Those who dress up together, stay together.
A few weeks ago we were thrilled to have a chance to dress up for the Highland Harvest Feasts – Feast of the Beast, out in the Meryla State Forest Werai. I totally just want to brag about the effort of dress-up from our wonderful Creative Director Fran, and Producer Extraordinaire Talia. Nic and I had a lot of fun, but seriously, look at the makeup on Fran, and Talia made her outfit! 🧛
We love to put our creative efforts into our clients too with the same gusto. Any ⛓️ goth brands out there needing a hands-on team? 😂
A night out we all needed, and recharged for the onslaught 🔱 of the rest of 2020.
Valentina xxx
Google’s G Suite Is Now Google Workspace
Alphabet, Google’s parents, have renamed their G Suite baby to Workspace. Part of this change means they’re dumping the old icons, such as the envelope for Gmail, and introducing a cohesive set of branded icons for each of the product suite. With it, comes a price increase for users too 📈.
We can expect to see a few changes with features too, eg when a user mentions a colleague by name in a document, other users will be able to hover over the name to find contact information. In addition, the team communication app Google Chat will allow users to create documents from inside their text conversations.
This rebrand should help Google take on Microsoft 365’s product, the market leader (Microsoft had 87.6% share in 2019 compared to Google’s 11.5%).
The fun part: Google’s taking on Microsoft with their product, and taking on Facebook with their name, which is causing a little 😕 confusion. Facebook’s platform is Workplace; so is it Workplace or Workspace that you’re after?
Facebook’s New Small Business Solution
Facebook Business Suite is now out in the open, available as a mobile app and via desktop, it allows small businesses to manage content, messages and analytics across Facebook and Instagram in a single dashboard. The majority of Facebook’s 9 million advertisers are small businesses 🛍️.
Whilst not yet replacing Ads Manager (it’s certainly a sign of the times), Business Suite can also boost content into paid ads from the main dashboard. IMO, Ads Manager has been on the way out for years and this is a good indicator of what may be coming next.
The distant cousin of Facebook, WhatsApp, will be integrated with it next year.
Watch this space.
What’s an Instagram Reel?
If you’re feeling a little confused about Insta’s latest release, Reels, then this blog is for you.
Reels could be considered a direct response to the growing popularity of TikTok — which has surged in popularity over the last 12 months.
Confused by TikTok? Yeah, everyone is.
Reels are all about creating fun and engaging content in short video form. You can create 15-30 second videos and upload them to your Stories, the Explore Feed or the new Reels tab in your profile.
Still confused? That’s why there’s a blog – to show you with screen shots, tell you the shortfalls and help you along this mad social journey we’re on of ‘creators’.
It may be the best 4 min read of your business career – to do, or not do, Reels (because let’s face it, we have the feed, Stories, Live, Highlights and now Reels, all on one single platform). Got time for Reels? You decide.
Agripower
Agripower is the world’s leading natural silicon fertiliser company, based in Australia, delivering the most significant change to fertilisers and fertiliser management in 90 years. Their product, Agrisilica® provides healthier crops 🍎, higher yields and quality for farmers with up to 40% increased returns 🥑. In farming language, it’s a game-changer for long term sustainability practices: healthier soils 🐛, less greenhouse emissions, less water consumption 🥦, less environmental pollution, bigger and better crops.
Agripower approached Banter Group as their marketing partner, to take this brand to a new global level. Our engagement so far has been no small feat:
✔️ Standardise and modernise the logos
✔️ Introduce a new brand for Agrisilica®
✔️ Create the logos and branding for four (4) x sub-brands for Agrisilica: granular, chip, powder and liquid
✔️ Create global brand guidelines and a styling guide
✔️ Roll out of marketing brochures and collateral 📖
✔️ Redevelopment of their website
The scientific nature 🌾 of this business means we’re talking to agronomists, scientists, consultants, investors and farmers 🚜. The complexity of the diagrams required kept us on our toes, ensuring it would meet the needs of scientists and yet not lose our farming audiences in language.
We have such an exciting 🤩 pathway with Agripower as we continue to deliver their collateral (over 40 brochures for various fresh produce, bag packaging, 20L drum labels, presentation decks etc) and will share more of our work in weeks to come.
Second-hand IKEA: could it be a thing?
When you’re brought up with Brescia furniture in the 1980s, IKEA’s ‘disposable’ furniture seemed ludicrous 🛏️; its short-term quality meant families could update their look with new trends, dumping cheap build-it-yourself into the streets for teenagers’ first-house-share-picker-uppers.
Forward some 30 years, and IKEA 🛋️ is opening its first secondhand store later this year in Sweden. The resale store is part of a larger push by the brand to become completely circular by 2030. Last year, Ikea launched a program to lease its kitchens and furniture, and many of its stores also have “bargain” sections of refurbished returned items. This will be the first store completely made up of refurbished items.
Between Kallax shelving and the Billy bookcase, we ought to have a wonderful pick of boxy 📦 furniture for the shed. Yes, I’m cynical. A refurbished shop hopefully doesn’t come with allen keys either!
Until next time, enjoy! 😀
