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We’ve just launched a new Fray Bentos campaign, ‘Bish Bash Bentos’ featuring internet sensation John Fisher aka Big John Fisher / The Boshfather.

Famous for his viral takeaway videos, The Boshfather has teamed up with Fray Bentos to inject fresh energy into the hot tinned meals category. The campaign is all about reigniting love from loyal fans who grew up with the brand, while connecting with a new generation of hungry lads looking for bold, satisfying meals that deliver. Highlighting the full portfolio was key. Fray Bentos pies are legendary, meatballs deliver a quick and affordable family meal solution while the new range of pouch meals offer protein-packed fuel for life on the go.

To showcase the quality and comfort of the products in a fun, relatable way, self-proclaimed food consultant The Boshfather can be seen in the ads mirroring his trademark sign off ‘bosh’ with the campaign’s rallying slogan “Bish Bash Bentos”. The ads show how quick and easy dinner with Fray Bentos can be, while also aligning with Big John’s loyal foodie followers.

The campaign spans OOH advertising (including lorry sides), social media, digital audio as well as in-store POS. In November, another activation will launch, where a branded Fray Bentos food van and boxing machine will go on tour across key cities and events in the Northeast, giving out hot Fray Bentos product samples and big flavour.

Jude Smart, Brand Manager at Fray Bentos, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be working with Big John. He’s a brilliant cultural fit for Fray Bentos as he’s authentic, down to earth and passionate about good food. The Bish Bash Bentos campaign champions our core ranges and helps us connect with a new generation of hungry lads who love bold flavours and no-fuss meals.”

Michael Evans, Senior Art Director at Guy & Co, adds, “Fray Bentos is an iconic brand that creates feelings of nostalgia for so many. We want to replicate this feeling for a new wave of people who we know will love the new products that are being launched. After all, who can say no to a steak and gravy pie that Big John himself has endorsed?! We’ve loved creating this campaign to give an Unfair Advantage to an all round brilliant brand like Fray Bentos.”

Want to take a closer look? Check out the work here. BOSH.

Independent creative marketing agency, Guy & Co, today launches In the Moment. Created in partnership, this new experiential agency helps brands craft unforgettable human experiences that forge lasting connections.

In the Moment responds to the brand challenge of building connections in an increasingly virtual world. It offers brand experiences, sponsorship activations, partnership marketing and internal communications. Its mission is to blur the lines between physical and digital, giving brands cut-through with human connection – the most valuable commodity.

Harnessing Guy & Co’s Unfair Advantage System®, In the Moment marks a first for the experiential sector. It gives clients confidence to invest in brand experience through rapid AI concepting and research panels that test and prove concepts, remove subjectivity, cut production risk and maximise impact. Combined with Guy & Co’s expertise in brand strategy, creative and integrated campaigns, the partnership delivers an Unfair Advantage for clients – blending strategic and creative clarity with experiential impact to make work that connects and drives results.

“We all remember those times when we were really living in the moment. Whether it’s a life milestone, a cultural event or a personal experience, they stay with us. My career has been about creating those opportunities for brands – moments where people lose themselves, connect deeply and carry the feeling long after. By blending real-world experiences with digital amplification, our goal is to help brands show up authentically, build trust and prove to marketeers the investment is worth it”, says Steve Simpson, Managing Director of In the Moment.

David Guy, Founder of Guy & Co, adds, “Steve and I worked together previously, creating disruptive and award-winning experiences for Diageo brands including Guinness and Smirnoff. So I knew when the opportunity to team up came about, we had to do it. I have total confidence his incredible energy and passion for experiential marketing will make it a success.”

Check out In the Moment, or find them on LinkedIn and Instragram!

Now that the Six Nations hangover is kicking in, I thought I’d tell you a bit about being a creative copywriter…in rugby terms.

As a rugby player myself, I’m very acquainted with ‘high risk, high reward.’ From playing 7s in the Dubai sun to slogging 15s out in Scottish slosh, I’ve experienced my fair share of physical and emotional exertion. But boy does winning feel good.

Turns out, rugby and agency life have a lot in common: the high pressure, quick thinking, team wins and bouncing back from setbacks – to name a few.

So here are some agency tricks I’ve picked up along the way:

Back yourself

When full-time was called on my Creative Advertising Masters at Edinburgh Napier University, I was ready to kick off a new challenge. But with Edinburgh’s current job climate, I worried I wouldn’t stand out in a crowd of agency-thirsty graduates.

So, I got creative and disguised my CV on a Baxter’s can of soup. I wrote a poem too, likening myself to a green banana – not yet ripe but full of potential (cheesy, I know). But now I’m one of the ‘guys’, tackling briefs and learning to convert ideas into winning campaigns.

Imposter syndrome might creep in but remember, you’re in the team for a reason.

Get your ideas out early

Like a pre-match warm-up, creativity flows best when you loosen up. Bad ideas (and passes) need out to make more room for the good ones.

At university I had months to work on projects, but in agency the pace is miles faster. I’ve learned that creativity, like rugby, isn’t about holding back. It’s about throwing yourself in head-first (legally), making quick decisions and finding the best way to break through the defensive line of an un-figure-out-able challenge.

I quickly realised that good copywriting isn’t about waiting for the perfect idea to fall from the sky fully formed. It’s about hoofing it down the pitch, knowing that some ideas will successfully bounce into touch, but only after writing headline after headline, followed by pages and pages of nonsense.

Trust your teammates

Rugby and advertising share a core principle: no one wins alone. A great campaign, like a great try, is the result of teamwork. At university I often worked solo or with a creative partner, adopting various roles, which was quite overwhelming at times. But at Guy & Co, I’ve learned to trust my teammates – designers, planners and account managers – all working together to carry the campaign over the try line.

Ask them for help, they’re there to learn from.

Play what’s in front of you

Not every brief will be a dream project, but adaptability is key.

Every copywriter wants to nail the perfect line; the one that gets the conversion, and the audience cheering. Copywriter Malcolm Gluck once said, “The biggest problem to overcome with writing advertising copy is keeping it natural, fresh, and seemingly effortlessly arrived-at.”

I’ve wrestled with this often: how do I make copy sound ‘natural’ when a deadline is chasing me down? How do I keep my words ‘fresh’ and engaging every single time? The reality is, not every piece of copy will be a match-winner. And like Finn Russell stepping up for that crucial conversion against England, a copywriter doesn’t always hit the mark on the first attempt (or the third). But when the creative team works together, giving each other valuable feedback and support, you can’t miss.

Take the hits and go again

Agency life moves fast, campaigns come and go as quickly as a winger chasing a loose ball, and sometimes, feedback can feel like a high tackle. But in the same way a rugby team regroups after a tough game – we go again, refining, reworking and making each campaign better than the last.

So, to all the junior creatives making the leap from university to agency life: embrace the pressure, back yourself and give it everything you’ve got. It’s fast, it’s tough, but most of all, it’s incredibly rewarding being part of the team.

I recently attended a sold-out seminar titled ‘The Death of the Drinks Industry (as we know It)’ arranged by the Marketing Mixer Scotland – a theme that has been popping up with more and more regularity.

It was a really interesting event but despite the title I came away from it feeling strangely positive. Because actually rather than dying, I think maybe the industry just feels a bit hungover.

After all we have enjoyed a pretty big session for quite some time – seemingly exponential growth, super-premium whisky flying, for years, many assumed that demand for alcohol was natural and inevitable.

But as the event pointed out, with post-COVID declines taking hold, coupled with Gen Z’s focus on wellness and distancing from alcohol, the industry finds itself in a tough spot.

However, while the threats are very real, I’m optimistic because these may not be completely new challenges to overcome.

After all, I remember when the smoking ban was going to be the death of the drinks industry, then changing millennial drinking habits and at least 3 different taxation changes. All of this triggered hand-wringing concern about decline. All of these were overcome.

And within these challenges I think there are some really interesting opportunities…

THE NEW FORCES AT PLAY

We’ve all heard how Gen Z drinks significantly less than previous generations, driven by healthier social habits and a strong focus on wellness. They no longer associate alcohol with status or fun in the same way older generations – like me as an older millennial – once did.

But then how do we explain the social phenomenon of ‘Split the G’ – clearly attracting younger drinkers who previously avoided stouts, heavily driven by Gen Z and hardly a ‘mindful’ activity? Illogical – certainly, effective – exponentially. The fact that Guinness sold out in many places over Christmas challenges the notion of the drinks industry’s decline.

Couple this popularity with the fact that the biggest driver of someone ordering a Guinness is often seeing someone else already drinking one and you have in-built acceleration.

Now that’s all well and good for Guinness, but can anyone else do similar?

A CASE IN POINT – APEROL: OWN A MOMENT AND BRAND BUILDING OVER TIME

With the sun sneaking out over the past few days the pubs near the office are looking busier than they have for a few months, and a certain bright orange concoction is hard to miss (not Irn Bru).

Aperol’s success isn’t the result of a viral trend or short-term push – it’s the product of consistent brand building over time. By relentlessly associating itself with the aperitivo moment and summer drinking culture, Aperol has embedded its bright orange Spritz into consumer memory.

The distinctiveness of its colour, glassware, and branding makes it instantly recognisable at quite some distance, ensuring that when you see a group with Aperol Spritz in hand, you know exactly what they’re drinking. This long-term approach has made Aperol more than just a drink – it’s a social cue and a brand that owns a moment. And that’s what consumers are willing to pay more for.

It is these moments of real consumer connectedness that will make brands truly weather the storm, staying connected and understanding the motivators of cultural trends to meet consumers where they are.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

These shifts demand attention: brands can no longer rely solely on taste or discounts to drive sales. Instead, they must be more meaningful and distinctive to stay relevant in an evolving market.

Look at the brands currently winning – their success doesn’t come from luck. It’s from combining long-term brand building with timely cultural relevance.

Guinness, with its signature pour and iconic glassware, has always been distinctive. But what’s made it meaningful again, especially for Gen Z, is leaning into a ritual. The viral ‘Split the G’ trend isn’t just a gimmick – it’s a socially shareable moment of participation. The drink remains recognisable and consistent but now plays into the cultural codes of today’s drinkers: challenge, community, and visual gratification.

Aperol is another case in point. Its success isn’t just down to its unique colour and glassware – it’s the ownership of a distinctive moment. By consistently linking itself to sunny, social afternoons and the aperitivo lifestyle, it created more than just a drink – it created a seasonal ritual. This long-term approach embedded Aperol in culture, making it a non-negotiable part of summer socialising.

So, in essence, the drinks industry definitely isn’t dying – it’s simply distilling a different future, where strong brand building, distinctiveness and cultural relevance are more important than ever.

Interested to find out how we can use our Industry Insights to help your brand get an Unfair Advantage?

Drop us a note to talk to us about your challenge.

WE ASKED OUR CLIENTS FOR FEEDBACK

At Guy & Co, we like to think of ourselves as the team that loves a challenge—whether it’s nailing your brief, crafting campaigns that turn heads, or delivering results that are bravely effective. But don’t just take our word for it. We recently asked our fabulous clients, to rate us through the globally recognised Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey.

Well, the scores are in, and let’s just say, we’re doing a little happy dance over here.

What’s NPS, Anyway?

For the uninitiated, NPS measures how likely you are to recommend a business to someone else. Scores range from 0 to 100, with Bain & Company (the NPS masterminds) categorising anything over 50 as excellent and anything over 80 as world-class.

Our score? A sparkling, almost-world-class 77!

What Our Clients Said

The responses were overwhelmingly positive, with heaps of 9s and 10s. And if that wasn’t enough to boost our serotonin levels, our lovely clients also left us some heartwarming comments:

“Can’t recommend Guy & Co enough. An agency that gets it!”

“I’ve been impressed with the process, results, and way they work with you throughout.”

“Exceptionally distinctive.”

Honestly, we’re blushing.

From the Top

Our Founder, David Guy, said: “Happy clients, happy us. This high NPS score underpins our commitment to delivering client excellence across planning, creative and client services… and our Unfair Advantage system helps us effectively figure out the unfigure-out-able”.

What’s Next?

We’re thrilled, but we’re not resting on our successes (or our NPS score). If this feedback tells us anything, it’s that our clients appreciate what we’re doing—and we’re determined to do even better. Think bigger ideas, bolder campaigns, and delivering the kind of service that keeps those 9s and 10s rolling in.

One Big THANK YOU

To everyone who participated, you’ve made our year. Your feedback helps us grow, evolve, and keep being the agency that has the confidence to challenge and just “gets it”. Here’s to making the next NPS survey even better!

Graduating from the University of Bristol with a History degree was a remarkable achievement for me – a culmination of years of hard work, learning and personal growth. However, the real adventure began after I walked across the stage to receive my diploma. Starting a new job in Edinburgh, after having graduated from Bristol is one thrilling chapter that brings both opportunities and challenges.

When the opportunity for a strategic planning internship at Guy & Co in Edinburgh came up, I knew it was something I had to pursue. Edinburgh is a city rich in history and culture, and the prospect of working there was exciting.

The shift from being a student to starting an internship felt significant. University life operates at a different pace to the professional world. At my internship with Guy & Co, I am applying what I have learned at university in a practical way- working with real teams, clients and deadlines that impact the business. Initially, I felt nervous about this transition. It is one thing to understand concepts in theory but applying them to real world context is a whole other thing. However, the welcoming environment at Guy & Co immediately put me at ease. Everyone was always willing to answer my questions and took time out of their busy working days to give me inductions on their role at the company and what their job entails. This introduced me to the essential skills I needed to be successful working in strategic planning at an independent marketing agency.

I instantly felt a part of the company. From my first day, I noticed something different about the office: a sense of camaraderie that extended beyond polite professionalism. Everyone knew each other- not just as colleagues, but as friends. One of the best parts about working in an atmosphere like this is the ease at which work gets done. Collaboration flows naturally, almost like an extension of casual conversations. There is a genuine willingness to support each other. No idea is too wild to throw out and no question is a silly question. I believe this is critical in a marketing agency as creativity and openness is important. The fact the office is not set up like a conventional corporate office makes it feel like a very inviting space, making it a comfortable and close-knit environment. From having dogs around to Thursdays from 5pm spent at the bar, there is always a safe space to discuss work-related issues as well as having genuine, meaningful conversations.

The internship has challenged me to think critically, creatively and explore a new media-related career. My passion for journalism, research and innovation are skills that have been compatible with my role as a strategic planner. Additionally, moving to a new city has opened opportunities for personal growth, from making new friends to becoming more comfortable with change.

Ultimately, this experience is proving to be more than just an internship, it’s an opportunity to grow both professionally and personally, as I step outside of what I have known and embrace the new.

How Bold Advertising Drives Results

In recent years, heightened consumer frugality has raised the stakes for marketers.

As purse strings tighten, to be bold feels more daunting, because the consequences of failure seem deeper than ever. And an instinctive shift towards playing it safe often leaves agencies feeling in a chokehold when trying to do our job, creativity.

In trying to eliminate risk, creativity is often the first casualty. And yet, as anyone who’s read any evidence-based marketing literature knows, creativity is not a luxury in uncertain times. It’s a necessity.

In the Planning department at Guy & Co, it feels like more than ever we’re navigating the tension between caution and creativity.

Kill risk, elevate creativity. Easier said than done.

We’ve spent the last 8 years refining our approach to this challenge, and one of our most effective tools has been our in-house testing.

8 years, 303 tests, and over 15,000 consumers from 8 countries. The foundation we’ve built has given countless clients the confidence to trust in creativity not as a compromise, but a solution in challenging times.

Here’s 3 reasons why our approach has worked for so long:

1. We focus on what matters

It’s easy to get caught up in whether people like a piece of creative work. While people liking our ideas is obviously nice, the truth is that liking doesn’t always translate to action. Our job is to create work that not only grabs attention but drives behaviour.

By measuring impact rather than taste, we give the creative we produce the best chance of doing more than just looking great, but driving real business results.

2. We don’t discriminate

We’ve put logos, products, pack designs, brand positionings, and a whole host of other creative concepts through the ringer.

Our testing system is designed to measure creative in a way that isn’t limited to any one format.

If it’s creative, we can test it — and get results that don’t just “feel good” but actually mean something.

3. We’ve got a great catalogue to benchmark against

With 8 years of data, we can do more than just evaluate creative; we can contextualize it too.

Our catalogue isn’t just a record, it’s a resource. Whether we’re comparing across FS, tech, telecoms, food & drink, countries or time periods, it lets us benchmark in a way that adds perspective to results, allowing for more informed decision-making and ultimately better outcomes.

Why testing is more critical than ever

For our clients, the confidence to pursue ambitious creative work has come directly as an outcome of our testing process. And often it’s resulted in work that’s both won awards and achieved short and long-term commercial success. We call that Bravely Effective.

With shoppers holding on to their wallets more tightly, and more brands vying for an increasingly smaller share of the prize, creativity is more critical now than ever before.

As Adam Morgan of eatbigfish puts it: brands simply can’t afford to be dull.

For us, that’s why testing is a vital cog in ensuring every creative project works as effectively as it can.

Interested to find out how our in house testing can help your brand get an Unfair Advantage?

Drop us a note to talk to us about your challenge.

I have a set of pencils designed by David Shrigley. Each has one of his signature off-kilter lines printed on it.

They range from the inane – ‘I misspelled my own name’ to the weirdly deep ‘all your marks will be erased’…

But my favourite one says ‘Both sharp and blunt’.

At first glance ‘Both sharp and blunt’ feels like an oxymoron or contradiction, but I think there’s more to it than that.

I’m not sure they are opposites as much as they are requirements. Particularly in the world of marketing and business.

(I promise this isn’t one of those, why watching paint dry is a lot like developing a proposition… type posts!)

I think being sharp AND blunt is vital in all sorts of ways.

Sharp is precise.

Blunt is broad.

Sharp is clever.

Blunt is honest.

Sharp cuts through.

Blunt is direct.

Sharp creates clarity.

Blunt creates accountability.

Sharp gets to the ideas.

Blunt makes them happen.

Now that all sounds good, and certainly makes for a good quote on a pencil, but what difference does it actually make?

Well, I’m a big believer in working in close partnership with clients.

It was a principle instilled in me from the start of my career; the need to walk the corridors, understand the client’s real needs and ambitions on a level beyond the brief. In my experience, that understanding can only be built by being sharp – especially if you’re a planner.

And in strategic conversations those relationships create an even more important edge – they enable a level of relational security and trust that form a safe space in which you’re allowed to be candid, honest, and essentially, blunt.

A level of trust that is never about being negative or dismissive, but knowing that being truthful is a better way to get better results faster.

An emotional safe space where you can, effectively, have an argument without worrying about falling out, or worse, losing the account.

After all it takes a certain level of confidence in a relationship where you can openly disagree, challenge, or ask the stupid questions (without feeling completely stupid).

But bluntness only ever works if you can be sharp with it. So that you aren’t being difficult but being constructive. Brilliant not (just) belligerent.

Avoiding the eggshells and being able to say what you think, push, pull, challenge and ask why creates confidence that the right questions have been asked.

Of course, arguing with clients and colleagues (or anyone really) clearly isn’t a great MO. However, knowing that you can is empowering.

Like the Netflix internal value of ‘Radical Candour’ – being truthful and honest without making it any sort of personal attack. If something needs saying, then say it.

Or as Amazon put it ‘leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting’.

It’s why we built the agency value ‘hard on the work, easy on the people’. Challenge the thinking, but know it’s never personal.

It’s why we have engineered Guy & Co to put so much focus on having confidence to challenge.

And it’s why some of the best work out there comes from real partnership and real honesty.

So whilst we all know it’s important to be sharp, maybe we should be a bit blunter sometimes.

Do you agree? We’d love to hear from you.

If you’ve got a challenge that you want to talk to us about, drop us a note!

We Use Insights to Maximize Impact

We were recently asked our POV on how internal marketing teams can build a strong case to use external creative agency support.

We believe the focus should be on early collaboration, helping clearly define the brand ambitions and metrics for success. Outline what success looks like in the next few months, the next year, and three years ahead. And be transparent about the levels of risk the brand is willing to take to achieve them.

In our experience, agencies can assist most by working collaboratively to diagnose the challenges, not just be parachuted in to help crack the answer.

When exploring any problem, there are always real challenges in self-diagnosis (Dr Google anyone), and it is the outside perspective that can bring just that – perspective.

It is often a lot easier for an outsider (particularly an expert one) to ask the ‘stupid’ questions. After all it would take a pretty confident client-side marketer to ask their board what they sell. But it is these types of questions which can often lead to the most fundamental improvements.

Through collaboration, agencies can challenge and explore what areas of insight are robust and what are lacking to be able to confidently approach the task at hand. We find there is often a chink in the insight armour – especially in the ever-changing rational and irrational behavioural traits of the consumer.

We’ve built this into our system, we call it a ‘Confidence Quotient’ and it measures the confidence of the insight a brand has and potential gaps to fill across a number of key criteria.

By identifying these potential insight gaps and how to frame measurable success and metrics that matter, we help marketing teams ensure strategies have a solid foundation. Demonstrating the magnitude of the challenge ahead and illustrating potential success outcome in commercial terms.

And when we get it right with our clients, it can increase funding potential with their Exec. Marketing planning built on big picture thinking, less assumptions and more certainty.

Diagnose before you rush to prescribe.

And ask your agency to help make the case to the board with you.

Keen to find out more about our Confidence Quotient? Give us a shout!

How do you get an Unfair Advantage in Financial Services marketing?

Even if FS creative generally has lower levels of consumer interest, we know how you can change the rules to make it more interesting.

Guy & Co specialises in challenging how to plan and creatively solve financial service campaigns for clients such as Aegon and the esure Group. Clients who also believe in disrupting category norms and tropes to cut-through the clutter.

We respect the C-word. But compliance doesn’t have to be the FUN police.

As part of our Unfair Advantage System, we regularly test creative dev with real target consumers AND intermediaries across pension and insurance propositions, private banking and asset management.

Humans view FS as a lower interest category. Compared to our Food and Drink client creative it consistently performs to lower Meaningful and Uniqueness baseline scores.

We test lots of things, but we know that asking “would people buy it” and “is it new and different” makes the biggest difference to creative messaging potential.

Understandably they’d rather try a delicious new sherry cask finish whisky than consider a new workplace pension proposition.

Big watch-out then is to make sure the brand insight and creative don’t land in generic messaging territory, that’s when we create a problem of engagement. The kind of creative that when you cover up the logo it could be anyone. Maybe the C-word got overly involved or there’s a low-risk appetite to push for a distinctive creative territory.

An example of successfully going somewhere new was a recent campaign for Life Insurance client, The Exeter. Every year the category communicates their claims that have been paid – and it can be a yearly churn of ‘same old same old’. But The Exeter was open to being challenged and through consumer and intermediary testing we got to a place that was ‘Claims paid = differences made’. A strong line, but it was when we visually dramatised the impact of paying claims in a surreal and story-driven way that the campaign leapt through distinctiveness levels. It’s been the most successful claims campaign for The Exeter ever – because they leaned into challenging the norm.

Financial Services are a vital part of everyone’s lives, and we can creatively escape the gravitational pull of normalising and complying. When we do, we have the potential to be Bravely Effective.

Talk to us if you want to give your FS brand an Unfair Advantage.

Interested? Give us a shout!