De Lu Studios

Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the base of De Lu Studios, a brand and design studio whose clients are mainly professional services companies and financial technology firms. Its stated aim is to help growing businesses look as capable as they are. The studio's work covers brand strategy, brand identity, websites, video and marketing materials, and it treats each client's brand as one connected experience across every channel.

How a brand project begins

Each engagement starts with the team learning in depth about the client's solution and its target market. The studio says this lets its marketing strategy have the greatest possible impact, because the positioning and messaging make clear why a firm suits the people it most needs to reach. The work is individualized to each company rather than built from a template, and the aim is to make prospects engage with the brand and remember it.

Identity, websites and video

Brand identity work gives a company a visual identity and a brand personality suited to its audience. Website design follows the same brand, so the company's site, sales decks, social content and other collateral stay consistent with one another. Video production is built from the client's own concept, from planning and filming through to finished marketing films. One identity project was for Delta Data, a company that already had a strong product and needed branding that matched it.

Work with a financial technology client over several years

The studio supported AdvisorPeak across a three-year period that ended in the company's acquisition. The work included building brand recognition and a presence in the marketplace, moving the business from an unknown start-up to a company known across its industry. Engagements of this length show how a brand program can change as a business moves from launch to growth and then to sale.

Clients in professional services and finance

Most of the studio's clients are professional services firms and financial technology companies whose buyers make decisions on trust and clarity. For those buyers, the studio argues, a brand that signals authority the moment a prospect encounters it can decide whether a lead moves forward or stops. Its marketing work is built to make a firm look as established as its track record, and to give the sales team materials that say the same thing as the brand.

Brand, design and video under one plan

The studio combines strategy, design and production so that one team plans the message and produces the pieces that carry it. A single set of decisions about tone, visual identity and positioning governs the website, the sales material and the video, which the studio sees as the way to keep a growing firm's message coherent as it reaches new audiences.