Influence Club
print, brand, strategy, digital
Prologue
Spring 2008
A full-service project for high profile women's social and professional networking organisation, Influence. Profission were involved form the outset, from naming and branding through business and marketing strategy to final design, build and development.
Act 1
Establishing the brand
Coming in at the beginning is always fun, and with Influence we went through an iterative process of evolving the brand whilst the funding for the main project was finalised. The result is as you see here - understated without being too feminine, in cool pastels through pink and lilac to a mid grey, set against imagery and styling from the thirties.
Act 2
Promotional collateral
Promotional material featured black and white vintage imagery, colour-washed and used with fully-justified text on aged paper textures. In direct contrast the business end of the brand used light but strong sans typefaces set in black and metallics against the logotype – a fusion of Serlio and Bickham faces.
Stationery hinted at fragrance packaging and used specialist stocks with foils and metallics.
Act 3
The Influence Network
Once the brand and print collateral were finalised, it was time for the main event - the design and build of the Influence Club social network.
Powered by Cathari, the site featured b2b advertising, a marketplace, chat rooms and all the elements you would expect from a social network - profiles, searches, messaging, introductions and more.
Epilogue
Critical Acclaim
Supported by a well coordinated press campaign from lifestyle PR specialists Clementine Communications, the Influence site was impossible to get away from at launch - The Evening Standard, The Metro, The Times and City Magazine were among the many papers that covered, and dare we say, praised it.
Unfortunately even the best ideas sometimes trip up, and in this case the management behind the company just weren't up to the job of banking the interest it generated. Left with a stack of unpaid bills, Profission still own the site and the brand, and we'd be happy to hand it over to someone worthy of taking it on!
