Tag Archives: brand

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Provocative punk styling replaces agency brand

Technical, technology and science PR agency Stone Junction, has rebranded to signal a new phase of the company’s development. The iconoclastic and irreverent new visual style is the company’s first rebrand since 2014.

The overhaul of Stone Junction’s aesthetic is part of a wider infrastructural upgrade which is set to see the company to expand rapidly. A series of new hires, a move to a larger office and expansion of the PR, communications and marketing services offered, all position the agency as ready to grow strongly in the coming months and years.

“The PR industry has changed dramatically in the last five years and it’s important that Stone Junction adapts with that change,” explained Richard Stone, managing director of Stone Junction. “In a funny way, while our clients and friends across the PR world have gotten younger on average, we’ve matured as an agency.

“I wanted to make sure that, amid all the exciting upheaval, change and growth, we retained the witty, anti-establishment, and iconoclastic identity that Stone Junction has always had. We’ve grown organically, without any external investment, and we’re proud to be a company with an entrepreneurial, positive and DIY aesthetic that pulls itself up by its bootstraps.”

Branding, of which visual identity is a crucial part, is central to a company’s key values and the way it chooses to communicate those values. The striking blazes of colour in the new Stone Junction visual style stand out from the deep, broody black canvas and convey the company’s provocative and challenging approach to capturing attention for its clients.

“I think the punk influences for this design scheme are clear. We want it to excite people and make them wonder about us,” explained Kelly Doble, senior designer at Stone Junction. “The Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, and The Clash’s first sets of punk ideals might be 45 years old, but they still stir up rebellious feeling.

“Having this design capability in-house means that we’ve been able to keep the root of our brand identity while giving the company a new face. Although it seems like a big change, this is a natural progression from the agency that we have been into the one that we’re becoming.”

To see more of the rebranded identity and to find out about how Stone Junction’s rebrand design services can help your company to update its image, visit the new website at wechangeminds.com.

Appointments, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Commvault appoints new Chief Marketing Officer to propel brand forwards

Commvault, an enterprise data protection leader for the complex and mission critical hybrid environments of today’s global businesses, is excited to announce Anna Griffin as its new Chief Marketing Officer.

Griffin comes to Commvault as both an award-winning brand builder and results-driven marketer who has driven visionary campaigns for high-growth SaaS companies like Smartsheet; emerging brands, like Intercom; and global brands that include Saturn, Apple, Sony, Juniper Networks, and CA Technologies (now Broadcom). She’s earned a slew of marketing awards for campaigns—including the Golden Effies for effectiveness in marketing and the Edgar R. Murrow award for excellence in social media.

“Commvault is an industry pioneer, and I believe we are unmatched in the category by every measure,” said Griffin. “Our technology continues to set the pace for innovation in data protection across any environment or application. I see it as my mandate to make sure the world knows it.”

“Anna’s experience building powerful brands and category leaders will help ensure that organizations fully understand the value Commvault brings to customers by protecting their most important asset—their data,” said Sanjay Mirchandani, Commvault President and CEO.

Appointments, News, North of England, Regional News

Four new arrivals strengthen ranks at creative agency Fluid Ideas

Four new starters have strengthened the ranks of creative agency Fluid Ideas as its expansion continues.

Fluid, which is based at Darley Abbey Mills, near Derby, has recruited across four of its six teams in line with further growth in demand for its range of services.

The new arrivals are Nicole Davies, Tom King, Will Davis and Matt Thompson.

Nicole, who has a master’s degree in marketing management, has joined Fluid’s websites and systems team as a project manager. Her role is to ensure digital projects are delivered efficiently, on time and to budget while also helping to support and optimise clients’ websites.

Tom has joined the brand and creative team as a multi-disciplinary designer, working on client campaigns and pitches. He has more than 10 years’ commercial experience of working with national and international brands and he adds to the team’s animation and CGI capabilities. Tom also holds a leadership and management qualification from the Institute of Leadership and Management.

Will, a digital marketing graduate from the University of Derby, has gained experience in the sport and leisure sector and has joined Fluid’s search and social team. His main focus will be search engine optimisation, content writing and social media management.

Matt has joined the design and artwork team and brings with him more than 20 years’ experience of working in local agencies. In joining Fluid, he follows in the footsteps of his brother Ben, who was the agency’s first employee and has helped drive the growth of its brand and creative team for almost two decades.

Ed Bowler, joint managing director of Fluid Ideas, said: “As always, our focus has been on growing with good people. Nicole, Matt, Will and Tom all bring new and exciting talents to the team but, most importantly, they care about the quality of work we produce and they will undoubtedly add to the spirit and culture that has helped make Fluid such a healthy and enjoyable place to be, for our clients and our colleagues.”

Fluid Ideas is a full-service agency whose operations cover branding and campaigns, graphic and website design, computer-generated imagery, 3D animation and video, photography, copywriting, digital marketing, content management, search and social media – all in-house.

Its client base spans sectors including healthcare, retirement living, property, professional services, education, finance, leisure and hospitality.

The agency celebrated its 18th birthday in January and posted record annual revenues of £3.2m in the year to November, boosted by increased business from existing clients and a raft of new wins. Staff numbers have increased to over 50 in recent months in line with Fluid’s growth.

International News, Law, News, North of England

Taylors Solicitors advises iconic sailing brand Henri-Lloyd on its sale to ODLO

A Switzerland-based performance brand is to acquire iconic UK sailing and lifestyle brand Henri-Lloyd Group.

A team at north west law firm Taylors Solicitors has advised the owners of Henri-Lloyd on the sale to ODLO, a specialist sport and outdoor clothing brand which is owned by Monta Rosa Capital.

The acquisition, for a substantial undisclosed sum, is expected to be completed shortly.

Taylors’ team of advisers was led by corporate partners Andrew Livesey and Matthew Catterall and the firm’s head of commercial property, partner John Lomax.

Andrew said: “Henri-Lloyd is an iconic British brand, and we are delighted to have been able to work with the business over the past few years, culminating in the current deal with ODLO.

“It is a pleasure and a privilege to be associated with such a dynamic business and team of individuals, and a brand that is instantly recognised worldwide. This was a particularly pressurised deal, with a substantial amount of detail to be dealt with in a short timescale.

“There were plenty of early starts and late finishes, with all of the professional team fully focused on the task in hand.”

Taylors advised Henri-Lloyd when it last changed hands in 2018, when the brand and valuable assets were acquired out of administration by a group of investors led by Hans Eckerström with the aim of re-establishing the company as the premier brand for yachtsmen and sailors around the world.

Henri-Lloyd was established in Manchester in 1963 and has 85 staff in its UK retail business.

Hans Eckerström, chairman of Henri-Lloyd, said: “The acquisition of Henri-Lloyd by ODLO opens up tremendous opportunities for the brand to reach its true potential to the benefit of all shareholders, both current and future.

“Joining a family of successful companies that share values and goals will accelerate our growth. Most importantly that journey will be based on quality, innovation and striving for sustainability – principles that the Henri-Lloyd team hold dearly.”

Henri-Lloyd was founded by Henri Strzelecki, who set out to create the world’s best and most durable waterproof clothing. He created several world-firsts within technical clothing that have today become industry standards, including seam taping garments for waterproofing and the invention of the nylon non-corrosive zip.

The Henri-Lloyd team will continue to be located in Manchester, and will collaborate with the ODLO group in the development of the brand and a new generation of innovative products.

ODLO chairman Hugo Maurstad said: “We are excited about including Henri-Lloyd into our family of brands. It is an iconic brand with a proud history. Together we aspire to further expand its product range and geographic footprint.

“Henri-Lloyd and ODLO are both companies that originated from technical innovations in outdoor sport apparel and they will complement each other going forward.”

ODLO chief executive Knut Are Høgberg said: “By leveraging ODLO’s comprehensive infrastructure, we can concentrate investments towards the Henri-Lloyd brand and its customers while progressing on the ambitious sustainability agenda of all brands within ODLO International.

“We warmly welcome the Henri-Lloyd team to the ODLO family and look forward to working together going forward.”

Software

SoftwareONE Unveils New ‘Goatpath’ Brand

Dedicated innovation brand to transform how customers and partners buy, sell and manage software, services and cloud in future

Stans, Switzerland | 24 February 2022 – SoftwareONE Holding AG, a leading global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, has today unveiled a new brand to focus on delivering the next generation of technologies, platforms and products at speed. Called Goatpath by SoftwareONE, the innovations developed under the brand will radically change the way customers can buy, sell and manage their software, cloud and services.

Goatpath aims to make it easy for businesses to automate and govern procurement, management and security of software and cloud. The technologies, platforms and products developed will offer SoftwareONE partners and ISVs new routes to market, broadening their customer reach and enhancing their capabilities. In addition, Goatpath will focus on traditionally challenging cross-departmental areas in organizations where silos can lead to failed digital transformation projects.

‘Goatpath is an evolution of our strategy, approach and the outcomes we can achieve for our customers and partners. The new name and brand reflect our desire to find the fastest route across challenging terrain with nimbleness and surety. Market requirements are changing at pace. Our customers and partners need our technologies, platforms and products to keep ahead of these changes. With an entrenched culture of innovation, Goatpath is our route to achieve this,’ explains Mike Fitzgerald, GM of Goatpath, Chief Innovation Officer at SoftwareONE.

‘We want to empower our customers to automate and govern their software, cloud and services investments. Goatpath by SoftwareONE has highly talented and dedicated development teams that will place the customer at the centre of everything that is built. We see Goatpath as a core part of the SoftwareONE business that will drive growth and help us to continuously break new ground in an ever-changing digital world,’ says Dieter Schlosser, CEO of SoftwareONE.

Learn more at www.Goatpath.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Iconic Squirrel nut brand celebrates past and looks to future with new identity and positioning by Straight Forward Design

Nut industry leader John B. Sanfilippo & Son has relaunched its iconic Squirrel brand, with a new identity and positioning developed in partnership with global brand design agency Straight Forward Design.

Founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1888, Squirrel has become one of America’s most iconic and well-loved nut brands, seen everywhere from Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s pocket as he explored the Antarctic, to Hollywood stars’ dressing rooms.

Amidst the challenging business conditions of the pandemic, John B. Sanfilippo & Son asked Straight Forward Design to reimagine the Squirrel brand, giving it a reason to exist in a crowded marketplace and in its wider portfolio of brands.

John B. Sanfilippo & Son tasked Straight Forward Design with reinventing the Squirrel brand while celebrating its unique legacy and heritage, ensuring it would appeal to “Gen Next” and the food obsessed. The new brand needed to drive taste appeal, hero-ing Squirrel’s exquisite flavours, ingredients and creation methods.

The brand is also looking to a sustainable future, with planned activity including partnerships to protect habitats and wildlife by educating people and supporting rural communities.

To achieve all of this, Straight Forward Design started by putting the nut back at the centre of the story. The new Squirrel brand draws on an impressive history, borrowing from its rich back catalogue of iconography and ephemera and updating it for a modern audience. It also takes inspiration from fashion for its architectural principles, with signature, diffusion collections, and high-end couture taste sensations.

The new positioning is all about celebrating the nut, brought to life through a new, updated squirrel character with a new name, Zip (after the famous Squirrel product Nut Zippers), and a whole back story. Zip constantly scours the earth to gather the greatest nuts and ingredients. The charming character is free to roam around the new, art-deco inspired logo, never in the same place twice, and always on the move.

Squirrel’s new packaging is designed to offer the customer a premium experience from shelf through to eating, incorporating the brand’s origin story, the nuts and their ingredients, and an explorer’s map to guide the consumer through the brand experience.

Straight Forward Design was responsible for the new strategy, positioning, brand identity, brand activation, brand experience, brand guidelines and packaging design. 

John Goetter, Vice President Marketing, John B Sanfilippo & Son, said: “Working in partnership with Straight Forward Design, we have developed a new brand that nods to Squirrel’s incredible history while ensuring it has real appeal for a modern audience seeking high-quality specialty foods for themselves or as a gift.

“Straight Forward have breathed new life into Squirrel, considering how the brand should behave at all levels, from a marketing perspective through to sustainability and beyond.”

 

Mike Foster, Founder and Creative Director, Straight Forward Design, added: “It’s been a delight to work on reinventing a brand with such a rich heritage and back story, which we’ve been able to draw on in order to create something that feels authentic and true to Squirrel’s roots.

“Our approach to the brief is embodied by our new brand character Zip, scurrying from Squirrel’s past into an exciting, animated future.”

 

Business, News

Newsflare Appoints New Head of B2B Growth Marketing following Series B Funding Round and Brand Refresh

London, New York, Los Angeles 10th February 2022: Newsflare, the world’s leading licensing platform and marketplace for user-generated video (UGV), has announced the appointment of Nick Mamouzellos as its new Head of B2B Growth Marketing. The first senior hire since attracting £5m Series B funding and announcing a milestone brand refresh, Nick will play a leading role in Newsflare’s accelerated growth strategy as it stakes its claim as category leader for the monetisation of premium UGV.

Nick is a highly experienced growth marketing expert, combining creativity with digital strategy to attract, engage and retain customers. Nick most recently served as Digital Strategist at VIXIO and brings vast experience of leading the strategy and execution of global marketing programmes for organisations such as Pepsi Co, ALM Media, The Michael J Fox Foundation, and Baretz + Brunelle. Results-oriented, Nick has a history of driving continuous growth and building highly engaged customer bases.

Speaking about the appointment, Newsflare’s CCO Neil Rampe said:

“I’m really excited to welcome Nick to the team. Marketing is key in developing our foundation for growth and he is going to help us build on the great work the team have achieved so far in getting us to this milestone moment in the evolution of our company. We were attracted by his obsession with growth, being data-informed, and his excitement about our proposition – capturing and sharing moments that matter.

“2022 is a pivotal year for Newsflare. A year when our dream to become the global market leader for the monetisation of user-generated video (UGV) starts to become a reality and within our reach. It’s nothing short of transformational for our business, for our talented team of people, for our army of filmers, for our customers – publishers, social publishers, TV producers, creative agencies, brands – and for the growth of the creator economy.”

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Why now’s the time to build a strong personal brand

By Sarah Woodhouse, Director, AMBITIOUS PR

The biggest marketing trend that we’ve seen throughout 2020 is the drive to build a strong personal brand. Customers are becoming savvy to the ethics and ethos of the businesses that they are buying from. They are being more discerning in their choices driven by the desire to do good and to avoid untrustworthy brands during an unpredictable time.

The absence of physical events in 2020 is also giving leaders more time to put in effort to invest in themselves and the way that they communicate to both internal and external audiences. Having a strong personal brand is even more important for businesses operating in crowded markets where it’s more difficult to cut through the noise of the competition.

A business is brought to life by its people. Increasing the visibility of CEOs, members of the board and senior leadership teams builds your brand identity, showcases your values and demonstrates that you own your areas of expertise. People buy into people; so what better way to express a message of equality, vision and purpose than through an individual that’s believable? Personal brand building can support your wider marketing comms initiatives, boost reputation, build trust and drive leads.

So how do you build a strong personal brand? Sarah Woodhouse, Director, AMBITIOUS PR shares six key steps:

Step one: Get your message spot on

The first step is to nail your brand vision, message and personality. Ask yourself these questions; what’s your purpose? Who is your target audience? What is the one thing you want to tell people and why? What brand qualities do you want to be known for? For example, do you want to be perceived as approachable and knowledgeable, dynamic and energetic or polished and highly qualified?

Step two: Blog

Your company blog is a great place to start. Blogs are very well read as they are a great way to find out more about the culture and ethos of a business. It’s important that your company blog features a range of employees including board members and c-level spokespeople. The focus of blog content can be diverse; you can blog about anything from topical industry events and national days to company fundraising efforts and opinion-based articles. Blog content can then be amplified throughout all of your company social media channels.

Step three: Be present on social media

It’s important to have a presence across all of the main social media channels, but the focus of content will be different for each one. LinkedIn is the most used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies. Over 50 per cent of all social media traffic to a B2B website a huge 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. For a business leader, it’s one of the most effective ways to communicate to your target audience. You should use this platform to share your knowledge of industry trends, advise your audience, share your expertise and grow your network.

Facebook is mainly viewed by a consumer audience so it should be used to demonstrate the culture of your business to future employees. But remember leaders of huge corporations are consumers too, so make sure that this platform is moderated and inbound comments are reviewed. Twitter is a great way of amplifying blog and traditional media coverage and also as a way of sharing industry information.

Across each platform make sure you mix up your content with video, articles, posts and try and avoid stock photography so your feed looks fresh and drynamic.

Remember, that sharing content is only half the plan, you also need to invest time in community management. If you nourish your network you will get out what you put in.

Step four: Build relationships with traditional media

Generating a good momentum of positive earned media coverage in industry titles, regional, national and broadcast media is a fantastic way of boosting credibility. Building relationships with both traditional print and digital publications will help you to reach your target audience, share your knowledge and expertise, influence their decision making and motivate people to do business with you. It is also great for SEO, building links from credible sources and increasing leads to your website.

Step five: Become a known industry speaker

Industry and media events offer the opportunity for you to put a face behind your company brand, build relationships and increase your corporate network. Create a list of key business events within your industry and become an engaging keynote speaker. As you become more known on the circuit, the organisers of these events may even start to approach you to ask you to participate in future speaker events.

Step six: Win awards

What better way to demonstrate your credentials than to say you are award-winning in your field? There are reams of industry awards out there; some are run by industry publications offering the added advantage of boosting your media presence as they report on the winners and runners up. Create a list of credible awards in your industry and find out which ones your competitors are entering. Create strong award entries detailing customer successes; the key is evidencing your successes with plenty of facts and statistics. When you win an award, ensure you broadcast it throughout all of your channels; your website, blog, social media, on email footers and in newsletters.

To build an effective personal brand strategy the trick is ensuring that your message is compelling, you take a diverse approach to the platforms available to target your audience and finally, to create traction when distributing content to maximise the impact.

 

AMBITIOUS PR delivers award-winning campaigns for our clients. Crowned Best PR Agency at The Drum’s RAR Awards 2018, 2019 and 2020, the national award based on client ratings, it’s fair to say that we deliver results against our PR plans and client campaigns.

Our focus is corporate and business-to-business communications. It’s our strength: it’s what we do best. Here’s some of our clients’ success stories. If you think our PR agency can help your business or brand grow, then please get in touch.