Over 99% of the businesses in Wales are SMEs, accounting for 62.6% of employment. They’re the engine powering Wales’ Economy, and at the heart of local communities. Businesses build Wales, and the vital role of Business Wales is helping to build businesses. Our campaign aim is to raise the profile and awareness of Business Wales, celebrating and empowering all Welsh businesses to achieve their potential, driving start up and growing SME businesses to get the support they need to succeed.
Our brief was to evolve the Business Wales brand so it can further reach and engage with a wide, diverse, and inclusive community of aspiring or established entrepreneurs in Wales, wherever they may be in their business journey – from starting-up to fast-growing businesses, including ‘one-person band’ to 20, 50, 100+ employee’s businesses. Our task was then to launch and deploy the evolved brand, raising awareness of Business Wales as a relevant and accessible means of support for businesses in Wales, promoting its wide range of services through national and local campaigns.
Our starting point was reviewing the existing brand. We carried out focus groups, workshops, and surveys with stakeholders and the public to understand current awareness and perceptions of the service. We learned that although the brand identity and voice were firmly established, reflecting a helpful and knowledgeable service, there was a big opportunity to make it even more personal and about the businesses it supports and champions. Another key takeaway was that many start-ups and running businesses are yet to know the range of services and support provided by Business Wales, which goes way beyond finance advice and information about potential grants for example.
So, our approach was to build on the existing brand, evolving it to really stand-up and become even more memorable while building and reinforcing Business Wales’ proposition of being the ultimate one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs to start and grow their business in Wales. We developed the overarching headline:
Which not while consolidates Business Wales’ positioning as the ‘go to’ business support service, but also expands the brand narrative around the impact the service has in building individual businesses, nation’s economy and a confident future.
As it was important for us to keep to the brand visual essence, we developed the existing style by introducing the ‘red flowing line’ distinctive graphic to enable us to celebrate Welsh businesses (highlighting their character, passion, and entrepreneurship determination) while bringing to life the service on offer, that is expert but also personal. The flowing lines allow us to frame our communications symbolising how Business Wales helps businesses to flow seamlessly.
From our research it became clear running a business isn’t easy and can be a daunting experience. Business owners may be experts in their field, but when faced with the many other aspects of running your own enterprise, like taxes, employment law, or expanding your business imports and exports, it can be difficult to be an expert across all areas. SME business owners and entrepreneurs often need to wear multiple ‘business hats’, and no doubt at times feel like they could do with more versions of themselves to get all the jobs done.
Our campaign concept reflects this juggling act, executed by cloning a business owner, with its duplicates doing multiple tasks whilst trying to keep going with their day to day running of their businesses. Our aim is to resonate with SME’s entrepreneurs by showing we understand and sympathise with the challenges they face and that Business Wales is here to help with expert support across all these areas, giving them the knowledge and skills to run every aspect of their business with confidence.
We developed of a range of campaign materials covering TV, OOH, radio, and digital platforms showcasing the services available from Business Wales, with tailored content to engage with target audiences and business in their various stages of their business journey, by location, size and industry.
Alongside a fully integrated paid channel activity, we are also continuously developing, updating and expanding their stakeholder and partner network at a national and local level. We are also working collaboratively with Business Wales’ suppliers, who play an integral role in delivering high-quality support services to the business community of Wales, ensuring innovation, sustainability, and growth across each industry sector.
We launched the ‘Help to Build Business’ campaign, introducing the evolved brand in November 2023. With a focus on brand activation and raising awareness, this first above the line (ATL) media burst included TV, radio, out of OOH and digital, with the second ATL burst going live in January 2024 to drive recall and further reinforce brand recognition. Our channel strategy combines ATL bursts to raise awareness at a national level, with targeted local, community activity, by sector and stage of business journeys.
Following the first two bursts of national ATL campaign, we have achieved a significant increase in brand awareness, despite this being only the start of the ongoing campaign activity:
– 57% awareness of Business Wales as the Welsh Government dedicated business support services for people running or starting a business. This represents an 8% increase from November 2023 Wales Business Omnibus Survey, and the highest results since 2014!
– 25% unprompted recall of Business Wales when asked ‘do you know the name of Welsh Government’s business support service?.’ This equates to 8% increase from November 2023 baseline.
