Not only do we promote and support Warburtons bakeries and depots – from Norfolk to Herefordshire and everything in between – but we also create, plan and deliver lively and engaging campaigns that reflect the core values of Britain’s second biggest consumer brand.
A whole week dedicated to Britain’s love of loaves sees us plan and implement media communications campaign across the Midlands and East Anglia, including the hugely popular National Picnic Awards – where the public vote for their favourite regional and national picnic site.
As part of Warburtons’ drive to encourage consumers to eat bread at breakfast time we created a campaign to ‘bring back egg and soldiers’ – the classic English breakfast. The idea was so successful it was replicated across all Warburtons trading regions.
We’ve enjoyed a 16-year relationship with Marston’s – one that’s as strong now as it was back in 1994. As our founding client is the country’s largest cask beer brewer with an estate of well over 2,000 pubs we have evolved with the business every step of the way and as their lead communications agency, assist in everything from strategic planning at board level to PR campaigns, crisis management, website development and NPD.
Renaming a business with a 150 year heritage is never easy, but in 2007 Vital developed, planned, managed and delivered the successful rebrand of Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries to Marston’s within a breathtaking six months.
Maximising all opportunities from Marston’s flagship brand sponsorship of England Cricket we help with the management of strategic partnerships as well as creating and executing PR stunts, sampling campaigns and in-ground brand experiences.
Cask beer is Britain’s national drink and our best kept secret – that’s why we’ve been working closely with Marston’s 500-strong estate of managed houses to develop new look communications and interactive pub POS kits - where drinkers can choose the beers they want to see on the bar next and learn how to match different cask beer styles to their meal.
Proof that effective campaigns do not have to have weighty budgets to guarantee success. The not-for-profit BCC, with our support, has been able to raise its profile in a way that has purpose to its members at a time when small businesses need help more than ever.
Our engaging creative was used for the UK’s first fully integrated networking and tendering website to small businesses. Running across direct mail, advertising as well as national and regional PR, the Business Network has already helped put numerous companies in touch with eachother.
Launched by the BCC to help small businesses in the first three years of their lifecycle - which as any budding entrepreneur will tell you is the make or break period. Our launch development packs were backed up with a perfectly timed and regionally-tailored PR strategy.
We’re also responsible for the national and regional PR of the prestigious British Chambers of Commerce Awards, which celebrate the successes and achievements of the UK’s small businesses.
Our work with Staples over the past 18 months is a great example of how sending PR stories into the media simply isn’t enough anymore. We’ve been instrumental in forging long lasting partnerships with charities and non-profit organisations that have given Staples a real point of difference to its competitors in a fiercely competitive market.
By bringing together Staples and Read International – a charity which sends essential stationery to children in Africa – we created an innovative campaign where parents and children here would swap used pens, pencils and pencil cases in exchange for money off vouchers. This resulted in a 19 per cent jump in sales during the crucial ‘Back To School’ trading period.
With the recession brought a new type of worker - the ‘5-9er’ - those who keep down a day job, while running their own business in their free time. We teamed Staples with Enterprise Nation, a website for the millions of home entrepreneurs across the UK, and generated national and regional press coverage, from BBC breakfast TV and Working Lunch through to The Sunday Times Business section.
We created and implemented a full rebrand and implementation of the Copy & Print Centres in all of Staples’ 137 stores. Providing cost effective production of everything from business cards to banner these ‘shop-in-shops’ help to re-enforce the company’s position as the champion of UK SMEs.
Our work with Audi on their customer experience campaigns have seen us create maps for leisure drives across the country to designing, building and installing exclusive showcase areas to for the launch of new models.
As one of their most gadget-packed cars, The Audi A8 is not only a feat of technology; it’s a work of art. We created a flawless platform in the style a museum exhibit, in Audi showrooms across the country – 48 centres in three days to be exact.
Helping Audi drivers ‘Rediscover the pleasure of driving’ we created a set of regional UK maps with Britain’s best driving routes, that encouraged customers on extended test drives to switch off the Sat Nav nd enjoy the open road.
(We’re also working with Audi on the launch of their next model later this year. It’s top secret at the moment, but watch this space.)
Over the past few years we have been integral part of Nokia’s global retail team – from mapping out customer journeys to a global roll out of store concepts – we’ve been with them every step of the way.
At the moment we’re planning the customer experience for several new – and top secret – retail formats with Nokia’s partners, and helping to put customer service at the heart of their stores.
We helped bring to life the key ‘personalisation’ ethos in Nokia’s new retail concepts by focusing on delivering the right message at exactly the right time of their customer’s journey. Key to this was ensuring staff across several continents and cultures delivered this consistently and with a smile.
Delivering top line global retail research, insights and creative on the new Nokia Booklet and online store Ovi, has really helped to engage consumers on two of the company’s most important innovations of the past 12 months.
Our creative retail campaigns helped to communicate the key benefit of each handset through customer experiences across some very different markets: from Hong Kong to Mexico City and then all the way to Nokia’s back yard, Helsinki.
Working for Barclaycard for more than ten years has allowed us be involved in some weighty projects including being involved strategically with the brand’s new direction and being part of the implementation of two new visual identities – of which the most recent we managed the global roll out. We also work on strategic sponsorship activation, direct marketing campaigns, internal communications across both consumer and commercial teams.
Staff engagement in Barclaycard’s new rewards programme, Freedom, was critical to its success. The ‘high street’ that we designed and installed at the company’s headquarters turned heads and a got people talking about Freedom in a way that a couple of pull-up banners never would.
We’ve been working with the campaign team in recruitment and existing customer management, to create compelling messages to sell new products, optimise applications while continuing to engage Barclaycard’s current customers through a range of on and offline DM campaigns. Who says financial services direct mail can’t be creative?
We brought Barclaycard Freedom to life at the 2010 Mayor’s Thames Festival by building a massive high street in the middle of Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank. With Sushi making, gelato sampling, putty modelling, free massage and amazing street entertainment - thousands of festival goers left feeling rewarded!
Helping non-profit water brand Belu educate their customers and consumers alike about what they sell and, just as importantly, what they stand for is something we’re immensely proud of and passionate about.
We’ve helped with a range of activities that all go to reinforce their mission to create an an environmentally sustainable economy.
With a forthright political message the Belu website receives hits from a wide number of people looking to know more about them as a business as well as their products. Working closely with their communications team we created a no-nonsense site that gets to the heart of their philosophy while remaining true to their clean and crisp visual style.
As well as key strategic pieces, we help get Belu get all the right kind of attention from some very simple, but effective communications, such as this party invitation to the launch their Thames ‘rubbish muncher’.
Over the past 4 years we have been heavily involved in the world of skiing and snowsport – designing a number of logos, branded items and communications for clubs, teams and individuals.
In 2010 we sponsored Olympic skier Dave Ryding and, through a fully interactive website, kept fans and press up-to-date with all his activities pre games preparation and his journey to Vancouver.
In 2011 we completed a full rebrand for Ambition Racing. As well as branded apparel, banners, stickers, van livery and flyers, we also produced a highly functional website.