We are 16, going on 17…

Yep, in the latter months of 2009, The Message turned the ripe old age of 16. We can now play the lottery, marry another agency (with our parent's written consent of course) and, ahem, even get up to a bit of naughty stuff.

Back in 1993 - when the pen was mightier than the pixel - we set up with one phone, a borrowed fax machine and amazingly, not one single Apple Macintosh. We had jotter pads, so what was the point?!

We squatted with an architect’s practice in Irongate and our first job was for 'Ian’s Dad’s best mate' who owned a company that made sewage tanks...it was glamorous stuff, not as glamorous as our second job (which we got because Ian’s wife’s dad called in a favour with the MD of John Smedley) and we launched their Autumn 1994 collection with a shoot that echoed the hottest movie at the time, Pulp Fiction. Pride Park was still Chaddesden railway sidings.

Since then we have survived thick and thin, and have grown to around 10 people, working out of a brand new studio on Pride Park and having produced wonderful work in virtually every sector; from fashion and financial services through to charity, retail and health and beauty.

We promise everyone a big party when we're 21!

The Message Gives Gossard a Boost

In the first of a number of marketing initiatives to promote the UK's favourite lingerie brand, The Message has teamed up with Gossard to create a striking billboard campaign that has stopped traffic and passers-by alike in their tracks.

The posters feature sexy, oversized shots of model Elle Liberachi wearing Gossard’s new 'Superboost' lingerie with the taglines "good buy girls" and "OMG", and can be seen at key billboard sites around London.

In particular, the ‘good buy girls’ creative tips its hat to the look and feel of Gossard’s memorable advertising campaign of the 1990s; the iconic Wonderbra “Hello Boys” posters – but their underlying message has been updated to appeal to women of today.

Gossard Managing Director, Tony Jarvis, said, “Gossard is a brand with great recognition, but we realised that we needed to make the brand and its products more relevant to the upcoming generation of sassy, sexy women. The launch of our new Superboost range, that beautifully accentuates women’s curves, is the perfect vehicle for the campaign as the range offers ‘traffic stopping’ style and fantastic quality, yet is also priced for everyday, not just special occasion, wear."

The campaign is part of a major development of the Gossard brand through new and existing products and related marketing activity, all of which will be produced by The Message.

Knot again!

See our previous blog post for the fun we had creating this wonderful piece of knotting, Staffordshire style.

Here's the knot getting all the glory at the launch of Staffordshire County Council's new corporate identity a few weeks back.

Rumour has it that the knot has now gone in to hibernation for the winter, but will back when the weather's better so as not to get too frayed.

Knot your average job

We're often praised for "doing the things that other marketing agencies can't", which we guess includes sourcing large pieces of rope and tying it in knots. Staffordshire knots to be precise.

As part of Staffordshire County Council's new corporate identity launch, we were asked to recreate a physical replica of the Staffordshire knot for a publicity shot or two.

We're still awaiting the final PR shots, but have our own pictures of Robin and Nick unpacking said rope to keep us amused in the meantime.

Candid CAMRA

Our very own Mr. Chappell recently spent a day of 'client liaison' at the opening of Bakewell's new Thornbridge Brewery, which happened to involve sampling a pint or two of their finest ales. A tough job, but someone had to do it.

Unbeknown to Ian (at the time at least), he was captured on camera by East Midlands Today, offering a connoisseurial look at one of Thornbridge's finest brews.

You can watch his 2.73 seconds of fame here on BBC's news website.

Of course, the rest of the office were mightily relieved that they weren't asked along to what was clearly a very exhausting day of local business networking.

Maps "R" us

We're a bit tucked away on Pride Park. Just a few twists and turns away from the stadium, but tucked away nonetheless. So if you're coming to see us, we've thrown together a map to help you along the way.*

* Also available on our website at www.the-message.co.uk

Caffeine fuelled

One thing we're well accustomed to here is getting our creative hands dirty. That's done in a metaphorical sense of course, so as to keep our fingernails nice and clean.

Having produced Pretty Polly's eye-catching ‘Caution Hot Tights’ packaging (in the shape of takeout coffee cups no less), it's been all hands on deck to get the tights packed and shipped off in time for this week's celebrity launch at Selfridges.

The new legware collection has been designed in conjunction with in-vogue London fashionista Henry Holland, one of London's hottest designers.

Without Charlotte’s 'more chocolate than biscuit' Bahlsen biscuits, we might not have got through the day.

Busy at Birchover

A corporate re-brand, brochure design, copywriting, website development, promotional posters, photography...and even a spot of toilet humour.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for The Message, and for Birchover Hotel Apartments. With a little help from us, they've just launched their new brand identity and shiny new website - www.birchover.com.

We also think they're on to a good thing, as they're the only hotel apartments in Derby...and with over 70 one and two-bedroom apartments in Darley Abbey and Allestree, they offer a pretty cool alternative to the usual boring hotel room.

If you want to see the new ads we've done for Birchover, take a look in the, ahem, 'washrooms' next time you're at Pride Park.

Behind the scenes with Gossard

Here's a behind the scenes look at our latest shoot for Gossard.

Filmed, edited and produced by The Message (using Apple's very nifty Final Cut Express), this snippet features Brazilian-born model Fernada Ferrari and 2009 UK Covergirl of the Year Elle Liberachi showcasing Gossard's 2010 Spring / Summer range.

If you're interested in producing a video to promote your business, you can find full contact details for The Message on our main website.

What are your favourite brands?

We'll hold our hands up straight away and say that we got this idea from our friends at Howies, although thought it would be fascinating to see which companies, products and brands are most admired amongst the people we know (and those we don't).

It's a conversation that also sparked some interesting lunchtime debate in the office yesterday. We came up with ten between us, although all for very different reasons; from the actual desirability of a company's product through to their service, status, ethos and ways they communicate to their customers.

It also got us talking this morning about brands that we used to like, but that have somehow now lost their appeal, but that's for another day.

Well, our top ten boiled down to Apple, Waitrose, Paul Smith, Pizza Express, Sony, Aga, The Co-op, BBC, Starbucks and The Guardian.

Over to you.

One we made earlier

If proof be needed that most of us at The Message were raised on a diet of fish fingers, beans and episodes of Blue Peter, then look no further than our home-made holiday planner.

Thing is, we left it a little late in to 2009 to order a 'proper' planner, so thought it'd be much more fun - and more economically sound - to make our own. It's amazing what you can do with a desk calender, some sticky back plastic, a bit of foam board and a few colourful, star-shaped stickers. 

The debate as to how we signify half days continues. All ideas are welcome.

Rabbiting on...

Ian B's lunch was today provided Jack Rabbit's, a new and extremely tasty little place on Irongate in Derby. Just opposite the cathedral in fact. 

If you've not yet had the pleasure and happen to be or around the city centre, we highly recommend it...although don't blame us when you're struggling for cash and putting on the pounds. We're already addicted (see below for slow-roasted-gammon-cob heaven). 

Jack Rabbit's makes traditional home-cooked meals to take away. Perfect if you like nice, thick slices of beef, chicken or gammon in a roll...or if you fancy lamb tagine for lunch and have a microwave at work.

We'd like to point you in the direction of their website, but they haven't got one yet. We've already had a chat with Amelia - passionate foodie and friendly owner of Jack Rabbit's - to suggest a 'we'll build you a website if you do us lots of free food' sort of arrangement.

We'll let you know if we hear anything...

Terra Nova, making light of things

We've worked closely with Terra Nova for the last nine years to get their marketing of all things adventurous and outdoorsy pretty much spot on. It's also resulted in a few bad jokes from time-to-time about The Message doing 'in tents' Marketing.

We took a trip to their annual tent show this week to see how things were going.

A nice day it was too. We liked this beautifully designed, patriotic number that appeared to be a little more 'Glastonbury' than the others. 

We also couldn't resist the barbequed hot dogs and marinated turkey on offer!

Terra Nova recently beat their own Guinness World Record for the lightest tent in the world, weighing just 860g at its minimum weight.

Storm in a (PANTONE®) teacup

Despite the Met Office issuing a heatwave warning this week, we still got in this morning, put the kettle on and somewhat stubbornly made ourselves a nice, boiling hot cup of tea.

Thing is, it got us thinking about the slightly strange theory that most grandmas seem to have about a hot cup of tea cooling you down. Can this really be true? Does it depend on the type of tea you're drinking? Or maybe it's something that only happened in the olden days.

Maybe a hot cup of tea cools you down because, comparatively, you're much colder than it!?

Please also note the first appearance of our much admired PANTONE® mugs. More of them later.

A micro-success

We're lucky to do pretty much all the marketing required by our lovely friends at Amber Ales, Derbyshire's award winning microbrewery.

Even better still, this weekend saw Amber host their first ever 'AMBERFEST' beer festival, so we thought the only polite thing to do was to pop along to try a couple of their finest ales. 

The festival showcased some new and unusual ales from Amber, along with other leading local breweries including Thornbridge, Brampton and Derby Brewing Company (We recommend the Chocolate Orange Stout and the Jasmine IPA).

Since its launch in 2006, Amber Ales has put locally produced ales on the map, winning many awards at a local and national level. 

All Amber's flagship beers are named after Amber Valley local heroes including Barnes Wallis IPA, Outrams Bitter and Samuel Slater American Amber Ale.

For the love of Gossard

Our latest Gossard brochure happened to feature world famous, and Maxim's favourite, model Elle Liberachi (along with her little dog ‘Tiger’).

 

Created, and produced by The Message, the photography was by John Oakley, fresh from his trip to South Africa where he was privileged enough to be asked to shoot a certain Mr. Mandela. 

The Message is proud to work with Gossard, an iconic lingerie brand and can trace its roots back to Chicago 1901.

All garments shot were for Gossard’s Spring Summer 2010 collection.

Weleda of the pack

Thanks to a helping hand from yours truly, our friends at Weleda have just announced that their wonderful Skin Food has won the prestigious Silver Award for the Classic Beauty Product of the Year at the Clothes Show London.

Skin Food is one of Weleda’s original skincare products and, thanks to our play on the fact that it's been in existence since 1926, has since been ‘discovered’ by a number of celebrities.

Jayn at Weleda loved our ad and said lots of kind words about it: "The 1926 Beauty Product of the Year ad that you guys did for us went a long way to create a real buzz around the product and get it on people’s radars!"

Actually, the new ad campaign measured over 1.2 million page impressions in April, appearing in Elle, Zest, Harpers Bazaar and Top Santé to name just a few.

Have you tapped in to the Skin Food phenomenon? It's now got quite a cult following and has been seen peeking out the handbags of the likes of Joss Stone, Rihanna and Helena Christensen.*

*Any excuse to post a picture of the lovely Helena really.

Ever the exhibitionists

We're proud of our clients, and tend to boast about them whenever we can. So imagine our delight when Weleda asked us to design and build their exhibition stand for this year's Clothes Show London at Excel in (yes, you guessed it) London.

So instead of talking to a few of our mates about all the good stuff that Weleda do, we got to tell a few thousand Clothes Show visitors as well. Perfect.

We should point out that this photo was taken before the doors opened, hence the lack of Weleda staff, enthusiastic customers and muddy footprints.

For more about the wonderful Weleda, check on their online-ness at www.weleda.co.uk.

New for June 2009

We've promised ourselves for a while now that we'd get round to updating our website, but constantly find our time being dedicated more naturally to our clients' marketing needs, rather than our own.

Anyway, in  between designing ads, printing brochures, firing out press releases like they're going out of fashion and editing a few short movies (we're just like, so Hollywood, di'nt ya know), we somehow found time to give ourselves a makeover.

So yup, this is us after a bit of a nifty nip and a tiny tuck. A spot of lipo here, an injection of botox there...all resulting in a new logo, a new website and this blog.

It's our way of telling you what we're up to, and also an opportunity to brag about all the wonderful things we do. Over and out for now.