“I hate most advertising—most people do,” Lee said. “We feel we’re the David to [other advertisers’] Goliath. We’re the indie band that shows up to play among the pop stars.”
With this mindset, the agency tries to carve out its own niche in the advertising space and “create a mini pop culture moment for ourselves,” Lee continued. “We’re trying to surprise and delight in the Super Bowl every year—whether it’s being quiet when everyone is loud, or quirky and weird rather than slapstick.”
Growing the creator audience
Squarespace wants to stand out in all its advertising, not just during the Big Game, Lee added. Its tone of voice is also reflective of the rise of influencers and the creator economy—the Adam Driver ad, which launched as a “trippy” behind-the-scenes film before the Super Bowl, is an example.
“The creator economy is booming, so it would behoove us to look at different marketing tactics and sometimes tell different stories through other people’s voices and not just our own,” Lee explained. “Super glossy, polished ads don’t perform as well on TikTok, for example. That’s dictating a bit of strategy in our own work.”
Squarespace is also responding to the growing creator economy by expanding its business with tools that are more tailored to that “next generation of entrepreneurs that will be online,” Lee said. New products, released in October, can help users with monetization, business management and marketing, such as Fluid Engine, an editing tool that gives users more control over their content.
The platform unveiled a new version and features with a recent campaign starring Björk, who helped design a template that anyone can use. More collaborations with artists are in the works.
Weathering economic storms
With these creative ambitions, Squarespace is also operating in a challenging sector. Tech giants from Meta to Amazon to Spotify have recently undergone significant layoffs amid a tumultuous economy, and the sheen on digital brands is starting to fade.
“The elephant in the room everywhere, at least as a tech brand in a high inflationary world, is that tech companies are taking a hit,” Lee said. “Every [marketing] dollar that goes out, we have to make it count.”
