What is “thinking” at B&Y? It’s a question we get from customers and prospects fairly often. Sure, everyone knows what thinking is in its basic form. But at B&Y, it acts as our mantra, our rally cry, the very thing that makes us…us. I mean, it’s right there in our tagline: “We think. You win.” So, what IS thinking at B&Y?
It’s applying psychology and “guts” to take you places. It’s collaboration and customer-focused solutions. It’s creativity and concepting beyond the expected. It’s our business acumen and fearless creative minds. It’s results. It’s ROI. It’s humility. It’s growth. It’s people who treat our clients’ budgets like our own.
In a nutshell: B&Y thinking is the art and science of using both art and science to create a meaningful impact.
Here, we’re going to focus on the “Art” aspect. Check out Part 2 (coming soon!) for “Science.”
Art
- Experience / Gut
Ever get that feeling in your gut that you just can’t ignore? When you’ve been in the business for 30 years like we have, that gut feeling is STRONG. We’ve seen fads and mediums come and go. We’ve launched countless campaigns and seen both good ideas and bad ideas make it out the door. And we have endless amounts of experience to tap into to guide us toward making the best decisions for our clients. So, when we get a feeling that something is right or isn’t right, we usually listen. It’s one of those intangible qualities that is hard to measure but simply can’t be ignored.
- Creative ideas
Sometimes our clients want stable and predictable campaigns. And we’re more than happy to oblige. But anytime we get the assignment to “throw any and all ideas at us,” well let’s just say the creative juices start flowing — ideas from left field, right field, the dugout and everywhere in between come to the table. Or in our case, “The Wall.” This is where we fight for our ideas, poke holes in one another’s concepts, make some ideas stronger, cut others out and get down to the material worthy of presenting to our clients.
A few examples? How about representing fast recovery times and less invasive partial knee replacement procedures with an apple? How about shaking up the boat industry by presenting watercraft as though they were flying like airplanes? Or, changing the attitude of an entire industry to focus less on the engineering of a healthcare product and more on the lifestyle the product affords you?
And those are just the ideas the clients chose. Imagine what else we have on our roster.
- Inspiration by others and outside hobbies
We aren’t just introspective — and our creative teams aren’t just creative at work. Our staff members put on art exhibitions at local hotspots, woodwork, draw, paint, play in bands, collect enamel pins, create resin models, support non-profits and read extensively. Each of these hobbies contributes to their overall creativity and inspires the work we do for our clients. Basically, creativity runs through our veins.
Not to mention we are always watching and analyzing what others are doing. Many of us see ads and immediately begin dissecting the music choice, the color choice, who they are targeting and why, what the purpose of the ad was, etc. Does this make us workaholics? Well, maybe for some. But we think of it more as a passion and a culture dedicated to always learning.
- Knowledge of colors / fonts / linguistics
This topic could be considered both an art and a science. Studies show that colors, fonts and use of language can have psychological effects on the way people feel about, engage with and perceive a brand. This data makes it clear that these are critical elements to consider when creating a brand identity, ads, a website or any other customer-facing piece.
While we pay close attention to this data, we also have a deep-rooted understanding of those feelings we are trying to evoke. We can almost feel the fonts, colors, words, placement, spacing, semantics. This comes from years of experience, seeing popular styles come and go and come again. When you talk with our creative staff, you can tell they understand human feelings deeply and are connected to the art they are creating. This knowledge and these feelings come across to our clients and their customers as well.
All in all, what makes B&Y different is thinking. Here, we’ve focused on the role art plays in inspiring and driving us to create campaigns that make sense/feel right, are stunningly beautiful and have the experience/knowledge behind them to drive real results.
See how we apply Science in Part 2.
If you’re interested in talking with the B&Y team to have our thinking applied to your business’s goals, this is where you start!