Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

NDA Agency News: The Kite Factory, Cheil UK, Hubble and many more

Independent media agency The Kite Factory has teamed up with Action for Children on their annual flagship fundraising campaign, Secret Santa. All children deserve to feel the magic of Christmas. By becoming a Secret Santa – and donating money – you can help bring happiness, warmth and safety to UK vulnerable children. Action for Children is a lifeline for families when they have nowhere else to turn. Last year, Action for Children supported over 670,000 children, young people and families in the UK. Killer Creative developed fresh new creative and an animated TV ad for Secret Santa this year. The Kite Factory created a media strategy using both on and offline channels to engage with prospective donors. The plan included TV as a first for Secret Santa, Radio to amply the TV ad and TikTok to reach a brand new audience.

Samsung is inviting dog owners and their pooches along to its Samsung KX store to enjoy a free pet pampering session and portrait shoot, in an experiential activation to promote its Jet Pet vacuum range. The initiative was developed in partnership with Cheil UK. In order to build awareness of Jet Pet, the tech brand has worked with Cheil to develop an in-store activation which taps into dog owners’ love of their pets while also enabling them to get hands-on with the vacuum range alongside product experts. At the Jet Pet activation, which runs on Sunday 4th and Monday 5th December, pet owners will have the opportunity to visit a special grooming station with their dog and trial the Jet Pet range in action, before getting a personalised Christmas pet portrait to take home with them, drawn by a caricaturist using the Samsung Galaxy Tab. To maximise buzz around the event, visitors will be encouraged to share their pet portraits via social channels using the hashtags #SamsungVacuum and #SamsungKX, giving them the chance to win prizes, from Pets at Home vouchers to exclusive Samsung Jet vacuums. Samsung is promoting and amplifying the initiative through a media partnership with Time Out, with activity including advertorials, a homepage takeover, content in the Time Out newsletter, social ads, and social content. Pet owners can sign up to attend the event on timeout.com, or via the Samsung website.

Following a competitive pitch, Europe’s leading orthodontics brand, Impress, has appointed unique advertising solution Hubble as its media agency to handle all TV-based activity in the UK. Hubble manages brand campaigns across borders through its centralised hub model, which allows brands to unlock key international markets at pace, and more resource- and cost-effectively. Having already worked with the centralised Impress marketing team in Spain, Hubble made the ideal media partner to bring the brand’s offering to the UK public using its unique hub marketing solution. Impress has recently closed a successful Series B funding round and opened several clinics in the UK. It appointed Hubble to help it disrupt the orthodontics category and drive brand awareness and sales across its clinics in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and London. Hubble kicked off work with Impress with its first TV campaign, which features Georgina Rodriguez, model and entrepreneur, showcasing the brand’s affordable solution to costly orthodontics. Hubble led the media planning, strategy and translation of the UK TV campaign. Hubble planned the campaign to target Impress core demographic of women aged 25–44 by identifying channels that would best resonate with them. The ads were planned to run during a mix of fame-building spots on C4, Film4, E4 and Dave. Spots include Great British Bake-Off Sunday Brunch and the film Pitch Perfect 3. Hubble also used geotargeting to reach the core audience living near Impress’ clinics for its BVoD spots.

Integrated marketing agency, Fiora based in London and Bristol, has scooped the omnichannel work for the two Norac Foods UK brands: La Boulangère (including its two ranges Vegan and Classic) and WHAOO!. Establishing its presence in the UK market in 2015, today Norac Foods UK products are stocked in major grocers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Coop and Ocado to name a few. Fiora was awarded the account without a pitch and its remit will cover an omnichannel approach across all digital assets including strategy, creative, websites, paid online media, organic social media and eCommerce – direct to consumer. This new partnership spans the establishment of a close working relationship between Fiora and Norac Foods UK teams.

Luxury automotive brand, Genesis, is to launch a new brand activation platform, SOUND, ELECTRIFIED, which will see it stage the world’s first DJ set and global live stream powered by a car. The new platform was developed in partnership with strategic and creative company ScienceMagic.Inc, which was appointed earlier this year to support the launch of three new electric cars, starting with the GV60. The new activity aims to build brand visibility and connection with the Genesis brand amongst UK communities, as part of a broader activation plan that includes communications, events, content and advocacy with key opinion leaders. 

Lucky Generals has been appointed as the lead creative agency for Princes Seafood, following a competitive pitch in June. Lucky Generals has been awarded the business because of the agency’s strategic rigour and track record of creating powerful brand ideas. It will begin by building a new positioning and platform for Princes Seafood before developing a launch campaign with the aim to improve salience and deliver on ambitious growth targets. Princes has been committed to providing natural food since 1890. The brand now wants to raise its visibility whilst reinforcing the nourishing qualities of their products.

Natwest and VaynerMedia EMEA are collaborating again to launch season two of the Natwest Business Show Podcast. The first episode features Ashville Aggregates founder Daniel Ashville, whose expertise on social media and natural talent for managing people helped him build a multi-million-pound construction business and devoted online following. Additional guests for the new season are: serial entrepreneur, television and podcast personality Steven Bartlett; Oh So Yum Founder and 2022 winner of The Apprentice, Harpreet Kaur; former Dragon and Nightcap CEO, Sarah Willingham; CEO of Peanut, Michelle Kennedy; Miles Laflin AKA The Pool Guy; CanOWater Co-Founder, Josh White; and Co-Founder of Fanbytes plus Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, Timo Armoo. The themes for the series have been carefully selected to inform and inspire both current and aspiring business owners, with a selection of episodes that tackle some of today’s biggest challenges in the current environment. Following episode one, other topics covered this season include: growth challenges, overcoming obstacles, working with investors, being social savvy, building a challenger mindset, the power of purpose to differentiate and successful scaling.

Nest Commerce has announced the launch of its own full-production paid social creative service, Nest Studio, winning a roster of four scaling D2C brands. Nest Commerce is a fast growing paid social and creative agency bringing a bold perspective to brands such as Ted Baker, Decathlon, ME+EM and Crew Clothing. The creative division will sit within Nest Commerce and with a team of 9 led by ex-lululemon Head of Creative Ben Ryder, offering creative optimisation to full-scale production, built on testing frameworks to learn and iterate on what drives performance. Nest is now able to offer a full service offering, with creative layered on to the agency’s established paid social offering of performance and brand, significantly amplifying results for clients. The four clients who the agency have signed for ongoing paid social creative production are online stylist Outfittery, healthy snack brand Misfits, bladder care specialist Jude and sustainable sonic toothbrush pioneers SURI.