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7/27/10 11:55:41 AM
Illustration MegaMunden
For self-promotion that stands out, you need outstanding
ideas. Anne Wollenberg hears how three seriously inventive self-branding
campaigns won over creative commissioners around the world
CAP140.feat_successes 77
It’s one thing to send out a self-promotion
piece, whether it’s a calendar, a box of
customised crayons or even bag of
fake blood. But will it actually work? After
all, great though it is to be noticed by a
potential client or commissioner, simply
coming up on someone’s radar won’t
automatically make those all-important
commissions start flooding in.
The good news is that the buzz
gained from that initial exposure can
indeed be converted into paid work and
fruitful client relationships. We’ve spoken
to the creatives behind three original,
innovative self-branding campaigns to
find out how they did just that.
London illustrator Radim Malinic
explains how he threw a launch party for
his portfolio books, while Prague-based
consultancy Touch Branding tell us what
on earth they were doing visiting creative
directors in a pretend ambulance. And
Nicholas O’Brian Wilson of Oregon-based
Owen & Stork reveals how a simple but
effective portfolio idea helped inspire a
guerrilla marketing campaign for a major
brand with a global reach.
Turn over to find out how a little
thinking outside the box helped our three
creatives stand out from the crowd.
7/27/10 11:55:48 AM
78
Project four What really works
The promo item Showcase books
Radim Malinic,
Brand Nu
Award-winning
illustrator, art director
and graphic designer
Radim Malinic is based
in London and works
under the name Brand
Nu. One of the most
prolific commercial
illustrators around, he
has worked with a huge
roster of worldwide
clients that includes
the likes of Blossom
Hill, Harrods, the BBC,
O2 UK, O2 Germany,
Penguin Books and
The Wall Street Journal.
www.brandnu.co.uk
I’ve created three portfolio books over
the last four years. I wanted to give my
clients first-hand experience of my work
and make sure the right people would see
the right things. You can miss a page in a
book, but you don’t miss all of them.
My books have got more and
more posh as I’ve spent more money on
production. The latest, BOOK THREE, cost
£4 a copy to make. I sell them through my
website, so they double up as a sales tool.
The production costs pay for themselves
from sales, and that goes up with the
work they bring in.
I was a graphic designer before
starting doing commercial illustration, so
I learned a lot about printing techniques.
I use expensive GF Smith paper, which feels
like a cross between suede and plastic,
so it’s nice to touch. The cover image is
pressed in gold foil, and I send my books
out in red envelopes so they’ll stand out.
I threw a launch party for BOOK
THREE. My friend was opening a new
London bar, Soho Bar Rio Central, and I
invited existing clients, fans, bloggers and
a lot of people from ad agencies. I actually
projected an animated video of the book
onto a 4 x 5-metre screen, and handed out
gift bags sponsored by Corona with free
posters, iPhone stickers and lots of things
that cost under a pound. I wanted to get
under people’s skin. The stickers and
posters were done very cheaply on a
favour – the most expensive thing was
paying for the food.
Sending portfolio books to
clients is a simple way to keep them
updated. Any new inquiry gets a copy
within a couple of days, and I also use
them to target new clients. I call them my
oversized business cards, and I always
follow up by email or phone within a week
of sending them out. I hadn’t met Nada
when she first commissioned me – I sent
her my second book to showcase my
latest work and had a phone call saying
they’d be interested in working with me
soon after. I never imagined that I’d spend
£4,000 on self-promotional print
production, but it’s paid off.
Case study #1
Brand Nu and
Pulse Group
You might miss a single
page in a book, but you won’t
miss all of them
Computer Arts Projects _September 2010
CAP140.feat_successes 78
www.computerarts.co.uk
7/27/10 11:56:08 AM
The hard sell
79
The commission Blossom Hill at Wimbledon
Nada McCormack,
Pulse Group
Nada McCormack
is an art director at
independent marketing
the communications
agency Pulse Group.
She joined Pulse in
2009, having previously
worked for Triangle and
Arc. Based in London,
Pulse Group counts
Blossom Hill, Renault,
Smirnoff and Bentley
among its clients, and
recent campaigns have
picked up awards from
the ISP, MCCA and MAA.
www.pulsegroup.com
www.computerarts.co.uk
CAP140.feat_successes 79
Radim worked on our ‘Let Play Begin’
sponsorship campaign for Blossom Hill
wine at Wimbledon 2009. He had worked
on our Blossom Hill projects before, but
sometimes you can forget or disregard
good illustrators; it’s easier to see them as
someone to potentially commission when
you have something tangible in front of
you. The way that he did the launch for his
book also showed that he is commercially
sound, which is unusual for illustrators.
This was the second year of
Blossom Hill’s sponsorship as the official
wine of Wimbledon, and we wanted to
build on that through experiential activity.
We were targeting female consumers
with hectic lives who like to let their hair
down. We wanted to show that Blossom
Hill rosé is a playful wine, so we used the
strapline ‘Let Play Begin’ to make the
connection between the game and the
brand positioning. We came up with the
campaign idea and ambitions as to what
the key visuals would look like across the
campaign, and we commissioned Radim
to bring the black and white scamp to life.
We look for illustrators who can add their
own magic, then we combine that with the
client’s objectives.
We provided games like table
tennis where people were queuing, with
banners and branded areas that stood
out, and we used branded rickshaws to
give people free lifts from the tube station
to the field. We worked on some trade
incentives and in-store promotions, and
also created limited-edition packaging
featuring a tennis ball, which flew off the
shelves. The campaign went on to win the
Gold award for the alcoholic drinks
category at the ISP Awards.
So much goes into why an
illustrator gets picked: timing, budget,
client vision. Getting an illustrator
commissioned can be quite a big deal,
and there are a lot of things working
against creatives. Most of the illustrators
we use don’t really promote themselves.
Radim is really proactive about it, and he’s
constantly in the forefront of our minds
because his book is always around.
Radim’s at the forefront
of our minds, because his book
is just always around
September 2010_ Computer Arts Projects
7/27/10 11:56:28 AM
80
Project four What really works
The promo item Fake blood bag
Aleš Micka and
Martin Marušinec,
Touch Branding
Aleš Micka and Martin
Marušinec first met at
Leo Burnett Advertising
in Prague in 1997.
Martin went on to
spend seven years in
Australia, working for
VBC International, while
Aleš worked for Prague
packaging design
studio Cocoon and at
Grey Worldwide in
Dublin. They joined
forces to form Touch
Branding in 2006.
www.touchbranding.com
‘We’ll give our blood for good branding’
came out of an email brainstorm. The
first thought we had was of a fake blood
bag being sent by post. We found it really
interesting to imagine someone opening
such an envelope. We thought even
people from ad agencies would be
shocked at first. And if we could turn this
initial shock into laughter, we would have
created a memorable experience.
The blood bag is real. It’s the
same as the ones hospitals use, although
to be fair, they actually have the process
computerised now, so not much is really
handwritten any more. We tried to capture
the perception of how the process works
in a hospital, rather than the actual reality.
The fake blood was created using a recipe
we found online. Altogether, we spent
about £1.50 per piece.
We delivered our blood bag
mailers to advertising agencies, dressed
up in white coats and driving a specially
branded van. We didn’t warn them – we
just showed up and asked if we could see
the creative director on very important
business. Being dressed as doctors meant
that we usually got through. Then we put
the package on the table and left straight
away, to pique their curiosity, so the
reactions came later on. Some people
found it disgusting, most found it hilarious,
and one person even had a taste. Certainly
no one thought it boring or ordinary.
Most found it hilarious,
and one person was even brave
enough to have a taste
We also sent some out by post
and the reaction was much the same as
when we delivered them personally. It got
us through the doors and into the memory
of pretty much all of the creative directors
in the country. It established our agency’s
reputation and gave us the edge over other
branding studios as specialists on ideadriven visual identities: not just nice logos
or business card designs, but identities
based on smart ideas that communicate
the true essence of a brand.
Besides the stickers on
business cards, letters and other covers,
we also used the branding on our website,
Facebook, LinkedIn, presentations to
clients and so on, and we followed up with
phone calls to set up meetings. We won
two Nutcrackers – the most prestigious
Czech awards – and our work was
published in the D&AD yearbook and
design blogs locally and worldwide. It gave
us visibility in a fairly overcrowded market.
Most people said that it was bloody good.
Case study #2
Touch Branding
and ABS Jets
Computer Arts Projects _September 2010
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www.computerarts.co.uk
7/27/10 11:56:44 AM
The hard sell
81
The commission ABS Jets rebrand
Radomír Šanák,
ABS Jets
Radomír Šanák is the
commercial director
and director of ground
operations for ABS Jets,
a world-class executive
jet operator with bases
at Prague Ruzyne
Airport, Czech Republic,
and Bratislava,
Slovakia. The company
was established in
2004, and is also a
maintenance and
repair organisation. It
was recently voted the
best for business
aviation by Overseas
Living magazine.
www.absjets.com
We hired Touch Branding to devise a new
visual identity for ABS Jets. The branding
that we had was far too colourful, with
pale blue sky and clouds. We wanted to be
seen in a much more subtle way, rather
than being too flashy. We are one of the
biggest companies in Europe for what we
do, but we didn’t want to be shouting that
out loud because our brand is all about
understated style. Our visual identity
needed to reflect that.
We first saw Touch Branding’s
‘We’d give our blood for good branding’
campaign while we were researching
different branding companies. We came
across the awarded campaign on the
Czech Art Directors Club website.
After ABS Jets got in contact
with Touch Branding, they sent us a real
blood bag so that we could see it for
ourselves. We liked what they had done.
Other design studios had put together
nice presentations, colours and layouts,
but there was no second level to that –
no telling what they could do or who they
were, whereas here was a successful
rebranding campaign.
The brand identity ABS Jets had
before was colourful, fairly trendy and
young-looking. It wasn’t that it was bad, it
just wasn’t right, so it was time to find a
new branding agency. We invited three
companies to pitch. Touch was one of
them and they got the job.
Martin and Aleš designed a new
brand identity inspired by simple, British
style. They created design features that
copied the shape of the back wing of a
plane – those lines featured in the layout.
They created a new visual identity and
defined the key messages that ABS Jets
should be communicating.
That was the first part of the
branding project: creating the visual
identity and roadmap. Since they did
that, Touch Branding have spent over
a year implementing all of these
changes in every single area of the
company’s visual identity, including
business cards, envelopes, brochures,
websites and so on.
Other studios put together
nice presentations, but without
a second level
www.computerarts.co.uk
CAP140.feat_successes 81
September 2010_ Computer Arts Projects
7/27/10 11:56:57 AM
82
Project four What really works
The promo item My Soap Box package
Nicholas O’Brian
Wilson, Owen & Stork
Based in Portland, USA,
Nicholas O’Brian Wilson
received a BA in design
from Arizona State
University’s Design
School and worked in
advertising before
going freelance. He now
runs Owen & Stork, a
creative firm that
specialises in unique
user experiences in
the areas of product
packaging, guerrilla
marketing, product
design and brand
experience.
www.owenstork.com
I was working for an advertising
company when the economy took a turn,
leaving my position in question. I wasn’t
considering starting my own company at
that time – I just wanted a stable job. My
promotional piece needed to scream:
“Hey, look at me, you don’t want to miss
this,” because I knew there would be loads
of other, more qualified designers fishing
for new jobs. I needed to speak more
loudly to have a chance.
I wanted this piece to conjure
up an emotional response, which is why
the package has layers. I’m big on user
experience, so progression was really
important to me. I wanted the piece to
flow a certain way and the information to
be consumed in a particular order. A
portfolio can sit on a desk and get covered
up, or thrown away. It’s hard to overlook or
disregard a package. Humans enjoy the
mystery of opening presents. That’s why
we go to the trouble of wrapping them up.
The packages are made from
recycled wood and cardboard. Inside,
there’s a portfolio book, a CV and a
business card. The book is hand-bound
and stitched, the cardboard forms are
hand-cut and the outer boxes are
silk-screened by hand, so it’s a labour of
love to say the least. A local shop
letterpressed the printed materials.
Because I was getting such a
great response from the piece, I started
sending them to people I knew who owned
businesses. My first break happened
when a designer showed it to a project
manager at Adidas, which resulted in work
– a memorabilia package sent out as gifts
from Adidas. After that, I decided to go it
alone. So the promotional piece became a
tool for me to start my own company and
market myself. Red Bull North America
didn’t have a project in mind when I first
showed them the piece, but a few months
later, I got a call about working together.
I hand-delivered some of the
packages, and at one studio all of the
design staff stopped what they were doing
to see what I had brought in. You wouldn’t
get that with a traditional portfolio.
Case study #3
Owen & Stork
and Red Bull
North America
Humans enjoy the mystery
of opening presents. That’s why
we wrap them
Computer Arts Projects _September 2010
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www.computerarts.co.uk
7/27/10 11:57:18 AM
The hard sell
83
The commission Red Bull crate drop
Tony
Singmeuangthong,
Red Bull North
America
Tony is a member of
Red Bull’s team of field
marketing specialists,
who establish the local
face of the global Red
Bull brand. The team
manages customer
collection programs
like the Red Bull Wings
Team and Student
Brand Managers
and organise Red
Bull athlete and
event projects.
www.redbullusa.com
www.computerarts.co.uk
CAP140.feat_successes 83
Red Bull North America’s field marketing
division had wanted to do this project for
some time. We wanted to stage a crate
drop on college campuses in Oregon, USA,
with free products for people to sample.
Crate drops had been executed before in
some markets, but we expanded on the
idea to make it an interactive experience
that would show how Red Bull represents
multiple brand traits: it’s creative, witty,
anti-authoritarian and mysterious.
The crates had to look as if they
had been airdropped from Austria. They
were made to resemble a military-style
airdrop, delivering the product for sampling
through a break in the crate and an internal
ramp that Nick devised.
Nick designed some concepts
for us: materials, colour, branding, and so
on. He created army-style stencil graphics
and attached parachutes to the crates.
To look as realistic as possible, we made
them appear weathered, and added a
break in the corner to imply they had
broken on impact when it hit the ground.
Then it was all about execution.
We wanted people to question whether or
not it was actually real: they had to look as
if they had fallen from the sky. Each crate
was filled with 500 cans. We dropped
them off on college campuses at
University of Oregon, Oregon State
University and Portland State University
with their parachutes stuck in trees, at
specific drop locations that we selected
for maximum exposure. We stationed
multiple hidden cameras in various
locations, including inside the crates
themselves, to catch the action.
Nick was definitely someone we
were considering for projects that we had
in the pipeline – not only for input on the
creative side, but for the creation process
as well. We knew that he worked with wood
– we had never imagined personalising it
to that extent, and using it as a marketing
piece to promote something. We thought
his self-promotional piece was an
extremely creative way to show oneself.
It was so memorable that it was only a
matter of time before we worked together.
It was all about execution.
We wanted people to question
whether this was real
September 2010_ Computer Arts Projects
7/27/10 11:57:33 AM