During my 2 year tenure, sales and revenue increased by €126 million. €53.2 million of that was achieved by one record breaking Back-To-School campaign.
Working In-House at Staples was like being an internal spy; hearing, seeing and listening to the heart of the business as it went through a radical business transformation.
As part of this fast moving transformation, Staples needed to establish a completely new in-house creative agency to ideate, create and produce all of their printed marketing collateral and digital advertising for 17 European countries.
My role (European Creative Director / Agency Leadership Team) was to build a fully operational creative department capable of delivering everything the business needed; Fully integrated ad campaigns aligned to a seasonal thematic calendar, Websites, TV commercials, Posters, Weekly flyers, E-commerce emails, Annual Catalogues, Retail Signage and more.
Alongside all of this, the creative department ideated, designed and produced a complete set of European Go-To-Market Guidelines for the entire business.
Staples Agency Europe was outstanding. For an in-house agency, it produced awarded work that positively engaged customers and massively increased sales.
As the in-house creative department, we did everything we could to bring unconventional thinking and purposeful disruption to all that we did. We wanted to be noticed and we wanted to build trust. While other departments had tedious Monday Morning Meetings, we created the Knights Of The Round Table gatherings. We placed our ongoing work over the walls and had open conversations while others closed their doors.
Even as we grew with new hires, we still kept an open approach to all the work we did on a daily basis. We made sure we had each others backs, we sat with 'the business' to explain our thinking and we shared countless ways to keep ourselves creatively active within the walls of a big corporate brand, just as an advertising agency should.
BACK TO SCHOOL
A set of 3D characters were originally created for the print, web and retail campaign, but it quickly became evident, that once they had been fleshed out, the potential to use them as moving characters was a real opportunity.
Working with Portugal's best animation production company (Ingreme), we created two TV ads. One for the UK market, the other for Portugal. These ads created huge awareness and generated massive sales... They also won awards.
CD: Craig Lovelidge • Copywriter: Laura Bury • Art Direction (ACD): Chris Barton • 3D Characters: Storyboards Animation & TV Production: Ingreme
WEBSITE
RETAIL PRINT
RETAIL POSTERS
IN-STORE REMINDERS
RECORD BREAKING SALES
The response from Staples customers was incredible. One teacher alone spent €3,500 on a single visit to the Staples store in Lisbon. The store staff were so impressed, they took a picture of the till receipt.
With a marketing/production budget of just €150,000, the total sales for this campaign totalled €53.2m, breaking all previous Back To School sales records for Staples Europe.
KINGSDAY
Kingsday is one massive party AND it is the only day in the year when you are legally allowed to sell things out on the street. We took this concept of being able to 'be an entrepreneur for a day' and used it to the public's and Staples advantage.
CD: Craig Lovelidge • Copywriter: Laura Bury • Art Director: Monique Pawirosemito
TOILET ROLL BOWLING
We created a fun game to show customers that Staples sold office supplies, not just office stationary. Sadly, the prototype of the game never made it past this stage but nonetheless, it was a great fun project.
CD: Craig Lovelidge • Concept & Art Direction (ACD): Chris Barton • Production: Bannerboy
STAPLES EUROPEAN REBRAND
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