Pace Creative Celebrates 12 Years of Business Transformation and Growth

Anna: What inspired you to start Pace Creative?

Matt: Our experiences in the traditional agency world weren’t always positive. We found that new business often overshadowed existing client needs and chaos was mistaken for “creative energy,” which led to a sense of disillusionment.

We wanted to create something different: a process-driven agency that delivers outstanding, measurable results, fueled by sustainable energy, not chaos.

Stefanie: We saw growing companies struggle with making large investment on developing unique marketing assets for product launches – that ended up on shelves due to a lack of marketing strategy.

As a Brand Strategy Consultant, we integrate thought leadership and business strategy to drive objective-driven growth and transformation in a sustainable way.

Over the years, we have noticed that digital transformation can be a real pain point for clients, often accompanied by stress. What we observed at the executive level was that, without the right expertise, priorities could get misaligned, resulting in waste of resources which amplify that stress.

We founded Pace Creative to guide clients through digital transformation by developing a clear roadmap to provide clarity on where to focus efforts and resources to maximize outcomes.

Erika: How has your vision evolved over time?

Matt: Having worked in numerous agency settings, it was important to us to work with people that enjoyed working together. Where we have mutual respect for what we bring to the table and can happily share in the success that comes from strong partnerships and good quality work. We’re fortunate to have established some amazing relationships and partnerships over the years and can choose to only work with clients where we’re confident we can add a lot of value, as opposed to taking on all the business that comes our way.

Stefanie: Our vision remains focused on aligning sales and marketing to drive revenue growth, and addressing even bigger challenges, with a strong emphasis on sustainable growth and enhancing our clients’ business valuation.

We’ve seen a significant shift towards brand strategy consulting. A solid brand strategy is truly the foundation for business success. We often see misalignments in positioning – for example, a company aiming for high-end marketing but who’s branding and messaging don’t support that. That’s where our brand strategy consulting plays a crucial role: identifying misalignments, providing recommendations, and aligning the brand through effective messaging.

We assist our clients in guiding them to where they want to go. We work with executives to create a marcom roadmap, identify gaps, and establish priorities. That way, the entire executive team is aligned. Regardless of whether they follow every small detail of the roadmap or not, it’s easy to track progress and results on the execution of the high-level strategy.

Elaine: What was the first client that felt like your “big break” that propelled the business’s growth?

Stefanie: Candeo Lava was a pivotal project that showcased our expertise in global product launches and adding business value pre-acquisition. They were a small startup with a CEO that wanted to go big, and that’s exactly what happened. With their fertilizer product, they identified that it gets the most yield for strawberry farmers. So, we found an event where all the strawberry farmers were going in Monterey, Mexico, and the product launch was all around that event.

We created the product launch roadmap, from messaging to branding, to developing the website, and marketing materials in about six months. They were so late in attending the event, they couldn’t even rent a booth. The executive team had to attend the event as attendees. A few weeks later, as we debriefed on the event with the client, we found out that they received an acquisition offer from a Swiss company. The company was quickly acquired.

Matt: Throughout our journey, certain projects have marked significant milestones for Pace Creative. Siemens’ event marketing strategy was an amazing experience for our team. Year over year, we have worked with the CEO of Financial Services to develop unique event themes to drive engagement and consistent revenue growth. Our first project for them was to create a video for an internal sales meeting. That video evolved into us developing the entire sales conference experience, from little name tags to a roadmap for the whole weekend, company videos, signage, everything.

Video is an excellent channel if done correctly. We’ve been doing video for 17 years and have developed a deep understanding of the importance of aligning video content with marketing objectives and providing expertise as a SaaS demand generation agency, particularly within healthcare digital marketing and MedTech marketing. Video was especially important when we first started for product launches. A lot of leaders today are forgetting how important quality video production can be in helping a brand stand out from the noise. There’s a shift towards doing it cheaply and quickly, and marketing teams tend to not invest in crafting a ‘wow’ factor.

Jorge: Can you tell me about something you’ve learned in running this business that was a game-changer for you?

Matt: Pace Creative is our third agency, and those iterations have taught us invaluable lessons that have shaped our approach to business. One of the biggest lessons is that you can’t be everything to everyone. It’s about surrounding yourself with the right people.

Having the ability to choose to work with visionary executives on strategic projects where we know we can be successful, rather than taking on any initiative that comes our way, has been a game changer.
With time, we have built the courage to say no when a client does not appreciate the value of our combined expertise. Internally, it’s all about growth in leadership. Here at Pace, we have the support to be ourselves and empower our team.

Stefanie: To steal a concept from “Good to Great” by Jim Collins in prioritizing first who, then what. This means getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off) before determining your company’s direction. Build a strong team and success will follow. Predictable growth requires following proven processes – there are no shortcuts. We track all our efforts, not just for ROI, but to know what’s working and what’s not. Everything we do is data driven.

Farryn: Talking about the future, what are some big changes and key trends you see shaping the consultative agency business?

Matt: Change has been our constant over the past 12 years. With the disruption AI is bringing, we’re seeing significant trends towards building solid communication, branding, and marketing foundations to support sales enablement efforts, along with clear roadmaps to manage industry challenges and growth drivers. At the core is the deep-rooted focus on foundational pillars of a business, identifying a business model with an eye on the profitability of a product or service for a client. Then aligning that with creating a brand strategy, communication roadmap, building the multi-channel brand story, and creating marketing materials to support sales efforts.

Stefanie: One aspect that’s becoming more popular, especially with growth focused companies, is that they’re looking for a holistic approach to align sales and marketing efforts. With that foundation, since it’s clearly mapped out, we can build SOPs, which AI can then use to create efficiencies. We, at Pace Creative drive business success with a strong marketing framework continuously fueling sales efforts.

In our work as a business transformation agency, we see that while many executives aim to reorganize their companies, most fail to fix what ails them. Focus on having the right people with the right skills, then utilize AI to support them. Forrester emphasizes utilizing AI to help “have the courage to focus on long delayed moves such as resetting strategy and planning to orient around customers, fixing broken revenue processes, improving operational effectiveness, and leveling up talent to blend human and machine competencies.”

Paige: Any additional closing comments to your team and clients?

Stefanie: We’re incredibly excited to continue tackling bigger challenges and help our clients build tailored marketing engines for sustainable, predictable growth. Huge shout out to our team of clients, partners and employees for continuously inspiring us to consistently push the envelope!

Matt: We are thankful for being able to share and be a (small) part of the various major life milestones and achievements of our incredible team and extended family of valuable partners, clients and employees who define us. We’ve seen marriages, babies, trips of a lifetime, new homes, major career advancements, new products and initiatives, company acquisitions, and so much more. Thank you for being a part of the Pace Creative story. Looking ahead with excitement to many more years of continued partnerships, growth, and success!