Business
Amy Balliett Amy Balliett grounds the power of images in strong narratives. Her visual stories deliver the kind of content that humans are hard-wired to crave. Amy and her team pair word people with picture people. In her office, content strategists work side-by-side with visual-communication experts. This tandem creates strategically driven visual content that addresses the visceral human preference for images. Amy and I talked about: the origins of her original visual brand, Killer Infographics the history of the rise of modern infographics - which first arose as a link-bait tactic for SEOs the impact of the iPhone and social media on increasing the demand for visual media how that demand worked in tandem with natural human wiring that favors visuals over text the rise of visual media sharing how her word staff interacts with her visual staff, and how most of her executives have a writing background the importance of words in visual communication how she once said, "text is dead," and was promptly and properly corrected the emergence of Buzzfeed-like, headline-driven culture the foundations of their research and practice methods - from font theory to color theory and illustration styling the advantages of having been acquired by an insights-and-research firm and how that has helped them double down on their work to understand their audiences and their goals how a project they did for Comic-Con shows the importance of adapting branded images to the immediate communication intention the role of the content strategist at Killer Visual Strategies the importance of having narrative drive the visual story, not design how their process starts - right after the discovery process - with the content strategist crafting the narrative for the project how she helps writers with long-form content backgrounds adapt to creating the concise, short-form content that is their specialty their brand transition from Killer Infographics to Killer Visual Strategies the differences between information visualization and visual storytelling how she helps her Fortune 500 clients formulate and implement visual strategy their discovery that in 2019 90% of marketers found that their most important content-marketing tactic was having a visual communication strategy Amy's Bio Amy Balliett is the CEO and founder of the visual content marketing and communications agency, Killer Visual Strategies (formerly Killer Infographics). She owned her first company, a candy store and ice cream parlor, at the age of 17 before heading off for college. She subsequently built a successful career in SEO and marketing, and has headed up SEO at several companies. In 2009, she and her then co-founder partnered to build lead-gen-based websites, but in the fall of 2010, the business pivoted to an entirely new model: visual communication design. In the years since, she has grown Killer Visual Strategies to become the industry leader, driving visual strategy and campaigns for global brands including Microsoft, Boeing, Adobe, Nikon, Starbucks, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Nations, and more. Considered an expert in her field, Balliett speaks at dozens of conferences each year including SXSW, Adobe MAX, SMX, and more. She is also a regular teacher at The School of Visual Concepts, a guest lecturer at the University of Washington, and a LinkedIn Learning instructor. Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/JXszlNo1o_w Podcast Intro Transcript Human beings have always been hard-wired to prefer visual content. So, when smart phones and social media emerged about 10 years ago, the stage was set for a new wave of visual communication. Amy Balliett jumped on that wave when she launched the legendary design firm Killer Infographics. Nowadays Amy calls her company Killer Visual Strategies. Her transition to a more explicitly strategic approach reflects what we...