What does a social media agency have in common with a pigeon?
Written By Daniel Buttigieg
Every so often we get asked our favourite question. Why the name Loft?
We always have such fun answering because 1. it's actually an 'ahh' moment we get to share and 2. It's filled with so much heart when we reflect on the infancy days of Loft Social - skipping the crawling and going straight to running, developing our identity and making our own mark on the industry. Locally and globally.
The OG followers and creators we've had the pleasure of collaborating with might remember us as SocialCo from way back.
Another factor for the name - we had stepped into a new era of Loft's business exploding from the humble beginnings set up by Tiff (can humble be used instead of chaotic, busy, madness?). Loft Social wasn't born, it was actually reborn from a successful start up agency to a sophisticated, data driven, content producing, influencer collaborating, strategy hungry, social media machine nipping at the heels of very large multinational agencies, and we had only just acquired our first office plant. With a little nudging, Tiff realised it was time for a new name to match our new heights.
Every so often we get asked our favourite question. Why the name Loft?
We always have such fun answering because 1. it's actually an 'ahh' moment we get to share and 2. It's filled with so much heart when we reflect on the infancy days of Loft Social - skipping the crawling and going straight to running, developing our identity and making our own mark on the industry. Locally and globally.
The OG followers and creators we've had the pleasure of collaborating with might remember us as SocialCo from way back. Another factor for the name - we had stepped into a new era of Loft's business exploding from the humble beginnings set up by Tiff (can humble be used instead of chaotic, busy, madness?). Loft Social wasn't born, it was actually reborn from a successful start up agency to a sophisticated, data driven, content producing, influencer collaborating, strategy hungry, social media machine nipping at the heels of very large multinational agencies, and we had only just acquired our first office plant. With a little nudging, Tiff realised it was time for a new name to match our new heights.
Note the happy smiles of the brainstorm - a key indicator this is in fact a stock image and not at all our brainstorm experience for coming up with our name.
Note the happy smiles of the brainstorm - a key indicator this is in fact a stock image and not at all our brainstorm experience for coming up with our name.
The next 5 years are going to be wild.
There were exactly 52 other names on the list. The perfect opportunity for a cliché whiteboard brainstorm, but instead an endless stream of emails and replies - why? We just happened to be living through the world's longest lock-down in Melbourne.
Looking back, there were a few names that made me shriek, but one thing they all seemed to have in common was storytelling. We're in the business of sharing a message from point a (a brand) to point b (a customer). We soon realised like most things around us, social media wasn't actually anything new. It was just a reinterpretation of things that already existed. A modernised evolution and it happens more than you’d think. Literally the oldest known writing system known to humans is the concept of pictographs where words are represented by pictures of objects. (we're looking at you emojis 😮 👀) but we'll leave that for another story.
There were exactly 52 other names on the list. The perfect opportunity for a cliché whiteboard brainstorm, but instead an endless stream of emails and replies - why? We just happened to be living through the world's longest lock-down in Melbourne.
Looking back, there were a few names that made me shriek, but one thing they all seemed to have in common was storytelling. We're in the business of sharing a message from point a (a brand) to point b (a customer). We soon realised like most things around us, social media wasn't actually anything new. It was just a reinterpretation of things that already existed. A modernised evolution and it happens more than you’d think. Literally the oldest known writing system known to humans is the concept of pictographs where words are represented by pictures of objects. (we're looking at you emojis 😮 👀) but we'll leave that for another story.
What social media has reimagined is the art of the messenger pigeon. A tool to get your story out to someone. Fast. And targeted. In fact, In 1944, the US Army reported pigeon-delivered tactical message rates at 99 percent. (DM us if you really want a reference 🙃). Half unknowingly, we stepped into an industry where we were just messengers and it was our job to make sure the right story is getting out there, to the right people. For social media marketing in its most primitive form, if you’re not doing that, you are doing something wrong.
It turns out the question that started this essay is actually better asked ‘but where do these messenger pigeons live?’. Where did they sit together in their little cubes (I mean, modern, spacious open plan office).
What social media has reimagined is the art of the messenger pigeon. A tool to get your story out to someone. Fast. And targeted. In fact, In 1944, the US Army reported pigeon-delivered tactical message rates at 99 percent. (DM us if you really want a reference 🙃). Half unknowingly, we stepped into an industry where we were just messengers and it was our job to make sure the right story is getting out there, to the right people. For social media marketing in its most primitive form, if you’re not doing that, you are doing something wrong.
It turns out the question that started this essay is actually better asked ‘but where do these messenger pigeons live?’. Where did they sit together in their little cubes (I mean, modern, spacious open plan office).
The answer is a Loft.
The building they all sit together, waiting for the next task is called a Loft. So that’s exactly what we decided to name our office after.So messenger pigeons became an unofficial mascot for us. Ask us nicely and we’ll show you our lucky pigeon pin that makes its way to every pitch.
The answer is a Loft.
The building they all sit together, waiting for the next task is called a Loft. So that’s exactly what we decided to name our office after.So messenger pigeons became an unofficial mascot for us. Ask us nicely and we’ll show you our lucky pigeon pin that makes its way to every pitch.
