S3 Advertising | Agency Credentials by S3-Advertising

is a multi-award winning, integrated full service advertising agency based in the heart of Cardiff city centre. We specialise in media buying & planning, creative & design, branding, web design & development, digital & SEO, social media and PR. The Drum’s 2016 UK Advertising Agency of the Year, we pride ourselves on being a truly national agency benefiting from the very best talent that Wales has to offer. We work with some of the UK’s largest brands such as Companies House, Airbus, MotoNovo Finance and Bounce Energy Balls, as well as Wales’ best known brands; the Welsh Rugby Union, the Football Association of Wales, BBC Wales, Brace’s Bread, S4C, Public Health Wales, Welsh Government and Development Bank of Wales. If you want your brand to be seen, heard and talked about, then S3 Advertising probably isn’t the best choice, it’s the only choice…

With over 300 years’ industry experience, our advertising expertise and industry relationships are second to none. Owned and run by a passionate management line-up who work among us, never hidden behind closed doors – everything about S3 hinges on the seemingly big and brilliantly small coming together.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Possessing over 20 years’ advertising experience, working for media owners such as Trinity Mirror, Newsquest and Exterion Media, Mike ensures knowledge of the media and advertising landscape is at the heart of what S3 do. His industry relationships and contacts make S3`s media buying power a force to be reckoned with, with favourably negotiated rates a standard for our clients. m.webb@s3advertising.agency

MANAGING PARTNER

MIPA-accredited from the Institute in Practitioners of Advertising, Becky uses her advertising expertise to put the necessary structures, processes and goals in place to enable our teams to produce work that follows best practice, achieves tangible results and delights our clients. Trained in behavioural change methods, she oversees client projects and ensures our work continues to drive ROI for clients. r.campbell@s3advertising.agency

NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR

With 11 years’ experience running campaigns for Volvo, Samsung, and Visa at major agencies including Havas Media, Matt understands the pressures in-house marketers face when it comes to driving performance of marketing. Now, his problem-solving approach and creative, brand & tech expertise make him the perfect person to advise S3’s new customers to find the marketing solutions they need. m.lewis@s3advertising.agency

CREATIVE PLANNING DIRECTOR

Sarah has an impressive agency career spanning 15 years in leading UK agencies such as Wunderman & Publicis and more recently, VCCP where she was one of the youngest employees on the Leadership Succession Programme. She is part of the brains that brought you some of your favourite household name campaigns – from Jean Claude Van Damme’s quest for Coors Light cold, to meerkat Alexander Orlov’s foray into movies. s.mason@s3advertising.agency

SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Ceri is responsible for the day-to-day running of our client campaigns, leading a talented team of account managers to deliver results and grow strong relationships with our clients. Her career has seen her plan campaigns for superbrands Barbie and Land Rover as a creative strategist for digital powerhouse Verizon Media, while as Cosmopolitan magazine’s former brand director she brings a storytelling flair to everything she does. c.forsdick@s3advertising.agency

HEAD OF PRODUCTION

Head of video and media production, Dan manages the creation of video, photography, CGI, and motion graphics at S3. His role is critical in ensuring standards are met across all areas of content and media production. He directed productions such as the CIM Excellence award-winning ‘Unleash Your Colours’ from University of South Wales, and Clogau’s ‘The Gift of Love Will Always Mean More’. d.veal@s3advertising.agency

HEAD OF PR & CONTENT

Former radio journalist Danny certainly has an eye for a story, having reported on some of the biggest – and some of the most heart-warming – news stories of the last decade. He and his team of content experts are at the forefront of today’s digital content world, ensuring information and brand content are turned into engaging forms across social media, PR, video and web articles. d.hayeslissack@s3advertising.agency

HEAD OF DESIGN

Steve has over a decade of experience in the design industry. Over the past 13 years Steve has worked on diverse projects with a broad range of clients, including Airbus, Brace’s Bakery, Cardiff City Football Club, Glamorgan Cricket and Welsh Blood. Steve enjoys combining modern digital techniques with more traditional methods. With the industry moving towards using more dynamic online content, Steve has moved to focus on web development. s.lewis@s3advertising.agency

DIGITAL OPS MANAGER

With a sharp eye for strategy and process, Joe is S3’s Digital Operations Manager, bringing 11 years of PPC, SEO & eCommerce experience from major clients such as Arriva Trains Wales, FA Wales and Aberystwyth University. Joe leads S3’s digital team to plan, execute and measure online campaigns. He studies industry trends to innovate clients’ digital presence and ensures that all activities are measurable and providing that all-important ROI. j.mcmullen@s3advertising.agency

MEDIA PLANNER & BUYER

A thorough, adaptable, agile planner, Georgia has all the instrumental qualities to excel in the ever-changing world of media planning and buying. She holds close relationships with media owners across the UK and leverages them to apply the latest insights, innovations and cost savings to her clients’ plans – clients including Development Bank of Wales, S4C Rugby World Cup and University of South Wales. g.holmes@s3advertising.agency

2020: The Drum Recommended for Digital Full Service, Media, Client Service & Brand Advertising until Feb 2021 2019: Natwest GBEA Team of the Year 2019 2019: Winners of CIM Best Integrated Marketing Campaign (Large) 2019: The Drum Digital Awards Winner 2018: Five number one rankings at the Drum Top 100 Agency Census, including #1 Independent Advertising Agency in Wales.

28th Best Agency in the UK

2018: Fast Growth 50: Sustainability award winner 2018: Winners of two CIPR awards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Consumer Relations Campaign and Arts, Culture and Sport Campaign 2017: Fast Growth 50: fastest growing creative industries firm in Wales 2017: Seven awards at the Drum Top 100 Agency Census including FIVE UK number ones: #1 Financial Performance, #1 Welsh

Advertising Agency, #1 UK Advertising Agency (25-50 staff), #3 UK Media Buying & Planning Agency, #6 UK Advertising Agency

2017: Won RAR award for best agency (under 40 staff) for Media Buying 2016: The Drumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UK Advertising Agency of the Year 2016: Ranked #1 in the UK for the third year at The Drum Digital Census for Excellent Client Feedback in the Media Agencies Sector 2016: Won 3 RAR awards for best agency (under 40 staff) for Advertising, Media Buying, Creative & Innovation 2016: Won RAR Digital award for best Online Media Buying Agency (under 40 staff) 2016: Ranked number 3 in the Independent Agency Census 2016 for Media Agency under 40 staff in the UK

OPPO ICE CREAM Across January and February 2019 – guilt-free dessert brand, Oppo came to S3 in pursuit of a disruptive and stand-out Valentine’s PR/Social campaign. Its primary objective was to effectively spark an explosion of conversation around them within the industry, and elevate the brands newly formed, dark and desirable personality. This process began, partnering with sex toy champion, Ann Summers to create a branded ‘Spooning Kit’ for press, influencers and consumers that would reflect the provocative, adult tone we were looking to convey. The kit comprised of: indulgent Oppo ice cream/cheesecake, a golden dessert spoon and to top it all off, an Ann Summers Moregasm Bullet. Yep, you read it right. Having sent this pleasure kit to selected media audiences, accompanied by a press release - we secured an OTS rate of over 1.7 million for the brand, with journalists from MTV, Cosmopolitan, LadBible and more all covering the product. We combined this package with a landing page, teasing the consumer launch of the spooning kit and ran an online voucher giveaway, alongside a suite of witty social content to help build on its momentum. Our 28 social posts achieved an increase of 1,838 Oppo followers over the period of their posting, as well as 560k impressions and 6.5k engagements – with a massive spike over the week building up to Valentine’s Day. This build-up successfully led to 33,000 landing page visitors over its duration, over 18,000 voucher requests and 8.2k e-newsletter sign-ups (+96.6% prior to the campaign).

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH WALES Whilst the word ‘Clearing’ might not mean much to the vast majority of the public, it’s one that is vitally important for many sixth-form students across the UK. Indeed, if students don’t achieve the A-Level grades they need to be accepted to their chosen university, Clearing offers a lifeline and so is an important day for many higher education institutions, including our client, the University of South Wales. Wanting to take full advantage of digital advertising’s capabilities on Clearing day, USW approached us to help them attract students through Google AdWords and Facebook. Beginning with an in-depth audit, our digital team restructured the client’s existing account, before multiple strategy meetings with USW helped finalise budgets, approve ad copy and determine logistics. On the day itself – proving why we’ve been ranked #1 for client satisfaction three years running – our S3 digital gurus were onsite with USW’s marketing department, benefitting from direct call centre access while providing senior management with real-time updates. Thanks to this hands-on approach, we received numerous plaudits from the client while increasing impression share (USW’s online market share) by 40%.

HELP ME QUIT In 2018 we took on the task of using advertising to reduce the impact of smoking in Wales when it began work with Public Health Wales for its national Help Me Quit campaign. Objectives were to inspire 3,968 individuals to begin their quit journey using NHS services and to use behaviour change methods to support the decreasing prevalence and impact of smoking in Wales. Intelligent insight and continual optimisation tactics are at the heart of this campaign. We began with detailed insight into the C2DE audiences gained from our numerous research platforms, including Experian MOSAIC. Members of our team then spent time training with Public Health Wales’ behavioural change scientists to learn the principles of behaviour change and understand methods that could be utilised within campaign creative. With all this information we were able to craft out a campaign creative that not only spoke directly to the campaign’s core C2DE audience but that normalised quitting behaviour through use of everyday models and a playful “We’re doing it” message. Our channel strategy saw campaign messages delivered through a mix of TV, out of home, PR and a multi-faceted digital campaign that uses a wide range of audience and messaging combinations to deliver greatest ROI. Utilising Search, Display, YouTube, Facebook and Remarketing in conjunction with our overarching fully integrated campaign, we have pushed innovation boundaries in terms of Welsh public sector marketing initiatives. Since the campaign begun we have worked in complete partnership with Public Health Wales to conduct regular review and optimisation, with digital activity in particular providing a myriad of insights that are

reported transparently and used practically to feed back into and improve the campaign tactics. A key tactical change was the move from flagship peak TV slots to an ‘always-on’ approach utilising cost-effective daytime TV solutions. Since the new activity began results grew rapidly with subsequent months achieving double that of previous. Likewise a recommendation from Team S3 to troubleshoot failing conversion rates through a new, bespoke website saw S3’s web developers produce am attractive and mobile-optimised new site designed with the clear purpose of converting visitors — a move that saw web conversion rates rise 14% year on year. Ultimately, the partnership between the two sides has had a true impact on campaign performance and is supporting vital work in Wales to limit the devastating effects of smoking in our public. Highlight Results: Challenging KPI of 3986 conversions in 2018-19 campaign period exceeded! Web traffic up 93% vs. same period last year Conversions up 114% vs. same period last year Our search campaign conversion rate: avg. 7% vs. industry standard of 2-3% – demonstrating that our ads are more relevant to our audience and are working more cleverly to achieve results vs spend Our YouTube view-throughs: 33% of people watched our creative through vs. industry standard of 17% – showing our creative is achieving cutthrough with our audience

FIND AND FUND In 2018, MotoNovo Finance approached us in need of an agency to support the launch of their new platform, findandfundmycar. com – ‘the home of feel good car buying’ – an online used car sales aggregator where users can find and finance used cars, all in one place.

Our team of digital specialists partnered with MotoNovo’s product teams to extensively research and plan a campaign that would combine a heavy PPC (pay-per-click) campaign with SEO tactics to drive traffic and ultimately vehicle and finance sales. We set up tracking across the website conversion journey and planned digital risk strategies – from KPI alert dashboards to PR crisis communications plans – in preparation for their introduction. With a significant digital budget findandfundmycar.com’s PPC campaign now operates successfully on a huge scale, thanks to diligent monitoring and optimising from our specialists across search and display.. We also led findandfundmycar.com’s first venture into brand PPC advertising across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube - elevating its debut dogs-in-cars TV advert as a cost effective complement and alternative media format to TV. S3 shift the dials of the campaigns day in and day out to ensure performance is delivering against set CPA (cost per acquisition) targets. By monitoring the account in this manner we’re able to provide crucial business insights and heavily track channel usage,

enabling a transparent and detailed service. Our senior team also provides the MotoNovo team with strategic planning advice across all areas of the marketing campaign – from website to creative. Recommendations around PPCspecific landing pages, streamlining of the conversion journey and diversification of content have all helped the platform deliver concrete results. While a move to position-based attribution modelling (whereby we measure all adverts that have played a role in a consumer’s path to purchase) has empowered findandfundmycar.com with analysis that feeds into even their offline advertising strategies. Overall, this campaign is a testament to the power S3’s digital advertising agency services can bring to clients with an online point of sale. Highlight Results: Delivered substantial sales leads for client within target cost per lead Have decreased the overall cost per sales lead by 47% over course of campaign Delivered 80m+ brand impressions - Over 2m+ visitors driven to website YouTube TrueView campaigns have boosted brand recall by 39%

SPECTRUM COLLECTIONS When Spectrum Collections approached us in June 2016, their makeup brushes had already achieved cult status within the beauty world, thanks to a legion of avid fans – including high profile celebrities – who swear by the cruelty free, vegan products. Never ones to rest on their laurels, however, Spectrum Collections wanted to ride the wave of this success by increasing their online presence and, ultimately, their revenue. Cue our award-winning digital experts who, having audited Spectrum’s account, identified structural problems that resulted in the client not being able to fully benefit from AdWords’ capabilities. To help Spectrum achieve its full potential, we launched a series of highly targeted PPC campaigns to reach their key demographic. Thanks to search, shopping, display, video and remarketing campaigns, S3’s digital team demonstrated why they’ve been ranked #1 for client satisfaction three years running. Since beginning their campaign management, S3 have helped Spectrum Collections increase revenue by 310% and profit increase of 580%. After the initial launch in the UK, with the help of S3, Spectrum Collections ventured into the US market. Via Paid Google advertisement, S3 have increased revenue for the US campaign by 205% with a profit increase by 313%.

MR TOM PEANUT CRUNCH BAR On the modern day battlefield that is the retail shelf, winning the consumer war is becoming an increasingly tricky affair. With so many different brands vying for attention, campaigns have to be more strategic, accurate and efficient than ever. Wanting to win that battle, Mr. Tom and his army of caramel covered, peanut crunch bars employed S3 to launch a bold advertising campaign with military precision. Our approach saw the client benefit from all aspects of our fullservice offering, from planning a heavy-weighted, eight-month outdoor campaign (including 6 sheets, petrol forecourts, bus rears, ad vans and escalator panels) to creating a new website; managing the brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social media channels to creating an experiential event that was broadcast on a 40-metre-long digital screen at Waterloo Station. Using our credentials as a 360Â°agency, we were able to produce meaningful, prolonged conversations and engagement between the brand and consumers. With sales up 14% on the previous year (amounting in an extra 1.129 million bars being sold) and Mr. Tom now stocked in Tesco stores nationwide following the campaign, we helped Mr. Tom win both the battle AND the war.

DELIVEROO

When it comes to brands that deliver great food, fast, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come much greater and faster than Deliveroo. And, when the brand approached us looking for equally great campaigns planned quickly, we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to deliver to them, for a change. With that in mind, we went to work on planning various hyperlocal and regional campaigns, for both new launch and existing markets. Strategy wise, our first port of call was to identify core areas of influence within delivery zones to assess where budget should be spend. This resulted in media planning and buying largely weighted towards both traditional and digital out of home formats. If the proof is indeed in the pudding, then we served up a real treat, with the brand seeing an astounding 746% uplift in sales during the Cardiff launch campaign. Such was the success of these initial campaigns, the brand then tasked us with launching their newest venture, Deliveroo Editions - hubs where the brand hosts collections of hand-picked restaurants, all specially designed for delivery.

KABUTO NOODLES

There’s nothing we like more here at S3 than working with a challenger brand, especially within the FMCG sector. So when Kabuto Noodles came to us looking to spread the word regarding their fresh, Asian flavours, we were champing at the bit. Despite having already built themselves a successful brand, Kabuto were looking to grow their business with an emphasis on an uplift in sales and brand awareness. Knowing what Kabuto were looking to achieve, our team of media samurais identified core areas of influence, comparing sales data to do so. Armed with all the appropriate research, we employed a three-pronged attack, combining London underground 16” sheets with proximity supermarket sites to drive sales. Completing our trident approach with the placement of various ads in premium, glossy magazines, we were also able to target the brand’s slimming world audience, resulting in a sales uplift and yet another satisfied client.

BOUNCE FOODS

With the mantra of ‘Smart Snacking’, Bounce Energy Balls pride themselves on operating as smartly and efficiently as possible in everything they do. Which is why they made the smart choice in choosing S3 to provide all facets of their advertising. Creatively, our first project involved concepting and designing a full-page ad to run in trade publication, The Grocer. Running alongside this ad, we also planned and designed an outdoor campaign that featured sites in close proximity to stocked stores: point of sale Tesco smart screens and large format. Confident in the quality of our strategy, ideas and execution, the brand then tasked us with a large outdoor campaign to run across London’s transport network. Having identified the locations and lifestyles of the audience, the media - underground, bus and taxi – was planned with a total reach of 4.56 million people. Following extensive research into industry trends, our creatives devised a strapline – Life Hacking. Protein Packing. Tastes Cracking. Smart Snacking – that perfectly summed up the product and brand, with bright colours and packaging shots bringing colour to an otherwise dull, grey urban landscape.

S4C

S4C have always been at the forefront of promoting Wales and, as a proud, Welsh advertising agency, we were thrilled when they chose us to take the lead on promoting their programming to audiences across Wales and beyond. Combining outdoor and digital advertising, our first two campaigns saw the promotion of Walesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; World Cup Qualifiers and The British and Irish Lions Tour. With the Welsh national football team on a roll, we looked to build on this momentum with a campaign comprising TrueView, AdWords, remarketing, digital outdoor and takeover pages (Wales Online and Daily Post). Just like the team itself, our results spoke for themselves; S3 providing S4C a higher-than-predicted audience share, with TrueView generating over 76,500 views and over 700 hoursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of watch time. The text ads were seen over 27,000 times and generated 2,100 clicks. Employing the same strategy for The British Lions Tour, we were able to produce higher viewing figures than predicted for all matches in the series. Generating nearly 3m impressions and 122,541 trailer views, our impressive online numbers were bolstered by 43,207 adverts shown across digital pub screens, targeting a 73% male audience in the process.

ICELAND FOOD WAREHOUSE Even though we might associate frozen supermarket, Iceland, with celebrity endorsements and quantity as opposed to quality, the brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Food Warehouses are looking to change those perceptions thanks to more luxury ranges. And, with the frozen food chain set to open 25 new food warehouses a year, Iceland needed an advertising agency who could fulfil this demand for quick growth. Cue S3 Advertising. Responsible for a series of national launch campaigns, Iceland tasked us with driving footfall to new stores and to build brand awareness in the local area. Using the various research platforms at our disposal, we delved into local demographics to identify where they lived, worked and where they would be exposed to media. Combining this with hyper-local targeting in the drive time to stores, we were able to create a series of multi-channel campaigns comprising radio (which we wrote and produced), outdoor, press, ambient, door drops, sponsorships and digital. The result was a series of extremely successful store launches, with the brand now etched firmly into the public psyche.

DEVELOPMENT BANK OF WALES Providing finance for businesses across Wales, our brief was to create a bilingual, multi-channel advertising campaign that informed audiences of the brand’s proposition, driving businesses online to apply for finance at developmentbanc.wales. Having combined our collective expertise comprising copywriting, design, media planning & buying and digital, we incorporated a holistic creative strategy which saw all of our messaging and creative sit underneath the proposition: Developing Welsh Business. For the creative execution, we focused on the real-life people and business owners who would benefit from the brand’s proposition and investment. This humanised the brand, incorporating authentic storytelling into their strategy to create a more engaging campaign. By documenting the everyday people who can receive Banc’s help, we ensured resonance with the target demographic and increasing the efficiency of the message. We devised a clever yet simple strapline that perfectly summed up the brand’s proposition: “At Development Bank of Wales, it’s our business to help finance yours.”

A brief overview of the animations that we have produced over the past year such as; Social content for Bounce Energy, Website content for Airbus and Braces Bread and also animated educational videos for South Wales Fire and Rescue and StreetGamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Us Girls.

An overview of some of the projects we have worked on over the past year such as; Clogau 1854 anniversary, London Mint Office, Viola Corporate and also social media content for Bounce Energy and Mallow & Marsh.

An overview of video production projects that we produced throughout 2018 such as; University of South Wales Clearing campaign, Castle Bingo, Deliveroo, London Mint Office, National Farmers Union, Invacare, South Wales Fire and Rescue, Wrigleys, Trade Centre Wales, Airbus and Clogau Gold.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

So, there you have it: a fully integrated service, all under one roof. As we’ve said, you’ll find media buying & planning, creative & design, branding, web design & development, digital & SEO, social media and PR all in touching distance of one another. This makes communication easier; walking over to a desk to book that photographer is certainly easier than trying to co-ordinate diaries back and forth over the phone. Yet despite being a forward-thinking, modern agency that’s always looking to the future of advertising, we also embrace its past, incorporating traditions that are just as relevant and effective today as they’ve always been. Traditions such as traditions such as face-to-face or video meetings. Traditions such as leaving the mouse and keyboard to put pen to paper instead. Traditions such as face-to-face or video meetings. Because it’s these little traditions that make the big difference, and go a long way to explaining why our clients love us. And why, given the chance, you’ll love us, too.