Studio Global undergoes full rebrand and new look
One of Dorset’s longest established media agencies is sporting a new look and name after undergoing a full rebrand.
Studio Global, formerly Global Brand Communications, is using the tagline ‘Your Story, Beautifully Told’ for its services focusing on brand, digital and motion (animation/filming).
Sharon Parker, Managing Director, said: “When we sat down and created Studio Global, we decided to focus on the things we love, what we’re great at and where we’re giving our clients great value.
“We are not the team that you come to just for a marketing strategy, but we will take the time to understand what your business needs and deliver a plan with key assets that looks fantastic and engaging.
“Your story, beautifully told. That’s us.”
Darren Mooney, Creative Director added: “We’re a beautiful fusion of graphic design, animation and film.
“That’s what I think separates us from every other Creative, film and content agency, certainly locally.
“We compete with the big guys in London from a quality point of view.
“That’s why we do a lot of post-production for Virgin Media. They look at the work we do for them and say ‘this is visually amazing’.
“We’ve evolved with Virgin from a graphic design agency, to print and production, to film and animation. That comes from having to evolve as a business and seeing what’s coming around the corner.”
“They literally give us a lot of footage, or we go up and help them film and take that footage back to edit for them, adding lots of motion graphics.
“All the kind of stuff that Disney and Pixar do.
Founded by Darren, at the age of 22, and his then business partner, Ben Pratten, the name ‘Global’ was chosen for a specific reason.
Darren, now 49, said: “We were young and starting out, but wanted the perception of being huge. When people heard the name, they thought we were bigger than we were. Thankfully it stuck and worked.”
Now employing teams covering motion, web and traditional design, one of the agency’s biggest clients is Hall & Woodhouse.
Its business was secured after a chance approach by Darren, over 15 years ago.
He said: “They sponsor the Badger Chase at the Wincanton Races and we designed an invite that had a donkey with wonky teeth, its face over barbed wire and the line: ‘Not everyone gets a chance to go to the races.’
They said it was the best response they’d ever had!
“That was it, we were in, and it grew and evolved from there.”
Sharon was previously running her own business before joining Global as Commercial Director in 2019 and was promoted to Managing Director in March this year.
The third senior member of the team, Joe Broadbent, Technical Creative Director, is credited by Darren and Sharon for successfully moving Global into film and animation.
Darren said: “We were advertising for a senior designer, nothing to do with film, and then Joe walked through the door for an interview.
“He just had a memory stick and said, ‘put this in because this is what I do’.
“We knew that film and animation would be the bit that would replace print but said: ‘look Joe, we’ve got no work for a film department’.
“We’ve got no business plan for it yet, but something told us that we should be doing this.
“We told Joe we could afford to pay him for a year but he’d have to jump in and support us across the board.
“I think it was four weeks later Ian Girling [Chief Executive at Dorset Chamber] phoned us up and said: ‘Look guys, we want you to be the Creative Partner for our Dorset Business Awards.’
“We delivered incredible animated event graphics and an intro film that transformed the look and feel of the event. In fact, they’re still using same visuals 5 years later!
“That was the start, and we’ve never looked back.”
“The following year we were back at the awards, but this time as winners of the ‘Creative Impact’ award for the brand transformation work we did for local charity STARS (Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services). This increased referrals for the service by 900%!
“We were incredibly proud of the work we did here.”
Based in Boscombe, Studio Global serves a diverse mix of sectors all over the UK, including hospitality, financial services, IT, entrepreneurs, luxury brands and local authorities and boasts an impressive client base.
Darren said the past 25 years had not always been easy but his sporting background – his Dad, Dean Mooney, played for AFC Bournemouth and Darren was in the youth team – had taught him resilience and great people skills.
Sharon, 42, added: “We were OK as a three-director team, but no-one was taking ownership of where we were heading. That can lead to a little bit of complacency in what we are doing and why we are doing it.
“We now have a plan, a clear focus and we’re looking forward to exciting times ahead and further expanding our client base.”