Bloody Students

On the 7^th June 2007 I got the phone call to say…..I had secured the position as Junior Marketing Coordinator at Red C in their London Office. I was absolutely ecstatic as this was a bit of a double whammy for me seeing as it was also my birthday! I will never forget how happy I was to hear such good news.

In August 2007 I began my placement year with Red C. Moving down to a new city, was exciting but also made me very nervous at the same time; however the nervous feelings soon diluted as I began my placement journey. During the start of my placement, the routine of getting up early everyday and concentrating for the whole day was daunting and I did struggle to get into a regular pattern in the first few weeks.

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I really like reading. My problem is I buy books faster than I can read them. The drawers on my bedside cabinet are buckling under the weight of unread hardbacks, paperbacks, novels and non-fiction. I’ll be honest it’s starting to get me down a bit. Too much to read, too little time. Your customers have the same problem…

They’re bombarded with things to read every day. So if you’re planning on adding to their pile, you’ve got to make sure it’s easy to read. And there is one very simple way of doing just that.

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About five minutes walk from our Manchester office in Salford Quays there is the fabulous Lowry Gallery and Theatre… not far beyond that, over a bridge, is the Imperial War Museum North which is currently showing a fabulous exhibition by the very talented Don McCullin, who is rightly regarded as one of the world’s best photographers.

For more than 50 years, McCullin’s images have shaped our awareness of modern conflict and its consequences. His courage and integrity, as well as the exceptional quality of his work, are a continuing inspiration and influence worldwide.

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Last year, like many brands and organisations, London Fashion Week flirted with Social Media by having event details, links to stories and comments posted on Twitter and Facebook… so far so very 2009!

This year, though, sees London Fashion Week take a great leap forward by embracing even more Social Media technologies and making London Fashion Week open to the masses rather than the privileged few… and they’ve done it in some predictable and also some surprising ways.

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The search engines are always trying to find ways to tempt the user into using their specific site. After all, they are in it to make money, lots of money, buckets of the stuff in fact. Mark my words and mark them well. In the future we will all live and work at the whim of GoogleCorp… until that day, there is some competition in the shape of Microsoft’s oddly named Bing!

Now last year amid much fanfare and cries of invaded privacy (who can forget the poor guy caught leaving a house of ill repute) Google launched ‘Google street view’ a thoroughly marvellous piece of photo tomfoolery that allowed you to walk a virtual mile through any major city in the U.S. and then the UK and Europe.

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I know… I agree… it does seem strange having the words ‘fun’ and ‘insurance’ in one headline but have you noticed nearly all the leading insurance brands are attempting it? I know that Meerkat has just popped straight into your head but it’s not the only insurance brand to be using a ‘character’ to try and instil more fun (and consequently more brand recognition of course) into the fight for your insurance quote.

We all hate getting them… whether its quotes for home, car, pet, buildings, contents (the list goes on) and all we really want is the lowest price with of course the most comprehensive cover, so is this approach working for insurance brands and how are they achieving it?

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Usually a weekend in London with the girls is messy, full of mojitos, dancing and cupcakes! However, last month we decided that we needed to immerse ourselves in a bit of culture and headed off to the Digital Decode exhibition at the V&A (after the mojitos and cupcakes). A brilliant afternoon and well worth a visit. The exhibition showcases the latest digital design sensations – everything from digitally growing plants to mechanical eyes that mirror your gaze. The exhibition was split into three: Code, Network and Interactivity.

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When I was a kid I used to absolutely love spending time on the sofa, headphones firmly stuck to my head, listening to a wide variety of LPs that were stacked in in the corner of our living room. I’d spend hours listening to a wide variety of music staring intently at the album covers as the music drifted into my ears and allowed my mind to create stories influenced by the pictures on the album art in front of me.

Now… I’m not going to confess what albums I used to listen to as a child, although am sure if my sister read this she would happily divulge the musical crimes of my youth (Mr Roboto by Styx may appear in that list of crimes), but one of the many album artists that had a profound impact on my imagination growing up was the incredibly talented Storm Thorgerson.

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No... not that kind of Trigger!

Back in November 2009, I promised a series of blog articles detailing why I enjoy being an email marketer.  In my first article I outlined the brilliance that is heat map analysis and how potentially rewarding it can be.  This time I’m tackling something that is viewed by many as the next big thing in email marketing: triggered emails.

There are two types of retail focused emails:

1. The trunch email – These are emails sent to batches in batches.

or

2. The triggered (or automated) email– These are targeted emails sent out based on a customer’s action, either positive or negative.

The triggered email has been around for a while, an order confirmation email sent after you’ve made an online purchase is a good example. However, as we become more sophisticated with our email marketing, this type of email has a more important part to play in email marketing strategies.

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Monday at the Red C began like any other. Employees were pulling themselves into the office for yet another busy week, priority for most of course being a beverage before the start of their working day.

This particular morning was different though. The kitchen was brimming with a variety of delicious cakes that staff at Red C had spent their weekend baking. This change in morning ritual came about in support of ‘Time for a Cuppa’, an event that raises awareness for those affected by dementia which was organised by ‘for dementia’.

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