I was overjoyed when I was offered a placement at Red C. Determined to get the placement at that company; I researched it as thoroughly as I could, so that I stood a good chance of success. I am glad I did.

Initially I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that I would have to assimilate. However, I found the team I was working with to be informative, helpful and friendly. The amount of knowledge that I have gained working at Red C has far surpassed what I have learnt at university. I think the best way of learning about a job is to actually do it.

What I have learnt is to prioritise my work, use my initiative and play an active and cooperative role in the team. I have learnt that Red C is a dynamic company with an innovative approach to marketing.

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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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In no way strange.

Studio music policy. Now there’s a touchy subject. When Julian, our Creative Director, isn’t insisting on a start-to-finish playback of the Grease soundtrack, there’s Studio Manager Dawn requesting Energy 98’s hands-in-the-air euro-trance cheesefest. It’s enough to drive you insane. Or in my case, put some headphones on.

I like listening to music when I write, but it has to be the right kind. When you write, you should be listening to the words in your head as they hit the page. So any particularly vocal tunes are distracting. That means hip-hop’s a no-no, Olivia Newton-John is out and Energy 98 should be locked in a soundproofed room…full of vipers.

Matthew Herbert on the other hand is just right – light and sinuous, deep house grooves with hushed rhythms and jazzy melodies. He’s pretty cool, I’d recommend him.

He’s an interesting guy too…

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Imagine walking down any street and holding up your iPhone… what you see on the screen is a view of the street yet there are lots of Zombies running towards you that you then have to shoot. Or imagine walking up to a wall and touching it… just for the wall to then display the view that is on the other side of it…. This is the world of Augmented Reality and it’s a world that looks like it’s going to be very big indeed.

Put simply, Augmented Reality blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell. It adds graphics, sounds, and smell to our world… and through a normal pair of glasses or display screen, informative graphics appear in your field of view, and audio coincides with whatever you see. These enhancements are then refreshed continually to reflect the movements of your head and the world around you.

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David Gray Music Tee Front

Everyone knows that buying CDs is on the decline and when it comes to owning music… digital is the way to go. But you have to credit the people behind The Muisc Tee for getting us to part with our hard-earned green stuff for something more than just a digital download.

The Music Tee is a new product line that combines digital music and fashion in one eye-and-ear-catching package.  Music Tees are high-end t-shirts that feature album art and a tracklist. Each shirt comes with a unique code that can be used to download a digital copy of the album associated with that Music Tee. This enables people to discover and purchase music in fashion retail environments, then hear and wear an album!

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When it comes to Eye Tracking, there isn’t much that we don’t know. Which is why Marketing Week approached Red C’s Client Services Director, Rosemary Walton, to help out on an article about this fascinating subject. here’s what Rosemary had to say on the subject:

For Rosemary Walton, Client Services Director at agency Red C Marketing, fast eye tracking means clients can make changes to campaigns in real-time. In a world where people Twitter their thoughts to the world, brands expect to be able to find out insights immediately and communicate them back to base. Real-time analysis is vital.

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Red C’s Mystery Tipper campaign for Swinton’s Taxi Division has been selected as one of the finalists for the overall Diamond Award, at this year’s IDM Business Performance Awards.

The IDM Diamond Award is the most coveted prize in direct marketing. It celebrates the long-term contribution direct marketing can make to the success of a business. So it’s fair to say we’re pretty chuffed to be nominated. Read more…