Propaganda’s own brand Illamasqua has always dared to be different and fight against a homogenised looks dictated by the beauty industry: the world isn’t perfect so why should we all aspire to be perfect?

The SP13 Propaganda developed campaign “I’m-perfection” is an open invitation for consumers to stand up and show the world what makes them perfectly, imperfect:

We want you to highlight the features other brands encourage you to cover up and celebrate your imperfections like badges of honour.

So show off your freckles. Make beauty spots more beautiful.

Shine a light on your birthmarks. And be proud of your scars.

Because life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about celebrating who you really are. Join us at #ImPerfection. Visit us in store or online at  Illamasqua.com.

You can see the collection here, and see our latest tease for it here.

On the 31st Jan Illamasqua launches a new product innovation for SP13 as part of their I’mPerfection campaign. Check out the Propaganda developed teaser video below:

Propaganda Executive Chairman, Julian Kynaston, features on the front cover of the latest issue of Yorkshire Business Insider as entrepreneur of the month. Insider Editor, Richard Abbott talks Julian about how Propaganda transforms brands and what inspired him to found cult makeup brand, Illamasqua.

Entrepreneurs are often eccentric and offbeat types. Unafraid to follow their instincts by putting their money where their mouth is, they stop at nothing to turn their vision and passion into a reality.

Julian Kynaston fits the bill. As you can see from the photographs that he supplied to Insider, he is a maverick unafraid to break with convention.

We meet at the offices of Propaganda in Calls Wharf, Leeds. This is the marketing agency that Kynaston founded in 1993, which has grown to become one of the most respected brand consultancies in the north of England.

Around us, casually dressed but smartbrained employees are hatching plans to transform the fortunes of businesses and their brands.

Kynaston had long championed the notion that brands should be represented at the boardroom table. Campaigns, he argues, should be measured against hard business, rather than marketing objectives.

In 2006, he sold a proportion of Propaganda to the board in a £14m buyout. He retains a major shareholding and the role of executive chairman.

In the same year, another buyout saw him depart GHD, the hair and beauty brand of which he was marketing director.

With money in his pocket and unfulfilled ambitions in the beauty world, he decided to use the considerable marketing acumen he has built up over the years to launch his own beauty brand.

Together with two of the founding partners and shareholders of GHD, he launched Illamasqua in 2008 with the aim of creating a make-up range that would achieve brand loyalty in a highly commoditised marketplace.

To launch a challenger brand into a market dominated by global behemoths such as Estée Lauder and L’Oreal was a brave move – but it appears to be paying off.

Global sales stand at £7m, although Kynaston says this year he “wouldn’t be surprised if we double that”.

The brand takes its inspiration from the 1920s club scene and the manufacture of make-up for film and theatre. Kynaston says fans like to indulge and express their “darker side”.

Illamasqua has standalone stores in Leeds, London and Liverpool as well as concessions in department stores across the UK, including Selfridges on Oxford Street.

It can also be found in Myer in Australia, Sephora in the US and Bloomingdales and Harvey Nichols in the Middle East. It opened a standalone store in Croatia in 2011.

The scope of the brand, for Kynaston, is limitless. “It couldn’t be more radical,” he says. “The brand is in demand globally, yet we have never actively ‘sold’ it from day one. The market has come to us. We have just spent our time polishing this jewel called Illamasqua and the brighter it shines, the more people come towards it. I don’t think there is any region in the world that hasn’t got 20 stores competing for us.”

To illustrate demand for the brand, he slips in an anecdote about Michael Gould, chairman of Bloomingdales, flying out for meetings with him, adding: “He is not a man who spends too much time talking to suppliers.”

The brand resonates particularly well with the Middle Eastern market, where the conservative dress code for women places emphasis on eye make-up and fragrance as forms of self-expression.

“When the Middle East likes something, it loves it,” Kynaston says. “Our fragrance lines have gone particularly well over there.” The brand has a diverse range of users and “fanatical customer loyalty”, he adds.

“An 85-year-old woman will come into an Illamasqua store because we have introduced a level of care and customer service that resonates with her. And she will find herself sitting next to a transvestite.”

Despite his unbridled enthusiasm for the business, Kynaston confesses that launching and growing it has been “the hardest thing I have ever been involved in”.

He says the beauty sector offers excellent returns for companies that can secure awareness and distribution, but believes it is also one of the hardest to break into.

In a market where cosmetics giants use multi-million pound campaigns featuring celebrities with immaculate skin and hair, Illasmasqua has never used traditional advertising. “We don’t pay celebrities a penny to wear our brand,” Kynaston says.

“There is a shift happening in consumer attitudes to advertising. People want to work it out for themselves. Advertising is fatal if it embellishes any of the basic product characteristics. Marketing genius isn’t about making the product look better than it is. You put that ad budget back into the product itself.”

Much of the the brand’s growth is down to a successful social media strategy. It has also recognised the importance of having skilled staff, with trained beauticians joining salespeople at the retail counter.

In a market where brands can be cool one minute and forgotten the next, usurped by a younger, trendier rival, Kynaston’s task is to ensure that Illamasqua stays relevant as it grows in size. The target, he says, is “massclusivity”.

At the moment, Kynaston says Illamasqua is “growing for all the right reasons” but he adds pointedly: “The minute that I thought we were growing just to suit some chart for a man in a grey suit, I would stop.”

Moving the business to the next level will be the biggest test yet. As a small fish in a big pond, Kynaston will inevitably need financial assistance. “I would be very surprised if, within 18 months, we didn’t find ourselves in some kind of deal that gives us the finance to step up into the middle ground,” he says.

And in the longer term? “I have put a number on this business, but we want to keep it private for longer.”

Propaganda will be making a splash this year as it celebrates its 20th birthday. Its latest venture is the ‘Discovery’ programme, a 12-week branding boot camp which involves everyone from the owner of a business to the staff on the shop floor.

Kynaston says securing business has never been more challenging. “There hasn’t been a client that has spent a single penny with this business that they didn’t need to,” he says. “The days of just having an agency are gone. Nowadays you eat what you kill.”

Numbers are always a great indication in to how good or bad a campaign has done and as we wrap up 2012 for our clients, we thought we’d share some of the stats that our Social Media team is seeing following the ‘Christmas is on Boost’ campaign that they’ve worked on at the end of last year:

–  During 2012 we have grown the Boost Facebook fan base by 390%

But we know it’s not just about fan numbers, it’s about content and engagement:

– The ‘Christmas on Boost’ campaign captured data of over 5000 fans – that’s an average of 161 emails and postal addresses per day!

– Additionally, across the recent December activity the page received 2,075 comments, 2,169 shares and 6,103 likes.

Our December activity on Boost’s Twitter page has also boosted figures showing some amazing results:

– The RT and follow tweet that linked to the final Boost Christmas giveaway increased Boost’s Twitter followers by over 400 users – in just 3 days!

Needless to say, we believe that this is a great end to the year – particularly since there was no media spend supporting the campaign.

Here’s to a prosperous 2013 everyone!

Clipper has been appointed to provide online fulfilment solutions for leading leisure retailer, american golf, following a competitive tender process. To find out more… http://www.clippergroup.co.uk/news

Propaganda has been appointed by celebrity-favourite skincare brand Crystal Clear to help launch their latest innovation.

The appointment follows on the Discovery™ project Propaganda completed earlier in the year to help position and brand the new product, which is due for release in February 2013. Propaganda will be responsible for the launching the new product, with a particular focus on social and digital channels.

Since its launch in 1995, Crystal Clear has become one of the world’s leading skincare brands. The business was founded by skincare expert Sharon Hilditch whose expertise earned her an MBE for her services to the skincare industry.

Her products and treatments are adored by A-list celebrities around the world, including Madonna, Victoria Beckham and Kate Middleton, who indulged in her favourite Crystal Clear facial in the days running up to the Royal Wedding.

Laura Kynaston, Managing Director at Propaganda comments “We are delighted to be working with Sharon and the team at Crystal Clear to launch their latest product. Whilst we can’t reveal the details yet, this product is a real first for the skincare industry and the results achieved in clinical trials are amazing. The ‘visual’ effect the product creates is going to make it a really strong proposition for a social and digitally focused launch”.

Leading fleet incident management and accident reduction specialist, FMG, has been recognised for its industry leading approach of focussing on prevention rather than cure.

FMG received the Safety Initiative of the Year Award, at the annual industry Fleet Van ceremony, in recognition of their driver behaviour technology, Ingenium Dynamics. The innovative device actively reduces accidents in commercial vehicles and business fleets.

The company offers a range of services aimed at complimenting each other and making business fleets safer. The smart technology was singled out for its immediate impact on driving up standards. The system monitors the way an individual drives, identifies areas for improvement and incentivises business drivers to change their driving style.

The judging panel said: “FMG shows a high level of driver safety management with its innovative system. A comprehensive range of algorithms to score the driver even includes weather and road conditions. The system helps ensure safety is an on-going conversation.”

Companies using the technology have seen insurance premiums drop, fuel spend decrease and, in some cases, accident rates virtually halve. The system is adaptable to rank drivers in terms of their percentage scores, and many organisations use this to reward better driving.

FMG Chief Executive, John Catling said: “Safer driving makes good business sense. Accidents cost a company money, not to mention the potential emotional costs, which are often not taken into account. Our smarter ways of working mean that we are able to identify where problems exist, and put in a range of solutions to minimise driver risk. Making money just from cleaning up after accidents has never sat comfortably with us, which is why we’ve taken the corporate position of trying to prevent accidents happening in the first place.” 

Propaganda have launched a new Pinterest site on behalf of The Car People

Over the summer, SOPHIE supporters were asked to vote for the charity by text or online through the community fund’s website.  Having received 48% of the vote in the region, the SOPHIE team have been announced as the winners.  To find our more please go to http://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97:sophie-wins-lloyds-community-award-&catid=1:news-items&Itemid=3

Congratulations to Boost Drinks who have won the Gold Medal Grocery Brand award at the Federation of Wholesale Distribution Awards. The award ceremony took place in London last night. Boost went up against some industry giants to win the award; other brands in the category were Belvita from Kraft Foods, Heinz Tomato Ketchup and Walkers Crisps.

The judges obviously agree with us, that when it comes to a great brand Boost is a no brainer!

We’re delighted that Illamasqua and Seabrook Crisps have both been awarded CoolBrands® status in the 2012 list. Voted by a panel of experts and over 2000 consumers, the prestigious list is a barometer of the UK’s coolest brands.

Illamasqua, Propaganda’s own brand, has been shortlisted as a CoolBrands® for the second year running. Just four years since launch, the cult cosmetics brand has become a global phenomenon and is hailed as the fastest growing make-up brand in history. Renowned for its dedication to self-expression, the revolutionary British beauty brand, that was created and conceived by Propaganda, has shaken up the make-up industry.

Meanwhile, Seabrook Crisps has made the CoolBrands® list for the first time in 2012. Propaganda worked closely with Seabrook, an independent, family-owned business, to take the brand to a national level. Our work established them as Britain’s fastest growing crisps brand, the 12th fastest growing privately owned food brand and secured us an MCA award for Customer Engagement Strategy in 2009.

Laura Kynaston comments “Achieving CoolBrands® status for Illamasqua and Seabrook Crisps is a fantastic result and demonstrates that a brand doesn’t have to rely on huge investment or celebrity endorsement to be successful. Both brands use insight and core truths, matched with exceptional creative strategy. Their success has come from out-thinking rather than out-spending.”

CoolBrands® have been producing their annual list since 2001. As well as 2000 members of the British public, this year’s decision makers include 39 Expert Council members ranging from style gurus and fashion leaders to artists and entrepreneurs.

 “My Cambridge” is launched to support long-term weight plan management:  http://www.mycambridgeweightplan.com/Home