What do strategy and copywriting have to do with Renaissance Italian architecture?
Quite a lot, actually.
As the story goes, when the city of Florence, Italy, decided to complete the famous Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, they faced a major problem: No one knew how to construct a dome that large without traditional wooden scaffolding
The problem? Wooden scaffolding couldn’t support a cathedral of such a scale.
Many architects proposed impractical solutions. But Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith and self-taught architect, presented a radical idea: Instead of relying on wooden supports, he designed an innovative system of interlocking bricks laid in a herringbone pattern to hold the dome’s weight as it was built.
Brilliant!
But Brunelleschi did not simply draw his designs and hand them over to builders—he worked alongside them, overseeing construction personally. He trained the masons in his unique building techniques and even invented special hoisting machines to lift materials efficiently.
Through close collaboration between Brunelleschi and the builders, the Florence Cathedral’s dome was completed—a masterpiece of engineering that still stands today.
“Cool story,” you say. “But I thought this post was about strategy and copywriting.”
Brunelleschi’s official title was architect, but he did what any good creative leader would do. He made sure strategy and execution were married from the start. He didn’t just submit a strategy and walk away—he ensured its successful execution by guiding his team, adapting as needed, and solving challenges along the way.
So while you may not need a dome for your cathedral, you might need a new website.
And if you follow his lead, you’ll assemble one team for the entire process, from kickoff call to post-live QA. And even if subsets of team members handle various parts of the project, their collective brainpower is crucial to remembering the big-picture goals and keeping the train on the tracks.
(Or, the dome in the air.)
When the team’s strategists create a site map, for example, they put a lot of thoughtful work into it. If that document is just handed off to the team’s (separate) copywriters without context, they may produce web pages that don’t reflect the company’s overall mission and vision. From there the team’s (also separate) designers may have a completely different take based on the copy they receive, and the final product is a mish-mash of messages that are *kind of* right, but not ideal.
That’s one expensive game of telephone.
In corporate jargon, teams that work on similar goals but don’t speak to one another are said to work in silos. And good marketers know that silos need to be bulldozed. Even though they’re topped with domes.
At MarketSmiths, our strategists, writers, and designers are in constant communication. Everybody is kept in the loop for the duration of a project—even if it doesn’t directly affect their current work. The result is work that’s not just beautiful to look at and read, but beautifully on-strategy too—and that makes all the difference.
