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.