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'!