Some things you just can’t keep to yourself

Mystery is delighted to announce the dips revolution has begun with the launch of G’NOSH at Selfridges this week - a delicious range of gourmet dips which taste homemade, without all the fuss of making them yourself.

The products are the brainchild of keen party host, Charlotte Knight (a naturalised Kiwi entrepreneur) who yearned to share with her guests the kind of premium fresh dips that were available in the fridges of shops in New Zealand. Mystery were so inspired by Charlotte’s delicious dips that we agreed to share in her venture and began our work with a strategic brand positioning exercise, defining the name and a fun brand platform based around the concept of… sharing.

Our job, was to disrupt the endless shelves of hummous and mayo-drenched 70’s party-packs with a brand that reflected the pioneering nature of the product. Inspired by the hand-painted lettering of revolutionary campaign placards, we cracked open our paints to design a premium brand combining custom-painted type with beautiful food ingredient photography. Mystery then had fun designing everything from the G’NOSH identity design and packaging to the website, sales presentations, e-marketing, social media pages and launch marketing collateral.

The launch range features five delicious fresh dips; Sun-dried Tomato & Basil; Muhumarra (spicy red pepper); Black Bean; Beetroot & Mint; and Babaghanoush (smoky aubergine). Charlotte and her team will be sharing a G’NOSH with happy foodies at Selfridges Food Hall in Oxford Street, London for the next three Friday and Saturdays 12.00 till 18.00. The range will also be in the Birmingham store and other independent delis and premium food stores from the end of the month.

G’nosh website - www.gnosh.co.uk

G’nosh HTML e-marketing

G’nosh Twitter page

The launch at Selfridges has kicked off with amazing success, selling out of the first weeks supply within 2 days! But don’t panic, a second batch has been freshly prepared, so don’t hesitate to pop over and try it for yourself. I’ll be there this afternoon (Friday 17th Feb, in the food hall) spooning out samples and talking to customers, so it would be great to see you then.

For more info about G’NOSH, click www.gnosh.co.uk or follow @gnoshers on Twitter & Facebook

To find out more about how we can help create award-winning food and beverage brands, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

For more information about Mystery, click www.mystery.co.uk

It’s that time of year for another embarrassing Christmas sing-song from the Mystery team. We should learn not to have these ideas after so many drinks!

Plug in your headphones, or turn your volume on and click this link: http://www.mystery.co.uk/xmas2011/
We’ll be shutting shop tomorrow until the Tuesday 3rd. Have a very Merry Christmas in the meantime, with all our best wishes for a happy and successful 2012!

Dan

Mystery designs ‘ZA ZA BAZAAR’,
a new concept Banquet & Bar

Mystery is delighted to announce the launch of our latest creation, ‘Za Za Bazaar’ - World Banquet & Bar, an exciting new concept in fixed-price buffet dining. Spread over 30,000 square feet and with 1000 seats in the heart of Bristol’s bustling Harbourside, it’s muted to be the largest ’super-restaurant’ in the UK!

Mystery began the process with a strategic brand positioning exercise, defining the name and design concept, inspired by the buzz of Asian night markets. We then designed everything from the interior design, the identity design, the website, advertising and launch marketing collateral.

Having traveled around Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore and experienced the spectacular sights, spicy smells and the intoxicating atmospheres of their street markets, we wanted to capture that essence of the exotic, the excitement and the sense of exploration and discovery at the Za Za Bazaar.

Fronted by internationally respected chef, Nitin Bhatnagar, the global variety of cuisines on offer includes North and South Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, Mexican, Texan, Portuguese, Italian and British, much of which is cooked to order by top chefs recruited from 5-star hotels around the world. With an in-house bakery, desserts to die for, a spectacular salad bar and delicious deli, there are six large ‘market stalls’ set within a vibrant, urban environment, decorated with neon signs, street art and festoons of lighting.

At first, we thought that 30,000 square feet was an enormous space and our biggest design challenge would be the need to try and ‘fill’ it, but in the end we were struggling to fit all our ideas in! This project has been the equivalent - in terms of work load - of designing six restaurants, but with a clear vision and a strong brand concept at its heart, the momentum built so that the creativity flowed with great pace. Working with Dover Design to supply the detail construction drawings and liasing directly with the main contractor, we managed the development of the concept in to reality - opening with only a 13 week fit-out, the same amount of time as many normal size restaurants!

The launch has kicked off with a series of great reviews online and in the press, with a particular buzz of excitement on Twitter. Check out the official Za Za Bazaar website at: www.zazabazaar.com or get yourself down to Bristol to experience it for yourself. I promise there is nothing else like it!

To find out more about how we can help create award-winning food and beverage brands, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

For more information about Mystery, click www.mystery.co.uk

Mystery wins prestigious
‘Marketing Design Award’ 2011

Mystery is extremely proud and jolly chuffed to announce our big win at the Marketing Design Awards (as mentioned in this week’s issue of Marketing magazine) for our ‘outstanding brand design’ for bubble tea sensation, ‘Bubbleology’.

Up against the big boys of the industry and shortlisted against mega-brands the likes of Boots and Home Base, it was a nail-biting awards ceremony last week. Presented by TV art critic / journalist / author, Andrew Graham-Dixon in the swish surroundings of Park Lane’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the Mystery / Bubbleology team did what they could to settle their nerves and fuel their confidence (with champagne) before yelping (literally) with joy when it was announced that we had won the New Product Launch category.

For those who are still in the dark about Bubbleology, it’s an exciting new café concept serving bubble tea, a selection of delicious fruit flavoured iced teas, brewed fresh and shaken over ice like a (non-alcoholic) cocktail. With it’s initial launch in Soho and second site at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, the media buzz and social media activity has helped create a sensational launch for the brand.

Inspired by the exacting process behind producing the perfect cup of bubble tea, Mystery conceived the name and defined the strategic brand vision to promote the fun nature of the product through a brand with a vibrant, kitsch and pseudo-scientific character. Mystery designed the brand identity, store concept, interior, signage, uniforms, marketing collateral etc.

Check out the official Bubbleology website at: www.bubbleology.co.uk or get yourself down to Rupert St, Soho, or Harvey Nics where you can also pick up a Home Bubbleology Kit - the perfect Christmas present!

To find out more about how we can help create award-winning food and beverage brands, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

For more information about Mystery, click www.mystery.co.uk

What’s life without a little Adventure?

Mystery is proud to announce the launch of their innovative brand design for ‘Adventure’, an young group of exciting cocktail bars in London…

When the three founders of ‘Adventure Bar’ approached us earlier this year to inject more character into their brand communications, naturally we leapt at the chance of a free cocktail!

Adventure Bars are a London-based chain with an obsession for giving their customers the very best times. The cocktail bars are well known for their fantastic atmosphere and refreshing lack of pretension. Our role was to expand on those qualities, to define the positioning and build a versatile brand platform from which the marketing communications can help grow the business.

Mystery was initially commissioned to create a strategic brand vision and won the creative brief to redesign the brand identity, the website and the cocktail menus as a result of the successful positioning.

Our idea for the brand definition was to describe it as a place ‘where every cocktail adds to the story’ – suggesting that customers create a new ‘adventure’ every time they visit. We communicated this concept through a series of surreal stories which string together cocktail names… “It’s a bit like riding a Burning Red Mustang Sally through Key West with an Umpa Lumpa whilst Ziggy Stardust performs Sex On The Beach with a Porn Star…” and used these as inspiration to design a set of fun, quirky characters who appear throughout the website.

We are rolling the branding out with our new design for the identity, website and cocktail menu which launches this week. A full redesign of promotional material, uniforms and email marketing will unfold during the next few months.

To celebrate their new branding, Adventure Bar are offering a free cocktail to anyone who signs up to their mailing list. If you are thinking of booking a drinks party for Christmas in London, I highly recommend Adventure Bars for a great night out - and what’s more, they are offering a selection of discounted packages if you book by November 17th.

Begin your adventure by clicking here.

To find out more about how we can help create compelling food and beverage brands, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

For more information about Mystery, click www.mystery.co.uk

Mystery helps develop two new variants of the Giraffe brand

Mystery is proud to announce a number of exciting developments in our long and successful partnership with the Giraffe brand.

The opening of a new one-off Giraffe ‘Bar & Grill’ concept in iconic Soho demonstrates the flexibility of the brand to work across a wide variety of locations and markets. Soho has traditionally been the epicentre of London’s café culture, and after a period of decline in the 80s and 90s Soho is now enjoying a renaissance as the centre for foodies in London’s West End. Giraffe’s brief to Mystery? Bring the vitality and ‘bo-ho’ art culture of Greenwich Village back to Soho and help position this unique flagship to attract the cool, local urbanites.

Alongside a new identity design and external signage, we created a new set of mixed-media interior ‘graphic installations’ including fly-posters, signage, oversized woodblock lettering and hand-painted murals on retro wallpaper. Working closely with founder Russel Joffe and Wells Makereth architects, the overall effect is a startling and exciting evolution of the Giraffe brand.

Mystery are also excited to unveil ‘The Giraffe Café’, another new extension to the brand appropriately launched at the original site of the first Giraffe in Hampstead.

The Giraffe Café reflects the original spirit of travel and independence that first inspired Russel and Juliette Joffe to set up Giraffe back in ‘98, and we’ve aimed to capture that essence through the new informal identity design, menu format and interior graphics. Designed as a local place for local people, - working with Nelson Interiors - the effect is compelling, nostalgic and warm. The first site has opened this week in Hampstead whilst Wimbledon’s local Giraffe Café is due to be reborn very soon.

For more information about what’s new at Giraffe visit www.giraffe.net

To find out more about how we can help create compelling brands and branded interiors, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

The universe of Bubbleology is expanding with a new café/lab at Harvey Nichols

Mystery is proud to announce the opening of the second ‘Bubbleology’, our bubble tea concept that’s already taken Soho by storm…

Following on rapidly from the huge success of Bubbleology’s big bang in Soho, our Bubbleologists have been offered a space to practice the delicious science of ‘bubble tea’ on the 5th dimension (okay, the 5th floor) food hall at the prestigious Harvey Nichols store in Knightsbridge.

Harvey Nichols is known as the place for retail innovation and Mystery have had exponential fun designing the experimental tea-lab kiosk and packaging for an exciting ‘Home-Bubbleologist Kit’ which will be launched in the store from early September.

I’d like to personally invite you to try the delights of bubble tea as my guest - so please drop me a line and we’ll fix up a date to meet in Soho or Knightsbridge.

Check out the official Bubbleology website at: www.bubbleology.co.uk

BTW: Another great way to escape the heat in Knightsbridge, is to pop along to Topshop on Brompton Road where we’ve helped our friends at Gino Gelato create a pop-up carretino (traditional italian cart) serving their freshly made gelato in store this week. Enjoy!

To find out more about how we can help create compelling food and beverage brands, don’t hesitate to get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk or 020 7456 7833.

For more information about Mystery, click www.mystery.co.uk

Creative Boom feature Mystery founder.

Design blog Creative Boom currently has a feature with Mystery founder Dan Einzig.

The article which covers a little on Mystery’s inception, plus information about our current & future projects with the likes of Giraffe Restaurants, Bubbleology & Gino can be found here

Please feel free to ‘Like’ what you see & read.

A big win for the small guys!

Mystery has won a coveted nomination equivalent to a silver award in the prestigious FAB Food and Beverage creative awards for their outstanding brand design work for Gino Gelato.

We’re very proud of the recognition from a competition with over 3,500 entries from all over the world. The vast majority of finalists were large, global agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO etc so winning this nomination is not only a vindication of all our hard work at Mystery, but I hope it’s a boost to all smaller agencies. We are delighted at our success in the competition and hope that our nomination will add to the growing trend of large organisations choosing to work with smaller agencies.

Our work for Gino included a strategic brand positioning exercise where we defined the character and tone-of-voice for the brand.

We aimed to create an identity design that reflects the passion and obsession with excellence within the business whilst remembering that Gelato is essentially a really fun product. In addition to the identity design, Mystery also created the packaging, shop signage, interior graphics, uniforms and website.

Watch this space for what’s next for Gino, as we head towards the next phase in this exciting brands evolution…

To sample the delicious gelato, head down to Adelaide St near Trafalgar Square, or click here

To hear more about how adding a dash of Mystery can transform your brand click here

‘Drink driving always starts with an excuse’…

“It’s only down the road” is the most popular excuse given for drink driving, according to a poll which launched the national anti-drink driving campaign which Mystery is proud to have designed for Pernod Ricard UK in partnership with the Automobile Association.

Mystery were commissioned to evolve the style from a previous campaign and create a new series of poster ads and giveaways highlighting the most common excuses made by young drivers and their passengers whilst under the influence. The challenge was to avoid a ‘preaching’ tone which would alienate the target audience. By writing simple phrases and creating a bold playful twist with the visuals, we were able to grab their attention and encourage them to reconsider the seriousness of the message. The campaign is set to run nationally over the next few months at key sites for social drinkers.

For more information about the Accept Responsibility campaign go to www.acceptresponsibility.org.uk

To find out more about how we can help create compelling advertising campaigns please click here or get in touch: dan@mystery.co.uk tel: 020 7456 7833