Marketing Design Awards 2010
The highly successful ‘Countdown to Rebrand’ campaign that Bonfire Creative Intelligence developed for Randstad Education has been shortlisted for the prestigious Marketing Design Awards.
The campaign is a finalist in the ‘Rebrand’ category of the annual awards, which are run by leading industry magazine Marketing, and winners will be announced during a gala ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House on 2nd November.
Bonfire CI designed an integrated campaign to raise awareness of Select Education being renamed Randstad Education in January 2010. Randstad, the world’s second largest staffing services group, had acquired Select Education and was entering UK education recruitment for the first time.
A rebrand strategy was developed to raise awareness among existing and prospective clients, and internal and external stakeholders, in the period leading up to the official switchover. The aim was not just to inform the target audience of the change but to reinforce key brand values, and this was achieved through a range of media.
The strategy was to deliver the campaign across five monthly phases, following a ‘five-four-three-two-one’ pattern, primarily through direct mail and press ads in key industry titles such as The Times Educational Supplement (TES). In addition, a parallel PR campaign saw the launch of a schools competition to increase engagement with primary and secondary schools, and an internal awareness programme focused on keeping staff informed and engaged.
The first creative, based around the simple tagline ‘5 months to go before Select Education becomes Randstad Education’ listed ‘5 reasons to count on our teachers’ and a visual that mixed in the answers with popular trivia and quiz questions linked by the number five. This continued with ‘4 reasons to count on us’, ‘3 services in one name’ and so on, building up to a ‘blast-off’ launch in January.
The content highlighted key advantages of the Randstad Education service, such as comprehensive background checking, value for money and quality guarantees. The contemporary design, vibrant colours and witty copywriting were a slight departure from Randstad’s fairly formal brand tradition, and was intended to introduce Randstad Education as approachable and exciting.
Bonfire CI Director Stephen Judge said: “We’re absolutely delighted that our campaign for Randstad Education has been recognised in this way. It’s a great example of an agency and client working closely together to create something memorable, exciting and, above all, effective. As a result, what could have been a standard corporate rebrand became a lively, high-impact, multi-channel engagement initiative that really resonated with its target audience.”
Branding and design agency Bonfire Creative Intelligence is celebrating being highly commended in the ‘Business to Business’ category of the New Media Age Effectiveness Awards 2010 for its strategic brand review for British textile business A W Hainsworth & Sons. The agency just missed out on the top prize which went to the recent work for internet giant Google.
Protecting your ideas just got a heck of a lot easier
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010So here is the low-down; ideas, patents and trademarks are only worth something if you have the money to protect them. Protecting your ideas and the generation of IP is a very complex and expensive process. It’s a minefield of classifications, wording, semantics, views and opinions – which often comes down to one person’s word against another.
Creative Barcode acknowledges this and provides a much easier and affordable model of protection by way of a contract.
Once your account has been set up concepts, designs, ideas, proposals and tenders watermarked with a unique identifier can be sent through the system to the intended recipient. The recipient then receives a link to a download of the file from the Creative Barcode website where they agree to terms and conditions prior to download. This sets up a binding contract between sender and recipient.
And why is this so great? It means that the recipient cannot act on the content supplied without coming back to discuss it with the originator first as outlined in the terms. The trick here is that a breach of contract is both easier and cheaper to prove than the theft of IP/ideas. Once a breach has been identified, any damages arising from the breach can then be considered.
Creative Barcode provides proof of contract by keeping a record of all those you give access to and who download the files. If files are shared offline it acts as a deterrent by having a clearly branded mark and unique trackable number embedded/printed on the file.
This is a fantastic service and has so many applications, but most importantly it is an affordable answer to a long-standing issue for both creative individuals and companies alike in the protection of the circulation of their ideas.
It doesn’t solve everything but it is a great start. Registration costs £195 creating your account and your first 5 barcodes, and additional barcodes can be bought for around £9 each. Find out more about by visiting the Creative Barcode website.
We think that this one of the most significant industry developments in a long time, especially given the growth in open innovation and ideas sharing forums and platforms. If you think this is a great idea and believe in upholding the value of creativity then please also sign-up to the Trust Charter on the Creative Barcode website by clicking here. You won’t be alone, with names like Rodney Fitch already leading the way.
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