Brand Strategy

A leader in real-time 3D content development asked us to help them better understand the evolution of their marketplace, their users – and their brand perception – to influence their future positioning and development in a new digital era.

We built foundational understanding through desk research & stakeholder interviews, validated hypotheses in quantitative, and went on to run a series of B2B interviews with real-time 3D platform users across multiple industries such as film, gaming, entertainment, architecture and construction. Finally, in collaborative workshops, we developed the new positioning for the brand, along with recommendations on how to manage their portfolio, innovation opportunities, and competitive watch-outs (and advantages) for the future.

A leading, world-renowned energy drink brand wanted to understand how to drive engagement and cut through the masses of content available, to deliver their message to a global youth audience. Through a longitudinal qual-quant study over 1 year, we explored and tracked their culture marketing activities at a local and global level, which elicited key drivers for the team to use to inspire and filter future activity. 

We highlighted key nuances that would better deliver their strategy across comms channels, maximising impact on brand perceptions and intention to purchase. This was delivered in a format so teams around the globe could quickly assess events to ensure a good fit for the brand before investing.

Pinterest wanted to untangle the sticky subject of inspiration globally and create visual and strategic guardrails to help creators maximise the potential return and impact of their content. Through a blend of experts, qualitative, quantitative, stats modelling and semiotic AI machine learning we were able to develop a tangible definition of inspiration, distil it down into sub-dimensions and, crucially, make it usable. 

Our work produced clear recommendations in terms of what images resonated with users, and the compelling messages Pinterest’s Business team could leverage when talking to brands and encouraging engagement from creators. This was featured in Pinterest Presents 2022, went on to delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in touched revenue, and won the ESOMAR Gold Research Effectiveness Award 2023. Inspirational, indeed.

A leading, premium fashion brand asked us to assess how their marketing is affecting their brand and how they could improve and optimise it over time. To do this, we put together a tracking programme that ebbed and flowed with the market and marketing communications needs, rooted in our Brand AURA principles. 

Covering 15 global markets, we incorporated a long-term core quantitative tracking hub and in-depth deep dives to ensure their activity was captured for key markets, whilst providing vital performance diagnostics. We delivered & interpreted monthly reporting dashboards which fed into business planning, campaign evaluation, and an annual debrief which helped bring current learnings to life, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.​

“What’s the future of entertainment?” – a big question that needed a clear, strategic answer. Blending digital diaries, in-home depths across the US, expert interviews and academic immersion exploring existing psychological & sociological theories of entertainment, we developed a framework that would be used by our client to identify opportunities across their content verticals; past, present and future. 

This comprehensive model of human needs – consisting of people’s actions, interactions, and larger entertainment repertoires – was defined from learning about how people navigate and prioritise the modern (and vast) entertainment landscape. Supported by an engaging film, we ran workshops to put it in to action across the various business units and teams, delivering instant impact across brand, communications, commissioning, licensing and more.

Neal’s Yard Remedies identified an opportunity to evolve and grow the brand by developing its current equity and offering. To help re-establish its ‘pioneering’ status, we took a multi-faceted approach, collaborating with NYR senior stakeholders to leverage internal knowledge; used social, web & search analytics to understand the wider audience; and in-store immersions, ‘shop-alongs’, staff interviews and ethnography, to hone -in around the experiential and transactional aspects of the brand.

Our creative approach enabled us to bring real people and their needs into the boardroom, delivering a clear direction in how to move the brand forward in a new context, providing fundamental insights into the category and where the brand should be aiming to position itself within the category landscape.

The frozen pizza market is crowded and our client needed to carve out its own role and purpose both within the category and the business’s wider portfolio. With a lot of untapped potential, we needed to move beyond being functional benefits alone, building a greater emotional connection with the target audience, developing a unique and relevant brand positioning to serve as a guide for future brand communications, pack design and beyond.

Immersing ourselves in the worlds of the target consumer enabled us to identify their needs and occasions where the brand could have a unique role to play. Turning insights into territories, we focused on the story to drive the brand forward, with a clear and compelling brand platform, guidelines around execution and thought starters for comms and innovation.