#Help Kent buy local
Helping Kent thrive
Produced in Kent is a trade organisation who support ‘producers’ in The Garden of England. The charitable organisation promotes all things Kent – from Kent’s finest products, where to buy, places to eat, drink, stay & visit, artisan crafts and so much more.
Oak Creative provided innovative, creative ideas and designs.
Great team to work with and great to use another local Kent business.
How does Oak Creative support Produced in Kent?
The #HelpKentBuyLocal began as a social campaign during 2020 to support the many independent local businesses who are growing, producing, selling and delivering food and drink to the Kent community.
Oak Creative Design helped to transform a simple hashtag into a powerful call to action logo to encourage people to shop locally and support Kent businesses through the pandemic.
How were the designs created for the Produced in Kent Champions and Christmas Kindness logos?
Recently we have been involved in designing the ‘Champions’ logo and the ‘Christmas Kindness’ logo for Produced in Kent. Oak Creative were asked that they sit as a family with the rest of their logo designs and fit within their brand guidelines. By adapting and utilising their core PinK logo woodcut graphic, we were able to interweave the ‘C’ graphic into the design and draw attention to ‘Champions’ as a scheme. With the ‘Christmas Kindness’ logo a simple but effective Christmas tree and sleigh got added to the illustration, this then allowed the festive message to get across, whilst remaining consistent and recognisable.
What was the Christmas Kindness competition and how well did it perform?
Produced in Kent invited Kent residents to support their local businesses and spread happiness with a Christmas Kindness competition. The competition involved purchasing from participating shops for the chance to be entered into a prize draw for 2 enormous festive hampers, one for the winner and one for a friend. The competition led to more than 700 entries. Having supported the campaign by creating a festive logo, Laura Bevan our Studio Director says “It has been a pleasure to support Produced in Kent with the Christmas Kindness campaign, we are very passionate about supporting local Kent businesses and it’s been great to see the logo being used and for such a wonderful cause. Well done to all involved!”
How successful was the campaign?
The circle shape branding quickly became a recognised icon in Kent’s independent retailers and the campaign was extended to neighbouring counties. Oak Creative replicated the logo for ‘Buy Local South East’, ‘Help Sussex Buy Local’ and ‘Help Essex Buy Local’.
75% of businesses reported profitability stay the same or increase as a result of the #BuyLocal campaign (2020)
Produced in Kent also launched the microsite www.helpkentbuylocal.co.uk, which listed over 280 food and drink businesses for free. The site features an interactive map overview and a ‘good news’ blog.
How does Oak Creative support the Kent economy?
Laura Bevan, studio director of Oak Creative says: “Supporting Kent is something which is really important to us at Oak Creative. For the #BuyLocal campaign, we were proud to actively support Kent’s producers through 2020. We chose to deliver this project free of charge as we knew the impact it could have to so many livelihoods at this unprecedented time. The results have been brilliant for Kent and it is great that due to the success, the campaign expanded to neighbouring counties too.’
Floortje Hoette, chief executive of Produced in Kent says: “If anything good was to come out of the very challenging period of 2020-1, it is the higher public awareness of the fantastic food supplied by your local butcher, the farm shops, the bakers and the village shops, not forgetting the doorstep deliveries made by the local dairy farms.’
