Brief

Tiga, a B2B marketing agency in the South East, won the commission to design Mercia’s new brand identity following a competitive pitching process.

Recently devolved from West Midlands Council, Mercia required a brand that enabled the newly formed company to effectively present themselves to both potential investors and the most promising start-ups.

The visual identity of the new brand had to be subtle yet contemporary, while also clearly portray the company’s values of responsible investment through the building of long-term partnerships for sustained growth.

Central to the company’s outbound communications strategy was the new web portal, which had to be designed and constructed with the intention of becoming the primary resource for Venture Capital funding in the West Midlands. Visually the portal had to echo the values of the brand, while complying with best practice usability guidelines to maximise footfall, build visitor retention and drive investment applications.

The portal had to be scalable, portable and allow extensive real-time updates throughout by the Webmaster and online marketing teams.

The new identity has helped Mercia to elevate their brand and re-position themselves as one of the leading tech start-up investors in their area.

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| The chosen Mercia brand identity.

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| The new identity in action across Mercia’s range of stationery.

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| The web portal.

Solution

Two alternative true-to-brief identities were created with the intention of positioning Mercia as leaders in tech investment.

Both identities were based on well-known mathematical sequences, producing intriguing patterns designed to interest and connect with enquiring and curious minds. The relative complexity of the visuals portrayed an unquestionably technological look and feel, with messages of strength and integrity delivered subtly through the simple use of form and colour.

These concepts put Mercia’s core values of experienced and empathetic investment at the forefront of the brand’s visual identity.

Logo Option 1 was chosen by Mercia due to its organic look and feel, with individual elements combining to complete the ident, an appropriate allegory for the partnership between a venture capitalist, the company and their team.

The new brand was rolled-out across a suite of stationery, online and offline marketing collateral and the new website. The site was built on a bespoke Content Management System with custom tools that provide funding applicants with a simple step-by-step process to ensure their business plans are correctly completed before submission. This has helped Mercia to increase the number of inbound, correctly formatted funding opportunities that they receive.

Read more about how our B2B marketing consultants can help your business here. 

"Tiga provided a number of exciting and innovative branding ideas and quickly won our confidence through their ability to rapidly grasp our company’s ethos and requirements.”

Dr Mark Bowman — Mercia Fund Management