BuyGB
print, brand, strategy, digital
Prologue
Summer 2010
BuyGB is a not-for-profit company set up to provide complex (and usually expensive) ecommerce and marketing tools to the Great British producers of food, drink and crafts. Currently in Beta testing and launching this Summer, it's already making waves in a previously rather stagnant sector.
Act 1
Establishing the brand
The BuyGB brand was always going to be important to get right - this isn't a well known company or a luxury goods offering where the brand should rule everything, but a subtle co-existence that should never compete with the companies and products it promotes. Simple, but clearly doing what it says on the tin.
As the brand has to sit comfortably within close proximity to an unpredictable range of brands for producers and national organisations, we use disposable visual assets that can evolve and also be replaced at seasonal intervals to keep the brand progressive and fresh.
Act 2
From concept to beta launch
As Profission made progress on the planning and build of the site, the company kicked off a PR campaign with Clementine Communications to build interest in the project externally. Stationery, press, sponsor and marketing packs were produced to target regional membership organisations and national bodies serving rural industries and heritage interests.
Riding the very topical discussions on local sourcing and the localisation of industry, the project was picked up by several regional and national publications, becoming part of the cover story in Marketing Week during April, an interview in The Grocer, and possibly most important of all; netted BuyGB its first official patron in Cyrus Todiwala OBE, a chef with a personality as great as his interest in British food and farmers.
