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.
We’ve just finalised plans for taking leading energy drinks brand Boost on an exciting nationwide sampling tour, Read more about the Boost sampling tour: http://www.propaganda.co.uk/blog/
Boost Rickshaws take to the streets of Birmingham giving students a lift around campus
We’ve just finalised plans for taking leading energy drinks brand Boost on an exciting nationwide sampling tour.
As part of the strategy to raise awareness of Boost’s great taste and price, we’ve developed a campaign to target students and office workers. Both of which are key target markets for Boost when they need a pick me up to get them through their working day or studies.
12 cities – including Manchester, Sheffield, Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow – have been selected based on both the concentration of Boost’s distribution and key student areas. The aim of the campaign is get more people to try Boost’s great tasting range of energy and sports drinks, and let them know about the great price compared to well- known competitor products in the market. This is what the ‘It’s a No Brainer’ brand proposition is all about.
The campaign is designed to ‘give your day a boost’ and includes a team of brand ambassadors complete with mobile coolers and a Boost van for taking products out to the public – all delivered with a few extra touches in true Boost style to create a buzz around city centres and student campuses.
It also features the chance to win a ‘Boost House Party’ – which includes all the gadgets and supplies a student could need to create the party of all parties – and will help build the ever-growing database of Boost advocates too. Scratch cards also offer the chance to pick up on-the-spot prizes including £50 notes, Nando’s vouchers, memory sticks to maintain a buzz around the sampling activity.
Last but not least, the Boost rickshaws are back by popular demand. These quirky branded vehicles went down a storm last year with students needing a lift around campus, and also created a memorable experience associated with the brand.
Free Boost, loads of prizes and rickshaw rides – this is set to be Boost’s biggest on the street campaign to date. Does your day need a Boost?
PDM Group, the UK’s largest food chain by-product recycler has appointed Propaganda, initially to develop a brand strategy to help leverage growth for one of its business units ReFood.
PDM is investing in ReFood’s proposition and has plans to significantly increase its footprint across the UK with new Anaerobic Digestion sites. Its recently opened Doncaster site is already exceeding targets, turning 45,000 tonnes of food waste from across Yorkshire into renewable energy.
Philip Simpson, commercial director at PDM said: “We can see the significant potential in this sector – almost 20 million tonnes of food waste is generated every year in the UK. Our method of recycling waste food, through anaerobic digestion, delivers on two sustainability goals: reducing waste going to landfill and generating renewable energy. We’ve appointed Propaganda to help us unlock our potential in this market and deliver our goal of ReFood being the ‘go-to’ business for food waste recycling.”
Propaganda delivers brand transformation through a ‘knowledge before assumption’ and ‘strategy before tactics’ approach called Discovery™. Central to Discovery™ is a 360° brand and business audit which uncovers the brand truth and defines the transformational brand strategy; delivering measurable business results.
Kirsty Birks, director at Propaganda explains: “Our work with PDM is not about re-branding the ReFood business unit. It’s about building a brand that can leverage growth opportunities in a growing and dynamic marketplace. The Propaganda team is looking forward to working on this exciting brief and to delivering a brand strategy, working alongside Prova, to drive growth for ReFood based on knowledge rather than assumption. It is also pleasing to start work with another successful Yorkshire based business to add to the existing relationships we have with Clipper, FMG, The Car People and Boost Drinks.”
Generation Q AW12 Collection: Discover beauty without age limits with Illamasqua’s Autumn Winter Generation Q collection.
Since Illamasqua entered the Australian market they have been frustrated by the inflated pricing of beauty products compared to the rest of the world. So they are making a stand against the ruthless global giants of cosmetics, who abuse the system by forcing customers to pay up to 61% more than the UK prices. Illamasqua believes it is entirely unjust that a woman in the UK pays just $24 for a lipstick while a woman in Australia has to pay $40 for the exact same product.
At the beginning of August 2012 Illamasqua launched a campaign to make a stand, to start a fight for the Australian Consumer. The campaign was to encourage Illamasqua fans to sign a petition for a fairer beauty price. The petition is housed on illamasqua.com and Illamasqua’s Facebook page and attracted tens of thousands of people who were eager to add their voice to the campaign and sign the petition. It is those people who have enabled Illamasqua in Australia to be the first make-up brand to take a stand and slash it prices dramatically.
The Illamasqua “Fight for a Fair Beauty Price” has sparked conversation globally with customers, bloggers, press and industry insiders. Julian kynaston founder of Illamasqua appeared in a viral video, which was a platform for the campaign for the “fight for fairer beauty,” the video received thousands of YouTube views. Industry bloggers have applauded Illamasqua’s campaign with praise flooding in from all angles. The reaction from the industry press has been very positive with features about the “Fight for a Fair Beauty Price” appearing on influential beauty blogs such as Breakfast with Audrey and The Plastic Diaries.
After a month of rallying together with their customers and fans making a stand against the unfair cosmetic pricing in Australia, Illamasqua are proud to announce that they have won the “Fight for a Fair Beauty Price.” As of tomorrow- the 1st of September 2012 will always be the day that Illamasqua slashed the prices of their cosmetics to bring Australia back in line with the rest of the world.
Propaganda worked with Illamasqua throughout this campaign and we are all really proud of the results that have been achieved in such a short space of time.
We’re all very proud at Propaganda- we have been nominated for six Fresh Awards for our Simon on the Streets and Vinyl Exchange work. Simon on the Streets is nominated in the categories: craft-ambient, charity and media innovation, whilst Vinyl exchange is nominated in the categories of craft- art direction/photography, craft- consumer advertising and craft – posters. The award ceremony is in Manchester on the 4th of October, fingers crossed. To find out visit the Fresh Awards web site.
PD Ports, one of the UK’s leading port and logistics businesses, has appointed Propaganda, to undertake a Brand Discovery™ for its portcentric logistics division.
PD Ports owns and operates the ports of Teesport and Hartlepool and employs over 1,200 people in port services and logistics across the UK. The company also offers warehousing and distribution services at 13 locations throughout the North East, Humberside and East Anglia, including Felixstowe.
With over 150 years’ experience, PD Ports has industry-wide expertise in everything from retail, food & drinks and electronics to paper, timber, metal, chemicals, packaging, building materials and recycling, for clients including Asda, Tesco and Taylors of Harrogate.
Its award winning portcentric solutions has delivered tangible bottom-line benefits to clients by reducing lead times, improving logistics efficiency, reducing transport costs and achieving environmental objectives. This confirms the company’s position as one of the UK’s most successful and prominent facilitators and providers of portcentric services.
PD ports have recognised the need for a cohesive and customer-driven brand strategy and differentiated proposition as part of its ambitious growth plans for its portcentric logistics division. Brand Discovery™ will help PD Ports realise these ambitions through the insight and robust brand strategy that this consultative process delivers.
Geoff Lippitt, PD Ports’ Business Development Director, said:
“The retail sector in the UK continues to become more competitive, and the growth of multichannel solutions in this sector is anticipated to increase the level of demand for flexible downstream portcentric logistics solutions. As such, portcentric logistics is widely regarded as one of the most important developments in the UK logistics industry.
We have a clear ambition to be the premium provider of portcentric solutions in the UK. In order to grow further and maintain our position at the forefront of the portcentric logistics sector, we need to implement a clear and concise strategy that delivers on the needs of the market.”
Richard McMurrough, director at Propaganda continued:
“We’re excited about working with PD Ports on this challenging brief. Brand Discovery™ is an individual journey for clients because no two businesses are the same, no two companies face the same challenges, so no two solutions should be the same. That’s why our approach is based on knowledge rather than assumption and puts strategy before tactics. We transform businesses with sound strategic and creative thinking.”
Not content with winning awards for its debut fragrance, Illamasqua has decided to raise the bar even further, by releasing a golden version. Freak ‘Extrait De Parfum’ has a more intense scent than the previous one, and comes in a very shiny, very gold, very limited edition bottle.
The original fragrance and its packaging had already picked up a range of plaudits, including some lovely comments from bloggers (see below), a couple of nominations at the very prestigious FIFI awards (more on that here), and, was voted best packaging by the readers of Basenotes.
“We’ve seen plenty of fragrance lately with a plasticky flower stuck on the bottle (thank you Marc Jacobs), but we’ve not seen any with a snail on it. Until now. Enter Freak by cult British make-up brand Illamasqua to fill the snail-on-perfume-bottle void.”
Basenotes.net
“I don’t normally go ga-ga for packaging and highbrow concepts, but I LOVE THIS!”
Basenotes.net reader comment
“That bottle is just…beyond. I want to buy it simply for display on my nightstand, and I don’t even have a nightstand.”
NSTperfume.com reader comment
The Freak bottle design has also been chosen as a case study in Gavin Abmrose’s 2nd edition of Format. Flick to pages 170 to 172 and you’ll be able to read rough the design rationale, and see some development designs including initial sketches. Format, can be purchased here.
Posted by Lee Bennett.
