One of our folks wrapped up a storied 4 year stint at the agency today, to pursue her dream of making a living doing what she’s really passionate about: baking.

She and I had lunch a couple weeks back, and talked about where that passion came from. She told me a story, about how her Mom used to bake for her as a kid, and how her Mom would always add something special… maybe a filling, or a candied fruit, or some chocolate. She talked about how that made her feel.

We wanted to do something special as a farewell, so we pulled a team together to create a brand and identity package for her. The One Simple Thing for her brand was obvious, given the story and the category: Love.

The tagline wrote itself: “Everybody needs some love now and then. And it’s baked right in.”

Soon after we’d put together a listening station in Google Reader making it easy for her to follow the most prominent baking bloggers out there. We created Twitter and Pinterest profiles to let her curate the best content for her followers, and a quick Tumblr-based site where the content she created could live.

The truth is it’s not always this easy, and few categories and businesses genuinely lend themselves to what has to be the ultimate OST. But it shows the power of a story to launch a brand, and that’s something I think everyone can learn from.

Good luck, Liz. Remember your brand is all about Love, and that it’s baked right in.