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Honey, we’re home!

Well, in our new office anyway. Yep. We know we’ve been talking about it for a while, but then we had a moment and realised we hadn’t actually told you all about it, bar the pros and cons of WFH.

So, to give you a little but more insight into it all, here’s everything you need to know including what our new office is like, how to find us and how to have a chat with our teams.

A sustainable space

At OnBrand we take our responsibilities seriously. Not only do we help our clients to shout about and form a strategy for their eco-efforts, we’ve kept this in mind when creating our new office. We’ve added desks made from old scaffold poles and planks for sustainability. Take a look at our wall and you’ll see it’s all reclaimed bricks sliced into wall tiles, while our light fittings are all steampunk recycled. Oh, and we’re also saving energy with our low emission energy efficient LED lighting. Just another day in our #sustainable office!

Track us down…

Want to pop in and have a nose around, or just have a chat about your marketing needs? We’re here Monday-Friday 9am – 5:30pm. We’re based in the heart of St Albans… yep, we love shopping centres so much that we’ve moved into one. You can find us at: 12-14 Victoria Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3JB. We’re right opposite the Slug and Lettuce pub. 😊

Give us a shout…

Being a company that works with brands to ensure their customers get the best telephone journey, we of course followed this through when it came to our phone systems. We’ve put in place direct dial numbers so you can skip the queues and menus and get hold of who you want, whenever you need to. If we’re not available, we’ll aim to get back to you within the hour during working times. To help you out that little bit more, here’s all the details…

So that’s all folks! We think we’ve covered off everything you need here 😊. We’re looking forward to seeing or speaking to you soon.

May day, May day, we’ve had a busy month! As if helping out clients didn’t take up the majority of our time – hey, we’re not complaining, we love what we do – we’ve been busy moving (offices) and grooving alongside stilt walkers at events… yep, it’s never a normal month when it comes to OnBrand, but we’d never change it – who wants to be boring!

Here’s some of our top May antics!

Purple Apples awards event

No, it’s not what the evil witch gave Snow White – although we wouldn’t mind being involved in story telling…hint, hint. This annual event celebrates UK shopping centre marketing successes and achievements, celebrating community driven initiatives that inspire and delight shoppers. Hosted by Britain’s Got Talent winners, Diversity, it was a great night. However, our social media manager was not impressed at not getting to give main man Ashley Banjo a hug… apart from that… we loved meeting new people (unfortunately not Ashley) and chatting to old.

Revo South Accessibility day

We an insightful day at the Revo Accessibility Day. This event was all about learning about accessibility in shopping centres and featured some great talks. We were intrigued when we were asked to take part in a Dementia workshop, which involved literally stepping into a sufferer’s shoes – we had to put spiked soles in ours – and feeling and hearing what these people do every day. It was a heart-wrenching, yet amazing experience. And, given that our Director, Daniel, had recently become a Revo South committee member, and helped organize this, we like to think that our events experience shone through when it came to this day.

In addition, we heard from We Are Purple Chief Executive, Mike Adams OBE on exciting updates to Purple Tuesday, happening in November… we’re watching this space already!

When event wishes come true

We stepped into a whole new world when we were asked to put on a half term event for The Brewery Shopping Centre. Making the most of The VUE cinema in the centre, we decided to celebrate the new Aladdin film and bring themed workshops to the community. And all our wishes came true, with happy kids, a great lantern making workshop, mask making and even a stilt walker, who literally stood out above the rest! It was an event of shining, shimmering splendor, even if we do say so ourselves 😊

The big office move!

Well, it finally happened. We moved into our brand-new office in the heart of Saint Albans. We wish you could have seen our faces at the initial reveal! While we learnt a lot about working from home, we’re glad to be settled in our new space. But this isn’t just any office, it’s a sustainable office… We’ve added desks made from old scaffold poles and planks. Take a look at our wall and you’ll see it’s all reclaimed bricks sliced into wall tiles, while our light fittings are all steampunk recycled. Oh, and we’re also saving energy with our low emission energy efficient LED lighting. In the area? Pop in and take a look for yourself.

Read all about it!

We like to think we know a thing or two about shopping centres and what makes them stand out. So, when we visited DestinationR back in April, we took our new and old learnings from some great speeches and turned them into an article for Retail Destination. We don’t want to give too much away, but we feel that our thoughts around community shopping centres and moving forward were quite innovative! Take a read and see for yourself.

Hear all about it!

We love talking about what we do, so when we were invited by Radio Verulam to talk about our new office space and marketing, we jumped at the chance. It was so lovely to be in the studio and we had lots of fun. We like to think we have great faces for radio 😉 Watch Daniel and Emma’s interview here…

After staring in awe at our new office, one of the questions was ‘where do we hang the dressing gowns’?

Nope, we don’t have a fancy spa downstairs – although a gym is coming shortly – we got so used to working from home while the office was kitted out, that our dressing gowns and PJs became our style BFFs…

That’s right, as anyone who is a home worker will tell you, getting dressed in the morning isn’t high on the priority list. And, as many businesses move towards cost savings in deliberately hiring home workers, there’s lots of pros and cons to this. Something we’ve learnt over the past few months of WFH. Here’s some of them.

1. You know EVERYTHING about Jeremy Kyle’s guests

In fact, you become obsessed with it… Because, if you must have noise around you while you work, that’s about all that’s on.

Oh wait, what’s this? Jeremy Kyle is no more! We’re sad to see it leave our screens but as we’re in the midst of Mental Health Awareness Week, and moving forward, we think it’s absolutely the right call by ITV. *Rushes off to check TV times for Escape to the Country and Homes Under the Hammer.

2. The postie’s scared of you

Working from home can be a lonely business and although your workmates are at the other end of Slack or the phone, nothing beats a face to face convo. So, when you spot that postie, you’re going to beg them to come in for a cuppa just so you can tell them all about the latest episode of Jezza or your nan’s illness… yep, if you were on the receiving side, you’d probably run too.

3. You get caught in your PJs

When you get an email from a colleague telling you they’ll give you a call, you assume it’ll be the audio kind. Not in our case. We’re all so Skype happy that when that call comes through, you find yourself on video in said PJs and wearing yesterday’s make-up… and it’s so much worse when it’s your boss on the other end. Now where’s that lip gloss?

4. Things take double the time

An office environment means that a simple question can be answered within seconds. When you’re WFH, it means an email has to be typed, received and then responded to. Now we’re back in the office, we’re so pleased to have the human connection back and an open plan space means those questions get shouted out and answered quick smart.

5. You become much better at connecting

Working from home means you’re going to need tools to talk to your colleagues. And we like to think during our office break, we’ve nailed them. We’ve become experts at Slack, Teamviewer and cloud-based phone systems, which means we’re always available. And let’s not forget all our clouded up files, so we can work anywhere – from home, in a shopping centre or our clients’ offices on an internal doc. And yes, we do get dressed for the latter visits!

So that’s pretty much our findings on WFH and although we loved it for a time, we have to be honest and say that we’re so pleased to be back in an office working creatively as a team. Especially when the office looks as awesome as ours #smugface. Want to pop in and see it? Drop us a line and come and hear what we can offer you in terms of social, audio, event planning and web design!

When it comes to being busy, this month has been as mad as a March Hare at OnBrand. And it’s fair to say, we’ve been in a great marketing wonderland – in fact, let’s take it even further and say, our activities here have had us and our clients grinning like Cheshire cats. Ok, that’s enough of the fairytale speak, let’s get real about what we we’re up to…

Here’s just some highlights for March

Competition crazy

March bought us a great range of competitions thanks to some great retailer liaisons – we think our marketing guy Sam deserves a big round of applause for that #justsaying. From Smyths Toys giving away vouchers, MOD Pizza offering free grub and some awesome Mother’s Day treats from Patisserie Valerie in the bag, we like to think of the six comps we launched, there was something for everyone.

Ready to mingle

Everyone in the office had been gearing up for the Destination R event in Birmingham happening at the beginning of April. And if we must say, our stand looked pretty great. We loved talking to potential clients, listening to some great speakers, and well, just generally soaking up the great atmosphere and knowledge. And no, there wasn’t any silly dancing from anyone at the end of the awards night…

New website

If comps and exhibitions weren’t enough, we were also pretty busy on our own little project… Drum roll please… The arrival of our new website. Just like the time and care we take to build our clients’ websites, we did the same with ours. It’s been a labour of love full of research and forming a new tone of voice, but we’re pretty pleased with the outcome. Check it out for yourselves…

And one more…

Did you know, we’re moving to St Albans? Yep, we love shopping centres so much, we decided to pitch up our brand new offices in the Maltings Shopping Centre – cool huh! And here’s a little sneak peek of how it’s going… We can’t wait to move in a couple of weeks’ time, although our social media manager will have to be very disciplined not to be out in the shops everyday.

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2019, we’ve looked back through history to find out more about the women who have influenced fashion over the years.

Ironically, those early influencers made their mark by adopting more of a masculine look than a feminine one and therefore became the first to adopt a range of styles and outfits, giving women the chance to live a more balanced lifestyle, unhindered by the corsets and bustles that came before.

Coco Chanel

Credited with being the person to ‘set a woman’s body free’, Coco Chanel redefined the silhouette by adopting androgynous styles, turning her back firmly on the restrictive corset, and stepping out in flat shoes.

Daughter to a laundrywoman and market stall holder, she started out as a hat designer but eventually established herself as one of the greatest fashion designers the world has ever seen.

It wasn’t just her clothing that broke trends; she was also a fan of tanned skin and short haircuts, something that, back in her day, was frowned upon by the upper echelons of society.

Of course, Chanel’s Breton tops, crewneck jumpers, trousers suits and flat shoes now form the backbone of women’s fashion, proving her incredible foresight and talent for creating a sustainable style choice for women.

Mary Quant

Quant burst onto the fashion scene in the 1950s with the launch of fashion that was fun, and an attitude to match. She is quoted as saying “Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today.”

And, boy did she breathe some life into ladies wardrobes. Credited for creating the mini skirt and hot pants, Quant was one of the most influential fashion designers of the day and shaped the image of the Swinging Sixties. She encouraged the younger generations to dress for themselves, in a way that made them happy and suited their lifestyle.

Her life story so far is littered with awards and recognition. She quickly broke into the American and Japanese markets, also diversifying into home décor and textiles as well as the cosmetics for which she is still known today.

Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland was a force to be reckoned with in the world of fashion. She was responsible for launching many iconic careers and establishing trends which have stood the test of time but it was her incredible resolve and strength of character which made her stand out from the rest.

On success, she is quoted as saying “I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.”

One of her most visible roles was as columnist and editor for Harper’s Bazaar from 1937 to 1962 and for Vogue from 1963 to 1971. Her perspectives on the world of fashion have been described as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘incontrovertible’. Her own personal style was recognised when she was named on the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964.

Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein was a Polish-American business woman who emigrated to Australia, without the ability to speak any English, and then founded one of the world’s first cosmetic companies after mixing lanolin and scented flowers. As a result she became one of the world’s richest women. Despite only measuring 4ft 10 inches in height, she was a formidable business woman. Another contradictory element of her personality was her propensity for crude quips at dinner parties, compared with incredible media and publicity savvy which was credited for turning her into a self-made millionaire.

During her career, she experienced huge rivalry with Elizabeth Arden, and is quoted as saying “With her packaging and my product, we could have ruled the world.”

George Sand

This 19^th Century French novelist and essayist, born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, shocked high society’s circles by wearing men’s clothes and smoking in public. Her work was widely credited with spreading feminist consciousness at the time as she covered topics associated with women’s limited choices in love and marriage.

Her lifestyle was unconventional to say the least as, despite being married with children, she took a string of lovers. Despite being a controversial figure, her work was immensely popular and, perhaps surprisingly, she was highly respected by the literary and cultural elite in France.

Hollywood Glamour

Perhaps they would today be known as ‘influencers’, but back in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, Hollywood and the rise in popularity of televisions started to have a huge impact on fashion and style.

Following a period of economic depression, styles changed dramatically and the likes of Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn came to the forefront of a new, rebellious style. Dietrich is famous for saying “I dress for myself. Not for the image, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.” She’s known for being the first woman in history to be photographed wearing a full tuxedo, which brings us on to perhaps the most famous and influential actress of this period, Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn played a string of strong-willed women and won more Oscars than any other actress. Her masculine style choices are now her trademark. She’s credited with making women’s trousers acceptable in a time where this fashion choice was considered highly taboo.

Again, we see the link between successful or memorable clothing choices and masculine style. Many of these famous faces chose shorter haircuts too. The ‘bob’ was born, with actresses like Colleen Moore being credited as one of the greatest beauty influencers of all time for sporting this new, controversial hairstyle.

Anne Klein

We couldn’t put this blog together without mentioning Klein, who championed authentic style and empowered the way women dressed. She changed the face of American fashion and is still influential and celebrated, 50 years later. Her prioritisation of the person inside the clothes is evident in her quote “Clothes won’t change the world. The women who wear them will.”

Madonna

The ultimate pop diva of fashion, Madonna quickly evolved into one of the most influential fashion gurus in the music industry. Concerts wouldn’t be as extravagant as they are today without her on-stage fashion choices that changed the way people viewed artists. Another feisty and strong character, she wasn’t afraid to challenge boundaries and frequently reinvented her image.

The Supermodels of the ‘80s and ‘90s

Last, but by no means least, the concept of the Supermodel. A term coined in the 1980’s, Supermodels were deemed to be those with a worldwide reputation and pay packet to match.

Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista: all household names to the generations that grew up with them. These were the grandmothers – if we can use such a word – of celebrity. Their profiles enabled them to do whatever they wanted: from opening restaurants, to appearing in music videos and mounting (sometimes controversial) campaigns.

Ultimately, the supermodels of the ‘80s and ‘90s marked a turning point in the way women in fashion were viewed. No longer simply ‘clothes horses’, these catwalk stars had opinions and they weren’t afraid to share them. The difference with these decades was in the size of the deal the models were able to negotiate plus the emergence of ‘exclusivity’, where fashion houses or cosmetic brands would claim a face as their own brand persona. It’s not surprising that this level of fame and fortune empowered these women to take charge of their careers and change the face of modelling.

To find out how we champion fashion and what we can do for you in terms of engagement to your brands, give us a call on 03333 220022.

With balmy weather and last month’s activity, we felt it was summer, not the end of Feb! And like the busy bees that are ready to start flying, we were busy buzzing around in Feb. It was a month of planning events for key dates, new and existing client visits and of course making sure we upheld corporate responsibility where we could. We’ve done so much, it’s been hard to narrow down our top five Feb moments but, we managed.

Here they are…

1. Making sweet music for Valentine’s Day

We like to think we can tune into what makes customers tick. So, when we were approached by Ashford Designer Centre to pull on the heart strings of their customers, we thought out of the box. We provided them with a cool musician who had worked with big names in the industry. The result? Happy diners and visitors to the centre on Valentines… want to read more? It’s all right here…

2. Painting the town…purple

Ok so not quite, but we are proud to announce that we’ve just been given the opportunity to shout about the fact that we are supporting the Purple Initiative. This scheme aims to help disabled people have exactly the same experiences as those who are able bodied whether it’s going shopping or for a meal out. As an agency who is all about the customer journey, we will use our knowledge in the retail and online space to help make this a reality. Find out more here.

3. R Kelly doesn’t fly and Michael Jackson is ‘Bad’

We always make sure our clients’ music and branding are as great as can be. And, at OnBrand we also believe in the right thing to do and take it upon ourselves to have a strong moral code in both our teams and our work. Over the past few weeks there have been certain allegations against some well-known artists. In line with our promise to uphold corporate social responsibility, and to ensure customers continued to shop without the risk of feeling offended, we removed R Kelly from centre playlists given the recent allegations. In light of a recent documentary we also took the same step with Michael Jackson.

4. Chiming in the Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a big deal. So, when the Lower Precinct in Coventry asked us to help them create a buzz around their new year events, we couldn’t have been happier. We decided to do this by profiling and playing a bespoke music playlist of Chinese themed world music, that was both inviting and evoked a calming atmosphere for shoppers. And the result was, well, music to everyone’s ears. Find out more about what the clients had to say here.

5. Chugging away with recordings

This month our producing team hit the studio to create some cool voice messaging for a large train network. The results? Well they were great, but you’ll have to wait and listen out for them when this large fleet of high-tech trains are on the rails… the timetable says that this will be very soon. Find out more about our audio services here.