Arne Hurty is the Founder and CEO of BayCreative, a marketing firm providing support to multiple industries. Arne leverages his background in design and illustration to help B2B companies market to their customer base and streamline internal communication using in-bound, out-bound, and traditional marketing methods. For over a decade, BayCreative has offered a one-stop marketing solution for a wide range of companies, including Adobe, Oracle, Cisco, Hitachi, and many more.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Arne Hurty shares what BayCreative is and how the firm serves its clients
- What inspired Arne to launch his own marketing agency?
- How BayCreative has evolved over the years — and how it’s weathered unforeseen circumstances
- What are the keys to running a successful agency?
- Why you should market your company like you would a customer
- Arne reveals his team’s entrepreneurial mindset and their goals
In this episode…
The purpose of a marketing firm is to serve its clients by making the brand known to prospects. Implementing marketing strategies allow your efforts to reach the target audience. But as you work diligently to help build other brands, you may put your own company’s marketing strategy on hold. If you’re not marketing yourself, how will potential clients know you’re available to help their brands grow?
Putting your customer’s needs above your own is admirable — but it’s not feasible for longevity. In fact, there is value in treating your company like it’s your best customer. Arne Hurty advises keeping your brand rooted in your company’s vision and finding a steady rhythm when marketing yourself. Finding a marketing rhythm will allow your brand to stay current while you build your clients’ visibility in the community.
On this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Chad Franzen interviews Arne Hurty, Founder and CEO of BayCreative, to discuss the importance of treating your marketing firm like a valued customer. Arne also shares why he launched his own firm, how his agency has evolved over the years and withstood unforeseen circumstances, and the goals his team is working to accomplish.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Email the team at Rise25: support@rise25.com
- Arne Hurty on LinkedIn
- BayCreative
- BayCreative’s email: marketing@baycreative.com
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 media, we feature top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here co-host of the Top Business Leaders Show where we feature CEOs, entrepreneurs and top leaders in the business world. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses reach their dream relationships and connect with more clients referrals and strategic partnerships and get ROI through done-for-you podcast. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships, there’s no better way to do it than to profile the people and companies you admire on your own podcast to learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at support at Rise25.com Arne Hurty is founder and creative director at BayCreative for 25 years he has worked with b2b tech companies to help them relate to their customers and communicate better with with each other internally. Hey, Arne. Thanks so much for joining me today. How are you?
Arne Hurty 1:07
Hey, pleasure. Thank you. I’m doing fine. Thanks. Doing fine.
Chad Franzen 1:10
Good. Hey, yeah, tell me a little bit more about BayCreative and what you guys do for your clients? Sure.
Arne Hurty 1:15
BayCreative. We started up with BayCreative 25 years ago now. And we’re a small boutique agency is located in the San Francisco area working mainly with b2b technology companies. And we, we help them we help them with communications internally and both externally with a wide range of services, Strategy and support on asset creation and the like.
Chad Franzen 1:46
You, you found a BayCreative in 1997 Congrats on your longevity? What did you do prior to launching it?
Arne Hurty 1:54
Oh, well, before BayCreative. I was working at Macworld magazine, which at that time was quite a coffee table publication. So it was it was an exciting place to be, we were producing some high quality design. I did design informational graphic design there for for many years. And after that helped get going with the first Macworld online, which was there, back in the days of AOL, and, you know, all that stuff. So that goes way, way back. And, you know, after doing that, for quite quite a stretch had come to meet a lot of wonderful, talented people there, you know, great designers and writers and illustrators, and the like, and thought it might might be smart, might be a good time to start a company. And, you know, kind of draw from those resources as well as our own internally and kind of put together a company to do marketing work for people.
Chad Franzen 2:53
Sure. So you, you launched BayCreative How did that kind of specific idea, Bloom or come about?
Arne Hurty 3:01
Really, it was, it was something that I’d always wanted to do, I always wanted to work for myself, I always wanted to start a business, that’s something that kind of, has been something that’s been in me since the beginning, you know, since since you know, I was the kid driving around with my lawnmower in the wagon, looking for lawns to mow was just an extension to that, really, it’s a little bit of a, maybe, for me, personally a little bit of a kind of a rogue or rebellious instinct, I don’t want to be working for anybody. So, you know, I try really hard to be a real good employer, you know, at BayCreative and, and not fall into the same, you know, you know, pitfalls I felt, you know, serving as an employee, in many cases, although, I gotta say, I had some wonderful bosses over the years.
Chad Franzen 3:59
What would you say, based on your experience as an employer and an employee, you kind of focus on trying to do to, you know, be a good leader of the big leader of the ship.
Arne Hurty 4:11
You know, really, it’s, it’s easier maybe in some cases with creative services, we have very, we have very skilled high end people working with us. So our team, our team is already comprised of people who have real experience and background and what they do so we do have a path for people at BayCreative who are who are learning and you know, discovering who they want to become in terms of the business, but a lot of the people at BayCreative are people with a lot of background and expertise. So it’s easy to it’s easy for, for them to contribute in really dramatic ways, you know, to the projects that we work on and you know, we try what we can we try all we can to kind of encourage and foster that, you know, creative exchange between between people there, I think it keeps people very satisfied, at least in our in our line of work and keeps people are very satisfied with their jobs with their work.
Chad Franzen 5:13
So when you first started BayCreative, what were the were the early days? Like, were there any kind of things that snuck up on you? How did you get clients things like that? Oh, I
Arne Hurty 5:22
mean, it was all just kind of, you know, bootstrapped. We were just doing anything to get a customer, my business partner at the time, Barbara, Saudi, she had a lot of, she had a lot of contacts in the business, I had numerous contacts, we were just, you know, fishing around for anything we can get our hands on, basically. And we, you know, we had some really nice early clients that kind of helped us get going, of course, leaving IDG, they immediately became, you know, one of our earliest and busiest customers. So we were doing a lot of a lot of business with them right away.
Chad Franzen 5:55
So how long was it before you kind of had felt like you, you would hit your stride? Like, you know, we found our niche, and we had our processes down. And we’re not just totally figuring it out all the time?
Arne Hurty 6:06
You know, that’s interesting. That’s an interesting question. Because I think we’re still in the process of doing that, you know, we were always discovering more of who we really are, I think, and it comes out of, it comes out of the kinds of projects that you work on, we, we try to find projects that test who we are creatively, we really, we eagerly seek those out. Because, you know, it’s, it’s a way for us to grow and keep interested in what we’re doing. And also have more to offer, frankly, so it’s, it’s, we look for projects where we’re asked to, you know, challenge the norms, and we love customers who are open to suggestions and, and challenges with regards to how they think about things. And that’s really, when some of the exciting stuff happens.
Chad Franzen 7:00
So 1997, you know, it doesn’t seem totally that long ago, but in some ways, it was a completely different world, especially when it comes to technology. What are some of the ways in which BayCreative has kind of primarily evolved? During that time? I’m sure it was, you guys, everything you did was completely different then compared to now.
Arne Hurty 7:18
It was very, yeah, it was very well, some things were very, very different. You know, as far as the tools go, you know, the latest tools have completely changed. So, you know, now we’ve got, now we’ve got completely different, you know, updated or different tools. In some cases, though, you know, Photoshop, that’s still a staple, right. And, you know, some of these other Adobe Suite products are still a staple. There’s other ones, you know, slipping in now that are kind of challenging Adobe’s stronghold and all of that, but ultimately, ultimately, we we, you know, we find ways to execute it’s, it’s never been a really big issue or problem for us to keep on top of the technology, it’s so available and so easy to, to, to assimilate, you know, into our into our workflows. And and I think that the, I think that the maybe some of the more challenging ones are the business processes, ones, the ones that you the things that you plug in to run your company. You know, the Asana is and the HubSpot, so the world, those those products and tools are a little more challenging to integrate and stuff. And that might just be me, I’ve got to, you know, my brain is more of the creative bent. So I don’t I don’t think that way, but we have people helping us with those things, too.
[continue to page 2]
Chad Franzen 8:37
Would you say that the primary primary channels that you might use for communication or for marketing related communications have changed quite a bit or stayed similar?
Arne Hurty 8:47
Well, they do. I mean, we don’t we don’t do the media buying, per se, BayCreative so we’re more focused on the creative. Yeah, certainly, they’ve changed right social media, how video gets used has changed dramatically. You know, it’s gone from it’s gone from, you know, a, almost an untouchable medium for so many small and mid sized businesses to something that they can just overdo very easily if they’re not careful. So that’s been interesting. And likewise, presentations and the focus on you know, hybrid work and people, people meaning just like you and I are meeting right now, you know, the, the lack of the drive to an office or, you know, find a meeting place, and sitting down and looking at people in a room, you know, those days have just kind of withered away. And the onus now falls so much more heavily on the quality of the materials you have to show because you don’t have the opportunity with body language or I don’t know, pheromones in the room. Um, you don’t have the opportunity to supplement what you’re doing in that same way. So if anything, I think it’s driven, it’s driven a stronger, a stronger push towards quality in, in design and in story flow in graphics. It’s, it’s the industry has kind of pushed things in that direction. Another one is this AI, you know, AI is coming up and haunting all of us and nipping at our heels. And in some cases, it’s very, very exciting. But, you know, we had an internal creative discussion not too long ago. And one of our team said, you know, well, one of the big differentiators is AIs are never going to feel and, and, you know, certainly they can emulate feelings and emulate emotions. I imagine that’s the case, but they don’t actually feel and what, what comes out of actual feeling? And how does that influence the work we’re doing? I think is a is an important direction to look right now. And certainly, it’s one that we’ve got our eye on at BayCreative.
Chad Franzen 11:03
What would you say are some keys, you may have already answered this on the couple of other questions I’ve already asked you, but what would you say are some keys to running a successful agency with the kind of staying power that BayCreative has shown to have? Well,
Arne Hurty 11:17
I would say, not giving up not checking out, you know, if you have your if you have, you know, a sturdy, you know, commitment to you know, sticking with it, that’s, that’s kind of what’s what’s kept us through in a big way, it’s like, there really isn’t much else I want to go do. So that helps, that certainly helps. And then, yeah, and then just, you know, treating customers, right, you know, looking looking to the relationship, looking to sustaining a relationship, and, you know, finding ways to stay relevant with your customer. And, and, and being in there for, for them moving forward. You know, we’ve, we’ve done that our customer, many of our customers have been with us for, you know, 10 years or so. And it’s exciting because we we’ve, we’ve been able to see how, within an organization, new people moving in other people moving out, we become some, and some of the ways we become the old, the old ones on the guard, in a way we’re able to carry forward what’s been happening already there with, with a new person at a company. So
Chad Franzen 12:28
it’s interesting. Speaking of not giving up, how has, how is BayCreative kind of survived things that are out of your control, you know, like the COVID pandemic or the recession in 2008? How have you guys kind of plowed through those?
Arne Hurty 12:41
I mean, that’s a really good question, too. It’s a like, using the metaphor of, you know, a boulder and a pebble. And you know, the two in an earthquake, right, the Boulder is going to crack, the pebbles just gonna get pushed around, and you know, bumped up against some other pebbles, right. And we’re kind of small. And so, you know, being being the size we are, you know, we kind of that’s kind of what our experience has been when there’s been an economic downturn or when there’s been we’ve been through a few of them now. We’ve kind of just found ourselves getting pushed up against other opportunities. And, and it’s worked out pretty well. We’ve been able to kind of keep pretty steady the whole the whole stretch.
Chad Franzen 13:21
Good. Very nice. Yeah. With, with everything you do for your clients, how important is it to do marketing for yourselves?
Arne Hurty 13:32
That is, that is the bane of our existence. Right. It’s, it’s the cobblers kids don’t have shoes, right? So it’s no different. I mean, we’re just, you know, it’s, it’s like pulling teeth to get our own stuff going. So, you know, we do our best. And we’re, we’re kind of in the middle of a push right now to get a few things together. But it’s, it’s it’s always a challenge, because we’re always putting the customers first though.
Chad Franzen 13:58
Yeah, so many, you know, I’ve spoken to other kind of leaders like yourself, and you guys all say very similar things. What do you think that is?
Arne Hurty 14:04
I mean, it’s, it’s, you know, frankly, I think it’s a little it’s a little bit of negligence, right? I mean, we really ought to treat ourselves as our own as one of our own best customers, you know, and afford ourselves the same care and respect and attention that we would any client, right. So it’s, it’s a little bit embarrassing not to not to be doing that. But I would say it’s in and it’s also the kind of thing that you don’t want driven out of just pure, you know, gross necessity, like, Oh, my God, our numbers are down, we gotta go push, you know, and then it’s a scramble and then it’s disingenuous in so many ways. I mean, it really I think the best work you know, comes from, you know, taking a step back and relaxing, deciding about who you really are, who you want to be as a company, how you want to project that and can Keeping an eye on, you know, keeping your brand tied to its roots, basically, I mean, that’s what we tell our customers, when we work on brand projects with them, we, we focus strongly on connecting the brand, to the roots of the organization, the vision, the purpose of existing. And, and then and then you have more freedom in what you do and how you express yourself. And so that that works for any of our customers as well as it works for us. Right?
Chad Franzen 15:30
Hey, you, you founded the company, like we said, in 1997, it was kind of driven partly by your entrepreneurial spirit. So you are an entrepreneur, but that was, you know, in 1997, do you still feel like you have that same entrepreneurial spirit? And do you bring that to the table now? In your regional responsibilities with BayCreative?
Arne Hurty 15:49
Yeah, I think so. But but certainly supplemented by the other people that we have on the team that we’ve got some wonderful people at BayCreative and, and I think everybody there has has a notion and idea about entrepreneurism. So it, you know, again, we’re small enough to have that kind of shared approach and goal. So, you know, people step right, it’s wonderful, um, you know, wanting to help develop the art, the organization and build it out, and, and keep us growing. So,
Chad Franzen 16:22
do you have some kind of specific goals? What are some of your goals with BayCreative moving forward,
Arne Hurty 16:28
we have, we have definitely focused our attention around some key service areas. So you know, brand cultivation, is something that we focus on, we focus on presentation, excellence, so presentation work, we focus on motion, we say motion, because video makes you think of, you know, one or a few things, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s short video pieces, it’s the animation, it’s all things associated with that. And then we’ve we’ve had a really strong, we had a really strong support in sales enablement, with organizations. So helping sales teams learn and understand and stay focused on what they’re doing, providing them with all the materials and tools they need. both internally and externally, it’s been something that we’ve been very focused on. So we’re kind of zeroing in on those four areas, as part right now. And that’s been a Strategy of ours, you know, moving ahead here. So it seems to be seems to be resonating well, with with, with our customers.
Chad Franzen 17:32
Very nice. Hey, I have one more question for you. But first, tell me how people can find out more information about BayCreative,
Arne Hurty 17:38
gladly. Easiest way to do that is just come to BayCreative, that’s BayCreative.com. If you land on our site, you can poke around there, we’ve got contact forms, and, you know, you can always send an email to marketing@BayCreative.com as well. We’re not overloaded, you know, again, we’re a smaller company will will certainly be able to read the the message and and look forward to hearing from people.
Chad Franzen 18:06
Okay, awesome. Hey, last question for you. Are there any daily rituals that you find particularly important for yourself? What’s kind of a typical day?
Arne Hurty 18:16
Typical day is is just for me personally, yeah, typical day for me personally is, is you know, getting up I, you know, I keep, I tried to keep a couple of books by my side, and I tried to never about business. And I tried, and I tried to give myself, you know, 1015 minutes here and there during the day to stop and read a chapter. And it’s just a real nice way to separate and break away from the, from the daily thing. And, you know, that kind of perspective is, you know, gained from just doing that relaxation from doing that and just lets you step back in in a nice way.
Chad Franzen 18:59
Sure. Any recommendations, based on recent books you’ve read?
Arne Hurty 19:06
Let’s see here. I like Alan Watts, and excited about reading doesn’t matter. Kind of a recent. It’s a recent acquisition by me. I have never read that book by him. So I’m excited to dig into that and look at that.
Chad Franzen 19:22
Okay, sounds good. Hey, Arne. It’s been great to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate your story and your perspective. Thank you so much.
Arne Hurty 19:30
Absolutely. Thank you so much. Take care.
Chad Franzen 19:32
So long, everybody.
Outro 19:33
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