Marketing Excellence Awards: HLB Lighting

HLB Lighting Design (New York, NY), a 62-person architectural lighting design firm, is the first place winner in the Internal Marketing category of Zweig Group’s 2015 Marketing Excellence Awards for its redesigned brand. In 2013, HLB staff re-evaluated marketing and branding strategies in order to meet aggressive sales, business, and development goals. In doing so they realized their branding approach and current identity weren’t cohesive throughout the firm. Aside from business cards, there were no brand standards, typefaces, or foundation to build from. The team at HLB decided to start from scratch and execute a complete redesign and overhaul of the entire brand. HLB staff conducted client surveys, branding workshops, and graphic strategies within the AEC industry to establish what their new brand identity needed to represent and what their clients were looking for. With that feedback, HLB was able to create new brand identity and messaging in just five steps:

1. HLB’s "Branding Brilliance" – a brand identity book
2. HLB’s “A New Level of Light” design brochure – a portfolio of 15 market sectors of lighting expertise
3. HLB’s “The Daylight Dynamic” design brochure – a portfolio of HLB’s daylighting and sustainable design practice conveying thought leadership and technical expertise
4. HLB’s Marketing Year End Success Story 2014 – the firm’s first marketing year-end report
5. HLB swag – fun giveaway items anchor HLB’s new brand identity

HLB set an ambitious goal with rebranding the entire firm, made only more ambitious with the decision to carry out the rebranding in-house. Due to its new brand presence, HLB has been able to increase design fees with repeat clients to 33 percent and with new clients to 11 percent. Hit rates are stronger than ever at 39 percent, which has allowed the firm to leverage more clients in new areas where they are considering expansion. For more info on the Marketing Excellence Awards click here. The 2016 Marketing Excellence Awards are open for registration! Click here to register your firm.