Smarts have been leading creative communications consultants in Belfast for a quarter of a century. The 26-strong agency brings together the skills of PR, branding, CSR, design and digital. Working with consumer, corporate and not-for-profit brands - locally, nationally and internationally.

Ideally…

Smarts needed to revise and refresh their collateral to reflect more honestly who and what they were. Having begun the process internally, the directors at Smarts were brave enough to admit that, when it came to their own brand, they were too close to be objective, and too busy to pull people off client work.

Having worked together on client materials, Smarts were now looking to Ideal to help them capture in simple words ‘who we are’, ‘what we do’ and ‘how we can work with you’  – particularly for credentials presentations and the Smarts website.

Getting on with the job…

First, we acted as a sounding board, appraising and reviewing what Smarts were saying about their intended positioning. Then, we held up a mirror and fed back honestly, bearing in mind Smarts’ strategic direction and creative requirements. It’s one thing to define positioning and quite another to convert that into a creative communications approach. Finally, we emerged with positioning concepts to discuss with Smarts.

 A job well done…

Smarts just couldn’t wait to get moving with ‘bringing worlds together’, their new brand proposition we helped them articulate. They immediately briefed Ideal to get on and produce a simple set of top level pages for the agency’s website. The new design brings the new positioning to life and the words more accurately reflect who they are and where they are going.

Pippa Arlow, joint managing director of Smarts, says:

“Could we have done this work ourselves? Quite probably. But when? Life’s just too busy. But, you’ve got to keep your messaging up-to-date. Even more important, you need to be telling the world what you’re doing tomorrow as well. Mark and Debbie did just that. They captured our vision, our essence and our tone of voice. It just feels like us. Straight-talking, person to person, thinking it through.”

www.smartsireland.com/home

• Studio North: in association with...
• CLIC Sargent: uniting around a clear proposition
• Yell: a decade and more of CR excellence
• TNS: collaborating on collateral
• easyJet: a celebratory book for employees
• Forster: mutual understanding and experience
• SeeAbility: building a brand year by year