All about Outbrain, Clearasil, APS Group Scotland, Aberdeen International Youth Festival

April 2013 saw the publication of the annual Brand Finance Global top 50 Cosmetics Brands with Clearasil entering for the first time (ranked 32), thanks to continued brand innovation and its growing popularity in developing markets.

RB’s Clearasil range is one of the UK’s best-known young skincare brand and has been a trusted choice by young people to help combat spots and blemishes for over 50 years.    The range has been the subject of innovation and investment particularly since Reckitt Benckiser acquired the brand in 2006.

Clearasil’s most recent innovations have seen the brand taking a more specific approach to problem skin which has continued to grow the market with products targeting specific need. An example of this is the newly launched Clearasil Ultra Blemish + Marks, a range that not only helps reduce blemishes but also fights marks that come with it. The new products have been developed in response to Clearasil research which showed that 62% of teenagers are not only concerned about spots and pimples, but also the red marks caused by spots¹.

“This is a great achievement for the brand which we feel is the result of our strategy of constant innovation, and the company’s commitment to understanding and responding to  real skincare needs to grow the overall young skin treatment products sector, as well as Clearasil’s own share.  We have more exciting plans for the brand in  2013 and hope to see Clearasil even higher in the listing next year.” Jerome Lemaire, Personal Care Marketing Director.

Outbrain, the leading content discovery platform, was last night awarded Technology Partner 2013 at the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Awards, during a ceremony held at the Camden Roundhouse in London.

The company were acknowledged for demonstrating the most effective results in driving digital publishers’ revenue forward. Judges looked for proof of enterprise, innovation and the ability to create and increase revenue for publishers. End user satisfaction and publisher testimonials were also considered.

Simon Edelstyn, Managing Director of Outbrain Europe commented: “To be recognised by the AOP is a real privilege and we are thrilled to have received this award. It is excellent to see publishers benefiting from the Outbrain platform which primarily focuses on the user experience, as well as revenue generation, and so offers publishers a genuine win-win solution. We are looking forward to working with many more brands in the publishing space going forward, particularly given our recent product updates like our mobile and video solutions.”

Marketing services provider, APS Group Scotland, has developed the creative themes and visual identity for the 2013 Aberdeen International Youth Festival, one of the world’s biggest celebrations of youth art. APS Group won the contract as part of a competitive tender process during which agencies were given an open brief to develop a brand new design concept for the festival, now in its 41st year.

APS Group retained the original pink which runs throughout the AIYF brand identity by incorporating the colour into its overall visual campaign – a series of birds in motion illustrated by Sanna Annukka, which embody the spirit of youthfulness, performance and joy which are so integral to the festival. The birds will be used across all promotional material for the festival, including shop windows, billboards, posters, pavement projections, and the full listings programme which officially launches today.

“We were delighted with the calibre of work presented to us by APS Group and by their desire to really understand the spirit of the festival”, said Angela Michael, PR and marketing manager for the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. “We were deliberately vague with our brief. Having been tied to the same design for the previous three years we were open-minded about what the future identity of the festival should be. The festival has evolved considerably over the past 41 years, from purely orchestral to embracing contemporary music, theatre and dance. The birds represent this expression of creativity perfectly and also appeal across all of our audiences and age groups.”