and quantify metrics is better than ever as well. Very few excuses remain for not setting defined goals that can be measured to and working towards them. You can be certain, all kinds of things can and will happen that make it easier said than done—sometimes it's something geopolitical, business objectives change, or a competitor disrupts the marketplace—but the beauty of technological innovation is in enhanced agility.

We can see what’s working, basically in real time. And instead of continuing to run something that’s performing okay, or reacting slowly to some big change, we can adjust creative, messaging or budgets. We’d be doing our clients a disservice if we didn’t make them aware of everything that’s possible when creative and technology come together in a smart and strategic way.

Sean: We just rebuilt our website, LydonDesign.com—and in record time I might add! What’s your goal for the new site?

Rick: Bottom line, the site had to express the end-to-end nature of the marketing we do; our superior creative feeds more than just one-pagers, signage, branding/logos or banners, it fuses with strategy, content and technology to set our clients’ message apart. The site also had to do a nice job of exhibiting our long track record with this kind of work in a really engaging way. I’m incredibly proud of all the efforts put into the new site and how it turned out.

Sean: The site was definitely a labor of love for the whole team. Other than the new site, what’s one of the most fun/your favorite projects you’ve ever worked on at Lydon?

Rick: We recently redesigned a website for our client Mauser Packaging. They wanted a refreshed look and structure but preferred to keep the content generally the same. We took them through a comprehensive discovery process where we researched the details and metrics of their current site and interviewed key stakeholders within the company. From there we developed a Summary of Findings that essentially defined the blueprint for the updated design and information architecture of the site. The client was thrilled with the result and noted that our process and launch of the site was the smoothest that they had ever experienced.

Brian: I’ve been at this a long time so that’s always a tough one for me! I’d have to say that any client engagement that allows me to truly go the distance brings me the greatest satisfaction. I’ve tried to do that my entire career even when a client comes to us with a small project. Always work to understand how it fits into the bigger picture, and raise your hand if you can’t figure it out. And that’s always how I’ve tried to coach up and mentor my younger creatives and strategists as well. The tactics and project work are critical—make no mistake—but marketing should always be forward-thinking and focused on business outcomes: that requires plugging in from the very beginning on strategy, crafting the plans with key stakeholders, and aligning channels and deliverables to measurable goals.

We’ve actually been doing that for decades now for some of our biggest and longest-term clients like Bank of America, Harley-Davidson and Ensono. Right from the start, we showed them that we were more than just order takers, so they trusted us to “do it all” long before our repositioning said we could. Anyway, I kind of dodged the question there, but I do still love to dig in on project work, I swear!

Sean: I’ve spent the last ten years working in the agency world. Something that’s struck me about Lydon in the first few weeks is the number of very long-term clients—we’re talking decades. I haven’t seen it before. What’s your approach to building relationships and retaining clients?

Brian: Well, we are lucky to have you on board, Sean! I think the answer to your question is fairly simple: trust. You have to deliver on what’s promised when it’s promised. If you do that over and over, you earn a kind of “trust capital,” and clients will not only want to work with you, but will have a hard time justifying working any other way.

A willingness to push also matters, not just going along to get along. Many times, the best work is the result of us asking questions a client hadn’t considered, or pushing a brand’s creative boundaries. Conversations can be uncomfortable at times, but when the results come in, we can all feel good. You have to care. When I read the testimonials we got from our clients recently, I actually got a little misty—because when you help someone get a win or advance their career, even incrementally, you realize those results are meaningful on a personal level. It’s super important to me.

Last, but definitely not least, our relationships are made possible by our people. The trust I talked about is a non-starter without a trustworthy team. Our client relationship group is not only expert at modern marketing, they’re also darn-good people too. Many have been with us for several years and have built strong bonds with clients who love working with them day in and day out.