White Bear

We struck Gold! Our partnership with Tom Parker Creamery proves that great design drives business success and ROI! We’re thrilled to announce we won Gold at the 2024 Design Business Association (DBA) Design Effectiveness Awards for our rebrand. Only three Gold awards were given in 2024. The DBA celebrate design that delivers measurable business and societal success. The awards are based on commercial data, emphasising the direct impact of design on business outcomes. Founded more than 100 years ago, Tom Parker engaged White Bear to partner with them to evolve their brand identity and positioning to help drive their ambitious growth plans. The results have been transformative: a substantial increase in listings at Sainsbury’s, a significant improvement in distribution mix, and impressive revenue growth that has far outpaced the category. Check out the case study in the comments.

Try this out, I bet you'll find it works!

The big winners at this year's Design Effectiveness Awards include a premium smoothie brand, a creamery and a travel website. B&B studio took home the Grand Prix and a Gold for its Mockingbird Raw Press branding, which led to year-on-year sales increases of up to 158%. Another Gold went to Else for its work on new website for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, which drove a surge in bookings and revenue. And White Bear took Gold for its rebrand of Tom Parker Creamery, which helped the 100-year-old dairy reposition itself as a supermarket favourite. Founded in 1989 and organised by the Design Business Association (DBA), the awards recognise projects that have a “tangible and measurable impact” on positively changing businesses, and society as a whole. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e7DEE8rr

We love this brief!

Five years ago, my team and I wrote a goal on a vision board, and last night, it became a reality. My agency, White Bear, won a Design Business Effectiveness Award for the impact our design had on Tom Parker Creamery. I was over the moon when I found out we were nominated. The DBA Awards are the Oscars of the design industry, so to be recognized for our work and its impact on our client’s business was phenomenal. There were hundred of entries, and only 14 entrants were shortlisted to win this coveted award. We were in the running to win a gold, silver, or bronze award. I had managed my own expectations and was thrilled to win a bronze award. HOWEVER, when they announced we’d won gold, I was floored! The last time I attended these awards was 10 years ago, in my pre-White Bear days. The person I was then would never have thought that, 10 years later, MY AGENCY would be accepting a GOLD DBA for one of the projects I am most proud of. It’s funny how life comes full circle. What I love most about these awards is that they’re not just about 'pretty' design. They are awarded to the agency that demonstrates impact and transformation. We achieved a huge increase in distribution, going from listings with Milk & More to Sainsbury's, Ocado, Co-op, and Booths. Most of the results are confidential, but suffice it to say, they were significant enough to earn us a Gold award. A massive thank you to my amazing team, who tirelessly poured over (no pun intended) every design element, ensuring the rebrand, packaging, and website were crafted to perfection. Lastly, none of this would be possible without our wonderful clients at Tom Parker Creamery, who believed in us. Together, we created a story that was truly unforgettable! ♻ Repost with your network Follow ➕ Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️ for more content like this.

What a night with our great friends and clients Tom Parker Creamery scooping up a GOLD Design Business Association (DBA) award! We're so proud of our whole team for all the hard work that went into bringing this 100 year old brand back to centre stage.

In the crowded ad arena, only the bold survive — Why do brands battle for attention? 🚫 A social ad is ONLY watched for 1.8 seconds according to Facebook 🚫 A TV AD is viewed for less than 10 seconds on average 🚫 A print AD is viewed for less than 2 seconds on average How do we beat the ad fatigue? ✅ Tell a memorable story ✅ Always test, test and test again ✅ Look familiar using distinctive assets ✅ Use emotive language to make people feel Want to know more about how to do it? Join our webinar on October 24th with me, Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️, Founder of White Bear and Tia Best, Director at DVJ insights. Link to the event in the comments. Repost ♻️ to invite others Follow ➕ Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️ for more on advertising, marketing, and brand.

Our MD David Endersen spoke to Lucy from the The Scale Up Collective about brand valuation and how building a strong brand impacts a businesses financials. You can rewatch the talk here: https://lnkd.in/erYSWC7F

Developing Effective Brand Names: Become a verb don't become a joke. When a brand's name goes wrong it's comical, we all love a laugh but you don't want it to be at your expense. Anyone remember the Analytics Technology company Analtech? .... enough said. Analtech's epic fail was obvious but some of the more nuanced reasons brand names can fail are a bit harder to identify at the outset of a naming project. You're on route to fail if your brand name is.... ❌ Too tricksy to spell naturally ❌ A Faddish name that quickly dates ❌ Not rooted in the wider vision or story of the brand ❌ Too product-focused, constraining growth when the company wants to diversify ❌ Legally not protected, particularly for global growth or into more trademark classes But if we get it right it can... ✅ Aid memorability (up to 80% of customers prefer to buy a product from a brand name they recognise) ✅ Positions the brand in the mind of the consumer, be it in the sound it makes when you say it, the images it evokes when you read it, or the memories it invokes when you see it ✅ Provides an opportunity to tell a story ✅ Become a verb, the ultimate goal ♻️ Repost to share this with your network ➕ Follow me, Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️ for more insights on brand, AI and entrepreneurship.

Think ChatGPT is the limit? Your AI journey is just getting started... At White Bear we've been building AI into how we do things for the past 18 months. We LOVE it. It has enabled us to: ✅ Express our ideas quicker ✅ Save on production costs ✅ Validate our strategies more effectively ✅ Visualise the art of the possible to our clients faster ✅ Shorten our project timelines to deliver for our clients What is hasn't stopped us doing: ❌ Creating Original Ideas ❌ Writing memorable stories ❌ Defining brand personalities ❌ Producing ownable content ❌ Designing distinctive assets Using AI isn't something we are avoiding. We're embracing it and learning everyday in order to create more ownable, memorable and scalable ideas. Here are some of the tools we use in the agency. To note: Midjourney is missing off this list and right now this is our most valuable tool in the agency. Image Credit: Ruben Hassid ♻️ Repost to share this with your network ➕ Follow me, Kelly Mackenzie 🐻❄️ for more insights on brand, AI and entrepreneurship.