January 2023 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during January 2023.
The top 10 marketing moments of 2022
From Elon Musk and BrewDog to brands’ Russian exodus and brand purpose, Marketing Week’s trusty columnist reveals his biggest marketing moments of the year.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Trends of the year 2022
Creative Review looks back on the trends of 2022 in the worlds of design, advertising, photography, music and more.
Read the article in Creative Review.
Brewdog gold can ‘£500,000 mistake’
James Watt, the CEO and founder of BrewDog, has accepted full responsibility for many “misleading” social media posts in which he erroneously stated that customers could win a solid gold can, saying the blunder has personally cost him £470,000.
The brewery’s most recent apology mentions a contest it held between late 2020 and early 2021 in which participants could win gold cans and £15,000 worth of BrewDog stock.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
The 2022 record covers with the best artwork
The winning submission for this year is a hyperreal painting that aims to capture both restrained yearning and “the promise of soaring emancipation.”
The Ants From Up There record by UK rock band Black Country, New Road, which included a hyperreal picture by artist Simon Monk, has been named the Best Art Vinyl Award 2022 winner.
Read the article in Design Week.
Media spend returned to growth in Q4 2022
According to the most recent IPA Bellwether survey, amid high levels of pessimism, as marketers prepare for a recessionary 2023, UK marketing budgets grew in the final three months of 2022.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, a negligible net balance of 2.2% of businesses raised their overall marketing expenditures. Twenty-two percent (20.2%) of the 300 marketers polled said they had increased their marketing budgets, while eighteen percent had decreased them.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Improved hiring intentions despite economic conditions
Despite bleak economic forecasts for the UK this year, hiring plans among brands improved in the last quarter of 2022, with over a quarter anticipating expanding their employment in the following three months.
Only slightly more than one in ten (13.6%) marketers (IPA Bellwether research collected specifically for Marketing Week) anticipate that overall employment at their companies will decline in the next three months. This indicates that a net balance of 14.1% expects a rise in headcount.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Designing for old age
Ahead of the debut of a new exhibition exploring design to improve later life, Josephine Chanter, director of audiences at the Design Museum, laments that “the needs of older audiences are all too often overlooked by companies and designers,” despite Census 2021 results showing that 18.6% of the UK population was 65 years of age or older.
The Design Age Institute and its collaborators are now working on 10 new designs that will be included in the exhibition Designing for our Future Selves, which will debut at the museum on February 24. These designs focus on topics such as houses, health, and employment.
Read the article in Design Week.
London’s newest bid for a landmark is an electrical substation in Brent Cross
A design for an energy facility in Brent Cross Town was created by London-based artist Lakwena Maciver in her upbeat style.
It towers over the Angel of the North at a height of 21 metres, and its length is 52 metres. Unusually, an electrical substation in Brent Cross Town, a regeneration project in the city’s north, is the latest contender for a landmark designation in London.
It’s possible that the London-based artist Lakwena and the architectural firm If Do were commissioned to turn the substation into an “artwork” since they are aware that they don’t generally add sex to the skyline.
Read the article in Creative Review.
Fedrigoni has released the latest edition of its annual calendar project
The project’s contributors, who came from a variety of artistic fields, were invited to describe their conception of love, including romantic connections, heartbreak, and platonic love. Sales of the calendar this year will suitably help the British Heart Foundation in keeping with the love theme.
Read the article in Creative Bloom.
About DWH
DWH is an award winning Coventry-based creative design agency offering a full range of services including:
December 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during December 2022.
Top CMOs discuss how to become ‘future facing leaders’
In a new series from Marketing Week sister brand Oystercatchers, in partnership with Rankin Creative, top marketers from ITV, TK Maxx, and Channel 4 will discuss the greatest obstacles and possibilities confronting CMOs.
In the video series “Through the Lens,” CMOs cover a variety of issues, including how to engage customers and build successful working relationships with agencies. Additionally, it will look at their own creative drives,
Read the article in Marketing Week.
The 2023 colour of the year
Eley Cheng, vice president and general manager of Pantone, and Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute, both wearing items of apparel that alluded to the colourful hue to be presented, unveiled Pantone’s Color of the Year, Viva Magenta, during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Since 1994, Pantone’s forecasters have selected a Color of the Year through a process that involves “combing the world looking for new colour influences,” according to Pantone. Their experts examine “films in production, travelling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations as well as new lifestyles, playstyles, and socioeconomic conditions.”
Read the article in Design Week.
Inside Battersea Power Station’s Lift 109 experience
One of Battersea Power Station’s recognisable chimneys now houses a glass lift that provides tourists with a panoramic vantage point as part of the building’s most recent phased restoration.
The edifice, which previously supplied a fifth of the city’s electricity and is a recognisable element of the London skyline, was decommissioned from 1975 to 1983 and then rebuilt by WilkinsonEyre from a dilapidated state.
Read the article in Design Week.
2022 marketing year in review
Over the past 12 months, retail media in the UK has advanced significantly. By the time Boots Media Group, a full-service advertising agency, launched and Tesco Media & Insight, a self-serve platform, it was just starting to establish itself as a genuine contender for ad expenditure.
The market has exploded this year. In August, Sainsbury’s media and insight agency Nectar360 debuted its own digital trade platform, and the following month, Morrisons unveiled Morrisons Media Group. While this has been happening, Asda has worked to refine its Asda Media Partnerships
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Crisis unveils huge sculpture
Over 300,000 households may be forced into homelessness in the upcoming year in the UK due to rising inflation and continued problems with cost of living, according to new study.
Alex, a homeless character who can’t be ignored, was created by the charity Crisis in collaboration with the adam&eveDDB advertising firm and artist Sophie de Oliveria Barata.
Read the article in Creative Review.
How design can stop reoffending
InHouse Records was launched in 2017 as a “new sort of record label” that functions as a social initiative with one main goal: to avoid reoffending. It was founded on the principles of co-creation and with the very real spectre of adversity in mind. Judah Armani was interested in the application of design in prisons while studying at the Royal College of Art, and he and Neil Sartorio collaborated to develop it.
InHouse, which has been operating in and out of UK jails around the South East of England for the past five years, is billed as a “rehabilitative record label for transformation.” Armani combined his experience working in both music and design to create InHouse.
Read the article in Creative Review.
About DWH
DWH is an award winning Coventry-based creative design agency offering a full range of services including:
November 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during November 2022.
Dyslexia legibility and designer usability
Inconstant Regular, a new dyslexia-friendly typeface designed by Norwegian illustrator and graphic designer Daniel Brokstad, aims to “find a compromise between dyslexia intelligibility and designer usability.”
The typeface was released today as a part of the There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia campaign from Innocean Berlin and Dyslexia Scotland. The controversial Comic Sans typeface is one of the easiest to read for those who have dyslexia, according to the initiative, which invites designers to make their own font that is as dyslexia-friendly using the principles developed by Innocean Berlin and Dyslexia Scotland.
Read the article in Design Week.
Lidl introduces new brand character ‘Lidl Bear’
By introducing the “Lidl Bear,” a new festive brand mascot, Lidl is urging customers to put an emphasis on the value of family and friends this Christmas.
When a father mistakenly shrinks his Lidl sweater in the washer, his small daughter is inspired to put it on her teddy bear, and the bear’s adventure begins. Although the bear doesn’t speak or move, he draws a lot of attention in the Lidl aisles and is seen as the ideal mascot for the store.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Tesco’s Christmas ad is a cheeky swipe at the UK’s political permacrisis
Nobody was shocked to learn that “permacrisis” won the Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2022. It hasn’t exactly been a year to cherish, what with the UK having its third prime minister this year, a cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine, the climate catastrophe, and the ripple effects of Brexit.
But you’ve got to laugh, and Tesco makes an effort to encourage us to do so in its holiday advertisement, which introduces the Christmas Party and promises “more pigs in more blankets for more people” and “a referendum to see if Love Actually is the greatest Christmas film” while parodying political dramas.
Read the article in Creative Review.
New Swiss passport design depicts mountains and rivers
The Swiss government has unveiled a brand-new passport that was created by the Geneva-based design firm Retinaa SA and is based on images of rural Switzerland.
The designs “welcome you on a virtual journey through Switzerland’s 26 cantons, from the Alpine peaks down to the valleys,” a spokeswoman for Switzerland’s Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) said.
Read the article in Design Week.
Euros win sparks surge in audiences for women’s sport
Following the Lionesses’ victory at the UEFA Women’s Euros in July, more than a quarter (27%) of the 15.8 million new viewers of women’s sport in 2022 went on to watch additional female athletic content.
According to the most recent visibility report from the Women’s Sport Trust (WST) and Futures Sport and Entertainment, the historic victory has increased interest in women’s sport in the UK beyond only football.
Read the article in Marketing Week
Government releases £1.4 million tender for Expo 2025
The UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka is being designed, according to a £1.4 million tender filed by the Department for International Trade.
The Expo’s overarching topic, Designing Future Societies for Our Lives, will bring together 150 nations to examine answers to current problems. Its main goals include showcasing technological advances and exchanging knowledge on the subject, boosting trade and investment with Japan, encouraging innovation, and fostering the expansion of regional economies and SMEs.
Read the article in Design Week.
World Cup sponsor Budweiser banned from selling beer in stadiums
Less than 48 hours before the World Cup is set to start, Qatar has outlawed the sale of alcohol inside stadiums.
Budweiser, the official beer of the FIFA World Cup, is now in a precarious situation because it had been granted exclusive rights to sell beer at stadiums during games.
Well, this is awkward, the AB InBev-owned beer brand said in a now-deleted tweet from its official account.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Sensory wound dressing wins award
The James Dyson Award 2022 global winners have been revealed, with a machine that turns plastic bottles into inexpensive 3D printer filaments and a smart sensor that measures the pH level of wounds each receiving £30,000 in research funding.
The designs for this year’s international winner and runner-up addressed challenges in the medical industry, while the sustainability winner attempted to address recycling concerns in developing nations.
Read the article in Design Week.
Dr. Martens to increase prices
After asking customers what kind of price hikes they would tolerate, Dr. Martens will increase prices by an average of 6% the next year.
However, the company claims that it is simply pricing to keep up with inflation rather than driving costs as high as its clients indicated they would be willing to endure.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
About DWH
DWH is an award winning Coventry-based creative design agency offering a full range of services including:
October 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during October 2022.
Royal Mint releases designs for 50p coin featuring King Charles III
The 50p coin, which will go into circulation later this year, was unveiled today by the Royal Mint as the first coin to include King Charles III’s likeness. King Charles III personally approved the official coinage portrait, which was made by British sculptor Martin Jennings.
As the coins are manufactured by The Royal Mint over the coming months, the 50p coin will go into circulation to commemorate the momentous event of the King’s ascension.
Read the full article in Design Week.
Ritson’s ‘foolproof’ system for marketing budgets
Ritson advises marketers to set budgets in three steps: fit your budget to the size of your organisation, optimise the long and short terms, and accurately measure them.
Read the full article in Marketing Week.
Netflix ad-supported inventory ‘nearly sold out’
According to Jeremi Gorman, Netflix’s president of worldwide advertising, “hundreds” of advertisers are already on board for the launch of its ad-supported tier in November.
On a press conference call held today (October 13), Gorman stated that the streaming behemoth was “almost sold out” of all of its inventory at launch. This was in response to Netflix’s announcement of the new tier.
Read the full article in Marketing Week.
The design of symbols over the centuries
The idea of symbolism is fascinating because even the most basic objects can carry meaning, according to Colin Salter, author of the recently released book 100 Symbols that Changed the World.
His most recent work explores the genesis and narratives of symbols that have had a significant impact on human culture and daily life. Salter attempts to explain the development of symbols over time, from 18,000 BCE until 2020, and investigates the effects they have had.
Read the full article in Design Week.
The Future Factory’s new identity
A business development firm called The Future Factory focuses on lead generation, or generating new business for other businesses, primarily creative agencies. However, before the organisation could assist others, it needed a new, eye-catching brand that would bring in new clients and make it very clear what the Future Factory does.
Read the full article in Creative Review.
Brand’s hiring intentions drop
According to IPA Bellwether research obtained exclusively for Marketing Week, there has been a “substantial deterioration” in the employment intentions of businesses due to rising expenses and a potential recession on the horizon.
With a net balance of 10.1% of marketers anticipating higher employment at their own companies in three months, overall personnel numbers are still expected to increase.
Read the full article in Marketing Week.
Wellcome Collection’s show explores the cultural history of sight
With historical artefacts, vintage images of eyewear trends, and a virtual reality project that depicts the progression of blindness, In Plain Sight examines the various ways we see and are perceived.
However, our relationship with sight goes much beyond the science of it; whether it be the spiritual and cultural connotations of eyes and blindness, or how closely our own identities are entwined with our eyeglasses.
Read the article in Creative Review.
How will AI impact the future of the design industry?
Some experts have suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) would be used to eliminate “uninteresting” repetitive work, while others believe it poses an existential danger to the creative industries. This argument centres on the role AI will play in the future of the creative industries.
As part of the Creative Futures inquiry, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee convened this week to hear from cross-sector leaders.
Read the article in Design Week.
About DWH
DWH is an award winning Coventry-based creative design agency offering a full range of services including:
September 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during September 2022.
Digital most in-demand skill
According to new statistics from LinkedIn, marketers believe that knowledge of digital marketing is the skill that employers are most looking for.
Globally, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and experience in digital marketing are the top three skills listed by marketers on their LinkedIn accounts. Fourth on the list is marketing strategy, followed by understanding of Adobe Photoshop, email marketing, and content.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Five research methods that are on shaky ground
Each research firm has a methodology it wishes to market, however the following five should be thrown out by marketers.
In the course of doing what I do for a job, I occasionally find myself being asked to work with a research method that I had assumed had long since died of shame. Of course, I express my ifs and buts, but I usually back down in the sake of team peace or because a research firm has already been hired that only operates in a particular manner.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Can grocery delivery apps compete with traditional supermarkets amid the cost of living crisis
Over the past ten years, convenience culture has drastically changed practically every area of daily life for consumers. For many of us, it’s difficult to recall a time before we relied on Uber to get us from point A to point, binge-watched a new TV show on one of the many streaming services available, or had supper brought to our door by Deliveroo. Could our weekly food shop be poised to undergo a similar change if the rash of “on-demand” grocery delivery applications that have appeared over the last couple of years is any indication?
Read the article in Creative Review.
Ads paused, plans on hold: How the industry is paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the industry is pausing plans and suspending advertising in tribute to the UK’s longest-serving monarch.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
The Energy Show exhibition explores the design possibilities of new solar technologies
The exhibition explores how solar energy has evolved over the past century and how it can help us transition to a post-fossil fuel future in the twenty-first.
The Het Nieuwe Institut in Rotterdam has launched The Energy Show, which explores what the world might be like if it was powered entirely by solar energy.
Read the article in Design Week.
John Lewis says new brand promise is ‘fundamental’
According to Sharon White, chair of the John Lewis Partnership, there has been a “positive response” to John Lewis’s ‘For all life’s moments’ marketing promise, which was introduced last week.
She added that the positioning, which took the place of John Lewis’s long-standing “Never knowingly undersold” statement, is “only the beginning.” She emphasised that the prior posture, which includes a lot more, is “very different” from the previous tagline, which was a “price promise.”
Read the article in Marketing Week.
What does the mini-budget mean for marketers?
Today, the UK’s largest package of tax cuts in 50 years was presented by Kwasi Kwarteng, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, along with some significant reforms and tax breaks for businesses.
Speaking to Parliament this morning (September 23), Kwarteng said that there are “too many impediments for enterprise” and that growth is now “not as great as it should be.” The administration has set an ambitious growth rate target of 2.5% in the medium term, promising “a new approach for a new era,” and asserting that this will result in sustainable funding for public services and raise living standards.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
New typographic identity for London Fire Brigade
The typeface honours the hand-painted letters found on vintage fire trucks, and this influences the organization’s wordmark.
Foundry Sans, the predecessor to LFB, was developed in 1990 by Freda Sack and David Quay, co-director and designer of The Foundry Types. A “headline typeface” with “special qualities personal to LFB” was required by the company more than 20 years later, according to Stuart de Rozario, co-director and designer of the foundry. At the end of 2021, Studio Sutherl& joined the 18-month project to assist with its progress.
Read the article in Design Week.
About DWH
DWH is an award winning Coventry-based creative design agency offering a full range of services including:
August 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during august 2022.
Marketing bodies welcome delay of Google’s third-party cookie ban.
Organizations representing the marketing sector applaud Google for delaying the blocking of third-party cookies until at least the second half of 2024 and urge advertisers to “use this time wisely.”
Since the ban was first announced in 2020, Google has postponed it twice. It was first postponed to late 2023 in June of last year from when it was originally scheduled to go into force in January of this year.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
HP leans into the hybrid working debate
One of the more unexpected results of the Covid-19 pandemic is the change in office working for many, and the debates that have accompanied this change.
A tongue-in-cheek campaign shows the joys of flexible life compared to office based working.
Read the article in Creative Review.
V&A has announced its programme for the London Design Festival
The V&A has unveiled its schedule for the 20th London Design Festival (LDF), which includes a live glassblowing workshop and a 3D-printed sculpture constructed from marine plastic trash.
The V&A will serve as the festival’s official hub for the 13th consecutive year and house eleven exhibits and installations made by designers around the globe. Each piece will reflect the concept of “transformation” and was specially commissioned for LDF.
Read the article in Design Week.
William Hill preps for winter World Cup
With a new campaign aimed at generating enthusiasm before the World Cup in November, the bookmaker hopes to build upon its “solid roots.”
With a new corporate logo and a 360-degree campaign that celebrated sports fans’ “coming together” post-Covid, last year was William Hill’s “largest” year yet for marketing.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Tabasco unveils a spicy new visual identity
The history of Tabasco sauce by McIlhenny Company is illustrious. Edmund McIlhenny established the company in 1868 on Avery Island in Louisiana, where he also created the original red hot pepper sauce recipe.
The business is still run and owned by a family on Avery Island. The crew aboard NASA’s space shuttles and Queen Elizabeth are just two of its many admirers.
Read the article in Creative Review.
British Gas’s brand health worsens as profits swell
Although British Gas’ parent firm Centrica announced a five-fold increase in operating earnings last month, new data shows that the brand’s health is actually declining over time as customers struggle with the escalating energy crisis.
British Gas’s index score among its own customers, which is a gauge of overall brand health, fell 16 points between January 1 and August 1 of this year, from a score of 17.9 to 1.9, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex tool.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
‘Path of least resistance’: How consumer spending behaviour is adapting to inflation
According to research that Kantar provided exclusively with Marketing Week, while 47% of consumers have reduced or anticipate to reduce their overall spending as a result of inflation this year, shoppers are also determined to prevent any significant changes to their present lifestyles.
According to Kantar, consumers will really accept 75% of price hikes for groceries or clothing rather than forego the item completely.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
V&A East seeks consultancy to design its brand identity
The design of The V&A East’s brand identity is the subject of a tender that will cost between £50,000 and £100,000 to complete.
The chosen design firm will be tasked with creating tangible and digital brand touchpoints for both V&A East locations, the V&A East Museum and the V&A East Storehouse, which will open at Here East in 2024. (opening on the Stratford Waterfront in 2025). The brand rules for both visual and non-visual media are included.
Read the article in Design Week.
Deliveroo pulls back on marketing spend as inflation softens demand
Deliveroo pulled back on marketing spend over the second quarter of 2022, as the impact the cost of living crisis is having on consumer spending became more apparent.
According to the online food delivery company, growth slowed sequentially in the second quarter compared to the first, with gross transaction value (GTV) growth in constant currency terms down from 12% in Q1 to 2% in Q2. GTV reached £3.6bn for the first half.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Is it time for “a revolution” in packaging symbols?
It is quite evident that when it comes to recycling, we are experiencing a communication crisis. Customers are left in the dark by current systems, trying to make sense of confusing word, picture, and colour combinations. People simply aren’t aware of what can be recycled or how to properly dispose of packaging.
The laws differ in every county and every region. There are variously coloured trash cans, and while some recyclers accept mixed rubbish, others only accept specific items. Additionally, if you are one of the fortunate ones to have access to this facility in your community, you might need to travel to particular supermarkets or stores to recycle a particular sort of packaging.
Read the article in Design Week.
To Have & To Hold collects the best paper bag designs of the last century
This rare collection of paper bags, gathered by Tim Sumner and released as a zine, is exquisitely straightforward and simply stunning. It provides a glimpse into design fads from bygone times.
Designer Tim Sumner was introduced to the UCLan Ephemeral Archive by his professor Andy Bainbridge about ten years ago when he was wrapping up his studies at the University of Central Lancashire. The archive rescues and preserves often transient items including posters, pamphlets, and packaging.
Read the article in Design Week.
July 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during July 2022.
Advertising breaks on UK television could become longer
The length and frequency of commercial breaks on UK television may increase as Ofcom evaluates the broadcasting regulations.
The regulator is looking at the “complex” regulations that establish limits for public service broadcasters that are “stricter than the norms set for commercial broadcasters” and that determine the frequency and duration of broadcast TV advertising.
According to current regulations, ITV1 and Channel 5 are only allowed to air an average of seven minutes of commercials every hour of programming on any given day. Other networks, however, are permitted up to nine minutes during primetime.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Penguin announces 2022 Cover Design Award winners
Penguin is well known for its book covers and there is strong rivalry for its honours. Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, and Children’s are the three categories for this year, and competitors are asked to reimagine the covers for books by Bernardine Evaristo, Dara McAnulty, and Robin Stevens.
This year, the publisher accepted everyone interested in becoming a designer, regardless of their level of higher education, and got over 1,500 entries (previously those entering were required to be studying on a further education or higher education course).
Read the article in Creative Review.
IPO releases design protection review findings
In response to a request for feedback on the UK designs framework, the government’s comments have been made public by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
The UK’s present system for protecting designs is known as the Design Framework, or “designs systems,” as the IPO also refers to it. In the aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, this has been under review (EU).
The conclusions come after a two-month informal consultation that took place from January to March and during which the government requested evidence-based solutions to queries regarding the present system. The poll examined issues including the system’s complexity, the effectiveness of the user experience, and the importance of intellectual property rights.
Read the article in Design Week.
Uber’s brand takes hit following damning leak
Since the release of the Uber files, a global investigation of the aggressive expansion strategies used by the taxi-hailing industry between 2013 and 2017, the reputation of Uber has suffered.
Uber broke the law, secretly lobbied governments, and offered shares to media moguls in order to sway favourable coverage as it pursued the disruption of the world taxi market, according to the more than 124,000 confidential documents that were leaked to the Guardian by the company’s former chief lobbyist in Europe, Mark MacGann.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Royal Mail stamps
A set of eight stamps from the Royal Mail have been released to support the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Find out more in Design Week.
Why typography still packs a punch when it comes to protest
San Francisco exhibition Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest aims to “chart a typographic chant of resistance” through mixing the histories of dissent and graphic design.
Read the article in Creative Review.
The cost of living crisis and consumer confidence
As the price of food and fuel rises and interest rates skyrocket, the “financial tone of the country” is “darken[ed], and consumer confidence continues to deteriorate, stagnating at a historically low level.”
According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), inflation reached a fresh 40-year high last month, rising to 9.4%, while data from Kantar showed food price inflation at 9.9% in June.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Gérard DuBois takes V&A Illustration Awards 22 top prize
The V&A Illustration Awards, now in their 50th year, showcase some of the best work being produced in the publishing industry, focusing on both journalism and illustrations for books and book covers. The award’s student division selects some of the most talented young people.
For his acrylic paintings done for the Folio Society’s special edition of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, French illustrator Gérard DuBois won the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Prize and the Book Illustration Award for 2022. Numerous children’s books as well as magazines, including the New York Times, have included DuBois’ illustrations.
Read the article in Creative Review.
June 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during June 2022.
B2B marketers in the UK are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the future of creativity.
While data shows that B2B marketers still lack creative confidence and are concerned about hiring talent, a “paradigm shift” is motivating the business to improve its narrative skills.
When it comes to their firms’ capacity to generate innovative advertising, B2B marketers in the UK have the lowest confidence.
According to recent data from LinkedIn, 59 percent of B2B marketing leaders in the UK feel that creative confidence is rising, the lowest percentage among the 13 nations studied. The percentage is 82 percent on average over the world.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Tropic Skincare’s new typeface is designed for dyslexic readers
Tropic Skincare has updated its logo to include a new dyslexic-reader-friendly typeface after learning that customers were having trouble reading its website and messaging.
Lewis Moberly, who has worked with the company for a long time, was entrusted with creating a new typeface without dramatically altering the brand’s identity. “We were given the challenge of giving Tropic their own custom typeface that would be far more accessible to dyslexic readers,” explains the studio’s creative director Emily Fox.
Read the article in Design Week.
What role should photographers play at protests?
Jeremy Jeffs has spent years photographing a wide range of protests and feels that photographers are essential in recording the changing status of democracy and keeping authority accountable.
You pick the movement, and photographer Jeremy Jeffs has probably shot one of its protests. Pro-Brexit, anti-Brexit, Black Lives Matter (BLM), climate change, anti-vax — you name it, and Jeremy Jeffs has probably photographed one of its rallies. “I’d started during Brexit, and shot a piece centred solely in Parliament Square simply looking at the identity of a large diversity of various demonstrations happening.”
Read the article in Creative Review.
North England and Wales have the fastest-growing design economies
According to a recent analysis, Wales and the north east and north west of England were among the UK’s fastest expanding economic areas for the design sector over the previous decade.
The findings were published by the Design Economy, a study initiative run by the Design Council that looks into the value of design in the UK.
Read the article in Design Week.
Exploring the work of ‘secret photographer’ Vivian
A new exhibition in Milton Keynes looks at the legacy of a pioneering 20th century street photographer from New York and Chicago, whose large collection of photos went unnoticed for the most of her life.
Read the article in Creative Review.
Royal Mail to commemorate 50 years of UK Pride
The eight colourful stamps, which go on sale on July 1, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride rally, which is well known for taking place in 1972 from London’s Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park. For the occasion, Royal Mail hired NB Studio, who then art-directed gay British artist Sofie Birkin to use her vivid drawings to capture the theme of “A March Through Time.” Then, London-based animation studio Animade brought the series to life.
The purpose of the project was to honour each decade of Pride, from the protest meetings that took place fifty years ago to the current day when it is viewed as a significant event.
Read the article in Creative Boom.
Robinsons and Wimbledon end 86 year partnership
One of the longest-running sports sponsorship agreements has come to an end with Robinsons and Wimbledon calling it quits after over 90 years of working together.
The 86-year-old association between the tennis competition and the brand owned by Britvic was officially ended today. Since the 1930s, the squash has been almost exclusively associated with Wimbledon.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Norwich City’s rebrand pays homage to the region’s history of weaving
According to the studio’s chief creative director Rich Rhodes, the redesign was motivated by the plot of The Strangers. The Strangers, a group of Dutch immigrants, came in Norwich in the sixteenth century. The arrival also brought the equipment and know-how necessary to solidify the city’s position as a leader in the textile sector.
Canaries that the Strangers brought would sing to them while they worked, creating an enduring bond between the birds and the city. Breeding canaries became a well-liked hobby, and Norwich City FC finally adopted the moniker “The Canaries” in the early 1900s.
Read the article in Design Week.
May 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during May 2022.
‘It’s about long-term value’: How brands are tackling effectiveness measurement
According to marketing executives at WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Salesforce, all marketing performance measures must “ladder up to long-term value” and include the “whole picture.”
Their remarks come after the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) released research indicating a drop in marketing performance since 2020, as well as a “perplexing” over-reliance on campaign delivery metrics rather than actual brand and reaction indicators.
“[Every measure] has to ladder up to the long-term value of those customers you’re bringing in, how much you’re spending, the effectiveness of that channel, and ultimately, what it actually means,” said Tony Miller, WW’s vice-president of growth and performance marketing and chair of the DMA awards committee.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Methane-capturing cow collar and chemical-free textile scoop Terra Carta top prize
The winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab include a methane-capturing collar for cows and a chemical-free outdoor performance cloth.
The design lab is a partnership between the Royal College of Art (RCA), Jony Ive, and Prince Charles’ Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), which seeks low-cost, high-impact solutions to environmental issues.
Read the article in Design Week.
Channel 4: Advertisers are ‘right to be worried’ about privatisation
Advertisers and agencies are “right to be worried” about the impact of Channel 4’s unique content, viewership, and competition for advertising dollars, according to the broadcaster.
Last month, top marketers from Boots, Zoopla, Phoenix Group, and Little Moons agreed that the government’s contentious move to privatise Channel 4 was “worrying,” with some fearful that its “bold and adventurous” schedule would be lost.
ISBA’s director general, Phil Smith, expressed unhappiness with the decision, citing a lack of competition among TV sales companies in the UK. He believes that any merger of Channel 4, ITV, and Sky’s three advertising sales houses might result in “undue control” in the industry.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Biodegradable Covid testing kit seeks to address plastic waste problem
Morrama, an industrial design company, has unveiled a prototype for a biodegradable and recyclable COVID-19 testing kit that aims to reduce the environmental effect of current tests.
The Eco-Flo kit was created using sustainable materials and with the goal of making it more accessible to individuals with impairments.
“Face masks, lateral flow tests, and sanitizer bottles have all been made of plastic,” explains Morrama creator and design director Jo Barnard. “Active testing has been and will continue to be an important component of living with COVID-19 as new COVID-19 variations emerge.”
Read the article in Design Week.
Dr. Martens: Brands need the confidence to constantly ‘reframe’ themselves
Dr. Martens’ global brand marketing manager Janine Hearn-Odell recently stated that brands should have enough faith in their mission to continually “reframe” themselves based on how their customers interact with it.
She said today (17 May) on a panel at Advertising Week Europe that this is critical to driving brand relevance in society, and that marketers should regard their connections with customers as a “partnership.” Trends in how customers utilise a product, for example, should evolve naturally rather than being generated by the brand.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Consumer confidence collapses
Consumer confidence has dropped once again, with more “bad news” on the way as inflation soars and unemployment in the UK reaches a 50-year low.
In May, the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer reported a headline score of -40, the lowest since records started in 1974 and a 2% drop from the previous month.
This suggests that consumer confidence is worse now than it was during the global financial crisis’ “darkest days.” Previously, the lowest score was -39, which was recorded in July 2008.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Pret’s former marketing boss on the secrets of a growth mindset
Brands pursuing growth may want to start by examining several paths to success, such as distribution, innovation, and a shift in posture.
Former Green & Black’s and Pret marketing boss Mark Palmer – who is now cofounder of drinks brands Cawston Press and LA Brewery Kombucha – shared lessons from his nearly three decades in marketing, from opting for premiumization to allowing innovation to breathe, at the Festival of Marketing Leadership Summit yesterday.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Will design studios embrace the four-day work week?
The long-awaited four-day work week appears to be gaining traction. A reduced working week will be trialled by 3,000 workers throughout the UK next month. Employees from various businesses were chosen for the six-month study, which was organised by a UK think tank and researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College.
Read the article in Design Week.
April 2022 News Roundup
Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during April 2022.
Design Council asks the public to take part in designing future train stations
The Design Council and Network Rail are launching the next phase of their initiative to reimagine the country’s railway stations by allowing the public to try out potential designs in virtual reality.
In the United Kingdom, there are around 2,000 small and medium train stations. Network Rail is now making an appeal to the British public, urging them to participate actively in a comprehensive programme that will result in the redesign of the majority of them.
Read the article in Design Week.
Beer company’s ‘misleading’ April Fools promotion sparks 40 complaints within hours
Bier Company’s April Fool’s Day campaign has backfired, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) receiving at least 40 complaints within hours of the joke being disclosed.
Customers of the Bier Company were duped into believing they had won a long-running monthly competition to obtain a ‘black card,’ which grants them a free lifelong membership to the ‘Bier Club.’
Read the article in Marketing Week.
This folding charger concept is designed to reduce electronic waste
Blond, a London-based design company, has unveiled a folding charger prototype that tries to alleviate the tech industry’s rising problem of electrical waste.
Instead of discarding the Fold multi-purpose charger when it became obsolete, people could repair and improve it. The disposal of chargers is a major issue. According to the European Commission, obsolete and underused chargers generate 11,000 tonnes of electrical trash each year.
Read the article in Design Week.
‘Don’t stalk, inspire’: why brands are failing to build long-term relationships
Sir John Hegarty argues that the growth of digital technology has led to firms’ fixation with “stalking” rather than “inspiring” consumers, which is affecting their capacity to form long-term partnerships.
He remarked today (7 April) at the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Marketer Week that businesses have gotten “overawed” by technology and are unsure what to do with it. “Am I a brand that stalks or am I a brand that inspires?” he told marketers, emphasising that the greatest way to inspire is to be innovative.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Morphy Richards rebrands to honour “the tension of form and function”
Morphy Richards’ branding has been updated by London consultancy Otherway in an attempt to break through the “sea of sameness” in the household electrics industry.
In 1936, product engineer Donal Morphy and his company partner Charles Richards co-founded Morphy Richards. Since then, the firm has expanded its product line to include anything from kettles to toasters and coffee makers.
Read the article in Design Week.
Four in ten marketers expect recruitment ‘boost’ over next three months
Over half of marketers (54.1%) anticipate their firms’ employment numbers will stay the same in the coming quarter, while just 7.1 percent expect job losses.
Despite the effects of inflation and the Ukraine crisis on businesses, marketers predict a “strong” recruiting outlook over the next three months.
According to IPA Bellwether research obtained specifically for Marketing Week, nearly four out of ten (38.8%) marketers have “strong plans” to increase employment inside their company.
Read the article in Marketing Week.
Jodrell Bank’s new visual identity hopes to inspire a “sense of awe”
Johnson Banks, a London-based design firm, has created a new corporate identity for Jodrell Bank, the research centre and observatory that houses the Lovell Telescope.
The University of Manchester presently owns and manages the Cheshire-based observatory, which was founded nearly 75 years ago. The Lovell Telescope, created by Bernard Lovell in the 1950s and previously the world’s biggest steerable radio telescope, is the centrepiece.
Read the article in Design Week.
Jason Chuang taps into buried emotions in his dreamlike illustrations
He used to go to a weekly painting class as a kid and soak up the stories his teacher told the students. Drawing in class made him uncomfortable, and he frequently left with “untouched blank paper” but a mind full of ideas. He moved on to study illustration in further education after producing drawings based on Naruto or Twilight in high school, and just graduated with an MA at the Royal College of Art in London.
Now that he is a working artist and illustrator, he refuses to compromise his style and consciously avoids using a formula in his work. “I prefer to think of each work as a fresh challenge, a new frontier for me.” It’s terrifying, thrilling, and sometimes painful, and I have to hold off on doing what I know would work when things don’t work out, but the payout is far more precious to me this way, so I’d rather trust the unknown and avoid following a pattern.
Read the article in Creative Review.
M&S, P&O, Morrisons: Everything that matters this morning
Marks and Spencer’s “Fresh Market Update” customer campaign has been revived, with the goal of highlighting the importance of British Select farmers in the company’s quality, value, and freshness.
Between April and September this year, 62 distinct commercials will be shown on television, as well as direct mail, emails, social media, and local Facebook groups.
Read the article in Marketing Week.