We treat a brand like a person
We’ve always been an agency with a different way of doing things, and that even applies to the directions we take project to project. Creative Director - and Robot Food employee number one - Martin Widdowfield explains our different approach to brand development.
We’ve always been about challenging
I came from a commercial background, so joining Robot Food, it was a breath of fresh air to have those shackles removed. My commercial brand experience married up nicely with Simon’s [Forster, Robot Food Founder and Executive Creative Director] more alternative angle. And as we’ve grown we’ve tried to keep that magic: it’s about great ideas, exciting ideas, trying to push what ideas can be.
This is what keeps bringing clients back. They come to us because there’s a commercial sensibility but we can still deliver something new and exciting.
There’s a lot of brands trying to say too much
They make it more complex than it is. There’s a lot of sameness in categories, because brands end up thinking they need to address every point that everyone else is making, and as a result they’re not standing out with a clear message.
Our great strength has always been an ability to cut through all that and get to that unique point of difference – and then express it as a really simple idea. That starts with our strategy, evaluating all the things brands are trying to say, then taking insight from inside and outside the category and turning that into a clear point of difference.
We give a brand a life, a personality, clothing. Everything’s got a life and soul underneath.
It’s all about a common thread
Think of the Coca-Cola example: if the brand itself were broken into many pieces, you’d still be able to recognize each fragment as uniquely Coke, no matter which piece you picked up. That’s what we’re trying to get to: an idea so singular that wherever it appears you know the brand. NAW is a great example of that. That single idea then lives in all these different executions across all the touchpoints, but you always get the same feeling from it.
Brief and rebrief
A lot of agencies probably just take the brief, start it, and do it. Actually, we question that from the beginning. We don’t just take the brief. If we think the brief doesn’t fully align with the client’s objectives, we engage in a collaborative process to refine it together, ensuring it meets their goals. I think that’s really unique at Robot Food.
This straight-talking approach is part of what allows us to give more than just creative advice. With our experience building brands, we’re helping clients understand from a business perspective how the brand can work.
I always feel like we treat every project like it's our own work. We’re a lot more self critical than most.
You need excitement
We live in a hyper connected world, everything’s moving so fast, it’s a challenge to stand out even a little bit. But ideas can’t just be ballsy for the sake of it. Disruption isn’t just smashing things up or being wacky. It’s about staying fresh and finding that excitement – that could just be subtly changing the narrative in a samey category. Like in the world of pet food where everyone is saying one thing - “natural” - how do you say that in a new and exciting way?
That shows you’re thinking differently, and it’s what keeps us motivated as a team. You’ve got to stay fresh for your own sanity and the brand’s.
Soul not statistics
We’re big on strategy, but we go beyond just demographics like ages, salary brackets, and the usual categories. It’s less about putting people in buckets and more about understanding the heart and soul of what they’re into, their interests, shared beliefs, and how we create brands that genuinely reflect those needs.
This is why we look outside the brand’s category so often… we’re getting into the customer mindset. And we think: if they’re into this other thing too, how can we use that as a way into the idea? That’s where the excitement comes from.
Outside edge
There has to be a little bit of gutsiness - we’ve always been fairly opinionated about how things work, or should work, and we try to have our finger on the pulse culturally. We don’t want to get old or start feeling out of date, or lose our edge.
That’s also reflected in how we build our team. We’ve got a lot of the team who are really active outside of work, too - they live and breathe design, and all sorts of other interests. Being passionate about things is a transferable trait.
Ready to bring your brand to life with soul and edge? Let’s chat!