Who’s your hero?

England have made it to the Euro 2020 final at Wembley and the day has arrived… who would have believed it!?

The nation holds it breath in anticipation of an exciting encounter with the Italians to see who will be crowned?‘Kings of Europe’?later tonight.

For a moment let’s forget the outcome, let’s consider who the key players are in the?‘England Team’, who is flying the flag for the nation and who will be our hero…

Like the football, does your brand have a mascot or iconic figure that draws customers towards your product? Who’s pulling in the pounds for you?

Back at the inception of?Moo Design?we were invited to have a chat with the owner of a local tile retailer in Leamington Spa –?‘Miles of Tiles’. At the time they had two stores – Miles of Tiles in Leamington Spa that was focused mainly on the retail sector and Tile Traders in Coventry that was selling almost exclusively to the trade. They wanted to advertise their vast array of products to both audiences, mainly through newspaper advertising, but lacked the in-house knowledge and skill set to enable them to implement such a scheme.

After several meetings and consideration of the history and style of the business we devised two iconic cartoon characters –?‘Motty’?for Miles of Tiles and ‘Totty’ his counterpart for Tile Traders. The two immediately appeared in the company’s newspaper adverts and were portrayed in different guises dependant on the offer for that particular week. The campaigns were deemed a success as customers were encouraged to bring in their coded newspaper adverts to redeem a discount on their purchases.

After time the directors decided to merge the two brands into Miles of Tiles, ‘Totty’ was phased out and?‘Motty’?was exalted as?‘King of the Tile Retailers’?in the West Midlands. The company grew significantly in response to the boom in the building trade and renovation of residential and commercial property in the region. New shops were opened in Rugby and Birmingham, the Coventry store was re-branded and the flagship store in Leamington Spa was upgraded.

‘Motty’?became a cult figure in countless newspaper and magazine adverts, also appearing on billboards, internal and external signage, printed leaflets and brochures, plastic bags and promotional products. He even changed his appearance slightly, in line with the corporate re-branding of the company which we implemented.?

One of?‘Motty’s’?greatest adventures was in the Summer of 2002 and 2006 when the World Cup was held in South Korea/Japan and Germany respectively, where he was patriotically seen every week in the press flying the flag of?‘England and St. George!’

Unfortunately, in 2008 the property sector started to slow and came to a shuddering halt when the reverberations of the?‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’?fall out were felt from the US housing collapse – advertising budgets were slashed and?‘Motty’?failed to survive the storm.

In his day?‘Motty’?was a hero, a swashbuckling, intrepid explorer maturing into an?‘iconic statesman of the brand’. He shone brightly highlighting the sophistication and quality of the company he represented and the products?it had to offer.

We all remember the footballing heros of our youth, as we do with the icons and talismen of our favourite products.?

Sure enough a new talisman will be heralded tonight.?Once the dust has settled and you feel the urge to cultivate a memorable hero or heroine for your brand, then let’s have a conversation.

C’mon England!

Nick

Brandologist

Moo Design

T: 01926 770042

E: [email protected]