OUR STORY
WELCOME TO THE FACTORY FLOOR
We’re Factory. An advertising agency in Michigan. We try to do things different from your average American advertising agency. “Different how?” you ask. Different in the work we create. Different in the way we work. Different in the values we bring to the work we do. Different can be good. Different should be better. And sometimes different is necessary. Keep reading and find out why.
What's Wrong With Advertising?
Let’s put aside for a minute how bad so much advertising is (you know it is). What’s really wrong with advertising is the cynicism that underpins and informs and animates so much of it. Advertising that laughs at people. Advertising that talks down to people. Advertising that outright lies to people. Advertising that’s fake and phony and lacking any connection to the reality of life as most of us know and live it.
Advertising that’s just the same old same old same old same old same old.
You’ve seen it. Some ads just don’t respect their audience. Or the brand, for that matter.
How can communication hope to make a real difference when the side doing the communicating looks down on the side doing the receiving?
What's The Alternative?
It’s not like there aren’t good ads out there.
Ads that touch people. Ads that seem to understand what’s on people’s minds – and what’s going on in their world. Ads that celebrate what’s good and valuable and important about the brand and the way it fits into people’s lives.
Maybe it’s the people doing the work. Maybe it’s the people running the agencies. Maybe it’s the people buying the ads. Maybe it’s some combination of the three. You don’t have to look that hard for evidence that someone somewhere is putting bad advertising into the world.
But there is an alternative.
Good ads. Ads that tell interesting stories. Ads that share important ideas. Ads that make people think. And feel. Ads that make people glad they spent a little time with the brand. Ads that make them want to spend more time with the brand.
What if, instead of giving into the worst impulses of a cynical age, advertising started with a single premise: We can put positive energy into the world. Through advertising.
We can do it, if we want. For the brands we steward. For the people we’re trying to reach. For ourselves. For our industry. For the culture. For the heck of it.
Because it feels better. Because it is better. And because it works better.
The Heart Of Branding
So, here at Factory, what do we like working on best? Glad you asked.
We like helping clients who have really good products but really weak branding. You’d be surprised how many of them are out there.
You see, legitimately good and worthy products are all around us. But we often don’t see them because they come wrapped in branding – logos, packaging, architecture, design, advertising – that suggests what’s inside isn’t worth paying attention to.
Those brands need someone to dust them off and put them in just the right wrapping. Turning them into a wonderful gift to share with the world.
What those products need is someone to love them.
And that really is the heart of powerful branding. Figuring out what can make people fall in love with a product or service or company. And then sharing that secret with the world.
It’s also the way to get the kind of advertising that gets past the defenses of people who live in this cynical age but who are not themselves cynical.
Honesty. Sincerity. Humanity. Warmth. Respect.
These are not things to avoid. They’re what most people want most of the time. And they work a lot better for brands than irony, sarcasm, superiority, smugness, attitude and cynicism.
The bottom line is simple: Really good products times a lot of love equals powerful branding. You just have to want to do it.
It’s certainly what we want to do when we make ads. Or collateral. Or point of sale. Or social. Or digital. Or books and movies and songs and greeting cards and anything else a client might need.
Because We Make Things
There’s a value in making things.
There’s value in getting hands-on, tinkering with spare parts and seeing what you can come up with, turning raw materials into something no one else had ever even daydreamed about before.
There’s an art to making things that do what we want them to do.
Advertising is often considered a knowledge industry. At its best, it’s a world of ideas and stories. At its worst, the ad business is a place where busywork meets abstract meandering.
We prefer to think of it as a craft.
We started Factory back in 2013. Today Factory is led by Izabela Skonieczka and Mark Lantz. She’s in charge of design. He’s in charge of writing. (We have a third partner, Greg Sieck. He’s in charge of sharing wise counsel when we need it.)
We make things.
Art and music and books and posters and radio commercials and social media campaigns and TV spots and print ads and billboards and holiday cards and banner ads and logowear and … anything a client might need.
Our job is to be creators, not just producers. To make things worth making. To take pride in work that’s worth doing and work that’s well done.
And that’s why we chose the name Factory.
Because we make things.
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