Not another ad agency
Empathy is a powerful emotion and we can definitely empathise with everyone on the truth that the world doesn’t need another boring ass agency.
Which leads me to context. In our industry, context is probably the most important consideration in everything we do. Stating the world doesn’t need another agency, suggests the world is already full of agencies (some good, most not). But what exactly is an agency and why are there so many different kinds of agencies? What makes them different and what makes them great? Is boutique/independent/full-service better (or worse) and isn’t it all just marketing anyway?
No, it’s not. Though it is a pretty damn confusing landscape for advertisers.
Constant shifts within the industry, changing perceptions and ambiguous definitions of where we bring the most value to our clients is continually under fire. More often than not, this is generally caused by confusion within the industry around the terminologies we use to describe our own existence in an attempt to differentiate or position ourselves as distinctive within a ridiculously crowded market.
Unfortunately, all this has done has confused an already chaotic landscape for our clients. Now, most of the time, we end up being all things to all people even though we try our hardest not to be, because we can’t even find the clarity in our own offering and were exactly we fit into the overall marketing piece, where we really shine.
Some agencies describe themselves as full service, others are digital, or content agencies. There’s creative agencies who mainly do ideas and design work, but also production sometimes, and if you really need it, have been known to dabble in the world of product design too!
There’s pay-per-click agencies that aren’t digital agencies, there’s marketing agencies that do no pay-per-click advertising and digital marketing agencies out there that are merely social media or pay per click agencies and do no actual marketing (if you don’t agree with me, upskill yourself in marketing or forward your opinionated hate mail to my office). I’m also not getting into a rant around the widely dismissive definitions of what constitutes ’traditional’ and ‘digital’ (is digital out of home advertising ’traditional’ or ‘digital’ – spoiler: it’s 2020. It’s all just, advertising!).
The commonality between all of these ‘agencies’ is the need to create, connect and communicate with an audience. To fight for the shrinking space within a prospects mind that their clients brands can truly own. And the secret is, it takes a highly strategic approach to bring all of those ‘agency services’ together in order to deliver a message to your audience in a consistent, memorable and interesting way. All in an attempt to influence the customer and give that slight nudge to purchase, try, and fall in love with your brand.
It takes great strategic directive, flawless creative execution, quality production work and a delivery or distribution strategy to bring it all together.
How do you do that, when as an industry we’re too busy fighting with each other to see the value we all bring to the puzzle and you (you’re the client in this narrative) know the full service model is limiting, uneconomical and broken.
This is where a strategically led, brand focused advertising agency like Maker Street comes into play. We help advertisers align objectives of the business with the brand and marketing department to uncover and drive creative solutions that help our clients stand out in an interesting way.
And, this modal works for us! Because we’re not ‘full service’ and we don’t really care what ‘specialists’ or ‘gurus’ you have working on your tactical day-to-day marketing efforts. We’re here to assist with high level strategic decisions to help develop brand focused advertising work, and then we leave to let the experts bring that work to life.
What this actually means is that we know how to play well with others and while that also means we don’t always get credit for the work, as long as we’ve helped drive revenue growth in some way, we’ve done our job and ultimately, that’s what’s most important to us.
If you want to sit down with us – you can reach us at hq@mkrst.co
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn
9 Aussie Breweries with Bang-on Branding
Beer. Imagine a world without it? We’d rather not think about that. Fortunately for us, beer is a huge industry in Australia that produces $16 billion a year in economic activity. Better yet, 85% of all beer sold in Australia is made locally too. Just about every town has its own brewery that shows off the local flavour. Not just through its taste, but through their branding as well. Branding allows breweries to bring a whole new dimension to their product by illustrating the flavour, the history, and the experience through visual storytelling.
Here are nine of our favourite independent brewery brands:
Each of these brands show that breweries can have a bit of fun with their visual identity. Though these brands reflect just a drop in the ocean (or pint) of the huge number of breweries in Australia. As of August 2020, there are over 700 craft beer breweries made in this beer-loving land. That’s why it’s more important than ever for breweries to make sure that their visual identity is bang-on.
At Maker Street, we believe that when it’s hard to stand out, stand strong. Authenticity is attractive to customers, so it’s crucial for breweries to know who they are and how to illustrate that through their brand. Just looking at the logos above, they each reflect the local identity and sell the location just as much as the beer itself. In some ways, it’s a bottle-shaped postcard. In doing this, it creates an experience that the customer is buying along with the beverage (we call this brand experience) whether they’re in that particular location or not. For example, we might drink a nice cold Corona at a backyard barbie, but it still makes us feel like we’re at the beach (we call this brand image).
Breaking into the category is a difficult task for any new brewery. After the first purchase, the customer decides whether it was the right choice or not. That’s why brand is important. It’s crucial to make sure the brand identity accurately aligns with the drink itself, otherwise it can damage the experience. But don’t forget, great branding can never fix a shit product, it’s vital to the brand to actually have a tasty beer.
If a customer is expecting a light and summery lager because that’s what the packaging illustrates, but they are met with a heavy stout, it sets the drink up for failure. If a brand is strategically crafted to align the beverage with the audiences expectations, it creates a better experience for the customer.
As consumers, we share stories over a beer, we create stories over a beer, and a beer should be able to tell a story of its own. A drink can encapsulate the local flavour and teleport a customer to the origin of the brewery.
If you’re looking to dress up your drink, drop us a line. Let’s get your brew pitcher perfect.
How Polarised Sunglasses Killed Advertising
Okay, the title might be a bit dramatic. But hear us out! Polarised sunglasses had a real impact on outdoor advertising. Have you ever worn your sunglasses while driving and seen rainbows on car windscreens? Or found that you can hardly see your phone screen?
It’s all a side effect of polarised lenses.
Polarised lenses have a chemical injected into them during manufacturing which is laminated into a vertical pattern. This reorganises light rays before they reach the eye, and that’s what causes those funny effects. But how did this change advertising?
As LCD technology improved and became cheaper, it became the more appealing choice for outdoor advertising. LCD screens mean you can have multiple advertisements rotating at any given time. It made it easier for advertisers to target the right audience by advertising at specific times, for as long as they needed.
But a set of polarised lenses doesn’t know the difference between a billboard, a phone screen, and a radio display. Your sunglasses will block them all. In the summer months when glare is up to three times higher than in winter, most Australians can be seen in their wayfarers and clubmasters.
This means most Australians can’t even see the billboards that businesses are spending a fortune to advertise on.
You wouldn’t think to consider sunglasses as a real-world AdBlocker, but they’re surprisingly effective. Just something to keep in mind next time your campaign plan includes outdoor advertising in summer, especially here in queensland.