Britain’s graphic design consultants are enjoying a boom at the
moment. The Marketing league tables give a snapshot of an industry
undergoing an impressive transition, and bringing in more business than
ever before.
Corporate identity
Corporate identity is where design businesses make big money. The
combined revenues of this year’s top ten from corporate identity
business amounts to pounds 121m. In 1997, those firms brought in an
estimated pounds 77m of corporate identity work between them, making the
sector worth, for the most successful ten companies, 57% more in 1998
than in 1997.
Financial services, telecoms, pharmaceuticals and the oil and gas
industries are all going through corporate changes as merger mania takes
hold and companies look to grow to keep ahead in their markets.
The top position enjoyed by Enterprise IG, together with its spectacular
increase in revenue of 77%, are thanks to the combined earnings of what
is now a worldwide identity group, created from the merger of WPP’s
identity outfits.
The London arm, formerly Sampson Tyrrell, has had some big wins,
including heavyweight branding projects for Thorn, Thomas Cook, Seat,
BP, the Hilton Group, BT and Arthur Andersen. ’As we became better at
working in integrated teams across offices, we started to win the big
global programmes,’ says sales and marketing director, Patrick
Smith.
Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, holding second place, scored some big
hits, with a new identity for Barclays, the new BA brand, and its work
for Oxfam. The company is now firmly established in the same
international arena as Enterprise and Landor, which reinforced its
European offices earlier this year.
Identity consultancies are trying to develop the skills to handle the
demands of major brand development programmes. Enterprise and The
Partners were just two groups announcing the growth of new media arms
(internet league table, page 38).
Identica - up from tenth to eighth - bought retail specialist Tango from
BBH in November, and recently announced the creation of brand and
product development company Blue Science. Meanwhile, on-screen branding
specialist Lambie-Nairn restructured to better deal with an increase in
off-screen identity work.
Time will tell if design companies can adapt to the new demands being
placed on them. Jim Northover of Lloyd Northover Citigate, predicts that
’most will remain in a design box’, lacking the capacity to implement
across the range of media.
At the top, however, there is no lack of confidence about the ability to
transfer traditional skills. ’The day Coca-Cola comes to us and asks for
help, is that going to be a corporate identity or a brand identity
project?’ says The Partners’ Gareth Williams. ’I don’t know and I don’t
really care.’
Packaging
There are some dramatic movements in packaging, indicating a sector that
is tighter and more competitive than ever. Growth in packaging design
has been much more limited than in other design areas, with most of the
top ten companies bunched up between the pounds 3m and pounds 4.5m
turnover mark.
There is a large, strong clique battling for the same big-brand
clients.
Mergers and takeovers by global brand owners are fuelling brand
consolidation.
The agencies that win the work on the merged portfolios are smiling;
those that miss out on the big rosters are struggling. Wal-Mart’s
takeover of Asda, for instance, could be bad news for the UK
supermarket’s rostered consultancies.
The creative end of the sector has not been helped by a lack of
recognition for strong ideas: some packaging designers are up in arms
over what they claim are low or non-existent fees for pitches to some
clients.
At the top, Design Bridge stands alone, with its packaging turnover
soaring by 51% to pounds 10.3m. High-profile launches in the past year
include identity and pack designs for toothbrush brand Wisdom, and the
re-labelling of old favourite R Whites lemonade. Coley Porter Bell (up
three places to third) and Brown Inc (up five to sixth) have made the
best gains, while Jones Knowles Ritchie, up just one place, has seen
packaging turnover rise by 36% to pounds 5.3m. These companies appear to
be making the transition toward branding consultancy - as opposed to
simply pack design - better than others.
Brown Inc had some great pitch wins against old rivals, including the
global redesign of Scrabble for Mattel and the European branding and
packaging programme for Kodak’s photo-finishing service. It also scooped
the role of sole European design agency for Kimberly-Clark’s tissue and
towel brands.
Jones Garrard makes an appearance in the top ten for the first time.
Having worked on structural packaging for clients such as Procter &
Gamble and Lever Europe, the company has recently established a brand
consultancy called Think, which aims to secure brand strategy business
with ’smart multinationals’.
Corporate literature
Corporate literature is a crowded sector, but the true consultants are
putting more distance between themselves and the design and production
contractors. Established, trusted agencies with a firm grasp of their
clients’ brands are seeking a more responsible role. Addison, for
instance, third in this year’s table, is undergoing a change in
positioning.
Director Quentin Anderson says: ’We were essentially an annual reports
company; we now get involved in many other forms of corporate
communication.’
It may only be a matter of time before annual reports are published
online, without any need for a print version or even a CD-ROM. Companies
in the US are already trialling the arrangement. Bandwidth and internet
access need to increase first, but it is something larger agencies are
preparing for.
CLK.MPL, whose literature turnover rose 30% to pounds 3.5m, has acquired
internet specialist Associated Design Consultants. ’We believe that
further significant growth will be seen in how the web is used, not
purely in terms of web site growth and design, but in terms of companies
divulging information,’ says finance director Anthony Walford.
Launched last July, the company’s specialist corporate branding
division, Corporate Edge, contributed to a good year with projects such
as the name and strategy behind Egg, the Prudential’s direct savings
arm, and the identity for CGU, the company formed by the merger of
Commercial Union and General Accident.
Holmes & Marchant Group’s design division is number one once more, again
by a large margin. In fact, corporate design and packaging are the
group’s most profitable activities.
Radley Yeldar joins the table for the first time at fifth after a stable
year. One place below is Peter Kane & Co, having leapt from number 34 in
last year’s corporate literature chart.
The company is over 25 years old and began life as a full-service ad
agency called Sears & Nelson. It diversified into graphic design and
over the years, at the behest of its retail clients, the design business
outgrew the ad side. Kane changed the name five years ago. The agency
now specialises in in-store literature, customer magazines - which have
boomed in recent years - and point-of-sale material.
TOP 15 CORPORATE ID DESIGN AGENCIES
CONSULTANCY Turnover 98 Corp ID
(pounds) (pounds)
1 Enterprise IG 34,919,000 34,919,000
2 Interbrand Newell and Sorrell 30,600,000 27,540,000
3 Wolff Olins 17,223,000 17,223,000
4 Siegel & Gale 28,000,000 14,000,000
5 The Partners 7,856,000 7,306,080
6 Lambie-Nairn/Tutssels 10,953,000 6,024,150
7 Landor Associates 11,200,000 5,936,000
8 The Identica Partnership 6,857,417 2,880,115
9 Lloyd Northover Citigate 4,513,000 2,527,280
10 The Haygarth Group 12,565,424 2,513,085
TOP 15 PACKAGING DESIGN AGENCIES
CONSULTANCY Turnover 98 Packaging
(pounds) (pounds)
1 Design Bridge 11,200,000 10,304,000
2 Fitch 30,582,000 7,951,320
3 Coley Porter Bell 6,050,000 6,050,000
4 Jones Knowles Ritchie 5,300,000 5,300,000
5 Holmes & Marchant Design Companies 16,582,000 4,974,600
6 Brown Inc 4,160,000 4,160,000
7 Ziggurat Brand Consultants 4,100,000 4,100,000
8 PI Design International 4,004,000 4,004,000
9 Jones Garrard 3,279,000 3,279,000
10 Interbrand Newell and Sorrell 30,600,000 3,060,000
TOP 15 LITERATURE DESIGN AGENCIES
CONSULTANCY Turnover 98 Literature
(pounds) (pounds)
1 Holmes & Marchant Design Companies 16,582,000 11,607,400
2 Siegel & Gale 28,000,000 8,400,000
3 Addison 9,453,000 8,035,050
4 Imagination 79,626,000 7,962,600
5 Radley Yeldar 6,250,000 6,062,500
6 Peter Kane & Company 5,741,486 5,167,337
7 Burrows/WCJ 10,771,000 4,846,950
8 IDH Group 6,302,940 4,727,205
9 Revolution 10,800,000 4,644,000
10 Black Sun 6,200,000 3,720,000
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