Our Client Wins Big

Today is all about the fabulous Claire and her brilliant win! We helped Claire to create Air & Grace from naming of the brand and Tender Loving Air technology to design of her beautiful identity.

Who needs a consumer zoo?

In the classic marketing model consumers aren’t that different from animals in a zoo – the consumer zoo. We observe them behind glass. We pay researchers to decode their behaviour.



But in such unnatural conditions insights and ideas are not based in truth. The best way understand consumers is to take down the dividing walls. And create the conditions for genuine openness, sharing and collaboration.

We offer a proper co-creation process, in the sense that consumers play a hugely significant role in the way we develop creative ideas.

We bring together creative consumers and insightful designers and strategists, to build emotionally resonant and distinctly differentiated ideas for branded products and services.

Our emphasis is on verbal and visual positioning – it’s not enough to have a good idea, you have to own it - 100%. To have a point-of-view, as well as a point of difference.

Charlie and The Chocolate 50th Anniversary Logo.

We were thrilled to be asked to design the 50th Anniversary logo for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory in 2014. @roald_dahl are a fantastic client, and to have the opportunity to work on such an iconic brand was a dream come true.

Sainsbury's: a company of character

Provider of lodgings to many a lonely bumblebee in their aptly named bee n' bee, Europe's top solar generator, champion of ugly fruit and veg, co-creator of Giraffe bread - just a handful of the fantastic stories we heard about Sainsbury's at Our Breakfast Club.

Alex Cole Corporate Affairs Director at Sainsbury's came along to and event we held recently to tell us all about why she believes that Sainsbury's values make them different. She spoke of the importance of having a brand or company with character and the right values at the core. She quoted Lincoln, "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

As the world headed into recession most people were betting the credit crunch would lead to a values crunch. But in fact Sainsbury's research has proved that as the opposite has happened. Rather than seeing economic constraints cause a cut back in values, they have seen it drive an increased appetite for them. They argue that having to put more thought into what they buy, consumers are taking a greater - not lesser - account of what personally matters to them.

In the last 12 months Sainsbury’s has sold 8.5% more sustainably sourced food with more than £1 in every £10 spent on sustainably-labelled products coming from those families on the lowest incomes.

So often marketing complicates the issue of sustainability and claims that people don't care. The best part of all of this is that Alex made it sound so simple and compelling. It's always been in the DNA of the company, and it's just the way that Sainsbury's does business.

This report on what Sainsbury's are calling 'new fashioned values' is well worth a read.
You can also explore other Sainsbury's stories here http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/responsibility/

5 things marketers should know about social media

As more and more brands become social, those who engage best will stand out.  Robyn Pierce from The Crocodile spoke at a session for Our Design Agency recently. She looked at the key trends coming out of  The Social Media Marketing Report and talked about the 5 things marketeers want answered about social media (tactics, engagement, measurement, tools and strategy).



The study surveyed over 3,000 marketers with the goal of understanding how they are using social media to grow and promote their businesses. 97% of respondents said they use social media marketing and a significant 86% indicated that social media is important for their business.

Robyn concluded by stressing the need for fantastic content and said that continued to be the challenge for all marketeers. So perhaps unsurprisingly, according to report, YouTube holds the top spot for future plans. 69% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube making video the top area marketers will invest in this year. The tactic marketers want to learn most about is blogging. While 58% are already blogging, 62% want to learn more about it and 66% plan on increasing blogging activities in 2013.