Ionos
We had to create a brand campaign to gain traction in the UK market. Founded in Germany, IONOS is the biggest web, hosting and domains company in Europe. They offer a suite of online tools to help SMEs with growing their business. The offering even comes with a 24-hour personal assistant to help sort issues and get websites up and running smoothly.
The brand had low awareness in the UK and little affinity amongst SMEs. They were hidden in a commodity market driven by price. We had to change this with a differentiated brand position and fame-building campaign. So that IONOS cut through vs. Go Daddy.
Our partner Nomad assembled a winning pitch team, combining their brand experience with Armoury’s TV-production wizardry and our award-winning advertising skill.
The effects – market Share of Online Sales increased +3.8 percentage points (May ‘21 - Apr ’22). Average monthly new customer inflow from online marketing increased +136.8% (Aug ‘21 to Aug ’22). We broke IONOS records for site traffic on the first weekend. And prompted Awareness increased 9% to 19% (Mar ‘21 - Mar ‘22) smashing the 10.8% objective.
HOKA
HOKA had won ‘challenger’ credibility amongst serious runners on the back of their innovative shoe technology. Great product was then backed by a strong presence in ‘enthusiast’ retailers and canny sponsorships. But to crack the mainstream market, Hoka now needed a great brand too. And that required a whole new approach to marketing.
The EMEA Marketing Director came to us to help transition EMEA to this new marketing world. That meant making the business case for brand; establishing hard marketing objectives, metrics and budgets to achieve goals; defining a market maturity model to categorise different market requirements and then defining playbooks to meet those needs; and rethinking capabilities and processes.
The outcome – we established the foundations for HOKA to evolve from product to brand marketing across the EMEA which they are now using to leverage the new global brand creative work.
Golden Leaves
Golden Leaves Funeral Plans is an FCA authorised and regulated pre-paid funeral plan brand who offers a range of regulated funeral plan products both here and abroad.
They are a trusted brand who have been operating for almost forty years, delivering reassuringly quality products, yet not enough of the general public are aware of them. The client challenged 2050 LONDON and Treacle 7 Ltd. to develop a TVC that could break them into their category at the busiest time of year.
Most competitor advertising takes a generic day-time television direct response format with low production values offering very little brand differentiation. With main messages focusing on what happens when you die! It was all fairly depressing and uninspiring communications unlikely to build the brand and capture people’s hearts.
To drive brand response our approach was to flip the category on its head by celebrating the empowering feeling Golden Leaves customers get, when they know their families are covered by a quality pre-paid funeral plan. Instead of stressing about death, we encourage people to get on with living life to the fullest with one’s family during these golden years.
Our positively bonkers execution brought this to life with a go-karting nan riding at speed through Golden Leaved woods to screaming rock guitars. Unafraid of death and confidently living life to the full!
2050 LONDON and Treacle 7 worked in collaboration with Affixxius Films to make the film at a rip-roaring pace going from idea to delivery in 20 days.
NHS
NHS neonatal intensive care is something of a poor relation in the battle for resources within the NHS. 1 in 13 children born need Neonatal ICU care and it takes around 10 members of a team to care for one neonate (consultant, doctor, nurse, therapists, etc.). Yet the service battles against adult services who take a lion’s share of everything resource based. Couple this with the tension of the NHS struggling to find nurses generally, and this department suffers to find talent. We were challenged to help with developing a recruitment campaign, targeting young people looking at a nursing career and existing trained nurses who may be interested to cross-train. A set of assets was needed to stand out in Sky Adsmart, social media and the NHS internal network.
Daemon
This tech consultancy challenged us to reposition their brand, redefine their offering and develop a highly distinctive brand identity, so that they could rise above the pack and be seen as the No.1 challenger ready to take on the likes of Accenture and Deloitte in the world of digital transformation.
Daemon are in an incredibly competitive market. Bigger, richer, better-known competitors outspend them in marketing. To get noticed, they needed to stand out, be distinctive and punch above their weight. And these bigger, richer, better-known competitors are the safe, ‘default’ option in the eyes of customers. To be chosen, we needed to position Daemon for something different and better. To be perceived as more than a small, generic consultancy. To stand for something new and speak with conviction in a way that dramatically stands out. To shake up the category to represent a ‘visionary’ alternative to a ‘complacent’ establishment. A plucky David to industry Goliaths.
The effects – Immediately new strategic conversations with existing and new clients led to new leads. Practice leads started refocusing their departments from ‘tech-led’ engagements to ‘client-centric’ led.
Fairtrade
The original purpose brand chose 2050 to re-energise their movement. Fairtrade’s leadership was under threat, a next generation of customers didn’t understand the brand and they faced 460 competitors many of whom aligned with ‘topical’ social issues. The current positioning wasn’t set up to accelerate fortunes, as it relied on brand partners to amplify an idea of “Don’t feed exploitation.” This was too ‘activist’ for the mainstream & too negative for partners to support in comms. We had to find a new narrative that reminded all about Fairtrade leadership - so they shouted about them. A new brand identity, campaign and narrative of ‘Choose the World you Want’ did it.
The effects – relevance - 77% of people say they care about Fairtrade. Different - 79% have actively chosen Fairtrade products over an alternative. Partners see Fairtrade in a new light. Key brand partners responded to the new narrative immediately aligning relevant positive impact stories to Fairtrade. And Fairtrade Stakeholders see their role differently. The new narrative revitalised stakeholders giving renewed purpose and the means to have new & relevant conversations with multiple audiences.
Little Black Book
LBB is a challenger with a bold mission. They want to become the number one global media partner for the creative world. To get there they needed help with refining their brand position and a campaign to broaden audiences’ understanding of their offer. Importantly communications had to reflect their creative values & disruptor attitude.
The effects – Acceleration - there is year on year growth. Partners continue to back LBB. Internal LBB stakeholders were energised. The worm & identity is being used in all company merchandise and events.
McCoy’s
Steal share by positioning the new Mexican Muchos range as a superior snack to enjoy in front of comedy programming. Snacking is all about the impact of the crisp – it needs a crunchy flavoursome hit. When consumers were settling down to watch favourite shows the habit was to reach for competitor tortilla chips. We had to change this mindset by suggesting Muchos McCoy’s will have more impact.
Azimo
Azimo global money transfers asked us to help treble the business by 2022 - in a commodity category where product & price advantage don’t last long. To grow we had to get their key audiences, the customers (migrant workers), staff and investors, inspired by a brand idea rather than simply the speed & value of the product.
The effects – Prompted Awareness hit 32%, consideration shot to 45%, and the relevance - attribution ‘on the side of hard-working people’ recorded 58% in tracking. Sales were at 15k customers a month through 2020-21. Sales activations targets were surpassed during the campaign period. The hard-working migrant Champion positioning gave confidence to investors and was instrumental in securing £20m additional funding. 144 adverts across EMEA, China, Australia and Canada over two years helped sustain the brand through to a successful exit with Papaya Global – £200million sale.
Azimo
Azimo was investing in improving their value proposition in new transfer corridors, so their promise of faster, cheaper transfers is realised for more audiences. We had to drive a new growth opportunity by engaging with UK Filipino migrants and get more of them sending money home with Azimo vs. the incumbents like Western Union. Filipino awareness of Azimo’s offering is low so we advised the client to adopt a ‘hot house’ media strategy and brand building advertising campaign. ‘Hot house’ meant choosing media contexts for and within the migrant Filipino communities. The secondary goal was to ensure that comms still appealed broadly to all migrants by continuing to champion Azimo for all hard-working migrants.
Moodswings
Get people suffering from serious depression & anxiety in Manchester to come to the Thumbs Up cafés for support to get on the road to recovery. However, sufferers rarely take action to look after themselves.
We had to encourage friends to reach out to those suffering & take them to the ‘Thumbs Up’ café. If comms could speak to those who have suffered themselves a bit too, they’d be more aware of issues.
Xmas Film
2050 LDN X ARMOURY
Come together this [Covid] Christmas with Snowflake, a Christmas movie from 2050 London & Armoury.
In the tradition of all great Christmas films - It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Die Hard - Snowflake is a family friendly tale of seasonal good tidings, wit and wisdom.
It’s the festive season as seen by the wry, dry, left-leaning Claude Claus, son of Santa, who’s taken the 'reigns' on this year’s gift giving because his Dad’s been deemed “high risk” on account of being 1750 years old.
A droll seasonal satire, Snowflake was directed by Jack Laurance and skilfully filmed under strict COVID protocols and features understated comedic brilliance from Lucas Paternott as Claude Claus and objectionable views from Simon Anthony as a grumpy, self-isolating Santa.
Signs for the Times
We worked with twenty-two independent businesses on the Columbia Road to put colourful ‘Open & Closed’ shop signs in their windows with a range of positive community messages, in a show of solidarity for London high streets. The signs make the point that the high street is the heartbeat of any neighbourhood - it brings the community together and reflects their values. If local shops don’t stay open, local communities break down. Catherine Chester-Levy of the local business ‘Jump Like Alice’ said: "It’s scary seeing what’s unfolding in places like the West End. We just hope in the future we will return to some normality.” Local independent shops bring benefits like tourism, creativity, cultural vibrancy and cohesion to areas like Columbia Road. But their future is very uncertain. Business owners and local communities fear being displaced by ever growing Amazon warehouses. The signs reflect strong community values felt during lockdown, but more needs to be done to protect those values on the high street.
Before the virus, high streets were already struggling with the rise of online sales and a broken business rates system that worked for online retailers. The business rate holiday is helping small businesses, but what’s needed now is a new and fairer tax system, to give confidence that there is a future for thriving high street communities. Signs for the Times is a very simple grass roots idea, with real potential to kick off as a movement. It would be great if hundreds more London shops can get involved to raise awareness and spark more action.
Founders Greatest Hits
Here at 2050 London we have some real talent under one roof. Our knowledge and experience goes way back… we have been involved in some really great thought provoking and positively bonkers ideas even before launching 2050 London. Here is a short showreel of some of the greatest hits that our team (mostly Chiappe & Saunby) have been involved in, over their career’s.
Stake
2050 had to find 5000 of the UK’s next generation of high income ‘active traders’ to buy STAKE. By breaking the default habit of choosing Hargreaves Lansdown. Or going for one another commission free online broker. Stake has a specialist benefit going - they are the only brand offering unrivalled access in the USA. We had to find a way of positioning this relevantly.
Enigma
Enigma are a full service experiential creative company who challenged us to reposition the brand, sharpen their offering and develop a new distinctive modern identity to reflect it all. The active brand idea we developed is Enigma put 'Brands in Focus.' To reflect the awesome multi-sensory digital experiences they build for brands at events and beyond. They've now shot out of the pandemic and are growing stronger every day.
