Bulldog’s remit was to help create a new brand positioning, architecture and communication messages that would allow E. Calleja & Sons to redefine themselves as a more contemporary, unified brand.

The project began with research to identify key customer groups and the most powerful benefit for Calleja to own. Following workshops with top management, we gained a consensus on key elements of  a new brand design, including: target customers, essence, promise, personality and a new graphic identity. These were documented in a publication designed to help people both inside and outside the company understand the intent, spirit and expression of the new brand.

They were also used to drive the company’s marketing effort, products, services and human resources – ensuring consistency at every point of contact made with consumers.

This initiative represents more than just an exercise in aesthetics, it is an evolution of Calleja’s relationship with their customers. Over the years, those who chose them as their preferred electrical supplier did so, more because of interest in a given product rather than the brand.

Calleja hopes to correct this shortcoming over the next 2 years through a multi-faceted, solutions-oriented approach, that makes: dedication, innovation and personal responsibility in their relationships as important as the products they sell.

The combination of a complete branding system that encompasses Calleja’s corporate identity and how this is expressed in its many applications, represents a radical change to the legacy of the old brand. Intial marketing messages will seek to reassure loyal customers that they remain committed to the values that have contributed to an 85 year success story.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wary of the risk of confusing existing customers with the brand transfer, for the next year, all major communications will carry a strapline advising that Calleja was formerly known as E. Calleja & Sons.

The rebirth of  Calleja’s retail showroom embodies the new brand promise in every aspect – from the ‘look and feel’ to the way customers move through the space. Bulldog created environmental graphics that compliment the great work done by Italian firm: Ideainterni, who were responsible for designing, engineering and implementing the striking interiors.

Circuit diagram influenced graphics provide a seemingly endless source of inspiration for collateral and point of sale material.

Armed with a new sense of purpose brought about by the rebranding exercise, Calleja are looking forward to the challenge of protecting and extending their legacy for many years to come.

www.calleja.com.mt

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When a friend asked me to create something for his blog that demonstrates how I feel about Christmas, my answer was “Are you sure about this?”

Here’s the result (yes, I do know I’m a miserable git).

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS

I really hate Christmas.

I hate the cloying, fake cheeriness. The perfunctory, self-cancelling gift exchanges on Christmas morning. Dubious, uncharitable ‘forced giving’ and the utter absurdity of peace on earth.

I hate en-mass turkey fisting, over priced Christmas hampers and hideous, hand knitted pullovers from distant aunties. I hate those frigging 10 disk Christmas compilation CD’s. I hate the words ‘Batteries not included’, blow-up Santas and rotting pine trees with tacky, epilepsy-inducing coloured luminaires.

I hate inter-galactic reindeers, sparkly xmas underpants and raucous, hyperventilating ankle-biters, unwrapping their gifts.

And is there anything that screams ‘Fuck you’ better than a box set of 50 identical Christmas cards? I don’t think so!

How many times can you hear ‘Last Xmas’ by ‘George bloody Michael’ in department stores before you want to asphyxiate random shoppers with bits of tinsel?

I hate compulsory cheeriness and masochistic family get-togethers. I hate fake snow. Tinsel. Christmas crackers and Advent calendars.

I hate misletoe, office staff parties and misty-eyed nostalgia for the past but most of all, I hate guys like me – that hate Christmas, who in their tiresome sameness are about as predictable and perennial as the customs they claim to loath.

So Merry Christmas? Not bloody likely.

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We’ll be using this visual pun for a number of applications – as cover imagery for a compendium of our work, print advertising, T-shirts and posters – all to mark our 20th anniversary on February 10th, 2010.

The starting place for this was a concise thank you message from a happy client: “Another brilliant solution – thank you”. The crossword puzzle graphic just seemed to manifest itself. Finding branding related terms to fit in the spaces was rather more challenging.

We’ll post pictures of this applied – soon.

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Placing all your eggs in the social media basket at this point in time, makes no sense at all. In my opinion, social media still lags well behind both word of mouth and TV, in terms of marketing effectiveness. While I’d advocate managing online and social media profiles – if for nothing else, to counter negative publicity; brand building, differentiation and sales will be better served by a wider spectrum of media options.

The savvy marketeer will do well to consider these options on a case by case basis and think of social media as another powerful weapon in their arsenal, rather than as a replacement for their armoury.

Anyway, about this print ad…

It’s set to appear in the ‘Country Profiler E-gaming Magazine’ and targets merchants looking for a payment solutions provider. Our remit was to use our persuasive skills to communicate the potential pitfalls of credit card data-breach in a non-technical manner, while promoting Transactium as a preventative measure to counteract this potentially catastrophic threat.

Rather than overload the audience with technical information, we chose to educate with an attention grabbing headline, subtle, ‘banknote’ inspired graphics and the brutal reduction of a complex solution into a form that can be easily digested.

The copy reads:

The expectations of our payment processing customers can be summed up in three short words: save our butts!

Not exactly a technical remit, is it? However, when you consider that the cost of a credit card data breach can be catastrophic, it pretty accurately sums up one of the critical functions we perform on a daily basis.

Nestled discretely beneath the substructures of your operation, Transactium can shield payment processing with a high security posture that achieves PCI compliance and meets the indomitable industry standards imposed by Visa and Mastercard.

For further information about our full range of integrated payment and fraud management solutions, call: (+356) 2333 3000 or email us at: info@transactium.com

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The island has been taken to the European Court of Justice for allowing the spring hunting of Turtle Dove and Quail since it joined the EU in 2004 but the authorities have still failed to convince local hunters to honour international bird protection laws. From a political standpoint, this issue is a nightmare as hunting association memberships are sizeable enough to wield significant influence through their collective voting power.

Our pro bono work for Birdlife Malta was designed to stimulate social conscience about this issue, allow people to demonstrate support and help raise vital funding. While  payment for this work won’t show up in our bank account, this does not mean we did not get paid – the pride and satisfaction gained from helping such a worthy cause is the kind of reward money just can’t buy.

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As the blog is brand-spanking-new, we have uploaded some past work but this space will eventually serve as a shopwindow for the latest Bulldog projects and probably, depending on your point of view, will elicit one of the following reactions from you:

Cautious Questions - you are acutely aware that the pile of pixels in front of you could be 24 carat gold or grade A poo – you’re just not sure which.

Unbridled Kudos - you identify with the core truth in our idea so much, that you comment on it with ferver and turn up on our doorstep dangling a large bag of money.

Damning Criticisms - with medical precision, you will wield our comments form to expose flaws in our work, so sentencing our egos to an unceremonious funeral.

Questions, kudos or criticisms, we’d love to hear from you.

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Our solution was to create an image immediately associated with hairdressing; that is also visual shorthand for Cheri’s nationality.

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Bulldog’s remit was to help the brand provide assurance of energy saving benefits, empower consumers to make technical comparisons with traditional incandescent bulbs and to promote correct waste handling for all Foxglo products.

Since many European countries have announced intentions to make Eco-friendly bulbs compulsory, campaigners have been calling for warnings and disposal advice to be printed on bulb packaging. Many of the leading European brands in the category have failed to do this, despite the risks posed by a product that requires special waste handling and increasing media pressure to do so.

Bulldog developed a name and visual identity that suggest the primary brand benefit with a view to penetrating the market quickly. The packaging solution, using bio-degradable inks and 100% recycled stock, attracts, directs and educates consumers – enabling informed purchasing decisions that will contribute to their well-being, as well as that of the environment.

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In 2006, Europlay was awarded Class A and C licenses allowing it to operate a fully integrated gambling system. Bulldog was hired to develop a strategic brand platform that would align with the company’s business strategy, ensure differentiation in a highly competitive market and inspire investors to recognise the potential value of Europlay’s offering by becoming stakeholders.

Our first objective was to define what makes Europlay special and different in the competitive context of the igaming industry. We found that a key issue which prevents more people from participating in gambling as a pastime is that it is still seen as an activity that is a socially unacceptable. Much of this is down to the well publicised consequences of problem gambling.

Paradoxically, a common thread amongst a diverse demographic of people that strenuously claimed NOT to gamble is that many of them, regularly purchased lottery tickets or scratch cards. Inspired by this insight we crafted a new brand aimed at people who like to play money games but who don’t consider themselves gamblers.

If this does not sound very original, given the gaming industry’s current obsession with appearing socially responsible, consider this; all major gaming websites, under the guise of social responsibility, allow players to set their own limit in respect of how much they can lose. Isn’t that like asking an alcoholic to decide when he/she has had enough?

We saw this as a case of reach outstripping grasp and with low stakes, high involvement games, strict measures to ensure responsible participation and game themes that reflect emerging consumer attitudes to everyday life situations affected by politics, fashion, popular culture etc – the Mowjow brand was born.

In order to explain Mowjow’s intent, spirit and expression to potential investors, the brand kernel was outlined in a brand manual that included: audience insight, industry niche, competitors, vision, business objectives and key offerings. The manual also contained a comprehensive identity – defining key messages, symbolic expressions, architecture and standards to ensure consistent application.

Bulldog also designed Mowjow’s first mobile phone game: “Seduction Lottery”. This is a downloadable Java application that works on the majority of current mobile phones. Built around a dating theme, Seduction Lottery adds role play, escapism and greater involvement to the traditional lottery game experience. This is important because experiencing a lottery game on a mobile phone is not the same as physically participating. The main difference being, the length of time between the stake and the outcome. On a mobile phone, this is instant, making a more involved user experience imperative – especially when the player loses (even though the stake is very low). Seduction Lottery rewards players with a simple but highly enjoyable experience whether they win or lose.

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That said, not everyone will like Seduction Lottery. The game is designed to appeal to an 18 – 25 age group and reflects a world which this age group will recognise as what is around them. This is not to say that all 18-25 year olds should be stereotyped as belonging to a homogeneous “sex obsessed” subculture. What it does say is that there are attitudes and feelings which this age group are likely recognise, and these have been used to develop a fun, game theme that celebrates both commonalities and differences.

In any case, the technical architecture behind the game was designed in such a way as to allow the skinning of new themes on to the existing back end. This allows the creation of multiple games that target very different groups of people with relatively low development costs.

In order to inspire, inform and ultimately move potential investors to become stakeholders in the project, we also developed a short brand film about Mowjow and the Seduction Lottery game. You can see a short clip below.

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