A GROWING Derby business that has undergone a huge transformation over the last 12 months says it wants to ‘push people locally to be more ambitious through their marketing’ after working on a national campaign with a leading sausage maker.
Visual marketing agency Briight is led by creative entrepreneurs Rob Dawes and Drew Taylour-Davis. The pair have worked with some popular local businesses as well as campaigns for household names, including the BBC, Microsoft, and, most recently, HECK.
The North Yorkshire-based supplier of sausages to most major supermarkets announced last year that it was to invest heavily in advertising and Briight created a promo video for them, complete with an eye-catching choreographed dance routine, creating the UK’s first sausage soundtrack that is available to stream on Spotify.
HECK co-founder Jamie Keeble said: “We are always trying to do things differently and show everyone the real personality of the business and the people behind it. I’m no natural when it comes to dancing, but it was great fun learning the routines and we hope that the brilliant video will put a smile on people’s faces.”
“It was great to work with the team at HECK,” said Rob.
“Most of our video work – more than 50% – is done in London but we want to encourage others to invest in Derby, because it’s a great city known for its creativity and innovation.
“We have an abundance of great filming locations locally, whether it’s a countryside location, somewhere more urban, or at our fully-equipped studio space in the city.
“Our ambition at Briight is to host a creative space that can help nurture talent and produce great work. We want to push people locally to be more ambitious, understand the power of great marketing, and apply it at SME level.
“Drew and I are both creatives; but we also love business.
“We want to help businesses, and alongside the services we provide, we’ve launched a networking event called ‘Briight’s Social Slice’ which is held on the last Wednesday of every month. It came about after Drew and I bonded over making pizzas during lockdown and thought we could take it into the business!
“The event is always very informal and is a great way for the business and creative industries in Derby and Derbyshire to get together – over pizza and a beer.”
Rob and Drew have been running an agency together for more than eight years. In 2021 – on Christmas Eve – they exchanged contracts on their new studio, in Jubilee Business Park.
They transformed the entire building in early 2022 to create an enjoyable space for their team to work and allow creativity to flow.
Post-covid, there had been an increased demand in businesses of all sizes venturing into content creation – thanks partly to the constant rise of visual-first social media platforms and an increased desire to stand out online. Rob and Drew saw a gap in the market for a creative marketing company with a difference; one that could supply exciting visual content, supported and enhanced by traditional marketing, strategy, design and paid advertising campaigns.
They received financial support from organisations such as D2N2, enabling them to spend more than £15k on renovation work.
Briight – a talented team of six with plans to grow organically – used local firms such as Code 56 for their IT needs, Lemon Signs for their signage and weren’t afraid to get stuck in themselves.
Not wanting to rest on their laurels, however, there are further plans to improve the building which also boasts a podcasting studio that has been a huge hit with members of the Briight team.
Their podcast, BriightCast, aimed at marketing and business professionals, reached number two in the Apple charts and with season two underway, the team are determined to have some big names in marketing make an appearance on their podcast.
“The aim of BriightCast is to show our ambition, vision and purpose, but primarily it’s about providing valuable marketing tips to listeners,” said marketing manager Jess Frearson.
“We want to give a peek into life at Briight, share insights from inside a visual marketing company and also feature lessons from our experiences and other special guests; people involved in marketing locally, nationally and globally.
“We are excited about the new season of the podcast, especially with the first one doing so well. As well as reaching number two in Apple’s Marketing chart, we also broke into the Top 40 for the business category, which was just one scroll away from the likes of Diary of a CEO by Dragons Den star and global entrepreneur, Steven Bartlett. That felt pretty good.”
