Meet Our Members: Thirst Craft
Published 22 May 2023
Thirst Craft is an award-winning strategic drinks design agency based in Glasgow, Scotland. It has helped beverage companies across the globe – ranging from beers, to spirits, to soft drinks – build creative brands.
A Stylus member since 2020, we spoke to Claire Barrett, strategy director, to find out more about how Thirst Craft uses its Stylus membership to support the commercial futures of its clients.
A Stylus member since 2020, we spoke to Thirst Craft’s strategy director, Claire Barrett, to find out more about how the studio uses its Stylus membership to support its clients’ commercial futures.
Why did you choose Stylus?
The cross-category approach made us choose Stylus – granted, other providers have that too, but I feel like it’s more actionable and inspiring with Stylus. [It’s] a great place in the middle. It gives us a futuristic view but also more applicable immediate trends, which are relevant to my clients.
Stylus gives you a download of what’s happening in the world, what brands are winning, what the cultural trends are, what the consumer trends are. They can give you the big picture, but also cover off subtle and important nuances. That gives us our starting points, so we can look into our own avenues of exploration.
The reports are structured to give the right level of depth. You can glance at it to get the stats and facts you need, our designers can scroll through imagery for immediate creative inspiration, or you can really dive into the detail. The visuals are incredibly helpful and of a far better calibre than other providers’.
[The] extra global insight helps us understand the market more thoroughly. Global growth is really big for us, and working with Stylus gives us massive confidence to operate on that global level.
[The] extra global insight helps us understand the market more thoroughly. Global growth is really big for us and working with Stylus gives us massive confidence to operate on that global level.
“Stylus gives you bandwidth and brainwidth; both the capacity and the ability to make you feel a lot more intelligent in a much smaller amount of time. [It] feels like another member of the team, bolstering our strategic capability.”
Can you give an example of how Stylus reporting has directly helped Thirst Craft?
We had seven big pitches in a row where we were up against some much bigger agencies, and Stylus really helped level the playing field for us in terms of resources. It saved us time, giving us quick access to high-quality insight, which meant we could focus on how to translate that info into a winning pitch.
Stylus has a unique cross-industry approach to its trends and insights. How have you found this beneficial to your work?
The food and beverage industry permeates culture more than other industries. Stylus helps us understand how our brands, which span the globe, can become culturally relevant wherever they play – which has made a big difference.
How do you work with your dedicated account manager?
We send relevant Stylus reports and case studies to our clients, which helps keep our partnerships strong and inspiring – and I often ask my account manager to help me find those quickly.
If we've got a heavy-lifting strategic phase, I will send my client services manager quite high-level emails about the areas I'm interested in, so they can direct me to relevant reports [and] we can get a headstart before hitting the ground running with the projects we’re planning. So, you already know there's a bank of information that you can go to once you get started.
“Strategy relies on both intuition and intelligence, and Stylus bolsters both. It helps us verify whether our natural instinct on a job is right, or helps us come up with new theories by showing us different avenues to pursue.”
Want to know more?
At Stylus, our goal is your business’s success. Our experts work tirelessly to make sure members can access commercially robust insights and ideas that will help them act at exactly the right moment to gain the competitive edge.
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