Time to start taking the lead

Our CEO, Christian Schroeder, authored a piece that was featured in Design Week’s Business Insight section.

Despite the long-held view that the strategic direction of brands is the responsibility of advertising agencies, Christian says that the advertising industry is in disarray as it struggles to come to terms with diverse media platforms and channels.

Christian explains that the branding and design industry are perfectly placed to take on a more central role in the future of communications, “But we are only going to earn that position if we can show that we have the hunger to claim it, the quality of people to maintain it and, most importantly, the confidence to own it.”

“We should be brave enough to look outside our immediate sector and finally understand that we are in the business of ideas that make a commercial difference, and not the business of design for the sake of design.”

To read the full article, check out Design Week’s website.

Tags: Branding, Christian Schroder, Design Week

O2 branding – from music festivals to rugby

Some of the Brand Strategy team attended the O2 Wireless festival at the weekend. There was no mistaking that O2 was the lead sponsor – the festival name is a giveaway! Its blue branding was prevalent throughout the festival. It seems the telecoms company can do no wrong when it comes to music. …
Read Full Post

From corporate bland to corporate brand

Business to business marketing has the greatest potential and the least appeal. Its potential and dullness emanate from the same cause. For the most part, B2B marketing looks the same. It is full of imagery of sky scrapers, people in business suits trying to look dynamic and tired old sporting analogies of teamwork. In any industry the tone of voice of the top three firms will be largely interchangeable – faux collaborative, arrogant and full of ‘opportunity’. …
Read Full Post

It’s banking, but not as we know it

The world of personal finance has gone through a revolution over the last decade. In this time consumers have been given new ways of finding, comparing and buying financial services with 18 million people in the UK going online.

You can now have a market-leading internet savings account through Sainsbury’s, pick up pet insurance in Argos, or have a credit card called an egg card that is promoted by guinea pigs. …
Read Full Post

The Road less Travelled

When technology, business models, and consumer behaviour in a sector all go through rapid change, the result is a serious shift in the brand landscape. The travel industry has been experiencing change, but which brands are winning and why? …
Read Full Post

Time Telling

“Time is people’s most valuable asset” is something we have all heard again and again. As people juggle their lives, homes, families, and their work the one thing they wish they had more of is time. We would argue that this statement is discriminatory, factually inaccurate and at its most dangerous in relation to brands. …
Read Full Post

The USP or the CSP?

Great marketing doesn’t aim to put a brand on a page, on a piece of packaging or on an ad; great marketing aims to put a brand in people’s heads and hearts. One of the ways it gets into people’s heads is by being different…another is to be relevant. In fact when launching or repositioning a brand, relevance and differentiation are the first two boxes that need ticking. Getting into the heart means enabling customers to really experience the brand. …
Read Full Post

Digital media and digital agencies need digital brands

Bill Gates has predicted that in five years all reading will be online. The scary truth is Bill might just be right. As digital media revenues have increased the biggest loss has come from newspapers and magazines. In 2002, internet accounted for under 2% of media revenue, in 2008 its share is expected to be almost 25% of total revenue. In the same period magazines and newspapers share of the market has dropped from 57% to just over 38%. These days we search the web not the Yellow Pages and we write e-mails, not letters. …
Read Full Post