As a designer, there are a few skills I’m required to have. Coming up with new and exciting ideas, bringing those ideas to life and generally making things look pretty. However, never in my career have I had to showcase psychic powers and predict the future to be able to do my job, that is, until I started working with @mediaquery.

What is @mediaquery?

@mediaquery is a relatively new feature of CSS which can be used to dictate how a website or email renders on particular sized screen such as a mobile device or desktop computer. I won’t bog you down with the details, but basically the way @mediaquery works is that the code is hidden in the email and only comes to life when it detects that your screen is below a certain size. As soon as it detects that you’re using a device with a smaller screen, it switches on the hidden code which manipulates and overrides elements of the email, changing its look and structure to suit the smaller screen.

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Thursday 17th November 2011- why is this such a significant date you may ask? Well I shall tell you. At approximately 11pm on that very day, at the Ramada Jarvis, Manchester, Red C won an MI award for the Best Retail Marketing Strategy on Jessop’s! Whoop! Celebrations all round. You may be thinking that’s fab but what does it mean? Why were we worthy of this win? Well as you read through this you’ll find out the intricate details of what a winning retail marketing strategy involves….

Who are Jessops?
Jessops is the UK’s largest specialist photographic retailer with 208 stores. Visit any of these to enquire about a camera and you’ll leave furnished with a wealth of knowledge and insight about the product in question. However, Jessops’ emails didn’t exude the same enthusiasm, expertise, personality or product range that they offered. This was a key factor in the failure of their emails to convert sales, especially when combined with a design that was dull and uninspiring. In a crowded marketplace, having enthusiastic staff with this level of expertise can be a key differentiator for customers. Jessops needed to make effective use of their emails to communicate this to their database of customers.

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This year at Red C we have decided to take a different approach to our agency Christmas card… we’ve created six cards that we can pack up and sell in aid of the charity Mustard Tree. The cards we’ve created aren’t just a pretty picture of a winter scene like other Christmas cards… each of the six cards is an inspirational story for Christmas.

Everyone here at Red C has been heartened by the work that Mustard Tree do to provide life support for the homeless, marginalised and vulnerable across Greater Manchester… so this year the dreaded agency Christmas card brief had only one solution… create something to help this Charity at the time of year when it needs help the most… Christmas!

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Day two of the ECMOD Direct Commerce Show started with a session entitled ‘Increase your revenue by recovering lost sales’.  Abandonment in the sales cycle is something I know a little bit about as it’s something that I’ve spoken with my clients about several times over the years.  However, I wanted to use this session as a reminder of its potential power and perhaps pick up a new statistic or tactic.

Increase your revenue by recovering lost sales – Dominic Edmunds, Salescycle

The session with Dominic Edmunds from SalesCycle was a little like a sales pitch but putting to that one side, the content of the presentation was extremely thought provoking.  Firstly, a new statistic, which I’m convinced I’ll be quoting several times over the next week or so.  Apparently, MarketingSherpa have recently announced that 60% of shopping carts are in fact abandoned…  can you image the lost revenue figure associated with such a figure!?

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We have a rule at Red C.  If you attend an event, seminar or conference you must share your learnings and experiences with your colleagues and clients via a blog article.   So here is my report on Day 1 of the ECMOD Direct Commerce Show.

Power Panel – Where is the growth?

Speakers; Aamir Ahmad, MD, Dwell; Gerald Dawson, CD, Long Tall Sally; Kevin Hague, Partner, M8; Joe Murray, Founder, Worldstores; Nigel Swabey, CEO, Scotts & Co; Nick Wheeler, Chairman, Charles Tyrwhitt

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So here we are, three months in, and Red C has had me unleashed upon them without the safety net of my predecessor Anna Chan around to guide me. Though whilst I’m holding my breath and wishing myself luck, I think I’m going to be alright.

Here’s why:

1. The people I’m working with are ace. They are funny, clever and helpful

2. Holiday treats, birthday treats, leaving treats…there’s always some kind of sweet treat on offer, not to mention the decent coffee. Suddenly 7am starts don’t seem so bad

3. It’s a bit of a cliché but I can honestly say I’m learning something new thing every day

I remember when I first started searching for a placement last year and thinking that just getting one was what counted. Now I realise actually just how important getting the right one was. And I certainly found that at Red C.

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Pot Noodle... it's what students live off you know!

It’s been a month since I completed my placement at Red C, and I’m back studying at university. I’m back into student life, which, in case you’re wondering, doesn’t just mean sitting around eating beans on toast and watching Doctors on daytime TV. But it does feel  strange as the reality of returning to university as a final year student is a far cry from what I imagined it to be. Whilst I’m sat in a stuffy lecture hall struggling not to fall asleep from the lecturer’s monotonous voice, making notes about theory models, I can’t help but think back to my time at Red C and think how different it was.

I find myself missing the hectic bustle of the office, the ringing phones, even having to check through all the email links. It’s then I realise just how much Red C has changed me, motivated me and inspired me. When I look around at the other students who didn’t complete a placement, I can’t help but feel they’ve missed out. I feel my time at Red C was invaluable in helping me develop and for setting me on course to achieve my goals in advertising.

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Manchester agency Red C has won a two year email marketing contract from high-speed rail operator Eurostar.  The agency was chosen from among 15 agencies following a multi-stage pitch process. The remit is to assist Eurostar in the strategic development of their pan-European email marketing and to deliver a suite of email communications for the UK, France and Belgium.

Following the recent deregulation of the European passenger rail market, Eurostar is implementing a number of changes to it business in preparation for the arrival of direct on-rail competitors for the first time.  The appointment of Red C is part of this programme as the company wanted to work with a single agency to help develop a unified and coherent approach across all markets.

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A few years ago our Mystery Tipper picked up an array of marketing awards… and after a couple of years of continuing to deliver some impressive results for Swinton’s Taxi Division she has been nominated by the lovely people at the DMA Awards in the category of ‘Best business performance or improvement’. Needless to say we’re all really chuffed here at Red C towers and have already begun polishing those shoes and ironing those gowns for the award-ceremony!

The Direct Marketing Association Awards don’t just reward great looking creative. They reward excellence in results and delivering business performance through insightful, inventive and innovative marketing strategies that feed into great looking creative that then go on to deliver stunning results for clients.

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Effective marketing strategies aim to provide consumers with product information in an efficient way by highlighting its existence and increasing its awareness. Companies are therefore increasingly adopting the use of email as a means to achieve this, with varying degrees of success. This method has become a fast and efficient way for high volume marketing distribution, but it does have its drawbacks.

Consumers receive many marketing emails on a daily basis, and consequently, businesses are in continuous competition to stand out in an overcrowded inbox. Success in conversion-to-purchase is therefore largely based on how consumers receive and respond to the emails they are sent. Cognitive and behavioural factors such as memory/recognition and social trends also play a part in determining how successfully these emails are received by consumers. Such aspects can be determined by measuring how individuals view these types of stimuli, as well as indicating the shifting levels of attention in specific key areas.

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