OUR HALLOWEEN MANIFESTO
Halloween is the one night the rest of marketing tries to be like us. The brands that spend 364 days playing it safe suddenly want to get weird, get loud and do something people might actually remember, but the truth is, boring content is what kills brands. The predictable campaigns. The safe ideas. The endless parade of posts that say absolutely nothing. We’re not here to resurrect them. We’re here to put them out of their misery.
THE GRAVEYARD
HERE LIES THE STOCK PHOTO HANDSHAKE
A symbol of brands that have mistaken looking professional for being interesting. It says nothing about who you are, what you believe or why anyone should care. It makes your business look like every other business. And when your audience can’t tell you apart from the competition, they have no reason to choose you.
HERE LIES “WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE”
Another announcement. Another launch. Another milestone dressed up as content. Except excitement isn't contagious when the thing you're announcing has no relevance to the person reading it. Your audience doesn't owe you their attention just because something matters to you. Give them a reason to care.
HERE LIES THE TALKING-HEAD VIDEO NOBODY FINISHED
Someone sat in front of a camera, talking at an audience, delivering information that could have been a sentence. No story. No energy. No reason to keep watching. Video isn't automatically engaging just because it's moving. If you've got nothing interesting to say, adding a camera won't save you.
HERE LIES THE CAROUSEL OF GENERIC TIPS
Five ways to improve your marketing. Three things every business needs to know. Seven secrets to success. The same recycled advice, repackaged and posted by everyone with a Canva account. Content that could belong to any brand belongs to no brand. It fills a feed. It doesn't build one.
HERE LIES THE CAPTION WRITTEN FOR AN ALGORITHM INSTEAD OF A PERSON
A collection of keywords, hashtags and carefully engineered phrases designed to appease a machine. Somewhere along the way, the human being on the other side of the screen got forgotten. The result? Content that might tick a technical box but has nothing to say. You can optimise your way into being seen. You can't optimise your way into being remembered.
WHAT WE MAKE INSTEAD
October has been a pretty good reminder of what happens when you stop making content for content's sake.
HOSPITALITY
From NashVegas for Thunderbird to The Big One event for TM, Wagamama and BAM Karaoke Box, we've been working with brands that have something worth showing off. Different audiences. Different experiences. Different reasons to get people through the door. The common thread? Giving people something to feel, not just something to scroll past.
ARTS, CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT
We've been in the thick of the stories, too. The Converge music video. The Iron Heart documentary. The Luke Preece documentary. Work that puts people, creativity and culture front and centre.
And then there's “Blood is Forever. Love is Forever.”, nominated at the Birmingham Film Awards. A project that means a hell of a lot to the people behind it, and one we're proud to see recognised.
And the recognition keeps coming.
The CMA shortlists. The Innovation Award. A reminder that the work doesn't have to look like everyone else's to get noticed.
Because that's the point. We're not interested in making more noise for the sake of it. We're interested in making work that has something to say. Work with a pulse. Work that gets people talking, feeling, turning up and remembering.
You can see all of it on our website. The campaigns, the films, the stories, the ideas. No stock photo handshakes in sight.
Death to playing it safe. Death to the idea that your brand has to sound like every other brand to be taken seriously.
If you've got something worth saying, let's make sure people actually hear it. If you've got an idea that's a little out there, even better. And if your marketing has started to look a bit lifeless, we know a thing or two about bringing things back from the dead.
Just WhatsApp us. Let's make something worth remembering.