Our client Swinton has over a million customers for which they have an email address and we had been working with them for a few months on some of their product focused emails. We knew that there was much more they could be doing with email marketing and wanted to push the boundaries for them. Our triggered email activity was first discussed in January when we received a nice timely email from Pizza Express offering BOGOF on all pizzas to celebrate the fact that the snow was finally melting and people were now able to get out to eat again. This triggered our own thoughts – “Wouldn’t it be great if our Swinton emails could be a bit more timely and relevant and well…. interesting really!”
At the beginning of every year marketing experts begin to predict what they think will be the next big thing in marketing and advertising. In the past we have had the year of the mobile, the year of Twitter and the year of Social Marketing. Yet in 2011 in the UK, it could be that it’s not something new and technologically advanced that is the next big thing but something tried and trusted… the VAT-free direct mail pack.
Thanks to George Osborne’s planned rise in VAT on 4th January from 17.5% to 20%; it could be that the marketing departments for financial services clients turn to the good old VAT-free pack to help stretch their budget further.
Before I start this blog, I’ve set myself some ground rules. Simply because I know there are lots of blog postings, articles and galleries on the web dedicated to really funky and creative business cards. There is nothing wrong with these cards… it’s just that one of my biggest niggles about fancy business cards is that they don’t fit in my business card holder, or my wallet for that matter!
Ok that may be a bit old fashioned of me. But I like my business card holder. It serves the lovely purpose of holding lots of business cards that I can flick to in an instant. The only problem with it is that if the card is larger than 3.5 × 2 inches… I have to get the scissors out, or it just gets lost. And until someone invents a business card app for my iPhone, I’m going to stick to paper.
My name is Steve White. I’ve had an accident and I’ve woken up in 1982. Am I mad, in a coma or have I gone back in time…. or has the advertising world gone nostalgia mad!?! Well, although my wife will certainly vouch for madness. I can confirm that the latest trend in advertising is leading me to have my very own ‘Ashes to Ashes’ moment.
It simply can’t have escaped your attention as to just how many big British retailers have gone ‘nostalgic’ with their campaigns over the last year or two. M&S, Persil, Virgin, Hovis, Milky Way and John Lewis have all used campaigns that hark back to their past. But why are so many brands going down this creative route? Why are so many brands looking back and not looking forward?
Our recent farce of a general election, where the bottom half of the UK turned blue and the top half red and yellow with some orange dotted around in between, brought it home to me how different the UK is and how we have gone back more to being four separate countries more than any time in our recent past. This has implications for us as marketers I believe that we need to take into account more.
Having spent the run up to, and the actual election, in Scotland it proved a very interesting experience. Travelling up through the country from Cambridgeshire – true blue agricultural East Anglia – into Yorkshire, Cumbria and then most of the length of Scotland, the blue conservative banners disappeared and the yellow banners (not of the Lib Dems) but of the SNP, started to appear everywhere. Talking to Scottish friends, they feel very nationalistic and have no interest at all about what goes on in Westminster, identifying very strongly with the SNP and indeed that was borne out in the actual election result.
TV ads. I have to say… I love them. They are the main reason I got into this business in the first place… to create some arresting TV Advertising that my mates might talk about down the pub. One thing that has always infuriated me about TV Advertising, however, has been the inability to really effectively target them like you could other forms of advertising.
Well, it looks like those little niggles I have could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the thing that has been nicknamed Smart TV. Its real name is Targeted Substitutional Advertising (TSA) and it looks like it could be the thing to deliver accountability and personalisation that digital media advertisers have enjoyed for years.
The phrase ‘time flies’ is testament to my experience at Red C. It’s been six months since I left and I still miss the place!
Before embarking on my annual festival trip to Glastonbury in the summer of 2008, I was elated to find out I had secured the Junior Account Executive placement. However, panic soon struck! As a student with no relevant, practical business experience I was naturally overwhelmed and nervous as to how I could make a positive contribution to Red C. Those insecurities soon disappeared when I realised I was surrounded by people (both in the account and creative departments) who were willing to help, advise and guide me if need be.
We love our lunchtime training sessions here at Red C. Every few weeks, a feast of sandwiches, cakes and pastries is laid out in the boardroom and we’re invited to gorge ourselves, whilst picking up new skills and knowledge from guest speakers or colleagues.
It was at one such day earlier this month that our Managing Director, Adrian Rowe, shared a presentation that he’d previously been invited to give at a conference in Amsterdam. It was an online masterclass, detailing some of the key learnings Red C have picked up during our time creating and implementing web strategy for our clients.
Part of this presentation included 7 ‘killer’ email tips Red C have found to be very effective. I thought it would be a good idea to share them with you here.
It’s no big secret that I’m a bad loser. I hold my hands up and fully accept that my inability to be gracious in defeat is one of my weak points. Yet it is also a strong point too… as it drives me, pushes me harder and makes me ensure I have explored every opportunity for my clients. Simply because I want to create something special that will not only exceed the goals set in the brief… but also deliver some awards because the strategy is sound, it looks damned good, is incredibly well written and has pulled like a freight train.
For me, winning is key to a passionate, productive, purposeful, and prosperous life. If I were to value it less than I do, then I fear I would begin to say goodbye to my talents as a creative. The will to win is what drives me to be the best I can be in everything I do… and I have seen first hand what a winning mentality can do to an agency.
The famous saying goes ‘there is no such thing as bad press’ but is this true? We now live in a society obsessed by celebrity culture. And celebrities are more than just ‘well known names.’ They’re carefully crafted, aspirational brands, as famous for the products they endorse as they are for their ‘talents’. The question is, what effect does negative press have on these celeb brand business.
As you know, over the last few weeks, celebrity scandal has been everywhere. Even the highbrow broadsheets have been dedicating serious column inches to the state of Cheryl and Ashley Cole’s marriage.
In a recent article, Guardian reporter Deborah Orr wondered what Cheryl would now do with the tattoo on the back of her neck, the one that brands her ‘Mrs Cole’ for life? She concluded it would have to be painfully removed and noted: “the pain of breakup can be great to bear. And sometimes it’s the thought of all that rebranding that hurts most of all.”
Our client Swinton has over a million customers for which they have an email address and we had been working with them for a few months on some of their product focused emails. We knew that there was much more they could be doing with email marketing and wanted to push the boundaries for them. Our triggered email activity was first discussed in January when we received a nice timely email from Pizza Express offering BOGOF on all pizzas to celebrate the fact that the snow was finally melting and people were now able to get out to eat again. This triggered our own thoughts – “Wouldn’t it be great if our Swinton emails could be a bit more timely and relevant and well…. interesting really!”
