Mr B & Friends brand consultants

Mr B & Friends strengthens its creative team with the appointment of art director/designer Laura Jervis who will join us from Midlands-based agency Rawww on March 1^st 2010.

“Laura is a rare talent” says Steve Richardson. “She combines strategic thinking, conceptual capabilities, copy writing skills and design in one person. Very rare, but perfect for Mr B & Friends. We look forward to Laura joining in March when we’ll have lots of challenging projects for her to get stuck into.”

Mr B & Friends has today been appointed to re-brand Edwin Doran Sports Travel, a TUI Student Division brand.

Established over 30 years ago, EDST specialises in creating bespoke sports tours for schools, universities and clubs across the world. The company was acquired by TUI 3 years ago and is subject to a modernisation programme that includes developing a new brand identity and marketing language.

“This was a brief perfect for us” says Creative Director Steve Richardson. “Our credentials in travel are broad and we have significant sports experience. To cap it all off, we have been working with TUI Student Division on several brands recently, so it was a perfect brief.”

“Our creative approach is to generate a meaningful dialogue between the brand and its clients through the identity and verbal language. We’re looking forward to progressing this exciting strategy.”

The company was appointed following a creative presentation and previous work within the TUI group.

Mr B & Friends further strengthens its team with the appointment of Account Director Philip Holloway. Holloway who has over 15 years experience in the creative, marketing and design industry joins from Barney’s – one of Bristol’s most established agencies.

“Philip is going to bring real strength to our whole agency team,” says Simon Barbato. “His track record is superb and his skills in many areas including integrated communications and the web are unsurpassed. And importantly, his character will fit brilliantly with our team at The Dispensary, but most importantly with our clients. We all look forward to working with him.”

Vogue International today launches its new homeware brand Eko, created by Mr B & Friends.

Eko is an innovative range of plates and dishes made from recycled bamboo designed to change the way we buy patio and picnic ware. Completely natural, reusable and 100% bio-degradable, Eko aims to reduce the volume of plastic and melamine that is purchased in the UK annually.

“Every once in a while you receive a brief which just makes you say wow!” said Steve Richardson. “Eko represents a great idea, a great product and brought to market by a great client. We have developed the brand positioning, identity, visual and verbal language and of course the packaging concept. It’s truly been a pleasure.”

The brand is scheduled to debut in multiple retailers such as Waitrose, House of Fraser and Sainsbury’s where Vogue already have lucrative distribution deals for other products.

Mr B & Friends has appointed Coaching for Creatives in a one-year company development and training contract.

Coaching for Creatives is a Bristol-based training company headed up by Melissa Kidd. They specialise in working with small creative businesses to enhance performance in many areas.

“We are making a number of important developments this year including expanding our in-house and friends capability” said Simon Barbato. “We view Coaching for Creatives’ involvement during this year as important to our continuous improvement. We know we can’t stay still and this company-wide learning programme will benefit everyone involved.”

TUI Gap business has appointed Mr B & Friends to rebrand two of its market-leading brands: Real Gap and i-to-i.

Real Gap specialises in gap holiday experiences from 1 week to 3 years and appeals to a young 18-24 year audience. i-to-i however specialise in volunteering holidays across the world.

“This is a significant appointment for the agency” says Simon Barbato. “Our travel credentials, and our experience of working with TUI brands was instrumental in our appointment, as well as providing a clear path of course for brand development.”

The task’s remit is wide: data analytics, stakeholder insight sessions, strategic positioning and proposition, identity and tone of voice and implementation through web and literature.

Mr B & Friends has been appointed to re-brand Sundridge Consulting, a Bromley based wealth management company. The appointment comes on the back of the IFA brand workshops hosted in September 2009.

Sundridge is a Chartered, 5-year-old, boutique advisory firm headed by Dhan Sharma. The company has grown exponentially and has secured year on year increases in recurring fee income. The re-brand signals a new era in the company’s progress.

“Once again, we’re delighted to add Sundridge to our client portfolio,” says Simon Barbato. “They represent an outstanding regional business headed up by a forward-thinking, respected and supremely qualified CEO. We’re looking forward to helping the company on their ambitious growth plans.”

The new brand is scheduled for launch in March 2010 and will initially be implemented across company stationery, literature, website and sales materials.

Mr B & Friends strengthens its financial services credentials following its appointment by wealth management firm Capital Asset Management.

The agency has been appointed following its IFA brand workshops in September 2009 to develop CAM’s brand positioning, credentials materials and marketing campaigns on a 12-month contract.

“We’re delighted to be working with Alan and his team on the development of their brand,” said Simon Barbato. “They are a smart, professional and innovative business and we aim to enhance their identity and provide a solid ‘reason to choose’ CAM in the marketing phase of our work.”

Development work starts immediately and the first campaign is scheduled for late February, early March.

Mr B & Friends has been appointed to create the brand identity for Bath based decorating business Decorum. The agency was appointed without a pitch.

Decorum has a new vision of professionalism for the decorating trade and is looking to pilot its concept in Bath for the next 2 years, following which the company aims to roll out nationwide through a franchise arrangement.

Mr B & Friends has won a 3-way pitch and has been appointed to create a 30” and 10” TV commercial for consumer insurance brand insurance4carhire.com

The brand is owned and operated by Towergate, one of Europe’s largest insurance businesses. The product is a specialist insurance cover that protects car hirers against the high excess insurance charges not covered by standard rental policies.

“This is a fantastic win for us,” said Simon Barbato. “We’ve been very active in the TV and moving image space over the past couple of years and I’m delighted that the client liked our vision and creative execution for their campaign.”

I4CH is poised to spend £250,000 on media and the campaign goes on air in March 2010. Mr B & Friends has appointed producer/director Ali Collins to work alongside them on the production.

Berkshire NHS Trust release their new brand identity today: Connected Minds. The new brand replaces their Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) following a brand development programme through Mr B & Friends.

The new brand name and identity will spearhead the Trust’s renewal bid for the service contract and will be implemented across all on- and offline media in the coming months.

“Connected Minds is the meeting point between lots of stakeholder groups when it comes to caring for young people with mental health issues,” commented Steve Richardson. “We wanted a name that everyone could aspire to, that was relevant and that told a story. We’re delighted with the creative expression of the new brand.”

Mr B & Friends has been under the scrutiny of our clients via an independent survey conducted by the Recommend Agency Register (RAR) and the results have been more than pleasing!

The RAR canvassed our clients on subjects such as: Creativity, Client Service, Strategic Capability, Value for Money, Effectiveness and Professionalism. The agency scored highly in all categories, scoring above other RAR agencies and achieving an average weighted score of 92% against an RAR average of 80%.

“We are delighted with these results,” said Simon Barbato. “I believe that clients’ opinions of an agency are the benchmark we should judge ourselves against. This report further demonstrates our progress as a young creative company performing well in a difficult economic climate.”

The report is available in pdf form. Simply request a copy by emailing simon@mrbandfriends.co.uk

Mr B & Friends have been appointed to re-brand two TUI travel brands: TrekAmerica and Grand American Adventures. The agency was appointed without a pitch following work with the TUI Group.

Both brands specialise in small group stateside and South America holidays for two distinct audiences: Trek is designed for 18 – 30 year olds and GAA for the slightly more mature traveller, around 40 years.

“We’re chuffed to bits to be commissioned to these exciting projects” said Simon Barbato. “Our travel credentials are extremely strong and this, plus our previous work, went a long way in winning this work. We’re looking forward to re-branding Trek, which is one of those iconic travel brands that you know and love, and creating a new brand story for GAA.”

The project starts immediately and the client is aiming for a March 2010 launch.

Simon Barbato and Steve Richardson have both joined the Bath Spa University Mentorship Programme. Both directors have been appointed an MBA student from the Uni with a view to sharing industry and personal development guidance during their final years.

The agency has strong ties with the University and regularly contributes to student employment initiatives.

Mr B & Friends expands its design capability with the full time appointment of Sheena Mistry. Sheena joins the agency from Midlands-based design consultancy Me & Him.

Steve Richardson commented: “Sheena approached us via our website at a time when we were considering a full time appointment. When we reviewed her portfolio, we realised she was an extremely talented creative. We’re delighted with her appointment and look forward to getting her involved in our clients’ business.”

Aptamil, the baby and toddler food brand launches its new parent initiative Tot it Up today. Tot it Up is an online food and nutritional calculator and tool that helps parents to understood the debit/credit effect of their child’s diet.

Mr B & Friends were appointed without a pitch by client PR company Say to develop the brand idea, positioning and name. The tool can be accessed via http://www.littlepeoplesplates.co.uk/tot-it-up.html Aptamil’s consumer website.

Mr B & Friends has strengthened its links with Bath Spa University by recruiting 4th year student Jenny Browne in a part-time placement role. This appointment follows the hugely successful appointment of Ben Hamilton in 2008.

Simon Barbato commented: “We’re keen to nurture young talent and Jenny showed us a significant willingness to learn about the brand and creative industry. We hope her part time appointment will mature into a full-time role when she graduates in June 2010.”

Arcrate, the boutique wealth management company launches a new private client proposition brochure today designed by Mr B & Friends.

Following the previous brand identity established by the agency, the new literature is designed to help private clients in the decision making process when choosing a wealth management firm.

Headwater launches its new brochure range today designed by Mr B & Friends. Owned by travel giant TUI and celebrating its 25^th successful year in 2010, Headwater specialises in small group walking and cycling tours in Europe and beyond for the over 55s market.

“Following a series of consumer focus groups we made some evolutionary changes to the brochure” said Steve Richardson. “The most significant change was the introduction of separate Walking and Cycling brochures. We also provided a cleaner, more contemporary layout with better product signposting.”

The agency was appointed to the task without a pitch following previous work within the TUI group.

Mr B & Friends is set to host two separate brand workshops specifically designed for IFAs, wealth management companies and intermediaries.

“The financial services sector has taken a battering over the past 12 months, and the recent FSA RDR review means that the business of giving financial advice post 2012 will change forever. Never before has brand been so important in this sector” says Simon Barbato.

The workshops are designed to help advisers to understand the role that brand plays in engaging existing and new private clients, and how brand needs to be managed through marketing channels.

The first workshop will be delivered to 21 advisory companies – all of whom belong to the West End Brokers Study Group. The second workshop will be delivered to the Aurora group – a collection of 9 boutique wealth management companies.

As part of developing our presence in the South West, Mr B & Friends today joined the GWE Chamber of Commerce.

“We hope to be able to network in our local community, take part in initiatives and of course along the way meet new clients” said Simon Barbato.

GWE Chamber of Commerce has over 3,000 members within 30 miles radius of Bath with members ranging from small home based offices to some of the largest corporate clients within the region.

Berkshire NHS Trust has appointed Mr B & Friends to re-brand their existing Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The agency’s task is to generate a new vision for CAMHS as part of a re-tendering process by the Trust. The agency was appointed following previous work for the Trust.

As well as holding stakeholder workshops, the agency expects to create a new vision statement, name and brand identity.

Creative Director Steve Richardson says “This is a great opportunity for the Trust to raise the bar not only in the connections that CAMHS will make with all stakeholders in the region, but also to help identifying and implementing a new culture within the organisation. We’re looking forward to the task!”

Suffolk Life launched its new advertising and marketing campaign: Depend on quality, to IFAs and wealth managers. Designed to articulate the Suffolk Life MasterSIPP’s value propositions to a business audience, the campaign will run in print advertising, online executions and exhibitions in the financial services trade channels.

“When weighing up the MasterSIPP against other self-invested products on the market, it’s easy to forget what a quality product looks like,” said Simon Barbato. “Our campaign supports the premium brand, product and price proposition by using quality icons that our audience will relate to.”

The campaign will run into Q1 2010.

We’re delighted to have been nominated as a finalist in the Bath Life Awards, Best Creative Business 2009. The awards celebrate companies in the City who have excelled in product and service delivery as voted by clients and the local community. “It’s a real privilege to live and work in Bath, and we have been working hard to increase our profile in this beautiful city and its thriving creative community.” said Partner Simon Barbato. “Being recognised and achieving a nomination has delighted everyone at the agency.”

The awards ceremony takes place on 17th September at Bath’s Assembly Rooms.

The wedding of the year survived the recent poor weather as Ben & Jo tied the knot at a colourful ceremony at Bath’s Guildhall. The bride was stunning and the groom dashing as they were joined by over 100 guests in one of Bath’s most historic venues, and then followed for an alternative outdoors reception at Rocks East Woods near Batheaston (which also involved a spectacular wooden cake!). We wish the happy couple all the very best for the future.

Mr B & Friends has completed the design and production of a new company credentials presentation for start-up brand Filup. Filup design and manufacture a unique patented water dispenser system that is aimed at public areas. With the UK alone consuming over 2.3 billion litres of bottled water per year – the impact on the environment as a result of discarded plastic bottles is immense. Until now, there hasn’t been a credible alternative.

Filup delivers great tasting, fresh, chilled filtered water on the go. Bottles are not dispensed with Filup therefore encouraging consumers to re-use water bottles. And priced at a fraction of retail prices commanded by leading brands, Filup provides a financial motivation to consumers as well as the obvious ecological motivations. Filup is destined for a wide range of public access environments from universities, tube stations, visitor attractions, CTNs and retail.

Our work included the development of the look and feel, visual identity and production of an animated presentation. “It was important to give Filup a modern, fresh and exciting visual identity” commented Steve Richardson. “The final presentation brings the Filup opportunity to life in a compelling way, and we hope to move forward with other tasks as the brand takes off.”

Mr B & Friends has been appointed by Vogue International to develop the brand and positioning strategy for a new ‘green’ consumer brand. The company was appointed without a pitch following a credentials presentation. Vogue are a major Oxford based company who specialise in the design and manufacture of a wide range of consumer products including licensed character ranges for children including Ben 10, Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer. This new, exciting brand is a departure from Vogue’s core activity, however the company will leverage relationships with major retail accounts to ensure listing of the new brand.

“We knew this product was a winner as soon as soon as we were briefed” said Simon Barbato. “The new brand concept is a category buster and will directly challenge the status quo in a very lucrative and growing market. We obviously need to keep the project detail under wraps for now, but we are developing the brand strategy, positioning and proposition over the coming weeks and will look to work with the client in producing the identity, packaging, point of sale and online presence during late summer, autumn.”

Mr B & Friends have been appointed by Headwater Holidays to carry out a programme of consumer research in advance of a literature development programme. Headwater is part of the TUI group and specialises in activity holidays for active and culturally interested 45 – 65 year olds and offer over 120 trips to Europe, Africa and the Americas. The company has been established for over 25 years and has created a niche positioning amongst its loyal customers, however it is now seeking to expand its passenger numbers through customer acquisition and the Headwater brochure is key to this.

“Literature still plays a massive role in the decision making process when it comes to booking a holiday, despite the web” explains Steve Richardson. “We’re looking to uncover the good and the not so good about the current offering before embarking on design development programme. We’ll be working with Headwater’s current, previous and enquirer consumer segments to establish our creative brief.”

The agency was appointed without a pitch following a credentials presentation which included previous work for travel brands such as Explore, Exodus and Page & Moy.

We are delighted to have completed our first creative tasks for Runners Need, the running specialist retailer. Our first two briefs comprised of developing print advertising creative to promote Runners Need’s new Oxford Street store, and a new Puma instore promotion.

“We’re thrilled to be working with this small, specialist but extremely exciting client” commented Simon Barbato. “We hope to develop the relationship with Runners Need and be able to work with them on other on and offline marketing projects.”

If you’re reading this, then welcome to the new Mr B & Friends brand and website. Now in our 4th year, it was time to really establish our own brand identity and a focal point for our work, our community of friends and of course our agency proposition. And, as the web has become such an important part of our clients’ mix, we also needed to show our talents in this media too. Many thanks to Matt Powell of Made Up Design for the great web development.

As well as featuring our portfolio and latest showreel, we also introduce our new friends characters – a way of presenting the skills and talented people we work with within the agency network. Each month, we’ll feature a friend who’s central to our work. This month is director/producer Ali Collins.

We’d be delighted to hear your thoughts and get your feedback.

Mr B & Friends have completed the brand overhaul for Sea-Band – the anti-nausea wristband brand.

Currently sold in over 20 countries worldwide, Sea-Band has been the market leader in this category for over 15 years. The brand’s main competition came from orally taken anti-emetics, and therefore as this was a drug-free remedy, Sea-Band needed to boost its natural credentials.

We created a new brand positioning firmly anchoring the brand as The Natural Choice, designed a modern brand identity, re-designed the packaging and point of sale range and created a consumer press advertising campaign for its 3 main markets: travel, pregnancy and healthcare.

A new transactional website was also designed and developed. For more information, see the case study.

Mr B & Friends have designed and launched the first of four micro sites for mobile technology brand PageOne.

PageOne is the UK’s largest provider of paging, SMS and mobile communications solutions for business, education and government sectors in the UK. Established over 25 years ago, PageOne provide cross platform products and services that delivers reliable communications for hundreds of private and public sector companies.

The first of four sites to launch is pageonepager.com – a site dedicated to the core business of PageOne: one and two way paging.

Football legend Eric Cantona, director Ken Loach and actor Steve Evets made a visit to The Little Theatre in Bath at the weekend to host a special screening of Loach’s new film Looking for Eric.

A packed house, including Mr B and most of The Dispensary community, watched the film and then the trio were invited onto stage for a Q&A session.

“I had my question lined up” said Simon, “But I was so star struck I could hardly speak. If they had put Pele on the stage, I couldn’t have been more excited.”

Indeed.

The Bristol Design Festival kicked off this weekend and this year’s creative challenge was to take a £7 IKEA table and create a special design to exhibit to the public.

Steve’s idea was focused on launching the new Mr B & Friends brand identity with one of the characters as the main focal point. “As we are a south west agency, we wanted to get a bit more recognition within the Bristol design community. This exhibition was a great platform to do this and launch our brand. Also this exhibition attracts design and creative talent which will broaden our Friends network.” Two tables were made, and one proudly sits in our office now.

Ben however took a sideways look at creating a Periodic Table design, with a great and inventive idea, using gold metallic foils this piece looked stunning. Over 60 designers, model makers and artists entered a table.

It appears that the creative industry is alive and very much kicking in the South West if Bristol Media’s latest SW Top 100 Creative league table is anything to go by.

Topping the chart with revenue in excess of £110m is Future Publishing. Mr B & Friends modestly sits 76 places below this outstanding performance.

Partner Simon Barbato commented: “To be honest, it was the first opportunity we had of entering, so we did so to establish a benchmark for ourselves in the region. We were very pleased that after only 3 years in business, we’ve made the Top 100. Onwards and upwards!”

Creative Director Steve Richardson has commissioned local digital artist Chad Woodward to create the identity for Mr B’s friends.

“We had been considering how best to graphically represent the talented friends we have in our network” Richardson commented. “We decided to do this by creating a series of characters, each representing a different creative expertise. Chad’s recent work is very graphic but with a modern twist, and everything he does has a touch of humour. I think to balance our considered typography and identity we wanted something that would have energy and provoke interest or comment, rather than the usual minimalist creative agency identities.”

The characters appear on the website and stationery and the agency is preparing a range of branded merchandise as promotional gifts. To see more of Chads work, visit www.chadwoodward.com

Mr B & Friends has created a new brand identity for online brand conferencebadges.co.uk

The new identity will provide the creative anchor for the soon to be released redesigned website.

Creative Director Steve Richardson explains his idea: “Purchasing via the internet is all about speed and instant recognition. This client prints, sells and provides products for conferences via the internet, but its core offering is the badge market. We used this motif with striking colours and a sleek finish to highlight the quality of all their products.”

The new website is scheduled to be launched in July 2009.

Mr B & Friends have designed and produced an extensive credentials pack for specialist SIPP provider Suffolk Life.

Targeted primarily at advisers and secondly to the investor, the new pack comprises company profile, product information and sales aids designed to make recommending Suffolk Life easier and more understandable for the adviser.

The new pack will be distributed among Suffolk Life’s adviser community during the coming months and will also be used by the Suffolk Life and Legal & General (Suffolk Life’s parent company) sales team.

We are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Edward James Barbato who made an appearance at 3.42am on April Fool’s Day. Mother & baby are both wonderful, as is a very proud dad.