Universities are now large, complex, international businesses that operate in increasingly challenging commercial and political environments. The University of Portsmouth identified the need for a new brand positioning and visual identity to deliver its 2015 – 2020 strategy. This had to be a highly consultative project with stakeholder management, navigating complex governance. Open consultation followed with multiple audiences, incliding nternational audiences reached through interviews and online focus groups. The approach delivered a strong, differentiated brand positioning owned by the whole University.

Red Door Ventures in 2014 was a company wholly-owned by Newham Council. Their original job was to build homes for the private rental market, generating income for the Council. In October 2018, their remit changed dramatically. Working closely with RDV and partners I delivered a new name ‘Populo’, core brand proposition, narrative, values, personality and brand promises/key messages. I also planned stakeholder management, helping steer the new brand through Council approval. I subsequently directed the roll-out across all channels, extending to interiors, environmental, video and events.

Many global organisations use experiences and events to drive change or drive sales. Marriott International hotel group briefed us to create the naming & theming, art direction, structure and content of an event experience in Shanghai that would bring together their General Managers (‘GMs’) to signal a moment in time for MILUX (the overarching brand for Marriott luxury hotels). The brief had six key pillars: Reinforce positioning; Strengthen commitment; Highlight opportunity; Build a community (see 'GM8 image); Create advocates; Deliver impact and intimacy.

Established in 1862, Bacardi asked us to to build on the iconic, global brand’s foundations, re-igniting the culture and passion within the business by creating a cultural movement. To create this movement, we tapped into the natural passion Bacardi employees have for the brand, sending employees ‘back to the bar’. 31 countries participated in Back to the Bar – from south America, Australia to Europe the campaign achieved over 100,000 impressions on social media, and 900 posts appeared on Instagram. Over 2,000 employees helped define the new culture in fast paced global hackathons – a third of their employee base. A successful start to an impactful three-year relationship.

A global Pharma client studied the behaviors of effective leaders across their organization and identified four behaviors that were most important to their success. They wanted to encourage people leaders to use them and embed them across the organisation, and so they were refreshed and repurposed for all colleagues. This involved taking complex, interrelated cultural pillars and proxy indicators, and simplifying tTem into a meaningful communications system that could underpin multi-channel, strategic communication and engagement. The Leadership Behaviors were represented by four unique, memorable Glyphs, which were an extension of their corporate philosophy.

The University of Reading needed help to position their brand and attract the best students, staff and funding. I led development of their brand and campaign strategy, refreshing their brand and developing a new, omnichannel approach to recruitment. The results were 17% increase in open day attendance. For the first time in its history, Reading had to close applications to its 2014 open days. Applications for 2015-16 were up 23%, against a nationwide decline of c.2%. Reading is now in the top 10 universities in the Youth 100 – the UK’s top brands according to 3,500 18-24 year olds.

A major global Pharma company needed to explain their end-to-end knowledge management, enabling scientists and engineers to understand what systems and interdependencies underpinned their product design and production process. Working with a small team, we plotted out the full journey, supporting technologies and roles, and then presented these in accessible, interactive form. This created their first at-a-glance overview, and enabled them to streamline technologies.

The world’s leading brand of delicious chocolate and peanut lentils (image is NOT their product) continue to build their rich and exciting brand world. They needed a narrative that explains this to their global teams, and what they can do to support and enable this worldwide. While I can’t go into details here, I was tasked, as part of a multi-agency team, to craft that internal narrative and launch it in a number of formats from static to interactive. A great story to tell about a phenomenally successful brand embarking on their next chapter.