For many brands, the speed of execution that today’s market demands leaves little room to step back, gain perspective and ensure the focus is in the right place. Yet moving fast requires clarity – identifying a clear direction, aligning people with it and building shared conviction around how to execute it.
Pendo repositioned Manukora as a wellness-focused Manuka honey brand, creating an apothecary-inspired platform that fuelled growth and a successful global market expansion.
Vancouver-based independent agency Pendo solves for this by embedding itself as a partner – close enough to understand the business, but far enough removed to challenge assumptions and identify opportunities. “We’re a focused team of seasoned senior creatives, so we don’t have the layers larger agencies do,” says brand director and co-founder Don Cleland. “We trade scale for clarity. There are no spectators here; everyone is deeply involved in solving the right problems from the beginning.”
Pendo’s process starts with building context: meeting stakeholders, understanding ambitions and surfacing perspectives that might otherwise stay buried. It’s not just about gathering opinions; the ultimate goal is to build enough alignment that organizations can make stronger decisions. “We create an environment where people can put real viewpoints on the table,” says Cleland. “We find clarity before we move forward, because when we do, we can move faster.”
This approach often reveals hidden opportunities that could be easy for brands to miss, as Pendo encountered with Manukora when the New Zealand-based Manuka honey producer was preparing to expand into new markets in the U.S., Asia and Europe. The category had become crowded, making it difficult for brands to distinguish themselves in meaningful ways. Rather than fighting harder within an increasingly commoditized space, Pendo shifted the conversation entirely, repositioning Manukora around health, wellness and daily rituals while simplifying how consumers learn about product benefits and ingredients. “The wellness element was already there, but the brand wasn’t telling that story,” Cleland notes. “The opportunity was to bring that meaning forward.”
More than a visual refresh, this campaign gave Manukora a clearer story to grow into. The brand went on to increase online sales, achieve top-seller status on Amazon and execute its market expansions successfully.
Similarly, Pendo questioned the conventions of the orthopaedic market when it began working with Stoko, a medical-device company developing a knee brace to help people return to the sports and activities they love. Instead of recreating what already existed in this saturated category, Pendo identified a larger opportunity. “We started looking for contradictions, where the category was saying one thing but people were feeling something else,” says Cleland. “What we found was an audience driven by aspiration rather than rehabilitation. We saw right away that this was a category-changer.”
Through a comprehensive rebrand, Pendo gave Stoko a clearer way to communicate its mission of getting active people back to the sports and activities they love.
Instead of behaving like a traditional orthopaedic brand, the agency repositioned Stoko to be more akin to an athletic apparel company – shifting the conversation away from injury and toward possibility and empowerment. The opportunity was not in redesigning a brace, but in reframing recovery altogether. Since launch, the product has gained traction as a category leader while earning endorsements from NFL, NHL and Olympic athletes.
Pendo’s work often creates internal outcomes as well. Rather than handing over a finished piece of creative and walking away, the agency leaves client teams with something more enduring: a stronger foundation for growth. As conversations happen and assumptions get challenged, internal alignment improves. Teams develop clearer language around what the brand stands for, and a clearer path for turning those ideas into action. “We’re helping brands succeed in the market, but their teams often come out of the process stronger, too,” says Cleland. “They align more closely and develop the conviction to carry the brand forward.”
Pendo helped Dickie’s Ginger stand out in a category dominated by tradition, creating a bold new DIY-inspired identity that targets a new generation of ginger beer drinkers.
With brands generating more work than ever before, strong creative is only part of the equation. The harder challenge is knowing which ideas are worth the investment, and how to build enough alignment and conviction to act decisively once a direction becomes clear. That’s why Pendo focuses on becoming a trusted guide that helps brands move faster, think bigger and see opportunities before everyone else does.
“Clients need an agency that’s going to tell them the truth, challenge them and help them achieve their goals,” says Cleland. “Pendo’s agility means we can drop into a client’s team, bring an outside perspective and move quickly. The creative gets attention, but we don’t get there without doing the groundwork first.”
CONTACT:
Don Cleland
Brand director & co-founder
don@pendo.ca
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