J&B
Scotch whisky
About Us
Company formation
Chris Wall worked in leading London advertising agencies until joining a United Nations team as photographer in 1970. This involved travelling to the furthest corners of the earth helping to raise the profile of the UN's humanitarian programmes. Their landrover travelled over 40,000 miles (which the Guinness Book of Records briefly recorded as the world's longest land journey before being displaced by an elderly couple who drove a camper van around the States in ever diminishing circles!) Many articles were published in the national and international press including the National Geographic.
On his return Chris began freelancing for London agencies creating concepts for high profile accounts including The Health Education Council alongside the Saatchis during the era of the iconic 'pregnant man'. Demand soon exceeded supply and although the company was actually formed earlier for billing of freelance work, Chris Wall Limited opened its doors for business from offices in East Grinstead in 1976.
Company growth
In its early years the company was principally offering a graphic design service for literature, packaging and display. First accounts included The Keep Britain Tidy Group, The Health Education Council and Camping Gaz.
Projects included development of a new identity for The Keep Britain Tidy campaign. The 'Tidyman' is now one of the most recognised logos worldwide.
Keep Britain Tidy involved working with many celebrities including David Essex, Frank Bruno and the 'Leave nothing but footprints' poster for a nationwide outdoor campaign was Linda McCartney's first photographic commission.
Other government sponsored programmes were for the Health Education Council. CWC was responsible for the creation of one of the first health prevention campaigns 'Look after yourself' creating the logo which was incorporated into ads and literature and animated for Saatchi & Saatchi's TV and cinema commercials. This high profile activity brought work from new clients including some iconic brands. One of them, made famous as the 'mint with the hole' was given a follow up as 'the hole with the peppermint ring about it'.
The promise of North Sea oil put exploration companies in the spotlight and through our work for Elf - Acquitaine we were approached by Phillips Petroleum to handle their work. Much of this was creation of literature and educational material. The team grew steadily and began to add new skills too.
Adding new services
As demand grew we were frequently asked to offer a broader range of services including copywriting and our views on strategy, planning and media booking. Chris Wall Limited evolved to become a small advertising agency.
Komfort Systems was a micro family business selling simple partitioning components to contractors. The new colour options of their innovative Kolourframe system spawned a whole new era of office interior design. The coloured zebra concept, now often copied, remains the industry's most memorable campaign and the company is now a plc with a £multi-million turnover and is industry leader. The recapture of the Islands after the Falklands war prompted a high profile effort to rebuild their economy and image. When the Falkland Islands Government Office was established in London we helped with creation of all necessary marketing collateral. Our campaign for Europ Assistance on key London Underground routes was the start of a long working relationship with ‘Larry' whose cartoons featured on the tubecards. They were so successful that London Transport used them to promote the effectiveness of advertising on the underground as their own research showed that travellers had an 87% recall of the campaign. This account was our first real advertising account for which we were responsible for every aspect including planning, booking and fulfilment.
More and larger clients
Our involvement with Europ Assistance introduced us to Direct Line Insurance. Direct Line proved one of the great marketing successes of the decade under the guidance of Peter Wood. CWC started work for his fledgling venture, when just a handful of staff worked from their modest office in Croydon, and in the early years we produced all the ads and literature as well as creating the Direct Line logo. And to think traditional insurance companies thought it would never last! Our work for Direct Line involved everything from logo design, advertising, literature, displays, direct mail to exhibitions.
We outgrew our premises in East Grinstead in 1985 when the company moved to larger and better located ones in Crawley. Grattons Court has since been redeveloped to accommodate the ever expanding band of designers, copywriters and web developers.
More high profile work
The very public family feud in the Gucci empire was provoked by Paolo Gucci's breakaway to create his own brand. We worked on a range of material for Paolo including full page press ads for hand made silk ties which were used to launch his label.
Our earlier experience in the insurance market resulted in an approach from Lloyds Bank to promote insurance sales via branches. Historically the bank's insurance products were an adhoc range which we pulled together into a branch focused initiative of D.I.Y. - 'Doing Insurance Yourself'. All products were incorporated into a single DIY guide explaining features and benefits to enable counter staff to identify the most appropriate solution for any customer. The result was a massive uplift in sales. Other appointments included becoming the pan European agency for a division of ICI requiring fulfilment of advertising and exhibitions across the continent and the middle east.
New ideas - new media
No industry has seen greater change since the introduction of new technology. The whole method and speed of working has been transformed. Grattons Court accommodates a growing team with specialist digital skills and, although our work still requires creativity to be integrated across marketing and advertising campaigns, much is now deployed online, including the innovative use of social media.
In October 2011 Chris Wall Creative acquired 100% of specialist digital agency circlesquare providing new skills and vital extra capacity to our team.