Isn’t it time we looked beyondthe consumer for inspiration?

“If I’d asked peoplewhat they wantedthey’d have saidfaster horses”Henry Ford

We are a brand consultancy

Blogger

Nurse

Journalist

Cabbie

If you keep asking the same old people, the same old questions, guess what? You’ll get the same old answers.

To make a genuine step change in your business, you need breakthrough thinking. But you won’t get that from conventional insight methods.

There’s a big, super-connected world out there full of brilliant minds. We go beyond consumers to connect to the wider world for inspiration and insights, to solve difficult business challenges.

Nerve Networks™ is our bespoke co-creation process. We take brilliant brains from relevant, lateral worlds and crash together their unique perspectives to create genuine breakthrough thinking that makes a positive step change to your business.

They could be bloggers, journalists, academics, psychologists, comedians, cabbies, celebrities, staff, stakeholders. They might love you or hate you but their contrasting experiences inspire solutions where traditional consumer insight methods fail.

Nerve NetworksTM Royal Voluntary Service

When the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) asked us “How do we reinvent ourselves to appeal to modern Britain?“ we recruited experts like Wayne Garvie, creator of Strictly Come Dancing because he took something as outmoded as ballroom dancing and re-imagined it for a modern day audience.

He said “Focus on the optimism and happiness that WRVS volunteering brings and shine a positive light on age”. And tell the story of the relationship between a volunteer and the older person they share time with.

We created a brand essence “sharing time changes lives” that inspired a new name, strapline, identity, comms and branded content, and galvanised the entire organisation. Royal Voluntary Service has since reversed 20 years of declining volunteers.

“Nerve Networks is a uniquely collaborative and innovative way of working. It’s an approach that felt instinctively right for reinventing WRVS, a 75 year old brand with a strong desire to make itself relevant to modern Britain. It’s a different approach that produces different and exciting results.”

David McCullough, CEO,Royal Voluntary Service

Nerve NetworksTM Durex

Durex asked “How do we grow when we have 85% share?” We approached the likes of Mark Shalin, a teens holiday rep and Sara Land an NHS community matron. They helped us to identify that young women presented a huge potential for growth.

Young men carry condoms but rarely use them, whilst young women are more likely to use one but don’t like to carry them for fear of giving out the wrong signals.

We created a strategy to make carrying a condom as natural as carrying a lipstick, including the Velvet Revolution, a community of young women taking control of their sexual health, and partnership strategies for the NHS and high street retailers.

Nerve NetworksTM Bespoke to every client

Oxfam:“How do we get young people to give regularly?”

Steve Brown, Scottish Bible Society inspiring young people, because if you can sell the Bibleto teenagers you can sell them a charity.

BBC Worldwide:“How do we get the best out of our creative agencies?”

Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and President of Relate, because Relate know how the best relationships work.

RNLI:“How do we create an early teens proposition?”

Lucy Kirkwood, Channel 4 screenwriter for Skins, because she understood what modern teenagers share and aspire to.

Multiple applications

Simple, rigorous process

Challengeyour marketconventions

Future proofyour brand and business

Innovatenew products and services

Unlockan audience, market or sub-brand

Revitaliseyour brand, essence, potential

Galvaniseyour staff and culture

UnderstandBrand audit

SolveBrought to life

Co-createNerve networks

EvaluateAgainst KPIs

BridgeTo roster agencies

Nerve NetworksTM

Nerve Networks takes your brand out of its comfort zone beyond its immediate sphere of reference

Strategic connections around lateral insights from the real world.Relevance and context in a world that’s much bigger than your brand.Brand Inspiration: Thinking brought to life so you can touch, feel and see your brand’s potential.

Consumers(Comfort zone)

Marketers

The World out there(where the magic happens)

Nerve NetworksTM

I’m really excited by Nerve’s approach to unlocking insights through Nerve Networks. Not only is it innovative, it also makes a lot of sense! Inspiration

at last a way to make it happen. We want new thinking, and that’s why we are working with Nerve.Rebecca JonesVP Marketing Effectiveness, BBC Worldwide

The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Nerve’s approach to getting under the skin of brand challenges is far from insane, enabling them to address each challenge from a unique and lateral perspective, produces results which are a healthy mix of the thought-provoking, the unexpected and the illuminating.

Gavin McGrowHead of Strategy, Starcom MediaVest Group

Nerve Networks brought fresh creative thinking and a truly collaborative approach to answering our challenge, leading to a solution that was different, brave and highly motivating for the teenage audience. For any client who wants creative ideas rooted in exciting but robust strategy, Nerve Networks has to be the way forward.

Cathy FerrierDirector of Fundraising and Marketing, Oxfam GB

Who we areThe management team

Stephen MooneyManaging DirectorEuro RSCG KLP,Digital Marketing Group

Joanna BamfordLead StrategistRKCR/Y&R, Lowe

Christian ClarkCreative DirectorJoshua G2, IMP, McCann Erickson

We are a highly experienced management team who know how to get the very best from Nerve Network expertsby working closely with our wider team. We are collaborative and hands on so you’ll see a lot of us.

If you’ve got a di�cultbusiness challenge,let’s talk

Stephen MooneyManaging Director07545 529 539stephen@thenerveagency.com

Breakthroughthinkingthenerveagency.com