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
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”.
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
Vitaminwater /
UK Brand Launch
Vitaminwater chose us to launch their brand into the UK and we responded by generating a buzz through an extensive campaign of events, sampling and product placement. Our innovative campaign was so successful it is being applied to the brand’s launch throughout the rest of Europe.
Vitaminwater is more than just a flavoured water. Having garnered enormous success in the USA, Coca-Cola acquired the brand and wanted to replicate its brand equity driving campaign in Europe.
Positioning was everything and our task was to establish the same quickly and effectively in the UK.
This PR led initiative included a bespoke VIP card to 4000 key opinion formers, allowing them products whenever and wherever they needed. We also created a central London pop-up store for sampling and experiential activity.
The store showcased 6 products and promoted 24 hour hydration with a combination of left field content such as snail racing, helium karaoke and laughter yoga.
Activity at London Fashion Week and Glastonbury focused on celebrity ambassadors and product placement to drive fame and inspire sales.
We then launch a new flavour – XXX – Triple Berry by bringing to life ‘The Berry Light District’ a concept bar, showcasing unique content such as Right Said Fred, Jodie Harsh , Mel B and the up and coming Charlie XCX.
Triumph /
Elevating Fame and Credibility
Triumph enlisted us to help raise their profile and reach a new demographic. Our response saw us placing their product in a range of dramatically new genres. Our actions saw Triumph’s brand soar across the globe.
Since 2004 Exposure has been increasing the brand’s fame and credibility in all the right places, securing ongoing unique and creative editorial coverage across a wealth of key target media.
National lifestyle, fashion and luxury titles, from Telegraph to Tatler, Loaded to LIVE have covered the many different ideas and content that Exposure has created.
Product placing high profile ambassadors who are keen riders such as Joseph Fiennes, Ewan McGregor and Gordon Ramsey have achieved substantial feature editorial.
Celebrating the best of British, we have also partnered with iconic brands such as Paul Smith for limited edition series of designed bikes, and Belstaff to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bonneville and Agent Provocateur to celebrate its 10th birthday. All collaborations have been successful in driving retail, iconic photography and column inches.
We have launched many new bikes in the UK, most recently creating a bespoke media experience for the Thunderbird; recreating the classic American road trip in a distinctly British way and bringing to life the key design and performance attributes.
Maximising experiential activity such as the famous Ace Café anniversary event and featuring an exclusive performance from Graham Coxon, also has attracted wide scale interest from key media and influencers.
Since 2004 Exposure has provided a consistently increasing return on investment and has delivered in excess of 615 pieces of editorial coverage, with an equivalent advertising value of over £11 million, which has reached over 1,050,000,000 people in the UK.