Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Being a Diva online
We first came across Diva Telecom at the NEC Computer Trade Show, when we were exhibiting. After the show, Managing Director Erica Lewis came to see us at Persona to discuss the branding for the new venture; set up having now left BT.
Erica liked the look of of some concepts we'd previously produced and gave us a brief to produce further concepts that were specific to Diva Telecom. With a strong sense of black and vibrant colouring, we produced a series of designs that showed different executions of type and style.
The designs were presented to Erica and a final version was developed to cover the brand emotions of a Diva and ultimately the product offering of the company.
With the logo for Diva Telecom now agreed, we produced and printed the company stationery and locked down the usage of the brand in a styleguide.
With the branding project complete - using the Persona Basics Pro package, Diva Telecom came back to us with a brief for the company web site.
We'd created the Diva brand to be different and so when approaching the web project, we felt that using common stock photography and images wouldn't be on-brand. To keep the vibrant and modern look for Diva, we designed a series of custom illustrations to be used throughout.
The final site design is clean and professional, with a content layout that suits search engine indexing. The site has been developed to comply with W3C Standards for both good quality code and accessibility guidelines, giving Diva Telecom a great platform to begin marketing to their already global customer base.
Check out the live web site at www.divatelecom.co.uk
Creating an Urban Persona
Urban Planters, the UKâ??s leading interior landscape provider of live and replica plants displays, have transformed some of the countryâ??s most illustrious hotels, shopping centres, offices, car showrooms and leisure clubs. Last week the National Franchise Exhibition held at the NEC, Birmingham, saw Urban Planters capitalise on their business proposition to attract potential franchisees. Making it through to the finals of last yearâ??s British Franchise Awards it was particularly important to attend the exhibition, and being their first they wanted to be remembered long after the event for being different and above all, innovative.
As with all franchise businesses, it is the brand that somebody invests in. Therefore it is crucial that it stays fresh and the franchise owners take the lead in developing itsâ?? exposure; so franchisees can take benefit from the entire groups success. With over 20 franchise territories in the UK and with product distribution links in The Netherlands, Urban Planters have been proactive in developing equity in their brand to provide tangible value to their network. The show at the NEC this year proved to be a great platform to showcase the strength in the brand and give new and existing franchisees the chance to see why an Urban Planters franchise may be the right one for them.
Planting the seed
Joint M.D of the group, Thomas Palfreyman was keen for the exhibition to stand out from the crowd and approached Nottingham design agency Persona Creative for ideas; who Thomas knew previously, having masterminded the award winning planting installation at the agencyâ??s offices.
Thomas set Persona Creative a challenge â?? to come up with an idea for the stand that would be fitting to the brand, attract potential franchisees and showcase the groups innovative thinking.
The response from Persona Creative was a theme that challenged the way people think about urban interiors. Featuring display graphics of faux office environments; one showing a modern â??inspiringâ?? workplace and the other a typical â??uninspiringâ?? office, the theme was designed to provoke reaction and tempt interaction.
Hammad Khan, Creative Director at Persona Creative had this to say about their approach:
â??The Urban Planters brand is already very strong, so to be given a challenge by Tom to enhance it was a great compliment to us. Weâ??ve always had lots of ideas we could use for them and this brief gave us an opportunity to show just how creative we can be.â??
Recycled CRT monitors were used as tree planters and a false turf floor used instead of office carpeting. To complete the stand layout, an air quality display was also designed as an area the Urban Planters team could use to discuss the end user benefits to those considering a franchise.
The centre piece of the design was a two metre tall â??Urban Treeâ??, made from scaffolding to simulate branches and glass-fronted flat screen monitors mounted as leaves. This would provide an eye-catching focus point for the stand as well as highlight Urban Planters innovative approach to interior landscaping.
The concept was received with great applause by the Urban Planters board of Directors, who felt the emotions and values of the brand were given strong presentation. With full approval of the theme, Thomas set about project managing the manufacture of the stand and Urban Tree, whilst Persona Creative produced the graphics and animations required. With the concept designs approved in early August and the date of the NEC show fixed to 6 October, the joint team had 10 weeks to complete the project scope, which included:
- Stand visualisation & designs
- Urban Tree Manufacture
- â??Air Qualityâ?? Bio-Spheres manufacture
- Display artwork for the stand theme
- Screen Animations
- Large format printing
- Dry run testing
- Delivery, installation and logistics
Preâ??Show Activity
The day prior to the opening of the show, the Urban Planters team together with Persona Creative set about assembling the components of the stand. Whilst this was in progress the Urban Tree was already attracting a lot of interest from other exhibitors at the show â?? all curious to inspect it in more detail. A number of onlookers inquired about purchasing the tree â?? a request already anticipated by the project team, who have taken steps to copyright the design and market it as another proposition from Urban Planters; revenue from which will benefit the group and ultimately the franchisees. This type of longer term planning and an opportunity to improve the return on investment from attendance of the show is typical of Urban Planters efforts towards the longevity of the brand.
Visitor Reaction
The exhibition attracted 14,000 visitors, a similar figure to that of the previous year and further evidence that the franchise market remains a strong attraction for budding business owners.
One visitor to the Urban Planters stand made a comment that sums up the experience almost everybody who walked past it felt:
â??This is the first stand Iâ??ve stopped at; the tree is the star of the show and really grabs your attention. What an innovative way to promote what you do.â??
Franchise Director of Urban Planters and event co-ordinator Alan Page had this to say about the show:
â??We wanted to make our company welcoming to as many people as possible, by making the exhibition stand interesting and visually appealing; the stand has been well received by our audience, as well as other exhibitors here today. Itâ??s even more important to demonstrate to people wanting to buy-in to our company that we continue to project the right image to clients and give the right sales and marketing support, so that our franchisees prosper and own a successful business â??
Return on Investment
Exhibiting at the show was a great success for Urban Planters, with 11 of the available 13 franchise territories now under active conversation â?? the busiest the group has ever been from a single marketing exercise.
Being able to bring a simple set of ideas together that conveys the brand was essential to promoting the franchise and Urban Planters are happy that their approach differentiated them from others at the show. Visitor reaction, lead generation and a new revenue stream from Urban Tree sales has laid down the gauntlet as to what can be achieved from a well planned and executed exhibition attendance and the group are keen to continue demonstrating their innovative approach to conventional ideas.
The group will certainly be exhibiting at the show again and have already committed to a space at The Interior Landscaping Exhibition 2006 at the National Agricultural Centre, in November.
NBV Marketing Seminars
The creativity of Nottingham has never been more apparent than from the phenomenal success of the city's living legend - Sir Paul Smith.
Following in the footsteps of Sir Paul's fantastic designs and more charitable work to develop the Spirit of Enterprise, Nottinghamshire Business Ventures (NBV) have very kindly selected Persona Creative to present a series of marketing workshops to help businesses of all types achieve their potential through effective communication.
There are 3 sessions planned over the coming months:
1. Branding & Communication Wednesday 6th December, 2006. 9:30-12:30 The Sir Paul Smith suite, NBV's Mercury House. â?? NOW BOOKING! Call 0115 9648200
Hosted by NBV at their business incubation facility, it's only fitting that the suite opened by the city's undisputed king of style be used to discuss branding to all those keen to stand out from the crowd.
2. PR & Publicity View from the top gallery, down the road from Paul Smith's flagship Nottingham store.
As well as the workshop early in 2007, the gallery will be dedicated to a display of the best work from Persona Creative and there will be an opening night party too! The party will be strictly guest-list only, but if you're not on the list, you can still visit the gallery exhibition for a week, or register yourself to attend the workshop. More details coming your way soon.
3. Digital Marketing & Strategy Paul Smith digital screen 4, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham
The newly refurbished cinema has a fantastic digital projection screen, that we're planning to use during the workshop to create an interactive session never before seen! Details are still very hush-hush, so watch out for more information in 2007.
Bookings are only being taken for the first event at this time, for which you can contact NBV on 0115 9648200 or Persona Creative on 0115 9484454. Places are £15 per person (including light refreshments) and are very limited (as you'd expect for such exclusivity), so jump the queue by booking early - it gets offered to everybody else next week, so hurry!