We’ve moved the Heavenly Blog!

We’ve moved the Heavenly Blog so that it is now an integral part of our recently redesigned website.

The Blog can now be found at http://www.heavenly.co.uk/brand-agency-news/ Here you’ll find out all about our latest news, appointments, client wins and awards.

Why not have a look at the site in detail?, it showcases some great examples of work from the brand consultancy that the industry is talking about. http://www.heavenly.co.uk

Industry comment on Heavenly’s campaign

Our current advertising campaign has received very positive feedback from a key industry publication this week.

The campaign which launched at the end of July in Design Week and Broadcast and is being followed by extensive activity in the Financial Times and other industry publications has led Lynda Relph-Knight, editor of Design Week, to suggest in her weekly blog, that it ‘could change attitudes to advertising within the design sector’ and ‘should provoke a long-overdue debate about good branding’.

Heavenly hires Andy York from Interbrand as Head of Verbal Identity

Heavenly’s senior team is being further strengthened by the arrival of Interbrand’s Director of Verbal Identity, Andy York, who joins the agency as Head of Verbal Identity.

York had been at Interbrand almost three years working with Rio Tinto, Nissan, Hays, Petroc and KPMG. His career has been unusually wide ranging, spanning agencies from PublicisDialog and Leagas Delaney to projects with Landor, Interstate, and The Brand Union where he worked on the groundbreaking Ericsson story-telling project.

Speaking of his move, Andy York said: "The new role at Heavenly is all about giving our clients exciting creative thinking that also makes them more commercially successful. I don’t think one needs to exclude the other. It is about work that will make you smile as much as it makes you think. I think we can push how brands use language much, much further. I’m hugely looking forward to a fresh challenge.

Talking of Andy’s appointment, Nick Sunderland, Creative Strategy Director at Heavenly, said: "We have long been an admirer of Andy’s work and have courted him for some time. He shares our views that we need to make brand personality and tone of voice one and the same – it’s as much about how a company behaves as it is about writing and speaking”.

York’s arrival comes after a series of recent high profile appointments and acquisitions including Paul Franklin as Deputy Creative Director, Gwen Kotschy as Head of Television and the acquisitions of Be A Brand and Martin Lambie-Nairn’s partnership ML-N.

Commenting on the recent activity, Richard Sunderland, Heavenly’s Founder and CEO said: "Andy is the latest piece in our management jigsaw and gives us fantastic firepower in verbal identity alongside our strategic and visual strengths. We’re delighted that Andy has chosen to join us”.

Heavenly launches new website and press campaign

Heavenly launches a redesigned website and press campaign today.

The site, which replaces the critically acclaimed chalkboard concept that the branding agency has used since 2005 has been built in conjunction with digital agency Clusta. Speaking about the new site, Commercial Director, Graham Barnetson said “It is clearer, bolder and more confident than our previous site and it marks a clear transition in Heavenly’s development. It also provides a better showcase for the breadth and depth of our excellent creative work and enables the work to stand independently of the site.

The launch coincides with a press and online campaign initially focussed on the arrival of Martin Lambie-Nairn as Creative Director at the agency headlined “If you are looking for Martin Lambie-Nairn he's gone to Heavenly” that will roll out across Design Week and Broadcast. The activity will also be supplemented with FT activity over the forthcoming months. The new site remains on Heavenly's old url - http://www.heavenly.co.uk/

Heavenly on BBC Radio 5 - Is Tony Hayward right to go?

Our Creative Strategy Director, Nick Sunderland, was featured on Victoria Derbyshire’s programme on Radio 5 Live today. He was one of a panel that included shareholders, environmentalists and other business leaders who discussed Tony Hayward’s handling of the oil spill and asked whether in "negotiating his exit" the BP Chief Executive is he right to go.

Follow this link to listen to the progamme on BBC iPlayer

Over 2m people watch Heavenly on BBC1

Figures just released show that 2.07m people watched Heavenly in BBC’s ‘High Street Dreams’ shown on BBC 1 and BBC HD on Friday 9th July.

The BARB ratings issued on 16th July show that the programme featured in the Top 100 Network Programmes of the week attracting even more viewers than ITV’s News at Ten on Wednesday of the week.

The episode featured Jo Malone and Nick Leslau helping two entrepreneurs who were keen to enter the home ware market.

Heavenly were approached by Jo to help one of the entrepreneurs, Harry Singer, brand his innovative picture frames. The branding agency created the concept of ‘Photo Liberation’ and from that derived the brand name ‘Phlib’. They helped Harry create an iconic brand identity and messaging that was based around displaying photographs rather than storing them on hard drives or Flickr accounts. The consultancy created messaging that included “Mo’ Foto!!”and “Don’t be a F**CKR, Set your photos free!”

Speaking about the programme, Richard Sunderland, Heavenly’s CEO said “We were delighted to be involved in the show and working with Jo and Harry was great fun! Harry has created a brilliant product and we were able to create a brand and messaging that really gave it character and set it apart from anything else in the market. The audience figures are a real bonus and we wish Harry and Phlib all the best for the future. We know that Phlib will be a great success”

To find out more about how to liberate your photos visit Phlib at http://www.phlib.co.uk/

Paul Franklin joins Martin Lambie-Nairn at Heavenly

The appointment of Paul Franklin as Heavenly’s Deputy Creative Director will see the reinstatement of his creative partnership with Martin Lambie-Nairn.

Paul will report directly to Martin, providing a dynamic complement to him that will drive Heavenly’s creative output.

Paul, who has an extensive freelance portfolio, worked at Lambie-Nairn with Martin and was Creative Director on numerous projects with him, including projects for the BBC and a full rebrand of Abu Dhabi TV. His time with the WPP subsidiary also included directing work on Swiss Telco –Sunrise, O2 and EA Games. Prior to this, Paul was Lead Senior Designer for the Nokia Design Brand Team where his work included harmonising their global identity.

Martin, commenting on Paul’s appointment said: “I am delighted to be working with Paul again. He is one of the most talented and inspirational designers that I have ever worked with. His vision, insight and creativity will add real value to Heavenly and our clients and his appointment is a further sign of our commitment to create great design.”

Speaking of his appointment, Franklin said “Being reunited with Martin is great and I am very excited about what the future holds. The team at Heavenly are very gifted and I am delighted to be part of it. The role at Heavenly is one that any designer would be excited by.”

Franklin’s arrival further strengths the senior team at Heavenly and follows Gwen Kotschy’s recent appointment as Head of Television and the Company’s acquisition of Personal Branding Business ‘Be A Brand’ and the arrival of its MD, James Fenner.

Gwen Kotschy joins Martin Lambie-Nairn at Heavenly

Heavenly is delighted to announce the appointment of Gwen Kotschy as Head of Television.

Gwen will report directly to Martin Lambie-Nairn who joined Heavenly as Creative Director in November 2009.

She joins Heavenly from Soho based production company, Smithereen, where she was a Producer. Her extensive portfolio includes individual promos through to channel rebrands across a range of clients that include The Disney Channel, Discovery Networks Europe and MTV Networks Europe.

Commenting on Gwen’s appointment Martin Lambie-Nairn said: “We are exceptionally excited about Gwen’s arrival. She is a hugely talented Producer who will bring real depth to Heavenly’s Broadcast offering. We have already produced some great work in the TV arena and I know that Gwen will enhance that. She is going to help us drive our on screen service and make Heavenly famous in the sector”

Speaking of her new role, Kotschy said “Joining Heavenly is hugely exciting and working with Martin who is one of the world’s leading authorities on TV brand identity is a real honour. Heavenly have got some incredible plans for TV and I’m really looking forward to being part of something new and challenging.”

See Heavenly on BBC One and BBC HD

Heavenly are delighted to be involved in Jo Malone’s TV programme ‘High Street Dreams’ which is being broadcast on Friday 9th July at 19:00hrs on both BBC1 and BBC HD . For more details please see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t154d

Heavenly achieves Welsh success!

Heavenly are delighted that they have achieved success in their tender for four lots in the Welsh Assembly Government’s Creative Services Framework, the results of which were announced earlier this week.

In a hugely contested process lasting over 8 months, Heavenly secured ‘one of the highest scores’ for each of the lots that they were awarded. The lots were Creative Development & Execution, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity and Brand Tone of Voice.

Speaking of the award, Heavenly’s Managing Director, Richard Sunderland said: “We are hugely proud of this achievement. We have been working with the Welsh Assembly Government for over 6 years now and believe that our empathy with Wales and the excellent creative work that we have produced has helped contribute to our success. “

John Rhys, Managing Partner at Heavenly, a role which he combines with the Chairmanship of Welsh brewer and pub company Brains, added: “We have developed some highly successful work recently, including ‘The Valleys – Heart and Soul of Wales’ brand launch, campaigns to celebrate major events in Wales, such as The Ashes and The Ryder Cup and the relaunch of the ‘Wales The True Taste’ brand. We are delighted to be in a position to work with the Welsh Assembly Government for a further 3 years and look forward to creating plenty more successful branding and marketing initiatives.”

Heavenly acquires Personal Branding Business – Be A Brand

Heavenly announced today that it has acquired personal branding agency, Be A Brand. As a result of the deal, Be A Brand’s Managing Director, James Fenner, has joined Heavenly’s senior management team.

This acquisition follows that of the ML-N partnership in late 2009 and Martin Lambie-Nairn’s arrival at Heavenly as Creative Director.

Be A Brand is a specialist personal branding agency whose clients include McFly, Westlife and Marcus Wareing among others.

Commenting on Be A Brand’s integration into Heavenly, Richard Sunderland, founder and Managing Director said: “More and more celebrities are taking advantage of branding principles to further their fame and fortune. In the future, we believe anybody who’s anybody will manage their personal reputation and identity as a brand. James is a great coup for us and brings some invaluable experience in the burgeoning field of personal branding which will add great value to our existing offering ‘Halo’.”

James Fenner’s experience includes roles as Strategy Director at Interbrand as well as Planning Director of DDB, both in Sydney. He established Be A Brand in early 2009.

Speaking of his new role, James said “Bringing Be A Brand into Heavenly makes perfect sense. The guys are ambitious and up for redefining the way branding is done in the 21st century. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.”

Design Week - Top 100

Heavenly in at No 44 in Design Weeks' Top 100 Consultancy Survey. Also one of only 3 agencies identified as 'On the Up'!

SPQR - the oldest know brand in the world?

Having just returned from a wonderful break in Rome and some not so wonderful rugby, I was left reflecting on whether the Romans created the first global brand.

Wherever one walked and whichever corner one turned the immortal initials SPQR jumped out at you from statues, monuments and even drain covers.

Almost all of us know that SPQR is the brand of Rome, of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. It comes from the phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and the People of Rome"), referring to the government of the ancient republic, and was used as their official signature. It appears on coins, at the end of documents, on inscriptions in stone or metal, in dedications of monuments and public works, and as many school children will tell you, was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legion.

The exact date of its first use is not known, but its meaning places the origin of it clearly with the Roman Republic which dates back to 508BC, over two and a half thousand years ago!

Awareness of the brand is immense; it transcends millenium, centuries, generations, national and international boundaries, race, sex and religion. It must surely be one of the most well known and easily identifiable brands and whilst not all will know the meaning of the initials, most will be able to identify its origin.

Could this be the oldest gloabl brand? - It is hard to think of anything else that stands the same test of time. Could it be one of the most widely known brands in the world? - It may not have the same awareness now as Coke or McDonalds, but one wonders whether either of them will be as well known in two and a half thousand years as SPQR is now.

And the truly remarkable thing? If SPQR is not one of the most widely recognised brands it certainly spawned one. On the same monuments that bore the initials, those that were dedicated to famous Roman miliatary victories also bore images of mythical animals and gods with wings - wings that became the inspiration for the Nike whoosh.

Differentiation in the modern male grooming market

As the female grooming market enters into new stratospheres of evolution, the male grooming market by contrast is still in its infancy. A modest selection of brands litter high street shops and supermarkets and as they grow and evolve in response to demand, competition gets stronger and we’re left questioning how differentiation can be achieved.

For female brands in the grooming market there is a great deal of emotion, sensuality and freshness. More pampering than cleansing. But for men, naturally, ‘pampering’ isn’t something that they readily can relate to as an attitude. There is a lot of stigmatism in the male grooming market around using the same attitudes and language as women because that’s not what they see themselves as doing. This is why for a lot of brands in the male market, they take on the attitudes and language used in the female market and turn them on their heads. It’s time to reinvent to be relevant. Brands like Nivea embrace words like ‘refuel’ rather than ‘moisturise’ – giving a common behaviour a distinctly masculine edge to quash any stigmatism. A brand like Nivea is in a way helping to shape the market, by giving it a language that is ownable.

However, this isn’t always the case. Some brands embrace the love of moisturizing, the care and attention of cleansing. Dove now operates in both male and female grooming markets. The female proposition ‘Real Beauty’ is highly emotive and commands dynamic feminist respect. However, when thinking about translating this idea into a male market, there are a few stumbling blocks. Dove’s men’s brand Dove + Care, uses a ‘mathsified’ approach to remain as down to earth as its female counterpart, yet giving it a slightly analytical masculine charm. The language use is no different. Dove embraces moisturising in both markets and I think it’s a bold choice. For the older generation, who understand the importance of good ingredients and the benefits of their routine, don’t really need it to be packaged up in the pomp and circumstance of younger, brash brands that feel the stigma and want rid.

Yet, for those younger, brash brands such as Gillette and Lynx, is it all about a fresh language approach? Younger brands do their part in making male grooming into something that not only empowers men, it exaggerates their masculinity. And the most important benefit of this exaggeration is to attract the opposite sex. It is about differentiating on tone of voice – both heavily masculine, but with Lynx adopting a cheeky attitude and Gillette focused on power and performance. If there were ever any reasons to think cleansing, smelling nice and hair removal is just for girls – well, not any more. This is a man’s game – and it is serious. Lynx is like lager. Gillette is like the sports car. And they’re both playing to win.