Seven West Media’s integrated media solutions division, RED, has a very exciting offering and an exceptional team of strategic-thinking professionals. However they realised they’d been focusing on client needs to the detriment of their own brand communications for too long, which had led to a disparate and somewhat mixed message in their communications collateral.

Ink worked with the directors of SWM and the team to develop a new brand communication strategy which distilled a complex communication – what RED is, what RED does, and how RED does it – into a succinct and compelling proposition.

Our mission was to make a positive difference in the communication between clients and RED, to enable increased sales through clearer understanding. This required both stakeholder and customer research involving group sessions and individual interviews.

Our process uncovered key insights from clients and determined what value base they might operate from, so that we could mirror that in RED’s communications. We helped RED become more relevant by applying similar values to their communications, and reducing clutter to speak in a clear and concise way. We then applied this across all communications for consistency, and promoted this positive form of communication across the board.

Generally most businesses achieve reach and frequency; they know where the client is and how to speak to them often, but they don’t quite know what to say to be absolutely relevant. Our process delivers relevance.

We reviewed RED’s approach to the market and explored new tactics. We retained what was working, discarded what doesn’t and added new elements to revitalise the brand.

The deliverables, including trade ads, presentation video and the like, are only the physical manifestation of a more important outcome of this process, which is a change in RED’s language to mirror the language used by clients and to better reflect RED’s actual offering and point of difference.

On every project of this nature we are always guided by our own set of branding principles.

Ink Project’s Brand Communication Principles (The 4 C’s)
Clear — Proposition
Concise — Said Simply
Consistent — Same Always
Constant — Say it over and over in as many touch points as possible 

As a result of the stakeholder and customer research, Ink created a new brand platform, proposition and tagline for RED. The work features a new logo and visual language.