Deck the Halls with Branded Beach Towels
Australian newspaper ‘The Age’ recently published an article on Corporate Gift Giving in their Executive Style lift-out in time for Christmas. For most companies, this gesture of Christmas giving for staff and for clients tends to follow an age-old path of logos on golf towels. As an expensive exercise, the opportunity to create indelible brand gestures at this time of year is often missed. The Age asked Truly Deeply Founder David Ansett for his perspective on this seasonal sticky question.

You can check the article written by Sylvia Pennington on-line here: Merry Christmas here’s an iPad.

A Tantalizing Brand Challenge
Melbourne is one of the great food cities of the world. Big statement I know – but having traveled through more than two dozen cities in different countries, through Europe and Asia over the last couple of years, I feel I’m well positioned to make the call. What a challenge then to create a brand each year for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

Having worked with a few of both over the years, in my experience Chefs are every bit as creative as designers – so developing a brand communications campaign for the Festival would be a brand brief with great expectations.

The 2012 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival which will run from the 2nd to the 21st of March is celebrating their 20th anniversary next year. So how to recognize and thank the food leaders who have driven the success of the event over the years whilst also creating a buzz for the upcoming festival?

The answer is Love.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With this ‘Love Ambush’, the Festival have created a viral brand property they can leverage into a strong, engaging broader campaign. A tasty piece of branding.

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Retail Brand Designer & TV aficionado
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

Visit the Festival site here: Melbourne Food & Wine Festival

Leveraging the Brand Magic of Art.
For many brands, especially those who are business to consumer/customer brands, the great challenge is to creatively engage with your audience.

Specialist branding agencies like us at Truly Deeply provide this very skill set of creating memorable and engaging brand expressions for businesses, but not every organization has the budget, imagination in-house, or  a talented bunch of brand folk like us at the end of the phone. For those brands, it’s worth considering whether there are opportunities already in the market just waiting to be leveraged.

‘Unwanted Visitor: Portrait of Wildfire‘ is an art installation created by the very talented Herb Williams.

The notable thing about Herb’s work from a brand communications perspective is that it is made-of hundreds of thousands of crayons. Herb apparently has an account with Crayola (kinda makes alot of sense), his crayon brand of choice.

When creating a piece like this one, Herb orders each colour of crayon necessary from the range, and they come individually packaged, 3,000 crayons to a case. Herb Williams says hes “is interested in identifying objects that society perceives to associate with one role, and reintroduces them into different subtexts”. His most recent work is ‘Unwanted Visitor: Portrait of Wildfire‘, an outdoor installation on display at the National Ranching Heritage Centre in Lubbock, Texas represents five free standing sculptures which emulate fires and flames – reminiscent of a wildfire. Each of the pieces is composed of crayola crayons. because of their wax content, they begin to melt and change shape in the unpredictable outdoor conditions in which they stand. Their transformation is affected by blowing wind and dry conditions, much like those that affect the intensity and duration of real wildfire.

Being someone who sees the world through brand coloured glasses, I don’t see Herb as a great customer for the Crayola company, I see him as a great ambassador for the Crayola brand, providing a great canvas for brand story telling.

Art has always been a great engager. When brands associate with art in a manner that is authentic to the artist and the art form, they can discover a wonderful connector to their target market – unlike anything they are able to achieve in a traditional, commercial brand communication context. Enjoying these wonderful images of Herb and his team at work creating the art piece, I’m left pondering the opportunity here for Crayola to become Herb’s patron, and for Herb to become a wonderful, artistic director of Crayola’s brand expressions. Imagine the media attraction, not to mention social mediability of a National Crayola Sculpture Contest, with Herb as the figurehead, recognized as the for-father of the art form.

Then step back and wonder, is there an artist somewhere in the world, creating magical imagery with your product? This approach holds equal potential for small brands as well as big. Artists by nature are experimental, a quick Google turned-up artists creating in chocolate, butter, cheese, vegetables, fruit, coffee, even toast with Marmite – and that was just some of the food options. What creative gestures may already exist in the world, just waiting for you to connect your products and your brand to their art form?

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Brand Designer, Artist & Huge fan of toast & Marmite art
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

Images courtesy of and ©Ashton Thornhill
Spotted on designboom.com

Retail Branding in Living Colour
McDonald’s in the US is set to launch an in-store TV channel featuring; local school sports, movie previews and heartwarming human interest stories

In the world of entertainment, niche programming is a concept with growing popularity – but when it comes to branding, niche focus is nothing new. What’s fresh here is the combination of the two concepts to create a digital network of exclusive, original content targeted at customers eating in McDonalds’ restaurants.

The real smarts is in the customization of content programming to the specific communities located around the individual store, and will include ‘local news and entertainment features, such as spotlights on upcoming films, albums and TV shows’.

McDonald’s TV is a reflection of brands developing more sophisticated and broader digital strategies Creating one’s own content platform to speak directly with your customers in an environment uncluttered by other media is a real opportunity for brands to forge another level of connection with customers. “People today are using our restaurants differently than they have in the past,” said Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s USA. “They’ve become more of a destination. With McDonald’s restaurants offering Wi-Fi, we’ve become more relevant and contemporary.”

For retailers like McDonald’s, apart of their challenge is to create

McDonalds TV programming will be approached with genuine intent. Word is the brand has signed-up reality TV guru Mark Burnett (Survivor & The Apprentice), BBC America and KABC-TV Eyewitness News are reportedly also on-board to provide content for the new network. The content will be shown in one-hour cycles consisting of installments or “pods” lasting around 20 minutes. Pods will include content such as ‘The McDonald’s Achievers’, profiling local high school and college athletes; ‘Mighty Moms’, focusing on local moms juggling home life with careers; ‘McDonald’s Channel Music News’ featuring content on musical acts, tours and new releases; and a fashion, art, music, night life, lifestyle and culture news program called ‘Vimby’.

Dining areas in each store are to be fitted with high-definition 42- to 46-inch screens visible from 70 percent of eating areas. Audio will be broadcast through the screen and ceiling speakers with quiet zones for those who do not want to see or hear the channel.

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Retail Brand Designer & TV aficionado
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

Two Bronze Awards and Two Highly Commended Awards.

On Friday October 14th the winners for the 2011 Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MADC) Awards were announced. The annual MADC Awards celebrate excellence across a range of advertising and design categories, encompassing print, radio, television and ambient media.

We were thrilled to see that the Truly Deeply ’My Right Arm’ 2010 IGNITE Awards Poster took out the Bronze award for The MADC Award for Best Typography and also received a further Bronze award for The MADC Award for Best Illustration for the ‘Spudbar Visual Language’.

Above: ‘My Right Arm’ 2010 IGNITE Awards Poster

Typographer: Lachlan McDougall
Executive Creative Director: David Ansett
Creative Director: Derek Carroll
Copywriter: David Ansett
Account Team: Dominic Guthrie
Retoucher: Rachel O’Brien
Illustrator: Lachlan McDougall

Above: Spudbar Visual Language

Illustration: Veronica Fever
Creative Director: Derek Carroll
Art Director: David Ansett
Copywriter: David Ansett, Peter Singline
Account Team: Malcolm Harvey
Retoucher: Rachel O’Brien
Designger: Lachlan McDougall, Cassandra Gill
Typographer: Lachlan McDougall, Cassandra Gil

We were equally as thrilled to receive two Highly Commended Awards for The MADC Award for Best Corporate Identity Design for the ‘Spudbar Packaging’ and one in The MADC Award for Best Miscellaneous Design category again for ‘Spudbar’.

If you’d like your brand communications to grab the spotlight and be the talk of the town then why not give us a call.

Dominic Guthrie
Client Account Director

Street art of Continental Europe.
On my recent trip to Europe the rich quality and diversity of the street art caught my eye. In my mind there’s no doubt that stencil, spray and paste-up art has matured to become it’s own credible art form. The visual language of the art I saw was hugely varied in form, style and message. I snapped a stack of what I came across and hope you enjoy it.

The first pic (above) was shot in the canals district of Amsterdam, as were many of the pics below.

These two were in a park on a hill above Prague…

The following beauty was snapped in Italy on the streets of Florence.

Pretty sure this one was from Florence as well…

Dave Ansett, Brandamentalist
Brand Designer & Part Time Street Art Junkie
For monthly updates of our thinking, click here to receive our free Brand Newsletter

I just experienced a strange case of brand deja-vu on a mini break at Silverwater Resort. I was struck by the similarity of the Silverwater Resort brand to that of Emaar Properties.

The resort is in an idyllic spot overlooking Phillip Island. It has a lot going for it, especially if you have kids. But the similarity of the brand identity made me feel like the whole experience was not authentic.

The Silverwater and Emaar brand marks are very similar in graphic style and elements used. So much so, that without putting the logos side by side, the Silverwater logo seems like the Emaar logo in another colour. I even queried whether they were owned by Emaar, which would have made sense – apparently not!

Of course, there are several possible scenarios. One of the logos could be an imitation of the other, it may have been inspired by an already present design style or it could be just by chance that the designs look similar. Unfortunately, with brand identity design, there is a thin line between plagiarism, inspiration and coincidence.

I am surprised that this hasn’t been picked up before. Sure, I am very familiar with the Emaar brand, having spent six years in Dubai. I have also worked withe Emaar as a client, developing brands for their communities, shopping malls, destinations and buildings including Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building).

Emaar is also not a small, shy regional brand. It is one of most well known brands in the Middle East and also has extensive developments across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. A significant amount of Australians in the construction industry have worked for them or know of them. If you’ve visited Dubai, it is likely you would also be familiar with the brand.

The Emaar logo in its current form was launched in early 2004. The Silverwater Resort was launched in 2008. It seems unlikely that Emaar copied Silverwater.

However, apart from lazy design, it is also doubtful that Silverwater would benefit from an association with Emaar’s brand with local Aussies. However, international tourists, particularly from the Middle East might feel cheated that the familiarity and confidence in choosing the Silverwater Resort based on brand familiarity is not genuine – especially if they are expecting an understanding of Middle Eastern culture when they get to the resort.

To give either brand the benefit of the doubt, let’s assume the emulation was not deliberate. The idea behind both logos is not incredibly distinct or well crafted so it is possible this could be a coincidence. This is also makes it difficult for either to defend legally.

A brand’s identity is an important representation of the company’s image and reputation. It’s far more than a logo and needs to be carefully considered and crafted around a distinctive and authentic idea. Choosing a strategic brand design partner is essential to uncover your brand’s DNA and then bring it to life in a unique and compelling way to truly connect with your audiences, build loyalty and help your business survive and grow. Protecting this intellectual property legally is equally as important.

If you’d like to hear how Truly Deeply develops authentic and powerful brands that significantly enhance a company’s ability to compete and grow, I’d love to hear from you.

Michael Hughes
Director of Brand Strategy

Holistic Retail Brand Experience.

October is a very busy month for me when it comes to birthdays and certainly not least my wife’s! Having not ventured down Chapel Street for quite some time, recently we both decided that Chapel Street this year would solve the usual question of “what would you like for your birthday?” in one foul retailing swoop.

With retail suffering possibly more than any other sector it makes you wonder sometimes how on earth certain retail brands survive, so this recent shopping experience was a rather enlightening one. Before venturing out I thought to myself, “what might the majority of these struggling retailers be doing doing to entice the customer firstly into the store and secondly convert that into a sale?”

Pretty much immediately I noticed a trend. This being that their brand expressions were so prominent in terms of their in-store dynamics and window displays which lead me to the conclusion; even though retail is struggling, some retailers are still investing huge amounts money not only on in-store visual merchandising to attract customers but also giving them a creative brand experience to remember once in the store.

One such experience that grabbed us was the Nike store. Yes, Nike’s a brand that has incredible budgets and has the ability to pretty much do as they please but we had no intention whatsoever in entering the store let alone purchasing anything. After being lured in by the window display and in-store dynamics (of which we were blown away by), a salesperson approached us asking if we required any assistance, we replied with the usual, “we’re just looking thanks” so duly left us alone – another tick! After a little more wandering around and checking out some of the hi-tech products we decided the time had come to ask for some expert advice. Cue the same salesperson and without going into the whole rigmarole we were professionally informed on what the best product would be for the type of activity that would be undertaken. No jargon, simply explained, properly measured, informed conversation and tried on. SOLD!

After the ‘Nike experience’ we ventured into another store who’s brand is nowhere near the magnitude of Nike’s nor has the reach or budget, but to be fair, their window display, in-store dynamics and visual merchandising nonetheless were pretty impressive. It was until we entered the store that our ‘retail brand experience’ was shattered, to the point that we pretty much walked out immediately even though this time (unlike Nike) we had plans in making a purchase. We were hassled from the second we walked in and the desperation of this salesperson not only to make a sale but his assumptions on us both was simply wrong! A lot of the hard work was done in getting us into the store but the in-store experience simply let us down.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to follow what we experienced at Nike but surely it can’t be that hard to train staff (even in the simplest of ways) on how to deal with a prospective customer, especially in this current climate. I’m only hoping that other potential customers weren’t subjected to this salesperson’s antics and for the brand’s sake this person was just having a bad day.

Check out some other retail experiences below that Sportsgirl have recently produced, let’s hope they have a similar in-store experience as Nike.

If you’re looking for your window displays, in-store dynamics and retail brand experience to increase your sales results then why not drop us a line.

Dominic Guthrie
Client Account Director

For generations, parents have been trying to get their kids to eat healthier food. Is it possible that one brand has finally found a way to make it happen, at least at school?

During the past year, I have noticed that my son’s lunch box has changed. The rollups are gone, so too the chips, muesli bars and even juice boxes. In their place there’s fresh fruit and all sorts of healthy treats. Even the plastic wrapped sandwiches or paper bags are gone.

This also means nothing is actually branded, except for the lunch box – but more on that in a minute.

My son tells me this is all about him going ‘nude’. No – it’s not eating food in the nude but food that’s unpackaged and waste free.

Most schools are not only supporting the nude cause, they are enforcing it. Nutrition Australia is also behind it, as is Jamie Oliver (who has long campaigned for healthier lunch options for kids).

The focus is on a national awareness campaign in conjunction with nutrition week. The second Nude Food Day is on the 19^th October. The message is a simple one, “enjoy a rubbish free lunch and reduce your environmental footprint”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A first glance it is an incredibly noble cause to get kids to swap processed for more healthier, wholesome foods and reduce rubbish in the playground (the kids have to bring home any rubbish). Then, you realise, ‘Smash’, a company who specialise in making lunch boxes and containers to carry unpackaged food is behind this.

Smash say that “the Nude food movers range was developed to provide a much-needed solution in the marketplace that helps build hassle free lunches, without requiring excessive packaging, that encourages healthy food choices, and doesn’t cost the earth (pardon the pun)!”

Apparently, a normal lunch box or container doesn’t keep naked food fresh and un-crushed. This is where Smash’s range of boxes and containers solve the problem. Their lunch boxes and containers have specially designed with compartments that are airtight, leak proof, crush resistant and insulated to keep everything fresh. Smash have ensured that schools and peer pressure encourages parents to buy the ‘nude food movers’.

It is a simple and effective strategy: understand the trend, highlight a problem, provide the solution, engage key brand supporters and ambassadors, and then continue to drive the awareness. In this case, the brand gesture of ‘nude food day’ is ideal to drive publicity as it continues to give the brand relevance. Better still, it is a good news story about improving the health of our children as well as protecting the environment.

But there is a flip side to this. Branded treats from the supermarket might be under threat. Most of the branded snacks in our cupboard were bought specifically for school. With nude food now the norm, habits are changing and we are now buying far less packaged goodies.

It will be interesting to see how this trend develops and its impact on brands. It’s not just about school lunches. Zero-waste, packaging free supermarkets are already cropping up and encouraging us all to get back to real and basic produce.

If this trend continues to spread, it could pose a bigger threat to FMCG brands than plain packaging is for the tobacco industry. As brand designers, we are excited by this challenge and we continue to explore innovative and sustainable ways to brand, beyond the packaging.

Michael Hughes

Director of Brand Strategy

in.gredients; USA’s first zero-packaging supermarket:

Click here to view the embedded video.

A Beautifully Executed Re-branding Project.
We were engaged with Jean Hailes to conduct a full brand re-design, starting with the strategic framework and outputting all brand identity collateral. In a little under two decades Jean Hailes has developed a significant standing in the women’s health sector. But it also understands that it needs to continue to proactively develop the direction of the Jean Hailes brand. A direction that would further solidify Jean Hailes as the authority in women’s health to deliver cutting edge research and medical services for their clients. The result – a beautifully designed re-brand for this not-for profit in women’s health.

The Jean Hailes Foundation is a not for profit organisation devoted to improving the health and wellbeing of women. Founded in 1992, The Jean Hailes Foundation reflects the enduring legacy that Dr Jean Hailes made to women’s health. She was a pioneer in women’s health in Australia and in 1971 established the first clinic dedicated to women’s health. Dr Jean Hailes had an absolute passion for improving the health and well being of all women. Her expertise and determination to make a difference not only shaped hugely positive outcomes during her lifetime, it also inspired the creation of The Jean Hailes Foundation, following her passing in 1988.

Though developing a focus on networking and research we looked at the defining factors that could place Jean Hailes to enable them to deliver the best service and resources to their clients. To achieve this they need to become the definitive organisation on women’s health in order to have influence on national health policy and the authority voice in women’s health issues.

Leveraging the new go-to market brand essence, we set about creating a visual language that would represent Jean Hailes Essence and the myriad of other strategic inputs. The new brand essence called for a visual language that could tie together a re-focused scientific commitment, but also represent the common bonds that women face in their health lives. The illustrated ‘ networked woman’ was developed to represent the every woman and was surrounded by a visual language that combined a sense of femininity and scientific focus. In designing the complete brand identity for Jean Hailes we have developed a suite of elements including, corporate stationary, internal and external signage, website, marketing collateral and e-branding.

One of the advantages of being a full service brand agency is that it allows us to realise an integrated approach to the visual representation of the strategic framework. Jean Hailes was one of these projects that allowed us to execute the strategic and visual opportunities. The new Jean Hailes brand will serve the ambitions of the Jean Hailes organisation.

If you’d like to discover more about the business advantages to better positioning your brand in your market, why not get in touch. We’d love to share in your success.