AI GETS A REALITY CHECK
How a Nordic tech giant used humour, heart and a bit of DIY magic to reframe the AI conversation in the UK workplace.
In a business landscape saturated with buzzwords and faceless algorithms, a loveable, malfunctioning cardboard robot is doing something AI hasn’t quite managed yet, winning hearts.
Meet Gary and Bob. Two London office workers, both using AI. Gary’s version is a DIY-style take on AI, complete with ducting for arms, spray-painted body and flashing LED eyes. Bob’s AI is more like the Digital Twin we all dream of having. This unlikely ensemble are at the heart of a surprising new awareness campaign from Nordic IT powerhouse Advania. A campaign designed not to sell software, but to start a very human conversation about artificial intelligence.
And it’s working.
From Stockholm to the Square Mile
Advania, one of the largest IT firms in the Nordics, has grown rapidly across Europe and is now expanding its footprint in the UK. With offices in six countries and an ever-growing client base, the company wanted to introduce itself to the UK market with a campaign that cut through, particularly within the finance and insurance sectors around London’s Liverpool Street.
But there was a challenge: despite AI’s increasing presence in the workplace tools, UK adoption remains cautious, particularly in traditional industries. While boardrooms might be buzzing with potential, the front-line user is often left frustrated, unsure, or simply unimpressed.
That’s where Gary and his robot come in.
Robots have feelings too
Instead of showcasing futuristic dashboards or rattling off performance stats, the campaign took a different path, one paved with nostalgia, humour and a healthy dose of irony.
Drawing inspiration from retro-futurist pop culture (think The Jetsons or Lost in Space) and the handmade charm of the indie film Brian and Charles, the creative team built The Robot from scratch: cardboard boxes, silver spray paint, ducting, and a bit of LED wizardry. He’s the physical embodiment of bad AI; clunky, confused and ultimately not very helpful.
But Gary and his robot aren’t just a punchline, they’re relatable, they’re a symbol of the solutions that don’t quite work, the system that never quite syncs. The AI that was supposed to make life easier but somehow made it worse.
And in contrast? Bob and his digital twin, glide in to show us what AI should be, smart, intuitive and effective. Together, the amusing ensemble form a narrative that acknowledges workplace frustration while gently positioning Advania as the fix.
Billboards, bots and belly laughs
While the campaign was built around a central video narrative, it quickly expanded into a wider activation. Out-of-home ads popped up around Liverpool Street Station and along the Elizabeth Line, catching the attention of London’s financial district. On social media, Gary and Bob became instant conversation starters. And at live events? The Robot made actual appearances, happily posing for selfies with intrigued attendees.
A series of tailored nurture emails, landing pages and paid digital ads helped carry the message further, using Account-Based Marketing (ABM) tactics to target decision-makers in insurance and finance with messages that struck the right balance of humour and relevance.
And most impressively? The campaign never lost sight of Advania’s core message: AI, when done right, should help people, not hinder them.
A brave step forward
By being brave with tone, storytelling and visual identity, Advania’s campaign not only sparked interest in a traditionally serious space, it positioned the brand as empathetic, human-first and forward-thinking.
The result? A campaign that feels as warm as it is smart. One that opens the door to better conversations about workplace tech. And one that proves creativity still has a central role to play in how we talk about the future of business.
The robot may be made of cardboard but the message is anything but flimsy.
View the case study here.
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LIFT YOUR GAME WITH CONTENT THAT WORKS
Do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that your digital marketing isn’t working? Or that your website isn’t as effective as it could be? A surprising number of businesses don’t spend the time needed to plan the sort of strategic content required for digital marketing that works. Poorly planned content often has no real purpose or substance, and results in content that has weak messaging, poor design or ineffectual distribution across your digital channels.
When it comes to creating content, whether it’s for your blog, social media or a larger piece of marketing material, the golden rule is that each piece of information should earn its place and work towards the larger message of your marketing strategy.
And that’s where content strategy comes into play. Building a content strategy that supports the big picture will ensure that what you put out there is good quality, has a purpose and most importantly hits the mark.
4 Steps to Creating Digital Marketing That Works
Define your purpose and hit your target.
The arrowhead of any strategy is its purpose. Why are you posting this information? And why now? The more targeted you make your purpose, the more pointed and effective your strategy will be. Whether you’re trying to promote brand awareness for a new product line or encourage lead generation if you can develop content that serves a purpose then you will find it easier to come up with ideas of what to say, how to say it and where to share it.
Decide who you’re speaking to
If you’ve ever worked with a copywriter, one of the first questions they’ll always ask is “who is the audience?”
Why? Because it’s a critical factor in deciding what you’re about to say and how you should say it.
9yr old girls love My Little Pony, and there’s no doubt they want to know all about their favourite toy. But there’d be no point sharing a detailed quarterly sales report with them, no matter how much they love My Little Pony. The subject fits, but what’s being said and how it’s communicated doesn’t fit.
Always keep in mind who’s reading and write for them.
Be specific
Coming up with ideas often feels like the hardest part when it comes to creating content. But when you have a clear direction and a defined purpose, it becomes much easier to zero in on a subject and be specific.
Whether you’re trying to be entertaining, informative, educational or provocative, whether you publish a list or an infographic, a video or a report – being specific will make your message stand out. It will also help you be perceived as an expert in your field, or an authority on the subject.
Not least of all, being specific helps your content become more relatable and most importantly memorable.
Compare these two statements:
“I love coffee”
“I like my coffee strong, like my opinions. An acquired taste on both accounts.”
Measure your success
The beauty of digital content is that it’s measurable. Unlike printed material and advertising, the success of any digital campaign, content or ad is easy to track and measure.
Everyone has access to the free tools we use to measure the performance of digital content – whether it’s website visits, social media posts or Google ads. You can figure out what’s working, which content performed the best, the worst, what post had the most engagement or resulted in more clicks or conversions.
Whether you’re using Instagram’s professional dashboard, Google analytics or a WordPress plugin, there’s no excuse for not measuring the performance of your content. The results might not always be impressive, but even knowing what doesn’t work can help figure out when to use a different strategy or try a new tactic.
If you need help to research, identify and execute your strategy plan, we happen to be pretty good at it and we’ve got a team of planners, designers and wordsmiths ready to help. Get in touch on hello@fluroltd.com or give us a call on 01628 525 449 to chat about your content strategy.
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Create Show Stopping Content
Relevant, easy to access digital content is not a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. An essential part of any marketing toolkit, creating great content will have plenty of knock-on effects for your business, like brand reinforcement and building trust with your customer.
Getting content with content
But you probably already know this right? And you’ve probably tried doing it yourself. But let’s be honest, creating a consistent flow of engaging content is a drag. It’s tough coming up with new and interesting things to say. You worry about whether your post will perform and whether anyone likes it, let alone reads it. And making great content is one thing but evaluating it afterwards and knowing how to improve it often feels like a whole job in itself. Does it engage with the audience or lead to conversions?
You start to wonder… is it all worth it?
Finding the right message
Marketing is all about getting in front of your desired audience with a strong message that resonates and generates leads. Sounds obvious right? But do you really know your audience? Is your data current and is it segmented so that the message you put out is not all things to all people? Strong content should be very targeted to the right people, otherwise it will never hit its mark.
If you build it, they will come
When you have a good strategy in place, and a structured method of attack, the road to great content and measuring its effectiveness can be a smooth journey. And when you make it look easy, it makes your brand look even better.
By focusing on multifunctional content, you can get more value for your effort because the material can be repurposed across various audience platforms. And when it comes to building multipurpose content, video is a great place to start. Video can be spliced and diced for a snippet or a story, it can be even mined for still images. A very hard-working medium, video can make a powerful impact on your target audience.
The medium is the message
As email campaigns continue to fight for attention thanks to the rise of BOT gate keepers, the path has been cleared for other mediums to make an impression.
Podcasts and webinars became supremely more popular as a communication tool throughout the pandemic. They’ve managed to remain in play post pandemic because they can help you rise above the noise to deliver your message loud and clear. They’re so effective in fact, that 58% of B2B marketers now use webinars as a promotional tool.
But on the whole, video is king when it comes to content that cuts through. Read HubSpot’s 50 recent video marketing stats to find out why video works so well compared to other types of content.
But wait there’s more…
So, it probably feels a bit overwhelming right now and we haven’t even mentioned blogs, infographics and newsletters yet.
It’s not just you, most businesses feel this way about creating content. It really is a full-time job that many organisations can’t manage alone. And that’s where we can help. If you’re struggling to create worthwhile, show-stopping content and want to know how the team at Fluro can support your content strategy, then give us call, we’d love to chat.
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Send an email to hello@fluroltd.com
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Video Content: Your Audience is Ready, Are You?
Research shows that the demand for video content is outstripping the current supply. Which isn’t surprising if you think about it. We’re consuming videos at unprecedented rates; TikTok transformations, unboxing videos, DIY tutorials, gaming walk-throughs, explainer videos, webinars, demonstrations, and reviews. People are watching more video online than ever before – in fact the amount of online video we watch has almost doubled since 2018.
Audiences are watching more video than ever
While the time spent watching videos has risen consistently for the past 3 years, from 12.2 billion minutes to 14.6 billion minutes, the rate of videos uploaded has remained the same. This means that audience demand to watch is outpacing the supply.
Why do we love video?
People will…
- be twice as likely to share video content than any other type of content.
- watch 500 million hours of video content on YouTube alone, with only 16% saying they read text word for word.
- remember more of what they watch than what they read. 80% can recall a video they watched in the past month whereas only 10% could remember something they read.
Don’t get left behind
- 86% of businesses already use video as a marketing tool.
- In a survey of 800 video marketers, the majority are planning to increase their output with a predicted increase of 10% on their original budget.
- 87% of marketers believe they get positive ROI on their investment in video content.
- Between 33 – 35% of companies said they were uploading video content monthly or weekly.
How long should a video be?
- Videos under 1 minute are the most popular because research suggests that engagement drops off after about that time.
- Facebook only accepts videos up to 90 seconds long while the YouTube standard is 10 minutes.
- More companies are starting to create long-form videos (30+min), often in the form of webinars which are cost effective to produce.
- Longer-form content creation is rising fast, but this relies on having loyal, existing viewers with brand affinity.
In summary…
People love video and they’re sharing it like crazy which means it’s become an essential tool in your marketing toolkit. As a format it’s always expanding, changing, and evolving to satisfy consumer needs and emerging platforms. Whether you want to start making video content in your marketing strategy or continue creating great content, get in touch for a chat.
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Want to talk to us about a project?
Just get in touch, we'd love to chat.
Send an email to hello@fluroltd.com
Ring on 01628 525 449
We’ve launched a new website to give healthcare brands a clearer view of what we do, how we think, and where we can take them.
Different sector same brave approach.
