Modernising Creative Support for a Long-Standing Lighting Brand

About

Thorn Eco is part of Thorn Lighting, a global lighting manufacturer with nearly 100 years’ experience. Based in Durham and part of the wider Zumtobel Group, they create lighting solutions for sectors including education, healthcare, retail, offices, sport and urban spaces.

Their products are made for trade-focused audiences, including wholesalers and contractors, so their creative needs to be clear, practical and easy to use across product launches, sales materials and commercial environments.

Challenge

Before working with Surge, Thorn Eco were using an inherited agency setup through their wider group. It wasn’t built around what the Thorn Eco team needed day to day, with slow turnaround times, difficult communication and high design fees making the process harder than it needed to be.

They needed a new creative partner who could offer better value, quicker solutions and easier communication, while still understanding the level of detail needed for a global lighting manufacturer with regular product launches and a trade-focused audience.

Solution

Surge initially came on board to support Thorn Eco with design. That covered the annual catalogue, product launch assets, product packaging, line drawings, dimensional drawings, social graphics, email banners, advertising campaign graphics, pull-up banners and point-of-sale materials for wholesalers.

As the relationship developed, the work grew into wider creative support. Surge now supports Thorn Eco with product photography and video too, meaning a prototype can be sent in and the team can create the product photography, launch visuals, promo videos and social media videos needed to support the campaign.

Result

Thorn Eco now has a local creative partner who understands the brand, the products and the pace of the work. What started as design support has grown into a long-term creative relationship covering catalogues, packaging, product launches, sales decks, internal presentations, photography, video and campaign assets.

Just as importantly, the move to Surge saved Thorn Eco more than £40k on design fees in the first year, while also improving turnaround times from long lead times to days, and in some cases, same-day delivery. The work has helped Thorn Eco modernise their creative output, improve consistency across sales and marketing materials, and move faster when new product launches or campaigns need support.

Testimonial