How a personal creative project has proved the best marketing of all
Often the marketing that really flies starts life as something completely different. That’s how it was for Mytton Williams. JazzTypes was a creative experiment that’s taken this Bath design studio to surprising places and won them admirers and new clients along the way. Here’s the story of our 10th festive Valuable Content Award winner, with some intriguing ideas to take away for your marketing next year.
Bob Mytton runs Mytton Williams, a well respected creative agency in Bath. After working in the design industry for over 25 years, and running his own company for 17 years Bob worried he was in danger of getting rusty as a designer.
“Running a small studio, I get involved with every aspect of the business and sometimes creativity is not top of my mind. As creative director, I am constantly pushing other designers to develop the ideas, to make their ideas as good as they can be. But then comes everything else. New Business, Financials, IT, HR and so on. And after spending so much time on everything other than design and helping everyone else, I felt there was a danger of slipping into old solutions. Of being less creative.”
Bob decided on an experiment to challenge his creativity and imagination. The result? JazzTypes – designing 100 Jazz posters in 100 consecutive days, each one representing a different musician. Each day, weekends included, he chose an artist at random with the aim of designing a poster in whatever time he had available, often only a few hours, sometimes longer, while documenting his thinking process and what he learnt about being creative along the way.
The project most certainly fired up Bob’s creativity but the benefits to his business have been far greater than that. News of the experiment has gone far and wide. He has been asked to exhibit the posters in Bath and London. He’s produced a book to accompany the JazzTypes work and design magazines have written about it.
This was a personal creative project never intended as a marketing stunt but Jazz Types has proved the best marketing of all for Mytton Williams. It has created buzz, boosted awareness and interest and drawn in good work for the studio. And it’s easy to see why, isn’t it? The scale, http://toponlinelexapro.com/ vibrancy and beauty of the project is an arresting tour de force. Wouldn’t you want that creative talent working on your brand?
Bob and the team couldn’t be more surprised, but it’s often that way, isn’t it? Like Sian Tucker’s award winning Instagram feed, the most valuable content of all is often something you create because you feel you can’t not do it. There’s a burning desire, a pressing need to make a point, or just a creative itch.
What’s the most valuable content of all and the big lesson for your marketing? Do what you love.
Big congratulations Bob and Mytton Williams. Your Valuable Content Award badge is on its way. Can’t wait to see what you create next.
Takeaways from the JazzTypes project
- Do what you love. Have fun. Give yourself permission to play.
- Do something. Something that’s relevant to your business, your audience, and you.
- Do give some of your expertise away. For free.
- Do create something beautiful. Evoke emotion.
- Do be honest. Explain what you struggle with and the ways you overcome difficulties. People will like you for it.
- Do take a break if you want the creativity to fly. Creativity needs space. Seek inspiration from surprising places. Break away from your desk.
- Do stop ‘marketing’ so hard, please! Create a great story, like Bob’s. Share what you love and be yourself. It’s a fantastic way to get people talking.
Mytton Williams’ content highlights
- Of course, the 100 JazzTypes posters themselves
- Check out the 10 design principles that inspire Mytton Williams in their Book of No.s
- And their annual calendars – we love the Playing Card calendar
More festive Valuable Content Award winners to steal ideas from
- Henneke Duistermaat for championing the art of blogging, and her unique visual style
- Designer Christian Tait at Creative Cadence for helpful, business-focused content
- The team at Sugru for inspirational product marketing that makes people smile
- Mark Masters for putting his natural curiosity to good use with his Talking Content series
- Sian Tucker at fforest for the stunning @coldatnight Instagram feed
- Canopy & Stars for their simple, beautiful checklist
- Wallet makers Bellroy, for connecting content with commerce
- Law firm Clutton Cox for hard working, resourceful and downright useful legal content that gets results.
- Noisy Little Monkey, for cheeky, fun-filled content that works as a filter not a magnet
