When a founder tells us their brand should be “less nicey-nicey, more fighty-fighty,” you know this isn’t a conventional client.
Our client combines real edge with deep values but works in construction; a cautious, risk-averse sector. Our task: help them speak from the heart, without scaring off planners, developers, and decision-makers.
That truth didn’t come from desk research. It emerged in workshops and interviews. The founder’s “fighty-fighty” remark and a design lead describing her personal family attachment to a successful project as the “cherry on the cake” were just two moments that helped us shape a new, edgy but pragmatic tone for the brand.
It only looks like more work
Showing up might feel like extra work. But what you witness in person hits your body as well as your brain, which makes the creative process flow. Relationships deepen, strategy is sharpened and ideas hit their mark.
As Rory Sutherland puts it: “The best insights are irrational, anecdotal and gained through osmosis.”
In this age of virtual everything, there is still no analogue for actual connection. Language and meaning are social experiences. And strategy is a multi-sensory, social art.
The rise of surface-level branding
A 2023 Marketing Week survey found nearly half of marketers now spend less time on discovery than five years ago. The result is brands that tick boxes but don’t resonate. Tone of voice guidelines without any differentiation. Campaigns that vanish into the noise. No wonder only 30% of consumers feel that brand leaders understand their lives (Edelman, 2024).
Mimicries of connection fall flat. Take Pepsi’s infamous Kendall Jenner ad; meant to signal social solidarity but farcically disconnected from reality and widely mocked.
Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted
There’s a long creative tradition of showing up. The legendary “Vorsprung durch Technik” Audi line wasn’t born in a boardroom; it was spotted on a factory wall. TFL’s “Every Journey Matters” campaign came from a copywriter riding the Circle Line with a notebook and pen.
In-person discovery rarely delivers the finished solution. But it uncovers what matters: truth. From truth flows clarity, creativity, and voice.
To help brave brands find their voices, we must get close enough to hear them. Reclaiming nuance and truth begins by reclaiming the room.
Written by Piers Eccleston
