Made By You

Michaels, North America's largest arts and crafts retailer found itself losing market share to competitors that leaned on cost and convenience. The business needed to transform from a transactional brand driven by promotions, to a bold brand for creatives who wanted more than coupons from faceless online superstores.
We knew that Michaels was uniquely positioned to support Makers, who loved to create but lacked any champion or spotlight they deserved. Instead of just highlighting prices alone like its competitors, we saw an opportunity for Michaels to turn the spotlight toward the Makers who transform supplies into one-of-a-kind, amazing pieces of artwork.
Under the tagline ‘Made By You,’ R/GA Austin created a holistic brand platform centered around Makers. A new design system driven by attributed Maker art rolled out across stores, the website, print ads, social/digital, coupons, and more. The entire launch was created with real Makers in their real spaces, using Michaels broad outreach to benefit Makers.
To ensure audiences received relevant and inspirational content based on their niche interests, the work was tailored to specific categories including fine art, jewelry, paper crafting and more.
The platform transformed Michaels communication from the bottom up, because supplies are just supplies until they get into the glitter-dusted hands of a Maker with an idea.