Digital is becoming increasingly effective and, thus, more valuable channel for brands to engage with their consumers. Not surprisingly, clients’ budgets for digital and social media comms are on the rise, while some traditional marketing spends (for some particular consumer brands) tend to shrink.
Author: Kate Belan
Research, being a vital initial part of any brand activities, is becoming more sophisticated in terms of techniques and methods year by year. In the interview to Popsop, a Director at River Research, Zoe Best, who heads up the agency’s Innovation offer, explains which new innovative techniques have come into play recently, shares her vision on what’s a real value of the research for a brand, and how her relatively small independent agency manages to work globally providing a boutique service.
Biles Inc. is rare sort of a small creative business that breaks stereotypes about the size, having proved that it does not really matter when it comes to winning big clients. «Small agency —big difference» — that’s what they stand for. Anthony Biles, the founder and Principal, told Popsop about why he decided to launch his own business, why not having a central London office is a plus point, and explained why he thinks boutique is the best format of running a design agency.
While for some, Identica is sort of perpetuated as ‘the empire of Michael Peters’, which created the famous Russian Standard Vodka, the company nowadays has evolved to become a dynamic and diverse growing structure with rich multidisciplinary offer and refined positioning as guru of brand icons. Richard Morris, Managing Director of Identica, tells about what the agency is strategically up to, explains what is a brand icon and how his team manages to ‘create, evolve and restore’ them and why they closed down the Moscow office 3 years ago.
Having been set 8 years ago in London by our today’s interviewee Nick Dormon, Echo is made up of an eclectic mix of people, backgrounds, insights and experience which best matches the challenges faced by brand-owners — there isn’t a one size fits all approach. Echo’s fresh, but intelligent approach combined with uncompromised values influenced the likes of Unilever and Molson Coors to choose Echo as their creative partner on some significant and long-term projects.
In the interview to Popsop Nick shares his insight on the importance of graphics and structural design as one entity, explains why ‘madness, magic and meaning’ are the core Echo’s values, and argues on the shift from designing for stand-out to meaningful branding.
Strategically seminal, creatively devastating, fiercely independent — they are Bulletproof. Today the team of 50 occupies two huge floors in Covent Garden with a second office in New York. Bulletproof was started back in 1998 by Gush Mundae, and soon after was joined by college friend Jonny Stewart.