Brand Federation is leasing an office space from design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv in the building at 15 E. 26th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. (Images courtesy Brand Federation)
Five years since launching its own brand, a brand strategy consultancy headquartered in Richmond is putting its mark on the Big Apple.
Brand Federation has opened an office in New York City, where it’s leasing a space from design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, a client and company collaborator.
The office is in a building at 15 E. 26th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, where founding partner Kelly O’Keefe once lived and said Brand Federation has its largest concentration of clients outside Virginia.
“We’re pretty active in New York with clients and partners and have been for some time. We had an opportunity to sublease space with one of our partners, and it just made sense,” O’Keefe said. “It’s the right time for us to do that and for us to continue to branch out with the company.”
Brand Federation worked with CGH on branding for Corus International, a global relief and development organization that formed from a merger of two predecessor groups. CGH has designed the logos for such brands as NBC, PBS, State Farm Insurance and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, as well as Richmond-based Dominion Energy.
Brand Federation is headquartered in the HandCraft Building in Scott’s Addition, where it shares space with Fahrenheit Advisors. Despite the two offices, O’Keefe said the firm has always operated virtually as well.
Kelly O’Keefe
“We were a virtual company even before the pandemic. Our methods have always been virtualized from day one,” O’Keefe said. “We have a wide group of strategists who work in places like Amsterdam, Mexico, San Francisco.”
A longtime Richmond ad man, consultant and a former professor at the VCU Brandcenter, O’Keefe founded Brand Federation in 2018 with Dennis Duffy, a former CEO of his namesake agency O’Keefe Brands before it was acquired in 2012 by what’s now communications firm Padilla.
Not to be confused with an ad agency, Brand Federation focuses on brand strategy and development, which O’Keefe described as first steps that then lead to advertising.
“We do a lot of work on culture-building with our clients. Then we go to the external experience,” he said. “Then, if you have a great conviction, great culture, you’re delivering a great experience, the last part of branding is telling people about it. That’s vitally important, and that’s what advertising agencies do really well. We’re a little bit more focused on the first three.”
O’Keefe said the company keeps its client count to about 30 per year, with two dozen or more consultants working on projects. Local clients include Dominion, investment firm Brockenbrough, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Other clients include Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Texas-based Farm Bureau Bank.
Brand Federation launched with assistance from Fahrenheit cofounders Keith Middleton and Rich Reinecke, who own a minority stake in the consultancy. It makes money by charging a fee on top of consultants’ own rates, which O’Keefe has said are decided by each consultant based on the project and work.
Erin Bishop joined Brand Federation in March.
O’Keefe said the company made it through the pandemic largely unscathed, and said its revenue grew 48 percent last year. He declined to share revenue numbers.
Leading Brand Federation with O’Keefe are managing partners Matt Williams and Rian Chandler-Dovis, along with recent addition Erin Bishop, a managing director who joined the company in March after six years with Richmond marketing firm SIR. Bishop previously owned EAB Research, a market research firm she led for 15 years.
Brand Federation joins Arts & Letters Creative Co. in opening a New York office. The Richmond-based ad agency recently announced that it plans to open a New York office later this year. Richmond sound studios Overcoast and Rainmaker Studios also opened a New York outpost in 2018.
Brand Federation is leasing an office space from design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv in the building at 15 E. 26th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. (Images courtesy Brand Federation)
Five years since launching its own brand, a brand strategy consultancy headquartered in Richmond is putting its mark on the Big Apple.
Brand Federation has opened an office in New York City, where it’s leasing a space from design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, a client and company collaborator.
The office is in a building at 15 E. 26th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, where founding partner Kelly O’Keefe once lived and said Brand Federation has its largest concentration of clients outside Virginia.
“We’re pretty active in New York with clients and partners and have been for some time. We had an opportunity to sublease space with one of our partners, and it just made sense,” O’Keefe said. “It’s the right time for us to do that and for us to continue to branch out with the company.”
Brand Federation worked with CGH on branding for Corus International, a global relief and development organization that formed from a merger of two predecessor groups. CGH has designed the logos for such brands as NBC, PBS, State Farm Insurance and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, as well as Richmond-based Dominion Energy.
Brand Federation is headquartered in the HandCraft Building in Scott’s Addition, where it shares space with Fahrenheit Advisors. Despite the two offices, O’Keefe said the firm has always operated virtually as well.
Kelly O’Keefe
“We were a virtual company even before the pandemic. Our methods have always been virtualized from day one,” O’Keefe said. “We have a wide group of strategists who work in places like Amsterdam, Mexico, San Francisco.”
A longtime Richmond ad man, consultant and a former professor at the VCU Brandcenter, O’Keefe founded Brand Federation in 2018 with Dennis Duffy, a former CEO of his namesake agency O’Keefe Brands before it was acquired in 2012 by what’s now communications firm Padilla.
Not to be confused with an ad agency, Brand Federation focuses on brand strategy and development, which O’Keefe described as first steps that then lead to advertising.
“We do a lot of work on culture-building with our clients. Then we go to the external experience,” he said. “Then, if you have a great conviction, great culture, you’re delivering a great experience, the last part of branding is telling people about it. That’s vitally important, and that’s what advertising agencies do really well. We’re a little bit more focused on the first three.”
O’Keefe said the company keeps its client count to about 30 per year, with two dozen or more consultants working on projects. Local clients include Dominion, investment firm Brockenbrough, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Other clients include Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Texas-based Farm Bureau Bank.
Brand Federation launched with assistance from Fahrenheit cofounders Keith Middleton and Rich Reinecke, who own a minority stake in the consultancy. It makes money by charging a fee on top of consultants’ own rates, which O’Keefe has said are decided by each consultant based on the project and work.
Erin Bishop joined Brand Federation in March.
O’Keefe said the company made it through the pandemic largely unscathed, and said its revenue grew 48 percent last year. He declined to share revenue numbers.
Leading Brand Federation with O’Keefe are managing partners Matt Williams and Rian Chandler-Dovis, along with recent addition Erin Bishop, a managing director who joined the company in March after six years with Richmond marketing firm SIR. Bishop previously owned EAB Research, a market research firm she led for 15 years.
Brand Federation joins Arts & Letters Creative Co. in opening a New York office. The Richmond-based ad agency recently announced that it plans to open a New York office later this year. Richmond sound studios Overcoast and Rainmaker Studios also opened a New York outpost in 2018.