Office of Fair Trading

Problems with unsatisfactory goods cost consumers an estimated £2 billion a year. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) wanted to improve knowledge of the Sale of Goods Act amongst businesses. Their goal was to see more complaints being resolved by businesses themselves in order to reduce the need for government intervention.

The OFT’s approach consisted of long guidance documents written in a dry and legal tone. They wanted a fresh approach. Our strategy team delivered a comprehensive engagement programme with businesses of all sizes—from corner shops to multinationals. We observed that these were busy people and getting them to devote time to improving their knowledge of the Sale of Goods Act was extremely challenging. They found the current materials hard to use because their staff all had different needs—till workers needed short summaries, legal directors wanted detailed information and human resources sought training materials. While the materials needed to be legally accurate, they also needed to be jargon-free and easy for a layperson to understand in order to be suitable for the audience.

Serious doesn’t have to mean boring
Our solution was to develop a website that could house a range of materials, each one designed to meet the needs of a different user—short summaries for till workers, quizzes for training and detailed guidance for lawyers. Working closely with the OFT’s legal team, our copywriters were able to turn their legal output into engaging materials. Observing that serious doesn’t have to mean boring, our design team took a dry subject and presented the content in a simple, friendly and fun manner. Working with a digital partner, we built a website to house the new content in one, easy-to-access location.

Independent research was commissioned to evaluate the project, which found that retailers had observed their staff becoming more confident and empowered in customer dealings and that less queries were being referred upwards from stores.

Following the success of the Sale of Goods Act hub, our approach has become a blueprint for regulatory guidance, and has been rolled out to a number of other areas of regulation.

"It’s a brilliant resource, brilliantly done. It’s filling a gap for businesses."

Retail business staff member

Brother

Brother has an illustrious history within technology hardware: the inventor of the fax machine and a pioneer in printing, but not as a software company. However, the market for technology was changing and Brother wanted to move more into software and services.

Software is sold very differently to hardware. Printers are sold through a long distribution channel, where the retailer at the end of the chain can drive sales for you. Software is increasingly sold online, direct to the end user. This meant many of Brother’s ingrained approaches to marketing would have to change.

One of their first software products was OmniJoin, which allows users to hold online meetings.

We worked with Brother to conduct research into the market. We audited customer research and engaged channel/retail partners. On the back of this we developed a full marketing strategy and plan for how they should approach selling this.

Join the enlightened

We developed the messaging and creative campaign needed to make the plan happen. This was born out of the insight that online meetings are still in their infancy, some people aren’t aware that the software exists, let alone what its capabilities are. Others are using the same software as they use to speak to their grannies. Our creative idea celebrated a new breed of innovators who had moved their meetings online and were experiencing incredible benefits for their home and work lives. We painted a picture of how the enlightened are working: progressive, nimble, productive and meeting online. We made people want to work and meet like this. And we invited others to join them.

Create the tools for action
We produced a campaign toolkit that summarised the marketing strategy and contained all the creative assets that partner agencies would need to deploy the campaign. Part brand guidelines; part campaign guidelines, it included messaging, boilerplate copy, advertising, imagery, design style and branding, ensuring a continuity of visual, verbal and strategic components across multiple disciplines.

“Squad are my go-to partner when I need an in-depth, 360 degree understanding of a challenge. They are a rare breed in their ability to strategically and commercially interrogate a brief, providing unique value early in the process.  Coupled with insightful creative solutions, they provide a combination of expertise that delivers long-term return on investment.”

Dave Peters – Development and Strategy Director, Brother UK