Blog

Insights on brand strategy, rebranding, and growth, grounded in real client work. No trends or theory, just practical thinking on how brands create clarity and commercial impact.

New Arrival: Brad Arnett
As our newest Front-End Dev, we threw Brad in at the deep end, we’ll be honest. Sandwiched between Chris’ cursing and cleaning, and John’s, well, Johnishness… It’s sink or swim for developers at AHOY, and credit where credit’s due – Brad’s survived admirably so far. Will he bring planet dev back down to Earth a little…
We Like It Wednesday #7
Another week, another We Like It… Thursday… Err… WE LIKE Architecture – Inside Beetham Tower The top-heavy Manchester icon has gradually warmed it’s way into the city’s heart – not that you can miss it – but if you’re still waiting for an invite to check out the Beetham Tower penthouse, then don’t worry as Emile Rafael has…
New Arrival: Sam Foster
Earlier this year, we took on a new Account Executive. One of Yorkshire’s finest exports. A man that knows no fear. A man that wins £500 of designer clothing, and still use his NUS card at the checkout… When he’s not bargain hunting, he’s… Actually, we’re not 100% sure what he’s doing if he’s not bargain hunting… A snippet…
We Like It Wednesday #6
As we roll onto our sixth installment, we’ve got a leaner, tighter, ‘lite’ version of #WLIW, down from the normal three featured bits to two… …Which is in no way related to it being bank holiday on Friday and us being insanely busy this week, but who said it was all about quantity anyway? We like typography…
Now and Then: CBBC
Right, let’s fire up another new feature idea, see if it has any legs. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t – let’s see how we get on. The premise is simple, take one of the latest rebrands everyone is talking about, and give not only our initial reactions to it, like literally everyone else does,…
We Like It Wednesday #5
Hi Spring, how’s it going? Long time no see. Bet you were as eager to see Winter jog on as we were. God, blog introductions are hard… Now we’re talking directly to entire seasons… Christ. You know the drill by now, this is the fifth instalment of #WLIW after all. Be that person, get your shorts, sunglasses and…
Hey? Hello! Listen Up For A Second…
So, we’ve got a confession to make… An admission of the highest order… We’re rubbish at marketing ourselves. Earth shattering, we know, but bear with us. Over the last 12 months or so, we’ve neglected our blog. It’s even become a running joke that nobody’s got Word, so we can’t possibly write new posts… We’ve used it to…
We Like It Wednesday #4
A fourth #WLIW – maybe this is becoming a thing, maybe we’re onto something, maybe we’ll even make it to a fifth consecutive post in the series… That’s unprecedented, it’s never been done before. People couldn’t handle it. It’s just too much. WE LIKE LEARNING – LANCE WYMAN LJMU LECTURE It’s not often you get the…
We Like It Wednesday #3
A third #WLIW in a row post officially makes this the longest running series we’ve ever managed on the blog… Oh ye of little faith, you didn’t think we’d make it this far, did you? We like teaching – The Manchester COllege https://twitter.com/BAFD_GdA/status/703210449580511236 Starting with a personal one, last week Dave and I visited the Manchester College to…
Brands We’ve Built – Restaurants & Bars
Case studies. We try to get them up as often as possible, but when you’re as busy as we are, they fall by the wayside more often than we would like. “Brands We’ve Built” is an interim feature we’ve thought up to get some of our work out there before we get a chance to…
We Like It Wednesday #2
Wednesday is here. Half of the week down, half of it to go. Don’t let that get you down, though – we’ve got another batch of bits and bobs that we’ve liked over the past week to share with you. We Like Music – City And Colour My boy Dallas #cityandcolour #alberthall A photo posted…
Meet Joe Dolman
September was a big month for me. I moved away from home, did my first weekly food shop, use a washing machine for the first time and started my first full time job at AHOY. During the first couple of weeks a few thoughts were circling around my head… “I’m not enjoying this”, “Was this the…
We Like It Wednesday #1
A common thread that runs through the AHOY studio is that we all genuinely love design, web and print. We love brands and everything about them – we talk about them and what they represent just as much as we do about their logos, websites and so on. The problem is, these conversations never really…
We’re Hiring A New Social Media Manager
Based just outside Manchester (5 minutes from a train station), AHOY is an award winning integrated agency specialising in branding, web design/development and digital marketing. Working with the Brands of Tomorrow, not afraid to try something new, this agency takes brands against the grain and breaks the mould in their respective industries – whether it’s…
Introducing… Brand Attic
This is one we’ve been meaning to announce for a while now, and if we’ve gotten our timing right, this should be live at around the time the press release is flying through the aether to your industry news destinations of choice… Here’s hoping, huh? We’re excited to formally announce our recent work with Visage…
Three nominations, two days
Just to one up ourselves from March, we’ve only gone and been nominated for three awards in two consecutive days this time! It all started with our Stockport Business Awards nomination for Business of the Year turning over up to £1m, where we’re up against some decidedly stiff competition. That said, we like to think our…
Business Rocks 2015 Agency Pitch Off Winners
Another week, another big win for AHOY. We could get used to this… When we first received our invitation to take part in the Agency Pitch Off Challenge at the first annual Business Rocks event held at the super swish UKFast campus, we weren’t sure what to expect. We knew we’d be up against some…
Prolific North Awards 2015 Best Content Team Winners
Honestly, we started writing this thinking we’d be announcing our Big Chip Award nomination, but last night, the Prolific North Awards gave us something else to shout from the rooftops. From our Best Small Digital Agency win last year, we came away this year with the Best Content Team gong. Which makes the next bit…
Big, big Google changes from April 21st
(You might have received an email from us on this very subject recently… In which case, sorry to be repeating ourselves!) You might have heard that the Google-based times are a-changing. With the dawn of April 21st, there are big, big changes afoot when it comes to Google’s search algorithm. Simply put, they’ll be digging through…
Two nominations, two days
It’s been one hell of a week for us, and we’re excited to announce our first new nominations of 2015. There was the small matter of us being nominated for Best Low Budget Campaign in the first ever Northern Digital Awards at the back end of last year, but these are our first accolades of…