Severn Trent is responsible for lakes and reservoirs across the Midlands and Wales from the Upper Derwent Valley reservoir, home to the Dambusters, to the incredibly beautiful Lake Vyrnwy. These sites are the only customer-facing shop window for this FTSE 100 company, yet they remained massively under-used in terms of a brand experience.

As part of our ongoing relationship with Severn Trent supporting them on major campaigns and communications, we were briefed to create a visitor centre brand capable of driving engagement with the centres and creating positive perceptions of Severn Trent.

Insight
Visitor attraction sites are an increasingly competitive market and Severn Trent was setting itself against the most competitive players in their market; National Trust, English Heritage, and Forestry England. Unsurprisingly awareness of Severn Trent’s offer was much lower than these market leaders.

However, with over 4 million visitors a year, the sites are obviously loved by those who know them. Our research revealed the reasons for that love were hyper-local and site specific. Developing a brand with the flexibility to demonstrate the unique USP of each site while tying it into the Severn Trent master brand would be key to standing up to the competition

Ideas
Time around water is amazing – whether we’re fishing in it, sailing on it or playing by it. It is this relationship to water that makes that makes Severn Trent’s visitor sites so desirable. Severn Trent take the responsibility of protecting these amazing spaces and the water they contain very seriously.

We translated this responsibility into a common purpose – sharing a love for water, creating time to cherish and to nurture unique places through wonderful days out – that could bind the sites together and root each site’s identity in the very aspect it’s users hold dear.

Impact
By providing each location with its own site specific signature – a unique illustration that represents a feature or activity of special significance to that lake or reservoir – we’ve been able to build brand awareness on behalf of Severn Trent and help more people than ever discover wonderful days out and create wonderful water-filled memories.