/Interview/ Profile: BKWLD
03/02/2010 | Filed under Discover > Interview
Oliver Lindberg talks to Ryan Vanni, Dan Fields, Robert Reinhard and Jeff Toll of BKWLD about the agency’s fresh approach to interactive design and the science of a good banner ad
Agency location Sacramento, CA & Seattle, WA
Team size 13
Expertise Interactive design
Established 2001
Clients 2k Sports, Microsoft, HBO, Scion, Lexus, Disney and Nike
.net: Probably a stupid question but what does BKWLD stand for, and how did the agency come together?
RV: Definitely not a stupid question. In fact, it’s probably our little own FAQ. I’ve been meaning to come up with an elaborate story as to what it means and how that meaning is woven into the very fabric of our company. And here we are answering to one of our industries most prestigious periodicals, and I am forced to tell the truth:
In 2000 when my then-bandmate and I talked about starting a company in his what had to have been 10 square foot ‘office’ (aka laundry room), his first and probably most ridiculous idea he excitedly typed into swish to watch bounce about was ‘Bukwild’. We both immediately lit up. To us, being the rebellious 20-year-olds we were, Bukwild meant no rules, and if there were any they were ours. We were going to do it our way (as if we really had time to have done it anyone else’s way, let alone enough to have gotten fed up with). So we were off, Bukwild Inc founded in January of 2001. However, after a couple years in business, and countless ‘What are you guys a porn shop?!’ jokes, our then-creative director Scott Hansen (now ISO50) had the brilliant idea of taking out the vowels to create a fictitious acronym. I thought maybe we’d make up some last names to put on the door, Berkowitz, Klein, Woods, & Davis. Simply we wanted to be taken seriously, perceived as older, industry vets if you will. The ultimate irony is that now that we have close to a decade under our belts, I’m growing less and less concerned with ‘being taken seriously’ via our name. It’s our name, damn it, our rules, if our name is too bad-rap-rock-song for you, go fly a kite... So I guess some things never change.
.net: What do you specialise in?
DF: Our specialties include banner ads, retail websites and powerful content management systems. As far as technologies, our bread and butter are Flash AS3 and PHP/MySQL.
.net: You collaborate quite a bit with other agencies. How does that work for you?
DF: There are definitely pros and cons about working with an agency, versus just working direct with a client. We’re really lucky though that we get to do both, which keeps us sharp on both ends. Working with an agency, you end up technically having to appease ‘two clients’ – the agency and the client - so some projects can tend to go through quite a few more rounds or have more work than a direct to client project. Thankfully we’re in a situation where we’ve earned a voice with many of our traditional agency clients, where they look to us as interactive experts, and not as a ‘Here’s a PSD, shut up and build it’ agency.
.net: You do meddle a fair bit in games, too. What makes a successful online game?
DF: Most of the games we’ve been hired to create are part of an effort to move traffic to a site virally. As a result they are designed to be simple to pick up but very addictive. To me, there are four things that make an online game successful. One is competition, whether it’s to get your name at the top of the scoreboard, or brag to a friend on Facebook that they just did something on Farmville. Another is to keep the game variable, so that the game stays fresh and different. For example, there are random icons you can collect – for good or for bad effects – so the game is always different on every play. Another big one is to offer an incentive (this one is fairly obvious). If people are playing for an iPod/gift certificate/hamburger they are much more likely to keep trying than if playing just for fun. And finally, the game better be easy to pick up and learn. If you need more than one page of instructions, it’s going to be too complicated for a ‘casual gamer’ and not complicated enough for a ‘hardcore gamer’.
.net: How did you get to work in the entertainment industry and what are the main challenges involved?
DF: We’ve been fortunate that we have some great, great contacts in the music industry. It literally started with Ryan wanting to make websites for bands, opening a phone book, and calling every record agency listed until we finally got a project for J Records. From there, we aligned ourselves with more and more musicians and labels, because if there’s any ‘who you know’ industry, it’s certainly the music industry.
.net: You also still do banners. Aren’t they a bit old school?
DF: There are plenty of terrible banners out there, placed on the wrong websites, with zero call to action and no incentive. That’s old school, and something we’re vehemently against. For years, traditional media buyers who didn’t understand interactive would just put banners on sites based purely on their traffic, with little regard for demographics, etc. Thankfully that’s all changing, and interactive media buying is growing in leaps and bounds. So placing the correct ad in front of the correct consumer is getting more scientific and thought out.
Additionally, site takeovers and other experiences like we’ve done for Domino’s and Columbia make the impressions worth just as much as the clickthroughs. We’re in essence creating mini-sites in these banners, enabling users to experience our advertisement without leaving their current site.
.net: You have offices in Sacramento and Seattle. Any aspirations to expand to the East Coast or further?
RV: Sacramento and Seattle both exist because of lifestyle choices, not a business strategy, which I think says a lot about who we are. Both Robert and I love what we do, our company, and the industry we get to be a part of. But we decided long ago that personal life was far more important then business and we wanted our culture to reflect that. These two cities have been great for that. They both attract people who have worked in San Francisco or Los Angeles and are looking for a change. Don’t get me wrong, we have definitely entertained moving to SF or LA but ultimately agreed that it wasn’t right for us.
As for the east coast, I have learned to never say never. There of course is part of me that loves to romanticise about having an office in New York, but at the moment I do not see that happening any time soon. Luckily as we all know advances in communications shorten the geographical distances every day. Thankfully we have the luxury of working with clients all over the place, which has afforded us frequent travel opportunities to spend time with the clients and often our ‘competitors’, or more suitably our friends, in other cities.
.net: What’s been your proudest moment so far? And what’s been the low point?
RV: That’s a big question, and certainly a very personal one. I’m sure if you asked various team members you’re going to get a different answer every time. So I’ll at least share my view.
High point: there are a lot that come to mind. But I think using the one where tears were involved makes the most sense. In the early days we struggled, big time. We had very little idea as to what we were doing, the dot-com crash had just happened, and we had very few projects and thus little cash. So for an office we used whatever space someone would let us use, aka not charge us for. We worked from our respective homes of course, but with the demands of young families at home it never proved very efficient. We worked out of a modular mobile office on a construction yard kindly donated by a friend’s father, and of course we tried coffee shops. So needless to say, when we moved into our first office on the 12th floor of an old building in downtown Sacramento, we thought we had made it. And for all intents and purposes, we had. I remember opening the window, smoking a cigarette looking down onto our view of the Capitol building feeling a little emotional at our sense of accomplishment. Who cared if it was 200 square feet – it was ours.
Low point: I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the infamously challenging year of 2009. This year has been one of the best, and easily one of the worst. For the first time as a company we had to conduct a few lay-offs. It was not an easy decision to come to and I certainly fought it every step of the way. I genuinely liked the people we had to say goodbye to and found it difficult to not worry about what they would do next. It was easily the low point for me, but obviously part of doing business. The upside is that I personally feel we have learned more in this year about business, our capabilities, and our passion then in the eight years preceding it. Sometimes getting knocked off the horse ain’t such a bad thing. ...and those few teammates we had to say goodbye to all landed at amazing places...don’t want you worrying, too.
.net: How do you keep up to date with the latest/best tools and techniques in the industry?
RR: As a company, we’re making more of an effort this year to attend events and conferences. I don’t think a person picks up detailed skills there, but they give you time to think more big picture and introduce you to new approaches. Besides this, we just rely on the internet: RSS feeds, Google searches, and blogs. Having a team of talented guys like we do is an asset; I’m constantly learning from them. Stackoverflow has developed into a great resource that we tap when stuck on the development side. And what we learn, we post to our blog, so other stumped people can benefit.
.net: How do you test your sites/games/apps?
RR: For our bigger projects, we’ve been lucky to have focus groups budgeted. This is the exception, however. As projects are wrapping, we have BKWLD staff of different disciplines hit and try to break things. It’s best if the developers of the project aren’t the sole testers. Something subconscious happens if you’re the developer where you learn to avoid areas that may still be buggy without realising it. But of course the client will go there first. We use Litmus (litmusapp.com/) to test HTML build in multiple browsers. We lead development largely on Macs but we have some PCs and we run VMWare to test interactivity cross-OS. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use Silverback (silverbackapp.com) to observe user interaction, but it hasn’t presented itself yet.
.net: What are you currently working on?
DF: In 2010 we’re looking forward to continuing our relationship with some of the biggest and best agencies in the world, such as Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Butler, Shine & Stern, as well maintaining our direct client relationships with Burton (Gravis/Analog), Gregory Backpacks, Dragon Eyewear and others. Project-wise, we’re launching some fun projects for Bing (Catalysis), Getty Images and Chobani Yogurt (TDA).
.net: What’s the most bizarre request you ever got from a client?
JT: The majority, if not all, bizarre requests come from our eccentric music clients. It’s not uncommon to get off a conference call only to have to sit down and design the client taking a bubble baths with their dogs, a talking dolphin wearing a headset named bubbles and an illustration of a penis with glimpses of Richard Simmons. Always great conversation pieces!
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