Last year marked 21 years of Propaganda. I’m proud (and slightly alarmed) to say I’ve been there to see 17 of them. As the older members of the team rejoiced in a trip down memory lane during the celebrations, we looked back fondly at the various visual identities we’ve had through the years. Each of them represented a different era of the agency – design hotshots in the 90s, Leeds agency-scene upstarts in the early 2000s to the creative consultancy offering of recent times. We’ve been blue, green and red. We’ve been a one-man band start-up to an internationally established branding business.

And today we find ourselves evolving again.

The Propaganda of today is incredibly strong. Over 81% of our annual income is through contracted relationships; we operate a fee-based margin model over 90% GP (paid for our thinking, rather than via hidden production margins); and have formal shareholding in more than 7 live clients. Eleven years since being accepted, we remain the only branding business to have Management Consultancies Association membership – despite many others attempting to join each year. The reason we are so proud of this? Our membership is based on the commercial results our consultancy delivers for our clients.

It is a business model that couldn’t be more different from the traditional agency scene. And our brand needs to reflect this.

Our position is a result of the unrivalled results our work drives and the fantastic client relationships we have. The latter are way beyond transactional – they are deeply embedded; developed over years and based on the fact that our work works. We provide the courage for our clients to act – an emotive state that results in phenomenal loyalty.

The new campaign at the heart of our rebrand is the embodiment of this courage.

Because it takes courage to invest in your business when performance is in decline. It takes courage to launch a new brand, or enter a new sector. And it takes courage to be challenged in new and uncomfortable ways.

We ask our clients to make huge emotional and financial commitments, and to stop what they’ve always done and try something different. These are brave decisions.

Propaganda Versus is the articulation of our unique approach to creative brand strategy.

It communicates how we stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients – that together we wage war on whatever is holding their brands back.

It’s Propaganda versus the seemingly impossible: the unknowable, unattainable and unconquerable.

For me, Versus perfectly reflects Propaganda as it is today – knowledgeable, straight-talking, confident, intelligently creative. And absolutely focussed on driving results for our clients. Our business, and now our brand, is stronger than ever and I’m delighted to share Versus with the world.

A unique proposition – they support talented people who have built great recruitment businesses to deal with challenges such as breaking through glass ceilings, future-proofing and helping them realise their value in the long term.

Aimed at a discerning professional audience, we wanted the identity to have a serious yet authoritative feel, something that reflected the brands forward-thinking approach. To do this, we used a bold condensed type complemented with a hand drawn font (a cue to the tailored approach the brand takes) and a paired back colour palette of gold, black and grey.

This then extended into the brand brochure, which we wanted to feel progressive and high-end. Sized at A3, the document used a range of print finishes and techniques,

including a mirrored stock (which when held in the readers hands, reflects their face – emphasising the collaborative nature of the partnership), throw out gold metallic pages and contracoat spot textures. This high end production helps the brochure to feel like a substantial document, one that reflects the scale and success of The Ampersand Partnership.

The cornerstone of the business’ proposition is the ‘hassle-free experience’ – turning the industry stereotype of rushed sales and pushy salespeople on its head and offering exceptional choice, value and service instead. The company’s ability to build relationships with its customers has meant that over half of their sales come from repeat customers and recommendations, and – according to independent review site, Reevoo – 95% of customers would buy from them again.

In 2014 we recognised the value in The Car People’s loyal customer following and identified an opportunity to help cement those relationships. In order to acknowledge the value of each individual customer and thank them for choosing us, Propaganda and The Car People developed a loyalty club, Friends. The programme rewards customers with special offers and discounts on motoring essentials and additional services like ‘Friends-lend’, which allows customers to rent accessories like sat navs and bike racks free of charge. In an ever more crowded and expensive environment – both on and offline – Friends was designed to encourage repeat custom and referrals by maintaining a special relationship with customers long after they had driven their car away from the showroom.

The Friends loyalty club has just celebrated its first birthday and, in its inaugural year, has been met with glowing reviews from customers who have been impressed with The Car People’s efforts to keep them close. We are delighted to join The Car People in celebrating this most recent demonstration of Friends’ value to customers, the brand, and the bottom line. The programme continues to evolve and grow, and we have lots of exciting plans in store for 2017.

The brand development programme included extensive research into the online job market, and looked closely at the evolving needs of employers, recruiters and those looking for employment. This allowed us to create a unique proposition, aimed at improving the experience for all parties.

Propaganda Director, Richard McMurrough, said: “The Yellow Rocket brand has been built using the insight we gained from the market. Online has revolutionised the way people look for jobs, but it has also seen a move towards a lack of trust and transparency. Whilst the online jobs market is huge, we found that temporary workers were often forgotten and underrepresented, despite being so crucial to the national economy. Taking this insight, we’ve arrived at a proposition that will set the bar in this sector.”

Yellow Rocket Managing Director, Craig Vallis, said: “We wanted to create a new type of business that championed the temporary worker. Yellow Rocket will be a breath of fresh air, in a sector that is traditionally very tough on people, and notoriously difficult to navigate. Propaganda’s rigorous Discovery process unearthed new possibilities and opportunities, and I’m excited at the prospect of the launch in January 2017.”

We first worked with the Leeds based business in 2014, when we undertook a Brand Discovery. The resulting strategic shift and rebrand laid the foundations for the subsequent growth of the business, PE investment and acquisitions.

Over the past 18 months, Southerns has acquired a competitor in the North West, integrated Ralph Capper, a premium furniture consultancy, and made a further acquisition to strengthen its position in the market.

In the past six months in particular, Propaganda has been working on the Ralph Capper brand, helping to position their premium offer alongside the established Southerns’ business.

The Brand Health that Propaganda is set to undertake, will look at all the Southerns Group businesses to understand how they compliment each other, and fit into a complex and evolving marketplace. The business is in a period of rapid growth, and Propaganda’s work will help guide their strategic direction at this exciting time.