Category Archives: Small Grid

Gong rings out the changes with rebrand

GONG RINGS OUT THE CHANGES WITH REBRAND

New visual identity and vision for Gong marks milestone in company’s growth

London, 6th July 2016:  Since Gong was launched 12 years ago, the communications industry has undergone seismic changes. Then, there was no Twitter, no Instagram, no Snapchat. LinkedIn was only a year old with 756,000 users compared to upwards of 350 million now.  Digitalisation and globalisation have changed, beyond recognition, the way we communicate.  It’s not only this industry as a whole that has evolved; Gong has too.

Gong Creative and Gong Kenya were opened in 2012, a new team is on board,  and already this year Gong’s client work has won or been shortlisted for seven awards.  Narda Shirley, managing director of Gong Communications said: “It’s been a year of significant growth and success for Gong so we’ve looked inwards and done something we advise our clients to do; refreshed our brand. We’re attracting some talented young minds and we’ve taken the opportunity to reflect more closely on who we are and what we cherish in our work. We value purpose in the work we do for our clients. The time was right to rebrand to mirror this vision.”

Gong’s rebrand from concept to identity to new website has been designed and produced entirely in-house.

Gong & Lloyd’s of London win Marketing Week’s award

GONG COMMUNICATIONS AND LLOYD’S OF LONDON WIN MARKETING WEEK’S DIVERSITY CHAMPION AWARD FOR DIVE IN FESTIVAL

London, 13 May 2016: Praised as a ‘bold and brave’ event, the Dive In Festival for diversity and inclusion in insurance has won a prestigious industry award. Curated by Gong for our client Lloyd’s of London, Dive In won the Diversity Champion category at the Marketing Week awards beating off some stiff competition.  The judges also said: “Dive In ran a prominent event and really made their mark ensuring they are committed for the long term.”

The award was presented by Sir Lenny Henry at a glittering ceremony at the Roundhouse in London on May 12th.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Dive In has received this high profile recognition,” commented Narda Shirley, managing director at Gong Communications. “It was an honour to have been an integral part of a very exciting ‘first’ for the insurance industry with a wide-ranging brief spanning branding, video, events and workshops. Dive In 2016 is already looking even bigger and better!”

Following on from the hugely successful 2015 event, Gong has been re-appointed by Lloyd’s to curate Dive In on behalf of the Inclusion@Lloyd’s steering group. This year’s festival will be held between 27th-29th Sept 2016 and will include branded events across the globe as well as expanded participation outside the Lloyd’s Market.

 

Sarah Nicholas back from secondment with the African Entrepreneur Collective in Rwanda

SARAH NICHOLAS BACK FROM SECONDMENT WITH THE AFRICAN ENTREPRENEUR COLLECTIVE IN RWANDA

Sarah Nicholas

As I struggle to warm my fingers after a freezing commute through London this morning, it’s hard to believe that this time last month I was spitting distance from the equator. I was in the land of a thousand hills – Rwanda – sharing my experiences as a communications consultant with some truly inspirational entrepreneurs and individuals while on secondment with the African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) in Kigali.

Listening to the stories of entrepreneurs and colleagues there, it is clear that innovation is thriving in East Africa. But more than that, AEC’s mantra that ‘all solutions to Africa’s challenges already exist on the continent’ now feels more credible and tangible than ever.

Just one example is Marcel, who, having been orphaned by the genocide that decimated Rwanda in 1994, wanted to harness the main driver and instrument of destruction – media and youth – and turn them into a force for good. Now three years after launching, and with support from AEC, Marcel’s news website Umuseke is the second most read digital media outlet in Rwanda and employs 20 people – not bad for a 25 year old.

Another case in point is Rwanda’s answer to Uber, SafeMotos. The app combines booking software with black box technology to ensure customers are only hopping on the back of the safest motorbike taxi drivers in town, offering valuable peace of mind in a city where 80% of traffic accidents involve motos. Peter and Nash developed a go-to-market strategy with think – AEC’s tech incubator, funded by telecoms giant Tigo Rwanda – and the app now adorns billboards across the country.

But it wasn’t only the vision and determination of AEC’s entrepreneurs that blew me away, the passion and commitment of their own team was infectious.

A social enterprise with job creation as its ultimate goal, AEC is a collection of business incubators and accelerators who support local entrepreneurs enabling them to grow, employ others and make a long-term contribution to the economy. In two years, they have already helped 150 entrepreneurs to create 700 jobs and have big plans to expand to seven African countries within 10 years.

Having a soft spot for the entrepreneurial spirit and our own growing communications practice in East Africa, a partnership between Gong and AEC seemed a natural fit and I was luckily enough to be the first of the team to spend a month offering pro-bono comms consultancy and skills building to the organization and its entrepreneurs.

It was certainly a busy month! I created communications plans and marketing strategies, ran messaging workshops, edited websites, drafted press releases, held media training for a bootcamp full of social entrepreneurs and supported AEC’s launch into Tanzania – on which, more later.

But it wasn’t all work. In just 4 weeks I explored Kigali, met a four-month old gorilla in the Virunga mountains, kayaked on Lake Kivu, tested out my first shaky words of Kinyaruanda, got caught in some spectacular rainstorms, was laughed at relentlessly by market stall holders, flew to the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in a really small plane, and leapt into a lake fully clothed (there was a reason for it!).

For now, while I immerse myself back into the fray of all important client work back at base, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the AEC family that made it such a great experience. I will be back!