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Build-A-Bear

The Stuff You Love

Brand Strategy

Visual Identity

Branding & Design

As a 28-year-old legacy brand, Build-A-Bear was a powerhouse in the stuffie space. But as the company continued to succeed, they wanted to expand their audience and grow beyond children and shopping malls. They sought a broader, all-ages market for the modern age.

Known built a brand new brand belief system for the company that expressed how Build-A-Bear went beyond the bear to bring people of all ages the stuff they love. By centering “the good stuff” at the heart of the brand – the emotion and feelings that a Build-A-Bear can embody and create – we moved away from a solely product-focused VizID to one that brought to life the joy, happiness, and comfort a huggable friend provides.

The pawesome new north star and belief system led to design and creative that revitalized the company’s website, in-store signage, and brand guidelines.

Penguin Random House

Stephen Curry became the best shooter in history because of his obsessive level of preparation. To launch his memoir, 

, we needed to turn that mindset into a visual metaphor. Rather than simply telling people what “shot ready” means, we wanted to show it: when you’ve prepared perfectly, the universe itself can feel like it’s following your lead. We decided to align the image of Steph shooting with a supermoon rising over Los Angeles, making it appear as though he was shooting the moon itself. A visual metaphor to match the scale of his influence.

Within the first 24 hours of launch, the activation generated 140MM impressions across every social platform—driven by creator amplification and coverage by ESPN, Bleacher Report, Complex, you name it. Then Steph Curry and Justin Bieber shared it, and the viral sensation took off.

Another 250MM impressions – and counting. All with zero paid media.

This campaign didn’t just carry the message of the book. It embodied it. And Steph’s book shot straight to the top of the New York Times and Amazon Best Seller lists.

Count On Sundays

Known’s 360 campaign for the NFL on CBS and Paramount+ is built around a simple human truth: when everything else feels uncertain, football fans look for one thing they can count on. The creative flips everyday unpredictability, from the accuracy of grocery store expiration dates to the questionable fashion sense of Buffalo Bills Zubaz, against the rock-solid reliability of NFL Sundays. By leaning into humor and relatability, the work positions football not just as entertainment, but as an emotional anchor that delivers joy, identity, and connection week after week.

The campaign, which set a 27 year ratings high for the NFL, unfolds across over 100 contextual scenarios spanning TV, CTV, in-game integrations, out-of-home, radio, social and digital. Each execution highlights a small disappointment or moment of chaos, then lands with the dependable punchline: you can always count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and Paramount+.

Behind the creative is Known’s distinctive blend of storytelling and data science. Our Skeptic™ AI suite powered more than 100 predictive scenarios to sharpen messaging and maximize tune-in, ensuring every placement carried impact. Technology serves to supercharge creativity, not replace it. Known’s mix of data science, technology, contextual media and creative innovation delivers work that is both culturally resonant and strategically precise.

Slate

Breakthrough new automotive brand Slate turned to Known to launch their brand unlike any vehicle brand ever. 

As Media AOR, our launch strategy included 3 phases:

 Known amplified an ‘In Plain Sight’ tease campaign to drive curiosity and intrigue about what Slate is doing prior to the launch by driving traffic to fake business landing pages and “hacked SNL by inserting a "Taxider-my-family” fake commercial immediately after Timothee Chalamet’s opener, right where SNL’s fake commercials normally sit. Attention was extremely high and we had people asking, “wait, was that a sketch?”

 Known deployed a full funnel media strategy to support the Brand launch and drive reservations leveraging Skeptic™ for maximum impact. Known data scientists collaborated with Slate to employ advanced scenario planning tools and the Skeptic™ framework to precisely forecast the synergy between owned, earned, and paid media on vehicle reservations. This scientific media approach means continuous optimizations are engineered to exceed reservation goals.

 On an ongoing basis, Known is leveraging our data science and media teams to optimize audiences, creative assets and placements for reservations ahead of Slate’s 2026 production timeline. We’re also activating local media campaigns in dozens of key markets to support Slate’s road show.


To date, the campaign has driven over 30 million impressions and hundreds of thousands of visits. We sparked a fury of activity on Reddit and throughout social, with people speculating what these vehicles were about. All leading up to one of the most successful vehicle launches in recent years, hitting Slate’s 30 day goal of 100,000 reservations in less than 2 weeks.

Take Charge Of Your Trading

Moomoo, the global investment trading platform, needed a buzz-worthy introduction to the U.S. market. This called for an epic campaign without the epic budget. Known brought Moomoo’s signature orange bull logo to life using generative AI. The bull and its riders are shown barreling through New York City streets, gyms, happy hours, the stock exchange and even the subway - reinforcing that Moomoo’s tools help users ride the market anytime, anywhere. The tagline 

 captures the control Moomoo gives users over their investing.

Creative that would have historically involved a multi-day shoot followed by visual effects was accomplished in a fraction of the time with AI, delivering impact far beyond the budget. The bull charged across OOH, digital, social and TV, with attention-grabbing takeovers of iconic New York locations, starting with Grand Central, followed by Penn Station, Citi Field, and beyond. This campaign put Moomoo in the spotlight, staking its claim in the U.S. with the bold, culture-shaping work Known does best. Now, onto the next big city.

As a new investment app about to enter a crowded fintech landscape, Stackwell Capital sought Known to articulate its market positioning and authentically connect with its primary audience of Black Americans.

You Belong Here

As a new investment app about to enter a crowded fintech landscape, Stackwell Capital sought Known to articulate its market positioning and authentically connect with its primary audience of Black Americans. Understanding Stackwell’s genuine desire to empower the Black community and close the racial wealth gap led to a brand belief system that embodied the tenets of authenticity, empowerment, and progress in order to create real, meaningful, generational change.

The belief system was anchored by a north star that spoke directly to the very community Stackwell inspired to uplift: you belong here.

For generations, Black Americans were excluded from the financial space. It led to a belief that it wasn’t for them. Stackwell rejected that idea, imbuing a sense of belonging and welcomeness that came to life through a VizID and creative that empowered audiences to become that initial spark of change that would last generations.

Known developed a visual identity and brand voice for one of Detroit's most iconic structures. 

Every Story Has A Story

Designed for the Book Brothers by famed architect Louis Kamper, Book Tower is one of Detroit’s most iconic structures. The 38-story building first opened in 1926 and is a beloved part of Detroit’s skyline. Since then, Book Tower has been meticulously restored and updated to merge historic design and modern amenities into a unique example of adaptive reuse. Known developed a visual identity and brand voice to match.

To better represent modern philanthropy and engage the next generation of funders, Forward Global tapped Known to develop a new brand name and visual identity.

The Future of Giving

Forward Global is a community of funders who activate their resources to address the world’s most pressing social issues.

Formerly known as “The Philanthropy Workshop,” Forward Global is a community of funders who activate their resources to address the world’s most urgent social issues and the inequitable systems facilitating them. To better represent modern philanthropy and engage the next generation of funders, the organization tapped Known to develop a new brand name and visual identity.

Our strategy, naming, and design work to-date has helped them facilitate a brand evolution to appeal to the modern philanthropist while still remaining true to their current members and existing values.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER

Rockefeller Center is known for its incredible Christmas display, but this holiday season brought a new incredible attraction to the heart of the city: The Beam at Top of the Rock. The Beam allows visitors to take a step back in time and out into the air over New York City, with a re-creation of the classic photograph, "Lunch Atop A Skyscraper," itself shot at Rockefeller Center during 30 Rock's construction.

The new Top of the Rock stands as a testament to the rich artistry and history of innovation embodied by Rockefeller and The Beam is the first in a series of new experiences launching this year as a part of the Top of the Rock redevelopment. Known was tasked with building a campaign “SEE YOU AT THE TOP” that highlights, connects and brings each new experience to life, building momentum, excitement and awareness that the new Top of the Rock is where incredible moments become magical memories.

Marketing for The Beam started as an out of home and social campaign highlighting iconic New Yorkers experiencing it for the first time. We partnered with stars of New York's culinary, fashion and entertainment fields to create assets promoting The Beam in December and throughout 2024.

The launch built momentum that propelled the new experience into every New Yorker's social feeds and into a must-see for incredible visitors who have since stopped by: from the TODAY Show to David Beckham. Known continued to capture and promote it all across organic and paid media, garnering huge numbers for our Top of the Rock accounts.

It starts on TikTok

Facing geopolitical volatility, regulatory scrutiny and a growing competitive set, TikTok found itself in a challenging position. They needed to drive brand affinity at a time when their value wasn’t fully understood - so they tapped Known to develop the platform’s first ever belief system, advanced segmentation, followed by global brand campaign.

In late 2021, Known helped the biggest music company in the world, Universal Music Group, launch into hospitality, building a first-of-its-kind hotel at the intersection of music, heritage, technology, and purpose.

A Portfolio of Unparalleled Music Experiences.

In late 2021, our longstanding client Universal Music Group, the biggest music company in the world, chose Known to develop the strategic plan, brand identity, experience design and marketing strategy for an ambitious new group of hotel properties, called UMusic Hotels, that would fuse music, technology and social impact into extraordinary experiences all around the world.

Our first property opened in 2023 in Madrid, Spain, and has sold out ever since, becoming a new kind of platform for artist discovery, dynamic live experiences and new music content. Today, our growing global portfolio of UMusic Hotels continues to proliferate, with new properties opening all over the world.

Sesame Workshop: Making Impact At Home and Abroad

Making Impact At Home and Abroad

As the media AOR for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street, Known provides strategic support, audience research, and media planning and buying services for all paid media efforts across the Sesame Workshop umbrella. Our work has shown significant, incremental growth in reach and impact among parents and providers, helping Sesame Workshop bring sunnier days ahead to children everywhere. 

As a non-profit, Sesame Workshop relies heavily on donations to fund the multitude of resources and services that it provides. To support all of Sesame Workshop’s impactful programs across the globe, Known also handles new campaign creative and delivery for their individual giving donation campaigns. You can donate today 

Sesame Workshop leads the charge on responding to crisis when it happens, providing global support for children and families when they need it most. Over the past year, Known helped Sesame deliver a highly targeted video campaign surrounding the crisis in Ukraine and aiding refugee children and families cope with conflict and crisis. We ran a multi-touch campaign structure that used shorter cuts of video resources in Ukrainian to reach a larger number of impacted families across Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and then retarget them with the full-length videos. The campaign drew nearly 40 million impressions from users living (or who recently lived) in Ukraine.

Business and technical audiences, and in particular, enterprise tech, is the origin story of our Insights business. 

B2B: 20 Years of Decoding Commercial Audiences

Business and technical audiences, and in particular, enterprise tech, is the origin story of our Insights business. We are deep experts in understanding commercial and technical audiences; over the last 20 years, we’ve done hundreds of projects in support of B2B clients.

We help our B2B clients decode the entry points to large IT spenders, understand how commercials and technical budgets get spent, and how decision makers and technical audiences think. And we are increasingly opening conversations around what role brand plays in B2B, how to bring the next generation of products and experiences to life, how to define audiences, and ultimately, how to deliver.

We are experts on topics that are relevant to these audiences and clients: cloud, developers, licensing, AI, ML, security, governance, GDPR… More importantly, we’ve built strong partnerships that go beyond the length of a given project; we are trusted advisors as our clients go to market.

For more on Known’s B2B experience and capabilities, email us at 

For over two decades, Known has been Microsoft's strategic partner at every inflection point and existential moment. 

20+ Years of Partnership

For over two decades, Known has been Microsoft's strategic partner at every inflection point and existential moment. Known helped Office and Windows navigate the journey from packaged software to cloud services. Known was at the helm to rethink the value prop and target segments when Microsoft re-launched Surface. From Xbox to Azure to M365, and dozens of other products, services, and brands, Known continues to define the target audiences, and set the go to market strategies for the next generation of ground breaking B2B and B2C tech used by billions of people around the world.

From launching CoPilot to helping Microsoft identify which brand metrics, when shifted, most directly affect future revenue with B2B stakeholders, we continue to partner with Microsoft to craft the strategies as they evolve.

We’re excited for what the next 20 years will bring.

Hispanic Brand Love Index

The Hispanic Brand Love Index is the first comprehensive research study to scientifically calculate the revenue impact of brand perception among US Hispanics, the fastest-growing consumer cohort in America.

Across a broad set of industries, Known used data science and advanced analytics to measure brand affinity, decode what drives consumer preference, and predict quantifiable implications for US businesses. We did this for 58 brands in 9 industries.

Discover how Known built a brand new brand belief system for legacy brand, Build-A-Bear that led to design and creative that revitalized the company’s website, in-store signage, and brand guidelines.

Build-A-Bear: The Stuff You Love