Paul Feldwick worked at the legendary creative agency Boase Massimi Pollitt for over 30 years. His latest book, Why Does The Pedlar Sing?, examines what creativity really means in advertising. In April, he joined Bristol Creative Industries to share some of his insights. Dan Martin summarises the fascinating event.
Paul Feldwick has a distinguished career in advertising and has worked on some of Britain’s most famous advertising campaigns including the PG Tips chimpanzees, Rowan Atkinson promoting Barclaycard and the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster. What all those ads have in common is entertainment, a factor which Paul believes is essential in successful advertising.
But there is actually a long-held belief by many that entertainment actually doesn’t work. Claude C. Hopkins famously argued in his book Scientific Advertising in the 1920s that people don’t buy from clowns. “Advertising pictures should not be eccentric”, he wrote. “Don’t treat your subject lightly. Don’t lessen respect for yourself or your article by any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects.”
“Father of Advertising” David Ogilvy was a big fan of Hopkins and Sergio Zyman, who worked for Coca-Cola in the 1980s and helped launch the Diet Coke brand, said that advertising that merely entertains does not work.
But Paul Feldman is a big fan of entertainment in advertising, a subject of his book, Why Does The Pedlar Sing?
“The tradition of advertising that works by entertaining is not a new one, it probably is very ancient indeed”, he said during the event. “I see it as going right back to the medieval peddler, who would travel from house to house from village to village with what he was selling. He was a travelling entertainer, he would sing songs, he would tell jokes and he would dress in a funny way. He was all purpose, general entertainer.
“Entertainment as a way of selling things contradicts all those arguments about people not buying from clowns and selling a serious business. How is it that despite the fact that so much advertising through the ages has used entertainment, have we got saddled with the ongoing belief that selling ought to be a serious business?
Before he tackled why entertainment and humour are good for advertising, Paul acknowledged that Claude C. Hopkins’ argument does hold up for direct response advertising, the kind of ads that you see in Sunday newspapers.
“It tends to be very sober,” he said, “it tends to be giving you the facts, it tends to be avoiding jokes and it doesn’t do anything that is eccentric or odd. If it’s well done, it works absolutely brilliantly. You know it works because the advertisers know exactly how much each insertion sells and exactly what the responses are.
“The split-run technique used by direct response advertisers originated back in the 1890s. It was based on using coupon responses that Hopkins evolved his give the facts, give the information argument around.”
“We used to tend to believe as a default that advertising works by a matter of rational persuasion; it has to give reasons why, it has to give consumer benefits. That’s the language that we still use a lot. If you look at most people’s creative briefs, they still have the idea of the central proposition. There has to be a single-minded proposition, we are telling people why the product is better.”
But Paul said that idea was turned on its head by the work of marketing specialist Andrew Ehrenberg and then Australian professor called Byron Sharp, who wrote the influential book, How Brands Grow.
“He had the radical idea, which was originated by Ehrenberg, that advertising doesn’t really work by persuading people or giving information at all. It works by creating something that they call mental availability. To put that very simply, it’s like fame. All that needs to happen in order for a brand to grow is that it needs to come to more people’s minds, more often, and then they’re more likely to choose it.”
Paul continued that this is also why people choose one brand over another. “Why do more people buy McDonald’s products than Burger King? Because more people think about McDonald’s more often than Burger King, and they have more associations with McDonald’s than they do with Burger King because they’ve had more experience of it.”
Paul said neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have shown that what underpins our decisions is something that’s emotional. If we don’t have an emotional response, we simply cannot make decisions so there’s no such thing as an entirely rational decision. “That’s why so much advertising has done something different, and what it has done differently is using entertainment”, he added.
So why does entertainment work?
It makes us feel good and simulates an emotional reaction, Paul said.
To illustrate the point he used the example of the massively successful advertising campaign by tea brand PG Tips which used anthropomorphic chimpanzees dressed in human clothes. It started in 1956 and ran until 2002.
The brand remained a bestseller throughout that period despite lots of advertising by other tea brands and the introduction of much cheaper own brand products by supermarkets. Paul explained: “PG Tips maintained a significant business advantage, not by telling people why their tea was better, but because people remembered it more, it was more top of mind, and they felt more positive about it. That was through doing advertising that was entertaining and fun.”
Another example is the Compare the Meerkat advertising campaign from Compare the Market which Paul says uses the principles of entertainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIfWCrAdtX4
“It has characters, it has drama, it has incident, it has talking animals, it’s childish, it’s ridiculous.” It is also massively successful.
Holding his own cuddly meerkat, Paul Feldwick said the brand has gone one step further by using merchandise that generates even stronger consumer connections with the brand. The Kevin the Carrot campaign by supermarket chain Aldi is another example of a business linking merchandise to its entertaining advertising.
Another brand ticking the entertainment box is Premier Inn and comedian Lenny Henry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZI_p2_dYw
“It has to distinguish itself from the very similar business Travelodge and it has been hugely succeeded in doing that,” Paul Feldwick said.
The use of Lenny Henry also epitomises the use of a ‘distinctive asset’. It’s something or someone that is unique, distinctive and recognisable. The meerkats and Kevin the Carrot are other examples.
“If you create something that is trying to say something about your product, the chances are you’ll produce something that looks pretty much like what all your competitors are doing,” Paul advised. “But if you produce something that has nothing whatsoever to do with your product, like a meerkat, then you have got something that is unique and is part of the psychology of what lodges in people’s memory.
Good distinctive assets are those that follow the rules of what makes good entertainment, Paul Feldwick said.
Upcoming Bristol Creative Industries events:
Innovative and creative businesses are welcome to join us for a webinar about grant applications and funding on 7th June 2021, delivered by Dr Ben Masheder and Adele Reynolds of Business West’s Access to Funding and Finance Team and James Wheale, Creative Sector Lead at Innovate UK EDGE.
The webinar will discuss grants available to support innovation within the creative industries.
We will cover:
During this special focus session, time will be dedicated on how to apply to the newly announced Creative Industries Fund: fast start business growth pilot (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/919/overview) from Innovate UK, Deadline for this £25,000, 100% funded innovation grant opportunity is Wednesday 16th June at 11am.
Free registration for BCI members (£10+VAT for non-members). Webinar link will be shared before the event.
More information about Innovate UK EDGE can be found at: https://www.innovateukedge.ukri.org/
To connect with Ben, Adele and James to see how they may be able to support you and your business, email [email protected] with ‘Access to Funding – Creative’ in the subject line.
Whether you’ve thrived or suffered in the last year, the uncertainties and market changes have put a new emphasis on the concept of value, requiring agency owners, team members and investors to all think differently.
Creating, protecting and realising value demands more rigour, better planning and greater attention to detail. And if you’re not adapting to these new standards, your personal, team and business prosperity could well be at risk.
But please don’t think these challenges only apply if you have an imminent desire to sell your business. Whatever your eventual destination might turn out to be, you’ll want to nurture and safeguard your value in the meantime, keeping your options open for the longer term.
So, to be sure that you’re on the right value track, ask yourself if you have:
We explain these new standards and how to achieve them in our Future Positive Value guide. Find out more about what it will take to optimise value in the next era, with no half measures and nothing much left to chance.
The West of England has a strong legacy as a creative industries hub attracting major broadcasters, film companies and digital industries alike to our vibrant towns and cities. Like all industries, however, COVID-19 has hit creative companies hard and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has been here to support the creative industries as they work to get through the impact of the pandemic.
To support this, WECA has launched a new business support programme for businesses and individuals working in the creative industries, as part of its Regional Recovery Plan. The programme is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) working in the creative industries, including creative freelancers, and is designed to build resilience and support change in response to COVID-19.
There is also a grant fund for creative freelancers that will give self-employed people the opportunity to become more resilient by developing their own creative product, practice or service, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Grants for creative businesses will fund creative projects that support recovery and resilience, employ freelance creatives, engage local communities and advance diversity and inclusion.
The business support programme has been designed in consultation with members of the creative and cultural sector. The programme also fits with WECA’s ambitions to establish a West of England Cultural Compact, an initiative jointly funded with Arts Council England. This will involve the creation of a new strategic cultural partnership which will lead on the development of a Cultural Strategy and new activities to help increase investment across the creative and cultural sectors in the region.
WECA recently announced a £11.8m investment to boost creative jobs with the expansion of Bottle Yard Studios, which plays host to a wide range of productions, including drama, children’s TV, feature films, gameshows and commercials. Bottle Yard’s growth will also help to support other businesses across the region which rely on film and TV production opportunities.
Almost 60 companies from a range of creative industries across the region have also benefitted from WECA’s Creative Scale-Up programme. This two-year pilot helps creative businesses access finance and peer mentoring through an intensive six-month minimum sustainable growth support programme. WECA has opened applications for the fourth cohort of the programme
Here’s a snapshot of some of the businesses that have benefitted from the programme:
Since joining the Creative Scale Up programme in January 2020, Bristol-based independent development studio and games consultancy Auroch Digital has secured a new publishing deal and taken on 15 new members of staff.
“The Creative Scale Up programme, particularly the mentoring process, was great – we were able to pick mentors targeting specific needs we have. We got direct support with business questions as they arose and that helped us deal with them and move forward.
“As a result, we’ve been able to advance some key areas of the company. We’ve landed one big publishing deal for a new IP game and are circling a second big project, and that mentoring advice has been part of the mix of positives getting us there. Information provided by the Creative Scale Up team also led us to a UWE Digital Innovation Fund grant.” Dr Tomas Rawlings, chief executive, Auroch Digital
Noiser, which specialises in history and drama storytelling with immersive sound design, used the WECA Creative Scale Up £2,000 business grant to develop a sales team and define a clear strategy to drive sales.
“For Noiser, we are not looking for generic business support; I liked how the scheme’s supervisors made us aware that we could find our own mentors and they were able to help connect us with pertinent professionals they were in touch with. This was crucially important.”
Stornaway.io accessed grant funding to re-invest in the creative development of the business.
Having identified a gap in the market for a collaborative web application that lets media producers write, test and publish interactive films easily and affordably without coding, the team was, understandably, wary about how to effectively promote and launch a new product in lockdown.
To showcase the product’s capabilities, Stornaway.io used grant funding to commission and produce a short film called “A Little Hungover”, which would premiere as part of the Immersive Encounters Festival. In order to help futureproof the business, the team at Stornaway.io also made great use of the peer mentoring aspects of the Creative Scale Up programme.
“Launching this new product in the middle of lockdown, the Creative Scale-Up peer mentoring programme was an invaluable community of practice. It was fantastic to meet and develop connections with the leaders of such a wide range of creative businesses in the South West. We have developed a number of ongoing relationships with our peers which we hope will continue to be mutually beneficial.” Kate Dimbleby, co-founder, Stornaway.io
Creative scale-up support includes a £6,000 grant to spend on mentoring support, a dedicated Peer Support Network and sector specific business development training. Businesses are also supported to consider their future finance options and are supported to learn about investment and engage with investors.
Creative businesses wanting to find out more about the new business support programme, grant funds and the Creative Scale Up programme should visit WECA’s Growth Hub page.
The West of England Business Support Guide can also help you navigate the range of support available via the combined authority’s dedicated business support service, the Growth Hub, which provides tailored one-to-one advice and access to finance, support and expert guidance.
As a small, proactive PR agency, we work on a mix of short term projects and longer term PR activity. Working on a range of clients and communications helps to keep us fresh and we enjoy being able to help fledging companies as well as large, more established businesses.
A short burst of activity can give a company or individual a boost and create the kind of impact they’re after. While longer-term pushes can build and sustain momentum as well as awareness amongst your target audience.
We want to position you and your business as thought leaders – trusted sources for commentary and information that journalists come back to time and again. The best way to do that is through a sustained approach.
Clients often ask what they can do to support that and the answer is quite a bit. We start with how they’re currently engaging with publications and journalists – including on social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter.
This is a good way to raise awareness, helping to amplify coverage and getting to know the content being covered.
These are good steps to take to help support PR efforts and get you even closer to the publications and writers that will be the most powerful for you.
To find out more about engaging with publications check out our post on the importance of working with local and trade press.
Recently, Armadillo Chairman, Chris Thurling, spoke to South West Business Insider on the topic of choosing your marketing agency. When dealing with creative abstracts such as brand, message, creative strategy, digital engagement and design, it can be difficult to know what exactly it is you should be looking for. Chris provides his advice on what to consider when seeking out a marketing agency that’s suitable for your business.
Should you look for sector specialisms?
Even though there can be good reasons to select a sector specialist agency, there are strong arguments the other way. One of the main benefits of using an agency with broad sector experience is its ability to bring fresh perspectives compared to in-house teams or agency specialists. Generalists have learnings from brands in different sectors that they bring to a brief, and ultimately the skills are transferable. Partnering with an agency that works across various sectors also decreases the chances of merely rehashing your competitors’ work and increases the likelihood of innovation.
The importance of ROI
An agency’s ability to indicate potential ROI ahead of the project depends mainly on how much information you are willing to divulge. The more transparent you are, the more accurately an agency can indicate the potential outcome. However, without detailed insight upfront, this can be difficult.
Think long-term
Crises such as the one we are living through often see brands choose to abandon strategy and go into panic mode. For example, brand building activities get dialled down in favour of budget savings or short-term customer acquisition approaches. Smart and confident companies tend to hold their nerve and continue investing in their brands with the long-term in mind.
These comments originally featured in the South West Business Insider, April 2021. Follow the link to read the full article, including comments from a variety of other business leaders and industry professionals.
The UK’s creative industries have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, but there are also many examples of innovation and successful pivots.
The sector is vital to the UK economy and as Britain looks to recover, the government has set out its vision in the ‘Build Back Better’ strategy.
But how do the creative industries feature in the plans?
Gail Caig is a freelance consultant currently working as an advisor to the Creative Industries Council. She also joined the Bristol Creative Industries board earlier this year. Speaking to Dan Martin, Gail highlights the key measures for the creative businesses and freelancers in the government’s 2021 Budget and wider recovery plans.
“Many businesses in the creative industries have been incredibly hard hit by COVID-19 but that experience has not been not universal. Elements of the creative industries that depend on footfall and live experience have suffered a great deal, but some parts of the sector, like games companies for example, have been thriving and attracting new audiences.
“We have seen a huge amount of innovation and entrepreneurial activity in the sector. In their response to the difficulties during the pandemic, many organisations have looked at new ways to engage audiences, they have embraced technology like AR and VR and have done their storytelling in a different way. Innovation is a huge positive that has come out of all this but I think it’s less clear how you can viably get ongoing revenue from the new innovation. Venues, theatres etc have been very successful in reaching audiences and finding new ways to share content, but that’s no replacement for a live audience and many of the traditional business models.
“There has been support from the government. The £1.5bn Cultural Recovery Fund was a huge vote of kind of confidence and belief in the sector by the government. It hasn’t been a panacea and it hasn’t protected every element of the sector, but it is a very substantial investment which recognises how important the government sees the UK’s cultural and creative infrastructure.
“On the negative side, the pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of freelancers which make up a third of creative industry workers. They can’t access the furlough scheme in most instances, and a big section of freelancers, particularly new entrants to the creative industries, can’t access the Self-employment Income Support Scheme. I think there’s a real concern in the industry that the new generation of talent could be irretrievably lost.
“That has been a real priority for organisations like the Creative Industries Federation. They’ve been lobbying the government about the need to recognise the freelance workforce.”
“In the Budget itself, and a series of documents published alongside it, the government is demonstrating that it recognises the importance of the creative industries and its capacity to bring communities together and regenerate. That’s really good news for the sector because it means that government policy going forward should be shaped in a way that will help and support the creative industries. That’s not a given. It’s a situation that has evolved and developed over the last 20 years when the creative industries were first recognised by the government as a specific, important and valuable sector.
“In the government’s Build Back Better strategy, the creative industries are featured throughout. In his forward, chancellor Rishi Sunak says: ‘We have an international reputation for science and world-class universities. And we have strengths across many sectors, from financial services to creative industries.'”
“The government announced in the Budget a consultation on the definition of R&D tax credits. The creative industries are innovative because they are constantly reinventing their products and services and they do a huge amount of R&D. But because a lot of that R&D doesn’t happen in a traditional industrial way, it’s not recognised as R&D. That has a business level implication because R&D tax credits as they’re currently structured are not accessible to the creative industries. The sector has been lobbying for a long time to get the R&D that happens within the sector recognised. This new consultation references the creative industries which is very positive.”
“The £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund has been extended by £300m.
“The government also put in place previously the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme that has supported productions in carrying on despite COVID. The scheme has been extended.”
“There has been an ongoing problem with apprenticeships in the creative industries. The vast majority are micro businesses with a very small number of employees. They don’t have the capacity to take on an individual for a long period of time and provide training. Many are project-based such as TV production companies. When they have big periods of activity they’ve got work to offer but they can’t guarantee 12 months.
“Also for micro businesses, the admin involved in taking people on is a really significant burden. Making apprenticeships work across many tiny businesses is a very different proposition to one big car plant. The apprenticeship scheme was set up with things like a big car plant in mind. However, big employers in the creative industries have been paying the Apprenticeship Levy, but not benefitting from it. That’s been an ongoing challenge for the sector and the Budget recognised that.
“There’s a £7m fund to be introduced from July this year to help employers access the apprenticeship scheme. It will also look at making the apprenticeship system more flexible so that it works better for creative industry businesses. The Budget document that talks about the new fund specifically references the creative industries.
“The government has also launched a consultation on flexi-job apprenticeship schemes which could help the creative industries.”
“The government has committed to setting up its own domestic replacement for when European funding ends in the UK as a result of Brexit. Between the EU funding stopping and the new UK scheme starting, they’ve launched the Community Renewal Fund.
“It’s £220m for programmes for 2021. The bids of up to £500,000 get submitted to the government via a combined authority or a local authority. The deadline for bids to be sent to the government is 18 June.
“There are two kinds of government funding – revenue and capital. Revenue funding can be spent on people, business support programmes, skills development, training, community arts practitioners, events etc. Capital funding is for building things like roundabouts, railways etc.
“For the creative industries seeking support and skills development, revenue funding is very important. There are examples of big cultural infrastructure but generally, that’s much harder for the sector to access. What the sector really needs and wants to access is revenue funding. The Community Renewal Fund is really important for that.”
“This is capital funding. The scheme is for bids of up to £20m and it runs over a series of years. The deadline for funding in 2021 is 18 June.
“It has three priorities – transport, regeneration and cultural investment. That’s really important for the creative industries as it’s a direct name check in a big capital programme. It talks about ‘maintaining, regenerating or creatively repurposing galleries, visitor attractions, heritage assets, as well as creating new community-owned spaces to support the arts and serve as cultural spaces.'”
“Networks and intermediaries are absolutely crucial in the effective running of creative clusters. Creative industries come together and group in clusters because they are a collection of interdependent small organisations that have specialisms. For example, one of the specialisms in Bristol and Bath is television. To make that clustering and networking work effectively, organisations like Bristol Creative Industries are absolutely fundamental. That’s why I wanted to be a BCI board member!”
Top image credit: HM Treasury.
I don’t know about you, but for a long time, LinkedIn was the platform that I felt the least comfortable navigating. Its whole demeanour is very different to other types of social media like Facebook or Instagram, and the content that’s shared on the platform is held to a very different standard and set of rules than I was used to.
Or at least it seemed that way.
LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform. Did you know that LinkedIn now has over 722+ million members and that there are 11 million millennial decision-makers on the platform?
LinkedIn is an important part of any business’s social media strategy and in today’s blog post I want to share with you the five key things to remember when engaging/to secure engagement on LinkedIn.
Though the platform is indeed much more formal and professional than the likes of Instagram or Twitter, that doesn’t mean it has to be dry. In fact, having a clear personality and personal brand is incredibly important.
Make sure your voice is clear in every post and chose a profile picture that truly represents you and/or your business. Believe it or not, it doesn’t have to be you in a suit with a white background (though of course don’t use anything compromising either – I’d hope that goes without saying).
Make sure your about section is more than just your job title. Who are you and why do you love what you do? Why are you good at what you do? Again, let your voice shine through.
Be honest. Share your professional journey. We all want to feel connected, and nothing is more relatable than having to overcome obstacles. LinkedIn is about presenting your best professional self, but that doesn’t mean presenting your perfect professional self. People don’t actually engage with perfection, because we all know it isn’t real.
I don’t know everything about the way the LinkedIn algorithm works, but what seems to be clear is that LinkedIn loves sharing native content. This basically means that LinkedIn is more likely to show a piece of content that originated on the platform more widely, than a piece of content that originated elsewhere.
If you’ve written a blog post, consider sharing it on your LinkedIn profile as a LinkedIn article rather than just a link. You can add a note stating where the content originated but it’s more likely to be seen when shared natively.
Like on any other social media platform, consistency is extremely important. If you want to receive engagement on LinkedIn, you have to engage with it yourself. Make sure you’re posting regularly. Don’t set yourself an unrealistic and strict upload schedule but think about how many times a week/month you could pop on and give your time.
Make sure as well as sharing your own content, you’re engaging with others. Comment, like and share content that interests you and is relevant to you and your business. LinkedIn isn’t about simply sitting there and shouting about how great you are. It’s not about sales. Like any social media platform there has to be a bit of give and take and you must demonstrate you are an engaged member of the business community.
If you’re having trouble thinking about what content to post, there are three categories that always go down well:
These are great go tos for forming content and are relevant across the board.
According to sprout social, the best times to post on LinkedIn are as follows:
Most people seem to check LinkedIn during their morning commute and on their lunch break. This is something worth considering. If you’ve got a great piece of content the last thing you want is to share it at a time when nobody is looking and have it get snowed under by new content published at the key times of day.
This is probably the trickiest of the tips to master as it’s completely understandable that your schedule might look different day-to-day. Try your best but bear in mind it doesn’t count as a fail if you miss it.
Now, it can be argued that connecting with everyone on LinkedIn is a valid strategy and I’m not here to dispute it. However, I would highly encourage you to find your community and ensure that your LinkedIn connections are meaningful. LinkedIn is more sophisticated than a popularity contest. Networking isn’t about having weak links with everyone; it’s about building strong relationships that serve both parties. Just like friends on Facebook, the people you add and never communicate with aren’t really your ‘friends’. Nurture your LinkedIn network as you would your immediate face-to-face business network.
Trying to maintain healthy relationships in our personal lives has been a key focus in the last year. Some have been tested and some have flourished. And the same can be said for professional relationships too.
But what has the power to make or break a relationship when it comes to you and your clients?
It’s all a question of commitment. To maintain and grow client revenues, agencies should match what they expect to gain with what they are prepared to give. Authentic, mutual commitment is the glue that bonds agencies with their clients.
As in our personal lives, having relationships doesn’t guarantee successful ones. They take work and now more than ever. Good times in the past won’t mean business in the future. Clients may have played it safe during 2020, with little switching, but they’ve now seen new agencies and ideas, found better ways of getting things done and changed the standards they expect.
So, when it comes to your business, ask yourself how committed you really are. And what real commitment means for your business and how you work with your clients.
Real commitment starts with transparency, which underpins all good relationships. Being real, showing who you really are across your proposition, personality, people, processes, pricing. It demands a genuine willingness to actually invest in your clients; always going above and beyond and choosing or even recruiting a team better matched to the needs of your clients. Finally, taking a long-term view and setting the foundations so that your relationships grow in line with the growth of your business and theirs. Create a joint vision of where you and your client want to be in three years’ time. It may be hard to do, but don’t fall into the trap of only focusing on a few months ahead.
You can read about overcoming commitment issues and more in our Future Positive Clients guide.
Bristol’s world-renowned product development agency Kinneir Dufort (KD), has launched a new initiative, XXEquals – the UK’s first majority female team designing products for women across the consumer, industrial and medical markets.
Fuelled by the growing need to design more female-centred products, and to improve the gender balance in the design industry, XXEquals is already working on projects including smart femcare solutions, sustainable period products, voice recognition software, and futures research.
KD has previously developed pioneering women-centred products including a revolutionary breast scanning bed.
Comprising a multi-disciplinary collective of KD experts – 75% of whom are women – XXEquals is pushing for better gender balance across product development, in a move which is set to potentially benefit millions of female consumers worldwide and KD’s global blue chip clients.
The initiative breaks new ground in the product design industry, and is helping to pave the way for young women interested in careers in product and industrial design.
KD’s CEO, Merle Hall, says: “We are incredibly proud to be the first UK consultancy in the product design industry with an arm which pro-actively focuses on products and experiences for women. It feels like there is truly a need to bring more women to the forefront of innovation and product design.
“XXEquals offers female-focused insight and an empathic design approach, resulting in innately intuitive products. We need to develop a deeper consideration of the physiological or psychological differences for female users.
“As an agency with a strong purpose – to design a better world – we feel it is our responsibility to instigate change. We are proof that a better gender balance is possible in the product design industry and we would love to support other businesses driving equality where possible.
“We’re not where we want to be yet, representative of the world around us, but we’re focused on our goals. It’s important to us to remember that men always need to be part of the solution too, so we draw on the brilliant expertise of our male strategists, researchers, designers, engineers and makers, who are well versed in allyship and also very engaged in the initiative.”
Around half of the world’s population is female and women buy 85% of household products, yet data shows only 5% of the product and industrial design industry is female.
With the femtech market predicted to reach $50 billion by 2025 and 93% of women currently buying over-the-counter healthcare products, the business case for gender balance in this industry is powerful.
Merle Hall continues: “Without expert female representation throughout the innovation and development process now, more opportunities will be missed to leverage real life experience and create brands and products which close the gap between assumption and reality.
“XXEquals launches as we are seeing women being adversely affected by Covid, and shortly after the issuing of a Government call-out for views to inform the new Women’s Health Strategy for England, which aims to change the male-by-default approach to health and care system.”
KD has longstanding partnerships to help solve the design industry’s gender balance issue. One is with Kerning the Gap, a campaign to encourage more women into leadership roles in the industry.
Founder, Nat Maher: “I think XXEquals will be highlighting an issue that has been long understood and long accepted, and it should be accepted no more. But also, what I think KD will do as pioneers is work with their peers to work out how they get better at it. KD wants change for the industry, and not just for itself. That is why XXEquals has my full and unbridled support.”
KD’s CDO, Craig Wightman adds: “As a man working in design, I have, for too long, felt uncomfortable about the number of situations I’ve observed or been directly involved with, where products used by women are conceptualised, designed and developed by men. That is not to say that male designers cannot design well for women, but why would you not want to have your audience and users better reflected in your design and decision-making team? It just makes sense.
“I have always felt that it’s important to have respect for the people we are designing for. It is about empathy and putting yourself in the shoes of the product user. Having a more gender-balanced team is an important part of achieving that goal.”
The below XXEquals podcast episode is now available:
Twitter: twitter.com/xxequals
Instagram: www.instagram.com/xxequals
For more information visit: www.XXEquals.com and www.kinneirdufort.com.