Design Bridge

Last night we were at our first awards ceremony of 2018 – The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards 2018. What makes this awards programme a little different to others is that not only does it celebrate creativity and great design, the awards are based on design that has truly delivered and made a positive impact on the clients’ business in a measurable and tangible way. As the awards website states, “The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards recognise the return on investment, a coherent, well-thought out and professionally executed design strategy can achieve.”

This year our London and Amsterdam Studios were represented at the awards, and the teams have returned back armed with 2 shiny new trophies, the first of which was a Silver for our work on Lipton Matcha Green Tea…

A little background info: We have a long-standing relationship with Lipton, and a little while back our clients spotted an opportunity to launch a range of matcha blends. With no advertising support for the launch, we were briefed to come up with a pack design that would work really hard to really stand out on shelf. We drew on Japanese culture, where matcha originates from, and created a striking and uplifting design based on an intricate, hand-drawn fan pattern.

And the result? it was a hit! In the first 6 months sales targets were smashed by 71% and Lipton now has a 45.8% market share of the matcha tea category, successfully doubling the size of the segment in the process. Pretty impressive stuff. It really was an honour to collect this award last night alongside our lovely Lipton clients.

Our second award of the night was for a project that really broke down social taboos around an often sensitive issue – male incontinence. We were tasked to re-design TENA Men to help the brand normalise male bladder weakness (did you know that 1 in 4 men over the age of 40 experience this? That’s how much of a taboo the subject was). Inspired by design codes associated with the automotive industry to convey a sense of being in control and having increased freedom, our new packaging design has a more masculine and empowering feel, whilst still being discreet.

Since this new design launched, TENA Men has grown by 31%, the brand has increased its market share growth by 5% and, possibly most importantly, seen a significant uplift in male purchasers. This really does demonstrate the power that great design can have on our clients’ business, but also the positive impact that it can have on people’s lives, and we’re proud that the work has been recognised with a Bronze award.

Always an inspiring evening, we’d like to say “congratulations” to Team Lipton and Team TENA Men, as well as all of the other deserving winners last night – you can see all of the winning work on The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards website.

Plus an special ‘thank you’ to Oleg for sharing the official event photographs with us.