13/04/18

Spinach branding director Leigh Banks on the Berkeley Group project

Branding

One of the latest clients for Spinach is leading property developers the Berkeley Group who approached the London creative agency to update their brand guidelines. We caught up with Spinach partner and director of branding Leigh Banks to find out more.

What was your brief set by the Berkeley Group?

The Berkeley Group originally approached Spinach to update their brand guidelines. There are six autonomous companies within the Group (St George, St James, Berkeley, St Edward, St William, and St Joseph), as well as having their own corporate communications requirements. As you can imagine, the brand guidelines were extensive. The sheer size and the density made it difficult for users to navigate, let alone use the existing brand guidelines, and keeping these up-to-date with regular developments and content changes was also proving a challenge.

How did you approach this project?

When we considered the Berkeley Group’s needs as well as their brand values, the concept of a physical set of printed guidelines seemed dated and not fitting the needs of one of the world’s leading property developers. Instead, we recommended to create an online brand hub for the company. A brand hub, in simple terms, is an online resource that gives employees, media agencies and business partners, access to core brand information, technical guidelines, as well as templates and assets.

The property and construction industries are highly competitive. What were the challenges with this project? 

The Berkeley Group are a professional organisation – they work in a manner that you would expect of most successful and well-managed corporate organisations. As with all projects, we configure the delivery team based on the profile of the project. In the case of the Berkeley Group, it was important to align our delivery strategy and approach to project management to mirror their expectations, whilst maintaining our sense of creativity. We achieved this by putting in place a  senior project director to ensure the momentum and direction of the project continued in accordance with the plan. This was all the senior creatives were involved in every stage.

Spinach has a rich portfolio in the property and construction sector, having previously worked alongside Knight Frank for a dynamic advertising campaign. What from that experience did you bring to the new brief?

While the project was in the same sector, the brief was unique, which played to our strengths. We often feel Spinach is at its strongest when we are looking for solutions to new challenges. Of course, it is nice to have gained experience of working with some of the largest companies in the property and construction sector, but it is important to note that Spinach has built its success and reputation of being true to the brand, not the industry or sector.

Read about the Berkeley Group project here and the advertising project we completed for Knight Frank here

Spinach Branding is a specialist branding agency based in London. We work with established businesses and start-ups around the world to build and refine their brands. See how we work and get in touch to discuss your brand.