Spotted: London campaigns and the art of surprise

Great marketing campaigns are all around us in the capital. To continue to drive up consumer and business appeal, British Land and GIC launched a new brand for their Broadgate property development with surprising use of playful colours. Suicide prevention campaigners, CALM, staged a bold rooftop installation in conjunction with ITV studios that gained significant media interest and public backing. Whilst Beats by Dr Dre leveraged Anthony Joshua’s historic boxing match, with a light and sound display at nightfall across County Hall and the London Eye to maximise their sponsorship. 

Design: playful brand ID for the Broadgate neighbourhood

Just when you think you know London you come across somewhere surprising. Broadgate is a pedestrianised enclave, that sits beside Liverpool Street station and between Spitalfields, Shoreditch and the City. Owned by British Land and GIC, it’s a mix of public space, residential units, predominantly finance businesses, restaurants and retail outlets. What started with one set of buildings in 1986 has expanded to become a major business and neighbourhood development over thirty years. This year Broadgate will benefit from the completion of Crossrail links when the new Elizabeth Line opens in December 2018.

Not leaving the popularity of the development to chance, Dn&co has been tasked with creating a new brand identity for Broadgate, to support its vibrant programme of events, drawing people to the area. Around 65 million people visit Broadgate annually, with the opening of the Elizabeth Line expected to increase footfall.

With splashes of bright pastel colours, a stylised Broadgate wordmark and playful signposting using the ‘B’ of Broadgate as a flexible design icon, this is not your traditional approach to place branding, especially not for a brand associate with finance businesses. Launched in April, the brand identity will be adopted across digital and social media channels, used in print and on merchandise and will provide a unifying thread across diverse installations and events on-site.

The design thinking behind this new ID is explained by Dn&co on the ID designer’s showcase. 

If you want to see the identity for yourself, you can of course visit Broadgate. See what’s on.

For more on place branding see the Southbank Centre rebrand.

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PR: shocking suicide sculptures at ITV London studios

A chilling installation appeared atop the ITV building in March and April. It looked for all the world as if the men standing on top of the building were poised to jump at any moment. Eighty-four sculptures represented the number of men who take their lives each week in the UK. The PR stunt, dubbed #Project84 was designed to raise awareness of this situation, begin to break down some of the taboos of men’s mental health and call for government action.

The creative approach was crafted by Adam & Eve/DDB for CALM, which stands for The Campaign Against Living Miserably. CALM is leading a movement against male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK. Family and friends bereaved through suicide were involved in creating the lifelike sculptures. As well as using a surprising approach the campaign has weight and authenticity since each sculpture represents a real individual lost through suicide.

As part of the #Project84 campaign CALM began a petition Matthew Smith whose own brother died through suicide, calling on the government to make suicide prevention and support a government minister’s responsibility.

The campaign reached millions through coverage in collaboration with ITV’s This Morning show, as well as across the press, with the petition gaining over 200,000 signatures to date.

You can find out more about the campaign on The Calm Zone website.

Sponsorship: Beats by Dr Dre hard hitting boxing promo

It may surprise you to learn that in order to get a return on sponsorship, an organisation will generally need to spend at least the equivalent budget on promotion of initiative as they spend on their original sponsorship fee. So, when London heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua, took on New Zealander Joseph Parker in April one of his sponsors, Beats by Dr Dre, took action. In advance of the historic match, Beats set up a light show to spark recognition of their sponsorship and leverage this celebrity association.

The fight was set for Joshua to defend his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association belts and attempt to add the World Boxing Organisation title to hold a trio of crowns. Agency Havas Media co-ordinated the light and sound show with Ad City and Projection Artworks. Images of Joshua were projected onto the London Eye and County Hall.

This promotional video was also released ahead of the match as part of the brand’s ‘Above the noise’ campaign. It suggests Joshua can’t win, but when he puts on his headphones the negative voices are cancelled out. The video ends with words:

“You can’t win

And if you do it’ll be no surprise

Because the world beats you up every day

And every day you rise.”

The last line must surely be a homage to American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou’s and her powerful poem ‘Still I rise.’

The lightshow takeover was part of Beats’s ongoing strategy which aligns the brand with celebrities. With Dr Dre’s rap credentials Beats has strong celebrity links. Their headphones have been worn by celebrities and featured in music videos with the likes of Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj. In sports, the brand gifted each athlete at the London 2012 Olympics with a customised headset, whilst athletes including Serena Williams and Katie Holmes have been seen in Beats.

The light show was timed to light up the London skyline the evening before and the day of the fight with images of this boxing celebrity. When Joshua went on to win the match viewers were surprised by a celebratory show reel projected onto these landmark London buildings. Presumably, there was an unused show reel with a defiant message should Joshua have lost the match since ironically the best surprises take thorough planning which anticipates and covers all possible outcomes.

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