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“We currently have a smaller team than in the past, but we’ve had the biggest month we’ve ever had on our DTC channels which speaks to how MagicBrief allows us to be a lot more efficient” - Jack Conroy, Head of Growth
As the shift to hybrid work transforms the modern workplace, Recess has made a name for itself by making work feel like play with innovative furniture solutions for homes and offices. They've expanded from a humble silent booth nearly five years ago to a product suite that spans ergonomic desks, chairs, and home furniture, but their success isn’t just about having state-of-the-art products; it's also about how they market them.
When you first meet Will Chambers and Jack Conroy (Recess’ Founder and Head of Growth), you might not guess that these two are running a well-oiled creative machine in a rapidly growing company. The guys are chill, laid-back, and unmistakably Aussie in their mannerisms, but when they start talking about their business, their enthusiasm for creative excellence is unmistakable. I sat down with the duo to chat about their approach to performance creative:
"Before MagicBrief, our marketing felt like shooting in the dark. Now, we have a cohesive creative strategy that aligns our top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel efforts”. - Will Chambers, Founder
Marketing Challenge:
Like many consumer brands, Recess struggled to enable their creative teams to produce the volume of content needed to fuel a growing business and align their marketing efforts down the funnel. Before MagicBrief, Recess’ marketing team relied on a fragmented mix of group chats, Google Sheets, and Notion boards for campaign management, which made it difficult to coordinate between their in-house team and external creative partners. Even though they had a range of tools and platforms available, their creative approach felt more reactive than strategic - often based on spontaneous inspiration from their social media feeds rather than a data driven long term approach. The switch to MagicBrief marked a significant turning point in their creative efficiency.
Key Wins with MagicBrief
1. Improved Competitor Research & Strategic Planning
With MagicBrief, the Recess team now stays on the pulse of content trends by using MagicBrief’s Brand Tracking feature to delve into winning ads from leading brands in their industry to uncover what angles, hooks or formats would work best for Recess. This has been particularly helpful when planning for key moments in the commercial calendar. For instance, being able to plan their Black Friday creative well in advance based on winning ads from last year has allowed them to align their marketing funnel stages and execute with precision.
2. Enhanced Communication and Collaboration
MagicBrief significantly cut down the communication overhead that Recess experienced when working with creative partners. The use of shared Inspire Boards has enabled both in-house teams and agencies to collaborate effectively, contributing ideas and directions without constant back-and-forth emails and meetings. MagicBrief has also unlocked efficiency with new external contractors on sites like Upwork, who can see at a glance the style of creative that works for the Recess brand. This streamlined communication process has not only saved time but also allowed teams to focus more on executing high-quality creative projects instead of coordinating logistics.
3. Increased Creative Output and Efficiency
Recent evolutions in performance advertising platforms have made it essential for brands to produce and test a high volume of creative content to combat creative fatigue. MagicBrief has empowered Recess by providing a constant stream of fresh ad inspiration, enabling them to speed up and streamline their briefing and content creation process allowing them to deliver a greater variety of creative assets. As a result, Recess can conduct more creative tests and quickly identify winning ads to iterate on, fuelling the growth of their brand.
"MagicBrief has unlocked the ability to test more in a shorter amount of time, which is vital for staying competitive. We can quickly iterate and test new creative concepts."
Favourite MagicBrief Feature: Filters
"I think my favourite feature is super basic, but it's just the filter. Sometimes you hop on and you really need creative inspiration, and you don't know where to go. Using the filter to look for winners, certain verticals, and other specific brands that we really like has been great.”
On The Future of Performance Marketing, and the Future of Recess
When asked about the future of performance marketing, Jack shared, "The platforms themselves are making it a lot easier to do the media buying...the power is now in the creative." As media buying becomes more automated and accessible with solutions like Advantage+, the true differentiator between brands will be the quality of their creative and their ability to deliver that quality at scale efficiently. Looking ahead, Recess is excited to focus more on the direct-to-consumer (DTC) market, a recent strategic shift that has shown early positive results for the brand. Check out their stunning product range here.
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