The story was a classic class of Brand Identity. Josh Lever – charismatic, driven, enthusiastic (a Richard Branson in the making) clearly has an ambitious vision of how to manage his company Chemistry. Since the age of 15, Josh has been DJing and planning events. Today his enterprise has skyrocketed to a successful approach in managing high-end birthdays, weddings and celebrations. Marketing collateral was impressive with good visuals of what Chemistry can do in a brochure format and accompanying website. www.chemistry-events.com

The problem? How can Chemistry create a branded identity, and encourage further word of mouth, when it is their events that they should be primarily remembered for. Creating a distinctive identity would ensure future events and revenue in light of established competition. We sat down in a cafe for some tea and an oversized plate of chips and got to it.

We all warmed to Josh quickly, he knew what he wanted from Chemistry and articulated his brand principles clearly. Firstly it clear on talking with Josh that Chemistry provide experiences, not events. This distinction could set Chemistry apart from competition -  birthdays, weddings, anniversaries – these are all experiences. Each could be unique and tailored. Positioning himself as a provider of “experiences” rather than merely an “event planner” would allows Chemistry to be more experimental and risque – something Josh was keen on. And it would present a distinctiveness in the market.

How to create brand resonance though? We explored the idea of branding videos of the party for party-goers to take home with them. These videos would be fully immersive for the viewer – as if you were actually there – first person camera shooting / lots going on. The video would start: ‘Chemistry presents…..’  – in doing this Chemistry instantly creates ownership of the event, which would further encourage positive referral in a market dominated by word of mouth. Josh soon got the idea – by creating ownership, and taking leadership of an industry sector by creating that ownership – his company would become the market leader as matter of course.

Additionally we explored the possibility of Chemistry creating their own quality control organisation – imagine a ‘ Guild of Quality Service for Experience Events’ – Chemistry would set the standard in the industry – others would have to try and catch up! Creating a quality standards campaign could also be a great way to generate PR.

Josh clearly had a lot to drive him to success. With these minor tweaks in positioning and branding Josh will create a set of standards and a market in which Chemistry would be the flagship brand. The events that he’d managed in the past were clearly memorable and successful, by exploring in-event experience – e.g. video interviews – a multi-video wall of people from the party, post-event branding through video tagging software and customer testimonials – Chemistry will have even more successful events and a very successful brand.

Plus Josh mentioned he may be able to plan my next birthday party – so expect invites in the post soon!

Posted by Nick Bennett

Tags: brand, campaign, events, Idea Shop Brixton, strategy