XGuides’ Daniel Godoy on taking a fan-first approach to crafting trend guides

Daniel, it’s great to connect. For anyone new to XGuides, how would you describe what you do?
XGuides is a lifestyle branding powerhouse, which includes the studio, the consultancy and an agency. We define, organise and enhance relationships between the brand, its communities and its markets considering behavioural contexts.

We recently interviewed King Features’ Beth Nock about your work on guides for Popeye, The Phantom and Flash Gordon. What for you makes for an effective trend guide?
We truly believe people compound their own personality through representative brands in order to feel themselves part of a social affinity group. This sense of belonging is the most valuable function of an IP. To reach this relatable boost between brand and audience – and also as a consequence the business performance – the sweet point of effectiveness for a trend guide starts with understanding the perception of relevance of an IP by its fans.

On that, what kick-starts your creative process when working on a guide for a client?
Investigating, discovering and then planning! XGuides’ team go for a deep immersion on brand essences, company goals, industries and retail challenges, consumers desires and shopping dynamics. With that set, we go to creative!

“A sense of belonging is the most valuable function of an IP.”

Does it help the creative process being a fan of the brands you work on? Or can it be a hindrance?
Although it doesn’t change XGuides’ proprietary method, it definitely helps when it comes to understanding how the emotional bonds impact the fan. When there are fans on the team, it’s quite common to notice a combination of frenzy, excitement and an endless passionate motivation! Not only that, but also it can make the whole process faster!

What’s the key to successful creative collaborations between a brand owner and a creative agency?
Empathy from the beginning, frequent alignment of interests and constant management of expectations during the whole process.

Good answer. Now, The Phantom, Popeye and Flash Gordon are iconic and have been around for decades… How do you approach bringing newness to these kinds of brands?
Since over saturated markets like ours unfortunately bring a perception of commoditisation, freshness is definitely mandatory to keep it relevant. Our crucial challenge is to use the brand’s emotional key points to generate not only attentional salience, but also associative memory stimuli and triggers.

“Being able to play with different styles for such iconic brands is always very cool.”

Are there any examples across the three guides where you feel excited to have done something fresh with these brands?
Being able to play with different styles for such iconic and well-established brands is always very cool. For example, giving this new Popeye guide a varsity look and feel shows how adaptable the character can be without losing its essence, and resonate with different audiences and consumers than you would expect.

Last question! How does your team fuel its creativity? What helps you have ideas?
Our creative fuel is powered by an obsession in the search for perceived relevance on the part of fans, and this is due to my background… I have a postgraduate degree in neuroscience and the decision-making process in the purchasing journey is something that always fascinated me. This ended up influencing our entire way of working here at XGuides.

My team has a habit of constantly searching for behavioural trends, monitoring the evolution of pop culture, keeping an eye on fanfics, curiosities from the geek universe, investigating data… This combination – added to the passion for the relationship between brands and fans – motivates us and thus, the connection of ideas happens. This is creativity!

Thanks again Daniel.