Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) and Identica, two iconic and respected agencies in the world of branding, innovation and design, are joining forces from 28th June 2021 to create WMH&I.
The combined agency will be jointly led by Carol Lavender as Managing Director and Wybe Magermans as Growth & Development Director, supported by Garrick Hamm as Creative Director and Chris Cleaver as Strategy & Planning Director.
Both agencies are part of the Branded Group and for the past four years have been working ever closer together. WMH&I will combine their complimentary areas of expertise to provide clients with increased breadth and depth and deliver the widest range of branding, communications and design ideas that build exceptional brands
The highly successful WMHAdaptive team will be fully integrated within the combined agency, and WMH&I will continue its role as the creative driving force within Branded.
Carol Lavender; “Both agencies have a long tradition of creating truly iconic brands through the combination of groundbreaking creativity and exceptional work. Having worked together successfully over the past four years we are now cementing our relationship and look forward to this next exciting chapter for us and our clients.”
Wybe Magermans: “It’s a fusion of big ideas backed up with beautiful craft. There is so much that unites WMH and Identica – the only question is why we didn’t do this sooner! Before co-founding WMH our Creative Director Garrick Hamm started his career as a junior designer with Michael Peters who went on to found Identica, and several of our team have worked at both WMH and Identica in the past”.
The new company will open its doors from 28th June and will be based at WMH’s long time home in Dallington Street, London. We also have a new website at www.wmh-i.com, so please visit us there to find out more.
Octopus Energy’s widely reported £3bn dealwill catapult the energy business from a start-up into one of Europe’s biggest renewable energy investors and fastest growing energy suppliers. Octopus is now targeting 50 million customers in the UK by 2027 and has plans to increase its new renewables division to generate as much clean electricity as it sells.
This kind of trajectory means that it will soon lose its start-up badge. How will this affect the brand?
In the UK, 41% of households switched their energy provider in 2020. People generally shop between the Big Six, led by British Gas, EDF and E-on and currently excluding Octopus Energy. The trigger to switch is more often than not price, with decisions being made easy by the plethora of price comparisons sites. This price war is hard to keep up with for any business. Start-ups attempting to take part in such a war and who solely focus on a price message will inevitably erode their brand’s value over time. For example, AirBnB, who instead of focussing on cheap rooms focussed on local experiences overcame the problem of brand erosion.
Messaging is not the only consideration; many people will think that now is the time for Octopus to rebrand. Many modern start-ups, from Twitter to Deliveroo, reinvent after extra funding is secured. Perhaps they feel that a more ‘grown-up’ brand is required to appeal to a wider audience. This however does not have to be the way. Ryanair has hardly changed, and its brand experience is as unslick as when it started. From its advertising to the on-board experience, the brand’s non-design is considered and there to reassure passengers that they are not paying for any unnecessary fluff they would be paying for with the big, shiny airlines.
With growth comes change. The temptation to evolve everything is sometimes a hard one to resist, from what brands say, to the way they look. But change can be destructive.
Firstly, even if price was the initial reason for the switch to Octopus, the brand needs to remind its customers that they’ve made the right choice beyond a cheap deal. Customers need to constantly recognise Octopus as one of the flagbearers in the fight against climate change. They need to be repeatedly delighted by meaningful promotions and see how the business uses its influence in other areas through brand partnerships. Octopus should leverage its current feel-good factor and build salience. Only then will it be able to change its customers from bargain-hunters to fans that show loyalty beyond reason.
Secondly, Octopus Energy would be making a mistake to shed its current identity. Many people who have come in contact with Octopus Energy often site how much they love the way the brand interacts with them – from Constantine, their loveable octopus mascot, to personalised waiting music (which is based on what was No.1 in the charts when you were 14). Having said that the brand can come across as a little one dimensional. It sings one purple note, which isn’t always in tune and its visual assets don’t seem to work well in the digital space. Nonetheless, there is a lot there for Octopus’ marketing department to maximise. Could the octopus mascot come more to life – meerkats spring to mind?
Octopus Energy should be wary of not losing its sense of self. Its brand has quirks that are based on social values and its wish to do things differently. This does not mean Octopus should keep things as they are. The business needs to galvanise what it has and say it better and louder.
From musicians to politicians, everyone can fall victim to their own success. Similarly, thriving challenger brands can grow into exactly the thing they were originally rebelling against. Octopus Energy is an exciting player to watch in a hugely important sector. Let’s hope they can continue to use their business growth for good.
Author: Wybe Magermans, as originally published in MarComms News
On the 18th June 2020, FAB announced the winners of the 22nd FAB Awards, who will all receive a newly designed award’s trophy.
FAB are the only international awards programme that recognises the best creative work for food, beverage and restaurant brands. Although they liked their 21-year old logo, FAB came to Williams Murray Hamm to create a new identity that reflects their special place in the creative industry.
WMH hit upon FAB’s zest for what it does, delivered in a simple, unpretentious way. After all, the clue is in the title, so we set out to capture the creative and joyous world of Food And Beverage. For example, the striking sans serif logo has a bite mark out of one its letters. Whilst you can also see the new logo magically appear in all kinds of your favourite food and drink.
Garrick Hamm, creative director at WMH, said: “The old logo served FAB well, but it was definitely time for a new look. Working with FAB we quickly saw that they needed an identity with a bold personality that was, well, just as fab as they are.”
Right from the beginning of the project, FAB wanted to change the actual award trophies. They felt that they should be made out of recycled food and beverage packaging. WMH made this into a reality working together with Smile Plastics, who are specialists in manufacturing exquisite hand-crafted materials from recycled packaging.
Each trophy is made from recycled material and is 100% recyclable. For instance, the Silver award is made from recycled yogurt pots. Its white, marble-like surface has fragments of silver from yoghurt foil lids to reveal the material’s unique recycling story. By using waste to create FAB’s prestigious awards, we hope we can change people’s perceptions around recycled materials and unlock their hidden potential – turning rubbish into beauty.
The identity has also been rolled out across all other FAB properties, including FAB News, which is being supported with a Google partnership and the FAB Forum.
Neeraj Nayar, Chairman of the FAB Awards, said: “We are absolutely delighted by WMH’s genius. The simplicity and boldness of the new mark had us hooked the minute we saw it. Sitting perfectly across FAB News, Forum and Awards this is truly excellent and hopefully reflects the creative excellence acknowledged here at FAB.”
We want to thank the many people who collaborated with us on this project. In particular we would like to mention Smile Plastics and Unit 22 Modelmakers for creating the beautiful award trophies, and our sister agency, Studio4, for their help in the image production.
Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.
However, seismic events do engender new behaviours and we never quite go back to our old ways, but the effects of these events are not always what we might have predicted.
When the PLO took to blowing up civilian aircraft in the late 1960s and 70s, we thought we’d stop flying because it had become so unsafe. That did not happen – there were 4.5bn air passengers in 2019. Instead, we created a massive new airport security industry. There were new jobs for security officers, expensive new detection devices became essential and airlines screwed more money out of us by creating Fast Track. A crisis is always an opportunity to make money.
In 1973 OPEC made oil prices quadruple. For a time, Americans resorted to buying smaller cars made by Japanese companies they’d never heard of, but once the crisis passed, they reverted to their old gas guzzling ways. By then the Japanese had a foothold in the market that they’ve never lost. Japanese cars subsequently destroyed Detroit and their manufacturing methods had a huge influence on worldwide manufacturing – all courtesy of OPEC.
Beyond gloves and face masks becoming fashion accessories, what might change thanks to COVID-19?
1. Air travel
Hundreds of passengers, cooped up for 14 hours, sharing the same air and spreading their germs offers a business opportunity. Imagine sterilised air becoming the value added. Business and First Class would be ‘Cleanroom’ clean, while poor old coach class breathes its own fug. Who is going to be ‘The World’s Most Hygienic Airline”?
2. Business meetings
For most telepresence is Skype or Zoom. Better than nothing, but a bit rubbish. Video conferencing will improve, but the real breakthrough will come when we feel we are really together. That transformation will happen when virtual reality meets telepresence. If you are sceptical, shell out £140 and try an Oculus Go. You will look an idiot wearing it, but things will never seem the same again – you are really there, in the jungle, in a Spitfire or perhaps, in a meeting.
3. Working hours and time zones
If COVID-19 proves anything, it illustrates just how strongly we are interconnected. With technology that lets us meet sufficiently well online, how long is it before we adopt more aligned working hours/days? It is mad that the UK and Europe do not share the same time zone. Should the US become a magnet for our trade, might we see a swathe of businesses running two shifts, one for Europe and one for the US? It’s called service and Americans swear by it.
4. Exercise
Do we really want to go to a sweaty gym and share unhygienic equipment? Peloton has paved the way for online training. Expect exercise to be done at home, with innovatively designed trainer devices that morph like Transformers into the exercise device of your choice that you can keep under the bed.
These are just some random thoughts and they probably won’t happen, of course. Please get involved and add your own comments and observations. Tell us what you think the consequences might be and remember…the exception to the rule is always the rule.
Boris Johnson recently revealed that a ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward to 2035 so we can be carbon zero by 2050. In the not too distant future, our ‘personal mobility solution’ will be an autonomous electric vehicle that we will call up whenever we need it. This will be the final nail in the coffin of our century old love of the automobile.
No more lovingly polishing the beast in the driveway (it’s already banned in Germany) and no more excuses to treat your wife to a chrome exhaust or a pair of leather driving gloves. All this will be a thought crime – in some parts of woke Britain it already is. Sports cars will disappear and Formula 1, that great testing ground for automotive development will go the way of Linoleum. While we stress over whether our hummus pot is recyclable, Formula 1’s annual carbon emissions are about 256,600 tonnes. It’s done for.
It’s electrifying!
Unsurprisingly, “I’ve just bought a Nissan Leaf” is a conversation stopper, even at a vegan dinner party. Electric cars just aren’t sexy, but there is some light on the horizon for those who can’t live without a bit of four wheeled derring-do on their TV screen. Last Saturday a Kiwi chap called Mitch Evans won an accident strewn race in Mexico City without using any petrol and making hardly any noise.
To many race fans Formula E, the electric racing series, is a poor show. There is some truth in this. The drivers are all has beens and the upcoming ‘London E Prix’ will actually race through a shed called the ExCel exhibition centre somewhere in East London and nobody will bother going. However, Formula E is the perfect testing ground for electric vehicle development and it’s why Porsche, Jaguar, Mahindra, BMW, Audi, Citroen, Mercedes and Nissan have all piled in.
Electric vehicles are not perfect. They drop minute and harmful particles into the atmosphere from their brakes and tyres and electricity still needs to be generated, much of it still from dirty fossil fuels. As for Lithium mining, don’t even go there. However, Formula E will be the laboratory for all sorts of innovation from braking systems to low wear, low emission tyres and high-tech lubricants that the drivetrain manufacturer puts in that you’ll never see – we are working on these with Castrol already.
EVs will spawn a massive growth of new supporting brands to service the biggest revolution in private transport since the introduction of the internal combustion engine. So far, the Formula E paddock is a bit short on sponsors. Where is the trusted international charging network, the ethically source lithium brand or the wiper free glass? For anyone interested in innovation and branding look no further than the EV revolution and Formula E. There’s tons to do.
Author: Richard Williams – Founder Williams Murray Hamm
Proud to announce that Williams Murray Hamm is behind the new identity for the international FAB Awards programme, which recognises the best in creative work for food, beverage and restaurant brands in over 60 countries.
FAB awarded WMH the brief without a pitch and asked the agency to create a new identity that would reflect the unique status of the awards and make it feel fresh having had the same look since the 1990s. The identity needed to work across other FAB properties, including FAB News, which is being supported with a Google partnership and the FAB Forum.
WMH hit upon FAB’s zest for what it does, always delivered in its simple, unpretentious way. The new look captures the creative and joyous world of food and beverage.
The logo uses a bold sans serif brand name with a bite mark out of the A and a straw in the B. WMH decided to keep the red and white palette but adjusted it to a new, deeper red.
FAB unveiled the initial part of new branding with the first call for entries for the 22nd annual awards in 2020. The complete brand identity will be presented over the coming months, including an entirely redesigned awards trophy to be unveiled at the ceremony in May next year.
Garrick Hamm, creative director at WMH, said: “The old logo served FAB well, but after 20-plus years it was definitely time for a new look. Working with FAB we quickly saw that they needed an identity with a bold personality that was… just as fab as they are.”
Neeraj Nayar, Chairman of the FAB Awards, said: “We are absolutely delighted by WMH’s genius. The simplicity and boldness of the new mark had us hooked the minute we saw it. Sitting perfectly across FAB News, Forum and Awards this is truly excellent and hopefully reflects the creative excellence acknowledged here at FAB. We LOVE it and hope you do too.”
WMH creates new brand identity and campaign for Hirsh London
Hirsh London, the Mayfair luxury jewellery house, has launched a new brand identity ahead of its 40th anniversary in 2020, created by Williams Murray Hamm.
Founded in 1980 by Anthony and Diane Hirsh, today the business is run by their son Jason Hirsh and his wife Sophia, who have grown the brand into a thriving company that is anchored in the heritage of London jewellery houses, combined with wit, technical innovation and contemporary appeal.
WMH was appointed to create a strong, bold and clearly defined brand identity and campaign to capture the attitude and quintessential Britishness of the business through completely new creative work across print, environment, and digital platforms
Hirsh London is one of the capital’s most respected jewellery boutiques. Its speciality lies in its large variety of rare, unusual, natural coloured gemstones which Jason and Sophia Hirsh go to extraordinary lengths to source. Each of their one-of-a-kind pieces are designed around a central gem and entirely handmade in the brand’s London atelier.
Hirsh London has been championing natural coloured gemstones for forty years and is now at the forefront of a movement towards bolder, more colourful designs, particularly in the engagement ring market. This, alongside their personalised service and exquisitely handcrafted bespoke designs, has established them as the leading authority on rare and unusual jewellery.
WMH was introduced to Hirsh by a former client and won the project through a chemistry meeting and subsequent competitive proposal. Its creative input stretches across advertising in European and Chinese markets, and a new brand identity across packaging, website and collateral.
Garrick Hamm, WMH’s Creative Director, says “Hirsh London designs and produces the most exquisite and joyous jewellery using natural coloured stones. They are immensely creative and have a wonderful Britishness to them. Our new brand campaign captures their spirit at the same time as giving them visibility and cut-through in a sea of mainstream, luxury jewellery sameness.”
“We were impressed with the creative direction that WMH took. They understood the very personal nature of our business, the care we put into selecting each of our gemstones, and our commitment to excellence in craftsmanship. We also liked their ethos of working with one company in each industry, rather than specialising in one sector. This has enabled them to come up with a fresh approach in fine jewellery marketing, which we are confident will carry our business forward as it continues to grow into one of London’s most respected jewellery houses,” said Sophia Hirsh, Managing Director, Hirsh London.
Williams Murray Hamm wins Best Of Show at Mobius Awards.
The new year kicks off in a celebratory fashion, with trophies for our work on Aberlour and RCS at this year’s Mobius Awards. Aberlour is awarded First Place statuette and Best of Show in the Brand Identity category. Whilst our work for RCS Advertising takes Second place ‘Certificate for Outstanding Creativity’ in the same category.
For Aberlour single malt whisky, WMH created a new brand world. Despite growing to the 6th position in the global market, Aberlour was relatively unknown. Equally, they hadn’t changed their communication much since their inception in 1879.
WMH looked at Aberlour’s long legacy, only to discover the founding family’s motto, ‘Let The Deed Show’, meaning ‘actions speak louder than words’. It’s the people, process and place surrounding Aberlour that create a whisky with such distinct character. WMH unearthed these deeds and, working closely with Scottish artist Liz Myhill, brought them to life. We used traditional lino cutting and printing techniques, to create original illustrations gleaned from books of storytelling in the 1900.
RCS came to WMH earlier in 2017. A 20-year-old Japanese advertising agency had metamorphosed into a brilliant new offering. They needed a new positioning and identity to reflect this. RCS helps clients identify, understand and optimise cultural differences. WMH called this ‘cross-cultural marketing’. The identity was built around a globe because RCS deals in global differences. It’s a cultural maze out there, so the ‘globe’ was fine-tuned to reflect this and a magenta ‘dot’ was created at the very core, to represent RCS – a point of consistency in unfamiliar territory.
“When I first met with WMH, I knew they ‘got’ who we were. They were able to interpret who we are, what we do and what makes us special in a way that went well beyond my imagination.”
A celebration of an infectious spirit and an incredible talent.
Today, it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we bid a final farewell to our beloved friend and illustrator extraordinaire, Geoff Appleton, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. During a year that has seen the loss of many great talents, we will remember and celebrate Geoff’s memory as one of the greatest.
Williams Murray Hamm co-founder, Richard Williams, remembers Geoff’s infectious spirit:
“I’ve been at Williams Murray Hamm for 20 years and I can honestly say that I’ve not seen a freelancer more loved by our people and our clients than Geoff.
They broke the mould when they made him. He was the last of a breed of artists who could earn a good living by drawing on paper and never doing stuff he didn’t want to do.
We’ll miss his jolly banter and his great work and, in particular, I’ll miss talking to him about the finer points of Bob Dylan…”
Our thoughts are with Geoff’s family and to commemorate his legacy WMH has made a donation to his nominated charity, Children and the Arts.
Children & the Arts is an independent educational charity that engages with disadvantaged children nationwide who do not have access to high-quality arts activity because of either social or economic barriers… [read more]
WILLIAMS MURRAY HAMM DESIGNS STATE OF THE ART INNOVATION CENTRE FOR LAMB WESTON.
Following the creation of a new brand purpose and visual identity for Lamb Weston’s global business, WMH was asked to design the interior of an innovation centre where possibilities become reality.
Lamb Weston, a ConAgra Foods brand, has more than 60 years’ experience as one of the world’s leading suppliers of frozen potato products to restaurants and consumers. An industry pioneer, the company planned a new, state of the art, innovation centre with co-creation spaces, fully functioning kitchens, pilot line, interactive areas and a resource for employees; in short a place where possibilities could become reality.
Having already started the building phase for the project, Lamb Weston approached long time collaborating agency WMH in March 2016 to create the overall theme and interiors. The Centre opened to employees on 24 June and to Lamb Weston customers soon after.
WMH had previously helped Lamb Weston relaunch its new global positioning and identity: to be the most inventive potato company in the world. The Innovation Centre would express this purpose and help find new, more inventive ways of collaboration between customers and Lamb Weston staff.
Intended as a flagship Lamb Weston US building, the Innovation Centre needed to be a place that captured the imagination and be worthy of the claim ‘if you dream it, you can make it here’.
Deborah L. Dihel, Ph.D. Senior Director Research and Innovation at Lamb Weston said:
“Our new Innovation Centre is absolutely incredible. WMH was the perfect partner to help us communicate Lamb Weston’s brand promise throughout the building in a distinctive and memorable way. The design elements set the stage as soon as our visitors see us from the street, and their experiences are enhanced further as they enter and work in the space. WMH’s design communicates our history of successful innovation, yet at the same time, inspires all who enter to be futuristic, be inventive and make their potato dreams a reality.”
Using the playful design it had created for the brand identity, WMH produced a fully sensory experience for the many spaces in the Centre. Bright and light, visitors encounter witty and striking wall graphics at every turn. Interactive areas have been created to bring to life the history of the business, its vision and values and to relate employee stories. Breakout rooms inspire new and innovative ways of working together.
On the experience, Garrick Hamm, Creative Director of Williams Murray Hamm said:
“We love working with Lamb Weston. Once again, WMH has been there to help them bring their Innovation Centre to life. Their strength of purpose, reflected in the Innovation Centre design, really encourages their employees and customers to be as inventive and imaginative as they like – the possibilities are endless”.
A guest blog by innovation and marketing expert, Giles Atwell
Brexit means Brexit, but what does it mean for British food?
Buy British!
“[Eating is not just an agricultural act] It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too… To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction.” Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Since the Brexit vote of 23 June, the press has served us a diet of cascading bond yields, frozen property funds and sliding sterling: a daunting menu, beyond the comprehension of most consumers. But in these times of change, I wanted to reflect on a more palatable subject. One that is a little closer to home for us all – food.
Opportunities in adversity!
Seventy-five years ago Britain faced another crisis, finding itself isolated as an island nation while battle raged across Europe. Prior to the Second World War, the country imported two thirds of its food by sea, approximately 55 million tons a year. But by 1940 the threat posed by German U-Boats, which succeeded in sinking 728,000 tons of produce that year, had reduced imports of food to just 12 million tons. Britain was forced to retool its whole food supply and re-educate its population.
Though Brexit doesn’t pose such a dire and direct threat, Britain still imports over half its food and so remains vulnerable to the vagaries of international trade. Given the Brexit news, this situation is unlikely to improve. A recent study by the National Farmers Union predicted that by the mid-2040s, the country would only be able to produce enough food to feed 53% of its population.[1]
The famous patriotic posters of WW2 told Britain to ‘Dig for Victory!’, ‘Don’t Waste Food’ and ‘Doctor Carrot’ will guard your health.[2] As we consider our next steps in the Brexit flux, maybe there are lessons for action here on how we source and consume our food. Lessons that could help not only improve our own health but also that of the British food industry as a whole.
I’m not advocating the kind of control Lord Woolton, Minister of Food during WW2, had. He had free reign to create and issue ration books whilst managing the UK’s food supply; “making him the envy of nutritionists, dieticians, and indeed anyone interested in the health of the nation, before or since.”[3] But, we could use these economically challenged times of change to improve in three areas:
The economy is already softening and there is a very real chance we will go into recession. There is a horrible disconnect between the estimated 3 million people in the UK thought to be living with malnutrition or at risk because they do not eat enough, and the 1.9 million tons of food waste the UK is estimated to have created in 2014-15 alone.[4]
In this respect, the Grocer’s “Waste not want not” campaign to reduce food waste is laudable, as are Asda’s £3.50 wonky veg boxes, Waitrose’s policy to ensure none of its food goes to landfill, and the cooperation of many supermarkets with food banks.[5]
Manufacturers too have a responsibility to sensibly apply ‘best before’ dates and consumers need to make better judgements on both the quantity purchased vs eaten, as well as when a food in the fridge is genuinely ‘past it’.
A concerted effort by all parties could drastically reduce the nation’s food and financial waste, but it will take both coordination and education.
2) Buying British
The weakened pound and a general desire for all of us to support the country in our new ‘solo’ quest represents a golden opportunity to celebrate British-grown food and boost our nation’s self-sufficiency whilst reducing our food-miles.
This need not be akin to the somewhat masochistic support my father gave in the 1970s to our failing motor industry by buying a succession of Triumphs & Rovers that simply fell-apart. We have our own delicious cheeses, seasonal fruit, meat, and vegetables together with an explosion of alternative British food & drink brands (think Dorset Cereals, Charlie Bigham’s pies and Fever Tree drinks) that deserve to be more locally and widely consumed as well as exported to our neighbours, near and far.
Food that is produced in Britain should shout it loud(er) and producers should strive to collaborate to create more of the ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ – PDO or ‘Protected Geographical Indication’ – PGI that the EU had previously helped us to sustain.
Clearly buying British will not only keep the money in Britain but may even help insulate British consumers from potential future trade tariffs and a continued weak pound.
3) Improving Food Education
A 2015 study by the ONS (Office for National Statistics), showed that of the £530 the average UK household spends each week, 20% goes on food & drink (including eating out, alcohol and tobacco). While much of the other 80% of the spend (from gas bills to holidays) has a physical impact on us (breathed in as fumes from transport or felt as fibres on the skin), the food budget physically enters our bodies.
In the age of convenience and fast-food, I think we have a lot to learn from our continental neighbours. The perennially slender French take meals very seriously, spending more time eating than their fellow Europeans; two hours, 22 minutes per day in 2010, 13 minutes longer than in 1986. French meals are also treated as a shared experience, with 80% eaten with others.[6]
In contrast, the NHS spends £6 billion a year on diet-related diseases. Britain is “…sleepwalking into a major health crisis because of poor diets among young children” according to a coalition of restaurateurs, food manufacturers and medical experts.[7] The change needs to start with children, as food habits are formed in childhood and a child’s weight and diet has a big impact on their adult health outcomes. This is a cause already gaining momentum thanks to celebrities like Jamie Oliver and his ‘Food Revolution’, but it needs concerted backing and funding to roll it out across the country and to save future generations from a lifetime of poor eating habits and diet-related disease.
Conclusion
Times are very different to the crisis felt during WW2 when only about 2% of households owned a fridge and the country was under a real siege. However, the next few weeks, months and years could see us under a ‘virtual’ siege of pressure to sign the infamous Article 50 and formally sever links with the EU. I personally struggle to see a lot of positive from these turbulent and uncertain times ahead, but if we become prouder to buy and responsibly consume quality British food, well, maybe there’s a little silver lining after all.
Giles Atwell started his career as a graduate trainee with Unilever in 1996 and moved to Cadbury in 2002. He has led commercial, innovation and marketing teams in Australia, Brazil, Singapore and the UK. His most recent successes include Cadbury/Milka Bitesize rollout, two years of double-digit growth in Brazil and Halls Candy global turnaround.
Having lived on 4 continents over the past decade, Giles’ children were becoming a little too well travelled. And so at the end of 2015, he and his family decided to return to the UK and their home in Oxford. He left Mondelez in June and is looking forward to the next UK-based challenge.
When not working, Giles is a keen tennis player, amateur photographer, whisky and wine enthusiast.
With today’s business pressures, we’re so busy dealing with what’s in front of us, that we rarely get a chance to talk about wider matters. This is particularly true of our clients and friends of WMH. They’re a fascinating lot, but we only dig deeper with them when we are socialising or having one of our sporadic events. A lunch with Giles Atwell, during which he spoke about food with such conviction, led to a request for him to write our first guest blog. We’re hoping it will become a regular event on our site. Giles was the kind of client we warm to. During his time on Cadbury’s at Mondelez, he was brave to appoint us to a significant innovation project and we loved working with him and have always stayed in touch. He knows the food industry inside out and we’re flattered he’s written for us.
Are you a curious, resourceful and ingenious graduate with plenty of common sense and initiative?
Williams Murray Hamm are offering a six month graduate opportunity within our client services and strategy department.
Join the Rebel Alliance
We are looking for a graduate to help us in our client services and strategy team for a 6 month contract with the possibility to extend. The right candidate will share our passion for creativity, our wish to give clients a view they can’t get from anywhere else and a solution that does extraordinary things for their brand.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking more for a mindset, for someone who is curious, resourceful and ingenious with plenty of common sense and wants to get on with it.
How do you apply?
If you are interested in applying for this opportunity, send us your CV and tell us in a picture (email friendly) and/or in less than 150 words, why we should consider you for the position to email address recruitment@wmhagency.com.
How it’s put a spanner in the works for Chris Evans.
Top Gear has been “Bjorn Again” but it’s just not Buddy Holly. Richard Williams explores relaunched brands who have attempted to rediscover their illustrious past.
Call me an old fashioned blokey chap. I loved Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May. I hated a lot of the actual driving stuff, but I really loved the banter. Here were three top motoring journalists who felt entirely comfortable with each other. Anyone can do stupid things like catapult cars or set fire to caravans, but it’s the way they played it. It was the in-jokes they let us in on that were so funny. They were our chums and we sat on the edge of our seats waiting for what we knew would be the next excruciating utterance.
There’s a parallel to life in our studio. We all know each other so well. A raised eyebrow, an admonishing cough, a riff about Reggie Perrin and we’re off. Irreplaceable. It’s hard to join WMH simply because it takes years to learn the stories.
The same is often true of businesses and brands when they try and relaunch to rediscover their illustrious past.
Phileas Fogg was a clever, entrepreneur-led snack brand that introduced the UK to posh crisps. So successful was it that United Biscuits bought it and wrecked it in very short order.
As Kettle, Tyrrell’s and a plethora of smaller brands surrounded it, it tried again and again to relaunch (we even had a go at it) but it had lost its sparkle, its point of difference, its raison d’etre. Now, it’s been relaunched yet again. The products are actually very good, but it’s a pale imitation of its former self with unfunny TV ads and dreadful packaging. It’s a poor pastiche of the past.
For many years, Trustees Saving Bank, latterly the TSB, was a common sight on our high street. It was the bank that “Likes To Say Yes”. It disappeared, having become part of Lloyd’s Banking Group, went into oblivion and was resuscitated in 2013 and subsequently sold to a Spanish business.
What’s it there for? We’d all survived quite happily without it. Apparently the Spanish think the name has ‘traction’. I think it looks like ‘The Bank Nobody Goes Into’.
Returning to the car theme, I’ll finish with an example of a car that should have been dead and buried years ago. As a kid, I loved the Chevrolet Impala. How could you not be drawn to its spaceship styling? Its rear wings reached into the middle of its vast boot and radiated out in a whoosh of glory. This was not a normal car – it moved when it was standing still. I wore the wheels out of my Dinky version.
Image source citation pending
Have you seen 2016’s Impala? Don’t bother. It looks like the illegitimate spawn of a Vauxhall and a Mazda – only worse.
Don’t misunderstand me, there are huge numbers of brands that relaunch very successfully because they understand what makes them different and get how we can continue to be in love with them, but New Top Gear isn’t anywhere near.
Top Gear, at its best, was about unlikely friendships born through a common love of cars. As a car nut or football fan, you can understand that uniting bond, despite the obvious differences between the people. Chris Evans and TFI Friday, at its best, was like that too – Chris and his workmates, feeding off the energy of a Friday night; beer, banter, music, idiotic drunken tomfoolery…. Perhaps he needs to get some of his real mates back and forget the international starring line-up.
Following the recent UK launch of Amazon Fresh, Richard Williams and Garrick Hamm explore the Love and Hate of the brand packaging ‘First Moment of Truth’ in the digital age on online grocery shopping.
Hate: Packaging
Many years ago, Procter and Gamble came up with the idea of ‘The First Moment of Truth’.
This was all about how packaging works in the supermarket and how first impressions really count. I can’t remember what the second and third moments of truth were, something about bar codes probably.
I wonder what P&G thinks about the FMOT of their brands as they appear in online shopping. Does it bring on an FMOH (First Moment of Horror)? Here’s the truth. Brands look dreadful on Ocado and as we’re about to be invaded by Amazon Fresh they need to do something now.
Since it’s only partially available in the UK, I had to pretend to live in the Empire State Building (ZIP code 10118) to be able to access it. What is glaringly obvious is that, if Amazon Fresh really takes off, (the British Retail Consortium predicts that 900,000 jobs will be lost by 2025 as the industry moves online) the claptrap and mumbo jumbo that packaging design agencies have peddled for years, in an effort to cover up their lack of creativity, will have no further use.
There is no ‘shelf blocking’ since there aren’t any shelves to block and you can’t see any ‘category cues’ or ‘appetite appeal’ because the pack shots are so tiny, the copy is illegible and everything is low res. The game’s up. Brands have to find a new way to work for online shopping and it’s a wonderful, thrilling opportunity.
Love: Smiles
Hopefully Amazon Fresh really will lead to a completely different way of presenting brands on screen. They’re going to have to look at simple visual mnemonics. It could even lead to a new golden era where intelligent, meaningful logos represent a brand instead of dull old packaging.
Actually, this is really just a gratuitous excuse to talk about the recently updated ‘A Smile in the Mind’. Along with Alan Fletcher’s ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’ it is one of the must-have books on engaging, intelligent design. I’ve always loved those clever little logos that give a business personality.
The original Spratt’s pet food logo is clunky and artless, but incredibly endearing. Dog happiness is built right into it. I also came across this little beauty for Knapp Shoes (obviously) by Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. in New York. It’s a lovely witty mark. Simple and clever. How could you resist? Similarly, Norbert Dutton’s 1959 logo for electronics business, Plessey, is something we’d be proud to have done today.
(left) Spratts – Logo designed by Max Field-Bush (UK). Copyright (second extension) 2016, Julien Clairet of DATA ACCESS Paris. / (middle) Knapp Shoes – Logo designed by Charmayeff & Geismar Inc. / (right) The Plessey Company Ltd – Logo designed by Norbert Dutton’s 1959
With wit like this, think what you could do for a brand like Bird’s Eye or Flash. We won’t see the end of supermarket packaging by any means and I fear that we won’t lose steamy shots of soup and stringy cheese slices on pizza packs, but perhaps Amazon Fresh, unwittingly, will lead to a design revolution where we go back to intelligent, beautifully thought through brand identities.
I can’t wait.
Authors: Richard Williams & Garrick Hamm.
For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Williams Murray Hamm’s brave, bold and engaging design for Penny Market’s ‘Orto Mio’ antipasti range was awarded a Silver at last night’s International Food & Beverage Awards.
Now in their 18th year, the FAB Awards are focused entirely on work done for Food and Beverage brands. They recognise the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes in building brands, identifying and rewarding leading practitioners from over 60 countries.
Rewe owned, Penny operates 3,550 stores in Europe. Having won a written competitive pitch against two other agencies, WMH was appointed to rejuvenate the 45+ antipasti range to reflect a more unconventional and approachable image for Orto Mio.
WMH’s new design embodies the relaxed, sociable style of eating antipasti. It suggests that the food can barely be restrained by its packaging and is bursting to get out with colour and flavour
The illustrations work in unison with lively, colourful hand drawn typefaces. Each product carries a witty copyline, such as ‘oh la la olives’, ‘we are the champignons’ and ‘you make me blush’, continuing the promise of an enjoyable eating experience.
On winning the award Garrick Hamm, Creative Director at WMH said:
“We are overjoyed that our work on ‘Orto Mio’ has been recognised by the FAB Awards. Hopefully, the witty design raised as much of a smile on the judges’ faces, as the award has on ours!”
In 2010 Coca Cola relaunched as a response to declining sales of carbonated drinks. There was no change to the product, but there was substantial change to the way the brand was presented.
Out: went years of complicated, ugly packs, replete with multi textured swooshes, condensation and all the other fripperies of soft drinks branding.
In: came a new, stripped down design that used simple flat colours and a bold, plain white Coke marque.
In: came campaign work that was a reminder of more innocent times when we all loved fizzy drinks.
How clever of Turner Duckworth to get a piece of work this good and this simple, through a behemoth like Coca Cola.
Of course, in global businesses, there’s always someone who wants to make their mark. In March this year we saw major tweaks to the design starting to appear. Suddenly the logo on cans was horizontal and then Spain launched with each variant being red with a small part of the can given over to the variant type (black for zero, green for the execrable ‘Coke Life’ etc). It was horrid, but at least it looked as though it might be confined to Spain.
This week, Coke announced a complete redesign along Spanish lines. An ‘iconistic’ red disc now appears everywhere. Apparently it’s a ‘signature asset’. When fat words like these appear in press releases you know the head of design is about to go into hiding.
This redesign is a ghastly mistake brought about by cost cutting; e.g. the ‘One Brand’ story and the fear of sugar taxes. The trouble is, the design doesn’t help. It damages the brand by reducing it to what it was in the past, complicated, ugly and spurious, losing Coke’s unique status along the way.
Launching in Mexico immediately and rolling out across the world in 2017 soon everyone associated with this rebranding will have moved on. They never get to reap what they sow nowadays. As usual, someone new will be left to pick up the pieces.
It proves that in today’s company structure, no matter how high flying your design management is, it doesn’t get listened to. This is a triumph of cost cutting management and poor use of ‘consumer insights’ over what’s good for the brand long term.
Many years ago, my late business partner, Richard Murray wrote to Coca Cola betting them his house that Minute Maid would fail in the market. It did. He’d be safe in betting on this new Coke design too.
Williams Murray Hamm, with client Purity Soft Drinks, won gold for Brand Design with its groundbreaking work on JuiceBurst, at this year’s Design Effectiveness Awards.
Recognised as one of the UK’s most prestigious design for business awards, Thursday night’s annual turnout was held at Tobacco Dock, London. The guest list of shortlisted winners included many of the top 20 creative and design businesses in this country.
Judged by business leaders and entered jointly by client and designer, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards are both rigorous and authoritative. They celebrate the power of design to drive business success and provide compelling proof of why design is a sound commercial investment.
Popular with small, independent retailers, JuiceBurst was missing a massive opportunity by having no presence amongst large convenience retailers like WHSmith. In order to achieve significant retail listings to drive growth, WMH defined a target audience, positioned the brand and created highly differentiated packaging that would really engage consumers.
Building on the brand’s name, WMH used fruit being detonated as the central motif. This overarching idea connected the packaging to social media and digital content via Blippar, the augmented reality app.
Since re-launch, JuiceBurst has become one of the nation’s fastest growing beverage brands. In a market declining by -9%, it is growing at 93% year on year. There has been an amazing 75% annual profit increase and distribution has increased from one to nine national retailers.
WMH Creative Director Garrick Hamm said ‘It just illustrates, again, that great, simple creative ideas can make a difference to the bottom line. I’m delighted for our long-standing and supportive client Jon Evans at Purity and, of course, our hard working team at WMH’.
For press enquiries contact press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
(All images copyright of Williams Murray Hamm 2016, all rights reserved)
This week, WMH took great pleasure in greeting 30 students from the Idep Barcelona for a talk with our intrepid design, Chris Ribet.
After a spot of breakfast, Chris engaged his audience with an insight into the world that is Williams Murray Hamm and a few helpful pointers for prospective graduates wanting to enter the London design job market.
We really enjoyed meeting the next generation and we cannot wait to host more talks like this in the future!
So, If you fancy following in the shoes of Idep Barcelona with a visit to the WMH studios, drop us an email at info@wmhagency.com
We look forward to meeting you!
All images copyright of Williams Murray Hamm 2016, all rights reserved.
Thursday 4th February, Williams Murray Hamm hosted an intimate dinner with esteemed guest speaker, Luke Johnson, for friends of the business at the Haymarket Hotel, London.
Luke Johnson is one of Britain’s most interesting serial investors. He’s probably best known as the former chairman of Channel 4 and the man who grew Pizza Express into a household name.
He’s an author, philanthropist and hugely popular Sunday Times columnist, as well as being chairman of Risk Capital Partners LLP, the business behind Gail’s Bakeries and Patisseries Valerie.
With his wealth of entrepreneurial knowledge and maverick views, this was an evening not to be missed.
On this day of all, I’d like to tell you how much I love you.
You are the first significant business person, since marketing became besotted with social media, to say
“It is crazy how significant packaging is”.
OMG!
What’s more, you went on to say “I think, realistically, for most FMCG products the packaging is more important than the product, it is how you get noticed and create desire, and impute what it is you are and stand for.”
Thank you for restoring this old man’s faith in the discipline he’s followed since 1974.
A couple of weeks ago we were lamenting the death of David Bowie and last week it was the end of 500 years of eel catching in Britain. This weekend it’s been the end of traffic wardens (they are all ‘civil enforcement officers’).
We hate losing things, people and traditions. Until last week, we couldn’t have cared less about eel catching. Now it’s a symbol of the pace of change, our loss of a simpler way of life. Along with the demise of gas street lamps, steam trains and holidays in Clacton-on-Sea, we seem to believe that life was better in the past. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much fuss about the new Dad’s Army movie.
Heaven forfend, there’s even nostalgia for the 1970s and ’80s – when the High Street was really humming. There was Woolies, Our Price Records, Comet, MFI, House of Holland and the rest. We conveniently forget that it was a period of mostly terrible music, catastrophic industrial unrest, the 3 day week, horrific inflation, stratospheric oil prices, ugly furniture (unless you lived near a Habitat), naff TV, loon pants…and the Austin Allegro.
How could they?
Politicians and the likes of Mary Portas still mourn the death of the High Street, but the truth is, it offered a dreadful customer experience and buying online is a whole lot easier. If Amazon would just pay its taxes and level the playing field, we could all rest easy.
No, the past wasn’t a better time. Product reliability was appalling, customer service non-existent, the trains worked even less well, the GPO took weeks to install your phone, the Gas Board had to connect your gas cooker and never showed up and British Airways was owned by the government and as bad as Aeroflot.
Trends for 2016 – According to those who know… #JustSaying
According to those who know, the top trending subjects for 2016 are customer service, mobile tech, simplicity, personalisation and the fact that millenials are out and aging is in. Well that puts me bang on trend. Now, I’m worth listening to.
I’m feeling a bit smug, since I blogged on almost all those subject last year. I have three random thoughts about 2016 and beyond (see links at bottom of this post)
The constant restructure
The US food industry was spooked by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway’s merging of Heinz and Kraft. As costs were slashed, many competitors looked to it as a template to do business.
This deal did not fill me with optimism. Many of their brands are decades old and out of favour with consumer trends. However, there are many millions of US consumers, on food stamps, who rely on businesses like this to create convenience food that’s made of good ingredients and offers them a decent diet.
KraftHeinz brands will need considerable innovation at a time when its owners are taking huge chunks of cost out of the business. How can you grow a business by continuously cutting it?
Constant business restructures are good if you’re Bain or McKinsey, but terrible for morale if you’re having to reapply for your old job and taking a pay cut. Goodwill and mutual trust head for the door.
Every single one of our clients was restructured in 2015. I’m expecting this trend to continue.
Living with turmoil
We like to think that a period of stability follows a crisis. After 2009 we all thought we were headed for a bit of break from the gloom. It’s never happened. China wobbles, Russia’s sagging, the Euro is a basket case. We’ve never truly recovered.
With faith in politicians and bankers at its lowest ebb, we are all going to have to understand that the world that we saw as one of continuous progress, where things get a bit better everyday, is a pipedream.
For those of us who run business and serve other businesses, the best thing we can do is understand how we can deliver the kind of services that businesses undergoing constant change will need.
The growth of experts
This was the first year that Amazon really took over my Christmas shopping. They delivered at all hours, mostly over the garden hedge. However, I don’t see the end of our leaving the house to go shopping. Of course, we will continue to go out shopping, but only for the things we want to feel, touch and learn about. Shopping will be all experience and entertainment and drudgery free.
If you don’t believe me, go to Haymarket in Boston or Exmouth Market, in London and watch how we stand in line for ages for exotic street food or how we love to banter with market traders. We love talking to and buying from people who know their stuff and, if we like them, we will buy from them again and again.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a holiday, cheese or furniture, shops so often leave us having to make up our minds what to buy with so little real knowledge. There is a massive opportunity for experts in their field to be on the shop floor talking to customers.
So many young people don’t have jobs, surely developing the next generation of experts can’t be that difficult. I’d rather buy from a person than an algorithm any day.
Williams Murray Hamm has won a Mobius Award for their luxury Coco de Mer packaging design, and certificates for their brand identity work for both Prismologie and Lamb Weston.
This adds to a tally of awards already won for their brand identity & packaging work within recent months.
Garrick Hamm, Creative Partner WMH said: “This is a delightful win which pays homage to the tremendous work by an exciting creative team at Williams Murray Hamm, only possible by wonderful clients.”
Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.
WMH creates new brand identity and campaign for Hirsh London
Editor: 
