Umbro /
England Kit Launch 2009
This truly contemporary campaign, underpinned by an influencer seeding strategy has seen great success and even won us an award.
Infiltrating a new audience whilst not alienating the existing was the core challenge with the launch of the new England Football kit in early 2009. Taking this icon of English football, which had undergone a complete re-design to being an icon of English culture allowed us to re-define the replica shirt whilst saying something bigger about football as part on English culture. Historically, launching an England kit has been simple and formulaic, but we knew that if it were to truly infiltrate new audiences, credibly and effectively, it required a non-traditional approach. All this was set against a recession landscape at the same time as Umbro increasing the price of an England shirt.
We created an integrated campaign that was underpinned by an influencer seeding strategy and saw us reach out to a powerful network of global opinion formers. The campaign was designed to create content and assets, pre, during and post launch that would drive reappraisal and fame. A bespoke built multi purpose ‘energy space’ was at the core of the campaign offering a platform to showcase and retail the new kit exclusively. Further to this we created iconic shots of John Terry and Wayne Rooney and offered these to selected titles as media exclusives. We also partnered with Vice Magazine, Konami and Facebook to bring together some of the UK’s hottest up and coming creative talent and spread the word via exclusive content and competitions seeded out to key sites, blogs and networks.
Results:
All in all a truly successful Award Winning campaign that has initiated a shift in positioning and perception of Umbro within new audiences. £3 million worth of coverage was delivered in 3 months. 28 million adults (58% of the population) were reached 7 times delivering a solid platform on which to build in the run up to, throughout and beyond the 2010 World Cup. 20,000 shirts were sold in the first 24 hours
Maynards /
What’s In Your Packet?
Cadbury’s wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Maynards Wine Gums brand and we were tasked with making this happen. Bringing the iconic ‘Hootsmon’ back, this integrated campaign has led to the brand seeing a real resurgence within the Cadbury business and with consumers.
Our work across the Cadbury’s portfolio saw us briefed on creating a promotion for this iconic British brand that would celebrate the 100th anniversary of Maynards Wine Gums.
Our strategy led us to reintroducing an advertising icon by playing on the humorous heritage of the Maynards ‘Hootsmon’ made famous in the early 1990’s TV advertising campaigns. Going live in July 2009 we unleashed our reinvented ‘Hootsmon’ across multiple platforms including on-pack, outdoor, in store and radio. The disruptive creative concept is key, with the Hootsmon lifting his kilt which brings to life the personality of the character – cheeky, quirky and fun, whilst creating stand out of the promotion in all channels. As part of the campaign Maynards secured increased listings, distribution and share of shelf across the country, which in turn led to greater awareness and sales.
Overall sales have seen an uplift of 13% compared to last year and in the Grocery sector there has been a significant increase of 42%
year on year. This promotion and these results have elevated this dated and low ranking brand within Cadbury’s to become a priority brand for 2010.
Martini /
Stay Beautiful
Martini wanted to change consumer’s perceptions of the brand amongst 25-35 year old women. So we took them to the places this iconic brand should be and made it fashionable again.
Martini briefed us with the challenge of bringing their ‘Stay Beautiful’ campaign to life in a BTL environment. The emphasis was to actively change perceptions of the brand amongst the female 25-35 years audience, to promote the low abv of the drinks and the new Rosato variant.
We recognised that the key to changing perceptions was to offer opportunities to trial in relevant environments. Our activity was designed to deliver trial across event, on trade and partnership platforms.
We created an experiential space which was taken to fashion and style destinations popular with the target audience. These included the Clothes Show in London, Westfield and designer fashion shows during London Fashion Week.
The space was a modern interpretation of the historical Martini Terrazza’s. The focal point was the bar, with the new Rosato variant glorified as a backdrop. The ‘Stay Beautiful’ concept was bought to life via complementary beauty treatments and mini manicures for consumers as they enjoyed their samples.
Within the on trade, Martini created a squadra of staff to visit over 200 outlets across the UK. The team sampled the new Rosato variant to consumers, whilst also incentivising further purchase with promotional activity. On trade collateral and kits were also created, utilising impactful reflective surfaces to maximise standout in a crowded environment.
The partnerships created in 2009 with Toni&Guy and Nails Inc. were chosen due to their relevance to the target audience, and also to maximise reach of samples across the UK within their high street salons.
In total over 60,000 samples were distributed across events, on trade and partnership activity. There was a 20% conversion from trial to purchase in the on trade and over 36,000 people were driven to a dedicated Facebook page (8,000 fan sign ups).
Rizla /
Invisible Players
With music as a brand platform we devised an innovative strategy that got Rizla to the heart of the action of the summer’s hottest events, tackling dark marketing issues and turning customers into fans.
Our brief was to produce a campaign that engaged a core 18 – 34 Male/Female audience with the Rizla brand and its products whilst understanding an increasingly challenging market with restrictive legislation. At the same time we needed to enhance brand equity amongst young adults, drive brand reappraisal and create truly engaging and memorable touchpoints that turn customers into ‘adorers’.
Using music as a brand platform, we created the Rizla Invisible Players, a long-term strategic overarching campaign theme that offers a platform for the brand to engage face to face with their audience.
At the core of this campaign is the Rizla Invisible Players festival arena. A subtly branded open air arena that delves into Rizla’s heritage and has recreated a custom vehicle that Rizla used in the 1920’s as a touring musical experience. This experience tours selected festivals and is further amplified and supported by a nationwide club tour. Content is key in this campaign, this allows us to amplify key messages via a dedicated area on rizla.co.uk whilst acquiring press coverage in relevant titles.
Now moving into year four and growing, this campaign tackles the issues surrounding the marketing of tobacco products credibly and effectively. Since 2006 this activity developed into a widely adored, famous and valuable campaign that delivers coverage and cut through to the media savvy audience.
Coca-Cola /
Matthew Williamson Collaboration
With a goal of elevating the iconic Coca-Cola glass contour bottle back into the consumer and trade mindset we set about getting it back to where it should be, with great success.
Coca-Cola is one of the most globally recognised brands. Exposure was briefed to develop a campaign to support the jewel in their crown, the original glass bottle, with the objective of combating the loss of noise and distribution in the top end of the media and trade.
Our solution was to create an ambassador to help resolve the trend away from carbonated drinks within the luxury sector and create a re-appraisal, enhancing it’s contemporary appeal.
We enlisted Matthew Williamson as our partner due to his universal appeal and his credible link for style bars. His seasoned colour palette reflected Coca-Cola’s summer time brand theme, and he was active in a number of high profile events from which the brand could benefit.
The strategy’s concept saw Williamson use the bottle as a blank canvas to produce three different colour designs. We used limited edition stock to secure two prime site window displays in Selfridges with the product sold for a limited time throughout the store. In addition to a product placement campaign at 125 key media and celebrity events, we also secured eye level display and distribution in 30 of the UK’s 50 ultra-premium style bars and members clubs.
A total of £1 million plus of media coverage was secured over the two campaigns. The results of our campaign stretched further than a complete sell out in Selfridges in just 10 days with acclaim being bespoken on us by GQ, Vogue and The Sunday Times Style magazine who heralded it as, “the real designer drink”.
O2 /
Social Studies
Our goal was to shake off a stigma and reach a new audience. The strategy we designed for O2 & Blackberry saw us tour the product around the country reaching their desired new audience, students. As a result our client saw their popularity soar within this group by 57%.
O2 and BlackBerry approached us to help increase the consideration of the new O2 & BlackBerry tariff and handsets to a younger, consumer and student based audience. The intention was to shake off the BlackBerry stigma as a business phone and increase their share amongst traditional handset sales. Our brief also focused on improving both the O2 and BlackBerry brand perception scores with students.
Our strategy saw the creation of an engaging integrated experience to increase brand awareness of the new O2 BlackBerry tariff. By aligning a partnership with Play.com we were able to introduce a student specific tariff enabling benefits for our target audience. Our use of social studies as the creative platform developed a Student Brand Manager program that enabled students to trial the BlackBerry handsets and promote the campaign.
The events side of our strategy saw the running of an Outdoor Study Area that we toured to 30 selected universities to promote the tariff and handsets. Inside our bespoke O2 dome our target audience got to grips with everything the tariff and handset had to offer. An interactive microsite was also developed to drive online purchasing.
Through our approach we successfully engaged with 17, 845 students allowing unprecedented interaction with O2 BlackBerry. A further 284,800 students were reached through non-funded radio and print PR. As a result students were 26% more likely to purchase a contract with O2 and BlackBerry following our strategy and 57% of students have an improved opinion of O2 and BlackBerry after our campaign.
De Beers /
Forevermark
The creation of a global communications blueprint for DeBeers Diamonds saw us roll out their new Forevermark brand. Designed to lay the foundations for ensuring it became a universal and global brand in its own right.
Forevermark is a marque launched by De Beers in 2008, which assures consumers of the diamonds’ high standards of craftsmanship, ethicacy and provenance.
We were asked to create a global blueprint to communicate this new brand in key Asian markets including China, Hong Kong and Japan. This educative activity was designed to lay the foundations for ensuring Forevermark became a universal and global brand in its own right in the future.
Every diamond is unique and behind every jewel is a story. Using the brief ‘Precious’ we created a collection of diamond jewellery pieces and stories, in collaboration with a number of literary experts and jewellery designers.
The Precious Collection was then launched at events in each territory, to which media and local celebrities were invited. The collection, the authors and designers provided visual content and personality to bring the brand to life in media.
A toolkit and media kit was created for translation and distribution in markets, along with event and media guidelines.
Over $1 million of editorial was generated.
Pretty Polly /
Stairway To Heaven
In a decreasing market, Pretty Polly was losing market share and needed content and fame in order to stand out. Here’s how we tackled this challenge.
Pretty Polly has a history of iconic advertising and famous ‘faces of the brand’. In a decreasing market, Polly was losing market share and needed content and fame in order to stand out from the competitive set, stretch its limited advertising funds and give the media an angle to talk about
‘Stairway to Heaven’ was a visually striking image of a beautiful, sexy woman climbing a ladder and, of course, wearing Pretty Polly tights. A record breaking 64 ft billboard was specially commissioned to take the visual. Its position took advantage of traffic in and out of London on the M4 motorway
Extra interest was added by allowing the model’s skirt to move and arranging for some strategically placed builders to take a peek, as we captured them on camera
The media loved this light-hearted story at a pre-Christmas time of year and £300k worth of coverage was delivered in 5 weeks. Anecdotally many remarked on the ‘new campaign’, even though it was only one billboard and Polly saw a 4% uplift in sales
In a more traditional celebrity deal, we signed The Sugababes as the face and legs of the brand. At this time they were at No. 1 and fitted perfectly with Polly’s ‘Perfectly Natural’ product which matches skin tone
A wealth of photography as captured for the media and the girls gave their time for media, profiles, PAs and a private gig for Pretty Polly’s key trade accounts. Over £2 million worth of coverage was delivered