Contrast Creative

It’s our big birthday! Contrast is officially 10 years old.

Much like parents we’re feeling proud and nostalgic. Proud not only to have survived but to have flourished in our first decade.

In October 2008 our Creative Director Ed, bravely left a leading creative agency to set up on his own i.e launch a business from his spare room. He began with one client and one simple but beautiful aim:

To create consistently great creative work, that challenges the ordinary.

Ed’s mission began while Gordon Brown was still somehow PM, trying to steer the country through the Great Recession. Girls Aloud were at number 1 and Cheryl still married to Ashley!

Social networking sites were about to explode. My Space was eclipsed by a 4 year-old platform, Facebook. Another new network Twitter was beginning to gain traction in the UK. Smartphone’s = Blackberry.

Jump forward to October 2018 and oh how times have changed. We not only Facebook but Snapchat, Whatsapp, Tweet and Instagram like we were born scrolling and swiping.

76% of the UK now own a smartphone. Social media & video consumption via a mobile device is so popular, we spend a whole 24 hours a week online, according to Ofcom. On average we check our phones every 12 minutes. New habits like this may explain why a quarter of people with a smartphone say they never use it to make voice calls.

All these technological advances have had a huge impact on the marketing and communications industry. In today’s connected world, it’s all about consumer centricity.

Communications need to offer consumers 100% transparency with your brand. Consumers expect a real relationship based on trust and authenticity and to be rewarded for their brand loyalty. As authenticity is key, social media influencers and video marketing are the shining stars of today’s marketing tool kit.

Creating engagement and experiences that are of value to consumers, is the gold-standard of a successful communications strategy.

Yet while things have changed so astronomically in the last decade, reassuringly some familiar features remain.

Our Contrast aim to “create consistently great creative work, that challenges the ordinary” has never been more in tune with the current demands on our industry.

Trusted old fashioned values like building great relationships and delivering exceptional service are still our goal. We still work with our first client, Pop Boutique, and client’s like Failsworth Hats, Rankin and CCS have worked with us for over 5 years.

In 10 years Contrast’s grown in both staff & stature. We’ve graduated through 3 premises. The one above a shop, to the one in an old bank in the leafy suburbs, to the one we inhabit today: the cool warehouse space in the city centre.

As we look ahead to the next ten years, Ed and the Team will continue to offer the very best of the old and new. We’ve got the tech skills, creativity and originality you need to move your business forward in modern times. And as always, we remain committed to our old -fashioned business values that build trust into every relationship with our clients.

Unlike Mr Brown and Girls Aloud these values will never fall out of favour.