News
Lucas Peon, CCO, named Top 100 Creative Leader
We are pleased to announce our CCO, Lucas Peon has been named Top 100 Creative Leader, globally by Creativepool.
Such a well-deserved recognition for someone committed to putting creativity at the heart and making great work that gets the nation talking.
Click here to see the full list of the 2023 Top 100 Creative Leaders.
Marketing Society presents New York Changemakers conference 2023
The Marketing Society Annual Conference is back and it’s going to be bigger than ever. Taking place on Wednesday October 11, 8.30am – 12.30pm at TikTok, (151 W 42nd Street).
In partnership with MBAstack, our Conference is a day for new ideas, making new connections, a time for creativity and sparking debate, with a lineup of diverse and dynamic speakers who tell unforgettable stories that help ignite change.
The concept of this year’s theme, illumination, is a powerful one. Great marketers and great changemakers light up a path for people. They bring brightness, warmth, and clarity. The best leaders are aware of the shadow they cast and the light they shine, to illuminate others and show clearly the way forward.
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The AA client, Will Harrison, spoke to Creative Salon
Our fantastic client, Will Harrison, The AA Group Brand Director spoke to Creative Salon about the importance of humor in marketing, building strong agency partnerships and the future our new campaign 'It’s OK, I’m with The AA'.
Read it here
The AA client, Will Harrison, spoke to The Drum
Our fantastic The AA client, Will Harrison, spoke to The Drum about working with us at The Gate London on the road to transforming one of Britain’s most well-known names within the automotive sector.
Read it here
Ad of the Week for The AA
Our campaign “It’s OK, I’m with the AA” for The AA was named Ad of the Week by More About Advertising.
Read it here
5 Minutes with Lucas Peon
Our CCO, Lucas Peon spoke to LBB about the importance of having a diverse team, simplicity as the most powerful advantage, why he lives and breathes storytelling and much more.
Read it all via LBB
The Gate ranks 4th at Campaign UK Creative New Business Rankings
Proud to announce we are at the top of August Campaign Magazine Uk’s Creative New-Business Rankings. We’re chuffed to be ranking 4th on the list following an outstanding quarter filled with fantastic wins.
Read it here
CSO, Kit Altin and Will Harrison, The AA Group Brand Director spoke to Contagious
Our AA client, Will Harrison Group Brand Director, and our CSO Kit Altin spoke to Contagious Magazine about the insight and strategy behind our newly launched campaign 'It's OK, I'm with The AA.'
They discussed how the UK’s leading automotive breakdown provider and insurer is using humour to cut through in a competitive market, and drive awareness of its products and services.
Read it here.
Pitch Stories: How The Gate won SMARTY
Presenting the highlights from the BD Matters's Industry Interview: 'Pitch Stories: How The Gate London Won SMARTY '
With 20 months into our relationship, our CEO Jamie Elliott, was interviewed alongside our SMARTY Mobile client, Sayed Hajamaideen, Head of Marketing & Propositions by Adam Graham Founder of BD Matters on the pitch process and what led to our successful collaboration.
Some of the highlights of this interview include:
- How to build a strong Agency- client partnership
- How to have a successful pitch
- MSQ’s interesting business model
Ad of the Day for The AA Street Fighter
Hadouken - The next phase of our campaign 'It's OK, I'm with The AA' that taps into popular culture and all the feelings of nostalgia by partnering with Street Fighter, was named Ad of the Day by Campaign.
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“It’s OK, I’m with The AA” hits next level
The AA, the UK’s leading driving services business, launches the next phase of its fully integrated marketing campaign, “It’s Ok, I’m with the AA.” The Gate alongside lead media agency, Goodstuff, developed the campaign and evolved communications and media strategy.
“It’s OK, I’m with the AA” shows how the AA’s multi-service provision gives its members an unshakable confidence, no matter what they might face in their driving world.
For this next phase, which extends the campaign in an unexpected way, the AA is partnering with the Street Fighter™ video game franchise, tapping into popular culture and all the feelings of nostalgia and love their audience have for the game following the launch of Street Fighter™ 6, the latest entry in the series. Street Fighter is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, selling over 50 million units since it originally launched in 1987. The series continues this year with Street Fighter 6, the latest game in the franchise that has entertained countless fans for decades, and which released to critical and commercial success, boasting 2 million copies sold since its release in June.
Media planning and strategy, led by Goodstuff, showcases the Streetfighter asset with a targeted OOH campaign. With hand-selected pedestrianised, high-impact full-motion sites. For two weeks, from the 31st of July, the campaign extends into key OOH sites across relevant UK cities; Manchester, Liverpool, London, Reading, and Nottingham, with amplification through social channels. The campaign marks a dramatic shift for the AA, moving towards a masterbrand-led platform across key media channels.
Lucas Peon, Chief Creative Officer of The Gate, said: “We wanted our campaign to extend in a way that would really resonate with people, so partnering with Street Fighter allowed us to take our campaign to the next level and show AA members they can be confident no matter what happens”
Read more about the campaign here
Creative Directors, Rob & Steve on Behind the Work for The AA
Our Creative Directors, Rob Bovington and Stephen Webley talked to Little Black Book about the secrets behind the making-of our latest campaign “It’s OK, I’m with the AA” for The AA.
Read it here
Work of the Week for The AA
Our newly-launched campaign “It’s OK, I’m with the AA” for The AA was featured on LBB’s Work of the Week.
Read it here
Ad of the Day for The AA
Our newly-launched campaign for The AA, “It’s OK, I’m with the AA” was named Ad of the Day by Campaign Magazine.
Read more here
The Gate launches “It’s OK, I’m with The AA” campaign
The AA, the UK’s leading driving services business, launches this week a new fully integrated marketing campaign, “It’s OK, I’m with the AA”. After being appointed as its lead creative agency in December 2022, The Gate alongside lead media agency Goodstuff, developed the campaign and evolved communications and media strategy.
Since 1905, The AA has been committed to putting UK drivers first. A brand that has been a symbol and source of expertise and support for its members is now a pioneering, multi-service provider for the modern, ever-changing driving world. The AA ensures, reflected in a new brand line, that its members are ‘Always ahead’ whether that is through learning superior driving skills for life, buying and selling second-hand cars with confidence, bossing your car’s maintenance or owning the unknown with award-winning insurance and the country’s most awarded Roadside Assistance fleet.
The campaign “It’s OK, I’m with the AA” embodies the optimistic, unshakeable confidence UK drivers can have when they are with The AA, now and for the future. It celebrates feeling confident in the face of moments that would faze you if you were not an AA member.
The campaign has one 60” and three 30” films. The 60” hero film, using humour to create stand-out, features a cast of AA members experiencing moments where they are confident no matter what happens, whether that’s a dad putting the wrong fuel in his car as his excited family waits to go on holiday, a patient faced by an X-ray revealing an unusually misplaced key, a learner driver navigating a swirling vortex or a dad gifting a new car to his son which promptly gets hit by a meteorite. These scenes are set to Chopin’s Waltz no 7. The films were directed by Si & Ad through Academy Films.
The campaign marks a dramatic shift for the AA, moving towards a Masterbrand-led platform and breaks nationwide today on TV and cinema. Radio, Print, OOH, Social and Digital channels will follow in a phased launch. The Gate, part of MSQ, developed the campaign which incorporates a new visual brand identity developed by MSQ’s Elmwood, along with the AA’s new distinctive sound asset produced by Sixième Son.
Lucas Peon, Chief Creative Officer of The Gate, said: “We wanted to bring to life the feeling of unshakeable confidence when you’ve got the AA on your side, no matter what happens, in a way that would be unmissable to drivers across the country.”
Will Harrison, Group Brand Director at The AA, said: “ From pitch to campaign delivery, the team at The Gate have always been 100% aligned on our brand opportunity and ambitions. We're all so excited to launch this new campaign as part of a larger 'Always Ahead' brand re-positioning to reflect the modern and relevant driving brand that we are, with a good dose of advertising swagger."
Read more about the campaign here
The Gate launches first campaign for Gigaclear following pitch win
Gigaclear, the broadband provider specialising rolling out full fibre to under-served rural communities has appointed The Gate as its strategic brand and creative partner. The collaboration follows The Gate's successful win in a competitive pitch process held in March earlier this year. Next week marks the launch of “The Giganaut” the first fully-integrated marketing campaign developed by The Gate for Gigaclear.
Launched in 2010, Gigaclear is on a mission to unlock the potential of poorly-served, rural communities by delivering fast and reliable broadband to people’s doorsteps. The Gate will help to elevate Gigaclear's brand presence, supporting its commitment to providing high-speed, reliable broadband services to rural areas.
The brand has rapidly scaled-up in the last few years, now serving over 80,000 rural homes with thousands joining every month. Andrew Brotherton, Head of marketing adds "As with any scale-up business it needs to mature and enhance it’s marketing capability as it grows and that is exactly what we have been doing. We have undertaken significant customer research to help fine tune our brand strategy and we have widened tactics to reach our target customers with both "long and short" media. In 2022 we ventured into AV and radio for the first time alongside a very strong DM and digital programme. The marketing evolution continues in 2023 as we take the quality of the creative execution to another level with the help of The Gate."
The new campaign heroes Gigaclear’s very own astronaut, The Giganaut, a visored hero - and distinctive fluent device - who is on a mission to champion Britain’s rural villages and towns, and connect them to ultrafast, full fibre broadband.
“The Giganaut” includes a redesign of Gigaclear’s visual identity and will launch on Monday across TV, Radio, Print, Social, Digital and Online. The film was directed by Jack Cole through Brave Spark Content Studios. The campaign was developed by a joined-up MSQ team blending The Gate’s creative and strategic leadership with Walk-In Media’s media planning and buying expertise and BraveSpark’s production capabilities.
Andrew Brotherton, Head of Marketing at Gigaclear, said: “We have landed on a distinctive brand positioning that deserves a distinctive brand asset such as our Giganaut. We're on a mission to bring faster full fibre broadband to under-served rural Britain. It's a cluttered and nosiy market, but we are confident that this campaign will stand out to be remembered by rural communities as they choose their broadband provider. The Gate has truly understood our brand and the sense of mission we want to convey to our customers and have provided a refreshed visual identity that will work hard at driving both brand salience and immediate activation.”
Charlotte Wolfenden, Managing Director at The Gate, said: “We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Gigaclear as their strategic brand and creative partner through the launch of this new integrated campaign and refreshed visual identity. Their challenger attitude is contagious and we’ve no doubt the campaign will bring Gigaclear's out of this world services to the attention of rural Britain, in a playful and memorable way''
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Senior Strategist Bruno Carramaschi, selected to be in the Effie UK Awards Jury
Senior Strategist, Bruno Carramaschi, has been selected to be in the Effie UK Awards Jury.
The Effie Awards are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, and recognise any and all forms of marketing that contribute to a brand's success.
CCO, Lucas Peon shortlisted as Creative Leader of the Year
Our CCO, Lucas Peon has been shortlisted as Creative Leader of the Year at Creativepool’s 2023 Annual.
CEO Jamie Elliott, guest on the Courageous Leaders Podcast
Our CEO, Jamie Elliott was a guest on the Courageous Leaders Podcast with Joanna Howes.
In this episode, they dive deep into the courage of conviction in leadership - the importance of staying true to our beliefs (even when not popular). Join them as they explore the importance of staying true to our beliefs, even when it's not the popular choice.
Click the here to listen to the full episode
The Very Group appoints The Gate as lead creative partner
The Very Group, operator of digital retailer Very, has appointed The Gate as its lead creative partner following a competitive pitch.
The Gate, which is part of MSQ, will begin working on a revitalised brand platform and creative approach, delivering key creative campaigns for the brand across the year.
The Very Group was supported in the process by Oystercatchers, a specialist in agency evaluation and selection. The review did not include the Group’s media agency account, which is held by Dentsu. Pablo and Mr President were shortlisted as part of the pitch process.
Jessica Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at The Very Group, said: “We want to thank all the agencies that participated, we were humbled to see the passion, energy, and creativity they all brought to the process.
However, The Gate demonstrated richer customer knowledge and outstanding strategic thinking, resulting in a truly distinctive creative idea to excite customers and galvanise our organisation. The culture and values of The Gate are also a perfect match for The Very Group and we are really excited to begin our journey together. “
Jamie Elliott, CEO of The Gate, commented: “We are thrilled to be partnering with The Very Group. Their ambition is inspiring and their energy infectious. We also share a similar mindset and values, foundations for a successful relationship producing stand-out work. We are raring to go.”
Read more here