Coley Porter Bell has designed the bottle and secondary packaging for a new Royal Salute Whisky marking the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

The brief for The Diamond Tribute bottle was to develop a permanent expression in the Royal Salute range to commemorate the timeless elegance and dignity displayed by the monarch over the course of her 60 year reign. It also references the origins of the brand -  the first bottles of Royal Salute were produced in June 1953 at the time of the coronation and have since been available in three different glazes denoting the rubies, sapphires and emeralds of the Imperial State Crown.

The Royal Salute The Diamond Tribute is made of high-grade porcelain, manufactured by ceramics experts Wade. This is then covered in a high gloss azure glaze to give it a richer, more lustrous surface. The description of the rare whiskies sourced from the vaults of the Strathisla distillery is printed in gold directly onto the neck of the bottle, supported by the symbol of the cross keys which further reinforces the preciousness of the aged whisky stocks that are used in the blend.

The branding is made of a metal badge mounted on a recess on the front of the moulded bottle. A secondary paper label contains the vault batch number and the signature of Royal Salute’s master blender Colin Scott. The stopper is mounted by a discreet, faceted crystal that crowns the bottle in tribute to the Diamond Jubilee.

The secondary packaging reinforces the idea of the precious and rare whiskies. The two-door opening is reminiscent of the vault doors at the distillery. The radiating lines that decorate the box are an abstract interpretation of the light refractions of a diamond.

Coley Porter Bell Creative Director Richard Clayton who created the design said: “We were trying to provide Diamond Tribute with a distinctive identity but ensure it sits within the context of the Royal Salute brand.” “This was about creating a timeless expression. So rather than using the overt decorative design cues of the traditional luxury sector we opted for a more restrained and contemporary approach.” Royal Salute The Diamond Tribute will be rolled out worldwide from July and will retail at US$270 in Travel Retail. ENDS

His organization has been having problems with one of its services recently and has received a good kicking in the press for its failure to provide what its customers need.

“It’s a bit unfair,” lamented the comms chief, “because we’ve done everything we possibly could to stop people using this service until it is improved.”

He explained how his organisation has even run campaigns explaining the problem, advising people not to use this service and giving them better alternatives.

But all that happened as a result of his carefully plotted ‘don’t buy’ campaign was that use of the service went up instead of down.

It could still be that the campaign was successful. Maybe not as many people used the service as would have done in its absence.  But the comms chief didn’t think so.

It could be that the campaign was just poorly thought out or poorly executed.  Maybe. But again the comms chief didn’t think so.

Far more likely he thought was that despite all the thought and planning that had gone into creating and targeting a carefully nuanced message, most people, don’t engage with details.

All they hear is the brand name. They don’t pay enough attention to hear any qualifying message. So the message ‘don’t use service x’ merely highlights the existence of service x in people’s minds.

Perhaps that’s why they say “all publicity is good publicity” and “make the logo bigger.” Maybe getting the name/brand name across is the most important thing and doesn’t much matter the context or the thing that is being said about it.

If this is true, the implications for marketing communications would be immense, pointed out my journalist friend. Why bother with costly branding, design, PR and advertising agencies when any chimp could put up a sign with your company’s name on it for free?

Surprisingly the comms chief sprang to the defence of these disciplines.  Yes, name alone may do sixty, seventy or even eighty per cent of the communication work, he conceded. But it is in the other thirty to fourty per cent that branding, design, PR and advertising works its magic and earns its keep.

It is precisely because well thought out branding and communications can help consumers go beyond the top line communication of the brand name alone, that they are worth while.

The new logo consists of the words ‘News Corp’ in a face based on an amalgam of the hand writing of Rupert Murdoch and his father Keith. It’s artfully contrived to look like it has just been dashed off. The very clear implication is that News Corp isn’t some faceless corporation, it’s human, it’s informal, it’s warm. It’s not perfect.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with using a signature for your logo. Far from it. Coley Porter Bell is part of the Ogilvy group and its logo is the signature of founder David Ogilvy. It hints at craft and continuity and personal service.

And we use signatures all the time on packaging. But there are very clear reasons for doing it.

So we used the signature of Beefeater’s founder William Burroughs to locate a new gin in a long tradition of distilling.

We used the signature of master blender Colin Scott on a new bottle for Royal Salute bottle whisky to denote the hand crafted nature of the product and the care that has gone into it.

We might use the signature of an entrepreneur if he or she is the face of the brand.

We even invented our own hand-written type face for Morrison’s own value label range, to show that the products are cared for by human beings.

The problem with the new News Corporation logo is that it does none of those things. It’s not a reflection of a long journalistic tradition. It’s not a mark of the craft that goes into its product.

It seems to be more of an attempt to turn Rupert Murdoch into the face of News Corp. But unlike say David Ogilvy or Paul Smith or even Richard Branson, he brings no useful equities to News Corp. In fact quite the opposite.

Rightly or wrongly Murdoch is widely viewed as the archetypal uncaring global capitalist whose main priority is making money and it doesn’t much matter how.

It doesn’t feel that this logo reflects any deeper truth about News Corp other than it is controlled by Murdoch. It’s perfectly imperfect, artfully artless nature  simply makes News Corp feel more cynical and scary. Not less. Which was evidently not the intention.

Coley Porter Bell has created the name, branding and packaging for The Hungry Wolf, the first branded product from Fresh Pak Chilled Foods, the UK’s largest dedicated manufacturer of sandwich fillings.

The Hungry Wolf deli fillers are designed to be served hot with bread. The brand aims to open up a new segment in the £126m deli filler market using the language and cues of gourmet street and festival food. It is positioned as ‘gourmet street tucker you can enjoy at home’.

Coley Porter Bell developed the Hungry Wolf name which has associations with appetite and satisfaction. The agency also developed a visual language for the new brand based on imagery of street food.

Each variant has it own colour code to aid navigation. The pack backgrounds are blackboard textured–and key information is provided in a bistro pub style chalk lettering. Vintage style-icons provide traditional quality cues. Because it’s a new category, the packs contain three step instructions for product use, reminding consumers that it is best served hot.

The new brand consists of premium British pulled meat in sauces and seasoning. It comes in three flavours, Pork and Apple, Beef and Horseradish and BBQ Pork.

Hungry Wolf will be available in Tesco in the Chilled Convenience aisle.

Stephen Bell, Executive Creative Director of Coley Porter Bell said: “This is a very high quality product that offers a delicious alternative to conventional sandwich fillings.“ “It was an exciting challenge to develop the first brand for a highly successful unbranded provider while opening up a new segment in their market. This meant the branding and packaging had to work much harder than usual.“

Fresh Pak supplies own label sandwich fillings to the major multiples. Founded over twenty years ago it now employs 370 people at their site in Yorkshire. ENDS

We have identified 5 main areas that can help harness the right emotional cues and fan the flames of consumer desire.

The first of these is the business of making your brand seem more prestigious. Pamela Danziger a consumer insights expert who specialises in targeting the affluent consumer segment  pointed out that  “the natural evolution of all luxury concepts is from class to mass.  First luxury is introduced and embraced by the affluent; the inevitably it is translated and reinterpreted down the masses.”  So these rules apply to all brands, no matter how mundane.

Here are five ways for even the most everyday of brands to burnish their emotional appeal by adding ‘luxury cues’ to their packaging.  As you’ll see they don’t need to be obvious ‘bling’ .

Monograms – They anchor a design and bestow instant heritage and authority. Here Nicky Clarke professional hair care is all about his skill & expertise

Heritage – Fentiman soft drinks.  Even if the brand isn’t ‘old’ you can cue a sense of heritage & quality through structure, typography, detailing & layers – a sense of authenticity

Layers and detail – For Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce again the intricate detailing gives a sense of quality, authenticity and being an original – ‘the real thing’

Provenance – gives a sense of place, authenticity & quality – in the case of make-up brand Rimmel – they reference London & the UK in their packaging as a way to link to London style … their tagline is get the ‘London look’ – here even the actual product eye shadow is formed into a union jack & embossed with a crown.

They subvert classic provenance codes to add edge & street style.

And lastly

Rarity– Create desirability by touching limited editions, collectable packs … Evian do this brilliantly, linking up with fashion designers like this pack here designed in collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier.  It adds flair, style & new worthiness to the brand … & of course creates sales. ENDS

At the same time a packaging idea for Beefeater gin conceived by Coley Porter Bell but executed by Chivas Brothers has won in the best consumer campaign category.

Both were the work of Coley Porter Bell creative director Stuart Humm.

The winning award comes in the ‘best design and packaging for spirits’ category and saw Olmeca Altos beat off competition from some of the most innovative and compelling spirits designs of the last two years. They included Webb deVlam’s cutting edge work for Bombay Sapphire Electro which lights up in your hand when you pick it up.  And there was Stranger and Stranger’s surreal retro fantasy design for Don Papa Rum.

The brief was to distinguish Olmeca Altos from the rest of the Olmeca range by creating an appealing personality for the brand, while making the bottle easier for bartenders to handle.

But when it comes to innovative integrated marketing, perhaps the co-creation employed by Beefeater’s My London was more significant because the packaging idea formed the basis of the communication campaign.

It was conceived as a limited edition pack for Beefeater to showcase the creativity and multi-faceted nature of London. The design uses thousands of photos uploaded by the public entering a competition to demonstrate ‘what London means to them personally’. The campaign was created by Chivas Brothers specifically to generate ‘content’ for the new design. A QR code on the sleeve takes consumers to a YouTube video of the bottle being created.