People don't trust organisations. They trust people.
Learn moreIn 2009 Logica asked us to help them design their new global intranet.
The bottom line is an intranet has to provide people with easy access to the stuff they need in order to work effectively. No matter what other bells and whistles it has, that’s its number one job.
So the first thing we did was ask Logica people around the world exactly what they’d like their intranet to provide. Working closely with Logica’s internal teams we turned these insights into customer journeys, and used these customer journeys to create new designs.
The result is an intranet that brings together 41,000 employees from 36 countries into one central place – a shared workspace where Logica’s global teams can work together, a great example of their new ‘One Logica’ strategy, and a great platform on which to grow.
Results
Logica
Employee communications and Digital experience design
What many people don't realise is that 20% of people diagnosed with Parkinson's are actually under 40. When you hear their stories you realise a life with Parkinson's can be a very active and full one indeed. Which is why stereotypes can be frustrating. As one person living with Parkinson’s told us: ‘We don’t all shake, we’re not all old’.
Inspired by this truth we turned the Parkinson’s Disease Society from a passive support charity into an active brand campaigning not just for a cure but also against the misconceptions surrounding Parkinson's.
We gave it a modern, inclusive new name, a provocative visual identity and a powerful call-to-action.
Most of all we involved people in the brand – giving individuals the means to communicate what it’s really like to live with Parkinson's, and turning Parkinson's UK into a movement that everyone could be part of.
Results
Parkinson's UK
Brand development
For a lot of young people, illegal downloading is pretty much standard fare, and it's pushing the TV and film industry right to the edge. It’s the job of the Industry Trust to try and stem this tide. But is there seriously anything they can do?
Well yes, we said.
Start talking positively.
You see, while "illegality" isn’t really a concept young people appreciate, they do have a clear sense of things being right or wrong. If the Industry Trust could win young hearts and minds over to the idea that film and TV has a positive value, they could make paying for what you watch not just legal, but the right thing to do.
To get that message across we turned the camera onto the viewers. We brought to life the brilliant, precious moments of emotion that film and TV can evoke. We asked a simple but evocative question to get people really thinking. Then pointed them to an easy way to download films. The right way.
Results
Industry Trust
Marketing communications and Digital experience design
Looking after a loved one takes devotion and dedication. It’s demanding and carers often find themselves struggling, too. That’s why Carers Direct was set up – to help unpaid carers cope.
Our job was to encourage people to use this online and telephone service.
A straightforward informational campaign for carers, right?
Not exactly. Our research found that many of the people this service was designed for didn’t see themselves as carers at all. They felt they were just looking after a loved one or friend.
It meant our job was also to ensure these people realised that help was at hand. So we created an emotional trigger to encourage people to reach out for the first time. A simple, evocative question to show them they were entitled to ask for support, and that Carers Direct was there to give it.
Results
NHS Carers Direct
Citizen engagement
NHS Choices is the UK’s online health-information service. And as their strategic partner they recently asked us to help promote the pregnancy part of their site.
It didn’t take much digging to see that Mums-to-be are wary of information that feels advertised to them. They also don’t want rafts of information to sift through.
Instead they want a trusted source to tell them what’s right and what’s rumour – and what they should be thinking about week by week.
Who could do that best? The NHS.
So in tandem with an integrated online campaign we created a desktop app that aggregated pregnancy advice from the whole of the NHS site into a week-by-week planner. It also included a ‘behind the headlines’ editorial section responding directly to pregnancy myths in the media. Something helpful, objective and trusted. And a far more effective marketing tool than any catchy headline.
Results
NHS Pregnancy Planner
Digital experience design
When you’re up against the clock you have to be pretty clear what you're trying to achieve.
In 2008 the Health and Safety Executive gave Capita the contract to run the UK's new gas registration scheme to replace CORGI. Capita turned to us for a new national brand – a hallmark for gas safety to be launched to the public in less than six months.
We knew we had to develop a brand with a single-minded focus on gas safety – a mark of authority and a trusted household name.
So we needed a name that was credible to gas engineers and descriptive for the public. We also needed a no-nonsense visual identity for high visibility, with an iconic symbol for vans and ID cards alike. Finally we needed a punchy, unambiguous and campaignable brand message – one to build public awareness of the new register and the importance of why it exists. We set to it and built a brand for the nation.
Three months on and a few late nights later, the Gas Safe Register® was born.
Results
Gas Safe
Brand development and Marketing communications
We love NOW! Music. It’s a bit like the National Trust of pop – 27 years old, over 100 million albums sold and a fond place in all our teenage hearts.
But with the end of Woolies could this pop institution compete against the likes of iTunes and Amazon?
The truth is they had one key advantage: while iTunes is a program and Amazon a warehouse, NOW! Music is a brand. It’s also a brand with a fan base who, after religiously picking up their double CD once a quarter, aren’t all comfortable with the ins and outs of downloading music.
So instead of competing with Apple on scale and complexity, we turned www.nowmusic.com into somewhere playful and fun in keeping with the brand. A place where their less-technical followers could learn how to download music. And above all, a place where people could go for what NOW! Music has always been loved for – brash, loud sing-it-to-your-hairbrush compilations.
NOW! Music
Digital experience design
M&S are one of the best companies around when it comes to thinking about the environment. But even for them, getting 75,000 employees in over 600 shops to think about energy saving was going to be a struggle. And getting people to change their everyday behaviour was going to be even harder.
So how did we go about it?
The first step was to get people’s attention by injecting a bit of fun and colour into the subject. Fun and colour – along with a mask, a cape and pants on the outside.The next step was to back up our new energy superhero with practical, personal information to inform and enable change. We created websites, stickers and easy-to-understand ‘routine maps’ to show people how they could save energy day to day.
A serious issue, solved with a light-hearted touch.
Results
M&S
Employee communications
Borough Music School is a local charity, established 15 years ago in the diverse and multicultural London borough of Southwark. The school provides children, aged 8 to 15 years, with comprehensive music education, developing many of the skills needed to participate in the creation of music.
So, how do you engage and inspire local children and families to get involved in music?
Well, involvement in music is a positive, socially uplifting activity. It is universal, across ethnic, economic and social divides. We created a brand to embody the joy, excitement and passion, which children could immediately believe in. Our family of musical characters, the ‘Badda-Bings’, resonated with the students of the school from the start. They represent everything the Borough Music School stands for: creativity, exploration, discovery and most of all, fun!
Borough Music School
Brand development