Vivian Tanaka was doing “the job of 50 people” building a digital youth club, Kamelion, as a sole founder. Balancing the development of the app and data platform with being a Mum, working other jobs, and seeking investment meant she needed help to start letting people know they were there. Bringing in Natalie as her Brand & Marketing Lead brought clarity to define their audience, know how to reach Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), and show the return on investment both socially and commercially.
SCOPE OF WORK: Marketing and social media strategy, defining ICP pain profiles and brand DNA, copy and content materials (online and print), including sourcing and liaison with contractors.
High energy. Unstoppable.
Working with Natalie Smithson
Shaping the language and approach
“When you’re a startup founder, you’re doing 50 people’s jobs and, the worst thing is, you’re probably good at one or two of those. The rest, you’re just winging it and doing as much as you can, so it was about finding people who could support me. You need people with different skills who can just dip into different things at different times,” says Vivian. I needed help “shaping the language around the people we speak to, whether that’s young people or the licence purchasers, but also understanding, how do we do that? How do we make sure we’re hitting the right points for those people to see our value and really recognise our brand?”
Building a brand new company profile
Looking for a marketing lead, Vivian noted “I could see Natalie was into wellbeing and mental health, that she had a passion for that and had worked with other companies who are starting out. The fact she could get the message across in the way I intended was important; someone who’s going to translate my thoughts and the idea into the right language for different audiences.”
“I remember when we met she was like, okay, this is what I would do. This is how I would approach it, and she sent me a drawing. She’s quick to think on her feet and someone to bounce ideas off, because I don’t see it from a marketing perspective. I see the vision of where we’re going. I needed someone who could shape the vision through content, through branding, and build the profile of the company.”
Immersion and collaboration
Vivian describes Natalie as a partner who wants to know the why before executing on the what.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
“[Natalie]’s open. She’s willing to work with you to figure things out and she also takes feedback really well. She’s willing to adjust certain things and what we really liked early on, she was like, I’m just gonna let you share as much as possible, then once I start to understand you a little bit more, then we can start adjusting and moving things forward.
She was wanting to understand before jumping in first, to gain as much information and knowledge about the company, about the founder, about the vision, about where we’re going.
She’s like a partner in what you’re doing and she helps you to move things forward, gain clarity, and also is somebody who’s willing to learn and grow; willing to go above and beyond as well which is really really good.“
NHS approval and market readiness
“Over the first three months we learnt so much about the company and the organisation,” says Vivian. “We’ve had to do a lot of validated learning. What’s working; what’s not working.”
“The one thing that helped a lot was doing the website copy for each ICP. Working through that helped to understand what it is that we offer and, over time, we’ve adjusted and learnt, little by little, gaining clarity. We now know what we have to offer, how we’re helping, the difference we’re making, and what the return on investment is for people. Creating the landing pages also helped us get through our independent evaluation for NHS approval because we had the documents ready to go.”
Moving to market with brand confidence
“God bless Natalie,” says Vivian, “because she had to put up with so much! The amount of stuff she’d get sent constantly ― ‘Natalie, this, this, this’! A lot has gone into our go-to-market offer, our brand building, and shaping how the outside world understands the company. Now, I can go into conversations and say, this is what we are doing, and you can have a look for yourself.”
What would Vivian say to anyone looking to work with Natalie?
“Hire her!” she says.
Need help with your brand and marketing?
~ even if you’re still just figuring it all out!
Huge thanks to Vivian for recording her feedback. Follow her journey building Kamelion via LinkedIn.