Vertus, Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf's a snoozefest. All skyscrapers and suits. Jump on the Lizzie line and you’ll realise this idea is old and tired. Today, the neighbourhood's alive with wine bars, floating restaurants, event spaces and treelined boardwalks. Made up of an international mix of movers and makers, Vertus is a big reason it's hot here now.
Unmissable moments every day
Perceptions of Canary Wharf as a soulless business district are stubborn. But Vertus, a Canary Wharf Group (CWG) brand created by the boundlessly curious and creative folk at &Dave, is properly challenging things.
What’s Vertus? Think warm, welcoming apartments in buildings that mix comfort and cool. With stylish communal spaces where friendships spring up, and neighbours get to know one another over social events. A dockside life, a short stroll from the River Thames, in a neighbourhood attracting the world’s best bars and restaurants, brands and entertainment spaces.
Vertus offers the colour and energy Canary Wharf has always craved. But the brand risked being lost among the area's corporate giants until &Dave shared insight with CWG about unmissable moments that make it so special. It became clear the brand needed a shake-up, visually and verbally.
And so a conversation about language began. Which led to a first meeting, ironically, up a skyscraper at CWG's head offices in One Canada Square.
A fast-evolving story
People have been enjoying life at Vertus since Covid. During that horrid time, with the world kept indoors by lockdown, something special happened here. Light and love emerged from darkness. And predictions went pop.
Apartments designed for businesspeople on work trips to London became student digs. And influencer outlooks. And dream homes for happy families. And spaces for couples settling in the UK, like the guys from São Paulo who we met while cuddling some puppies. We’ll come to that a little later.
For now, know that Vertus had evolved in the short time people had been making 10 George Street, 8 Water Street and Newfoundland their home. By 2023, a close community had grown in these buildings, and was flourishing.
Mark Davis, &Dave’s founder, was a resident himself, and so he shared this invaluable intel at our first meeting with Team Vertus. But what might it mean for Vertus’s approach to language, which since launch had been pointed towards a more corporate audience? Mark asked for our thoughts.
We gave an impromptu presentation. No slides, no script. Just a 15-minute celebration of the potential of language at Vertus. How it could connect the brand with hearts, minds, souls, senses. How it could bring people together around a love of place. How it could conjure a feel of life here before a first visit. How it could grow pride in Vertus, from both residents and teams.
Soon, &Dave's designers were exploring how the brand might shift visually. Adapt to its new reality. And we were beginning to analyse Vertus brand language, looking for opportunities to evolve its tone and message.
More than apartments to lease
Since launch, Vertus had been using a certain kind of language. It included lots of corporate-sounding phrases, like ‘residential leasing’ and ‘client amenities’. And a focus on spec, space and square footage.
You’ll see this sort of language a lot in development brands. It gets used between developers and agents, in offices far from the people who actually live in their buildings. OK, some international audiences get it. But still, it felt far too functional for the Vertus we were getting to know and love.
With a warm, human visual identity beginning to emerge from &Dave, we felt confident Vertus needed to move from function to emotion. To get Team Vertus on side, we created a series of exploratory language workshops. Out of the office, down the tower, and into the Vertus buildings.
We posed questions, each focused on the team's emotional responses. Pay attention not just to what you see, we encouraged, but how you feel. Notices on walls, a welcome at reception, interaction with guests. Breathe in the language around you.
After lunch, inside an unused marketing suite on Wood Wharf, where Vertus residents love spending time, groups shared stories, roleplayed real-world Vertus experiences, and got to know their brand intimately. The room filled with joy and wonder, revelation and excitement.
As the penny dropped, they began to speak about Vertus in a different way. A fresh, exciting, original way. Goodbye corporate, hello human.
Fresh language, new positioning
A few weeks later, following more immersion (including puppy cuddling at 8 Water Street, where we met the Brazilian couple happy to chat about their first impressions of Vertus), we presented back our observations.
Vertus isn’t about residential apartments to lease, we said, better prepared than our first presentation. Vertus is a close friend. The one you spend time, share unmissable moments and feel great with. Your heart, your spark. The one who really gets you. We pitched it as positioning language. A shift from corporate to personal, from functional to emotive.
We spoke about competitive advantage, moving the conversation away from square footage towards deep feeling. How we can encourage people to choose Vertus for the lifestyle it offers, not just the material used to make its kitchen worktops. The room went silent.
Then the marketing director smiled. Director of operations nodded. Head of comms beamed. And finally Vertus’s managing director said he loved it, and that this was the real Vertus.
Foundations set, positioning shifted, it was time to develop a tone of voice that would enable Team Vertus to express what makes their brand so special.
A voice that connects with every resident
Simply, Vertus now uses language that connects with its residents and other audiences. It's easy for them to understand, and makes people smile.
No more talk of residential leasing or client amenities. The tone of voice encourages natural language, with plenty of verbs, original phrasing, striking imagery and personal pronouns.
From service alerts about broken lifts to tenancy agreements once itchy with legalese, we encouraged Team Vertus to sound full of spark, unmistakably clear and heartfelt. In tone of voice workshops, we showed them how to master the tone. And we revealed the effect it can have.
A little while after relaunch of the brand, we asked Freya Richards, Head of Operations at Vertus, how it was to work with us. Here’s what she said:
“We love how you quickly immersed yourselves in our daily operations, and gained a deep understanding of our business.
“That led to engaging and thought-provoking workshops, resulting in a new tone of voice shaped by our employees. You were easy to work with, and you really understood what we wanted to get out of this exercise.
“It’s incredibly valuable to show teams how they can rephrase a message to transform someone’s perception of Vertus. We’re delighted with our voice.”
Canary Wharf's a snoozefest. All skyscrapers and suits. Jump on the Lizzie line and you’ll realise this idea is old and tired. Vertus is changing things. With a new look and voice, the brand is helping turn this former business district into one of London's most exciting neighbourhoods.