From first insight to a brand that stands stronger
Less time spent gathering what is already known. More time for the choices that matter.
Schwung is an advertising agency in Tilburg that combines brand strategy, creative and online marketing with its own AI tooling. Not to have a machine do the work, but to see sooner what is going on, choose more sharply and hold on to insights throughout the whole process.
We research before we ask questions. We test before we draw conclusions. And what we learn in the first phase, we carry through to creative, website, content and visibility.
That creates one line: from outside view to inside view, from analysis to choice and from choice to execution.
We do not start with a blank sheet
A traditional project often starts with a lot of questions. Who are you? Who are the competitors? What is happening in the market? Where does the brand stand now?
Part of that we can research in advance.
Our Brand Mirror looks at your brand from the outside. The Brand Scan deepens that picture in conversation with people inside the organisation. Our research engines put market, competition, website, brand and audience next to it.
So the conversation does not start with gathering information, but with something far more interesting:
Does what we see from the outside match what you experience on the inside?
That brings sharpness sooner, and often better conversations.
One process. Five steps.
First look at what is already visible
With the Brand Mirror we examine how your organisation presents itself from the outside. We look at your website, positioning, competitors and market.
If you want to go deeper, the Brand Scan uses that outside view as the starting point for an AI-supported conversation. No long standard questionnaire, but probing on tensions, differences and assumptions.
You get: a first brand picture, hypotheses to test and insight into where deepening is needed.
Brand Mirror and Brand Scan are free.
From impression to substantiated picture
Where is there real room to become stronger? That is the question this phase answers. If we continue together, we deepen the research. Depending on the question we use different components.
Competitor analysis. We compare not only what competitors say, but also how they position, present and perform online.
Brand analysis. We examine whether your position is clear, credible and distinctive enough.
Market analysis. We map relevant developments: for example labour market, demographics, policy, funding, regulation or consumer behaviour.
Website scan. We look at technology, structure, accessibility, findability, content and machine readability.
Schwung Merkbeeld. For a number of sectors we research dozens of organisations at once. That way we compare a brand not only with three familiar competitors, but with a much larger part of the market.
The result is not a pile of data, but an answer.
From analysis to direction
AI can see patterns, compare and make proposals. People decide what fits the organisation and what they want to stand for.
Research is only valuable when you can make choices with it. So we translate the findings into a clear course. For example: brand positioning, brand foundation, brand architecture, corporate story, employer brand, communication course, website or content strategy.
Our tooling helps to keep sources, observations, analyses and proposals together. That makes it visible what a choice is based on. But the choice itself we make together.
This is where the creative work begins
A good analysis does not yet make a good brand. Concept, language, imagery, design and experience call for creativity, feeling and craftsmanship.
So we use technology mainly to feed the creative team better: with a clear position, relevant insights and less noise. Then our core team, with our regular copywriters, illustrators, photographers and animators, makes the work people actually see and experience. From identity and campaign to website, animation and content.
We also create imagery with AI where that is better or faster, deliberately and visibly. Concept, choice and direction remain human work, and we never present generated people as real patients, clients or employees.
The engine helps us start sharper. The idea still has to be good.
After the launch the next work begins
A brand is never finished. So after development we can keep measuring what happens.
Our GEO/SEO analysis examines how organisations are visible in Google and in AI answers.
The content engine uses your brand strategy as the frame for new topics and content proposals, so communication does not start from zero every month.
With our agent builder we can develop specialised AI assistants that work from your own, controlled sources. For example for employees, customers or website visitors.
That way the knowledge that emerges during the project is not filed away in a presentation, but usable in daily work.
Faster to the core, with a wider view
Less gathering, more choosing
We spend less time gathering information that is already available and more time interpreting and choosing.
Dozens of organisations at once
Not just three competitors or a few interviews, but where relevant dozens of organisations, public sources and market developments at the same time.
What we learn comes along
What is learned during research carries over to strategy, creative, website and content.
Fact, observation, interpretation, hypothesis
We keep facts, observations, interpretations and hypotheses apart. External information is tied to a source and a date.
Conversation, strategy and creativity
AI mainly takes over reading, comparing and preparatory work. That leaves more room for conversations, strategy and creativity.
No black box
We use AI a lot. That is exactly why we do not trust it blindly. Our systems are set up to check information and make uncertainty visible.
Numbers are calculated outside the language model. Analyses are challenged by a second model. External claims are tied to sources. And if something cannot be established from the available material, it comes back as a question or hypothesis, not as invented certainty.
We develop that way of working in Schwung.ai, our own practice lab for AI and communication.
You do not have to take the whole chain
Not every assignment needs every engine
- Brand Mirror: outside view of brand and competition
- Brand Scan: deepening in conversation
- Competitor engine: wider comparison of organisations
- Brand analysis: position, promise and distinction
- Market analysis: developments around organisation and sector
- Website scan: technology, content and findability
- Schwung Merkbeeld: sector research at larger scale
- Proposal builder: analysis and proposal from the same source
- GEO/SEO analysis: visibility in search engines and AI
- Content engine: content from brand strategy
- Agent builder: AI assistants from controlled, own knowledge
We only use what helps to make a better choice or better work.
Frequently asked questions about working with AI at Schwung
What does it mean that Schwung uses AI as a chain?
That every step feeds the next. What the Brand Mirror sees from the outside, the Brand Scan tests in conversation. What comes out of that steers the competitor and brand analysis. That analysis underpins the proposal, and the proposal is the frame for creative and visibility. One chain means one coherent process, not one software system: the engines are separate tools, and what we learn in an earlier phase we carry into the next. That way we never have to start from zero again.
Which steps are free?
The Brand Mirror and the Brand Scan. The Brand Mirror looks from the outside and takes ten minutes of your time. The Brand Scan goes deeper through a conversation. Both are free; the difference is in depth. From the analysis phase onwards we work on assignment.
Did you build these tools yourselves?
Yes. The engines were built in our own lab, Schwung.ai, and are developed further while we work with them. A new client means new data in the same engine, not a new project. That is why they fit together and why we know exactly what they can and cannot do.
What is the AI model allowed to do at Schwung, and what not?
The model may read, organise and write. It may not count, not judge, and not claim anything without a source. Numbers come from a counting step that uses no model. A second model on a different basis tries to refute every analysis. Every statement about your market carries a source and a date. What the model does not know is stated as a question, not as an answer.
Do you also use AI for imagery?
Yes, deliberately and visibly. Concept, choice and direction remain human work. We create imagery with AI where that is better or faster, and we never present generated people as real patients, clients or employees.
How much faster is it, really?
A competitive picture of ten to twenty organisations is ready within a day instead of within weeks. A sector picture of dozens of organisations runs overnight. The time that remains goes to what matters: the conversation, the choice and the work.
What happens to our data?
The engines read public sources: websites, annual reports, legislation, open data. What you share with us in confidence stays outside the shared research data. Published sector research never contains client information.
Start with the free Brand Mirror, or plan a conversation right away.
The first step is free and takes ten minutes. After that you decide how deep the process goes.