HELPING A SPORTS SCIENCE COMPANY ACHIEVE MAINSTREAM BRAND AWARENESS
Case Study: Fuel BMC x S2 Cognition
Brand Identity & Go-to-Market Strategy
In an ongoing partnership spanning several years, Fuel BMC has collaborated closely with S2 Cognition on their brand identity, go-to-market strategy, and the design and execution of their marketing initiatives across various channels for their cutting-edge sports cognition evaluation.
SUMMARY
What started as a short-term branding initiative blossomed into a long-term, collaborative marketing partnership between Fuel BMC and S2 Cognition. Collaborating closely with S2 Cognition’s internal team, Fuel BMC helped S2 Cognition forge its brand identity, position its revolutionary sports cognition testing platform, develop messaging to effectively educate their target market, increase brand awareness and reach on their website and social media platforms, and execute their go-to-market strategy to increase their market penetration in the sports testing space. Through these efforts, and with a little bit of luck and timing, S2 Cognition was able to achieve mainstream national media recognition across outlets like ESPN, Sporting News, The Athletic, NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, The Pat McAfee Show, and Sports Illustrated ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft.
RESULTS DURING OUR COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP
Fuel BMC does not claim direct responsibility for the above results, as S2 Cognition’s talented internal team, their collaborative efforts, and their revolutionary product played a major role in the success they achieved. However, we’re confident that our work on brand identity, go-to-market strategy, web design, and creative assets had a significant positive impact on the growth of their business between 2020 and 2023.
ABOUT S2 COGNITION
S2 Cognition is a Nashville-based sports cognition testing company. The S2 Eval – created in 2015 by Brandon Ally, Ph.D., and Scott Wylie, Ph.D. – is the first sports cognition test that can quantify how an athlete’s brain processes information and makes split-second decisions on the field. S2 Cognition currently partners with organizations in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, youth sports, NASCAR, the military and law enforcement to enhance evaluation and training.
THE CHALLENGE
The S2 Eval was an unprecedented, disruptive product that did not exist anywhere in the world of sports before S2 in 2015. As a new company coming out of the lab space, S2 Cognition faced the challenge of establishing a brand identity and marketing strategy that would appeal to mainstream sports audiences (as well as audiences in other verticals they were targeting) while translating their value proposition from neuroscientific language to messaging and education that would help their target audience understand the connection between cognition and performance.
THE
SOLUTION
Fuel BMC worked closely in partnership with S2 Cognition to help create a brand identity and formulate a plan for S2’s go-to-market strategy, including, but not limited to, digital marketing, web design, video production, social media marketing, and sales enablement tools to help S2 Cognition procure additional partners. Additionally, Fuel BMC collaborated with S2 Cognition on user-facing product development for their cognitive evaluation, training program, and testing facilities.
OUR ROLE
Fuel BMC worked in close collaboration with S2 Cognition’s internal team to understand their product, their business model, and the challenges they face in going to market.
Using our six-step “Business Minded Creative” process, we collaborated to integrate our creative vision with the strategic plan to help S2 Cognition establish its brand, create brand awareness, and help them increase their revenue from partnerships, licensing fees, and test administration. From branding and visual design to web design, UX design, and helping develop their B2B sales funnel, we provided comprehensive creative and marketing solutions across all of S2’s channels to help them increase market penetration, break into new verticals, and establish a name for themselves in the world of sports.
BRAND IDENTITY
Establish brand guidelines, visual identity, and messaging
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WEB DESIGN
Establish and iteratively improve S2’s web presence based on A/B testing
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PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & UX DESIGN
Enhance customer experience for the S2 Eval, training program, and testing facilities
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GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY
Help formulate and execute S2’s go-to-market strategy for increasing market penetration
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VIDEO PRODUCTION
Create video content for hype videos, investor videos, and how it works videos
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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Kickstart social media presence, design, and strategy
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B2B SALES ENABLEMENT
Design sales & marketing collateral to enable S2 pursue new partnership opportunities
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PODCAST
Pitch & develop branding for the S2 Podcast
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Use the arrows below to see a limited selection of creative samples...
BRAND IDENTITY & GUIDELINES
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Fuel BMC created Brand Guidelines for S2 Cognition – providing updates to their logo design and guidelines for Tagline, Color, Iconography, Patterns, Typography, and more that would be applied to S2’s core customer-facing sales tools.
TESTIMONIAL
"Everything about the crew at FUEL is top-notch and personable. Their humble confidence coupled with a genuine commitment to building a trusting, collaborative relationship makes for a rewarding partnership. Add to that a tenacious work ethic, unparalleled integrity, and timeliness of deliverables, FUEL has removed all trepidation and uncertainty about this key piece of our business. As business owners and scientists, our expectations for output and quality are very high. To be quite candid, our impression is that FUEL demands more of their efforts and quality than even we do. They consistently exceed our expectations. S2 Cognition couldn’t be more pleased and enthusiastic about our FUEL partnership. We endorse them with the utmost confidence."
Scott Wylie, PhD
Founder & Chief Operating Officer | S2 Cognition