Earlier this year, British multinational PR and marketing company, Bell Pottinger, launched a new practice centred around “tackling some of the most pressing business challenges facing brands in today’s communications environment.” The 70-strong integrated practice, known as Engage, provides consultancy, campaigns and content to its growing clientele. Yet its recent activity sets the pace for inclusive, collaborative and in-depth creative communications.

Working with a collection of high profile brands, Bell Pottinger’s Engage has spent its inaugural year closely tied to several fast-paced, professional industries – from finance and retail to technology and travel. Yet its recent agreement with Qatar Airways earlier this month marks the practice’s progress within the commercial aviation sector. The brief will allow Engage to govern over creative campaigns within the UK market, adding to its travel, transport and tourism portfolio. Qatar Airways' longstanding imprint in the sector is punctuated by a fleet of over 180 aircrafts, 40,000 employees and 23 years of industry experience.

Further developments for the airline contribute to the timing of the deal, with 2018 marking further expansion for Qatar Airways through its launch of flights from Cardiff Airport. Charlie Hampton, partner at Engage and overseer of the Qatar Airways account, says, “We are delighted to be working with Qatar Airways. Their growing operation and excellent inflight product is a winning combination that we look forward to bringing to life with creative, content-led campaigns.”

Yet for Engage, diversity is something that is central to the practice, including a wide arsenal of tools to help brands communicate. Engage has curated five ‘communications resolutions’ that underscore the current communications landscape, from hyper-fragmentation to widespread uncertainty. Encapsulating this, Engage’s work to empower people to find their own creative solutions is best seen in its recent work with Studio B, a creative space based in London and centred around banking, and the new flagship London store of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (CYBG).

Targeting millennials, the campaign is backed by a competition to give one UK resident the opportunity to live rent-free for one year in a newly decorated penthouse in Kensington. Yet the space itself combines innovation and intelligent design to reimagine the traditionally financially-focused domain. Using facial recognition technology, gaming and animation, CYBG’s new flagship store cuts through the fold of traditionally mundane financial buildings, offering a space that aims to help cultivate a new method to their finances, and one that incorporates creativity.

Helen Page, group innovation and marketing director at CYBG, says, “This inspiring space reinvents the way we engage with the public, allowing the next generation of customers to design the next generation of banking. We want to put the fun back into finance and help customers find practical solutions to the challenges they face. Studio B will help people build a better relationship with their money.”