CPL One’s managing director Mike Sewell reflects on an important day in the story of our business.
Today marks the latest phase in the CPL One story, as we reveal our new brand identity.
It is also the day when three formally starts to become two, with CPL One Group now proudly boasting two brands: CPL One and Cabbells.
The name CPL One alludes to the two companies from which we have evolved. Between them, Century One and CPL share decades of heritage and content marketing expertise; bringing them together to form CPL One means we have a single, strong brand that will continue to offer excellent quality and service – and brilliant work – for our clients.
We trust this website and all other CPL One touchpoints will reinforce our primary business purpose, which is that ‘We help people belong’.
When we say ‘belong’, we are thinking of three groups of people:
- The people who read/watch/listen to, and otherwise engage with the content we create on behalf of our clients
- The individuals who work for our clients and from whom we learn so much, just as they learn from us
- The team at CPL One who are, frankly, our most important asset.
We have around 70 people based at our Cambridge and St Albans offices, as well as a number of freelancers, and they have all had the opportunity to be involved in the creation of this new identity.
Over time, you will start noticing the range of different visuals within our brand. These reflect our team’s interests, personalities and preferences, as well as the type of clients for whom we work. This individual involvement in the new identity is just one way we want to demonstrate how we help people belong.
The board and I are incredibly proud of the ambition, strategic thinking and outstanding creativity that our team has shown in devising, developing and delivering this identity. It’s a showcase for what CPL One can offer.
As well as the new brand and new identity, the launch of this website marks another key milestone. For years, we have been planning and making brilliant above-the-line advertising for our clients, but we haven’t necessarily lived up to one of our values and been ‘bold’ in talking enough about this offering.
That changes today.
As you’ll see in the ‘What we do’ section, we list advertising as a key part of our content marketing offer, alongside five other services: content, design, digital development, digital marketing and sales.
These services encompass dozens of skills within the agency, including animators, copywriters, editors, media buyers, media planners, videographers and web developers. But there’s little point in delivering any of these multi-media offerings if we don’t also, as business author Simon Sinek wrote so long ago, ‘start with why’.
That means, before we begin to produce any work for our clients, committing appropriate time and resources to clarify why it needs to be done and, therefore, what the content and communications strategy should be.
As I mentioned at the start, alongside CPL One our other brand is Cabbells, which has approaching 50 years of experience in the arts and heritage sector.
Led by director Sarah Simpson, Cabbells will continue to specialise in delivering for clients including Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, BBC Proms and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
These are exciting times in the CPL One story. If you think we can improve your content marketing, as we have done for dozens of other organisations, then do please get in touch.
