Craft this good should not depend on who already knows you.

CHALLENGE

Work came from people who already knew them.

Almost every job came through existing contractors or acquaintances. There was a website, but it did not explain the strengths or how to get to a conversation. Instagram, YouTube and note were all running, but without a clear sense of who each was for, the posting was scattered. And filming while working on site is hard — practically and psychologically.

APPROACH

Decide the position, then design two routes to it.

1. 01 Interviewed five actual clients

   Rather than inventing a persona, we interviewed five people who had commissioned the work — contractors and homeowners — and built from what they actually said.

2. 02 Named the position

   Being highly skilled is not, on its own, a reason to be chosen. We went deep on the earthen walls and polished finishes and settled on a clear position: a plasterer specialising in traditional Japanese architecture.

3. 03 Designed for two audiences

   Architects and contractors want different things from homeowners planning a house, and they arrive by different routes. Rather than serving both with the same posts, we designed a path for each.

4. 04 Made posting something the studio could sustain

   We built the filming and posting into the working day so it could continue without us, rather than depending on an outside agency indefinitely.

RESULT

Found by the people who were looking for exactly this.

Instagram grew from around 1,000 followers to 10,000, with one post as the turning point. A project video passed 350,000 views, putting the craft in front of far more people at once. During the period the content spread, Instagram was reaching roughly 5,000 more users a month. Enquiries from architects, contractors and homeowners became steady.