How many people work at Positive?
We are currently a team of eleven, split between creative, technical and strategic roles.
Who are your clients and why do they choose you?
We’ve been lucky enough to create work for a rich mix of brands over the years and our current clients come from a range of sectors. They include: Bam Properties, Oxford University, The Prostate Cancer Charity and The Tour of Britain.
Clients choose us because we really understand digital. We create exciting, compelling digital comms and steer them through the digital environment at the same time. They use us as strategic partners because we’re open, friendly and we demystify digital for them. Plus we’re honest about the best way to maximise their budget to achieve both impact and return online.
Often our clients come to us as referrals and when they start working with us, they genuinely can’t believe the difference, because we keep our promises, hit our deadlines, and stick to our budgets.
What are the services you offer and how does good design influence them?
Today’s digital media world is big, complex and bristling with opportunities, so we don’t start a project with a preconceived idea of what a client needs. Instead, we get to know their business: where it needs to go and what’s in the way. Then we take a strategic look at how digital can help and where time and budget are best invested.
From scrutinising the user experience of a website to crafting an animation, good design is at the heart of everything we do. We have always believed that a great piece of digital communication needs to combine an inspired idea, the thoughtful application of technology, solid usability and stunning creative, and we’ve demonstrated the power of this approach time and again.
How has design helped your business, and the business of your clients?
We believe that life’s about doing more than just the necessary – the excitement comes when you aim higher, both creatively and technically. When you look for ways to achieve what you’ve been asked to, and then add a special something extra – that’s when you create brilliant digital communication.
Positive wouldn’t be the agency it is today without a commitment to great design underpinning everything we do. Keeping design at the core of our work has enabled us to work with some great brands and sit at the top table as their digital strategists. There are lots of digital agencies that can talk about the latest technical advances, but few who can genuinely combine innovative technical work with the considered creative that it deserves.
An effective online presence that sings the brand is something that all clients are striving for. But we often meet clients who have been confused by the possibilities of digital, and now their brand is compromised by functionality and their messaging diluted. So we remind them that prioritising design and content in the same way they would offline, and only deploying channels suitable for their audience, will realign their online presence with their brand values.
In what ways is good design valuable?
A great piece of design transforms a client’s business by connecting their brand with their audience and reaching them on an emotional level. Design should engage, inspire and inform – and that’s something we live and breathe in the studio, as well as the message we give our clients.
If a business does not use design as a tool, how would that impact upon them?
Whatever the size of a business, having a strong identity conveys the personality of your brand and what your offer is. Therefore using design wisely will ensure you stand out from your competitors and enhance your positioning. A well-designed piece of comms will do the talking for you and extend your reach, and if you ignore the potential of design, the chances are your competitors won’t.
For us design isn’t just a visual tool, the architecture of a website for example is based on the browsing habits of your audience and ensuring they reach the information they want quickly and perform the action you want them to. If users have trouble navigating or reading they will soon get frustrated and go elsewhere, and if no consideration has been given to the architecture of your site, a business can lose customers to competitors who are only a few clicks away.
How can what you do be applied to businesses in other sectors?
We work with businesses that want a partner to steer them through the complexities of digital and deliver great results. If a client believes in the potential of digital and recognises the importance of working with experts, then we want to work with them – whether they are a college or a cake shop.
We enjoy working across a variety of sectors because it keeps our ideas fresh and encourages us to stay ahead of the curve on behalf of our clients. Being sector-specific can lead to complacency and an unwillingness to stick your head above the parapet and draw comparisons (or gain inspiration) from elsewhere, but the challenges online are often similar across the board – ultimately, the digital world moves quickly and marketers are anxious that their brand might get left behind. Focusing objectives and finding the most effective way to communicate with an audience online is the problem that all businesses face, regardless of sector.