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.

Our new brand generation and design for maple syrup Buckwud has just been shortlisted for a prestigious Design Week award. It has been quite a hit with judging panels, with six accolades to date, including a gold Design Effectiveness award. With that in mind, we wanted to celebrate with a closer look behind the creation process of this new, and very exciting brand, and spoke to Caroline Gates, lead designer on Buckwud, to get her take on how the project developed, from brief to shelf.

What was the focus of the client brief?

CG: We were briefed to create a new maple syrup brand and packaging that would stand out on shelf and communicate the authenticity and purity of the product.

How do you approach a new brand creation project, and how does it feel to be given a blank canvas to work on?

CG: Obviously it's very exciting! With a brief so wide, my first approach is to find out as much as possible about the product: information and knowledge helps my creative process. I delved into the history, culture and traditions surrounding maple syrup, researching until the 'quirks' behind the product were revealed.

Working in this way helps us to understand and know a product in and out and beyond the category cues, and to discover the unique traits that will help to differentiate the new brand from all the others on shelf.

What did the research reveal?

CG: We started at the beginning researching the history and process of making maple syrup. It was exciting to find a wealth of myths and legends surrounding the origins of maple syrup as well as stories of how the syrup was made centuries ago, and that the process is still pretty similar today. This seemed the perfect way to convey that this product was special and trustworthy. 

We wanted the brand to be fun and quirky but informative and educational. I had never realised that Maple Syrup was a Native Canadian product and wanted to share this discovery.

What are the little images on the pack?

CG: We researched the various languages and cultures of the 'First Peoples' and using pictograms were able to create a new visual language to illustrate the products past. Pictograms are one of the oldest forms of art and semiotics, some native american pictographs date back to 3000 years ago and are a wonderful insight in to how people lived in these times. 

Many of the icons used in the Buckwud language are authentic symbols that have been found through out North America.

And where did the name come from?

CG: The name was also derived from the Native Canadian culture, 'Sinzibuckwud' was the description for maple syrup meaning drawn from wood, so we broke this down to create a fun, catchy and memorable name.

Why do you think Buckwud has been such a success so far?

CG: Because it is noticeable on shelf, it is so different from everything else in the category, and above all, it's fun!

We've scooped three trophies at tonight's Design Effectiveness Awards, hosted by the Design Business Association in London. 

The creation of the Buckwud brand for client Wellness Foods was awarded a prestigious Gold, our redesign work with Pipers Crisp Co. won a Silver award, while our work with leading independent brewer Hall & Woodhouse on the redesign of the Badger Ales brand achieved a bronze in the branded packaging design category. We have also made a massive jump forward in the league tables, and are now among the three most financially effective agencies in the UK.

The DBA's annual Design Effectiveness Awards are the most prestigious accolade in design, being the only award scheme that uses commercial data as a key judging criteria.  As the design industry's equivalent of an IPA award in advertising, all winners having undergone two stages of rigorous judging, by two separate panels of business leaders, including senior marketers from brands such as Santander, TFL, John Lewis, Magner's, Oxfam and British Airways.

Year after year, winning case studies like Buckwud, Pipers Crisp Co. and Badger demonstrate the excellent value for money and return on investment that a coherent, well-thought-out and professionally executed design strategy can achieve. 

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.