WPI Indies As One The Shipyard

The Shipyard

(US)

Rick Milenthal (centre) and The Shipyard crew from Columbus, OH, Sacramento and San Diego, CA

WE ALL SEEK BRAND LOVE. ONE AGENCY ENGINEERS IT

Any brand problem can be solved – even if it’s not obvious how. When businesses need help to work out where they’re going, The Shipyard can engineer solutions

What do you do best for brands?

We Engineer Brand Love. We methodically build brands audiences can’t help but love by utilising today’s vast media universe, motivation analytics, and hype-generating creativity.

What sort of clients are you best fit for?

Brands with big ambitions, but uncertain about how to get there. We excel at uncovering the actual problem to solve (sometimes it’s more than one), and then focus the right talent and resources on solving it. If you’re certain of the answer at the start, we may just frustrate you.

How does your work transform a client’s brand?

We have an uncanny ability to identify the actual problem to solve for a brand, which isn’t always the client’s initial request. Look no further than American Freight. The competitive pitch was for a new ad campaign but we uncovered that American Freight had brand name confusion and an incongruent shopping experience. New advertising alone couldn’t solve the problem. So we made efficient moves to transform the entire brand, design system, and store experience – and then we created amazing advertising and a retail transformation success story.

What’s distinct or exemplary about the way you work? What about your people inspires clients most?

There’s a reason a place of grit and guts and colossal ambition inspired our name. It’s not the ships in the yard (though they are impressive feats of engineering and artistry). It’s the people who work there. Ours is filled with tenacious and hardworking doers who solve problems with ingenuity and precision… with an experimental mindset, no matter the craft or channel. Bold enough to imagine, daring enough to act, and experienced enough to trust.

How do you advance advertising as a lever for business growth?

By not limiting ourselves to ‘advertising’. Advertising is just one of the ways brands leverage media to engage with customers. Everything is media. Screens and sounds and feeds and pages and experiences and immersions of every shape and size. When you let your imagination run wild across that modern landscape – down and up and across purchase funnels – your creative growth engine may not feel like advertising at all. Doing it efficiently and effectively across paid, owned, earned, and emerging media requires engineering.

How do you use Worldwide Partners to expand clients’ businesses?

We leverage Worldwide Partners to extend our reach globally and tap into diverse and innovative perspectives. Whether it’s accessing new markets, implementing cutting-edge strategies, or optimising campaign performance, our collaboration with WPI empowers us to drive impactful results and fuel our clients’ business growth.

What do you do best for brands?

We Engineer Brand Love. We methodically build brands audiences can’t help but love by utilising today’s vast media universe, motivation analytics, and hype-generating creativity.

What sort of clients are you best fit for?

Brands with big ambitions, but uncertain about how to get there. We excel at uncovering the actual problem to solve (sometimes it’s more than one), and then focus the right talent and resources on solving it. If you’re certain of the answer at the start, we may just frustrate you.

How does your work transform a client’s brand?

We have an uncanny ability to identify the actual problem to solve for a brand, which isn’t always the client’s initial request. Look no further than American Freight. The competitive pitch was for a new ad campaign but we uncovered that American Freight had brand name confusion and an incongruent shopping experience. New advertising alone couldn’t solve the problem. So we made efficient moves to transform the entire brand, design system, and store experience – and then we created amazing advertising and a retail transformation success story.

What’s distinct or exemplary about the way you work? What about your people inspires clients most?

There’s a reason a place of grit and guts and colossal ambition inspired our name. It’s not the ships in the yard (though they are impressive feats of engineering and artistry). It’s the people who work there. Ours is filled with tenacious and hardworking doers who solve problems with ingenuity and precision… with an experimental mindset, no matter the craft or channel. Bold enough to imagine, daring enough to act, and experienced enough to trust.

How do you advance advertising as a lever for business growth?

By not limiting ourselves to ‘advertising’. Advertising is just one of the ways brands leverage media to engage with customers. Everything is media. Screens and sounds and feeds and pages and experiences and immersions of every shape and size. When you let your imagination run wild across that modern landscape – down and up and across purchase funnels – your creative growth engine may not feel like advertising at all. Doing it efficiently and effectively across paid, owned, earned, and emerging media requires engineering.

How do you use Worldwide Partners to expand clients’ businesses?

We leverage Worldwide Partners to extend our reach globally and tap into diverse and innovative perspectives. Whether it’s accessing new markets, implementing cutting-edge strategies, or optimising campaign performance, our collaboration with WPI empowers us to drive impactful results and fuel our clients’ business growth.

QUICKFIRE

Three words to describe your agency?

Wonder. Act. Own.

Most useful question you ask clients?

“Why?” And the close second: “Why not?”

The thing that will impact advertising that most people haven’t yet realised?

The media appetites of new generations don’t fit today’s creation models.

Most exciting thing about the future?

Opportunity.

Best thing about AI?

It doesn’t stand for ‘artificial imagination’.

Best thing about being Indie?

Decisiveness.

Your culture means...?

We say what needs to be said with respect, but also with confidence that comes from knowing any brand problem can be solved, even if we don’t yet know how.

The thing you’ll do for the first time this year?

We are adding the reigning PR Agency of the Year to our family. Engineering Brand Love takes Paid, Earned and Owned media.

Advertising can…?

Still be fun and exploratory, and jealousy-inducing. We can’t ever lose that spirit as an industry.

QUICKFIRE

Three words to describe your agency?

Wonder. Act. Own.

Most useful question you ask clients?

“Why?” And the close second: “Why not?”

The thing that will impact advertising that most people haven’t yet realised?

The media appetites of new generations don’t fit today’s creation models.

Most exciting thing about the future?

Opportunity.

Best thing about AI?

It doesn’t stand for ‘artificial imagination’.

Best thing about being Indie?

Decisiveness.

Your culture means...?

We say what needs to be said with respect, but also with confidence that comes from knowing any brand problem can be solved, even if we don’t yet know how.

The thing you’ll do for the first time this year?

We are adding the reigning PR Agency of the Year to our family. Engineering Brand Love takes Paid, Earned and Owned media.

Advertising can…?

Still be fun and exploratory, and jealousy-inducing. We can’t ever lose that spirit as an industry.

THE WORK

VISIT CALIFORNIA: “Let’s Play”

This global campaign, launching “The Ultimate Playground” tagline, celebrates the state’s globally recognised playful spirit, the beach ball (which was invented in California) acts as a metaphor for the contagious nature of that spirit. Play is a critical part of human existence and can be transformational, especially when combined with travel. Research shows that most of us crave more play in our lives. California is the ultimate place to come find it.

AMERICAN FREIGHT: “Get It Done”

American Freight is not a trucking company, it’s a furniture and appliance retailer with more than 370 stores that double as warehouses where you’d expect to find low prices and not much more. To change expectations, we gave the brand a new visual identity. Now, AF Appliances & Furniture offers a better shopping experience. Through humorous, authentic stories set in-store, the new advertising shows how AF solves customer problems and delivers value every day.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET:“AI reviews”

To attract younger audiences, San Francisco Ballet premiered Mere Mortals, a performance re-imagining AI as the new Pandora’s box. Our campaign asked ChatGPT to critique Mere Mortals through prompts that created surprisingly emotional results. We then used these reviews in out-of-home and digital, creating an unexpected campaign from an unlikely source. We increased revenue by 142% in a week and attracted 5 times as many first-time attendees.

VISIT CALIFORNIA: “Let’s Play”

This global campaign, launching “The Ultimate Playground” tagline, celebrates the state’s globally recognised playful spirit, the beach ball (which was invented in California) acts as a metaphor for the contagious nature of that spirit. Play is a critical part of human existence and can be transformational, especially when combined with travel. Research shows that most of us crave more play in our lives. California is the ultimate place to come find it.

AMERICAN FREIGHT: “Get It Done”

American Freight is not a trucking company, it’s a furniture and appliance retailer with more than 370 stores that double as warehouses where you’d expect to find low prices and not much more. To change expectations, we gave the brand a new visual identity. Now, AF Appliances & Furniture offers a better shopping experience. Through humorous, authentic stories set in-store, the new advertising shows how AF solves customer problems and delivers value every day.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET:“AI reviews”

To attract younger audiences, San Francisco Ballet premiered Mere Mortals, a performance re-imagining AI as the new Pandora’s box. Our campaign asked ChatGPT to critique Mere Mortals through prompts that created surprisingly emotional results. We then used these reviews in out-of-home and digital, creating an unexpected campaign from an unlikely source. We increased revenue by 142% in a week and attracted 5 times as many first-time attendees.

Discover the Case Studies