Investment Conversions & Consulting

A Humorous Approach to Serious Business

It takes guts to treat a business as staid and stolid as investments with humor. And it takes hard-earned confidence to treat the technology behind investment systems, their conversions, and their integrations with your tongue in your cheek. That’s why we’re so happy to work with ICC.
ICC Identity: Before and After
These folks know their business. And they know it so well they can afford a little playfulness, even as they convey their insightful knowledge of their industry with crystal, persuasive clarity.
We knew we needed a combination of a fresh approach, a solid understanding of the financial services industry, the ability to learn, and the savvy to assess and reflect our corporate culture. From our earliest conversations with the OCG team, we knew they were just what we needed.
Andrew Sehulster

CEO

The Lay of the Land

ICC works in an industry of risk and reward, precision and accuracy, mathematical fact and economic reality. We had to acknowledge all that without stating it. And we had to reflect the boldness ICC had earned, without lapsing into an arrogance it doesn’t possess.

The Fertile Field

Once we knew the folks at ICC were confident enough to (let us) be playful, we used the chops we’d honed with BizComics, which we founded for this very purpose. Sprinkling cartoons throughout the content precluded the possibility that we’d dull ICC’s prospects into submission.

The Lay of the Land

ICC works in an industry of risk and reward, precision and accuracy, mathematical fact and economic reality. We had to acknowledge all that without stating it. And we had to reflect the boldness ICC had earned, without lapsing into an arrogance it doesn’t possess.

The Fertile Field

Once we knew the folks at ICC were confident enough to (let us) be playful, we used the chops we’d honed with BizComics, which we founded for this very purpose. Sprinkling cartoons throughout the content precluded the possibility that we’d dull ICC’s prospects into submission.

 
ICC: Identity

Identity

Before we could play with ICC’s brand identity, we had to reflect it. We created a mark that resembles a shield — impregnably solid, unfailingly reliable, unmistakably simple. We colored it the sky-blue of possibility. And we knocked out the lettering to suggest transparency.

ICC: Website

Web

We created a website that’s easy to navigate, the content of which is readily accessible, with the deliverables plainly apparent — Services, Consulting, Products. The multi-panel home page contains About ICC, Clients, and Careers. And the Contact form appears in every page footer.

ICC: Cartoons

Cartoons

We created a still-growing series of cartoons, each of which depicts and pokes knowing fun at some aspect of ICC’s business, from elephants in the room (ignoring the obvious) to driving off cliffs (lacking objective direction) and tradeshow confusion (selecting the right vendor).

ICC: Blog Posts

Blog Posts

We created a blog, with posts that convey authoritative takes on various aspects of the investment industry and its attendant systems. And we created cartoons to accompany them, knowing that pictures that engage, educate, and entertain are worth more than 1,000 words.

ICC: Direct Email

Direct Email

We used the topics of the blog posts we wrote, along with their corresponding cartoons, to create a series of direct emails, which we send to targeted prospects on a regular schedule. That keeps the ICC brand top of mind for prospects, while giving them something to smile about.

ICC: Social Media

Social Media

When we publish ICC’s blog posts, we also post them on LinkedIn, since ICC is heavily networked. Those posts drive traffic to the ICC site, help improve its SEO results, attract more eyeballs than we would in any single medium, and help to establish ICC’s authority more broadly.

Identity

Before we could play with ICC’s brand identity, we had to reflect it. We created a mark that resembles a shield — impregnably solid, unfailingly reliable, unmistakably simple. We colored it the sky-blue of possibility. And we knocked out the lettering to suggest transparency.

ICC: Identity

Web

We created a website that’s easy to navigate, the content of which is readily accessible, with the deliverables plainly apparent — Services, Consulting, Products. The multi-panel home page contains About ICC, Clients, and Careers. And the Contact form appears in every page footer.

ICC: Website

Cartoons

We created a still-growing series of cartoons, each of which depicts and pokes knowing fun at some aspect of ICC’s business, from elephants in the room (ignoring the obvious) to driving off cliffs (lacking objective direction) and tradeshow confusion (selecting the right vendor).

ICC: Cartoons

Blog Posts

We created a blog, with posts that convey authoritative takes on various aspects of the investment industry and its attendant systems. And we created cartoons to accompany them, knowing that pictures that engage, educate, and entertain are worth more than 1,000 words.

ICC: Blog Posts

Direct Email

We used the topics of the blog posts we wrote, along with their corresponding cartoons, to create a series of direct emails, which we send to targeted prospects on a regular schedule. That keeps the ICC brand top of mind for prospects, while giving them something to smile about.

ICC: Direct Email

Social Media

When we publish ICC’s blog posts, we also post them on LinkedIn, since ICC is heavily networked. Those posts drive traffic to the ICC site, help improve its SEO results, attract more eyeballs than we would in any single medium, and help to establish ICC’s authority more broadly.

ICC: Social Media

Next Steps

Your brand is nothing to laugh about. But we’ll have fun positioning and promoting it.

If you take your business seriously, but not yourself, please contact us today.