THE BLOG

03
Aug

Max Out Creative Content!!

Part-2 of Our Entrepreneurial Approach to Brand-Marketing.

‘Max Out Creative Content’

Creative content produced for websites, re-formatted for brochures, introduced on social media, re-purposed for print ads, used for digital mail, traditional mail, animated for YouTube, inserted into proposals, placed in Powerpoint decks, etc, etc.

The number of destinations for high-quality and effective creative content is absolutely limitless.

Whether we’re talking about impactful infographics, art-directed photography, story-telling videos or even carefully crafted text. Whatever the medium, whatever the end-use, at the loft we advise our clients to truly maximise every last bit of resource invested in creative projects.

Creativity you’ve invested money in, dedicated time too and worked hard to produce alongside your own team and brand/marketing/ creative providers.

The work we created with one of our industrial clients several years ago for their Sustainability Report was used and re-used in the most fantastically effective and resourceful way.

Infographics used in the initial report, re-purposed as social media campaigns, re-formatted to be included in pitch-decks and animated as videos for YouTube. What’s more they were re-branded for their sister organisation and the initial report itself became a customer-facing document too.

An exceptional way to maximise a creative budget.

‘Max Out Creative Content’

Part-2 of our Entrepreneurial Approach to Brand-Marketing.

Drop us a line if you’d like to find out more.

Have a great weekend folks!!

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

<<< To see more of the loft’s brand solutions 

To check out The Entrepreneurs Loft >>>

29
Jul

London 2012, Timelessly Ahead of its Time…

The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony has been in the headlines a lot these last few days. I have to confess I’ve only seen snippets on the internet. But it got me thinking back to our own efforts 12 years ago and & what an amazing job they did for London 2012.

After a quick re-watch of the highlights on YouTube, what struck me most was how well the ceremony worked for the main audience on the TV and also online. So many wonderful moments… The drama of the Industrial Revolution, the poignancy of War, Sir Tim Berners Lee, The Queen, James Bond, Mr Bean, Sir Steven Redgrave and who can forget the insanity of Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic Cauldron at the end.

All gloriously combined with the finest of British music and culture through the last century and a bit.

A real reminder that true quality always stands the test of time…

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage an outstanding team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many inspirational people in business.

18
Jun

MCR Pathways Infographic, Knocking It Out The Park!!

Knocking It Out The Park!!

Many of you will know the incredible work carried out by the Glasgow-based national charity MCR Pathways. An organisation that helps young people, who are disadvantaged through no fault of their own, to realise that bit more of their undoubted potential. They do this in a number of ways, pre-dominantly by providing mentors who volunteer an hour a week at schools all over the country.

The charity has been going for quite some time now and year after year they just knock it out of the park in terms of their impact. 5,109 young people supported, over 63,000 mentoring hours logged, 82.9% of MCR young people progressing to college, university or employment compared to a national average of 69.1%.

We were delighted to be given the opportunity to support the organisation in pulling together some of these incredible numbers, stats and stories with a bold infographic. The design had to get a lot of information across, showcase the impactful nature of their work and also fit on one page. Designed at a very important time for MCR Pathways and testament to the incredible work of all involved, we were delighted with the final results.

MCR Pathways, An Hour A Week, A Lifetime of Impact!!

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage an outstanding team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many inspirational people in business.

13
May

Doing The Right Thing.

Doing The Right Thing.

Everybody knows Glasgow folks have one hell of a social conscious. That people are the heart and soul of the city. That it’s a city with a unique spirit and most of all a city that cares..

MCR Pathways is one of Glasgow’s finest inventions, an outstanding charity that gives disadvantaged young people the chance to create a better life for themselves. They’ve knocked it out the park year after year after year after year after year. Thousands and thousands of young people with better, happier and more fulfilling lives making their own dent in the universe as a result.

Everybody overlooks things, everybody makes mistakes, unintended consequences, everybody is human.

Come on Glasgow, let’s do the right thing, let’s re-open the budget, look a bit harder, dig a bit deeper and explore how you can give one of your most successful social programmes its funding back.

It’s the common-sense thing to do.

It’s the Glaswegian thing to do.

It’s the right thing to do…

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage an outstanding team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many inspirational people in business.

02
Jan

MCR Pathways Mentoring

Check out Mentoring with MCR Pathways!!⁣

Helping young people, unleashing potential, supporting society and the greater good, making a real difference in the lives of others and yourself too. Just some of the many reasons to consider becoming a mentor with MCR Pathways.⁣

MCR Pathways are a national charity which supports young people, disadvantaged through no fault of their own, to create better lives for themselves with one-to-one mentoring. An organisation which has been going for more than 15 years and with over 1000 mentors who give an hour a week in Glasgow alone.⁣

Right now they are looking for more mentors so please check out..⁣

https://mcrpathways.org⁣

(Little pic of our Founder Benedetto and Rio, his previous mentee on their very last mentoring session before he left St Rochs secondary school back in 2021. To steal one of the charity’s marketing Iines – one relationship, two lives transformed.)⁣

#MCRPathways #Mentoring

18
Dec

The Lean Marketer

The Lean Marketer

Potential facilitator of bigger numbers, more sales, fuller pipelines, charts moving in the right direction, people that bit happier, exciting enquiries and fresh interest.

New and interesting things happening day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month. More impressive sales numbers, more effective marketing and more magnetic brands.

Always accumulating, eventually snowballing.

At the loft, we’ve been in the game a while now and experience has taught us that smaller actions done consistently well can bring faster, less costly and more impactful change than bigger (seemingly) more exciting actions.

In marketing terms, this means new website pages built on existing templates, interior spaces livened up with company branding, up-to-date pics of the team online, email signatures showing the campaign of the day, those infographics of stats you’ve been promising yourself for too long, new social materials, new words, new pictures, some video, etc. Small actions working in a beautifully predictable and positive way.

Compounding over time.

Nobody loves the big moves, the high-octane actions, the act of stepping into the unknown more than us – exciting digital projects, new brands, strategic partnerships, etc. But some times – starting where you are and building on what’s working gets you where you want to get too that little bit faster.

I heard a lovely quote the other day ‘Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.’

Couldn’t have put it better myself, if you’re looking for a lean marketer, or marketing agency, to make strong, transformative and lasting change to your brand or marketing and like the idea of doing it in stages, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – a design & branding agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

<<< To see the loft’s brand solutions 

The Lean Start-Up (possible further reading) >>>

04
Sep

The Entrepreneurs Loft, Service List

Shameless plug alert!!

Sorry just this once, we’re going to go down the slightly more direct route.

We’ve finally got our working service list and landing pages together for The Entrepreneurs Loft.

Check them out…

Brand Marketing
https://entrepreneursloft.co/brand-marketing

Marketing Strategy
https://entrepreneursloft.co/marketing-strategy

Marketing Support
https://entrepreneursloft.co/marketing-support

Brand Strategy
https://entrepreneursloft.co/brand-strategy

Brand Culture
https://entrepreneursloft.co/brand-culture

Social Media Marketing
https://entrepreneursloft.co/social-media-marketing

The Entrepreneurs Loft is the big brother/sister of the loft, a new agency-offering exclusively supporting the growth journeys of High-Growth Founders, Leaders & Entrepreneurs.

In-line with our lightweight approach – everything’s pretty minimal for now, used as much for learning as it is for gaining business, will almost certainly be improved in due course (yes we will add some pictures & graphics) but most importantly done, out there and hopefully strong enough to get this bit of the job done. For Now!!

Let us know your thoughts?

All comments welcome…

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

<<< To see more of the loft’s brand solutions 

To check out The Entrepreneurs Loft >>>

10
Aug

The Entrepreneurs Loft

Working with High-Growth Founders, Leaders & Entrepreneurs has always been one of the most enjoyable, rewarding and fulfilling parts of our journey at the loft – over the years we’ve been lucky to help high growth companies and impactful leaders in technology, software, food and drink, charity organisations. The work is always challenging, tight for time and a little chaotic but as mentioned it really does help us to bring the best out of ourselves…

The Entrepreneurs Loft is a new sub-brand offering created by the loft to serve High-Growth Founders, Leaders & Entrepreneurs – to help them build businesses of scale with fast, imaginative and a completely personalised service. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned in 10 years in business, all our wins, all our losses and most importantly the lessons we’ve learned along the way and packaged them to create a unique service.

We can’t wait to share more about The Entrepreneurs Loft but for now, this is the link to the new microsite. https://entrepreneursloft.co

Drop us a line, let us know your thoughts and as always, if there is anything we can help with – please don’t hesitate to let us know?

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

<<< To see more of the loft’s brand solutions 

To check out The Entrepreneurs Loft >>>

08
Jul

Looking for Freelance Designers/Web-Designers

Hi folks, due to lots of lovely creative projects, we’re looking for designers/web-designers that can help us out over the next couple of weeks.

If you know your way around WordPress (and possibly Elementor too) give us a shout, we’d love to hear from you…

Thank you please.

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is thrilled to manage a great team, work with brilliant clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

17
Apr

Maximising Creative Budgets, 6 Quick Tips…

‘Making Every Penny of Money & Every Second of Time Count’

Throughout the years, it’s been our mission to make sure that our clients (and ourselves for that matter) maximise every single bit of time and money we’ve got when taking on creative projects… Exceeding expectations is always the goal, here are a couple of quick pointers on how we do this.

1. Be Unashamedly Commercial
Sometimes we’re bombarded with choice – what kind of project? Website updates, infographics, social campaigns, etc. Do we enhance what we have or start again? At the loft, we start with a budget, write a list of activities and then prioritise the ones that deliver the most benefit first . The more commercially valuable a project, the more bought-in the management team will be and the more you’ll enjoy the process.

2. Being Organised Delivers Better Results
If you’re having quality case-studies written by a professional copy-writer, have them spend a tiny bit more time re-formatting the content for your social channels. If your photographer is on-site doing individual pics of the team for the website – again see if you can have those pics re-formatted for social media, for brochures, or even for future press-releases, etc… Also, when you’ve got a professional on-site look to get as many activities as possible in one visit – your provider’s set-up and travel times will eat into your creative budget so best to take a full-day packed with great activities to get more high-quality content than 2 x half-days, etc… Just make sure you provide a good lunch and lots of good coffee. However, and this is a big proviso, this is all dependant on you being organised from the outset, so every time you’re engaging a creative professional or agency. Think what else their time could be used to give additional value. In all honesty, good providers should be making you aware of these value-adds beforehand.

3. Become Invaluable To Your Provider.
The company that can give more work to one agency, one photographer, one designer, etc will undoubtedly become more valuable to that provider which should allow you to command better rates or terms.

4. Direct is Fine
Seriously. Most creatives love working with decisive, no-nonsense types of clients that know exactly what they want and who may even be quite blunt with their feedback. Almost, the yin to their yangs. It saves so much time for everybody involved. I’m not saying be deliberately mean but clear about what you’re looking for.

5. Fast Deadlines
Fast deadlines are wonderful for maximising efficiency – everybody just has to be focussed, concentrated and on their game from the get-go. Also, most good creative providers are usually quite happy to know that there is a deadline to protect against spec creep and therefore their profit margins. However, proceed with caution, be reasonable with your requests and consider using this tactic sparingly. There is a line and it’s best not to cross it – you’ll know from the provider’s reaction when you’re close.

6. Ask For Reference Images Or Even Sketches
If you’re not entirely certain of what you want, then simply ask the agency/creative provider to take a very small amount of time to provide some reference examples from their folio, some other examples from other providers or even a quick series of sketches, etc… This will help you to more quickly understand what you want, respect your relationship and to de-risk the project for both yourself and the provider.

Just six quick tips from many years maximising creative budgets for our clients and ourselves.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is thrilled to manage a great team, work with brilliant clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.