Cadmium Rebrand

In our latest episode of The Debrief, we're sitting down with Cadmium's marketing director, Jessie Reyes—and she brings as much data as she does passion to this conversation.

Jessie and Bill touch on so many important topics such as:

• The lead-driven reasoning behind Cadmiums rebrand
• The benefits of working with an "A" Team agency
• The importance of leadership championing a rebrand
• How brand architecture played a big role in the rebrand ROI
• And so much more!

For all of our marketing subscribers, this is a can't miss episode. Jessie shoots it straight and gives invaluable advice for anyone entering into their own rebrand project.

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 05:33 - The lead-driven reason for Cadmium’s rebrand
• 09:16 - What was Cadmium looking for in an agency partner?
• 17:30 - One of the biggest challenges in a rebrand—the people
• 21:50 - Project team advice and the time commitment of a rebrand for execs
• 24:45 - The importance of leadership championing a rebrand
• 28:05 - An unexpected internal win of the Cadmium rebrand project
• 30:21 - The ROI of the Cadmium rebrand after just three months (with data!)
• 31:54 - How brand architecture played a big part in the brand ROI
• 35:40 - Biggest piece of advice for anyone entering into a rebrand

Full Transcript:

[Bill Kenney]

Y'all better buckle up for a really awesome conversation. I just wrapped up with Jesse Reyes. She's the Head of Marketing at Cadmium, a past client of ours. They've been live now for about three months. Y'all, when I say Jesse is a force to be reckoned with—watch this video.

You will know exactly what I mean when you're done watching this video. She has so much passion, so much energy, so much experience. I got to meet Jesse for the first time in this interview and unlock a ton of her perspectives in and around what it's like to go through a big rebrand.

This was actually like a re-rebrand for them. You've got acquisitions coming together, a brand that's underperforming from a data perspective, Hey, data and brand—that is a topic in this conversation. To hear her perspectives on what it's like to navigate a rebrand,you will get so much value out of watching this episode.

Understanding how to find the right partner, what to care about in an agency partner, what's table stakes? Trying to figure out how to build the right size committee. At that point it was 5 companies coming together with 200 to 300 people. How do you build a five person brand committee to go through a branding project? What does that look like on a week to week basis from a time allocation perspective on those people?

These are the things that ail most marketing leaders, right? These are, these are the pains. These are the struggles and trying to figure out how to navigate those things when it comes to a rebrand journey. Jesse could not have done a better job at just shooting it straight, keeping it factual, but like I said, passionate on what matters and what doesn't.

I know you're going to enjoy this episode. Have at it.

[Bill Kenney]

Alright Jessie, we’re finally meeting. We got to work on a project together but we’ve only just met in person as we talked about Miami and Martha's Vineyard and all types of cool things pre-show in the green room, if you will. But here we are.

I'm excited to record with you and talk about the Cadmium project, talk about, what do we want to call that? Is it a rebrand? Is it a refresh? Everyone gets caught up on words. Now, what do you call it?

[Jessie Reyes]

It's actually a re-rebrand because they had gone through a rebrand before. So this is like, take two.

[Bill Kenney]

Okay. Take two. Well, maybe we'll unlock a little bit of that in the conversation, but before we dive in can you maybe just introduce yourself, tell people who you are and what you do?

[Jessie Reyes]

Sure. So I'm Jesse Reyes. I lead marketing here at Cadmium. I am one of those weird people who knew what they wanted to do in college. So I've been in marketing for almost 20 years now. Believe it or not, I've done all the things.

[Bill Kenney]

Wow, congratulations. I think.

[Jessie Reyes]

You know, I, yeah. I don't know if it's congratulations or like, you know, here are the keys to the insane asylum. Believe it or not, even when I started, social media wasn't as big in business and B2B as it is today.

So like, I, yeah, like I'm unfortunately that old.

[Bill Kenney]

I was going to say, you're aging both of us. Well done.

[Jessie Reyes]

So, uh, you know, I also say I'm the person you hire when things aren't, you know, fine and fantastic, right? If everything's running smooth, you're not going to hire me. You're going to hire me to, like, fix things, uh, to build a team to kind of like a fixer upper, uh, type of marketing role.

We're not sure what to do. We need to build a team. We need to, you know, get all these things in place. And that's usually when I come in. So I was brought on to lead Cadmium's marketing post merger. At Cadmium, just to take it back to what we do, we provide software in the event management and continuing education space.

So we work mostly with knowledge centric organizations: associations, higher ed, medical institutions, those kinds of businesses. Our two main products are event technology. So everything when you think of registration, live streaming, that kind of stuff.

And then we also have learning management systems. So when you have to take a course and then you need credits for a certification continuing medical education, those kinds of courses. So those are our big two pillars.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Um, going back to what you said earlier, I love how you positioned yourself quite frankly, which was, people bring me in when there's broken stuff.

[Jessie Reyes]

Yeah, and, and, and, you know, every, there are, you know, we all have those days and I'm like, you know what? You need to get a job that is just doing this one thing and not trying to solve all these other problems.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah, flipping burgers.

[Jessie Reyes]

Yeah, and then the next day I'm just like, you would be so bored out of your mind.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Good for you.

[Jessie Reyes]

If you didn’t have 15 million things happening and trying to, you know, I hate this analogy, but it was like, you know, build a plane while we're flying it, you know, but it is, it's exactly, you know, sort of the position I always end up gravitating towards.

[Bill Kenney]

I think that's a position you should own. Like the world is hungry for people like you, right? People that you can tag in that like to walk towards the fire. So props to you for being that person.

All right, so let's dig into that a little bit then. My first question is, how did you know, or how did Cadmium and the collective kind of M&A activity know that it was time to go through the rebrand?

Was it simply because it was obvious through M&A?

[Jessie Reyes]

So when the company's merged, there was always a big push. We were a merger PE backed company, right? There's always a big push when that happens to go to market with this new thing, right? Like we brought this together and this together and like, let's package it and go to market and get out a new website and new colors and all this.

So all of that had kind of happened and it was like coming to fruition as I joined, right? Like, all of that is happening. Okay, like, let's do it. The team has already agreed to going to the market with this content and this new website and all these things. I'm like, okay, sure.

Let's do it. Let's, you know, see that through. Then we launched and we started tracking, right? And that's one of the first things I do. I track anything and everything. I always, if I can tell anybody in this, you know, in a [marketing] position, start tracking. Oh, but I don't have this. I don't have that. The CRM system isn't in place yet.

Who cares? Use a spreadsheet. Track whatever you can. Get numbers, get some sense of numbers and then as you implement a CRM or as that even gets better than your data gets better. Right? Let's start with some sort of base point. And I usually join companies where there hasn't been a lot of tracking.

So we start tracking. Thankfully, we never turned off our legacy websites. So each of the legacy websites,

[Bill Kenney]

Oh, interesting.

[Jessie Reyes]

We never turn them off because I'm like, where do our leads come from? Nobody knows. What do you mean we don’t know?

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Don't turn anything off.

[Jessie Reyes]

Don't turn anything off. Like stop, stop, drop and roll. Like do turn anything off.

You have to keep your engines running, you know, like, I don't know what's working, I don't know what's not working, so let's just not do anything. Let's just not, not do anything, but let's just not turn anything off.

Let's just continue doing these things. So I started tracking, and lo and behold, all our legacy sites are, that’s where the leads are coming from. Those are the sites with the highest conversion, they’re coming from our legacy websites. So you start saying, we have a problem, like, we're going to turn off those sites and clearly that value from those sites is not being communicated over here.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

You know, so you start saying we might need to start rethinking about how we've positioned ourselves. We might start rethinking about the landing pages and all that stuff.

So it wasn't really to like, oh, let's get a pretty new logo and look more sophisticated. No, it was, it was lead driven.

[Bill Kenney]

Great.

[Jessie Reyes]

We're going to lose these, we're eventually going to have to turn off those websites. And then what do we do?

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

So that's where that's where the conversation started happening.

[Bill Kenney]

Fantastic. Out of all the interviews I've done, and I love all of those people, too. Nobody has answered that way in such a data driven perspective. Um, I really love that you were able to bring that. And I'm happy that that was the case, honestly, because in brand numbers and data is always this elusive gray area of like, well, does it affect that?

Does it help it? We'll kind of get more into that later, but I love that that was the pain point. And then kind of like spawns this project to actually help that pain point. All right. Now you have the challenge of figuring out who you're going to work with. Right.

And I'm on the other side of that. So I can only assume how many options there are and everybody's prices are all over the damn place and everyone positions themselves differently as a service provider on my side. So without, I guess, maybe saying exactly why you picked us, what were you looking for?

Like, what was part of your criteria in finding the right partner? And was it hard?

[Jessie Reyes]

Yeah, so I've worked with a lot of agencies in my career. Right. I would say working with an agency is like borrowing brainpower, right? Like, that's why you bring in an agency. I want to borrow this brainpower. I don't have this. There's skill sets that I do not have, and that I do not have on my team.

I am, as you said, a very data-driven marketing leader. I'm not a designer. Like I know what I like and what I don't like, but I'm not a graphic designer. Like that's not my thing, right? But I like to tap into people that that is their thing and that they love to do that. So I was like, okay, what, what is the brain power that we need on our team?

Like, where are those buckets that we need to fill and who can fill that for us. The other thing, which I think is the whole catalyst for the decision to go with Focus Lab is once again, we are a PE backed merger and we needed somebody to understand what that meant. Right?

When you're under, you know, private equity, there are things you want to do, and there's things you want to fix, but there's also this dance that we do. Where do we invest the money? Where do we not invest the money? We want to keep costs low, but we want to have impact.

And the minute we started talking with the Focus Lab team, they're like, we get it. This, this, this, and this, these are all the problems when it comes to a PE backed rebrand. And we're like, yes, those are it.

These people know what, you know, this dance that you do about how much time and energy we put into certain things.

So I think that not just knowing what the brand needed, what the company needed, what I needed to prove to my executive team and what the executive team needed to prove to the board in saying like, this is something that we have to do and that it is worth our investment. So, I think just the fact that you guys understood, like, you have the brainpower check, and I think most agencies do have that brainpower and that creative, and stuff.

And I'm like, yes, you're all great. We talked to a lot of really cool agencies, but it seemed like Focus Lab really understood what we needed in the situation that we are in as a business.

[Bill Kenney]

Okay, yeah, um, thank you, uh, for sharing that. Yeah, I agree and have no problem saying that by the time you're down to a small list, somebody like yourself, the people you're talking to are all going to check the first box, which is essentially the box that all agency owners try to position themselves on first or in the early years, which is high quality work.

We do great work. We do great work. Okay. That's like table stakes.

[Jessie Reyes]

So does everybody else. Yeah. So does everybody else. Yeah.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. So like, what else are you bringing to the table? Um, right. So I guess everybody's takeaway is just find somebody that, for the most part, understands your industry and your actual pain points beyond the quality of pixels and words and these types of things.

Would you say that relationship, trying to determine the level of the quality, I guess, of the people in the relationship, might be in that?

[Jessie Reyes]

I think one of the big things with working with agencies is, you know, you sometimes have like the more senior person that is clearly the most knowledgeable in this area. And then, you know, sometimes, things happen and then you need to get this other person and that other person is clearly more junior. You know, hasn't been brought up to speed as much and, you know, like, and yes, we're doing this rebrand, but we're also running this company over here. Like, this is a little part of what we do. And I don't want to spend my time reeducating this new person at this company, at this agency, right? Because the other person left or got moved to another project.

And because those things happen, like, that's and it's fine. Or you're at another stage in the project. And then this is the new person that's going to come in to handle the stage. I have to say, like, Focus Lab is the only agency that I've worked with that every single person is an ‘A’ player.

Every single person is like the senior, the most senior person, at all the agencies, they're all here. I don't know what you're doing with your, can we have a conversation about hiring and keeping talent.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes we can.

[Jessie Reyes]

I think I, I don't know what you guys are doing, but you could definitely write a book on that because it's like that, you know, and And it's just like, wow, like they're all 'A' players and they're all very seasoned in what they do.

I don't know if everybody has to watch all the recordings that you've ever had with this customer. Because by the time I was like, Oh, new person, like, great, how much time is it going to take? No, they know everything. I don't have to say, oh, we're doing this. No, no, no, no. I know what you're doing, where you are.

Like we're doing the next step. Okay.

[Bill Kenney]

Like shit. They're on the ball.

[Jessie Reyes]

Okay. Thank you. You know, and they know the difference between having a conversation, me and, and, you know, like us that are actually like doing the work and then I'm like, Hey, I'm going to bring in my CEO or, Hey, I'm going to bring in my CRO. They already know, like, at what level that conversation needs to be in.

I don't have to prep them. I've had to do this in the past. I'm like, okay, I'm bringing my CEO. We're not going to talk about all these little things. We're going to talk about this, this, and this.

[Bill Kenney]

Okay, yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

I never had to prep anybody from the Focus Lab team. Everybody knew. I was like, okay, switch it. This is what we're going to show.

[Bill Kenney]

Great, I love to hear that. Uh, that's confirming. We've put a lot of time and energy, which should not come as a surprise. into making sure that we are what you just said. Which is an all senior team. Right. We try to be as on the ball. We're not perfect. Uh, we try to be as on the ball in every facet of a project as we can be. You probably saw and heard some of this and then I'm going to get off my soapbox. But this, um, mantra of S.A.U.C.E. in our company: seek to achieve an unforgettable customer experience, right?

We even have our own like sauce bottles. Um, right. So this, this for us means showing up in all of those particular ways. Oh, you need this from us. We got you. Oh, okay. You've got to now present to the CEO. Let's make sure we talk about that. Cause we know what that's going to be like for you. Because some people that we work with also don't know what that's going to be like for them.

Cause they're earlier in their marketing career and we're going on 600 projects. Let me, let us tell you how that meeting needs to be formatted for you to be successful in that meeting. So then we bring even extra value in those projects. Okay, great.

[Jessie Reyes]

Even me, to my CEO. I feel like my relationship with the Focus Lab team is also like, okay, now the CEO to the board.

[Bill Kenney]

Mm hmm.

[Jessie Reyes]

This is the update that we're giving. Cause that at the end of the day, like that's my North star. Right. So I was like, okay, now this is going to go, I'm going to go to the 'A' team.

Now my CEO is going to go to the board. So like all the, it's different communications, different, there's all, it's a whole different way that you position the project.

[Bill Kenney]

And we also, on our side, as agencies, need to understand, respect, and empathize with that challenge too. Right. I get a little bit frustrated. When I see agency owners or creative people just go like, Oh, you know, client this client that, Oh, like, and you're going to jump through all these hoops, so much red tape.

It's like, no, that's business. Now, kind of coming back to your point. Us understanding that that is business and we have to fit into that mold as much as we love it or hate it. That's just the reality. I think that's where we can really shine on a project. Okay. Enough about us.

So now we're in the project. You select us. You say, Hey, I think they're going to be great. Let's talk about the challenges in a project. In your project, what do you think was the hardest part?

[Jessie Reyes]

So there's, I can say, the work is never hard. There are hard parts of the work. Work is work. It's people, you know, people make, you know, people make the work a little bit harder. And I think with, you know, all the things, picking out logos and content and positioning and yes, all, all of that.

I think one of the biggest takeaways is communication and levels of communication internally, right? Employees, who are you bringing along on this journey, right? We have different groups of people that we have to communicate to. Um, like I said, we're a merger. These legacy companies that merged together to make Cadmium have been in business for over 20 plus years.

[Bill Kenney]

How many people is that for context for everybody listening and watching.

[Jessie Reyes]

I think we're right under 300

[Bill Kenney]

Okay. Thank you.

[Jessie Reyes]

Two something, whatever. Um, so a lot of these people, and this is a testament to like the legacy business owners. Even after the legacy business owners exited the company, right? Cause you know, you bring them on, they're here for a while. Then little by little, they all start to exit because they sold their company.

Right. Um, Um, employees are like, no, but we are X, Y, Z. We're not this, we’re X, Y, Z. No, but this is what we do. And you know, in marketing, you're, you're, you're sometimes several steps ahead of where the actual business is. Right. So you're working on positioning.

I'm like, I know we're not that today, but like, that's where we're going. So we need to start saying these things, you know, like, yes, I know I'm not a millionaire, you know, CMO today, but maybe if I position myself that way, eventually, you know, you get there, right? You can, you know, we have to start edging to this.

So who's going to help you make those decisions? Who's going to be a champion for this once this is launched? Sometimes those people are some of the people that you think are your biggest critics or people that might not really like you in the company. That's fine. Invite them, bring them along, have them join the ride.

And who are the people? We built a group of different types. I wanted people from product. I wanted people from support, I wanted people from sales, you know, all engineering, all design, you know, all different parts of the company.

But you have to work with people who can see the bigger picture and not everybody can see that. You know, not everybody can, and especially when you're working with very technical people, product engineering, even though they're super technical and really good at what they do, they can see kind of like where the business is headed and can give input in that, in that perspective, and then also you're going to ask for input and you're not always going to take it.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Yep.

[Jessie Reyes]

Right? I gather all this input. Then I go to the Focus Lab team. I'm like, hey, guys, like, this is what the team said. And then after, you know, lots of back and forth and like, do we do this?

Do we not do this? This, that, whatever we might end up with a completely different result than this committee put forth.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes, yes, yes. So you would basically say, and I agree, that was the most challenging aspect. These things that you're discussing.

[Jessie Reyes]

Yeah and then they're like, oh, but why are we in this committee if you're not going to, like, take my input? And it's just like, there's so many competing rules of thought and, and, you know, and we're just trying to make the best decision with the information that we have available and as a team. So managing the people managing the different groups, the level of communication, what do you put out? What do you not put out?

[Bill Kenney]

How big was, do you remember how big, let's call it like the smallest of the, the committee was that would have been the people that were meeting with us weekly. Right. How many people was that?

[Jessie Reyes]

That team was like 5 of us who were there on those calls, including myself. So I think it's like 5 people who were in there and then I had another subcommittee with like 10 people who looked at the deliverables every Friday. I sent them all the deliverables and then sent them a, Google form with the questions.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

Questions, everybody

[Bill Kenney]

Very targeted questions. Not, not, do you like it? Question mark.

[Jessie Reyes]

Targeted questions, you don't like it. Why is that? So then we'd gather all that feedback that I'd meet with them. That team would meet on Monday. So it's a very short turnaround.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes.

[Jessie Reyes]

We would meet on Monday. I’d collect all that feedback, send it back to Focus Lab before noon on Monday to then meet Tuesday morning with my CEO.

Like, that smaller group of 5 and the Focus Lab team. And we did this for months.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes.

[Jessie Reyes]

And it's draining.

[Bill Kenney]

For people that haven't been through the whole journey to that level can understand the time input that this takes and the logistics, the management that it takes, right? These things don't just like self fulfill themselves. It's not like, Oh, you guys make great work. It's like, make some cool shit.

Like there's so much involved, um, and coming back to the question, like that is challenging. That is quite challenging.

[Jessie Reyes]

It's burdensome and I often hear marketing leaders say, Oh, think about what you can offload to the agency.

And I think that's a huge mistake. no offloading. There is a collaboration with this agency and you're doing as much of the driving as they are. Right? Like, I don't just say like, Hey, we need a new brand. Boop — go, give me.

[Bill Kenney]

You’re the brand experts, go figure it out.

[Jessie Reyes]

No, there's a lot of work, a lot of questions, a lot of conversations that need to be had.

Like, you guys do a very good job of like, knowing the questions to ask. And knowing to be like, is that true? You know, companies say, Oh, we, you know, our customers don't like that. And you're like, is that true? Or is this just a lie that you've been telling yourself for 10 years? How do you know that to be true?

You know, and there's all these conversations and all this work. You're not going to get around doing the work.

[Bill Kenney]

That's right. Got to do the work.

[Jessie Reyes]

You have to do the work. The executive team has to do the work.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes. Amen.

[Jessie Reyes]

There's not, because then if you do get around, if you do offload it guess what, I would say, I'd probably bet at least 70 percent of the time, you're not going to be fully happy with the outcome because you didn't do the work.

[Bill Kenney]

And if you're not fully happy with the outcome, you can't champion it. To use your words earlier, right? You need leadership to champion this thing. I was speaking with Casey Carey. He's the CMO of a company called Quantive that we worked with. He was talking about, in his interview, where he would go into that tight group committee, which I think also included, uh, ownership.

Or, um, CEO/founder and they had this mantra. I wish I knew it right off the top of my head, but it was this idea that like we can bicker about and disagree on anything we want in here, but when we leave this room, we are one single opinion and everybody's on board. Um, and I just think that's so powerful, right?

This idea of championing it, because you got to do that. You got to hold it up and say, this is it. And this is where we're going. Not, yeah, we're like doing a thing. People are like, eh, I don't know.

[Jessie Reyes]

Leadership sets a tone for so many things.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah, that’s right.

[Jessie Reyes]

And not just leadership at the executive levels. Every company has leaders that are not in leadership roles.

[Bill Kenney]

Say more. Yes.

[Jessie Reyes]

You know, who are those people and you want these people involved because you need them to say, yeah, this is a way forward like this, it makes so much sense because X, Y, Z, or whatever, like you, you need to get those people involved. We think of the executive team as like this holy grail.

No, no, no, no. It's all of us together. And yes, they might sign off on certain things, but it's all of us together, like building this and, and putting this forward.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Uh, I know that's going to get cut out as a short clip and shared on social. Thank you for saying that. I couldn't agree more. And I think, uh, people need to hear more of that. All right. So challenges. Yes. Uh, we talked about them and I guess I'll just come back and note really quick: 300 person team, give or take, but five people as the brand committee on this giant effort.

Like there's a takeaway there for everybody to understand, right? This is the job. It's not to get 30 people together. We all know that that doesn't work, right? We see it everywhere. Everybody says it doesn't work. people still try to do that.

Five is a great size, right? You've got all your bases, all, a lot of bases covered. And that's enough to do what is needed in that small committee. And then you've got the outer committee outside of that, an additional 10 people. Um, great job, great job on your part of really running that well. That's a critical component of these projects going well. And going well doesn't mean smooth. There's still challenges, right? But like going well means finishing successfully, regardless of what happens in the middle, running a marathon, you know, mile 12 and 16 might suck terribly and your pace goes down, but you finished the race and you're proud that you finished it and you're successful in that right.

So, um, these projects, by and large, really need somebody like you, quite honestly, we can work on projects of any size when they don't have somebody like you, that kind of understands these dynamics, manages and sets the team up and has all of this great perspectives you just shared, which is like, we need the right leaders, but they don't need to just be ELT team members.

Uh, these are what we need for opinions, but even if you disagree with it, we still leave the room as one, blah, blah, blah. That's what makes projects successful. Not pixels, not the best words ever. All that stuff's interchangeable. And that happens throughout the duration of the project. Okay, let's get to the most rewarding aspect of the entire project.

[Jessie Reyes]

Like I said, with the merger, there's a lot of opinions from the employees of what kind of team they're on. Right. You know, brands are not just external. They're about internal. Right. And we rolled out the brands and customers have, you know, loved it. And, and there's been data that it's worked, but I, when we rolled it out to the team and we were like, this is your new swag. And, you know, we try to do all that kind of stuff.

And then somebody's like, Hey, can we like, purchase like company swag? And I was like, you want to buy it? You want to spend your money buying something with this new logo on it. I thought that that was amazing, right? Because it's usually like, Oh yeah, they send me this cup. Great. Fantastic. Hmm. You know, but the fact that somebody is like, Oh, in this portal, like, can we go and like, if I want to get a sweater or this or that, I was just like, that's awesome.

That an employee would actually want to spend their own money to purchase this. I thought that was a big win internally.

[Bill Kenney]

They want to embrace it. And I think that for a lot of companies, that is their number one mission, especially an M&A kind of scenario. We're trying to bring multiple cultures together. Yes, we want to be successful as a single company, and we want the data to prove that we can convert customers.

Um, but step one is like, Can I get everybody marching in the same direction and beating to the same kind of drum? And I would assume that if people are saying like, I want to rep that so much that I'm willing to pay for it, like that is starting directionally. That is moving.

[Jessie Reyes]

Moving in the right way and stuff and, and I just, you know, and of course for every person you say, Oh, this is great. I'm sure plenty of others who were like that was a waste. These are very opinion based things, you know, people are like, Oh, I don't like it. Okay. Well, oh, well. But having an employee just reach out like that. I was like, this is, we're, we're starting to turn the tide.

[Bill Kenney]

There it is. Yes. Yes. It's that little bit of the new wind in the sails.

Awesome. I love that. So how long has the project been alive now?

[Jessie Reyes]

We launched right after like July. So a couple of months, not a couple of months. September, October, 3 months, give or take, um, that new website has been live. So we had a user conference in July and then we gave them a sneak peek at the user conference. Um, I get to have my own Oprah moment, we're like, everybody gets swag and this is the thing.

And you know, everybody came in with new swag for the customers that were there and stuff. And that was exciting to let 'em, oh, I like this. I, you know, I, you know, I like this new thing. Um, so yeah. So it's been a couple of months now that we've been up and running. Mm-Hmm.

[Bill Kenney]

I guess coming, pulling off of that kind of momentum thought, it feels like maybe now everyone's continuing to gel more into like a single, a single unit. We are one now, we know what we're trying to do and now we can kind of build towards that.

[Jessie Reyes]

And like I said, one of the biggest issues was the leads from the legacy site. Within like a month of the new website being up finally, my main website was getting more demo requests and lead forms than my legacy sites.

[Bill Kenney]

Great. Great. That was gonna be my question. It was gonna be the ROI question. Like, is it working? Especially since we started there?

[Jessie Reyes]

It is working. One of the big things for us to figure out was like each of the legacy companies, this is a different product, a different product line. There's some that have very similar products. Like we have two LMS is like, why do we have two LMS? You know, like what's the difference, you know?

And so one of the things that when they first did the rebrand, they came to market as it's like one thing, like, oh, you'd like your one solution. You're one thing for continuing education and event technology. Nobody Googles one solution for continuing education.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep.

[Jessie Reyes]

Back to, where do our leads come from? What is keeping us in business today? You know, like don't make positioning like huge positioning moves when you don't know what those things are and you could eventually like kill yourself off. Right. So our website, our new website, yes, we have the main page of the website that talks about the value of Cadmium as a whole, because we still need to have those conversations and we want more people to use more than one Cadmium product, but we also made little sub websites for each of our products.

So if you're just looking for event technology, you just want registration and check-in and badging. That's all I care about. Right? Then I could take you straight there.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes, I see.

[Jessie Reyes]

There’s a place on the website that just there's no, it's not going to say, oh, and here are all these things for your continuing medical education learning management system.

You're going to be like, what the hell is it? This is not it. Like that's not what I need.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah, it’s more friction.

[Jessie Reyes]

I don’t want this. So yeah. So being able to like create a home online for each of the products and, and really giving people like everything you need to know. So it's a massive website that we did this with you guys too, helping us create that framework.

Yeah. Like the architecture. So we did the whole rebrand. Colors, messaging, all that. Then we took on the website work.

[Bill Kenney]

Yep.

[Jessie Reyes]

Which is like, okay, how, like, this is what I have in mind, but like, what does this look like? And with your team, we were able to set up that at least like the main framework for that, and then we started building the website and started building the content and all that, but we had that sort of framework and like, all the necessary pieces to be able to do all the other things.

So it's, it's already proven to be beneficial in just the amount of leads that are coming through the website and, and where we're taking people and just easier places to like take campaigns to, you know, to like rebuild everything every time that we run a campaign because the website let's us take them there.

[Bill Kenney]

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome. That's all we care about. Our job is to just set people up for more success. That's it.

[Jessie Reyes]

No.

[Bill Kenney]

If our work doesn't do that. Then we've just made shiny things that aren't all that valuable, right? So like we're doing our best effort to make sure that is not the case, to ground the work and strategic decisions and collaborating really tightly with our partners who know their business and their customer better than we ever will.

Right. So, um, bringing those two parties together to create some type of success there. I love hearing that you're already seeing that it's a long term play, right? And really like, it's not always just an instant conversion play. Sometimes it's that we just need to be more present in the market.

People don't even know about us. Nevermind getting to our site and converting. Um, but I love how data oriented you are. Cause like I said, we don't often have those combos and that you're seeing that data is great. Okay. So I’ve got one final question and I'll let us out of here. Okay. If you were sitting down with a peer, somebody kind of in a similar role as you, and they were about to go through a rebrand, and they were like, just tell me what's the one most important thing that I have to do right in this project.

What would you tell them?

[Jessie Reyes]

First, start listening to a lot of these episodes. I have listened to a lot of the different episodes. There's so many good, like, points of view, like, do that research of all the different points of view, but I think I would say the alignment with my, with my CEO and with the board, um, I think is, is the main thing that we are, like, there's so many conversations that he's a part of that I'm not a part of.

Right? So being in, like, locks up with him and saying, like, I'm making this decision. Is this backing up your decisions? You know, um, is super, super important. And then once you have the CEO also championing the work, then that means the CFO is going to champion the work. That means that the SVP of Product is going to champion the work.

So, making sure it's not just about the logos and this and that it's about what is our end goal as a business? And are we moving towards that end goal? It's not, it's not what you want. A lot of people are like, Oh, because you wanted to rebrand— the rebrand is not for me. It was not for me. Let's get this clear.

You know, it's like, Oh, who wanted to do this project? No, any marketing leader would tell you it's a lot of work.

[Bill Kenney]

Right. Yes. Yes.

[Jessie Reyes]

You know, it's not for me, but it was necessary for the business to get us to the goals that we need to reach. Thank you so much. So having that and forcing it, CEOs are very busy.

[Bill Kenney]

Yep.

[Jessie Reyes]

And, and you know, with all the respect in the world, but they're extremely busy.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

And if you don't call out the decisions that are being made, I'm like, do you understand the impact of this decision? They might be like, yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. No, like, let's really understand. I want you to understand what I understand to be true and that we're both in lockstep with us and that we're both doing this together.

Um, because then what happens? You, you launch it. If people don't like it or it doesn't perform well, then you know what? It's very quick. Like, Oh, get rid of the marketing leader.

[Bill Kenney]

Uh, yeah. Yep. Uh, we do recognize the vulnerability and the risk. The inherent risk in these projects for the person in your seat, because although you can't control it all, the outcome does get put on your shoulders. Right?

[Jessie Reyes]

It does. This is, this is your calling card, you know? And the statistic is, I think CMOs have the shortest tenure of the executive team.

[Bill Kenney]

Oh, interesting.

[Jessie Reyes]

Right? Like that's usually what all the stats say. CMOs have the shortest tenure. It’s not the CFO, it’s not the chief people officer, you know, human resources or operations or engineering.

No, it's a CMO because everybody sees your work. We're very visual.

[Bill Kenney]

Yeah.

[Jessie Reyes]

We’re in a very visual position. And oftentimes you have the data, you share your data with the CEO, but like, it's not talked about enough. Having the numbers and making sure you're like, locked up with your CEO and the entire executive team is extremely important and they don't want to have the conversations. You have to force them to have the conversations. We continue on this project until we're all aligned in this.

[Bill Kenney]

If only every project had somebody like you on it, Jessie. My life would be easier, but yeah, I, I didn't sign up for an easy life.

[Jessie Reyes]

You and me both, apparently. And the same thing, I'm sure you guys get it a lot too. It's like, Oh, well, the rebrand didn't work. Did it, was it the rebrand? Was it us? Was it?

[Bill Kenney]

Sure. Yeah. Like there's so many factors. Yes. It's so

[Jessie Reyes]

We did, you know, we delivered, right. Your team delivered on what we agreed upon and what we said. But there's then it takes a whole life of its own in the company.

[Bill Kenney]

That's right. That's right. Right. And then the

[Jessie Reyes]

You're judged by it.

[Bill Kenney]

Correct. Yes. It's kind of like NFL coach that has one bad year and gets cut and you're like, damn, but I didn't even have great players yet or anything.

[Jessie Reyes]

Yeah. I haven't built my ‘A’ team. I didn't get this or we didn't have funding for X, Y, Z and it is what it is. Why? Because everybody sees your work and everybody can criticize it. It's a beautiful part about this. Everybody has a PhD in marketing.

[Bill Kenney]

Yes, you know, the word that we try to use too, which is like, this is more than marketing. Right? And I think that's also what you're saying, right? Like I'm here and I'm leading this effort, but it takes all of us to make this company successful in this effort that I led to be successful. It takes all of us.

This is not like, this is no longer just a marketing play. This is like a business play.

[Jessie Reyes]

Yes. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

[Bill Kenney]

Jessie, it was wonderful speaking with you. We need to speak more. I think you have so much insight. I love your energy, love your passion. Um, so we'll stay connected, but for now, thank you for joining the show. I can't wait for people to watch and to listen to this.

[Jessie Reyes]

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Bill Kenney]

Thank you.