News
In business with Ayrshire Chamber
Ocean is delighted to become a partner for business with Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the leading organisation representing the business community in the whole of Ayrshire.
Ocean is just one of a handful of companies to have a partnership of this kind with Ayrshire Chamber, and is the only creative marketing agency represented. The new partnership will undoubtedly raise the profile of Ocean in the area, through publicity in Chamber communications and at events.
School hired!
Members of the Ocean team have been sharing their expertise with secondary pupils in the Business Challenge Schools Project, an Apprentice style workshop organised by Ayrshire Chamber. The project involved 6th year Business Studies students from across South Ayrshire devising a strategy to promote their school to families relocating to the area, following the recent opening of the National Ayr Traffic Services at Prestwick. Anji took the students through the various stages of the branding process to define the creative brief, while Derek followed up with a presentation on how this brief is then used to create designs which match the brand essence. The students used this information to develop their campaigns, which Derek and Anji scored along with "Alan Sugar" in the dreaded boardroom. Ayr's Belmont Academy took home the trophy.
Ocean sails into business awards
It’s red carpet time for the Ocean team following a nomination for one of Scotland’s most prestigious business awards. ‘Digitalk’, the glossy magazine which Ocean produces monthly for Sky, has been shortlisted in the Best Employee Magazine category of the Communicators in Business Scotland Awards. The Ocean team has been producing Digitalk for 18 months, providing copywriting and editorial support, as well as designing and print managing the publication. Winners will be announced at CIB’s glittering black tie event to be held in Glasgow in February.
Brand new job for town centre
There was more winning on the pitch for Ocean when the agency clinched Ayrshire's most high profile creative project in recent years - to design and develop the brand identity for Ayr Renaissance, the regeneration company set up to revitalise the town centre through a multi-million pound urban development programme. Ocean's marketing team held a 'brand workshop' with members of Ayr Renaissance to determine the brand personality and define a clear creative brief. The design team used this to produce a dynamic logo based on the positive force of a wave and reflecting the town's coastal location.
Sit back and enjoy
It's a catalogue like no other! Ocean took a completely new approach when commissioned to produce a brochure for Ogilvie Engineering showcasing their range of street and park furniture. Based on creative concepts and ideas throughout, this 32 page brochure has humour, glamour, class and warmth, leaving traditional catalogues firmly in the shade.
Website please
Work on a website for a new internet-based delivery service is well underway. Going live in September, www.parcelsplease.co.uk has a clean and fresh look which is clear to read and easy to navigate. Online features offered to customers include quick quotes, on-line tracking and live assistance.
Perthshire pitch
Ocean has just completed an extensive range of integrated marketing communications for Perthshire based Erigmore Estate. The agency won the account following an intensive pitch to rebrand the Estate which provides quality holiday accommodation and leisure facilities from its woodland setting on the banks of the River Tay. Project Managed by Ocean’s Marketing Director Anji McMillan, the team produced a stunning range of brochures, together with welcome packs, folders and signage. With a new look website also required, the team used the scenic location to develop a highly visual, yet functional and easy to use site, offering on-line booking facilities.
Prestigious win by word of mouth
Reputation was the key factor when Ocean won a new web design and development job with Ayrshire’s prestigious Blairquhan Castle. One of the finest Regency homes in Scotland, Blairquhan required a fresh approach to its website, having turned its attention towards the weddings and events market. Through word of mouth, the owners of the 2000-acre woodlands and countryside estate near Maybole invited the agency to make proposals for redesigning and rebuilding their whole website which goes live later this month. www.blairquhan.co.uk
College briefs
Earlier this year Ocean showed its support for nurturing creative talent locally by teaming up with final year design students from Ayr College. Students were given a taste of commercial design by working on a brief to develop a new Ocean logo, mirroring the Ocean designers every step of the way. Five students were then chosen to design an advert for the agency, with a month’s paid summer placement on offer as the prize. The winner was 19 year-old Esther Nicolson from Ayr who enthusiastically described her time with Ocean as ‘brilliant’. Following the success of this project, the agency hopes to continue bridging the gap between education and the creative industry by returning to the campus next year.
Let's talk about sex
Size really did matter when Ocean landed the job of producing two sex education packs for South Ayrshire schools. With 250 pages of information and 100 illustrations required, NHS Ayrshire & Arran commissioned Ocean to manage the entire project - from pulling content together and devising a tab index system, to creating designs and illustrations for the 10-16 age group, sourcing folders and specifying print. The final products will be used by School Nurses as part of the P6-S4 sex education curriculum.
New crew
The agency design team has been strengthened with the arrival of Graphic Designer Taylor Quate, who got on board in August, bringing with him almost 15 years’ industry experience. Starting out in-house with North Lanarkshire Council, Taylor spent ten years with Glasgow design studio Geo-Graphics, before joining the Ocean crew.
Setting sail with maritime win
Ocean has won the account for a new million pound investment in maritime infrastructure and facilities in North Ayrshire. The agency will manage two large-scale campaigns on behalf of the local authority, beginning later this year with stakeholders and in the spring targeting consumers. As well as producing the design elements for the project, including brochures, website and exhibition stands, the Ocean team will be handling all strategic marketing, press and pr inhouse also.
Sky's the limit
Ocean saw off competition from London and across the UK to clinch a communications contract with the UK’s leading entertainment company, Sky. The champagne popped as the whole team celebrated the win to produce one of the company’s quality monthly magazines. Designing and print managing the publication, the agency will also provide editorial support, copywriting and photography.
New directions
When Artista relaunched as Ocean Agency in April of this year, it was more than just a change of name. It marked instead the rebranding of a graphic design studio into a communications agency, and signalled a move to reposition the company within the creative industry. Ocean’s Creative Director Derek Goodchild had launched Artista in 1989 and it quickly gained recognition as a leading graphic design agency. Over the years Artista’s range of design services expanded significantly, but when the company next branched out into marketing and pr, the Artista brand no longer reflected its full creativity. With a cocktail of strategic marketing planning, copywriting, pr, advertising management, graphic design, web development, multimedia, photography and illustration, Ocean is one of the few agencies in the area to offer the complete communications package in-house.
