The Changemakers

Here’s another of our Byte-Size episodes! These are little chats between the team at Shaped By, sometimes about creativity in B2B, sometimes about something completely different. In this one, Nick Farrar, Founder and CEO of Shaped By, and Jess Evans, Head of Delivery, get into B Corp. Why did we become a B Corp? What does it mean for us as an agency? And what’s next, both for us and for B Corp mor...

Motion design is often the unsung hero of brand and product storytelling - especially in B2B tech. But what does it take to bring complex, sometimes ‘unsexy’ products to life? And how can you move beyond one-off animations and build a scalable, strategic motion system that strengthens a brand over time? First, Joshua Baron, Senior Brand Designer – Motion at Jasper , shares his approach to crafting...

Welcome to another byte-size episode! In this one, Dave and Alex, Shaped By's marketing director, chat about the upcoming webinar on the challenges of working with founders to build a strong brand. They cover the common roadblocks - like navigating emotional attachments, getting buy-in from disengaged founders, and aligning leadership on brand direction. They also introduce the expert panel j...

So here it is, the first ever “Part 2” in the history of The Changemakers. And it’s nothing less than a pleasure to bestow that honour on our guest, Carta’s creative lead Dave Breckon. In Part 1, our Dave’s (we’ll call him Dave C) conversation with Dave B explored his wonderfully diverse career path, delving into the various lessons he learnt as he wound his way from the cobbled streets of Brighto...

Most of our previous episodes to date on The Changemakers have focused on a particular area of B2B tech marketing or branding that has the power to be elevated by creativity. For this one, we’re taking a bit of a departure from that, and going deep into one creative leader’s journey. Why? Because it’s equally inspiring, especially for designers out there who may not have everything figured out jus...

Vincent Sacco is a brand leader who has been in the trenches and, having built brands from the ground up at multiple fast-growing tech companies, has wisdom to impart in absolute spades.  He currently leads the creative team at Fivetran, a data management platform that has seen explosive growth, expanding from around 400 to over 1100 employees during Vincent's 3.5 year tenure. Previously, he...

Here's the second of our new Byte-Size episodes! These are little natters between our team at Shaped By, on...well, anything really. Mostly related to creativity in B2B, But maybe the odd one about cake or something. In this one, hosts Nick Farrar, Founder and CEO, and Alex Waite, Marketing Director at Shaped By, dissect key insights from the Bring Your Own Bold (BYOB) Virtual Summit. Themes...

Li-Anne Dias is a design leader who has shaped world-class brands and led high-impact design teams.  Currently she leads brand and enterprise growth design at Handshake, a software firm that enables schools, companies, and students come together to help students and recent grads make career moves. Her previous achievements include building Reddit’s first brand identity and design systems as the co...

Welcome to our new byte-size episodes! These are little natters between our team at Shaped By, on.....well, anything really. Mostly related to creativity in B2B. But maybe the odd one about cake or something. In this one, Dave and Alex, Shaped By's marketing director, chat about the agency's annual virtual summit, 'Bring Your Own Bold' (BYOB), scheduled for October. The event f...

We're stepping back into the world of big brand creativity! In this episode, Dave chats with Omar Fahmi, the creative mastermind behind Virgin Media O2 Business' in-house agency. Ever wondered what it's like to steer creativity in a corporate giant? Omar pulls back the curtain on: The challenge of combining two distinct consumer brands - and adapting them for a business audience Bui...

Rebrand versus brand evolution. What’s the difference, and how do you determine which is right for you? In this episode of The Changemakers, Dave is joined by Nick Levesque, Creative Director at Asana, to discuss the nuances of evolving a brand expression. As Asana nears the end of its own brand refresh, it was a timely chat about the process. Nick and Dave delve into approaches to evolving brand...

In this episode of The Changemakers, brought to you by Shaped By - our creative director Tom Ovens lifts the lid on the secret art of sound design by interviewing freelance sound designer, Adam Legg. They delve into the intricacies of sound design including the definition, the process of creation, and the difference between a ‘meh’ sound, and one that’s impactful. Sound design in a B2B space bring...

Even just a few years back, you would naturally think of pretty much any fintech firm as a challenger brand. A digital disruptor to a financial sector that badly needed disrupting. But today, fintech is fast becoming mainstream, if it isn’t already. And its “challenger brand” tag feels increasingly redundant, given the extent to which many established financial services firms are pivoting what the...

Becca Chambers may be an award-winning technology brand-builder, storyteller, strategist and advisor. But when it comes down to the impact that her work has on the people that it touches, her tireless work as a neurodiversity champion and advocate is up there with any of those achievements. Becca has ADHD. She describes it as “a catalyst for my success in the creative world of brand, communication...

“I don’t need much sleep. And I love to take on a good challenge.” Take one look at Christian Flaccus’ resumé, and it’s clear to see that both of these things are very true indeed. He founded his first business, an e-commerce startup, in 1997 - then swiftly went and set up his own agency (whilst still remaining on his startup’s board). Not content with that, at various points during his agency lif...

Ari Yablok is the Head of Brand at Island, the Enterprise Browser. If that sounds like a pretty simple description of what Island does, then there’s a very deliberate reason for that. And it’s a reason that has seen Dave fall completely in love with the brand strategy, identity, narrative and messaging that Ari has created for this Israeli startup that is going global pretty rapidly. Everything ab...

Following staggering revenue growth of 46,000% between 2018 and 2021, cybersecurity asset management Axonius was unsurprisingly named as the fastest-growing cybersecurity company in America by Deloitte in 2022. That’s pretty damn awesome. But it also presented a very familiar problem that high-growth companies tend to face. They scale so quickly, with such a focus on perfecting the product and the...

It’s time for another chat with one of our fellow agency buddies - and in the hotseat this week is the wonderful Kirsty Jarvis, founder and CEO of tech-specialist communications firm Luminous PR. We’ve recently been getting to know the Luminous team through our shared love of working with game-changing technology businesses. Their approach to building B2B brands and driving growth through tailored...

Aaron Poe is a man who knows a thing or two about brand design. During his time in the agency world, he gave the Beats by Dre brand the distinctive identity that helped it get acquired by Apple. He led the 2018 rebrand of fintech giant Checkout.com , and the more recent evolution of the Square brand identity. Now, as head of Zapier’s brand studio, his esteemed talents are being put to great use in...

Some people are quite happy to simply coast along, and see where the wind takes them. And others constantly push themselves, always looking to grow and develop through experiences that test their existing skills and help them to create new ones. Matt Price falls into the latter camp. Each step in his career as a creative, whether to a boutique agency or the pristine corridors of Apple HQ, has been...

This is the first of two episodes in which we’ll be stepping away from our typical guest profile of in-house marketers, creatives and brand leaders, and getting to know some of Shaped By’s fellow agency buddies. And what a buddy to get to know. Kerry Guard is CEO and founder of MKG Marketing, a digital marketing agency that works with cybersecurity, data management and other fast-scaling tech firm...

Until generative AI came along and took over every single conversation, one way to instantly ignite a ferocious debate in B2B marketing was to ask this question: “Should B2B companies be thinking like media companies when it comes to content marketing?” ZoomInfo certainly believes so. And when the go-to-market software, data, and intelligence company’s CEO Henry Schuck decided to turn his content...

It’s not every day that you get chatting with someone who, in the first five minutes, casually drops into the conversation that they “ran a couple of SWAT teams”. But this is an episode with a difference. And if you’re involved in anything to do with cybersecurity marketing or thought leadership, then it’s one for you. There ain’t no cybersecurity expert with more expertise than Steve Stone. From...

Whenever the conversation at Shaped By HQ turns to our favourite B2B brands, the same one always crops up: Drift. This unapologetically bold SaaS startup broke all the moulds when it created the category of Revenue Acceleration, and launched a vibrant and expressive new visual identity last year. So we were stoked when Andrea Carrillo, the firm’s Associate Creative Director, agreed to jump into th...

How can the application of creativity enhance product marketing? If there’s one thread that’s been running consistently through the 29 previous episodes of The Changemakers, it’s that product marketing is the unsung hero of B2B tech business growth. All of our guests who have spent time in PMM roles have said that time was invaluable to their success. Many product marketers go on to have successfu...