Buzzworthy Studio is a Brooklyn-based creative studio that specializes in “Digitally Native Brands.” They’ve worked with businesses ranging from a popular sports uniform company to a Manhattan-based brand engagement firm. By marrying marketing and sales strategies, Buzzworthy has grown from working with small, local clients to managing emerging brands looking to take their web presence to the next level. At the end of the day, their goal is to create digital experiences for brands that stand out and make an impact—regardless of the industry.

The buzz begins

Buzzworthy’s managing director, Gary Stout, has always had a knack for sales. As a kid, he drummed up his lawn mowing and snow shoveling business by handing out neighborhood flyers, and, naturally, he went on to get his degree in marketing.

While working at Groupon in 2013, only companies with websites could be featured. Instead of ignoring great businesses that lacked a web presence, Gary chose to create a solution. With designer Faraz Warsi and developer Ryan McManimie by his side, he launched his first site, featured the business on Groupon, and scored a commission. From there, client referrals started pouring in, and Buzzworthy Studio was born.

Now with a talented team of 10, Buzzworthy has been able to scale its client base from 1 to over 200 clients with that same simple philosophy: find overlooked businesses with incredible ideas.

“We found the worst sites possible for some of the best companies and called them directly. In NYC alone, there were (and still are) thousands of businesses that could use a new site yesterday. As we grew to 50 customers quickly, we knew there was a market for this.” -Gary Stout, Buzzworthy Managing Director

Keeping up the hype

Buzzworthy offers website maintenance for all their accounts with an in-house development and support team. When they put their heart and soul behind a project, it becomes their baby, and nobody wants an ugly baby. Most clients don’t want to do their own updates anyway, so having on-going dev/SEO support and partnering with a managed WordPress host was a no brainer.

Despite having so many clients, the Buzzworthy team says they aren’t worried about losing creative steam. Every new project is another chance to showcase what the team is capable of doing, and they think it’s exciting to constantly learn and evolve with new clients. After every successful launch, delighted customers will spread their enthusiasm about Buzzworthy. This is a classic example of how the best referrals can come from happy customers.

“If you want to be the best in the world, learning must happen daily. ”

The Buzzworthy team has a “put our money where our mouth is” policy. This means they’ll create a new logo, show multiple assets and moodboards, and work with clients to truly visualize the potential behind their brand. If the client isn’t into it, they won’t charge. Clients are thrilled to work with the Buzzworthy teams on new ideas and craft just the right message for their brand.

Their understanding and love of brand identity runs deep. For example, if a brand comes to Buzzworthy for a modern website but the logo doesn’t match the brand feeling, they’ll work to create a cohesive experience. Representing the company properly involves making thorough decisions on design, brand, and website updates. They’d rather pass on a project than produce something that they can’t rally behind.

Work hard, play hard

One of Buzzworthy’s favorite projects was for the progressive, hilarious media company, Betches. The team was tasked with creating a fun vibe and custom elements like icons, hand-drawn sketches, and animations.

Beyond design, their creativity crept into the development stages. They built a custom WordPress theme with a backend dashboard that allowed Betches writers to submit posts and track the performance of their articles. The Buzzworthy team did not disappoint, as Betches now gets over 200,000 hits each day.

Set yourself apart

Gary and the Buzzworthy team are really into micro-animations at the moment (seriously, their site is full of ‘em.) The key is moderation. When done properly, tasteful, trending design can give your site more character, reinforce the brand experience, and let developers show off their skills. 

“Subtle movements give the user a little surprise (maybe even a smile), add context, and help connect the brands story on a deeper level.”

To Gary, UX and UI are crucial to increasing sales and growth. With UI, you want to impress the user with clean graphics, aesthetically pleasing and readable fonts, succinct copy that matches the graphic tone, and brand continuity. “You only get one shot to impress users before they close the tab. ”

For UX, first consider your site structure. Navigation must be easy and intuitive for your user persona. A 60-year-old and 25-year-old interact with sites in completely different ways.

Take some advice from the Buzzworthy team: scale your agency by identifying a need and fill it, putting your money where your mouth is, and finding excitement in every opportunity to show the world what you’re capable of doing.

Keep tabs on Buzzworthy’s latest creations on Instagram and Dribbble.

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