BLG
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With almost two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it is among the most prominent law firms in the country, with offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. About 700 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals are associated with the firm. BLG is governed by a national council composed of partners from across Canada.
Industry
— Professional services
— Legal
Branding to
— Conquer new markets
Services
— Advertising & promotion
— Direct marketing
— Marketing collateral design
The Situation
BLG wanted to attract in-bound legal work referrals from US & international law firms as well as matters from in-house counsel at large global firms.
The firm was positioned in Canada as a large, service-driven firm with expertise in many key verticals and offices across the country. It was known mostly for its size and history, and was positioned as a strong service provider. At first glance, “It begins with service’ didn’t appear to be a very strong positioning line except that a global brand audit indicated that this was exactly what US and international law firms were looking for: a legal partner in Canada who had breadth and depth, knew the market extremely well and was easy to work with, not constantly trying to impress their counter-parties with their smarts and expertise.
Human catalyst
“I want my Canadian partner law firm to make my life easier, with great service and responsiveness not endless counter-positions and opinions that cost me money and slow down the case.”
Our solution
Yield Branding developed a campaign that fit within BLG’s existing brand framework and guidelines with the same look and feel as the national campaign. The branding campaign was based on the theme line, “Bandwidth, not Bravado”, capturing the essence of the service relationship and the expectation of international clients. As the campaign was focused on supporting international business development efforts in the US, Europe and Asia, it needed to be flexible and able to adapt to multiple channels such as tradeshow ads, sales collateral, SWAG and booth design.
The Yield
The branding campaign garnered an 80%+ internal partner approval versus previous efforts that had never topped 50%. At the Association of Corporate Counsel, the campaign generated over 25 solid enquiries, 14 of which later resulted in matters for the firm. Three of those matters evolved into long-term, recurring revenue for BLG.