Mr B & Friends brand consultants

Mr B & Friends, the Bath based brand and creative agency has re-named and re-branded The Plastic card Shop.com as Oomph in a move to create an industry leading brand for the Surrey based provider of plastic cards.

TPCS.com has been trading for nearly five years and in that time have produced over 20 million plastic cards ranging from hotel key cards, loyalty cards, discount and membership cards and contactless and chip based cards. In recent years a number of providers have entered the market using similar names, similar branding and similar messaging.

“Differentiation was the absolute key to this project” says Steve Richardson, Creative Director at Mr B & Friends. “When we met Matt Payne and his team, saw his products and learnt about his vision, it was clear that the inherent personality of this unique and creative company needed to be captured and expressed in the new brand.”

Richardson continues: “Oomph! really gets across the energy of the company, and following some brand positioning work, we identified a space that communicated the company’s commitment to service, their creativity and their technical expertise. That’s what Oomph! is all about. Cards with clout. We worked with German illustrator Mark Gmehling to provide a supporting brand character that delivers the enthusiasm and streetwise creative nature of this fresh, new brand.“

Oomph’s Managing Director Matt Payne commented: “My team and myself are very uber-passionate about plastic cards and ensuring our customers receive perfect cards, on time, with ‘wow’. If a customer’s not happy, neither is Oomph! This is more than just a name change, its a mission, to rid the world of mediocre plastic cards (and unscrupulous plastic card suppliers), there’s a lot of them in the UK! With a bullet-proof brand (of which I am very proud) and incredible creative team, aka Mr B & Friends and Riot, there’ll be no stopping us delivering 100% Oomph!”

Mr B & Friends have designed the hand crafted brand identity, launch literature, packaging, a selection of sample cards and contributed elements to the website design. The agency will be working with Oomph throughout launch and beyond into 2012 as it seeks to create growth and differentiation in this growing sector.

Mr B & Friends, the Bath based brand and creative agency has developed the new brand and identity for 6 Degrees Group, a newly formed technology and communications company.

6 Degrees Group is the brainchild of telecoms entrepreneur Alastair Mills, who raised £60m in private equity to launch a ‘buy and build’ concept that would capitalise on the growing need to provide a high quality, service oriented converged communication solutions for mid size companies.

6 Degrees Group launches offering cloud services, a 15,000 sq ft datacentre in Studley, connectivity, networking and voice services. These services being delivered by a number of companies acquired by Mills during the summer of 2011 and merged into the new brand proposition to create a single brand, multiple product proposition to the market.

“Having worked with Alastair previously, I was well aware of the standards that all his companies set” explained Mr B & Friends Managing Director Simon Barbato. “Working to extremely tight deadlines, we were commissioned to deliver an exciting brand in less than 3 months from a blank sheet of paper.”

Barbato continues: “We identified some powerful strategic drivers for the business that would enable us to differentiate and position the company in a crowded marketplace. This led us to the ‘Connect with us’ as a brand proposition – from there the name was developed by Marketing Director Campbell Williams and we developed a visually powerful monolithic brand identity.”

The new 6 Degrees brand was developed and launched internally in less than 11 weeks from briefing, and has now been launched externally via the 6 Degrees Group website.

Steve Richardson, Creative Director, Mr B & Friends said: “The management team at 6 Degrees Group were some of the most open-minded and visionary clients we have worked with. They provided an open brief, and in a very short time frame, we produced some of the most impressive branding work in our history. We are now in the process of rolling out the brand through signage, liveries, print, online and marketing deliverables.”

6 Degrees Group boasts an impressive client list in many sectors including financial services and legal and will be aiming to become the UK’s most admired provider amongst the mid market.

With sustained and successful growth driving the agency, Mr B & Friends has again strengthened the client service team with the appointment of Jo Skelton as Senior Account Manager.

“In a competitive market, delighting your clients and providing a level of expert service at every opportunity is key to organic growth.” said Managing Director Simon Barbato. “Jo comes to us with great account management experience and very strong people skills. We are all delighted to welcome her to the agency team and look forward to growing her client portfolio and working with her to develop those relationships.”

Mr B & Friends, the Bath based brand and creative agency has developed the new brand and identity for Parmenion; an online pensions and investment solution platform.

Parmenion is a uniquely positioned business, working with IFAs to develop streamlined investment solutions for consumers who wish to invest in a simple ISA or for more wealthier investors who can take advantage of Parmenion’s Discretionary Fund Management service.

Parmenion is looking to grow significantly in the next 12 months through a sales and marketing strategy that will capitalise on changes in the financial services sector as a result of the FSA’s Retail Distribution Review which comes into effect on January 1 2013.

“The emergence of platforms has been well documented over the past 5 years” says Simon Barbato, Managing Director of Mr B & Friends. “However Parmenion offers something to IFAs that’s truly unique: platform, Discretionary Fund Management and a range of investment solutions at incredibly competitive rates. Include a level of business support for the IFA that’s not evident anywhere else, and it’s clear that Parmenion will cut through in the coming year.”

Barbato continues: “Our role was to eek out the insights that could build a powerful brand positioning and an ‘organising thought’ that would bind the internal and external stakeholders. ‘It’s your future’ perfectly sums up Parmenion’s propositon, and provided a concise brief for the design work.”

Steve Richardson, Creative Director, Mr B & Friends said: “Our creative vision was to position Parmenion as a powerful element within the IFA’s business. By energising our photography with elements from the logo design, we achieve this. Add bold colours, simple and clean typography and clear messaging and positioning and instantly you can see the step-change in Parmenion’s brand and marketing impact.

The new brand including web design, literature, exhibition materials and launch collateral was launched at the Institute of Financial Planning’s annual conference at Celtic Manor and Mr B & Friends, under the direction of Account Director Nicky Hurran, will be working with Parmenion to establish a stronger marketing presence in 2012.

Mr B & Friends, the Bath based brand, creative and digital consultancy has delivered a new brand positioning and identity for Ayrtek, the innovative cricket helmet increasingly being worn by world-class players such as Kumar Sangakkarra.

The consultancy was appointed in the summer without a pitch following a demonstration of their credentials in sports branding.

Ayrtek was conceived in 2007 by Bristol-based engineering student Tom Milsom and friend Matt Wells, who identified an opportunity to innovate in a product category that had stagnated. Both keen cricketers, they witnessed several high profile players receiving serous facial and head injuries caused by ill-fitting helmets, sub-standard materials and cricket balls penetrating the gap between the peak and the grille. Subsequently, they designed a revolutionary helmet using state-of-the-art materials and design that substantially reduced player injury.

Ayrtek was acquired by a consortium lead by West country entrepreneur Jim Grant in the summer of 2010, and an opportunity to create a game-changing product, accessible to the Club player was created.

“Ayrtek had created an outstanding embryonic reputation amongst a handful of professional clubs and players” said agency MD Simon Barbato. “We needed to create a brand that appealed to not only the pro, but the mass-market Club player too. When I first saw the helmet, I reacted in the same way as when I first saw the Adidas Predator football boot: incredibly excited!”

Steve Richardson, the Creative Director of Mr B & Friends adds: “After studying the other brands in the category, it was clear that we needed to position the Ayrtek range at the premium end of the market. We created a powerful brand proposition: Inner strength and a dynamic identity system that communicates the brand’s attributes of technology, performance and safety.”

The new brand and product range was unveiled at an exclusive invitation only presentation at Lord’s on Monday and is launched to the public today.

Jim Grant CEO Ayrtek comments: “Our brief to Mr B and Friends was demanding; a complete new branding and marketing exercise that needed to shout quality and make a serious impact in the world of cricket. All to be delivered in a product launch in a very short time frame. The brief was fulfilled to the letter, the deliverables were excellent and the result was a superb new product launch backed up with strong brand credentials that made the competition look up and take notice.”

The agency has developed identity, packaging, point of sale, 90” launch film, print and electronic direct marketing and is preparing a series of co-branded campaigns with the retail distribution channel. The agency has also been retained to look after Ayrtek’s marketing here in the UK and in the lucrative overseas markets.

Mr B & Friends has developed the new corporate identity for Greenergy, the UK’s leading fuel provider.

Owned privately, Greenergy commands over 20% of the UK fuel market with revenues approaching £10bn. Started less than 20 years ago as a bedroom start-up, Greenergy has become one of the UK’s success stories and was last week positioned as the 3rd fastest growing private company in the UK in Sunday Times Deloitte Top Track 100.

Originally a provider of niche environment fuels, the company is now a major supplier of petrol and diesel to UK forecourt retailers.  As many of the major oil companies continue to scale down their blending, distribution and retailing operations, Greenergy is increasingly taking their place, and sales growth into the forecourts, including major supermarkets and petrol retailers, has been stratospheric.

Simon Barbato, Managing Director of Mr B & Friends commented: “Working with Greenergy has been a real eye-opener. It’s rare that you see such a small company generate so much reach in its business. It’s a phenomenal success and our strategic exercise was to capture the attributes of this and create a single minded brand proposition that reflected Greenergy perfectly.”

Barbato continues: “Following detailed stakeholder insight work, we identified that the single most powerful driver for Greenergy was efficiency. In everything they do, they aim to get more from less, to improve and to mitigate unnecessary overheads while driving up the service and value experienced by their customers.”

Alex Lewis, Head of Communications Greenergy comments: ”Our previous brand identity had served us very well for over a decade, but there was a strong feeling within the business that our brand needed a step-change. We appointed Mr B & Friends on the strength of previous work for us, their credentials and the way in which they proposed to tackle the project. We worked very closely with the agency team, and are delighted with the new brand positioning and identity. It reflects the future of Greenergy perfectly.”

Steve Richardson, Creative Director, Mr B & Friends said: “Greenergy is an outstanding business driven by efficiency. We needed to reflect this is the corporate brand and visual identity. We created a bespoke logotype that positions Greenergy as a confident, straight-forward organisation, and an exciting visual identity system that articulates in words and images the efficient nature of their work.”

The new brand is being launched on the Greenergy website and Mr B & Friends will be working on roll including literature, annual report, signage, livery, uniforms and stationery items.

Mr B & Friends has developed the new brand and identity for SmartSIPP, a new online pension proposition from Suffolk Life.

Owned by Legal & General, Suffolk Life is one of the UK’s leading self-invested personal pension (SIPP) providers with around £4bn of assets under management. In recent years, SIPPs have captured the imagination of investors in the UK by allowing a wide range of asset classes to be put into a tax efficient wrapper including commercial property.

Simon Barbato commented: “As one of the industry’s most established brands, Suffolk Life have continuously innovated in the bespoke category of the market, but had noticed the emergence of ‘simple SIPPs’ and online platforms. This in recent years has been the fastest growing segment of the SIPP market. The new brand: SmartSIPP capitalises on a number of aspects.”

Barbato continues: “The attributes of SmartSIPP were in response to an extensive research programme with IFA’s conducted by us last year and brings together Suffolk Life’s award-winning service, low cost and flexible investment options and the latest online platform technology.”

SmartSIPP is operational from June 30 and will be targeted at IFAs who are looking to recommend a reputable, accessible and cost-effective self-invested option for their clients.

Greg Kingston, Head of Marketing Suffolk Life comments: ”We knew that delivering a brand that took our strong people-based service approach and elevated into an increasingly digital proposition would be challenging. We engaged Mr B & Friends right from the start of the research and design phase – the result is a brand that gives us a confident platform to take our latest pension to market.”

Steve Richardson said: “We wanted the SmartSIPP brand to reflect the attributes of the product proposition: technology focused, simple, intelligent and human. We combine modern typography and graphics with an accessible tone of voice all designed to reflect positively an extension to the Suffolk Life product portfolio.”

SmartSIPP is being launched with a major press and online advertising push in the financial industry trade titles.

Mr B & Friends has created the new brand identity for Bristol City Community Trust, the newly launched charity of Bristol City Football Club that is dedicated to supporting health, education and football in the community programmes in the Bristol region and surrounding areas.

BCCT brings a wide range of stakeholders together; businesses, schools, local government and of course people from the community. The Trust provides an important programme of local initiatives that are designed to provide education, healthy living, football activities and a brighter outlook for thousands of 7 – 16 year olds in the region every year. The new brand has been selected to feature on Bristol City’s away kit for the forthcoming season – a first for any professional football club in the league, and this sponsorship is designed to raise awareness of the Trust, and the good work it does.

Creative Director Steve Richardson comments: “As part of the brand transformation programme we are currently working on with Bristol City, it was vital that BCCT developed a bold, striking new identity. With this logo and the new proposition: Play your part, we have captured the spirit of BCCT and  developed a strong brand for them to use as a platform for their activities”.

Bristol City’s new CEO Guy Price commented: “We are absolutely delighted with the identity that Mr B & Friends have created for the new Bristol City Community Trust. The identity is eye-catching and bold, and we expect that it will help us to really extend the reach of our community work, bringing more and more people together in the local community as the football club continues to grow. We have been working with Mr B & Friends on some exciting projects, and the team there are proving to be invaluable partners of the football club.”

The new brand will be rolled out across a wide range of media over the course of the summer.

The Magic Circle in London was an apt venue for the inaugural Investor in Customers annual conference, which was attended by over 35 IIC accredited companies and Mr B & Friends.

IIC is the only business award that demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to customer service and is gaining traction by providing valuable business improvement insights, customer, staff and management research and an award rating.

Mr B & Friends who have 5 accredited clients were asked to address the delegation to discuss how IIC could be used as a powerful brand differentiator, and an inspiration for creative marketing. Managing Director Simon Barbato commented:

“We have been aware of IIC since 2006 when we first started working with Suffolk Life. I was immediately impressed with the depth of data that the research offers, and it is this data and insights that have helped us to develop brand and marketing strategies for our growing IIC client list. We have also successfully referred several clients to IIC and will continue to do so if we feel it appropriate.”

Bristol City Football Club (BCFC) is set to unveil a major new marketing campaign at this Saturday’s Npower Championship League match against Leeds United at Ashton Gate.

City fans will find special cards attached to their seats at Saturday’s match that will introduce them to the new advertising campaign.

At a time when overall season ticket sales throughout the Championship are in decline, the new campaign boldly aims to buck this trend by increasing the Club’s season ticket sales by around 10% for the 2011/12 season.

Devised by Bath-based branding and marketing communications agency, Mr B & Friends, the campaign was designed to reflect the Club’s new brand positioning strategy: ‘Brilliantly Bold’.

“Brilliantly Bold is a reflection not only of the ambitions of the Club, but also a cultural reflection of Bristol as a City,” explained Mr B & Friends Managing Director, Simon Barbato.

“The campaign is fun, relevant and exciting and will feature some of the City’s star players in cartoon strips that portray the Club and its 2011/12 season card offer as the must have ticket for football supporters in Bristol and across the West of England.”

Guy Price, Bristol City’s Commercial Director, is delighted with the drive and creativity that Mr B & Friends is bringing to the club. “The fact that, for the time being at least, Bristol remains the largest city in England that is not currently home to a Premier League football team is a massive opportunity for us. We are absolutely determined to change this, and our investment in a new brand positioning strategy is one of a number of new initiatives that we are taking to enable us to bring people across the whole of the South West together to share our bold and exciting plans.”

BCFC has been making a number of investments to raise the sport’s profile in the region, including well-advanced plans for the construction of a new world-class regional stadium, and investment in new players, including England goalkeeper David James, who joined the club at the beginning of this season.

The campaign will make use of a number of modern techniques including door drops, social media groups and advertising, electronic direct marketing and SMS messaging, as well as more traditional forms of football marketing, such as programme adverts, radio advertising and ambient media throughout the stadium.

The Club is also launching a number of special offers to fans, including an ‘earlybird’ offer that will make BCFC’s season tickets the lowest priced in their Championship history, a ‘recommend a friend’ offer that enables existing supporters to get a free personalised Bristol City shirt if they successfully get someone else to buy a season ticket, and the offer of a free ticket for one of the current season’s remaining games for new or returning customers buying season tickets for next season.

Mr B & Friends, which has previously worked with Fulham FC on its brand and marketing, is also working with BCFC to help develop the Club’s new brand identity and positioning.

Creative Director, Steve Richardson is leading the development of the new brand identity and commented: “The new identity will also be based on the “Brilliantly Bold” strategy , however it’s likely fans will have to wait until an official launch when the stadium plans start to become a reality.”

Following a recent run of new business wins and development across the agency, Mr B & Friends are delighted to announce the appointment of Nicky Hurran to the team as Account Director.

“We have been looking for a very capable member of the team to join us for some time and in January stepped up our efforts to fill the role” explains Simon Barbato. “Nicky’s credentials are first class. She has experience in many of the industries that we specialise in and crucially her skills, attitude and personality provide a great fit for the agency. Nicky will work closely with me to strengthen our client service proposition and strategic offer. I’m delighted she has joined us.”

Following a years worth of strategic brand development and consultancy, we are delighted to launch the new Capital Asset Management identity. In the sometimes conservative world of financial services, this identity has a bold, fresh colour palette, striking images and thought provoking headlines, designed to entice the viewer. The new hand-crafted identity features an icon which highlights the five areas which Capital Asset Management consider prior to providing any advice. As part of the rebrand Mr B & Friends are creating a new website, marketing collateral, launch items, presentations and signage.

We are delighted that one of our lovely clients has won two awards at this year’s prestigious 2010 British Travel Awards. The British Travel Awards is acknowledged as the largest independent arbiter of public opinion on travel industry performance in the United Kingdom. As companies are voted for by the all important travelling consumer, The British Travel Awards accolade is one of the most coveted prizes in the travel industry.

The two awards they have won are the ‘Gold award’ – Best Tour Operator to the USA, and the ‘Silver award’ – Best Special Interest / Adventure Tour Operator.

It’s a great accolade and highlights a successful year with the roll out of the new brand identity, website and communications designed by Mr B & Friends and the launch of the TrekAmerica’s own social media platform, TrekAmerica Live.

PageOne is one of the UK’s leading mobile communications companies. Over the past 12 months, their product portfolio has grown significantly to keep up with the demand of their public sector and private enterprise clients.

Following the launch of their new brand proposition: Know.Now, we suggested that an innovative sales tool that reflected their brand would be an interactive iPad app.

After much briefing and discussion, we are currently in the process of designing and developing a Know.Now App for the iPad which will form an interactive product tour and help the PageOne sales team ask the right questions, and get the right answers. Watch this space for further developments!

Having been a client of Mr B & Friends since its inception, John Moret has seen his fair share of creative and strategic work in his previous role of Marketing Director at Suffolk Life. He has now branched out into a consultative business called ‘More to SIPPs’ and Mr B & Friends were briefed to design an identity and visual style for the brand, including a new website to launch soon.

Designer Sheena Mistry said ‘As John is dealing with senior financial service industry clients, and is a consulting business, we wanted something that felt premium, bespoke and really different. We created a hand drawn piece of type which links his name and company name, in black foil which really made him stand out and create a talking point when business cards are handed over”

“Having met Chris Roys, Chief Executive of Jessie May Trust at a recent meeting, I knew straight away we could help them achieve their goals” said Steve Richardson, Creative Director at Mr B & Friends. “Jessie May Trust is a brilliant charity, who help children with life-limiting conditions and their families across the region by providing highly trained nurses who can provide respite care in the home.” We are shortly presenting a positioning strategy and brand identity for the charity, which we hope will bring further success to the organisation in the future.

Mr B & Friends are proud to be working with one of the UK’s largest commercial property companies King Sturge, to help them position and market the recently refurbished Kingsway Centre in Newport, South Wales.

Mr B & Friends partner Simon Barbato commented “It’s a significant project and our commercial objectives are to gain greater footfall and increase tenancy in the centre. We have started the relationship with a regional campaign including radio, outdoor advertising, direct marketing, social media and a new website.” See our new website for the Kingsway Centre here.

Having been appointed to develop a new brand for Bristol City Football Club, they also asked us to help them with an identity, name and theme to gather support for their new stadium bid.

Bristol City’s new regional stadium has been under threat. It is envisaged the stadium will provide huge value to the community, benefit the region’s economy by hundreds of millions of pounds and will provide over 20 acres of green open space including a managed wildlife wetlands area. However, a crazy legal loophole could declare this former landfill site a “town green” and thus prevent the stadium from going ahead. Mr B & Friends created a campaign name, brand identity and visual style which has been used in print, offline and a social media campaign gathering over 10,000 followers.

Sign the petition please – show your support for a city that needs a stadium of this size for events, concerts and football! Get behind a city united here.

Mr B & Friends has launched a new website for fuel giant, Greenergy.

BioCarbon Tracker is a new website that enables users to identify carbon emissions as a result of deforestation. The site incorporates web software which uses satellite data and advanced methods to map the ecosystems where biocarbon is stored and identify vegetation at risk from land use change. It’s a very complex but much needed story, which needed to be told in a much simpler way.

Our concept behind BioCarbon Tracker was to ‘take a closer look’ at the effects of biocarbon loss globally. To create visual appeal, we used ’tilt shift’ landscape imagery, which makes objects and people appear as if in miniature. The site has a very eye-catching and engaging design, with full screen images and graphics.

Take a closer look at the site here.

We certainly picked an apt date to start our online offer! From the 1st of October we are delighted to offer Mr B & Friends Digital to the world. It will offer a fully comprehensive online proposition, providing our clients with a full service web offer all under one roof.

Matt Powell, Managing Director of Mr B & Friends Digital says, “We aim to make working with us easy, simplifying the web and making our clients feel part of the process. As part of the Mr B & Friends group of companies, we follow a client-first philosophy. Our aim is to provide the very best solutions to our clients online requirements.” Click to visit the new Mr B & Friends Digital website here.

As part of a recent drive to promote the agency in the South West, Mr B & Friends exhibited at the recent GWE Business West event in Bristol. Our exhibition stand attracted a lot of attention and Simon even managed to get 30 seconds of fame when he was interviewed by the BBC Politics Show!

As part of this period of new business activity, we also produced our inaugural periodical: ‘Between Friends’, which showcases our recent work and what we’ve been up to for our clients.

Mr B & Friends has been appointed to create a brand identity and recruitment campaign targetting sexually active 15 – 24 year olds to take a Chlamydia screening test. The campaign will cover the whole of the PCT reach, across Avon.

“We have a good understanding of engaging with young people” said Creative Director Steve Richardson. “It’s vital that we create an engaging brand identity and tone for the campaign, but also we select the appropriate media that will help our message reach this audience. Social media and the web will form a major part of our strategy.”

The campaign will be anchored around a new micro site and will launch at the end of July.

Data storage experts, Saracen have appointed Mr B & Friends to review their current brand and propose a new identity and house style in preparation for a period of increased marketing activity. Based in Leatherhead but with 3 other UK locations Saracen has been growing steadily since 1991 and are now looking to leverage their outstanding expertise in this field.

“Data is considered currency in today’s digital world and storage of data – digital or paper based is vital to any business” said partner Simon Barbato. “We aim to take Saracen to the next level by developing a sector busting proposition, identity and marketing platform.”

Creative development is scheduled for June with roll out looking likely for July 2010.

Mr B & Friends has strengthened it’s planning and client service department with the full time appointment of Jenny Browne. Jenny was initial appointed in July 2009 and following a successful placement from Bath Spa University, she was offered (and thankfully accepted) a full time role to work alongside MD Simon Barbato.

“During Jenny’s placement year, she showed us some excellent potential and natural talent at strategic thinking and client service skills” commented Barbato. “We plan to take this to the next level and with our support expose her to a wider client remit. We’re very confident that Jenny will add tremendous value to our growing and very talented team.”

Mr B & Friends has been appointed by start-up company Scarab to develop a new website. Scarab, who will produce and distributed bio-fuels made from waste products, has been launched by a group of corporate stakeholders including green fuel giant Greenergy.

“This is a growing and vital sector and we’re pleased to be working with such an innovative company, that’s backed by one of the most successful brands in the sector” said Managing Director Simon Barbato. “The initial website will act as point of reference for potential suppliers and partners in the value chain, but as the company gains traction we’ll be looking to expand the content and functionality of the site.”

The site is due for launch in July 2010.

Mr B & Friends have been nominated as finalists in 5 RAR Award categories. Voted and rated by client companies, the RAR Awards are designed to acknowledge excellence as judged by agency clients across a wide range of categories. We have been shortlisted for:

Advertising. Strategic Thinking. Integrated. Design for Print. Direct Marketing.

“To be nominated against some of the agencies on the RAR register is a massive filip for us” said Creative Director Steve Richardson. “It recognises and acknowledges the huge creative and strategic leaps we have made as a company in the past 12 months.”

The awards will take place tonight at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London.

Despite air travel being disrupted severely by volcanic ash, Mr B & Friends has addressed an 80 strong delegation in the French Alps resort of Les Menuires at the TUI Student Division Forum. Following a string of branding projects for the company, MD Simon Barbato was asked to share the agency’s thoughts on the impact of branding to a fickle, and somewhat promiscuous consumer audience.

“This was a fantastic opportunity to share our views with a wide range of senior executives” said Barbato. “Our approach with all student and youth brands has been to make the brand engaging and ’sticky’ – we recognise that loyalty is not always a brand building strategy that’s worth pursuing, but advocacy certainly is.”

The highlight of the Conference was key note speaker, ex-Liverpool midfielder and inventor of the Adidas Predator football boot Craig Johnstone who shared his views on constant innovation. “It was amazing to hear Craig’s stories” said Barbato “But the whole trip was capped off with Craig, myself and two other delegates sharing a 14 hour taxi back to the UK. To have a football legend in my company for such a period of time was an experience I’ll never forget!”

We are sure Craig agrees Simon, ahem!

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.

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.

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.