Ipswich-based Future 50 member Cheddar Creative has won the contract for a major rebranding project, for a company called Emeg. “They pretty much build everything you see in rail terminals and depots,” explains Cheddar co-founder Cassie Bendall.
“Emeg won a big contract at the end of last year with Etihad Rail in Dubai, so they've now set up an office in Dubai and are very much looking at the Middle East, Africa and Asia,” she says. This means it’s important to project the right kind of image – which is where Cheddar comes in.
“We're working with them on upstream stuff like mission and purpose, but the primary goal is to establish them as a global player,” explains co-founder Rich Wood.
This is because Cheddar Creative does a lot more than just build websites. “That’s just one of the tools in our toolbox,” says Rich. “We’re creative problem solvers. People come to us because we can get under the hood of who they are and, more importantly, who their customers are and what they need – and we help them prove they can solve their customers’ problems.”
Cassie highlights they work they did with The Forge Kitchen. “When the lockdown came, the restaurant had to shut so we helped them launch their own cocktail brand,” she explains. This went far beyond building the e-commerce site to creating the entire brand identity – from coming up with the Smith’s Cocktails name to designing the packaging and then bringing the brand to life with photography, design and copywriting.
The agency stayed busy through the pandemic, offering its services at reduced rates to support SMEs that had to pivot or move online. “That good karma is coming back around,” says Rich. "Those companies are returning saying, 'We're absolutely flying... So can you now help us with this and we've got more money to spend.’ It means we also have a really strong portfolio.”
A key project undertaken during the pandemic was a new website for technical recruiters Hurren & Hope, with phase one launched at the start of 2021. "We’re helping them pivot from recruitment to being holistic business solutions providers, offering consultancy across not just HR and recruitment, but also sales and marketing, management, growth strategies, and so on,” Rich explains.
The target for the new services is the start-up and scale-up market, but also "restart” companies – those that have had to pivot dramatically and go into a whole new area. "We've built a new online platform and we've done all sorts of clever stuff with JavaScript animation and 3d modelling,” says Rich. "The shop-window website was phase one and phase two hopefully isn't too far behind.
“We're going to get involved on the service-delivery side too, because they need brand experts who can consult with the start-ups, so exciting times ahead!"
For more information, see www.cheddarcreative.co.uk
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