Coming to America

The Message has recently been helping Midlands-based, hosiery and leg-wear brand Pretty Polly launch their iconic brand over in The States - a wonderfully exciting project which has seen us getting busy shooting and editing a short movie, designing and printing DVD sleeves and finding the best way to pitch their products to an American audience.

This has included gathering together footage of old Pretty Polly TV ads, shooting new footage over at Coco Tang in Nottingham, pulling together previous trade ads and wrapping it all up in a DVD that's now winging its way across the Atlantic.

Up there

We couldn't resist sharing this - such a beautifully constructed piece of movie-making. 'Up There' tells the story of the few remaining New York advertising painters, who are struggling to keep this promotional method alive.

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2010

A short video we made made for Weleda at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2010.

Pretty Polly and Coco Tang

A few shots here of the recent video shoot we did for Pretty Polly at Coco Tang nightclub in Nottingham. Keep your eyes peeled for a final edit of the video further down the line...

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.