Yell: TYPOGRAPHIC MAPS

Credits & Description:

Category: Advertising Typography

Advertiser: YELL

Product/Service: SEARCH ENGINE

Agency: RAPIER

Date of First Appearance: Feb 28 2011

Entrant Company: RAPIER, London, UNITED KINGDOM

Executive Creative Director: Ed Morris (Rapier)

Head of Design: Dave Towers (Rapier)

Senior Copywriter: Bryn Attewell (Rapier)

Creative Director: Kevin Bratley (Rapier)

Copywriter: James Hobbs (Rapier)

Art Director: Charley Gray (Rapier)

Director Brand & Communications: David Parslow (Yell)

Producer: Mike Kerry (Rapier)

Screen Printer: Danny Flynn

Senior Account Director: Philipps Cripps (Rapier)

Media placement: 48 Sheet Posters - Nationwide, UK - 28.2.2001

Media placement: National Press - Nationwide, UK - 28.2.2011

Media placement: Transvisions - Nationwide, UK - 28.2.2011

Media placement: Canary Wharf Digital Screen - London - 28.2.2011

Media placement: Media Wall - Liverpool - 28.2.2011

Media placement: 6 Sheet Posters - Nationwide, UK - 28.2.2011

Media placement: Digital Banners - Nationwide, UK - 7.3.2011

Media placement: High Impact Outdoor - London/Birmingham/Manchester - 14.03.2011



Describe the brief from the client

Create reappraisal of the Yell brand, reposition Yell as relevant for today whilst aiming to create emotional engagement with the brand. We wanted to revive the brand’s latent purpose of connecting the right people with the right local businesses and show how Yell does this in a variety of new ways through recent product developments. The ultimate goal was to increase usage of Yell products and services by attracting more committed users.



Describe the challenges and key objectives

People who need to find a local service currently default to Google. There is a perception that Yell’s products are out-dated or not relevant for today. We needed to showcase the exciting product developments and also remind people that if they are looking for something locally, Yell is the best place to start.



Describe how you arrived at the final design

We not only wanted the posters to reflect Yell’s unrivalled local knowledge in short, punchy headlines, we also wanted to do it visually. So we introduced a visual language based on local maps. For each execution we created a custom designed piece of typography which referenced Yell’s local knowledge within the design. Each master design was screen printed on textured paper and the space between the letterforms crafted to resemble a local map. The modular nature of the typography meant the ads could adapt to many different formats and spaces, including special builds, 6 sheets, transvisions and digital.



Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Mobile app downloads up 127%, searches up 41% and calls to the directory service up 35%.