brandopus

With over 500 million registered users, Twitter is one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet and can influence people worldwide.

This couldn't be truer for Twinings. It all began with a tweet from One Direction's Niall... "love your work! Your Lemon and Ginger is great! Drink about 3 or 4 cups before stage." Niall, has 11 million Twitter followers worldwide so you can imagine the impact this has had for Twinings.

The brief from Twinings was to create something personalised, quirky and fun whilst being a keepsake for Niall. And for me, being a big fan of any boy band at all, this couldn't be more of a dream brief to work on! The idea was that it would be a bonus for Niall to receive packs of his favourite cup of tea... after all, we want those vocals to be at their best whilst on stage! We worked with the current Lemon and Ginger packs, which we at BrandOpus re-designed as part of the Infusions relaunch in 2012, making it feel like a limited edition pack especially made for Niall himself.

Tweaking the illustrations on pack and also working into the copy made it feel more personalised, we even managed to get a few song titles in there too: "Naturally caffeine free... that's what makes you beautiful".

Speaking about the custom made tea, Niall said: "Thanks very much @TwiningsTeaUK! love the ole Lemon and Ginger tea! Love the boxes aswell haha." He then photographed this and shared the picture via Twitter.  To date, over 52,000 people have retweeted Niall's references to Twinings, and over 65,000 people have 'favorited' his posts.  

Since Twinings first interaction with Niall in April, they have seen their Twitter followers increase from 11,326 followers 18th April 2013 to 18,626 followers 13th May 2013, which is pretty amazing.

This just shows what how powerful social networking sites can be and how a brand's packaging can interact with an audience in a fun and engaging way whilst broadening Twinings social reach.

On a chilly January morning at just about elevenses time, a parcel arrived from Twinings. This was no ordinary box: not a sample for colour review or a tea caddy for sizing reference, but a small flat box delicately tied up in bubble wrap. Inside was a little card of thanks, to the BrandOpus team for all our hard work on the redesign of The Everyday Tea range, "It's glorious and we are delighted!" they wrote. And below the card was a bespoke teapot biscuit, a replica of the new pack design. 

The perfect accompaniment to a glorious cup of Twinings Everyday Tea!

We have undertaken a major overhaul of the UK's number one chip brand, McCain across the entire portfolio. The redesign sees the introduction of a new logo for the brand, the first change for over 50 years. 

The new identity encapsulates the natural landscape from the previous brand design and establishes the brand logo as the sunshine, bringing warmth to theMcCain brand. The design also sees the removal of the 'black box' logo, which had previously remained unchanged since the 1950s.

The new brand identity is part of McCain Foods GB strategy to drive brand and category growth, and continues the partnership between McCain and BrandOpus which saw the introduction of a masterbrand strategy in March 2011.

Mark Hodge, McCain head of brand, said: "The new visual identity by BrandOpus will help to segment, sign-post and simplify the McCain potato products range, and reflects our move towards a portfolio encompassing more potato meal solutions, such as McCain Ready Baked Jackets, which were launched with huge success last year. The packaging has real stand out and the consumer response in research was very impressive''.   

Hodge added:  "GB is the first market to launch the new packs, and depending on consumer response other markets may follow." 

The new packaging is appearing in-store from this month. 

We've been working with Badger Ales to create the packaging strategy for the first of its ultimate collector's ales series. Designed to be the perfect gift for the discerning ale lover, the launch of this limited edition premium ale follows on from our award winning redesign of the Badger brand which rolled out onto the shelves in February.

Brewed using the special Boadicea, Bramling Cross and Goldings hops and matured in a Somerset Cider Brandy Company oak cask, the ale comes in a 750cl champagne bottle housed in a beautiful wooden presentation box.  The 10.7% ale is one of the first ales produced in the UK to undergo three fermentations as well as full riddling and disgorging, which is normally only carried out by the finest Champagne houses, and can be drunk immediately or can be laid down for many years to mature. Inspired by this we created an all-naturally sourced packaging design, which reflects the hibernation of countryside animals: the champagne bottle is cocooned in an oak presentation case, embellished with fragments of the Badger identity, reflective of the yesteryear crates that Badger was once delivered in.

To celebrate the number of years Hall & Woodhouse has been brewing, 235 bottles of the Collector's Edition 2012 will be released, each bottle hand-numbered and signed by Chairman Mark Woodhouse upon a leaf-like swing tag which picks up on the countryside equities of the Badger brand, and which is attached to the neck of the bottle with twine.

Anna Corbett, brand marketing manager at Hall & Woodhouse, comments on the project, "A beautiful and considered design that delivers a rustic yet distinctive sense of occasion to be savoured, much like this very special beer."

The Collector's Edition 2012 is the first in the series which will be released annually, it will be exclusively available from www.badgerdirect.com and will retail at £50.00 plus postage and packaging.

We've helped Twinings to reorganise their Infusions portfolio and launch an innovative range of premium fruit & herbal infusion teas. Twinings tasked us to simplify and redefine the architecture and pack design across the large Infusions range, with the ambitious objective of significantly growing category penetration. In response we have introduced a clean, white background across all four sub-ranges within the infusions portfolio. Each blend also features swirling imagery to reflecting the moment that the tea infuses into hot water. 

The Fruit Infusions range uses bold typography, real imagery and illustrative touches to signify the hit of great flavour that the fruity blends create on the palette. Whilst Herbal Infusions use illustrative elements and accents of colour to signify the unique health benefit of each flavourful blend.

As part of the refresh Twinings are launching a new range of sensational tasting infusions, based on consumers favourite blends with an extra intensity and featuring interesting ingredients. Each variant has been developed by expert master blenders to ensure the depth of flavour matches the aromatic scent; combating the misconception that infused teas do not deliver on taste. We communicated the distinctiveness of this special range through the pack designs, which feature an intricate quilling technique reflecting both the infusion process and sensational tasting notes of the teas.

Although blends within the Benefit range are purchased with a specific health issue in mind, for us it was key to move away from the medicinal nature of the previous packaging, to a range of new designs befitting the great flavour of the blends. The result is a simple, clear range that is easy to navigate and which reassures the consumer that Twinings are on hand to help when it they need it most. 

Across the entire portfolio colour schemes compliment, allowing the consumer to easily identify a favourite ingredient irrespective of which sub-range each blend belongs to. All packs in the portfolio also feature block colouring on the side of pack, so that the blends are just as recognisable on the shelf at the supermarket as in the tea cupboard at home.

Our CEO Nir Wegrzyn, says of the project, "Following on from the strategy we created for Green Tea, Twinings Infusions has been transformed from a fragmented portfolio to a simple strategy that is easy to navigate on shelf."

Lindsey Williams, senior brand manager at Twinings, comments, "We have a range of great tasting products that have wellbeing at their heart, our challenge for the relaunch was to communicate these benefits to the consumer through impactful simplified design, and on-trend innovation. Our aim is to re-ignite the infusion category at a time when health is very much on consumers agenda and we feel that BrandOpus' pack designs will help us to achieve this"