We won gold for our strategic and creative development of a new brand for Jumble.

The visual identity we created for Grapeskin Bar and Kitchen, at La Ville Hotel & Suites was awarded silver.

Our work on the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week opening ceremony won bronze in the Best Brand Experience category, and the logo for Elevate Lounge in the former Viceroy The Palm Jumeirah also won bronze.

Click on the video above to come into our home of creativity and see just what caught the judges’ eyes.

With the short maternity leave in the UAE and an ambitious workforce, we find many women returning back to work – often with even more dedication and passion than before. Juggling family and business requires special skills!

Skills that are actually nurtured and amplified by being a mother.

In marketing, we constantly have to put ourselves in the shoes of our target audience and find new creative solutions. It’s the same with children. They are all different, which means we need to find different ways of communicating with them.

With the volume of questions mothers face each day, from how, when and why, we also practice breaking down complex topics into simple answers, which is vital in many businesses.

And don’t forget the experience mums gain for negotiating by constantly solving squabbles between siblings. Plus the ability to keep cool and flexible even when a day does not go as planned.

Most mums leave that ‘title’ as soon as they enter their work place. You will recognise them by their very focussed and organised approach, mindful of the time they have available to complete their work.

On the other hand, they might also desperately try to forget the morning’s typical family adventures, which comedian Michael McIntyre explains so well:

And it’s on days like these when we mothers rush to work in order to treasure the hours in our other role, as ambitious, professional and respected business women.

We have celebrated international women in business already but let’s mark 21 March as a special day to celebrate mothers in business, and the skills and dedication they bring to their job.

Happy Mother’s Day, lovely working ladies!
 
Renske Law
Senior Account Manager

After strenuous weeks of compiling a recent strategy document, I created a comprehensive presentation with over 50 slides to come to a compelling point of differentiation for the brand. Following a successful presentation to the senior management, the client expressed how thrilled she was to see the effort that had gone into creating the ‘brand essence’ that culminated into two simple words, succinctly articulating the core truth of the brand’s new position. That gave me a sense of achievement because it is not always that marketers realise how painstaking the brand positioning exercise can be.

Arriving at a compelling ‘brand essence’ can be daunting, requiring tremendous effort, time and dedication. However, when skilfully derived, it can become a critical decision-making asset for brands guiding every marketing initiative, internal communication, new product development and so on.

The ‘brand essence’ as a concept is often confused with an advertising strapline, which is meant to fulfil a rather short-term communication goal. At times brand managers struggle to understand how a single-minded-thought that the ‘brand essence’ ought to encapsulate would help communicate different aspects or value propositions of a brand. The ‘brand essence’ is a strategic asset representing a distillation of the brand positioning to its most fundamental expression. It defines the core strength of the brand in a succinct manner often limiting to one, two or a maximum of three words.

An interesting way to understand the ‘brand essence’ is to imagine it as a musical high note. The greatest composition that comes to mind, when thinking of a high note is ‘I Will Always Love You,’ where the legendary Whitney Houston conquered the high note with relentless exuberance and phenomenal confidence. Although the musical score would always be remembered for the pinnacle she had hit with her voice, it wouldn’t have been equally impactful without her flawless technique, years of training and more importantly the slow build up of the supporting notes that contributed towards making it an all-time greatest hit.

Similar to music, the most cherished brands have a compelling brand essence, a high note or a core message that is created to establish an intriguing point of differentiation in the minds of consumers and stakeholders. As in music, brands do have to communicate the supporting notes, the added value propositions or the points of parity but they are not prioritised equally as the high notes. As with Whitney Houston, it takes time, dedication and focus for brands to achieve their ‘high note’. Brands require continuous reinforcing of their ‘brand essence’ through advertising, communication and PR in order to establish a ‘high note’ that remains top of stakeholders’ minds and stays with them for years to come.

A great example to demonstrate this is analyzing the brand essence of Mercedes and Volvo. Although operating in the same automotive sector, the two brands rely on different ‘high notes’. For Mercedes, all their communications reinforce their essence of providing possibly the most luxurious automotive experience. On the other hand, Volvo focuses on positioning itself as the safest automotive provider, which is easy to believe since they are the inventors of the seatbelt, child seat and a number of other safety innovations. These ‘high notes’ are not the only attributes they communicate, but they are prioritized above all other supporting messages such as design, performance, technology, comfort and the overall experience as illustrated below.

So, next time you’re repositioning a brand, hit it like Houston. It will take persistent effort, blood, sweat and tears to hit the ‘high note’ just right, however, when you do, it will pay dividends, not just in the short term but for decades to come. Just like in the case of Coca-Cola which for many years has consistently strengthened its brand essence by ‘enabling happiness’ through its marketing communication and instilling within its organisational DNA.

By Rohit Banka
A Senior Brand Strategy Consultant, Rohit is uniquely placed at the intersection of the strategic and creative side of brand development bringing an amalgamation of planning, research, analysis, insight, strategy and storytelling in creating brands that stand-out for something meaningful.

Acknowledgement
Sancharee Saha

Ok, I think the words administration, process and protocol should have deterred most, if not all, creative reading this! So I’m guessing it’s just me and you now, the suits.

So suits, here is a very well known fact – creatives (in general) hate ‘creative’ suits. Creatives don’t come to your desk, lean over your shoulder and critique your budget forecast. They don’t make you pin your creative briefs on the wall in the boardroom and take potshots at it or claim that they’ve ‘seen something like this before’. Nor do they ask you to increase the size of the font in your WIP report to something above 6 point!

They don’t do this because they, rightly, have no desire or need to. Consequently, they can be a bit prickly if we start to do the same with their work. So, rather than being the person who shoots down ideas at the end of the creative process, be part of the process from the beginning.

Your task is to arm them with insights gleaned from your client about the project and these should be incorporated into your clear and concise creative brief. But it needn’t stop there. Be involved. Not only in the briefing but request (demand if you have to) to be part of the brainstorming process. You should be in a position to bring insights and ideas to the table (if you’re not then I would suggest you reconsider your vocation in life) that can act as catalysts for the creative team’s thinking. No one is expecting you scamp up the creative direction but if you’re going to be in a creative environment, have a voice and contribute.

The realm of creativity shouldn’t be seen as a closed shop for the creative team alone, you too should have a positive contribution to make, just don’t tell them I told you so!

David Wright
Irritating creatives since, well forever.