Check Out Croydon

The new loyalty card

We often find that the hardest part of any branding project is coming up with an engaging, powerful name that resonates with the target audience and naming Croydon BID’s loyalty card scheme for the town was no exception.

The name needed to be snappy, friendly and welcoming, be synonymous with the deals that the card will offer and facilitate vibrant and positive marketing campaigns to promote usage. The new scheme will be open to residents and visitors as well as employees, replacing ‘Croydon Works’, the previous loyalty initiative just for Croydon town employees.

Working with the Croydon BID team we came up with 'Check Out Croydon', developing the look and feel of the card to reflect a chatty, engaging tone. We created a logo for Check Out, using a vibrant orange for the text, and added in speech marks to give the name (and card) impact and personality. The background blue of the card, with ‘Croydon’ in the roundel, ensures the Check Out stands out and is instantly recognisable and ties in with the branding and campaign work we’re doing with Croydon BID.

We worked with Footfall123, a loyalty marketing technology company, who is producing the card and running analytics for the scheme, to make sure our designs worked with the card template. Footfall123 will help Croydon BID to monitor the effectiveness of the scheme and individual offers, and develop future offers based on this feedback. 

To help raise awareness on the street,we’ve also designed an eye catching 3D effect window sticker for businesses to advertise their participation in the scheme, which combines the roundel of the Croydon BID logo with the look and feel of the card to ensure brand recognition.

Window stickers

Matthew Simms, Chief Executive, Croydon BID is delighted with the new loyalty card and said:

“In the comparatively short time that we’ve been working with To The Point, I’ve been impressed by their creativity and the speed with which they have interpreted the brief. There is a huge amount of change and re-development planned and taking place in Croydon. It is important that our loyalty scheme stands out and stands the test of time, galvanising support from both businesses and everyone who visits, works and lives in the town.

We were looking for a name that was short, succinct and memorable that would encourage people to think differently about Croydon and Check out Croydon does it all.”

PR that Matters

view the website here: www.matterpr.com

You may have noticed in the press (wink wink!) that we recently created a logo, graphic language and website for the newly established communications agency Matter PR.

Matter PR was started by David Reid, who we’ve worked with before on various projects, so when he left to start his own thing, he naturally came back to us to help give his agency an identity.

“I had worked with tothepoint on projects at EPSRC and the Institute of Physics and was impressed by the extra effort they put into understanding their clients. They have a great knowledge of the science and engineering sector, having recently rebranded the British Science Association and The Physiological Society, and always deliver creative ideas that really resonate with your audience," says David Reid.

Whilst our starting point for the identity was ‘A PR agency that is more than public relations’, we also knew that the identity needed to resonate with science and engineering organisations.

Working with David, we chose the name ‘Matter PR’. As a word it not only suggests something of importance but also pays a nod to the science industry, as matter is the physical substance of everything. It implies that this agency creates work of substance and importance, that communication matters (clever word play, eh!).

Using the Periodic Table as our main influence, we created a logo by taking the square containing Pr, and re-appropriating it to mean public relations (Pr is actually the element Praseodymium but we don’t think they’ll mind us borrowing it…). Across the identity and the collateral, we also subtly use the common three states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) through photography, which adds vibrancy to the agency’s collateral.

By using graphics that embody and emphasise the agency’s expertise in the science sectors, we are able to give a newly established agency a bold, instantly recognisable marque.

The logo has been applied to basic stationery and promotional material, along with the website we designed and built. We used open source CMS to allow the site to be easily updated, whilst the free flowing imagery and subtle hierarchy on the homepage gives the site a more bespoke feel.

David has let us know he's received great feedback so far from his clients, and has even picked a theme song for the agency in the form of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer.

Branding Macmillan's Next Chapter

Macmillan - The Next Chapter (click to view)

Macmillan is one of the world's leading publishers, home to Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Pan Macmillan. To improve collaboration and give its employees a fresh, modern working environment, the company is bringing together its various publishing divisions, which are currently split between Oxford, London and Basingstoke. Macmillan is also investing in new premises in Basingstoke, which will become its main service centre for fulfillment and distribution.

We first got involved in branding the move when Mat Rumblelow, head of internal communications consultancy, Rumbers Ltd - whom we had worked with before on an internal branding project for News International - asked us to create a new logo and strapline for the project. As part of the brief, the internal communication needed to be on brand, work with the Macmillan 'red wave' logo and be bold, quirky and fun.

We were conscious that the project identity couldn’t focus solely on London given Macmillan's investment in Basingstoke, as well as the fact that although Macmillan’s identity is rooted in print, digital is a growing and vital part of its business.

We came up with a number of concepts, before opting for a fun, simple, iconic identity that reflected the joined-up thinking of bringing all the different publishing divisions under one roof. Using a bold red linear treatment that took its cue from the Macmillan logo, we created an overarching icon featuring a book and turning page to represent the project strapline of ‘The Next Chapter’. The turning page graphic also featured an extended line treatment to link the individual publishing divisions together.

We then created a number of images and accompanying straplines in the same style to represent the reasons for and advantages of the move. These included ‘sharing knowledge’ and ‘embracing innovation’ which were represented by arrows converging and a laptop, while Q&A and Next Steps sections of the briefing pack were represented by mortar boards and pencil illustrations.

The move was announced to all staff on 9 November 2011, with the overarching logo and The Next Chapter strapline used on all internal communications, including briefing packs (given to over 2000 staff globally), presentations, newsletters and the staff intranet. The campaign was underpinned by a video from the CEO that covered the vision and changes ahead. The video was scripted by Mat and shot by Stickman Productions, who worked with us on the EDF video for upstreaming.

The project’s branding was really well received by employees at Macmillan, who felt it was highly professional, with a clear tie-in with the Macmillan logo and culture. Some even went as far as to say it as the ‘best internal communications ever seen at Macmillan.’

Mat Rumblelow says: "As always, TTP demonstrated their ability to capture the essence of the Macmillan Brand, while creating a new vibrant identity for the co-location project. The team pulled together a range of concepts under extremely tight deadlines, giving us a number of viable options. The chosen identity was a real success and will be carried forward over the course of the project to create a range of high-impact deliverables."