A host of new products at the Drake General Store will soon carry a tiny “RL” brand mark on them.
The copyright-like symbol is a nod to Toronto ad agency Red Lion, which has forged a partnership with the burgeoning retailer to design products for its stores. Announced Tuesday, the new relationship will see Red Lion create products across all of the store’s categories, from fashion and accessories to housewares.
The aim, said Red Lion chief creative officer Matt Litzinger, is to grow the Drake General Store’s brand via “sticky” products that earn the retailer positive PR and buzz on social.
Rather than using traditional ads to promote the store, Litzinger said Red Lion’s goal is to make products that “advertise themselves.”
“If you have a design or a product that’s inherently ‘sticky’ to the audience you’re talking to, they all instantly recommend it to one and other. It can drive market share,” Litzinger said.
The Drake General Store does not currently work with an ad agency on traditional creative.
Red Lion’s first creation is a line of T-shirts inspired by Toronto baseball culture. The shirts are a nod to the Toronto Blue Jays with a sketch of blue jay that also bears resemblance to the logo of Toronto-bred rapper Drake’s company, October’s Very Own.
The shirt line, which is currently on sale, does not have a direct link to the team. Litzinger said he sees the line as one of several recent “fan interpretation” products that play off local baseball culture.
In the past, Red Lion has done packaging and web design. This partnership marks the firm’s first foray into creating physical products. Rather than working on a retainer, Red Lion will be paid based on the volume of sales for the products it designs.
The Drake General Store started as an offshoot of The Drake Hotel in Toronto and has since grown into a retail chain of seven locations across Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. As a brand, The Drake Hotel has expanded greatly over the past decade. Beyond its retail expansion, the company has taken its “Drake” brand and applied it to the standalone restaurant Drake One Fifty as well as a second hotel location outside Toronto, in Ontario’s Prince Edward County.
Of The Drake General Store’s brand DNA, Litzinger said the retailer succeeds by mixing nostalgia with of-the-moment culture.
“I’m, on a personal level, a big fan of the brand,” he said. “It has that beautiful combination of feeling like it has a long standing aura of craftsmanship, but is incredibly contemporary and, it’s a horrible word to use, but ‘hip.’ It feels very much on the cusp of what is happening now.”
