FCB Inferno and Valspar win ESI Media’s ‘wrap battle’ to Be London’s Headline

ESI Media announced the winner of its Be London’s Headline competition that pitted media and creative agencies against each other to design the most creative cover wrap for The Evening Standard.

The winning design by creative agency FCB Inferno on behalf of its client, paint brand Valspar, wrapped September 3rd edition of The Evening Standard. The prize also includes a homepage takeover of Standard.co.uk and an out-of-home presence with 300 branded vendors across the capital and 500 vendor bills and trolley panels, which will be decked out in Valspar colours. This makes up The Standard’s Own The Day proposition, inviting clients to engage with London commuters throughout the day.

The creative, titled “Express Yourself with Colour” celebrates the diverse opinions of Londoners. The tongue-in-cheek creative draws inspiration from the over 2.2 million paint colours available, matching Valspar’s fun and provocative colour names to different public opinions and sparking debate.

The creative is tied to the first address in Parliament following the summer break made by Boris Johnson today. The tagline of the creative reads, “However you feel, we have a paint colour to match”.

Jon O’Donnell, Managing Director, Commercial, at ESI Media, said: “When we launched this competition, we were looking forward to seeing the industry response, but we’ve been bowled over by the high level of entries and creativity we’ve seen. The winning creative by Valspar and FCB Inferno is testament to this quality. It’s a perfect fit for The Evening Standard audience, sparking debate at the forefront of the news agenda and celebrating the diversity of Londoners’ opinions, allowing them to truly own the day in the capital and ‘Be London’s Headline’.”

New research from ESI Media shows that the reach of a cover wrap on The Evening Standard can be boosted by up to 72%*, due to the non-Standard reading commuters who see it when moving around London. Evening Standard cover wraps have also been proven to deliver across different marketing objectives, be that branding or consumer action; they also take advantage of the unique mindset of evening commuters, who feel 80% more positive than morning commuters**.

The competition, launched by ESI Media in June, saw more than 30 agencies submit 56 entries. Creative designs were reviewed by an expert judging panel including Sonoo Singh (The Drum), Pam Vick (Caspia Consulting LTD), Ben Walker (Who Wot Why), Niki West (Newsworks) and Jon O’Donnell (ESI Media) and judging was based on a strong media argument, clear brand recognition and brilliant creative.

Ben Walker, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Who Wot Why and one of the Be London’s Headline judges, said: “It was great to see creative, relevant thinking applied to actual products, things consumers can go and buy. The winning work was smart, fun, eye catching and answered the brief really well. I’m off to buy some paint!”

Jane Ryder, Marketing Director at Valspar, said, “The creative from FCB Inferno is brilliant and we’re excited for it to bring some colour to London’s evening commute. As a paint brand we embrace people’s individuality, so it is fitting that we’re bringing to life Londoners’ differing opinions with a media brand that lives and breathes this diversity.”

ESI Media is the commercial division of the London Evening Standard, The Independent and London Live. ESI Media has a monthly cross-platform UK reach of 21.6m adults. The London Evening Standard is read by over 1.4m people every day and the Independent is visited by over 78m global unique browsers each month.

FCB Inferno is one of London’s leading advertising agencies, and part of global advertising network FCB. The network dates back to 1873, and now has 9000 employees in 90 countries, with 150 at FCB Inferno. The agency’s clients sit across industry sectors and currently include the UK Government (for which they created the This Girl Can brand), BMW, Huawei, AB InBev, Mondelēz, NIVEA and the Premier League.

Valspar is a Sherwin-Williams brand and has been in the paints, stains and coatings business for over 200 years, helping to color and protect homes, inside and out. Available at B&Q, Valspar’s state-of-the-art color matching technology can scan, match and mix any color the eye can see (that’s 2.2 million shades!)