01Field service management software · Campaign, then a standing engagement · Strategy, campaign, production
A campaign built on everyone’s read of the customer.
Simpro is job management software for the trades, from quoting to invoicing. Their move into the security industry needed a voice and a campaign. We collected the perspective of everyone involved, from sales to product to marketing, interviewed their customers, and a brand type came out of the data. Simpro for Security launched on it. Then the work kept going.
- AllStakeholders surveyed, sales to product to marketing, before any design
- 2 → 1Directions presented; the Ruler chosen
- 5Channels at launch: print, digital, social, web, video
- OngoingLow voltage, ABM, the explainer film, the homepage
Where it started
Simpro had led field service management for the trades for two decades and had decided to go after the security and low voltage vertical on purpose. Sales had the idea, product had the features, marketing had the budget. What nobody had was one agreed answer to who this customer was, what they were afraid of, and how Simpro should sound when it spoke to them.
What we did
Everyone with a stake in the vertical, from the VP of Sales to the go-to-market enablement manager, answered a structured set of questions. We read the answers back to them as a discovery report, with the agreements and the conflicts marked, so the team was working from real data about its audience instead of the loudest opinion in the room. Then we interviewed their security customers and read the competitors. Two directions came out of that, the Everyman and the Ruler, each built out to a full landing page. The room chose the Ruler: order and control for people who run field crews. Everything below was made from that decision.
- 01AskEveryone involved, the same questions, one dataset.
- 02ListenSecurity customers interviewed. Competitors read.
- 03DecideTwo directions, built out. The Ruler chosen.
- 04BuildA campaign guide, then every channel from it.
Two directions, built far enough to choose between.
A brand type is not a mood board. Both candidates were taken to a finished landing page so the stakeholders were choosing between two things that could ship, not two adjectives. The Everyman: the right tools for security business leaders, warm and side-by-side. The Ruler: complete control of your security business, composed and in charge. The data pointed to the second, and so did the room.
Not chosenHover to scroll
ChosenHover to scroll
One document their whole team could write from.
Character and language, headline patterns, type, color, the shield mark, photography direction. Short enough to read in a sitting, specific enough that Simpro’s own marketers and vendors could produce work that reads as one campaign.
Character and language
Headlines
Typography
Color
Symbols
Photography
Complete control. Command more business.
The shield, drawn in a single yellow line, sits over every photograph. The headlines give orders. Print ads and an infographic for local outreach, digital and social to reach the rest, a landing page to land on, and a one-pager for the sales team to leave behind.
Print ad
Print ad
Infographic
LinkedIn, Facebook, X
Instagram
One-pager, front
One-pager, back
Trade show
A central hub, with the customers doing the talking.
Product details for two readers, company owners and management leaders, the feature set, and Simpro’s security customers in their own words. The page the campaign points at.
DarkSquare’s comprehensive approach to creating our security campaign was outstanding. They gathered surveys from cross-functional stakeholders and combined it with their own research, to present archetypes and recommended messaging and creative direction. Their expertise and innovative methods have made them an invaluable partner in achieving our campaign goals and have garnered praise from across our organization.
Two minutes on how Simpro works in the field.
Storyboarded from the customer interviews: a technician, a dispatcher, an owner, and the moments where paper and spreadsheets fail. Three illustration styles were drawn up, one was chosen, and the animation was built from it. Cut in long and short versions for the site, sales and social.
The storyboard
Three styles
The chosen style
One campaign became the standing engagement.
The same brand type stretched to a second vertical, Simpro for Low Voltage, on the same guide. Then account-based campaigns in the US, the UK and Australia, direct mail that gets opened, a published article, and a redesign of the corporate homepage. Same guide, same data, same team.
Low voltage
Low voltage
Low voltage
Direct mail, US
Postcard, US
The gift, UK
The article
Australia
Homepage photography
The homepage redesignHover to scroll
The rest of the work.
A brand engineered for growthCase study 
Eight logos, one brandCase study 
Branding an artist the Smithsonian collectsCase study 
Three companies, one brand, and a character to carry itCase study
The Simpro for Security campaignYou are here 
Event keepsakes, a custom deck of cardsCase study 
Ten years of brand, web, video and campaignsCase study 
Branding legal AICase study 
Four years of brand, web, film and printCase study
Start with a conversation.
One call and we'll tell you if this is a fit. If it isn't, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.