In early 2015 we were approached by the owner of Mr X Stitch, Jamie Chalmbers, to work on a new holistic marketing plan for an upcoming series of magazines. On further investigation, it became clear that a wider marketing and branding exercise was needed.
As the main brand, and only published content so far, I started on the Mr X Stitch website, performing SEO analysis.
This led to a major raft of improvements across the site network, content plan, SEO and advertising campaigns.
As the main asset for the brand, I was able to increase viewership 203% over the first year without any additional cost to the brand.
One of the main assets the brand owned was Jamie himself, a highly personable person who had been featured in magazines, books and British craft TV programs.
By setting up Jamie has a brand in his own right, I leveraged a slew of online and offline presentations, international exhibitions, more TV appearances, and a familiar favourite at craft fairs.
These actions have seen Jamie become not only a key figure in the embroidery world, but a trend setter.
The two brands at the time had highly diametric logo designs with fonts more akin to small scale crafters, rather than international brands.
I worked with them to redesign all the logos, using a common thread to link all brands. This in turn allowed us to develop fonts and a design language to use.
The Mr X Stitch brand had always prided itself on challenging people’s preconceptions about needlework, and bringing more focus to its international cohort of authors.
As part of this I was asked to set up micro blogs, and marketing plans for artists across the world. This has now expanded to over 20 artists.
The first magazine launch was made with our launch, and whilst the brand continued to develop across its first year in publication, we offered advice and help on social media, email planning, website design, PPC, and other marketing opportunities such as affiliate networks and in-page advertising.
As the Mr X Stitch brand developed, I was able to leverage a book deal with a major craft publisher to offer a brand-heavy guide to one of the key embroideries the brand focuses on.
This book has gone on to be reviewed highly by many craft outlets and has maintained a top 5 spot of top cross stitch craft books sold on Amazon UK & US for the last 6 years.
The Mr X Stitch brand has continued to go from success to success, with the Xstitch Magazine now in its 5th year, with an ever-increasing brand presence and readership across the world.
Rhys Turton 