What’s happening in April & May

IPA EFFECTIVENESS AWARDS

Together with Total Media we are entering the Total Greek Yoghurt case study for an effectiveness award – well together we have all contributed to increased sales of 0%. The analytics certainly prove that TV is still the king of mediums for selling brands, especially for FMCG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new commercial is in production. Should be great fun and entertaining as always (with music by Hayden & animation by Animalada).

HAPPLI.co.uk (Trinity Mirror)

This was one of the big wins at the start of the year. Happli.co.uk is a daily deals website, similar to Groupon, Living Social, KGB and Wowcher. But Happli is more stylish and lifestyle focused.

17 different ads have been circulating across all the Trinity Mirror title, from teasers to the brand campaign. Chocolate loving girl poster featured above. It was a massive project – we created everything from the logo, corporate identity, guidelines for in-house, all the ads (over 100 artworks) and collateral for web.

Plus all the strategy and consumer insight work we did – really pays to have a professional psychologist working with you!

We didn’t create the name though and Harkable are doing the social media.

Now working on the next stage, looking at a broader media mix with posters and maybe even TV (tbc).

NUS DIGITAL

The other big win this year. Head of NUS Digital, Doug Tomlinson did a great presentation at the NUS main event in Manchester last week.

Having developed a next generation product for NUS Digital (sorry but details are still confidential) we created a 90 second wizzy presentation to show it all off. This brief has been unlike any other we’ve had, “more like working at Apple than an ad agency”, commented one of our creatives. We think this is a sign of the times, clients asking us to think beyond just ads.

It further strengthens our insight into students thinking. We’ve done a lot of work in this area – FPA, Cool Condoms, Sexaware (Elephuck) and the Diageo One Two Many campaign. Plus we have a lower average age range than most ad agencies (average is 35 according to the IPA).

MADE IN SPAIN, MAKING IT IN BRITAIN.

This business event for Quality of Spain  now has an impressive range of top speakers and will be held at the Spanish Embassy on Monday July 2nd (Discover Spain is the day before).

As the UK’s only Anglo Spanish advertising & brand marketing agency, it has been a joy to get such a positive response to the event. We’re expecting a lot of top Spanish businesses to be attending and hoping that we may even get one of the Spanish Government’s top people to open it – tbc.

Details will be published soon.

CHARITY MAILER

We’ve just sent out a mailer to charities showing off some of our great work we’ve done. From big budget campaigns (over £1m spend) for RSPB and St John Ambulance to very small budgets – FPA and many others, even as low as £36 – an award winning campaign we did for Everywoman.

The key is great ideas and great insight. Sadly, too many charities play safe and as a result get poor results, which is a big let down for both  the supporters and staff.  Proudly, every charity we have worked with was more than happy, and even overjoyed with the outcome. When we were involved with Traidcraft (then under the Feel title) we out did their target of £1m for the Fair Share Offer by £2.25m.

COW MAGAZINE

Finally, after a bit of delay (mainly due to excessive workloads) COW Magazine is about to launch. This issue is over 100 pages and packed full of insights into the Creative Orchestra culture, our work and staff. Plus reviews and a few oddities like our Cow Museum.

VENUS & MARS – WHAT SHE & HE REALLY WANTS

Due to the massive success of this last year, we are currently updating data for a revised version of the book, ‘Why Women Shop on Venus & Men Shop On Mars’ titled ‘WHAT SHE & HE WANTS’ (inspired by the film), plus a new seminar and even a workshop.

The original book and the lecture notes (plus the Mumsnet ad survey) are still downloadable from the website www.venus2mars.info

We’ll also be surveying clients to get their views about how well the ad industry target women for a Brand Republic blog.

CROUCH END FESTIVAL OF CREATIVITY

We’re one of the supporters of what is North London’s biggest art festival. We came up with some novel ideas, Poets in a Phone Box, Creative Histories and Surprise Cinema.

APRIL FOOL

For the first time we didn’t do the Brand Republic April Fool as it fell on a Sunday. But next year we have a corker.

Previous years have seen Pigeon Media, Cow Cola and Inception Marketing fool readers. Plus the story that the EU was banning green ink as it was considered less ethical than red, yellow, blue and black. All have topped the charts as best read stories of the day and all have managed to travel onto the web and been requoted as true.

Here’s around up of some of the best ever ones in the Guardian, including  The BBC’s spaghetti harvest prank of 1957. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2012/apr/01/10-best-april-fool-hoaxes

PITCHING 

We’re pitching for two big briefs, one financial and one telecomes. Plus a few new business meetings happening soon.

AND MORE…

We’ll add news as we progress… including the new energy product we are launching soon. And our latest work for AOL and Total.

What’s happening in March

We’ve started March off very busy with the launch of Trinity Mirror’s new product, happli.co.uk.  A rival to Groupon and Living Social, we have worked flat out getting all the elements (over 100) ready on time.

Although the name was created elsewhere, we created all the branding across all elements and all the advertising. The teaser ads have started running but the main campaign breaks soon.  On social media we’ll be working with Harkable.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

TOTAL GREEK YOGHURT

We are also busy writing the new TV campaign which will be running before the Olympics. Lots of nice ideas flying about at the moment. More to come.

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

CHARITY

Been talking with a great charity about developing a fundraising project and raising awareness. Nice mix of brand and advertising. More to come.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

AOL

Busy on a great brief with great creative opportunities. More to come.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

QUALITY OF SPAIN

We’ve had some great meetings with various Spanish groups discussing the MADE IN SPAIN, MAKING IT IN BRITAIN event, which is now scheduled to be on Mon July 2nd, following Discover Spain event on the Sunday. We have some amazing speakers lined up. More to come.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

CROUCH END FESTIVAL

North London’s biggest community arts festival launches in May and we are a sponsor. But we also won the design of the logo, congratulations Juande.

 

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What’s happening – February 2012

NEWSFLASH. We won our second big account this year!

It was a pitch to be proud of.  The team worked bloody hard and covered all the bases – a great example of a highly creative integrated campaign.

One reason (besides great strategy and creativity) was our understanding of the female consumer. Having a 50:50 male:female mix (unlike the 85:15 mix of most ad agencies) means we know how to really tune in. It’s now one of our USPs.

The team delivered great advertising ideas, beautiful art direction. We even designed the logo and corporate identity – a real top to tail brief.

Lots of amazing technology ideas (QR codes, Augmented Reality, geo-mapping, digital interaction, etc).

Until it’s official we can’t say what or who it is for but watch this space!!

The campaign launches in March (yep, that quick).

The other big win was a new website for students for NUS Digital.

We’ll be designing the front end of the website (we’re not building the back end) and applying some of our psychology tools in the interface. Plus we are looking at future innovation and technology and have come up with some real ‘ahead of the curve’ thinking (Steve Jobs would be impressed). Well we did brief all our teams to “think like Apple”

Our two Total Greek Yoghurt TV ads continue to run in Feb and driving up sales and brand awareness. As consumers seek healthier, lower fat products with taste, Total is in a prime position to steal the quality yoghurt market. Since our campaign has run sales have dramatically increased, proving the power of emotional engagement over rational messaging.

We are just about to present our outcomes of a big brand project we’ve been doing for Forum for the Future. A challenging brief. (More later.)

 

We’ve been invited to talk at several conferences, one on integration (March), another at the Royal Mail (March) and one in Bucharest in Romania (May).

 

 

 

 

The conference, Made in Spain, Making it in Britain is progressing as is ‘Why Women Shop on Venus and Men Shop on Mars‘ conference and revised book of data.

 

 

COW Magazine is being launched soon. As will be the new Creative Orchestra website (in HTML 5). And unlike all those boring “follow the herd” blog like agency websites, ours is certainly no sheep.

 

 

We are working on a number of other exciting new business briefs, one for an energy product – again, top secret at the moment.

And pitching for an interesting project for a global charity.

Plus just started work on anew AOL brief.

 

‘Ergopsychonomics’

“What’s that?” you may be saying.

It’s all about how we interact with technology. Check out Chris’ article on Brand Republic.   http://arnoldonethicalmarketing.brandrepublic.com/2012/01/17/forget-behavioural-economics-now-it’s-ergopsychonomics/

Supporting the arts and inspiring kids.

We are a key sponsor of the Crouch End Arts Festival (May 2012) which could be North London’s biggest arts festival. It covers a vast range of creativity , art, music, film, photography, drama, poetry and more. And there’s lots of workshops to inspire kids to be creative.

We have created a love moving graphics film to promote it and inviting lots of musicians to compose a soundtrack. Posting soon.

We’ve also been running a logo and poster competition for the festival with local schools and the community.

We had some great entries form the local schools and many professionals as well.

And the winner of the logo was… our own Juande Cobo.

What’s happening – Jan 2012

2011 ended with a lot of coverage in the trade press of our two new Total Greek Yoghurt TV ads, now on air.  Check them out on YouTube. We tapped into the trend for electro-swing. Lovely animation form Animalada and great music track by Hayden Parsey.

……………………………………………………………

The two big disappointments of 2011 were the cancelling of  a big project with Sainsbury’s (in partnership with Diageo & Heineken) and Starbucks.

 

 

 

……………………………………………………………

But we have kick started the year with two big pitches, both digitally based.

The first is for the design and  user engagement for a relaunch of a big website site (can’t say who yet) that will be home to 7 million people! The brief required us to push the boundaries and challenge conventional thinking. The presentation certainly wowed the client and we await the outcome. But initial feedback was awesome and we were praised for the original and innovative way we approached the brief and some of the ideas that were ahead of the curve. Steve Jobs would have been proud!

The second is for a new website that needs a massive above the line launch campaign (TV, posters, radio, press and local activities). Great brief. Again, can’t say anymore yet.

……………………………………………………………

Currently working with FORUM FOR THE FUTURE on a great brand project – more to come.

……………………………………………………………

We now have a great section on Haystack featuring our work and everything you want to know about Creative orchestra. Check out the link below:

http://www.haystackonline.com/agencies/creative-orchestra

……………………………………………………………

We’ll soon be relaunching our new website for multiply platforms.Watch this space.

The latest edition of COW magazine launches soon. Featuring great work for Total AOL, King of Shaves, Diageo and many more. Some of our King of Shaves work has appeared in both a design book and in Luzer’s Archieves.

 

……………………………………………………………

We were interviewed on the BBC today about failing British Brands. Check it out in iPlayer (10 mins in).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mlgw0/Phil_Kennedy_11_01_2012/

……………………………………………………………

2012 we believe is going to a great year.  2012 already feels a year of success. We’re 3 years old in March and despite launched in the bottom of a recession, we’ve done really well. “Onward and upwards!”

We are progressing Why Women Shop on Venus & Men shop on Mars  with a new updated book, conference and a workshop. We have delivered lectures in both London and Bristol to date with lots of related articles.

……………………………………………………………

Quality of Spain is being developed with a conference MADE IN SPAIN, MAKING IT IN BRITAIN featuring speakers form top Spanish brands and the government.

 

……………………………………………………………

Plus we will be sponsoring what will be North London’s biggest arts festival in May, the Crouch End Festival.

 

……………………………………………………………

And there’s more to come…

What’s happening – December 2011

November ended with Chris speaking at the Vision conference on Fusionism (traditional marketing mixed with technology) and a talk on Why Women Shop on Venus and Men Shop on Mars.

Other speakers at the conference included Rory Sutherland, Dave Trott and Steve Henry – all fellow Brand Republic bloggers.

Just when you thoughts things were getting quiet two pitches arrive, and big ones. Plus two new launches (both web based) and two brand workshops, one for Forum for the Future.

We’ve just created a mash up Xmas video for both Total and ourselves. You can view the Total one at www.totalgreekyoghurt.com.

We’re just putting the finishing touches to our two new Total Greek Yoghurts TV ads – launching Jan 9th. Probably our best to date and yet another great music track from Hayden Parsey.

Just finished a very busy period on AOL working on Devil and the Huffington Post.

As part of our FedEx days – when we just concentrate on ideas for ourselves – we have created a couple of brilliant spec campaigns for a well known drink – hoping we can interest the marketing director with a novel mailing we are sending him.

This year has seen us add over £5m to our clients businesses – real evidence that creativity far out does dull marketing.

Jan will see the launch of our new multi platform website. We are also now on Haystack and in the Big Green Book.

What’s happening – November 2011

Welcome to Huffington.

Kicked off this month with the launch of our Huffington Post film for AOL. Getting lots of amazing feedback, including from Arianna. The film was even mailed out in a special pack that contains a digital video player.

Over 340 boxes with 57 detailed models were used to make Huff town.  16  people worked on the models. We used 70 toy vehicles and one big green bus.  It took 7 days of shooting with over 1400 photographs taken and then animated together.

Photographer was Andrew Atkinson.   Great music composed by Hayden Parsey.

Voiceover was by Neev (she’s a DJ on Kiss FM).

See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqG-nAkDunI

or:  http://advertising.aol.co.uk/brands/HuffingtonPostUK

 

See ‘The Making of” here: http://youtu.be/iFyfTm29z2w

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Is Chritsmas coming too early?

Consumers think so. Our research into what consumers think about the relationship between brands and Christmas is very insightful. And good valuable advice to all marketing directors.

Top tip – don’t run anything before Nov 5th. Best advice – using a Chritsmas theme can make your ad ignorable rather than memorable. Be different.

As a new business idea, we just sent out a really early Christmas Card to a select few potential clients  to make the point.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Total Greek Yoghurt – new TV campaign

Working on the next one (4th) which will be amazing. Hayden is writing the music, which will have you dancing!

Since launching our integrated campaign sales have almost doubled. Proving, insightful thinking combined with good creative, sells. And we’ve added depth to the brand personality. Trade loves it too.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

King of Shaves

Our work has just appeared in Lürzer’s ARCHIVE magazine (a collection of the world’s best advertising). A great honour.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Hush, hush…things happening…

Starting work on an exciting brand brief for Forum for the Future.

Working on the launch of a new female vanity product. We’ve done everything from  branding (name and identity and positioning) through to advertising and digital.

About to start work on another branding brief for a male grooming product.

Running  a marketing workshop with one of the top City based recruitment agencies to help them define their future positioning.

Planning MADE IN SPAIN, MAKING IT IN BRITAIN seminar in Jan 2012.

Plus working on various projects for existing clients.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What’s happening (Oct 2011)

Halloween Community Competition

We have sponsored a community writing competition in Crouch End & Hornsey in North London. The Creative writing competition inspired over 100 entries.

We think it’s important to support creativity among kids and inspire them to develop their talents.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Christmas ad survey

We just launched, our Christmas survey which has revealed that the British shopper is fed up of Christmas themed TV ads appearing too early in the year.

We have just sent out a few early Christmas cards to a select few to make this point. (If you are one, just add a comment with your name and we’ll send you a special early Xmas gift.)

The survey discovered that 92% of shoppers think that shops are too quick to put up Christmas decorations.

Over 9 out of 10 shoppers also felt that TV ads were being aired too early, with some shoppers complaining of the cheesiness of some of the ads and left uninspired by their repetitive and cliché content.

Shoppers’ frustration didn’t end there, either.  75% of them thought that Christmas was being over-exploited by companies, with the effect of devaluing the true ethos of Christmas. “It is meant to be the season of good will, not buy this, buy that” fumed one shopper, “it devalues Christmas”. The findings suggest that shoppers are far from convinced by the festive “good will” of companies, with many finding the use of Santa to sell exploitive.

90% of shoppers recommended that shops and advertisers should wait until at least November, post Halloween and fireworks night,  before getting into the Christmas spirit.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

WELCOME TO HUFFINGTON

Phew!! Just finished a massive animation film for AOL for the Huffington Post. View it here - http://advertising.aol.co.uk/brands/HuffingtonPostUK

The idea was to create a town called Huffington, where their community lives. We built a massive model town, with over 50 detailed building, and another 50 block buildings. We then spent  a week shooting over 1400 shots that were then animated together. This then had to have extra animation added in post, plus music by Hayden Parsey and the great voice of Kiss DJ Neev Ranu.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

TOTAL TV

Currently writing the new Total TV ad – this one’s going to be visually amazing. That’s all we can say at the moment. Seems other yoghurt brands are now doing some more creative stuff.  Yeo Valley have just launched their boys band and Muller (Campaign’s turkey of the week) have release a 90 second international animated ad featuring a random selection of cartoon characters.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

FORUM FOR THE FUTURE

Just picked up an exciting brief from FFTF – more to come. Plus a new male cosmetic’s brand who want us to work on their branding and advertising, website, etc.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

EUROPEAN BRAND SURVEY

1200 shoppers across 10 cities. We went out to find out what perception shoppers have of different countries in relationship to wine, lager, olive oil, banking, green technologies and many other areas.

Fascinating results. Good news for some – bad for others. See them all on the QUALITY OF SPAIN website.

The website  champions Spanish products & services. http://www.qualityofspain.co.uk/

We are also organising an event in Jan,  MADE IN SPAIN, MAKING IT IN BRITAIN with top speakers.