Always switched on

We set out to design a distinctive identity to reflect the company’s expanding global footprint, its growing product portfolio and mark Way to Blue’s move later this month to its new HQ in London’s Clerkenwell.

Way To Blue was set up in London in 1998 and has offices in seven countries, servicing 20 international markets. They have built dedicated social and offline teams to complement their digital PR heritage, offering clients – through their four key disciplines of: think, listen, amplify and engage – a fully integrated communications approach to both entertainment and consumer brands.

Olly Swanton, CEO of Way to Blue has some kind words to say; “What really appealed to me was WMH’s recent work for Broadgate City of London, where the team, created a striking identity that works brilliantly across the whole Broadgate estate and all of their marketing communications. They also managed to bring that identity to life in the 3D environment at Broadgate’s marketing suite. This is essentially what we wanted to achieve at Way to Blue. And WMH has given us a new identity that perfectly reflects our growing areas of expertise and vision for the future.”

We turned the usual approach of creating an identity on its head, where a ‘logo’ is traditionally created and then a 3D version of it appears in the company’s reception. With Way to Blue, a circular neon artwork becomes the identity. Photos are then taken of the installation and threads across all media and communication platforms.

See here the video of the identity.

Garrick Hamm explains it as follows: “It’s a stripped down modern version of a badge of honour that shows the four disciplines of their global business approach.” Hamm continued, “Way to Blue is a great business, with bright, enthusiastic people who are forever looking forward. We wanted to create an image that captures the truth about the business and its people and shows them as the leading player in their field. So we set out to sprinkle a bit of magic. The result is distinctive, strong and alive in their building. It shows that Way to Blue is always ‘switched on.”

See the newly launched website here.

The Bigger Picture

We created a name, overall concept and exhibition design for a one-day event in Zurich. Making the attendees see that their personal input was the crucial ingredient to success, we created ‘The Big Picture’. Ideas invited individual attendees to look at things more closely, take a second look, imagine the view of the future or see themselves in this future.

As always, we took the idea from brief to production, working with Syngenta’s events team in Zurich to produce large, arresting exhibits. More photos will follow soon.

We are giving away 5 delicious chocolate Easter eggs. They come in custom made boxes and celebrate different facets of our lastest work; Magic Me, Broadgate, Syngenta Flowers, Jamie Oliver and Juiceburst.

Every other day for 10 days, starting on Monday 18th March, one of the eggs will be hidden at 10.30am somewhere within a ten minute walk of our studio. A clue will be released on Twitter, Facebook and hung in our window.

The rough area where the egg is hidden will be circled on a map that’s has been drawn all over the window at WMH and posted on Twitter and Facebook too.

The first person to find the egg wins it and all we ask is that they tweet us a picture of themselves with it, before eating it. These pictures will be proudly featured in our studio window on Dallington Street and on Twitter and Facebook.

To get involved start following us on Twitter @WMHagency and find us on Facebook.

Good Luck!

Coming to your smart phone soon!

Purity Soft Drinks is typical of this kind of client. They have huge ambitions for their JuiceBurst brand, which is loved by newsagents across the land, but so completely anonymous that few consumers would recognize it.

We were hired, initially, to develop the brand strategy and packaging, but the work has taken us much further and into the realms of film-making, SFX and augmented reality.

JuiceBurst looked like an own label product in a clunky bottle. The only way we could make it behave like a brand was create an identity based on the one thing it could own – the best juice on the shelf having a bit of an outburst. The idea’s in the name.

Because we’re such an ideas driven business, people don’t realize that we love designing pack structures. In this case we created a big fat, juicy shape that glugs effortlessly – JuiceBurst is a big drink.

All along, it was clear that we could do so much more with the brand than redesign it. Squeezing the pips of the marketing budget (we just had to get that in) we worked with Artem, the firm behind many of the special effects of the Olympics ceremonies. They became expert at detonating fruit while Matt Broad caught it all high speed, HD film. Lisa Desforges wrote the witty outbursts and Frank Pescod did his magic on the musical front.

The result is a range of films with beautiful, real fruits bursting in all their glory. A still of the film is used on each label and you can watch a short documentary film of how we did it, a must see. How could you resist watching grown men blow up fruit? It’ll be as big as ‘Buttrocket’, only messier. See the making-of film here.

Blippar™ is a phone app that recognizes features of a label, or newspaper and brings it to life. In the case of JuiceBurst, you point your smartphone at the label and you’re presented with interactive graphics that turn with the bottle and offer you games, win prizes or let you watch the ‘How We Made JuiceBurst’ short film.

Working closely with the guys at Blippar, we’re proud to present the first ever augmented-reality enabled soft drinks packaging. See all the fruit bursting films here.

Is this a ‘third place’ anyone wants to be at?

Enter Verismo from Starbucks. I’ve long admired the mermaid from Seattle as arch creators of their own system. They carved the path for other coffee chains to follow. But then this morning there was this poster for Verismo, their new home coffee system.

It’s difficult to know where to start. Firstly, I thought the epicentre of Starbuck’s brand was being a ‘third place‘, a place that brings people together (the coffee was just the big ‘how’). I’m not sure how a home coffee system fits with this…does this means that Starbucks is actually, after all, just another manufacturer of coffee?

And then there is that name. Verismo. Not at all like Nespresso. Or Tassimo. In one move Starbucks have gone from carvers of their own path to followers of the paths of others; from original slice of Americana to just another corporation. Just to push this home not only are they also retailing the system out of the same outlets as everybody else, the machines even look like everybody else’s. Starbucks are from Seattle, couldn’t they have at least made their machines look like something created in Silicon Valley?

There are two types of company: those driven by value and those driven by values. It is only one letter but what a difference it makes. You suspect that Starbucks are now well along a journey from the latter to the former.

The KNOWHOW™ brand was born out of a need to completely change the focus of the electricals market led by Dixons, owners of Currys and PC World, and following reducing revenues and diversified competition within that sector.

After a huge programme of customer research, Dixons Retail began an ambitious and intense programme, moving from a ‘price and promotion’ strategy to one delivering a combination of value, choice and service to customers. This research had confirmed the business had a poor reputation for after sales service and advice, with most consumers preferring to use a trusted relative or small independent operator, rather than Dixons ‘TechGuys’ business.

In 2010, Dixons briefed WMH to create a truly different 1-stop, 5th emergency service, to cover everything from purchase advice, delivery, set up, learning, troubleshooting and repair, to replace the unloved TechGuys. This new brand was to be a key plank in Dixons ‘Renewal and Transformation’ programme.

It was a comprehensive and far-reaching programme, but the world’s first mass premium after care brand, planned and executed despite the worst recession in living memory, was successfully born.

The Marketing Design Awards was held at The Grosvenor House, Park Lane on 7th November 2012.

The vibrant symbol for Broadgate

The new identity includes the logo, estate signage, Welcome Centre, uniforms, brand film and brand guidelines. It gives Broadgate an enhanced sense of place, to make it more defined. Now people that work there feel that they ‘belong to Broadgate’, and have a renewed sense of pride and enjoyment in where they work and play. 

In addition to the rebrand, a wide range of improvements have been made across the estate as part of the repositioning. One example is that the colour coding of Broadgate is being used to enhance the sense of community for the office occupiers located in each area. Individuals can now compete against each other in informal sports competitions held within the squares at Broadgate, the most recent being the formation of a regular ping-pong league and giant chess tournament.

The recent opening of the Broadgate Welcome Centre further demonstrates the successful adoption of the vibrant rebrand. Located on Finsbury Avenue Square, the centre provides a communal area for occupiers and visitors to interact with the Broadgate Management team, as well as offering a hub for events. Facilities include interactive screens featuring local information, meeting room space and sociable seating areas. The centre also features a two-metre wide fully interactive model of Broadgate.

Matthew Pinsent, Head of City Office Asset Management at British Land comments:
“We have spent over £40 million on public realm enhancements at Broadgate in recent years, creating a stronger, more coherent sense of place. We are delighted with the progress made so far, in particular the rebranding work carried out by WMH that has been extremely well received by all Broadgate stakeholders.”

Bruce, stick to your day job

In these recessional times, extravagance and overt shows of wealth are ‘out’ and sackcloth and ashes ‘in’. The received wisdom is that people would carry on going out drinking to drown their sorrows and that women would stop buying LBDs and pick up a Chanel lipstick instead.

Perversely, restaurants are closing as quickly as high street shops and people are drinking at home. This isn’t necessarily the case globally, but there are few economies that aren’t suffering and it is where it gets interesting for vodka. Global brand owners have excelled at creating super premium brands selling us craftsmanship, provenance and purity but when the chips are down, there’s not much difference between one vodka and another. How can the value of the difference be sustained when times are tight?

Vodka does seem locked in the past. Just as the Filofax and Yuppies were to Thatcher, so Revolution bars, Grey Goose and Absolut Mirror Ball are to Cool Britannia and Tony and Cherie.

It’s the trend for low priced, yet ‘premium’ vodka that offers a glimpse of the future and an opportunity for design.

These ‘premium’ brands are best exemplified by Sobieski, which is endorsed and part owned by Bruce Willis. It describes itself as a ‘truthful brand’ helping consumers to understand that ‘that they don`t have to pay a king`s ransom for a premium quality vodka” The ads say that Bruce even designed the bottle and label, well, if he did, stick to the day job, Bruce. The packaging is the one thing that lets the brand down. It looks like a rejected concept from a Diageo design pitch. A big opportunity missed.

Similarly Wodka is a proper Polish brand sold on a clear price platform: ‘Escort quality at hooker prices’. The sadness is that they have missed a trick in the packaging. A dull, rather retro design does nothing but make you feel depressed about going ‘value’.

If you’re selling a value product to someone who previously bought the super premium version, then you have to give them an excuse so they can justify it to themselves and their friends. It’s all about being smart and it’s why the car parks of Aldi in Germany are full of high-end Mercs and EasyJet has a goodly share of ad execs flying to their weekend homes in France. They aren’t frightened of showing how they understand value and they’re the standard bearers for the ‘clever’ customer.

Interestingly, we created a ‘Basics’ range for Sainsbury’s some years ago. Their customers, who felt themselves to be a cut above Tesco’s, struggled to shop in the fast growing value category. In the end, it was a liberal dose of wit that did it. Value flour became ‘a little less refined, but still rises to the occasion’; bin bags were ‘thinner but not rubbish’. A Facebook fan of the range even created the strapline for vodka -‘Fuels your Saturday night and fuels your car!”

Sainsbury’s customers were tickled because they thought it reflected their intelligence and its growth has been little short of staggering.

It feels to me that branded value vodkas may be the way to go, but it takes bravery to make someone chuckle in front of the drinks fixture. The one that dares to do it will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Going big. The hoardings at the Notting Hill store.

Set over two floors of prime retail space on the corner of Pembridge Road and Notting Hill Gate, the 5000sq ft site is the 3rd Recipease store to open. The first one opened early 2009 in Clapham, followed by Brighton later that year. Its ambition is to become known as the ‘Apple Store of cooking’, according to Oliver. Formerly occupied by WH Smith, the West London flagship is currently wrapped in a giant hoarding we designed, telling the story of what’s soon to come.

We created the original identity and graphics for Recipease and conducted a review of the existing brand. It was felt that it needed to move on from its original framework and bring its more recognisable features to life, central to which is Kevin the chicken. We created the original airfix brand Recipease as a business has evolved and taken flight. We wanted to reflect this by setting the brand free from its previous kit form, loosen it up and inject a bit more light-hearted fun.

Recipease is retail brand that stands for ‘beautiful chaos’, it’s a warm inviting, inspiring place with a real sense of playfulness at its heart. It’s rewarding to have a good on-going relationship with such a great client, to help develop their brand and witness how much people love it.

For the Notting Hill store we worked closely with award winning restaurant designers Martin Brudnizki Design.

Matchlympics! The greatest sporting event ever in a box...

Tired of the Olympics?! – You better not be, it hasn’t even started yet and now you can let yourself get even more excited with the Matchlympics! The greatest sporting event ever in a box…

It doesn’t really need explaining – everyday of the Games a new Matchbox sporting equivalent will be left around London and posted online.

Now please click, click and click again, shamelessly peddle this for Craig. Tweet, retweet, post/like on Facebook, pinterest, share, tell a friend or two, blog, group email, shout if from the rafters of the Olympic stadium. It’s a bit of fun, and meant to make you smile. So please help Craig share it, and stop him feeling slightly less like a paper folding mentalist.

Click here for the Matchlympics site.