Glenfiddich - The Grand Runway
The brief:
Glenfiddich Grand Series, consists of three single malts—the Gran Reserva, Grand Cru and Grande Couronne.
Glenfiddich—which is Gaelic for Valley of the Deer—was established in 1887 by William Grant and has since become the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky to date.
Though the 135-year-old brand brings with it invaluable history and heritage, its Grand Series breaks convention by bringing together three different yet opulent worlds.
The Grand Series’ has three unexpected cask finishes:
Glenfiddich Grande Couronne - a 26-year-old whisky matured in American and European oak casks at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, before the crowning glory—an extended finish of up to two years in meticulously sourced French Cognac casks
Glenfiddich Grand Cru - aged for 23 years in American and European Oak casks and then finessed in French cuvée oak casks
Glenfiddich Gran Reserva - mellowed for 21 years in bourbon casks before a final flourish in Caribbean rum casks.
Glenfiddich wanted the Grand Series to target Singapore’s affluent style and fashion influencer crowd and gain awareness in a credible way.
The solution:
Through a collaboration with VOGUE Singapore and three key local designers we created the Grand Runway.
Each designer created a outfit to represent one of the Grand Series, which we then showcased in a choreographed runway film for social and events, alongside targeted style press.
VOGUE x Glenfiddich Grand Series then hosted a series of events showcasing the clothes and the products.
https://vogue.sg/glenfiddich-grand-series/
Glenfiddich Chinese New Year
The brief:
To create a brand experience to celebrate Chinese New Year throughout South East Asia to encourage gifting of Glenfiddich’s limited edition CNY pack designed by renowned illustrator, Rlon Wang.
The solution:
We created an immersive 360º experience that told the story of the pack through a “Cosmic journey to the extraordinary”, we designed, scripted and directed the experience that ran throughout the region.
La Martina is a global luxury fashion, lifestyle and sporting goods brand with a heritage in Polo technical equipment production. It is in fact the world's biggest sponsor and supporter of the sport, in fact La Martina's tagline is "We are Polo".
Along with my creative partner, Timothy Everest MBE, we create and design their St James Collection, a tailored range that takes its inspiration from the aspirational lifestyle of professional "gentlemen" Polo players combined with the modern game's English routes and heritage.
Not only do we create and design the collections, we act as "brand guardians", creating the strategy and all the marketing materials (films, photography, merchandising and events) for each one.
THE BRIEF
The product:
Coffee based liqueur used as basis for simple cocktails or mixed drinks e.g. Mudslides or White Russians.
The brand problem:
In decline, the “dusty bottle” at the back of the drinks cabinet.
Target audience:
“Soccer moms”, primarily 30 – 44 year old women.
Suburban Middle America.
Consumer insight:
They play multiple roles and are happy to but know there’s more to them than the roles you see them play everyday. They were looking for a little “me” time, a little escapism every so often.
The role for communications:
To make Kahlua a more interesting alternative to the more run-of-the-mill options such as wine or beer & increase frequency of usage.
To provide a holistic brand platform that could also extend into other markets outside of North America.
THE IDEA
Kahlua always had an exotic and sensual element to its character, plus it also has an “air” of mystery. (No-one quite knows where it comes from - Central America? Africa? Hawaii?)
Combine all of the above with the “soccer mom” insight of a little escapism and making the drinking occasion a little more “everyday” than just seasonal and you get ...
“Kahlua - the everyday exotic”
It was a simple thought that gave a clear and distinctive brand behaviour at every touch-point whether it be TV, press, poster, events, promotion, PR or point of sale; Kahlua would provide an oasis of “exoticism” in the everyday life for the consumer
The Brief:
To create a new menswear brand targeting affluent 25 + men embodying a contemporary “British Prep” look and style for existing brand Grey Flannel.
The Solution:
Club Flannel was born, with the democratic invitation to “Join In” rather than an unapproachable “Join”.
We designed logos, clothing range and shot the launch spring/summer 2023 campaign along with creating social media films and key assets.
The Brief:
To re-launch St Patrick’s Day for Guinness coming out of COVID in Singapore.
The Idea:
To celebrate the everyday heroes and little “kindnesses” that came to the fore during the pandemic, by making everyone a “Saint” on St Patrick’s Day.
Every Guinness “Saint” was given a Free pint of the Black Stuff for them or then truly worthy friends.
The campaign ran throughout bars and localised social media.
The launch of the Courvoisier “Earn it” press and poster campaign targeted “aspiring vips” ( 25 – 35 year old men working their way up in the UK & USA ).
The communications strategy was to challenge them to “step up” to the brand in a confident (tongue in cheek and ironic) tone that would demonstrate that they had some depth and taste.
This was followed up with the "Find Greatness Within" campaign which recognised that our target was becoming more discerning and were looking to add depth to themselves and a little more complexity to their status as they grew, an insight that suited Courvoiser and cognac perfectly from both a functional and emotional point of view.
Made by Everyone... for you.
A collective of passionate artisans created by renowned tailor, Timothy Everest MBE, advertising creative, Danny Kellard and former Selfridges menswear buyer, Rahul Modha.
MbE brings together the best craftsman, materials and designers to create garments that showcase British style in both bespoke garments and ready to wear ranges.
Our aim is to create high quality British made goods that complement the modern gentlemen's wardrobe that can be worn for any occasion.
MbE also curates and champions products from other like-minded menswear brands that have British quality and materials at their core.
Our ready to wear ranges draws particular inspiration from classic military and workwear styles, but with luxury hand crafted twists, whilst Tim brings his own incredible heritage and eponymous style to our bespoke and made to measure offering.
https://www.instagram.com/mbe_london/
Sunseeker London is the luxury yacht dealership network that covers Europe and North Africa, which accounts for nearly 50% of the luxury yacht manufacturers sales, with offices in locations such as Mayfair, Monaco, Marbella and Nice.
In 2016 the BBC aired "Britain’s Biggest Superyachts: Chasing Perfection" an fly-on the wall documentary that followed the brand over a year. It brought to life the "family" nature of the business where clients/owners become "friends" for life and the unique nature of the brand and characters involved.
I put together a strategy for their social media account that diverted them from posting the usual luxury yacht "porn" that has become so ubiquitous and that so many of their competitors employ by bringing to life the characters involved in the business (some of whom appeared in the BBC documentary also) to produce a micro campaign of light-hearted (and cost effective!) short films that were posted across their social media over a four week period. The result was to be one of their most successful pieces of social media to date.
How often in your career do get the brief to re-name, re-postion and create a totally new branding for a dinosaur adventure theme park?
Well that was the brief we received in March 2017 and the work is still going on.
So far we've done the re-naming, the re-postioning and the brand bible.
Currently we're designing the park's entrance, branding for some of the new attractions and developing the brand mascots/characters.
Fun- yes it is :)
Strongroom was a sleeping giant, a pioneer of the Shoreditch scene before anyone had heard of Shoreditch.
It also had a totally unique and distinct personality from everywhere else in the district.
It had the most potential to become a consumer facing brand within the Air Entertainment Group.
We decided to launch Strongroom Alive, an internet based radio station that wanted to represent the sound of Shoreditch.
VICE MAGAZINE, DAZED & CONFUSED, RED BULL all had shows on the station along with local DJ's, gallery owners, artist, fashion brands and live sets from the Strongroom Bar.
Launched with a temporary FM licence that covered East London to Soho during its first month as part of its marketing activity, it soon gained a loyal following and was critically acclaimed.
Launch results in first 3 months:
- 130,000 + listeners internationally
- 14,500 twitter followers
- 6,800 facebook likes
- 80,000 + unique visitors to site
- Reach during launch activity 1.8million
Listen to Strongroom Alive's back catalogue here:
The Air Entertainment Group is a business with over 40 years of heritage in the music & entertainment industries.
- The group currently has two brands: Air & Strongroom.
- Air was established in 1970 by Sir George Martin and is one of the most prestigious recording facilities in the World.
- Created in 1984, Strongroom is a studio complex and bar that is at the forefront of the thriving Shoreditch scene in East London.
- AEG was mainly known as facilities business dealing with major recording artists & production companies.
- My brief was to take the group from being a facilities business into content creation and enable the brands to become more consumer facing.
- The following is a mere snapshot of that journey as co-owner and its creative and strategy director. It started with a re-brand for Air and developed into a radio station, apps & bar business with its own beer brand amongst other things.
http://www.air-management.co.uk
http://www.airstudiosmastering.com
- The “Hipstamatic” for audio
- Range of "skins"
- A virtual vinyl player with virtual mix-tape function
- Air Studios world famous mastering engineers were used to get the best harmonious and depth of sound from i-devices with EQ’s & filters
- Airplay enabled with free bolt-on of AirStreem which allows you to stream the whole music library from any mac desktop or laptop through AirVinyl that is open on iPhones & iPads
- Retails for £1.99 iPad version & 69p for iPhone version
- Number one music app in 10 countries at launch
- Over 750,000+ downloads to date
DUNHILL TOBACCO OF LONDON LIMITED
To become "the indulgent soul of tobacco" was the purpose that we set ourselves for Dunhill. We even resurrected the brands full trademark - Dunhill Tobacco Of London Limited, incorporating it into the lock-up and new packaging.
We wanted to emphasis the fact that we had a Master Blender that crafted the finest tobaccos that delivered Dunhill's refined, smooth & rich taste.
We wanted to be relevant for the modern gentlemen of today just as Dunhill had been over 100 years ago when he crafted his bespoke blends for the gentlemen of London.
We wanted a modern masculine confidence mixed with a London attitude.
"GENTLEMEN - THIS IS TASTE" was born.
Through simple and direct messaging combined with stylish black and white photography we brought emotion back into the brand.
The campaign has run in markets as diverse as South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, Gulf States, South Africa and Romania where tobacco regulations allow marketing.
In Indonesia this even extends to TVC and OOH.
"Tastemakers" was created to work in conjunction with the campaign for non-branded activation and events and has been (and is still) very successful in market.
The campaign has been ongoing since 2013 and has had many iterations.
It has been adapted for Dunhill Fine Cut to be become "Gentlemen - this is a cut above" and for Dunhill's capsule range - "Gentlemen - this is fresh".
When Dunhill wanted to extend its range upwards to more expensive SKU's with specific taste blends based upon selected tobacco growing regions - it created DUNHILL RESERVE, and so "GENTLEMEN - TIME TO EXPLORE" launched the range.
The campaign has shifted perception of Dunhill as an older target market brand and brought a new energy into it in market.
DUNHILL SPECIAL RESERVE
Dunhill is the "indulgent soul of tobacco".
It would only seem natural to create a luxury premium cigarette - after all it's in Dunhill's DNA.
DUNHILL SPECIAL RESERVE:
- Hand selected vintage crops.
- Chosen for their terroirs & taste
- Blends created by the Dunhill Master Blender.
- Exquisite and luxurious packaging.
- Luxury price point
Taking its inspiration from the world of wine, cognac & coffee, Dunhill Special Reserve creates a range of limited vintage tobacco blends each year.
The rarity of these blends are key to its success - once a blend is sold out, that's it, it's gone forever.
In our comms we wanted to demonstrate the terroirs and location of these blends and the Master Blender's journey to find them in an evocative way - treating them like an Old Master's still life.
1A ST. JAMES
The flagship store of Dunhill Tobacco of London Limited, the spiritual home for its "indulgent soul of tobacco".
Re-inventing the tobacconist for the 21st century and creating an anchor in the real world for the brand was our brief and mantra.
A place to sell the finest cigars and Dunhill Special Reserve, as well as place for our Master Blender and Cigar Aficionado to impart their knowledge.
Set in the artisan quarter of St. James's the store was give a contemporary luxury makeover and a chic smoking room along with a state of the art walk-in humidor with private cigar vault.
I spent several years as the Global Executive Creative Director across Allied Domecq and Beam Global Wines & Spirits' portfolio of brands - these are just a sample.