COMPANY

Name: SimplyBe. Agency

Location: Chicago , IL

Founded: October 2014

Founder(s): Jessica Zweig

Website: https://www.simplybeagency.com/

Social Media: 1.11K subscribers on YouTube, 1237 likes on Facebook, 477 followers on Linkedin, 20.4k followers on Instagram

Industry: USA Brand Activation Marketing Industry

Size: $560B in 2015 (Source: ANA)

Future: $740B by 2020 (Source: ANA)

Introduction

A personal branding and creative services agency, SimplyBe seeks to help entrepreneurs, politicians and C-suite executives project an authentic image to the world. One of its key selling points is that it helps turn clients into industry thought leaders. 

This Chicago-based company has served a wide roster of clients ranging from serial technology entrepreneur and CEO of Vertex Software Dan Murray to Erin Coupe, VP at CBRE.

The Product

SimplyBe. aids clients in gaining better exposure and real ROI from press mentions, advertising presence, creatives, speaking opportunities, digital outreach and engagement. The agency also organizes workshops and mastermind groups to help individuals tread the path of personal branding with ease. What’s more, it hosts branding and digital marketing workshops for corporations such as Heineken USA, Red Bull, and the Chicago Tribune.

Additionally, Voyage Chicago reports that individuals and organizations can avail a branding consultation session with the SimplyBe. team for $695 per two hours. This cost includes complimentary SimplyBe.’s signature brand kits, valued at $300 each, that are aimed at getting the client started on their branding journey.

Also, one-on-one sessions with the founder of SimplyBe., Jessica Zweig, is priced at $995 for two hours.

Origin and Founding Team

Zweig founded CheekyChicago.com, Chicago’s leading lifestyle magazine for women, in 2008. She ran this digital platform successfully for seven years, and in the process learned a thing or two about digital marketing. During this period she also built a strong network of contacts, while fortifying her own personal brand. She took all of that experience and, in October 2014, launched SimplyBe. Agency – a personal branding agency that strives to help individuals use their ‘authenticity’ as a ‘superpower’.

“I always say, your authenticity is your hottest commodity—your truth is sexy. I realized the power of a personal brand dedicated to authenticity; so, after CheekyChicago, I combined my passion for people and my experience with digital to form SimplyBe,” Zweig to Voyage Chicago.

Within just one week of starting up SimplyBe., she made $20,000 via just one email and Facebook post. And then, in August 2018, Zweig announced that the startup had grown its clientele count to 20 and its core team to 6 members.

Zweig was also named one of Inc.’s Top Digital Marketers to Watch in 2017. And in November 2018, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the prestigious Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Performance and Trends

Zweig, on her personal website, claims to have elevated SimplyBe.’s revenue to a seven-figure amount within just 18 months of its inception. An article in the Chicago Tribune also pegs SimplyBe.’s projected annual revenue for 2019 to be around $1.5M.