London-based Josh Moore, founder of Lawless Studio, recently sat down with Carlota Pico to talk about his impressive career working with brands like Condé Nast, Hearst, ESI Media and Hypebeast. He explained how this led him to create his own unique marketing agency, a trend-conscious production service that offers artist-led creative solutions to “level up” client projects. Josh explained why he jumped into entrepreneurship, how he came up with the concept for Lawless Studio and the advantages of creative solutions for brands.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, and listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.

Key takeaways

  • Lawless Studio boasts an incredible roster of artistic talent, including an array of graffiti and tattoo artists who connect with brands and projects when a particular kind of artistic style is needed. It also offers a distinctive distribution method, connecting brands to the artists’ audiences through Instagram and other social channels.
  • Dealing with rejection can be grueling when you’ve put so much time and effort into a project that a client doesn’t wind up using. Try not to take it personally, and know that if you put in the work, your ideas will eventually get picked up. 
  • Marketing budgets have been slashed in 2020, but 2021 is expected to be a year of recovery for the industry. Brands have to be clever and agile with how they spend their marketing dollars—which is exactly what Lawless Studio aims to help them do.
  • Some low-budget, high-impact marketing strategies include leveraging influencers; creating a strong visual identity through brand colors, logos and fonts; and making sure you deliver your content at the most opportune moment.
  • In 2017, Josh drove a successful campaign for the Sky Atlantic newspaper to promote the final season of Game of Thrones. He spearheaded the research, development and execution of a modern day “paper tech” campaign.

Content is still king, but I think there are new supporting kings too; the cadence, delivery and frequency of content is now just as important as the content itself.

Rapid-fire recs

What’s your favorite app or tool at the moment?

First, LinkedIn. I think there’s a lack of organic content on there, so I try to post as much of it as I can. It’s a really valuable app and probably my most-used tool right now.

My other current favorite is The Athletic, which is almost like a sports newspaper app. They’ve invested heavily in some of the best football writers on the planet, so the content is great.

Check out our interview with Harriet Drudge, social lead at The Athletic UK.

A professional role model or an influencer who inspires you?

All of the artists we work with at Lawless Studio. For example, Jack Watts from Sang Bleu tattoo studio is someone that I always feel inspired around. When I spend time with him, all of a sudden I’ve got a hundred ideas for how we can harness his potential for brands.

Another guy called Mike Winnet has a video series called The Contrepreneur, where he calls out big motivational speakers and pokes holes in what they say. It’s genius. He’s brilliant.

On a similar note, Dan Kelsall from Offended.marketing talks really honestly and openly. One important thing that he speaks about is men’s mental health, which is so important in an industry that can be quite cutthroat.

Benjamin Dennehy is a no-nonsense sales trainer. He says a lot of things that people might not like, but he’s built an amazing career by basically telling businesses how the sales process should work. His videos are amazing and he’s really influenced me.

Last but not least, I want to recommend David Speed and Adam Brazier, who run Creative Rebels. It’s a motivational podcast geared toward creatives, YouTubers, influencers and other people who have ditched the 9 to 5 and followed their creative passion.

 A valuable resource, event or group?

I like to read The Guardian and The Independent, where I used to work at ESI Media.

I’d also recommend a men’s lifestyle digital magazine called The Book of Man. It was started by Martin Robinson and Mark Sandford, and it’s all about raising awareness of mental health issues among men.

Someone recommended that I read “Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon, so I recently ordered it. Since I work with artists, I try and harness creativity in as many ways as possible.

On Instagram, my favorite hashtag at the minute is #AccidentallyWesAnderson, which features architecture and places around the world that look like they’re from a Wes Anderson film. It’s fun!

Connect with Josh and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Mary Kresge, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.

For more insights into creative solutions in marketing, check out:

Overcoming creative blocks – Kavitha Das, global social media manager at BBC StoryWorks

Have the confidence to be creative – Aidoia Puig-Delfin, UK-based marketing communications manager

Create a new kind of marketing – Nathalie Perchard, European marketing expert

To see the full transcript, click on page number 2 below. 

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