More4 live action idents
The new More4 identity has just been unveiled featuring “Live-action idents" seeing the brand break out into the real world in the form of mechanical ‘flippers’”.
Created by the More4 in-house team and ManvsMachine, the new brand identity uses a simple but very powerful 'flipping triangles' device that brings life to the brand without the heavy use of CGI. Apparently the intention was to keep the moving image work clean and built with an outdoors feel to reflect the types of programmes being aired.
Rather than choose the easy route of making the idents with CGI, the team chose to make all of the many thousand of triangle pieces and assemble them mechanically. The result is noticeably more realistic, more natural.
The logo itself uses the very same triangles combined to form the famous '4' character. The depth and colour in the character itself is striking yet well balanced.
It only leaves you with the thought: "I wish that was my idea".
Find out more here:
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/01/23/more4-reveals-new-brand-identity
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/january/more4-identity-man-machine
Legal art with textured wall graphics
Now you can turn blank walls into something truly stunning!
We've just been sent this innovative new idea by one of our suppliers and love the idea! All we need now is that right campaign to use it for.
Here's a bit more about it:
Until now, many textured surfaces have been off-limits for applying graphics. But now these surfaces can come to life using 3M™ Scotchcal™ Graphic Film for Textured Surfaces and the printing and application expertise of Service Graphics.
This unique product conforms and moulds over indoor and outdoor textured surfaces such as brick, concrete block, tiles, poured cement and stucco, creating photographic quality images that really demand attention.
Now the only limit is your imagination...
Horsing around at BMC
When the BMC marketing team call with a new campaign for us to work on the whole agency springs to life! With a ‘no holes barred’ approach (in a very PC and appropriate manner of course) they are always keen to let us run with our creative ideas and their latest campaign was no different....
Aimed at 15 year old students who are looking for further education courses, the campaign advertises the fantastic Animal Care and Equine courses at BMC. The college recently made a million pound investment into the courses so the facilities are by far the best in the area.
So with a strong course offering from the college, how do we communicate that to 15 year old students? A tough audience to crack, we decided to hit them with humor and the following eye catching creative and messages.
The campaign is now live across the city of Nottingham, visible on Trams, Buses, Bus Stops and whopping 96 sheets, not to mention website and social media campaigns.
The BMC marketing team took the campaign to their first event last week and received by far the most interest and took away 125 new inquiries for a range of Animal Care, Equine and Performing Arts courses to name but a few.
Looking forward to hearing more from BMC throughout the campaign with an update and they hope to culminate the campaign with something a little different taking place in Nottingham city centre....stay tuned to find out more!
Brands owning colour
Walking down London's oxford street at the weekend, surrounded by busy shoppers, there was one brand of shopping bag you couldn't fail to spot, you could literally see them a mile off - Selfridges.
It got me thinking, how clever to use a block of colour so vibrant in such a sea of boring white or black bags simply printed with the store's logo. Everyone carrying the Selfridges bags were doing so with a sense of pride at being able to say ' Look, I've just bought something from Selfridges' and you really couldn't fail to miss it.
Thinking more about brands owning colours some of these brands don't even need a logo to invoke a response, the colour is simply enough. See how many you can guess.
On a BBC programme, not so long ago, people on the street were shown pots of coloured paint and asked what came to mind. Interestingly when shown a pot of the cadbury's purple coloured paint, almost everyone asked said 'chocolate'.
Colour can define your brand and make a massive impact when standing out from competitors, especially if you are the only one to use the colour. This has to be approached with caution though, if there's a spare colour in your sector there might be a good reason why.
Eggstra Eggstra Read All About It!
We have been working with our client We Are Nottingham Retail on an eggstra special Easter campaign and we’re very proud to announce – its live!
From Indulgent chocolates to fabulous shopping sprees plus free parking offers – the campaign team have really created an eggstraordinary offer for city of Nottingham.
Needless to say the campaign does not use any ‘eggy’ puns (thank goodness!) and relies upon the fantastic offers that the Nottingham retailers have provided. The aim of the campaign is to demonstrate an increase in footfall over the Easter period to the Levy Payers of the BID, in this, their first live campaign.
We’re thrilled to have been a part of this - Check out www.wearenottingham.co.uk/indulge for all the great offers and events that are on in Nottingham this Easter.
Take a look at the full case study here We Are Nottingham Retail Indulge Creative Campaign
You cant handle the truth!
So, it's Tuesday night and I've just ordered a takeaway.
I know, it's tuesday! Have I gone crazy?
Well, I'd been waiting to try this new Indian takeaway for a while (really nice branding, and no double spaces or awful kerning in the menu) and I'd had a busy day so thought I'd treat myself.
There's a lot to say about great branding but if the product doesn't live up to the expectation then it's not worth anything, and in this case it didn't. I'm not a curry connoisseur, but this one was very dissapointing!! Plus they forgot my sauces for the poppadoms!
So what now? Well I'll never order from them again and they'll never know why. How many other potential customers have they lost this way?
It got me thinking of how important feedback is. No one really likes to hear when things aren't good, but we should love it! Because then we have a chance to change it. I didn't really want a 20 question feedback form in with my curry but they knew I was a new customer to them (as I pointed out the 'Free Starter' offer for new customers.. greedy!) so why not send me a text saying 'How was your takeaway? Let us know and receive free delivery on your next order' I would have quite happily told them if they'd asked.
However when you're really, really not happy with a product/service that's when it seems to get tricky. It always surprises me how difficult some companies make it when you want to tell them things have gone wrong. The old adage 'one happy customer tells 3 friends, one unhappy customer tells 10' is very true. However now, in the digital age, one unhappy customer can reach 1000's of people, sometimes causing real damage to a businesses reputation and even coming higher in search engine listings than the business!
I think feedback is something every business should look forward to receiving.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
—Bill Gates
It's all in the detail - Johnny Cupcakes Branding
This is a perfect example of good branding... Love it!
I was having dinner with a friend yesterday who spends quite a lot of time in Boston, Massachusetts. He asked if I'd ever heard about a brand called Johnny Cupcakes?, I hadn't, but the more he told me about this brand the more I wanted to find out about it straight away.
Johnny cupcakes started off selling t'shirts with cupcakes on them - doesn't sound that amazing does it? However this business Johnny started from the boot of his car has now grown to be a multi-million dollar business. His branding is exceptional and because of this he's created a cult following, with many people even branding themselves with the Johnny cupcakes logo.
My friend was raving about the Johnny Cupcakes store, he loved it! You go in, and it's all set up like a store selling cupcakes but actually sells t'shirts. (check out the store pics here) When you buy a t'shirt it comes in a little cake box and you also get a cup cake too, how cool is that!
It's those little details which create a brand people treasure and are completely loyal too.
Here's what Johnny says about his brand on his website www.johnnycupcakes.com
I'd rather have a strong brand filled with knowledgeable customers who truly enjoy and appreciate what I've created instead of making a quick buck– being just another fad. People like what nobody else has, and I love coming out with limited edition, exclusive shirts rather than mass-producing things. Once a shirt is sold out, I never produce them again.
I hang out with my customers, talk to them, and build memorable experiences with them at my in-store events and through the little details that I put into everything. Paying attention to my customers and treating them as individuals just makes sense to me– I wouldn't be here without them!
Most companies try to cut as many corners so that they can to turn a better profit.
I do the exact opposite and pay very close attention to all the little things.
The consistency of Johnny's brand is also spot on, he's thought about everything. From the way his product is delivered, to the stores, to the website, it all helps sell a brand which people will buy into rather than just buy.
His brand values are almost identical to ours. We understand it's the little details which will make you stand out from your competitors, and be what your clients remember. We aim to build lasting relationships with our clients, too many companies nowadays don't seem to care whether their customers are happy or not so long as they're getting the money in. By building relationships we really get to know our clients and what'll make a difference to our clients business, suggesting the little extra things that'll make their brand special!
Did the piggy go wee wee wee all the way home?
I love this, it really makes me smile.
It's a few months old now but this American commercial for car insurance really caught my attention. I don't think I'd ever get fed up of a pig going wee wee wee all the way home... then again, if it was every day?
If you want to have a look at some of the other ads:
Shocking news with octupus
Do woodchucks chuck wood?
The Hoff Vs the Fan
Brilliant (if not a little strange) advert for a well-known software product.
Also see the alternative version here: The Hoff loses against The Fan.
It's a load of namby pamby tut
I’m a massive fan of Lord Alan Sugar, his one liners are legendary:
“If you survive, I promise you this, as sure as I’ve got a hole in my bloody a**e…”.
I’m currently following Lord Al on Twitter and his tweets are just as straight down the line as his conversation. One of his recent tweets was: “I agree as my book explains most ad agencies are looking for awards at Cannes and forget what they’re actually advertising” . This isn’t the first time he’s shown his dislike either, whenever the ‘branding’ task on the Apprentice comes around you hear about it: “I’ve written books on advertising. Cheque books.” and “I hope that one day you run a business that has got a turnover the size of the amount of money I’ve pi**ed up the wall over the years on advertising”.
Now Lord Sugar wants straight talking advertising to go with his straight talking attitude, but even so, I reckon he’s actually right on some of his points – some agencies can be obsessed with wining awards!
One of our designers told us a story about going to a job interview. He was waiting in the meeting room when the MD walked in, slammed an award down on the table in front of him and sat down without saying anything but with a rather smug look on his face. Hmmm, so what! Needless to say the designer came to work with us rather than them.
Saying that, we aren’t against entering awards but we certainly don’t design something with this in mind. And in terms of ‘forgetting what we’re actually advertising’ we don’t do that either. At Threerooms, we’ve got a really good combination of skills. Myself and Ian (co-founders) were both originally designers and, in the past, are both guilty of designing for designs sake, and cursing under our breath whenever the client wanted to ‘make the logo bigger’, as it was going to ruin our kick-ass design.
Since then though we’ve developed the business and now see things from the other perspective – what the client is trying to achieve, and not just how it looks. As a growing business with talented designers who care about the design and account/marketing people who care about the message, we’ve got the perfect combination.
We don’t want to ever stop pushing the creativity though if it’s right for the client. The majority of clients will always prefer to play it safe, that’s why when a client comes along and lets us be creative we love it! And then after the project is finished, the client is happy, the objective of the campaign has been successful, then that’s when we consider entering it for an award. Never the other way around.
