Situation
Brands don’t suddenly become brands because they have come into existence. They need cultivating, communicating and a considered approach to their position in the market. This is true of any brand, whether a long-running programme, a developing company or a brand new property.
Strategy
When looking to build a brand, Franklin Rae work to determine its key messages, tone, long-term objectives and current share of voice in the industry before determining a plan of activity. We will then look at the tools available to us to deliver on business objectives; whether that be a systematic program of news announcements, strategic seeding of comment opportunities or consumer press activity to raise awareness of the brand.
Result
Having had a long standing relationship with KEO Films, Franklin Rae was tasked with introducing KEO digital, the company’s new digital arm, to the new media and creative trades while maintaining the core messaging of the KEO brand. The work included securing news stories for KEO’s digital projects and introducing the digital team to journalists and offering KEO Digital for comment on the digital media industry, in order to position the division as experts in their field. Highlights included the launch and growth of Landshare.net and the LandshareiPhone app, as well as fishfight.net, the digital campaign for KEO Films’ The Big Fish Fight (Channel 4). Franklin Rae’s ongoing work has firmly established the company within broadcast trade press and wider target media.
Working closely with The Rastamouse Company, Franklin Rae managed the corporate and consumer campaign for children’s TV show Rastamouse from the outset of the project – raising the profile of the company in order to help secure funding and then working with the BBC to build the brand. Franklin Rae implemented a proactive and targeted media relations campaign to raise awareness and drive viewer ratings for the January TX of the CBeebies pre-school series. From managing the distribution of preview DVDs and securing a partnership with the Busy Bee Nursery chain to distribute Rastamouse activity pages to nationwide nurseries, Franklin Rae successfully established the Rastamouse brand in the media. There was particular buzz around the preschool series on many platforms including Twitter, where Rastamouse was the top trending item in its first week of broadcast. This led to opportunities to secure interviews with the producers and we achieved stand-out pieces in the Evening Standard, Metro, Daily Mail and an appearance on BBC Breakfast.
Pulse contracted Franklin Rae to raise the profile of the company, and its work, across all departments. The challenge was to build the overall profile of the brand across multiple media targets whilst simultaneously highlighting the expertise within different areas. Franklin Rae was able to do this by working closely the Pulse team to create media collateral that spoke to different verticals whilst maintaining the core messaging of the Pulse brand. This included news and large producer profiles in the broadcast and film press; work profiles and project news in advertising, marketing and new media titles; and case studies and interviews with directors in the creative press.
Franklin Rae has also raised the profile of MD Thomas Benski, overseeing his submission and selection as one of Broadcast Magazine’s Hot Shots for 2010. Franklin Rae has secured a variety of coverage in leading publications including Campaign, Variety, Broadcast and New Media Age; speaker opportunities at high profile industry events such as C21 Media’s Programming The Future conference and the IP and TV world forum; and arranged relationship-building meetings with key journalists from the likes of TBI and Televisual, firmly establishing Thomas Benski as a key industry player.