This year, VSAers are embarking on an ambitious journey to redesign logos, websites, apps, packaging and more. It’s our contribution to businesses, brands and society by exploring potential solutions to the many types of expressions and experiences in the world we think have the potential of being better. We have not been commissioned for these solutions, but rather it’s our passion for great creativity that motivates us.
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In some instances, we’ll be considering what exists today. At other times, we’ll consider the opportunity for something yet to be solved, but we see it as critical for the future.
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Visit design4better.co to see the ever-evolving sketchpad for ambitious concepts that push design and organizations forward. From bold ideas to new interactions, we create with curiosity and purpose.
FactSet, a global financial digital platform and enterprise solutions provider, has unveiled a new campaign that is a smart departure from category norms.
Titled “Not Just The Facts,” the campaign shows what happens when members of the investment community are pelted with increasingly absurd and irrelevant facts. The ending reminds viewers that getting just facts—without context or personalization—is useless.
“The premise is comedic, but the point it makes is 100% true: The investment community is overwhelmed with information,” said FactSet CMO Jenifer Brooks. “FactSet provides our clients with industry-leading breadth and depth of data through an intelligent platform that ensures they’re getting not just the facts, but also the context they need to make the most of these facts.”
For more than 40 years, FactSet has been creating flexible, open data and technology solutions that help investors make crucial decisions; today, FactSet serves over 206,000 investment professionals worldwide. Building on this momentum, FactSet was ready to come out with a strong, differentiating point of view to build awareness of its offerings.
“The best way to stand out is to do something really memorable and different, and FactSet really embraced that with this campaign,” said Kim Mickenberg, Associate Partner and Executive Creative Director at VSA. “There’s a misconception that B2B advertising has to be less interesting and emotional than consumer-facing ads, but the truth is that B2B buyers are people, too—and people love to laugh.”
The truth is that B2B buyers are people, too—and people love to laugh.”
The spots were directed by Thinking Machine’s Docter Twins, who worked closely with the broader team to ensure an excellent shoot.
“You know it’s a special project when the entire crew is enjoying each take just as much as the agency and client,” said Matthew Docter.
“We got involved early on because Kim’s scripts were so good, and we couldn't have asked for a more creative collaboration,” Jason Docter added. “The teamwork on set kept us nimble and enabled us to capture a lot in a single shoot day.”
“From the start, we were inspired by FactSet’s story, the clarity of their point of view and their willingness to do something really different in the space,” said Mickenberg. “We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with FactSet and our collaboration with Thinking Machine, and we couldn’t be more excited about the work.”
The campaign is rolling out across digital, streaming and CTV this week.
FactSet (NYSE: FDS) helps the financial community see more, think bigger and work better. Our digital platform and enterprise solutions deliver financial data, analytics and open technology to nearly 8,000 global clients, including over 206,000 individual users. Clients across the buy side and sell side, as well as wealth managers, private equity firms and corporations, achieve more every day with our comprehensive and connected content, flexible next-generation workflow solutions, and client-centric specialized support. As a member of the S&P 500, we are committed to sustainable growth and have been recognized among the Best Places to Work in 2023 by Glassdoor as a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award winner. Learn more and follow us on X and LinkedIn.
Thinking Machine is a Los Angeles–based commercial production company specializing in creative storytelling.
VSA’s CEO Anne-Marie Rosser was recently interviewed by AdForum's India Fizer to discuss how she believes the advertising industry can create more gender parity.
From the importance of cultivating a network early in your career to combating ageism, check out Anne-Marie’s thoughts on fostering better workplaces for women below, or view the original article.
There are so many simple but meaningful things that we can do. For starters, I try to always say yes to young women who reach out to me asking to learn more about the industry. It’s easy to do and I always want to encourage young women who put themselves out there.
I also tell women early on to build their network and to nurture it. It’s something I didn’t know starting out, and it’s imperative. Calling women into group conversations is really important, particularly in a hybrid workforce. Fostering a safe space where they can be heard and have room to contribute builds confidence.
And finally, from what I’ve seen, women in general tend to have more impostor syndrome. So celebrating successes, calling out women’s achievements and encouraging women to advocate for their place are all key leadership contributions to helping younger women succeed.
This is a broader societal issue, but I think one simple way is to demystify the topic of age with women. I don’t try to hide my age, and I comfortably tell people my age—even if I understand that this may cause discomfort. But we have a long way to go in this regard. There is still a heavy bias that women of a certain age have nothing to contribute and the best way to prove this wrong is to be active and to stay in the workforce in leadership positions as long as men do.
One of the best aspects of being involved in marketing is that it allows you to peek behind the scenes of multiple industries and companies without having to work in them. I’ve been able to see firsthand the company cultures in multiple finance firms, the tech sector, CPG and retail. Within those, you sometimes see microcosms of cultures that appear to more consistently support women and those that don’t.
I was lucky enough to get to have a seat at the table with Fortune 100 CEOs from when I was relatively young. This exposure gave me the confidence to demand a seat at the table in my own company throughout my career. It’s also allowed me to accept that I don’t need to model my leadership style based on my male colleagues—I can put forth my own leadership style, driven by empathy, humor and accountability.
There is still a heavy bias that women of a certain age have nothing to contribute. The best way to prove this wrong is to be active and to stay in the workforce in leadership positions as long as men do.”
The question positions women as “digital pioneers,” and I just think this is inherently powerful in and of itself. Having young women who are fluent in technology from the jump feels like an important change because it’s so integral to our world now. I see young women already changing the workforce by better understanding their value, more clearly competing for work or mindshare within an agency, and advocating for their own growth and compensation. It’s exciting!
VSA Associate Partner and Executive Director of Production Tarek El-Mofty was recently interviewed by AdForum. During the interview, Tarek discussed his views on the future of production—particularly, how to create authentic and relevant campaigns and user experiences.
Tarek and author India Fizer cover the importance of listening tools in campaign creation and how they serve as real-time focus groups. They also discuss how VSA approaches cross-cultural campaigns by emphasizing intersectionality during audience research and how that ladders down to different audience needs.
Tarek also shares his thoughts on how augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) can be used to improve user experiences, and how new technologies might deepen the impact of these interactions:
”With the emergence of Apple Vision Pro and the possibilities of 3D cameras and video, we’re about to see a whole new evolution of these mediums. Apple Vision Pro seamlessly integrates AR/VR for a truly blended reality. This technology can create immersive 3D videos with captured depth perception as well as allow for object recognition and tracking. Overall, it will create better virtual environments and even more practical applications.”
VSA’s Jessica Sochol was recently interviewed by AdForum to give insights on the expansion of retail media. During the interview, she discusses the reasons and trends behind the boom of retail media, how retail brands can adapt and use new technologies to improve customer experience, and what that means for brick and mortar locations.
Jessica points to three trends that have propelled the growth of retail media: the rise of retail content creation, the explosion of the digital big-box retailer, and the rise of social media marketing.
She also shares how brands can use personalization to supercharge their CX:
”Brands need to get their data in order, ensuring every customer interaction treats the customer like you’ve met before. That means remembering previous orders, recommending related, relevant products, and offering unique customer service and offers that recognize the existing relationship. As retailers expand their media arms, they have access to more data—especially around the topics and issues each customer cares about—and should be ready to use that information to show up in a way that says, ‘We see you, and we appreciate you.’”
Check out the full article, which includes additional insights about designing retail experiences for Gen Z and Gen A, as well as how to create a powerful physical-digital connection between customer experiences.
VSA Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber was recently a guest on Greg Kihlström’s podcast, “The Agile Brand.” In this episode, Curt and Greg explore the benefits of stakeholder design and how organizations can implement it into their own business practices.
Stakeholder design emphasizes the importance of optimizing outcomes for multiple stakeholders, which could be shareholders, employees, customers or even outside groups, like nonprofits or social justice organizations. Curt has previously worked with Jon Iwata and the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management on “The New Brief,” which gathered 60 business leaders, designers and strategic thinkers to develop new ideas and processes for stakeholder design.
Curt outlines why stakeholder design has become critical to success and innovation. First, CEOs today face ever-increasing pressure to meet the needs of multiple groups but often feel underprepared to lead in this landscape. Stakeholder design can help manage optimal outcomes for these sometimes opposing demands, and support CEOs as they respond to these new expectations.
It also yields more creative solutions that drive growth. Stakeholder design naturally involves a greater set of constraints, which Curt explains are essential for encouraging outside-the-box design thinking. Its practice involves breaking down siloed departments and cross-collaboration that can spark innovative thinking.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Curt about how businesses can implement stakeholder design, the value of horizontal thinking over vertical thinking and why stakeholder design can help you bring value to more people than ever before.
VSA Chief Growth Officer Ariadna Navarro recently appeared on an episode of “CMO Convo,” hosted by Will Whitham, to discuss how chief marketing officers (CMOs) can overcome today’s biggest challenges—including how to get buy-in from their fellow executives on the importance of brand as a business asset.
With the increased ability to measure and trace results, CMOs today are often held to hard metrics and KPIs that need to be realized immediately. But, paradoxically, brands can sometimes take years to build, and short-term tactics may compromise long-term success.
If a CMO doesn’t already have a mutual understanding with other business leaders about the critical role brand plays, they are going to have an uphill battle. Still, they can aid their cause by showing how brand can be used as the filter through which all decisions are made, as well as demonstrating how brand can help other executives meet their own KPIs.
Check out the full podcast to hear more about how CMOs can navigate the new marketing and business landscape, including how to build strategic partnerships among other executives and teams for shared success, why emotion is so critical in marketing and how to measure it, and Ari’s three golden rules for CMO success.
