Uniting a community of next gen crafters
Brother USA partnered with Bridgemark to create a congruent eco-system designed around the launch of an app targeted to younger users of their sewing, embroidery, and cutting machines.
Although Brother’s idea to create a community of online crafters was still in its infancy when we were engaged, we knew immediately that the task was far more complex than simply launching an app.
Recognizing the opportunity to create a dynamic brand world, we needed to understand consumer behaviour. Our strategy began with a simple insight: making is rarely a single-skill activity. Rather than seeing consumers as users of individual machines, we saw them as multi-talented makers and artists whose talents are realized through multiple disciplines.
Shifting the focus from a product-focused, task-based tool to a platform for artistic inspiration and expression provided the foundation and the freedom for our creative team to let their imaginations soar.
And so Artspira was born.
Just as the app promised, the name we developed was an all-in-one combination of art and inspiration.
Launching it required we develop an extensive collection of digital assets, including advertising, social content, video, web, and product communications that would effectively build awareness and encourage discovery of Artspira’s world of possibilities. Adding further complexity was the introduction of a new series of machines designed specifically for use with Artspira. Each product required its own identity, messaging, visual asset library, and packaging – all belonging within the Artspira-verse.
Our visual and strategic framework clearly connected the machines to the app while highlighting the uniqueness of each product in a way that was consistently intuitive and engaging. Additionally, we created a comprehensive brand playbook that provided internal teams and agency partners with clear guidance for future launches, digital executions, and app-adjacent products.
FUN FACT: Our design team created project content Artspira users could download to create their own projects directly from the app.
Since launch, the Artspira-verse continues to grow with newly introduced tiered subscription plans and a regularly updated library of content to reach its more than 80,000 users across the globe.
CHALLENGE
Brother USA was known for its long history and vast selection of reliable sewing and crafting machines. Following category norms, the brand marketed to their consumers based on individual machine type. This fragmented approach limited their opportunity to encourage cross-product usage, and in doing so, the brand fulfilled a functional, task-based consumer need, not an inspirational one.
SOLUTION
We worked with Brother to help launch an app based on the principal that there is an artistry to making. Understanding that projects typically require proficiency across a multitude of skills including, sewing, cutting, embroidering, and printing, the app would reveal a world of possibilities for consumers who weren’t simply single-skilled crafters, but multi-talented artists.
CREATIVE/ASSET DEVELOPMENT
The launch required a library of digital components, including ads, social content, and videos for Artspira as well as a series of new machines specifically designed for compatibility with the app. Adding to the complexity of the project, each machine was required its own identity and catalogue of unique assets.
Our solution was a communication system that visually linked the machines to the app in a clear, intuitive way. Then, to ease future rollouts, we wrote a comprehensive playbook – providing agency partners with guidance on the digital execution of the brand and Artspira-adjacent products.
IMPACT
By launching Artspira as a single creative platform, we drove incremental sales beyond the machine purchase, aligned divisions for more efficient marketing spends, and unified Brother’s presence in the category, as well as within their organization.
Creating a community of artists and connecting them to inspiring ideas as well as to each other, the app has expanded with tiered, subscription-based offerings, and has more than 80,000 users (and growing!) across the world.
SERVICES
- Design System Toolkit
- Strategy & Insight
- Naming
- Ideation
- Storyboarding & Copywriting
- Video Production/ Propping/Styling/Direction
- Video Editing
- Social Media Content Creation
- Website Design
- Media Planning
- Asset Library Development
- Digital Brand Playbook Development