What led you to a career in design?

My path to design was shaped by a childhood rooted in creativity and a curious relationship with media. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, I was raised drawing and painting, with no small thanks to a grandmother who nurtured my love of the arts. When it came time for college, I initially pursued kinesiology, but switched early on in favor of a more creative life.

I also grew up without a TV, which might sound strange, but it actually shaped the way I see design. When I did encounter commercials, whether at a friend’s house or a relative’s, I was captivated. While my friends ran off to play, I stayed glued to the screen, fascinated by the little stories each ad told and the way brands used aesthetics to convey meaning.

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How would you describe your design style?

Pinning myself to a single aesthetic feels like putting a ceiling on what I can do. Instead, I strive to be adaptive, holistic, and concept-driven. What stays consistent for me is a love of hidden details: what I call “Easter eggs.” Small, intentional touches that reward the observant: a message tucked into packaging, a flash of color on the inside of a belt loop. For me, these details are a form of care.

Where do you find inspiration, and is there an artist you admire?

For me, inspiration has no hierarchy. It lives everywhere, from the polish of a Super Bowl ad down to the etchings on a dive bar bathroom wall. 

I think it’s important to notice not just what you like, but what you don’t like, and to understand why. That’s just as valuable.

When it comes to designers I look up to, I credit Aaron Draplin as an early influence who helped shape my eye. These days, I’m particularly inspired by Jessica Walsh and her studio &Walsh.

What type of projects would you work on full-time if you could?

Honestly, I love the variety too much to pick just one; that’s what keeps agency life exciting. But if I had to choose, I would point to motion design as something I’m increasingly passionate about. Motion adds a level of storytelling that static design just can’t replicate.

Tell us about your hobbies and what you enjoy outside of work.

Outside the studio, I play hockey and hike, but painting is where most of my time goes. I work almost exclusively en plein air, painting on location in the open air rather than from photographs or in a studio. It’s about observation and presence: going outside, finding a scene, and listening to what it’s saying. That connection to nature runs deep, rooted in a childhood spent outdoors on a lake in rural Wisconsin, learning about the land the way outdoorsmen do.

It was actually a happy accident that got me painting seriously. After graduating, I found the cheapest apartment on Craigslist in Laguna Beach, California. 275 square feet. A little sliver of ocean view. I had no idea it was an art destination until I walked the streets and found galleries everywhere.

I realized: oh, people actually do this for a living. I had no idea. Where I grew up, I only knew of painting as a hobby or a personal passion. I had no idea there were living, professional artists out there making a career of it.

So I picked up my brushes, started going outside, and never really stopped.

But like all innovation, getting there takes experimentation. A recent example that highlights both the potential and the process is a brand campaign we developed for Coast Southwest.

The Challenge: Visualizing a Complex Industry

Marketing for a chemical ingredient distributor presents a unique creative challenge—how do you visually represent a business that’s largely invisible to the end user?

Traditionally, this category relies on stock photography and lifestyle imagery to suggest the impact of ingredients in everyday products, but it overlooks the crucial, behind-the-scenes role of distributors in the value chain. Coast Southwest’s past brand campaigns followed that norm, and over time, it started to blend into the sea of sameness. 

Photo shoots in this category, while effective, are expensive and often offer limited value beyond the immediate need. So, for an industry built on science and innovation, we knew it was time for a creative evolution—one that mirrored the same spirit of experimentation and progress.

The Approach: Elevating Creativity with AI

For Coast Southwest’s 2025 brand campaign, we set out to do something different. We turned to Midjourney, an AI image-generation tool, to create a custom visual language that felt ownable and bold—something that would break through the expected.

Our process was iterative and time-intensive. We began with highly detailed prompts and reference images. Then we refined, and re-refined—prompting again and again until the composition felt right.

Once we had solid AI-generated foundations, we brought them into our design environment for customization. That included:

• Recoloring to align with brand palettes
• Incorporating Coast Southwest’s brand elements
• Adding custom illustrations and textures to complete the story
• Completing the story with a bold campaign headline and key copy points

Every detail was scrutinized to ensure the final visuals were not just striking, but strategically aligned with the brand’s identity, and accurately depicted their services.

Importantly, our goal was never to disguise the AI origins of these visuals. Quite the opposite—we leaned into it. Making it obvious was part of the message: this is a brand that embraces innovation at every level.

The Launch: A Bold Statement in a Traditional Industry

We rolled out the new brand ad series in early February 2025. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Coast Southwest was recognized for being one of the first in its industry to leverage AI creatively—not just as a production tool, but as a strategic brand amplifier.

The campaign stood out not only because it looked different—but because it felt different. It communicated Coast Southwest’s forward-thinking mindset in a way no stock image ever could.

“Someone at a trade event once asked me what I believe is the greatest challenge facing our industry,” said Joseph C. Cimo, President of Coast Southwest. “My answer was simple: AI. That’s why I’m excited to see Gigasavvy exploring AI in such a creative way. I’m intrigued by their approach and look forward to seeing how they continue to apply it across different areas of their business.”

What We Learned: Tips for Using AI in Creative Work

This campaign marked our first full end-to-end execution using AI-generated visuals as a core part of the final product. Here are a few of our takeaways for anyone exploring AI in creative development:

• Know your goal: Beginning with a sound strategy and clear objective is key. Take the time to discuss, review, and align as a team before you dig into the tools.
• Start with strong references. Gather visual inspiration before you prompt—this will help guide composition and style.
• Understand limitations of AI: While AI image generation has come a long way, it still struggles with producing photorealistic people and nuanced expressions. Use AI where it shines—conceptual storytelling, scene building, and visual experimentation—and rely on traditional design tools to refine and complete the final product.
• Prompting takes time. It’s not a one-and-done process—be prepared to refine over hours (sometimes days) to get the desired result.
• Use hybrid workflows. The best results often come from blending AI output with traditional design tools for finishing and polish.
• Own your process. Being transparent about your creative approach can strengthen your message—especially when innovation is part of the brand story.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand and creative agency that position clients for long-term success. Connect with us to chat about how we can produce impactful content for your business. 

I didn’t say that—Steve Jobs did. Actually, let’s go full quote here because it’s too good to paraphrase:

“Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”‘ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”

Read things not yet on the page.

That’s the job. That’s our superpower. Not churning out algorithm-pleasers or Frankensteining together a campaign based on “what worked last quarter.” If you can point to five other campaigns that look like yours and say, “See? This is why it’ll work”—then it won’t.

Because great advertising doesn’t look like anything else. It’s not recycled. It doesn’t play nice. It punches you in the gut and then hugs you while whispering, “You’ll thank me later.”

So, how did we end up here, elbows deep in dashboards and data vomit?

If we are being honest—a LOT of the ads today feel like they were written by committee and tested into oblivion until the edges were sanded off and the soul was gone. Campaigns that sound like they were optimized for click-throughs, not connection. It’s creative by way of the calculator.

We need to shape culture, not endlessly chase trends. We need to create campaigns that people will remember for years instead of hoping someone sees it before it disappears into the void of Stories and swipes.

And yes, I get it. Data matters. Analytics are useful. But they are not the destination—they’re the map. You use them to understand the terrain, then you blaze a trail no one else has dared to take. You don’t let the GPS drive the damn car.

We’ve got to stop acting like success is only measured in conversion rates. What about impact? What about building a brand so iconic that people tattoo it on their bodies and name their kids after it? (Okay, that might be extreme, but you get my point.)

So, here’s my call to arms: To the dreamers, the weirdos, the slightly unhinged creatives who got into this business to make something new—we need you.

We need your gut instincts, your 3:00 am ideas, your boldness, your insanity. We need to stop treating creativity like a liability and start treating it like the nuclear fuel it is. Let’s put the magic back in advertising. Let’s make stuff that scares the client a little. That makes people talk. That makes other brands go, “Damn, I wish we’d done that.”

Use the data to inform your launchpad, not to water it down into a safe, beige mush that appeals to everyone and resonates with no one. Let’s stop crafting campaigns for approval and start creating them for impact! Not just clicks. Let’s build brands that don’t just live in people’s feeds, but live in their hearts and minds.  Because when you stand for something bigger, people stand with you.  Find your people — and light a fire under them.

Because if we don’t? If we keep sliding down this slope of safety and sameness? Creativity dies. And I, for one, didn’t come into this industry to give the people “a faster horse.” I came to build a rocket! Now let’s light that fuse.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand and creative agency that position clients for long-term success. Connect with us to chat about how we can produce impactful content for your business. 

The old playbook of hard sells, product features, and siloed performance marketing is starting to wear thin. People don’t want to be sold to—they want to be entertained. They crave connection, humor, and authenticity instead of overt marketing pitches. Take a look around. The ads that are really hitting their mark today aren’t just ads—they’re cultural moments, diving headfirst into culture itself. It’s about crafting stories, memes, or campaigns that people want to engage with, not the kind they skip as fast as the “Skip Ad” button will let them. The best advertising doesn’t feel like advertising at all. It feels like entertainment, or maybe a wink from a friend who knows just how ridiculous (and wonderful) the world can be.

The secret sauce here – cultural alignment. Ads that entertain, provoke, or resonate emotionally are the ones that will cut through the relentless barrage of “content”. We’re not living in an era of quiet and subtlety. We’re in the age of big, bold ideas.The kind of ideas that deliver results not by shouting louder, but by connecting deeper. The biggest ideas won’t beg for attention; they’ll demand it by being impossible to ignore. The brands that understand this will thrive. Those that don’t? Well, there’s always room in the bargain bin.

AI is everywhere—it’s become more of a buzzword than a solution. But here’s the reality: AI has leveled the playing field. What once took big agencies months and teams of strategists to uncover, smaller independent agencies can now accomplish in weeks—or even days. This shift puts powerful insights and creative firepower into the hands of the ambitious, nimble, and scrappy.

So, what does this mean for brands? It means that working with a smaller agency no longer means compromising on quality – if anything, it’s an upgrade. These smaller, leaner teams are free from the bureaucratic bloat that weighs down traditional agencies. They’re fast, fearless, and focused—the perfect partners for crafting bold, boundary-pushing campaigns that actually move the needle. Big ideas don’t require big budgets anymore; they require big thinking and the confidence to punch above your weight class. And small, agile agencies have it in spades!

If you’re a brand that has built a strong in-house team but still finds itself stuck in a rut, putting out the same tired creative as everyone else in your category, it’s time to shake things up. You don’t need a sprawling, overpriced agency to do it. You may however need someone to challenge the status quo, take some risks, and help you create the kind of work people can’t stop talking about.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand and creative agency that position clients for long-term success. Connect with us to chat about how we can produce impactful content for your business. 

Today video consumption rates are at an all time high.  At the time of writing this blog more than  89% of all consumers say that they would like more video content from the brands they follow, and 52% are more likely to share video content than any other type of content.  

At Studio4, we pride ourselves on creating visually striking and scroll-stopping content that doesn’t just entertain the consumer but also elevates your brand’s key business objectives. It’s a fine balancing act—keeping your content production on schedule and within budget while bringing to life big ideas that captivate  your audience.

So, how do we do it? 

Be Clear and Specific with What Your Content Should Accomplish

First things first, define what you want your content to achieve. Are you looking to build brand awareness and affinity, generate leads, or convert directly to a sale? Where will this content live? With this information, develop a content creation plan that leverages each media channel accordingly – including TV, radio, paid and organic social media, as well as your website and supporting OOH and print.

Each piece of your campaign should feel interconnected, yet native to its platform. Spoiler alert: simply resizing your content for different platforms won’t cut it. Audience demographics and media consumption habits vary on each channel. You need to tailor each piece to fit its specific medium. This starts in the content creation process; rather than waiting until you start editing.

How Will Your Content Resonate with Your Audience?

Here’s a nugget of wisdom: make sure your content goes beyond entertainment and resonates deeply with your audience. We call this the “Core Human Truth.” What will resonate with your viewer as a human being even if they aren’t in the  market to buy your product or service?

People see over 5,000 ads every day. If your content isn’t captivating, it’s just white noise. Connect with your audience first and they’ll justify their interest with reason later.  Think of television shows. They specialize in  engaging long form content creation that connects with audiences in order to sell advertising time to brands. If their content isn’t entertaining, they aren’t able to sell advertising and the show goes off the air.

As advertisers, we need to keep this simple fact front and center. Just like any television show, if the content you are creating isn’t entertaining, no one will stop their scroll long enough to hear the life-altering message or key selling points that your brand has to offer.

So, What’s the Plan?

Now, it’s time to build out and develop a comprehensive view of your content creation needs. Determine the resources required, the content production schedule, and how to bring your big ideas to life. It’s one thing to brainstorm a brilliant idea. Executing it, and executing it well, is a whole other ball of wax.

Content production requires meticulous planning and a team of extremely talented individuals. Don’t underestimate the effort needed to transform a great idea into reality. Even some of the most influential user generated content creators (if they are doing it consistently), have a team of people working behind the scenes to ensure it all happens.

Work the Plan (With More Planning)

Congratulations. You have a well-informed content creation goal, concept and plan. It’s go-time — almost. Welcome to the pre-production stage.  Now it’s time to start storyboarding your concepts, developing shot-lists, identifying locations, sourcing vendors, casting talent, and scheduling resources. Here is where the project kicks into high gear, and it is not for the faint of heart. 

There are hundreds of moving pieces, if not thousands, and all of them need to flow together like a well-composed song. At this point of your content creation workflow, small decisions have to be made.  Communication is everything. Regular meetings are one of the primary keys to success. 

Stick to your plan with the tenacity of a bulldog. But—and this is a big but—be prepared to pivot when necessary. The production process is a minefield of unexpected obstacles. Professional athletes stick to their game plans but pivot gracefully under pressure to achieve the best outcome. You should adopt the same mindset. Flexibility within a structured plan is your best friend in content production.

Finally, The Actual Content Creation

All of your hard work and planning pays off here. If your goal-setting, concept development and pre-production work has been thorough, your actual content creation should be a breeze. Everyone should be fully aware of and aligned to your creative vision and have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Now it is a matter of managing the shot list and keeping the time before your models’ hair falls flat and you lose your light. Hip-Hip-Hooray – the wrap party is on its way!

Time to Cut it Up

You thought you were done once the cameras stopped rolling? Think again. The real work begins in the editing room. Martin Scorsese once said, “If you don’t get physically ill seeing your first rough cut, something is wrong.”

Brace yourself; your first cut might be a disaster. It’s normal. Lean into it, learn from it and hold on tight to the original vision. In the world of advertising and creating content this is where the most small compromises can sneak in, leading to a death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenario. This is where the phrase, “If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no one” can really rear its ugly head.  Stay flexible but never lose sight of your initial goals and the emotional impact your content is supposed to achieve. Always keep in mind WHO it is meant to resonate with. 

Another key insight within the editing process is to always be on the lookout for creative ways to maximize the output from your footage. This isn’t about quantity over quality; Far far from it!  It is about getting the most bang for your buck with all of the amazing content that you already have in the can.

That’s a Wrap

We covered a lot. Here’s a streamlined content creation workflow strategy for you:

1. Set Clear Goals: Define your content’s purpose and its intended platforms.
2. Understand Your Audience: Create content that resonates on a human level.
3. Comprehensive Planning: Outline resources, timelines, and content production plans.
4. Follow the Plan: Stick to your plan but be ready to pivot when needed.
5. Edit with Vision: The first cut is just the beginning; refine your content while maintaining the core vision.
6. Maximize Content: Get the most out of your footage without compromising quality.

Content creation, content production, and content production studios may all sound like buzzwords thrown around to appease the SEO gods (and yes, this article was written just for them), but they encapsulate the essence of what we do. Great content isn’t just about looking pretty; it’s about achieving real business goals and making your brand shine. So, next time you’re planning your content strategy, give a nod to the algorithms, but never forget that the real magic happens in the execution.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand and creative agency that position clients for long-term success. Connect with us to chat about how we can produce impactful content for your business. 

My initial reaction to this slew of content is to feel revolutionized yet instantly behind the curve. If AI is brand new, how have so many people managed to become experts? Published experts. Published and profitable experts. 

Perhaps this is because AI isn’t actually new. The term ‘AI’ was coined in the early 1950s but the concept of technology and non-human tools has been around since the Stone Age.

A Brief History of the Future 

In 1988, Pixar released one of their most successful short films. Despite financial constraints, Steve Jobs agreed, in the midst of a complete financial shutdown, to fund the project; and the Oscar Award Winning cartoon ‘Tin Toy’ aired at a 1988 SIGGRAPH Convention to standing ovation. This film was the first official test of a software called ‘PhotoRealistic RenderMan’ and was ultimately responsible for making computer animation a credible form of artistic production. Later in 2003, The Library of Congress elected this film for preservation in the US National Film Registry dubbing it ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” 

If you are scratching your head and trying to figure out why in the golden era of Pixar masterpieces, you do not remember anything about a toy named Tinny desperately trying to escape Billy the infant, it’s because the movie was wildly rejected by the public. 

While the PhotoRealistic RenderMan software was truly spectacular, audiences hated the realistic features. Billy looked so human that it made people uncomfortable. Judge Adam Areseneau referred to this film in a DVD Verdict in late 2007 as “the most frightening and disturbing piece of animation in the history of this art form.” This feeling of unsettled rejection to human-like attributes, known as “Uncanny Valley Phenomenon”, is largely subjective and has been debated since the early ‘70s. Is this something that we need to ‘force’ humans to ‘get over’? Or is this something that we just need to accept, and continue producing lesser value productions for greater human enjoyment? I suppose this lends to the greater question, do we create to contribute, or just for the sake of saying we created something? 

Fast forward to 2022, ChatGPT is released and the business world collectively loses their mind in pure panic mode trying to determine how and if to incorporate this revolutionary AI technology into their every day business. 

Is it safe? Will it catch on? Are our competitors using it? Will it replace employees or require more skillsets? How are we going to find time to learn this? Can we use it to publish a blog about how we are at the cutting edge of using it while we figure out how to use it? 

So, where do we start?

Let’s start with understanding the vernacular and distinguishing ‘AI’ from its buzzword counterpart. 

AI (artificial intelligence) is an all encompassing term that essentially refers to any non-human generated smarts. This is in itself a paradox since humans are the ones who have to feed any technological algorithm. 

ChatGPT, while not synonymous with AI, uses the concept of AI to act as a virtual assistant. While chatbot technology has been around since the 1960s, ChatGPT certainly upleveled that capability and is largely responsible for the recent surge in AI trending language. 

But while your headlines may presently be drowning in AI tagged headlines that basically all say “AI has developed new technology…. We’re not sure how to use it… but it’s here and you/we should probably look into this”, AI is not new. 

The Magic of a Good PR Spin

If there’s one thing marketers do exceptionally well, it is capitalizing on profitable products/services by pushing the same thing in a plethora of positioning variations. Leave it to marketing pros to support and proliferate ideas until they no longer hold any meaning. (Taylor Swift watches football. Enough Said.) 

While AI continues to evolve and offer advanced use-cases and iterations, we needn’t panic about the overhaul of everything we know and understand about the world. Because we have already co-created with AI for decades. 

Respond > React

It’s natural for marketers to live a bit on edge. The world is changing, trends are flying (thanks Internet), and with the flooding of new data every second, our understanding and positioning as well as that of our customers is shifting sometimes daily. With the fire under our feet and expectations to deliver exceptional marketing in the same way we did before our consumers had access to every transparent piece of information, this can be a daunting and frankly impossible ask for anyone to oblige. 

Instead of reacting to every ‘new’ trend or buzzword, let’s respond. Reacting is impulsive and often rooted in panic and emotion. We immediately jump into tactics and make long-term decisions based on short-term insights. This can be exhausting as well as expensive as we are tasked with continually shifting direction. It’s like starting from scratch every single day.

When we respond, we pause to absorb the information we are receiving, and we wait until emotion subsides. We think about how to leverage what we already have, and we walk confidently forward in the same direction we have invested our time, energy, and dollars into since inception. 

Leveraging AI 

The goal of any business is to maximize profits and impact. When we partner with businesses to strengthen their brand, one of the first things we look for is their difference. What sets this brand apart from any other competitive offering? What is their story, their WHY, their personality? What can we share with their audience that they won’t be able to get anywhere else? One of the best ways I find to leverage AI is to sift and sort through the copious amounts of information available and use that to streamline your messaging.

Do marketers need to think about AI? Probably. But isn’t that in our job description as marketers? To think about everything? 

What do we do with this information?

AI can be a great asset to your business. You can use it to research, automate, streamline, annotate…. But a tool is only as useful as the craftsman who knows how to use it. 

Technology has existed and evolved since the beginning of time. Ideas are tossed to the masses and the acceptance or rejection of any new idea or change is largely rooted in providence and timing. AI, along with any other marketable product, will continue to be re-named, re-positioned, and re-released to capitalize on current trends. This is marketing.

Where do we as marketers draw the line between creating to contribute, and creating for our own egos? And when does this become problematic? 

It’s not a question of whether or not the world should exist with AI, but rather how do we best use it to better the human experience. With the potential gain of technology, what are the potential losses? If we benefit from saving time and money at the expense of cutting thousands of job roles, what does that mean for our economy? For morale? 

Our job as marketers, as creatives, is to not only know how to create, but when to stop. Going back to the uncanny valley phenomenon, Tin Toy was shelved, but ultimately became the story plot for another popular film series. With some revised and overly-animated cartooning and an A-list cast, Tiny Toy became what we now know and love as Toy Story, which ultimately inspired a whole new world of both award-winning and beloved entertainment. 

Going back to HI

There is power in the story we create. The words we use and the frame we package truth within can dramatically alter perception and results, even when working with the exact same, accurate, data. 

While we continue to tinker with technological advancements, it is crucial now more than ever that we highlight and preserve human intelligence and well-being. Considerations such as legal protections, plagiarism, privacy breaches, psychological impact, economic impact, etc are real human challenges that require exceptional levels of intelligence and discernment. 

What is the real WHY behind technology? I would argue that technology exists to improve the human experience. It exists to make our lives easier, better, and more flexible so that we can enjoy more human experiences. Creativity without contribution is no longer about creating, but taking. Rather than hyper-focusing on the intricacies of technological tools, let’s put the focus back on connecting with our customers. This is where the real magic happens. 

Gigasavvy helps brands move their business forward and position themselves for long-term success with comprehensive strategies, meaningful brand stories, and innovative creative campaigns. Connect with us to chat about how we can help you bring your brand into the future. 

At Gigasavvy, we don’t think anything cuts through the noise better than good storytelling. You don’t have to compete; you just have to connect. That takes good strategy, a compelling narrative, and good production. How do we achieve this magic? We’re going to let you in on some of our secrets with a look at our content creation process. 

Understanding Your (Actual) Content Creation Needs

Obviously, our clients typically have products or services to sell, and platforms to sell on. But it would be a mistake to think of selling first. Great projects don’t start with a decision to make a viral video or to hop on a TikTok trend. They start with a decision to tell your brand or product story to a relevant audience. With that objective in mind, you can produce content that can easily be formatted for any platform.  

Understanding Your Audiences

When thinking of audiences, it’s easy to jump ahead to think about buyers. It’s also easy to ignore the buyer and only listen to the brand. But good content creation requires investing the time to fully know BOTH. That’s why our discovery process is not a simple one-hour meeting with a checklist of questions. 

Sure there is a discovery meeting. But that is neither the beginning nor the end. We continue discovering things about our clients and their customers for as long as we work together. We dig in deep to get to know our clients: Why do they do what they do? What are their business goals? What inspires them? How do they define success? 

And we dig just as deep to understand their customers. Only after we are armed with this strategic foundation can we develop a strong creative brief that gets to the heart — the core human truth — so that it will resonate with all people, even if they are not in our target audience.  

Weaving a Narrative 

We know we are intruding on peoples’ lives with the ads we create, so we want to make sure it’s really worth it. We take special care to speak to what they care about —  and to do so in a way that matters and inspires. 

We believe in relentlessly attacking the creative brief to accomplish this. Our creative, strategy and account teams work together — asking every question, debating every nuance, and looking at things from every angle to make sure we have it right. Then, when we have a clear and concise creative brief that gets to the heart of the matter our team works together to visualize stories that connect. 

With our approach we get to know our clients so well that it is often hard for them to choose among multiple concepts that really fit their needs.

Considering the Channels 

You may have felt something has been missing in the process described thus far. We have not yet talked about the channels where the content will live. That is not an oversight; it is an intentional order of operation. While we definitely create for and manage to the media plan, we don’t believe that impactful projects start with a goal of “making a viral video” or producing a video for TikTok, etc. We believe that the story comes first. After the story is outlined, we create custom content that consistently tells that story in a way that is native to each of the media platforms where it will live.

Bringing it to Life in Production 

With the story agreed on and the appropriate channels established, we get to work on production. At this point, some creatives prefer to go work and come back with a finished project. At Gigasavvy, we believe it’s important to continue to collaborate with our clients to make sure they are heard and understood at every stage of the process. 

We recognize that at any point — from location scouting and talent management to filming and post production — there may be a need to enhance, update or pivot. We embrace flexibility within a framework in order to create the best deliverable.

Project Wrap-Up

As mentioned above, discovery never stops. We don’t wait for things to go wrong and schedule a project retrospective. We proactively wrap every project with a discussion on all of the things that went right, and any learnings or opportunities for future projects. Whether our key takeaways are client specific, project specific or process-oriented, we take the mindset that there is always something to celebrate, and always something to learn. 

With that, we are ready to start the whole process over again with another happy client. Next time, maybe it will be you. Just let us know what you’re ready to work on.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand strategy and creative agency that has successfully developed and brought many brands to life with authentic storytelling. Contact us to see how we can help you tell your brand’s story.

Content Marketing has become a staple in the modern marketer’s toolkit, and for good reason. More than just shilling a product or service, content marketing allows businesses to weave their brand’s narrative into the broader tapestry of their customer’s lives. It provides a unique platform for sharing your company’s brand purpose, vision and values, to create an engaging brand story that resonates with your audience. But to harness the power of content marketing, a strategic approach is required.

The Importance of Strategic Planning: More Than a Calendar

Many businesses fall into the trap of thinking that content marketing is just about setting up a content calendar and religiously adhering to it. However, successful content marketing is about more than just keeping your blog or social media feeds active; it’s about adopting an audience-first approach.

Ask yourself, what does your audience care about? What are their challenges, their dreams, their fears? The most impactful content will always be that which speaks directly to these interests and needs. This people-first approach requires a shift from selling to storytelling. It’s not about your brand, your product, or your services. Instead, it’s about your audience, their stories, and how your brand can become part of those stories.

Quality vs Quantity: The Importance of High-Quality Production

In content marketing, more is not always better. In fact, the opposite is often true: less content of higher quality can be far more effective than a flood of mediocre posts. For instance, consider the difference between the two food images below. 

The one on the left is a somewhat off center photo of a plate of food with no real thought or organization, while the other is a professionally shot, well-lit image. The latter not only better showcases the product, but it also communicates a sense of professionalism and attention to detail that bolsters your brand’s image. High-quality content reflects highly on your brand, enhancing your credibility and encouraging greater audience engagement. 

How to Plan for Atomized Content: Giving Your Content Creation Legs

Given the importance of high-quality content, it’s essential to maximize the impact of every piece you create. This is where the concept of atomized content comes into play. Atomization involves breaking down a large piece of content into smaller, standalone pieces, each of which can be used on different platforms and for various purposes. There are a variety of different ways to implement this. 

For instance, a long-form blog post can be atomized into a series of shorter posts for social media, infographics, or even a podcast episode. This approach not only extends the life of your content but also allows you to cater to different audience preferences and consumption habits. It’s about getting more from less, enhancing your return on investment in content creation.

Final Thoughts

In the ever-evolving world of content marketing, it’s tempting to believe that more content equals more results. However, it’s time to challenge this assumption. By taking a strategic, audience-first approach and focusing on high-quality, atomized content, businesses can tell a powerful brand story that truly resonates with their audience. In the realm of content marketing, less can indeed be more, provided that the ‘less’ is well-crafted, thoughtfully planned, and meaningfully executed.

Remember, content marketing is not a race; it’s a journey – a journey that involves not just selling a product, but requires a wide range of skills to build relationships, foster trust, and establish your brand as a reliable voice in your industry. And when it comes to this journey, the slow and steady approach of prioritizing quality over quantity often wins the race. 

Gigasavvy is a strategic creative, content creation and branding agency that brings brands to life with award-winning content. Contact us to talk about how we can tell your brand story.

Here we unpack why that is, and what your brand can do about it.

Audiences are Overwhelmed

It was once thought that content democratization would create a space for greater authenticity, to help us all more easily stay connected with our tribes. Instead, your customers and prospects are bombarded with more than 5,000 ads per day across multiple screens and platforms. Not surprisingly, this is proving to be too much.

Even when trying to login to what should be a relaxed and pleasurable experience of catching up with friends, consumers find that their social media feeds are often filled with more advertisements than friend updates.

This over-saturation is helping to drive the decline in usage of social media platforms in almost every demographic. More and more often, consumers find that the cost of the “free” apps is just too high, as they abandon each channel in favor of another that is not yet plastered with commercialism.

People Crave Connection

It’s not that brands cannot connect with their customers and prospects on social channels. The problem is not necessarily the presence of the brands, but rather the lack of authenticity and human connection in most branded content. The sad truth is that most brands talk at customers, rather than talking with them. 

Whether you’re a startup or a Fortune 100 brand, content marketing needs to be an important element of your marketing plan. But consumers have become more skeptical, so brands must take care to be very thoughtful and purposeful about their content. 

In order to be effective, brands really do have to connect with consumers in an authentic way. This means understanding customers as people — individuals with very real pain points and relatable desires. This is often easier said than done. Brands need to have a clear and compelling story, provide real value to their audiences, and then deploy on several essential content marketing skills to make sure that audiences not only know what these are, but feel and experience them to be true across every brand interaction. 

Audiences are Holding Brands Accountable

Research has proven time and time again that consumers are loyal to brands who build relationships. This isn’t a reference to those points-driven loyalty programs that incentivize customers to earn free products with accumulated purchases. That type of relationship can be profitable in the short and medium term, but can also be easily replicated and replaced by your competitors. 

Real relationships are not transactional. Customers respond to brands when they feel that they can relate to the larger brand story, based on a sense of aligned values. When customers feel that they can partner with a brand to achieve their personal mission, they will pledge their loyalty.

At Gigasavvy, we see that exhibited time and time again. Whether it’s Toshiba’s desire to empower their customers to pursue their passion anywhere in the world, or American Career College’s understanding of audiences’ struggles with trying to advance their careers while making it in the real world, brands build relationships by talking with audiences in a way that shows they understand them.

Gigasavvy is an award-winning brand strategy and creative agency that has successfully developed and brought many brands to life with authentic storytelling and strategic go-to-market planning. Contact us to see how we can help your brand build authentic consumer relationships.

Data Analytics Can Do Amazing Things… But Not Everything

No one can deny that modern analytic and programmatic marketing and advertising tools are incredible. They allow us to automate A/B testing, fine tune every detail of our creative to optimize for a desired KPI, run campaigns that are hyper-targeted to specific audiences, and show up exactly where and when the probability for conversion peaks. 

The problem with the current overdependence on analytics, however, is twofold: 

First, it’s not a great way to form a lasting connection. It’s more like Bill Murray’s character in the film Groundhog Day, attempting to seduce his coworker by learning her likes and dislikes, and testing out different approaches until he finds one that gets him closer to his goal. Even though she is not aware of what he is doing, she senses that something is off. She can tell that he is manipulating her and that his intentions aren’t genuine.

Consumers get that same feeling from brands that overuse hyperfine targeting and programmatic advertising. At first, they find it novel, even clever, when an ad hits them at an uncanny moment. They were just thinking about buying an electric toothbrush, and bam, there’s an ad for one right in their Instagram feed. 

After several years of it, though, those eerily well-timed ads have become less charming and now feel more creepy and invasive. Shoppers don’t delight at being reached at just the right moment and place. They start wondering if these brands and platforms know them a little too well.

The second problem with our industry’s dependence on too many data-driven strategies and executions is that the endless buffet of cheap and accessible third-party consumer data is coming to an abrupt end. 

The Era of Unlimited Access to Consumer Data Is Fading Fast

Consumer tracking is heading for a major inflection point. For starters, web cookies will start being phased out in 2023, forcing advertisers to rely on their own, far more limited stores of first-party data. 

Additionally, Apple’s decision to promote itself as a leader in privacy by releasing its App Tracking Transparency feature in 2021 has sent shockwaves through major advertising platforms. Users that were formerly automatically opted-in to tracking were finally given an upfront opportunity to opt out — and they did, by a huge majority. 

Upon the release of iOS 14.5, the first update of Apple’s operating system with App Tracking Transparency, 96-percent of U.S. users immediately said no to tracking. Facebook and Google, the two largest digital ad platforms in the world, immediately decried the move. Facebook’s parent company Meta’s stock took a massive hit in early 2022, and many analysts said Apple’s privacy decision was a big part of why investors were suddenly so bearish about their social media advertising.

Use Data to Enhance Human Insights, Not Replace It

Analytic processes are neat, organized, and predictable. They are designed to eliminate the chance of surprises. Consequently, data-based approaches all end up looking depressingly similar. In a crowded marketplace, our smartest marketing tools are ironically not a very smart way to differentiate a brand.

In contrast, creative processes are, by their nature, messy, free flowing, and driven by instincts that guide experimentation. When we are uninhibited in our ideation, there’s no telling where our thoughts will take us. 

Ultimately, neither approach is as effective as harmoniously combining both. Now, with less access to data, brand managers are going to have to get better at reading between the lines of their analytics and reinvesting in their creative energies.

There is an expression in computer science: garbage in, garbage out. It means that no matter how powerful your analytic engine, you’ll never get anything of value out of it if you don’t feed it with something of substance to begin with. In creative fields like marketing, you still need freethinkers, artists, and intuitives to dream up beautiful, raw material that’s worthy of optimizing with data-backed strategies.

The Way Forward

Though these changes might strike fear in the hearts of some in marketing today, we at Gigasavvy welcome them. We embrace digital technologies and use them to hone our creative executions — but we never forget that it is our creativity and ideation that makes us so potent. 

The important thing here, as is so often the case, is balance. We may be artists, but we’re commercial artists. We don’t create art for art’s sake. We use strategy to guide our creative output. But by the same token, we can’t let our strategic objectives box us in too tightly. 

Gigasavvy is built by creatives that draw insights from the world and then sharpens them with data. We know that the best brand strategies are never black and white. They are nuanced and informed by human interpretation. 

Data cannot truly comprehend the human condition for the simple reason that it’s not human. It can only ever make an approximation. If you focus too closely on business goals you’ll lose sight of the person on the other end of the relationship — and they’ll feel that disconnect.. 

Perhaps, the day will come when the intuition of AI systems are on par with that of living, breathing, passionate people — who can tap into the collective unconscious and experience ineffable flow states of pure creativity — but judging from the quality of the latest chatbots, we have a ways to go.

Marketers have spent so much time and energy getting to the right place at the right time that they neglected to focus on the messages they were sending. They forgot it was their job to immerse themselves in the fundamentals of brand building, creating awareness, thinking deeply about what makes a product special and desirable, and cultivating authentic relationships.

Access to cheap and plentiful data made too many creatives lazy, and now many of them are going to have to relearn the skills and instincts they let atrophy. But Gigasavvy is more than prepared, and we welcome the challenge. We’ve never settled for the low hanging fruit; we’ve always aspired for more, and we always will.

Gigasavvy is a forward-looking creative agency partner that uses brand strategy, creative development and video content creation to help growing brands tell their story and connect authentically with their audiences. We believe every brand has a compelling story to tell. Contact us to help you tell yours.

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