Square Enix, publisher of the Tomb Raider game series, has appointed entertainment marketing specialist agency Brand & Deliver to secure UK brand partnerships for its upcoming title, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Following the success of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider will bring Lara Croft’s origin story to a conclusion. The multi-award winning Tomb Raider franchise has sold over 63 million copies worldwide.

B&D has been tasked with using its data-driven approach to source and activate commercial partners for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It will use its expertise in entertainment partnerships to drive awareness and revenue for the title. Brand & Deliver will also work to secure UK partnerships on other major Square Enix titles over the next 12 months.

Ros Carmoody, Partnerships Director at Brand & Deliver, says: “Lara Croft is one of the most iconic characters in gaming. We’re thrilled to be supporting the final chapter of Lara Croft’s origin story in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and to be working with such a well-loved franchise. We’re looking forward to producing some really exciting campaigns.”

Elizabeth Blackman, Head of UK Marketing at Square Enix, adds, “We’re excited to bring to fans Lara Croft’s defining moment, and we’re working with Brand & Deliver to help secure partners that will make this release the biggest one yet.”

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of organisations from blue chips to start ups. Brand & Deliver is employed by a number of leading technology and entertainment companies to handle promotional partnerships, B2C and B2B event activation, branding and product marketing. Current clients include AMD, Rovio Global, Warner Brothers, LG, Sony Pictures and Three.

Square Enix Ltd. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses Square Enix, Eidos and Taito branded entertainment content in Europe and other PAL territories as part of the Square Enix group of companies. The Square Enix group of companies portfolio of intellectual property includes Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider, and Space Invaders.

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Award-winning charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), which is dedicated to reducing male gender bias in UK suicides, has appointed Brand & Deliver to help secure UK brand partnerships throughout 2018.

In the UK, men are three times more likely to take their own life than women, and suicide is the largest killer of UK men under the age of 45. CALM is fighting against this and working to drive societal change around what it means to be a man.

The charity provides both short-term help in the form of frontline crisis management, and long-term campaigning to build awareness and influence contemporary culture. It partners with UK brands to help them operate more effectively in an ever-changing male society.

Andrew Brown, Director of Corporate Partnerships at CALM, says: “We’ve enlisted Brand & Deliver’s help to create brand partnerships that can both drive brand success and impact essential societal change, combating oppressive male stereotypes which are costing lives.”

Rosalyn Carmoody, Partnerships Director at Brand & Deliver, observes: “CALM does incredibly important work and is helping to shift expectations on contemporary masculinity. We personally wanted to do something to help raise awareness and make this issue more widely known amongst a broad audience.”

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of organisations from blue chips to start ups. The agency works with a number of leading technology and entertainment companies to handle promotional partnerships, B2C and B2B event activation, branding and product marketing. Current clients include Radeon Technologies Group, Rovio Global, Warner Brothers, LG, and Three.

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Magic Light Pictures, which manages children’s brand The Gruffalo, has appointed entertainment marketing specialists Brand & Deliver to secure UK brand partnerships.

Independent production company and Intellectual Property owner Magic Light Pictures is a BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated creator of family entertainment and brands, managing production, distribution, licensing and marketing from its London headquarters. It works with The Gruffalo creators Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler to manage their portfolio of children’s brands, which also includes The Gruffalo’s Child, Zog, Room on the Broom, Stick Man and The Highway Rat.

B&D has been tasked with using its data-driven approach to sourcing and activating commercial partners across its brand portfolio. It will build on the reputation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s characters and use its expertise in entertainment partnerships to help bring them to a new range of fans, driving awareness and revenue along with helping stimulate children’s imaginations across the UK.

Aidan Taylor-Gooby, Licensing Manager at Magic Light Pictures, says: “We want to bring our IPs to a wider audience by partnering with leading brands that share our passion for creativity, especially in run up to 2019 when we are celebrating 20 years of The Gruffalo.”

Ros Carmoody, Partnerships Director at Brand & Deliver, comments: “We’re really excited to develop partnerships with Magic Light Pictures’ beloved portfolio of characters. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture books help foster creativity in children and we’re looking to create partnerships that stay true to this ideal.”

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of organisations from blue chips to start ups. Current clients include Radeon Technologies Group, Rovio Global, Warner Brothers, LG, and Three.

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UK agencies collected 15 awards in the IMC European Awards 2017, with two Gold, three Silver and 10 Bronze trophies being shared by seven British agencies.

Gold awards went to TracyLocke for its ‘Dolce by Ferrero Rocher’ campaign in the Event Marketing category, and to Toucan for its ‘Peperami Stunt Animal in the Angry Birds Movie’ campaign in the Sponsorship/Joint Effort/Tie-in category.

Three Silver awards were handed out. TracyLocke won for the ‘Dolce by Ferrero Rocher’ in Brand Building, ignis won for ‘Jameson #BeOriginal360’ in Branded Content and RPM won for ‘Only One Captain Morgan’ in the Innovative Idea or Concept category.

Ten Bronze trophies were awarded. TLC Marketing won two awards for its campaigns ‘Relish Rewards’ (B2B, Loyalty Marketing) and ‘Giant Chip Fork’ (B2B, Direct 1:1) each. Two went to ignis for ‘Jameson #BeOriginal360’ (Digital Communications, Innovative Idea or Concept). Haygarth also received two awards for its ‘Clarins Urban Oasis’ campaign (Event Marketing, Innovative Idea or Concept). Two agencies took a bronze each – TracyLocke for ‘Dolce by Ferrero Rocher’ and Brand & Deliver Marketing for ‘Join the Radeon Rebellion’.

John Sylvester, IPM Chairman, says: “The exceptional work awarded to U.K. agencies this year shows the breadth and creative scope of our talent here. At the IPM we will continue to support this important European award programme.” The IPM are Members of EACA and a key representative of the IMC Council.

Overall, 85 winners have been selected in this year’s IMC European Awards for Integrated Marketing Communications, representing 32 agencies from 7 countries. The country with the most awards in 2017 was Czech Republic with 21 trophies.

For a full list of British trophy winners click here.

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Northern Rail and speaker giant KEF have been secured as brand partners to support the summer UK cinematic release of Spider-Man: Homecoming from Sony Pictures.

The partnership campaign has been created for Sony Pictures UK by agency Brand & Deliver, which is also supporting global brand partnership deals with Dell, Panasonic and Pizza Hut within the UK.

Campaign activity, running throughout the summer, includes:

• Spider-Man: Homecoming branding on Pizza Hut pizza boxes and box toppers in a global campaign supported by SMS, digital and social media channels;
• On-pack promotions with Panasonic including a retail partnership with Waitrose and a Augmented Reality app;
• Cinema, OOH, print and digital video promotion by Dell with paid social and retail support in John Lewis, Curry’s and PC World;
• Northern Rail on station posters; and print, digital display and retail promotion through KEF.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, directed by Jon Watts, sees a young Peter Parker (Tom Holland) beginning to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging superhero, but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter values is threatened.

Ian George, Managing Director of Sony Pictures UK, says: “These are high profile brands with far reaching influence, which will play a significant role in raising awareness of the film and generating excitement among Spider-Man fans old and new.”

Ros Carmoody, Head of Partnerships at Brand & Deliver, which is retained by Sony Pictures to negotiate film partnership campaigns on its behalf, comments: “Spider-Man is an iconic franchise with multi-generational appeal. These brands give us vast scope to promote the film to UK audiences.”

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LSI Netherlands BV – owner of the Peperami brand – and agencies TLC Marketing and Sense were crowned the big winners at The IPM Awards 2017, taking home the trophies for Brand Owner of the Year, Agency of the Year and the coveted Grand Prix Award respectively.

This year’s winners, which were announced at the IPM’s black-tie Awards Gala on Wednesday June 7 at the London Hilton Park Lane, showcased and celebrated the very best in creativity and effectiveness in the promotional marketing industry.

The evening commenced with opening addresses from Lord Black of Brentwood, President of the IPM, and John Sylvester, the IPM’s chairman and Chairman of Sodexo Benefits & Reward Services UK, while the host for the event was Strictly Come Dancing star, Claudia Winkleman.

LSI was named as Brand Owner of the Year, after collecting two Gold and two Silver trophies for its campaign linking Peperami mascot, the Animal, with the Angry Birds movie.

TLC took the Agency of the Year accolade, having picked up four Gold awards and a Silver for a range of different campaigns.

The Grand Prix went to ‘real world’ agency Sense for its #H2O activation, part of the ‘Discomfort Future’ campaign on behalf of The Economist. This saw potential subscribers offered free coffee apparently made from recycled water from a portable toilet, to highlight the issue of water scarcity around the world. It won two Golds and was selected by the IPM awards judges as the best of the best.

The picture above shows Sense collecting their award from Lord Black (left) and the evening’s host, Claudia Winkleman (right).

Other agencies celebrating multiple trophies at the IPM Awards 2017 included The Circle Agency, ZEAL Creative, Toucan and Brand & Deliver. Behaviour change experts 23red managed to pick up Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Not for Profit, Charities and Public Sector category, the second time the agency has achieved this impressive feat.

John Sylvester, Chairman of the IPM, said: “The IPM Awards celebrate outstanding promotional marketing from the very best UK agencies and underscore our commitment to supporting best practice, creativity, effectiveness and innovation. Our Awards are open to everyone in the marketing industry and this year it was great to see both some familiar faces and some newcomers amongst the winners and the audience.”

This year, winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze IPM Awards all qualify for entry into the IMC European Awards, and the IPM will be contacting agencies shortly to explain how to take advantage of this. John Sylvester observes: “The UK produces world-class promotional marketing campaigns, and we want as many of our winners as possible to enter the IMCs so we can underline our leadership in this vitally important sector of the marketing and advertising industry.”

Sponsors for the IPM Awards 2017 included headline sponsor Sodexo, Westfield Shoppingtowns, Sykes, Emirat, Whistl, Granby Marketing Services, Promotional Handling, i-movo, POD Staffing, Peazie and Pictures Experience.

A full list of this year’s winner can be found on the IPM website.

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Technology is heralding a brave new world of creative partnership marketing, but we’re not just talking about Match.com for brands. A little human meddling still goes a long way, says Richard Barnes, MD of Promotions at Brand & Deliver.

The technological juggernaut is unstoppable and brand partnerships is no exception. I’ve worked in entertainment partnerships for over 15 years and to say things have changed is an understatement. It’s also enough time to know what draws people to the industry; and – from directors to graduates – the scope to be creative is still one of the biggest pull factors.

Some of the best partnerships have been delivered before the dawn of programmatic, such as X Men and Reebok’s ‘I am what I am’, an inspired idea that used good old fashioned cross-referencing of campaign themes and messaging against the movie IP and brand pillars. This dynamic and memorable partnership was created more than a decade ago by nothing more than human imagination and creativity.

This has always been a people job, but now we’re faced with a growing demand from clients to do things better, faster and more cheaply. That’s where automation comes in.

Long after the dawn of programmatic media buying and the introduction of software that tracks sentiment across social media, partnership marketing is finally coming of age and embracing the power of programmatic.

The human touch still needed

But the fact that partnerships can be programmed in this way doesn’t mean the job we love no longer exists and that there is no need for the human touch. Optimising efficiency in our industry (which is what the programmatic element does) doesn’t remove the need for the creativity, contacts and negotiation that made us successful in the first place.

‘Programmatic partnership marketing’ is a bit of a mouthful and probably needs a rebrand; but in reality it means using the connections and insights that technology can provide to take a brand into new worlds, beyond the parameters of an individual’s knowledge and contacts, identifying potential partners that at first glance are not an obvious fit.

In partnership marketing, programmatic can be powerful and far reaching and allows us to scale our work more efficiently and consistently. We can come up with a list of brands that fit the brief on everything from theme to location to budget, based on a wide range of criteria.

We took an automated approach to partnerships on the Angry Birds Movie, which led to a multi-market partnership with the Peperami and BiFi meat snack brands, with the tagline ‘The Official Stunt Animal of the Angry Birds Movie’. Would we have thought of it on our own? Possibly. Would we have built the partnership that ran across eleven markets as quickly and efficiently as we did? I doubt it.

Far from removing the element of creativity from the partnership process, programmatic actually enhances it. It allows us promotional professionals extra time to focus on building creative ideas and ultimately putting together the best relationships, rather than following through on the first ones that stick. The result? Better, more interesting, more creative campaigns that take the concept of a brand partnership outside of our comfort zone and into a new world where everyone is a potential partner, as long as we’re willing to find the sweet spot.

Richard Barnes is Managing Director of Promotions at Brand & Deliver, a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships, promotions and marketing to a range of clients including LG, Universal, IMG (Fashion Week), Ferrari, Sony Pictures and Three.

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Specialist entertainment and partnership marketing agency Brand & Deliver has been appointed by international media company Coolabi Group to secure UK brand partners for its multi award winning CBeebies show, Clangers.

Narrated by Michael Palin, Clangers returned to CBeebies in 2015, 46 years after its initial debut, quickly becoming one of the channel’s top rated shows. A further series is currently in production which follows Major, Mother, Small, Tiny and Granny Clanger on a whole host of new adventures.

Ros Carmoody, Partnerships Director at entertainment marketing specialists Brand & Deliver, said, “Clangers is loved by kids and adults alike, with a cast of fantastic characters for brands to work with. We’re seeking several major partners to help promote the title as it heads into its second season.”

Anya Hollis, Head of Marketing at Coolabi Group, which specialises in the creation and management of children’s and family intellectual property rights, said: “The Clangers is a magical show and we’re delighted to have a new series in production. We look forward to building brand partnerships that will increase awareness of the show among existing fans and reach out to new audiences.

Coolabi Group is an independent international media group and rights owner specialising in the creation, development and brand management of children’s and family intellectual property rights. Brands owned and represented by Coolabi include the multi-award winning remake of Clangers, currently airing on CBeebies, and Scream Street, currently broadcast on CBBC. Other properties include Beast Quest, Domo, Poppy Cat, Purple Ronnie and the Smallfilms properties Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine. The group also creates original series fiction books for publishers and has created some 100 published series, including Warriors, Beast Quest, Animal Ark and Rainbow Magic, which have sold over 10 million copies each.

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of clients from blue chips to start ups, including LG, Universal, IMG (Fashion Week), Ferrari, Sony Pictures and Three.

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is partnering with four high profile brands, Dunkin’ Donuts, minicabit, Northern Rail and South West Trains, to support the release of Ghostbusters on DVD and Blu-ray on November 21^st 2016.

The partnership campaigns were put together and managed by Sony’s agency, Brand & Deliver.

Participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the UK will be offering Ghostbusters themed donuts until the end of November, alongside a point-of-sale promotion and a competition on digital channels inviting customers to guess the flavour of the Ghostbusters Slimer Donut.

Northern Rail is offering the chance to win a holiday to New York through on-station posters alongside website and social media promotion, with copies of the DVD for runners-up.

South West Trains is running a prize promotion offering consumers the chance to win a Sony TV, home cinema kit and Ghostbusters DVD via a microsite which is being promoted on digital channels including the on-train and on-station Wi-Fi landing pages.

In an experiential activation for Halloween, customers of cab comparison website minicabit were offered the chance to be picked up in the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 vehicle in place of their usual cab booking and taken to a famous Halloween-themed London attraction.  The whole experience was captured and content shared on digital and social channels. A filmed 360° video from the car passenger seat as it travelled through London is being seeded on YouTube.

John Biggin, Head of PR & Promotions at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, says: “These partnerships are vast in scale, geographical reach and fun factor, giving us a powerful platform to promote the home entertainment release across multiple touchpoints.”

Richard Barnes, Partnerships Director at entertainment marketing specialists Brand & Deliver, adds: “Ghostbusters is an iconic franchise with multi-generational appeal. These brands have tapped into the movie’s feel good factor with memorable partnerships that will ensure the DVD is on every Christmas wish list.”

Brand & Deliver is a full service creative marketing agency delivering experiential, digital, film, design, partnerships/promotions and marketing to a range of clients from blue chips to start ups, including LG, Universal, IMG (Fashion Week), Ferrari, Sony Pictures, Three and HS2.

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Ros Carmoody has been promoted to Partnerships Director at creative marketing agency Brand & Deliver, and also joins the Executive Board.

In her new role, Carmoody will oversee all partnership accounts at Brand & Deliver including Sony Pictures International and all major UK Distributers, including Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros.

She has led multiple award-winning campaigns during her six years at the agency and is currently shortlisted for Screen International’s Brand Partnership of the Year 2016 for her Angry Birds and Peperami campaign.

Ben Gallop, CEO of B&D, says that Carmoody’s promotion is in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the launch and development of the partnerships business and her delivery of 25% year on year growth since 2010. “Ros’s promotion is a reflection of her hard work, commitment and can-do attitude from day one at B&D. She has led the partnerships business from strength to strength, delivering remarkable year on year growth and inspiring the rest of the team to reach their full potential. Our clients want Ros in charge of their account. They trust her 100% and feel totally reassured when she’s in control, as do I. This promotion is thoroughly deserved.”

Ros Carmoody adds: “Building the partnerships division at Brand & Deliver over the last six years has been hard work but great fun. I’m excited to join the Board and take on this new challenge as we grow our reputation in new markets such as publishing and TV.”

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