Our task is to create the ideas, the content and the components of communication that work for the audience, the client and other members of the creative team. In this sense we are the architects of understanding, providing the inspiration for change and the environment for positive decisions.

D igital Media

We provide the collaborative skills essential to the creation of effective websites. Developing the ideas, the information architecture and the content that satisfies the needs of the audience and the purpose of the client.

Our approach ensures that everything in the development of digital programmes is driven by a coherent set of ideas, expresses and reinforces the same messages, consistently and compellingly.

M arketing
Legend's value to marketing depends on the type of client and product. Companies that differentiate through simple issues like price or location or minor features do not need our help, we are pretty useless at creating puff to inflate unremarkable bragging rights. This sounds snooty, it isn't, it's just practical. We know where we fit and don't want to build uncomfortable relationships.

Companies that work hard to be different, that have real ideas, genuine values and a commitment to customer service and relationship-building are the clients with whom we succeed. As with Motorola when we quadrupled sales leads for a digital communications product by changing the way the company made promises. Or with Samsung where our service launch achieved the first year's targets in just six weeks. It is all a matter of creating the stories that people want to hear and telling them beautifully.

Media and Broadcast
It is not just huge companies that use video and have internal broadcast and narrowcast systems, the digital world has seen to that. Everything from user instructions, training programmes and product promotions are exploiting these rich presentational tools.

Those who think that a passing acquaintance with PowerPoint will create clear and compelling content for video need to prepare for a surprise. Digitally delivered media has no defense against the anarchy of the viewer's back button! Legend brings to digital and other video production the skills of the documentary maker, knowing that factual presentation requires skilled story telling with high levels of emotional drive and a deep understanding of how sequential and linear media work.

Brand Development
Our favourite subject!
Legend has, over the last twenty years, created a distinctive approach to working on brands. We call it the Narrative Brand because, after working on leading brands especially through times of deep change, we are convinced that branding is still often misunderstood. That's why we work almost exclusively on the voice of the brand rather than its face. By creating a voice for brands we can uncover and give direction to the essence of the brand, the real reason for having a brand in the first place.

A company's brand is not the just a badge. It is what happens in the mind of the person who sees that badge and recognises it. The essence of a brand is the meaning and character of the company, its values and its personality. It is, at root, a story. Finding out how to control that story and to deliver it, that is the art of brand development.

Editorial and Publishing Services
Legend can support corporate publishing by acting as a strategic review consultancy or by coming alongside the people responsible for communications and supporting them with editorial and management support.

When we work strategically on corporate publishing strategy it is usual for our fees to be covered by cost savings and increased effectiveness. For Royal Mail, for example, our role as publishing partner reduced the cost of one key publication by over two million pounds in its first year, transformed its uptake and operational effectiveness and reduced Royal Mail's operational costs by much more.

Cultural institutions, museums, galleries, visitor centres are increasingly places whose meaning is driven by stories. As the trends in museum design move further from static cased exhibits towards stories that explain and demonstrate the significance of the collections, the need for the design of such exhibitions to be driven by narrative increases.

Legend has the academic and intellectual ability to handle most subjects, the collaborative skills to work successfully with curators and subject specialists, and the creative skills to bring those subjects to life.

Few of the limitations that used to apply to corporate media now apply. Product and service development is often as much to do with creating things narratively as physically. More imaginative companies realise that a subject guide or a white paper or a book or journal can be more effective than the traditional brochure. Brands are often positioned in the market by the way in which the company establishes a role as spokesperson or commentator and publishes accordingly.

Online businesses often find that the only way to create true differentiation is through conceptual product development where the market is attracted almost solely by the way in which a new digital product is defined and the story that describes it.

Key lessons, however, remain to be learned. When such ideas are developed strategically it is essential that the working relationship with the writers begins early, at the concept development stage. And Legend is one of very few practices equipped to work in this way, with the background in development and leadership that is so necessary.

P lain English
Plain English has, unfortunately, become something of a cliché, and clichés do not help communication. This is fine, we never believed that plainness was a virtue. We do believe, however, that clarity is a virtue and should be fundamental to all operations of the company.

Often we find that by reviewing the clarity of information we also have to recommend clarification of processes. When clear thinking drives processes, fewer mistakes are made, procedures run smoother, administration costs go down and customer service improves. Not a bad result for a small editorial effort!

A dvocacy and Policy
The days when these were tasks conducted in the rarified atmosphere of high level secrecy are long gone.

Construction Consortia bidding for large projects have to produce complex contextual advocacy and present their broad ranging policies in the clearest possible way. The tiniest charity bidding for funds has to produce compelling argument for its proposals.

Frequently this sort of advocacy is geared to engaging support for change that affects communities and often involves campaigning for people who are ill equipped to argue on their own behalf. This sort of work brings out the best of our skills, we love a good negotiation of ideas and work happily in this area with organisations as far apart as the United Nations and groups of people with disabilities, with charities and communities.

C reative Writing
Yes it does happen, pure prose and poetry, so we thought we should mention it in passing. We have written song lyrics for record labels, ceremonial speeches for leaders, pitching outlines for feature films and documentaries and even hidden behind other people and ghosted their books for them (don't ask, we can't tell)

U ser Instructions
In spite of the millions spent on useability testing, the prize still awaits the first technology manufacturer to take the quality of user handbooks or instruction DVDs as a serious part of product development.

The prize that awaits them is the applause of customers bowled over by this quality of service and their enduring passion for that brand. Oh, and seriously reduced cost of providing customer support is also a bonus.