Last Friday, Graeme Stoker, Fujitsu Senior Marketing Manager, swapped his shirt and shoes for a t-shirt and trainers, in preparation for a visit to the mystical land of Affari, where dreams are made… quite literally.
We’re not entirely sure what Graeme may have been expecting before he arrived, but we know his visit to our HQ’s left him open to new ways of working, and more ideas than he could shake a stick at.
A first step into our open-plan office for somebody conditioned to a more traditional working environment must be like the famous scene in Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy steps out of Sepia Tone and into Technicolour for the first time.
You’re immediately greeted with an assault on the senses. Splashes of colour, comprising mostly of our trademark orange, with bright lights spelling out ‘AFFARI VR HQ’ and a plethora of visual stimulation in the form of artwork, storyboards, sketches, photos, stickers and orange feathers being amongst the first things you’ll catch sight of before you’re invited to hang up your jacket on multi-coloured coat-hangers.
A few more tentative steps into our workspace and you begin to realise you’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. To your left, situated behind a row of Macs, sits a ping-pong table. But by lunchtime this will have magically transformed into a pool table, at which point you’ll be invited by Craig, our MD, to partake in a game that he’ll see to the bitter end that you lose! To your right, you’ll see our ‘living room’, which entices you in with its comfy sofas, orange bean bags and a giant jar of (you guessed it) orange Jelly Beans.
But it’s not just the décor that differentiates us from most corporates, its the mindsets and shared vision of every single employee. In a forward-thinking work environment, we actively support openness, collaboration and ideas sharing through multiple sources. The most popular of which is our ‘Inspire board’, where employees and visitors are encouraged to add inspiration in the form of visuals and words, in order to help others glean creative ideas and new ways of thinking.
We were keen to share our methods of idea generation with Graeme, who was invited to take a further step down the ‘yellow brick road’ that is agency life by participating in one of our live briefs. The brief saw Graeme taking concepts from our Inspire Board to create his own piece of artwork (with the help of our designers!) that had a personal meaning to him. Within an hour, our designers nailed the brief and got to creating Graeme’s vision. Here’s the result:
As Graeme articulates;
“I walked into Affari not knowing what to expect at first, but their colourful atmosphere and abundance of ideas was a real inspiration. It was a fantastic learning experience to see the designers in action and watch them bring to life my concept for this artwork. I was influenced by several images on Affari’s ‘Inspire board’ and chose to use my marketing mantra for the year…’Insight not Intuition’, with a nod towards Fujitsu by utilising the response module. My thinking behind this was that marketeers like myself should be listening more and using insight over their own intuition. Although it can be tempting to stick to what you know, especially in a field such as Marketing, we should be reaping the benefits of further insights, not just from other people of varying skill-sets and expertise, but through the tools that technology provides today. I added a Banksy-esque graffiti visual of some of the Affari team with the hashtag #thisteamcan, to reflect my experience at Affari and the team capability. A great day and I take forward new inspiration and creative ideas to my job!”
We were sad to see Graeme clip his ruby slippers together at the end of the day and head home, but we’re very much looking forward to the next visit!
So, If you’re intrigued and want to experience your own glimpse into Affari, then we’re a friendly northern bunch based in sunny Nottingham and we would love to have you join us! In addition, you’ll be provided with free food and drinks as well as a sound understanding and fresh ideas on how we can help you and your team create great assets and campaigns.
