BCO

Selling a city

The British Council for Offices (BCO) is Britain’s leading forum for the debate of issues affecting the office sector. It researches, develops and communicates best practice in all aspects of office development to its broad-based membership. Its conference provides an extensive programme of thought-provoking workshops and inspirational office tours.

Luminous was asked to create a distinctive and dynamic brand for the 2019 conference in Copenhagen that promoted the programme’s themes and, more widely, the city as a destination. It needed to establish the event as a unique experience, embracing and highlighting all that is fresh, inspiring and creative about the city.

Copenhagen has been voted the world’s happiest and most liveable city and places environmental concerns and sustainability high on its agenda. It also has one of the world’s most productive workforces. Such is their facility for combining the practical with living well, the Danes even have a special word for it, ‘arbejdsglæde’, simply meaning ‘work/life balance’. The conference brand needed to attract delegates by embracing the work/life balance theme while promoting a city famous for its culture, architecture and innovative design.

The creative strategy was fresh, informative and fun, creating a look and feel that aligned with both Copenhagen’s architectural pre-eminence and the BCO’s brand values. We developed a flexible design system using the ‘O’ in the logotype as a spotlight into key elements of the conference. Creative execution reflected the personality of the location, including the vibrant colour palette inspired by Danish banknotes.

The brand was implemented across multiple channels including app, display, invitations, digital brochures, pocket guides, advertising, wayfinding, signage and social. The Twitter feed enjoyed over 10,000 profile visits and gained a further 200 followers. There were over 1,600 uses of the conference hashtag and entries for a photo competition increased 133% from last year. There was also a substantial increase in ticket sales compared with previous years and the event had the most attendees at the conference to date.