Olivia Poglianich
Strategist

Background:  The VCA (Victorian College of Arts) and the MCM (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music) were both well known, independent art schools in the city of Melbourne. Both got absorbed by the University of Melbourne, the city's most prestigious and oldest university. They created a new school - the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.  My team at McCann Melbourne was tasked with introducing this new school to the city and the world.   In a rather short turn around time of less than 3 weeks, we ran 12 focus groups and conducted several 1x1 interviews asking 82 Melbournians for their perceptions of the schools and our ideas as we looked to determine which creative territory we should use to launch the new Faculty. 

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Challenge: The VCA and MCM couldn't be more different. One is known for being edgy, funky and breaking the rules - the other for its respect for tradition and rigor. We needed to find a way to merge these two institutions that would entice very different students, while also juggling their pre-existing relationship to the University of Melbourne. Many saw Uni Melb as a traditional school for liberal arts - not a practical place to apply their art degrees.

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Results:  We were able to choose a creative direction after our focus groups and to confirm some of our hunches, plus uncover new truths around what would draw people in the most. All 3 campaigns we presented were interactive and experiential concepts. The best one launched in May 2019. 

My Role:  I learned how to recruit participants using the help of a recruitment agency.  I put together the participant screeners, then developed the stimuli for groups. I watched my boss moderate a few groups before I moderated several of my own. Then I put together the attached debrief and presented it to clients (with her oversight, of course).

​Background:  A 5 Star Japanese hotel brand (Prince) purchased a 4-star Australian hotel chain (Staywell) and looked to Interbrand Sydney for help on naming their new international property, plus determining the brand architecture of the merger.

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Challenge: No matter how amazing Prince was in Japan, no one knew what it was outside of the country. We were tasked with figuring out how to bring the best of this Japanese brand to the world. Prince and Staywell offered different levels of service to different clientele.  We got to the bottom of the pros and cons of each then presented a series of brand architecture and hierarchy options to our clients - each option would create a very different future for Prince. 

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Results:  We decided to keep Prince as the parent brand, re-named their international hotel chain and found a way to preserve the essence of Japanese hospitality in our new hotel offering, whilst not being overt or gaudy about it's "Japaneseness." 

My Role:  I worked as a Senior Planner directly under my Strategy Director and the Australian CEO of Interbrand doing a lot of desk research,1x1 stakeholder interviews and post-it collaborating in a conference room. My Director really helped structure my thinking and we collaborated the whole way through. 

Background: Clyde May's Whiskey became a new client of Campbell Ewald New York by way of my own introduction. After winning the business, they looked to our agency to help them develop their overarching brand strategy.

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Challenge: Clyde May's had a great family history, but it had never been told to the public. The brand also had 4 award-winning whiskeys but each had its own distinct look. We were tasked with unifying and developing their identity.

Results: We did a competitive deep dive, plus extensive research on client history. Then we developed a brand book for Clyde May's (attached; November 2016). I worked alongside our Head of Strategy to establish Clyde May's branding. The full brand book (not included here) also delves into design elements for the company. This is basically their Bible.

My Role:  I wrote the brand manifesto independently and collaboratively came up with the brand's values. I also did a deep dive into the target audience and learned everything I could about Clyde May's history to gain a deep understanding of their past, values, and audience which shaped our book and helped us brief the creative teams.

Background: BBDO revitalized the way they approach strategic planning in 2018 to be more about the customer. After a global team meeting, the Head of Comms Planning tasked me with digging deeper to understand the things that people really need.

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Challenge: We wanted to develop a way to articulate the individual needs we all have and express that brands solve these needs in unique ways. We looked to reinvent the wheel. Literally.

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Results:This wheel became a new tool in the arsenal of the planning team at BBDO (December 2017). It's meant to serve as a useful addition for finding insights and developing brand strategies through the lens of the consumer.

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My Role: I built this wheel and attached presentation collaboratively with one other Comms Planner under the guidance of our Head of Planning. We also worked closely with BBDO's Global Planning Director in London to ensure this wheel holds weight in other markets. We also worked alongside the Global CSO to plan a workshop to beta test our new approach to strategy and this wheel was one of the tools we discussed (what's it's role?, how can it improve?, etc).

Background: I was selected to participate in BBH's annual contest for aspiring strategists, Griffin Farley's Search for Beautiful Minds (July 2017). It's a weekend boot camp where the ~60 chosen attendees break up into teams of 5 to put together a pitch in less than 24 hours.

Challenge: We were tasked with developing a creative brief for Be My Eyes, an app for the visually impaired. Lots of sighted folks have signed up to use the app as volunteers, but far fewer blind people are actively using the service. Be My Eyes came to us to figure out why that might be.

Results: In less than 24 hours we came up with a strategy for the app, delving into universal human truths, developing a big idea and laying out a communications plan. The truth is, blind people don't need our help or our sympathy. They need a tool to help accelerate their path back to independence, as 99% of blind people in the US weren't born blind and therefore, have experienced a sense of loss.

Our team advanced to the final round and presented to an audience of +200 including global CSOs and the Marketing Team at Be My Eyes. We finished in 2nd place (of 12 teams).

My Role: While our insights and big idea were a team effort, I played a big part in the research behind our upfront claims and developing one of our creative executions. 

Background: BBDO's planning team built Terrie Towel from scratch. It was started in an effort to show that the agency has an entrepreneurial side, and to prove that trends on Instagram can lead to big sales. It quickly morphed into a way to crack the code of Amazon and understand how to sell products on the platform effectively.

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Challenge: I joined the Terry Towel team after the project was well underway. I had to figure out the entire story working backward and turn it into something tangible, piecing together a lot of information from varied sources.

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Results: The attached is a case study I built that tells the story of Terrie Towel. The Planning team in NY uses this internally and the New Business team shares it with some potential clients to shed light on company culture.

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My Role: I put this case study together independently, with the guidance of our Head of Comms Planning. I couldn't have done it without all the interviews I did of various members of the Terrie Towel team, who told me about all it's ups and downs before I'd arrived.

Separately, I revamped our sales strategy  (SEO keywords, packaging at point of sale, etc) and my efforts led to a sale of over 3x as many towels to the point of running out of stock.