Adventures in Law Firm Marketing: Lawyers in Lederhosen?
Most law firm name changes are pretty silly. The general approach: lop off all names after the first two. If you like, squish the surviving names together into one word, to make yourselves seem contemporary and cool. E.g., "WilmerHale." (A law firm marketing firm would charge you five figures for that advice.)
Okay, so how do you get anyone to care about your name change? You make a YouTube video, that's how! Here's a press release from Hanson Bridgett LLP, a northern California firm with about 130 lawyers:
The firm formally known as Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos, & Rudy LLP has a new tag line—"Inspired"—to go with its new logo and a new abridged name, Hanson Bridgett LLP. Breaking through the monotony of the legal landscape, the firm is employing a light-hearted video to help disseminate the re-branding roll-out by "word of mouse."
Seriously. As the press release notes, "[t]he video stars Hanson Bridgett Managing Partner Andrew Giacomini, who is seen banging a bass drum while walking down Market Street in Lederhosen and knee-highs."
The video, cutely entitled "The Law Accordion to Hanson Bridget," is kinda weird, and a bit too long; you really need just the first and last 30 seconds. But it's an interesting experiment in law firm marketing. Check it out:
Oh, and the firm has its own blog: the Infrastructure Law Blog. Infrastructure law sounds even more boring than ERISA may not be the sexiest practice area ever. But the firm deserves props for participating in, rather than fighting, the online revolution.
P.S. Yes, we've seen the Pillsbury Winthrop video. We'll be writing about it in a separate post.
The Law Accordion To Hanson Bridgett [YouTube]
Hanson Bridgett Launches New Look, Video to Match [press release]
Infrastructure Law Blog
Hanson Bridgett LLP [official website]
Comments
What a bizarre video! What's it mean?
Posted by: Anon | March 11, 2008 03:36 PM
It means Lat should fire SEN
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 03:39 PM
The three walking in succession in the subway station is eerily similar to the Genesis "We Can't Dance" motif. Infringement!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 03:49 PM
So David Lynch is directing law firm videos? Seriously, WHAT IN THE FLYING F&*# was that supposed to mean?
Posted by: anon | March 11, 2008 03:55 PM
3:39, love it!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 04:17 PM
Love this video. Though if you fastforward after the first 30 seconds, you'll miss the accordion player that gives the whole thing a slight Cajun flavor, that really makes the video.
Very cute.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 04:19 PM
I do love this video -- Andrew Giacomini is fun enough to get away with something like this, and brilliant move on Frank Lopez's part to get people talking about HB without shelling out a ton of cash on an advertising campaign.
Posted by: anonymous | March 11, 2008 04:34 PM
As of right now, the title of the Infrastructure Law Blog's page is "San Fransisco Infrastructure Lawyer & Attorney : Hanson Bridgett Law Firm : Public Works Construction : Sacramento, Marin County, Northern California"
How is it possible for a firm based in San Francisco to misspell the name of their own city?
also at the very bottom of the page it misspells San Francisco again in a lil list of keywords. Weird.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 04:43 PM
watchu say 'bout ERISA???
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 05:00 PM
Hey! Just because ERISA is too tough for you to understand doesn't mean it's boring...
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 05:19 PM
Misspelled San Francisco? What a bunch of tools. They must be reading these though, because it's fixed now.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 06:31 PM
Stuff white people like.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 06:45 PM
I don't get it.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 07:15 PM
Intentional misspelling.
If you are plugging in key words, you often include the most likely misspellings so the page still comes up on google, etc.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 12, 2008 11:01 AM
5:19 - Lat was the research assistant to Professor John Langbein, author of the leading ERISA casebook.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 13, 2008 12:32 AM
ERISA? Boring????
Posted by: Anonymous | March 13, 2008 09:11 AM