Canada’s largest independent distributor for ExxonMobil lubricants faced the issue of their customers only knowing them for one thing: their exceptional service in providing oil. They saw an opportunity to provide great service in the areas of supply chain/logistics and shipping services—which they were already doing for lubricants—but needed a way to easily communicate those services to new and existing customers. So, they reached out to ANVL for help.

ANVL embarked on an extensive discovery process with the client team and determined that the key elements needed were already apart of their core brand; they just needed to be organized, fine-tuned, and focused to have maximum impact. We learned each Line of Businesses (LOB)s priorities and value to the customer was different. This meant each LOB needed an individualized vehicle to tell their own brand story. We were able to focus on each LOBs specific value and designed a variety of means to better communicate that directly to the customer. This resulted in a cohesive brand strategy where each LOBs brand can now stand strongly on it’s own, while also working seamlessly as a larger unit.

The new brand strategy and updated materials were so successful that now the client is able to not only pursue new clients in different industries and service sectors, but they are able to provide additional services to existing clients with the goal of more efficient ordering and fulfillment.

The client has been an Edmonton family-owned institution in commercial and industrial real estate for over 40 years. With a number of their own construction projects in the pipeline, the client decided it was time to start up their own construction company to not only handle these projects, but other third-party projects to which their extensive real estate expertise could add value. They reached out to ANVL with tight deadlines for help.

Having pre-existing knowledge of the client having managed and worked with the York Realty brand for a number of years, we were well aware of their tastes, preferences, turnaround times, and most importantly expectations. Our team got to work designing a brand system that would be unique enough to stand on its own in a broader marketplace, while also be familiar enough to work cohesively when placed next to the existing York Realty brand. In our conversations with the client, we were able to determine their key differentiating factors and decided that a website paired with a strong B2B social media presence were the key vehicles to communicate those factors. The client agreed and asked the project be completed in time to announce it at a large brokerage event they were hosting. View the site at york-construction.ca

We made sure to deliver—ANVL launched the brand and the website ahead of schedule and was even able to provide additional design assistance to the client ahead of the event. Having being well received in the local community, York Construction continues to grow and win bids on projects—not only in Alberta, but across Western Canada.

A relatively new foundation launched by the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation—the Alberta Women’s Hospital Foundation is on a mission to raise awareness and funds for women’s health conditions across the province. Having deep roots and experience in the Alberta medical industry, they observed that women’s health issues lacked a voice in the landscape and they wanted to speak up about what mattered to them—and should indeed matter to everyone else as well.

Each year, the AWHF releases a report on the state of women’s health in the province. Surveying the Silence was a report around how women’s health is generally considered ‘taboo’ and because of this it is often not discussed as openly as other medical issues. With this years focus, ANVL created a campaign focussed on how this ‘silence’ impacts the women in all our lives—whether they be a mother, wife, sister, daughter, or friend. The idea was based on how many women live with these medical conditions in silence, whether that be they don’t feel comfortable discussing these issues openly, or they weren’t met with support and understanding in past situations. This ‘silence’ was the primary image behind the campaign that spanned print and digital media, highlighting women’s hesitation to open up but also educating a wider audience on some of the key medical conditions women can face throughout their lives. The chosen imagery captures the raw emotion women feel inside but don’t always feel safe enough to share externally.

The Surveying the Silence report was met with an overwhelmingly positive response garnering media and provincial government attention. This all has contributed to the goal of increasing awareness and dialogue on the topic of women’s health conditions and hopefully empowering women across the province to discuss these issues more openly. Only through these types of dialogues can we begin to remove the taboo’s around these serious health conditions that threaten all the women in our lives.

After being open for 10 years—including through a pandemic—the client was ready to open their third restaurant location in the south Edmonton neighbourhood of Ellerslie. Having successfully opened two previous locations, they knew they needed a targeted launch campaign speaking to the key demographics in the area. The campaign was to pull double duty of announcing the new location while also shifting the brands direction to a more casual food and drink vibe.

In reviewing a brand we helped create more than 10 years ago and that we work with on daily basis, ANVL developed a two-pronged approach to the opening. First, we did a brand refresh of the logo, signage and materials to both modernize the brand, while also designing an identity system that would be flexible enough to work for the restaurant group as a whole or on an individual location basis. This was then applied to all new materials going forward to not only open the new location, but also relaunch the Central brand as a whole. Second, was the launch campaign “South is the New Central”. The campaign line goal was simple… make it very clear that Central Social Hall is opening on the south side of Edmonton. Based on the median age, type of business and the residential nature of the area, we were able to narrow down who Central Ellerslie’s target demographic was and leveraged an expansive media mix including print ads, digital ads, sponsored ads, direct mail, and radio spots to get the message out. Centralsocialhall.com

The opening of Central’s Ellerslie location was met with great success and rave reviews. The community now has a great new option for fun fare and casual cocktails, and getting social with their neighbours and friends. The success of the launch continues to fuel the partnership between ANVL and Central working on future projects.

Edmonton’s premiere hospital foundation—committed to serving not only Alberta, but the north as well—has a singular focus: building better healthcare. Through various fundraising efforts they are supporting improved healthcare outcomes for hundreds of thousands of people who seek treatment at the Royal Alexandra Hospital every year. An existing client of ANVL, the client develops an annual gratitude report for the community in order to showcase these touching stories of the impact their donations have on patient care at the hospital. 

With this years brief in hand, ANVL set to work not only formalizing the theme based on the clients initial input, we designed the overall look and feel for the report. This years theme was titled “Community of Caring” and we explored the idea of community and what creates it. As the concept of many distinct pieces coming together developed, we integrated that idea into multicoloured dots coming together to form a heart. Special consideration was put into how it would be delivered online via a website, social media, and ads—but also in print format through a physical booklet distributed through the hospital. The website afforded us the ability to incorporate scrolling animations to impart a sense of movement and communicate the feeling of a community being formed.

Every year the report continues to be warmly received and greatly appreciated by donors and foundation facilitators alike, further inspiring the team to push the envelope and see how it can be improved and “outdone” next year. ANVL has been honoured to design and develop these reports every year and plans to do so for years to come.

One of Edmonton’s longest running restaurant groups wanted to increase their presence in the cooking class market space and they decided that breaking out the class services into their own brand was the way to do it—and we were all for it! Having worked with ANVL on an ongoing basis for almost 10 years, and with a name already in mind, they asked for the logo and brand system, as well as, a website that would serve as their main marketing and booking hub. All the pieces were set and we got to work.

Through many discussions and brainstorms a few things were hit upon. First, the name YEG Cooking Classes provided enough context as to what they were offering but it needed to connect to the larger brand equity of Sorrentino’s Restaurant Group. Second, while descriptive, it didn’t conjure any feelings around what was deemed essential to the brand—the love of cooking. We determined that the brand system, visuals and language, needed to evoke those emotions in the customer in order to get them to create an attachment and affinity for the brand. Finally, the new brand had to target a younger demographic as they were the ones looking for more experiential activities and would serve as the dream customer for these cooking classes.

The result is a dynamic and flexible brand that is bright and energetic in its appearance, yet versatile and loaded with context in its application. The series of unique tiles representing different aspects and ingredients of cooking, can be swapped out, rearranged, or adjusted to different colour palettes to suit whatever application or medium is being used. The website integrates these tiles in a novel and interactive way that delights site visitors, while also doing the heavy lifting of class scheduling, e-commerce, and online payment integration. All this helps to reflect the experience the customer has when attending a class feeling the excitement and passion of the chef instructors while they learn and create along side them.

With York’s new sister company, York Construction, up and running, the client team were devising a new bold service offering. They looked to position York as the only service a client or broker requires when purchasing, leasing, managing, or building light-industrial real estate. They then came to ANVL for the best way to communicate this offering to the industry. 

Through discussions with the client and reviewing each service in the offering, we determined that the this was a full-service ecosystem that could be branded in its own right—not standing on it’s own or having it’s own website, but living within the current York Realty and York Construction brands as a value add for both sets of customers. With approval on this direction, we set about developing the name for the offering along with designing the look and feel of the this programs brand identity.

The development and launch of the York+ program provides a way for York to better communicate the extensive value and broad service offering their able to bring to the their partners in all aspects of commercial and industrial real estate. This enables them to share their extensive experience with their customers and help grow the local real estate community as a whole.

New to the Edmonton restaurant scene with a novel concept, the client had already gone through an initial internal rebrand when they approached ANVL. Having recently changed their business model from leasing kitchen space to Chefs, to becoming a full fledged restaurant with Chef’s in Residence—while also in the process of opening an expanded second location on Whyte Ave—they were looking to further their initial brand development in order to better tell their story. All this came with the deadline of the restaurant reopening only weeks away.

Through ANVL’s discovery process, it became apparent that customer education would be at the forefront of our strategy. The Chef’s in Residence is an entirely new concept on the Edmonton food scene, so effectively communicating the brand story to the public was essential to Epic’s success. We were able to achieve this by using a variety of mediums such as a long form brand video, introductory videos of each Chef in Residence, a strategically designed menu system, and a marketing campaign that would catch somebody’s attention and create brand intrigue. In addition, as ANVL always does when entering a brand that is already in progress or a rebrand, we performed an audit on all aspects of the brand and materials and made any necessary updates alongside the Epic team.

The launch went off without a hitch with all messaging and materials in place for the reopening. The team at Epic, provided with the right brand strategy and tools from ANVL, continue to execute the brand vision and initiatives on a consistent basis with great success. While construction has delayed the secondary locations opening, the teams at ANVL and EPIC continue to plan and design the next phase and launch of this brand extension.

While Super Bowl commercials and Madmen get all the acclaim, there is great advertising happening everyday all around you. You just need to take the time to appreciate it. ANVL works to develop memorable ad campaigns for businesses of all sizes because creativity shouldn’t be stifled by the budget.

We focus on the single-most important message the client is trying to communicate to its audience and build a creative concept around that idea. The simpler the message the stronger the signal or impact for the viewer.

The result of this fundamental ad approach has yielded award-winning ads featured in both local and national campaigns.