Above: Optima’s tenth anniversary held at The Collection.
News stories from 2005...
Optima celebrates…
Our tenth anniversary gave us a chance to say a big 'thank you' to the hardworking staff here and clients old and new for their support. We definitely couldn't have got this far without you.
We also would like to thank suppliers, associates, families and friends for their support and encouragement. Optima is a design team but that team expands well beyond our four walls.
So thank you again one and all and for those who helped us celebrate in style at our party on the 14th October at the Collection in Lincoln, we hope the hangovers have subsided. For those of you who didn't we look forward to seeing you soon.
Now it's on to the next ten years when we want to build our relationships with existing clients, show off our talents and woo a few new clients and take Optima forward and into the Design Week Top 100 Design companies. Watch this space.
Branston win Tesco Award…
Branston Ltd picked up one of only five awards at the Tesco 2005 Supplier Conference in London. The company received the Tesco “Values” Award in recognition of its outstanding service to customers. Part of this was attributed to its work on locally grown promotions which Optima helped them coordinate.
Tesco and Branston developed the concept of promoting regional produce to local stores and branding it to customers. Branston asked Optima to help them with the local marketing campaigns and to date have created 4 local brands for Cornish, Welsh, Kent and Suffolk new potatoes. Branston used the local brand to promote locally grown potatoes in Tesco stores and gain valuable PR for local growers.
Optima created the regional marketing ideas to dovetail with the Tesco brand. A wide variety of media was used to carry the local message from store floor stickers to shelf barkers, bag dispenser covers and balloons. This was all co-ordinated with field marketeers to get the promotions in store as soon as the product was ready.
The promotions have been hugely successful with an incredible 66% increase in Cornish new potato sales. Not only has Branston received acclaim from Tesco and its customers but they have also been held up as a good example to other Tesco suppliers.
This award celebrates a lot of hard work by Branston and recognises that they really do put customers first. Optima are delighted to be a trusted supplier to Branston and congratulate them on their ever increasing success.
Optima goes all European...
Early in 2005 Optima completed a number of projects with the Ecole Internationale de Geneve, the oldest International school in the world. The core part of the project was to increase awareness of the International School and raise the enquiry and ultimately the application levels.
The school hadn't ever had a full campaign before, in fact prior to this occasion advertising had been frowned upon. But in a changing world with increased competition and a whole new 560 seat campus to fill the School really wanted to get the project right and so moved it outside of their internal design studio.
Optima's campaign focussed on key values of the School and utilised eye catching imagery with a bilingual message. This was then communicated in lots of media including poster campaigns, public transport liveries and anglo and franco press advertising.
The results were excellent with the School embracing the campaign, the enquiry levels rising and ultimately the new campus completely filled.
University of Lincoln’s prospectus 2006…
The University of Lincoln are a key client to Optima. Originally founded as the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside the University rebranded in 2001. Following a 3 way pitch (yes we do pitch on jobs, but only when the carrot is this big), Optima beat off two other national agencies to win the University of Lincoln Prospectus for the the eighth time in nine years.
We used the market research that we collected from local schools (in the form of a questionnaire with a prize draw) to help us target the right imagery and visual feel for the new prospectus. Capturing a new cover image was very successful, we then enhanced this using Metal FX. This was then followed through in to the intro section of the prospectus with a new complimentary colour palette for the University to sit alongside the original palette developed in conjunction with Optima five years previously.
The project was completed on time, on budget and everyone involved was delighted with the final product. The new styling has now been rolled out into other items designed by Optima and other agencies including the in-house design team.
