We were approached by Nissan – through our trusted partners at global communications company Edelman – to promote its electric vehicles with a unique digital activation campaign. The multinational manufacturer is a pioneer in electric vehicles. It has accelerated electrification and technological innovation, invested in charging infrastructure and made EVs more affordable.

The brief was to tap into the consumer trend for more sustainable travel and target an audience that shares the brand’s core value of sustainability and low-carbon-footprint transport. We were tasked with creating an interactive travel guide, promoting travel adventures by electric vehicle. Nissan wanted it to be exciting, digitally led, easily shareable and measurable. 

The first destination would be Stockholm, one of Scandinavia’s most exciting cities. Stockholm not only has superb cultural attractions but has made pioneering efforts in urban sustainability, with plenty of charging stations to make it easy for electric car owners to explore the city. 

The electric travel guide would launch exclusively to influencers at an event in Stockholm

What we did

An interactive map

To make the guide as interactive as possible we chose to have an interactive map as the focus, which would show selected sustainable destinations and recommended routes. 

We needed a mapping system with advanced functionality and styling capabilities so we used Mapbox, a platform we were already experienced with. It has a lot of flexibility in its infrastructure and we could implement it within the Nissan brand without making visual compromises. Unlike some other map providers it also doesn’t charge every time a user interacts with it.

We created categories for the destinations, such as restaurants, hotels, points of interest or areas of natural beauty, so that users can select what they’re interested in. Each destination then expands to show details plus links to TripAdvisor reviews and Google Maps to quickly and easily get more information. 

User experience

We designed the user journey, using Stockholm locations and descriptions provided by Edelman. 

Nissan wanted the experience to be accessible to as many people as possible so we developed multilingual functionality, with five languages including English. Further languages can be added in future as the guides expand.

Following the successful launch of the Stockholm guide, we later built a second and bigger iteration of the product, adding four more cities – Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague – with maps and roadtrips for each one plus a bigger European roadtrip.

Focus on the car 

The underlying focus of the travel guide is Nissan’s innovation in electrification so we created an About page with content on the fully electric Nissan Ariya and information on charging, to reinforce how Nissan is helping drivers to make more conscious lifestyle choices. This also links to Nissan’s Ariya sales page, where people can find out everything about the car.

Built-in analytics

The guide has integrated performance and analytics reporting, using Google Analytics, providing the client with data on areas of interest, usage patterns, most popular locations across each language and more.

After launch, we analysed how people were using the guide and worked with Nissan and Edelman to continue improving the UX, for example adding the roadtrip to the home page and segregating location types for easier browsing.

Future-proofing 

We deliberately took into account the future life of the product, building the infrastructure in a modular way that can be added to, to give the product adaptability and longevity. Having built the framework, it’s easy to add further destinations and categories. Users will get new content and travel ideas and Nissan can potentially reach a wider audience with every new destination. 

Further functionality could also be added to help build a community around the product and increase sharing and engagement e.g. users could add photos of their journeys, submit destination requests and more. 

Outcome

So far (spring 2023), 9.3k people in 106 countries have visited the guide. 

Senior leaders at Nissan have enthusiastically supported it. The Senior VP of Sustainability, Corporate Affairs and Governance said: “As we continue driving a fundamental shift in how sustainability can – and should – be at the forefront of our lifestyles in the move to an electrified future, the Nissan Electric Travel Guide demonstrates that it is possible to continue travelling while having a kinder impact on our planet.”

DP World are a logistics company operating a diverse network of trade on a global scale. They provide access to some of the world’s busiest production centres, as well as its largest consumer markets, in mature and emerging economies. Their operations include ports and terminals, but also industrial parks, logistics and economic zones, maritime services and marinas. DP World pride themselves for being at the forefront of exciting technology such as their pioneering work on the Hyperloop system.

The brief

DP World needed an exciting campaign concept for their social presence for the World Economic Forum in Davos. The campaign had to be cohesive across all social including Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. We wanted to reference Davos as well as incorporating an exciting use of the DP Brand within digital. The final direction selected included a really nice sense of depth created through the use of gradients and softly styled the mountain ranges of Davos incorporating the coloured brand lines that swooped and played around the shapes.

Social delivery

We delivered Linkedin header templates, Instagram frames, Instagram story stickers and Twitter assets. The use of all of these elements across every facet of the DP World brand created a ‘take over’ of their media really drawing attention to their presence at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The animation style as well as the gifs used throughout social gave their marketing team really exciting tools that brought their messaging to life and gave their social presence a real sense of energy.

CNS has been providing technology products to the port and logistics community in the UK since it was established in 1985. As one of the leading providers of smart logistics solutions, DP World launched BEEMS Border Management Products, a set of easy-to-use cloud-based products aimed at helping all areas of the supply chain to take control of their border requirements, quickly and cost effectively.

We produced a video to go alongside this announcement to the market ensuring that the potentially complex nature of how to complete a crossing was communicated to the industry quickly and simply.

Getir is a pioneer in ultra-fast grocery delivery. Customers order through its app and deliveries can arrive as fast as 10 to 40 minutes. It operates in 48 cities across the UK, US and Europe and 81 in Turkey. After a funding round in 2022 it’s valued at $12bn. 

Among their global partnerships, in summer 2021 Getir became the official training wear partner of Tottenham Hotspur FC. CAA approached us to help deliver an exciting digital product to celebrate this milestone partnership. The brief was to run an online competition in the stadium, to build brand awareness, engagement and incentivise people to download the Getir app. 

What we did

Getir wanted an engaging football-themed experience giving fans the chance to win a selection of prizes including stadium tours, signed shirts, £10 Getir credit and more. The experience had to be fast – around 15 seconds.

We had to consider several elements of functionality:

• The mechanic to select randomised winners
• The mechanic of the game
• The journey time from the game to the Getir app and back again
• User verification in the app and a smooth API call from our product to Getir’s database

Gamification

The prizes within the product would be randomised and users wouldn’t have an impact on the outcome, but we nevertheless wanted to create a sense of gamification. Making a tool into a game appeals to people’s natural desires for learning, mastery, achievement, play or competitiveness. By creating a sense of gamification our designers could insert gameplay elements into a non-gaming setting, with fun features to satisfy people’s natural motivations so that they would enjoy the experience more.

As the use-time of the game was so short, we had to create a simple mechanic that people would instinctively know how to interact with, and with the capacity to present multiple prizes to build suspense and intrigue. This dictated the final decisions on the design.

Design and UI

Getir’s branding led the look and feel of the product, using their fonts and colour palette. This was a unique product for the company, so we had to build a number of new elements. The brand is illustration-based with bright colours, so everything else within the product had to align with that. For example, we couldn’t use photo-realistic elements or animated vectors. We had to find a balance between brand consistency and bringing personality and life to the experience.

We did this in a few ways. We designed a goalie wearing the official home game kit in the same style as Getir’s distinctive scooter rider. We created a stadium crowd illustration with photography flashes and movement to suggest the buzz of a real crowd. We built a football that reflected the brand but with the depth of 3D to give a sense of realism. These felt engaging while still in line with Getir’s visual style. 

This design also fed into an animated video that played behind the game mechanic. 

When users won a prize, the game had to feel exciting and dynamic so we built in flashing colours and confetti for every prize. As this was a firmly mobile-first experience, we rigorously tested the design across multiple devices so that it would perform perfectly every time. 

Digital development

As the product was going to be used in the Spurs stadium, which has a capacity of 62,000, it couldn’t crash if thousands of people used it at once. We utilised Getir’s existing servers and app verification flow. We ensured that the servers would be able to handle the traffic and conducted a series of tests including load testing.

We created the information flow from the product to the servers using a custom-built API. When users at the stadium scan the QR code to open the experience, information is pulled from the Getir server to define which prizes are available for that event and the dynamic prize images that the user sees on screen.

The game asks for phone verification and, to prevent multiple entries, looks up the user in the Getir database or adds them to it if they’re new. As long as they haven’t previously entered that week’s competition, they’re texted a unique ID code to enter the app and continue with the game. 

Outcome

We built a unique digital product that pays homage to the great game while also building awareness of Getir among football fans and increasing downloads of its app. The product was launched in the stadium for a home game between Spurs and Manchester United and many prizes were awarded.

Helping launch a new electric car to market

How would you go about creating an entirely new colour for an entirely new vehicle? It’s almost impossible to imagine, isn’t it? This was the brief for the designers working on the aesthetics of the new all-electric Nissan Ariya – resulting in the creation of two exclusive hues never seen before on Nissan’s lineup. 

Nissan and their communications agency Edelman wanted to celebrate these colours in some form for their European markets as well as trade media. Our challenge was how to communicate the Ariya’s colour range in an innovative way that picked up on all the nuances and technology that had gone into making them. A concept that invoked the wild and wonderful colour palettes found in nature and that had inspired so much of what was developed; from vibrant neons of Tokyo, to the incredible green of the Aurora, we wanted to evoke the sense of excitement and awe that were behind colour combo.

Crafting an inspiring visual experience

We decided an animated video was the best way to generate the dynamism and excitement that we needed for viewers. We utilised each of the colours and paired it with a piece of the material world to enhance the beauty in the colour. We paired this with a dynamic flip transition where everything was reversed from one colour to the next. 

Ideally, when creating a piece of animation such as this, we would have 3D renders of the vehicle however in this case we only had static elements to work with and so in order to ensure a sense of realism we played with the light and matched the reflections of the surrounding environment across the front of the car.

Accompanying materials

Nissan also wanted a piece of supporting literature that could really sell the elements from within the story, giving it a bit more detail and depth. To support this, we created an accompanying pdf download aimed primarily at media partners. This still maintained the sense of design dynamism and excitement, using gradients and metallic colours. We also wanted to touch on the fact that the vehicle was electric and so used linear strokes to represent cords and power flow. We also used a really condensed length so that it was quick to read and could easily be embedded in any form of online media such as the Nissan stories page.

DP World are a global logistics company with a pivotal presence in the UK. Their portfolio includes the ownership and management of two deep-water ports, with freight rail terminals, at London Gateway and Southampton, alongside associated logistics parks and an advanced software business providing online links to customers and border control.

With a footprint that directly affects much product import into the UK, the chances are that if you’ve bought something from abroad DP World have been involved somewhere along the way – shipping everything from  food and drink to tech and automotive.

Profile raising through video

DP World and PR agency Edelman wanted to promote their operations in the UK across social channels and on their website to better inform audiences on the role that the ports play within the UK. Our team were commissioned to create a film that showcased their strengths and picked up on key stories for primarily consumer trade audiences. We delivered scripting, voiceover, design, animation, production and final output.

A focus on London Gateway

London Gateway is a major contributor to the success of UK logistics. It’s a semi-automated facility and uses robotic, automated stacking cranes to assist with managing containers as they are moved from ship-to-shore, onto and off trucks and trains with maximum efficiency. Positioned as the UK’s most integrated logistics hub offering the best tidal access, largest port rail terminal and easy access to roads transport we were commissioned to produce a video that highlighted these strengths, promoted primarily to a trade audience.

Looking back on the heritage of the Nissan brand

Nissan’s brand identity has always reflected the meaning of the company name. Indeed, in Japanese characters, “Nissan” can translate as “sun product” or “birth of the sun” – giving rise to the now-famous brand logo that boasts more than 80 years of automotive history. But how did it evolve from its humble origins into the globally-recognised motif seen today?

Simple, digital interaction

Nissan, and Edelman, wanted to explore a way to share this incredible heritage while also detailing to audiences some of their more notable cars from across the years. Our brief was to provide a digital component that could be embedded into an existing webpage.

We wanted to keep a sense of fun to the digital piece and so we created a collage using different elements from each historical vehicle that, when a user clicked, took them through to reveal the logo from that year of manufacture. We built the coded element for the piece, providing source-code direct to the Nissan team to activation within their ‘Nissan Stories’ site.

Together with its logistics business, P&O Ferrymasters also operates integrated road and rail to countries across the continent including Italy, Poland, Germany, Spain and Romania, Turkey and facilitates the onward movement of goods to Britain from Asian countries via the Silk Road.P&O Ferries is part of DP World, the leading provider of smart logistics solutions, enabling the flow of trade across the globe. They required an animated video to support the announcement of their long-awaited advanced track and trace service for its container customers, making it the first major logistics business in Europe to introduce the technology.

Storyboarding

The service allowed customers to receive real-time updates on the precise location of their goods as they are transported by rail, road and sea. The innovation improves efficiency, reduces costs and increases the speed of information exchange. Our team needed to correctly plot the narrative to the video, identifying key topics of interest and highlighting specific points in a succinct manner that sat within the P&O Ferrymasters brand. Our approach to  clear messaging throughout the video was supported by custom illustration and photography that brought a sense of real-life context to the piece.

Conceptual planning through to production and launch

In working with the client, we supported the entire creative process culminating in a piece of motion content that was used widely across social media, live events and online through the P&O Ferrymasters digital presence.

Design and brand exploration 

MediaSense are a global media advisory company working across multiple facets of the industry and delivering a wide range of services. We worked with them to create their previous brand presence and website which featured a bright palette taken from the colours within the logo as well as vector iconography that signposted the services available. 

MediaSense have grown exponentially since we last worked with them, setting up new offices and over doubling its workforce alongside being responsible for some of the largest media pitch processes conducted globally. We wanted to reflect this by creating an assertive, beautiful new digitally focussed brand presence. In retaining the brand equity that they have, we left the logo untouched and looked to develop a contemporary visual style that better reflects their position as leaders within their market.

With a central message of continual client growth across the media landscape, we wanted to establish a visual style that reflected the company’s attention to detail, focus and exemplary execution.

We initially explored creating a ‘media landscape’ that could then have elements of analytics or data set within it – the idea of parts becoming a whole. We investigated the use of patterning to show the concept of growth also using the shapes as flexing holding elements for content and utilised cinemagraphs to demonstrate continual performance, complemented by photography of nature. 

The client responded positively to macro image use alongside incorporating unique illustrations and animations representing each service area. The use of macro photography allowed us to use visuals in a textural way, giving that calm feeling that nature brings while still creating something visually interesting and different.

The role of animation

We wanted to incorporate animation within the digital presence to reinforce the sense of evolution and also to bring interest for users. Within the conceptual work we were considering how and where animation could play a role not only on the website but also in wider brand engagement. 

Social video generates 12 times more shares than text and images combined and so we wanted to give MediaSense animated elements that would allow them to talk around their services or key brand stories such as their ‘Media 2020’ report – gaining maximum traction. The continuity between the website and marketing also helps to strengthen brand engagement and increase notoriety. 

As we began to execute our chosen creative direction, we developed a delicate illustrated approach to represent each service line – this lent itself perfectly to animation. The clean strokes weaving, rotating and sliding in and out of each other playing with depth and shape, overlaid on macro photography.

Digital functionality: powered by WordPress

As well as looking visually arresting and providing a clear overview of the services that MediaSense provide, the website remains a business tool, portraying an interesting and professional look and feel to the media world. MediaSense actively generate insightful content and analyse the media landscape. Showcasing this content in a meaningful manner was important. Our digital team created a truly bespoke experience, powered by WordPress as a Content Management System.

Brand guidance

In order for a brand to be successful it has to be easy to use and the company has to be invested in ensuring best practice. Empowering internal teams about the new look and feel can really enhance sales and company pride. We created a vision document that highlighted key elements of the brand and how they were used to share within MediaSense. 

Grappzie is an app where users can create bespoke greetings, invitations and personalised designs in minutes, then share them digitally through WhatsApp (especially Groups), iMessage, email etc. The platform also provides high-quality, on-demand physical prints, so users can send their cards and designs through the post. We helped design and build the brand and develop the product, and we had such faith in the product and concept that we also became a key investor for the company.

The product entered the market within a year of the initial concept, including pre-seed investment and brand establishment.

Creating a fun, aspirational brand

The look and feel for the product had to be approachable and fun, to reflect the personality of the product. We chose a bright colour palette and a font family that has a playful element, which then informed the styling throughout. We designed an illustrative style that was punctuated with fun lifestyle photography.

Digital marketing was central to the product’s growth so we created a brand that would translate well across all devices and platforms.

The digital product

We worked in an agile way, designing the user journey flow, working in design sprints and testing our design and UX theory with users, putting our learnings and user feedback into practice as we developed the app. We made the UI as simple and clear as possible so that it was intuitive to use and clearly signposted.  

Launching Grappzie

Throughout the development process we shared insight and strategy around how to grow Grappzie’s market share in such a large industry. One idea that we pursued was introducing artists’ and illustrators’ designs to the platform, to build a creative community within it. This allows users access to exclusive designs that they can also personalise, adding another valuable feature to the product.

We’re continuing to support and work with Grappzie as the platform grows.