The 360 Recruitment Advertising Blog

Ask any creative what ad campaign they’d love to work on and a car or a beer campaign would probably get their vote. If only voting for an MP was that easy.

Enter politics. Now, this can be a minefield topic and one close to many people’s hearts. We at 360º are no strangers to the political advertising arena thanks mainly to the relationship we have forged with the Independent on Sunday, call it a coalition for want of a better word.

The Independent on Sunday

For the past few years, we have supported and supplied the IoS with a few political ad campaigns to whet the appetite of their readers and help raise some of the topical issues of the day. Whether, that has been straightforward party political advertising ideas or specific policy agendas, we have thrown ourselves into the political arena.

So, why do we do this? After all, we don’t get paid for it and we (creatives) work out of hours to do it. Well, that’s a good question and we will try to answer it like any good politician would. Now let us make ourselves absolutely clear and we think we have in the past; we believe in adding value in every area of our business and we want to improve the lives of everyone we represent…blah, blah, blah… Look, it’s just great fun. It’s an opportunity to flex some creative muscle and spin ideas that get gut reactions. It helps sharpen creative thought and gives everyone in the agency a chance to be creative – jobs for all. And, it’s a drug. Once you start doing these projects, you can’t stop.

Not only that, you learn something. I’m not sure we, as a collective, knew a great deal about the detail of the referendum planned in May for the Alternative Vote. Now we do.

So here is how it worked. We got a call from a journalist about a week before publication. He apologised for the short notice but to be honest, impactful advertising fairs better when time is of the essence. We grabbed the brief and the first available lunchtime and headed for the pub.

Get a few people in a pub with a bottle of wine and a few packets of crisps and you’ll be amazed at the productivity. This might be a good time to mention discipline. No, not where the wine or nibbles are concerned but where the ideas come from. With a brief that requires you to take a number of perspectives i.e. from all party point of views, you have to put your own political persuasions to one side to do this well. In fact, you have to sit on both sides of the fence and see the arguments from every political standpoint.

The brief was simple.

Should we change the way we vote in general elections?

Currently we run a (FPTP) First-past-the-post system which means whichever candidate gains the most votes, gains the seat; everyone gets one vote and that’s that. The grumbles come from the minority parties and the Lib Dems. They argue that a candidate can win a seat with less than 50% of the returned votes. In other words, the majority of voters didn’t want he or she to represent them in parliament.

Therefore, on May 5^th, there will be a referendum asking the nation if they want to change to a different system known as (AV) Alternative Vote system. This gives the voter more than one choice. You can, if you want, vote for more than one party but must put them in order of preference. In the event that no one candidate receives 50% of the votes, the party with the least votes gets knocked out but their voters’ 2^nd, 3^rd or whatever number of choices they had get added to the other parties. This carries on until one party goes over the 50% target.

Our ideas

AV could create a popular but potentially weak government.

AV could take people even longer to cast votes. Chaos could ensue.

Dave and Nick may not be on speaking terms if AV gets the vote

AV will ensure politicians work hard for their seats.

Is AV one expensive makeover this country doesn’t need?

’Not like that, like that’. There is no magic answer Nick.

See, simple. There were quite a few angles we could approach; everything from the cost to taxpayers for changing the electoral system or putting a drawing pin on a safe seat to the division this referendum would cause to the coalition – Tories are keen to keep things as they are but the Lib Dems want to change and this whole issue was a key bargaining weapon for them when forming the coalition with the Tories.

You can view all the ideas published by The IoS here.

For us at 360º, it was just a case of taking the different propositions and create strong ideas for them. It didn’t matter what we believed was right in terms of electoral reform; it was just the concept that mattered.

Mark

A newly published research report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
states that the cost of replacing a competent employee equates to around a year of that individual’s yearly salary. They say that this is an estimation of the costs associated with lost productivity, lost skill and the cost of replacing and training new staff.

The report predicts that UK businesses are losing around £42 billion each year due to lost talent and that the UK trails other economies in terms of staff retention levels (UK 10.4%, US 7%, Germany and France 5%)

Richard Phelps, Human Resources Services Partner PwC comments: “With many companies eager to maintain or grow staff levels as the economy starts to recover, it is crucial they consider the full costs of losing staff through resignation. The need is particularly pressing given that many employees who sat tight during the downturn may now be looking for new opportunities elsewhere”

Investment now on positive employee engagement and promoting your employer brand will clearly have an impact on your longer term retention levels with the potential to achieve significant savings. Here at 360 Degrees Advertising we are working with a number of clients on developing their Employer Brand and Employee Engagement strategies.

The Newport Housing Trust (NHT) create housing and lifestyle solutions for the over 60’s. They approached us in June 2009 following a recommendation from another of our housing clients, needing a new corporate identity.

With an ambitious corporate strategy, NHT had plans to expand and develop their business and felt their brand needed to reflect this standpoint.

NHT threw their doors open to us and we spent a few days with key stakeholders, including a variety of staff from all parts and levels of the company as well as valuable insights and opinions from NHT residents.

We conducted interviews and focus groups followed by a tour of the housing stock. We were invited into a home of a rather keen resident who showed around their property. All of this helped us build a clear picture of who NHT were and where they wanted to be.

The next stage was to throw everything we had learned around to build our own strategy to support NHT’s goals. This began with visual and word mood boards which became the starting points for very rough – and I mean very rough – logo designs. So rather than show you lots of scribbles that resemble a psychiatrists exercise, here are a few we did later.

Early logo designs

Designing a corporate ID is a journey of exploration. Not only is it important to develop something that best represents the company, you also need to ensure it works in one colour, through a fax machine, at teeny-weeny sizes and is loved by the Chairperson’s other half. So we kept going…

These designs formed part of our first presentation back to NHT.

This rainbow design was becoming a clear favourite.

All the above were created because of what people had said or said they wanted for the company. And with a company that listened to the residents, we held presentations back to the residents who had kindly taken part in the focus groups.

Now things were becoming interesting. We had a clear favourite but it had to be agreed by the board as well as Resident groups. We had to refine the design and show how it would look across a range of stationery and other print materials.

Final Logo

Tenants Handbook Cover

Once we had a logo and design style signed off, it was essential we put in place a set of guidelines to help NHT produce internal communications that were consistent and a true reflection of the brand values. These were concise and helped give clarity to a new brand that now sits firmly at home within NHT.

Section of Guidelines

Section of Guidelines

Section of Guidelines

As with any new brand, questions will arise and we at 360 are always available to help and advise NHT employees as to how to adopt the guidelines in practical situations.

Mark

Towards the end of 2008, we were asked to design and develop an employer brand for RCT Homes. The brief was challenging, budgets tight and timescales set in stone. We couldn’t wait.

Now, 18 months on, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at what we achieved and to give people the opportunity to see what can be accomplished through clear communication between a client and an agency, to reach and better still, go beyond expectations.

At 360º, our philosophy is get to know our client and their needs from day one. We give them a complete brand health check, prodding and poking every part of the business. Sometimes it tickles and sometimes it hurts but by the end of the examination, we know how it ticks and what needs to be delivered.

In RCT Homes’ case, we spent precious time with key stakeholders – everyone from directors to tenants – to highlight the good, the bad and the indifferent about the existing brand. We were introduced to a new set of values and the vision RCT had created, and it’s worth noting that RCT had already been working hard to promote change. So, with hours of video interviews, pages of notes and every piece of existing collateral under our arms, we were in a position to develop the messages needed to build a confident, trusting and focused brand.

Spidergrams were used to work towards a clear proposition.

Thorough and honest investigation is the best way to achieve a clear and strong proposition. We use a proposition to hang every piece of communication on so that everything is consistent and supports the values at every opportunity. We eventually settled on Built on Trust. Now, this proposition isn’t a headline or indeed a line that would appear on any work. It’s role is to act as a barometer for the creative team who use it to give them guidance as they explore avenues to best promote the values of RCT Homes and build the brand.

In terms of straplines, the strongest line of all was We’re better together. This underpinned the objectives of the values as well as being a positive, and inspirational mantra.

We used existing print material to create new designs and developed templates and brand guidelines to show how the look and feel reflected the brand. At this stage, the team had to think clearly about the needs of RCT Homes; how the materials would be used and what the tone of the communication should be. Designing a brand for a diverse workforce needs clarity and a quality that everyone feels comfortable with, notwithstanding the fact that it must all be trusted and embraced as a long-term plan and not a flash-in-the-pan initiative.

We developed a graphic device to represent the coming together of the company. This device would link sets of words as well as being a symbol of positivity, something that was at the heart of the objectives.

Linking words with the graphic 'plus sign'

So, how does it all come together? Below, you’ll see the manifestation of our work for RCT Homes, from the guidelines through to print and internal design communications.

A few pages from the Brand Guidelines

Vision and Values pack

Vision and Values Booklet with each value explained.

Wallet sized Vision and Values fold-out

Launch event

With the launch completed, our next task was to start producing internal literature and looking at how we create an office environment that mirrored the brand.

Print material, New Starter Pack

Print material

Internally, we have designed branding for the offices that encapsulates one of the RCT Homes values, namely Bold by using key words to use as decals on the office windows. This acts as an impactful reminder to staff of messages that will inspire and galvanise them.

Office Decals

Office Decals

Reception Decals

Unlike many projects we work on, a branding project like this can only be successful if it is maintained. If you like, it’s a living thing and it needs to be fed and cared for in order for it to thrive. We have a responsibility to support RCT Homes to ensure the brand remains in the detail. So everything from HTML emails, internal posters and any employee scheme needs to look and taste like the brand. The brand needs to adapt to change, change that might come through initiatives or necessity. The proof that a brand is working, is when you only notice it when it’s not there.

Quite an interesting Twitter campaign attacking Labour has begun in the past few days. A voice from 2015 imagines a dark future where Labour win the 2010 election and invites people to contribute on how that future might look.

I find it particularly interesting as the supporting poster campaign is very familiar. It has a very distinctive visual of five years being scratched, prison cell style, into a dark concrete wall with the headline ’5 more years hard Labour?’

A voice from 2015 poster campaign

This poster is very close to a concept we created for an article that ran in The Independent on Sunday a while back (read about it here, here and here – HEAR, HEAR, HEAR! ORDER!!).

Naff 'orf Gordon!

I’m not really suggesting any wrong doing here as this particular idea didn’t get published but it has been up on our blog and various other bloggers have linked to it on occasion too, so the idea has been out there and visible. But, you know, there’s no such thing as a new idea I suppose. Just ask the Conservatives. (In fact, as David Cameron is making it his business to chat to everyone at the moment you can ask him when he gives you a call).

David

As you have probably noticed the Argos brand has undergone a refresh in recent weeks. 360 got the go ahead to revamp Argoscareers.com just before Christmas and the new look careers website launched on time on Friday 22 January – the day before the new Argos catalogue launch featuring the new Argos branding for the first time.

We are currently working with the HR team at Argos on a complete overhaul of Argoscareers.com which will rolled out in the next few months.

David

Here’s our worked up political ads as promised.

And here’s the final Independent on Sunday article – four of our ads made the cut, bit of a landslide really.

David and Mark

I'm the PM and £900 tax on families was my idea

Can you afford to be conservative?

In the 12th year of Labour...

Labour government to support

Labour government to support - Ambient campaign

Monster raving Labour party

Black and white and in the red all over

We'll be forever in your debt

Fight the blight

One of our earlier ideas had a good headline but the visual was pretty poor. Today I realised (whilst sitting in my car getting ready to present a new bus pitch) that maybe it doesn’t need a visual after all. In fact the concept was right there in the headline all along.

That's VAT. For now.

As Labour are probably going to attack the tories over their tax plans in the coming months, in fact they’ve already started, this seems to work particularly well.

We’ve opened up the brief to the rest of the agency now so it will be interesting to see what everyone else comes up with…

By the way, check out Benedict’s political advertising blog, I’ve been using it for research all week – it’s a fabulous reference source.

David

As promised here are some (well lots of) initial ideas for the upcoming Independent on Sunday feature. They’re very rough at this stage – we haven’t even coloured them in. We’ll need to wittle them down to six and the final six may look very different from what you see here. Some concepts will evolve as we start to work them up whereas others are pretty much fully formed from the start.

Anyway, have a look and let us know what you think.

David and Mark

Ps. As we type the X-Factor winning song is on the radio and that reminded us that, according to the Evening Standard, Sunday’s X-Factor final achieved more votes than Labour received in the last general election. This got us thinking that it won’t be too long until the political party leaders will be facing a live vote-off hosted by Simon Cowell… Gordon is a moron… Move over Darling… True Blue… Blue Monday… Blue Christmas… Money’s too tight to mention… What’s the story? (Moaning Tory)… Actually, it’s more likely ‘What have you done for me lately’.

Based on Obama's iconic 'Hope' poster of course...

Don't upset them, they could turn ugly

What a rip-off

I remember the 70s...

Kiss me sickly

Bah humbuggers

Based on the Tory blue sky branding - blue sky stinking!

Wow, thanks Darling - you shouldn't have.

The real expense scandal

You're excused - now p**s off

comes from a broken country

We're going backwards

Promises, promises...

Down Brown

Blue blood suckers

Bad old blighty

Politically inCorrect

My MP is not very PC

More Labour costs!

Losing the will to go on now

A pair of stinkers

How the devil are you?

This time last year we were approached by The Independent on Sunday to produce some mock political ads for an article that ran last Christmas. At the time we were feeling very bah humbug about Christmas and maybe this came across in some our ideas.

With the upcoming election next year The Independent are planning to revisit the article and have asked us to have another crack at the politicians. And with the pre-Budget report of yesterday ringing in our wallets we’re more than happy to have a few stabs.

So this time I thought it would be fun to post our ideas and scamps as we go along but seeing as we haven’t even started yet here’s some we thought of last year. You can download a PDF of last year’s article below and remember to check back in the coming days to see our scribbles.

Mock political ads

David

Red or brain dead?

Open wide...

We're all doomed I tell you

Brown underpants for Christmas. Again.

Belt up!