Trinity Place in Nottingham city centre gets a fresh look
Trinity Place in the heart of Nottingham city centre currently houses a variety of retailers, restaurants and private student accommodation.
Working with Aviva investors underscore has given the brand and location a loving facelift which brings creativity and a greater sense of place ahead of its next marketing phase to attract commercial interest and new customer audiences, which may include The Council introducing street theatre and performances in their open air amphitheatre.
Their floral design adds a cosmetic facelift where needed, but ultimately it stands for a destination for all that forms a central part of a living city that is set to flourish and grow.
2012 has been, without a doubt, Twitter’s biggest year so far. It has played an enormous role in helping sports brands reach out to far wider global audiences than ever possible before.
Twitter was used to great effects during the London Olympics, raising the profiles of individual sports and athletes alike. Hailed as the first ‘social games’, Twitter and Facebook reinforced London as one of the most successful Olympic games in recent history.
One of the best examples of strategic repositioning is the slightly less mainstream sport of UFC. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has become the fastest growing sport in the world thanks to its innovative approach to social media. UFC President Dana White introduced a new initiative in 2012 to reward athletes with bonuses for the use of Twitter to engage with fans. He has more than 2.3 million Twitter fans himself and all 475 UFC fighters now have a Twitter account.
Encouraging the fighters to take to Twitter to engage with fans helped to re-brand the sport from a violent underground world to a widely accepted part of American sporting culture.
Anderson Silva is currently the most followed UFC fighter with over 2.8 million followers. The UFC also saw huge interaction with Facebook, with almost 1 million likes, and was the first sporting organisation to live stream a series of preliminary bouts for UFC Fight Night in January 2011. The sport has a huge following on YouTube with video blogs generating a lot of attention for the UFC brand; further to this, Pinterest and Spotify are being used increasingly to make sure the brand is everywhere the fans are.
The Internet has always been the biggest channel of communication for UFC. Long before they were allowed to show fights on TV and pay-per-view, people would frequent the UFC website for the latest news, so moving to social media has given the UFC brand and the athletes’ personal brands a real-time voice.
As we enter 2013 questions are being asked as to how social media will evolve to help brands reposition themselves and get the most value from communication with their fans. Dana White’s response to the question is to remain ‘super aggressive in any form of social media’, quite fitting for the President of the UFC.
At Underscore we are intrigued to see how, or if, the smaller Olympic sports such as handball will continue to use social media and, more importantly, what role social media will play at Rio 2016. Anybody have any ideas?
When Underscore took on the task of re-branding Margate, we never thought it would rocket the seaside town up to Number 7 on The Rough Guide’s must see destinations for 2013!
Margate, described as ‘the gem on the Isle of Thanet’ is the only British destination on the list, amongst cities in Sweden, Cyprus and Puerto Rico. At Underscore we decided the town needed to shed its clichéd image of a British seaside town past its best, and focus on its positives – beautiful sandy beaches, character filled streets and the ever-increasing art scene.
A brand new, £17.5m Turner Art Gallery opened in Margate last year, brining in thousands of art fans to view art by the likes of Tracy Emin. The town has developed a whole host of new indie art spaces, galleries and vintage shops to add to its cute cafes and help make it one of the top destinations in the world.
It seems now, the only people who need convincing are the locals! Branded as ‘the original seaside’, a select few Margate residents responded to the Rough Guide’s lists saying they thought visitors would be ‘very, very disappointed’ in what they found – we can’t help but disagree, as we’re certain will most of the happy inhabitants!
Despite the influx of talent, art and culture into Margate, we cant help but suspect our great re-brand for the town had everything to do with Margate’s new position as a must see destination for 2013! Donkey ride along the beach anyone?!
How do we communicate successfully on social media without pushing our customers away?
We’re all aware of how annoying it is to be spammed by adverts every time we log into Facebook or Twitter for a chat with our friends, so its no surprise to learn that consumers are avoiding obvious ads and marketing like the plague.
This brings up the all-important question for brands; how do we communicate successfully on social media without pushing our customers away?
First of all, ads need to evolve to push content and create conversation that people want to share and engage with. New platforms are constantly emerging for brands to tell their story, and we are increasingly seeing transparency of brands and a behind the scenes perspective. Today’s consumers are hyper-informed about new brands, products and services and where to get the best deals and value, therefore creating a conversation about your brand is vital for getting noticed.
Social media is all about the two-way conversation. A popular approach is using customers who are creating content of their own in collaborations with your brand to become part of their conversation. Social word of mouth is more powerful than ever now that consumers have a much larger audience to communicate with. Nielson data says that more than a quarter of social media users are more likely to pay attention to an ad shared by one of their social connections making it increasingly important to have a content marketing strategy.
OBSERVE – make your content informed. Listen to what your consumers are saying to each other. Watch which places they are being tagged at or are hanging out at and what are they consuming. Use this insight to dictate what you are going to contribute to their online social scene.
FEEDBACK – Take on board what feedback you are receiving. If a particular post on Facebook is getting a high level of engagement, create a follow-up post or a competition or use it as a basis for an upcoming event or campaign. Monitor which posts are not getting any response and question why. Maybe they need to be communicated in a different way or maybe it’s just not content that your audience wants to see.
CURATION – creating something unique and your own is increasingly important. Using platforms such as Pinterest or Tumblr get an increased amount of unique visits. Tie it back to your brand, have a voice and a point of view.
So there you have it… our 3 key steps to successful content marketing. Having an engaging flow of content, either collaborated with consumers and fans or created by your brand will need to be increasingly relevant and engaging to ensure sharing.
The Royal Mint has recently commissioned a redesign of the £2 coin by Barber Osgerby, to celebrate the 150th year of the London Underground.
The coin depicts a tube train emerging from a tunnel and features patterned edging reminiscent of the tube map design by Harry Beck.
‘As well as being the oldest underground railway in the world, as an organisation the London Underground has been highly progressive, commissioning pioneering engineering, architecture and art.’ Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby
Two £2 coins have been struck by the mint – the other design was created by Edwina Ellis and uses the roundel underground logo which first appeared in the underground in 1908 (Following that, Edward Johnston added the Underground typeface to the bar of the roundel in 1916 – which appears on Edwina Ellis’ reverse design).
Ellis’ coin is inscripted with the Underground’s advice ‘Mind The Gap’ around its edging, and forms part of a composition, which Ellis says ‘shifts various elements from a treasure trove of graphics, imagery and engineering that forms one of the oldest existant corporate identities.
Last week Virgin media revealed their new look flagship store in London’s White City Westfield shopping centre.
The store takes a digital approach to retail, highlighting a sense of theatre and experiential elements. Based around ‘Media Street’, customers enter a half constructed house showcasing Virgin’s fibre optics, Tivo and broadband services. To add to the wow factor, a gesture controlled wall welcomes customers in-store with images of Richard Branson, Mo Farrah or a huge T-Rex dinosaur, and can be used to browse Virgin’s mobile phones. Traditional till points have been replaced with tablets used by store staff to fully promote a digital shopping experience.
The concept store was designed by Allen International. Roy Lowe, senior designer claims ‘I think it will be one of the most high tech shops in a shopping centre experience’. The interior design elements feature Union Jack prints to continue the iconic Virgin Media branding.
We’re quite excited about the integration of digital elements in retail and especially like the idea of the motion-censored wall. Anybody else experienced any exciting digital retail concepts?
Last week British Vogue held its second Online Fashion Week which saw a week dedicated to special offers, competitions and exclusive products from everyone from Topshop and ASOS to Harrods and Paul Smith.
The event was blogged live throughout the week, with Vogue offering an inspirational commentary on what to buy this festive season. Guest editors and industry professionals specially curated content, and many brands including My-Wardrobe.com held live twitter chats.
Online Fashion Week wasn’t only about fashion and shopping, it was also about charity. Oxfam was the official charity sponsor, with many retailers donating a percentage of sales made during the week to the Girls Education Project, which aims to enable all children, especially girls, to receive basic education in poor and isolated communities in West Africa.
The event also coincided with the launch of Amazon’s luxury fashion website, The Premium Store, offering designer fashion from brands such as Giorgio Armani and Hudson jeans. “The new store brings together the latest, must-have women’s fashion brands and marks the introduction of some of our favourite U.S. denim brands at Amazon.co.uk,” says Jessica Brown, head of fashion at Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “In addition to big name labels like 7 For All Mankind, the store also offers cult denim labels such as Siwy, giving customers a great breadth of designer styles to choose from.”
Underscore have had an incredible 2012 in partnership with Alexandra Palace.
In addition to our rebrand and communications management helping them to achieve second place in the prestigious Event Magazine “Top 20 Venues Readers Poll”, Alexandra Park has also finished in the top 10 list of the nation’s favourite green spaces, Holland Heineken House at Ally Pally was voted ‘Gold’ Olympic cultural house during London 2012, and Time Out readers voted Alexandra Palace in their top ten live music venues.
As we approach the New Year the next stages for the brand include an amazing new internal communications programme, planning for their major regeneration initiative, more great events and exhibitions, a new education brand platform for local schools and an adventurous new digital strategy.
Looks like a busy year ahead for the People’s Palace… and the people at underscore!
What is your favourite example of an animal in branding?
Design Week asked this question of some of the world’s leading branding experts; and the results? Sometimes there’s more to brands than meets the eye…
Mike Rigby, creative director, Interbrand Australia
“I think one of the smartest uses of an animal would have to be the bear hidden in the Matterhorn Mountain of the Toblerone logo. However, nostalgia dictates that my outright favourite is Tony the Tiger. Back in the ’80s he was always up to something interesting – be it protecting his secret formula, annoying cowboys, or kicking the arse of some schoolyard bullies. His “THEEEY’RE GREEEEAT” catchphrase shall be forever etched into my childhood memory.”
Samantha Farrow, director, Farrow Creative
“As a child, I remember being a big fan of Peppy the Polar Bear, who was always depicted standing proudly on an iceberg (actually a Glacier Mint). Somehow, it never struck me as odd that a bear should be the symbol of a company called Fox’s. We live and learn. And in a world where meerkats sell insurance, and puppies and koalas are the face (if that’s the right word) of toilet-paper brands, Peppy’s clean, simple lines still shine out.”
Michael Smith, director, Cog Design
“Imagine this alcohol-fueled scene in an early ‘60s ad agency….
“We’re pitching to ICI, they want to flog pro-paint to Joe Public.”
“We need a symbol that everyone will associate with high-end decorating. Let’s think about opposites: what’s the worst association we can make with paint?”
“Hair, dust and dirt.”
“What’s the dirtiest, hairiest thing anyone might have in their home?”
“An Old English Sheepdog?”
“Perfect.” Who’d have thought that bizarre association would have kept Dulux as brand leaders a half-century later?”
Would it be fair to say that you immediately knew the brand represented in the image at the top of this page, despite the fact that there is no visible logo or branding? Food for thought…
What’s your favourite example of an animal in brand design? Comment below!
The theory behind Q.R codes is that they will maximise the impact of ad campaigns as they create more awareness, help to educate and also drive marketing commerce.
A recent campaign from P&G consisted of an interactive ‘Have you tried this yet?’ for their brands including Pantene and Gillette, which allowed for P&G to make a forceful move into the mobile space. Q.R codes are clearly visible on each advert and when scanning them the customer is then taken to a separately designed mobile site that hosts more products for them to view.
Their advanced mobile site then asks the user to enter their post code so they can be informed of which local newspapers include discount coupons for the specific products they are interested in. To make it even more interactive for the users there are then links to Facebook for them to see other people’s comments about the product.
At underscore we think that integrated communications are they key to the future and this is a great example of how to reach the customer in their pocket, which is also where they keep their mobile phone of course..
This years Christmas experience at Duke of York Square in Chelsea is even bigger than last year, and visitor figures this year show it to have been the most successful yet!
An exciting build up at this premium London shopping and leisure destination has included a late night shopping event, a celebration for the Christmas lights switch on and the launch of this year’s Santa’s Grotto design – which this year has seen underscore’s award winning creative work extended with ‘Rudolph’s Yard’ added complete with a live reindeer!
We are delighted to see that all the hard work is paying off, and footfall and spend has continued to increase with over 2300 bookings having been made already to see the big man in red, mostly through our online forms created on both the Duke of York Square website and of course Facebook.
In addition to the enormously successful grotto campaign, the Square has seen an increase of 5% in submissions for the email database and have recently reported the busiest Saturday on record!
Pop down to the Duke of York Square to see our festive designs in action!