Rethinking creative partnerships to build brands

Directors Dean Proudfoot, Dave Way and Phill Small from creative agency Watermark Creative answer some pressing questions around why the right creative business partnership could be your brand’s ticket to success.

NZB: There’s been a marked shift in business’ understanding of the commercial power of creativity over the past 20 years. What is one of the key messages that businesses should be hearing?

Phill: So true. Today businesses in the B2B and B2C sectors acknowledge creativity as a commercial imperative. Communicating what that means and how creative brand marketing can benefit and drive ROI, is key. While much of our work is channelled through advertising and design agencies, brands themselves see creativity’s application and power more clearly than ever before, a shift that parallels the exponential growth in consumers’ expectations from brands.

Marketers acknowledge that brands with diverse and adventurous expressions are those that can create lasting relationships, and offer more meaning to their consumers. Brands are using creative and strategic executions to add value to our daily interactions not only impacting the bottom line but playing out socially and culturally too.

NZB: Branding is a big word. Can you describe how a creative agency’s contribution works in the broader strategic context of successful branding.

Dave: We’re all growing weary hearing the same brand jargon, so we need to keep the thinking around much of it fresh and reinvigorated. An example is brand storytelling. This is a term that comes into play once the strategy has been defined. Creative brand storytelling needs to be consistent with the essence of a brand. It needs to bring a brand to life using multi-sensory cues – most often visually, physically and aurally. It lives on TV, on supermarket shelves, as apps on iTunes or in physical spaces such as five-star restaurants or a corporate HQ. We help to create value and relevance to the consumer by adding the emotional layer to the brand-consumer relationship. If your brand story can tap into your consumers’ personal stories then that’s when you’ll see the results.

NZB: Illustration plays a role in brand success and has evolved beyond traditional perceptions. Can you explain?


Dean: Illustration’s evolution from the perspective of technology and medium has radically changed over the years and during that time the business has learned that we have a unique ability to express ideas and stories that can play a significant role in brand success. Today, brand storytelling and experiences are playing out in exciting spaces and applied by sectors that traditionally may have considered marketing activity of this kind as either indulgent or irrelevant.

NZB: It could be argued the balance of power for commercial creatives has shifted. Parents used to steer kids away from a creative career. What would be your advice now?


Dean: Commercial artists are understanding the value and versatility of their skills – they’re most definitely in the hot seat – helped by the market’s fragmentation and the resulting opportunities. It’s great to see brands and companies develop more trusting relationships with creativity. If you have the confidence and passion, then a career in visual communications can be a highly successful one. As a business we support and foster creative individualism, push skill sets and encourage both artist and brand to realise their vision.

NZB: Where do you see technology as having influenced the success of brands? How do you see the role of technology in brand building?

Dave: Moving forward with interactive and emerging technologies puts us in a unique position to handle projects with a broad range of visual treatments. We are extremely fortunate that technology has dramatically broadened the playing field. It’s our unique ability to create digital solutions that have strong visual components that enable us to deliver effective and highly engaging digital outcomes for brands.

As passionate artists, animators and commercial illustrators, we are continually developing creative strategies to add value to brands. We picked up three Silver and three Bronze in this year’s NZ Best Awards. Of the three Bronze, ‘The Story of Santa’s Star’ was Myer’s 2016 Christmas campaign. It’s a strong interactive example of how brands are using both technology and storytelling to build and maintain consumer relationships. 

Supplied by Watermark Creative.