Dear Reader,
The severity of the current health and economic crisis makes me want to keep this letter brief. It’s Saturday morning and the sun is pouring into my house as I study the mystery of podcasts (we’re working on a Frontier podcast!). Meanwhile, anxiety and uncertainty are running high so I wanted to give some big updates that I hope will be welcome.
After 256 days of wearing black to work, I’ve decided to retire this motif meant to remind myself, and perhaps others, of Benifactor’s focus to get back “into the black”. In other words, increasing our retained earnings is not my foremost focus.
Frontier’s clients are, as they always should have been, my focus.
“Benifactor” from henceforth is simply the legal name of the wonderful business I own, Frontier Marketing Co. My job as owner is to make sure the general manager has enough funds to continue operations and lead the business of giving charities efficient and effective expertise.
My working role, other than being founder and owner, is to be lead strategist for the team and serve our clients with responsiveness, resourcefulness, and curiosity. It’s my role to mentor the strategists that are serving our clients, to provide as much direct expertise to clients as I can, and to connect with the outside world.
Good Marketers Group will live on as an apprenticeship program of Frontier. BKeeper has moved into Frontier as a service we like to offer to great non-profits like The Table Church. Charity Electric will fold fully into Frontier to become our consulting and projects, and Quartermaster will simply be the quirky name ascribed to long-time Frontiero, Heath Johns.
What’s changing for other people?
We’ve asked Sarah to dust off her Frontier hat and become our Director of Administration.
Nick’s title, something he’d be the last person to obsess about, will become Creative Director. This reflects his oversight in all of production, including the websites and branding performed by the firm formerly known as Charity Electric.
Innes Purdue, the bloke from Bristol, is going home. Typing out those words makes me very sad. Innes has been one of our most brilliant strategists and his growth is something to behold. Innes, please think of one last Horcrux to celebrate our time together (an inside joke/tradition between Innes and I).
Heath, as hinted, will be Frontier’s Quartermaster, the mad scientist building contraptions like Glass Register, our data auditor, and other tools to equip our agency. He’ll be moving into production and no longer be shackled to the burdens of senior leadership.
Francis will have a broader oversight of Frontier’s operations, because we are now all Frontier. The guy I first witnessed walk into the Frontier office three years ago to shadow Henry as a junior programmer is, and continues to be, the embodiment of our core values. His leadership in operations management is what Frontier needs now more than ever.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using this medium to communicate, and a few of you have enjoyed reading the updates. I’ll be expanding my writing to include posts for Frontier like this one. As for the Benifactor posts, those will continue as regular company updates where I get to share some of the amazing things that have happened and be transparent about our corporate life.
And on that note, I wanted to say thank you to any of you who do read these. Thanks to anyone who’s reached out in this time of upheaval. It’s reminded me to reflect and clarify my priorities.
It’s been eerily handy to be reading Howard Shulz’s memoir about leading Starbucks back to its roots. Two quotes really crystallized for me lately, and this is the first:
“Companies pay a price when their leaders ignore things that may be fracturing their foundation”
Our strategic guidance to clients and problem solving abilities are the foundation of Frontier. From day one we’ve been a ‘strategist lead organization’ where other agencies were started by copywriters, account executives, or designers, this one was started by a former marketing analyst with an accounting designation.
What’s more, we’re data-driven. Now that we’re in our tenth year, data abounds. Heath just sent me week over week giving data from Glass Register, and Eric showed me crucial data for one of Canada's largest charities that will immediately impact our advice on their budget priorities.
Our standards will be raised, our pace will quicken. We will be wise in the use of our resources. Our curious and candid demeanour will be the mark of our trade.
This leads me to the other remarkable thing Shutlz said,
“The merchant’s success depends on his or her ability to tell a story.”
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on Frontier’s marketing for the last year. At times I’ve been rude to my team. It’s embarrassed me often and I don’t know precisely why. The actual production work for clients and our presentations to them during visits make me a proud Papa.
So what gives? Our team is behind the curve on Frontier’s brand. The story we’re telling clients needs to be clarified internally as well as externally. We’re old enough as a company that some of our staff were the same age my daughter is now when I got started. We’re big enough now that I don’t know everyone’s birthdays or idiosyncrasies. We need to clarify our story.
My peers running other agencies have a similar problem. I researched the cliche everyone kept saying about the cobbler's children have no shoes, it’s a common means of describing how someone can’t heed their own advice more than share their abilities internally.
Frontier needs to follow the advice we give clients - to focus on what they do best, clarify their message, make sure it's consistent and authentic, and that it conveys the message they want the audience to feel. Importantly, make use of experts and don’t put out amateur work.
Over the coming months, I encourage you to follow along as Frontier grows while the world shrinks. I know now more than ever that charities are needed to serve the poor and care for the sick, and we’re here to guide and problem solve for them.
This is a great year to prepare for an incredible decade.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Johnson
PS- Frozen II has just come out on Disney+, I highly recommend it.