How this creative director makes massively memorable marketing material

For Alex Wilson, Executive Creative Director at Amplify Making marketing content is like creating anything else: it's all about grabbing (and holding) the attention of people. "You could inform using your lens through entertainment" Alex says. Alex. "I find that most people do not mind being marketed or sold to if they enjoy this."

Amplify is a world-class creative agency that is specialized in the field of experiential marketing. They create big-scale events and experiences for brands like Playstation, Netflix, Levi's, and many more. "We are able to bring our creativity to life on all platforms," says Alex. "Historically we've been referred to as more of a brand agency for experience, however content was always at the heart of what we were doing."

We had the opportunity to sit down with Alex to discuss his process of creation and perspectives on the current marketing environment. Find out what he said in the conversation or view the video below.

What's you North Star when it comes to creating video?

"Our goal is to inform and entertain. I think that's one of the true powers that video media has. You can achieve this with a devoted audience. When someone is brought to us, perhaps wanting make use of this technology in order to do some thing, we consider this moment in terms of a singular scene or canvas that is part of a larger work of story telling."

How do you make sure that you're creating something of quality? What keeps you on track?

"Audience, always. Whoever we're talking to is what matters most. Are you communicating with them in the places they want to be spoken to in the manner they want to be spoken to? It is important to begin by focusing on the audience, and then how you can best speak to them and bring their experience to them. To not interrupt their interaction, but rather enhance it."

How do you know what kind of content is right for your particular client?

"Whether it's an immersive TV show to find the biggest fan of a certain TV show for Netflix and whether or not it's about creating a world around a smartphone and breaking the norm of the retail space to be, or unveiling the most recent shoe, the latest game. All our work starts with the viewer and eventually the concept of how to implement that concept through a variety of platforms.

We aren't always able to be working towards a particular result. Our clients' briefs are often sent from that direction however, what this compromise, collaboration and co-creation originates from. is allowing you to find the ideal solution regardless of whether it was exactly what they believed that it would be in the first place."

How can you assess the results of your efforts?

"For us, it's about 'Did we tell that story authentically for the people we created the story for?' That's always what we need to understand. We work a lot with different cultures and subcultures. We have an amazing strategic part of our agency that looks at the culture. As an agency, been extremely close to that.

We try to work with the individual rather than broadcasting to them. We invite them in to co-create and aid us in the creation of the content and experiences together, in order so that it's successful for them and their viewers. The question is layered about what success could be, however if we have outputted that work using a method that was accepted by the viewers and was well-received by the audience, that's a great victory for us."

What's the best advice you've ever received?

"My chief creative director, Jeavon Smith, said the phrase to me 'Ignore the noise. I believe that the ability to ignore noise is beneficial in all kinds of contexts. It lets you concentrate only on the work you're here to achieve and the other things that will be doing with each other and work in a cohesive manner because there's plenty of noise that goes on."

How do you use ?

"Lots of employees within the studio and agency use it in lots of different ways. It is most definitely one of them. The discovery of new talent is a really good one we can do for ourselves. For internal usage, we speak about our body of work ultimately as a portfolio of work. When we need to find examples of work we've done or capture this in some way, gives us a way to return and retrieve the information that we have."