Our email marketing skills are doing us proud this year, producing great results for our clients and receiving another three award nominations.

The Jessops campaign has received two nominations: Best Retail Marketing Strategy & Campaign & Best CRM Strategy & Campaign. Whilst our strategy for Swinton has been recognised in the Best Financial Services Marketing Strategy & Campaign category

Now in its third year, the MiAwards identify and highlight the very best in marketing, media and communications agencies, teams and individuals across the whole of the UK.

Which makes our fourth nomination even more special for everyone at Red C towers and something we are all very proud of – North West Marketing Business of the Year.

So all fingers will be crossed on 17^th November and hopefully it wont just be champagne we’re picking up at the Gala Awards ceremony.

At the beginning of August I had the pleasure of judging the 23^rd SUN Awards (Shot Up North). Showcasing the best photographers north of London is now in it’s 23^rd year. The judging took place at Doug Curries studio in Leeds where I meet some great people all with different backgrounds:

Ed Horwich, photographer and organizer of the awards along with Doug. Seamus Ryan – Photographer, Rob Walker – Photographer, Vicky Munro from Brass, Clair Watkin from Comma Ca and Jon Cohen of Fuji Film (non-voting chair and adjudicator) oh and we couldn’t forget Woody the dog.

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Last night I was looking forward to settling down in front of the TV to watch a rather interesting debate on the subject of direct mail.  I was expecting a well balanced argument from respected Panorama reporter Tom Heap looking at the pros and cons of the industry.  What I got was anything but balanced.  I haven’t seen such a one-sided fight since, well it was Saturday night actually….  broken toe?  Come off it David Haye, you can do better than that.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised given the title “Why hate junk mail?” but Mr Heap’s argument was not only unbalanced but incredibly naive, not to mention inaccurate.  I also found it incredibly distasteful and dis-respectful to the direct mail industry to tackle the subject of ‘Scam mail’ in the same programme.

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Every now and then you come across something so brilliant that it jumps out and demands your attention. When I was recently introduced to the concept of ‘cinemagraphs’, I had one of those moments. Read more…

There’s a few sore heads here this morning at Red C as we had a few ‘shandies’ last night after picking up an awards at the Travel Marketing Awards, which were held at the InterContinental Hotel at park Lane, London last night.

The Travel Marketing Awards are the only event of their kind recognising marketing excellence in travel, the awards ceremony is attended by senior agency, travel and tourism professionals representing the entire spectrum of the travel sector.

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When Build Center (one of our clients at Wolseley) called us with an urgent brief to spread the word about their £3 loft insulation plus free delivery promotion, we knew we had a real challenge on our hands. Not only did we have just over a week to develop the campaign and roll it out… they wanted us to deliver something a little out of the ordinary to maximise the impact. Cue one Mini, one woman, 17 rolls of loft insulation, a 56-link chainsaw and a 2 minute viral ad. Read more…

We love a challenge at Red C. So when our client at Marisota came to us with a challenge to enter and try and win the NatMag 100 award… we jumped at the chance. Billed as the most coveted media award of 2010, the NatMag 100 award gives agencies the chance to win a 250k multimedia campaign for one of their clients. To be in with a chance of winning, media and creative agencies must devise the most innovative and creative ad campaign for an individual brand, utilising a combination of the leading UK publisher’s brand portfolio and platforms to target women or men in the UK.

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As we all know, in any relationship, it’s the small things that matter. Yet what many people don’t realise is that it’s not only in our personal relationships that small things can have a big effect… they can also have a similar result in the relationships marketers, brands and companies have with their customers or business partners.

And why do small things matter? Well, as anyone who has ever bought a girl flowers knows; something small but effective can have a kind of result that is absolutely out of proportion to the cost.

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I consider myself to be pretty lucky. My parents have a home in the South of France that I get to visit at least once every summer. I get to chill in the sun reading a good book, drink lots of local wine and sample the great cuisine. I call it my rehab time.

It takes less than 2 hours for me to get to my parents’ place. Cheap air fares and easy access to flights has made the world feel very small indeed. Yet it always amazes me just how different everything feels when I get there. Not least in terms of the advertising. Read more…

As my third week at Red C draws to a close I can only look back and wonder how it’s gone so quickly. Nonetheless after relocating to Manchester, finding a new flat, and establishing an acceptable groove in my office chair, I thought it was about time ‘the new boy‘ contributed to the agency’s ‘We Like’ page.

So I thought I’d share the work of the satirical sculptor Maurizio Cattelan, (like you do). To say I’ve been a fan would be a bit much but I can definitely count myself among his many admirers.

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