- Michael Pettyt
It’s a brand new Tracks and Layers
Updated: Jun 20, 2022
In 2014, we set out to use our passion for moving images to help clients dazzle their audiences with epic stories. We are proud to have worked on some extraordinary projects with some equally extraordinary clients and have learned so much along the way.
With a strong foundation to build from, in 2021 we set our sights on refreshing the Tracks and Layers brand. Our goal was to communicate our evolution, create better online experiences for prospects and clients, and put us in a stronger position to recruit exciting new talent.
Now that our brand refresh is complete, we wanted to share with you what we’ve achieved working alongside our marketing partner, Mike Pye + Co. Keep reading to learn more.
Our transformation unwrapped
We knew evolving the brand would require specialist skills from an experienced team. This is why we were selective when choosing who to partner with for such a large-scale marketing project.
When we first met with the Mike Pye + Co team we instantly knew that we were in safe hands. Before the work began, they:
Spent time understanding our personalities, needs and challenges
Asked the right questions to truly understand who we are
Learnt how we like to work to make collaborating easy
The team helped us articulate our goals for the brand refresh. A big focus was communicating our knowledge and expertise, strengthening our position in the fields of motion design, visual effects and colour grading. Mike Pye + Co then presented a comprehensive marketing plan to be carried out over the next few months. This included:
Updating our brand positioning
We have always known exactly who we are and what we want to achieve through our work, but it’s not always easy to articulate this. Mike Pye + Co helped us put into words why we do what we do and how we stand out.
Above all else, we are creatives with a passion for motion graphics, visual effects and colour grading who push the boundaries to achieve exceptional results. We go deeper, go beyond, go further, and go together. This translates into better idea realisation, better outputs, better industry knowledge and better outcomes.
By emphasising this message across our marketing, Mike Pye + Co showed us how we can communicate our value and reach more clients who need our help.
Conducting deeper audience research
The best creative work comes from truly understanding our clients, their team, vision and customers. It’s why in-depth audience research is an essential part of offering better services and products - one of our key goals for the brand refresh.
Mike Pye + Co helped us to develop a variety of audience personas, combining our experience with high-level research. This allowed us to gain greater insight into what our potential clients need to achieve their creative ambitions. In doing so, we can focus on building more impactful relationships that result in even bigger benefits for our clients.
Defining our values
Too often do values become a vague list of corporate promises stuck on the wall. We wanted to make sure our values are a true representation of who we are - the core principles that guide everything we do.
Mike Pye + Co spent quality time understanding what drives us as a team and as individuals. From these in-depth discussions came five strong values:
Challenging conventions pushing ourselves to take things a step further and ask is there a better way?
Healthy team ensuring our colleagues can maintain balance in their lives
Removing friction creating seamless customer experiences
Open to collaboration Leverage the power of the team and work with an ever growing community of freelancers and studios
Always learning invest in training and develop exciting learning opportunities
These values are a true reflection of Tracks and Layers - we live and breathe them every day.
Nailing our tone of voice
Mike Pye + Co helped us nail our tone of voice across all communications. They showed us how the best parts of our personalities can be used to bring the brand alive and put us in a great position to connect with our ideal audience.
Something we wanted to get across was how we are more than just people working behind a screen. We know how much projects mean to our clients, and we strive to create close relationships with them that facilitate results that go beyond their expectations.
At the same time, we wanted to convey how exciting it is to work with us. We’re a team of experimenters who love getting our hands on the latest tech and solving tough creative challenges to drive radical results.
Having these discussions helped us refine our tone of voice. We’re excited to put our revamped brand personality to use in future content, communicating what we’re all about.
Updating our website
Mike Pye + Co identified gaps in our existing website. They also highlighted opportunities to improve not only the user experience but SEO to drive our reach. What’s more, we were presented with a wireframe of the new site, allowing us to see what the team’s suggestions would look like once realised.
As designers and animators, we handled much of the build for the new site, including illustrated characters for each team member, our portfolio and all video and animated elements throughout the site.
Meanwhile, Mike Pye + Co wrote copy for each web page, using their audience research to make the content compelling, relevant and engaging. They also enthused the copy with our tone of voice, helping us articulate our brand personality across the site.
We’re thrilled with what we’ve achieved together. It’s exciting to finally give our story justice and be able to share it with you - learn more.
Creating a content calendar
High quality, valuable content is on the agenda. We’re not just talking blogs. We plan to put all of our skills to use to create content that’s varied, highly digestible and memorable.
For idea generation, The Mike Pye + Co team helped us create four main content pillars. Each pillar represents a theme loaded with opportunities to entertain and educate our audiences on topics they care about, including:
Innovative technology in motion graphics, VFX and colour grading
What the creative process looks like
Examples of motion graphics, VFX and colour grading work to inspire them
The team who will become their creative engine
The power of building strong working relationships
And much more! Using these pillars, Mike Pye + Co created a content calendar featuring a variety of content ideas, their purpose, who they’re for and what they can achieve. It got us geared up to prioritise content creation so we can provide tonnes of value for new and existing customers.
We were also presented with enticing social media campaigns to improve our online presence and help us build a strong online community. This included SEO advice from the team highlighting keywords to focus on, driving organic traffic to our site.
What this all means for you
For our clients
Here are the key benefits you will experience from our brand transformation:
Better customer experiences: more personal, open and hassle-free.
A new website: get the information you need faster and have fun browsing our work
Added value: work with a team that’s pushing themselves further to improve their creativity and offer greater personalisation
Valuable content: increase your knowledge, learn new skills and make better investments
Deeper insight into our brand: make more informed buying decisions and feel connected to your creative team
For our talent
Future team members - both internal employees and freelancers - will benefit from:
A healthy, happy and inclusive workplace: as we focus more and more on making Tracks and Layers the best possible place for creatives to produce fantastic work whilst enjoying a balanced lifestyle
Learning opportunities: access increased opportunities to learn new skills and gain more experience
Improved processes: maximise your creativity without barriers
Valuable content: discover what it’s like to be a member of our team and gain new knowledge to improve your work
Sky’s the limit
One thing about our future is guaranteed - we’ll never stop learning and improving. So expect to see more improvements in the future.
Your feedback is integral to our growth. Whether it’s about our new website, how we work or the content we’re delivering, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Send them to: info@tracksandlayers.com.