It’s been over a year in the making, but our role in the creation of the new executive lounge at Dublin Airport is complete. Not only is this lounge the only US Preclearance lounge in Europe, it is the first lounge on “US soil,” outside of America. Working across concept, creative direction, naming, brand identity and passenger experience, this week marks the launch of the lounge, where all of these elements can be experienced together for the first time.
From an initial brief to delivery, the challenge was to convey and position a new lounge experience that captured the crossing of time zones and countries. With a clear understanding of the audience, we considered spaces for play, work, relaxation and to explore the fusion of Irish and American produce. A key focal point was the idea of a barista, to reinforce the quality of experience and to create a talking point for the lounge. MCA Architects led the delivery of the built environment, bringing to life the concept through references to time and the brand colour palette.
Menu covers and delph.
The name 51st&Green was inspired by the idea of an intersection; the fusion of the best of Ireland with the best of America. The 51st represents the creation of a new time zone – the 51st state of America and the Green is a proud reference towards Ireland and the new Dublin Airport brand. In addition, the construction of the name reflects a traditional American address, and this street sign concept is brought through in the style of the brand mark. This theme is continued across all key touch points to build the 51st&Green story.
This new lounge represents a place where Ireland and America connect; a place where people, time and cultures blend to create a truly unique lounge experience, and we are delighted to have played a leading role in bringing the vision to life.
A small team of us attended the Brand Neiuwe Conference in Amsterdam – a symposium on the latest thinking and direction of brand and brand identity. The two day event gathered together over 300 global leaders of branding to hear from the creators of case studies that have generated interest such as The Premier League, Spotify, Mozilla and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
From seasoned professionals, who presented with confidence and gusto, to smaller agencies sharing projects for the first time. The subjects covered were varied and included topics such as, new processes for large and small-scale branding programmes and insights into managing the fallout when a brand is launched and subsequently blasted on social media.
Particular attention was given to the branding process. The importance of digging deeper to discover distinctive brand pillars and focusing on who you are doing this for – the audience. Consideration was also given to leading clients through creative work. Every case study was exemplary in standard, and the passion and insight from seasoned practitioners confirmed the reasons why we got into the industry in the first place – to be creative, to challenge, to have a point of view and to have fun.
Highlights included:
– “The Simplification of the Process” by Michael Johnson and his insight into connecting strategy with creativity
– Sagi Haviv and his sharing of a number of case studies and the pitfalls of these projects in a humorous and down to earth manner
– Brian Collins and his passion for design, his team and their projects
– DixonBaxi on being restless and always pushing forward
– Essen International for being the nicest guy presenting
– DesignStudio for the insight of the process and the championing of what we do
Thanks must be given to Armit and Bryony, of UnderConsideration, for putting the energy and time into the event and for creating a compelling conference that focuses on the process, projects and people.
Every year, brands spend billions on communicating their brand message and values to customers. The value of selling this brand promise to consumers has long been understood. But the idea of ‘internal marketing’ – communicating a company’s purpose and brand values to employees can sometimes be overlooked.
Employees, like customers are drawn to what that brand stands for. And whilst a company may have ambitious plans to be no. 1 in their chosen field, people don’t bounce out of bed in the mornings, fired up by the thought of making profits for their company. Feeling that they can contribute to something meaningful is much more motivating. Innocent’s ‘Tastes good, does good’ means a lot more to employees than ‘having the most market share’ for example.
But purpose and commercials are not mutually exclusive. According to Havas Media’s 2015 Meaningful Brands Survey, the brands that have the strongest sense of purpose are also the most profitable. One argument is that if you have a strong sense of purpose it actually makes it much easier for companies to make the right decisions as an organisation.
Given the importance of people to any business, getting the employee engagement right is a significant win: a genuine brand ambassador who continues to be so outside of the work place is a powerful advocate for any organisation. But that only works when the company’s purpose is clear and is something that people are able to engage with at an emotional level – employees need to understand what your purpose means and how it translates into actions.
In the case of the rebrand of Bord na Móna, the employee engagement was an integral part of the whole rebrand process and it started at the very beginning – when we set about defining what the brand stands for. Getting your purpose right is crucial as it is the foundations upon which the brand and organisation is built. It has to be authentic too – what we call a ‘brand truth’ because when you agree your purpose everything the organisation does has to deliver on that.
To get to the core of what drives Bord na Móna we sought out input from a wide variety of stakeholders involving the company as a whole through a series of interviews and workshops, knowing that their employees would engage far better with something they feel they have had some involvement in creating.
Through this process, we defined Bord na Móna’s purpose as ‘Naturally Driven’.
Naturally Driven is rooted in the DNA of the company. It speaks not only to the expertise and the innate ability of Bord na Móna employees to take something ordinary and make it better and more useful, but to their drive to unlock the true potential of our natural resources and use them to provide a sustainable future for us all.
In order for a brand’s purpose and values to be lived in an organisation, they have to be owned by the leadership team, so through a series of stakeholder presentations, we gained buy-in from the top down. Employees from each of the key sites were the stars of the brand photo-shoot too; celebrating the role they play across the organisation and involving them in the creative part of the process.
So having defined the core brand truth that was relevant and compelling for the group as a whole, and the diverse business sectors that Bord na Móna operate in, we needed to make it real and relevant for every single person in the organisation and everything that they do.
For Bord na Móna this meant getting all 1200 employees together at 9 different events at 3 locations over 3 days. This exclusive pre-launch enabled the leadership team to share their vision for the company, introduce the new brand and showcase what that would mean for each of the business units. It was also an opportunity to tell the Bord na Móna story and highlight the importance of the employees in bringing the new vision to life.
A new employee recognition programme was launched – the Naturally Driven awards to reward employees who live the company’s values in their day-to-day. New ways to share projects and achievements between divisions were also unveiled.
Feedback from the sessions was extremely positive with everyone knowing where the company is going and the role they have to play in making this vision a reality.
Last week I attended The Design Thinkers conference in Toronto; a unique conference bringing together designers, strategists and creative thinkers from across the globe. After spending a few days in the company of the RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers), I noticed a number of consistent themes emerging, notably the importance of:
– Creating the magic for our clients; as creative designers, we have an obligation to our clients to help them to see and realise the potential in ideas and what they can achieve – to take the every day and make it wonderful
– Embracing technology and using it to our advantage; by simplifying the working day and creating clarity in the way information is shared, providing inspiration to customers
– Being more in-sync with our clients ‘everyday’; from coffee-break research and working with clients in their space, to commercially partnering with clients on flagship projects
– Revisiting what we do and why we do it; addressing the purpose of an agency, creating a defined company culture and a better work-life balance
– Being innovative and embracing new working methods; working quicker and wider, focusing on what is important on a project before developing the detail
– Adapting to the rise of the in-house design teams and helping them become the champions of design within their organisations
– Understanding the extent to which the design world is changing; we should not be afraid of crowdsourcing but of algorithms
The overriding impression is one of a conference that celebrates the future of the industry and not just design as a craft. These are important lessons, which I believe can be learnt by other conferences: to be more open to the commercial needs of the business and the needs of the clients, both today and with an eye on where the industry may be heading in the future. All in all, a great few days (and nights) were had in Toronto – I was extremely impressed by the work of the RGD in Canada, the community they have created and the conference as a whole.
Trinity Biotech is a NASDEQ quoted diagnostics company, specialising in the development, manufacture and marketing of clinical diagnostic products.
The organisation is highly acquisitive frequently adding new companies and products to their vast portfolio. Their increase in product lines and business units meant they needed a new digital platform with increased capabilities to accomodate the growing areas within their business.
The new site needed to elevate Trinity Biotech’s leadership status within global diagnostics, maintain a prominent investor relations section, ensure ease of naviagation, and deliver expanded functionality for the integration of future brands and products.
The launch of the new Trinity Biotech Website sees us developing another successful digital platform with our digital partners PointBlank.
The past number of years has seen an unprecedented wave of creativity applied to not for profit digital campaigns and social channels.
As marketers in the online world increasingly recognise that digital and the role of social channels is much more about the company ethos, adding value and working on the peer-level to ‘give back’; it is perhaps easy to understand why not for profit Digital Communications are resonating with audiences and winning awards.
But let’s take a closer look at why (good) digital not for profit communications and strategies often seem more ‘organically effective’ than many of their commercial counterparts targeting the same types of audience:
1. By the very nature of being a not for profit organisation, the ‘societal goal’ is absolutely central
Less need for supplementary and supporting ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ or ‘Mutual Social Responsibility’ efforts
Not for profit organisations are formed around a social cause – providing power to resonate with audiences on a level beyond capitalism and profit
2. Merely surviving year-on-year highlights the ability of the organisation to connect and engage audiences
It’s a crazy competitive space, not helped by economic downturns and negative attention often tarring entire charitable sectors
Organisations focused on a cause that has little or no societal appeal simply don’t survive. Those that survive, have a ‘social truth’
Similarly, those who don’t have the understanding required to motivate and put people into action will also fail. In many ways, the not for profit sector embodies commercial ‘survival of the fittest’
3. So, with a socially appealing mission, a loyal following willing to involve themselves without physical reward, and understanding what motivates their patrons. Digital. Just. Fits
Digital mediums are being employed to cost-effectively identify audiences and broadcast extremely creative, engaging messages to the masses
Digital channels are being expertly utilised to broaden the reach of not for profit communications, often with viral consequences that are the envy of other sectors
Social media is enabling us to tell more of the brand story, to personalise the experience for individuals (after all – social giving is at least to some degree about the ‘feel good factor’) and create a longer-lasting impact
It is becoming clear that those having the most online success have really begun to master ‘storytelling’ in the not for profit digital communications space
4. All the while working better to reach and involve ‘youth’ audiences – the future of any not for profit organisation
The 2013 Millennial Impact Report highlights just how active a new breed of patrons can be in driving not for profit digital communications:
65% of receive email or newsletters from ONE TO FIVE nonprofits
Donation sums are smaller, but we’re more likely to get active for a good cause (77% have)
Interestingly, 65% of learn about your cause via your website, vs. 55% through social media (18% print
But 75% won’t hang around for a poor website experience, and you must be mobile optimised with penetration high at 77%
Our action on your website looks like this: 51% use it as a platform to connect via social media, 46% to donate and 46% to read a blog post.
Get your website structure right and remember that Content is KING.
70% of Millennials prefer to give online, but it might be surprising to learn that we aren’t that in to text-giving (only 15% have done so). Yet we do like to act immediately – these points combined highlight a preference for ‘giving recognition’. Perhaps text-giving doesn’t adequately promote my good deed?
So, moving on from and otherwise accompanying the TV commercial, the flyer door-drop and the high street coin/direct-debit collection; here is how some forward thinking not for profit organisations are leveraging the data, the reach and all the creativity associated with digital channels:
UNICEF
Last year, UNICEF re-invigorated the hugely successful ‘Tap Project’ whereby restaurants would ask patrons for a $1 donation to help provide clean drinking water in Africa. Now, while the updated campaign does not have the beautiful and direct correlation regards ‘my water, for your water’, it does talk to social behaviours and asks us to question what we’re focusing our time on by challenging us to give up access to something far less vital than water–your cell phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wetbh84MGOc
RNLI
To our point about the necessity to engage younger audiences, how about empowering them instead? Really empowering them. After all, it is the younger ‘digital native’ audiences who understand best how this all works. The UK’s RNLI demonstrates how you hit a home run with content marketing, blogger outreach and leveraging online mediums – and it’s a far cry from collecting pennies in boat-shaped boxes at the dry cleaners.
Cancer Research UK
If you don’t already know this, it might give you pause to consider that No Makeup Selfies raised £8m for Cancer Research UK in six days. Despite the fact that Cancer Research UK did not create the #NoMakeupSelfie movement. Here’s how that happened:
First up, the hashtag #nomakeupselfie started to trend on twitter. Why? Because it spoke an organic truth to the demographic.
Ground had already been broken by movements in anti-airbrushing and brand campaigns such as Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’, so a level of empowerment and duty was already in place and it’s no surprise that all such examples have powerful imagery and tones of ‘anti-establishment’ or ‘anti-societal-norm’. That’s empowering stuff.
Nobody could identify the source of the hashtag. However, the empowered twitter folk were now already so engaged and so motivated that they themselves began asking ‘how to donate’.
Step up Cancer Research UK to put themselves forward.
Following a barrage of retweets, PR coverage and consumer donations, the organisation expertly followed up with celebrity stories and local activations all documented online via the existing hashtag and the new conduit: #NoMakeupSelfieForCancer – whether initiated or not, the pace at which the organisation joined in is to be admired and respected, as too are their sincere (now viral) ‘thank you’ messages.
Girls not Brides
I came across the movement a while ago and recently, it has been getting more and more attention and started to pick up awards. Aside from the primary point that this is of course a mission worthy of everyone’s attention, I’m raising the point that a really well-honed content strategy. The simple, informative information that often gets missed.
At www.girlsnotbrides.org, the mission is clear and the stories are real. Add to this tools for visitors, students and teachers to get involved and you’re well on the way to a long-lasting platform that can truly be the daily catalyst to changing something that needs changing.
In Summary…
We’re all aware of the reach and engagement uniquely presented by digital and online channels. The challenge now is to:
Be creative, draw on the social truth at the core of your organisation
Allow room for audience personalisation, but be careful not to demand too much or add unnecessary complexities (‘Keep It Simple Silly’)
Uncover who are most likely your key influencers online
Identify how you’ll engage these and future campaign participants
Be prepared to keep fuelling and to follow-up in an agile manner
Leverage EVERY touch point (and that includes offline and PR)
A new brand identity will not resolve issues with local government taxes or quarrels between landlords and what their tenants are doing by sub-renting their properties, but the new Airbnb logo and identity is a confident step in the maturing of the brand.
One of the powerful elements of the new brand execution is the symbol, or should I say “Belo”. This symbol has a strong idea at the heart of it and works on many levels:
An “A” for Airbnb
Features the pin icon used on maps and part of its previous visual language
An inverted heart comes across strongly, reinforcing passion
(Habitat may have got there first though)
A simple execution that lends itself to many creative expressions
A warm, personal attitude that will establish quick recall
The approach to the new Airbnb logo and identity is a refreshing change from the previous word mark, and the brand now has a new tool in its brand armory to build awareness, differentiate and communicate the brand’s passion.
Looking at other brands in the digital realm – eBay, Yahoo, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Skype, these all feature word marks and lack any real strong idea, personality or warmth to their brand identity (apart form Yahoo with an exclamation mark – says it all!).
The launch of the brand has also been widely accepted, due to the fact that the brand is moving forward in a positive manner, and they have not tried to use the brand evolution as the only story. Brands reviewing their identities need tangible reasons for change and enhanced brand experiences must be visible and paramount. Airbnb has also achieved this, with additional and improved services on its site.
Unlike other recent controversial brand re-launches (Gap or Yahoo), Airbnb realised what they had (and what they didn’t have) and have built upon this.
The approach in brand identity by Airbnb may be old school, but it is a welcome return to brand identity and logo design that has depth and meaning. If you think the logo can be improved then Airbnb have created a nice tool where you can create your own:
“Sketch it. Paint it. Put a penguin on it.
Make a symbol that reflects your Airbnb experience, and add it to your Airbnb profile”
The role of product a website has long been the debate of commercial directors, advertising agencies and SEO professionals alike. From the commercial focus on (or isolation of) a hero product, through to issues of duplicate content and competing for search results – we’ve seen it all over the years. As a commercial design and branding agency, we’re going to attempt to cut through some of the clutter and technicalities surrounding the overriding question:
Do we need a product website?
If you have more than one product in your suite, you should consider it. If one of your products has ‘hero’ status, you should really consider it. If your range of products is varied and a specific product or product range focuses on the needs of a particular ‘type’ of end-user or user-requirement; you’re product website should already be in planning. And here are 3 good reasons why the world is heading this way:
1. People have specific agendas, and limited attention spans
We’re easily distracted by too many options. For any given unique proposition, we’re going to need to cover off: Why this product is awesome, and what does it say aboutme. What it will really mean to me (the benefits). What it will actually do for me (the features). What it costs me (including any pricing options). How to buy it (and what happens next).
That’s a lot of information, comprehension and persuasion. The point is that it’s not always wise to blur the lines with “oh… and we also have another set of products you just might be interested in”, and hence the consideration of a product website. From a communications point of view; simple, singular propositions result in more effective customer engagement and acquisition.
2. More than ever, we really do understand our audience
So there’s no reason not to focus on the customer first and foremost. Let’s take a look at a leading car brand: Volkswagen. If you’re looking for a job, have a gripe about their environmental responsibility, need to find a dealer who might help you decide which model to purchase, or otherwise want the general company overview, you’re best bet is www.volkswagen.com, or if you own a small business, www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk.
Volkswagen & The Beetle
And then, Volkswagen build this little number called ‘The Beetle’. Most importantly regards this discussion is that the car is designed for a very specific type of consumer. We know who they are. Volkswagen know who they are, there’s science in there from the shape of the bodywork through to the way its personality is communicated.
Enter the need for a product website that understands the buying motivations of the target consumer, tells the product story in a way that resonates with them, and keeps them engaged with all that lifestyle ideology: www.beetle.com.
3. Everybody’s doing it
We’re not talking about building mobile apps on a whim or hours spent spluttering on social media with no clear objectives in mind here. There are a wealth of credible examples of product websites having strategic, creative and commercial objectives.
Sony Playstation
An example of when a product in a company’s set is specifically designed for a type of user is the product website for Sony Playstation. No cross-selling at all, the ‘SONY’ name is there for branding purposes only. Even the brand logo does not link to their core website. This is somewhat different to…
iPhone
The iPhone section on apple.com looks like a product website. Acts like one too. However, if you’re in the market for an iPhone, you’re likely somewhat religious and on some level willing to buy into a MacBook Air and and an iPad to boot. In essence, Apple has created micro-sites within their core site that focus our attention on the product (together with all associated options and accessories) while allowing easy access to other products. This mirrors the universal appeal of their product set. There’s a clear distinction between the way Sony and Apple present their products to us online.
Verizon Wireless
The USA communications giant Verizon has separated its mobile business from the core website housing residential and commercial TV and fixed-broadband services. Regards the mobile offering, it needs to appeal to a youth and NetGen audience who will be ‘mobile first’ brand entrants. More importantly, perhaps, is the vast array of options available to a consumer as a mobile customer; think prepay vs. postpay, devices (phones/tablets et al), services such as mobile broadband, accessories, customer support, account log-in and payment/top-up. Suddenly, attempting to contain this within a core website with other products fighting for attention throws up comprehension issues.
From a branding perspective, little changes on what is in essence a product website; with the exception of the URL itself. In fact, the website is integrated (as per Apple) into the wider experience, again suggesting that Verizon fixed broadband customers are likely to be open to mobile products too. However, all ‘support’ channels, for example, are focused on the mobile offering. Better user experience, better brand control.
Skype & Microsoft
For a likely number of reasons, Microsoft-owned Skype is actually a product website. OK, so it started off as a totally separate entity, but interesting to view how it now sits within the wider Microsoft offering. In fact, you might consider that Skype acts to give credibility to other Microsoft products in it’s footer; for those who care to scroll that far. The point is that the Microsoft logo isn’t up there in flashing lights for a reason, and that again comes down to understanding the audience.
WorldPay Zinc
And then there’s the strategic use of product websites in a B2B context. WorldPay is a leading provider of electronic and online payment facilities. Their product range covers all sizes of customer from SME through to leading multinational organisations, including airlines.
Big business. Too big for me and my company? Probably. And that is why there is a ‘separate’ product. WorldPay Zinc allows anyone from the local plumber to a 3-chain restaurant to take mobile payments easily with simple set-up. It’s a proposition for a unique type of smaller business user so the product website has none of the scary stuff associated with large-scale industry ecommerce, and with the main (very corporate) website removed from all mention.
tdsvisitor
We developed a product website for ‘tdsvisitor’, a visitor management solution that now has a global reach, with companies such as Google using the platform in 52 countries. Other multinational organisations are now showing interest. Our role as their design and branding agency was give ‘tdsvisitor’ it’s own hero brand that would better represent the tdsvisitor solution as a stand-alone product.
Accordingly, our strategy involved developing a focused product website (tdsvisitor.com) that presents only the absolute information required for facilities to understand and consider the product without the distraction of other products in the tds armoury.
Like with Sony and WorldPay, we only reference the tds core brand because, regards the end-user’s agenda, understanding the company’s rich foundation and heritage in the facilities security industry is actually secondary to “what is this specific product and what will it do for me”. That’s the hook. The rest is a process of due diligence through which the history of tds may or may not be an influential factor for the purchaser.
So what about technical issues related to product websites?
Frankly, all issues surrounding the number of web properties any one organisation should have is a matter of strategy from both branding and commercial perspectives.
There is no denying that things changed and end-users now demand relevancy and far more engaging experiences online. In a world where competing for customer attention and time are arguably the key barriers, gone are the days when a ‘microsite’ would confuse the wider brand proposition in the digital space. For many organisations with diversifying portfolios, product websites are now a prerequisite.
Once carefully considered and constructed with the end-user in mind, it’s actually relatively straight forward to understand how multiple website properties are positioned in the wider digital footprint, how they communicate with target consumer groups, and what relationship they have with one another – and that includes technical aspects such as search engine optimisation and multiple marketing/data touch-points.
Growing up in a house of sports fanatics, I vicariously became a bit of a fan myself. But these days my interest lies more in the the sport sponsorship and branding side of things, rather than whether Rory McIlroy bogeyed the 1st or not.
With the football over and the British Open Golf Championship nicely wrapped up by Rory, I found myself mesmerised by the number of sponsors (or Patrons as they are known) and I ask myself the question, “does sport sponsorship deliver?” With Patrons of “The Open” such as Doosan, HSBC, MasterCard and Rolex surely it must.
Some might say sport sponsorship is one of the least targeted parts of a marketing plan, but not if it is part of your brand story. Your job as a sponsor is not to involve people in your brand story; it is to involve your brand in theirs.
A brand’s sponsorship strategy and activation initiative must focus on delivering valuable fan experiences that enhance peoples’ enjoyment of their favourite sports. In this way, sponsorship becomes a product that delivers a powerful service benefit and by extension, has a precious halo effect for the brand in question.
So brands need to ask themselves:
How can we add value to the event experience or brand experience for attendees?
How can we leverage brand exposure for non-attendees (media audiences, customers, etc.)?
How can we extend the brand experience?
Are we doing anything that diminishes that experience or distracts them?
This leads me back to the infamous Tiger Woods conundrum. Having been fined more times for swearing than all other members of the PGA Tour combined and that “club throwing” incident at the US Masters, is he a valuable use of Nike’s sponsorship funds? You bet he is, as Nike continues to show him the money.
Actually the case of Tiger Woods is an interesting one. In many cases, you could argue that a brand aligning itself too closely to a key personality is a bit like putting all your eggs in one basket. It’s is a risky strategy as humans, we are all fallible. But risks can be managed if a brand has a smart strategy. Nike for example, has always focused on Tiger Woods the golfer (unlike other sponsors such as Gillette who have played up his clean image) and aligned the brand’s efforts around his sporting prowess. As such when Tiger Woods, the man, caught the headlines for all the wrong reasons, they were able to compartmentalise the short-term storm around his infidelity, and even used the high media value to launch an entirely new product line in the process.
Perusing the list of Open Patrons, I noted the absence of alcohol and tobacco products. While this comes as no major surprise, the industries continue to sponsor some of the world’s biggest sporting events. Interestingly just recently the RaboDirect Pro 12 rugby (cider makers Magners were their predecessors) has been renamed the Guinness Pro 12. The IRFU has been quoted as saying that sponsorship generates €9m annually for the sport and there have been warnings a clampdown would damage Ireland’s hopes of hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2023.
But what I’m sure you really want to know is whether sport sponsorship changes perceptions of your brand in the way that you are trying to influence it. Whether you have increased preference, purchase, intention or loyalty.
The alternatives available as to how individuals spend their free time and the brands they are exposed to have become limitless. While it took years for some Marketing Managers to recognise that simply putting their brand on a t-shirt or on the backdrop of a winners’ podium wasn’t the best use of resources, smarter Marketing Managers realised that it takes more than this. It is about your brand story. Finding ways to stand out is no longer an option but a necessity.
The brand story goes beyond what’s written on your website or your brand on the winners’ podium at The Open. Your story isn’t just what you tell people; it’s also what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends.
Everything you do, each element of your brand, from the colours of your brandmark and the quality of your packaging or business cards, to the staff you employ is part of your brand story and every element should reflect the truth about your brand. So if you get this right and align yourself with the right sponsorship, then the answer to my question is: yes, sports sponsorship does deliver as long as your brand story is strong.
While I may not be glued to all the major sporting events this year, I’ll certainly be looking at the brands on show. In full swing, you could say.
Unless you are living in a vacuum, you will be more than aware that football’s biggest event, the World Cup is now in full swing and as such the world’s “greatest sporting spectacle” will be filling media channels and social platforms for days on end …the irony of that statement and this blog post is not lost on me! So, quick question – can you name the official sponsors?
The Beautiful Game’s flagship platform attracts huge audiences across the globe and big brands pay handsomely for exclusive association. But inevitably there will be some brands that don’t want to pay the millions of euros for sponsorship rights and will nonetheless seek to benefit from the associated publicity. These brand owners will have spent months furiously devising guerilla marketing and advertising campaigns to cash in on the buzz and hype in the hope of riding along on the brand equity of the event. Welcome to brandjacking.
Brandjacking, as it has been coined (a combination of brand and hi-jacking), can take many different forms.
One of the highest profile cases comes from the last World Cup in 2010 where Nike managed to ambush close competitor and official sponsor, Adidas. Nike’s World Cup campaign was composed of a suite of three-minute sporting biographies of football’s superstars, highlighting their triumphs as well as their failures. And what a triumph it was for Nike. In a matter of days the global football community was convinced that Nike was the official sponsor of the tournament and without having to pay a single dollar to the World Cup’s governing body, FIFA.
More recently in the London Olympics in 2012, Nike were at it again. On this occasion, they launched a global TV campaign tied to the Olympics opening ceremony, in which amateur athletes competed in places around the world called London. There were runners in London, Ontario, cyclists in London, Nigeria and shots from London, Ohio and Little London in Jamaica. Just none from “the” London.
Another example from the London Games is the headphone brand Beats by Dr Dre, who again didn’t advertise through the official channels but instead gave out free headphones to the athletes in the hope they would wear them track side and be seen on camera doing so.
UK cider brand, Strongbow focused their efforts on one high-profile event, the 100-metre race, and celebrated Usain Bolt’s victory with an unbranded tribute to the Olympic sprinter. Instant copy changed from Earn It before the race, to Earn(ed) It after the race accompanied by their trademark archer symbol taking up a pose not too dissimilar to the world-recognised lightening bolt pose. A clever, recognisable and timely tribute that allowed Strongbow to punch above its weight.
Google is another brand that has mastered the art of association. To the best of my knowledge the brand wasn’t an official partner of London 2012, but that didn’t stop them doing a series of sport related doodles and games, a theme they are continuing for this year’s World Cup.
But brandjacking isn’t exclusive to high profile, global events and neither does it require big budgets. One of the most memorable cases for me was by Shelter, a charity campaigning to end bad housing and homelessness across England and Scotland. Back in 1994 and with a limited budget, Shelter block booked all the outdoor media at Earls Court tube station for the duration of the Ideal Home Show. In an attempt to highlight the disparity between the insatiable appetite (at the time) for DIY and home improvement and the plight of children affected by bad housing, Shelter hi-jacked the aspirational nature of the Ideal Home Show brand to create the Un-ideal Home Show with posters of squalid living conditions. The organisers of the event were far from pleased, but the “stunt” was a huge success, and achieved national PR coverage elevating the charity’s work to new audiences.
So if hijacking the news can be so very powerful, how come hundreds of great opportunities consistently pass brands by? It obviously has little to do with the cost factor, given the fact the evidence that assertive actions by brands such as Nike have paid off handsomely. Mostly it comes down to time and having a set-up that allows the brand to be react and respond to real time events, as they are fresh in people’s minds. A brand that surpasses itself in this sphere is Paddy Power. They have an ‘always on’ approach when it comes to opportunities, big and small, local and national, to getting their brand talked about – with both positive and negative results.
So what can brands do to protect themselves, or alternatively position themselves to steal someone else’s thunder?
Enter the web
In today’s world, the Internet and social media are rewriting the rules of marketing. With these tools, people have more outlets to talk about big events in advance. As a result the opportunities to associate your brand from an early stage are limitless.
Plan early
Whilst you might not be able to own the conversation, you can at least start it. Starting the conversation allows you to insert yourself into it.
Be clear
Subtlety does no one any favours in guerilla marketing. Your audience has to understand the association straight away.
The ‘wow’ factor
Producing high quality content with a compelling story and a strong creative idea will gain impact and encourage people to talk about it and share.
On a final note, whilst brands clearly benefit from association with such high-profile events, there are questions to be asked around the wider impact going forward. High profile sponsors suffered a backlash from the Sochi Winter Olympics; as aligning themselves to the event was seen by some to be condoning certain views or actions expressed by the host nation. Even now looking to the next world cup questions are being asked about working conditions in Qatar.
Perhaps going forward, brands will need to evaluate sponsorship opportunities not only in terms of exposure but also in terms of aligned brand values and behaviours to ensure the true value of the association is maximised.
To learn more about your brand positioning when it comes to events and sponsorship, feel free to contact us: amanda@richardsdee.com / +353 1 662 4472
We live in challenging economic times. Everyone is having to tighten their belts, from corporate organisations to the general public. There is increasing competition and pressure to capture the public’s attention, not just from other charities but also from an increasing number of commercial brands behaving like charities (e.g. TOMs). So how do you make sure your fundraising campaign gains cut-through and motivates audiences to donate?
Here are 5 simple steps to help frame your fundraising campaign and maximise your results:
1. When developing a fundraising campaign, think like your audience
Don’t think from the organisation out – think from the general public in.
Think like your target audience and you’ll raise more money by creating a message that appeals to their interests, not just those of your organisation. Here are three simple tips for thinking more like your target audience:
1. Talk to them.
You should be talking with your audience frequently. Survey them once a year to find out what interests them most. Engage with them on Facebook and Twitter. Ask them more about why they support your organisation. What they tell you will give you a good idea of which messages resonate the most with them. Use this to inform your fundraising campaigns.
2. Be informed by their online behaviour.
Find out which messages resonate best by monitoring which emails and web content generate the most interaction. If your audience is clicking on content and responding by taking action or donating, that message is engaging them.
3. Remember the iceberg metaphor.
Whilst every activity and programme you undertake is important, not all of them will help get money in. Your current and potential supporters are usually inspired and interested in only a small portion of the work your organisation actually does. Make that the focal point of your campaigns. What topic is at the top of the iceberg for your cause? Make sure you use that front and centre in your messaging.
2. Tell a story
Now that you know which messages are resonating most with your audience, tell them a story that helps make those messages come alive. Create an emotional connection and share stories that illustrate your impact within the community. If your reader or listener is not emotionally engaged in your story, you don’t have a story.
Personal connections and stories have a big effect on giving. If you’ve got them, share them.
Also tap into human psychology. People are conformists by nature, and we take cues about how to think and what to do from those around us. Social norms fuel entire industries. Would the fashion world be able to motivate us to buy a narrower tie or a longer skirt this year if we didn’t care what people think? A coordinated campaign can help supporters feel like they’re tapping into something bigger.
Count your community: Show how many people have taken action to create a sense of a growing community of like-minded people.
Use testimonials: Quotes from people talking about why they support you are powerful. Other people are often your best messengers.
3. Answer the “what & how” questions
Given the sheer scale of what needs to be achieved and the costs involved, people can often think that the little they could contribute would be a drop in the ocean and wouldn’t make an impact, resulting in them not giving at all.
Research has shown that the evidence of the impact donations make, along with a personal connection to a cause, is the biggest influence in giving to charity. Donors now want more evidence of the impact a charity is having on the communities they serve. It’s also important that they are told how their donation contributes to the charity’s on-going work.
Key questions to answer:
What are you campaigning for?
What makes you different from the other organisations?
What will my donation be spent on?
How will my donation make a difference?
How can I get involved?
How do I donate time and/or money?
Ensure you have a clear and concise call to action. Remember the act of giving is immediate. Give your supporters the opportunity to act here and now.
4. Be credible
A case for giving must be credible. When an organisation is small and funding efforts are grassroots based — asking 1,000 people for donations of €10 — your communications can be less sophisticated. But if you want to target the big hitters and corporate sponsors for substantial donations and support, you have to demonstrate that you are reliable, credible and astute enough to trust.
Present yourself consistently. It is vital for charities to harness the power of brand and the growing number of communications channels to provide existing and potential supporters with tangible benefits of what you are achieving. A consistent approach maximises your organisation’s impact and makes the most of limited resources.
5. Make it channel appropriate
Now that you have framed your case for giving, be sure to compile these elements in the appropriate format for the different marketing channels. The following can provide you with a rough guide: –
1,000+ Words: Direct Mail Piece
Include all of the elements we’ve covered so far.
300 Words: Website article
Take your direct mail piece and apply some basic webpage rules. For Search Engine Optimisation, your article should be more than 300 words. The title of the article should contain the keyword for the campaign and be used throughout the article. For further search engine visibility, include sub-heading labels (h2 & h3) and add a meta description to the article and any images you use in it.
250 to 300 Words: Email Appeal
Include all of the elements above, but make them shorter and punchier. Remember: People don’t read emails – they skim them. Increase open-rates with a snappy subject line and improve click-through-rates with a simple and clear call to action in the email itself.
50 Words: Home Page Feature
Include a great photo, what for, how, why now and credibility graphics.
15 Words: Facebook Post
Include a great photo, what for, how, why now. Focus on getting your Facebook audience to take the next step with a clear call to action and/or close with a leading question to encourage discussion.
10 Words: Twitter Post
Include why now and what for. Your aim is to inspire your Twitter followers to share and click through or post a reply, so again consider the use of a question.
It is only by “making real” your organisation’s mission and results that you will be able to retain supporters as well as acquiring new ones.
At RichardsDee we understand the many and varied challenges faced by Not for Profits, both big and small. With specialist experience in this sector, we can help your organisation gain recognition in a crowded space, stay relevant with internal and external audiences and build long-lasting relationships with your supporters. View our work in the not for profit sector to see how we could help you.
There have been numerous articles written in recent weeks about the passing of the legend Wally Olins. He was a thinker, a challenger, an innovator, a motivator and a pioneer and it is near impossible to assess the impact that Wally Olins has had on businesses and brands over the years. It is also near impossible to estimate the impact he had on folk like me; encouraging me and my ilk to establish branding agencies that are ambitious and have world domination in our sights.
Reading a piece by Wally on why he left advertising in the early 60’s consolidated in my mind why I would work in branding and not advertising as my career progressed. Describing his tenure in the London Ad Agency Geers Gross he said “The work didn’t get to the heart of anything. When you’re thinking about the totality of an organization, an organization doesn’t just communicate through advertising but through its environments, through its products, and through its behaviors—and I wanted to get involved in all that.” A pretty compelling statement to persuade anyone who’s sitting on the branding versus advertising fence.
Indigenous agencies like ours often look to case studies of global giants for insights, inspirations and learnings however there I believe there is more to learn from looking at the man, not the work, in this case. So here are the top six things I’ve learnt from this great man, and will continue to apply to RichardsDee as our brave little agency evolves and grows.
Be Brave Wally Olins epitimised brave. Outside of taking the brave move and setting up the very first brand and design consultancy in the UK in 1965, he encouraged his clients to be brave. Encouraging British Telecom in 1991 to adopt the logo of the ‘prancing piper’ and rebrand as BT was brave. The launch of Orange was bold. As was persuading Bovis, a British construction company, to adopt a hummingbird (more reflective of tropical islands than the UK) as a brand icon. Was his work controversial? Yes. And was it brave? Very much so. As brand consultants, we can’t sit on our brand laurels. We must be brave and continue to push the boundaries on work and thinking.
Be Direct
Under the ‘What I’m Like’ heading on his blog, Wally describes himself as follows: “I try to be direct and clear. I simply tell my clients the truth as I see it, without too much gloss or varnish because that’s what I’m there for. Of course it’s nice to be nice. But it’s also nice to be straight’. In our game, it’s easy to meet a client and take a brief and deliver very efficiently on that brief. But surely that’s just a hygiene factor in our industry? As brand advisors, it’s incumbent upon us to give our view, challenge our clients and continuously add value to the process.
Be Personable
Anyone that knew Wally would describe him as intelligent and charming with a wicked sense of humour. His colleagues and clients say he ‘was one of those people with whom spending time was an absolute joy’. Even though he defined an entire industry and created a system for how branding projects the world over are approached, he never let his ego grow greater than his ability to connect with people on a real basis.
Be Great
His work challenged industries, his recommendations challenged clients’ views and opinions. But he was also not afraid to challenge the industry he loved so much. In 2009 he created much controversy referring to the larger design consultancies as “machines devised to produce mediocre rubbish” and calling some of their actions “despicable”. He carried his ethos of delivering great work into Saffron, an agency that continues to punch above its weight against the world’s largest and longest established firms.
Be Benevolent
Outside of the extensive work he conducted within the Not For Profit space, he was well known for his personal generosity and optimism. Saffron describe him as follows ‘Whether advising a young student looking for advice on getting ahead in branding or advising presidents on ways to enhance their nation’s brand, Wally was always willing to give more than he expected to receive’. There’s a lesson in this for all of us. Whether it’s in the nurturing of interns within our agencies or subsidizing work for Not For Profit organisations, we can all be doing more.
Be True To You
Wally was an advocate of everything being “on brand” and he applied brand thinking cities, countries, people, museums, Not For Profit organisations and people. However he always maintained he never applied his branding principles to himself. Be that the case or not, outside of his massive contribution to branding, his bow tie, thick-rimmed spectacles, bright check shirts will never be forgotten.
The sheer focus that is put on the big idea is often the reason people struggle with the notion of creativity. Creativity has to have a purpose. It has to be useful and most of all it has to have a point of difference. People often think they want an idea – a really big idea, but what they want is a solution and they are not always the same thing.
Last week I hotfooted it across to London town for a one-day training course focusing on creative thinking and how to approach pitch presentations differently. As both are hugely important in agency life, I was eager to see how the day would pan out.
Both speakers, Gordon Brown of Brain Juice Training & Tessa Morton of The Tessa Morton Partnership, were excellent and inspiring in their own ways, but the one thing that resonated with me the most was the area of creativity and how, in our day-to-day lives, creativity seems to be focused on idea generation.
That’s normal you may say, after all, every agency and his dog claim to be all about the big idea. And yes, it is an important part of the process, but that’s just it. Creativity is a process, not a thing or an innate trait of the gifted few. And idea generation is, and should be treated as, one part of that process, not the be all and end all of it.
The ideal process according to Gordon Brown can be broken down into 3 steps: definition, generation and implementation.
The sheer focus that is put on the big idea is often the reason people struggle with the notion of creativity. Creativity has to have a purpose. It has to be useful and most of all it has to have a point of difference. Ideas that don’t deliver a benefit, inventions that fail to address a need, innovation that leads to a poor result are all too common. It can be an idea, but it often isn’t. Is can be invention or innovation, but again it often isn’t.
People often think they want an idea – a really big idea, but what they want is a solution and they are not always the same thing.
Ask yourself this question: what’s easier to answer – ‘what is 5 x 5?’ or ‘what is the answer to life, the universe and everything?’
In agency life, we often get asked ‘life, the universe and everything’ questions – ‘How can our brand become a global leader?’ ‘How can our business be more profitable?’ ‘How can we obtain more loyal customers?’ For each of these questions there are a multitude of answers. The secret is to turn the ‘life, universe and everything’ questions into a ‘5 x 5’ questions – or at least get as close as you can i.e. define it tightly enough and the answers become easier.
Let’s try a little exercise…relax, I won’t be asking for any volunteers through this medium! But I do want you to be honest with yourself at the end.
You have 10 minutes to build a free-standing tower, made from 3 pieces of paper and which at its highest point, is the furthest from the floor as possible. Off you go now…
…Finished? Great, well done. Now tell me this, how many of you reached for the paper straight away (even virtually?) and were rolling and folding the paper to within an inch of its life to explore the options? And how many took time to re-read the exercise and plan how best to approach it? I would suggest that it was the former. It certainly was in the room in London.
And therein lies the point. We are all guilty of not spending enough time defining the problem or the market need, instead we dive straight into idea generation. You may argue, that that’s the fun bit, that’s what the client is most interested in. Both true, and yet the more focus we can put on each step, the more chance we have of successful creative thought and action.
The moral of the story is: no matter how much time you are currently spending defining the problem or need, it’s not enough. If you can crack the definition stage, your chances of hitting the jackpot on the subsequent stages are so much greater.
Define the problem, identify the best idea and implement it well.
I’ll leave you with a little anecdote you are probably already familiar with but one that illustrates the importance of definition. In the 1960s, the Americans had been tasked with putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. When they got into space, they found that their pens didn’t work. The ink simply floated around and refused to come out. To address this issue, it is said that a considerable amount of time and dollars were invested into a project that produced the ‘Space Pen’ – a pen that had a small gas canister to push the ink out – clever idea. On the other side of the iron curtain the USSR had the same problem. Their answer, a pencil, cost zero days and zero dollars of investment.
What was the question the Americans asked themselves? – “How can we make a pen write in space?” And the Russians? – “How can we write in space?” Just three words of difference in defining the problem…and thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars in creating the wrong solution.
So to summarise what I learnt:
Beware ‘life the universe and everything’ questions, try and make them ‘5 x 5’ questions.
How long did you spend defining the issue? If you think you spent too little time, you’re probably right.
Is the issue explained in clear and simple language? Clear and simple takes time.
Can you sum up the issue in one sentence? If you can’t then you haven’t defined it tightly enough.
We were commissioned by Bewley’s to develop an international customer acquisition campaign.
Customer acquisition campaign strategy
Targeting distributors whose customers had a thirst for authentic brands, we elevated the benefits of stocking Bewley’s in a compelling and engaging way. The piece was fully personalised and contained a letter and brochure. The campaign opened a dialogue with new customers, raised awareness of Bewley’s in new markets and resulted in the acquisition of new distributors.
Having recently completed a successful international customer acquisition campaign for Bewley’s, we’re ready for a cup of tea!
Having recently created packaging for a new range of ready meals that burst with flavor and goodness, we had lots of fun with our barcode design.
While we can’t unveil our packaging yet (it launches in September), we can do a sneak peak of how we translated our idea across the easily forgotten barcode. UPDATE: See our full project case study here
What’s in a bar code design?
Barcodes feature on every single piece of packaging so why not extend the packaging concept into the mostly functional and almost entirely neglected barcodes?
One of our favourite Irish Illustrators Steve Simpson is a real champion of injecting life into barcode design and has done some super work breathing life into these unsung little heroes. So come on, let’s show barcodes some love!
