What is brand, and how are brands built? Our founder, Julian Kynaston, answers these questions and more in this no-holds-barred, fast-paced account of how he launched and grew Propaganda into one of the UK’s most successful brand consultancies.
Available now from Amazon and all good book shops.
Did you know that in the UK we produce 14.8m tonnes of waste food, and that nearly half of this ends up in landfill sites?
Resource constraints, food poverty, carbon targets and the massive cost to the UK economy, are just some of the reasons this issue needs to be urgently addressed.
Today see’s the official press launch of Vision 2020: UK roadmap to zero food waste to landfill.
The recommendations presented in the report are underpinned by a strong environmental and economic case for achieving zero food waste to landfill. The roadmap will clearly outline how this could be achieved.
Our client ReFood were the founders of Vision 2020. In February 2011, they launched a manifesto entitled ‘Vision 2020: The future of the food waste recycling sector’, which set out their ambition to eradicate food waste from landfill by the end of the decade. Inspired by the debate generated by that first report, ReFood brought together key industry stakeholders as the Vision 2020 Visionary Panel, chaired by former Secretary of State for the Environment Lord Deben, to help shape a viable roadmap to turn this exciting vision into reality. This roadmap launched today is the culmination of that work.
Illamasqua‘s 2013 Christmas campaign launched this week. Working alongside the Creative Director, Alex Box, Propaganda has dived into a world of self-indulgence and individuality to bring together this year’s Christmas campaign.
The brief was to fulfill the brand objectives: to set Illamasqua apart from the competition in this, the noisiest and most lucrative time of year in retail. And bring to life a campaign positioning Illamasqua as the Premium, Professional, and Colour Make-up Brand that allows you to unlock your Individuality.
The campaign theme is focused around the birthplace of creative make-up, the 1920’s, during this iconic era that the theatre and film industries began to flourish. The avant-garde theatrical and film sets surrounding the industry sought out professional quality make-up as a means through which to self-express, and “Making a Scene” became the norm.
Channeling the sprit of individuality and self-expression, Propaganda developed a creative campaign that sit outside the regular in-store and online.
The thought surrounding the campaign has been brought together in narrative from the creative minds of Propaganda.
“Christmas is for sinning. A time to celebrate vanity and shameless self-indulgence. A time for you and your loved ones to become objects of worship and Illamasqua can help – with our range of professional, colour-intense make-up gifts that will help you unwrap your individuality and embrace your inner sinner. Have yourself a selfish little Christmas.”
The campaign focuses on two audiences, the gift giver and the partygoer, in an honest, aspirational and vibrant tone of voice.
As well as the launch of the 2013 Christmas Campaign, Illamasqua have launched the new fragrance, Freak Scarab, a new unisex fragrance.
The new fragrance has been developed and will elevate the entire Freak fragrance range, with the new fragrance Freak Scarab taking center stage within the Christmas campaign.
You can shop the Illamasqua Christmas collection at illamasqua.com/christmas
We’ve now worked with Kryolan for 2 years, originally briefed to deliver a brand and creative strategy that would re-enforce their position as the make-up for professionals.
The campaign we developed ‘Kryolan. Make-up is a Science’ draws on Kryolan’s rich, independent heritage and experience in innovating for professional make-up artists since the 1920s. Kryolan was founded by Arnold Langer, a committed chemistry student heavily influenced by 1920s Berlin’s artistic expression, who combined his passion for theatre and science to create a revolutionary make-up brand.
The new brand proposition was unveiled in October 2012 and to celebrate and reinforce the scientific roots of the brand, a theatrical re-launch event was held at London’s magnificent Chemistry Centre at Burlington House. The event unveiled the new campaign imagery, sneak previews of new products, speeches from the Langer family in conjunction with a stunning brand film that captured the brand heritage, plus product demonstrations by Kryolan make-up artists.
Since the launch we have been engaging with professional make-up artists on a wide range of social platforms, spreading the campaign message of ‘Kryolan. Make-up is a Science’ to reclaim their position as the brand of choice for professional make-up artists.
The social media results we’ve delivered since the re-launch have been fantastic, from October 2012 to October 2013 Kryolan has seen an increase of 8,000 Twitter followers. And within the same-time the Kryolan Facebook page has grown by over 37,000 fans, which is an increase of over 140%. Kryolan’s Instagram page was launched in July 2012 and by October 2013 the account had over 16,000 followers.
The social media campaign has undoubtedly delivered great results in-terms of physical numbers as well as engagement and sentiment, so much so we’ve been retained for a further 12 months to evolve and develop the social media campaign further.
Here’s a glimpse of some behind the scenes pictures from our latest photography shoot.
‘Sex sells’ as the saying goes and Propaganda, who are no strangers to provocative and engaging campaigns, have been tasked with discovering how to leverage growth for the UK’s best-known pleasure retailer, Ann Summers. Through our unique process Brand Discovery™, we’ll help drive the business to the next level and position the company for an age of multichannel retail.
The established brand, which has over 140 UK stores, a strong online customer base, and a popular party planning business, has tasked Propaganda with discovering brand truths, industry trends and helping the business to broaden appeal to existing consumers and new markets. From the first opening of a retail outlet in 1970, Ann Summers has seen considerable success and has brought what had traditionally been a taboo subject, into the heart of the high street.
Ann Summers success has been fueled by a bold brand strategy and increasingly cosmopolitan public attitude to sex. Some industry commentators have attributed this to the ’50 shades’ effect, helping to bring pleasure brands into mainstream culture and a hitherto untapped market.
Jacqueline Gold, Chief Executive of Ann Summers said: “By working with Propaganda, we’re looking to build on our many successes, and take the brand to the next level. As a company, we’re renowned for innovation, and this is one of the themes we’ll look to encourage moving forward.”
“For over 30 years we’ve been at the forefront of the pleasure industry. In that time, attitudes to sex have changed, and the retail landscape has been reinvented. Throughout it all, we’ve steadfastly empowered women from all backgrounds, to feel confident about themselves. We’ve been inspired by our customers throughout that time, and we’ve allowed them to unleash their sexual confidence.”
Propaganda Planning Director, Julian Horberry continued: “Ann Summers is a well established high equity brand: everyone has an opinion or a preconception. We’ll be looking at how Ann Summers fits into a new digital landscape in an increasingly competitive sector.”
“The business has been dividing opinion and driving buying trends for many years, and so has a strong sense of pride in their heritage, and customer relationships. Our Brand Discovery™ process will look at how we can build on company successes, and position Ann Summers as a dominant sector brand for the future, whilst retaining their unique edge.”
We are excited to announce the launch of the new TV campaign for The Car People. The first of two TV adverts goes live today and will run on Yorkshire and Granada Television over the Autumn period.
The 30 second advert created by Propaganda’s Art Director, Ben Bateson and Copywriter, Ben Carson, focuses on the campaign’s key message of “don’t just test drive a car, test drive your car dealer.”
The advert is the product of our second collaboration with Finger Industries and showcases The Car People’s dedication to great customer service and promise to always deliver great value.
The TV spot is part of a campaign that will run into 2014, designed and implemented by Propaganda. The campaign includes of point of sale, website, radio adverts and social media campaign.
You can catch the new advert for The Car People here:
[youtuber vimeo=’https://vimeo.com/77964524′]
Propaganda has been appointed by PDM Group to deliver a strategy for the brand as part of a £90m programme of investment planned over the next 12 months. The brief is to leverage PDM’s market-leading position, whilst aiming to future proof the business. The appointment follows Propaganda’s successful delivery of a brand campaign ‘Waste For Good’ for PDM Group business ReFood.
The strategy will be delivered via Brand Discovery™, a unique model developed by Propaganda, which is used at the start of business relationships, and has been applied to some of the UK’s best-known brands. As part of the programme, the team will engage with PDM’s major stakeholders, including board members, employees, and customers, in order to understand brand truths and make strategic recommendations based on business intelligence.
PDM specialises in recovering value from food chain by-products and waste, and is a UK leader in recycling and bio-energy. The company is part of Saria Bio-Industries, Europe’s leading food chain recycler and renewable energy producer. Propaganda has worked with the ReFood brand since June 2012, successfully delivering an on-going campaign.
Speaking about the brief, Propaganda Director, Richard McMurrough said: “Brand Discovery™ is unique. It gives real insight into a brand at an exceptional level of detail. Working with PDM, one of Yorkshire’s leading and most forward thinking businesses at the forefront of their sector’s technology, we’ll aim to unlock potential and deliver a brand strategy to support the company’s growth ambition.”
Philip Simpson, Commercial Director at PDM Group said: “Propaganda’s strategy for ReFood has provided the business with a coherent and highly original approach to the market which is already delivering significant results. We look-forward to broadening the relationship across the PDM Group, and are confident that the business insight they’ll bring to the company will aid our plans for continued growth and success.”
We’re busy working away on a top-secret new product launch ready to be unveiled next month. We’re in the process of collating all the imagery to take the brand to market and have captured some great footage that you’ll soon be seeing in the flesh…
Hanging out in a bar for the day was a pretty good days work for our art team, here’s some behind-the-scenes snaps from the day.
Kirsty Birks is a Director at creative and strategic brand consultancy, Propaganda and a Vice-President of the MCA. Kirsty talks to us about her career to date, her views on the consulting industry, trends in the retail sector and challenges ahead.
Where did your career start?
After completing my Bachelor’s Degree in Economic History and Geography at Glasgow University I was awarded a scholarship from The Rotary Foundation. I went on to a Master’s Degree in Advertising at Michigan State University. My career started off in Diageo in Belfast where I worked in the consumer planning department for Guinness Ireland.
How did you decide to work for Propaganda?
I joined in 2001 when we made the shift from being an agency to a consultancy. Propaganda had started its life in design and advertising but the founder decided it needed a consultant’s approach to brand building. I joined to build the model.
What makes you see Propaganda as a management consultancy firm?
Very often marketing departments sit on their own and don’t have a voice at the boardroom table. We believe that your brand is your business and your business is your brand; not just your logo and imagery but your behaviour, culture and values. We work with our clients to align their brand to business strategy.
You operate a ‘no pitch’ policy. How do you win work instead?
We come from a background where pitching is the norm but we believe that is not the right approach for our client’s businesses. Our brand approach is all about putting knowledge before assumption and understanding our client’s situation before we start making any recommendations on what their brand strategy should be.
Propaganda recently launched its own very successful health and beauty brand. From this experience have you changed the way you consult clients?
It gave us a strong first hand understanding of how dynamic and challenging retail is, particularly in the hugely competitive make-up sector. In particular we learnt about the immediate impact of social media, changing retail dynamics and the importance of e-commerce.
What are you feelings on consultants using Twitter under their professional profile?
I do think Twitter is here to stay. I see it as a business portal where I can follow business leaders and fellow consultants. I don’t tweet often but when I do it is primarily for professional purposes.
What is your greatest business achievement?
I take pride when our clients start to see tangible results from their brand strategy. It’s great to see a satisfied boardroom and particularly from the ones who are traditionally a bit more sceptical of brand and marketing. I have seen an FD in tears of joy with the work we have helped them achieve.
I also think one of my proudest moments was when I was named the MCA Marketing Consultant of the Year in 2007. It really elevated the MCA membership for us with our clients.
What was your worst mistake and (what did you learn?)
I think my worst mistakes were quite early on when I would make a lot of assumptions about organisations before I stepped through their door. It’s Consulting 101, but it’s very to easy to build up opinions about somewhere and actually miss out on some of the magic in the business. What I have learnt is not to judge a book by its cover but go in with an open mind
What ambitions do you have?
For the business we want to continue to help brands transform and unlock potential. It’s not necessarily about working with the most famous brands; it’s about working with businesses to deliver really significant growth through a successful brand strategy.
For me I want to continue to evolve our proposition while getting closer to digital. I also aim to help develop talent in Propaganda and bring some more people into the consultancy industry.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Keep doing stuff that scares and challenges you. If you get too comfortable you are not necessarily developing yourself.
If you could change one thing in consultancy what would it be?
It would be the perception that it is a narrow industry. Consulting is incredibly diverse, rich and dynamic.
You’ve recently started supporting the University of Huddersfield with a £10,000 bursary for students. How did this come about?
We originally started life as a business there. A lot of us live in the area and some of our first clients are based there, so we have a lot of strong links with the area. Huddersfield University is a leading centre of design and brand development that is something we wanted to be aligned with. We aim to work closely with the students but also in the long term bring people into the business.
Can the UK be a great place for start-ups and SMEs? How can consulting create this sort of economy?
We have seen first-hand that the UK is brilliant for start-ups and SMEs. We have a very fertile market and there is a real need for those organisations to help fuel growth in the economy.
Consultancies can help out at the early stages with guiding strategy and direction, helping define the market place and positioning.
What upcoming projects is Propaganda focusing on?
We are doing quite a lot of proposition and product development work across our clients. For one of our clients we have a first-to-market B2B service that will address a broader target audience, for another we’ve developed an entirely new consumer product that will be launching in October.
Tell us something about Propaganda that we don’t know…
We started life with a £500 business loan and we also developed the current MCA brand proposition of ‘a positive force for the economy’.
This week marked the launch of Illamasqua’s new The Sacred Hour collection. The Sacred Hour is the time to release your inner warrior. Embrace new beginnings at daybreak and re-stoke the fire in your heart as the sun sets. Find your courage, wisdom and power within.
The Propaganda team worked with the Illamasqua creative team, including Creative Director, Alex Box, to develop a campaign which embraces beauty at its most feral.
Discover The Sacred Hour at illamasqua.com/explore/collection/the-sacred-hour, or at an Illamasqua store or counter.
Propaganda has handled the press relations around the re-awarding of a major Highways Agency contract to FMG, which will see them manage incidents on 4,300 miles of England’s strategic road network. Propaganda managed the relationship with the Highways Agency press team, agreed appropriate messaging, and secured substantial press coverage in the regional and key trade media.
