The Question…
How do you launch an entirely new way to bet in a market that isn’t used to innovation?

What we did…
Betfair wasn’t just a new betting brand – it was a new way of thinking about betting. That’s why the key to launching this revolutionary idea to a cautious betting community was education.

Betfair’s betting exchange model allowed customers to bet at odds set by other customers, rather than by a bookmaker with ‘back’ (normal bets on a selection to win) and ‘lay’ (the opposite side of the Back – against the selection) bets against each other. What this means to a customer is that the odds available are 15% better than those offered by a fixed-odds bookmaker.

This kind of radical concept needed an identity to match and we created a strong, standout logo which visually nodded towards the ‘back and lay’ concept with the use of opposing arrows to signal the two-way nature of the betting model.

The next, and perhaps most crucial, challenge was to create a simple to use interface design so that customers could quickly become familiar with the ‘back and lay’ structure.

Finally, we introduced the ‘Sharp Minds betfair’ concept. The thinking behind this campaign was to draw the analogy of regular betting being draughts and betfair being chess; chess may take a little longer to learn, but ultimately the results are far more rewarding. We rolled this concept out across all their advertising both on and offline.

Once the brand was firmly established in the marketplace, we created a huge array of marketing activity across a wide range of media – from Fulham FC shirt sponsorship to advertising campaigns and brochures and even developed an interactive poker tool to help beginners learn about the various hands and plays.

What happened…
Betfair quickly became established in the marketplace, and are now not only the largest online betting company in the UK but the largest betting exchange in the world, with over 2 million customers.

What was next…
Ten years on and they still use the logo we created and the interface has become the benchmark for exchange betting worldwide. They have recently refreshed their brand look, but their logo still remains the same. And they’re even still using our poker tool to help educate new customers.

The Question:
How do you drive traffic and capture quality data in a notoriously fickle online environment?

What we did…
As digtital overtakes print as the primary medium for news and content, newspapers face a huge challenge to attract and engage users with their online offer. TimesOnline came to us wanting to increase traffic to the Driving section of their website to raise dwell time, number of page views per person and ultimately, capture data. They had a seriously good prize as an incentive but needed help to leverage it for maximum possible effect.

We recognised that for an online promotion to be successful it must have two things. Firstly an enticing prize (which TimesOnline already had – in this case a Porsche Boxster); and secondly it must have simplicity, of both the concept and the mechanic so it’s easy for people to understand and participate.

We developed a ‘treasure hunt’ mechanic whereby, after registering, users had to browse the driving section to collect a total of 5 virtual keys to gain entry into the free prize draw for the porsche. “Collect and Drive” worked in such a way as to allow TOL to either fix the keys into specific pages on the site or set the number of pages a visitor had to view before they found a new key allowing the promotion to be responsive to how it was being used. Traffic was driven to the site with a banner campaign that ran across the whole Times site and repeat visits were encouraged with spot prizes.

What happened…
Collect and Drive was a huge success. The banner campaign received the highest internal click through rate of any promotion in the history of the TimesOnline site.
We smashed the client’s target of 10,000 sign ups by over 50%, delivering just under 16,000 acquisitions in less than three weeks. Registrants also showed an incredible level of participation, with 86% collecting 4 or more keys.

What was next…
The Treasure Hunt promotional mechanic was intentionally developed to be highly flexible, and we have since adapted it for other clients – most notably for The Carphone Warehouse as part of their high profile sponsorship of ITV’s The X Factor.

The Question:
How do you convince all the UK’s betting shops to use a new trade TV channel where the current (and only) player has complete market dominance, and in as short a time as possible?

What we did…
We leveraged the best asset there was: customers.
To convince bookmakers to sign up to this new channel we had to make them see that it was invaluable to their business which we did by creating demand amongst customers. Our campaign ‘Don’t bet blind’ targeted customers via advertising, direct mail and POS to communicate the message that if their bookie didn’t have Turf TV, they’d be missing out on racing from a significant number of top UK courses and included a call to action to ask their bookies to show it.  By getting customers to directly ask for Turf TV it send a loud and clear message to bookmakers: Get Turf TV or your customers will go elsewhere.

The concurrent trade campaign was first focused at small independent bookies to give them an initial edge over the big players. And when they were on board, we took the message to the “Big Four” of William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred to show them how they were missing out.
This was then reinforced with a second wave of customer focussed communications with the message “See what you’re missing” to reiterate that great racing is available on Turf TV that they can’t see elsewhere.

What happened…
Within 18 months of the channel’s launch, Turf TV is now shown at 95% of bookmakers in the UK.

What was next…
Once the big 4 had fallen, the creative focus turned to elevating Turf TV from ‘fresh to market’ to an established, premium brand. The ‘On Your Turf’ campaign used a rich, sophisticated visual style with strong messaging to give the brand a sense of exclusivity and racing heritage. The campaign was rolled out across a variety of media, including POS materials and key industry titles, increasing customer awareness and driving the last few bookmakers that hadn’t yet signed up to take the channel.

The question…
How do you get a B2B brand out of a rut and reinvigorate the relationship with it’s customers?

What we did…
Orbis is the world’s leading provider of white label integrated gaming and betting solutions. In addition to their market-leading ‘OpenBet’ platform software, they constantly produce new games packages – slots, reactors, accumulators, keno, scratchcards etc – as added value traffic drivers for gaming sites. These games packages are a key sales driver for Orbis, so getting their customers excited about each package launch is crucial to their success.

Orbis’ communications were corporate and brand-led and they made very little of their innovative game products. In a highly competitive and dynamic marketplace, achieving standout is crucial so by shifting the focus from the brand on to the games positioned Orbis as innovative industry leaders to potential customers. Our strategy was to start with a teaser campaign to build anticipation about the imminent release of the new package.  Each package has a lead game, and for package 16 the lead game was ‘Invasion of Planet X’, so we utilised colourful retro graphics to reflect the game’s kitschy look and feel. When the package went live, we sent a high quality DM pack, again using the retro look and with a fun memorable gift, in this case a remote control UFO, which not only captured the fun element of the game but has the ability to engage customers and act as a permanent desktop reminder about the new games release.

Our client was delighted with the result and is confident that their customers will be too.

What was next…
After proving that B2B communications don’t have to be dry, we looked at how Orbis were displaying the games on their website. The site wasn’t acting as an effective shop window so we overhauled the design of the games section and created a site that showcased new titles as well as their vast back catalogue of titles in a wide variety of genres which was easy to navigate, simple to use and easy for Orbis to update with new games releases and where potential customers could come and quickly and easily play demo versions of the games.

The Question…
How do you deliver a cutting-edge web presence across multiple properties whilst simultaneously knocking a zero off the client’s budget?

Kiss FM is one of the most influential new music stations in the UK, and has been for the past 20 years. It was therefore crucial that their online presence reflected this both in structure and content. Their existing site had become complicated and cumbersome and needed a complete overhaul to fulfil a number of considerations. Their new online presence must:
•    Support the main Kiss site but also represent key radio properties such as Kiss Breakfast and Kiss Playlist, separately but equally
•    contain innovative functionality for users to engage with
•    be extremely flexible to allow for frequent updates by multiple users, as well as hosting temporary properties such as music festivals and other seasonal activity

Simplicity and ease of use were therefore key in choosing the supporting technology. Cost was also a major issue.

What we did…
We came back to Kiss with an innovative solution that ticked all the boxes in terms of what they needed their site and CMS to do, but also just as importantly would significantly reduce their costs.
The solution: Use open source technology, challenging conventional wisdom that they needed to invest in a bespoke CMS.

We suggested they use WordPress; an open source CMS which gave us the flexibility to constantly shape and define the Kiss offering. It’s templating system allowed us to exploit the latest technologies for the user interface, such as carousel functionality so Kiss users could scroll through large amounts of content quickly and easily. It supported our goal of creating a singular user experience no matter what Kiss property a user might be on. The navigation was based around what makes Kiss great – the music and the DJ’s that play it and we ditched the dated day-glo design and introduced a cool, relaxed colour palette. Key design elements were also identified and carried through to each property.

What happened…
Using open source for a client of Kiss’ size was not only a genuine industry first but also a massive success. Compared to the London radio market, the TotalKiss network now has more pages per person, longer dwell time per person and more visits per person than any of it’s competitors.

What was next…
On the back of the success of the Totalkiss site, Kiss asked us to redevelop their online media player. They were using the centralised online media player shared by all Bauer radio stations which only allowed live streaming and had no listen again facility, plus had no clear branding. In doing so we developed another first – the Kiss Kube. Developing the Kube not only allowed Kiss to brand the player with it’s own identity, but has also provided a further revenue stream for the station in advertising and partnerships. The Kube has become incredibly popular in a short space of time, with slick functionality and navigation.
At the end of 2009 we launched the Kiss Kube iPhone app which delivered all the functionality of the Kiss Kube to the iPhone. Within weeks it became the no.1 downloaded app in the iTunes music chart and recently reached no.30 in the overall downloads chart. We think that 30th out of 900,000 is a pretty good effort!

The Question…
How do you take a highly complex concept and create a user-friendly online experience?

What we did…
Covestor’s big idea is peer-to-peer investment; a unique business model where experienced investors can share market knowledge with less experienced traders for mutual benefit.
Using our experience of making complicated business models accessible we identified that:
• The back end of the site had to be incredibly robust to handle the high volumes of complex information, ensuring accuracy, clarity and security. Without it, Covestor would have no credibility.
• The site architecture had to be clear and easily navigable for both newbies and old hands
• The UX had to enable organic development of an online community that would work for all levels of investor.
We then developed a dynamic new brand identity to position Covestor as a serious and professional, but contemporary and cutting edge business.

What happened…
Covestor launched in 2008 and now over $100 million dollars in securities are shared through the service. Its members are located in more than 40 countries and hold positions in over 4,000 different securities.

Simon Veingard, Director of Covestor said: “As soon as we met Clicked, we knew they were the team we had to work with – and what a great decision it proved. Working to a demanding timeframe, the team delivered an outstanding front end to Covestor’s website, managing complex usability challenges to produce a simple to use and distinctive looking design. Friendly and professional throughout, the team were a pleasure to work with.”

What was next…
Based on the success of the original Covestor business model, we’ve helped Covestor develop the new sub-brand and website for Covestor Investment Management. The new site has featured in all the top financial publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and the Financial Times.

The question…
How do you create a campaign that celebrates the best of British Racing without being too…British?

What we did…
The campaign needed to embrace the heritage and excitement associated with British racing, whilst avoiding any stereotypical ‘colonial’ associations as the campaign would be running throughout South African betting shops and this would be a ‘turn off’ to South African customers.

The first thing we did define a creative style. We decided that ‘heritage’ didn’t have to mean a traditional look and feel, so we came up with a ‘Mod’-inspired creative that was uniquely British (but not traditionally British), encapsulating the excitement of racing action with crisp, clean imagery and bold, simple colours.