Award-winning London-based staffing agency Brand Warriors is to open offices in Europe as it celebrates both its 15th birthday and significant client wins.
A new Brussels office, which will go live in the first quarter of 2016, will allow the company to service clients in Belgium, France and Germany – it is already getting requests from major clients to provide staff for activations around the Euro 2016 football tournament.
An office in Amsterdam will follow shortly, with negotiations well advanced.
Brand Warriors has relaunched its website to reflect its new cross-border capabilities and has had new collateral put together which reinforces the agency’s focus on creativity, professionalism and effectiveness. It also highlights the wide range of talents there are on the Brand Warriors’ database, including singers and musicians, sports people, gymnasts and other performers.
Finally, the agency has completely revolutionised how brand ambassadors are recruited, modifying the industry-standard ‘boot camp’ casting sessions in favour of a more personal approach which ensures only quality staff qualify as Brand Warriors.
The new marketing collateral will be used in direct mail, trade advertising, online and digital campaigns during 2016 to attract potential new clients.
Brand Warriors provides specialist staffing solutions to major brand owning companies and retailers for experiential campaigns, including activations at festivals, exhibitions and major sporting events as well as in store and in public spaces.
2015 saw the company deliver activations for clients including Nestle, Alpro, Christian Dior, Ageas, Triumph Lingerie, and, most recently, Coty.
Brand Warriors has also just finished working on one of the biggest experiential campaigns ever seen in the UK providing all promotional staff for experiential agency Playmaker and their experiential activation for the Coca-Coca Rugby World Cup sponsorship. This saw the global soft drinks company run experiential activity in cities the length and breadth of the UK.
During 2015, it also worked on campaigns including:
- An activation at King’s Cross station promoting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the Diagon Alley attractions at the Universal Orlando theme park featuring 3D chalk drawings;
- A massive in-store demonstration and sampling campaign for Nescafé Dolce Gusto in retailers across the UK, including Curry’s and Debenhams. It is the ninth year running Brand Warriors has worked on the pod coffee brand’s Christmas sales push. For 2015, it delivered 1,200+ promotional days over eight weeks, with all staff being Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM) accredited;
- And a ‘levitating’ commuter stunt at Waterloo Station for Nestlé Cereals aimed at stopping commuters in their tracks.
Shandelle Downs, Director of People at Brand Warriors, says: “2015 was a great year in terms of campaigns delivered; but our clients want more from us in 2016 and it looks like this year will be one to remember.Our more high profile clients are asking if we can deliver activations in other countries, so we’re rolling out the Brand Warriors formula across Europe and we’re currently looking into other areas of the globe in the next 12 months. There will also be some additional areas in which we aim to supply services; all will be revealed throughout the course of the year.”
Downs continues: “Because of our track record working on campaigns around the Rugby World Cup in the UK in 2015, we are also getting a lot of enquiries about how we can support experiential campaigns around the Euro 2016 football tournament, which takes place in France this year. Clients are taking sports-related experiential marketing more seriously than ever before, both because of the costs involved in sponsorship and also the benefits in terms of getting their product and brand messages across to consumers, and they want professional staff on their marketing teams.”
2015 was both a year of significant growth for Brand Warriors and also a year of consolidation for the future, Downs adds. “We have further developed our in-house education and training and we have completely rewritten the rulebook on staffing. Experiential staff are the face of the brands they are representing. They need to be able to live the brand and deliver the key messages in an exciting, creative, professional and, above all, effective way.”
Finally, Brand Warriors will be celebrating its 15th birthday in June 2016 with a major birthday bash – featuring the whole range of Brand Warriors’ talents – and the announcement of a significant charity link.
