Advertising and marketing services

Description

Thames Water Utilities Ltd (TWUL) are looking to award a longer term framework agreement(s) to a supplier(s) who can provide effective, creative and innovative content for our campaigns and branding requirements that is in line with our brand, values and ethos. We have grouped our requirements into two lots: Lot 1: Creative Agency — create customer perception and behaviour change campaigns; Lot 2: Brand Agency — implement our refreshed brand throughout Thames Water; increase awareness of the Thames Water brand to customers of all ages. Thames Water’s programme of work over the period of the framework agreement is expected to include: Brand Strategy Development Brand development and implementation Brand engagement planning and implementation Perception change/awareness campaigns Behaviour change campaigns Content and asset development Design support Copy writing support. Lot 1 Creative Agency The successful agency needs to be innovative and creative on a tight budget. We want a proactive agency that will provide concepts and creative that will cut through on a limited media spend. Our media plans include OOH, VOD, Radio, Display, Experiential, Print and YouTube/Social and TV. Overseeing the brand through campaign activity to ensure consistency, impact and recognition will be an important part of the job. A collaborative approach is essential. It is really important that we have a strong partnership with our agency and have good visibility and relationships with the full team but especially with the account manager. The expectation is that the agency is an extension of the team and we would like to see our main contacts on a weekly basis. We need strong project management to retain focus and pace. We want the agency to challenge our thinking and stimulate discussion on how we work to help us develop. Providing support on our marketing strategy and planning will be expected. The brand and marketing team have an appetite to be more creative and make a real difference in how Thames Water is perceived, which will mean taking risks with the approach. The team is keen to learn and engage and would like to test and learn new ideas and ultimately be disruptive. The preferred agency will be expected to create perception change campaigns and behaviour change campaigns. The creative needs to be cohesive, aligned and show Thames Water as one strong entity. Lot 2 Brand Agency We’ve recently developed our brand purpose, supporting principles and ‘verbal strategy’ – built on customer insight and an understanding of how we can play a relevant and meaningful role in the lives of our customers. Our purpose is to ‘Build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet, because without water there is no future.’ Our task now is to bring this to life for our customers through all our touch points and by creating experiences that our customers remember for the right reasons. This is no small task, as Thames Water historically has not been a brand-led organisation, and we still have a lot of work to do to help people understand the importance and value of the brand, before we can get everyone to consistently deliver the brand. Our plan needs to include: — changing perceptions: we have some strong insight around the brand perceptions we need to change/influence to boost our NPS, including value for money, leakage and water quality; — telling our story: We do great things every day, but people don’t know anything about it. We have some strong stories to tell – particularly in terms of education, so we need a clear plan and positioning; — engaging our customers – in 2018 we have done some great work to promote our water quality and help reduce plastic waste, including our travelling tap water bar. We have much more ambitious plans going forward, including our multi-million pound project to install water fountains across our region, — owned channels – how do we best utilise our own channels and capitalise on our customer interactions to build our brand (for example when a customer moves into our region – how do we give them a fitting welcome that puts us top of mind for the right reasons); — leveraging our partners: we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of pounds with charities and attractions through our corporate responsibility team, however there is not a clear enough brand association or benefit with our existing partnerships. We need to do a full review and establish which partners will bring us the greatest benefit measured by NPS; — support the wider business (particularly marketing, press office and digital) with clear themes and tools to bring our brand to life and tell our story. Our task is to bring this all together under our brand purpose with a clear strategy that the business can get behind. We need to prioritise our brand activity and expenditure in support of our objectives. Brand identity Following a brand identity refresh in 2015 which touched everything from our company logo to our livery, an additional ‘identity’ project is under way to evolve this further to overcome some limitations – particularly around illustration and photography, and also to evolve our tone of voice. This is due for completion by February 2019. Longer-term we are looking for an agency that will help implement the brand throughout Thames Water - providing toolkits and training to make every single employee a brand advocate who can talk knowledgeably and passionately about the Thames Water brand. We will also need to continually evolve the brand as required. We have a small in-house team so we will also require design support.