Hard working creative campaigns
We deliver B2B and direct to consumer creative campaigns. We do this because we are old-school dyed in the wool direct marketers, who understand modern channels, the opportunities they afford and how to make them work. We are as comfortable delivering traditional printed direct mail as we are email, engagement tools, organic social media campaigns, outdoor or paid digital advertising. As direct marketers it’s all about ROI – which is having better attuned ideas that work harder and doing it for less.
VR Campaign for AXA, read full case study here
What we do
Creative Brief
As you’d expect, we’ve got a form. And a way of gathering insights from across the business to feed our brief. We’ll lead information gathering workshops, and interrogate the assumptions. The creative brief that pops out might even go to your main agency from there, or your internal agency, or to us. It’s a creative directors’s job to make sure the brief is right, and to sign off on it.
Creative brainstorms
Easy for these to be not quite as productive as you think they are. So the CD focuses the thinking, sets a few rules and keeps it on track and effective.
Creative Direction
Of course, we’ll love all your data to bits, but first and foremost we are creative thinkers. Which means we think instinctively, intuitively and we’re packed with creative intelligence. This is where better ideas come from. Our skill is in understanding audiences, what motivates them and turning that into something compelling. Our creative directions give you different ways to think about your creative problem. We’ll develop this with you, but once we have it, everyone knows the yard stick to measure the final result by.
Creative Strategy
How will the creative direction be brought to life? What channels, what message where, to whom? And how much will it cost and how long will it take and what resource need to be put to it
Concepts
Usually a few. We pride ourselves on delivering not just alternative ideas, but alternative strategic routes. Lots of ideas to talk through, something to settle on that we all feel confident in.
Copy and design
Full copy, full design – visualising the solution
Digital Artwork
Full digital artwork, for print or online. Whatever format be it printed direct mail or banner ads, a social media post, a canva template or a fully graded final edit of a film.
Campaigns
Online, offline, email, OOH. Whether to a strategy we’ve delivered or one already in place, our test, acquisition and CRM campaigns and experience are underpinned with solid response advertising expertise.
Content strategies
Big on ideas, granular in execution. People engage in different ways and favour different channels. Integrated content strategies make delivery of creative simple, testing strategies become clear and measurable results more robustly challenged.
Film
We create film for web and events. We develop the script and work with producers in our network to deliver it. And we know how to script to stitch existing and library footage together convincingly and effectively to keep costs down and tell stories that make the point on a budget. We’ve delivered effective B2B/B2C creative film for Canada Life, AXA, The Utility Warehouse and many more. We create short ads for online and longer film and interviews for web. The Creatives are experienced delivering award winning DRTV campaigns.
Affinity and Partner comms
Deep experience in Affinity marketing. Clients include AIG Direct for Women’s Cancer Care, Hospital Cash Plans and Health, PA, PI (affinity partners including HSBC, More Than, NASUWT, Screwfix) and Ageas on Motor, Home and Travel (affinity partners including John Lewis, Toyota, Amex) and Aegon for PA, PI, AD (affinity partners including Lloyds and Ideal Shopping). Partner comms with AXA Assistance.
Intermediary comms
We help brands communicate with intermediaries and sales teams. We’ve worked with AIG Life, Just, Banque PSA and LV=. We deliver campaigns that inform, educate, motivate, support and sell. We create campaigns and tool kits that IFAs want to use and share with their customers. We’ve delivered campaigns that generate valuable MI that makes the sales team job a lot easier.
Exhibition and events
Brand driven concept and storytelling at events. Attraction, engagement and activation. We’ve delivered successful events for AXA at BIBA and employee events for Canada Life. When you think brand and customer experience, response and ROI experiential creative becomes more focused and plugged into wider strategies.
RFIs and Partnerships
Adding the creative gloss to client presentations and RFIs. Supporting client new business and partnership opportunities with proposition and messaging focus and specific assets that can enhance the offering and perception of the brand tailored to the partner specifically.
Data insights
We refer to this as cold data. These are the hard facts. And we’ll dig as deep as we need to with the data experts in your team or the data experts in ours.
· Customer data, initial profiles and personas
· Industry data, trends and predictions
· Brand data, reach and perceptions
· Competitor data, positioning, SWOT
· Organisational data, structure, processes resource
· Audits SEO, tech and creative
Behavioural insights
This is the warm data. How people actually behave. We’ll get a much better idea of the audience, needs, fears and perceptions. Using instinct and intuition to think more creatively.
· Web analytics and behavioural information
· What’s worked, what hasn’t
· Lifecycles, needs and objections
· Creative hypothesis
· Messaging and propositions
Creative insights
This is where the real insight comes whenever there’s an opportunity to do it. While we are interviewing we are checking ideas, concepts, turns of phrase and validating hunches. And of course, we’re listening, because people say more in conversation than they do ticking boxes.
· One to one interview with staff
· One to one interview with customers
· Groups and workshops
· Proposition and message testing
Discover
Understand the situation, and the problem we need to solve. Focus on the customer. Insights. Their needs, wants, behaviours and objections. Competitors and the market.
Design
The story we need to tell. Strategies planned, propositions, messaging and customer journeys mapped out. Concepts and wireframes and creative direction agreed.
Deliver
The deliverables. Everything made, signed, sealed and delivered. Designs completed and all copy written. Images created, pixel perfect artwork, all strategies completed. And sent live and hand-overs done.
Develop
Evolving the product. We’ll have agreed a testing strategy, but what comes next? We’ll review results and agree changes. Reset our KPIs and design and deliver the next stage
