Mesa Puzzles
When a new brand of puzzles (featuring photos of dogs) needed help launching, we told them to “Sit!” and let us differentiate them from the pack.
Services
Brand Voice & Identity, Website Copy, Packaging Copy, Product Descriptions, Tagline, Digital Advertising, Collateral, Activation, Sales & Promotional Emails
The Backstory
Little known fact: the name for a group of photogenic dogs is a puzzle. Okay that’s a fib, but so is the entire, entertaining backstory we created for the central images in every puzzle of this launch. Mesa Puzzles came to us with their simple (yet genius) premise: puzzles featuring dynamic photographs of dogs in fun locations throughout New York City. But they knew what we knew: that idea alone won’t sell. It needed some pizazz, some punch; an unforgettable story. So that’s exactly what we did: craft Mesa Puzzles into a quirky, over-the-top brand that acts as a breath of fresh air within the artsy, cerebral puzzle marketplace. Bark twice if you agree.
Website Copy
For the site, we took the approach of weaving a hyper-conversational, surprising tone with subtle dog wordplay to create a very humanizing, relatable, offbeat brand voice that instantly engages the consumer and offers a differentiating, memorable user experience. Our hero headline asserts a silly and hyperbolic claim about your product; one where the narrative POV (that the dogs on Mesa Puzzles are all in a best friend group) is firmly and humorously established right from the jump. Throughout the website—whether focusing on unique and marketable value props, to fleshing out the brand backstory—we continued to balance self-deprecation alongside some sincerity and warmth for an overall positive and memorable effect. Woof! We deserve a treat.
Product Descriptions
Since the entire brand revolves around the product themselves, we knew the product descriptions had to be fresh, surprising, and storytelling in nature. This is where we really capitalized on the point of view and narrative voices being from the dog ‘friend group’ themselves as though they are lifestyle blogging (or writing Instagram captions) of the backstory of each photo. We went big and wacky here; making sure to steer clear of ‘obvious’ dog references or jokes, while still dialing up the absurdity that these dogs are describing their lives as very human experiences. This strategy is very ownable and a device that Mesa can carry forward as the brand expands and adds SKUs.
Digital Advertising
For the advertising push ahead of the launch, we pulled out some of the strongest and most eye-catching headlines from the projects and paired them with stunning, simple product imagery. The effect is entertaining, captivating, and smile (and click) inducing.
