From the first meeting with Katrina Cliffe, we knew this relationship would be a special one. During the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic our founder, Damien Fisher felt we needed a fresh approach to how Fishtank positioned itself within the sector – we could clearly see and knew there would be change ahead of us all.

Searching for the right solution, Damien had the pleasure of virtually meeting Katrina Cliffe of KC Communications, a renowned PR queen in our local area. Straightaway she inspired us with her concepts and solutions to solving problems faced by their customers during the pandemic. We have now been a client of KC Communications since January 2020.

In 2014, KC Communications was founded by Katrina Cliffe and since then they have grown into a well renowned Yorkshire based PR business. We recently got a bit of insight into Katrina’s journey and some milestones throughout it:

• 2014 – KC gained their first clients Sheards Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors, Temple Learning Academy and Khalsa Academies Trust
• 2016 – The agency managed the regional campaign rollout for CityFibre
• 2017 – Katrina and her team promoted the notorious Conor McGregor/Owen Scott Tailor F***k You Suit
• 2018 – KC Communications promoted Elmwood\s LaunchPod accelerator programme
• 2019 – The inaugural Huddersfield Business Week was launched
• 2019 – Won the Raising the Bar Award and won MYCCI award for Workplace Wellbeing
• 2020 – Started working with Fishtank
• 2021 – Had a series of fantastic hires within the company

From starting out as a single freelancer to becoming a renowned PR agency that has helped a whole host of clients from corporate giants to local businesses, KC Communications’ successes are to be envied by many – not to mention their annual event – Huddersfield Business Week – which brings together successful businesses from around Yorkshire. After hiring a multitude of talented PR and marketing specialists it was time for them to take the plunge and evolve their identity to represent the whole team at KC and their growth as a company.

Our WILD Journey

Following a few months of their PR support, we were honoured to be the agency of choice for KC Communications’ rebrand journey. Knowing that Katrina held KC Communications so close to her heart made the beginning of our journey together even more exciting as the KC team were heavily involved from the get-go. From a fresh brand identity to a shiny new website, we couldn’t wait to see what this collaboration would lead us to.

“The natural evolution was to explore this partnership and collaboratively work out what was possible between 2 fabulous Yorkshire agencies with very different service lines. We knew that we could create spectacular results in tandem for both sets of customers.”  – Damien Fisher

We love to kick off all projects with an in-person meeting (covid-permitting), to really get a feel for the direction our client wants to take, evaluating all their expectations and unearthing the bigger picture of why they want to re-brand, establishing what they have and understanding what they are looking to achieve with us.

That’s why we invited KC Communications into the Tank which was a great opportunity to finally meet them in person after having all of our previous contact via zoom calls due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this meeting, we wanted to explore the vision behind the re-brand and hone in on what we required from KC to bring that vision to life.

We discussed KC’s dedication to remain the same brand, with the same people and same values, just visually an elevated version of KC Communications with a brand new name and identity.

Back then, KC still hadn’t decided on their new name. Katrina came to us with her thoughts of the world of PR being “a jungle out there”. From this marvellous shower moment, she established her desire to create a brand identity that revolved around the wilderness, featuring lots of keyword connotations and puns. Following on from our brainstorming session we established the concept of jungle related names that weren’t being used within their market and that’s when WILD PR was born.

Now their new name was established we worked together to create their new tone of voice and discovered how they wanted their new brand to be perceived by their audience. Wanting to appear quirky, outgoing, and impactful whilst also reinforcing their pack mentality – we stayed consistent with the jungle theme. Katrina specifically wanted to keep the signature KC Burgundy that was used as a primary colour throughout all of their previous branding.

Incorporating elements of KC Communications’ heritage in the new modern and edgy brand allowed our designers to be flexible and create ‘thinking beyond” design routes whilst utilising their beloved burgundy colour throughout the logo and contrasting prints.

Following an extensive brand workshop, we discovered more about Wild, their business goals and their personality which provided us with clear steps to begin the brand evolution. We created brand guidelines, a complete brand toolkit, engaging assets for the Huddersfield Business Week as well as a brand evolution video to help KC communicate their new identity with maximum impact.

“From the first meeting to the ongoing relationship we share, the design team have loved working with Wild PR to create a visual identity that represents the personality and tenacity of the Wild team. In our first meeting, we outlined the direction and tone of voice that Katrina wanted to highlight in the company – daring and wild about their clients. It was important to us that we help the team shake off the previous look and show their true, bold colours. Wild PR is all about making a difference for the people they work with and we feel that we did the same with this project!” – Niamh Byron, Junior Visual Designer at Fishtank.

Transpiring into a new brand 

​​Re-branding not only allows you to set your business apart from the competition but it also can be the catalyst your business needs to create new growth in an ever-evolving market. Keeping up with current trends both aesthetically and in terms of communicating with your audience has never been so crucial.

In their own words, KC Communications have “always had wild ideas, results, hearts”. Following our brand workshop, it was clear to us KC wanted to remain consistent with their company values and ethos, while still being relevant to both current and future clients.

Did we get it right the first time, was it love at first sight when we sent the branding over? Yes and… no. Very often our visions, when they come from different designers in our team, present very contrasting points of view. Wild PR rebrand design routes were similar in that respect – and as often happens with our clients, their team loved parts of each of them, giving us yet a different perspective and inspiration to combine concepts, refining the visuals until they were just perfect. By the time of their excitedly-awaited launch, Jacy Yates who managed the project throughout and led the design and development team through revisions, amends and improvements has already established such a deep connection with the Wild PR team, she can probably recite their mobile numbers by heart in the middle of the night. Ensuring their temporary landing page was ready for the Big Launch she almost missed our team night out – and that’s the level of dedication we believe just had to be given to our fabulous PR partners.

“We’ve only just begun exploring Wild PR’s visual and digital presence but already know – the future is going to be a wild one! What a fantastic project to be involved with and with so many talented professionals putting their creative mark on it, the outcome speaks for itself! It’s priceless really, knowing you can rely on other professionals in the field – their work for us is unrivalled and with the rebrand now announced, we’re so excited to start work on a new website for them soon and take the partnership to a yet new level. Let’s hear them ROAR!” – Damien Fisher