- British team entrusted with reinventing Danish icon
- Sales increase 15.5 per cent since relaunch, seasonal sales up 17 per cent
- Hand-design ensures ‘lost’ artwork remains central to brand
A UK-based branding team has rebranded and redesigned a beloved Danish confectionary product for the first time in over 30 years – boosting sales by over 15 per cent since its January launch.
Nordic confectioner Cloetta saw a 15.5 per cent increase on standard packs of Skipper’s Pipes liquorice pipes since it was relaunched using new branding from Manchester’s Agency Spring team. A pre-Christmas campaign, which acted as a soft launch for the new design, saw a seasonal rise of 17 per cent.
Having identified the product – which hadn’t been significantly changed in decades – as being in real need of a refresh, Cloetta turned to Agency Spring in the UK for help. The Manchester-based branch of the Danish agency then developed a whole new brand identity for Skipper’s Pipes, which included packaging, tone of voice and other assets.
“The pipes were already more popular than ever in Denmark, making a rebrand potentially risky,” says Agency Spring’s UK Managing Director Paul Iddon. “However, Cloetta seemed to recognise that while respect for the existing brand was important, so too was revitalising a product which had been largely untouched since the early 1980s.”
Agency Spring had already decided the Skipper’s Pipes ship artwork should remain central to the new packaging. However, the agency’s Creative Director in the UK, Steve Rowe, explained tracking down the original art was particularly difficult, as so much time had passed since it had last been needed.
“Nobody knew who painted it,” said Rowe. “We thought the canvas might have been hidden away in a vault somewhere, but instead we had to work with the digital assets we had. This meant a lot of hand drawn work to expand the scope of the ocean and sky, as well as adding new elements like seagulls and lighthouses. This not only gave us more flexibility with the standard packaging, it was also useful for the work that followed.”
A new secondary font and ship’s wheel holding device would help reinforce the seafaring theme behind the product, however Agency Spring also wanted to put the consumer at the heart of the story. So, having discarded the idea of a fictionalised ‘skipper’, new brand guidelines encouraged all communications to focus on the personal ‘voyage’ of the customer. “In other words,” states Iddon, “we want people to feel that when they bite down on a Skipper’s Pipe, they are the skipper.”
A luxurious gold embossed ‘Log Book’ was created to house the guidelines, as well as a new version of the immensely popular Skipper’s Pipes Advent Calendar. With the latter, consumers were asked to share their personal voyage with #skipperselfies on social media. The client was so happy, it even used the Manchester team’s example selfies – provided for the mock up – in the finalised version; a fitting tribute to the long, successful relationship between the Danish client and UK team.
Since the release of the new standard ‘sharing’ packs, advent calendar and log book, Agency Spring has designed ‘gift’ and ‘single serving’ variants for Cloetta, with a brand new product, the ‘XL’ set for launch in September 2016. All related packaging, gift boxes, display cases and point of sale standees have been designed by Agency Spring and it is hoped this new pipe, which weighs over twice that of the original, will take the popularity of the liquorice pipe even further.
“Knowing we successfully brought such an important Danish brand into the 21st century without damaging its iconic status is great, but the fact sales have actively increased since the rebrand is just sensational,” concludes Iddon. “We pride ourselves on being able to get to the heart of what makes a brand special and open it up to a wider market so its good to know we’ve done this with Skipper’s Pipes, enhancing what has always been a great relationship with the Danish market.”
About Cloetta
Cloetta, founded in 1862, is a leading confectionery company in the Nordic region, The Netherlands, and Italy. Cloetta is manufacturing and marketing sugar confectionery, chocolate products, pastilles and chewing gum. In total, Cloetta products are sold in more than 50 markets worldwide.
About Skippers Pipes
Skipper’s Pipes is the 2nd best selling sugar confectionery product in Denmark, selling over 25 million pipes per year. The product was first sold in the 1920s in Finland and was 100 per cent handmade, before production was moved to Malmo, Sweden in the 1930s. However, it wasn’t until the 1980s when it received the name Skipper’s Pipes.
About Agency Spring
Agency Spring is a multi-disciplinary agency with offices in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Manchester and Ho Chi Minh City. Specialising in brand identity, packaging, marketing, design and digital content, its Manchester office covers a wide range of clients including Aldi, Raskusen’s and Velux.
For further information, contact:
Paul Iddon, Managing Director
Agency Spring Ltd, 31 Blackfriars Rd , Manchester, M3 7AQ
EMAIL: pi@agency-spring.com MOBILE: +44 (0)7977 283038 OFFICE: +44 (0)161 834 3935