cubo
Creative Department
Cubo's creative department is a talented and diverse bunch, united by a passion to produce consistently original and exciting work. Our salad-munching studio head has a background in digital media; our cereal-crunching design dude comes from youth marketing and fashion and our tea-guzzling creative director is an ex-indie rock star who pursued his first love of advertising after his royalty cheques fizzled out.
Brand Reality
This is a technique we invented a few years back to help us get under the skin and down to the bones of the brands we have the pleasure of working on. Basically, it's a more engaging version of research; we gather groups of relevant people in environments appropriate to the product in question, then talk to them and film their responses. For a university, we interviewed and filmed sixth form students in their schools; for a premium whisky, we shot the opinions of bartenders in top clubs. It's a serious endeavour, useful to the client just as much as us, but we always make it entertaining. You could describe Brand Reality as A.C.Nielsen meets Leslie Nielsen.
Planning
We're very serious about planning. We think it's imperative to submit every brand, product and problem we encounter to intense analysis before any creative ideas are generated. In fact, we're so obsessive about developing incisive and rock solid strategies from which to build our concepts that the time we spend up front getting into a product is almost unhealthy. (You should see our planning director's drinks cabinet!)
Account Handling
Cubo's account handlers are as affable as they are hard-working. Self-centred and pushy they are not. Collaborative and understanding they most certainly are. It's something we've been careful to maintain as great relationships with clients are crucial to our culture. There are no prima-donnas here and that could be why our three largest clients have been with us for a combined total of twenty-two years. (We even know some of their first names now.)
Founders
They say when two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary. Well the chalk-and-cheese duo that started Cubo back in 1995 certainly don't always agree, despite being great friends. Their vision was for an agency built upon intense, intelligent debate in order to find the most effective marketing solutions. In fact, they established a very rigorous three-point criteria which everyone at Cubo keeps in mind: be clear what the brand owner, the customers and the consumers need and create ideas which compel all three.
Filming
We love moving image here at Cubo. We don't exactly do loads of TV ads, but we do like to make little movies. Short, investigative films about brands, getting to the heart of the matter and identifying issues such as what consumers really think about the products they buy and what compels them to spend their spare cash on something which is essentially a luxury. We also make corporate videos and deluxe presentation films for special events in spectacular places as far-flung as Australia (and Scotland).
