Brand Design Industry - USA

Delivered December 6th, 2019. Contributors: ChristianN, Neema, Ezeonye J., Sumit B., Smitha N., Sameen B., Emma H. and

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Bulletproof & Bluemarlin

The brand design firms were compared and the findings have been presented in the attached spreadsheet. A few of the findings have been outlined in the summary below.

Summary of Findings Bulletproof was founded in 1998 by Gursharan Singh Mundae and Jonathan Stewart. They have offices in the United Kingdom, USA, Singapore, and Amsterdam.
In 2017, Bulletproof's turnover/revenue was $19.29 million and they now have over 200 employees worldwide. 
Some of Bulletproof's key clients include White Claw Hard Seltzer, Oscar Mayer, Silk, Heineken, and PepsiCo. 
Bluemarlin was founded in 1993 by Andrew Eyles and David Hodgson. Currently, they have offices in Australia, Singapore, NY, USA, and the United Kingdom. The company's 2015 turnover/revenue was $5.45 million.
Some key clients include "Schweppes, Ballantine's, Thatchers Rascal, Kinnie, Battery, Penfolds, Sensodyne, and Britannia, Muller.

Research StrategyData on revenue for both companies proved to be challenging to find. However, in the case of Bluemarlin, the turnover for 2015 was found on UK Global Database. Other financials available for 2019 focused on the balance sheet and therefore there was no information on the revenue. Additionally, financials published on Hoovers could not be corroborated so it was not included in these findings.

We determined the size of projects done by both companies by reviewing the types of clients they work. It was assumed that if they are working with global brands that are major industry players then the projects are likely to last for weeks or even months. 

Calculations:
Using XE, we converted the turnover for both companies. For Bulletproof, its turnover of $14,657,887 (2017) when converted was US$19,291,113.40.

Similarly, for Bluemarlin, its turnover of $4,143,995 (2015) when converted is $5,453,625.37

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Landor & CBX

Landor is a brand consulting firm founded by Walter Landor in 1941 and has an annual revenue of $40 million. CBX is a brand strategy and design agency founded in 2003 and has annual revenue of $5 million. The required rows for the companies have been filled on the attached spreadsheet.
LandorLandor was founded in 1941 by Walter Landor. 
The company has 26 offices in 19 countries. The countries are Thailand, China, South Africa, US, UAE, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, Turkey, Indonesia, UK, Australia, Italy, Russia, India, France, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. 
Landor revenue is estimated at $40 million. 
Landor has about 501-1,000 employees.
CBXCBX was founded in 2003 by Gregg Lipman, Nancy Brown, Rick Barrack, and Richard Villante.
The company has two offices located in New York City and Minneapolis. 
CBX has $5 million in estimated revenue. 
 Happy Little Plants, Maddy & Maize, Teawell, Bromley's For Men, Valvoline, Maranatha, Chex, Jason, The Art of Shaving, Pillsbury, Cheerios, The Good Table, Land O Lakes, First Take, Green Valley, VYZE, Brew York City are clients of CBX. 
The company has 130 employees. 

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Force Majeur & Elmwood

A comparison of Force Majeure and Elmwood has been completed and provided in columns G and H, rows 3, 4, 6-8, 12, and 13 of the attached spreadsheet. Laurent Hainaut founded Force Majeure in 1998 whereas Jonathan Sands founded Elmwood in 1977. 
Key FindingsForce Majeure operates in three countries: the US, France, and the UK while Elmwood operates in four: the US, the UK, Singapore, and Australia.
Available resources show that Force Majeure has an annual revenue of $2.8 million whereas Elmwood generated $35 million.
There are about 11-50 employees at Force Majeure while there are about 51-200 employees at Elmwood.
Some Force Majeure's key clients include Johnnie Walker, Dove, and Ciroc while for Elmwood, they include Nestle, Unilever, P&G, Walmart, among others.
Research StrategyWhile we could provide all the requested information, note that we could not find the most recent annual revenue of Force Majeure and Elmwood, as they are privately owned. Research through their company websites, press releases, and other third-party articles/reports yielded no positive result. Therefore, we relied on third-party company directories and databases to provide this data, of which there are no periodic indications of the reported revenue. Nonetheless, we provided them, with the assumption that they are the latest figures.

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Safari Sundays & Little Big Brands

A comparison of Safari Sundays and Little Big Brands has been completed and provided in columns I and J, rows 3, 4, 6-8, 12, and 13 of the attached spreadsheet. A few of the findings have been outlined in the summary below.
Summary of FindingsSafari Sundays was founded in 2005 by Damon Gorrie. The standalone branding agency is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, United States.
Little Big Brands was founded in November 2001 by John Nunziato. The standalone branding agency is headquartered in White Plains, New York, United States. 
Available resources estimate the recent annual revenues for Safari Sundays and Little Big Brands to be about $8.2 million and $7.3 million, respectively.
The estimated number of employees working at Safari Sundays and Little Big Brands is 41 and 38 employees, respectively.
Some key clients for Safari Sundays include Omura, Super Hiro, Spilt Milk Bar, Peoples.Wine, Wild(ish). While for Little Big Brands, some key clients include Bolthouse Farms, Kind Kids, Saltwater Brewery, Wink, You+ Sleep, Welly, and Inspired Start.
Research Strategy
While we could provide all the requested information, note that we could not find the most recent annual revenue of Safari Sundays and Little Big Brands, as they are privately owned. Research through their company websites, press releases, and other third-party articles/reports yielded no positive result. Therefore, we relied on third-party company directories and databases to provide this data, of which there are no periodic indications of the reported revenue. Nonetheless, we provided them with the assumption that they are the latest figures.

To identify some recent clients that companies are currently working with, we examined the recently published case studies, official social media profiles, industry publications, creative award sites, press releases, among others. Though the companies did not highlight their current clients, we ascertained our selection by identifying projects that are featured from third-quarter 2018 onward.

Lastly, we determined the size of projects done by both companies by reviewing the types of clients they work. It was assumed that if they are working with global brands that are major industry players, then the projects are likely to last for weeks or even months.

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Pentagram & Dragonfly

Pentagram was founded in 1972 by five founding partners and has a global footprint, having offices in three countries. KD Marketing, which was rebranded as DragonFly, was founded in 2011 by Kim Davis and is located in North Carolina, USA.

The link to the spreadsheet is here.
Brand Design Firms — Competitive LandscapePentagram was founded in 1972 and DragonFly was established in 2011 as a boutique marketing agency.
The five founding partners of Pentagram are Theo Crosby, Kenneth Grange, Colin Forbes, Mervyn Kurlansky, and Alan Fletcher while DragonFly was founded by Kim Davis.
The estimated number of employees for Pentagram is 160+ employees while DragonFly has 37 employees.
Pentagram's estimated revenue is $25 million and Dragonfly has an estimated revenue of $7.5 million.
Pentagram has four offices located in Austin, New York, London, and Berlin while DragonFly has one office in North Carolina, USA.
One of the key clients of Pentagram include Warner Bros. On the other hand, Dragonfly has worked with American Legion World Series and Cleveland County Water. 

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Sterling & WPP

WPP was founded by Martin Sorrell in 1985. The requested details on Sterling and WPP have been compiled in the attached spreadsheet. A brief overview of the findings can be found below: 
WPP has more than 130,000 employees. The company has 3,000 offices in 112 countries including the US, UK, and China. 
WPP generated £15.6 billion in revenue in FY 2018. 
Sterling is a privately-held company founded in 1992. It has 51-200 employees. 
According to Glassdoor, the company's annual revenue ranges from $10 million to $25 million. As per ZoomInfo, the company's revenue is $13.5 million. 
Research StrategyNo information regarding the founder of Sterling was found on the company's website, its official social media profiles, in advertising related sites such as Adweek and Agency Spotter, third-party company databases such as Crunchbase, Owler, and ZoomInfo among others. A press scan to find any news and media articles mentioning the company's founder also didn't yield any results. 

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Design Bridge

The requested company information for Design Bridge has been entered into the attached spreadsheet. The company is currently working with brands like Fortnum & Mason Chocolates, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Design BridgeDesign Bridge was founded in August 1986.
The company was founded by Mike Hawkins, Johanna Bowers, and Graham Shearsby.
Design Bridge has offices in England, the United States, China, The Netherlands, and Singapore.
The company is private and has an estimated revenue of $36.38 million.
Design Bridge employees between 201 and 500 employees in its five locations.
Design Bridge works on an ongoing basis with brands, and aims to have long term partnerships with the brands. With Global well-known clients, like Cadburys, and Smirnoff, the company works on large global projects.