Last Wednesday saw underscore celebrate our 10th birthday with a drinks evening at the Swarovski Crystallised lounge bar (don’t ask we got a good deal on the bar).
Its hard to think that underscore has been going for ten years now, it seems like just yesterday when we started the company.
Recent times haven’t seen too many small companies celebrate their achievements – but not here at underscore, we felt it important to mark the occasion, and also for our staff and clients to enjoy a well earned beer (or two).
We have seen many changes over the last ten years but we are delighted to have reached the ten year mark, and our thanks go to all the people who have helped to build a superb company. Many have come and gone over the years but all have paid a vita role in building the underscore brand – so here’s to you the creative thinkers, the strategists, the designers, the brand managers, the office cleaners, the fighters, the developers, the typographers, the pen pushers, the deva’s and not to mention the coffee makers – we are standing on the shoulders of giants – Cheers!
The poll, by Superbrands, saw brand experts and nearly 2500 members of the public decide what they thought was the coolest brand.
It wasn’t just the iPhone, the Apple brand itself and Apple’s iPod brand also appear in the top 5. Car brand Aston Martin has lost its top spot for the first time in 3 years.
The chairman of the Coolbrands council Stephen Cheliotis, says, ‘Aston Martin has finally lost its top spot in the rankings, but only just – in fact, bearing in mind that cool is seen to be very fluid and variable, the top 20 shows astonishing reliability.
‘That said, it would be simple for the brand leaders to take their eye off the ball, become content and let others steal their thunder, so they truly should be congratulated for continuing to preserve their lead in the eyes of experts and customers.’
The top ten in full:
1 – iPhone
2 – Aston Martin
3 – Apple
4 – iPod
5 – Nintendo
6 – YouTube
7 – BlackBerry
8 – Google
9 – Bang & Olufsen
10 – Playstation
The brief:
With over 1.3 Million visitors per year, two Rugby World Cups, six FA Cup Finals plus a plethora of major concerts and motorsport events on its CV, the Millennium Stadium is established as a world class must play, must visit venue.
The thinking:
World class brands need world class promotion as there is always competition for contracts and so Underscore were delighted to work with the Millennium Stadium to promote and enhance their brand proposition worldwide.
The results:
Very well received at the ILMC, more will now be revealed as we move to build and consolidate their vistor groups for sporting and other activities.
As many of you will know I am an avid fan of the the lovely Don’t Panic poster competition. I enter on a regular basis and this is my latest effort. This months theme revolves around the concept of ‘Social’ and will be judged by the impeccable Shepard Fairey. You may not know the man but you’ll know his mark, he’s the genius behind the recent Barack Obama ‘hope’ poster and the older equally iconic Andre the Giant Obey sticker campaign.
My effort is fairly straight forward, what’s more sociable than saying hello? I’ve represented the word as a variety of speech bubbles all of which are exclaiming the word hello, or a greeting of similar ilk in a variety of languages and dialects from across the globe.
The brief:
- Create a platform to launch St Davids Academy as the pre-eminent education facility in Wales.
The thinking:
- The identity forms a circle of life and translated across a range of recycled papers to reflect a holistic and highly ethical educational approach. We then evolved our campaign to reflect the arts, music and sport ñ the central focus of their ëalternativeí curriculum and pedagogy.
The results:
- The response to the initial promotion has been excellent and the Academy looks sure to outstrip demand before even fully launched.
DSGi is tasking David Walmsley with pushing Dixons, Currys and PC World brands to the top of etailers. Walmsley was previously the head of web marketing at John Lewis and is credited with boosting John Lewis’s online sales, which so far are up 20% this year.
Walmsley’s appointment is part of aggressive marketing push by DSGi and last week it kicked off by mocking John Lewis. The adverts feature John Lewis’s distinctive typeface and imply consumers research their products in JL stores before buying them at the Dixons site. They feature the tagline ‘Dixons.co.uk – the last place you want to go’.
I really like the branding, its bold, its brash and its cheeky.
Twice as many 50-60 year olds than 18-24 year olds in the United Kingdom use Twitter, according to research from Nielsen Online. Audience figures showed 50-64 year old users account for 22% of the entire Twitter audience, compared with just 11% of 18-24 year olds. The biggest share of the audience is 35-49 year olds with 33%. A year ago the share of 25-34 year olds using the site was 5% higher.
Just goes to show that you are never too old to learn new tricks.
Pepsi calls on wannabe creatives for Max ads – Wannabe creatives this is your chance to kick start your career with the launch of a new competition to create a global brand campaign for Pepsi Max.
To enter you need to submit your proposal for a 90 second advert under pepsis ethical banner Refresh Everything’.
One lucky winner will get the chance to work with the Pepsi UK marketing team to make a Pepsi Max digital advertising film that will be launched out in 2010.
Your film will be given a minimum budget of $20,000, and a commission of $10,000. The competition is being run in conjunction with online creative community MOFILM and the London Film Festival.
The winner will also get to see their work played on the big-screen before the gala premiere of British actor Clive Owen’s new film, Boys are Back, at the London Film Festival.
You can find out more at the MOFILM website
Brand
Designing a brand from the ground up. Whether a rebrand, revitalise or re thinking, we center on creative thinking and keep your consumer at the heart of all we do.
Staff
Your people are your greatest asset. we find distinctive and different ways to distribute your brand message to staff, so they can promote your ideas.
Customer
Delivering the brand to the users. With so many paths to choose, we settle on a clear direction to your customers that puts you brand identity in the driving seat.
Engagement
At underscore it is our favorite word. We are nice and simple. We make it our duty to know how you think, how your sector works and what you intentions are. We then deliver well thought out and quantifiable creative solutions that are custom-made to accomplish those aims – and that’s it.
Quick, fetch the blond wigs, we’re branding for Boris!
Our good Mayor Boris Johnson has allocated a budget of £600,000 to create a new logo and identity for London ahead of the 2012 Olympics, and wants to launch by next spring.
Of course, at Underscore we were well up for this being versed in Cockney, jellied eels and black cabs, so we submitted our concepts and creative a.s.a.p.
Without giving too much away, we focused on the rich language, shared dialect of London and how this translates to the city being one of the most welcoming in the world for tourists, businesses and students.
Did we get it? We’ll find out soon but fingers crossed – branding a city is one of the most prestigious projects we can imagine and it’s right up our street (sorry…)
A simple idea that brings together 50 photographers all residing in one of the 50 States of the U.S of A. A year long project which will produce 300 images reflecting ‘people’, ‘habitat’, ‘landscape’, ‘industry’ and a final fifth assignment to be sent via the powers of email on the 1st of November 2009. The chosen 50 photographers will then have two months to respond to the unknown subject capturing how they perceive the State they reside in. A great project that not only showcases the diversity of talent behind the lens but also the diversity of a country that occupies a mighty 6.5% of the entire globes land mass. This project really gives you an insight into just how large America is. Above is one of my favourite images of the series, taken by Steve Davis (not to be confused with the 80’s world champion snooker player) residing in Washington conveying his interpretation of ‘industry’. see more of the collection here.