Evolution Industries is an Engineered Wood Products manufacturing company. We make LVL beams for housing, industrial applications and the like. Not exactly oozing sex appeal.
But — having said that — if I see another marketing campaign with forests, trees and other environmental images, I think I may just explode. I get it, the environment is important, especially in the lumber industry. Evolution focuses very heavily on being 100% fully renewable and as forestry certified as a company can be.
But enough with the tree imagery for branding.
This Concept Is Absolutely Done To Death.
There’s no reason LVL marketing has to be boring. This is where our “Dare to be Different” motto originated. We set out to present our company to the world in a way that’s authentic, memorable and categorically “us.” No trees. No forests.
The defining moment came during a discussion on what type of marketing/messaging we thought people would resonate with. Strangely enough, the result of that discussion was “We really don’t care what resonates. Let’s just have some fun and do what looks cool.”
My personal style is very much black and white with just a little grey (mostly rock-n-roll Metallica black. I am a 70’s child after all). So that’s where we started. Throw in a little bit of electric (Prince style) purple haze for color contrast and our “Angry Batman” marketing was born.
Not worrying about appealing to everyone has worked in our favor. We’ve found that the less we care about pandering to outside perception, the more people love our marketing.
Thus the creation of our famous catchphrase: “Why did we do it? Because we can,” which has been by far the single most impactful statement or concept we have released.
Things don’t always need a reason or a purpose. Sometimes you do something just because it’s awesome as shit. Art with swagger and attitude seems to be slowly diminishing, and we think that sucks. Maybe we’re just one company, but we are committed to bringing badassery back to marketing. We have designed everything from boring lumber certification stamps to 10-foot-tall steel fire-breathing dragons, always keeping in mind our creative mantra “Go overboard.” Why did we do it? Well … you know the answer to that one now.
“But what about appealing to customers in different parts of the world?” you ask. We are, after all, a company with global distribution. Do we back off the attitude in certain regions? Absolutely. Do we produce conservative marketing? Nope, never.
Pulling The Curiosity Trigger
We decided we will not bash people over the head with who we are and what we produce. The modern media stream is so flooded with flash and mirrors desperately trying to get your attention. We want to get your attention of course, but we’re more like a Batcave of marketing. An anomaly devoid of flash and gimmicks that stokes the desire for you to investigate. We want you curious – will you look inside?
Here I go giving away our marketing secrets, but one of our most popular promos was giving out random coins with nothing but our logo and a QR code. Scan the QR, and you are taken to a dark and mysterious site with nothing but the words “Welcome to the Dark side. Join us.”
See it for yourself here: https://evolution.ltd/the-dark-side#enter-here
(I will wager many of you click this to check. Curiosity is an amazing motivator and an excellent marketing trigger.)
Pushing The Boundaries Of What’s Been Done
Our products will ALWAYS look prettier and be presented better than the other guy’s, no matter the application. I want to look at any of our range and be proud of it. I don’t care if it’s hidden in a wall, I know it’s there. Same with our marketing, our client holiday gifts, our branded merch, all of it. No matter what we do, we do it better. We do it for US. Our customers love it, and we’re proud of what we accomplish every day, too.
Why do we do it?
Because we can.