Unlike the kiss-kiss hug-hug nature of a lot of PR agencies, Vaxa Group’s communications pros play in the grownup world of media, journalism and corporate affairs.

With a client roster that stretches across Australia and internationally, their key areas of specialty include peak industry associations, construction, development, hospitality, renewables, circular economy, recruitment and HR, technology, agribusiness and not-for-profits.

But while they knew their team was unrivalled in expertise and experience, they were looking for a way to position their communications service as distinctive within its category – a category often dominated by brands that look and feel largely interchangeable.

Armed with a new brand name and a brief on where they wanted to be, Vaxa’s leaders turned to The Content Division to develop a new brand style guide, hero video and website.

A distinctive brand for bespoke comms

There’s nothing unstrategic about Vaxa Group. They think deeply about every client and every narrative, and are the adjudicators on whether their clients’ stories have the legs to deliver impactful business outcomes.

They also know that potential clients remember distinctive brands more often. Bespoken, Vaxa Group’s new PR and comms brand, was created to fill this need.

Our designers worked with Vaxa to create initial concepts that aligned with Bespoken’s story. Refining that approach and picking a path to follow, we delivered a full brand suite and the everyday assets they needed, including social media templates and emails.

Armed with their key messages, brand style guide and key video and image assets, we created Bespoken’s hero video to feature across its website and social media.

“This brief was unique in that the client was already building a brand story and had some inspiration in mind,” says TCD design lead Lorae Misipeka.

“We took elements from this story and fully fleshed it out across the colour palette, typeface, structure and design system. The result was a full embodiment of the energy, polish and distinctive look and feel the client was after.”

A bespoke Bespoken website

Working with the Bespoken team, our designers and developers followed TCD’s tried and true website project process to deliver a beautifully functional and formed WordPress website for the agency.

Starting with an Information Architecture workshop, we refined the page structures and functionality required. Our designers then moved on to key page wireframing and user interface design, with Bespoken’s project team having full visibility of the process along the way.

Because Bespoken creates a lot of its own content and case studies, developing a simple user interface for them to manage this was crucial. We created a simple categorisation and tagging system to ensure blogs and case studies look stunning but stay organised.

With designs approved, our developers created a multi-device WordPress website fully integrated into Bespoken’s email and CRM platforms – making data collection simple and reliable.

“We aimed to showcase what makes Bespoken unique in a simple and approachable way,” says TCD digital designer Will Hackworth.

“Putting the focus on people through photography and following through with the bold, stylised brand and typography really allowed Bespoken’s personality to shine.

“We wanted the user to instantly get a sense of who the Bespoken team are and what they do best.”

The result is a site that lives and breathes Bespoken’s values, puts its distinctive brand forward and showcases the expertise of its people and legacy.

Sarah Morgan, Bespoken’s director and a partner at Vaxa Group, says it all comes back to the old adage that marketers know how to represent others, but rarely get time to promote themselves.

“There are the tired old clichés about the chef who comes home and makes baked beans on toast, and the builder who always has an unfinished home,” she says.

“This very much rings true of a communications and marketing agency who are so busy working on everyone’s marketing and branding that their own refresh kept getting kicked down the priority list.

“It’s for this reason that I engaged The Content Division to assist us to finalise the delivery of our new brand. We had a name, a direction, the smart copy and a plan – we just needed an external party to finalise the creative assets.

“While their energy, talent and creative understanding was paramount to how they supported us, the greater value sat with their strategic advice and their comfort in challenging us in the pursuit of delivering a superior product.

“As a consultant myself, and from within the industry, I was well aware that I was pushing the boundaries with a short timeframe and defined budget.

“However, they rose to the challenge and exceeded my high expectations.”