Case Study: TV Licensing
How do you stop consumers ignoring your letters?
The challenge
TV Licensing Renewals asked us to look at their renewal letters to help them understand why response rates were low and slow, and women in particular were simply shelving the letters. They knew that if more people responded to the first letter they could make considerable savings by not needing to send a follow up letter.
What did we do?
We started by looking at the first license renewal letters, and a range of comparable direct mail from the UK. We used semiotics and language analysis to understand what they were unconsciously communicating and why that was preventing consumers from renewing straight away.
Their letters strongly signalled an ‘authoritarian threat’. The letters used sharp-edged boxes, blue and black colours, a personality that was recognisably male, and a tone of voice that felt like being told off by a parent.
We recommended evolving the letter so that it communicated a more ‘enabling personality’ in line with emergent cultural context. That included adding white space, using a lime green colour, more dynamic icons and tone of voice that felt like talking to someone on an even footing.
Where did it lead?
TV Licensing followed our guidance and briefed their agency to successfully rewrite and redesign their letters, saving £40m over 3 years.
Case Study: Silver Spoon
How do you rejuvenate
an iconic sugar brand
in a future-facing way?
The challenge
In the UK, sugar was being increasingly demonised – consumers feared sweetness would interfere with their wellness goals. Already an iconic brand in the UK, Silver Spoon were looking to relaunch its visual identity and pack design in a contemporary way. They knew that they had to make their proposition of ‘sweetness’ resonate for contemporary consumers.
What did we do?
We started by gathering cultural data: in-field detective work took us to sweet shops, food halls, supermarkets, and chocolate boutiques. By analysing this data, we found that whilst traditional sweetness was about transgression and ‘letting go’, innovative brands were coding sugar as the active pursuit of virtuous moderation.
We identified these as key territories for Silver Spoon to signal sweetness in future-facing ways – and as a way to resolve the brand’s existing tensions between communicating class conflicts, serious Britishness and unbridled childishness.
By defining these territories and their visual we advised Silver Spoon toward optimally meaningful creative routes, enabling the brand to tell a new cultural story that was relevant in a world turning away from sugar.
Where did it lead?
The final designs sparked a big shift in how the brand was perceived, taking Silver Spoon from familiar and undifferentiated within its category to a preferred brand that made consumers feel good about sweetness.
