All Work

Helping Elite Competitions beat the odds with a new brand and TV advertising campaign.

Elite Competitions is the original online competitions company. But in a fast-moving, crowded market, being first doesn’t guarantee being first in people’s minds. They came to Holdens to modernise their brand, sharpen their positioning and take the business onto TV for the first time. We delivered a new brand strategy, a refreshed identity and a national TV campaign built around the idea of Elite Competitions as the best kept secret in online competitions. The business has since gone from strength to strength – recording average annual turnover growth of 30% and earning a place in the top 50 fastest growing businesses in the North West. Proof that the right brand, properly executed, changes the trajectory of a business.

Client:

Elite Competitions

Sector:

Entertainment

Capabilities:

Brand Expression

Brand Exposure

Key Results:

+30%

average turnover growth since rebrand

First TV advertising campaign in company history

Top 50

fastest growing businesses in the North West

National reach across TV, streaming and social media

“Working with Holdens was a game-changer for our business. They expertly rebranded our company, infusing it with a modern, gamified edge that truly resonated with our audience. Their creativity shone through in planning our first-ever TV campaign, bringing exceptional ideas that exceeded our expectations. The results speak for themselves and we couldn’t be happier with the transformation!”

Ryan Lea Head of Brand Partnerships Elite Competitions

CHALLENGE

Elite Competitions was there at the beginning – one of the first businesses to bring prize competitions online. But the online competitions market had grown rapidly around them, and with it came a wave of newer, louder, more visually aggressive competitors.

“The original online competitions company. But not always seen that way.”

The brand hadn’t kept pace with either the market or the ambitions of the business. It needed to resonate with younger, social-first audiences, communicate professionalism and trust more clearly and give Elite Competitions the platform to do something they’d never done before: go on TV.

The brief was to modernise the brand, define a clear positioning and produce a TV advertising campaign that would reassert Elite Competitions’ place as the market leader and the original online competitions company.

Watch the TV Commercial

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APPROACH

We started where we always start: with a brand workshop. An intensive session to get under the skin of the business, define the positioning and articulate the mission, vision and values that would underpin everything. The insight that came out of that process was clear – Elite Competitions had something genuinely unique: heritage, legitimacy and a track record that newer competitors simply couldn’t match. The brand just wasn’t saying it loudly enough.

“A founding belief that great ideas, properly executed, beat everything.”

That foundational work shaped a new brand DNA – a unifying platform the whole business could get behind – and informed the creation of a modernised visual identity. The new-look logo was accompanied by a dynamic brand language rolled out across the website and app, enhancing the user experience and better reflecting the premium, gamified feel the brand needed. Comprehensive brand guidelines gave the internal design team everything they needed to take the identity confidently into the physical world.

Then came the TV campaign – the brand’s first. We built it around the idea of “the best kept secret”, a line that played into the brand’s heritage and gave them a distinct, self-aware voice in a category full of noise. The resulting TVC was humorous, attention-grabbing and genuinely different from anything else in the market. Alongside the main spot, we produced a suite of engaging edits for streaming platforms and social media, ensuring the campaign worked across every screen.

RESULTS

With a new brand to set them apart from the competition and national reach that put them centre stage for the first time, Elite Competitions has gone from strength to strength. Since the rebrand and TV campaign, the business has recorded average annual turnover growth of 30% – a trajectory that has earned them a place in the top 50 fastest growing businesses in the North West.

“With a new brand and national reach, Elite Competitions is all set to continue its market dominance.”

That kind of sustained growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a business gets serious about its brand, backs it with proper creative and gives it the exposure it deserves. Elite Competitions did all three.