WDA are pleased to announce the start of a collaboration with Yamaha Motor (UK) following the successful launch of their 2013 motorcycle marketing campaign. Devised and created by WDA, the campaign takes a subtle new direction in-line with Yamaha’s new global strategy to move promotional communications away from product and more towards brand.

Delivered through both on and offline media, and followed through with a range of in-store dealer promotional materials, the ‘Nothing Moves You Like A Yamaha’ campaign is the precursor to a new global brand positioning for Yamaha which was revealed earlier this month.

“2013 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for Yamaha” says WDA’s Lee Waterhouse. “The return of Vale in MotoGP alongside reigning World Champion Lorenzo is sure to boost demand on the shop floor, whilst rumours that there are some very innovative new models on the horizon have created a real buzz amongst dealers and consumers alike. Until then the trade can enjoy selling a fantastic 2013 range including updated models such as the stunning new FJR 1300A and XJ/FZ street bikes, with retail prices held from last year and some great finance packages on offer. However, above all the features, promotions and incentives these bikes are Yamaha’s, and the brand benefits are something we’re very keen to embed in the psyche of the consumer; because if they want a Yamaha first and foremost before any other consideration, then there’s only one place they can go!”

WDA believe the ongoing work for Yamaha represents another great brand building success – and thankfully it’s not just us that thinks so:

“I was really nervous about moving the creative account to WDA as our previous agency were really good to work with but Yamaha needed to come to the market from a different direction. I don’t know what I was worried about. Lee and the team have interpreted, executed and delivered a fabulous piece of work that has surpassed our expectation.  It’s a good indication of great creative work when staff are using WDA images as screen savers!”
Simon Belton – Yamaha Marketing Manager, Motorcycles and Scooters, Marketing & Communications Division

For the full story please click here.

WDA announced last month that we had been commissioned to produce a series of videos to support our rebranding of Farécla’s famous MER brand, and we are proud to reveal the first which was released over the weekend ahead of next weeks Easter break – a key time for car care sales.

WDA conceptualised, storyboarded and produced the video to leverage the new German country of origin positioning we have created for the brand. The series of videos will form a campaign which fights back against all those niggles which prevent the proud car owner achieving that ‘perfect finish’.

This first video has been tagged #mercat and shows one of our feline friends wreaking havoc with our protagonists white E Class!

This video joins a host of other integrated marketing communications created by WDA which are starting to define, and build ‘New MER’. To read the full MER case study please click here.

If you are interested in having a video produced for your own brand, then get in touch!

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In October we published Interbrand’s brand equity report (read story here), and how the best performing Automotive brands had seen positive value changes during 2012, with both BMW and VW up 18%, Mercedes up 10%, and Toyota and Ford up 9% and 6% respectively.  Indeed these Automotive giants again performed strongly here, with Mercedes-Benz placing 10th overall in the top 20 consumer brand results, one place ahead of arch rival BMW. Outside of the vehicle manufacturer category, it was tyre giant Michelin which won the General Automotive category, ahead of a number of other qualifying Superbrands from the tyre sector. Notable Automotive brand performers are as follows:

Top 20 Consumer Superbrands

10th - Mercedes-Benz
11th – BMW

Category Winners

Automotive Manufacturers - Mercedes-Benz
Automotive General - Michelin

Qualifying Superbrands

The Superbrands league is considered an important signal that a brand has communicated effectively and engagingly with its target. Click on the image below to read more about  Superbrands; or for a discussion on how your own brand could become a ‘Superbrand’  get in touch.

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WDA have just completed a major rebrand of the MER car care brand. Intended to put the famous range back on the map, the big changeover happened last month with an online reveal to existing MER customers and the launch of an all new website: www.merproducts.com

As we publish this post, major retail partner Halfords will have completed stock replacement and merchandising, and the all new packs and brand blocked retail display systems should be in your local store with roll out amongst the independent retailers following on throughout Q1.

In addition to the repositioning, new visual brand identity, packaging and POS, WDA have devised a national on and offline integrated advertising campaign, plus a whole range of new campaign collateral and are currently finalising specific advertising executions and producing a range of viral and instructional videos.

Blue sky thinking

It’s often true that the best ideas come to us in the shower. With MER, the idea for the brand positioning was actually drafted on an iphone whilst sat in the grounds of a Derbyshire castle one Sunday morning last summer! Based around the history of the MER brand and its German roots, WDA discovered a heritage which was simply not being used, and a whole back story waiting to be told surrounding the inventor of the original formulations – Franz Billich. This German positioning enabled an alignment with many other prestige German marques and a reputation for automotive excellence through the appliance of technology. To learn exactly how we did it read the case study here.

What’s being said

Since acquiring the MER brand in 2008, we had been searching for an agency who could help us to extract the true potential for the brand that we believed existed. WDA conducted an intensive grass roots review of the brand, identifying a unique position for the brand and an ownable route to mind with the consumer. WDA tuned in to the commercial challenges that we faced and created not only an outstanding brand design and integrated consumer awareness campaign, but immediately understood and supported our internal infrastructure and demands of our retailers. WDA are an exciting agency who challenge the norm and deliver outstanding value for money. Lee and his team are a pleasure to work with and on top of supporting us to launch on time an outstanding brand, WDA have helped us improve our marketing skills and thought processes. I would have no hesitation in recommending WDA, they are an exceptional agency!
Donna Howard Business Manager – Retail, Farécla Products Ltd (MER)

A huge thank you to all the team at WDA for their obscene amount of hard work in making the MER re-launch a reality. From detailed category research to striking design work, everything you have touched has been first rate. The whole team are a pleasure to work with and I have been particularly impressed with how brand focussed everyone has been. WDA are not like other agencies, I can only describe them as an extended part of the marketing team and I would have no reservations whatsoever in wholeheartedly recommending them.
Victoria Dringer Retail Brand Manager, Farécla Products Ltd (MER)

@wdaautomotive Thanks guys for the great research, striking creative and marketing knowledge. We wholeheartedly recommend your dynamic team.
Official MerCarCare 11th Jan via twitter

New packaging looks very smart Already sent off for my free sample, looking forward to trying it out.
Natalie North detailingworld forum 14-01-2013

Loving the New Packaging looks very classy with the Black Bottles with black and white labels. They Do look very striking and have a quality look to them….the German Flag should help distinguish the difference to the old especially moving away from the blue bottles. Amazing how a logo and colour change alters ones perception on an item.
James detailingworld forum 09-01-2013

These look great in the flesh really classy and very slick. The Gold and Black go very well together giving the product much more appeal imo – really great new design yet to try the re formulations but looking forward to it.
‘Whizzer’ detailingworld forum 14-01-2013

45% sales uplift

“WDA are proud to have given MER a story to tell, and we are looking forward to helping deliver that story over the coming launch year by building a strong, consistent campaign centred around the new positioning platform we have created.

With the packaging and POS already fully implemented and on the shelves, we have to say the packs look superb and create the desired level of differentiation and stand-out to hopefully drive sales beyond target. Early signs are good with very positive year on year figures being reported after just a few short weeks on sale – one product up 45% which given the snow has to be encouraging!

I would like to give praise to the WDA team involved with this ongoing project, and also thank MER’s marketing team for being so open to new ideas and having the faith to test  - and subsequently implement – such a radical solution. Watch this space because WDA plan to put the MER rebrand up for an industry award in the near future so that everyone involved can share official recognition for what we have achieved.
Lee Waterhouse, Managing Director WDA

Is your brand really doing the business?
Contact WDA for a free consultation at: lee@wda-automotive.com

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WDA are delighted to bring Lois Williams on board. The appointment has been made principally to increase, enhance and broaden the communication and service delivery for all WDA clients. As Account Executive Lois will be responsible for assisting or managing several accounts and coordinating projects and campaigns to ensure they are completed on time and on budget.

Lois graduated from Manchester University with a (BSc hons) Media Technology degree before working on BBC’s ‘Waterloo Road’ TV drama, and then moving into TV advertising at Two Sugars, a production company credited with commercials for Camelot, Hovis, McDonalds, Vauxhall, Adidas, Sony, Quaker and Umbro, amongst others.

Chiefly involved with the video production process, Lois wanted experience of a broader range of media, including online and social, but also to be involved with an agency delivering the marketing strategy driving the creative campaigns. With a passion for communication and interaction, she also wanted to make the switch to a client facing role:

“My experiences coordinating large scale TV commercials has given me good organisational skills, a thorough technical knowledge and many good, reliable contacts within the industry. TV is often a very collaborative process, with lots of parties to liaise with and satisfy – including Director, assistants, cast, crew; and most important of all, the client. In my previous roles, I have always excelled in this area and plan to bring these communication skills to my new role at WDA. Additionally I also possess creative skills, and have hands on experience of video production and editing software, which whilst not my principal role will add to the in-house capabilities in these areas.

I am keen to say hello to all WDA clients and will be making calls during my first month to introduce myself and go through some new services / developments I plan to implement immediately. I also intend to find out how we have been doing in certain key service areas, and what we can do to improve. If you want a chat about an upcoming project in the meantime please get in touch”

For additional information, contact Lois at:  lois@wda-automotive.com

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Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions, Facebook

Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing, said 80% of her time is dedicated to helping both advertisers and agencies understand how to get the best out of the new opportunities unfolding across the social network. The site’s 850 million users around the world have already enabled Facebook to forge strong direct relationships with many global clients, but bonds with agencies are viewed as an essential part of the mix.

Talking about the role of media strategists, Everson said: “Agencies are critical… It is absolutely essential for us to have tight relationships with the agencies, which helps us scale. We want to partner with the agencies, we have zero interest in dis-intermediating them. I have a dedicated agency team now that works under me at a global level, and we have folks in each region. So we have a team in the UK that focuses exclusively on the agency community. The faster we can make sure that the agency community is not only up to speed but really being strategic advisors to clients the better for our business, because they help us scale.

Creative agencies used to think about why should someone care, they now have to think about why would they care and why would they share?”

With global advertising spends generally back on the rise, it is no surprise that internet ad spend has grown more than any other media in first half of 2012 (up 7.2% over the same period last year). However, social media and Facebook in particular still seems to be under leveraged by most brand owners who view it as simply a place to put out press releases or news bulletins, hoping viewers will care, comment or share; but not really having a clear objectives or any way of measuring success.

Whilst periodically posting quality content may be sufficient for some businesses (ie b2b companies who generally have a relatively small group of customers who respond best to personal direct communications), consumer facing brands wishing to engage and motivate large numbers of more passive viewers need to think beyond a daily update, picture post and the occasional poll or competition. As Everson says, Facebook should be viewed as a new and exciting media (route to market) – but one which still needs be driven by a sound marketing strategy, and engaging creative ideas (route to mind).

WDA offer simple social media start up packages (including Facebook fan page creation) through to complete social campaign strategy and implementation (including custom apps). Get in touch and we’ll happily look over your current activities or answer any question.

*The Everson article was first published on campaignlive

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*Source Interbrand report 2012

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Last month we told you we had embarked on a re-build of our own website, and today we officially GO LIVE! – right on schedule. We hope you like it – take a quick look around and let us know what you think.

Apart from being due a refresh, the new site was created as part of a wider rebranding of WDA, including an updating of information site-wide to reflect WDA’s new processes and approach. From a visual perspective the new identity has been designed with a cleaner layout and minimalist colour scheme, reflective of a simplification of our service offering.

The new site launches WDA’s ‘ideas agency’ approach, created in response to the increasing number of exciting new media options available to brand owners today. This separates our services into ‘Route to mind’ (the ‘Killer Ideas’ which underpin everything we do), and ‘Route to market’ (the execution of those ideas utilising whichever media will give our clients maximum ROI). The site has been built on a new platform and features several functionality improvements to allow more rapid distribution of dynamic content. Both the case studies section and news blog have also been updated and revamped.

Thinking of a re-fresh yourself?

Your website is typically the most visible component of your brand, and as your business evolves to meet market needs, so should your site. Whilst content needs updating frequently to improve search and visitor retention, and incremental design or layout changes will keep your site fresh; sometimes more fundamental changes are necessary – especially if the visual impact of your site no longer represents your business, or if you are getting left behind your competition. Sometimes it is just a case of updating the back end to simplify and streamline content control, or to allow you to fully leverage the growing number of online and social media channels which your target customers are using.

If you would like WDA to evaluate your existing website to see if we can improve your customers experience, increase reach, improve functionality, and drive more enquiries and sales, then get in touch.

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WDA are an award winning brand marketing and advertising / design consultancy specialising in the Automotive, Cycling and Leisure sectors, since 1997.

Based within Derby’s Cathedral Quarter, we are currently seeking to expand the business, and also diversify into new sectors. As part of this objective we seek an account manager with 2-3 years agency experience, with ideally a proven track record within a similar role.

Acting as a link between clients and the agency, you will principally be responsible for assisting / managing several accounts and coordinating projects / campaigns to ensure they are completed on time and on budget.

Some of your time will also be invested in developing business amongst existing clients; and supporting the Managing Director in achieving goals for new business generation (new account wins).

Working as part of a small team the successful candidate will enjoy a large degree of autonomy and have the opportunity to contribute and implement ideas to help shape the business.

You will be expected to enjoy yourself too – working within our sectors has presented some interesting employee perks over the years – from Go-kart racing, bike and car test days, Supercar hire experiences, trips to the Auto shows in Italy and Germany, F1 hospitality; we were even guests on a first class trip to the world’s largest helmet factory in China!

What do you need?

You should be highly organised and have the ability to confidently communicate and participate in meetings with personnel up to senior management level. An understanding of both brand marketing/design services, and ideally an experience / understanding of traditional, digital and social media. Industry knowledge of at least one of the sectors we specialise within is greatly beneficial and if you’re truly passionate for any then that’s even better! Experience utilising a CRM system will also be advantageous.

Above all you should consider yourself a very goal orientated, highly motivated individual who relishes a challenge, and enjoys working under pressure. We need you to come in, roll your sleeves up and make this job your own!

Salary package + OTE is negotiable depending on experience.
Contact Lee Waterhouse on 01332 372 728
or email: lee@wda-automotive.com

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WDA are never happier than when we’re immersed in a sea of web code, and this month we’re putting the final touches to our own site, which will replace the one you are viewing now very soon.

The re-build will bring the home of WDA fully in-line with our new brand visual identity, and has been created utilising a more flexible platform to allow us to better showcase our digital media work including motion graphics, video and animation. Social integration will also be much improved in this update.

Much like WDA’s ideas agency approach focusses on the message before media delivery, the new platform is designed to allow us to focus on rapid content creation and distribution, without technical factors getting in the way. Along with this increase in productivity, the site will be better optimised and have a more robust back end with better security and backups.

As we write, Ricardo and Kevin are refining a new intro animation sequence which we are creating to convey our ideas agency concept and explain our refreshingly different approach to brand marketing. The making of this sequence has also seen Patrick Chapman christen the new sound studio and make his debut as a voiceover artist!

For web, digital and motion graphics enquiries please email here.

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