Our Focus: Creative Results and Insights
The Swagger rebrand is about more than reframing our image. It’s about using that new image, coupled with a relentless passion, as a springboard to actually improve creative results. Advertising is a tricky business. It can be tough to track and measure campaign effectiveness across mediums. And with new technologies and updates emerging all the time, it can be difficult to keep up with all the different ways we’re supposed to attract and engage new customers.
At Swagger, our focus on creative results and the use of insights drives every piece of work we create. It’s not about reading numbers off a spreadsheet or adhering to stringent social media “rules” without the ability to see beyond them. We’re here to develop a creative vision for our clients based on insights gleaned from talking to real people about what they’d really like to buy, use, and do. It’s not just formulas and focus groups. It’s about human thinking (sometimes that comes from things you learn from formulas and focus groups, but not always). It’s about taking each client’s needs and figuring out what makes that brand’s target audience tick. Because it’s different every time. Every piece of work deserves its own insights and considerations. No cookie-cutter solutions here.
Our creative futurist mantra keeps us looking forward, but to do that effectively, we must also analyze the past and be mindful of present trends. A holistic view of all parts influences what we will create for our clients. It doesn’t happen in a “future only” vacuum.
Nothing in advertising is really as black and white as some agencies would have you believe. There is a fine line between what we think will work and what will push the envelope into something truly engaging and, dare we say it, viral. (A bit of a disclaimer here: viral is not something that can be manufactured; it must happen organically. But a solid, groundbreaking piece of creative is a great way to head in that direction.) Afterwards, we dive deep into our creative results instead of just skimming over them and moving on to the next assignment. What could you learn by doing that?
All the best creative has something in common: the right timing. We’ve probably all been in a situation where we sat on a project for too long and lost our chance to make it great. It can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe someone else gets there first. Or maybe your seasonal campaign loses its seasonality. But with Swagger’s belief in bringing the consumer to the forefront of the advertising creation process, we know what should go where and we have the nimbleness to make it happen. This is because we’ve minimized the red tape and cut all the BS so we can focus on the results our clients need.
And because we’re integrated across the agency, you won’t find strategy guys on one floor talking about insights that creatives know nothing about. Everyone is part of the same team here, and we happen to think that on a team, everyone should collaborate and be on the same page. Sounds crazy, but it works.
This combination of our collaboration, nimbleness, and small size makes us truly unique. Welcome aboard the CFE (Creative Futurist Express…just something we’re trying out. Doesn’t work? Okay, forget that then. See, trial and error. What we’re all about).