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Friday, 12 Oct 2007
CLIMATE CHANGE MUST FEATURE IN TRADING STATEMENTS

The latest research indicates a worryingly high rate of public scepticism over corporate 'greenwash', so what are companies and communicators to do? See our Chairman, Chris North's, views on the fundamentals of CR reporting in Sarah Murray's article on the subject in the Financial Times (12 October 2007).

Friday, 07 Sept 2007
JAN KEWLEY IN NEW BRAND ENGAGEMENT ROLE

Fishburn Hedges today announced Jan Kewley will join as a Director to head up the company’s brand engagement offer as part of its growing internal communication practice.

Jan has been a Director at branding and design consultancy Landor Associates since 2004 as their brand engagement head. She has worked in both strategic planning and implementation roles for organisations including Citigroup, T-Mobile and BDO International. Prior to her role at Landor, Jan acted as a brand consultant for a number of leading agencies working on a wide range of engagement projects.

Simon Matthews, chief executive at Fishburn Hedges, said: “We have seen increasing demand for advice that embraces the brand, employee understanding of that brand and how this affects corporate reputation; we expect this to continue. Jan’s wealth of experience and expertise will add considerably to our capabilities. Not only will she be a valuable addition to our internal communication offer, but she’ll be working hand in hand with our brand consultancy business, FHD.”

Jan Kewley commented: “Companies are beginning to realise that engaging their employees with the company’s brand is a strategic issue which cannot be left as an afterthought to an external programme or logo launch. It is incredibly exciting for me to be able to work with a consultancy like Fishburn Hedges, helping their clients to tap into the power of their brands.”

The result will be announced at this year's awards dinner on Monday 2 July. Well done to all those who worked on the project.

Tuesday, 15 May 2007
FHD SHORTLISTED FOR
'MOST EFFECTIVE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS' AWARD

Yesterday, Fishburn Hedges and FHD were advised by HR Magazine that our internal brand and communications work for Allen & Overy's recent move to Bishops Square has been shortlisted in the 'most effective internal communications' category at this year's HR Excellence Awards.

The result will be announced at this year's awards dinner on Monday 2 July. Well done to all those who worked on the project.

Friday, 4 May 2007
FHD REDESIGNS CORPORATE IDENTITY FOR WORLD'S LEADING HEALTH INDEMNIFIER

Leading UK design firm, FHD, has redesigned the visual identity of the Medical Protection Society (MPS), the world’s leading indemnifier of health professionals. FHD was appointed by MPS, following a four way pitch last summer, to help emphasise its brand and to update and implement its corporate identity while creating a greater sense of synergy and cohesion across a range of subsidiary companies.

Despite having an already well established, respected and familiar visual identity the key design challenge was to project a more contemporary image of MPS whilst continuing to reflect its heritage. The aim was to create a ‘younger and fresher’ feel to provide more relevance to today’s health professionals. FHD was also challenged with helping to shape the key messages and core values underpinning the entire brand essence of MPS and its subsidiaries.

Work began last October with a review of the current positioning and brand identities. The review involved a rationalisation of the structure and relationship between MPS and its subsidiaries in order help inform a brand hierarchy and the look and feel of the new identity. The new identity is being rolled out across a range of applications including the organisation’s literature, website, advertising and stationery.

Shelley McNicol, MPS Head of Communications, said:

"I believe FHD successfully got under the skin of what our organisation is about and helped us convey a brand essence that will have resonance with all of our audiences. Through working with FHD we have recognised that this was not simply a matter of a small scale re-design but was a chance to emphasise all the elements of our corporate identity."

Sally Robson, FHD Client Director, said:

"In addition to creating a new visual identity for MPS we also provided advice on developing and establishing an appropriate and consistent tone of voice and house style for use by all employees. The central premise informing all our decisions was the need to create increased visual consistency as well as a fresher, reinvigorated identity."

Wednesday, 2 May 2007
THE FINANCIAL TIMES BEST WORKPLACES AWARDS

FHD is proud to be one of only nine members of the Financial Times/EU Best Workplace 'Laureate Club' - recognising the only organisations that have been in the Top 50 UK workplaces for five years in a row. In fact FHD and Fishburn Hedges are in the Top 10 UK workplaces, are the highest ranked communications group and have been in the Top 20 every year since the awards were started.

Tuesday, 1 May 2007
FHD REVEALS THE NEW BRAND IDENTITY FOR BRITAIN’S
BIGGEST TRADE UNION

On 1 May the new brand identity for recently merged unions, Amicus and T&G, will be unveiled. The launch of Unite – the union will be the culmination of 8 months’ work undertaken by leading UK design firm, FHD, and will signal the merger between Amicus and T&G to form Britain’s biggest trade union comprised of 2.0 million members.

FHD were appointed without a pitch last summer to devise a new name and visual identity which would best reflect the changing nature and purpose of union membership and signal the merger. Research among members and non-members alike into a range of potential creative ideas revealed to FHD the preference for a modern twist on the traditional iconic flag imagery route. The name Unite was intended to convey how the merger represents unions and people uniting to create a stronger and more powerful entity.

FHD devised the new brand identity to have a coherent look and feel across a range of applications, from stationery, lapel badges and banners to signage, corporate publications and the new website.

Richard O’Brien, Amicus communications director, said:

"The new identity is not just a name, it’s a statement of purpose. Unite – the union is not just what we've done or who we are, it’s what we are going to do."

Andrew Murray, T&G communications director, said:

"FHD successfully addressed the key communications challenges included in the brief, and in doing so have cultivated a strong identity for the new union. We are confident that our members – and, just as importantly, those many who ought to be members - will connect with this modern trade union identity."

Adrian Day, Managing Director of FHD, said:

"In creating the identity we eliminated several alternatives to arrive at a design that we feel is truly unique from the competition. The visual identity is simple and clear and will be accompanied by a set of brand guidelines to ensure continuity in its application across the entire Union."

Wednesday, 11 April 2007
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT COMMERCE APPOINTS FHD
TO DEVELOP NEW BRAND STRATEGY

This month the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) appointed FHD, formally Fishburn Hedges Design, following a five-way pitch, to develop and implement a new brand strategy as part of a new direction for the department.

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is an office of HM Treasury, responsible for improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement, from commodities buying to the delivery of major capital projects, maximising the effective use of 60% of Government spending and a £30 billion property estate.

A new Government strategy launched in January 2007, Transforming Government Procurement, highlighted the central importance of procurement in delivering high-quality public services and best value for money, and tasked OGC with delivering this transformation. A new brand strategy is seen as a significant part of establishing and reflecting this expanded remit.

As part of the development of a new identity for the OGC, FHD will undertake detailed analysis of current perceptions of the OGC brand, plus its Gateway, ITIL and Prince2 sub-brands.

When re-developing the OGC's brand strategy FHD will also be reviewing the OGCbuying.solutions' brand, which is an executive agency of the OGC. The Transforming Government Procurement report highlighted the need for OGCbuying.solutions to be more closely aligned with OGC. This realignment and changed relationship with OGC needs to be reflected in OGCbuying.solutions' own brand strategy.

Working with internal communication experts from within the wider Fishburn Hedges Group, FHD will conduct management interviews and employee focus groups in Norwich and Liverpool together with customer and supplier research. FHD will also draw on the expertise of Fishburn Hedges' public affairs team when looking at the relationship between OGCbuying.solutions, the OGC and the Treasury.

Adrian Day, Managing Director of FHD, said:

"We are seeing growing demand from clients for consultancy support that spans branding, strategic and stakeholder communications, and this brief from OGC and OGCbuying.solutions is a perfect example of the need for a more integrated, informed approach to branding. We have worked on a number of successful corporate branding projects in the past few months and this project is an exciting new win for the business.

This project supports our objective of developing a strong corporate branding business, alongside our existing expertise in corporate reporting".

Catherine Hastings, Director of Communications, Office of Government Commerce, commented:

"We were impressed with the integrated approach FHD had to offer, which combined expertise in branding with expertise in internal communications and public affairs, and experience in the workings of government".

Wednesday, 21 March 2007
FEATURED ARTICLE: WNIM, ISSUE 55, MARCH 2007
CORPORATE BRANDING IS BACK

Corporate branding has gained a bit of a chequered reputation over the past decade or so. Indeed, a few years ago, post the controversial Consignia and Monday rebrands, there was even talk of branding needing to rebrand itself. The situation was compounded by the high-profile failure of many dot.com start-ups which had spent heavily trying to create strong corporate brands overnight (and not helped by brand consultancies and advisers over-complicating the brand development process).

Yet today the concept of corporate branding, and its pivotal role as a business concept, is stronger than ever. Of course, many large businesses have taken branding seriously for sometime but recently professional services firms, government bodies, the not-for-profit sector and NGOs have also actively and enthusiastically embraced the concept. Even the Royal Navy has been through a branding exercise.

So, why is corporate branding enjoying a renaissance? At its best, corporate branding is a strategic organising framework for positioning and driving the business. Indeed the best marketing companies, such as Apple, BP, John Lewis, Nike, Tesco and Virgin, place their corporate brand at the very centre of their business and use it as a platform for all their marketing activities.

The corporate branding process is a particularly effective way of understanding and articulating the key attributes of an organisation such as personality, values and positioning. And this is at a time when the softer, intangible elements of a business's offer, such as quality of customer service, corporate and social responsibility issues and customisation are increasingly important.

Over the past few years most organisations have invested time in defining their brand, with differing levels of success. Many have also reviewed their brand identity (increasingly referred to as the brand expression) to ensure that it represents and supports the brand personality and positioning. This has led to some interesting recent trends in naming and the visual presentation of corporate brands.

First, we are seeing a blurring of the boundaries between advertising and the brand identity (the logo, colours, typefaces and 'look and feel'). In the past these elements have been developed separately, with little integration between the two. But that's changing. The new award-winning MacMillan identity is as much a campaign line as a single corporate mark, ensuring that high impact messaging is on every MacMillan communication. Also in the charity sector, the NSPCC has taken the green dot from its memorable 'Full Stop' campaign and 'reversed it' into the NSPCC identity. The green dot is now the charity's corporate mark. And for many companies their imagery is becoming as much a visual asset as the corporate mark – think the 02 bubbles, Orange's colour and easyJet's phone number.

Internet-based brands in particular are breaking the traditional rules of brand identity. The golden rule that you don't 'mess with the logo' has been challenged by Google and others. Google's design team regularly enhance the logotype with imagery. They particularly focus on bank holidays, festivals and other special days – snow on the logo at Christmas, hearts on Valentine's Day and so on. The BBC has also been progressive and experimental with its channel identities in recent years, regularly refreshing the visual expression.

These organisations are being more creative partly because they can - it's much easier to change a logo on a screen than it is on traditional identity applications, such as signs, letterheads and vehicles. But they're also doing it because they can control the change. By far the most visible face of Google is the search engine website – and changes can be made in line with the brand personality and implemented by a single person. If Ford, BT or Microsoft wanted to change their logotype regularly they would open the floodgates to visual anarchy as brochures, posters and advertisements around the world changed in an ad-hoc and chaotic manner.

Corporate naming hasn't stood still either. In line with the increasing need to put the customer or consumer at the centre of the business, there has been a strong attempt to personalise corporate names – so names such as mytravel, myhotel – and now youtube and myspace have gained currency.

So where are companies still falling down? Well it's not in the definition, or even in the expression of the corporate brand - but in how employees live and deliver the brand. Many companies now have a clear idea of their values and personality and have even worked with their people to define the norms and behaviours against those values. But translating this understanding into actual behaviours, both internally and with customers, is the real challenge. As we all know, when visiting a shop, flying an airline or entering a bank the way you're treated rarely matches the expectation set by brand communications. Some companies have managed to translate their brand into real employee behaviours – Disney, John Lewis, and Pret a Manger are examples - but they are the exception rather than the rule.

So branding is back and being embraced by more organisations than ever. It's more grounded than before and the mistakes of the early years of this decade are being avoided. But whilst companies have made progress with defining their brands – and some exciting developments are happening in the way that brands are being expressed through names and images, the real challenge is still to help employees deliver the brand promise to the market.

About the author
Adrian Day is managing director of FHD, a UK design consultancy which was established as Fishburn Hedges Design in 1991.

Monday, 5 March 2007
FHD CONTINUES TO GROW WITH NEW HIRES

FHD has made two significant appointments, further strengthening the business which rebranded from Fishburn Hedges Design late last year. Gemma Ince joins as senior designer and Sarah-Jo Rafferty as an artworker.

Senior designer Gemma Ince previously spent four years at SS+K New York, and brings a wealth of experience in brand identity and naming projects. Before this her background was in journalism, working for numerous titles, including Esquire, Everywoman and the Big Issue. Gemma studied Graphic Design at Central St Martin's.

Artworker Sarah-Jo Rafferty joins with nearly 20 years' experience. Prior to joining FHD, Sarah-Jo spent 4 years at Fin International, working with blue chip clients in a range of sectors from financial services to telecoms. She has extensive experience working with agencies across the design industry.

Robert Soar, Creative Director of FHD, commented:

"Gemma and Sarah-Jo are great additions to our team here at FHD and bring important new experience. Since we unveiled the new name, FHD, last November and strengthened our commitment to corporate branding work, we have won a string of exciting new projects. These new appointments will help us to continue the great work we are doing, to further develop our offer and expand the business".

The appointments follow the company's re-launch as FHD in November 2006.

Tuesday, 2 January 2007
THE FUTURE OF CORPORATE REPORTING

There is currently widespread debate on the future of company reporting. Are reports too big and too long? Does anyone read them? Do they tell the whole picture? Is the printed word dead? Should everything go online? Are they too backward looking?

Despite Gordon Brown's last minute scrapping of the OFR many PLCs have developed reports that include significant reporting of material non-financial factors (risks, CSR, environmental performance, staff issues and so on). While these factors are covered to an extent by the requirements of the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive, most companies realise that they need to give a fuller picture of their operations in order to satisfy the requirement of all their stakeholders.

Enter the Big Four and a couple of other auditors this month, opening a debate on whether current reporting is effective and where next.

If you haven't already done so, do read their 'straw man' on the future of auditing, financial reporting and communication. Some of you might want to skip the extended sections on auditing and IFRS issues, and stick to the Executive Summary and Section 111 'Looking ahead: what company reporting can and should be'.

It is online here:

http://www.globalpublicpolicysymposium.com/CEO_Vision.pdf

Their most radical suggestion is that all reporting, financial and non-financial, should go online, continuous and in real time. The end of 'snapshot' quarterly, half yearly or annual reports. The end of market distorting results. The end of mass printing.

Theoretically there is great appeal in such an open and transparent approach. In practice, many PLC Finance Directors have already expressed horror over the practicalities of continuous reporting.

Adding to the picture is the fact that on 8 November the new Companies Bill received Royal Assent.

The Act covers a multitude of sins (it holds the Guinness World Record as the largest Bill ever drafted in this country), but importantly it brings significant change to online company communications. To date, shareholders have had to positively opt for electronic versions of reports rather than getting hard copies - and uptake has been slow. Despite incentives, no company has managed to get more than 5% take-up to date. The new Act turns this approach on its head, with shareholders now having to opt out of electronic communications - in other words, companies will send out a report with a covering note saying opt for a printed report within 28 days or we will not send you one in the future. Thereafter all they have to do is inform shareholders that the report has been posted on the website or e-mail it to them.

How will PLCs balance the obvious savings to be made in print and postage with the need to communicate clearly with all stakeholders, even those without constant internet access? How far will they go in the reporting of material non-financial performance? Will the markets ever value every PLC perfectly?

All this and more is open to debate - so FHD will be organising a discussion seminar in 2007 to do just that. Please [click here] to register your interest in receiving further details.

Wednesday, 1 November 2006
FISHBURN HEDGES ANNOUNCES NEW APPROACH TO DESIGN BUSINESS

Fishburn Hedges today announced a new strategy and brand identity for its design business, which has been relaunched as FHD.

Led by managing director Adrian Day who joined the business 12 months ago, FHD plans to develop further its corporate branding business, building on a string of new business wins already secured in this area.

Adrian Day said: “Fishburn Hedges Design is well established in the design market, working with high-profile private and public sectors clients on both corporate branding and reporting briefs. Traditionally, corporate reporting has been a major focus for the company. Whilst this will remain an important market for us, we believe that the branding and identity space offers us a key opportunity for growth.

“We have worked on a number of successful corporate identity projects in the past and, throughout this year, we have been working to build our resource in this area. We have already won a number of new projects which really underline our ability to operate in this market. Both by continuing to bring in new talent such as our creative director Robert Soar, and by tapping into the broader communications expertise within the Fishburn Hedges Group, we are confident that FHD will go from strength to strength.”

FHD will remain part of the wider Fishburn Hedges Group, enabling its clients to access expertise in public relations, stakeholder and internal communications and public affairs.

Adrian Day added: “We are seeing growing demand from clients for consultancy support that spans design, strategic and stakeholder communications. FHD will continue to leverage the wider experience of the Group, both for planning and communications insights and to provide fully integrated client campaigns. At the same time, our new identity signifies our commitment to growing FHD as a successful agency in its own right.”

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