BXP - May 2018 - 33
YOU SEE A SMALL BUT GROWING NUMBER OF NATIONAL BRANDS TREATING THEIR PACKAGING AS TRUE BILLBOARD AD SPACE WE'VE DEVELOPED A PARTICULARLY UNIQUE SKILL SET AND DEEP EXPERIENCE WITH CLUB STORES practices that are essential to consumer engagement. Below are to such examples that address the physical realities of the club store environment: poor lighting, large pallet displays and oversized aisles. Packaging as advertising - Unlike most retail channels, club stores generally do not allow for POP communication other than packaging. However, the pallets themselves provide large visual areas to tell your story, and sell your product. The most cutting edge trend in club is to use these areas as advertising and communication touchpoints, with one very unique selling proposition, and you see a small but growing number of national brands treating their packaging as true billboard ad space. Bacardi and Virgin Atlantic offered their customers at the upper class lounge the experience of having a drink at the world's best bars. All they had to do was slip on a VR headset and choose a destination and that particular bar's best cocktail. The bar may be Virtual but the cocktail is real. How are you making this knowledge work on behalf of your agency? We recognized that it wasn't enough to just be another design agency. We're a fairly small group, but we serve some of the biggest brands. In fact, on our new website, you'll see these words on the home page...'We're a small agency doing big things.' We work with brands like Campbell's, Hatfield Quality Meats, Pier 1, PepsiCo and Hershey's. But to transform ourselves into a true partner, we've honed our skills as a thought leader. Whether it's design or sharing industry trends, ideas and a deep understanding of the marketplace are the source of our passion. Can you elaborate on that? Yes, we recently launched a new blog called Branding Times. It is the centerpiece of our new website and is designed to give brand owners the intel they need to compete. With this effort, we are trying to have a voice in the industry and shape the conversation ... how we view the future of marketing, creative services and branding, the newest technologies and e-books we're developing. We created the blog specifically to appeal to managers in the consumer packaged goods industry; this could be C-suite, design, branding or technology professionals, and we've committed time and talent to make sure that everything we publish is current and relevant. What do you see for Works Design Group going forward? Our goal is to be at the intersection of change. We want to ensure that our clients' brands are fluent in the languages spoken across today's evolving channels. Pallets shoppable from all sides - Product placement is always uncertain in a club store, so it's important to reinforce the design elements on all sides of the pallet. Different club stores merchandize with different sides of the pallet, so versatility and communication on all sides of the pallet are key (including the top). What are some of the other hot trends you're seeing? We recently wrote an e-book titled Virtual & Augmented Reality: What CPG firms and Retailers need to know. These technologies have the potential to make a huge - perhaps transformative - societal impact. And of course they can become a real asset in the retail environment. A broad spectrum of brands have already experimented with these tools, and we surveyed the market and reported on our findings. VR and to some degree AR enable a type of storytelling that is three-dimensional. Here are a couple of examples: Toms Shoes is revered for its charitable work; providing millions of children with shoes the world over. The original offer was, for every pair of shoes a customer buys, a child in need gets a free pair. Toms paired up with AT&T to bring this story to life through VR. Now consumers can meet a child who had benefited from the program. Visit Works Design Group's new portfolio site: Works new blog and free VR eBook download: WORKSDESIGNGROUP.COM BRANDINGTIMES.COM