A Hundred Years
Every agency tells clients to invest in their brand. Few follow their own advice.
When Seso Media Group brought me on, the assignment was straightforward: help with a handful of client engagements.
But the deeper I got into the agency, the more another question kept nagging at me.
Why did an agency with this much ambition have such a forgettable name?
The people were extraordinary. Their thinking was ambitious. Their client list included names like NASA, TED, the Smithsonian, the World Wildlife Fund, Disney, the XPRIZE Foundation, and organizations tackling humanity's biggest challenges.
Yet none of that came through in the agency's own identity.
There was just one complication. They had already hired a respected naming agency and already had a brand new name. They just didn't believe in it enough to launch it.
When they showed it to me, I understood why; it had zero meaning.
I’m a very direct communicator, so made an unlikely pitch. I told them what they already knew, that the name wasn’t good enough, and asked if they’d let me take a crack at it. To my surprise, they agreed.
The creative brief I wrote for myself was simple:
Create a name that makes someone look upward and out into the distance. I wanted the name to evoke curiosity. Wonder. Possibility. Something expansive enough to hold both the agency's ambitions and the ambitions of the organizations it served.
After several collaborative rounds, we arrived at: A Hundred Years
The name looked beyond the span of a typical human lifetime. It invited clients to think less about the next quarter and more about the legacy they'd leave behind.
It became more than a name.
It became a lens through which the agency could frame conversations about sustainability, systems thinking, and long-term impact. For the first time, the company's identity reflected the way it actually thought.
That shift didn't stop with just a logo.
When it came time to send a holiday gift, I proposed commissioning an artist to create limited-edition prints from a century-old tree.
The idea extended the brand into something tangible—transforming a simple client gift into an expression of the agency's philosophy.
It reminded clients that the work wasn't just about solving today's problems. It was about planting ideas that would still matter a hundred years from now.
As CEO Marc Mertens later wrote:
"Alli was the driving force in the rebranding process of our firm, leading an effort that created an overwhelming positive response from current and prospective clients and opening an entirely new field of business for our studio. She challenged conventions by drawing from a deep creativity in her strategic approach and was incredibly resourceful in the execution of key strategies. Her ability to go from the 10,000-foot view to the hands-on crafting of messaging all the way to the production of our launch event is unmatched—as is her ability to see and make connections that allow an idea to become reality."
