Brand Identity and IrelandAn exploration of brand Ireland and Irish brands with Eoghan Nolan Brand Artillery, Think & Son

Galway International Arts Festival 2016

First… what is a brand?

If in doubt, consult the Oxford English Dictionary(a huge brand in its own right).

Brand or brand-image n.the impression of a product in the minds of potential users or consumers

fig., the general or popular conception of some person or thing.

My favourite definition?A product is made in a factory.

A brand is made in the mind.

So now we know what a brand is…

What is Ireland?

If in doubt, consult Google(a huge brand in its own right).

Ok – that’s where it is. Now what does it mean…What is ‘Irish’?

Yet however a brand is defined, it is never written in stone.

Instead, brands are in motion, constantly evolving.

Some have huge emotional resonance, evoking a sense of home, of pride, or even of love.

Some brands can re-position themselves dramatically.

A classic example is Lucozade, which moved from the bedside locker of the sick…

…to the locker room of the healthy.

And of course brands can be dramatically re-positioned by forces outside their control.

As brands, nations are also prone to change, from…

to…

Brands are affected by many things.

There are limits to every brand.

And no brand is too big to fail.

As a creative director, working with brands is mostly about problem-solving.

Glasnevin

When we were asked to encourage visitors to Glasnevin Cemetery Museum, the problem was obvious.

As a working cemetery, Glasnevin is associated with a sombre state of mind. People didn’t always know its bright, contemporary offering.

The answer is often in the product itself and we looked to the ledgers containing the names of the 1.5 million people buried in Glasnevin since 1832.

We learned that in fact it is true to say that all human life is in Glasnevin.

By pairing the family names in humorous combinations, we communicated scale while lowering the ‘sombre’ barrier.

Yoko Ono in Daniel O’Connell’s crypt at Glasnevin Cemetery

Dublin

Among potential short-break visitors, Dublin is famous as a party town.This doesn’t appeal equally to the ‘Culturally Curious’ and ‘Social Energisers’.

We had to communicate the fact that Dublin is situated on a bay – and that the coast is just half an hour from the city centre. This all had to be quickly conveyed in a logo and a line.

Next, the ad campaign in London and Dublin needed a suitably irreverent tone of voice.

Colourtrend

Colourtrend is a paint brand that wanted us to communicate that it is a pedigree Irish paint with a story.

The story of Colourtrend is both of its origin and how it takes inspiration for its palette from the Irish landscape.

Our insight: colour is to the home as poetry is to language.

So we looked for a poem connected to Ireland which spoke of landscape and colour.

We chose ‘Pied Beauty’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins and were lucky enough to get Fiona Shaw to read it for us. (We also selected an excellent director and DP).

We told more of the story on radio.

And in print.

And just to show that everything is a circle, here’s Seamus Heaney at the grave of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Thank you.Wherever you are and whatever your brand, if you’d like a truly creative ad campaign, we’d be happy to hear from you.

email: eoghan@theartilleries.comPhone: +353 872655288

With thanks to co-creatorsAnnie Atkins and Tony Purcell and all who have collaborated in the campaigns shown here, with special thanks to Des Mullan and Rocket Productions, Symphonic and of course Fiona Shaw.

Thanks also to creators of the other images used here.

© Brand Artillery 2016 © Brand Artillery 2017

© Think & Son 2016 © Think & Son 2017

brandartillery.com thinkandson.com@brandartillery