Starbots Creative

Creative inspiration for 2023

This month we let our minds wander into the world of all things creative and find a golden nugget of inspiration for a successful 2023. From website design and strategic marketing, to bold typography and TV advertising, we’ve rounded up some must-see creative inspiration for the year ahead…

Creative inspiration for 2023

The website of all website design

Promotional graphic for 'Feed the Zoo' campaign with a sketched monkey illustration and text appealing for donations to feed animals in Ukrainian zoos closed due to war.

To kick off the meeting this month, Charl G launched us into the website dedicated to website design inspiration ­– Godly. She talked us through some of her favourites including Feed the Zoo.

Ukrainian zoos are closed because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Feed the Zoo has been created to raise money and feed the animals. Although simple in its functionality, the graphical sketches and movement of the animals take a bold approach that perfectly encompass the mission of this cause.


Scarily good marketing

Please tell us you binge-watched Netflix’s Wednesday as quickly as we did. This highly successful Addams family spin-off caught everyone’s attention. It quickly became the second most-watched English-speaking show on Netflix – watched in 176 households in its first 28 days.

How? Well, Netflix pulled it out of the bag with a clever combination of marketing tactics to prepare for the show’s release.

They gave ‘Wednesday Addams’ her own Twitter account, let bodiless hand ‘Thing’ loose on the streets of New York, and masked the city’s billboards with dialogue in typical Wednesday Addams style. By touching on the nostalgia associated to the new series and growing a new fanbase, Netflix strategically prepared the ideal combination of marketing tactics for maximum interaction and unrivalled hype.


Celebrating brand history

A bright yellow The Guardian billboard with the slogan 'For facts' sake' in an urban environment.

Zoe loved the campaign by The Guardian titled '200 years, a work in progress'. This campaign was crafted to highlight its legacy of bringing facts to light and championing progressive ideas. The words are the beating heart of this campaign, referencing the brand’s history and modern values with bold typography.

The campaign came to life across 230 innovative outdoor placements in London and Manchester, as well as merchandise like tote bags and t-shirts – a timeless reflection of a well thought out marketing campaign.

Reigniting TV advertising

Emily introduced us all to the unique TV advertisement by marketing body Thinkbox, titled Happily Ever After. It exemplifies all the best things about TV advertising, like creating a narrative, visual personality, enjoyed by millions and offers high credibility, to bring this format back to the forefront of the industry in a world that’s growing up on skipping ads.

Thinkbox marketing director, Andrew MacGillivray said of the ad campaign: “With businesses operating in increasingly tough conditions, it’s a good time to remind them that nothing works harder than TV advertising. But we also want to do that in an engaging, entertaining way – to be a welcome guest in living rooms across the country.”

We don’t know about you, but we won’t be forgetting this ad anytime soon.