“Getting creative” means different things to different people. To tap into their imagination, a studio animator might reach for their pencil, a graphic designer might open Illustrator, a UX pro could imagine the layout of an app in Figma, and a marketer may start thinking about how to tweak their product messaging. 

On the surface, animators, product marketing managers, and ad agency-trained designers can look like they’re from different worlds. In some ways, they are – but just like every person with a creative soul, they’re bonded by a common drive to experiment, invent, play, and bring new ideas to the world. They’re often just operating in different spheres, but they’re asking the same main question core to the creative experience: What if?

When we created Laetro, Dave, Matt, and I absolutely came in from different spheres. My experience was in leading marketing for big tech brands. Dave’s was in animating major feature films. Matt’s was in building technically complex mobile and web products. Our meeting, like the creative process, involved a serendipity - we were in the right place at the right time. As we got to know each other, we naturally got into a flow of bouncing ideas around. And one (of the hundreds) that really got us excited was a big “what if?”. 

What if we could build a place where creatives of all backgrounds could have a home under one digital roof. Where brands could access them without the issues that plague agency models, like bloated costs and slow processes. What if we could make it way easier to get to world-class creative work, for both creatives and brands?

This is the story of what happened when we all tried to answer that “what if”, of Laetro’s launch, and how we’re well on our way to making our idea into a real, way new way for everyone to get creative.

When I worked for Google My roles involved customer acquisition for Google Ads and Google Fiber, and was also tasked with making sure new customers stayed happy. My team was made up of top-tier marketers, strategists, and creatives with in-house experience at other well-known companies. We accomplished a lot, including the creation of Google Partners, which is Google’s all-time highest-grossing marketing program. But the journey wasn’t without its challenges. 

Given the scale of our team’s objectives and Google’s ambitious growth goals, we hired a number of well-qualified agencies to help us build our campaigns and experiences. Though I was impressed by a lot of their work, the same limitations kept coming up.

First, it was hard to be nimble and fast. For instance, while the agencies usually had the ability to do what we asked of them, it would take much longer than we would have liked – often weeks instead of days – and we’d get bogged down by the need to fill out a formal brief even for quick, basic tasks. This, in turn, created an issue with scalability: We’d be forced to prioritize one project over another when we would have preferred to work on everything at once, in the interest of speed. 

Second, our creativity was limited by our set agency team. This constrained our options, but it also slowed us down. There were many one-off projects that required a niche skill set or a specific design or illustration style, but since we were limited to our go-to agency’s immediate staff. If we didn’t have the capability in-house, we’d need to bring in an entirely new vendor for just one engagement.  

Third, it was often hard to make our budgets work hard. Though Google had healthy budgets, the high overhead costs of many agencies were opaque and not sustainable. If we couldn’t afford all the services we needed, or simply didn’t have enough needs to meet the minimum spend, I’d find that we had to sacrifice one idea for another due to financial constraints. 

These types of obstacles were echoed not only by my experiences working for other companies, including Indeed and Gusto, but by many marketers who need nimble, reliable agency partners to help them reach their goals. It was a broken record I kept on hearing time and again. 

Matt’s experience building end to end creative pipelines at scale also mirrored mine. He had seen how technology could help speed up processes, but was limited with his choices when it came to engaging external partners. When he needed a UX or product designer fast, or wanted to experiment, none of the partners were set up to work the way he wanted. He had to sacrifice speed for quality, and managing costs was a consistent challenge.

Dave, on the other hand, came from the entertainment sphere, and was an animation artist for huge titles such as Disney’s The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast, among many other projects. While he worked to bring these amazing stories to millions of people, Dave and his creative colleagues also realized that their skills were transferable to other areas. In other words, they understood intuitively that creating an animated storyboard for a children’s adventure fantasy wasn’t too far removed from working with a healthcare brand to outline the journey of one of their patients. 

They wanted to expand their portfolios and work for new types of brands, but didn’t know how to bridge the gap between their skills and the right opportunities – and they needed a flexible solution that would fit into their busy schedules. 

These creatives had the skills to do amazing work for the world’s best brands, but companies themselves didn’t know how to find or evaluate them, and they lacked the structure to facilitate the most effective collaboration. 

That’s where we saw the opportunity to build a platform that offered a hub for creatives and brands alike: an endlessly scalable model where companies could find the exact skill sets they needed, have the talent managed by a producer, and quickly get immediate access to the solutions for a fair price that allows them to stay on-budget while helping creative people from all backgrounds flourish.

We contacted friends and family, bootstrapped our way to an initial proof of concept, worked with some trusted, patient, and amazing first customers, and the answer to our what if got clearer and clearer. We could deliver top quality creative at speed for prices that made sense for those customers. We were able to connect creatives with work that were excellent matches to their skills. And we could use technology to tie it all together, continuing to iterate and improve with every project delivered.

As we’re all using pixels to tell stories in this day and age, we derived the name from the concept “Maestros of Light.” 

Technology and transparency powers our vision 

Using technology in a smart way is what helps Laetro deliver on this new model. Since we understand that speed is one of the most important factors that brands and creatives look for, we built our platform with that in mind. 

For clients, our process starts by connecting with you in Slack. There, you'll be linked up with one of our talented producers, who you can chat with and share all the essential information about a project. This includes the brief, style and brand guides, timelines, and any other team members who should be involved.

Once we have a clear understanding of your vision, we work closely with you to transform your ideas into tangible creations. Together, we'll establish a timeline for deliveries and revisions, determine the required hours and subsequent pricing. And pricing is transparent - one set price for each credit hour.

Throughout the process, constant communication and iteration are at the core of our approach. You’re actually connected to creatives in the same channel. No games of telephone, no Account Managers as gatekeepers, no multiple junior, senior, super senior levels. By maintaining an open, transparent line of dialogue, we ensure a smoother workflow and faster turnaround times. Not only will this lead to more engaging content, but it will also free you up to focus on your other priorities. 

Technology also helps us maintain our vibrant online community, and provide a hassle-free way for our network to find meaningful, well-paid work. Once a creative’s portfolio is thoroughly vetted and if they meet our high standards, they’re invited into our community, where they build their profile on Laetro.com, setting their project preferences, specialties, and rates, along with uploading their work for everyone to see. In Slack, they’ll receive invites to new opportunities, communicate about current projects, and connect with other creatives in the Laetro community about topics that interest them. 

As generative AI continues to develop, we’re keeping a close eye on how we can use the technology to improve our service even more while still staying true to our belief that creatives are the real engine behind the world’s most successful brands. 

Thanks for reading and learning about the start of our journey. With hundreds of world-class creatives who have worked at and for major brands like Google, American Express, Spotify, and Nike, award winning agencies like 72andSunny, RG/A, and Pentagram, and major studios like Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks on our platform already, we’re excited to get to work for you and are growing more every day. The purpose of Laetro is to see creatives flourish so that brands can make the most of their creativity.

It all started with Dave, Matt, and me asking our own “what if?”. Now we can’t wait to help you answer your “what ifs?”, too.  

How we found a way better way to get creative

Your brand promise plays a key role in your business’s reputation. It sets you apart from competitors, helps you retain loyal customers, and keeps you afloat through economic volatility.

Laetro has the tools to help you showcase your brand promise and illustrate precisely what sets you apart. Let’s get into it—exploring what exactly your brand promise entails, why it matters, the ingredients you’ll need to maintain one, and how to measure the impact your promise has.

Brand Promise: What It Is and Why It Matters

Your brand promise is related to, but stands distinct from, your brand. Your brand is how you help to define yourself to your customers. It’s who you are. On the other hand, your brand promise is what you’re there to help your audience with. 

To put it another way, your brand helps build a relationship between your business and your customers; the strength of that relationship depends entirely on how well you deliver on your brand promise. 

A brand promise is not a mission statement (an internal set of values or objectives that helps your employees orient their work around shared goals). Rather, your brand promise is outward-facing, defined by what you offer your customers if they work with or buy from you.

What You Need to Build Your Brand Promise

Creating and maintaining a strong brand promise rests on five key ingredients:

Let’s dive deeper into each: why they’re important and how they help you achieve better relationships with your customers.

We tend to buy from sources we trust, and transparency plays a big part in assessing the strength of that trust. Customers today expect companies to be forthright about how they work, what they provide, and who they partner with. 

Sharing information about how you generate your revenue, what you use it for, how you set your prices, and what you believe in goes a long way in establishing credibility with customers. On the other hand, being disingenuous and secretive can negatively impact how customers perceive the fulfillment of your brand promise.

A great way to increase transparency is to live out your core values internally. How do you support your employees’ health if you're a health services company? What do you use to cater your business meetings if you sell organic foods? Actions always come off as more transparent than prepared statements.

It’s also a good idea to share bad news with your customers before they hear about it elsewhere. If you run into supply chain issues and must change a delivery date, customers would prefer an advance notice from you instead of an unexpected UPS notification. If a product line must be discontinued, let your customers know before they go hunting for it.

Accountability is increasingly important in today’s economy. Rather than a marker that helps you stand out, it’s now a baseline requirement.

This comes down to how forthcoming you are about how your company measures up to your brand promise. If there are shortcomings, do you take ownership? And are you taking genuine steps to improve?

To make accountability easier, be specific in defining your brand promise. “We have the best burgers in America” is hardly quantifiable; it’s difficult for customers to know exactly what you promise.

On the other hand, “We prepare the high-quality, ethically-sourced ingredients to deliver exceptional meals” makes it easier for customers to understand exactly what standards to hold you to.

Like accountability, reliability is now a baseline expectation most customers have for the companies they work with or buy from. As such, your brand promise creates expectations about what it’s like to work with you. 

At every stage of the process, it’s important to present your company as able to deliver on expectations reliably. How easily can you accommodate customer requests? How flexible are you when it comes to changes? 

Adapting to the needs of each specific customer will define in their mind how reliable you are at delivering on your brand promise. Consistency—hand-in-hand with reliability—is about maintaining your brand promise over time. Your promises are only as good as your ability to consistently deliver on them, after all. 

In today’s glutted market, customers are spoiled for choice. One bad experience can be enough to turn a long-term customer away; consistent service keeps them locked in. 

In addition to providing consistency with customer experiences, brand consistency is also integral. A company’s brand helps it develop relationships with its customers; if a company’s branding doesn’t stay consistent, it’s hard for customers to understand who is making promises. Consistent branding helps customers trust in your company through learning what to expect from you.

In this context, indispensability means there is something in your brand promise that customers can’t get anywhere else. But remember: to truly be indispensable, your promise must actually match the needs of your audience. 

Delivering on promises transparently, accountably, reliably, and consistently doesn’t matter if your service isn’t valuable. On the other hand, if your customers can’t imagine going elsewhere because of your unique value, you’ll have them converted into devoted fans.

The Importance of Your Customer Happiness Score

Your customer happiness score tracks how well your products or services measure up to what your customers count on. It’s all about expectations: what expectations you’ve set for your customers through your brand promise and how those customers perceive your delivery of those promises. It’s the best metric to determine the value of your brand promise.

Customers are more likely to return when they’re happy with what you provide. But even more importantly, happy customers also advocate on your behalf with friends, family, and colleagues—free social proof for your brand! On the other hand, once you’ve lost a customer, it’s now harder than ever to win them back.

But not just your products or services that define a customer happiness score. How well do you deliver what you provide? Is your customer service team helpful and easily accessible? How easily do you handle mistakes or unexpected changes? All of these factors can have a major impact on your customer experience.

Make Good On Your Brand Promise With Laetro

Your brand promise is an integral part of your business. It defines the strength of your customer relationships, how you’re spoken about in the marketplace, and how likely your audience will become your next loyal customer.

When building a brand promise that you can follow through on—and that keeps customers coming back for your unique services—it helps to have branding experts at your side. That’s where Laetro comes in.

The creative team at Laetro lives and breathes branding. We’ve worked on countless projects for household names worldwide and are ready to help you boost your branding too. Is it time for a branding refresh? Reach out, and let’s get started.

It’s About More Than Just Scout’s Honor! Brand Promise Builds Trust, Inspires Loyalty, and Drives Growth: Here’s How

Building a brand story should come naturally. After all, we’re constantly telling stories in daily conversations, when creating art, and even through projects at work. A good story sparks imagination and appeals to emotions, connecting the audience and the storyteller. We, as humans, are drawn to stories because they profoundly impact us.

Every business has a story, no matter the product or service.

In marketing, stories are crucial to attracting consumers and differentiating from competitors. A strong brand story resonates with target audiences by building trust, which leads to loyalty. Indeed, a story is what makes a brand memorable.

Every brand has a purpose, so how do you convey it practically? Brand development goes beyond selling a product or service to customers; it starts with crafting a thoughtful brand story to show how a brand can impact people’s lives. A meaningful connection is made when storytelling aligns with a consumer’s values.

A brand story is a narrative that captures the essence and purpose of a brand. It’s a powerful tool for connecting with consumers on a deeper level. A brand story that feels authentic and personal creates a rapport with its target audience. This sets the brand apart from out-of-touch competitors.

A brand story typically covers the company’s history, values, mission, and vision. It can also include the brand’s unique selling proposition and target audience.

The best brand stories are genuine, purposeful, and consistent across all marketing channels.

The Importance of Having a Good Brand Story

A brand story is a key marketing strategy component—every successful business has one. When a brand shares its backstory, values, and purpose, it becomes humanized. That is, it feels more relatable and trustworthy to consumers. What’s more, by establishing a unique identity, brands with distinct narratives stand out in a crowded market.

A well-defined brand story motivates customer loyalty and inspires customers to advocate for the brand. So, the story—and, by extension, storytelling—is essential to brand development.

When it comes to marketing, a compelling brand story can create an emotional connection between the brand and its target audience. By telling a story that resonates with their customers’ values, beliefs, and aspirations, brands can build trust and loyalty and differentiate themselves from competitors. 

A strong brand can also help communicate a company’s purpose and mission. This elevates the business from just another product or service to a meaningful and impactful part of people’s lives. 

Connecting Storytelling and Your Brand’s Creative Journey

Powerful storytelling is at the core of a brand’s creative journey—it provides the foundation for its marketing efforts. A brand story inspires its advertising, social media, and other marketing campaign outlets. Plus, when it's sincere and well-crafted, it guides all artistic endeavors.

The brand story is the roadmap for the company’s overarching creative identity; it drives the messaging, design, and imagery. It also ensures all aspects of brand development remain consistent and aligned with the company’s values and mission.

Crafting a unique narrative sets a brand apart from less creative competitors. The strongest way for a brand story to be original is for it to be true to its origin and vision. After all, a brand is fueled by its purpose. The brand story is the best way to communicate this authentically.

Investing in creative development significantly impacts a brand’s reputation and long-term success. A good story directs the business’s greater creative journey, providing a framework for creativity and ensuring all marketing efforts are cohesive and on-brand.

A memorable brand story is truthful, clean, concise, and evokes an emotional response. It captures the brand's essence in a way that resonates with target audiences. What’s more, brands with powerful stories inspire customer loyalty and create a strong connection with the audience, ultimately leading to increased brand recognition and success.

Let’s look at some examples of successful businesses with compelling brand stories that stick with us:

Patagonia communicates its brand values as “Quality. Integrity. Environmentalism. Justice.” The company markets itself as “not bound by convention.”

Patagonia’s brand has always been passionate about environmental activism. This is shown through its business practices and is a prominent part of its brand identity.

“It all started with the beeswax.” “As nature intended.” “Protecting tomorrow.” Burt’s Bees shares its origin story in a personal and inspiring way, emphasizing its values of authenticity, giving back, and organic product development.

“Every idea starts with a problem. Ours was simple: Glasses are too expensive.” Warby Parker introduces the problem that inspired its brand. As a result, its mission is relatable and motivating.

Every company has a powerful story to tell. Creating a solid brand story that accurately reflects the brand’s essence isn’t just strategic—it’s purpose-driven. Brand stories are more than a simple list of values; they’re a curated narrative shaped by creative thinking.

At Laetro, we know how good your story can get. Our creative talent are expert storytellers that specialize in brand development and identity. We help enterprises who need original content to solidify their brand and business. Our gifted creators and clients work together to help each other flourish.

A good story captivates and engages people, sparking their imagination and emotions. Meet our elite team of artists, writers, producers, strategists, and more to elevate your brand’s story and potential today. 

Understanding Why Building a Brand Story Is a Foundational Step in Your Brand’s Creative Journey

“Help us tell a fun story about a better search world without ads”

A weekly comic with its own distinct style, drawn by an Eisner-nominated cartoonist.

Neeva was created to give you a choice in how you search and experience the internet.

“Laetro gives form to my imagination! Working with Brett and Dave to make Neeva visually come alive has been one of the most rewarding parts of creating Neeva!” - Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO

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Move faster with on demand creative and design support. No agencies required. 
Pay as you go. No minimums. One fair rate ($160/ Hour Credit).

Get world-class creative teams 
to deliver your projects — anytime.

No start up costs, or day-to-day management required. We assign a project manager, then hand-pick a team to suit your needs exactly. Everything runs smoothly via the Laetro platform.

Laetro teams integrate seamlessly with yours directly in Slack.

Start a free consultation with a Creative Solutions Specialist.

Move faster with on demand creative and design support from the world's finest creatives.
Pay as you go. No minimums. One fair rate.

Get world-class creative teams
to deliver your projects — anytime.

Complete your creative projects faster.

Expand your creative capacity.

Fill skill gaps

with elite specialists.

Replace expensive agencies.

Meet your Creatives

Fresh stories

How we found a way better way to get creative

Feature

It’s About More Than Just Scout’s Honor! Brand Promise Builds Trust, Inspires Loyalty, and Drives Growth: Here’s How

Feature

Understanding Why Building a Brand Story Is a Foundational Step in Your Brand’s Creative Journey

Feature

Search Powered by AI. Get Answers. Not Ads.

Case Study

Laetro teams integrate seamlessly with yours directly in Slack.

Brand Development

Digital Marketing

Web & App Design

Video & AR / VR

Let's get creative together.

Get world-class creative teams to deliver your projects — anytime.

Complete your creative projects faster.

Expand your creative capacity.

Fill skill gaps

with elite specialists.

Replace expensive agencies.

Meet your Creatives

Fresh stories

How we found a way better way to get creative

Feature

It’s About More Than Just Scout’s Honor! Brand Promise Builds Trust, Inspires Loyalty, and Drives Growth: Here’s How

Feature

Understanding Why Building a Brand Story Is a Foundational Step in Your Brand’s Creative Journey

Feature

Search Powered by AI. Get Answers. Not Ads.

Case Study

Laetro teams integrate seamlessly with yours directly in Slack.

Brand Development

Digital Marketing

Web & App Design

Video & AR / VR

Let's get creative together.

Get world-class creative teams
to deliver your projects — anytime.