Cardiff Hendre Lakes is a proposed new business district at the heart of the Cardiff Capital Region. Served by Cardiff Parkway railway station, the development has the potential to support around 6,000 jobs and become a transport hub opening up access to employment opportunities across the region. Alongside leading communications, engagement and consultation for the project to support it through planning, we were asked to create a brand that captures a strong sense of place and bring the whole project to life.
In response to growing industry demand for bespoke branding and creative services, Copper Consultancy has expanded its creative team with the addition of four new creatives. Studio Manager Coel Wheeler, Graphic Designer Mudasser Hussain, Designer Holly Constable, and Artworker Sophia Dunne, have all joined the team.
The new appointments to the Copper team have more than 30 years’ of experience between them and will support the wider growth of the business by providing high value visual storytelling for clients across the construction, infrastructure and economic development sectors.
Coel has over 10 years design management experience across a number of sectors including sports, events, manufacturing, and retail. Some highlights include leading the design team for Bristol Sport and working as a graphic designer for former Premier League club Derby County. His diverse skillset includes art direction, typography, mac, web design and page layout.
Mudassar joins with over 15 years’ experience as a multi-disciplinary graphic designer working in design thinking, strategy, digital marketing, and visual communications. Before joining Copper, Mudassar worked for a number of large utility and energy companies including Anglian Water, Equinor and Ørsted.
Holly is a designer with a wealth of experience across digital, print, and social campaigns, and specialises in information and layout design. She has over 5 years graphic design and digital marketing experience working with global brands such as EE, Corona and Budweiser.
Sophia adds expertise in illustrative and bespoke content and is passionate about storytelling through animation and videography. She has provided design work for some of the largest infrastructure projects in the UK for clients such as Hydrogen South West and National Grid.
Copper introduced its dedicated design, brand and digital communications practice in 2020 which has gone from strength to strength, helping to offer more impactful and engaging design for major infrastructure companies and projects. Clients include RWE, HyNet, National Grid, CK Delta, Wildfox Resorts and a host of renewable energy developers.
Annabel John, Director, Strategic Communications & Creative, commented on the new hires:
“Information surrounding infrastructure can be hard to access and as a result there is a need across the industry for accessible and informative content. By bringing projects to life through visual storytelling we can explain technical and complicated concepts in an easy to understand way.
“The new additions to our creative team will allow us to expand our creative service offering to help our clients stand out from design to delivery.”
For more information on the creative team please visit: https://copperconsultancy.com/what-we-do/creative/
Challenge
Insight
The project’s goal is to become a catalyst for growth, contributing to the regeneration of East Cardiff and the wider Cardiff Capital Region by attracting high-quality businesses and investment. The development, which is located to the south of St Mellons Business Park, aims to deliver jobs and investment to the local area while helping people to connect with a unique landscape. All communications needed to be available in Welsh and English.
Strategy
As the site is within a Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of the historically significant Gwent Levels, our aim was to build a relationship with the local community early, to explain the project’s potential benefits and incorporate local knowledge and feedback. This would lay strong foundations for the subsequent pre-application consultation. The design and branding of communications needed to be welcoming and reassuring, as well as flexible enough to work in a bilingual context.
Amplify
We ran a series of branding discovery workshops to create a brand and logo in a colour palette of tonal blues and greens inspired by the natural landscape. To ensure accessibility and inclusion, we chose a simple sans serif font that would work well for Welsh and English printed materials such as a series of booklets, newsletters and feedback forms to support the consultation process. A multi-language website allowed people to access this information in a digital format. Exhibition banners, posters and signage all supported face-to-face consultation events.
Outcome
The brand and materials have been well received by stakeholders and the community alike. Members of the public complimented the accessibility of materials during events surrounding the consultation.
Challenge
Long-standing client CK Delta (data specialist and part of CK Hutchison Holdings) wanted to enhance its reputation as a data insight specialist in target sectors, in particular trade media publications and third-party organisations. It wanted to build on its corporate reputation to increase engagement with thought leaders and opinion formers to drive future business growth.
Insight
While CK Delta has a portfolio spanning retail, utilities, tourism, energy and transport sectors, it wanted to increase its profile among senior corporate decision-makers and industry leaders. CK Delta needed to establish meaningful engagement with opportunities that shifted perception from supplier to industry leader and influencer.
Strategy
We proposed a three-phased approach to deliver the most impactful engagement: Listen and learn, strategise and plan, and deliver. By utilising market data, competitor analysis and target audience mapping, we built a communications programme with an in-depth understanding of CK Delta’s business at its core. From this, three workstreams comprising Insight, Expertise and Influence were delivered to maximise the campaign’s coverage and influence.
Amplify
Our Insight workstream concentrated on showcasing CK Delta’s in-depth knowledge through a series of specialist white papers and reports, positioning CK Delta as the go-to commentator on a series of issues. The Expertise workstream focused on PR via trade press and LinkedIn. At the same time, the Influence workstream maintained the momentum of the campaign through a series of webinars, roundtables and events that brought together key targets.
Outcome
The campaign significantly boosted brand recognition for CK Delta, placing the company at the forefront of industry discussion. We actively created opportunities for the leadership team to engage with key clients and prospects, and they continue to receive invitations to participate in industry events. CK Delta’s presence in key trade titles has increased considerably, as has its business growth target results. We are retained by CK Delta on an ongoing basis to deliver corporate and B2B communications.
Challenge
Bath and Northeast Somerset Council has an ambitious target to become net zero by 2030. Understanding the critical part transport plays in the region’s carbon emissions, Bath’s ‘Journey to Net-Zero’ set out to identify the transport measures needed over the short, medium and long term to deliver its ambition and the needs of the community.
To get the initiative off the ground, the Council needed to make a case for the project and generate widespread, representative participation in the public consultation process.
Insight
While a high-profile project for Bath and Northeast Somerset Council, it was unknown outside of the organisation and therefore had no momentum among target groups. It was also critical the consultation was inclusive and had the support of hard-to-reach groups traditionally disengaged with the Council’s priorities.
COVID added a further layer of complexity, forcing restrictions on public gatherings, immediately ruling out face-to-face engagement opportunities.
Strategy
Our priority was introducing the project to the widespread community and instigating insightful conversations with the general public, including hard-to-reach groups, and stakeholders to give them a voice and demonstrate advocacy for the project.
Our content and online strategy focused on creating a compelling, accessible narrative around the council’s vision for net zero and removing barriers to engagement and participation.
Amplify
We began by developing an audience-focused narrative to tell a compelling story around the project. The narrative formed the backbone of communications and engagement assets designed to appeal to a diverse audience, including an animation, ‘fast facts’ visuals and targeted content.
Online consultation reached all pockets of the community using targeted social media channels. A thought-provoking, sharable content programme maximised our reach and prompted peer-led support for the consultation and vision.
Further engagement opportunities were created via public and stakeholder webinars.
Outcome
The consultation secured engagement and input from a broad audience representative of the community served by Bath and Northeast Somerset Council. More than 1,000 responses over a one-month period reflected the needs and priorities of a wide community base, including groups usually under-represented, to help the organisation confidently shape a range of solutions.