News
Building a great campaign for Taylor Wimpey
13th May '13
When the Government announced the new Help to Buy scheme in the recent budget, Taylor Wimpey turned to us to quickly help them with a new campaign that could be rolled out across all of their UK businesses. The campaign explains how the Help to Buy scheme can assist buyers in purchasing a new home.
As this was such a high-profile scheme, time and clarity were of the essence. We produced a visually powerful campaign which has subsequently been rolled out across press advertising, direct mail, online property portal advertising, email marketing, signage, POS, and the Taylor Wimpey website.
RKH celebrates Shakespeare's birthday at London's Victoria and Albert Museum
3rd May '13
Over the last few months our web team has been beavering away on the Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) project. Last Tuesday, the day we’ve been eagerly awaiting finally came and, to mark Shakespeare’s 449th birthday, we were invited to London to launch the project and unleash our work onto the public!
Web director, Paul Sculthorpe, and web developer Kyle Bayliss, headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum to launch our specially crafted ShaLT website and intuitive mobile app to a packed auditorium. The pair presented a video interview and demonstration, before hosting a question and answer session with academics and enthusiasts. Our work was very well received and we’re extremely proud of the reaction.
The ShaLT project aims to increase public awareness of Shakespearean theatres and other significant theatrical locations. As a part of the project we have created a fantastic interactive website and mobile phone app that allow users to retrace the steps of one of history’s greatest playwrights. Mapping important sites and providing directions, photographs and historical information, the app and website help users to navigate the streets of London, unearthing the hidden gems of Shakespeare’s world along the way.
We were hugely proud to be involved as not many companies get the opportunity to present their work in such a prestigious arena as the V&A!
It truly was a great day, made all the better by the fantastic feedback received from those that attended.
The project was a resounding hit with the audience at the V&A but don’t just take our word for it, visit the website at shalt.org.uk or download the app free from the App Store to find out for yourself.
Ikano selects RKH for creative campaign
30th April '13
We’re very proud to be working with Ikano following a competitive pitch. Part of the Ikea group, Ikano provides finance and retail solutions for many high street companies including DFS, Harveys, Oasis and Karen Millen. We will be working with Ikano to help increase brand awareness in the UK and our brief encompasses creative, design, direct mail, email marketing and much more. We’re very excited to be working with a company of such pedigree and such a great brand.
Hercules is revived in style
23rd April '13
We’re hugely proud to have helped our client revive an unloved 17th century Inn into Hercules Revived, one of the most talked about places to eat and drink in the county.
The hand painted sign on the side of the building says it all ‘An English Country Coaching Inn for Eating & Drinking’ and that’s what it is, a place to relax and enjoy English hospitality at it’s best.
We created an entire identity kit to allow for flexible and consistent branding, from logo and signs to menus, mailers, ads and websites. The tone is relaxed and informal, the colour palette muted and friendly, It’s all about honesty and integrity.
We also created the Innkeeper, the rarely seen spokesperson for the Inn, spreading the word through his social channels and ensuring the food and wines are perfectly kept for his customers. He enhances the identity to give it depth, heritage and a twist of humour.
Imagine what the perfect English Country Inn should be, we think Hercules Revived is pretty much it.
Getting to grips with the patient experience
20th December '12
We were recently tasked with creating a short film to show Leicestershire NHS staff just how valuable their day-to-day work is.
The film was commissioned by the NHS Leicestershire Partnership Trust, as part of its commitment to the Department of Health’s Patient Experience Framework, and will be used in staff training programmes. We worked with the trust to develop the storyboard and plan the shot list, before filming, directing and editing the final video.
Highlighting the importance of positive patient experiences, the video stars a variety of NHS employees from across the county and uses the tagline ‘I am the patient experience’ to encourage employees to take ownership of their role in a patient’s view of the care they receive.
Feedback so far has been fantastic and both the patients and staff we filmed were brilliant – overall it was a great project to work on.
A rather special letter from the Home Office has put us on the map - again
12th December '12
It’s always nice to get some positive feedback and our latest commendation has made us particularly proud. In an official letter, the Home Office praised us for offering innovation and value for money.
In 2009 we developed the Police.uk website, which quickly became the most popular government site. Since then, we’ve continued to improve and update the website, and our most recent work has been singled out for praise from the Permanent Secretary, Helen Kilpatrick.
In this year alone, we’ve saved the taxpayer over £200,000 and have enhanced the website to inform the public of Police action and justice outcomes. The work we’ve carried out has exceeded Home Office expectations, going beyond contractual obligations and adding real value.
This is something we aim to achieve for all our clients but it’s particularly rewarding to have our hard work recognised by the Home Office.
Be Honest, Be You & Say Thanks
17th October '12
Be Honest, Be You & Say Thanks
We recently made a tasty new website for Has Bean which has been a big hit with his coffee lovers. We think that the way they do business online is a fantastic example of getting it right and others could draw inspiration from them…
Steve, the caffeine lover and addict behind the Has Bean brand that has filled coffee cups all over the world began his business with a lot of passion, a single roaster and a laptop…
Now he’s the leader of this globally renowned brand, a big part of his success has come down to being damned good with his customers and amplifying this through social media.
Therefore he was the obvious choice to ask for some ‘quick tips’ to share with a group of budding entrepreneurs at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy in Milton Keynes for my talk on social media.
Here’s his 3 most important tips and my thoughts on why marketers should listen to them:
<a href="https://twitter.com/jazybp">jazybp</a> be honest, and be you. Fake social media soon gets seen through. Oh and always say thank you when people are nice, thats all I have</p>— hasbean (hasbean) October 10, 2012
1: Be Honest
You really do need to be honest on social media. Don’t try to trick people or hide when you’ve messed up, you need to do the opposite, put your hands up, say ‘it was me and then give an authentic apology.
But hopefully you won’t mess up too much! Being honest doesn’t mean giving away your secret recipe, but it does mean taking the opportunity to open up, show how your business works and show off the people behind it.
Steve does this when he travels all over the world to not only find the best coffee, but to actually get to know the growers. Because he documents his journeys, Has Bean customers get to see where the coffee they put in their cup comes from!
Just think of all the products you’ve consumed this week, out of all of them, how many could you trace back to their origins?
2: Be You
One quote I’ll always remember: “I could stand here and tell you that I’m a 6ft bodybuilder, but it doesn’t make it so!” – Philippa Snare, the CMO of Microsoft UK.
Basically you need to be the real you! If you pretend to be something that you’re not, your followers & fans will soon catch on and see straight through it. Not only is this plain irritating but it also wears down the trust that they have (or had) for your brand.
3: Say Thanks
Why? Because it’s good manners and the best way to repay your ‘social influencers’ who are spreading positive messages about your brand. If anyone says something good about your brand, you need to make them feel loved and let them know you’ve listened.
But you don’t need to go overboard, a simple thanks, retweet, like or mention will be enough. Basically they’ve given you social currency so you need to repay them with social currency. If you’re scratching your head after reading that phrase, Christopher Penn has a great blog post explaining what social currency is.
Thanks for reading!
I hope you found these really simple and quick ‘rules’ you can follow useful. It would be good to hear your thoughts on how to represent a brand on social media. Tweet to @rkhleicester
What does this globally renowned coffee roaster have to say about RKH?
10th October '12
Well, he’d be the first to admit we’ve built him a shiny new and pretty cool global coffee merchant website…
What does Has Bean have to say about RKH? from Rock Kitchen Harris on Vimeo.
He’d also say how easy the RKH team were to work with, the exceptionally stylish updated logo and site design, quality of strategy and project planning, but most of all he’d tell you how beautifully built the site is.
On our part, we’d have to agree, we’re hugely excited by the launch of hasbean.co.uk It’s a globally renowned coffee website we’ve lovingly handcrafted, and it tastes good.
Don’t just take our word for it though, watch the film above and find out exactly what Steve Leighton had to say about us! It seems we’ve made his customers happy too, we’ve been checking the Tweet feeds and this is what they’re saying:
Visit the Has Bean Coffee website >
Intelligent Energy's star just keeps on growing.
20th September '12
For the duration of the Olympic Games a fleet of five of their fuel cell electric, zero emission taxis has been transporting VIPs around London.
The aim was to demonstrate what could be achieved if zero emission hydrogen fuel cell technologies powered the entire London taxi fleet. By replacing all 23,000 taxis with zero emission alternatives we could reduce annual CO2 emissions and dramatically reduce particulate emissions by 25 percent.
We worked with Intelligent Energy to produce the Cleaner air for London branding and the livery for all the taxis. In the period they were driving around our work was seen by some very famous faces, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Barbara Windsor.
How to win friends and influence people
13th September '12
On opening the Leicester Mercury’s guide to The Most Influential People in Leicestershire earlier this week, we were very pleased to spot the smiling face of Rock Kitchen Harris director John Harris.
John joins a number of famous figures on the list including Sir David Attenborough and Lord Digby Jones, as well as politicians, sportspeople, entertainers and prominent business people from around the county.
Having co-founded the agency 30 years ago, John made the cut as an experienced marketer and businessman who has helped to lead RKH to continued success. Our portfolio of high-profile clients and innovative, thought-provoking work also impressed the Mercury including the CrimeMapper application, which was developed by the RKH web team.
John commented: “I’m thrilled to be considered one of the most influential people in Leicestershire. It’s a great honour, but really it reflects the talent and creativity of our team. They’ve completed some fantastic projects and continue to impress with their imagination and attention to detail.“
It was also great to see two representatives from Leicester brewery and client Everards on the annual list.
Respecting the Type
27th June '12
We’d like to thank one of our clients: Leicester Print Workshop for a wonderful Saturday. They hosted a day of Letterpress love in the gorgeous surroundings of Leicester’s Guildhall, and a few of us couldn’t resist immersing ourselves in lead, ink and paper.
We’re used to the speed and efficiency of Macs to create unique and engaging typography for our clients, but nothing quite beats the sense of pride when you set up your first paragraph using individual lead characters and use time honoured printing skills to create a single, beautiful page.
We left with an even greater respect for type, and think we’ll be searching eBay for a small Letterpress to go in the office very soon.
Thanks Leicester Print Workshop
Where there's Hope, there's RKH
7th June '12
We’ve worked with Hope Against Cancer since 2004 to help them raise awareness of, and money for, cancer research in Leicestershire and Rutland. The recent opening of the Hope Against Cancer Clinical Trials Unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary offers people suffering with cancer the opportunity to take part in clinical trials for the development of new drugs.
Our job was to establish a presence for Hope in the unit in a way that was discrete but informative. Posters detailing the stories of local people involved with the charity appear with clear signage to create a unique, but most importantly friendly and comfortable environment.
The unit was opened by Martin Johnson CBE and attended by the media, supporters of Hope and hospital staff. Of course, we were there to see the fruits of our work too.
A brand new look for W F Howes
25th May '12
Recently tasked to refresh the reception area at WF Howes; a leader in audio and large print books, we got all hot under the collar and went to work.
Taking inspiration from the elegance of the printed word, we created a series of welcoming and informative panels. These are complimented by simple bespoke floating shelves that display an ever changing range of products and signed, framed photographs of their authors and readers.
We came up with the line ‘Lovingly read, recorded & produced in Rearsby, London, Sydney & New York’ to capture the passion and dedication our client has to producing exceptional quality audio and large print books.
Their new reception is a refreshingly simple and refined space in which to admire their products and dedication, and we’re proud to have been able to help them create it.
