Gold

Budweiser had a big task on its hands. Reverse a sales slump by emotionally connecting with once loyal consumers. And it had to do this in the US’s aggressively competitive 2016 summer landscape where the Presidential Election and Rio Olympics took centre stage.

To cut through the noise of the busiest time of year for the beer market, Budweiser knew it needed to do something drastic to spark conversation: the objective was to generate vast amounts of buzz and mentions on media channels.

Advanced was growing fast. It was their huge potential that made Vista Partners buy them back in 2014. But with new ownership came new aggressive targets: and the aim to become a centre-of-excellence.

This ambition led to a new proposition: ‘right-first-time solutions’. It had the opportunity to win over lots of CEOs and managers as it promised to fix all the irritations they had with IT, but Advanced needed a strong creative campaign to get the message across.

Fairy is well known for its washing up liquid, but for consumers its dishwasher tablets were just another addition on a busy shelf.

But Fairy’s biggest problem was that 80% of consumers couldn’t tell the difference between its good, better and best products in the range. People also don’t want to spend lots of time choosing dishwasher tablets, so the new packaging had to immediately translate the added value in Fairy’s premium products.

With women representing just 15% of roles in science leadership teams, Homeward Bound embarked on a mission to drive diversity.

The initiative involved a year-long awareness campaign and a 20-day expedition to Antarctica. It had a powerful message – that women need to be heard to influence how our planet is cared for – but an emotive identity was needed to make an impact and inspire others.

Perceptions towards health are changing. People are shifting from calorie counting with ‘light’ varieties to more natural products with low sugar, salt and artificial colours and flavourings. Danone saw an opportunity to tap into this market with a mainstream yoghurt that was both delicious and delivered these credentials.

25-44-year-old millennials made up the gap in the market, and Danone knew that if they tapped into this target audience, the growth potential would be huge.

A family-run winery close to Sydney, Four Winds Vineyard had the chance to attract huge numbers of visitors, but their labelling wasn’t driving the tourism or sales. It simply didn’t communicate the authentic, family-run and local messaging that the brand epitomises.

With over 2,468 Australian wine makers listed in 2016 alone, competition at the shelf was tremendously high. And the only voice Four Winds had was their labelling.

The dairy-free market was on the up, but Vitalite had lost its position as the best-selling dairy-free spread to Pure.

Going dairy-free had hit the mainstream, with 10% of the UK population avoiding dairy because of intolerance or as part of a healthy lifestyle. There was huge opportunity for Vitalite to grow, but it needed to shake off the perception of simply being a sunflower spread to become a credible dairy-free alternative.

A bold packaging design that challenges category traditions saw this nut butter company grow from a standing start to £6.3 million in just three years.

Pip & Nut, an all-natural nut butter range, needed to gain funding for production to get the business off the ground, and it needed a strong identity to secure it.

With a plain white background, the branding is fuss-free but made lively thanks to the leaping squirrel whose tail forms part of the P in Pip & Nut. It stands out against the usual earthy tones and landscapes of their competitors.

Polyseam had established itself as an ‘own brand’ manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and fillers for the likes of Wickes and Homebase but manufacturing in this sector was under threat. The business needed to innovate to grow.

Their response was to develop an environmentally friendly, all-in-one adhesive and sealant, based on new chemical technology, but driving their own brand was new territory. Struggling to gain traction in the market, they enlisted a design agency to clarify the product’s marketing positioning and recommend design and communication tools.