Superdrug wanted to engage a younger, more fashion-forward audience: an audience that would come in-store to glam-up and experiment.

Think

Affordable beauty has long been part of the core Superdrug proposition, so extending it to affordable beauty services was a logical step. Hence, the introduction of a unique high-end retail beauty concept which was to be premiered in Cardiff, prior to a potential nationwide roll out. The principle was beautifully simple. What was required was an equally beautiful, game-changing approach that would introduce a whole new audience to the idea of ‘glam-while you-wait’.

Create

We created dedicated areas for the beauty and hair salons which would integrate stylishly into a store environment and provide a platform for a glamorous launch campaign: and so Beauty Studio and Hair Space were born.

The launch had to satisfy two key criteria: create a social buzz and engagement at a local level and generate excitement at a national level among the target demographic and key influencers (e.g. beauty bloggers).

Deliver

The creative theme represented a mix of 1950s retro glam and pop art: candy-coloured and fun. Shareable real-time digital content featured on in-store displays and interactive/mirrored screens – connecting the salon with the online world of dedicated followers of fashion and beauty.

Together we worked on delivering:

• Point of sale – artwork production and delivery for the new store
• Logistics and fulfilment – sourcing of materials
• Systems and support – provided a digital screen delivery system that deploys real-time content, as well as the technical support

All of the photography and artwork for in-store and launch comms were designed and produced by our creative team, along with all of the necessary digital content and animations, an in-store catwalk and a selfie app enabling customers to take a pic or video of themselves strutting their stuff and share it instantly.

With around 200,000 visitors and over 2,500 exhibitors ISH is the world’s leading trade fair and international meeting place for the combined topic of water and energy. For Ideal Standard, a multinational bathroom, sanitary ware and plumbing fixture company, it’s the key event in their calendar to showcase new products and ranges to the industry.

The Challenge

We were approached to manage Ideal Standard’s social media channels at the event, as well as ensuring that during the event, social media channels were optimised with content that promoted the events taking place in Frankfurt such as press conferences and product launches.

Think

Our pre-event approach involved posts around the new brand pillars to create an emotion, countdown posts to build excitement about the event and a LinkedIn strategy to encourage the 15,000 followers on LinkedIN to also follow the brand on Instagram.

Create

Our team, comprising of social media managers and filming, editing and photography professionals landed in Frankfurt the day before the event and immediately set about capturing what Ideal Standard had to offer at ISH, with a posting strategy comprised of the following:

• Mix of reportage style shots from the stand and beautiful product shots all showcasing the range and the new brand positioning with a focus on the 3 defined brand pillars.
•  Instazines – Instagram is a great platform to showcase beautiful product shots, however in order to portray product innovation, a greater level of detail was required. We created a series of Instazines – Instagram posts specifically designed to be mini catalogues that gave a greater level of product detail
• Reactive Instagram stories and daily highlight reels were posted throughout the week of the conference building on the buzz surrounding the event and tapping into the audience attending

Deliver

At the end of the pre-event activity and in-event activity, we had grown Ideal Standard’s following from 50 followers to over 5,000, with numbers increasing all the time due to an ‘emotion’ based posting strategy.

“I would like to thank APS Group assisted for a successful ISH 2019. Their dedication, availability and efforts are appreciated. Our posts look great, they drive engagement and growth which is the key in social media.”

Global Digital Director, Ideal Standard

We’ve been working with Superdrug since 2008, building on the strong print management delivery to introduce intuitive creativity and super efficient project management through an onsite agency model.

Think

Superdrug is the UK’s second-largest beauty and health retailer, currently operating over 800 stores across the country.

We’ve created the perfect blend of technology, people and process. It means we can deliver over 1 million pieces of POS each week, all store-specific and 99.4% on-time. Technology continues to play a significant role in continuously improving our services to Superdrug. We have developed a number of online systems, including the Superdrug store profile database and image bank, shelf-edge label approval tool and workflow and task management system.

Create

Our marketing impact has included award-winning multichannel activity including a TV-led ABTL campaign and engaging digital content, delivered to store screens via our content hub.

Deliver

Over the course of our relationship with Superdrug we’ve delivered multi-million pounds worth of savings. Our involvement has also extended to the launch of category-transforming Beauty Studio and Wellbeing stores and ongoing development of a customer loyalty/reward scheme via the Superdrug app that our digital agency offering developed.

“We wanted a long-term partnership with a supplier that shared the same philosophy, was driven by the same values and would consistently challenge the status quo. From the outset it was clear there was a rapport with APS. We were impressed with the straight talking, the openness and honesty and the professional way in which APS conducted its business. There was a real passion about wanting to do things right – a true fit.”

Trading Director, Superdrug

Health insurance specialist Westfield Health had aspirations to lead the Health Cash Plans (HCP) market. Our mission was to reposition this long-established brand, making it relevant to today’s B2B and employee audiences, ultimately driving sales uplift and increasing brand share.

Think

Westfield Health has been championing access to healthcare for the working population since 1919, long before the creation of the NHS was top of the post-war government’s ‘to do’ list. For almost a century, their sole purpose has been to provide working people with affordable health cover, always striving to do more for businesses and employees. Leveraging their ethical, innovative and not for profit business model therefore became our primary focus.

Create

The creation of ‘Harder working health cover’ – a brand proposition that would create a new brand space and enable healthcare intermediaries and corporate clients to see Westfield Health as the dependable healthcare solution.

Deliver

The brand was launched at the Employee Benefits Live conference via an award-winning interactive exhibition stand. A new visual identity was deployed across all communication touch points, including web, digital comms, advertising, brochure collateral, sales decks and workplace marketing tool-kits to enable education, engagement and easy sign up.

“Through the rebrand project, the APS team not only provided first class creative work, but enabled us – and all our employees – in an inclusive process of brand development and rollout that has rallied everyone round our common cause, underpinned by our proud tradition.”

Head of Marketing, Westfield Health