Mid-code Crisis http://www.tmw.co.uk Wed, 19 June 2013 15:37:00 Wed, 19 June 2013 15:37:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no3 Today's opening panel discussion brought world famous photographer Annie Leibovitz together with Disney and McGarryBowen to discuss their Dream portraits campaign. Once we had all got over the thrill of seeing Annie in person and admiring some great photos of Russell Brand as Captain Hook and Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella, the promised 'magical storytelling partnership' sadly failed to materialise.  I think even Annie was getting slightly weary of saying how 'magical' the whole experience had been despite the worthy prompting of the Disney VP . Nice photos though Annie, we still love you. The appropriately named Dr  Astro Teller whose title is 'Captain of Moonshots' at Google x, then treated us to a well-crafted presentation about the impact of picking the right 'story' for any given 'moonshot' and how that story will define the solution more than any technology. For example, the story behind the self-drive car could be one of efficiency, economics or indeed ecology but the story narrative gives everyone something to believe in beyond the technology itself. His definition of a moonshot meant it was more than simply 'going large' on an existing problem (to make marginal gains) but had to tackle a significant problem for the world with a radical solution that you created belief about.  As well as the self-driving car project the bright boys at Google x are working on a new green energy idea around far lighter wind farm blades and some air balloon technology to help spread Internet access in a low cost way (versus space satellites) to the billions still not connected. But by far the most interesting, outspoken, controversial and wonderful talk of the festival has to be Vivienne Westwood.  After days of corporate versions of being 'authentic' we finally had the real thing! From telling us that she started up not through any great idealism initially (it was simply to support her partner Malcolm McClaren) to then realising she was 'the only real anarchist in the village' and so grew bored with Punk, ultimately seeing it as just another marketing exercise.  It was from this experience that she realised to be truly subversive you needed to have ideas, in her case fashion, rather than just jumping around spitting at everyone.  Whilst Gaston Legorburu tried manfully to steer the conversation back to story scaping (SapientNitro's current hobbyhorse around story systems not story lines) Vivienne just went for what I can only describe as a 'turbo-ramble’. Perhaps as an antidote to the polished previous talks the crowd, including myself, just lapped it up. We bounced from Eisenhower's warning against the military industrial complex, to the financial system being responsible for all climate change, supported of course, by corrupt governments and the military all being in cahoots!  There was a diatribe against the entire 20th Century (a mistake in her view) to defining culture as 'the pursuit of best self-knowledge of all things said, done and seen in the world’. She then went on to make some great points about unless you understand your cultural history you will never truly understand your own place in the genius of the human story. There was yet more philosophy around your best self and your ordinary self and the urge to fight, fight, fight for worthwhile causes and how, whatever you do, never trust what governments tell you! Phew. One standing ovation later we were all left pondering what to make of it. One thing's for sure though, we'd actually experienced some authentic storytelling and not a slide in sight. Tonight is the Grand Opening gala and our very own juror Mark Reddick has secured us VIP tickets. I'll let you know how we get on in the next post... http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no3 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no3 Wed, 19 June 2013 15:37:00 Julie Roberts http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/another-marketing-conference There has been some very interesting banter taking place behind the scenes between the various conference speakers recently, with a particularly amusing request that everyone try and desist from using marketing buzzwords in their presentations.  A recent list of the ’30 most overused buzzwords in digital marketing’ from Mashable was shared and I’m going to have to confess right now that if anyone is bringing a buzzword bingo card with them I’ll be providing at least five of these overused terms and doing so continuously throughout my slot. Speaking on the subject of marketing effectiveness it would be difficult to do so without mentioning KPIs, ROI, virality, CPLs (cost per like) and engagement and in a funny way it would be good to ‘poke the hornets’ nest’ of heated debate around these topics.  The reason why they appear on buzzword bingo lists is not necessarily because they are used frequently but because they are used in the wrong context, ill-defined or just misused altogether.  As part of my session I would like to wade far into the buzzword mire, especially those related to measurement and aim to try and bring some clarity through discussion of measurement planning approaches, measurement frameworks and case studies. The topic of ‘effectiveness’ in advertising / marketing has always been a hot subject and none more so than now.  In difficult economic climates, with consumer spending severely constrained, the requirement to know (as far as possible) what is influencing consumers to eventually part with their cash is more pressing than ever.  Recent articles in strategic management journals examine the link between ‘creativity’ in marketing/advertising communications and ‘effectiveness’.  There are some extremely interesting observations and outputs i.e. discussing the issues of those campaigns that focus on the wrong ‘dimensions’ through to the importance of flexing measurement models to reflect cultural preferences and consumer triggers when dealing with regional / global campaigns.  All of this makes for a broad, wide-ranging and widely contested subject area which I look forward to discussing on 25th. Get tickets to Another Marketing Conference here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/another-marketing-conference http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/another-marketing-conference Wed, 19 June 2013 10:26:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no2 Well things are certainly hotting up since Sunday! Monday brought legions more adfolk to the Palais des Festivals with epic queues and palpable excitement as the first awards night is just hours away. The charismatic and brilliant Jack Black rather stole the show from Erin McPherson the VP of Video at Yahoo, without really saying anything revelatory. He was simply himself whilst acknowledging that his attention span was directly proportional to the screen size of device he happened to be using. It felt like a joke but certainly got me thinking about how time, content and device type are now certainly linked but how often do we even consider these variables before diving into idea generation? He also managed to talk about a new web series he has produced called ghost Ghirls that will be running purely on Yahoo's portal and is worth a look. The impossibly young founder of Summly, was also interesting with his views that 'summarisation' (and curation) would add an extra layer of usefulness and relevance to personalisation. He was also sufficiently media aware to not get drawn into a critique of Google Glass whilst applauding the concept of 'wearable computing' . The big guns of Coca Cola were up next and I have to admit despite the whoops of encouragement from the majority of the audience my emotions were deeply divided here. Whilst they are absolutely at the forefront of some amazingly brave work - from challenging racial segregation in the 50's with adds like 'bench', to trying to bring Indians and Pakistanis together after 60 years of conflict via an interactive kiosk, the underlying objective of promoting Coca Cola worldwide seems somewhat underplayed, shall we say, under the weight of aphoristic sound bites. We jumped from 'stubborn optimism' to 'what unites us is greater than what divides us' to 'shining a light on world happiness' with abandon.  I've just spoken to some young American students and even they didn't quite understand what coke was trying to do in Africa with their 'blind singer' campaign. Other than saying Africa is a happy place they were as nonplussed as me, which is always reassuring. Possibly the most natural and interesting talk so far was delivered by Andrew Robertson, global CEO of BBDO worldwide and his CCO David Lubars. Despite being a little breathless and nervy (I think they'd literally just got off a plane) their conceit about Dickens (with his unforgettable characters)', Hemmingway (with his brilliant reductionism) and Michelangelo (with his creativity and craft) would have made the best, albeit combustible ad agency of all time. They peppered their talk with some amazing ads, not least the hilarious Carlton draft lager ad and a pithy smart car piece comparing its woeful off road performance with its brilliance in the city. The first award show is calling and our very own Mark Reddick has VIP seats as an esteemed judge, so I'll let you know how it goes... http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no2 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no2 Tue, 18 June 2013 11:20:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/dove-menpluscare-launches-new-online-video-ahead-of-father's-day Dove Men+Care™ has launched a new online video ahead of Father’s Day to communicate the lengths a father will go to for someone he loves. The video was created by TMW. Entitled ‘Your Face Says it All’ the video features a father and son building a go-kart in their garage and shows how the dad’s face is affected by the various tasks that they undertake during the task. The father then uses a number of products from the Dove Men+Care™ Face Range to clean and soothe his skin. The video ends with the strapline ‘He puts his face through a lot for the people he loves. Give him a little extra care this Father’s Day’. The creation of the video follows a study commissioned by Dove Men+Care™ to find out what top ‘life lessons’ sons and daughters value learning from their fathers most during early adult life. Results revealed that 51% of men and 46% of women consider learning basic DIY skills as the most important, and one in seven men seek grooming advice from their father’s, in particular being taught how to shave for the first time. Launched on YouTube, the online video will be supported by PR, video seeding, digital banners and YouTube advertising to raise awareness of the brand amongst its key female target audience who will be looking to purchase Dove Men+Care™ for the man in their life on Father’s Day. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/dove-menpluscare-launches-new-online-video-ahead-of-father's-day http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/dove-menpluscare-launches-new-online-video-ahead-of-father's-day Mon, 17 June 2013 18:22:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no1 One day into the full programme on Sunday night I'm struck by how little actual advertising has been discussed.  It really should be called a festival of all things creative! For example we were treated to an opening panel debate about toilets (or more broadly the terrible public health issues affecting 2.6bn people worldwide) and how GE's short film, big ideas series 'focus forward' has helped raise awareness of this issue. It really was slightly surreal to be cosseted in the comfiest of auditoriums listening to Oscar winning film director Jessica Yu discussing the terrible impact of diarrhoea with Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation. In total contrast the next panel discussion was on , shall we say ,firmer ground with Mel B (scary Spice as was) Martha Stewart (American lifestyle legend) and comedian Nick Cannon (married to Maria Carey) talking about celebrities and use of social media to manage and promote both themselves and of course their own brands.  I have to say that whilst there was an awful lot of talk about the need to be 'authentic' from all panellists, this clearly meant quite different things to each of them. For Martha for example, it simply seemed to mean 'don't delegate tweeting to a lackey' whilst freely saying she  wouldn't dream of expressing an opinion on anything political or personal for fear of upsetting the numerous media interests she has in the US. Mel B was more open claiming there was a massive difference between  'standing for something' and simply 'promoting something' but then slightly spoiled it by claiming she stood for belief in all her products that she either owned or promoted! In my view it was the more relaxed Nick Cannon that came closest to nailing 'authentic authenticity’. He actively engages with many of his followers and is really clear about promoting and endorsing products for commercial gain. As a comedian he is also less constrained by any PR agenda and as he pointed out, could always claim something inappropriate was simply a joke. The other highlights of the day were undoubtedly Channel 4's moving and quite brilliant reframing of last summer’s Paralympic Games to be cool and accessible. Their cheeky reference to the actual Olympics, ‘thanks for the warm up', summed up the entire campaign. The final gem was a different take on the creative process by the evocative Kentaro Kimura of Hakuhodo Kettle fame (yup that's the fella). His simple 5 steps to creative alchemy - combine, mimic, upside down, the truth behind, what if - were beautifully illustrated via an ancient simple story of the city that had no light. He then neatly segued to modern day examples of behavioural change with my favourite being the VW anti speeding campaign from DDB Stockholm. It shifted the concept of ‘punishment’ to one of 'praise' by promising to take photos not just of speeders but also of drivers obeying the speed limit. The speeders were fined as usual but the safe drivers were entered into a monthly draw to share a slice of the fines raised. Speeding convictions dropped by some 22% which is extraordinary. A later talk on the science of facial coding to measure engagement was strangely flat by comparison, whilst hammering home the indisputably important fact that emotive advertising works far better (and is more profitable) than rational advertising. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no1 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/19/cannes-capsule-collection-no1 Mon, 17 June 2013 17:38:00 Graeme Noble http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/cannes-shows-its-true-colours From our vantage point high in the hills (just a short hop over the A8 motorway to the glitz and glamour of Cannes) we set out into the adventure that is Cannes 2013. The first thing to say is that it's (so far) incredibly well organised. But what else has Cannes got to offer? Apart from the palm tree lined Croisette, the golden sandy beaches, charming old town and the seemingly non-stop parade of beautiful people… well, you get the picture. Why they don't just have it Southend is beyond me. So anyway, on this sunny Sunday morning, weary from the wine and the people watching from the night before, we settled in for a whole day of seminars, all of which were eminently watchable. I'm not sure how relevant to advertising they all were, but they were all done with such easy professional aplomb that even the most cynical of ad people (moi?) would be happy to watch. There were seminars that were okay, a few that told you stuff you probably should already know (albeit with some nice slides) and one or two genuinely inspiring moments. Just how much of the seminars were actually watched I don't know, because everyone was tweeting to the point of death; retweeting quotes of tweeted quotes. Monday may well be busier but I hope the content of the seminars will be turned up a notch. There was no mention of 'game changing' in today’s seminars, but I have a feeling that this phrase will be heard a lot in the next few days judging by the number of times we've seen it on posters. Cannes is certainly living up to what I hoped it would be. Considering I’m writing this at 2am on day one, it’s emblematic of what’s to come. And the highlight of the day? Seeing a photo I tweeted appear on the big screen in the main seminar hall, showing the previous night’s sighting of possibly the finest array of pastel coloured slacks worn en mass by a group of gentlemen I've ever seen. From salmon pink through to mint green, this town is second to none in the pastel slacks department and these are the true colours of Cannes. It may not have been a game changing image, but it certainly was trouser changing. Over and out. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/cannes-shows-its-true-colours http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/17/cannes-shows-its-true-colours Mon, 17 June 2013 15:00:00 Marc Curtis http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/10/five-things-i-learnt-at-econsultancy’s-future-of-digital-marketing-event 1 - Use the 70, 20, 10 rule of innovation in your company 70% of what your company does should be safe and based on tried and tested methods. Low risk. 20% should be innovating off things that are proven to work. 10% should be high risk ideas, but they might become next year’s 70% activities. 2 - The future of search is no longer simply about indexing. Keywords are becoming less important as Google focuses on implicit search information - such as location, personal data, previous searches. Brands need to weave their presence into multiple touch points, to maximise their effectiveness in the daily conversation consumers are having through search. This kind of thinking will become even more relevant when Google starts to adjust rankings based on sentiment (negative or positive) from user generated content about a brand. 3 - There's no such thing as mobile marketing, just as there's no such thing as digital marketing. It's just a bunch of different channels with a number of different challenges. In five years, it's predicted that 80% of all Internet traffic will be from mobile devices ( Gertrude Leonhard ) 4 - Agile is not simply a development project methodology. Marketing can be agile [with a capital A]. Many of the same challenges facing project managers running agile software projects (such as cost estimating, stakeholder management etc) also apply to marketing, but the rewards are equally great. Small multidisciplinary teams made up of motivated, passionate people will achieve far more than more traditional approaches. 5 - Before you can start marketing, you need a good idea or a product to market. If you want good ideas and good products, you need doers. Agencies need to employ engineers, developers and project managers who can facilitate the design and build of products that people will actually want to use.  And five more micro learnings 1 - Do you really need to build that native app? Html5 web-apps can make the process of building for iOS, android and windows phones a lot simpler. 2 - Future technology should be disruptive and unreasonable. If your vision of the future doesn't seem fantastical, then you're probably thinking of the past. 3 - We are all publishers. Whether we realise it or not, we are generating data noise from our existence through our online habits, our phones, our journey through life. 4 - Speaking to your phone to input a search isn't as awkward as you think. Are we really uncomfortable about talking to our phones? 5 - The next big thing in mobile will be watches. ( Toby Barnes ) Future of Digital Marketing in numbers 30-40% - open rates of mobile emails (Judd Marcello - ExtactTarget) 20% - potential additional engagement if emails are designed to be responsive 1% - overall number of tweets retweeted 25% - percentage of overall video shares that occur in the first three days (Sarah Wood Unruly) 4x - branded vines more likely to be shared than branded video 20 - how many times 'Big Data' was mentioned. 90% - the amount of people in the audience who admitted that the last thing they touched before going to sleep was their mobile device rather than their loved one In all honesty, there was a lot more to the day, and I hope I will get the opportunity to write about some of the other topics soon. Speakers at the event were: Judd Marcello - MD ExactTarget Gerd Leonhard  - CEO, Futures Agency Bruce Daisley  - Director, Twitter UK  James Carson - Director of Content Strategy - Carson Content Will Critchlow - Founder, Distilled Neil Perkin - Founder, Only Dead Fish Toby Barnes  - Product Strategy Director. AKQA Chris Smith - Product Manager Emerging Technologies - FT Ashley Friedlein  - CEO, Econsultancy http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/10/five-things-i-learnt-at-econsultancy’s-future-of-digital-marketing-event http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/10/five-things-i-learnt-at-econsultancy’s-future-of-digital-marketing-event Mon, 10 June 2013 14:15:00 Tom Harman http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/07/daft-punk-vs-david-bowie-–-the-battle-of-the-social-teaser-campaigns 2013, so far, has been the year of the comeback. David Bowie, with no advance buzz, uploaded his new single on 6 January, causing an instant Twitter storm. In an age of slow-tease marketing campaigns, he took everyone by surprise, especially when many thought he was at death’s door. Bowie simultaneously announced a new album. The striking sleeve design even inspired its own internet meme, with people co-opting the white square over everything. And he was behind the best press ad I’ve seen this year. Four pillars of dense white text, the lyrics to his new album, set on black. No logo. No clear signposting. It was pure bravado. Pure Bowie. More recently, everyone's gone bananas over the return of Daft Punk. The French duo's first single from new album 'Random Access Memories', 'Get Lucky', is now the most streamed song of all time on Spotify thanks in part to a tease campaign that has cleverly used every social media channel going (oh, and the song's a corker). First there was a seven second ‘Get Lucky’ loop released on YouTube. Then, the album trailer was screened at the main stage at the Coachella festival, which managed to cause more buzz than any of the actual live acts. The album tracklisting was revealed on Vine, Twitter’s video sharing app. And, video podcasts with musical collaborators Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder were uploaded in the run-up to the album launch… So, which campaign had the biggest impact? My head says Bowie, my feet say Daft Punk. But both campaigns (led by their respective music record companies) have a lot to teach agencies about how to generate fresh buzz around established brands. First, less is more. It’s an easy lesson to forget in our content-hungry world. The Daft Punk campaign used multiple social platforms to leave tantalizing little snippets building up to launch day. Secondly, we don’t always have to follow the same-old campaign chronology of tease-activate-sustain. Bowie’s campaign dumped the traditional tease in favour of dropping the single with no publicity. It reminded me of that old storytelling trick: always start in the middle. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/07/daft-punk-vs-david-bowie-–-the-battle-of-the-social-teaser-campaigns http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/07/daft-punk-vs-david-bowie-–-the-battle-of-the-social-teaser-campaigns Fri, 07 June 2013 10:31:00 Jack Verlander http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/05/pondering-parody-twitter-accounts It was a clear winter morning, and I was at my local train station with my commuting buddy (for safety reasons, obviously) when he recommended I start following @Southern_Trains. In a nut shell, they parade as @SouthernrailUK and when people tweet abuse at them, they respond with some splendidly sarcastic responses. For example; @Southern_Trains so no cleaners today 17.15 from London bridge the litter bin is cleaner than this train Southern Trains UK ‏@Southern_Trains 18 Apr  @Complainer123  works better this way.. We save on costs and you get to get ill - which is great for cutting overcrowding! :) As a man that loves shaking his Twitter fist at the perceived injustices handed out to me by those that run Southern rail, this is brilliantly funny. But then I began to ponder the inner workings of the mind of a parody account user. After a short period of reflection I realised it was probably to make people laugh. So then I considered three of the key things that make a successful parody account; Speed is pretty crucial, if you’ve had an idea for a fake Twitter account, the chances are someone has already had the idea and probably has a substantial following masquerading as @NotBarryfromEastenders (currently free -  but hands off, he’s mine!). For example the Twitter account ‘Swansea ball boy’, set up after a Chelsea player kicked a ball boy was live within minutes of this hilarious incident. After a quick Twitter search, I can see that there are in fact at least 20 ‘Swansea ball boy’ Twitter accounts. I stopped counting after 10, so you need to be quick to the draw. Content is also key to long term success. Accounts such as @davecameroon and @Queen_UK don’t get by merely mocking their namesakes (although there’s surely enough out there for the former). They have to keep providing new jokes/comments/links to keep those precious followers lest they disintegrate and vanish into the ether of the internet, like tears in the rain. And for me, the most important factor to success is the ability of the parodee (paroder? Paromaster?) to really irritate the person they are impersonating. The best example being Kevin Pietersen (South African England cricketer) who got so annoyed about it he nearly ended up getting himself kicked out of the England cricket team. I mean, being kicked out… over a parody Twitter account, if this isn’t a damning indictment of this generation I don’t know what is. Parody Twitter accounts even have their own rules which is a great example of the platform reflecting what people enjoy. They can often be the most inventive tweets, genuinely tapping into news and events with a twist giving the often hostile world of Twitter a little smile, possibly even a chuckle. Ps. A special mention has to go to @piersmorgan, who is already a parody of himself. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/05/pondering-parody-twitter-accounts http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/06/05/pondering-parody-twitter-accounts Wed, 05 June 2013 11:29:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/the-future-of-advertising…-in-an-afternoon Not actually working in TV or film, I always feel a bit of a fraud walking into the BAFTA. A feeling only confirmed by the lady on reception who waved me up to the top floor to join the rest of my people. But if the relatively low number of tweets with the event’s official hashtag was anything to go by I’m guessing a good percentage of those at this well-attended event were closer to the TV and film production end of advertising than the digital and social media end. Perhaps the title of the talk had left them wondering whether the future of advertising would be one with them in it? After all doesn’t the democratization of the web mean that anyone can make films these days? THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING IS NOT ADVERTISING Kicked off by the brilliant and always entertaining John Willshire, from the Smithery, we heard that TV advertising and the internet are not mortal enemies but brothers (and sisters) in arms. While John framed his argument in a discussion about the dialectic versus the dialogic (well he used to be a planner at Phd) – I certainly buy the observation that while traditional advertising is about telling, digital advertising (including social media) is about listening. Also, while traditional advertising is generally associated with higher production values and better storylines the poorer sister has the power of immediacy associated with being always-on. In essence, the future of advertising is marrying the best of both. (Think Lynx, Old Spice, Paddy Power, Oreos). Up next was Bruce Daisley from Twitter UK, who quickly jumped aboard the ‘future is bright’ bandwagon with a number of examples of how bright the future would be if advertisers could captalise on the immediacy of twitter as a ‘real-time heartbeat of the nation’. Given that this was the day that Alex Furguson’s retirement was trending, it was a great sound-bite. Yet the biggest eureka moment for me was his point that twitter’s 140 character rule and vine’s 6 second rule had actually liberated millions of us with increasingly shorter attention spans. It seems that in social media as everything else, less is indeed more. While the event was about advertising, it seemed to me that the WOW moments on twitter are prompted by non-advertising content on telly – you know, the stuff between the ads – not people tweeting about how they interact with toilet paper. GROUND BREAKING NEW STUFF The next section was very much aimed at the production people in the audience, with Chris O’Reilly from Nexus, Neil Riley from Passion Pictures and Simon Gosling from Framestore, entertaining us with a range of real-time animation characters (think Coke’s polar bears during the Super Bowl last year, or Black Mirror’s Waldo). Amongst the funny characters, including those poo obsessed Charmin bears (what is it with adfolk and bears?), a retrospective look at Max Headroom and the recent CGI powered rebirth of Audrey Hepburn, was the underlying message that while art directors and writers have historically plagiarized film storylines and production methods for TV commercials, the always-on requirement for most brands these days has forced ad folk to push production houses to develop quicker ways to create film quality content in a fraction of the time (and ultimately cost). Technological advances not only allow the agency behind Compare the Meercat Toys’ sponsorship of Corrie to create an incredibly varied and funny range of bumpers featuring the adorable/irritating furry animals, but means that Sergei can be interviewed in real-time by Philip Schofield on live telly. HOW THE INTERNET IS CHANGING THE WAY WE WATCH TV And back to those bears. The final speakers of the afternoon returned once again to the subject of channel rather than content. In particular the rise of the second screen.  TV + phone, pc or tablet. Here at last I could see how social, TV content and advertising could really work together to get traction. Especially now that wi-fi and broadband are becoming ubiquitous, allowing most people to access the web in the same room as their telly. But Mad Men beware, the WOW moments here are not the 30 second TV ads that have traditionally paid for your content, but second screen free apps that are advertised during the show itself for viewers to interact with during the show. Of particular note was Tom McDonnell from Monterosa, who pointed out that while platforms like Zeebox offer advertisers horizontal contact with viewers across a range of TV shows, for deeper interactions advertisers need to look at second screen apps tailored to individual shows. Not surprisingly Monterosa is behind a truck-load of second screen apps that enable consumers to get more involved with their favourite sport, quiz and talent shows. From Top Gear’s buzz word bingo, New Look’s create your own outfit to gambling app Horse Tracker, which allows you to live track horses via sensors in the horse’s saddle-bags (or somewhere similar). Apps that not only connect viewer to programme but engage them in a conversation that is totally immersive. Some even use it as an opportunity to collect DATA!!! So, the future of advertising in one afternoon. The summary. 1. Successful campaigns and brands will need to be less about telling (old school ads) and more about listening (web rules) to consumers. 2. The need for brands to be more interactive in their comms has acted as a catalyst in post-production houses driving technological advances such as live animation quicker than would have been required for film production. 3. The ubiquity of wi-fi and broadband has led to a huge rise in second screen activity – with the best examples being those that connect and immerse the consumer in the TV or advertising (Coke bears) content. Now can I have my afternoon tea please? http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/the-future-of-advertising…-in-an-afternoon http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/the-future-of-advertising…-in-an-afternoon Thu, 30 May 2013 16:37:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/tmw-raises-£2084-for-the-chelsea-pensioner’s-appeal After 17 years on the King’s Road in Chelsea, TMW made the big move to Creston House on Great Pulteney Street in Soho on Friday 24 th May. Nearly 250 employees undertook a sponsored walk from Chelsea to the new office to raise money for the Chelsea Pensioner’s Appeal. Despite the rain, we remained in good spirits and were waved off by a number of Chelsea Pensioners at the starting line at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. We completed the walk in under an hour and even caught the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. In total, we raised a massive £2084. A welcome drinks party was held on the 5 th Floor bar and terrace to celebrate the move and we now look forward to Nelson Bostock, ICM and Creston joining us later in the year. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/tmw-raises-£2084-for-the-chelsea-pensioner’s-appeal http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/30/tmw-raises-£2084-for-the-chelsea-pensioner’s-appeal Thu, 30 May 2013 16:31:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/29/mark-reddick-selected-for-cannes-lions-jury Mark Reddick has been appointed to the Promo & Activation Lions jury, recognising his expertise in the field of shopper and promotional marketing. As well as undertaking a week of judging, Mark will have access to the full programme of seminars, workshops and keynote talks that form part of the festival in June. 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the festival, which is widely recognised as the world’s greatest celebration of creative communications. TMW’s chief creative officer Gareth James, digital creative director Graeme Noble and managing director Chris Pearce will also be attending this year’s event. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/29/mark-reddick-selected-for-cannes-lions-jury http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/29/mark-reddick-selected-for-cannes-lions-jury Wed, 29 May 2013 14:28:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/28/sainsbury’s-launches-integrated-campaign-to-help-customers-‘collect-more,-fly-more’ Sainsbury’s has launched an integrated campaign to raise awareness of its ‘Collect more, fly more’ loyalty programme. Created by TMW, the direct mail and personalised email communications invite recipients to ‘Discover Europe with Collect more, fly more’ and highlight the range of benefits on offer. As part of the scheme, Sainsbury’s customers can put their Nectar points towards the cost of an EasyJet flight to European destinations including Venice and Barcelona. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/28/sainsbury’s-launches-integrated-campaign-to-help-customers-‘collect-more,-fly-more’ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/28/sainsbury’s-launches-integrated-campaign-to-help-customers-‘collect-more,-fly-more’ Tue, 28 May 2013 17:25:00 Charlotte Thornton http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/23/‘twas-the-night-before-soho… And Tubb's  Mission Inboxable  was nearly accomplished. With her removal men briefed, chairs colour-coded and samples dispersed; the rest of TMW were now frantically decanting paper from desk to crate in anticipation of the “big move”. Yet while there’s excitement in the air, there’s also the sadness that comes with nostalgia. Soho may be fresh, hip and happening but, for most, the King's Road will still hold many a fond memory. And because I love a list (as you may have gathered), I’ve compiled a Chelsea countdown of the things I’ll remember with the greatest fondness. So without further ado, in fifth place we have: 5. The @TMWlift It all started with an email, and by 2013, the TMW lift had its own community manager, weekly banter spot, and official Twitter handle. For the status updates, frequent health checks and general hilarity; Keith, I am eternally grateful. 4. The locals Casually sitting behind Pippa Middleton during my first pub outing really set the tone for whom to expect from the area…or so I thought. That was until I stumbled across a particularly posh party of toffs in a back street bar. As red-faced as they were red-trousered, the dames and gents were downing Sambuca like it was nobody’s business. And although I do still love a celebrity spot, (Gail Plait in the soup aisle at Waitrose being a favourite), it’s the lively locals of Chelsea that will hold a place in my heart. 3. The nightlife From Arabian nights to hung-over days, this road has been host to some pretty raucous parties, not to mention the infamous themed end of month drinks (EOMD). A special mention goes to long reigning queen of EOMD Jo Ralfe, who consistently leads her team of techies onwards to the café with a bottle of M & S’ finest vodka in hand, followed closely by fun-time finance; an unexpected but equally excitable department. 2. The office East London nightclub meets middle-class drawing room, the somewhat confused décor of 81 King’s Road has both bemused and amused clients and colleagues alike. Who could forget the first floor corridor conceptual masterpiece – a pseudo religious female depiction in a graffiti-style complete with spinning ace of spades? 1. The Chelsea Potter (of course) ‘I’m just going for one’, they said. The ultimate seductress, no TMWer is safe from the Potter trap. Friends, family, girlfriends – all stood up for one night in the beckoning boozer. It is questionable, however, that the Chelsea Potter will miss us. Having been threatened with mass-barring after one fateful evening, which happened to include some cross-department straddling and an unfortunate incident with some stairs, it’s probably best we’re vacating the area. Now whatever your favourite memory; whether it was the unexpected promotion, that all-important pitch win, or even watching the Olympic opening ceremony in the rain on Duke of York Square; sitting on cushions stolen from the props cupboard and wearing a bin bag –  let’s rest assured that with a summer in Soho ahead, I’m sure we’ll have no problem making some more.   You can follow me on Twitter here: @charlothornton http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/23/‘twas-the-night-before-soho… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/23/‘twas-the-night-before-soho… Thu, 23 May 2013 11:25:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/22/persil-'passes-on-the-love'-in-online-competition To thank customers for voting Persil as ‘Product of the Year’, the brand has launched an online competition encouraging customers to ‘Pass on the Love’ by nominating a friend to win a year’s supply of Persil 2 in 1 with Comfort. The competition, which runs until the 28th May, will reward five nominees as well as their respective nominators with the prize. 500 runners up will each receive a Persil bunny. Created by TMW, the campaign runs across the Persil website and Facebook page, where a series of posts by TMW’s Persil community manager will drive entry to the competition. The campaign got off to a flying start with over 250 entries made within the first eight hours. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/22/persil-'passes-on-the-love'-in-online-competition http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/22/persil-'passes-on-the-love'-in-online-competition Wed, 22 May 2013 15:11:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-scoops-rev-award-for-lynx-attract-launch It was a great night for TMW at the prestigious Rev Awards on Friday night! The agency won in the FMCG category for its Lynx Attract For Him and For Her Online Launch and was also highly commended in the Website category for Diageo’s The Reserve Club. The Revs, which took place at the Grosvenor House hotel on Friday, recognise those at the forefront of innovation in the digital industry. TMW was one of the most nominated agencies at the awards. This win follows TMW’s success at the Webbys, where the agency’s Lynx Chaos Island campaign was named as an Official Honoree in the Best Use of Online Media category. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-scoops-rev-award-for-lynx-attract-launch http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-scoops-rev-award-for-lynx-attract-launch Tue, 21 May 2013 18:24:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-bids-a-fond-farewell-to-chelsea After 17 years in Chelsea, the time has come for us to up sticks and head to our new home in Soho, where we will be co-locating with our parent company Creston and sister agencies Nelson Bostock and ICM. We’ve loved working on the King’s Road and we will certainly take many happy memories with us. However, much in the same way that our industry is evolving, we too must move forward as we start an exciting new chapter in our agency’s life. On Friday 24th May our entire agency of nearly 300 employees will take part in a sponsored walk from 81 King’s Road to our new office at 10 Great Pulteney Street to raise money for the Chelsea Pensioner’s Appeal. Please visit our Just Giving page to sponsor our walk. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-bids-a-fond-farewell-to-chelsea http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/21/tmw-bids-a-fond-farewell-to-chelsea Tue, 21 May 2013 12:20:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/14/tmw-forms-part-of-the-government-creative-framework TMW is a supplier on the Creative Solutions, Execution and Related Services Framework. Launched recently, the Framework is the procurement vehicle for all government marketing communication spend and forms part of the Government Procurement Service (GPS). TMW sits on two of the five lots that make up the Framework; direct marketing and related services and digital marketing and related services. The former includes the development, creation and execution of online and offline direct marketing campaigns while the latter includes innovative solutions for strategy, creative and implementation to deliver integrated campaign requirements across all relevant digital channels. The Framework can be used by organisations across the UK public sector including central government, local government, health, education, defence and not-for-profit organisations. TMW’s place on the Framework follows the agency’s appointment last September as a supplier on the new GPS Agile Route to Market for Communications in respect of Lot 3: All Digital Marketing Services. The Agile Route to Market provides government departments with a route to market for low value work that is below the OJEU threshold (approximate aggregated value for Communications Services related expenditure across the whole of the customer organisation of up to £100k over four years). Richard Marshall, CEO, TMW comments: “We’re delighted to have been awarded a place on the direct and digital marketing lots of the new Creative Services Framework. This is a great opportunity for us to get involved with upcoming government projects and we hope to start pitching for work very soon.” http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/14/tmw-forms-part-of-the-government-creative-framework http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/14/tmw-forms-part-of-the-government-creative-framework Tue, 14 May 2013 10:10:00 Neil Oakley http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/13/what-can-brands-learn-from-‘the-social-era’-of-sponsorship As its legacy continues to grow, last year will forever be the year of London 2012, one of the greatest events ever to grace the sporting world. It also happened to fall within what the industry is calling ‘The Social Era’ of sponsorship. So what have brands learnt from it? And what does that mean for sponsorship and the rest of 2013 – already dubbed ‘The Empty Year’? It’s clear that brands are moving towards ‘always on’ models and that the integration of mobile is critical. As Mike Phillips recently blogged , consumers do not think of digital (or mobile) as a separate channel – which means brands shouldn’t either. Mobile is a primary entry-point to the snackable pieces of content we all crave these days. And what could be richer sources of content than those things that matter most to people – music, sport, film and fashion. Sponsorship gives brands access to these things. Looking at some of the trends outlined by one sponsorship agency, brands can also look to learn from the last twelve months and ensure this ‘Empty Year’ feels a little fuller. Here’s my starter for 10: Content first and foremost – 2012 was huge in terms of content. You only have to think back to October and the heights (ahem) Red Bull reached with Felix and his space jump. But we’ve already seen some great content in 2013 (Nike’s Make it Count , Daft Punk’s Collaborator Series and even UGC stuff ( 2782 years-worth of Harlem Shake footage viewed within a month!)) and brands will need to continue to be relevant, excite and make people smile. The evolution of the agency-brand model – Week long sign-off processes, legal/IP teams to navigate, six levels of subjective stakeholders to please. We’ve all been there. But as Oreo showed us at this year’s Super Bowl, having a social team of 15 sitting alongside their brand team during the game enabled them to capitalise on the main ‘talked-about’ moment – and generate coverage that more than competed with headline sponsors and the $4 million TV ads running at the time. Their digital philosophy didn’t just appear overnight too, so expect to see other brands begin to follow their lead. Social Branding – Whether we’re listening to our favourite band at the Carling Academy or watching Liverpool beat Arsenal at the Emirates, the value of media impressions generated by arenas/stadiums offering naming rights means brands will part with huge budget for the pleasure. But brands are also realising that promoting social values can be beneficial too – with Swedbank, sponsors of the Swedish national football stadium, using their re-naming rights to publicise the anti-bullying organisation it supports ( Friends Foundation ) and naming the stadiumThe Friends Arena. Expect more of this to follow. Online TV viewing giving Murdoch more problems – Sky has been wary of online streaming services for some time now (enough to make them launch their own internet channel – Now TV) and Netflix took things to a new level this February. Its exclusive broadcast of TV series ‘House of Cards’ was a clear indication of the threat ‘Internet TV’ is to the normal subscription TV model (it cost a cool $5 million per episode ). Next up could be sports, with Apple and Google each owning suitable broadcast platforms and the potential ($) to enter the sports sponsorship market. The Sky Sports/Fox Empire (and BT) had better watch out. Second Screening - Years ago, TMW used to run live in-game text-to-win promotions with Guinness in the pub during key rugby matches.Try Timeenabled customers to win prizes using their mobile whilst watching the match, based on an event happening in the game. Skip forward to today, and second screening is common practice for consumers and an increasing consideration for brands. Heineken’s Star Player scooped many an award for its category at most marketing ceremonies in 2012. And brands are now trying to understand how this can work within film, with a number of production houses already considering how they monetise synchronised app content that can be accessed whilst watching movies. Fully-joined-up second screen movie integration can’t be far away. We’re all ears – With 2013 lacking any major global sporting events following on from such a rich 2012, brands will likely look to things like music to harness their sponsorship activity. Festival season has just got serious, with most of the big players announcing their line-ups in recent weeks. And with Barclaycard holding onto the summer events at Hyde Park as a vehicle to showcase their latest payment technologies, that’s allowed Yahoo to join in the music game, replacing Barclaycard as the headline sponsor of Wireless festival (now at the Olympic Park). More brands will likely appear in the music space over the summer. So with eight months left of 2013 I’m not sure if it has begun with an empty feel to it, and who knows what the rest of the year will bring. You might think that sponsorship falls outside of TMW’s immediate focus – but in recent times we have worked on some of the most sponsorship-active brands going – Guinness, Lynx, Gordon’s, Knorr and Sainsbury’s to name a few - creating some beautiful case studies and giving TMW the chance to drool over the likes of Kelly Brook , and me my big international rugby break as Lewis Moody’s vice-captain. More importantly, ourIntelligent Influence approach requires us to help our brand owners interpret and navigate their way through today’s challenging consumer and business environments. And with the legacy of London 2012 reaching out further than just the sporting arena, it‘s clear brands will continue to consider sponsorship as a good opportunity for generating ROI. It will be up to us to help them make the most of their assets and properties, and ensure 2013 isn’t filled with empty promises. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/13/what-can-brands-learn-from-‘the-social-era’-of-sponsorship http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/13/what-can-brands-learn-from-‘the-social-era’-of-sponsorship Mon, 13 May 2013 15:16:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/03/can-we-hack-it-yes-we-can! In the film Six Degrees of Separation, there is a wonderfully scripted discussion about how a director decided to make a film of the musical Cats only after writing down all the reasons why it was impossible. It's a conundrum I was reminded of recently at TMW’s inaugural Hack Day that had 42 people working through the night to build something from scratch in just 24 hours. The brief was to ‘build something that will get talked about on April Fools’ Day’. Here's a short film of what happened on the day. And they’re off… After a short briefing at midday each team was allocated a hack pack (energy sweets and drinks, foil blanket and a map highlighting local hardware and electrical stores) – and a hack space. Excused from their day jobs for just one afternoon and one morning, team members knew they had to hit the ground running to have any chance of creating a working model, a promo film and slick presentation in time to present in front of a panel of industry figures, and the wider agency, the following afternoon. In fact few left before midnight, and about a third bedded-down on one of TMW’s many sofas, with the last man standing turning in just after 4am. April Fools’ Gold So what did this high-octane activity generate? Being a creative agency, rather than a tech company, it was always going to be interesting to see what teams made up of coders, creatives, client services folk, project managers and planners would come up with, especially with so many individuals working together for the first time. We needn’t have worried. In fact it was this heady mix that I feel ultimately produced such rounded responses to the challenge. Not just a hack for hack’s sake but a hack driven by real human truths and insights. Score-Ring First off, in the age of the quantifiable-self (made mass-market with widgets like Fit-bit and Nike Fuel) it was only a matter of time before someone thought of harnessing the technology to measure men’s sexual performance. This was precisely the thinking behind Score-Ring – a sex toy which slips over the male member to measure the speed and longevity of sexual intercourse. Displayed infographically on a private microsite, the wearer can then monitor, and hopefully improve his performance over time. Preggers or Podgy What about that other great First World problem of having to decide whether someone on the tube is with-child or not in order to know whether to offer them your seat? This dilemma was brought to life beautifully offensively with the ‘Preggers or Podgy’ app. Simply take a snap of the suspicious bump with the camera on your phone and using the sonic waves in the speaker (yeah, right) the phone will deliver an X-ray type image to help you determine whether the lady has a bun in the oven – or simply a burger. Google Shoes Another app-based idea came in the form of Google Shoes. This is a device which hacked Google maps’ phone app so that it could talk to two small Arduino powered buzzers fitted inside a pair of shoes to direct the wearer to their chosen destination without having to keep looking at their phone. Crazy? In fact, as we discovered after our Hack Day, it is something Google have been working on themselves! Street-alert The potential danger of simultaneously walking and looking at stuff on your mobile was also front of mind with another team. This group developed a wearable widget that emitted a warning signal when the walker came within a few feet of oncoming pedestrian traffic, alerting both walkers to potential collisions and allowing the wearer to get on texting, surfing or reading their Kindle. Not surprisingly, considering that all 42 hackers live and work in one of the world’s largest metropolises, many of the ideas generated were around overcoming problems faced by them in their daily battle to get around this bustling city. Hold that Train As indeed was the winning entry. Running a bit late? No problem, using the ‘Hold that Train’ app, which utilising National Rail’s train time-table allows users to contact the engine driver in real-time and get him to delay departure for up to five minutes. The panel of judges loved the way the team not only built a working phone app but created something that trod that fine line between incredulity and believability - part of every good April Fools’ Day scam. A deserved winner? Decide for yourself by watching our film of the event. Though the real winner of course is the agency. Not just the buzz created internally on the day, but seeing what can be achieved by bringing together people with different outlooks and skill-sets, with limited time and resources. Indeed, the excitement and experience of the Hack Day has given us the confidence to try new ways of working to tackle client briefs. The DOs and DON’Ts of hacking As this was our first ever Hack Day, we knew there would be hic-ups. Here are our do’s and don’t! Do Invite the whole agency to participate. People will drop out as the date approaches. That’s agency life. In the end we had 42 people involved (one sixth of the agency) Encourage people to stay overnight. Sleepovers are not just for teenage girls Buy pizza Make sure the event has visible support at board level. Our CEO was personally involved in two of the responses and stayed beyond midnight and our MD was one of the judges Have facilitators on hand to bounce ideas off Film everything. The content will extend the buzz to agency folk and provide material to PR the event to clients Have fun   Don’t Make the challenge about something that may not be real. The April Fools’ Day brief worked on many levels, encouraging the teams to think laterally, which is where true innovation lies. At the same time however it put the focus on trying to make the idea look real rather than on the actual hack http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/03/can-we-hack-it-yes-we-can! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/03/can-we-hack-it-yes-we-can! Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/tmw’s-head-of-community-ranks-in-red-magazine's-20-women-under-30 Vikki Chowney, head of community at TMW, has been ranked in Red Magazine’s 20 under 30 . The article, published in the May issue of the magazine, features 20 women under the age of 30 who are already making a big impact in their chosen professions. Named ‘The Social Media Guru’, Vikki is described as ‘the go-to person for all things social media’. The article places Vikki alongside rising stars from a range of industries including fashion designer Simone Rocha, TV and radio presenter Jameela Jamil, soul singer Laura Mvula. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/tmw’s-head-of-community-ranks-in-red-magazine's-20-women-under-30 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/tmw’s-head-of-community-ranks-in-red-magazine's-20-women-under-30 Wed, 01 May 2013 16:50:00 Paul Tullo http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/my-top-tips-for-breaking-into-the-creative-industry What was your first ever job? It’s difficult to answer exactly because I worked in a collection of different advertising agencies for most of the holidays during my time at art school. My first full time job was in a small design company called PSA. Great experience and wonderful people; my boss used to bring out a bottle of champagne to share with his department every day, at about 4pm….. ahhh the 80s !! How did you clinch your first job in adland? I got on the phone and talked to a lot of people. I researched all the industry bodies I could find, called them, went to their offices and asked for advice. I created a hit list of companies and pestered the creative directors, asking them to see my portfolio.  After a few weeks, I had three job offers. As I said, it was the 80s! What advice would you give to students to help them promote themselves and get a job over the next person? Sending a CV with all your details just isn’t going to cut the muster. Think laterally about how you might break through the barriers that are created in agencies to prevent being flooded with employment enquiries. Be original and creative - even if you’re applying for an account management job. Today more than ever, an ability to think differently and be creative is a minimum requirement for all agency personnel. And for those aspiring to work at TMW, what do you look for in a potential employee. An agency is made up of people who spend more time together than they do with their families.  We all need to get on and support each other through what can be very challenging work and client environments. That’s why, on top of the usual academic and training requirements (regardless of the department you’re applying for), we’re always looking for people with good interpersonal skills (wallflowers need not apply), who can be both creative and inspiring and have the ability to construct good arguments for whatever they’re doing.   What’s the best idea you’ve had and where did it come from? That’s a hard question. I spend much of my day coming up with ideas and even better looking at other people’s ideas, so identifying a single ‘best’ one is almost impossible. Perhaps the best idea I had in my career was to start my own agency. What inspires you and gets you out of bed in the morning? I work in one of the fastest moving and most inspiring sectors imaginable, digital marketing. Every day is different and every hour brings new challenges and opportunities. Sometimes it feels like today is the first day in a new job as the pace of change is so fast that I’m constantly learning new things. I have to work harder than ever to keep abreast of new developments;  sometimes when I go on holiday for a couple of weeks I feel that I’ve got to spend the first day back just reading about the technological developments in that short time. I‘m inspired by everything that is new, innovative and slightly edgy. If you could share a desk with anyone, who would it be? It would be Bob Greenberg of RG/A. What impresses me is the ability that his company has to reinvent itself, to move away from its roots in special effects, film and television, to become a leading digital marketing specialist. I like change. Why did you start your own agency? Did it take a lot of courage and would you recommend this to new talent? To start an agency you need to have a screw loose; anyone with any intelligence would stay in a nice cosy job with prospects. For the first 10 years of TMW, I was earning less than my peer group, and working twice the hours, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. To start an agency you have to be very thick skinned, ambitious and single minded - I would only recommend it to such a person.    Is there any more advice that you’d like to share? Yes. People like me have vivid memories of trying to get into this industry, especially just after graduation. We remember very well the people who helped us, who gave up their time to advise us on careers and employment. We can’t pay those people back, but we can do the same for the next generation. Most people would be very happy to share their experience with new graduates and do everything possible to help them. You, on the other hand, have to accept the likelihood that they’re probably not in a position to give you a job but they can give you advice. This advice could help you to get internships and jobs. My advice is: ‘talk to everyone’. This interview was first published on Future Rising http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/my-top-tips-for-breaking-into-the-creative-industry http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/05/01/my-top-tips-for-breaking-into-the-creative-industry Wed, 01 May 2013 12:37:00 Alex Willimott http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/29/twitter-announces-keyword-targeting-as-next-big-thing Last week we attended Twitter’s Twitter4Brands conference – an annual event showcasing some of the latest developments by the platform and some innovative or standout case studies. The big news from a product perspective is real-time keyword targeting. This new (paid) functionality allows marketers to potentially put their tweet in front of anyone discussing a problem to which their product or service might offer the solution, or even ‘double target’ by highlighting those watching a TV show where a TVC has been aired, then following up with a tweet to hammer the point home. The impact of this could be huge – if you think back to how PPC platforms like AdWords changed the search landscape, keyword targeting is potentially one step towards a similar evolution within Twitter feeds. When Channel 4’s recent Dogging Tales documentary blew up on Twitter , we responded with a very timely, on-brand tweet which picked up great organic engagement. With keyword targeting in place, this could very quickly have been served in-feed to anyone mentioning the #DoggingTales hashtag in real time, and gained exponentially more exposure than the organic reach alone allowed. But the opportunities extend beyond simple exposure. If the rumours about Twitter’s upcoming paid opportunities for small businesses are to be believed, pubs that play live music can use keyword targeting to pick up mentions of a tweeter’s desire to have a beer and listen to a band - providing that person with a geo-targeted tweet to let them know they have both music and beers. Particularly social (exploitative?) kebab shops could do the same to get their tweets into the feeds of people taking the last tube home after a drink - and mobile phone shops can target people moaning about their old device with a one-time-only-just-for-you-coupon-upgrade-code to take into their nearest store (for example, “see in-tweet map, below”). The potential and flexibility for this is huge, with one big caveat: brands have to have the cash to put their tweets out there. This is no small task for many – the minimum spend to access Twitter ads is still out of reach for a lot of players, so it’ll be interesting to see what size Twitter perceives ‘small’ business to actually be. For those that can afford it, this really could be a game-changer in real-time marketing: the potential for a hyper-relevant, personalised, precisely-timed tweet appearing in someone’s timeline in exactly the right context is a perfect storm of exposure for brands. If you want to find out how this might affect your brand, see what Twitter has to say for itself. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/29/twitter-announces-keyword-targeting-as-next-big-thing http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/29/twitter-announces-keyword-targeting-as-next-big-thing Mon, 29 April 2013 17:17:00 Guillaume Buat-Menard http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/26/marketers-need-to-prepare-for-the-new-top-tech-trends On my return from SXSW, I tried to summarise my thoughts: what I experienced, what inspired me and which technologies are coming up next. I realised that most of what I was thinking about was not a specific technology, language or medium but emerging trends and movements, which are being driven by technology. 3D printing is amazing and will change a lot of things, not because it allows you to print your own Obi-Wan Kenobi figurine but because it democratises product design and innovation. It will help a new wave of makers using 3D printing and other technologies to create, fix and recycle products and services. While 3D printing was all the rage at SXSW, there were a number of other significant tech trends that deserve our attention. Hardware is going through a similar phase of democratisation as that seen by the software industry in the late nineties. Meta languages and drag and drop interfaces made software development accessible to all. This allowed anyone to program, something previously reserved for the selected (and very geeky) few. Today, hardware is the new software. Start-ups are building physical devices with custom designs and embedded technology without a single certified computer engineer. These guys are using cheap and easily programmable components coupled with 3D printing to create truly novel products. And then there was Stephen Wolfram. I can genuinely say I cannot remember a talk that resonated so loudly with the computer scientist in me. I couldn't really talk about it for a few hours afterwards as I digested what he had unleashed upon us. He spoke about his obsession with automation and how he is using computer equivalence concepts to simulate basic patterns of nature. He is also about to release his meta computer language based on WolframAlpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/ , which will allow anyone with a browser to create and run algorithms of all kinds on any sort of data available on the web or uploaded by users. For example, he has released a Facebook app which allows you to statistically analyse your Facebook activity and network of friends. Try it out at http://www.wolframalpha.com/facebook/ . I anticipate that the Wolfram language will democratise Big Data analysis. The above trends demonstrate the rising democratisation of complex computational and hardware systems which will accelerate innovation in all aspects of our digital and physical lives. Only time will tell how quickly this comes about, but Kickstarter is proof enough that it is getting traction. Marketers and agencies need to get ready for it, now. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/26/marketers-need-to-prepare-for-the-new-top-tech-trends http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/26/marketers-need-to-prepare-for-the-new-top-tech-trends Fri, 26 April 2013 17:08:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/25/lynx-shows-good-community-management-isn’t-9-to-5 Lynx has used the power of Twitter to turn a potentially negative association into a brand win during Channel 4’s recent documentary Dogging Tales. The programme (now a word-of-mouth hit due largely to the Twitter buzz generated during the broadcast) featured a character called Les who claimed that Lynx is his deodorant of choice while out dogging. The official Lynx Effect Twitter account, managed by TMW community manager Alex Willimott, provided a swift response to the brand’s mention in the show, tweeting "Good choice of fragrance over on @Channel4 - guaranteed to get a bit more attention, whatever the situation..! #DoggingTales” The following morning, TMW’s Lynx team produced a spoof photo where they allegedly held crisis talks to deal with the situation. Lynx picked up over 10,000 mentions in the three days that #DoggingTales was talked about on Twitter. This real-time response has also gained praise from the social platform. Read about how Alex managed this potentially tricky situation in his comment piece for Contagious . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/25/lynx-shows-good-community-management-isn’t-9-to-5 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/25/lynx-shows-good-community-management-isn’t-9-to-5 Thu, 25 April 2013 14:29:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/24/tmw-shortlisted-for-nine-industry-awards TMW’s Lynx Attract and Lynx Always On campaigns are each up for an award in the FMCG and Social categories at the Revs while Diageo’s The Reserve Club is shortlisted in the Website category. This makes TMW one of the most shortlisted agencies at the awards. Diageo campaigns are also in the spotlight in the Marketing Week Engage Awards with Gordon’s Great British Flavours being nominated in the Promotional Marketing category and the Endless Possibilities campaign being shortlisted in the In-store / Shopper Marketing category. The IPM Awards have also selected both of these campaigns as finalists in their Alcoholic Drinks category. The results will be announced at ceremonies in May and June. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/24/tmw-shortlisted-for-nine-industry-awards http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/24/tmw-shortlisted-for-nine-industry-awards Wed, 24 April 2013 17:47:00 Kelly Moor http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/23/what’s-the-importance-of-the-‘always-on’-approach There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the ‘always on’ approach. Agencies, clients, media – everyone has an opinion on why it’s something we should or shouldn’t be adopting, and what it actually means. Some people say it’s the result of having instant access to data, rather than the previous 72-hour turnaround that Facebook used to make us wait for. Others claim it’s come about purely because social media doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch – and that people can access your content and interact with a brand at any time, anywhere. The always on approach has definitely had marketers on their toes, wondering if it’s something they can actually do, and more importantly - do well.  But while the two points above have had a major impact on how we as an industry view this approach, it’s much more than that. Brands have had to change the way they respond in social spaces to mirror changing consumer behaviour. Perhaps a better way of looking at always on is to see it as ‘always present’. Rather than alluding to social media as being something you can turn off, it’s important to realise that brands are ever present. As mentioned above, we can look at how things are performing almost instantly, and can then push content perhaps initially created for social purposes into other channels, such as print media. Being always present also allows us to experiment – we’re able to test and learn at a much quicker rate, and can therefore be more proactive in terms of what we produce tomorrow, next week and beyond. As well as being proactive, best practice now expects brands to be reactive to real world events and create conversation in a timely manner too. Most people have now seen the Oreo example during the Super Bowl from February this year, and Lynx recently responded quickly to the conversation developing on Twitter during Channel 4’s controversial Dogging Tales documentary, where someone on the programme was shown using a Lynx product. Both instances turned a potential negative into a positive outcome, and prove that brands should be able to continue conversations whether it’s during office hours or not. This approach has also demanded a lot more from clients too. Clients have to be increasingly brave by allowing their agencies to respond quickly to consumers, rather than necessarily waiting for approval. This new way of working has meant that there needs to be even more trust placed on relationships between the two. It also leads to better results for the brand as consumers are typically impressed by speed – even if it’s just an acknowledgement that their complaint or comment has been seen. The key for all of this to work is agencies and clients working closely together, as an extension of the same team. This approach means that there’s very little time to turn anything around - it needs to be instant. The best approaches to always on are those that are clever, naturally fit the brand and have been dealt with quickly – while never losing sight of what’s appropriate. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/23/what’s-the-importance-of-the-‘always-on’-approach http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/23/what’s-the-importance-of-the-‘always-on’-approach Tue, 23 April 2013 16:02:00 Dawn Jenner http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/19/responsive-design-does-one-size-fit-all I recently attended a networking breakfast for senior creatives hosted by Futureheads. The meeting was an opportunity for a small group of senior creatives to get together along with consultants from Futureheads and have a peer-to-peer conversation about responsive design. The group included Gill Arnold (director of Futureheads) and Meera McCann (head of creative and front end) along with industry professionals such as Jonty Sharples (design director, Albion London) , Scott Rushton (design director, Tribal DDB) and James Bruce (head of creative, Disney Interactive). After quick introductions round the table, talk quickly turned to the topic of responsive design and in particular whether people thought responsive was 'worth it'. Does the bigger cost and greater investment of time up front on a project have significant advantages later on and are clients willing to pay for a responsive solution? The main take out was that the target audience and the content of a site were big deciding factors and that projects needed to be assessed on a case-by-case basis with there being no 'one size fits all' solution. A need to educate people of the value, time implications and cost of a responsive project were also expressed with a general consensus that projects are often under scoped in the initial stages putting pressure on creatives to produce multiple designs to cover varying break points without the time or budget invested to finish a project without feeling the pressure. Some felt that responsive was misunderstood or had multiple interpretations depending on what part of the industry you worked in and there was definite agreement that better communication between creatives and developers was needed to create great responsive sites. Additionally, in some instances it is simply better and more cost-effective to produce either a separate mobile and desktop iteration of a site or build a dedicated mobile app that serves the needs of a mobile user. With the number of different screen sizes increasing all the time responsive design is something that is going to become more common when designing websites. Consumers expect a seamless experience no matter what device they are using and this is what we should be aiming to provide. Essentially good planning and research will help determine whether a website will benefit from a responsive approach. Context and content are key deciding factors in establishing a consumer's needs and these should always be at the heart of deciding if a responsive project is appropriate for your client. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/19/responsive-design-does-one-size-fit-all http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/19/responsive-design-does-one-size-fit-all Fri, 19 April 2013 15:05:00 Ryan Hickling http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/18/creating-great-email-content One question I’m often asked is, “How can I make my emails stand out from the crowd and what are the latest cool / sexy techniques that I can build into my email campaigns?” From an implementation point of view there’s a huge variety of different methods you can use to engage your audience and I’ll briefly cover off a couple of ideas under Cool Functionality below. However, people continually overlook the basics of great email content like those seen within the Copy and Design sections in this post. Regardless of the type of email campaign or subject matter, you need to be thinking of the following when going into the design and copywriting phase of your email build. Here are a couple of basic tips to help you get started: Copy ● Make sure your email from name is instantly recognisable. ● Keep your headline consistent with your subject line. ● Make sure you can see your headline when images are turned off by using live text and avoiding images where possible. (Especially important on mobile) ● Make it clear why you are sending the email especially if users are not expecting it. ● Keep copy as concise as possible. Your average consumer is very unlikely to sit and read your perfectly crafted paragraphs for anything more than several seconds.  ● Identify key benefits or features and where possible back them up with facts, figures or social testimonials. Design / Layout ● Make sure your primary call to action stands out above all else. ● Ensure your branding is consistent throughout the email and easily recognisable. ● Utilise the space at the top of the email efficiently by using pre-header text. ● All content should be arranged in such a way that makes it easy for users to scan from section to section and find what they are interested in. ● Highlight links and keywords within your copy using colour, font size and emphasise. ● Make sure any linked images have a clear call to action. “Cool” Functionality You Could be Using Some techniques that are particularly interesting at the moment relate to dynamically changing content within an email. This can be based on real time user interaction as well as existing knowledge you hold on each individual. ●  Real time A/B testing of design and image elements. This works in much the same way as standard A/B testing except rather than broadcasting test batches prior to the main send it happens in real time and automatically swaps users over onto a winning variant. ●  Dynamically generated image content based on user profile data. This could be as simple as embedding someones names into an image or as complex as switching what’s displayed based on previous purchase history. Anything you know about the recipient can be used for creative effect. ●  Live social media content. You could be holding an event for a product launch and have a social media campaign running with a Twitter hashtag in use. Why not include a live stream of that hashtag within your email campaigns done by generating images on the fly. All of the above can be achieved simply by utilising a service that generates images every time a user loads them within your campaign. Talk to your email service provider or do a quick Google search for “email dynamic images” for more information. These are just a couple of the ways you can make your content more engaging. If you have any examples of “cool / sexy” content yourself feel free to share within the comments or drop me a line on Twitter @hickling. Always remember to get the basics right first. This article was first published on the IAB website. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/18/creating-great-email-content http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/18/creating-great-email-content Thu, 18 April 2013 17:03:00 Marc Curtis http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/three-things-i-learnt-at-social-developers-london 1- Twitter cards are cool 2- Facebook Home will probably change everything 3- We are at the mercy of Facebook's moods (how Facebook tweaks its algorithm on a weekly basis) Twitter cards are cool Twitter has provided a nifty way for brands to ensure that when a link to their site is included in a tweet, a nicely formatted card is included in the Twitter timeline. This additional information is not included in the 140 character limit, and can display a thumbnail and click-through to the relevant page. All site owners have to do is embed a few Twitter meta tags in the page headers, and hey-presto instant Twitter cards. More exciting is the prospect of 'special’ cards, which enable the links in the Twitter timeline to display/launch either an app, a video or product information. These special cards require Twitter authorisation (which can take a couple of weeks to come through), but well worth it if your stock in trade is FMCGs. Thanks to Angus Fox (@nuxnix) for his talk on Twitter. Facebook Home will probably change everything (as long as you’re not an iPhone user) Launched earlier this month, Facebook Home is a new app which replaces a standard Android home screen with an immersive Facebook experience that includes photos, status updates and notifications. It promises users a completely new, user-centric experience. Among the many enhancements, users can allow apps to display 'collections’ in the new Cover Feed. This means that any new images, for example, that the app has posted will always be displayed in the users’ feed. As part of the updates, Facebook's chat service on mobile will enable users to navigate Facebook and apps whilst displaying icons for all the current chats. This means you will be able to share links and converse with your friends without leaving whatever page or app you are in. Facebook Home is going to create new challenges for developers, as the implementation for iPhone is completely different from that of Android devices. Put simply, iOS will not support many of the new features that Facebook's user-centric approach can provide (the new chat for example). This means that developers may have to provide different experiences for Android and iPhone users. Facebook has also updated its policy on cover flow images. Brands are now allowed to include a call to action on their brand page image, although overlaid text is now limited to 20% as it already is for image posts. Thanks to Todd Chaffee (@chaffeet) for this part of the evening. We are at the mercy of Facebook’s moods So Facebook is a fickle mistress, we've always known that, but just how fickle? Nick Thain (@sportsnewmedia) of Sports New Media gave an extremely informative talk about his company's experience of having (in his words) stewardship of over a hundred million Facebook fans. The stats he showed us indicated a clear bias towards certain types of post. If you are looking for the best reach from your posts, Facebook favours two lines of text and a link (probably, from our perspective, the most boring type of post). Such posts are currently getting 7% reach whereas text and an image are only getting 1.5%. If your main aim is engagement, then posts with images perform better than ones without. Nick also alluded to the fact that Facebook is 'experimenting’ with promoting YouTube videos again. Currently, and for some time now, Facebook has been favouring Facebook videos rather than embedded YouTube ones. However, Nick’s company noticed that on a couple of days last week, YouTube videos seemed to outperform Facebook ones. This suggests that Facebook has been temporarily tweaking its algorithm to see what happens. Some other interesting points raised: • 90% of Facebook interactions happen within 3 hours of a post (as opposed to Twitter where the window is more like 3 minutes) • Only 5% of interactions happen through the brand page. The rest are via the timeline. • Facebook will treat posts differently for brands with more than a million fans. A key point is the importance of data analytics in social. Nick’s company constantly carries out AB testing on all types of posts to see what's working and what's not. In his words “I could be standing up here a week from now telling you the complete opposite because Facebook will have changed their algorithm”. Getting the most out of social media content requires a serious commitment to the collation and interpretation of data. Even the best content is only as good as the posting strategy that supports it. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and informative evening - thanks again to the organisers for both the quality of the speakers and the sheer quantity of the pizza. @socdevlon http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/three-things-i-learnt-at-social-developers-london http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/three-things-i-learnt-at-social-developers-london Tue, 16 April 2013 16:26:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/navigating-the-treacherous-waters-of-big-data “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” This quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein, originated before the evolution of data-driven marketing and Big Data. Yet now, more than ever, we should reflect on what it means in the context of how our business decisions are made. Steer clear of the shallow waters The first part of the opening quote reveals one of the most inconvenient truths of analytics; that as much as we strive for a world where everything is measurable and all decisions can be based on real-time, infallible data, this is not always the case. Take ‘Social Media ROI’ for instance; a term that pervades industry commentary. In many circumstances, the data required to attribute sales revenue confidently simply isn’t there and no amount of white papers and positive thinking can fill that gap. In these cases, it’s important to understand the options, the level of commitment needed to attribute sales data to your activity and the accuracy of the results quickly. Be prepared not to do it at all. Yes, really. Perhaps controversial and something that doesn’t fit well with cultures that only approve projects based on hard commercial benefits, but better to focus your efforts on what you can do than stretch data to the point at which it loses credibility. Instead, change the focus to measure other things where the data is more readily available, but will still indicate how well you are doing against your objectives. Have I got good reach across my target audience compared to other channels? Does my target audience even use this social media platform? How many people are engaging with my content compared to my competitors? You may find that some of these measures, once properly benchmarked and tracked, along with a good dose of marketing nous and common sense, will lead to a well-informed social media investment and strategy. Beware the sirens The second part of the quote provides a counter-perspective on data to the first, yet is equally important. We are told that Big Data is all around us; that we must collect it or we’ll be hopelessly behind the curve and lose huge amounts of revenue against our competition. It seems almost every day a new vendor, seminar or white paper springs up promising to deliver the solution to our Big Data problems. If anything Big Data (the media campaign) is an unintentional mirror of big data (the real stuff) itself; in that it creates more noise, more pitfalls and requires more precision to navigate to what actually matters. The amount of data available does not necessarily correlate with its value – not everything that can be counted counts. Would we expect a prospector to pan the ocean simply because there is more water there? Yet the solution to such concerns is similar to that when you don’t have enough data. Align the data you need to your strategic objectives, assess the options in collecting it in terms of cost, value and accuracy and make the decision accordingly. This could be big data, small data or somewhere in-between data. Not only is the opening quote important in its intended meaning, but also in that it existed well before the advent of social media and Big Data. It’s a reminder that these principles hold true now, as they did when CRM was ‘the big new thing’ and also before the quote itself was conceived. We live in an environment where certain parties obfuscate some of these truths of data and analytics, whether it is in the pursuit of selling technology or simply amplifying the hype to appear to be leading the conversation. Plot your course before setting sail As someone who is an advocate of data-driven decision-making, I’m aware that I’m focusing on the fallibility and dangers of data, rather than lauding its value and simplicity. Also, that I’m saying that it can’t be taken for granted that data can drive every decision, but we must use our experience and judgment as well. Well, I’m prepared to be honest about this as, despite the limitations of data, on balance, far more decisions are made by instinct alone when data could have improved that decision. It just takes the foresight to collect the right data and ensure it is used in the correct way by people with the right skills. There is often a significant gap between what value can be added with data and what happens in reality. So the opportunities can be huge in closing that gap. If you’re a business that is focusing on the Big Data question, I advise you to take stock of what your objectives are and look before you leap. Do you have a clear connection between your strategy and the data? Are you only planning to collect the data you really need (regardless of size)? Do you have a clear roadmap? Do you have the expertise to evaluate the options and steer the course? If you can’t provide a confident yes to these questions, make sure you work on rectifying that before you spend considerable time and money on solutions. Otherwise you may find yourself another wreck stranded on the rocks. By David Lloyd, data planning director, TMW http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/navigating-the-treacherous-waters-of-big-data http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/16/navigating-the-treacherous-waters-of-big-data Tue, 16 April 2013 16:13:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/10/tmw-picks-up-official-honoree-for-lynx-campaign-at-the-webbys TMW’s Lynx Chaos Island campaign has been selected as an Official Honoree in The 17 th Annual Webby Awards in the Best Use of Online Media category. The Official Honoree distinction is awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences to the top 10% of all work entered. This year’s Webby Awards received 11,000 entries from all 50 US states and over 60 countries worldwide, marking this out as an outstanding achievement. The Webby Awards are the leading international Award honoring excellence on the internet. Gareth James, chief creative officer, TMW comments: “The Webbys are the Oscars of the digital world. It’s great to have our work recognised on a global scale by such a prestigious organisation. This is a great honour indeed.” TMW’s official Honoree listing can be viewed here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/10/tmw-picks-up-official-honoree-for-lynx-campaign-at-the-webbys http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/10/tmw-picks-up-official-honoree-for-lynx-campaign-at-the-webbys Wed, 10 April 2013 14:33:00 Paul Tullo http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/05/britain’s-got-creative-talent Towards the end of last year, I came across an advert for the IPA’s Creative Pioneers Challenge, a nationwide search to find the next generation of digital natives and creative entrepreneurs. Only in its second year, the scheme offers internships and apprenticeships in leading creative and digital media companies like ours, in order to help fresh talent find a way into the industry. I have always believed that talent is the lifeblood of any creative organisation and have worked to identify and advance the abilities of people entering our industry so that they can grow into successful creative professionals. Without these talented individuals, we wouldn’t be able to produce the cutting-edge work that puts the UK at the forefront of digital and creative innovation. The explosion of digital means that today’s media landscape has changed immeasurably in recent years. To meet consumer demand, brands now need to be always on, delivering a constant stream of engaging content across all channels. In order to do this, agencies need to attract a wide range of talent with varied skill-sets and experience. So, how do we attract these sorts of people who might not otherwise consider our industry? This is where Creative Pioneers comes in. The scheme opens up the industry to everyone, with the aim of extending the creative talent pool beyond the traditional art school graduates. It’s not about having a certain qualification but about having the necessary talent to bring something fresh to our industry, whatever your background. Some of the most talented people at TMW have come from non-traditional avenues to make their mark in advertising. We have an art director who studied philosophy and another who trained as an architect! As long as you have talent, there is a wealth of opportunities available. Successful candidates can expect to work with some of the leading minds in the creative industry, to gain invaluable experience and contacts, which could ultimately launch their career. There’s still time to get involved in the apprenticeship competition for school leavers. If you’re keen to find out more, check out the IPA’s Creative Pioneers Challenge website www.creativepioneers.co.uk This article was first published in the Metro newspaper. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/05/britain’s-got-creative-talent http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/05/britain’s-got-creative-talent Fri, 05 April 2013 11:51:00 Hema Chauhan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/03/news-and-blogposts20130403vikki-chowney-named-finalist-in-ipa's-women-of-tomorrow-competitio TMW’s head of community, Vikki Chowney, has been named a finalist in the IPA’s inaugural Women of Tomorrow Competition. The awards aimed to identify our industry’s female leaders of tomorrow and invited nominations from a cross section of disciplines including strategy, creative and client services. Chris Buckley, TMW’s director of social engagement comments: ‘Vikki leads her team of 12 community managers with passion and imagination and is a true role model within the agency. Vikki’s wide ranging industry experience and knowledge means that she is not only a rising star within TMW but is widely recognised as a leading talent within the digital media industry. I’m in no doubt that she will continue to make her mark in the exciting and ever-changing world of digital media.’ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/03/news-and-blogposts20130403vikki-chowney-named-finalist-in-ipa's-women-of-tomorrow-competitio http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/04/03/news-and-blogposts20130403vikki-chowney-named-finalist-in-ipa's-women-of-tomorrow-competitio Wed, 03 April 2013 15:47:00 Kelly Moor http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/25/weve-–-what’s-all-the-fuss-about For those that haven’t heard of Weve yet, it’s a joint venture that’s been set up by the UK’s three largest mobile networks to provide a chance for brands to connect directly with their consumers via a range of mobile marketing solutions, payments options and loyalty tools. While there are other ways to do this, Weve’s main differentiator is its existing, trusted relationships with consumers. This trust, combined with an awful lot of behavioural data, provides brands with the chance to bring mobile ads to life through SMS, MMS, mobile web, app-based promotions, and voucher and redemption schemes in a way that’s tailored to consumers’ desires, rather than their own. We were lucky enough to attend one of Advertising Week Europe’s Leadership breakfasts last Wednesday, which was hosted by Weve, to find out more and hear from the shareholders directly. The landmark panel brought together Ronan Dunne (CEO, O2), Guy Laurence (CEO, Vodafone UK) and Olaf Swantee (CEO, EE), creating a rare opportunity for the packed room at Ronnie Scott’s to hear about the exciting opportunities that lay ahead for advertisers and marketers alike. The three CEOs said they wanted to unite to offer their consumers a much richer depth of value from the brands they work with (and admittedly, are interested in the huge commercial opportunity that comes with mobile advertising). For marketers and brands, rather than brands having to go through the pain of working with one mobile network, they now have the opportunity to work across the board (well, at least O2, Vodafone and EE). If they pull this off, it’s a win-win situation all round. Source says UK consumers now spend two hours a day looking at their mobile phones – this time is not stolen from the average amount of time we spend on our PCs, it’s on top of that. We’re actively deciding to spend more time using the technology we value. Therefore it makes sense for us, as marketers, to focus on what consumers put at the heart of their daily rituals. Rather than pushing messages, we need to create value. As people become more familiar with personalisation through social media, their phones, to say what they do and don’t value, which brands they do and don’t have interest in, it’s more important than ever to use that data wisely. Brands have more data on potential consumers available to them now than ever. We can be clever and careful in our targeting by listening to what they’re saying, and there’s the opportunity to create genuine value to potential consumers – which in turn creates loyalty and more fruitful long-term relationships for brands in the process. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/25/weve-–-what’s-all-the-fuss-about http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/25/weve-–-what’s-all-the-fuss-about Mon, 25 March 2013 12:28:00 Mike Phillips http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/what-we-actually-learnt-from-sxsw The future is going to be amazing . If we want a new gizmo or toy, we will no longer have to go to a shop to buy it, we will be able to download it from the internet and print it using a 3D printer. If we find a toy we really like we will be able to scan it and make multiple copies. Sure this raises a heap of IP and piracy issues but let’s not think about that for now. It's a brave new world and a revolution is coming, a maker revolution. People will be able to design and make their own products, completely eliminating the need for large chunks of manufactured products. Brands should be scared (and excited). And these products will all be connected, because in the future everything is connected. It's the Internet of things. My house will talk to my car which will talk to my phone which will talk to the sensors embedded in my body. Everything will become one seamlessly integrated system. A technological pantheism, if you will. And it will all result in big data. Massive data that we'll all have access to and it will be lovely. The future is going to be amazing. But that future isn’t here yet. It’s easy to get carried away when you go to SXSW. Each day we were shown incredible things. Things that are truly revolutionary. And while it’s exciting, it’s also very important to be realistic about what it all actually means. Just because everyone at SXSW was talking about 3D printing doesn’t mean the average Joe will be. Yes, 3D printing is becoming more and more affordable, and therefore more accessible. But let us not forget that home computing and web publishing software have been ubiquitous for almost a decade, and yet we didn’t all run to the web and create our own home pages. Just because technology enables people to become more creative doesn’t mean that people want to be more creative. I agree that the internet of things is becoming a reality, but very slowly. I first started reading about the Internet of things in 2009, and even then people had been talking about it for almost a decade. It will happen, and my fridge will talk to my phone. Nike fuel band et al are showing the possibilities, and the automotive industry are making huge in-roads in this space - but we’re a long way from living in a fully connected world. But for now, our best bet is to focus on mobile. It is the connecting device. The device that we know everyone has, and that everyone checks. It’s not new and shiny anymore, it’s just the way we communicate, research and entertain ourselves. It’s the single most important device and brands need to start thinking about it a lot more. Talking to start-ups at SXSW made me realise that advertising actually has a bit of an image problem . Advertising turned up en masse to learn about the tech, but we should be learning from the start-ups. There is a huge amount of talent we could steal, ideas we can borrow and enthusiasm for trying stuff that we should embrace. What did stand out was just how much stuff there was. Digital stuff. It highlights how online the world is. Which is interesting from an advertising point of view, especially to someone who works in digital marketing. Digital is much more than banners, websites, email and Facebook. Consumers don't treat digital as a separate channel and neither should we. We’re using our phones whilst we are shopping, we are second screening whilst watching TV, we’re buying more and more online, streaming our films, paying for things with our mobile apps… That isn’t future gazing stuff. That’s now. There’s a whole world of opportunity for us. I came away from SXSW energised and enthusiastic, and very keen to do more stuff. Sure the future is a little further away than we'd all like to admit, but if we start reaching for it now, it might come just that little bit faster. So what are my key take outs for SXSW 2013? 1. 3D printing - Target the early adopters, the creative innovators, the hackers. Let them play with your products. Make it easy to do so. 2. Mobile - Stop talking about it and do it. Make web content mobile first. If you aren't using mobile to improve your retail experience , you're doing it wrong. 3. Do more stuff. Especially digital agencies. Online doesn’t have to be on a screen, and it certainly doesn’t have to be on Facebook. 4. Focus on the masses , but provide for the niche. It’s easier than ever for people to hack things, break things and make things. Even if it’s not mainstream, make sure the people that want to do it, can. 5. Get out of silos. Stop treating digital and mobile as separate channels, see them as a layer. Almost everything can be improved with a spot of digital goodness. Press, TV, point of sale, shop windows, packaging, retail space, experiential. Use digital to join it all up. 6. Focus on today and tomorrow. There are lots of exciting things that will happen. But the more time you spend thinking about those, the fewer exciting things you will make happennow. 7. Everything they say about an English accent in America is true. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/what-we-actually-learnt-from-sxsw http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/what-we-actually-learnt-from-sxsw Wed, 20 March 2013 18:02:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/3d-printing-–-are-brands-facing-the-next-industrial-revolution Something weird has happened to the agency folk at SXSW. No one seems to notice the deep irony that we are all here to discuss interactivity and all things digital yet all we seem to be talking about is making stuff in the real world. Out of atoms not bits.  From bar to bar, coffee house to coffee house, the words on everyone’s lips are 3D printing, maker culture and hardware as the new software. If the hype is to be believed, it’s going to be a fascinating and challenging time for brands and agencies. Here are some considerations for marketers: 1. Copyright. What the internet did for digital piracy, the 3D printer will do for real stuff. So I can download and print anything I want and re-create anything I like without necessarily paying the designer or owner. Thingiverse is testament to how many objects can be copied without license. When will the brand backlash begin? How will businesses adapt to this? If I was a toy manufacturer I would be worried right now.   2. Embrace the opportunity. Brands need to embrace the opportunity of 3D printing and find ways to rethink how they create and sell products. In the same way that Open Source enabled coders to thrive, brands that open up and encourage a hacking spirit will come out on top. Involving your customers in the making of your products will add a layer of value that you don't get from mass production. If engagement was the buzz word of 2012, there’s no purer form than allowing your customers to co-create your products. 3. The environmental impact of 3D printing. I dream it up and I print it. When I’m bored of it, I bin it. There’s already too much stuff in this world, isn’t it dangerous for us to create a technology that can make more landfill? I do believe that there is a philosophy of reducing, reusing and recycling at the heart of this technology. Let’s hope that home recycling and environmentally friendly materials remain a core part of where this is all going. 4. The agency/ brand dynamic. What exactly is the role of an agency in this brave new world? Is it to facilitate consumers getting involved in the design process for products and services? To help brands open up and connect in a more fundamental way than creating broadcast "selling messages"? Or should agencies and brands form partnerships to make products together? Agencies should be looking at new ways of approaching this opportunity. The TMW Hack Club and our in-house product and hardware designers are two of the initiatives we’ve introduced to explore new ways of working with clients. This is just the beginning though as change continues apace. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/3d-printing-–-are-brands-facing-the-next-industrial-revolution http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/20/3d-printing-–-are-brands-facing-the-next-industrial-revolution Wed, 20 March 2013 10:42:00 Chris Freeland http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/14/tmw-awarded-two-star-best-companies-accreditation We are delighted to announce that TMW has been awarded a Best Companies’ Two Star Accreditation rating for 2013. This follows a comprehensive process which began in September last year and concluded last month. TMW has made a clear commitment to employee engagement over the past year. We have introduced many new workplace benefits including Flexible Fridays and a new employee contributory pension scheme. We’ve also undertaken a particular focus on health and wellbeing in the workplace with hosted wellness weeks, the introduction of Yoga and Running clubs, and weekly deliveries of fresh fruit for all. Being recognised as a ‘Best Company to Work For’ is a fantastic achievement, which reflects the continual efforts to ensure TMW remains a great place to work.  Thank you to everyone who took part in the process. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/14/tmw-awarded-two-star-best-companies-accreditation http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/14/tmw-awarded-two-star-best-companies-accreditation Thu, 14 March 2013 10:08:00 Julie Roberts http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/13/econsultancy-roundtable-gets-to-grips-with-social-media-marketing-and-measurement I recently attended Econsultancy’s Social Media Marketing and Measurement Roundtable, chaired by Matt Owen. The forum was packed with a good mix of agency and client representatives, making for a lively and honest debate. Matt succinctly summarised the key points of the session: Summary The objectives and deployment of social media are hugely dependent upon a brand’s industry vertical and category. There is therefore only a slim possibility, if any, of being able to provide a common value to certain metrics such as the value of a ‘like’ that suits all brands across all industries. A sizeable range of metrics are used across all brands. Despite the lack of a common or easily adaptable approach to social media measurement, it’s essential to work out how to justify your social media spend. This could help you increase your budget allocation for the future. The group identified a multitude of issues and debating points around social media but the majority can be grouped under the three topics below. Here’s a summary of the key points discussed: 1) “How does a brand socialise its marketing strategy?” It’s important to establish clear rules of engagement across the entire business. For brands with strict rules around marketing to the general public such as healthcare brands, the presence of departments like ‘compliance’ in the social process is key. Social media management now involves multiple departments, especially when it comes to reputation management and crisis management. In a world where anyone can now go online and trash your brand, PR departments are no longer solely responsible for managing the response to this and other teams such as customer services, sales and marketing are becoming involved. Using personas to deal with various consumer topics raised via social media (product queries, customer service queries), provides a starting point for defining rules of engagement. Social media is useful as a customer service channel – and so qualitative factors such as NPS (net promoter score) can be applied. NSS (net sentiment score) can be a useful indicator of satisfaction i.e. the number of inbound calls divided by the number of issues resolved via Twitter. One brand implemented internal ‘socialised’ CRM first before attempting it externally with customers and prospects. By using enterprise social network tools (like Salesforce Chatter) to provide real-time collaboration facilities, the brand worked out how to share and collaborate as a company before managing its output with consumers. Having relatively simple but clear lines of responsibility between different socially active teams within a company is useful. A ‘proactive team’ is responsible for generating content while a ‘reactive team’ answers incoming queries and customer service issues. 2)  “How should we quantify social engagement?” • One of the panel turned this question on its head and asked if it always had to be about sales. Shouldn’t we also consider lead generation, reduction of operating costs or profit as equally important indicators of social effectiveness? Social media can be just as useful as other channels for qualifying hot leads or reducing customer service costs. For example, a customer service representative can tweet two to three people at the same time whilst a phone operator can only speak to one customer at a time. • As a counter to this, another brand responded by saying that social activity increased the brand’s costs for customer service.  Their maxim for social media is ‘inform, tell but don’t sell’ – indicating that the strategic focus for this channel is about education and awareness, certainly not sales. • The accurate measurement of social activity inevitably led into a discussion about attribution modelling. The consensus was that social media is now just another channel in the marketing mix (which everyone needs to acclimatise to) and start linking KPIs and metrics to the original objectives assigned to the channel – rather than trying to force a connection between sales/ROI where it is not relevant. Several of the panel were clear about the learning and effectiveness they were gaining from some of their social channels and activity: The use of Google+ is on the rise, with some brands replacing Facebook with this platform, essentially because of the significant gains in SEO. A travel-related brand found it far more effective to use a dozen ‘ambassadors’ (who are genuine customers and also rewarded for their efforts) to post comments and material rather than brand employees.  The voice and experience of the customer proving to be far more persuasive than the brand’s own. In terms of identifying key (customer) influencers an ‘influence score’ can be used (i.e. degree and frequency of social activity and reach being key to this score) in conjunction with a Life Time Value score (value of the individual to the business via an understanding of their transactional data). Anyone looking to start marketing in China needs to be aware of the huge cult of celebrity. Professional bloggers are seen as trend-setters and incredibly important for brands to get ‘on-side’. One brand decided to ‘turn-off’ their social / blogging promotions in China and found that web traffic decreased by 95% virtually instantaneously. 3) “How can we better integrate social and other data?” Are many brands and organisations taking advantage of social enterprise software for content management and data aggregation purposes? This kind of technology can help define fan ownership. For example, how can companies with a high content output clearly define fan/follower ‘ownership’? It’s highly likely a publication (or a blog) will have at least one extremely popular columnist or contributor, who draws in a huge following of fans. But whose fans are they – the publications’ or the writer’s? It was argued that the use of social enterprise software can help solve this dilemma. The topic of using social media to aid talent recruitment turned out to be a ‘meaty’ area. Many HR teams regularly used social media channels to review people’s experience and talent. Any brand recruiting editors wants to ensure they are well connected and also relatively prolific publishers. A review of their social media presence and their LinkedIn profile can be a good way of finding out if potential candidate is actually practising what they preach! It was also mentioned that the more creatively-minded candidates are beginning to produce their CVs in the form of infographics – which certainly gets them noticed. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/13/econsultancy-roundtable-gets-to-grips-with-social-media-marketing-and-measurement http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/13/econsultancy-roundtable-gets-to-grips-with-social-media-marketing-and-measurement Wed, 13 March 2013 11:48:00 Mike Phillips http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/11/sxsw-–-a-world-of-opportunity-for-brands Landing in Austin you get the feeling everything about this city is dedicated to SXSW. For a few short weeks the city is transformed into a Mecca for all things film, music and technology, teeming with enthusiasts from across the globe. But there's also something else in the air, a different kind of invasion is happening, the invasion of the advertisers. Entering the registration hall was like having logo LSD injected straight into your eyeballs. From the sponsored bags and free T-shirts to the young start-ups hastily taping posters to every available bit of wall space and sheepishly handing out flyers. Even walking down the high street in search for a bar to get something to eat the onslaught continued, seeing a grotesque owl van driving around spreading the word of hootsuite. There’s live music everywhere and brands. Wall to wall brands. Is that a good thing? It certainly feels like an uneasy combination. But I suppose it's to be expected. When the world of technology, film and music descend upon a single city, it's a great opportunity to showcase your brand and get in front of some of the most influential people in media. But turning up and putting your name on a bag doesn't really cut it these days, in an environment where people are creating and discussing the latest in entertainment and interactivity. What we're wondering is, will there be any breakthrough ‘acts’ this year or are they all there just because that’s where you’re supposed to be? Given that a huge chunk of adland appears to have come along for the ride, you'd hope that they'd have something special planned for the brands they work on. We'll have to wait and see whether any brands are able to take advantage of the unique mix of tech and media that SXSW offers, but for now I'm off to listen to some talks in my free branded T-shirt carrying my branded tote bag. Follow us on twitter to see if we spot any brands that do make the cut: @imjustmike @theg and @mrgarethjames http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/11/sxsw-–-a-world-of-opportunity-for-brands http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/03/11/sxsw-–-a-world-of-opportunity-for-brands Mon, 11 March 2013 15:55:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/28/tmw-named-global-‘category-development-–-on-trade’-winner-at-diageo’s-marketing-brilliance-awards TMW has been honoured as a global winner at Diageo’s Marketing Brilliance Awards. TMW won in ‘Category Development - On Trade’ for the Gordon’s Elderflower campaign.  Now in its fourth year, the Marketing Brilliance Awards celebrate the outstanding work created and executed by the marketing agencies Diageo works with across its global network. This year’s winning work was as diverse as it was exciting, from truly engaging responsible drinking campaigns to awe inspiring voyages across the oceans. Each of these ‘gold standard’ campaigns helped Diageo connect with consumers in increasingly innovative ways, providing stimulating content across a wide variety of media channels. To distinguish Gordon’s Gin from the influx of new entrants into the gin category, TMW helped Diageo reinvent the classic G&T by creating a standout serve that would be more relevant to a younger consumer base. Entitled ‘Great British Flavours’, the campaign sought to combine distinctly British flavours with Gordon’s Gin, giving birth to the new Elderflower G&T. Chris Pearce, managing director, TMW commented: ‘There’s no doubt that Gordon’s is an iconic gin brand in the UK but with new brands emerging it was essential for Gordon’s to stand out from the crowd. With the creation of a new serve, the Elderflower G&T, our aim was to reflect the brand’s heritage but in a modern and relevant way. The campaign has been a huge success and we’re delighted to have been recognised by Diageo with a global award.’ Andy Fennell, chief marketing officer, Diageo, commented, ‘Congratulations to all of our Marketing Brilliance Award winners. I want to thank the agency teams for pushing hard to deliver brilliant work.  The quality of the winning submissions shows that we have raised the bar, both in terms of core creative ideas and in particular with standards of execution. I hope to see more and more of our campaigns, people and agencies shooting for a ten as we aim for faster growth.’ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/28/tmw-named-global-‘category-development-–-on-trade’-winner-at-diageo’s-marketing-brilliance-awards http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/28/tmw-named-global-‘category-development-–-on-trade’-winner-at-diageo’s-marketing-brilliance-awards Thu, 28 February 2013 11:35:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/27/tmw-creates-digital-campaign-to-launch-knorr-kitchen-academy This month sees the launch of the Knorr Kitchen Academy. Aimed at positioning Knorr as a leading culinary brand in the UK, the Academy introduces Knorr chefs Igor, Sebastien and Luigi. The chefs will develop and share culinary tips and recipes, as well as introduce consumers to the full Knorr product range. To support the launch, TMW created and now manages a Knorr branded Facebook page, which invites users to ‘apply’ to the Academy. A Facebook app asks consumers to take a short quiz to determine what kind of cook they are in order to receive tailored recipes from the chef that is most similar to them. Members of the Academy will also have the chance to win a full-day masterclass with the Knorr chefs and runners up will receive a branded Knorr apron. The campaign is supported by email, digital advertising, other social channels such as Pinterest, an updated website and an iAd, which launches in March. You can join the Academy here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/27/tmw-creates-digital-campaign-to-launch-knorr-kitchen-academy http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/27/tmw-creates-digital-campaign-to-launch-knorr-kitchen-academy Wed, 27 February 2013 11:05:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/25/nine-questions-every-cmo-should-ask-their-mobile-strategist TMW's Douglas McDonald and Mike Phillips outline the nine key questions that every CMO should be asking their mobile strategist.  1) Where are we? Consumers online are now being heavily influenced by new digital device form factors and the hyper-connectivity that comes with them. The contexts, locations and objectives of online behaviour have increased and become more widespread, yet more diffuse and hard to define. However, in the face of these very rapid changes, only one in three businesses have a dedicated person responsible for mobile. Whether it is in-house or through an agency partner, companies need to ensure that they are fit for an increasingly connected world and that means having someone (or a group of people) responsible for mobile and connected devices.  It is vital that marketers understand how the “connected consumer” will impact their company in, at the very least, the short to medium term. 2) Is our existing activity optimised for mobile? With UK smartphone penetration now over 64% and with more than 80% of those users going online on their devices your online properties are getting mobile views whether you like it or not. The question is, do those mobile viewers like what they see? Is your bounce rate high (for bad reasons)? Do you have a flash website? Are your designs responsive? What’s the page load? Does your Facebook application work properly on mobile devices? If you are spending significant amounts of money on digital activity you need to at least ensure that it works on mobile devices. 3) Are our social efforts mobile optimised? More time is spent on Facebook via a mobile device than through the desktop (20% of mobile users never visit the desktop site), and that is even more the case for the likes of Twitter and Instagram. Mobile as a platform is inherently social. Mobiles are the communication device of our age, be it through SMS, email, social networking or the good old phone call – they are social by design. Any social media efforts need to be built around the fact that for a large amount of any given audience, mobile will be the default device they engage through. Social needs to be mobile. 4) How do our emails look on mobiles? Personal email is opened on mobile by 49% of UK phone owners, and that rises to 70% of smartphone owners. So, how do your emails look on a variety of devices? Chances are that you are still seeing the top left hand 25% of the email. The fonts are too small. It’s trying to load huge images (at least on iPhones) and is in grave danger of being discarded before your beautifully crafted copy has been read. There is some argument about whether or not responsive emails are worth the effort. It’s pretty clear that from a user point of view they should at least be readable without pinching and zooming around. If we see emails as the starting point for a variety of customer journeys, it’s also clear that making emails that work well on mobile will be yet another way to get people where you want them to be. 5) Is our offline marketing working with our online properties? Spending millions of pounds on above-the-line advertising has been the norm for many brands for years, but as the world increasingly goes mobile CMOs need to start asking how this fits into a mobile world. With up to 85% of TV viewers using a second device whilst watching TV, and up to 44% of those looking for products they’ve seen in a TV show or ad, it’s clear that traditional media can no longer work in a vacuum. Marketing campaigns need to recognise that even if their advertising isn’t viewed through a mobile, the chances are customers have one in their hands as they come across adverts and if they are going to act based on that advertising, it’s likely to be through a mobile or connected device. TV adverts can drive an 80% increase in branded search , but Google will push you down the rankings if it feels that your site isn’t providing a good mobile experience . 6) Are we thinking mobile first? Thinking mobile first doesn’t mean mobile is the most important channel. The focus on what’s relevant and important for mobile users introduces a level of rigour into content selection that usually means that loads of ‘stuff’ doesn’t get included. Strangely enough, this is usually the stuff that is only on other channels because there is room. In development terms (ask the dev teams!) it’s just the best way to start producing any type of online property that needs to be available across multiple platforms. Yes, that means everything. 7) Do we have a channel agnostic content strategy? In a world where consumers are likely to be accessing everything, from anywhere and using any device, content needs to be built to go anywhere too. If you are creating content for the website or for a Facebook page you have to ask “What does it look like on an HTC Wildfire?” That beautiful long shot video of the sports car driving down a winding alpine road? It probably looks like an ant in a pinball machine. It’s not easy to get right, but content creation needs to happen with a mobile first mindset too. All too often there are huge infrastructure problems as marketers realise that the whole content management infrastructure is tied to individual digital properties. Bite the bullet and set that content free. 8) Are you helping consumers at “point of purchase”? Connected Consumers don’t chat to the sales staff to find information in store. They have already searched the product, compared prices and, if what they see about your product isn’t optimum, then there will be plenty of your competition appearing on that screen. Test the user journeys as they are. After that, ask them to build new planned, engaging user journeys with your product and POS as the call to action. 9) What will we need to do after we have fixed all that? Once you have made it work on mobile, the next thing to do is to track usage and metrics. Once a platform or device group projects to a certain level of engagement, it is time to enhance for those device types. In tactical terms that may mean revamping the properties to produce designs and interactions for touch-screen consumers that are very different from what has been the norm when designing for “office equipment”. In strategic terms, it means focusing on the changes these devices make to traditional digital thinking on sales funnels and when, where and how your customers will want to consider purchasing your products. This article was first published on Econsultancy. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/25/nine-questions-every-cmo-should-ask-their-mobile-strategist http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/25/nine-questions-every-cmo-should-ask-their-mobile-strategist Mon, 25 February 2013 13:55:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/22/tmw-supports-lynx-apollo-launch-with-short-films To support the global launch of the new Lynx Apollo range, TMW has created a range of digital assets. The work forms part of a new global campaign which is giving 22 lucky guys and girls the chance to go into space with the Lynx Space Academy (LSA). As part of the campaign TMW has created a series of films aimed at driving registrations to the LSA. Entitled ‘An astronaut never has to…” the films highlight the visible advantages that astronauts have when it comes to getting the girl. The first short “Night Out” shows a handsome guy bragging to two girls about his travels, only to be ignored when an astronaut enters the room. The film finishes with the line ‘An astronaut never has to brag’ and drives viewers to the LynxApollo.com site, where they can sign up for their chance to go to space. The films can be viewed on a custom-made You Tube channel, and will be used as part of Lynx’s ‘Always On’ Facebook strategy. TMW has also created a fully responsive Facebook and mobile app with useful tools to help entrants improve their chances in the competition. You can view the films here: http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/22/tmw-supports-lynx-apollo-launch-with-short-films http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/22/tmw-supports-lynx-apollo-launch-with-short-films Fri, 22 February 2013 11:46:00 Marc Curtis http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/19/hacking-the-night-away In my own head, I think I sound like an excited seven-year-old when I say "I've always wanted to take part in a Hack Day". The truth is, ever since attending a Facebook seminar and hearing about the way they bring groups of people together to brainstorm, design and then prototype new technology for their platform, I've wanted to experience it for myself. Being part of the TMW Hack Club meant that I was in on the ground floor (actually the first floor) when the Hack Day was announced. It’s basically a dream come true for someone like me. I was one of five TMW employees who were given the opportunity to lead teams of talented colleagues in order to produce a working prototype to answer an as yet unknown brief. While the concept of the TMW Hack Day was being explained, I was already putting together my dream team – which consisted of Alex King, Jeff Bowerman, Alex Harrold, Jo Juber, Ashley Nolan and design intern Sam Bailey. The big day arrived and on Thursday lunchtime the brief was revealed: ‘Make something that will get people talking on April Fools’ Day’. After a couple of hours of to-ing and fro-ing, we decided to go round the table, and take it in turns to complete the sentence “Wouldn't it be great if… ”, which instantly yielded inspiration. We soon settled on an idea and agreed it had everything we were looking for – it was just about believable, would infuriate Middle England, was based on a universal truth and, most importantly, could and should never be made. At 4.30pm, and with our idea solidly in place, we moved rapidly from ideation to planning. A rough list of deliverables was sketched out, and team members were all assigned a different role – whether it was coding, UX, design, or creating our product’s promo video. At about 6pm, some of the team pilfered a TMW camera and jumped in a cab to Victoria station to film part of the aforementioned video, along with some vox-pops. I won't go into huge detail, but suffice to say that filming commuters at rush hour in London’s busiest rail terminal is nothing if not challenging. Work continued through the night, and by the morning we had built the bare bones of a very robust system that linked webpages on iPads, mobile phones and laptops. The video edit was looking great, and we had already started to think about ideas for the presentation. I could sense that, by the time we were asked to down tools, the whole team felt rightly proud of what we’d achieved in 24 hours. By 4.40pm on Friday, the judges had gathered and the presentations began. My heart sank as I watched the first slick, funny product demonstration from a competing team; I thought they'd got it in the bag. The rest of the teams’ creations certainly didn't make for any certainty either, with a consistent level of quality in both the presentations and the ideas themselves. Our turn to present came, and we gave a good account of ourselves. As terrifying as it was, it felt hugely enjoyable to show off the fruit of our labour to the judges and our peers. The jury briefly adjourned, before summoning the teams and running through their comments as baited breath filled the room. With myself and the other four team-leaders stood on tenterhooks, the judges threw in a few more Simon Cowell-esque dramatic pauses before finally announcing our team as the victors. I don't think I could have worked with a better group of people – and I know that what we achieved was a true team effort, with the whole infinitely greater than the sum of the parts. But then, that's how agencies are meant to work, right? All five teams’ ideas are being kept secret until April Fools’ Day itself, as we’ve got some big plans in place… so keep your eyes peeled – and keep on hacking. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/19/hacking-the-night-away http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/19/hacking-the-night-away Tue, 19 February 2013 15:32:00 Dave Willis http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/12/“everyone-can-write” An old art director once said this to me. He was often mocking us copy folk. “Just write anything, no one’s going to read it anyway”, he’d say. “It’s a headline, Dave, not War and Peace”… So when he uttered the three words that sit proudly above this article, they hit me like an insulting and somewhat demotivating bullet. But this time, the old boy wasn’t taking the proverbial. Rather, he was giving me a very valuable lesson. See, where clients, planners, project managers and account handlers may not have an eye for art direction, they can all write. It’s a fact. Each will have their own preferences, opinions and writing style. And this is something we, as copywriters, must always be mindful of when taking feedback. In order for an ad to be believable – it must speak with a single voice. It must talk to the reader one to one, and guide them uninterrupted from start to finish. But if everyone’s opinions – as valid as they may be – are taken into consideration, the resulting communication almost certainly will not. Bill Bernbach once said, “Most readers come away not with a clear, precise detailed registration of the content on their minds, but rather a vague misty idea that was formed as much by the pace and proportion of the music of the writing as by the literal words themselves.” As copywriters, we have to ensure that amends, tweaks and additions don’t interrupt our carefully written score and, ultimately, dilute the intended message. We must push back, be petty, and defend even the tiniest detail. After all, copywriting doesn’t mean copying writing. And while everyone can write – as long as we stay strong and maintain our own unique style – no one can write like us. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/12/“everyone-can-write” http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/12/“everyone-can-write” Tue, 12 February 2013 00:00:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/04/power-out-no-problem In a world where ads run all the time, real-time gets its moment in the sun (well, dark actually) at Super Bowl 47. As if there wasn’t already enough drama with Beyoncé actually singing, lots of very expensive ads and speculation about performance enhancing drugs, we were seconds into the second half of the big game (yes it is supposed to be a football match) and the lights go out. Now a lot of media money had already been spent airing the captivating half-time ads that will be talked about for hours (maybe even days) to come. But here we were, faced with an unexpected situation that saw people take to social media in their droves. (Twitter saw a spike of 34% during the blackout). And what were they doing? They were doing what me and everyone else in my street did when we had a power cut a few weeks ago, stepping outside and sharing the slightly surreal experience with each other, cracking jokes, shrugging shoulders. During the Super Bowl blackout there were all kinds of banter and speculation. Will it affect the rest of the match? Will there even be a rest of the match? Is Beyoncé upset about something? I’m a true believer in only saying something when it’s worth saying, when you will be listened to and (hopefully) get an acknowledgment back from your friends. Like your very best mate being a bit of a comedian in the pub or you when you landed that quick come-back. It’s interactions like these that shape other people’s perception of you, that make you the legend, that make you good to hang out with and also get you talked about to friends of friends. Enter Oreo, with a tweet that went down an absolute storm: Simple, witty and bang-on time. We do our fair share of always-on and this new kind of fast, reactive advertising has changed the way we do things at TMW and the way our clients approve things. Without the constraints of media lead-time, an ad can be briefed, designed and posted in minutes. In fact, for many of our clients there is a brief permanently running, looking to react to current (and relevant) affairs and turn them in to witty, timely ads for brands like Lynx and Durex. The main challenge? Making sure that by the time the ad goes live it still resonates with the audience. And that’s where a cautionary thought comes in, and I use the same analogy as before to explain. If you’ve ever met someone that talks too much shit too often whilst trying to be witty you’ll soon stop listening. A steady stream of always-on is all well and good but it better not be there just for the sake of it. Oreo got it right, in a big Super Bowl, Beyoncé, tickertape kind of way. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/04/power-out-no-problem http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/04/power-out-no-problem Mon, 04 February 2013 11:19:00 Victoria White http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/01/future-trends-the-rise-of-clicks-and-mortar Just as those digital hipsters in Shoreditch rediscover the power of the physical, the bastion of ‘touchy feely’ that is retail is finally seeing the enabling power of the web. In fact as the latest news from the high street has shown us, it can make the difference between success and failure. In short, it’s why John Lewis with their huge investment in ecommerce, embracing of the review culture and innovative thinking like ‘click and collect’ reported record profits over Christmas and companies like HMV and Jessops… haven’t. One key area to look out for is how the high street exploits social media. We’ve already seen coat hangers hooked up to Facebook to calculate how ‘liked’ an item of clothing is and RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags that turn mirrors into screens. How long before we have Facebook access in changing room mirrors allowing customers to ask their Facebook friends, ‘Does my bum look big in this skirt?’ before buying. As retailers find more reasons for customers to come into store, they will get even better at connecting live events to their online customer base, blurring even further the digital and physical. Expect to see more in-store fashion shows and product demos being streamed online and allowing consumers to vote, share, comment on – and buy there and then. As more retailers try to become a truly social business, brands as diverse as Oscar de la Renta and Zappos have found new ways to link social media platforms like Pinterest to their ecommerce business, harnessing the power of ‘people like me’ by allowing fans to recommend their products to their friends. One forward-looking department store in South America even gave fans the chance to create their own mini store from a select number of products and then incentivised them to invite their friends to shop there with the promise of a percentage of the price of any item sold via their ‘mini’ store. Just as inventive is newcomer Svpply which helps retailers reach out to potential customers by using social media activity and preferences to post photos of products to people’s social media feeds, and encouraging them to buy the products via Facebook’s ‘want’ button. Of course, the blurring of physical and digital works both ways. Amazon Locker, for instance, allows customers to get their hands on their purchases avoiding the ubiquitous Saturday morning post-office queue, with a series on in-town lockers. 360 degree life-size car configurators mean that car dealerships can pop up just about anywhere, allowing customers to see endless versions of the cars they’re interested in before test driving the real thing. In the US, Kodak (remember them?) are opening what they call Photolabs to allow people to make prints of their mobile phone pics. As Marc Curtis mentioned in the first of our series on future trends (the invisible internet) the continued fall in the cost of technology, the increased penetration of smartphones and rising numbers of consumers happy to use their phones in-store, has led to a revolution of in-aisle price-checking, information gathering via augmented reality and mobile coupon redemption at till. Add to this the plethora of new ways to pay, be it via Passbook and Kiip at Starbucks, Barclays Paytag, or by tagging Instagram photos via Chirpify and its easy to see why we say that 2013 will see a retail revolution. But before we get carried away with all this future gazing, let’s not forget that at the end of the day, shoppers are still very concerned with finding value and so being able to justify their spend. This considered shopping behaviour - particularly prevalent in younger shoppers - seems to be here to stay.  Retailers and brands need to use 2013 to work out how to react to this – giving shoppers great shopping experiences which they feel have provided them with good value is likely to win retail loyalty. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/01/future-trends-the-rise-of-clicks-and-mortar http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/02/01/future-trends-the-rise-of-clicks-and-mortar Fri, 01 February 2013 17:31:00 Vikki Chowney http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/29/there-are-still-no-shortcuts-to-social-media-roi Last year I sat on a few panels that dealt with issues the social media industry has been waxing lyrical about for years; ROI, standards and such. The first – that of measurement – is the Holy Grail for anyone working in this space. Still. Rolling out ‘it’s all about being human’ or ‘you can engage with your audience on a completely different level’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Yes, these two points are relevant when you’re looking at the value of investment in social – but that’s totally different to working out the return. I noticed that during one particular session, there was a definite lack of footfall in the room in comparison to other panels on different topics. Were we approaching this from too broad an angle? Are people only interested in panels that provide three-step approaches to finding a definite answer, and anything else isn’t worth it? I’ve thought on this several times, and have come to the conclusion that yes – part of the entire psychology of attending an event is to be able to walk away, report back to your office and provide clear steps to implement what you’ve seen. That way you’re able to prove that attending was worthwhile. For social it’s not quite that simple. Of course, this is also pleasing proof that levels of awareness are such that broader topics aren’t as useful as they used to be – people are now fully on board with the idea of social, its value, what can be done – and are starting to look for more specific advice. How can I link up my email database with social following to provide better, more appropriate communication? What type of social functionality should I be including within my website? Is social commerce worth investing in? How should I structure my social profiles taking masterbrand and local markets into consideration? I could go on. Returning to the issue of providing direct guidance on measurement. The reason why panels related to this topic still have such vague titles is that there’s no shared opinion when it comes to ROI within social. Agencies, trade bodies, brands; we all approach it in different ways. There are no industry standards; there are no ‘must do’ tactics (despite what the most vocal within our industry might say). There’s best practice, yes, but there’s no universally recognised way of working out what social media can really get you for your money. You could argue that there are other areas that suffer the same fate, but social is (still) the new kid on the block – with more people claiming they have the answer than any other. With so many people selling the Emperor new clothes, chaos reigns supreme. When you get down to it, there are really only two ways of looking at the value of social. The first is the most simplistic – whereby you consider the ROI of marketing investment. You look at how much you spend on marketing, and you set this off against; sales (very difficult and often producing not very impressive numbers), interaction (are people talking about us and therefore are we creating brand awareness) or slightly more complex comparisons where you take a focus group of social ‘fans’ (on Facebook, Twitter etc), compare their likelihood to purchase a product and such – then align with standard brand-tracking so that the data holds up in the context of other disciplines. There’s enough to disagree about right there, but it’s actually the second method where things come unstuck. The bigger picture means looking at the entire spectrum of gains that include (among others) enhanced business intelligence, improved reputation, more effective management of the customer experience, the ability to link and amplify real-world events, improved business performance and more rapid NPD. In this case, both financial and non-financial gains come into play, and you start getting into complex, company-specific econometric modelling. And that’s the crux of it. It’s unlikely that you’ll come up with an answer to this in an hour. What you can do with that time is assess the various approaches and then return to base to decide whether they’re suitable for your business, what kind of data they’ll provide you and what you can do with it. Whichever method you choose, when it comes to assessing the value OR return of social activity; there aren’t any shortcuts. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/29/there-are-still-no-shortcuts-to-social-media-roi http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/29/there-are-still-no-shortcuts-to-social-media-roi Tue, 29 January 2013 10:28:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/24/infiniti’s-brief-to-tmw-is-black-and-white Infiniti, the luxury automotive brand from Japan, is launching a limited edition Black and White version of its FX cross-over model across Europe. The special edition, of which there will only be 500 available (250 in black and 250 in white) will be supported by an integrated marketing campaign, which launches in January across 13 European markets. TMW has led the creative development and will handle web, mobile, digital advertising, email and social media elements. Press and outdoor are being managed by TBWA\Paris. The campaign will run until March 2013, bolstering the brand’s European presence ahead of the 2013 Geneva Motor Show where an all new model will be launched (the Q50 sedan). Martin Jobin, marketing communication content manager at Infiniti Europe, comments: “2013 promises to be a very exciting year for us as we continue to grow the Infiniti brand in Europe. As our presence develops, it’s essential that we maximise the reach of our campaigns to deliver a consistent and seamless message.” Ed Howarth, business director at TMW, adds: “The Infiniti FX cross-over is Infiniti’s most popular model, combining an iconic presence with impressive performance. Our focus for this campaign was to bring the model to life with a sophisticated style that is in line with the brand’s luxury credentials. The campaign has been activated through-the-line and at all touch points, with digital channels remaining at the heart of our strategy.” http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/24/infiniti’s-brief-to-tmw-is-black-and-white http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/24/infiniti’s-brief-to-tmw-is-black-and-white Thu, 24 January 2013 10:38:00 Marc Curtis http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/18/future-trends-2013 Trends 2013 – The invisible computer By Marc Curtis, Senior Project Manager, TMW I'm not a great one for paying attention to opinions on trends, although I do find myself typing vague expressions like 'what's coming up in the world of digital in 2013' into Google. So clearly I feel like I should have an opinion on the subject. The last couple of trend reports I read didn't really inspire me. They tend to make broad generalisations about how marketing needs to be more consumer focused and more honest or how we'll all be using tablets a bit more. When chatting about what the next big thing will be, one phrase really jumped out at me (mainly because I had to study  Donald Norman  at university) - "2013 will be the year of the invisible computer". So what does this mean? For me it is a recognition that computing has matured to the point that people can reasonably incorporate the kind of advanced functionality previously only available to techies and early adopters into almost every facet of their lives. Connected devices (basically anything that makes use of or interacts with other, normally internet enabled, devices) are becoming the norm. We expect our TVs to connect to our home wireless networks. In fact we expect them to connect to our portfolio of social media and internet platforms, seamlessly and with minimal configuration. We expectto have access to internet banking and to be able to monitor our electricity consumption from our work laptops. Wedemand that our phones should be able to access Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email, Amazon and YouTube. The computer has become invisible, because we don't use computers any more, we use applications.  Computers are finally invisible. We all carry around multiple devices that can communicate with each other and the internet. They are often bluetooth and wifi enabled or will make use of  near field communication  (NFC) technology to communicate with other smaller (and often passive) objects about our person and in our immediate vicinity (for example Nike plus). Suddenly the shelves of sports shops (and the virtual shelves of Amazon) are filling up with wristbands that can monitor blood pressure and heart rate. Enthusiasts are creating devices with technologies like Arduino and Raspberry Pi that can enable computers to interact with almost anything in the real world (and report back to the virtual). Phones can now monitor your sleep patterns, advise you on your diet and exercise regimes and log it all on sites that can collate information from a variety of sources and tell you that.... you're tired and hungry? None of this is particularly new. What is new however, is the shift from computer (which is not simply the invisible glue that holds all this together) to the devices that gather the data and interact with the world we live in. For me 2013 is going to be about an explosion of connected devices. Beautiful little boxes, wearable items and silly gadgets that connect seamlessly (and invisibly) with our online life -monitoring (and life controlling) platforms. I don't predict that everyone is going to wake up on June 1st and buy an Arduino and make a thing that counts RSS mentions of the phrase 'Gluten Free'. However, I do think that we all now routinely carry around more computing power than was available to the Apollo space program (by several orders of magnitude) - and what the innovators of tomorrow are doing, is finding ways of interfacing the computers with the real world. Creating  IDE s for real life. If we (the digital marketing industry) are looking for a place in this evolving world of Digital/Real - then we need to think about ways of making use of all this real time data (or telemetry). But rather than looking at the technology and asking ourselves "how can we use it to sell stuff?" - we need to forget about the data and start asking ourselves "What problems and needs do people have?" and then see if there is a solution that can make use of this new technology. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/18/future-trends-2013 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/18/future-trends-2013 Fri, 18 January 2013 12:43:00 Ashley Nolan http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/15/don't-ever-stop-playing I recently attended WebDevConf 2012 in Bristol. The event had a number of excellent speakers but one talk in particular resonated with me; Syd Lawrence spoke passionately about the need for developers to keep playing in their work, urging those in attendance to "just get out there and make cool stuff".         It reminded me why I, and many others in the industry, choose to develop on the web; how creative a medium it is when we truly appreciate its freedom. After all, without the web it's unimaginable that a video of a cat playing the piano could be watched by over 27 million people (out of choice!). 'Making cool stuff' can seem like a waste of time to some, preferring to concentrate on projects with a clear tangible 'value'. I think this misses the point somewhat. The best ideas we have come out of our experiences and what we learn from them. It's so much easier to see the potential uses of a technology if you spend some real time getting hands on with it.  The best in our industry don't become the best by standing still when they get there. In his talk, Syd showed one of his best known hacks - instac.at - which simply grabs images from Instagram, which are tagged as being cat related.  What started as a cat related hack has now been re-skinned for over 15 clients, grabbing and retrieving related images for large scale image walls. This shows that, irrespective of the initial use case, the main thing is to dive straight in; the true value may come later. So where to start?  The sheer amount of technology out there at the moment can make it hard to know where to focus our efforts. For those short on time, fire up your text editor of choice and you can get hands on with advanced CSS3 within minutes. Features such as 2D and 3D transforms, animation and transitions make it relatively simple to put some beautiful effects together quickly. For something more practical, take a look at some of the new layout features such as FlexBox.  If you need any help with basic syntax and structure, take a look at Mozilla's excellent MDN online resource, which should be more than enough to get you started.  Not that into front-end technologies?  Pick an API you're interested in and think of any basic hook to get you started.  They (almost) all have pretty solid documentation and you'll be surprised at how quickly you can make inroads into them.  Just briefly working with a service will give you a good idea of its potential. Want something completely different?  Go and buy yourself an Arduino or Raspberry Pi and really get hands on; the potential uses for such a simple piece of kit are pretty amazing. If you've got more than a couple of hours going spare, my advice would be to pick something you're really passionate about, not just a technology you think you need to know about.  It can be hard to apply yourself if you are doing this in your free time - just ask any creative about redeveloping their blog or portfolio for example – but if you're interested enough in what you're putting together, chances are you'll keep coming back to it. It's always good to remember that to be an expert in all aspects of the web is impossible.  If you're really into your CSS, you don't have to put together something in WebGL just because that's what people are talking about right now.  Sometimes the best tech demos are simply unique combinations of techniques that on their own are fairly ordinary. Your work could just be to scratch a personal itch to try out something new, but if you do choose to make your demo public, remember that the code really doesn't have to be perfect.  It's a demo, not client work and the fact you may be spending your own time on it allows you some freedom.  Hacking something together is more about you getting hands on with the technology, not about how pretty the code looks. Ultimately if you take one thing away from reading this, ensure you never stop playing in what you do; it has a funny way of coming in useful somewhere down the line. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/15/don't-ever-stop-playing http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/15/don't-ever-stop-playing Tue, 15 January 2013 11:46:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/14/performance-analytics-and-the-future-of-pitching Never short of an opinion on how to achieve high performance, Sir Clive Woodward is always worth listening to. His recent article in The Sunday Times on ‘in game analysis’ sparked a thought on how this kind of approach might one day be applied to the sometimes random art of pitching. Performance analytics is the new term according to Woodward. The art of predicting what will happen in a match and doing so in real time, based on gathering data as events unfold. But how might this work in the world of pitching? Most of Woodward’s analysis comes from video feedback on individual players overlaid with GPS data, be it via the now well-known Prozone statistical package used by most football and rugby clubs or the less well known Dartfish technology, which was used extensively by Team GB in this year’s Olympics.  Given that most pitches don’t involve inordinate amounts of running around - at least not in the actual meetings – how could this help business performance? Well if you take a desire to be better than your competitors through enhanced use of technology and data as your key outcome here, the possibilities become way more interesting. Simply having live video footage of any presentation is a great start. How many times have you wondered how everyone is reacting whilst you and colleagues are presenting. Imagine if you could have someone analysing body language, facial expressions and pupil dilation rates, and feeding back to you via a simple ear piece? The ultimate ‘pitch coach’ who needn’t even be in the same room. It would also help with post pitch analysis – particularly with a view to amending subsequent presentations. Would clients agree to being filmed? Perhaps not all, but having recently pitched to an international audience via web conferencing it’s not really a huge step to ask to record as well broadcast. But why stop there? Whilst sports coaches sometimes apply GPS tags to players’ shirts in training one can envisage a time when Neuroscience headsets improve to the point where a simple sensor (perhaps in the form of a ring or patch) could be easily applied to willing clients. In the interests of continuous improvement what client wouldn’t be at least fascinated by their own brain’s responses to concept stimuli? At the very least it should be relatively straightforward to monitor body temperature and blood flow as proxy measures of emotional and rational responses.  Imagine how useful this kind of feedback data would be in your next tissue meeting! Does this feel far-fetched?  Well perhaps, but one thing is for sure – we have to find a more efficient way of clients selecting agencies. If only we had the equivalent of a Nate Silver as an intermediary – the statistician without any political background who correctly predicted the winner of all 50 states in the US presidential election.  Imagine if via a combination of case study analysis, personality profiling and video analysis your next pitch outcome could be predicted with even half as much accuracy.  It would certainly save a lot of pain, money and marriages! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/14/performance-analytics-and-the-future-of-pitching http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/14/performance-analytics-and-the-future-of-pitching Mon, 14 January 2013 11:37:00 Julie Roberts http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/11/six-steps-to-achieving-marketing-effectiveness-in-2013 Big data may be one of the marketing industry’s hottest topics but unless you’ve nailed your marketing effectiveness strategy, you’re not going to get the most out of your data. Drawing on my not inconsiderable industry experience it’s surprising how many agencies and clients do not anchor their work firmly in clear, measurable results. In a bid to keep moving in this incredibly competitive market we often justify the lack of taking time to stand still, take stock and evaluate what went before with the excuse that we have to keep moving.  It’s true that momentum is useful, adaptation is essential and dogs are not just for Christmas, however, in the world of commerce (and not-for-profit), numbers are king. In order to know where you want to go next it’s useful to know that where you’ve just been didn’t work, or did, as the case may be. Here are six simple steps for achieving marketing effectiveness. 1) What savings do we have in the bank? If you’ve started to keep an archive of results – well done.  You’d be surprised how many organisations don’t keep their marketing activity results in one place – accessible to all and relatively simple to search. This is the first place to look and compare the last campaign against your current activity. Tedious as it may be it will be worth the effort and time.  If you don’t have any results try looking in Wikiresults (you wish). 2) What happened last time? I’m sure everyone is familiar with PDCA (Plan, Do, Check (or study), Act) (1). This is a great framework to ensure that analysing what you’ve just done has made an impact against the specific criteria you wanted to affect. Refer to previous reporting i.e. dashboards, campaign results spreadsheets, results presentations, campaign evaluation forms, case studies – whatever form the last set of activity was reported in will be useful. Ideally one or more of these formats will have come with helpful insights too – if they haven’t you need to take a look into this. Reporting needs actionable insights and implications. Take a leaf out of Mr Kaushik’s excellent blog (Occam’s Razor) and apply the 10/90 percent rule (2) :  •          “Cost of analytics tool & vendor professional services: £ 10. •          Required investment in "intelligent resources/analysts": £ 90. •          Bottom-line for Magnificent Success: It’s the people”. 3) Drawing out the map Before starting anything, set your KPIs . Why start running if you don’t know where the finishing line is yet, or even if you’re in the right event. KPIs should reflect your business objectives and ideally, if you have previous results (for comparable activity), you should aim to set some targets i.e. goals which prove this batch of activity will at least be performing as well as, if not better than, the last campaign. This is how you start to build up what are known as your ‘banker’ items i.e. those (e)mailing lists, online advertising sites, key search words and phrases, influential blogs, creative work etc that have provided you with the best results so far.  Moving forward the aim is to constantly strive to beat the bankers. If you didn’t do any testing last time, ensure you do it this time. If you haven’t done it before start off with simple A/B testing and move on to more advanced forms once you become familiar with it. If this is the first time you have executed a certain piece of activity then it will be more difficult to set targets. However, you canset benchmarksand use these as proxies until you start to build up your results base. Benchmarks for similar activities in similar industry verticals can be found via white papers, case studies and guidelines published by industry bodies. The trade press are also great sources of case studies for campaigns with published results which can also be a way of finding out results of comparable competitor marketing activity. At this stage it’s also wise to define the outputs you need once you start reporting . Referring once again to Avinash Kaushik’s advice be clear who the audience will be for the reports and decide whether they only need reporting or whether they need analysis too ( 3) .  How many levels of stakeholders will there be and what reporting formats are most suitable for each layer? It’s likely senior management will want a handful of well-defined metrics presented   dashboard style with two or three actionable insights, provided weekly or monthly, whilst the day-to-day operational team are likely to need detailed campaign reports on a daily or weekly basis as the campaign unfolds, possibly supplemented with an online (real-time) dashboard and a comprehensive presentation (final campaign wrap-up). 4) Final checks before lift-off Just before the campaign goes live someone needs to be responsible for checking that all the key mechanisms for reporting and analysis are in place and working properly. Here we’re talking about tagging (for digital activity) and use of meaningful campaign codes. If your activity includes the creation or adaptation of a website then ensure the web analyst is passing on key metrics and insights from previous web reporting to the UX specialist. GO LIVE! 5) Reporting and Analysis outputs Everything should have been put in place, prior to go live, which then enables reports to kick-in at the right moment, so that timely results are produced without a last minute panic. Whilst preparing the insights this is the moment for the analyst to discuss any key points or issues directly with the marketing or business owner. As analytics blogger Michael Notté remarks “I can go to talk with the digital campaign manager (and not just sending an email with figures) in order to share the insights.  At this point it is up to the manager to decide (what action to take). My role is not to tell her how she should do her job - I would not dare to - but to provide her with insights so she can take data-informed decisions.” ( 4) These types of discussions with the wider marketing team are crucial as they provide the necessary business context into which these results need to fit. 6) Big Data and the sexiest job in the 21st century If you are already implementing the five stages (and hopefully you are – as these are the basics of providing robust measurement), then you’re no doubt already keeping an eye on analytical and measurement memes. As the latest Harvard Business Review (5) issue (focused on ‘Big Data’) puts it “if the information most critical to your business resides in forms other than rows and columns of numbers, or if answering your biggest question would involve a “mashup” of several analytical efforts, you’ve got a big data opportunity”. And, echoing Mr Kaushik’s point from earlier “Much of the current enthusiasm for big data focuses on technologies that make taming it possible … (i.e.) related open-source tools, cloud computing, and data visualization. While those are important breakthroughs, at least as important are the people with the skill set (and the mind-set) to put them to good use …” – enter the ‘Data Scientist’. That stage, however, is for another day. References 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA 2 Kaushik A, Web Analytics 2.0, (2010). Wiley Publishing Inc. 3 http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/the-10-90-rule-for-magnificient-web-analytics-success/ 4 http://www.kaizen-analytics.com/ 5 http://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/ar/1 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/11/six-steps-to-achieving-marketing-effectiveness-in-2013 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2013/01/11/six-steps-to-achieving-marketing-effectiveness-in-2013 Fri, 11 January 2013 00:00:00 Charlotte Thornton http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/21/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler-–-a-christmas-special Christmas in adland is a time for fun, not frowns. And while ‘tis the season to be jolly, we’re all guilty of scrooge-like behaviour now and again. Here lay the seven cardinal sins of Christmas; take heed and enjoy the festivities, or ignore and face killing the seasonal spirit! 1. Gluttony Sitting at your desk with your top button undone on a drip feed of Quality Streets will only leave you feeling lethargic and bloated. So while fending off the team feeder can be tricky, next time they appear over your shoulder, make sure you’re armed with satsumas. They’re perfect to shove in your mouth, or hit off their head. 2. Greed Budgets for Secret Santa are as tight as December retainers, so being sour faced about the A5 notebook of recycled paper your boss gave you is somewhat ungrateful. I believe there’s a smile every young adult puts on, the year they receive a blender for Christmas. Wear it graciously, and hope for Miniature Heroes next time. 3. Wrath Losing your belongings is really annoying, but losing your temper will only make things worse. Somewhere in the world there is a winter magpie with expensive taste. He owns a vast collection of odd gloves, discarded umbrellas, the occasional digital camera and an array of mobile phones. Until said Magpie is located, stop leaving them on trains, get insurance and extend your Christmas list.  4. Lust Christmas parties are great opportunities to make your office crush known (even to yourself). However, if you are just bored or drunk, it could be horrifically awkward and embarrassing for all involved. Ask yourself the question, ‘do you actually fancy them?’ If so, crack on – although investigating marital status prior to pulling is also advisable. 5. Sloth When you’ve been knee-deep in Christmas planning since May, decking the halls in November is never appealing. Nevertheless, failing to get into the Christmas spirit makes you the team Grinch. No one’s asking you to hang tinsel off the ceiling singing Wham whilst wearing a garish Christmas jumper with flashing LED lights. A smile and a Santa hat will do. 6. Envy The month of December brings award ceremonies and internal commendation. Try not to be jealous if you’re not voted ‘the cleverest, most hard working and beautiful person with the best bum in the agency’. If you’ve worked hard all year, then you’ve got nothing to prove to the people that matter. At the end of the day, your mum will still think you’re the best thing since sliced bread. 7. Pride  Having some pride is key to elevating your status at work, but being too proud for fancy dress is key to people thinking you’re a bit boring and pompous. That said, when you’re roaming the streets of Notting Hill after the Christmas party, dressed as the White Rabbit with a cigarette hanging out your mouth and Wonder Woman on your arm, having pride enough to bring a coat or book a taxi comes highly recommended. So, bear these tips in mind to avoid the cardinal sins. It might just make for a merrier Christmas all round! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/21/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler-–-a-christmas-special http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/21/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler-–-a-christmas-special Fri, 21 December 2012 09:58:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/18/sparks-fly-in-tmw-christmas-card http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/18/sparks-fly-in-tmw-christmas-card http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/18/sparks-fly-in-tmw-christmas-card Tue, 18 December 2012 17:04:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/17/nissan-e-zines-are-built-to-thrill TMW has launched a series of e-zines as part of the Nissan Juke ‘Built to Thrill’ campaign. Targeting existing and prospective Nissan customers, the Juke e-zines feature a range of exclusive content, driving to a dedicated ‘Built to Thrill’ hub. The content includes information about exhilarating events and experiences, which have been designed by the world’s only thrill engineer Brendan Walker, as well as special offers and news stories. Recipients are invited to take the ‘Thrill Test’ to determine their ‘Thrill Profile’ and be in with a chance of winning a range of prizes, including the world’s only Dark Knight Rises Juke Nismo. The e-zines form part of an integrated campaign which runs until March 2013. Inspired by adventure sports, the Juke model is ‘built to thrill’ and the experiences featured throughout the different elements of the campaign reflect the car’s adventurous nature. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/17/nissan-e-zines-are-built-to-thrill http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/17/nissan-e-zines-are-built-to-thrill Mon, 17 December 2012 15:03:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/flora-launches-‘reindeer-races’-facebook-app This week, Flora launched its first digital game ‘Reindeer Races’ on its branded Facebook page. Developed by TMW, the game invites fans to back one of nine reindeers in a festive race. Winners are then entered into a prize draw for the chance to win one of fifteen 360 + Kinect bundles or their new Flora Cuisine cookbook. There will be three prize draws in the run up to Christmas giving fans plenty of opportunities to take part. The game was built in HTML5 allowing it to work across all mobile and desktop devices. You can play the game here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/flora-launches-‘reindeer-races’-facebook-app http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/flora-launches-‘reindeer-races’-facebook-app Fri, 14 December 2012 16:05:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/lynx-launches-the-first-unilever-uk-html5-game Lynx is now letting fans put their Lynx Effect to the test with the launch of its first HTML5 game in the UK. Managed by TMW, the campaign forms part of Lynx’s continual social content strategy and marks the first digital game to be launched by a Unilever brand in this region. The new HTML 5 game-play is designed to work across all mobile and desktop devices, so Lynx fans can play on the go. The game went live on the popular Lynx UK and Ireland Facebook page, a social media brand portal that has already broken new ground for Unilever UK this year – being the first to achieve 1 million ‘Likes’.* You can play the game here . * The Lynx UK & Ireland Facebook page was the first Unilever UK brand to achieve over 1 million ‘Likes’, Summer 2012 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/lynx-launches-the-first-unilever-uk-html5-game http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/14/lynx-launches-the-first-unilever-uk-html5-game Fri, 14 December 2012 11:20:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/10/celebrating-christmas-with-sainsbury’s For many of us, it's not solely the Christmas turkey lunch on the 25th that gets us really excited about Christmas. It's seeing the out-of-bounds top shelf in the pantry begin to fill with chocolates, crisps and prosecco, the 'excuse to sip mulled wine on a school night' and 'keeping the present you originally bought your sister because you love it so much' moments that makes this time of year truly special. In fact, it's these universal idiosyncrasies that form the insight behind the Sainsbury's 2012 Christmas Days Campaign. Through a series of TVC's, radio ads, press, outdoor, online, email, social and direct mail, 'Christmas Days at Sainsbury's' highlights a collection of quintessential Christmas moments that make up the days leading up to Christmas. From 'Go on, open the chocolates early' Day to 'Will the lights still work?' Day, the campaign celebrates everyday moments that make Christmas special. This year TMW worked as part of an inter-agency team to ensure the smooth transition of the big idea from planning to execution. Specifically, TMW led the targeted customer communication elements of the campaign. This included the planning, design, content development, build and broadcast of a five week Christmas email campaign and the strategy, concept development, design and production of a series of DM packs, each targeting a different sector of the notoriously competitive retail market in order to drive sales over Christmas. To celebrate the launch of the campaign (and the many months of work preceding this) the TMW Sainsbury's team hosted a special Christmas afternoon in the agency. On 27th November, we transformed a corner of the agency into a Sainsbury's Christmas Wonderland. Aided by teaser emails, candy cane desk drops and posters, everyone in the agency was invited to view the work TMW had produced and toast the launch with mugs of home-made mulled wine. As well as being treated to a mountain of mince pies, tasty truffles and Christmas cake, we challenged our colleagues to take the Sainsbury's 'Taste the Difference' taste test. To top off the afternoon, we held a raffle for everyone who had brought along their numbered tags given out as part of the desk drop. Staying true to the campaign the prizes up-for-grabs were identical to the key food products featured in press, online and email. Third prize was a box of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Belgian Milk Chocolate Marc de Champagne truffles, and upping the ante, second prize was four bottles of the multi-award winning Taste the Difference Prosecco Congeliano. Leaving the best until last, first prize was the one and only Taste the Difference Freedom Food Free Range Norfolk Black Turkey. Overall the afternoon was a great success and left many of us feeling very merry (aside from the cleaners who found mince pies in places mince pies have never been before). By Daria Willis, Campaign Manager, TMW http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/10/celebrating-christmas-with-sainsbury’s http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/10/celebrating-christmas-with-sainsbury’s Mon, 10 December 2012 12:32:00 Victoria White http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/07/understanding-young-shopper-behaviour-is-key-for-brands We all know that shopper behaviour has changed immeasurably over the last few years but have marketers kept up in terms of how and where they talk to shoppers?  Arguably not.  The economic climate, the rise of the digital native and the volume of information and customer reviews available means that young people today are forming shopping behaviours that brands may struggle to understand and influence. To address this issue, TMW teamed up with Marketing Sciences to carry out research into Generation Y’s attitude towards shopping. The results make for interesting reading. Generation Y is investing a lot of time in making purchase decisions. We saw a distinct lengthening of the purchase journey with periods of both pre and post purchase rationalisation.  They are looking for products which fulfill their rational need for value, allowing them to justify their expenditure, though they are happy to pay a bit more for convenience.  This has meant that they are forming a wide consideration set of brands and so are slower to form loyalty to specific brands than previous generations of shoppers. Say hello to the Considered Consumer – cautious, questioning, savvy, demanding and willing to take their time. As today’s youth becomes tomorrow’s main grocery shopper, brands must act now to understand how their brand can be part of a young shopper’s purchase portfolio.  We think there are four key areas to consider. Firstly, with the rise of social proof, brands need to ensure they are part of young shoppers’ conversations.  We know the Considered Consumer will spend more time than previous generations reading reviews and comparing prices. Brands should use this to respond to their cautious behaviour and help them reach a purchase decision.  Being part of an online conversation can make all the difference when it comes to making a sale. Secondly, Considered Consumers are looking for rational reasons to justify their purchases. They need clear value based signposts to help them along their journey.  Highlighting product features which are pertinent to their lifestyle will impact on their behaviour. Thirdly, brands must embrace the multi-channel world of retail. The trick is to understand which channels are the most influential and which might inhibit purchase. Finally, they should think about how they can create a two way dialogue with their younger shoppers.  Brands should talk to young shoppers about their products and ask them why they buy.  How would they improve a product? What changes might they make?  Inviting them to engage with the brand could create ambassadors worth their weight in gold.  In short, the Considered Consumer may be a challenge but thought and preparation now will provide a platform to create meaningful future shopper relations. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/07/understanding-young-shopper-behaviour-is-key-for-brands http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/07/understanding-young-shopper-behaviour-is-key-for-brands Fri, 07 December 2012 00:00:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/05/tmw-scoops-5-dma-awards-for-lynx-and-nissan-gb-campaigns TMW has picked up five DMA Awards at a ceremony which took place on 4 th December at Old Billingsgate in London. The agency was awarded for its work with Unilever’s Lynx brand and Nissan GB. The ‘Lynx Attract for Him and for Her online launch’ campaign picked up an award in the FMCG and Best launch campaign categories, while the ‘Lynx Masterbrand Activity’ scooped a prize for the Best brand building campaign and Best use of social media for brand building. TMW and Indicia’s ‘Your 2 nd Nissan’ work won a prize in the Automotive category. Chris Freeland, chief operating officer, TMW comments: “The DMAs are one of the highlights of the awards calendar and we are delighted to have been recognised in five different categories. This is the second year running that we have picked up DMA Awards for our work with Nissan GB and Lynx, which makes this achievement even more special.” TMW’s success at the DMAs follows a recent win at the International Content Marketing Awards, where the agency was awarded Best digital content solution (B2B) for its work with Diageo’s The Reserve Club. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/05/tmw-scoops-5-dma-awards-for-lynx-and-nissan-gb-campaigns http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/05/tmw-scoops-5-dma-awards-for-lynx-and-nissan-gb-campaigns Wed, 05 December 2012 17:21:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/04/fear-not,-innovate-and-thrive With innovation being the word on every marketer’s lips, Fear, faith & fortune, a day of talks organised by the DMA on a crisp November morning, was a timely opportunity to chew the cud with our marketing peers. Here are some of our key learnings. Innovation is… From the world according to cash-back site Quidco, to M&S’ game-changing Plan A business model, speaker after speaker landed the point that innovation comes in lots of shapes and sizes, only occasionally involves technology and even less often is something entirely new. Don’t set out to innovate In order to reposition M&S as the country’s most environmentally friendly retailer, the company embarked on a model that innovated at every level of its business, from charging for plastic bags to assessing the sourcing of ingredients in its food. The key learning is that you shouldn’t set out to innovate but rather to solve a business challenge. Innovation comes from seeing things differently Apple, a company that is regularly held up as being the most innovative in the world, has the motto “Think different”. So it’s no surprise that a common theme from the day was about seeing things differently. Dr Mike Addison from Procter & Gamble (P&G) told a tale of using the same cheap technology that Chupa Chups uses to make motorised lollipops to create affordable electrical toothbrushes. Innovation is as much about flipping an existing idea on its head as it is creating something entirely new. Customers are changing the way we innovate You’ve heard of open-source. Well say hello to open innovation. In essence, this is the growing acceptance from big and small companies of the importance of customers in innovation. Whether it is Beta-testing a new website (Quidco) or inviting customers to suggest innovations via the corporate website (P&G), drawing on the enthusiasm of brand fans and budding inventors are just two of the ways companies are taking advantage of consumers’ desire to collaborate and co-create. What can agencies learn from open innovation? Have the confidence to include customers earlier on in the development of ideas. As David Ogilvy once said “The consumer is not a moron; she’s your wife.” Questioning everything drives innovation Questioning even the most basic assumptions can lead to incredible innovation. For months, P&G’s R&D team had tried to recreate the expensive teeth whitening solutions offered by dentists in a product that could be used at home. That is until one person pointed out that people aren’t buying a teeth whitening solution, they are buying a better smile. Whitening the front teeth is a much simpler problem to fix, and enabled P&G to ship a simple and affordable solution soon after. If we took anything away from these talks it was that you need to take the time to question what you are doing and why. Innovative thinking needs backers Innovating is as much about driving ideas through as it is about coming up with them. Adam Elman from M&S talked about how there was support from the very top of the company when implementing their Plan A for sustainable business, even though there was the expectation that the project would be incredibly expensive to run. When that support isn’t around externally, individuals themselves need to learn to fight to push things through. The founders of Quidco were going against the industry norm when they created their 100% cash-back service, but believed in it strongly enough that they persevered against the odds. Similarly, Wayne Hemmingway has consistently been able to innovate in areas as diverse as fashion design and affordable housing construction in no small part due to his perseverance and belief that things can and should be better. From an adland perspective, it’s not just about coming up with innovative ideas; it’s also about being able to sell them to your clients. You can have the most innovative ideas in the world, but if you can’t get a client to buy them then they aren’t worth the paper (or more likely powerpoint) they are written on. In part it’s about having good clients in the first place, but just as importantly it’s about having a good enough relationship with them so that they trust you to try something new. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/04/fear-not,-innovate-and-thrive http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/04/fear-not,-innovate-and-thrive Tue, 04 December 2012 12:33:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/03/tmw-celebrates-a-christmas-‘day’-with-sainsbury’s To celebrate the launch of the 2012 Christmas Days at Sainsbury’s campaign, TMW’s Sainsbury’s team hosted a festive gathering at the agency. With mince pies, mulled wine and chocolate truffles on offer, it’s no surprise the event was a huge success. The Taste the Difference taste test and the raffle both proved popular, with the top prize being a Christmas turkey. TMW delivered the direct mail and email elements of the Christmas Days at Sainsbury’s campaign, which runs throughout the festive season. The TMW Taste the Difference taste test goes down a treat! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/03/tmw-celebrates-a-christmas-‘day’-with-sainsbury’s http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/12/03/tmw-celebrates-a-christmas-‘day’-with-sainsbury’s Mon, 03 December 2012 15:57:00 David Llewelyn-Jones http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/26/can-great-creative-work-change-perceptions-of-the-finance-sector Capitalism has come in for a bit of a knocking of late, not helped by a recent poll stating 51% of top financial services executives think businesses should just be about making money. Can marketers help shift perceptions of the driving force of capitalism, the finance sector? From the outside looking in, it would be difficult to say that some of the wounds are not self-inflicted. Multiple fiascos have led to much head-shaking and hand-wringing within the industry. The furore has ceased to abate as politicians score cheap points by blaming bankers, and lionised institutions like Goldman Sachs suffer massive public relations disasters (including a part ownership of a media platform promoting a prostitution ring ). So the image of finance is indisputably tarnished right now and marketers are trying to change this, in different ways. Many Western financial institutions have been around for a while; the symbolism of such longevity can serve as a valuable asset for brands. Coincidentally, this year sees Citigroup – while dealing with its turbulent present – celebrate its 200 th anniversary . They’ve had a broad above-the-line campaign celebrating their place in history, putting their relative achievements – helping fund the building of the Panama Canal – alongside other important moments in time. Citi also have their eye on the future too, making a concerted push in areas of sustainability, recently managing to become the first bank to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for 200 projects from the U.S. Green Building Council. The question is whether leveraging history and sustainability – both of which arguably convey a sense of trusted consistency, rather than reckless risk-taking – with advertising can help address a serious deficit in consumer affinity for the finance sector. Does it even matter? If we assume banker-bashing is an irrational emotion, and the whole sector is tarnished with the same brush, how much sway does it have over the rational part of our brain that must decide where and how to invest our money? Several banking brands rely on the prestige of their historical affiliations, and have found themselves no safer from customer ire. It can be hard to seek engaging differentiation in a commoditised industry where the power of switching costs can play a strong role. A PwC report from July summarises, “Many consumers remain loyal due simply to the absence of a negative because it is often easier to put up with something that is less than perfect than go to the trouble, and potential expense, of switching”. So what else can be done to wake potential customers from this inertia? It’s interesting to see Morgan Stanley take a decidedly more personal tack, with a new campaign , “What If?” Shifting focus away from the company as a faceless monolith, the WSJ said the aim is to make the company seem “like your neighbourly [sic] stock picker”. The creative itself is beautiful, showcasing professional types with aspects of business and social responsibility framing their translucent faces. It attempts to convey a personalised and considerate attitude that includes but also goes beyond profit-making. It broadly taps into themes in a new book. “Positive Linking”, by Paul Ormerod, sets out to dismiss the outdated notion that people are driven by personal, “rational utility maximisation” and instead claims they are more interested in aiding the network to which they belong, realising this will help them too. This in essence is a slightly less selfish form of capitalism. The problems with the world of finance are too numerous for this article. The crisis of confidence has begun to have an effect on recruiting , as MBA graduates turn their learned eyes to more reputable sectors. Although it may not seem like it now, customer perceptions of brands within this sector are malleable. Anyone that can position itself as an outlier in what is currently seen as a pernicious industry will have much to gain. The tail cannot wag the dog though. If these businesses are to change, they must back up their ambitions with operational changes that reduce risk and ensure profits sit alongside dedication to the broader lifestyle their advertising evinces. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/26/can-great-creative-work-change-perceptions-of-the-finance-sector http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/26/can-great-creative-work-change-perceptions-of-the-finance-sector Mon, 26 November 2012 15:29:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/22/gordon’s-launches-10-green-bottles-campaign To support the launch of a new collaboration between Gordon’s gin and Sir Terence Conran, TMW amplified the ’10 green bottles’ campaign. The campaign is based around the song and delivers 10 distinct designs, aimed at reinventing the iconic Gordon’s green bottle. TMW delivered an extensive update to the Gordons site, an email campaign launch and Diageo’s first Pinterest presence. Within the first four days of being live, the site received a month’s worth of traffic and engagement rates increased by 100% during the live period. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/22/gordon’s-launches-10-green-bottles-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/22/gordon’s-launches-10-green-bottles-campaign Thu, 22 November 2012 12:30:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/tmw-produces-persil’s-first-ever-iad Unilever’s Persil brand has recently launched its first ever iAd, providing a range of fun activities to help you get messy. Produced by TMW and built by Apple, the Get Messy iAd features four different tabs: Play, Free Stuff, Watch and Ideas, each offering a range of unique content. The Play tab leads to an interactive game featuring nine washing machines. The aim of the game is to keep all nine machines spinning at the same time to keep the clothes clean.  A host of indoor and outdoor ‘messy’ activities are suggested via the Ideas tab, with users having to shake their phone in order to access a new activity. The fun ideas include hand painting and building a lemonade rocket. Free Stuff includes top tips from Persil’s Stain Gang, which provides advice on how to get stains out of everyday items. Users can also download free colouring sheets for kids via this tab, while Persil’s latest TV ad can be viewed in the Watch section. TMW has also created four banner ads which drive users to different sections of the iAd. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/tmw-produces-persil’s-first-ever-iad http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/tmw-produces-persil’s-first-ever-iad Fri, 16 November 2012 15:03:00 Alex King http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/why-can’t-we-carry-brand-tone-of-voice-into-social-spaces The Condescending Corporate Brand Page on Facebook has given us all the chance to chuckle at ourselves self-depreciatively in recent weeks. And while not every post appearing on there is necessarily ‘condescending’, the page has undoubtedly shone a light on an issue that’s seriously troubling the industry – why on earth do so many brands continue to talk to their Facebook fans and Twitter followers as if they’re a bunch of illiterate eight year olds? OK, that’s a big overreaction – but this is a big problem, and it needs to be addressed before it spirals out of control. The main issue is less that these brands are so irritatingly patronising, and more that so few of them have even attempted to replicate their brand tone of voice in their social spaces. They talk with a consistent voice across every other channel – TV, direct, press, you name it. They’ve all got 900-page, leatherbound bibles on what their tone of voice is, and how important it is to them. Yet when it comes to Facebook or Twitter, that bible goes out of the window. And probably leaves a dent in the pavement. It’s somewhat understandable, as social spaces demand a more conversational tone than every other medium – but that doesn’t mean the essence of a brand should be sacrificed in order to achieve this. Unfortunately, for most brands, this sacrifice is currently happening – it’s an industry-wide case of failure to adapt. It’s hard though; of course it’s hard. We want likes, we want comments, we want shares – but we shouldn’t have to ask for them. We shouldn’t have to end every post with a question. And we shouldn’t use so many exclamation marks! But turning things around might be an easier task than it seems. Agencies should be challenged to give community managers the most thorough tonal education they can – but they should also bestow them with a level of freedom. Freedom to implement their own vision of what they think the social tone should be. To keep an edge, retain an identity – and stop their brands defaulting to the industry standard tone that’s so comically lampooned on the Condescending Corporate Brand Page. Perhaps most importantly, however, community managers need to be given some proper, regular facetime with those who know the brand inside-out creatively – be that copywriter, planner, account handler, or client. Surely, with a bit more regular collaboration between those who know the brand and those who know the social spaces, expertise can be swapped – and before we know it, we’ll be communicating with Facebook audiences the way we communicate with every other audience. Of course, this isn’t a fix-all solution. Firstly, words can only do so much. The content we push onto our social sites needs to do the bulk of the work itself. If we’re posting a dull stock-shot every day, the accompanying copy is destined to fail, very quickly, through no fault of its own. Then there’s the issue of cross-company collaboration – if a brand’s social channels are controlled by a different agency to their digital creative work, getting together for a quick catch-up becomes a whole lot harder. Another point to remember is that some brands already possess somewhat childish TOVs across other channels, because they deem it right for their audiences. These companies’ fans and followers may be less bothered about ‘Happy Whateverdayoftheweekitis!’-esque posts – but methinks they’d still appreciate a level of consistency across all media. These points aside, however, there’s no excuse for the way the majority of brands talk in their social spaces. If the exact tone of the brand in question can’t be replicated, the essence of what the brand stands for certainly should be. We should be trying a whole lot harder to sound more like the brand these fans know and love (and liked) – and less like Mary Poppins on speed. Follow me at @_alex_king_ or read my fledgling blog at copywhyter.com http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/why-can’t-we-carry-brand-tone-of-voice-into-social-spaces http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/16/why-can’t-we-carry-brand-tone-of-voice-into-social-spaces Fri, 16 November 2012 10:52:00 Chris Freeland http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/15/mike-phillips-wins-ticket-to-sxsw-2013-in-new-tmw-competition I am delighted to announce that the winner of the inaugural TMW SXSW (South by Southwest) competition is planner Mike Phillips. SXSW is an annual music, film and interactive conference and festival which takes place each Spring in Austin, Texas. After several weeks of extra work, time and effort involving a formal written submission and a final presentation (around a busy day job), Mike delivered an excellent, thorough and well-rounded response and will now be joining our technical director Guillaume and executive creative director Gareth in Texas next year. Many thanks also to the runners up – Marc Curtis, Marlen Lutter and Roo Williams – all of whom delivered strong presentations, making the judges’ decision very difficult. Well done guys – you should be very proud to have got to the final stage. Watch this space for what happens next as the journey to the big event starts very soon, with the opportunity for all of you to participate in shaping and sharing in the experience. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/15/mike-phillips-wins-ticket-to-sxsw-2013-in-new-tmw-competition http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/15/mike-phillips-wins-ticket-to-sxsw-2013-in-new-tmw-competition Thu, 15 November 2012 17:16:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/09/social-media-marketing-2012-coming-away-with-the-most-marbles I recently attended Our Social Times’ flagship annual event, Social Media Marketing 2012. I met some industry leaders (including the Andrex puppy and a man who flipped a Mini on the M5), gathered up a few golden nuggets of info and learned everything I never knew I wanted to know about baked beans over the course of a surprisingly entertaining 25 minutes. Now that some of the excitement has died down and I’ve had a bit of time to consider the day, there are some key takeaways as a community manager that I’d like to expand on. There was some discussion around the Facebook usage cycle of: Open Newsfeed -> Read Stories -> Engage (or not) -> Leave -> Repeat, and the fact that a brand’s page is not a destination in itself. Fans don’t (often) see other fans’ posts, and they rarely go out of their way to find your page. This is a problem for anyone trying to build a community since it restricts peer-to-peer engagement within your brand’s Facebook Timeline and focuses only on the content that your administrators post. This seems to be a problem inherent in the Facebook platform, and something which is difficult for brands to resolve on their own. There was also this gem of wisdom from Jeremy Waite, head of social strategy for EMEA at Adobe: “Advertising (like branding) is just about telling stories and whoever tells the best stories goes home with the most marbles.” Of course, this in itself is a quote from omnipresent AMC show Mad Men. Waite makes the point that we’re all innate storytellers, and social channels are simply a means to tell our stories to a wider audience. Despite the channel, even as technology evolves at an insanely fast pace, any communication is only as good as the idea behind it – and every great company or marketing campaign has always begun with a good idea. Alongside this is the idea that social media is a level playing field; social media success isn’t dictated by big budgets and you don’t need to out-spend your competitors to beat them. This is something that is easily forgotten, when there are such high-profile campaigns like Red Bull Stratos and Coca-Cola Skyfall getting so much coverage. We need to concentrate on telling the best stories. On a related note, a part of author Simon Sinek’s TED talk “ How great leaders inspire action ” was raised on the day. Specifically that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This was flagged in response to a question about what sort of content brands should be posting. It’s a fantastic talk and well worth a listen, really hammering home this idea of the best storytellers walking away with the most glass spheres. The final thing that really struck me from this meeting was the insight that there are over 2bn servings of Coca-Cola every day. Its global Facebook page has 52m likes. What’s the real, incremental value of those 52 million people? Much has been written on analysing the value of social media and its return on investment. Still, there’s no agreed industry standard or acceptance between agencies that this should be calculated in a particular way. Many have made leaps forward in doing this, but for the majority of brands – it’s still priority number one. By Alex Willimott http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/09/social-media-marketing-2012-coming-away-with-the-most-marbles http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/09/social-media-marketing-2012-coming-away-with-the-most-marbles Fri, 09 November 2012 11:51:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/looking-back-over-25-years-at-tmw November 2012 marks the 25 th anniversary of TMW, which was founded by Paul Tullo, Chris Warren and myself.  There are many positives to taking the plunge and starting your own business, but it’s not for the faint hearted. I came from a background in above the line, working at agencies such as FCB and Saatchi & Saatchi.  So the concept of giving up that security and having to live hand to mouth, with patchy client work, in a new discipline, was a significant challenge. As I look back, it’s fascinating to see how we’ve needed to evolve our agency and looking forward, how we’ll need to continue to adapt to ever increasing change.  In fact, it’s that ability to change that will be key to our continued success and something that must lie at the very heart of our business. The agency that we launched 25 years ago is, unsurprisingly, very different from the one we see today.  We launched as a direct marketing agency which was still a relatively new discipline at the time and although we worked in a siloed world, the proverbial ‘lines’ were already beginning to blur. This gave us the opportunity to further evolve the agency with a greater emphasis on more brand-led multi-channel creative.  We were also quick to learn that it takes great clients to help create great agencies and we’re fortunate to be working with some of the world’s most respected brands. Without doubt the single biggest change to our agency has been the growth of digital.  For agencies such as ourselves that have been mostly rooted in ‘offline’, it was both a challenge and a huge opportunity.  As digital has rapidly become the way in which many consumers choose to interact with brands, our ‘DNA’ in direct marketing has also been a valuable asset. It has also meant a fundamental re-engineering of the agency, from the skillsets we employ, to new processes and the variety of digital communication that we are now capable of creating. To reflect the continual evolution of our industry and the need for salience, we launched a fresh agency proposition which we call Intelligent Influence, along with a unique set of tools that we have developed around this to better engage with the connected consumer.  In some respects it’s been like turning the clock back and starting again, but this time with the benefit of all the knowledge and experience that we’ve built up over the past 25 years. Today, over 85% of TMW’s revenues are derived from digital.  But I’m old and wise enough to know that this isn’t really the end goal.  What’s never changed is that we’re in the business of creating great work whatever the medium and that’s the one constant that remains at the heart of the agency. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/looking-back-over-25-years-at-tmw http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/looking-back-over-25-years-at-tmw Tue, 06 November 2012 15:34:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/working-and-playing-hard-at-the-idn-forum,-dublin-2012 For as long as TMW creative director Mark Reddick can remember (so, really quite a long time), TMW has sent a team to the InterDirect Network’s annual Creative and Strategic Forum. As part of the younger contingent, we were delighted to be invited; though with no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. Our brief was simple: play hard, work harder. At the time, we didn’t quite realise how hard they meant on either count. We soon found out. As well as an agenda packed with workshops and talks, we were set a brief to re-invent and grow the brand of Riverdance. An Irish icon, but slowly fading, Riverdance needed an overhaul. Our challenge was to produce a new strategic and creative proposition in just 48 hours – a challenge we met by spending every spare moment huddled together in international, multilingual groups in various small corners of the hotel. Whilst working and playing (hard, obviously), we also managed to learn a huge amount along the way. Here are a few of our top tips and greatest insights: Guest speaker Kingsley Aikins talked of the value of networking. He spoke about ‘real networking’ being different from social networking. He believes that social networks are a way to maintain relationships, not make them. The proof? Within a few days of our return to London, 20 of the 60 people who attended the forum connected with us through Facebook or Linkedin. Our host agency displayed a uniquely positive attitude, showing us how they had changed the way they work to cope with tough conditions. From aiding other agencies to pitch for work to re-focusing on winning international business, they demonstrated how innovation and flexibility are key to survival. There are millions of rules for presenters, and it’s probably fair to say that at the IDN you have a pretty tough audience: a multicultural, multi discipline mish-mash from across the world of marketing. Those who managed to keep the crowd engaged had three things in common: they were concise and direct; they were visual; and they all had something interesting to say. At TMW, we regularly win awards for our great work – less often for our ability to prop up the bar. Marcus showed how it should be done, scooping the coveted Pineapple award (given to the delegate who manages to drink and work in equal and excessive proportions). Sometimes stubbornness and endurance do pay off. With all of these top tips in mind, we both envy and warn next year’s delegates – you will have a great time, but don’t expect an easy ride. The team left Ireland with a bundle of Riverdance memorabilia, a whacking hangover, all of the above learnings, a heap of new friends and a suitcase full of awards for TMW. We would certainly do it again! By Jack Verlander and Marcus Aitman. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/working-and-playing-hard-at-the-idn-forum,-dublin-2012 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/11/06/working-and-playing-hard-at-the-idn-forum,-dublin-2012 Tue, 06 November 2012 00:00:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/30/lynx-chaos-island-a-campaign-to-treasure Lynx didn’t need a reason to send a handful of fans to a Caribbean island for a party – but they did need a cool way to do it. And what’s cooler than a treasure hunt? Well, when the treasure hunt in question takes you across the Internet, rather than around your uncle’s garden, not a lot, actually. With seven pairs of tickets to give away, we decided to create six different treasure hunt journeys. The first person to reach the end of each one would win a pair of tickets – and everyone else who completed any of the journeys would have their name put in a prize draw for the seventh and final pair of tickets. With the strategic stuff ironed out, it was time for us to have some fun devising the treasure hunts from start to finish. Each journey needed to nod towards the TVC, be doable in around five minutes, and possess the competitive nature synonymous with traditional treasure hunts; but they also needed to vary in difficulty, content and platforms used. For the sake of brevity, I’ll explain one of the six treasure hunts in depth and let you know that the other five included, at various stages, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, YouTube, Google Maps, Tumblr, fake blogs, an online ninja school, lyric searching, Morse code translation, photo matching, infuriatingly-competitive HTML5 games and an unnamed colleague having to don a pink monkey suit – amongst other things. The fourth journey, like all the others, began with users having to collectively tweet #chasethechaos to release the first clue. To facilitate this, we built a Facebook mechanism which continually polled the Twitter API to update the ‘tweet-o-meter’ percentage – showing the fans different sections of video as the tweets rose and the clue came closer to being unveiled. Once the tweet gauge was fully filled, the first clue was revealed to our hunters. It simply said: ‘Lynx Attract: une video de chaos sur les planches a roulettes’. So what did our fans do with it? They stuck it into Google Translate, of course, the clever bunch. Translated, it read ‘Lynx Attract: a video of chaos on skateboards’ – prompting the wiser fans to search YouTube for said video, where they would eventually find a quirky skateboard video we’d whipped up. Hidden amongst the ollies and nollies was a sticker on a ramp advertising taninospizzas.com – the next stop on the journey. On this faux takeaway site, fans had to spot the desert island-themed pizza on the menu, which took them through to their final task – a parody DrawSomething game. The first player to correctly guess what the lovely lady in the video was drawing in the sand bagged themselves two tickets to paradise. Phew. You can see the journey in question here. Bet you wish I’d told you that before you read the previous paragraph. As the Lynx Facebook fanbase is more mobile-centric than most, it was a no-brainer that every step in every journey should be smartphone-optimised. Why should any of our users miss out on the chance to win tickets just because they were out and about? Every page, game and puzzle was built responsively with Mobile First methodology – which meant every extra plugin and high-res image had to be truly justified in its existence. The YouTube masthead we created to kick the campaign off with a bang also deserves an honourable mention – but I’m running perilously close to the word count, so I’ll let the video do the talking for sure this time. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s a YouTube banner being controlled by a smartphone. What an age we live in. So there you have it. Understandably, digital treasure hunt briefs don’t come in every day, and so the entire process was a steep learning curve – but I think I speak for everyone who worked on it when I say it was as much fun to produce as it was to take part in as a contestant. By Alex King and Zander Martineau http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/30/lynx-chaos-island-a-campaign-to-treasure http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/30/lynx-chaos-island-a-campaign-to-treasure Tue, 30 October 2012 00:00:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/24/tmw-turns-dragons'-den Competing teams of young business professionals. 48 hours to answer a creative brief set by an ad agency. The culmination of some crazy product ideas and slick presentations. Not The Apprentice but the summer challenge for the IDM Diploma in Direct & Digital Marketing set by TMW this week.  Though to be honest, the ideas for a new meat snack were so amazing, it felt more like Dragons’ Den than Lord Sugar’s lot. And had I had the cash I would have certainly been handing some of it over. In essence, we set the three teams a strategic challenge that most agencies (and some pretty big digital platforms) are grappling with these days. The hot potato that is the effectiveness of social media. To give them something to hang their thinking around we gave them the creative challenge of launching a new meat based snack via social media in a way that could be tracked. Oh and just to spice it up a bit, we gave them two days to crack it. And boy did they have a go! From Just Jerky to Saucy Sanchez, we were wowed by two new products aimed at the active urbanite. But, with my director of innovation hat on, I was blown away by Holy Elephant’s (Team 2) game-changing idea of using science pioneered by the army to launch the first snacks available in packaging that heats up the product while still in the bag. Under the creative positioning, ‘Bring out the caveman in you,’ it really got me reaching for my wad of cash. And spear. Amazing. And as for how they would track and measure effectiveness, well, that’s still underway. Suffice to say, all indications so far suggest that, coached by the likes of DM guru Brian Thomas and the IDM, the future of marketing is safe in the hands of the next generation. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/24/tmw-turns-dragons'-den http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/24/tmw-turns-dragons'-den Wed, 24 October 2012 14:02:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/19/tmw-cooks-up-a-tasty-campaign-for-flora Flora Cuisine is launching its first ever cookbook to reward its Facebook fans and create further engagement around the product. Produced by TMW and entitled 'Let’s get cooking! Everyday recipes by mums (and dads too!)', the book is made up of 30 crowd-sourced recipes, which were entered into a Facebook competition earlier this year. Flora brand ambassador Jean-Christophe Novelli had the difficult task of picking the top 30 from a total of 509 entries.  The cookbook is divided into four sections, ‘Everyday Easy’, ‘Staying in’, ‘Sunday Afternoon Baking’ and ‘Little Chefs’, with recipes ranging from Lamb Tagine to Banana Fudge Cake. The cookbook will launch alongside Flora’s new Twitter and Pinterest pages and 750 copies will be up for grabs on Facebook. In addition a free downloadable copy will be available on the Flora website or consumers can get them in Asda as part of a new on-pack promotion. TMW will be rolling out the digital and social media campaign to support the launch. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/19/tmw-cooks-up-a-tasty-campaign-for-flora http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/19/tmw-cooks-up-a-tasty-campaign-for-flora Fri, 19 October 2012 12:10:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/18/foster-chosen-to-lead-data-department-at-tmw TMW has appointed Anna Foster to the newly created position of data director, where she will oversee the data operations and the data planning and analytics teams. Foster will work across TMW’s spectrum of clients to ensure that data of all types is used to optimise campaigns and drive marketing strategy forward. Foster brings with her over 10 years of industry experience and joins TMW from MPG Media Contacts, where as head of data strategy, she launched the agency’s data strategy department and established a web analytics offering. Chris Freeland, chief operating officer at TMW comments, “After months of searching for the right person, I am delighted to welcome Anna to TMW. Her extensive knowledge and experience of all aspects of data make her the ideal candidate for this new role. With social media increasingly affecting the way we use and measure data, Anna joins us at incredibly exciting time and we are confident that she will make a big impact on our clients’ business.” Foster adds: “I am extremely passionate about generating insight from data and using it to deliver successful client campaigns. TMW’s constant ability to develop is what attracted me to this role and I am looking forward to working with the team to position data at the heart of everything the agency does and drive greater business intelligence for our clients.” http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/18/foster-chosen-to-lead-data-department-at-tmw http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/18/foster-chosen-to-lead-data-department-at-tmw Thu, 18 October 2012 10:33:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/10/how-global-overfishing-can-help-us-tackle-customer-loyalty I read a book recently. It’s called The Skeptical Environmentalist. It’s a few years old now but still quite controversial. It’s written by a pro-environmentalist professor of political sciences (Bjorn Lomborg) who uses ‘proper’ data analyses to comment on ‘the real state of the world’. If you’re interested in the environmental debate, I’d suggest you read it, albeit with a mind that’s wide open. But that’s a small aside. What I want to mention about this book is its crystal clear analysis of the state of the world’s fish stocks. Virtually every developed nation in the world has a commercial fishing fleet. And for the last 55 years the global fish catch has been in steady decline. In fact, it’s been predicted that we’re going to see the collapse of the world’s fisheries by 2048. The sad thing is we’ve been heading this way for a long time. Everybody knows this is a problem – from politicians to scientists to the global fishing industry itself - yet we’re paralysed by inaction. And here’s where I love the encapsulation of the problem that Lomborg offers: Because it’s everybody’s problem, it’s actually nobody’s problem. That is, no single organisation or nation is responsible for the state of the world’s oceans. It’s a free for all, as we try to catch what we can while we can from the ever-shrinking global fishing stocks, with a complete disregard for global implications. So what does this have to do with customer loyalty? I’ll go back to Lomborg’s statement above – because it’s everybody’s problem, it’s nobody’s problem. If we look at any brand trying to get their customers to buy from them again, and identify what impacts on that decision, we’ll find a long and complex list of emotional and rational factors. These range from how their current product has performed and how their complaint was handled last month, right through to how well their last email was tailored and how easy and affordable it is to buy again. Not to mention whether your current range of products can actually accommodate their new needs. If you put the names of departments against each of these ‘loyalty factors’, I’ll bet you’d end up naming most areas of your business. So, if there are many departments playing their part in driving customer loyalty, why do so few brands have cross-departmental ‘loyalty’ teams? Why, do most brands hunger for more loyal customers, yet simply rely on each department to ‘do their bit’ independent of each other? How can they expect loyalty to come from everywhere when nobody actually owns it? Surely a brand could do so much more if it pulled together a dedicated team of people from across the organisation to plan and deliver its approach to increasing customer loyalty? An approach that is joined up, visible and measurable, coming from an accountable team of people. An approach to an ‘everybody problem’, that actually comes from somebody. By Adam Knight, Senior Planner http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/10/how-global-overfishing-can-help-us-tackle-customer-loyalty http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/10/how-global-overfishing-can-help-us-tackle-customer-loyalty Wed, 10 October 2012 16:20:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/05/mums-have-moved-on,-isn’t-it-time-brands-did-too In the past, many marketing communications directed at mums have been misguided, depicting idyllic situations and outcomes that often don't resonate with the target audience and its aspirations. In some cases, the perception still seems to be that mums are living the dream, or at least wish to, with a spotless kitchen and 2.4 children. Certainly, this is a traditional approach, but is it what women really want? In a world where even fashion magazines are realising that using images of "real women" is more appealing, why are some brands selling this overdone and unrealistic dream to mothers and talking at them as if their lives and interests are limited to home, husband and children? With the explosion of social media, the role of the community manager is becoming increasingly central to engaging with a given target audience. Community managers that are targeting mums must remember that they are savvy, multi-faceted consumers with interests outside of being a mum and should be treated as such. They have high expectations of brands and often they manage the family purse when it comes to the weekly shop. While the brand message is, of course, critical, the tone of social media communications should not be underestimated. By following a brand, fans have already given it their approval, so content needs to be on tone more than on brand. The proliferation of smartphones means that consumers can access content any time, any place. This means that mums are becoming increasingly brand aware and critical of the patronising tone that some brands adopt. As women, but mothers in particular, often have a quick five minutes while they are waiting at the school gates or making their way home from work, snackable, sharable and humourous content and images are the ultimate aim of great content creation and the golden egg for community managers. This doesn't even have to be on brand or about the brand; quite the opposite! Varied content, be it nostalgic, topical or simply relevant to the lives of the fans will be far more interesting and engaging than a stream of posts solely about the brand. It's important to remember that mums are often looking to social media as an escape or quick time-filler, and posts that are snackable, relevant to their lives and fun will stop them from hitting the 'unlike' button. That's not to say that content should never be brand strong, but what the social media population doesn't want is to have products or services pushed at it all the time. Being a fan of a product on social media means, to most parents, and consumers in general, an outward demonstration to their friends that they approve of a brand and that what it has to say on social media channels is interesting to them. Following a brand should allow for an expectation of added value and should be a good mix of interesting information about the brand, and engaging content about other facets of people's lives. One other learning, as proven by my experience working on Flora, is that women really value being given a voice on social media. Asking them to share their own experiences, knowledge (recipes, pictures) is great for engagement, especially at a point in their lives where they might feel undervalued or unfulfilled. Being able to offer advice on a page where there are tens of thousands of fans is rewarding to them and builds brand loyalty. A simple share of something they have sent in, with a positive note attached, or agreeing and thanking them for their comments on a post can engender great engagement and loyalty. Having a named community manager can also work well for brands. For example, Flora's dedicated Flora mum acts as the social media face of the brand, which is something that fans can relate to. Adapting these top tips to your online community can make a huge difference to its success, whatever the target audience. In the case of marketing to mums, it's clear that mums have moved on, isn't it time brands did too? http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/05/mums-have-moved-on,-isn’t-it-time-brands-did-too http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/05/mums-have-moved-on,-isn’t-it-time-brands-did-too Fri, 05 October 2012 13:43:00 Charlotte Thornton http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/03/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler Whether you're a fresh faced graduate or the new big cheese, adapting to agency life can be tough. With unwritten etiquette and complex processes, you have to be extra perceptive to pave your way. So here are my top ten sneaky tips and odd little bits to help ease those agency growing pains… 1 - Bribery Never underestimate the power of a biscuit. From traffic managers to technologists, a decent biscuit, complemented with a cup of tea, can get you further than you think. I also hypothesise that the more expensive the biscuit, the more effective it is in achieving the desired result. 2 - Awareness Casually dressed management is rife these days, so don't be fooled by the quiet bloke inconspicuously warming up his lunch wearing a pair of converse. He's actually on the board and so eating cold beans out of the can in front of him is not OK. 3 - Friends with benefits Whether it's Jen from studio or Dave from IT, having a friend in every department comes highly recommended. When commas evaporate two minutes before deadline and Outlook's locked you out for the fifth time that morning, all you need is your bezzie's extension number and the job's a gooden! 4 - Preparation While we thrive under pressure, it's a well-known fact that printers do not. Never delay printing until five minutes before your meeting. The toner will run out, someone will print a 200 page annual report, and you will arrive late with the attractive complexion of a tomato. 5 - Emailing Handing in a dissertation titled 'History o fart' highlighted the real necessity of proofreading important documents - and nowadays emails. At the end of the day, spelling Lindsay four different ways, forwarding an email trail with 'can you deal with this muppet please?' to said muppet and copying directors into emails about the fit guy from Jo and the Juice is not wise. 6 - Grumpiness If people don't want to say good morning or make small talk in the kitchen about the new mugs, don't take it personally. It's not you; it's a project, client or two-year old insomniac. 7 - Managing finances If you had a pound for every time someone left, had a birthday or ran a marathon backwards in a Mankini playing a recorder, you'd be rich. But while you're not, don't feel pressured to part with your bus money. Also, you don't have to succumb to the hierarchy of take out. It's OK if you haven't got a spiced scallop and mango salad from Pret, a homemade tuna sandwich is perfectly acceptable and even quite retro! 8 - Client conversation From cats to Corrie, finding something in common with your client strengthens relationships and means no more awkward silences in lifts to meetings. Always steer clear of swearing, sexual references and how you spent Sunday with your face in the toilet because you went overboard on the vino at your Nana's 80th. 9 - Fridge Etiquette This shouldn't be the case, but let's face facts. If you leave your food loose in a fridge shared by a floor of hungry pitch workers, then there's a chance it'll get snaffled. Top tip - put your food in a closed identifiable bag, on the bottom shelf, towards the back. If it's still snaffled, try to refrain from sending all agency emails. No one will own up and people will think you're a bit of a whinge. 10 - Alcohol Consumption No matter how comfortable you feel, getting drunk on your first work night out is never a good idea. Remaining calm and considered while colleague's tongues around you loosen prevents any possible embarrassment, and gives you a key opportunity to get all the gossip. Of course once past your trial period, it's fair game to get more than a bit tipsy however if you only remember one thing, remember this - avoid senior staff members at all costs. Note to self, practise what you preach. Overall, agencies are supposed to be fun, fresh and innovative. While there will always be tears, tantrums and tremendous cock ups, with these exercises in personal risk management and a smile on your face, chances of the latter will hopefully decrease.   Written by Charlotte Thornton, Campaign Executive http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/03/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/10/03/secret-diary-of-an-account-handler Wed, 03 October 2012 16:25:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/27/diageo-launches-‘ask-dave’-drink-calculator Diageo has recently launched a drink calculator called 'Ask Dave', aimed at helping consumers make informed choices about alcohol. Created by TMW, the microsite calculates the number of units the user has consumed, the number of calories in each drink and the time it takes for the body to process the alcohol. The idea is to help users better understand the impact that alcohol has on their system and even includes some 'smart drinking tips' such as avoiding top-ups and drinking lots of water. The site is built to work across mobile, desktop and iPad, making it a responsive solution. Try it out for yourself here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/27/diageo-launches-‘ask-dave’-drink-calculator http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/27/diageo-launches-‘ask-dave’-drink-calculator Thu, 27 September 2012 09:45:00 Kate Wheaton http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/giving-more-control-to-consumers-can-hold-rewards-for-retailers About a hundred years ago, I did some research with a grocery retailer about 'scan it yourself' shopping - when you do all the hard work, scanning each item, packing your bags as you go and then whizz through the special checkout. What struck me at the time (apart from the fact that male shoppers loved showing off with the hardware) was that it wasn't just speed and convenience that mattered.  The killer benefit was that it gave people on a budget (everyone from mums to students) a way of avoiding that awful moment at the checkout when they realise they've spent more than they meant to. Now, we talk constantly about consumers being in control, but do we really mean it? So many businesses benefit when customers spend in a relatively uncontrolled manner or can't easily grasp how they use a product they pre-pay for, like a mobile tariff or a digital TV subscription or a packaged bank account.  Often, it feels that the needs of the customers fight head on with those of the business.  It takes an intelligent business to play for the long-term and recognise the value of putting customers more in control.  The type of utility that really benefits the customer, unambiguously and self-evidently - is still pretty rare amongst mainstream brands and retailers.   Fast forward to more research for a different retailer.  When we gave customers sight of digital tools that would enable them to understand and proactively plan and control their spend and to make savings where necessary - it was clear that the resulting high levels of loyalty and stickiness engendered would more than compensate for small, short-term losses in spend.  What are also lost are the feelings of inadequacy, guilt and lack of empowerment that the customer associates with overspending.  So that's a win for both parties. In my view, real utility that supports, empowers and inspires customers is worth a big bet or two. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/giving-more-control-to-consumers-can-hold-rewards-for-retailers http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/giving-more-control-to-consumers-can-hold-rewards-for-retailers Fri, 21 September 2012 00:00:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/king's-road-shoppers-predict-the-weather-with-tmw-window "Is it the end of the world?" "Is this the new ice age?" "Call this a summer? I want a refund." July 2012, a summer best remembered for flash floods, monsoon rain, high winds and also a great deal of speculating (read whining ) about what the weather will do next… In response to everyone guessing whether Wimbledon would be rained off or the Olympics would be overcast we decided to create a window display in our King's Road shop-front to playfully get people to guess what the weather would do next. Two custom-made capacitive touch sensors on the glass, one for sun, one for rain invited people to interact with them to guess the weather forecast. When the glass was touched a directional speaker above the window let out an almighty thunderclap or a heavenly sunshine sound. The person's weather prediction was added to a total which was displayed on a LED matrix screen and also sent out as a tweet via the data website Cosm. Creating a more theatrical and exciting interface between people and the web is what made this such a fun project. We learned a lot by making our window a connected web device. It has helped us demonstrate that the way we interact with the web is evolving - it's not just about mobiles and computers being online anymore, it's about everything being connected. The project which took two days from concept to completion uses the Arduino open hardware platform for the physical interactivity and PHP and processing to manage the tweets and audio.     http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/king's-road-shoppers-predict-the-weather-with-tmw-window http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/21/king's-road-shoppers-predict-the-weather-with-tmw-window Fri, 21 September 2012 00:00:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-uses-parallax-scrolling-for-new-brother-uk-campaign TMW has created an innovative approach to supporting Brother UK's range of printers. The site uses parallax scrolling, a technique which features layered images that move around the site at different speeds, creating a 3D illusion. The site, which has been built in HTML5, offers the user a highly personalised experience. On the labelling campaign page, users are asked to insert their name into a virtual printer; as they scroll down, the site showcases a variety of situations where the printer labels could be used. You can try the site out here :   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-uses-parallax-scrolling-for-new-brother-uk-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-uses-parallax-scrolling-for-new-brother-uk-campaign Tue, 18 September 2012 12:30:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-account-director-leads-the-way-in-inter-advertising-5k-run TMW's Clare Thurgood has won the LGN Inter Advertising 5k run (fastest female), which took place in Regent's park last Thursday 13 th September. Clare completed the race in 19 minutes and 24 seconds. Calling themselves the 'Insane Bolts', Clare was one of 15 TMW employees who took part in the race. The team has been in training since the Spring as part of the TMW running club. Congratulations to you all! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-account-director-leads-the-way-in-inter-advertising-5k-run http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/18/tmw-account-director-leads-the-way-in-inter-advertising-5k-run Tue, 18 September 2012 11:44:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/13/ed-howarth-returns-to-tmw-to-drive-infiniti-account TMW has appointed Ed Howarth as business director on the pan-European Infiniti account. Ed returns to TMW after a stint at Wunderman Interactive, where he worked on the Ford of Britain business. Prior to this Ed worked on Infiniti and was part of the original TMW team that launched the luxury automotive brand to the European market. Ed comments: "Infiniti has ambitious growth plans which have matured since I've been away from TMW. I'm really excited to be back and to be working on the business as it goes through the next exciting phase of its development. I look forward to the challenges ahead and applying a fresh perspective; using my auto experience to deliver effective ongoing activity as well as identifying new strategic opportunities." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/13/ed-howarth-returns-to-tmw-to-drive-infiniti-account http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/13/ed-howarth-returns-to-tmw-to-drive-infiniti-account Thu, 13 September 2012 14:17:00 Chris Buckley http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/11/how-social-commerce-might-just-save-social 2012 represents the largest investment by brands in social channels, technologies and platforms to date and the forecast for 2013/2014 is even larger. eConsultancy's most recent survey reports that 51% of companies changing their social media budget are planning to increase it by over 20% in 2013, with more than 9% doubling their budgets. (UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2012). According to the CIM's Social Media Benchmark wave two report, of the 2,000 UK and Western Europe marketers surveyed, 79% of them have brand twitter feeds, 69% are on Facebook, 66% are on LinkedIn, 60% are on YouTube, 53% have blogs, 25% have proprietary online communities and 22% have Google+. That's a lot of social media, but not necessarily a lot of understanding about its effect or value. From conference rooms to online forums, the same question is being asked, time and time again by brands and agencies alike - how should we measure the value of social? It's like Groundhog Day and the conversation doesn't appear to be moving on. Or is it? In Barclays' May 2012 Social Commerce report, it's forecasted that in the next five years, influenced sales (sales that have been positively influenced by word of mouth and social) will be worth £3.3billion, up from £1.4billion in 2011. That's a big number and probably why it's worth trying to hone your social strategy to achieve maximum efficiency, reach and engagement and to keep investing in social. How we perceive a brand as a consumer, our relationship with them and how we purchase them has fundamentally moved on and the rise of a more social and connected consumer sits at the centre of this change. But it's perhaps the other forecast within this same report, relating to the value of social commerce, that we should be focusing on. Here, we will see an increase within the same period from £210 million to £300 million in direct sales. While the amount by value might be less, it does show that social commerce is a big part of our collective future. I recently spotted an article about social commerce and some great examples of not just emerging platforms or technologies like Mulu.me , Referly , Mark . and Wikets , but the evolving sales models that put the direct value of social influence at the heart of the business model. While the ability to scale these platforms and models represents the biggest challenge for all involved, perhaps it's time for brands to start thinking differently about how they maximise the opportunity given to them by their customers? Consumers are keener than we think to use social not just to shape a view of a product or service, but as a way to buy. The confidence they have in their purchase decision is bolstered by a sense that others are doing the same. Social proof (where a person will look at the action of others to inform their own action) will drive sales and begin to answer the question of the value of social. Where the traditional role of social as a way of improving brand sentiment, increase affinity and create positive word of mouth has failed to date to give a definitive answer on the value of social, social commerce may just overcome that problem and give us what we all really want; the ability to attribute social activity, effort and spend directly to sales and conversions. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/11/how-social-commerce-might-just-save-social http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/11/how-social-commerce-might-just-save-social Tue, 11 September 2012 09:54:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/03/vikki-chowney-takes-the-lead-in-digital Vikki Chowney has been named by The Drum magazine as one of the UK's leading women in digital.  Vikki was one of 600 talented women under 30 years of age who were nominated in an online poll. Those with the most votes made it into the top 30 listing. Vikki was interviewed by the magazine and her profile was published in print and online. Here's what she had to say: Describe your current role in one sentence: I look after community management and influencer relations across the business, as well as best practice around social platforms. Define your career to date in one sentence: My role at TMW requires me to draw on every bit of experience I've gained from other roles; across PR, journalism, in-house and as a freelancer What job did you want when you were a child?: Firstly She-Ra, then a singer. If you had taken a different career path, what would you be doing?: I'd probably have become a chef. I still might :) What is your biggest professional achievement to date?: I've got a few. Taking part in the very first G20 Voice with Oxfam, launching Reputation Online for Centaur, working as content editor for the Jaguar CX16 launch, setting up a news operation for Econsultancy and being headhunted to spearhead community at TMW. What would you like to be remembered for, in terms of work?: Writing without fluff, and building a team that delivers best in class community management. Who is your female role model in digital?: Marissa Mayer; a fantastic leader who manages to balance great work with family life. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/03/vikki-chowney-takes-the-lead-in-digital http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/09/03/vikki-chowney-takes-the-lead-in-digital Mon, 03 September 2012 14:59:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/29/lynx-celebrates-1-millionth-fan-milestone-with-celebratory-film Last week, Lynx celebrated a milestone as its UK and Ireland Facebook page reached 1 million fans. This achievement marks Lynx out as the first Unilever brand to reach 1 million fans in the UK and Ireland. To mark the occasion, Lynx released a celebratory film on Facebook as a 'thank you' to its fans. Opening with the line 'The one millionth Lynx Effect', the film, which was produced by TMW, features a Rube Goldberg machine being activated by the fictional 1 millionth fan. In the film, the protagonist sets off a chain reaction around his bedroom, which is built from an extensive range of Lynx products and past campaign references. The references range from the more obvious angel wings featured in the Lynx Excite campaign, to underwear and trainers from the iconic Getting Dressed ad, the more subtle map of Africa with the distinct three claw marks and the Dark Temptation chocolate man. The chain reaction ends with the 1 millionth fan getting the Lynx Effect. In turn this causes a beautiful girl to enter the scene and trigger the chaotic climax which reveals the cast and crew who put the machine together. The machine and set took three weeks to build and the one-day shoot consisted of 58 takes and resets to capture the final video. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/29/lynx-celebrates-1-millionth-fan-milestone-with-celebratory-film http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/29/lynx-celebrates-1-millionth-fan-milestone-with-celebratory-film Wed, 29 August 2012 16:19:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/28/tmw-bolsters-strategic-offering-with-head-of-marketing-effectiveness-appointment TMW has appointed Julie Roberts to the newly created position of head of marketing effectiveness. Roberts will lead a dedicated marketing effectiveness team, further bolstering the agency's strategic offering. Roberts and her team will work across the spectrum of TMW clients to provide insights into their marketing strategies, showing them how effective their strategies are and how they could be improved. The role involves monitoring, evaluating and reporting on client's marketing activity, with the results being used to feed into the planning process for future projects. Some of the division's key outputs include benchmarking, budget optimisation and campaign evaluation. Roberts brings over 20 years' of marketing experience to the role, with the last eight of these gained at TMW. Most recently she held the position of head of automotive and prior to that she was digital business development director. This new role feeds into the agency's 'Intelligent Influence' proposition, which offers joined up thinking that is underpinned by intelligence. Roberts will report directly to TMW's director of strategy Kate Wheaton. Julie Roberts, head of marketing effectiveness at TMW comments: "It's fantastic to be offered the opportunity to focus on an area of immense interest and speculation in the communications industry at this moment in time. The daily challenge will be to try and maintain a balance of fact, proof and science without smothering the fluid, intuitive realms of creativity. One of the best challenges yet." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/28/tmw-bolsters-strategic-offering-with-head-of-marketing-effectiveness-appointment http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/28/tmw-bolsters-strategic-offering-with-head-of-marketing-effectiveness-appointment Tue, 28 August 2012 14:58:00 Alex King http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/21/making-a-hash-of-it-is-a-hashtag-enough-of-a-call-to-action-on-a-press-ad London's hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games caused an inevitable deluge of sport-related advertising - whether the brands in question were 'Official Partners of the Games' or not. Amidst the monsoon of press ads, all featuring desaturated shots of sportspeople looking a bit too serious, I noticed something: almost all of these sport-focused brands' expensive creations signed off with nothing more than a hashtag as a call to action. Whether we were being told to #makeitcount by Nike, #takethestage by Adidas, #winfromwithin by Gatorade or #witnessmyrevival by Lucozade (whose revival exactly?), it was clear that it was all about the hashtag. When this dawned on me, I was - despite working in digital advertising - rather taken aback. I know exactly how powerful Twitter can be. I know it's the home of social conversation. I know it's the perfect place for sports idols to connect with the people who idolize them. And I know hashtags are the best way to keep track of single topics. But like I said, I work in digital advertising. Would Joe Bloggs, upon seeing a billboard featuring nothing more than a silhouetted beast of a man staring at the ground next to the line #witnessmyrevival, really have any inclination to log on to Twitter (assuming he knew that was what he should do with a hashtag) - then perform a search? Maybe so. Maybe not. Of course, these urban-friendly sports brands are talking to the social media generation and encouraging conversation - so in that sense, a hashtag as a sole call to action seems somewhat acceptable. But these brands seem to be forgetting something that seems painfully obvious. They're asking people to tweet (a big enough deal as it is) on the topic of something they probably don't feel strongly about - however good the product or endorsement is. When the public are watching #towie or #madeinchelsea, they tweet using the hashtags because they want to exchange opinion on Arg's belly or Spencer's sleaziness. But you can safely assume that they probably don't have much to say on the subject of #winfromwithin - because how much can you really say about an energy drink or the campaign surrounding it? The other part of the problem, of course, is that on a press ad, the hashtag isn't clickable. While consumers can easily make a mental note of a product's name and Google it at a later time, it's a lot more to ask from them to remember a generic sounding #dosportwell hashtag. And lest we forget that these hashtag phrases, appearing as one long word, can often be difficult to decipher at a quick glance. Assuming consumers do remember the hashtag, and do remember to go onto Twitter, and do remember to search for it, what are they then expected to do? There are no instructions on these press ads as to how to join the conversation, whether you're into taking the stage, winning from within, or just merely making it count. To see if my conjecture could be proven in any way, I turned to Twitter and did something that I doubt many people have done - searched for these hashtags. The results were pretty predictable. Nike's #makeitcount tag was full of joggers tweeting a pre-populated brag about 'crushing a 10k run' - while Adidas' #takethestage (by now rebadged as #stagetaken) was mainly people tweeting the YouTube link to Hoy et al's rendition of 'Don't Stop Me Now'. No bad thing for Adidas, but hardly a 'conversation' and not something to be particularly happy about, surely? In fact, Adidas has recently trumpeted the success of #takethestage - and while they have every right to be content (despite my suspicions that the stats are skewed by consumers parroting Pendleton, Ennis, and co. throughout the Games) - you have to wonder how many of their Twitter interactions were borne out of press ads. As for Lucozade's #witnessmyrevival tag, it seems to be suffering a worse fate than even I expected. Bear in mind that their press ads are currently being circulated, then look at the screenshot below - and you'll discover that typing #witnessmyrevival into Twitter and hitting 'Enter' only gives three results. So while having a hashtag on a press ad is undoubtedly a nice addition, I'd argue that making it the only channel for consumers to go down is more than a bit of a risk - it's downright stupid.   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/21/making-a-hash-of-it-is-a-hashtag-enough-of-a-call-to-action-on-a-press-ad http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/21/making-a-hash-of-it-is-a-hashtag-enough-of-a-call-to-action-on-a-press-ad Tue, 21 August 2012 00:00:00 Chris Freeland http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/20/celebrating-25-years-at-the-top This year TMW is proud to be celebrating its 25 th year in the industry. A quarter of a century is a huge achievement for any business but to be a leader in our field, working with some of the world's most respected brands and companies, merits an extra special celebration. So we marked the occasion in style with a glamping trip to the British countryside. The weekend was a great success and after a full day of activities, afternoon tea followed by a banquet including a bbq, hog roast and fish and chips, we settled in our posh tents for a night under the stars. Above anything else, it was a fantastic opportunity for the whole agency to get together and have some fun. Starting life as a two man band in a small office in Stockwell, with British Airways as its inaugural client, TMW has since grown to over 250 people with a three storey office on the famous King's Road. In 1987, TMW launched as a traditional direct marketing agency but over the years, we have grown and successfully evolved our offering to become one of the UK's leading creative agencies. With the media landscape changing at a rate of knots, it was a case of adapt or die and I'm glad to say we've more than achieved the former. I for one am proud to be part of a progressive business that has successfully evolved to meet the challenges of the complex digital world, whilst at the same time maintaining at its core our entrepreneurial spirit. As well as our commitment to producing outstanding creative work, we have developed a unique agency proposition Intelligent Influence, which sets us apart from the competition. It might sound like a cliché but it's the people who make TMW what it is today. We are fortunate enough to attract some of the best talent in the industry, making us an agency of choice for both employees and clients. Here's to another 25 years at the top! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/20/celebrating-25-years-at-the-top http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/20/celebrating-25-years-at-the-top Mon, 20 August 2012 00:00:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/16/infiniti-launches-the-fx-vettel-edition-with-integrated-drive The luxury automotive brand INFINITI has launched an integrated marketing campaign to support the launch of the limited FX Vettel Edition. The first running prototype of the car, of which there will only be fifty for sale in Western Europe, made its first public appearance at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. The FX Vettel Edition continues Infiniti's partnership with Red Bull Racing and double Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel. The integrated campaign includes a refreshed website, eCRM and social media activity, managed by TMW. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/16/infiniti-launches-the-fx-vettel-edition-with-integrated-drive http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/16/infiniti-launches-the-fx-vettel-edition-with-integrated-drive Thu, 16 August 2012 15:09:00 Victoria White http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/09/understanding-shoppers-is-the-key-to-retail-success Provide value justification The days of buying what you want when you want it, without so much as a second thought, are over and shoppers want to feel in control of their budget.  They need to be able to justify the money they are spending, both before and after they shop.  That doesn't mean that there isn't any room for treats - there is, but they need to fit within the budget that the shopper has set for themselves.  Retailers and brands need to react to this by justifying the place that they hold in the shopper's basket.  The recent M&S 'Shwop' campaign is a great example of this. Shoppers feel justified in buying a clothing item, knowing that an old item is being donated to Oxfam.  Trusted brands are well-placed to tap into this trend as there is a latent understanding of the value they bring to a shopper.  Brands such as Heinz and Lurpak have built on this by targeting the shopper with emotional language which justifies their place on a shopping list - Heinz has used the label on tomato ketchup bottles to declare it "Your secret ingredient" while Lurpak tells shoppers that "Good food deserves Lurpak". Show trust to achieve trust Trust in previously well regarded institutions has been tumbling and retailers and brands are not immune to this - illustrated by the popularity of pound stores and brought to life in Aldi's current campaign which questions whether shoppers really need to spend money on branded goods.  Both retailers and brands can fight back by creating an open relationship with shoppers and entrusting them to make the right choice.  This means owning up to the fact that a brand can be 'flawsome' - it might not always get things right but it's willing to listen and react to what shoppers want.  Starbucks has 'my Starbucks idea' where they listen and respond to customer feedback and action popular requests.  Walker's have also successfully tapped into this when they asked shoppers to help them design a new flavour.  Good retailers have also reacted to this by understanding how they should talk to their shoppers, for instance, gone are the days when a shopper will trust a price drop message at face value.  Use technology wisely Whilst retailers and brands tend to work across retail channels in silo, shoppers see only one purchase journey.  They demand the best price and information everywhere and seamlessly cross between a retailer's website, mobile site and the actual store.  Forward thinking retailers have responded to this with solutions such as allowing shoppers to buy online and collect instore, understanding that shoppers are busy but will buy if it's made easy for them.  These retailers only use technology it if will help a shopper and are rewarded by a shopper's loyalty. Allow for personalised shopping As high streets have become more homogenous, so shoppers have begun to look for a more personalised shopping experience with their favourite retailers and brands.  Starbucks' recent innovation around adding your name to your coffee is a great example of this - they may be the biggest coffee shop brand in the world but they still want to take the time to know your name. Putting time into understanding shoppers and their purchase barriers can reap rewards for brands.  At a time when every pound a shopper spends needs to be fought for I think it's a wise investment. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/09/understanding-shoppers-is-the-key-to-retail-success http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/09/understanding-shoppers-is-the-key-to-retail-success Thu, 09 August 2012 11:45:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/08/tmw-marks-25-year-anniversary-with-senior-promotions Earlier this month TMW announced some important promotions within its senior management team as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Effective from 1st August, Chris Freeland is promoted to the role of chief operating officer, with a core focus on the agency's growth and operational development. Chris Pearce is promoted to managing director, focusing on the agency's strategic positioning, service offering and client development.  Both will report into Richard Marshall who takes on the role of chief executive officer.  Founding partner, Richard Marshall comments, "25 years is a significant milestone for any business and our continued growth and success is testament to TMW's ability to adapt to the changing media landscape.  We've a fantastic management team that will help to keep us at the forefront of this change in the coming years." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/08/tmw-marks-25-year-anniversary-with-senior-promotions http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/08/08/tmw-marks-25-year-anniversary-with-senior-promotions Wed, 08 August 2012 11:56:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/25/tmw-glamps-it-up-for-25-year-anniversary Last weekend TMW celebrated 25 years in the business with its biggest ever summer party. The entire agency was treated to a glamping trip at a secret location in the countryside. The weekend kicked off with a traditional British afternoon tea, which was worked off with a TMW sports day. As well as tackling an assault course, the agency faced the egg and spoon race, three-legged race, tug of war, and wheelbarrow race. Everyone's hard work was rewarded with a feast which included a hog roast, fish and chips, a barbecue and a champagne reception. TMW founding partners Richard Marshall and Paul Tullo rounded off the day with an emotive speech. The agency then partied into the night with a live band, camp fire and lots of dancing, before retiring to their posh tents or hotel rooms. Check out the photos on our flickr page! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/25/tmw-glamps-it-up-for-25-year-anniversary http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/25/tmw-glamps-it-up-for-25-year-anniversary Wed, 25 July 2012 15:07:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/23/tmw-hosts-social-media-workshop-for-entrepreneurs Last week TMW took part in Marketing 4 Start Up Britain, a government backed initiative that aims to support entrepreneurs and drive enterprise across the country. Organised by the Marketing Agencies Association, the week-long event offered a range of free workshops where entrepreneurs could develop their marketing knowledge and skills. TMW's head of community Vikki Chowney and head of mobile and connected consumer Douglas McDonald joined forces to host a workshop on 'how to socialise your enterprise'. The event was a resounding success with lots of positive feedback from the attendees. It was great to see so many entrepreneurs at the event and to support such a worthwhile initiative. We look forward to getting involved again next year. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/23/tmw-hosts-social-media-workshop-for-entrepreneurs http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/23/tmw-hosts-social-media-workshop-for-entrepreneurs Mon, 23 July 2012 14:36:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/18/predict-the-weather-with-tmw’s-weather-window Bored of the rain? We are too, especially with our 25 th birthday glamping trip coming up. In fact we were so tired of the weather, we thought we'd enlist the help of our resident King's Road shoppers to see if they could help us predict what the weather will bring (maybe even will it to be sunny) with our TMW weather window. The idea is simple - predict the weather and your choice will sound a heavy (and quite scary) thunderclap or a lovely sunshine sound. Your guess is then added to the weather prediction ticker and gets sent out as a tweet… A little bit of fun to brighten up your rainy day. #TMWweatherWindow http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/18/predict-the-weather-with-tmw’s-weather-window http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/18/predict-the-weather-with-tmw’s-weather-window Wed, 18 July 2012 16:11:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/17/tmw-nurtures-new-talent-with-internship-programme TMW is launching an internship programme to provide graduates with relevant industry experience. The programme will offer paid placements in the creative, client services and technology departments and will be rolled out across the agency in the future. As part of the six week rolling programme, interns will have the opportunity to work on live briefs and will be allocated a mentor to oversee their progress. The initiative aims to give interns a deep insight into what it's like to work in the creative industry, providing them with the opportunity to showcase what they can do and build up their skillset. Paul Tullo, creative partner comments: 'Growing and developing talent is really important to us as an agency. The internship programme gives graduates an opportunity to develop their skills and contacts in what is a very competitive industry." For more information on the internship programme, please contact our HR Manager Ita Waller. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/17/tmw-nurtures-new-talent-with-internship-programme http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/17/tmw-nurtures-new-talent-with-internship-programme Tue, 17 July 2012 15:00:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/13/tmw-share-the-love-in-the-big-creative-hug This week the IAB and the Watford Creative Advertising Course joined forces to create the Big Creative Hug. This is a new initiative aimed at demonstrating how advertising can be used to make a difference to local communities. TMW is one of a number of leading creative agencies who supported the project by devising a brief designed to tackle a particular social issue. The briefs were then put to 14 graduating students from the course, giving them one week to come up with a solution. So what challenge did TMW set? Chewing gum. It's a problem we've probably all encountered - whether we've stood on it or sat in it, but aside from being a common nuisance it is also a very real issue. In fact Westminster Council spend more than £100,000 a year dealing with the problem, money which I think we would all agree could be better spent elsewhere.  Considering that local authorities are working to tight budgets, the students had to come up with clever ways of getting the message across. The results were presented back to the creative directors of all the agencies today. Paul Tullo, creative partner at TMW comments: "It was great to see such a wide variety of original ideas from the students. This is a worthwhile initiative that gets the students thinking about real time community issues." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/13/tmw-share-the-love-in-the-big-creative-hug http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/13/tmw-share-the-love-in-the-big-creative-hug Fri, 13 July 2012 15:58:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/12/tmw-appoints-daren-kay-as-its-first-director-of-innovation TMW's joint executive creative director Daren Kay has been appointed to the newly created role of director of innovation. Kay is tasked with spearheading innovation across the agency and will report directly to TMW creative partner Paul Tullo. With over 20 years of experience in the creative industry, 11 of which have been spent leading the creative department at TMW, Kay takes on his new challenge with immediate effect. In his new role, Kay will utilise his extensive creative knowledge and leadership skills to drive innovation in the agency. Under a new initiative called the 'influence lab', Kay will bring specialists from across the agency together to unlock deeper customer insights. The 'influence lab' feeds into TMW's overarching agency proposition of 'Intelligent Influence', which aims to guide brands through the complexities of today's consumer landscape by identifying the key influences that affect how people think, behave and spend. Clients will also be invited to participate in these sessions. In addition to this, Kay will use a range of idea stimulation tools for an initiative called the 'hot house' where he aims to drive innovation by engineering greater collaboration between creative and technologists. Kay will also be responsible for inspiring all departments within the agency to look for innovative solutions to their day to day challenges. Departments from across the agency, from data to creative and client services will have access to his expertise. Paul Tullo, creative partner at TMW comments: ''Having worked in the creative department at TMW for 11 years and as executive creative director for the last four, Daren is the ideal person to drive innovation through the agency. His role will help bring our Intelligent Influence approach to life by engaging teams from across the business, as well as clients, in finding the most insightful solutions to creative briefs." Daren Kay adds: ''As director of innovation, I'm aiming to break down the linear processes that exist in larger agencies. All too often agency departments end up working in silos without realising the potential benefits of working together from the word go. My aim is to put innovation at the heart of what we do to ensure we sustain our competitive advantage and continue to deliver creative excellence." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/12/tmw-appoints-daren-kay-as-its-first-director-of-innovation http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/12/tmw-appoints-daren-kay-as-its-first-director-of-innovation Thu, 12 July 2012 00:00:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/11/diageo-launches-exclusive-online-community-for-bartenders TMW has developed The Reserve Club, an exclusive online bartender community for Diageo's premium Reserve brands. The invitation only community is a unique hub aimed at providing inspiration and information for the world's best bartenders. As well as relevant content from the brands, which include Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Ketel One and Grand Marnier, the hub provides regular blogs from Diageo's Brand Ambassadors and content from Fellowship members. One of the contributors is Erik Lorincz, head bartender at The Savoy's American Bar. The Club was launched a week before the Western European finals of Diageo's Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year competition, which celebrates the craft and skill of the profession. TMW will manage the website, working with Diageo to provide relevant and inspiring content for members. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/11/diageo-launches-exclusive-online-community-for-bartenders http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/11/diageo-launches-exclusive-online-community-for-bartenders Wed, 11 July 2012 15:43:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/05/nissan-motor-(gb)-‘says-goodbye-to-compromise’ Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd is launching a new marketing campaign to drive interest and sales of its 100% electric model, the Nissan LEAF. To support the campaign, TMW has created a direct mail and email marketing drive, which will be rolled out throughout the summer. Using insight from Nissan's customer intelligence agency, Indicia, the brand was able to identify two key audiences, which were used to create two distinct direct mailings. The first targets a 'green' audience and focuses on the model's environmental credentials while the second targets a 'tech' audience and promotes the unique technology that the LEAF offers. The 'green' pack asks recipients to 'say goodbye to compromise' as they can have it all with a LEAF. It highlights the model's zero emissions, high speed and the fact that it can be easily charged at home or at one of the rapidly expanding network of public charging points - there will be 10,000 by the end of 2013. To appeal to the most environmentally aware consumers, the pack states that the 'LEAF is made up of more than 20% recycled materials' and is '95% recoverable'. The second pack highlights the LEAF's unique technology, including its navigation and telematics system and Smartphone app. The app allows owners to plan their journeys and pre-set their car's heating and air con system before they leave home. The pack also includes a two penny piece accompanied by the line 'Your first mile in LEAF is on us!, drawing attention to the model's low cost per mile. The direct mailings and email communications drive recipients to the Nissan website where they can book a test drive. Yasmin Al Jeboury, Nissan CRM Manager, says: "The Nissan LEAF is the world's first 5-seat 100% electric car. As a brand, Nissan pushes boundaries and leads the way with innovation - the LEAF is another example of this. With consumers becoming increasingly concerned about reducing their carbon footprint, it's important we offer them a real alternative to petrol cars and the LEAF does just that." Alastair Hutchison, creative director at TMW, adds: "Electric cars are often viewed with certain misconceptions. This campaign breaks these down and shows that going electric doesn't have to be a compromise. Defining two distinct audiences allowed us to create a more targeted campaign that taps into the needs and motivations of the individual consumer." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/05/nissan-motor-(gb)-‘says-goodbye-to-compromise’ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/07/05/nissan-motor-(gb)-‘says-goodbye-to-compromise’ Thu, 05 July 2012 13:23:00 Paul Tullo http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/27/losing-my-virginity-in-cannes My first ever visit to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, was like losing my virginity. Just like the first time, I'd thought about it a lot, wondered what it would be like and the anticipation turned out to be much better than the actual event. When it happened, it seemed to be over in a flash, but just like the first time, it made a deep impression on me, something that will be difficult to forget in a hurry. As an agency, we've entered the Cannes Lions Awards every year, we've had jury members, won a Gold Lion, had two Young Lions, and yet, in nearly 30 years in the business, I had never visited. I always believed it was something to be avoided, to be enjoyed by others with more time on their hands, while I got on with the real business. So this year, Richard Marshall and I made the pilgrimage to the South of France.  For anyone out there who's never heard of the Cannes Lions, it's the premier international festival of creativity. Indeed, last year it changed its name from 'Advertising' to 'Creativity', to reflect the wider scope of our industry which I applaud, considering the overwhelming advertising agency presence at Cannes. The event consists of three main parts.  These are a continuous stream of seminars, workshops and lectures, an awards event, attracting some of the best work in the world and a MASSIVE PARTY! Attending the seminars and workshops gave me a fair indication of the sentiment of the creative industries. Presentations on social media, mostly saying the same thing 'the world has changed completely', 'we can no longer presume an audience's attention', 'participation platforms' etc etc. Not a huge surprise to me, but good to see the advertising community finally waking up to the new world. I attended many of these seminars, including an interesting presentation by a Japanese creative consultancy called 'Party'. I loved its premise that 'new stories are crafted by new technologies'. Its creative director and founder, Morihiro Harano in a wonderful linguistic iteration declared: 'if you're doing shit… stop doing shit!' very profound I thought. The work they showed was truly excellent, and refreshing, it's not surprising to me that awards are being won by these sorts of companies, ones that have defied the conventions set up by the large advertising agencies.  The Cannes Lions Awards are apparently the reason for its existence. This year, there were over 30,000 entries in nearly 20 categories. What is interesting is where the entries are coming from, and who's getting on the shortlists. I was there for the first three days, and at that stage, the largest number of shortlisted entries were from Brazil (236), followed by USA (175) and Germany (171). The UK was at 104 shortlisted entries, while countries like the United Arab Emirates, Colombia and Chile were not far behind.  In fact the most noticeable thing about the Cannes Lions is how global and multicultural the event is. The other great Cannes activity is partying. The whole of the Croisette beachfront is taken up with different agency and group events. The famous 'Gutter bar' was a little disappointing, and a lot expensive. The feeling I get from Cannes is that it is a good opportunity for the big network agencies to get together, and why not? It probably saves agency groups millions in other forms of global get-togethers. So will I be back next year? Well, having saved myself for so many years and finally succumbed, I'm definitely going to take advantage of my new passion, even if I'll make sure I practice safe Cannes. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/27/losing-my-virginity-in-cannes http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/27/losing-my-virginity-in-cannes Wed, 27 June 2012 12:07:00 Ryan Hickling http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/26/mobile-optimisation-for-email-is-vital-for-campaign-success I can almost guarantee, depending on sector and other broadcast factors, that right now anywhere between 10% - 30% of email subscribers are opening their messages on mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads and Androids. This stat alone should prompt marketers into thinking about making sure their emails are displaying correctly and effectively on smaller screen sizes. Fortunately this is where mobile optimisation and responsive design come in. First, here are some relevant stats to take into account: 1. Consumers  are viewing  email campaigns on their phones right now Since the end of Feb 2012 over 50% of all mobile phone usage in the UK was carried out on smartphones. With smartphone users now estimated to account for half of the UK population, there are potentially over 26 million mobile email users. 84% of those users are on the mobile web browsing and checking email on a regular basis Out of these 40% are using their mobile for email almost every day (Source: comScore Mobilens UK) 2. Users are not viewing  email on multiple devices Recent reports show that users tend to view emails on one device. This means in general marketers  have one opportunity to grab the users attention and get them to click through or save for later. 3. Mobile usage is only increasing   Knotice Mobile Opens Report for the second half of 2011 shows that the audience grew by 36% in just half a year This is also a trend confirmed by Litmus here *obligatory infographic included Before doing anything else brands should be testing their user base to determine mobile open rates. This is generally a feature provided by Email Service Providers or can be purchased on an adhoc basis from email analytics providers like Litmus. What do I mean by "Mobile Optimisation"? One phrase that is doing the rounds in the context of website development is "Responsive Design". Essentially this is a technique used to control the way content is displayed based on the size of the screen that displays it. For example, you could have a newsletter that currently sits at a nice 600px width and has been designed to look good on a desktop PC. What happens when that same design is compressed to fit on a small hand held device such as a mobile phone or tablet? In most cases the following issues will arise: The images are too big  I have too much copy  I cannot click on my CTAs easily  I have to zoom in and out to see content clearly  Suddenly I need to scroll horizontally as well as vertically Responsive design for email can help solve these problems and improve the user experience on smaller screens by dynamically: Hiding content Changing font styling such as emphasis, size and colour Setting the zoom level to perfectly fill the entire width thus removing horizontal scrolling Subtly changing content flow to support a single column layout Plus many other effects What I love about responsive design is that it enables us to create one version of an email for both mobile and desktop. This means we only need to create and setup one template, test it once and input the content once. As responsive design works on screen size and not on a per device basis    there's no need to create individual versions for iPhone, Android and Blackberry etc. All of this helps save time and money in implementation costs. Finally, as an example of what mobile optimisation can look like, here's one we made earlier at TMW for Nissan GB: Within this you can see that the width of the email has reduced to fit a mobile screen, certain unrequired content has been hidden to free up space and that copy has shifted to a single column layout. This article was first published on Econsultancy. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/26/mobile-optimisation-for-email-is-vital-for-campaign-success http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/26/mobile-optimisation-for-email-is-vital-for-campaign-success Tue, 26 June 2012 15:58:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/19/are-your-email-subject-lines-working-hard-enough Here are seven tips from TMW content editor Claire Bussey for strong, engaging subject lines that encourage people to open your emails: 1. Be specific If you bumped into someone you know on the street and they said "My weekly news!" or "Latest alert!" - you'd be unlikely to stop and chat. In fact, you'd probably walk quickly in the other direction. But how about if they said "What are you doing for New Year's Eve?", "We finally finished the kitchen!" or "Fancy trying that new pub on the high street?" You need to instantly engage people. This means avoiding vague subject lines that tell the reader nothing about the content of the email. Yours is one of many emails that your customers receive on any given day. If you don't interest them from the get-go, they won't stop to listen. 2. Add context No matter how big your brand, people are not sat waiting for your newsletter. Yet subject lines like these pop up every day:  June's newsletter Weekly alert 9 May Offers of the week Try a more enticing subject line, like these ones from Emerald Street  that suggest the content is bite-sized and interesting: Five French films everyone should see The best of independent breweries Avoid unhelpful subject lines like this one from TfL : New travel information This email was about how London's transport network will be affected by the Olympics. Pretty important stuff for anyone living in the capital. TfL could achieve a higher open rate with this more specific - and more personal - subject line: Will the Olympics affect your travel? 3. Front-load key information With subject lines, as with all online content, key messages need to come first. In this way, you cater for people who are skim-reading their inbox in a hurry. Some newsletters have strong subject lines but, because they begin with the name of the email newsletter, the lines lose their punch. This also makes them unscannable in a crowded inbox. 4. Make your 'Sender' line work in harmony If your name is already in your 'Sender' line, you don't need to repeat it in your subject line. Your customer already knows who you are, so repeating your name is a waste of precious words. 5. Remember smartphones Space is even more of a premium on smartphones so key messages need to be conveyed in the first 5-6 words. The subject line for a Debenhams email appears as: Don't miss our deal of the day… Rather vague, isn't it? How do I know whether to open? The full subject line is "Don't miss our deal of the day… 15% off women's clothing" - a pretty decent deal, but on a smartphone the key information is lost. A quick fix for this would be to swap the subject line around: 15% off women's clothing: don't miss our deal of the day 6. Be topical This will help you stand out in a crowded inbox. With holiday bookings up by as much as 60% thanks to the recent bad weather, this easyJet subject line ticks all the boxes for me: Escape the rain - holiday deals from £145 7. Test, test, test Split testing subject lines on a regular basis is the best way to find out what works well for your audience. NOTES: Ref for holiday stat: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/25/flood-warnings-hit-south-england http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/19/are-your-email-subject-lines-working-hard-enough http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/19/are-your-email-subject-lines-working-hard-enough Tue, 19 June 2012 11:12:00 Guillaume Buat-Menard http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/08/how-to-get-the-most-from-your-digital-assets In times of austerity, making the most of your digital assets is becoming increasingly important and is something that businesses simply cannot afford to ignore. While the ultimate aim of any business is to increase sales and expand its customer base, the ability to offer a high level of customer service and a user friendly customer journey are paramount in achieving this goal. While it may be tempting to invest in new and emerging technologies, it's important to make the most of your existing digital assets before further investment is made. Investing budget in the right places and at the right time could have a major impact on sales. Show off your great content and products Before considering whether to allocate budget to cold email lists, PPC and SEO optimisation, you should ensure that  your content is compelling so that search engines find you . The more relevant your content or products, the better you will fare in search engine results. Improve your existing website Customers get frustrated by poorly designed websites with a cumbersome user experience. Make your website simple to use and to the point, and only ask for the minimum amount of information from your customers that you can get away with. Pinterest for instance is well known for its easy registration process and little amount of information required to sign up, a process which is said to have helped their stellar growth. Make your website faster Studies by Google and Amazon show that the faster your website, the more conversions you will have with your existing customer base. Investing in your current website and infrastructure makes sense as this investment will help it work better and faster. It might even reduce hosting costs as less servers will be required to run it. Resist the latest trends Don't automatically assume that an iPad app is the linchpin to your marketing strategy even if a good proportion of your customers have iPads. Consider making your website mobile friendly for all mobile devices using technologies like HTML5 or frameworks like Pugpig. People don't use mobile or desktop devices in a segmented way, they consume personal and work content on all their devices all the time. eCRM is not just a buzz word Learn more about your customers and use that knowledge to sell more effectively. It sounds obvious but eCRM is generally underused in marketing and is often quite basic it its implementation. Many marketers think eCRM equates to sending emails to their customer using traditional segmentation. Consider enhancing your website with behavioural and personalisation modules which can help you learn more about your customers' online habits. In conclusion, improving and streamlining your existing digital estate is a great way to increase conversion and improve customer loyalty. Solve your customer problems rather than attempt to sell them products and services they may not need. Your customers will thank you for it, come back and recommend your services to their peers. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/08/how-to-get-the-most-from-your-digital-assets http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/08/how-to-get-the-most-from-your-digital-assets Fri, 08 June 2012 08:14:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/07/john-hegarty-at-the-va-part-of-the-british-design-season Which is the most successful brand in the world? Nike? Coke? Nope. As far as advertising mogul John Hegarty is concerned it's the catholic church. Why? It has a simple, recognisable logo, a mission statement enshrined in the ten commandments, and in its heyday it worked with the best artists in the western world, Da Vinci, Angelo, Raphael. And talk about globalisation! These were John's closing comments to a packed house in the V & A's old lecture theatre adorned suitably with mosaics of the greatest movers and shakers in the history of art, literature and science, which are arguably the three pillars of advertising. For much of the audience, who I suspect had read Hegarty's brilliant book 'Turning Intelligence into Magic' with religious fervor, there was little new here, just the chance to hear John switch effortlessly from anecdote to top tip. The story about BBH's pitch for the Levi jeans account in which one senior client seemed to have been at least as impressed by the fledgling agency's very expensive Italian chairs as by their strategy. As for top tips, how about always telling clients the truth, even if it's not what they want to hear? For more of John's insights I strongly recommend you buy the book. Part autobiography, part study aid, for anyone remotely connected to advertising it's a real page-turner. Aside from the stories and tips from his book, for the assembled devotees in the theatre, there was a lively and informative Q&A session too. From TMW's Mike Phillips a question about BBH's pioneering idea about being paid by results. In his answer John cited that it was something in which they still believed but that not only is it quite difficult to pin-point which part of a campaign contributes most to success (or otherwise), the model rarely mirrors the way corporates are set up. Another question about presenting creative work at pitches (something the agency had famously resisted for years) was answered by saying that the increased complexity of the media landscape - a need for clients to know how the idea will work across different platforms had played a large role here. And then the elephant in the room. What place do TV ads have in the world of digital? In short, Vorsprung durch Technik. John was clearly excited by the opportunities afforded by new technologies. Yet his view was that you still needed cracking adverts. It's just that now it's more about where you put them, and how you use the digital platforms to create excitement around them, with BBH's Three Little Pigs ad for the Guardian being a great example of this.  And talk about being ahead of the curve. Before we were all talking about the power of social media, BBH put a beta version of the famous flying foetus ad for Xbox out on the net to see if it appealed to their teenage audience. Fifteen million hits later, the decision was clear. So, John Vs. Robin. In my last post I said I had a new advertising hero in the form of Robin White. So did John regain the number one spot? Well let's call it a draw. Though I will of course be eternally grateful to the man who brought Nick Kamen (Levi/Launderette) into my world. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/07/john-hegarty-at-the-va-part-of-the-british-design-season http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/07/john-hegarty-at-the-va-part-of-the-british-design-season Thu, 07 June 2012 16:11:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/06/no-clowns-at-digital-shoreditch There were few clowns at Digital Shoreditch's Brands Day last week despite the large, black 'Big Top' tent lending a gritty, pop-up style feel to the event.   In only its second year, the week-long festival seems to be going from strength to strength, starting with a mobile 'hack-a-jam-mashup-athon' weekend, a crowd sourced selection of over 40 speakers and events with possibly the largest collection of digital strategists ever gathered in one place. (easy now) First up was 'The Herdmeister' himself, Mark Earls, with a rousing audience participation game that neatly proved his by now well-worn theory that we all learn (and behave) by copying each other.  As he neatly put it after one exercise to partner up and lift our new chums off the ground as many times as possible, 'Did we seek out the coolest, most influential people in the room to see how they did it? Did we rationally evaluate all the possible options before making a choice?  No, we just instinctively looked at what everyone else was doing and copied it!' So far, so analogue and no one was yet to utter the two most overused words of the century - 'content' and 'engagement'. Engagement as False God? How that was to change!   I found it particularly fascinating that despite its ubiquity on the day there was no universally agreed definition of 'engagement' attempted or indeed any model suggested of how 'engagement' actually works as an agent of behavioural change.  I guess it all comes down to your beliefs about how communications actually work.  If you're of the nudging/reminding/ salience school then chasing improved 'Talking About This' metrics on Facebook is a false god. Heretical as this may sound,  given the woefully low engagement rates of brand fans on Facebook exposed in a recent Ehrenberg-Bass Institute study then perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for brand owners?   With that in mind it was none the less a fascinating day of many, many, presentations (some lasted 40 minutes, some lasted 10minutes, and all predetermined by the crowds view of 'relative interest') This was rigidly adhered to but less apologetically than James Corden cutting short Adele at the Brits. Speakers were literally hauled off mid-sentence if they overran, which worked quite well I thought! So what were the themes? Well you know you're on the cusp of a new industry meme (ride 'em cupcake) when several agencies serve up the same fare.  One such approach was 'Stock and Flow' as a metaphor for content development.  Originally coined by Robin Sloan, formerly of Twitter (and the blog Snarkmarket)as follows:  "Stock… is the durable stuff. It's the content you produce that's as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It's what people discover via search. It's what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time." Flow, on the other hand, " … is the feed.  It's the posts and the tweets. It's the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people that you exist." Although not credited at all on the day, Sloan has, in effect, subscribed to the nudging/ awareness model of how communications work.  He hasn't mentioned the engagement word because he believes the role of flow is to 'remind people that you exist'.   Interesting,  perhaps I'm on to something? The rest of the day could probably be summed up by Mothers '8 things they've learnt this year' which echoed most speaker's thoughts: 1. Sort out the terminology - get clarity 2. Brands are built by a series of interactions not purely by association 3. Strategists are actually 'Interaction Designers' (well we were in Shoreditch) 4. Keep Good Company/Collaborate 5. Make Things People Want/Notice the ordinary 6. Improve the quality of Content to those hard won communities 7. Build Business Together 8. 'Stock and Flow' for rich ideas I'll leave you all to decide whether you agree with them or not… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/06/no-clowns-at-digital-shoreditch http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/06/06/no-clowns-at-digital-shoreditch Wed, 06 June 2012 15:49:00 Roz Hase http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/29/when-brands-use-twitter-to-intelligently-influence-consumers… I will soon be having my fifth birthday on Twitter and in all that time I have had little that stands out as a great Twitter experience… until now.  I originally set up Twitter as just another tool for my work, to follow key industry leaders, to understand the market and keep up with the latest innovations. However, it has of course proved to be a great way of staying in touch with friends (and the latest sport updates). Everyone is aware of the fantastic stats around Twitter usage and for all you active users, I am sure you are more than familiar with the number of random people who start to follow you.  In recent years this has increasingly included brands.  I have mixed views around the commercialisation of social networks but there is a certain inevitability around brands using these spaces in an attempt to engage with and ultimately influence conversations and user behaviour. I recently turned to Twitter (and Facebook) to help crowd source the choice of my next mobile phone as I was trying to decide between two well ranked options. I posted this question on the 29 th March and immediately had a response from @jubbing who is the founder of a tech site in Australia, and (apparently) a big fan of one of the choices.  He provided some really useful insights but also introduced a contact from one of the companies into the conversation. The well-known mobile phone operator who had been introduced, then followed this by offering me a trial phone for a two week period to help me make up my mind.  The only condition, that I Tweet about it (either positively or negatively) and I give the phone back at the end of the trial. Whilst this is clearly a sales push, an opportunity to get the product into my hands in the belief that the product and technology will speak for themselves and I will spread the word, it was an interesting proposition and one I took up. Within three days of responding to this I had a new handset on my desk at work to start playing with. In summary, what I think this well-known mobile phone operator was good at was: Listening - The art of any good conversation is to listen to conversations before jumping in and they did just that Understanding - They didn't respond to my post with a strong sales push nor lots of details about why their phone was the right product.  Instead they understood that this manufacturer has come to the smartphone market late and with a completely new operating system and so offered a trial as they knew this would influence my decision Making an effort - This mobile phone operator is struggling to get a foothold in the smartphone market; this means they have to work harder to get noticed and talked about, and for people to make the move back to buying their handsets.  Whilst this is obviously a huge investment it does show their commitment and drive Relevance - Their response was relevant to my conversation.  They understood the need for people to try their product and spread the word but made that relevant to me so that I was receptive Being useful - The trial itself offered something of real tangible benefit but in addition to this they loaded the phone up with a £10 micro SIM so that I could play around with it properly Efficiency - From my first response to the post about a trial, I had a phone on my desk at work within three working days to start playing around with Humility - Even though the nature of reciprocity means that I am more likely to be positive about the 'gift' they were clear that the request was simply to talk about it and they welcomed negative comments too Flattery - They deemed me to be of high enough social import to warrant receiving a trial phone So, in summary, when brands use it correctly Twitter can really help as a tool to engage with customers and help influence their decisions and brand perceptions. I have found myself talking to my friends about being given a trial phone, showing off the phone to others and obviously writing tweets, Facebook posts and a blog post about it too.  So they got the exposure from me that they wanted but more importantly they helped me come to a decision about the next phone to get. Now, if only DeBeers would follow suit… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/29/when-brands-use-twitter-to-intelligently-influence-consumers… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/29/when-brands-use-twitter-to-intelligently-influence-consumers… Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/captain-morgan-gets-the-party-started-with-online-football-anthem TMW is this week releasing a football music video for Diageo's Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum brand. The video, which is accompanied by on trade and social media activity aims to raise brand awareness during the football summer season. Entitled 'Party Like a Champion', the football anthem encourages consumers to have fun and enjoy the party that surrounds the football season. Featuring a host of lookalikes, including Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, notorious referee Pierluigi Collina and The Queen, the Captain calls on viewers not to take the game too seriously. He emphasises that it's not the winning or losing that matters, but getting involved and partying like a champion. The video will be seeded online across three countries: the UK, Germany and Austria. A longer directors cut of the video and the full song will be available to download via the Captain Morgan Spiced Facebook pages within the respective markets. As well as accessing the video and the song, fans will be able to enter competitions to win their own football party kitbags, which include branded foosball tables and plenty of merchandise to help them organise their own get-togethers. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/captain-morgan-gets-the-party-started-with-online-football-anthem http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/captain-morgan-gets-the-party-started-with-online-football-anthem Fri, 25 May 2012 11:22:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/news-and-blogposts20120525pitching-legends Move over John Hegarty I have a new advertising hero. I just never expected him to be wearing a shirt so loud it needed a license and a suit the colour of Barney the Dinosaur. If the first rule of advertising is to get noticed, Robin Wight, the W in WCRS certainly practices what he preaches. So, why did he make such an impression on me? An ad nut from an early age, his first tagline for a road safety campaign - 'Drive at 30. Live til 70. Drive at 70. Live til 30' -was written at the tender age of 10! Now approaching the upper end of that scale, Robin is a writer by trade who crafted his skill in the hey-day of TV advertising when jingles ('Re-record not fade away' for Scotch video tapes) and memorable straplines ("I bet he drinks Carling Black Label") were the cultural reference points shared by millions. But what can one of the original British Mad Men teach us about today's communication landscape? Aside from the obvious affection held for him by colleagues young - and not so - in the audience, Robin talked unapologetically and candidly on the night's subject; Pitch Legends. On the issue of pitch-winning tag-lines for example, Robin talked articulately about respecting brand archaeology and heritage. Or to put it another way, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!' Not even in a pitch. Something that led him to recommend BMW use the same line in the UK (The Ultimate Driving Machine) that the company already used in the US. He also praised Adam & Eve for keeping the WCRS line for Phones4U in their latest campaign.  Also, he was positively thrilled with the re-vamped WCRS Churchill ad in which the dog is driven around town by Martin Clunes to the tune of Bonnie Tyler's 'I need a hero'. At the end, it is Martin not Churchill who has the famous 'Oh yes' line. Refreshing, funny, but heritage in tact. When asked whether planners get in the way in pitches (asked by a planner btw), he not only refuted the suggestion but said that he saw himself as a planner. Indeed, back in the day when no creative work was ever presented at pitches, strategy was all there was. I think we can all learn something from that. And then to my own question. One that anyone who works at an integrated agency like WCRS (and TMW) can appreciate, "When your agency offers such a wide selection of skill sets, and clients come to you with challenges and not specific channel briefs, who exactly do you invite to the initial pitch meeting?" His answer was diplomatically inclusive, saying that it is a mix of gut feel and existing client relationships (ie did the lead come from the PR agency or digital guys etc…), but that at WCRS, 'We are prepared to change the focus at any time during the pitch if necessary." Not totally satisfied with the answer, I pushed him to answer, "Who exactly was 'WE'?" Greeted with a ripple of laughter from those in the know, Robin's emphatic answer was 'Debbie'. (Engine's Chief Executive Chairman). So all in all what were Robin's top tips for winning pitches? Of the 13 point plan (of which number eight was mysteriously missing) the key ones for me were firstly to investigate the client's product. There still seems to be no substitute for visiting the factory. Secondly show you understand the brand. Thirdly don't just say why your recommended strategy will work, say why others they may see won't. And numbers 12 and 13. Enthusiasm. If you're not enthusiastic about their business, another agency will be. When you're up against the best agencies in town, that may be your only competitive advantage. So don't forget genuine enthusiasm is worth a bucket load of PowerPoint slides. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/news-and-blogposts20120525pitching-legends http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/25/news-and-blogposts20120525pitching-legends Fri, 25 May 2012 11:02:00 Nick Tusler http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/21/keep-calm-and-cookie-on The long time coming deadline for enforcement of e-privacy legislation to include cookies, finally arrives this Saturday 26 th May. In summary, the law states that every business or organisation that operates in the digital world must gain positive consent from consumers before any tracking technology is deployed on their web enabled device. All the indicators suggest that many businesses may miss the UK deadline and the BBC reports (17 th May) that the UK Government itself will miss the deadline to make necessary changes for many of its own department websites. Other EU markets are struggling too. Very recently, Germany for example, hasn't even put the directive into law yet. Others haven't had  the one year 'grace period' like we've had in the UK, yet many businesses here are still not compliant a year on. So it's difficult to judge the risk of being prosecuted in each market right now. Fortunately, in the UK a lot of industry thinking and a lot more clarity has evolved in recent weeks. There are now some live examples of websites which have taken measures to comply with the updated law. Some are good whilst others are not so great. From May 26 th , businesses in the UK could be subject to prosecution if they aren't compliant. However, it's clear that the Information Commissioner's Office is taking a very pragmatic view about the whole thing and indeed being a 'lean department', enforcing the cookie law is unlikely to be at the top of their priority list. The official advice is to do a cookie audit, document a plan and implement a solution. Every business should have completed this before the deadline. But if you haven't got a solution ready, you must have made some demonstrable progress, because otherwise you're at risk, albeit a low risk. So the message really is to keep calm and cookie on, calm at least until the next wave of legislation arrives soon in the form of the draft EU Data Protection Act… TMW has produced a whitepaper on how to achieve effective compliance, which can be downloaded here .  http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/21/keep-calm-and-cookie-on http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/21/keep-calm-and-cookie-on Mon, 21 May 2012 09:51:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/18/my-current-favourites By Chris Buckley, director of social engagement Slipstre.am   Not at Le Web? SXSW?  Well now you can remove mentions of a topic or hash tag from your Twitter stream quickly and easily using this nifty little site. We all get sick of our feeds being clogged up with the same news over and over (I'm thinking Super Bowl or Beyoncé's pregnancy). This is an invaluable site that allows you to add a few smart filters and thus have a stress free Twitter existence. Downforeveryoneorjustme.org Does what it says on the tin. Enter a URL and this site will tell you if it's crashed or if it's a problem at your end. Simple yet effective and extremely useful at times. Occam's Razor Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik's definitive blog is the place to go for up to date and relevant musings on the world of data driven marketing and analytics. He maintains a consistent dialogue with his readers and openly invites their opinion on his views which is refreshing for someone that knowledgeable on a subject. His ethos follows suit; "Eat like a bird, and poop like an elephant." a Japanese quote which really sums up his intentions with this blog: "to share back with the world, to the extent that I can, in my core area of expertise". A great read. PSFK This is one of the most comprehensive trend sites out there, covering innovation from creative business, design and fashion as well as the technology sector. Trextrying.tumblr.com Because what kind of a list would this be without a little humour? This article was first published on NMA http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/18/my-current-favourites http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/18/my-current-favourites Fri, 18 May 2012 10:35:00 Vikki Chowney http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/14/tmw_facebook's_app_center Last week Facebook announced that it would be creating its own version of an app store, aptly called the App Center. Facebook software engineer Aaron Brady made the announcement via the company's blog, explaining that: "In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps". This will create a central place to find apps that use Facebook Open Graph, from Facebook.com or within the two most-popular mobile apps. For the moment at least, Facebook says that appearance in the App Center will be based on quality. It will use a variety of 'signals', such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed. Much like Apple and Google also do. Plus, to help monitor user feedback, Facebook is introducing a new app ratings metric in the Insights section to report on how users rate an app over time. That's not to say that in the future a 'promoted' section may appear, but for now this seems to be based on engagement and user input. So really, it's more of a showcase than a store. Brady puts it succinctly: Well-designed apps that people enjoy will be prominently displayed. Apps that receive poor user ratings or don't meet the quality guidelines won't be listed. There are several interesting aspects to this announcement, largely from a discoverability perspective, but also when considering mobile. Facebook highlights that from the mobile App Center, people can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if an app requires installation, they will be sent to the App Store or Google Play. However, it's important to remember that Facebook's mechanics dictate that in order to view an app via mobile, there needs to be a mobile version. For apps like Spotify and Pinterest, people will simply be directed out of the Facebook app to download from the appropriate store, but for brands, those building apps for Facebook specifically and hoping to increase engagement via mobile still need to consider this. Facebook sent more than 160m visitors in April to mobile apps (up from 60m in February) and the creation of a mobile App Center makes investment in creating a mobile version of an app much more valuable if it's easier to find. But let's not forget that it's still not easy. Once built, you have to get it into the App Center. Directing people to the mobile version of your Facebook app is problematic (it still will be) and the 'you can't see tabs via mobile' issue remains. This also marks a move away from the social network's much-loved free apps, towards paid opportunities, since Facebook is introducing functionality that will allow developers to charge a flat fee - an evolution of the success many have seen with in-app purchases. Facebook admitted in a statement ahead of the IPO: If users increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetisation strategies for our mobile users, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected. We won't know much more until this rolls out, but till then, developers can start to prepare 'details pages', a requirement for listing in the App Center (again, drawing inspiration from Apple) and the new destination when non-users search for an app on Facebook. This blog post was first published on Econsultancy. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/14/tmw_facebook's_app_center http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/14/tmw_facebook's_app_center Mon, 14 May 2012 14:53:00 David Llewelyn-Jones http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/10/mobile-puts-retail-on-a-rollercoaster To click or to wander? Last month, Boston Consulting Group published findings stating that the UK has the largest internet economy of the G20. Mobile is an integral part of this. The joy of m-commerce - the freedom to purchase items from anywhere with a phone signal, allows you to shop around for the best deal without having to trudge around the high street. This preference is particularly acute in Britain, having gone from what, in 1776, Adam Smith called "a nation of shopkeepers", to last year, when mobile shopping saw a 187% increase, according to analysis by IBM. Today, it's not a case of one or the other though; online commerce (be it PC or mobile) is both helping and hindering the high street. The drift towards m-commerce, however beneficial and efficient for the customer, is one of myriad factors having a negative effect on the high street. Our quest for a bargain doesn't help either, as detailed in the Financial Times recently:"Consumers and investors have never been so empowered. Yet these great deals come at the expense of our jobs and wages, and widening inequality."[1] The government reports that 183 retailers fell into administration last year and that one in three of the nation's high streets are failing; the internet must shoulder some responsibility for this. Argos, Mothercare and Thorntons are said to be planning the closure of up to one third of their shops. Conversely, Experian Hitwise reported that Boxing Day last year was the biggest day ever for online retail in the UK. While digital take-up is hurting the high street, it is also causing it to evolve. For example, US retailer Macy's, with its staunch omnichannel approach, recently unveiled Beauty Spot at the National Retail Federation's Convention, a digital mirror that suggests makeup for you to try on and then share your looks with friends. Kraft featured a vending machine with face-recognition technology, registering your ethnographic details and dispensing product samples based on that data. The possibilities for clothing are significant, too. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft showcased a digital prototype for retailers. It uses Microsoft's Kinect to let customers try on multiple items in front of a digital mirror before choosing which to ultimately buy. Last month, the e-tailer Gilt Groupe teamed up with GQ to create a men's high-fashion retail experience in New York's so-fashionable-it'll-soon-be-uncool Meatpacking District. Such movements are part of a burgeoning trend, blurring the boundaries between digital and bricks-and-mortar retail. Retailers must begin taking advantage of this immediately if their physical stores are to survive. Make the mobile and physical shopping experience seamless and admit the strategic problem: people find it easier to shop at home. High-end stores could lower inventory, highlighting 'hero' products and making the shop more of an experiential journey. Lower-end could offer special deals that are only available in-store, not online; currently the opposite is the case. Balancing the ease of m-commerce with the attraction of a physical retail space is a delicate one, but one which retailers must very quickly start considering, or risk facing a bleak outlook. [1] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2f0babbe-3e30-11e1-ac9b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pkCtRMAy http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/10/mobile-puts-retail-on-a-rollercoaster http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/10/mobile-puts-retail-on-a-rollercoaster Thu, 10 May 2012 16:24:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/08/food-for-thought-at-google-firestarters-5 Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the fifth in the series of Google Firestarters events for planners and digital media folk.  Cory Doctorow , the renowned science fiction novelist , journalist, technology activist, and co-editor of Boing Boing was on intense, rapid fire, glorious form. I began with every intention of  tweeting ironic witticisms from the event but was so drawn in by his manic and impassioned delivery that it was impossible to do anything but listen intently for fear of missing something. The talk was emotively titled 'The War on General Purpose Computing' or as the blurb would have it 'Cory will be talking about how in the coming decades, restriction and regulation of general computing could threaten to undermine the capabilities and security of not just communications, but many other corners of modern human society'. Where to start? Clearly his passion is digital copyright or rather some of the absurdities around copyright law that have tried to inhibit copying (not the rights and wrongs of copying, per se).  At least that's where he started.  He rapidly moved on to issues of privacy, censorship, surveillance and the attempt by certain organisations (usually in the entertainment industry) to control how our personal computers actually run.  One example cited a DVD release that contained a small piece of 'malware' that once loaded onto your PC would a) not allow you to copy/unscramble the content but b) carried a simple prefix that rendered the program invisible to the operating system. This might not seem like such a big deal until you consider the wider implications.  Firstly, how do we all feel about an invisible program that prevents our own computers doing what we ask them to do? (Ctrl C anyone?) Secondly, how would you feel about that prefix getting into the hands of certain organisations, like the press, the Government, Social networks to use for their own purposes? Cory went on to cite the Government of Bahrain who had used similar invisible code to use a PC's web cam to 'spy' on their citizens' key strokes and computer activity!  By now we were all getting slightly edgy. (I didn't get this spooked at the ISBA conference. The folks there were getting their heads around Facebook - not fundamental issues of surveillance by nefarious regimes!) He then brought it down to a more personal level with a further example of the hearing aid. We are all of the Walkman or ipod generation so he urged us to get used to the idea that we will all need hearing aids at some stage. But these aids will be little computers that we will be inserting into our bodies. Would we feel confident doing this if we didn't personally control every aspect of how they performed?  Or worse, what if their functionality could be over-ridden by some invisible malware to interact with the operating system of a passing 747 jumbo? Cory's passion clearly comes from a fundamental frustration with the way that anti-piracy laws have been passed without much thought; sometimes not by people who understand technology, but usually by people who understand policy or are elected geographically, like MPs in the UK might be. He agonised that in places like Canada (or indeed anywhere!) experts on things like agriculture, health, law etc discuss the country's problems - and copyright is an afterthought, when it shouldn't be given how many connected devices we have and will have on this planet. This certainly got most people thinking - if you know of countries where they already block access or they force companies to give government control over data (think as far as  RIM and legal interception of users' Blackberry data in India , not just China's firewall), it's not a big leap. Cory himself concluded the evening nicely with this thought 'Freedom in the future will require us to have the capacity to monitor our devices and set meaningful policies for them; to examine and terminate the software processes that run on them; and to maintain them as honest servants to our will." I've barely scratched the surface with this post - but needless to say it was a fantastic piece of thought provocation, albeit slightly scary and dystopian. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/08/food-for-thought-at-google-firestarters-5 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/08/food-for-thought-at-google-firestarters-5 Tue, 08 May 2012 14:17:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/04/tmw_photo_competition April 2012 saw the launch of TMW's first ever photography competition, The Bigger Picture . We were all encouraged to get snapping and submit our best work for review. The event proved extremely popular with over 150 entries made in total. Work was entered into five categories, each of which represent the agency values: Smile, Do the right thing, Look after each other, Think Bigger and Give a damn.  We're a creative bunch, something which was clearly reflected in the quality and originality of the work submitted. Luckily for me, I didn't have to choose the winners. This was left up to our judges (Chris Freeland, Richard Marshall, Richard Shepherd and Graeme Noble) and our guest judge, advertising photographer Ashley Cameron. The winners, which were announced at the end of month drinks, took home prizes ranging from a Sony camera to bottles of wine. Thank you to everyone who took part and many congratulations to our winners, who are listed below. Thanks also to our sponsors Sony and Corbis, who donated a range of prizes and to Millie, Sam and Jenny for all their help. The winning entries are currently on display in the TMW Window. First place: Marc Curtis Second place: Sam Aldridge Category winners: Smile: First place: Tony Ward Runner up: Paul Gerber Do the right thing: First place: Fraser Leggat Runner up: Audrey Chiang Look after each other: First place: Hannah Ormsby Runner up: Laura Ball Think Bigger: First place: Susannah Clark Runner up: Chris Hudson Give a damn: First place: Neil Oakley Runner up: Sharad Misra http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/04/tmw_photo_competition http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/04/tmw_photo_competition Fri, 04 May 2012 12:12:00 Vikki Chowney http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/02/how-much-klout-is-too-much In terms of influence measurement, we've now hit 'worst case scenario'. The industry has grown quickly in popularity in just a few short years since Klout's creation in the late part of 2009.  For those overwhelmed by the social space, and the 'new way' of approaching marketing as a result, it was a welcome addition to their toolkit. It used language and scoring that they understood, and very simply categorised people according to what they were influential about - and then ranked them accordingly. Basically, it promised to make it easier to put this 'social media' thing in a nice box, with a number attached. Marketing thought leaders, bloggers and such threw their hands up in protest. 'But it can be gamed!', 'You can lie online!', 'This measures quantity over quality', 'It's just a NUMBER!' What most marketers found was something quick, easy to use, and with almost no barrier to entry that would do a lot of the hard work for them at a time that 'online influence' was becoming vital to understand. It's no good sticking your head in the sand and ignoring something that's becoming adopted and accepted by an industry. But the notion of measuring influence online, whether put in the context of an individual's network, or in relation to a particular topic, is flawed. As naysayers have reminded us time and time again, you can game the systems, you can create a false persona - and though the theory of measuring influence can be very eloquently argued by many of the leaders in this space - academia doesn't always translate to real-world practice. That said, social influence measurement provides people with a starting point, a benchmark, from which to conduct deeper human analysis. But sadly that doesn't often happen. Marketers will often take the easy road when the opportunity is presented, and a tool that allows you to create a list of influencers at the click of a button is appealing. Lazy, yes, less-than-accurate, of course. But that's not to say it isn't happening, by some of the biggest agencies out there. Combine this with the fact that several credible, savvy brands have invested in the process. Reebok, The Telegraph, Spotify, Audi, Deezer, Microsoft, VH1, even Ed Sheeran, and we're now seeing Klout scores crop up on CVs - used as a measurement of value, with more importance in some cases than real-life achievements. Speaking of which, this week Wired's Seth Stevenson put his tuppence in, writing something of a profile( http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/ff_klout/ ) on Klout founder Joe Fernandez, who says that Klout is 'empowerment for the little guy'. It's a great sentiment, but sadly that's not quite the case. Stevenson's piece includes a bit of advice from Klout product director Chris Makarsky on boosting his score. "His first suggestion was to improve the "cadence" of my tweets" - in other words, 'tweet more'. Further into the article, we hear about the lifestyle of uber-Klouter Calvin Lee, a graphic designer from LA. Alongside other impressive free treats, he was given an Audi A8 to test drive - which he ended up 'roadtripping' to Klout's offices to meet Joe Fernandez. Now, yes, for many brands, this kind of always-on brand evangelist is exactly the kind of person they want to reach. This is a person who is ever-connected, who doesn't like being offline because his Klout score will drop - which the article points out "makes him feel uncomfortable" -and he won't get any more free stuff. But that's where we see that the motivation is all wrong. Lee doesn't know what free stuff he's going to get next, he's just fuelled by the desire to get it. And that's exactly the kind of behaviour that influence measurement creates. 'Free stuff' is one of the main things people want from brands when connecting with them in a social sense, research from the CMO Council, from ExactTarget, show ( http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8464-consumers-want-free-stuff-from-social-marketers-think-they-want-to-be-heard ) this time and time again. That's no secret, but there's a difference between an individual gravitating towards a named brand, where they've been offered an incentive like behind-the-scenes content, money off, even a product trial, and one who is obsessing over their score because of the promise of potential giveaways. Sure, the latter person could end up becoming an advocate, but it's still a stab in the dark - albeit a more informed one.  Stevenson hit the nail on the head in his conclusion, in which he starts looking at those within his networks with lower Klout scores. "They talked about things nobody else was talking about. Sitcoms in Haiti. Quirky museum exhibits. Strange movie-theater lobby cards from the 1970s. The un-Kloutiest's thoughts, jokes, and bubbles of honest emotion felt rawer, more authentic, and blissfully oblivious to the herd. Like unloved TV shows, these people had low Nielsen ratings-no brand would ever bother to advertise on their channels. And yet, these were the people I paid the most attention to. They were unique and genuine. That may not matter to marketers, and it may not win them much Klout. But it makes them a lot more interesting." Social influence scoring doesn't measure influence, that's far too complex a thing to be quickly calculated by plugging in your Twitter and Facebook profiles, but it does measure social capital (as outlined in Altimeter's recent report) (http://www.slideshare.net/Altimeter/the-rise-of-digital-influence). It's not entirely without merit, but as a marketer, it's a dangerous thing to rely on - as you could end up creating an influencer relations campaign purely based on those who shout the loudest. And as for using it directly as a brand to reward those with higher scores, this could end up making people feel like you're only interested in those with 'influence' - and are shutting them out instead of including them in your community. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/02/how-much-klout-is-too-much http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/05/02/how-much-klout-is-too-much Wed, 02 May 2012 10:35:00 Sophie Clutterham http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/27/tmw-hires-econsultancy-news-editor-as-head-of-community TMW has appointed Vikki Chowney to the newly created position of head of community. Chowney will lead and develop the agency's community management and influencer relations capabilities across its client base, which includes Unilever, Diageo and Brother International. Chowney has worked in the digital media industry for over seven years and is widely recognised as a leading authority in the social media and online PR industry. She has developed her extensive knowledge and experience by working as a journalist, blogger and PR consultant. Chowney joins TMW from Econsultancy, where, as news editor, she launched the site's news operation, managing a team in the UK and working with another in the US. Prior to this, Chowney was the editor of NMA's sister title Reputation Online, where she contributed a regular column to NMA. In the past, she has written for a number of publications, including Marketing Week, Contagious and Communicate. Chowney has also worked as content editor for the JaguarFuture.com project and has acted as an independent consultant to brands including Talk Talk and O2. A key part of Chowney's role will be to ensure that the insights gained from community management feed into a client's wider social media and management strategy, including research and development and customer service. She will also be responsible for providing best practice across the spectrum of participation platforms and ensuring community management ties in with TMW's Intelligent Influence proposition, which aims to create greater brand engagement by encouraging consumers to actively participate with brands. The appointment completes the agency's line up of content services, combining best in class community management with engaging editorial content and creative concepts. Chowney will report directly to TMW's director of social engagement, Chris Buckley. Chris Buckley, director of social engagement at TMW comments, "As social media continues to mature, brands are increasingly looking at ways of generating measurable value from their online communities. Vikki's specialist knowledge and experience make her the ideal person to drive forward this area of the business. She is a real find and we are delighted she has chosen to join our team." Chowney adds: "Community management is about much more than just managing a Facebook page or Twitter feed. Using what's being said within your online community to inform the future direction of your business is where it's heading. It touches on all aspects of a business and the insights gained from this activity should be used on a broad scale to maximise any investment made online." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/27/tmw-hires-econsultancy-news-editor-as-head-of-community http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/27/tmw-hires-econsultancy-news-editor-as-head-of-community Fri, 27 April 2012 14:50:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/25/tmw-gets-into-the-summer-spirit-with-diageo-and-schweppes-campaign TMW is launching a shopper marketing campaign for Diageo and Schweppes brands to kick start a summer of celebrations. The campaign, which includes press, outdoor, in store and trade elements, showcases the ongoing relationship between Diageo's Pimm's and Gordon's spirits, and Schweppes Mixers and Schweppes Lemonade. Building on and celebrating the premium brand's iconic British heritage, the work will focus on four key events in this year's social summer calendar, including The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The creative features images of the individual drinks set either side of the exclusive limited edition summer bottles, with images of the Union Jack in the background. One leads with the strapline: 'A spectacular summer without Pimm's and Schweppes there? It's just not British!' The campaign will run alongside radio and PR elements. Victoria White, head of shopper marketing at TMW comments: "Pimm's, Gordon's and Schweppes are all premium brands with a unique British heritage. During this special Jubilee year, their heritage makes them particularly relevant and the campaign demonstrates that they are the perfect accompaniment to any summer party."   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/25/tmw-gets-into-the-summer-spirit-with-diageo-and-schweppes-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/25/tmw-gets-into-the-summer-spirit-with-diageo-and-schweppes-campaign Wed, 25 April 2012 15:02:00 Daren Kay http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/23/confessions-of-a-consumer Ever wondered what it would be like if you didn't work in marketing? Or more to the point, if rather than spending your day trying to get people to buy things they don't know they want yet, you were on the receiving end of the advertising message? To be blunt. Ever wondered what it's like to be a consumer?  Well, on my three month sabbatical from TMW I was able to be just that. No Campaign Magazine. No Inspiration Room or other advertising blogs. No TMW Banter emails pointing me to skateboarding cats and the like. Just me, my head and the world. Bring it on. For anyone like me who has dedicated much of their lives to the cause, be warned - the results are somewhat disheartening! What messages did I notice? Where did I see them? And crucially, what did I buy? First up, good old telly. As a heavy consumer of Sky News, I couldn't fail to notice the cute bumpers for a number of airlines, my favourite being the one that sponsors the weather report, and promises that Sevilla marmalade will be spreading over the Persian Gulf (geddit, severe/Sevilla). The other campaign I couldn't help but notice was the launch of Rated People.com. Then again, it might be because we pitched for it last year. In the evening, Coronation Street's bumpers are still more amusing than most. And during my stay in Yorkshire, the Aldi 'I don't like tea, I like gin' ad never failed to raise a smile. Not that I'll be shopping there anytime soon. But other than that, as the rest of my TV consumption is a combination of TiVo and films on demand, nothing else really stood out. Next up, outdoor. Living opposite a digital poster on a main road in Battersea you'd think OOH would have more impact, but other than being so bright that I need black-out curtains in my bedroom, I can't recall a single ad over the last three months. Bus sides however had more impact for some reason. I know, for example, that London's TV network goes digital on two dates in April, that the Titans have a lot of Wrath and there's something called CreativeAgencyLondon. Direct Mail? Well, in fairness I think Wandsworth must guard their electoral roll quite closely, as the only mail I get seems to be from the places I keep my money and the charities, galleries and museums to which I occasionally give it. Apart from the ubiquitous take-away flyers, like Mother Hubbard's cupboard, my letter-box was mostly bare. So what about digital? While Gmail is mainly used by my non-work friends, I do recall getting quite a lot of emails from East Coast, Interflora and Photobox. Of these the East Coast one did remind me to book my train ticket up North, although I did through Trainline, as the EC website is quite busy by comparison. My TMW account had over 7,000 emails - four of which required a reply. FOUR! Can you believe that? Yep. FOUR. Read it and weep. But it's not all bad news. When we get to the shiny new social media platforms things start to get interesting. For a start there were those weekly facebook updates from brands I'd 'liked' over the year. And while I didn't read all of their posts avidly, I am aware that Marmite, Matteson's, Vaseline, Nissan Leaf, Heinz and Skittles - to name just a few - at least have something to say. Which was nice. Additionally, after switching to facebook timeline, through which I updated my status to 'single' - I did notice the sudden appearance of ads for gay dating sites*. Including one for people who like men in uniform. Who doesn't? But the thing I really noticed was how much I was influenced by friends' recommendations of stuff. Admittedly we're talking films, books, exhibitions, music, restaurants etc… but their recommendations did lead to me actually opening my wallet and spending cash, usually preceded by a bit of Google search. So it seems that for me Social Media is the most powerful influencer. More good news for TMW is that for at least half the time I was accessing the digital media via my rather old iPhone. And finally, what about POS or Shopper Marketing as it is called these days? Well, given the fact I was on a reduced budget for the last three months, it's not surprising how much more attention I paid to special offers and own-brand deals. Even remembering to use my coupons in Boots! So, if you've got to the end of this missive, I expect you're wondering whether there's a moral to the story. In short, it's never been more important to influence intelligently. We have no right to peoples' attention, and consumers are amazingly adept at filtering out our messages. Personal recommendation proved to be the most powerful influence, while much of how I consumed was driven by force of habit, perhaps formed as a result of years and years of advertising messages back in the days when there were only two commercial TV channels. But I was surprised how many purchases were preceded by a bit of Google search or motivated by the chance to save a few bob. In the three month period there was little from traditional advertising that grabbed or shocked me enough to try it - with Aldi being the only thing that came close. So what's the solution? In short, if you want my attention, you're gonna have to stand out. If you want me to like you, it helps if you're likable, even better if you can make me laugh and if you want me to buy you, then you've got more chance if you're offering me something I genuinely want. Even better if you can offer it to me cheaper than anyone else. But if you want to really seal the deal then infiltrate my social circle and get one of my trusted friends to recommend you.  *The dating site ads? FYI. Had a date with a nice Brazilian man on Monday. Second date already planned. Who says facebook advertising doesn't work?" http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/23/confessions-of-a-consumer http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/23/confessions-of-a-consumer Mon, 23 April 2012 14:02:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/18/persil-ties-up-with-adventurer-bear-grylls-for-latest-campaign Persil has launched the 'Today I Am…Bear Grylls' campaign for its Persil Small & Mighty brand. As part of the project, TMW has launched an SMS-entry promotion which gives parents the chance to win a place for their children to spend the day getting muddy with Bear Grylls. The promotion runs from 1 st March - 30 th April and to date has received over 5,000 entries. TMW has also launched the brand's first ever Facebook page www.facebook.com/persiluk , which coincided with the promotion. The Facebook page has acquired over 900 fans organically, with 200 talking about this (without any paid media). The campaign was also supported by email communications, online advertising and an updated brand website. TMW will also be organising the Competition Winner's Day where 150 children will be spending the day with Bear learning adventure and survival skills such as den building, conquering an assault course and camp fire building. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/18/persil-ties-up-with-adventurer-bear-grylls-for-latest-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/18/persil-ties-up-with-adventurer-bear-grylls-for-latest-campaign Wed, 18 April 2012 11:14:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/17/tmw-appoints-guillaume-buat-ménard-as-technical-director TMW has appointed Guillaume Buat-Ménard to the position of technical director, where he will be responsible for driving forward the agency's digital delivery.                With over 15 years' experience in web development, Guillaume is a specialist in technology and the digital medium. He began his career at creative interactive agency Deepend in the nineties and moved on to Proximity London, where as technical director, he helped the agency launch its digital proposition. More recently, he was technical director at Aqueduct, where he worked on accounts including Lloyd's of London and the Football Association. At TMW, Guillaume will oversee a 23 strong technical department. He will be tasked with fine tuning processes to maximise efficiency and deliver the best possible technical solutions to clients. He will also be responsible for ensuring the agency stays at the forefront of innovation in creative technology. Chris Freeland, managing director at TMW comments, "As an agency we are constantly striving to stay at the top of our game. Guillaume's wealth of experience makes him the ideal person to take TMW's technical capabilities forward. We are delighted to have him on board." Guillaume Buat-Ménard adds: "TMW's drive for change and innovation at all levels is refreshing and it's one of the reasons I am joining the team. I am looking forward to working with Chris and the agency to produce great creative work whilst enjoying the friendly culture that the agency has to offer." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/17/tmw-appoints-guillaume-buat-ménard-as-technical-director http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/17/tmw-appoints-guillaume-buat-ménard-as-technical-director Tue, 17 April 2012 15:51:00 Chris Buckley http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/12/have-you-got-the-shareability-factor There was a time when reaching your target market with a clear message was enough to sell products. Now brands need to create campaigns that have network appeal. This means creating ideas that can be shared in multiple iterations to fit within the audience's ever changing world. But where do these ideas come from, how do you plan them and who should be creating them? Is there a formula for creating campaigns with network appeal? Getting people to share your brand or campaign with their network is about two things happening together. Firstly, it's about creating an idea worth sharing. Secondly, it's about planning the idea's distribution.  For the first, there are some common characteristics demonstrated in the more successful campaigns. They tend to have cultural relevance, are shared in context and have immediacy to the idea. Often they are concepts distilled to simple ideas and standout by being distinctive.  Take Lynx's Fallen Angel Augmented Reality campaign, which took place in Victoria station last year. The campaign gave guys the opportunity to flirt with a virtual angel whilst waiting for their train to arrive. Why did it resonate with the audience and get talked about? It was easy to get involved with and the experience had immediacy and impact. When it comes to creativity, social by design is a popular request from clients and account teams, but that's not to say that only social campaigns are sharable. VW's Super Bowl teaser Ad, that sees a bunch of dogs dressed as Star Wars characters barking Darth Vader's march, is a great example of an idea with network appeal. I shared it because I love both brands and I like to see dogs dressed as people. It's relevant to me and reflects my personality. Like so many great ideas that have network appeal, it has currency. I valued it, so I shared it. Most importantly, it was done well. It's not about production value, just whether it stays true to what I believe about Star Wars. In terms of distribution, how the idea gets shared is often overlooked by brands and agencies alike. Few brands think about participation and how the network will move the idea around. There's much talk about the Paid/Bought, Owned and Earned media planning model, where reach and interaction in social have become the KPIs for social spend, but not a great deal of thought as to how second and third generation sharing can be encouraged when the media budget has finished. Again, there are some key learnings to be applied here.  Shareability can be improved by making the content of the idea detachable. In other words, distributing it in formats that can be easily taken from one place and put in another. Recognising that the whole idea doesn't need to be shared, or understood, all at once is important. Snickers recently hacked Katie Price's Twitter profile as a stunt. I heard about it before I understood what was going on.  In addition to the adding of sharing tools to content, encouraging tagging, adding bookmarking tools and the activity of reaching out to influencers to 'seed' content, a simple way to get network reach is by involving the community in the act of creation. The feed from Orange  http://thefeed.orange.co.uk/  does this well. 'AAAArrrghh you a pirate' and 'Singing tweetagrams' are particularly strong as they make it easy for the individual to do the work of both creating the output and sharing it. So to the trickiest question of all, who should be responsible for creating ideas with network appeal? For me, the answer is simple. Whether you're the brand commissioning the work, or the agency with the job of creating it, if you want to get network appeal, pick a team that has the ability to put the idea into the context of how it will be shared. If it has clear social value and distribution is built in to the idea, then people will share it for you. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/12/have-you-got-the-shareability-factor http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/12/have-you-got-the-shareability-factor Thu, 12 April 2012 14:50:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/10/gareth_james_reviews_the_guardians_three_little_pigs   I've read many fairy tales to my kids over the years. Favourites include such classics as Jack and the Beanstalk or more contemporary tales like The Gruffalo. One popular request was the tale of the Three Little Pigs. This simple yet terrifying tale of the wolf at the door always raised pulses and often reduced the little'uns into gibbering wrecks just before bed. Fairy tale induced insomnia - just who's idea was it to make fairy tales so bloodthirsty? Anyway, for the most part I attribute the children's sleeplessness to the fact that I modelled my Wolf on Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance in the Shining as he approached the bathroom, axe in hand, maniacally promising Wendy of his intent to 'Huff' and 'Puff' etc… This was, of course, ill-advised but the truth remains that in most cases, fairy tales warm my heart for their ability to both delight and terrify. The new ad from The Guardian, its first for 25 years, uses the story of the Three Little Pigs to launch their new editorial positioning - Open Journalism. Led by Editor in Chief Alan Rusbridger, Open Journalism encourages participation and a democratisation of the news. The idea is not new as the growth of mobile and social technologies have seen the delivery of news transformed. This ad is the Guardian's attempt to jump into the middle of this space and claim it as theirs. Executed as a mocumentary, the ad cracks open the case of the Three Little Pigs as if it were covered by today's media. We see the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds: The pigs are arrested, the wolf is held to blame and then vindicated when someone discovers his chronic asthma. The pigs are then accused of 'doing it for the money', money that was required to support a mortgage pillaged by a corrupt and greedy banking sector. It's a gripping farce that despite its absurd content gives a realistic view of the media today - a fast paced montage of newspaper headlines, Twitter feeds, TV, mobile phone footage, social media, the lot. When I first saw the ad I was gripped, mostly in joyous disbelief, a big smile fixed to my face. I found it reminiscent of a Charlie Brooker drama with a nice nod to the Guardian's earlier 1980's 'Points of View' ad. It was the first ad I'd seen in a long time that made me sit up and watch right to the end. There's been some debate over whether the seriousness of the paper is compromised by the jokey plotline but I don't think it has. The fact that it makes a serious point with fairy tale characters works well for me - knowingly entertaining, nicely satirical. Brand Strategy Verdict Will it bring home the (ahem) bacon? Well there's no doubt that it's all very 'Guardian' - and with that it's difficult to know if it will actually attract any new readers rather serve to re-confirm the existing believers. But it's definitely been noticed and may well serve to convince those who are sitting on the fence (be it made of straw, sticks or brick.) Overall score: 7.5 This review was first published in Marketing Magazine. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/10/gareth_james_reviews_the_guardians_three_little_pigs http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/10/gareth_james_reviews_the_guardians_three_little_pigs Tue, 10 April 2012 12:30:00 Richard Pentin http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/04/top-tips-for-improving-viral-success There's clearly no secret formula for viral success otherwise we'd all be doing it.  In fact, there's nothing worse than a client briefing an agency to devise a viral campaign as it completely misses the point about how good ideas are generated.  A viral campaign is a desired outcome, not the basis for developing break-through campaigns or memes. That said, there are definite skills, techniques and approaches which we can deploy to improve our chances of viral success. In fact, Propagation Planning is a relatively new school of thought which is dedicated to this very concept.  In theory, the more we understand how communities behave and share ideas, the better we'll get at creating compelling advertising campaigns which self-propagate. As Griffin Farley, Strategy Director from BBH succinctly puts it "Plan not for the people you reach, but for the people they reach."   There are several dimensions to content generation which can help improve the chances of viral success: Tonality Viral content ideally needs to be comedic, political, sexy, controversial or newsworthy to have any social currency (or a combination of each).  For example, Lynx's Fallen Angels augmented reality experience in Victoria Station is entertaining with sexual undertones.  Likewise, commercials, videos or campaigns which are edgy or cool are more likely to be shared than those more conservative in nature.  What people share is a reflection of their own identities or image they wish to project so people are more likely to share with their peers if it has some intrinsic value or kudos factor. Distinctiveness There's a saying which claims 'ideas are useless, execution is everything'. The point I'm making here is that the craft which goes into delivering the communication is as important as the idea itself.  Sometimes you need high production values such as Evian babies, Philips Carousel, Honda Cogs or Google Chrome Speed Test ads. But equally, low production values can work just as well - think Cadbury's eyebrows campaign. In either case, it's the careful execution of the idea which makes it distinctive and unique, which in turn gives it so much social currency.  Storytelling The art of good storytelling is to have a strong protagonist and a compelling plot which keeps your audience engaged until the final denouement. It follows that the more unexpected the final outcome the more likely your asset will be shared. John Lewis's Christmas commercial is a classic example of this. So too is 'The Force' commercial by VW where they've used a young child as the key protagonist and kept everyone guessing until the final end frame.  The fact he's masquerading as Darth Vader is also no coincidence but rather a deliberate ploy to create an instantly recognisable character which older male car buyers can all identify with from their own childhood. Cultural relevance Those which tap into the zeitgeist in some way tend to spread more easily. This isn't easy to do but if the content reflects some technological, social, lingual, economic or political dimension of our times, it's much more likely to resonate and have cultural relevance. It is also more likely to be picked up by niche communities with vested interest in that zeitgeist. Dove's classic campaign for real beauty gained worldwide recognition not because of the product per se but because women were fed up with how they were being portrayed in advertising.   Authenticity Authenticity tends to gain more traction than fictional stories for some reason. You only need to see Susan Boyle's exponential rise to fame to see evidence of this. The VW 'The Force' commercial is also a great example of how the child's innocent behaviour provides the authentic charm which underpins the whole communication.   Participation Not all viral campaigns need to be participatory but there are examples when a less passive approach can help to fuel propagation.  Take 'The Bear' campaign by Tippex where online user participation delivers a deeper level of engagement and in turn increases its sharing potential.  Likewise, the use of tools like Facebook Connect can help to give a more personalised dimension to consumer interaction and participation.   Promotion Finally you can come up with an award-winning creative idea but without the right promotion it's unlikely to see the light of day. So buy some airtime on TV, seed the asset in the bloggersphere or post in influential communities to kick start proceedings. You should also leverage owned media channels as much as possible such as your brand's own website, social platforms and CRM programmes to ensure your existing customers and prospects are privy to it first. After all, there's nothing quite like being the first to share something your whole network of friends will enjoy. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/04/top-tips-for-improving-viral-success http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/04/top-tips-for-improving-viral-success Wed, 04 April 2012 11:42:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/02/tmw-launches-campaign-to-support-infiniti-emerg-e-concept-car On the 6 th March, luxury automotive brand Infiniti revealed the INFINITI EMERG-E, their highly anticipated electric concept car at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The new model is a two door electric sports car which provides a powerful combination of slick design, high performance, and low emissions. TMW was called upon to support the launch and create a seamless digital campaign to run before and alongside the reveal in order to generate awareness and a genuine sense of anticipation and excitement for the event. The live event was streamed on Infiniti's European and Global Facebook pages and the 23 regional Infiniti websites, which led with the strapline 'Be there when inspiration strikes' along with an image of a bolt of lightning to highlight the expected reaction. As well as managing the live stream, TMW created a pan European digital campaign to support the event; this featured a series of email communications and social media posts to drive visitors to the event and registrations for the live streaming. The results far exceeded expectations. European Facebook engagement showed 132,638 interactions on the day of the event and a staggering 1,169,504 interactions in the two weeks prior to and including the event day. Rob Carter, business director at TMW says: "Infiniti strives to be at the cutting edge of product innovation and the INFINITI EMERG-E is another example of this. The digital campaign combines eCRM, social media and refreshed web sections to offer a seamless communication to consumers." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/02/tmw-launches-campaign-to-support-infiniti-emerg-e-concept-car http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/04/02/tmw-launches-campaign-to-support-infiniti-emerg-e-concept-car Mon, 02 April 2012 14:25:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/27/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-isba-conference… I was lucky enough to attend the ISBA annual conference last week in the sunny environs of Lord's Cricket Ground. But not before a slightly bizarre incident on the tube that, little did I know, would serve as a metaphor for the day. Clearly distracted, I managed to get on a tube heading in completely the wrong direction and not notice for a few stops! I then had the mild embarrassment of heading back the way I had come with the rising sense of time running out. When I did eventually arrive I was slightly bemused by Chris Burggraeve (CMO of the world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev) talking excitedly about their 'fans' as opposed to 'drinkers'. (Didn't Nike own this whole fan issue back in the early 90's?) Indeed, so excited was Chris about this 'seismic shift' that he held up an example of their annual report, the cover of which featured about 30 Facebook fans 'actual pictures' as 'proof' of the company's commitment to social media. By now I was feeling like I was going backwards on the tube again (like an overcrowded 'cluetrain' perhaps - another seminal work from the 90's that was referenced later in the day). That said, he did then rally with a great film about the origins and role of beer in society as the only true social network. Next up was John Whittingdale, MP and Chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport. Clearly a seasoned speaker, he was  passionate about the fear of greater regulation being imposed on the advertising industry but with a stark warning that unless we all did more to address our value in society, explain behavioural advertising to consumers more clearly and play a part in helping to regulate the press, it would come. Dan Cobley from Google was one of my favourites not least because he manfully tried to demo live products (despite the woeful wi-fi at the conference repeatedly letting him down) and he urged advertisers to pay their agencies more to allow them to invest in the latest analytics tools and to keep up with the changing landscape. Bizarrely, he was mildly insulted by one of the ISBA hosts for 'feeling like a total idiot when the technology doesn't work'. Yeah, except the hosts were responsible for the technology, doh! I have to say the Social Media 'expert panel' session was fairly lacklustre - not because the speakers weren't perfectly competent - more the fact it didn't really get off the ground beyond 'think clearly about what you want to achieve before embarking on Social' type discussions. Handy advice. And on to the star performer - our very own client Phil Gladman who livened up the whole thing with some good old fashioned bombast and swagger! 'Lead agency models don't work!' (Oooohh). 'Get a million fans on Facebook or stick it on TV!' (Aaahhhh) 'Have some fun with your marketing - you won't damage your brand, it's only money!' (Gasp). The old marketing hands in the audience clearly loved it. The social media purists were clearly appalled!  Was he right, does he simply not 'get it'? Well, I'll leave you to make up your own minds but if I know Phil he did it with a twinkle in his eye and he certainly livened up the conference. At least I felt like the train was actually going in the right direction at last! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/27/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-isba-conference… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/27/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-isba-conference… Tue, 27 March 2012 17:05:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/26/captain-morgan-drops-in-on-tmw Earlier this month, we received a very special visit from the one and only Captain Morgan. As we prepare a digital campaign around Euro 2012 for Captain Morgan Rum, the Captain himself popped in to see how we were getting on! As well as surprising the various departments within the agency (including planning), he also dropped in on an unsuspecting Richard Marshall and Paul Tullo, bringing with him some special Captain Morgan cupcakes! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/26/captain-morgan-drops-in-on-tmw http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/26/captain-morgan-drops-in-on-tmw Mon, 26 March 2012 13:20:00 Sophie Sykes http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/22/thinking-bigger-with-the-idm-diploma When approached to do the IDM Diploma in Direct and Digital Marketing, along with Heidi, Camilla and Becky, I was filled with mixed emotions; the most prominent being excitement, fear and determination. This was the biggest challenge of my career to date. However, if I was asked to do it all again, I would jump at the chance. The course, and the broad range of topics that it covered, have provided me with a wealth of knowledge that is proving invaluable in my everyday work life. It has also made me even more passionate about this industry and has encouraged me to think bigger. The programme was extremely varied. One day I would be grappling with the idea of data insights, and the next I would be perfecting my creative brief writing skills. For me, one of the biggest highlights was the incredibly high level of speakers and lecturers who contributed to the course, sharing their wide ranging experience and knowledge.   As part of the diploma, we had to create two strategic marketing plans, one pitch presentation based on Ford's well known S-Max; and sit three exams. As well as learning the theory, the diversity of the course allowed me to develop my presentation skills, team building capabilities and my ability to communicate effectively with clients. When I started revising for the final exams, I began to appreciate what an exciting, multi-faceted and fast-paced industry we all work in. Completing the course with likeminded people in the industry was another bonus and I have made some great friends, admittedly most formed in the early hours of the morning whilst deciding whether it was Mr or Mrs Henri who was most likely to purchase a Ford S-Max! I worked with people from all different sectors and positions, both agency and client side, and everyone brought something different to the table. I fully believe you can learn the most through other people and this was certainly true of the IDM Diploma. Whilst most of us experienced highs and lows throughout the programme, I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has the drive and determination to get the most out of their career in marketing. Heidi, Mills and Becky - We did it and I think we all deserve a big pat on the back! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/22/thinking-bigger-with-the-idm-diploma http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/22/thinking-bigger-with-the-idm-diploma Thu, 22 March 2012 16:39:00 Nick Tusler http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/21/what-does-google’s-new-privacy-policy-mean-for-marketers On Thursday 1 st March Google introduced its new privacy rules, which unite its code of practice across all of its services including You Tube, Google Search and Gmail. This effectively means that data gleaned from all of these services can be amalgamated and used by the search engine to target users with advertising. The news has caused much controversy, with the EU justice chief warning Google about the legality of the policy and raising concerns about data privacy issues. The EU authorities feel the new policy is intrusive because of the scale of data integration and the fact that Google hasn't explicitly asked users for permission to use their data in this way. Since the introduction of the new rules, all data generated by individuals using different Google services has now been collated to form a very detailed picture of each user. This includes their online behaviour, likes, beliefs, motivations, etc. In fact anything that Google can derive from the huge amount of data they've collected and combined. It's big data. And this applies retrospectively to everything that users did before the policy change. The picture Google now has for each individual in one place will include many or all of these things: IP address Device identifiers Location Email address Cookies Life on Google + YouTube activity YouTube searches by each user What users have read or searched for in Google books Pictures posted on Picasa Posts and comments Their Google Search history Their Chrome browsing web history Their Gmail interactions From a targeting perspective, this sounds like a dream for marketers. However, it is the very act of pushing the boundaries of privacy by Google, Facebook and others, that is leading legislators to make life much harder for us through greater regulation. This is a problem for marketers if users begin to opt-out as legislation requires more consent from individuals. The fact that Google and Facebook are taking more and more control over this data with the objective of monetising it could also be a problem in the future. Privacy is important to all of us because it's about our right to control what others know about us and more so, what they do with that information. The enforcement of the cookies legislation from May 26 th this year and upcoming new EU data protection legislation will place further constraints on how data is collected and used. It could also reduce the amount of data out there as people who are getting ever savvier might start opting out. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/21/what-does-google’s-new-privacy-policy-mean-for-marketers http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/21/what-does-google’s-new-privacy-policy-mean-for-marketers Wed, 21 March 2012 16:11:00 Mike Phillips http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/12/good-brands-know-when-to-shut-up We live in a world that is constantly updating. It is always on and as a result, we are surrounded by new content; from hundreds of TV channels with their on demand services through to thousands of apps for our phones. There are millions of hours of content available on the web, updated every second with new tweets, blogs and videos. In amongst that sea of content, brands are struggling to be heard. They are producing content themselves in huge amounts. Content is king, they've been told, and so they're doing their part. Some are churning out blog posts and "virals", like there's no tomorrow and all the while updating Twitter and Facebook with banal salutations of "good morning, how was YOUR weekend?" supported with an unhealthy amount of exclamation marks. These brands have made a simple, almost forgivable mistake. They've assumed that because there is so much content around, so many brands on Facebook and Twitter, they need to shout louder and post more regularly, just to be seen. Content is king, and any content will do. They have become 'those people' on Facebook. The ones who feel the need to post about every little thing going on in their lives. The ones whose posts you don't read, whose phone calls you probably ignore the first few times it rings. What they have failed to realise is that unlike in advertising, volume doesn't work for social. It's an easy trap to fall into, and is now so clichéd it has almost lost meaning - they're broadcasting, and treating social like an advertising channel. In a world of mediocre content, only great content will shine through. Working with brands this year I will be telling them to do fewer things but do them bigger and better. All marketers have limited budgets, especially given the current economic climate. The best advice to deal with this is to focus your efforts and not spread them too thinly. A handful of fantastic pieces of content are of much more value to your audience, and by extension your brand, than hundreds of mindless Facebook updates. Say no to filler content. If you find yourself thinking that you have to post something just because you haven't in a while, stop. Make sure it's worth sharing. Make sure it's something other people will want to share and talk about. If it's not, it's a waste of time and money, and worse a bad mark against you in your target audience's mind. If you become the brand that constantly talks about boring stuff, that never does anything new, useful or cool then they'll start to ignore you. And once their attention is lost, it's really difficult to get it back. Good brands, like good friends, know when to shut up. Does yours? http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/12/good-brands-know-when-to-shut-up http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/12/good-brands-know-when-to-shut-up Mon, 12 March 2012 11:57:00 Mark Carroll http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/01/the-interest-in-pinterest! Its key appeal lies in the name "interest". It's a very simple platform relying on pictures rather than words. It allows users to take content from around the web and create a modern day scrap book of the things that excite and inspire them - from recipes to restaurants or wedding dresses to book shelves. Its goal? "To connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests" How it works…  Pinterest allows users to create various boards on any theme or category. Users can have their own personal boards or allow groups to contribute. Similarly, they can follow others on the site or just follow a particular board that they find interesting. There are three main ways to get pinning and fill your boards: The most popular is by 'repinning'previously posted content to one of your boards ( 80% of content is pinned in this way).  The next most popular method is using the Pinmarklet tool . This can be added to a browser, allowing users to post images from any website to one of their boards. Thirdly, the mobile app allows users to upload photo content as well as explore, repin and like other people's content. Boards can be shared with anyone, even those who are not signed up to the service (which still requires an invite in order to sign up and start pinning).  With no strict categorisation or design requirement to get you started it's simple for anyone to start pinning and understandably many have. The site saw over 11 million unique visitors in Dec 2011. With the sudden popularity of the network it's easy to see why it's getting so much attention, which raises the question of how brands can become pinteresting? Well, a few have already jumped on the service. The easy wins come from fashion and commerce sites which have used boards to create online catalogues of their products, latest ranges and inspirations. Anything that is 'Pinned' can link directly back to the source site, which means content is not only there for sharing and repinning but it is also driving traffic and potential purchase. Pinterest also has the potential to become a live media channel as demonstrated by Burberry, who posted their latest catwalk collection from London Fashion week . Brands can now effortlessly find themselves pinned to thousands (maybe even millions) of users' public wish lists and drive recommendations and awareness of the products on to their friends through other connected networks, such as facebook timeline and ticker:  It may also be a surprise to brands that haven't set up an account to see how well liked they are, by looking at what content has been pinned from their website. Anything that is pinned will always link back to the source (that hugely beneficial traffic and commerce driver again!) Guinness.com An added benefit to the work that Pinterest has put into its platform is the potential to utilise free real time analytics or feedback on product ranges. Seeing what people like most about a brand or website demonstrates the most desired products being pinned and how this compares to conversion and sales. Do the most pinned products sell out the fastest? Is a flagship product being pinned or is another proving more popular in the pin-crazy community? Some observers feel that Pinterest could be another over hyped social and tech success, with the masses merely flocking to see what all the buzz is about. However, the numbers and case studies that are popping up almost daily would suggest that the creators have really tapped into a hugely desirable and successful format. They have focused on catering for the mass market with a product that can complement users' other networks, allowing them to save what they see on the web which means even more emphasis on visual appeal of content. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/01/the-interest-in-pinterest! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/01/the-interest-in-pinterest! Thu, 01 March 2012 14:07:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/27/creative-review-giffgaff   Giffgaff "the mobile network run by you" is the new challenger on the block. The SIM only mobile network continues to gain more and more kudos with its online marketing antics. This latest campaign featuring the one and only Keith Harris and Orville is a good example of how to cut through the plethora of brands trying to get seen on YouTube and to get them clicking through for more. Last week Giffgaff posted a video titled 'TheCONtract feat. K-Orville' - a brilliantly crafted Eminem / Rhianna pastiche. The pop video features Keith and Orville riffing about the injustice of being locked into a contract and their need (nay right) to be free. Keith (as you may have guessed) plays the Eminem character. He's locked in a physical and metaphorical jail-cell rapping about his unjust incarceration to a mobile phone contract. The cinematography is dark and (comically) true to the melodramatic rap rhetoric with each shot expertly choreographed to suspend the disbelief that Harris can rap… Enter Orville. Orville's soaring, candid, unrestrained cry - "I wanna be freeeee"- launches a chorus that truly delivers. The touching reminiscence of Orville's dark days dreaming of flight beautifully mixed with the pure comedy of his auto-tuned voice gave me a belly laugh. Orville's performance tipped me over the edge. The bird-in-captivity story doesn't stop there. The song goes on to explain what you can do to help. For every mobile phone that is unlocked with a Giffgaff SIM the network provider will ensure the freedom of a real bird. A simple cluck on Facebook to sign up for a free SIM and Giffgaff will free a battery hen that is being held in captivity. Yes, you heard me right. Random? Yep. Funny? Definitely. I can't help but forgive them for what is probably the most ridiculously tenuous link I've seen in a marketing campaign for a long time -chickens, ventriloquism, SIM cards- but in the strange and unpredictable world of the internet they seem to make good cell mates. The ad engages, gets a laugh and drives traffic to a simple conversion mechanic and it's all wrapped up in the magic ingredient - likability. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/27/creative-review-giffgaff http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/27/creative-review-giffgaff Mon, 27 February 2012 17:13:00 Mia Matulic http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/21/lynx-attract-chaos-on-the-buses Traditionally a male orientated brand, Lynx has for the first time in 27 years launched a fragrance with both male and female variants. Lynx Attract has put the 'Lynx effect' into the hands of both sexes, unleashing chaos across the UK, as illustrated by the TVC and supporting assets. To bring the chaos to life and extend its reach, we came up with the concept of unleashing 'Chaos on the buses'. Here's what we did… Chaos on the buses… 9 am Wakefield bus depot- An incredibly early start was made all the more memorable by sub-zero temperatures and mandatory high-vis jackets as we milled about the bus depot setting up and planting candid cameras. Keeping warm was no easy feat, a theme which carried on throughout the day especially as the afternoon saw 10 cm of snow! Thankfully hot drinks and biscuits were on hand to keep us going. At 10 am we boarded the 110 bus (our home for the next 7 hours). The bus, featuring Lynx Attract branding, followed a scheduled 40 minute route from Wakefield to Leeds, carrying hundreds of real passengers going about their daily business. Amongst them were our models. As the doors shut and the bus started moving, passengers were privy to furtive glances, the twisting of a lock of hair, the biting of a lip and then a kiss from 1… 2…3… 4… 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 up to 10 couples! The effect was infectious! Passenger reactions varied from burying their head in their paper, to sideways glances, nudges, coughs, giggles and pretend kisses. However, all were good natured and amusing. And at the end of it, most were happy to get their hands on cans of Lynx Attract and unleash some chaos of their own. The events were filmed and translated into a short video which was released on Valentine's Day, tying in nicely with the sentiment afforded by the day. The content will continue to live on as an example of attraction chaos within the Chaos Watch hub - a Facebook tab dedicated to reportingattraction chaos outbreaks throughout the country, where users can submit their own experiences and examples of chaos. If you spot any chaos sightings of your own, please report them to Chaos Watch . Be careful out there… http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/21/lynx-attract-chaos-on-the-buses http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/21/lynx-attract-chaos-on-the-buses Tue, 21 February 2012 15:16:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/13/new-year,-new-business-as-tmw-and-city-index-partner-for-2012 City Index has appointed TMW to work on the brand's integrated marketing activities, on a project by project basis. TMW has been tasked with raising awareness and driving growth of the brand's spread betting, CFD (Contracts for Difference) and retail Forex offering The agency's first project for City Index will focus on some of the company's unique selling points and current offers, which set it apart from the competition. These include its award-winning mobile app (City Trading™) and its free trading strategy seminars. The work includes press and online activity. City Index is a world leader in spread betting and CFD trading. As well as providing access to thousands of markets worldwide, the company offers award-winning trading platforms, allowing retail clients to spread bet and trade CFDs instantly and securely 24 hours a day. City Index transacts in excess of 1.5 million trades every month for individuals in over 50 countries worldwide. Paul Cassidy, global head of marketing at City Index, says: "As our global presence expands it is crucial that we have the right agency partners in place. I was impressed with TMW's integrated approach to the brief. We look forward to a mutually positive relationship." Darren Smith, business director at TMW, adds: "It's great to be working with a leading global brand like City Index, in what is a rapidly evolving sector. We are really excited by the challenge that this will give us and look forward to getting started." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/13/new-year,-new-business-as-tmw-and-city-index-partner-for-2012 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/13/new-year,-new-business-as-tmw-and-city-index-partner-for-2012 Mon, 13 February 2012 09:00:00 Chris Pearce http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/10/books-that-influenced-me    1. The Gift by Marcel Mauss I will always owe a debt of gratitude to this book.  In my first pitch at TMW we were struggling to find a compelling story line for a high profile financial services client. A chance reference to Mauss triggered a dive into his detailed analysis of gift exchange, reciprocity and how this affects human relationships through his observations of Polynesian society in the early twentieth century. The concept of 'gift debt' proved invaluable to framing our argument and my 'gifting' of a copy of the book to the client certainly provoked the desired response!     2.  After Image: Mind-Altering Marketing by John Grant I was fortunate enough to work briefly with John Grant at the start of my career at JWT. Even back then, he stood out from the crowd and I remember being impressed and a little intimidated by his intellect.  In 'After Image' Grant provides a forensic analysis of branding from a cognitive-science viewpoint.  His fusion of branding and learning to create a new mental model for how consumers interact with brands is still hugely useful to me.     3. Blog - Talent imitates, genius steals (some naked thoughts on brands, media, communications, technology and that) by Faris Yakob A digital marketing provocateur and self-confessed digital ninja (long before the term was devalued), Faris's blog has acted as a constant source of inspiration for me over the last four or five years.  He has covered a vast range of subjects from the early 'transmedia storytelling' debates, through to issues of 'cultural latency' and the nature of media systems.  Faris has genuinely fresh ideas that get you thinking about things you wouldn't normally think about! It's amazing how these concepts creep into the vernacular on a regular basis.    4. How not to come second: The Art of Winning Business Pitches by David Kean In today's competitive economy, winning business is not for the faint hearted. This is a fantastic common sense manual for anyone remotely hoping to stand a chance of making a success of it and outwitting the competition. It's particularly good at showing you how not to get it wrong, something which we have all done at one time or another. This is a must read for new business teams in any industry.    5. Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions by Guy Kawasaki This is a great collection of anecdotes and powerful stories around the core principles of enchantment: likability, trustworthiness and a great cause, product or service. Kawasaki shows us how getting this right can go a long way towards building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with clients. He depicts such a convincing account of how enchantment can influence relationships that we've even embraced it as a mantra for client services teams throughout the agency.    6. Down and out in the magic kingdom by Cory Doctorow This fantastic science fiction novel set in the 22 nd century in Disney World, predicts the death of death itself and the end of scarcity. It also introduces the concept of 'Whuffie' as a visible, social currency that replaces money and measures how much esteem and respect people have for you. This extreme concept of a social currency is something that was a useful and provocative bench mark in some of the earlier days of Social Media. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/10/books-that-influenced-me http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/10/books-that-influenced-me Fri, 10 February 2012 15:56:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/08/the-super-bowl-moment Latest viewing figures confirm that this year's Super Bowl, which aired last Sunday, was the most watched programme in US TV history. I know it's a tradition, and as such, I should play along in blissful approval but I can't. I can't help but feel the Super Bowl Moment is the (old) ad industry's way of justifying its own existence, with blockbusting productions and media budgets attempting to re-write the future of a brand overnight. Ironically, most of the ads were 'leaked' onto YouTube before the $3.5million media spot this year, probably turning the Super Bowl into the most expensive seeding strategy money can buy. The now (supposedly) viral films allow brands and advertisers to feel happy about their new-found control over social media. Some of the 30 second Moments were entertaining, some annoying, others not worth mentioning but all are casualties of the fact that the Super Bowl is so very very popular. My thoughts on the whole shooting match are split simply into Likes and Dislikes. Likes It's a great way to get in front of a huge audience -  111 million viewers to be more precise. These people will not plonk themselves in front of the telly again at the same time for another year (In the west at least) - that's got to be good. This media event has the power to re-set your brand.  It can change people's perception of you, good or bad. Dislikes Safe creative. With so much at stake the creative really suffers. Ads resorting to the old clichés of cute animals, celebrities, slapstick and the rape of pop culture, all lead to less inventive and less engaging ideas. (A particular low-light was Chryslers odiously patriotic inspiration fest to get people buying good old American products again.) The ads are still very traditional.  They bark out their message, longing for approval. Lacking in depth, engagement and the ability to spark conversation. What price longevity?  Beyond the back-in-the-office-Monday-morning-tea-break chat, how many will be extolling the virtues of your 30 second brand parade? The ads are far too pleased with themselves. Notably, Volkswagen referencing its own TV ad of last year. This, in my book is like laughing at your own jokes - usually sign of some tragic character flaw. What can we learn in the UK? I doubt there will ever be a true Super Bowl moment in the UK (apart from perhaps the Olympics). The X-Factor or Champions League are the closest we will get but they do have far more niche audiences. This at least allows us to better target the message. This kind of big bang media is great but we need to find ways of harnessing it and creating something that lasts a long time. We need to do more than the now certain "Like us on Facebook" call to action at the end. The ideas need to have social at their heart - not just a broadcast message with a full stop at the end. They need some conversational rocket fuel, or at the very least, a good opener.     http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/08/the-super-bowl-moment http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/08/the-super-bowl-moment Wed, 08 February 2012 10:00:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/the-new-tmw-website-is-live! No more to be said. Check out the website and thanks to all involved....! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/the-new-tmw-website-is-live! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/the-new-tmw-website-is-live! Mon, 06 February 2012 17:23:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/tmw-appoints-sam-eccles-as-business-director-for-nissangb TMW has appointed Sam Eccles to the position of business director working on Nissan GB. Sam's core focus will be the management and ongoing development and growth of the Nissan GB account. Chris Freeland, managing director at TMW comments: "Sam joins us at a really exciting time for Nissan who continue to go from strength to strength in the UK marketplace. With a wealth of automotive and loyalty expertise, Sam will be key in helping us deliver against Nissan's aspirations of driving greater brand affinity and customer loyalty through their comprehensive CRM programme."   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/tmw-appoints-sam-eccles-as-business-director-for-nissangb http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/02/06/tmw-appoints-sam-eccles-as-business-director-for-nissangb Mon, 06 February 2012 08:48:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/27/dma-report-finds-etailers-are-losing-millions A new report by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has found that a slow response to customer queries may be costing etailers millions. According to the report, the average response time for a customer's online request for a brochure stands at 5.4 days, representing a significant increase from 2009. The study also suggests that many etailers are not dealing effectively with customer queries, causing them to lose out on potential sales. The findings are based on a survey of 217 companies in 10 retail sectors. The full story can be viewed on the DMA website: http://www.dma.org.uk/news/eretailers-losing-%E2%80%98millions-sales%E2%80%99-ignoring-online-customer-enquiries-report-finds http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/27/dma-report-finds-etailers-are-losing-millions http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/27/dma-report-finds-etailers-are-losing-millions Fri, 27 January 2012 09:08:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/26/eu-proposes-‘right-to-be-forgotten’-in-new-data-laws A new set of data laws have been drawn up as part of a new EU directive. The new laws would give EU citizens the 'right to be forgotten' online and would mean that social networks would have to comply with requests by user's to delete their personal information. Firms could also face hefty fines if they breach the new rules. The proposals need to be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before they are implemented, something which could take two or more years. More on this story can be read on the BBC and Telegraph websites:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16722229 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9038589/Digital-right-to-be-forgotten-will-be-made-EU-law.html   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/26/eu-proposes-‘right-to-be-forgotten’-in-new-data-laws http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/26/eu-proposes-‘right-to-be-forgotten’-in-new-data-laws Thu, 26 January 2012 09:29:00 Maxine Briggs http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/23/experiential-activities-should-be-used-to-maximise-engagement! As planning for the new festival season gets underway, it's becoming clear that brands are increasingly looking to establish their presence at both large-scale, traditional events and smaller, more unique experiences. The question is, how should brands be using the content gained from these events to maximise consumer engagement? While the ability to engage and interact with consumers during this type of activity is widely recognised and valued, what often gets missed is the opportunity of creating additional material and taking it to a wider audience. If planned and managed carefully, brands can extrapolate a wealth of rich content that can be used to connect with consumers beyond the event itself and can help build valuable online fan bases and communities. In the run up to any experiential activity, it is essential that agencies work together from the planning stages to ensure that the maximum possible content can be extracted from the event. While in many cases it's important for experiential agencies to bag the right celebrity, this is only the first step. Engaging the content digital agency to create longer term content is critical and will have a major impact on the success of the campaign overall. A collaborative approach at the early stages can be hugely beneficial in the long term. A prime example of this is the recent Lynx 'Shower' campaign that we were involved with, which set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to shower together. As well as the actual 'shower' itself, which took place on Bournemouth beach, we created a play on the infamous Lynx 'Billions' ad as well as behind the scenes edits and vox pops. The film went viral and received over 300K views. It also led to hundreds of new followers on Twitter and Facebook. In terms of content, the possibilities are endless. Our recent campaign for Guinness involves an in-depth review of home nation teams through the official Guinness social networking sites, blogs from New Zealand, live web chats with the players and even the opportunity for fans to post their messages of support online. The ability for people to engage with a brand in such a wide variety of ways adds value to any campaign in a way that consumers are increasingly coming to expect. The Guinness Facebook page has had an additional 2000 users since the campaign launched. Events are a huge undertaking in terms of both time and financial investment so brands need to make sure that they are making the most of them. The analogy I like to use is that events are often seen as a headline when they should be viewed as a story. Brands need to go beyond the headline to engage a wider audience and get a better return on their investment. This article was first published on Contagious: http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2012/01/maximum_engagement.php http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/video-group-shower-world-record-broken-on-uk-beach/ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/23/experiential-activities-should-be-used-to-maximise-engagement! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/23/experiential-activities-should-be-used-to-maximise-engagement! Mon, 23 January 2012 22:31:00 Douglas McDonald http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/04/the-future-isn’t-bright-for-specialist-mobile-web-developers! I'm not a massive fan of the "X vs.Y" school of thought. We see it all the time in mobile with "Web vs. Apps" and "iOS vs. Android" stories. It's a fairly lazy, yet effective, way of generating tweets and comments. However, there is one less well publicised area where a true battle is breaking out. I'd like to introduce the "web developers vs. mobile web developers" debate. Anyone acquainted with mobile will know that up until quite recently, most of the big web agencies ignored mobile as a communications channel. As a result, a number of specialist mobile web development companies sprang up to meet growing demand. They subsequently built some excellent platforms, serving "best possible" web pages on thousands of devices from lowly feature phones through to high end smartphones. This became the solution of choice for those of us keen to provide all mobile users with a good user experience. So far so good for the mobile companies. The problem is that these platforms now look as if they are built on a somewhat shaky foundation. They assume that we need to make our sites work on all handsets. We don't. When the majority of the population didn't have smartphones it was essential to make sure your site worked on all handsets. The mobile companies would smugly point out that they would provide "best possible" on every phone and that normal sites didn't work because they used tables or the page load was too high. They were right because the stats showed that a significant number of feature phone users still accessed the web through these devices. The problem is that, more and more, I research mobile ownership for our clients using comScore, which reveals that 65%, 75% or 80% of their particular target audience have smartphones. Additionally, I very safely predict that by January more than 50% of UK phones will be smartphones. Why then, should we pay big bucks for a specialist solution when talented web developers can make one site work across multiple devices/platforms, including PC's, with all the attendant cost savings? Clearly there are differences of context, navigation, file size and so on, but all these have solutions that can work on decent phones. It's still not the right solution for all situations, such as targeting the very elderly or financially challenged, but it's definitely heading that way very rapidly indeed. What about those people who still have feature phones? Well, to put it bluntly, in many cases, you can just throw them out of the equation. Is there much point in advising clients to spend money on people who won't visit the pages? Smartphones are not the preserve of rich marketers anymore so many people who are likely to interact via mobile are likely to have already upgraded. As this continues apace, will we be better off spending the cash on a better smartphone experience? If we accept that cheap smartphones are likely to kill off feature phones much faster than previously thought in many markets and that traditional web companies will then step up to the plate with "device agnostic" digital approaches that actually make sense, where does that leave all those lovingly crafted, device detecting, image re-purposing mobile only solutions and the companies who develop and run them? http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/04/the-future-isn’t-bright-for-specialist-mobile-web-developers! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2012/01/04/the-future-isn’t-bright-for-specialist-mobile-web-developers! Wed, 04 January 2012 05:45:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/15/new-hires-bolster-planning-department Jonathan Stirling and Mike Phillips have recently joined TMW as planning director and planner respectively. Jonathan's wealth of experience includes consultancy for AKQA and Loewy Group, as well as a role as head of insight at The Independent, while Phillips joins from Jam, which is part of the Engine Group. Working across our roster of accounts, Jonathan and Mike will report to director of strategy Kate Wheaton to further strengthen the agency's strategic offering. Chris Freeland, managing director at TMW comments, "As an agency, we find ourselves at a really exciting point in our development. Our strategic offering is going from strength to strength, recently marked by our first IPA effectiveness award for our Lynx campaigns. We are really lucky to have Jonathan and Mike on board. Their expertise in developing and executing successful multi-channel strategies and campaigns are second to none and with their help, we hope to take our offering to the next level." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/15/new-hires-bolster-planning-department http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/15/new-hires-bolster-planning-department Thu, 15 December 2011 09:00:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/12/flora-counts-down-to-christmas-with-facebook-competition On the 1st December 2011 Flora launched an exciting new facebook competition to surprise and delight fans in the run up to Christmas. As part of the campaign, TMW has redesigned the facebook page to look like an advent calendar. Behind the calendar window, a new mystery ingredient will be revealed each day of the week in a 'guess the recipe' competition. The first fan to guess correctly wins an Xbox and Kinect, with runners up receiving cookie cutter sets. All correct entries will go into a final prize draw on the 21st December, where more Xbox prizes will be awarded. The campaign has been a huge success, with 1011 competition entries made in the first week alone. As a result of the campaign, the Flora facebook page has picked up 750 new fans, with 307 new 'likes' on launch day. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/12/flora-counts-down-to-christmas-with-facebook-competition http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/12/flora-counts-down-to-christmas-with-facebook-competition Mon, 12 December 2011 04:13:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/09/twitter-unveils-new-design-and-introduces-brand-pages Last week Twitter announced the introduction of brand profile pages as part of a major redesign. The site has partnered with 21 brands, including Heineken, Dell and Coca Cola and will roll out the profiles to consumers over the coming months. While most brands already have a Twitter account, the new branded pages will allow for more interaction with followers. The plan is to expand the new platform to additional brands next year. The redesign is based around four new tabs: Home, Connect, Discover and Me. The overall aim of the refresh is to help users follow what matters to them, connect more easily with others and discover new things. More information on these changes can be viewed here: http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1108578/twitter-reveals-new-look-including-brand-pages/ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/09/twitter-unveils-new-design-and-introduces-brand-pages http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/09/twitter-unveils-new-design-and-introduces-brand-pages Fri, 09 December 2011 05:40:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/08/tmw-brings-home-two-golds-at-dmas-2011 The most anticipated night of the awards calendar was upon us last week with the arrival of the DMA Awards 2011. We were delighted to pick up six awards in total with two Gold, one Silver and three Bronze prizes. The Golds were awarded in the prestigious Automotive and FMCG categories for our work on Nissan Micra and Lynx Excite. We also picked up gongs for our work with Guinness and first direct. Congratulations to all of our own winners! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/08/tmw-brings-home-two-golds-at-dmas-2011 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/08/tmw-brings-home-two-golds-at-dmas-2011 Thu, 08 December 2011 03:52:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/06/sue-ryder-picks-tmw-for-integrated-advertising-account Sue Ryder has appointed TMW as lead agency for its integrated marketing activities, with the key objective of achieving fundraising growth. The appointment was made following a three way shoot-out against Ogilvy One and SFW, with Beta and Meteorite being knocked out at the initial stages. The review process was managed by Oystercatchers. The charity, which provides care services to people with long term and end of life conditions, has tasked TMW with rejuvenating its individual giving fundraising proposition, as it seeks to recruit new supporters and improve understanding of the vital services it provides.  The proposed approach will support the work already being done at local level in and around the charity's existing 14 hospices and neurological centres, whilst also providing a framework to ensure broader national appeal.  In addition to this, TMW will help enhance and further develop the charity's current CRM strategy and In Memoriam Giving approach. TMW will create and execute a range of activity for the brand, including both on and offline communications across a variety of channels. Jason Suckley, director of fundraising and marketing, says: "Sue Ryder hospices and care centres provide a vital service to local communities, supporting patients, families, friends and carers. Our aim now is to raise awareness and generate support for the work we do and a clear fundraising strategy is essential to making this happen. TMW's understanding of the brand and the strength of their creative approach make them the ideal partner to help us take the brand forward." Emma Norman, business director at TMW, adds: "The work that Sue Ryder do is incredible and increasingly important as government funding continues to wane in this sector. Our aim is to help them step out of the shadows and enjoy the kind of support that they deserve as an organisation. Their willingness to be brave and honest with us and with themselves sets us up for an exciting challenge ahead." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/06/sue-ryder-picks-tmw-for-integrated-advertising-account http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/06/sue-ryder-picks-tmw-for-integrated-advertising-account Tue, 06 December 2011 05:34:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/05/nissan-gb-re-launches-‘the-ultimate-urban-car’-with-integrated-campaign Nissan is re-launching its successful Qashqai model with new features, including the cutting edge 'Around View Monitor' (AVM) camera system and a more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly 1.6 litre diesel engine.  To support the launch, TMW has produced a direct mail and email campaign. The mail pack takes the form of an illustrated box which reads: 'Inside, a little peek at what it's like to drive the ultimate urban car'. The box opens to reveal a pair of mirrored 'eyes in the back of your head' glasses, designed to emulate the experience offered by the AVM and create a more engaging consumer experience. The AVM feature consists of four cameras strategically placed at the front, back and sides of the vehicle, which send real time images to a central console, forming a bird's eye view of the car. The mailing is illustrated with a range of animated characters, who follow the car on its urban travels, and who made their first appearance in a TV spot by TBWA\G1 in November. Yasmin Al Jeboury, Nissan CRM Manager, says: "The Qashqai has always been about innovation and our latest model is no exception. The AVM and the new 1.6dCi engine combine to take the Qashqai to a whole new level, making it more fuel efficient, environmentally friendly and cost effective than ever before." Daren Kay, executive creative director at TMW, adds: "The glasses introduce a fun element to the pack, creating greater engagement with the target audience. We wanted to create the effect of the Around View Monitor in an exciting and fun way, which the mirrored glasses do perfectly." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/05/nissan-gb-re-launches-‘the-ultimate-urban-car’-with-integrated-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/12/05/nissan-gb-re-launches-‘the-ultimate-urban-car’-with-integrated-campaign Mon, 05 December 2011 04:57:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/30/tmw’s-tache-solutions-raises-£880-for-movember The Tech Solutions team rebranded as Tache Solutions for Movember.  We grew our taches again this year and raised £880 for this great cause, which campaigns to raise money for men's health charities including prostate cancer. Congratulations to everyone on the team. You did us proud! Pictures from the campaign can be viewed here: tumblr account Donations can still be made here:  http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1524990/ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/30/tmw’s-tache-solutions-raises-£880-for-movember http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/30/tmw’s-tache-solutions-raises-£880-for-movember Wed, 30 November 2011 06:02:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/24/chris-buckley-joins-tmw-as-director-of-social-engagement We are delighted to announce the appointment of Chris Buckley to the position of director of social engagement.  Chris joins us from social brand agency Headstream where he was head of agency. With over 11 years of experience in digital and social media, Chris will be responsible for delivering industry leading social engagement strategies across our client base. Chris Freeland, managing director at TMW comments: "Chris' appointment further develops our strategic offering, in line with our 'Intelligent Influence' proposition, which aims to create greater brand engagement by encouraging consumers to actively participate with brands. We are delighted to have Chris on board." http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/24/chris-buckley-joins-tmw-as-director-of-social-engagement http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/24/chris-buckley-joins-tmw-as-director-of-social-engagement Thu, 24 November 2011 06:07:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/04/vaseline-launches-limited-edition-lip-therapy-in-crème-brûlée Vaseline has launched its first Limited Edition Lip Therapy tin in Crème Brûlée and to support the launch, TMW has developed a social media campaign using facebook. The facebook site includes content from Vaseline's expert beauty blogger who shares her top tips on how to achieve 'truly kissable lips', and drives fans to the Selfridges site to make a purchase. Customers who try the product in store are invited to take a photo in the pop up booth and upload it to their facebook page. The campaign has been a great success with one tin sold every 20 seconds on the first day; a record for both Selfridges and Vaseline! The variant was available exclusively in Selfridges London and Manchester stores for one week, before being rolled out nationwide. For exclusive behind the scenes access to the launch event, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNot-9D4MQ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/04/vaseline-launches-limited-edition-lip-therapy-in-crème-brûlée http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/04/vaseline-launches-limited-edition-lip-therapy-in-crème-brûlée Fri, 04 November 2011 06:10:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/02/tmw-wins-an-ipa-effectiveness-award Yesterday evening we attended the 2011 IPA Effectiveness Awards held at the stunning Park Lane Hotel. Open to agencies across the globe the IPAs are renowned for being one of the most rigorous award schemes around and entries have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a return on marketing communications investment has been delivered.  Having submitted our Lynx strategy as an entrant for the 'Using social media to drive brand loyalty' category we were thoroughly proud and excited to have been shortlisted for an award.  Our paper outlined how we adapted our strategy to drive long-term loyalty and research indicated that the facebook page drove £750,000 of additional revenue for the brand. Together with our client Selina Sykes the team donned their glad rags and headed off in trepidation to the awards ceremony. The event was hosted by Jeremy Vine who introduced the evening and the winners. We were thrilled to receive a bronze award, presented by Lord Black of Brentwood which was accepted by Selina Sykes, Martin Harrison and myself. A first for TMW, it really demonstrated the importance of social media and how it can make an impact.  In addition to the excitement of winning a gong it was also incredibly interesting to hear a summary of the other finalists and see how other brands have proven the commercial power of their ideas. Congratulations and thanks to all those involved! The full Lynx paper can be found on the WARC website: http://www.warc.com/Content/ContentViewer.aspx?ID=d05df626-10b4-42d0-be4b-288d37ff356c&MasterContentRef=d05df626-10b4-42d0-be4b-288d37ff356c http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/02/tmw-wins-an-ipa-effectiveness-award http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/02/tmw-wins-an-ipa-effectiveness-award Wed, 02 November 2011 05:53:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/01/tmw-creates-mobile-site-for-guinness-1759 TMW has developed a mobile site for Guinness 1759 (m.1759.guinness.com), bringing the content of the brand's digital relationship marketing programme 1759 to a dedicated mobile site for the first time. The site leads with a featured news section, where users can read and search for relevant and useful news articles from a selection of over 25,000 stories. It is then split into four sections: sport, entertainment, life and Rugby, helping consumers navigate the content more easily. The 'What's On' and 'Pub Finder' tabs allow users to type in their postcode to find out about events and pubs in their area. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/01/tmw-creates-mobile-site-for-guinness-1759 http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/11/01/tmw-creates-mobile-site-for-guinness-1759 Tue, 01 November 2011 06:17:00 Gareth James http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/31/tumpkin-has-taken-over-our-twitter-feed! Meet #TUMPKIN. Today, October 31st 2011, #TUMPKIN, the cheekiest pumpkin on the web, hacked the @tmwagency Twitter feed and has been fiendishly tweeting halloween messages every time his nose is pressed. TUMPKIN was created by Gareth James , using Arduino open source hardware,  Processing open source programming environment and the Twitter API, more pics of TUMPKIN here . http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/31/tumpkin-has-taken-over-our-twitter-feed! http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/31/tumpkin-has-taken-over-our-twitter-feed! Mon, 31 October 2011 03:13:00 Maxine Briggs http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/27/do-brands-know-how-to-engage-young-people This is the question that Campaign magazine asked me for their full page Double Standards feature. Here, I take an in depth look at how brands are engaging with the youth market and what lies ahead for marketers who are keen to keep up with this rapidly evolving sector. How has the digital space changed the way brands talk to the youth market? Digital channels allow brands to walk straight into a teenager's living room, not in a mum-offering-sandwiches-to-mates kind of way but as the cool older brother/sister - that is - if the brand gets it right! Digital has made it possible for youth brands to talk to their consumers in real time and with an increased level of frequency. This immediacy has completely changed the dynamic between brand and consumer, resulting in new levels of engagement and interaction. Are brands getting it right when targeting this age group? Our experience of working with Lynx has taught us that social media is the best way for the brand to engage its 16-24 year old male audience. This approach allows Lynx to engage with young people on their own terms by creating a persona and lifestyle for the brand. What are the creative challenges you face when developing content for the youth market? A key challenge is judging what the zeitgeist is. You need to work out what the latest cultural trends are amongst young people and use this as a springboard for generating content. The best way of doing this is thorough research and by having someone in your team that is themselves part of the target group. A second challenge is being able to turn content around quickly in order to stay current. How important is it for brands to connect with this market   through events and experiential activity? Events provide brands with a wealth of rich content that can be used to connect with consumers long after the event has ended and can help build valuable online fan bases and communities. This includes behind the scenes videos, blog posts, live web chats and vox pops. The ability for the youth market to engage with a brand in such a wide variety of ways adds value to any campaign in a way that consumers are increasingly coming to expect. It's therefore essential for brands to not only be present at relevant events but to make the most of them by extrapolating as much as content as possible and using it in their wider marketing strategy. How do you think targeting this market will change over the next five years? When developing content strategies, brands need to look at emerging platforms including apps, optimised sites and location based services, making sure they are ready to use them as soon as they are brought to market. A key challenge is that the youth market tends to go against trends; as soon as something becomes mainstream, it has already moved on. How do you maintain a relationship with the youth market as it gets older? The youth market can make for loyal customers so it's important to value and reward them. This consumer group will experience many life stages in a relatively short space of time from being at school to university or college and getting a job. Brands therefore need to take a tailored approach to their communications to ensure they appeal to their literally growing audience. Harnessing 'cool' consumers as "brand ambassadors" is also key to creating aspirational appeal. View the full article on Campaign here: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/analysis/1100710/ http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/27/do-brands-know-how-to-engage-young-people http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/27/do-brands-know-how-to-engage-young-people Thu, 27 October 2011 06:21:00 Mark Reddick http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/03/strong-wins-for-tmw-at-interdirect-forum-in-brussels Since 1995, TMW has been the UK member agency of the InterDirect Network, a group of 29 independent direct and digital marketing agencies from around the world whose main aim is to provide specialist knowledge and advice to clients on cross border campaigns. One of the highlights for the network is the annual Strategic and Creative Forum, which took place in Brussels last month. Delegates from across the globe had the chance to meet up, share knowledge and work together in groups on a competitive client pitch. This year, the brief was set by senior clients from VISA who were there to judge the results. The brief was to create a digitally-focussed communications strategy for a co-branded credit card for a made-up airline called Euro Air. Representing TMW amongst the 70-strong attendees were myself, Melanie Schouw, our recently-joined Business Director and fellow creative and copywriter, Laura Parker.  After a presentation from the host agency, we took our detailed brief from VISA for the six-group competitive pitch workshop. The groups were an eclectic and interesting mix of culture, language and experience. My group consisted of a branch manager from India, and art director and web designer from Holland, and account executives from Austria and Belgium. The brief was one you could easily spend 2-3 weeks on - but we had less than 8 hours and a 15 minute pitch slot! So we quickly grabbed rooms, flip charts, laptops and coffees and began planning in earnest. Workshop and further presentations aside, there was also time to socialise with our network colleagues. On Saturday afternoon we were treated to an historic guided tour where the guides cleverly weaved in anecdotes of marketing throughout the ages. The tour led to a beautiful old bank that had been turned into one of Brussels premier restaurants, and was the venue for the 'InterDirect Gala Dinner'. For those with an appetite for more Duvals and a dance, our hosts delivered without fail. Earlier we had attended our very own InterDirect Awards 2011. Having previously won 'Agency Of The Year', the Irish and Belgium agencies were feeling confident it was their time to shine. But thanks to some excellent work in a tough year, TMW shone through, winning a grand total of 7 awards, including Gold, Silver and Bronze in one category, and 'Agency Of The Year' for a second term. Finally, on Sunday morning, it was pitch time, and the 6 groups took it in turn to impress the judges. Each group made solid and distinctive presentations but there could only be one winner, and Mel's group collected the prize for best pitch with a comprehensive and creative solution. As we zoomed back to the UK on the Eurostar, we reflected on a tough but enjoyable Forum. Though some markets and agencies are still maturing compared to the UK, others are strong and at the cutting edge and beyond, despite their size. However, by far the biggest impression was of the VERY bright and talented people on the network; right on top of what's happening in their regions and with a passion for doing great collaborative work. I for one look forward to working with them when the opportunity arises.   http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/03/strong-wins-for-tmw-at-interdirect-forum-in-brussels http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/10/03/strong-wins-for-tmw-at-interdirect-forum-in-brussels Mon, 03 October 2011 03:09:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/lewis-moody-blogs-on-guinness-1759-platform-in-latest-digital-campaign TMW's latest campaign for Guinness brings the game of Rugby to life with the use of social media, mobile marketing, promotional activity and rich content for the Guinness relationship marketing platform 1759. As part of the campaign, fans will be able to access exclusive content from Guinness rugby ambassadors, Lewis Moody, Lee Byrne and Sean Lamont on the facebook page ( www.facebook.com/Guinnessgb ). Moody is also providing a weekly blog to 1759 ( 1759.guinness.com ) and the Guinness facebook page so rugby fans can get insight and access to England's captain directly from the camp in New Zealand. Also available from 1759 is a pub guide which enables users to locate the nearest pubs showing the game and serving Guinness in their area. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/lewis-moody-blogs-on-guinness-1759-platform-in-latest-digital-campaign http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/lewis-moody-blogs-on-guinness-1759-platform-in-latest-digital-campaign Mon, 12 September 2011 02:58:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/richard-pentin-ranks-in-nma’s-top-100-social-influence-chart TMW's Group planning director and member of the IAB Social Media Council has been ranked in the newly launched New Media Age Social Influence Chart. The rankingis based on a social media users' Peer Index Score, which is made up by an analysis of a user's authority, audience and activity levels - using the context of how others interact with them, how often and the reach and quality of their audience. More information on the Index can be found here: http://www.nma.co.uk/3029928.article?cmpid=NMAE01&cmptype=newsletter http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/richard-pentin-ranks-in-nma’s-top-100-social-influence-chart http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/12/richard-pentin-ranks-in-nma’s-top-100-social-influence-chart Mon, 12 September 2011 02:55:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/09/tmw-brings-home-best-design-award-at-the-blades Last Friday evening TMW picked up the 'Best Design Award' in the Financial Services category for its work for online and telephone bank first direct. Entitled 'Pass the Parcel', the award winning member-get-member campaign is a beautifully executed piece of direct mail that takes the childhood party game of 'pass the parcel' as its central creative idea. The pack is wrapped in several layers of newsprint and carries a tag which reads: 'Remember when passing something on was so much fun'? Recipients unwrap the paper to reveal a mouth organ and an iTunes voucher, which can be redeemed for each friend that opens an account. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/09/tmw-brings-home-best-design-award-at-the-blades http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/09/tmw-brings-home-best-design-award-at-the-blades Fri, 09 September 2011 02:50:00 Richard Marshall http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/08/lynx-paper-shortlisted-for-prestigious-ipa-award TMW has been shortlisted for an IPA Effectiveness Award for its paper on Lynx. All shortlisted entries will take home an award but the team will have to wait until the ceremony on the 1 st November to find out what prize they have won. The list of all 15 shortlisted entries can be viewed on the IPA's website: http://www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk/Home http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/08/lynx-paper-shortlisted-for-prestigious-ipa-award http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/08/lynx-paper-shortlisted-for-prestigious-ipa-award Thu, 08 September 2011 02:43:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/07/life-in-advertising TMW's founder, Paul Tullo, recalls creating an unfortunate ad for British Airways, working with the 'spicy' Lucy Pinder and stripping off in front of clients and agency staff at the Christmas party. The reason I got into advertising was...   as a kid, I liked drawing things, making things, had an overactive imagination and liked books and words. I sort of didn't have any choice. The campaign I'm most proud of working on is...  I immerse myself into every project, to the point that I can't remember anything before or afterwards. And the campaign I pretend I wasn't responsible for is...  British Airways Club World. Two weeks before 9/11, we ran a campaign to introduce flat beds, with the image of the Twin Towers seen in a horizontal position and the headline: "See the world from a different angle." Yikes! My favourite campaign created by someone else is...  The Johnny Cash Project. An online participatory idea that gets people to illustrate a single frame of Johnny Cash's final music video. Design, art direction, illustration, music, emotion, religion, life and death ... all in one campaign. The most embarrassing moment of my career so far was...   doing the "Full Monty" in front of clients and TMW staff as part of the entertainment at a Christmas party. The best celebrity I've worked with on a campaign is...   Dale Winton - lovely guy, good with trolleys. More recently, on a project for Lynx, Lucy Pinder provided a bit more spice. The person I'd most like to work with in the industry is...  a bit of a cliche, but John Hegarty. The person who's had the biggest influence on my career is...  I went to a stuffy old school, with traditions, rules and uniforms. I had a mad art teacher, an old hippie with a brilliant intellect. He taught me to "think different", as well as suggesting I'd "have fun" in advertising. I learned more from him than from four years in art school. If I wasn't working in advertising, I'd be...  I'm a closet architect. I love all things that are spaces, style and design. In ten years' time, I'll be...  somewhere up the Amazon. This article was first published on  campaignlive.co.uk http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/07/life-in-advertising http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/07/life-in-advertising Wed, 07 September 2011 02:29:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/05/nissan-gb-launches-limited-edition-juke-kuro This September Nissan is launching a marketing campaign to support the launch of the limited edition Juke Kuro model, which comes in red and black. The campaign uses the strapline 'Play on the darker side' and includes press, digital and online elements. TMW has created email communications to support the campaign. http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/05/nissan-gb-launches-limited-edition-juke-kuro http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/05/nissan-gb-launches-limited-edition-juke-kuro Mon, 05 September 2011 02:24:00 Louisa Papachristou http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/01/infiniti-since-now This September, Infiniti Europe is launching its first ever, fully-integrated and multi-channel brand campaign that aims to change the face of performance luxury motoring across Europe. The campaign uses the strapline 'Since Now, the perfect line is a curve' and embodies the brand's challenger ethos, putting a strong emphasis on its design and performance credentials. The work marks a series of firsts for the Japanese modern luxury car manufacturer, including its first ever TV spot and social media campaign. TMW developed the online aspects of the campaign, including social media, a refreshed mobile and web site, viral advertising, banner advertising and email activity. The campaign was covered across the trade press including MarketingWeek.co.uk http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/01/infiniti-since-now http://www.tmw.co.uk/news-and-blog/posts/2011/09/01/infiniti-since-now Thu, 01 September 2011 01:57:00