This summer saw the release of AUFI's largest content initiative yet: THE CREATIVE STUDY. Over 50 of AUFI's agencies came together to offer their views on creativity and how they define it, explaining why it’s more important than ever for brands looking to rise above the noise in this current competitive consumer landscape.
To celebrate the launch, as well as the opening of our new AUFI HQ and ten years of us being in business, we invited our nearest and dearest to an exhibition of the study’s findings – held here, in the street-facing gallery we now call home.
See photos of the event below, alongside press snippets that profiled the study and its findings.
The full report can be found at THECREATIVE.STUDY
“In the creative industry, agencies are often hired for an intangible asset – their creative outlook. And, as these studios deliver subjective results, it’s hard to know how they measure their success or 'creativity.' Equally, how do they define a successful working culture today? A new study from creative consultancy AUFI attempts to get to the bottom of these concerns.”
IT’S NICE THAT
- Poppy Thaxter, The Brand IdentityCan you tell us about how The Creative Study began? Why was the project started?
Toby Wilkinson, AUFI co-founderThroughout AUFI’s existence, we’ve always been driven to make unique content with the agency partners we work with. Celebrating our 10th Birthday this year meant we wanted to up the ante a little, and a conversation with Made Thought (the agency we’ve worked with for the majority of our content initiatives) led to the idea of TCS.
- PTHow did you go about deciding the content you needed, and then successfully gather it from the contributing studios?
Nick Bell, AUFI co-founderWe worked internally along with Duology and Made Thought to build a set of questions that would form the backbone of the study. From there, we used a digital tool called Vurvey that uses bleeding-edge video technology to interview each respondent before extrapolating data.
“The report is meant to inspire as much as it is be a resource”
AUFI CO-FOUNDER, NICK BELL
- PTWhat insights from the report particularly stand out to you?
TWWe asked creatives how they measure creativity, and ‘positive impact’ trended massively as the most popular answer. Squaring this against a resounding 0% vote for ‘awards’ tells of the mindset creatives are in these days, as opposed to the culture a few years ago.
NBMore creatives are joining leadership teams, signifying a change in how brands seek to protect and promote creativity. Creativity is being deployed and measured at the highest level of organisations to help shovel global challenges. Heightened expectations around design mean consumers demand evermore creative solutions – and there’s never been a better time to be a designer.
TWWith regards to DEI, what’s now clear is that creative service agencies, as well as the clients who engage them, have come to a crossroads: ‘Disrupt or Die’ is the attitude the right futurists will take.
