Level Up Your Branding To Make Your Audience Care

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Tom Geary is the founder and creative director at school of

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thought a fresh and innovative creative agency based in the San

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Francisco Bay area. With decades of experience in the industry,

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Tom has become a thought leader on topics related to the world

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of branding, strategy, media and content creation, he has

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positioned his agency as the leader in sustainability and

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social responsibility, creating high impact campaigns for huge

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names including Cisco, WebEx, eBay, Bing, and Red Bull. Tom's

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philosophy is based on making them care, the guiding principle

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driving school of thoughts, compassionate, socially

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conscious and relatable campaigns that create meaningful

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connections between brands and consumers. Let's dive into our

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interview with Tom. Tom, it's so good to have you on the show today.

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gallon. My pleasure. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, of course. Well, you are the founder of school of

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thought. Tell us a little bit more about that company and why

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you started it?

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Well, if if, if I'm being honest, you know, bankers have

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the worst credit. So school of thought was not our first

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choice, it was probably our 300th in terms of coming up with

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names. You know, it's hard to brand, any, it's hard to brand

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yourself that, I think is the inherent challenge. And it was

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hard for us. So we came up with about 300 names, and 295 of them

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were atrocious. But that I worked at some fabulous, you

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know, famous agencies really around the world. And most of

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the time, it was bureaucratic and slow, and people weren't

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treated really well. And I thought, Okay, well, let's we

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can solve this with, you know, a different a different approach.

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And that's what we've been trying to do ever since.

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Yeah, I love it. Well, and I love the name, too. I mean,

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there's something so inviting about it. And provoking as far

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as like, what it invites someone to do, you know, put thought to

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it. And in one, you know,

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it's funny, right? But what's funny is about once a month,

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when we're back in the office more, you know, pre that show

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that shall not be spoken of that when we were in the office, we'd

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have people walk up, like once a month, saying like, Do you have

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a curriculum? Like, what What classes are you teaching? You

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know? And we're like, no, no, it's, or more commonly, you

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know, so the School of Rock, tell us about, you know, like,

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you know, what, do you go what are you guys strong on bass or,

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or drums, but no, it's, it is a good name, it happens to fit, we

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are pretty thoughtful about we try to be thoughtful about what

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we do. And also, it's not a bad thing to have clients who think

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the same way.

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Definitely well, and speaking of thinking the same way, um, one

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thing that really stuck out to me that I relate to, is, is the

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mantra that you that really have become your guiding principle,

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right in your business, and that is making them care. Tell us a

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little bit more about why that really resonates with you and

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what that means.

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So, you know, clients aren't, aren't asking for us to come up

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with an ad or a video or an engagement or an activation,

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right? They're asking for a reaction in the mind of their,

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their target audience. And you can't have that happen. Without

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connecting emotionally. We had an old client, the CMO of Volvo

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used to say you can't, you can't, if you want to hit the

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brain, you have to go through the heart. And it's exactly

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right. You know, nobody gets out of bed to think about an ad

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nobody gets out of ad to look at a video or think about the

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technical specs of this or that or whatever. You know, even even

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when you're moving into things like like sustainability, you

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know, we're doing a lot of work and clean energy and, and, and

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equity and so forth. You know, nobody thinks about energy

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except when it has to do with a cold beer or a hot shower. And

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so, that's the challenge. You know, clients are always

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passionate about their products they're offering. It's like

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being being, you know, being the coach of the, you know, insert

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terrible football team here at Chicago Bears or whatever. Sorry

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for everybody in Chicago, who's winning right now. You know, If

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you're the coach of a mediocre team, you have to believe you

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that's inherent, you're, you're so close to your team, you're so

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close to everything, you just think this is the greatest thing

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ever. Most people, you know, your audience isn't thinking

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about it, nobody's nobody's leaning into these topics

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inherently. So that's always our first goal is we have to make

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people care. And, and so you accomplish that and everything

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else is is, is a whole lot easier, kind of falls into

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place, it falls into place, and you're you're way more

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successful. You know, I mean, I'm in presentations where I'm,

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you know, we're looking at stuff and the clients like ignoring

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what I'm saying, and they're looking at the legal copy, and

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I'm like, nobody's gonna get to the legal copy your your, you

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need to stop and hold on and just mull over whether people

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are even going to stop and look at this ad, and it's in the

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first place. That's the that's the first objective, you can't

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sell or communicate anything effectively until you get

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people's attention.

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Yet, is there a certain kind of question or process that you go

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through as far as building out and branding strategy and

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approach to that mantra?

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Yeah, that's a great question. So we always tell clients, you

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know, that there are no shortage of dad jokes and eye rolls, when

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people work with us. But, you know, they hear a lot of other

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phrases too. And, and I would say, you know, Ari, are you

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distinctive? What are you doing that is distinctive in your

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category, or space. So for example, and I think about this

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strategically, to, you know, we do a competitive audit of

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everything in the category, we do a competitive audit of, of

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positioning and the communications, so forth. But,

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you know, it's funny, we've been doing, we've been doing some

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work with tech companies, and every frickin company out there

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is using ADS with Open Sans. That's, you know, a typeface.

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And it's just like, you're not going to stand out by being the

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406 brand this month to use Open Sans. So, you know, my idea of a

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good campaign is one where it is it is so distinctive,

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strategically, and it is so distinctive, in terms of voice,

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and look, and feel that you can, you can identify that campaign

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without even looking at the logo. And that's, that's the

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example. Because branding is really hard. And, and you need

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everything to be going your way to be most effective. And people

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kind of ignore that. They're just like, Oh, I like Open Sans,

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you know, and I like stock photography. And that's just,

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it's not gonna work, you know, it will work inside the

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boardroom, it will work for your team, you know, the group thing,

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folks will all nod and smile. But word matters out in the real

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world. You're wasting your time and money.

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Yeah, adding more of that authentic, which is a buzzword

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in marketing, but are that authentic and original approach?

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Then, you know, yeah, you see, you talk about ad creative, or,

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you know, content, whether in any form or medium, but, and

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what comes to mind are a lot of those, say, handdrawn, or

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temporary animations that are across all those tech websites

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as their main hero video, or just other very much template,

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paste, graphics and creative that show up and really pull

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away from creating more of a human connection. And to me,

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that's, that's part of what making them care means to me, is

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the humanization of a brand, and putting a face behind it, and

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not just a generic logo, or the work, that's the work that they

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do, you know, trying to sell to a heart and making sure that

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people connect with the humans behind what's getting done,

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whether it's behind the service or the product. Yeah,

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it's it all great points down and it's like, if everybody on

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your team thinks it's great, you probably you probably are

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missing the mark, you know, you've probably gotten vanilla.

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And so I think that, you know, everyone's Well, I like they

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made a terrible mistake at UC Berkeley and invited me to

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lecture at the business school and, and I'm like, you know,

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you've got a short tenure in marketing. It's, what do you

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want to do? You want to just be the one of the 1000s Or do you

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want to make a difference? And in by the way, you can

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accomplish a lot of good too, with with one's brand and that's

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something that we're increasingly doing, working

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with, you know, good clients too. Do some do some great

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things. But yeah, it's you've got to presume disinterest on

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the part of the audience. That's another thing. You know, it's

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like, everybody on the team back to that sort of bad NFL team

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metaphor, everyone on the team is excited about the

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opportunity, but your audience is not nobody's getting out of

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bed to think about what you have to offer. And, and you also, I

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think it's also really, you're talking about authenticity, it's

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really important that people are self aware about where they

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stand in, in the category, let me give you an example. So I was

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working on Microsoft for a long time. And at the time, you know,

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they were in a position kind of like Google is now where it's

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such, it was such an overwhelming monopoly in terms

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of developers. So we said, you know, you guys run the risk of,

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of basically pissing everybody off and really, in, you know,

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leading to this, this sense of adversarial relationship, you

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know, like, we like, we're stuck, we're, you know, we're

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stuck with this monopoly, Microsoft. And so we said, you

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guys need to show some empathy, you know, go the other

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direction. You know, think about how hard it is to be a developer

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and how hard it is to kind of have the creativity and stand

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out and all this stuff. So we did this funny campaign where,

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where we had project managers running around with air horns,

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trying to get their attention of the developers and, you know,

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guys, you know, we're going to the fridge at three in the

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morning looking for snacks. And other ones was butter in there

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eating the butter, which was actually came out of some, some

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real blog content that we found developers had actually done

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that. So we're trying to do this authentic stuff that was funny

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and human and, and made, you know, and reflected the reality

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that it was hard to be a developer, you know, just left

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me code. And people loved it. You know, and you come up with

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something like that. And it connects, and it's human. And

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there's empathy. And it's neutralizing, you know, we're

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doing it for the right reasons. But there's so many benefits to

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thinking about this in a human way.

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One thing that jumped out to me too, and you answered it, and

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all these different examples, but this ability to really stand

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out from the competition crowd, you mentioned, the typeface, you

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know, Open Sans with some of your branding strategy approach.

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What are some other ways that you help the companies you work

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with stand out, and to be truly different and to get gets

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people, you know, to stop and pay attention, and of course, go

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and participate with their company.

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We do a lot of things. Sometimes we, you know, we invent

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activations that are really different. For Cisco, we had

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personal assistants run around a trade show, all tied to social

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media. So it was it was meeting a need, you know, people were

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stuck at the world's largest trade show. And they were, and

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they were exhausted, and they needed help. And so that was

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something we did led to 3 million engagements. And it was

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about meeting the need. We come up with product ideas, you know,

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there are lots of different things we do, but it's about

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helping our clients stand out in new and unique ways. But you

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know, if, if I do things the right way, I want to stand out.

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Across the Universe, I you know, I love to have activations where

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we've done things that have never been done before. And it's

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hard to do, but why not do that. And a lot of the time, let me

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kind of lean into what we're doing now, down. About seven or

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eight years ago, we started, we started doing more and more work

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in what we call sustainability. But it's not really about

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sustaining about the green side of sustainability. It's about

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practices that are super important for businesses and

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2022. And on so for example, diversity and equity,

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sustainability, social impact, CSR, all these things and you

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were talking about authenticity. You know, it's a lot of

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companies, sadly, are doing these things for the wrong

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reasons. People see through that stuff, you know, your audience

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is smart. You checking the box, talking about DNI doesn't work,

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doing DNI works. So we're trying to show rather than tell, that's

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always a much better way to go. But let me give you an example.

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So about seven years ago, Charles Schwab came to us and

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they said Golden Globes is coming up. We've got a TV

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commercial spot. We want to we want to see what you guys can

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come up with. And also this shop which at the time was basically

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the best in the nation. Crispin Porter actually located kind of

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near you in Boulder. Really, really famous agency they did

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Whopper freak out and lots of other things. Anyway, so They

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wanted Schwab wanted us to come up with a TV commercial idea for

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the Golden Globes. And so we said, we looked at the category

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we looked at, at the opportunity, we said, you guys,

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you don't need to do another ad talking about $5 trades, you

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know, $5 stock trades. Everyone knows about that stuff. This is

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about creativity. It's the Golden Globes. It's about

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Hollywood. Why don't you like stand for something related to

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that. So we dug in deeper, and we realized that there was a

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huge problem with, with women, how women were treated in

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Hollywood, and this is way before Harvey we had before. Me

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too. And we said, we, you know, we found Reese Witherspoon had

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had aged out from being an actress. And like the whopping

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age of 32, or something. So we said, you know, she just gotten

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into producing, she produced her first movie, which was called

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Wild The thing about the kind of the recovering alcoholic who was

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going up the Pacific Coast Trail, and you know, it was a

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kind of a medium hit that, you know, good for her for pivoting

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to a different role and sort of starting starting the wheels

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turning on what obviously became an enormously successful

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production career. But at the time, she just done that one

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thing. So we said to Schwab, you guys have this campaign on your

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tomorrow? Why don't you do a thing about female empowerment,

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hashtag sheen owns it, have Reese create, like a kind of a

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boot camp for female filmmakers, she would love to do it. So

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she's obviously leaning into the space. And you know, and and do

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a campaign and, and kind of a moment about female empowerment.

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And so that's an example of us trying to basically weave the

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opportunity, and really distinctive strategy, together

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with doing some good all together in a way that that

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could have just blown things open for our client. Now

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obviously, they didn't do it, they ran. They didn't use either

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our idea or Crispin's idea. I don't know what what they came

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up with.

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But they didn't, you know, they didn't own she owns it. And they

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didn't own the moment. And it was a lost opportunity. I've got

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some of the old clients there kind of talk to me from time to

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time. And they're like, Yeah, we blew it. But everybody's got

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that opportunity. We all have opportunities to lead and to

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take a stand. A couple years later, you know, a different

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financial firm came up with a fearless girl statue. But How

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amazing would it have been for Schwab to have basically been

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first, you know, and really getting behind such an important

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issue. Because they're in a commoditized space, you know,

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they, they're, they've got $5 fees, you know, $5 trades, so

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it's fidelity, everyone's got $5 trades, TD Waterhouse house,

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buying the same stocks, it's a commodity. So you better think

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about ways to set yourself apart and make people care. And take a

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few risks along the way.

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Yeah, one and those when they are done, they stand out. I

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mean, I think of the dove campaigns of beauty, that really

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focus on, like, what is truly human out of out of this

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experience versus trying to sell them strictly on just, you know,

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what makes them the same as everyone else.

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Nobody's I zero, you know, and, and, and the, that's the other

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thing, we're talking about authenticity. It's so important

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to be to reflect not your sort of perception, but the

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audiences, the audience doesn't think everybody's a size zero,

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guess what they're not. And, and that's why Doug was

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extraordinarily successful with that, you know, they were

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leaders, and they did something different. And I'm sure there

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were people on their team were like, gosh, you know, we're

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we're not going to have the most beautiful, you know, aesthetic

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quote, unquote, you know, with with these women and and

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luckily, somebody pushed back and said, I don't really give a

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damn, you know, cellulite, you know, I've got cellulite or

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whatever, you know, and, and somebody said, we're going to

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get real and good for them. That was amazing leadership, and they

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push through and became famous and, and have all gone on to

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storied careers because of it.

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Yeah. 100% Well, you know, this is been really valuable. And I

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love your insights and examples, like real examples that you've

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pulled out. You know, one thing I love to explore just a little

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bit is stepping back to the early days of school of thought

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or maybe maybe even other forms of your business. Before that.

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What advice would you give to someone who is exploring how to

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best brand and launch their agency or company, as an

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entrepreneur that you've learned now over the years with school

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of thought

20:13

I started my first agency, which did not have a good name, cuz

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that was it. It was called Tom Gary and associates to talk

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about indistinct you know? Yeah. But I, the the funny thing was,

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I had basically pitched a project that I couldn't really

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handle. I think I was like, 26, I turned up pretended to be

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bigger than I was, I didn't have associates. So they're like,

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what's the name of your company? I'm like, Tom here and

20:37

Associates, you know, perfect figure to make it. So. There's,

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I definitely think there is. There is it's good to have

20:47

ambition and gumption and the failure to make a thing is not

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bad, if so long as you can have confidence to to follow through.

20:56

So I've always had that. So yeah, so I had a bad name. But

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early on, I did way too much. In fact, after for about five

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years, I quit. I was so burnt out. We were successful. We'd

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like done all these campaigns for all these big companies,

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Burton Snowboards GE lots of different things. And then I was

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cooked. And one of the reasons I was cooked was that I did

21:21

everything, you know, I was just a perfectionist, and wouldn't

21:25

let go didn't delegate. And, and to the point where I actually

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had a resume, after that experience, where I was

21:32

graphical with like a matrix. And there are illustrations of

21:37

all these wacky hats, you know, this kind of like, you know, a

21:41

pith helmet, and, you know, whatever, all these just

21:44

ridiculous like a beard, chug hat, all these ridiculous hats.

21:47

And then I would say, like, okay, new business. Next to the

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pith helmet, I got an I grade myself, like a, b. And then

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there was like, a, you know, a tech hat or something. And I

21:56

had, I was the IT guy. So I wear all the hats, literally and

22:00

figuratively. And I graded myself on them. And man, I, I

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did terribly in some of those categories, you know, in terms

22:07

of the actual coming up with the ideas, I was pretty damn good.

22:12

But I was not the person to be doing the bookkeeping I learned.

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So that is the moral of the story. For my first agency, and

22:20

for future entrepreneurs, you're gonna think you should do it all

22:25

you should, you should definitely offload some of those

22:28

hats, there's an opportunity cost. Every time you're, you're

22:33

being a bad IT guy. You know, you could be that's time wasted

22:38

that you could be spending doing doing the highest value thing

22:41

for your company. And so that that would be one bit of advice

22:45

I would have for anybody who's starting a new company. In terms

22:49

of branding, you know, I think we do a lot of work with

22:54

startups. And it's kind of the same thing, you know, it's a

23:00

little bit the same thing about the about the cheerleading, a

23:03

lot of obviously, a lot of startups these days are tech

23:06

oriented, you know, the product is a code SAS something. And a

23:13

lot of these people are engineers, you know, really

23:17

bright young tech people who, you know, who study computer

23:23

science is over. And that's great, but great code can only

23:29

take you so far. There, you know, there are a slew of

23:33

companies that have hit the wall. And so, you know, you have

23:40

to think about about standing out and and I would do it from

23:44

you know, we help people with pitch decks, you know,

23:47

everything is the company VCs have been pitched to with the

23:50

same, you know, nine slides from that have been Googled, you

23:54

know, from from the cloud. It's, it's not great to come in with a

23:59

deck that everybody else is used yet again. So think different

24:03

there. And then think different about about your, your, your

24:08

work, you know, it the bile rises in my throat every time I

24:12

see an ad in San Francisco for something that's cloud oriented,

24:17

like No shit, what isn't cloud oriented, everything's cloud

24:21

oriented. My Water Services cloud comes from the cloud. I

24:24

know, it's just it's not going to stand out. And, and it's time

24:30

it might mean something to you. But it won't mean anything to

24:35

the VCs and will mean anything to your audience. And that's,

24:38

you know, both of those groups are more important. So long

24:43

winded sorry, you it was a long way for him to but no worries

24:47

that that hopefully that will be somewhat useful to some of your

24:52

listeners.

24:53

Yeah, great insights and perspectives. Definitely. Well,

24:57

this has been super powerful. Tom, thanks for your time. Where

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can people learn more about what you're up to and your company?

25:05

Well on the cloud, no, I'm kidding. No. School of

25:11

thought.com is our site. I am Tom at school of thought calm.

25:17

And I'd be happy to answer questions or, or explain more of

25:22

our various theories and points of view because we have lots of

25:29

yeah, definitely anyone. It's not a meditation company.

25:32

It's not a meditation company. We actually know yoga retreats.

25:35

Now we've not an accredited university. So that's, that's

25:39

also good to know. Yeah, and I'm really bad. I'm really bad at

25:44

music. So don't expect school rock either.

25:46

Yeah, no school rock. Well, Tom, thank you so much. We'll connect

25:49

soon.

25:50

Great talking to you, Don, thank you so much.

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