Matt Hardisty Talks To PSFK About Analog Folk, Communication Products & London Getting Good Again

Matt Hardisty has been a long friend and supporter of PSFK. He recently set up a new company in London that creates ‘Communication Products’. We asked him about his work and how London was stimulating his work and play.

Matt, You recently launched a new agency called AnalogFolk. What’s the idea behind it and how’s it been?

The idea behind AnalogFolk is about approaching marketing communications through the lens of product development, resulting in what we are calling ‘Communications Products’. Set against a backdrop of an evolving consumer and media landscape, we felt that brands need to develop longer-term communications properties that could potentially generate incremental revenue in their own right. So we opened up shop to create compelling properties for brands that people will seek out, use, play with, share and even pay for.

Thus far the proposition seems to have stuck a chord. The press over here have dubbed us “Advertising’s New Model Army”, arguing that we offer a lifeline for traditional advertising. Quite funny, and also very flattering to be talked of in the same breath as both Naked and Anomaly in terms of agenda setting.

For some reason we are attracting a lot of interest from the lifestyle and luxury sectors at the moment, with clients looking for advocacy or loyalty platforms that fuse analog and digital communications into their products.

It is all-good, it’s hard work but it’s entertaining – we’ve got a nice crew and we’re getting away some really nice work.

What are you personally doing differently than when you were Global Creative Director of Naked?

There are a few things I’ve noticed since we opened our doors. Three months on and I’m riding the London Underground more than the Heathrow Express; good for the environment, bad for my Virgin Miles.

I’m still very much focused on creating compelling ideas, although there is a slight shift. Rather than thinking purely about ‘communicating’ the idea, we’re more concerned with ‘taking that idea to market’. Thinking about how consumers will want to interact with what we create, what tools we can give them and moreover, how the idea will be distributed. To that end, I’m writing more business orientated plans rather than communications plans.

We’ve also got a couple of our own projects on the go too, why not. So that’s quite entertaining, putting your money where your mouth is so to speak.

And since we operate as a creative cooperative, my role now is more exploratory – unearthing talent from around the world with my partners.

When we walked the streets around Old Street recently, you told me that you felt that things/culture in London was getting good again. Why did you say that?

Settling back into East London after seven great years roaming the world for Naked, it seems that the spirit of the late 90s has returned. People want to collaborate; set-up new ventures and I just sense a bit more enthusiasm to get things going on.

Or maybe it’s just me, still clutching my 12″s of the ‘The Score’?

Relative to my frequent visits, and later living in NYC throughout 2006, London creative business culture was a little more, ‘reserved’. And NYC, a bit more well, ‘upfront’. At least at the happenings I’ve had the pleasure of checking in NYC, business cards are everywhere. From hat shop openings, book launches through to record ‘listening parties’. I laugh with a friend of mine Chuck now over at W+K about the ‘dozen card parties’, he just laughs and says that us Brits are too uptight and “quite posh”.

What aspects of London are inspiring you right now?

* The Vinyl Factory; a new bar-cum-gallery-cum-venue that we’re working on right now with Village Green. It’s going to be incredible.

* Stag and Dagger Festival; a recent bar crawl x music festival across the bars of Shoreditch from our friends at Margaret, full of bands with seemingly made-up names off MySpace. Good time had by all.

* Thief Who Stole My Sundays; new Sunday musical get-together in another East-end gastro conversion from the People Like You. Look out for their festival this summer in Shropshire.

* The Me and You Show at the Hayward Gallery and also Dover Street Market’s Market.

* Massive Attack’s Meltdown at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; looking forward to checking Shape of Broad Minds on Thursday 19 June.

* And one book I keen on checking, Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman.

AnalogFolk