The Wow Factory Blog

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2011-08-08T11:43:00.001+01:00

Simon

Winklevoss Twins Lose Out In Court

2011-04-21T12:21:00.002+01:00

This week came the ruling by a U.S court that the Winklevoss twins would not receive an increase in money from Mark Zuckerburg - Facebook's CEO.

The twins, claiming that Zuckerburg and his co-founders stole their idea for the social networking site, have tried a number of times to increase the amount they felt was owed to them since Facebook launched and became a worldwide phenomenon.

In 2008, the Winklevoss Twins received a $65 million settlement, after court proceedings, despite Mark Zuckerburg denying the allegations that he stole the twins' ideas for the site, and it was assumed that all grievances would end there.

However, in 2010, after deciding that the impressive initial settlement was not enough, the Winklevoss twins tried again to get more money from Zuckerburg, and were even prepared to do this at the risk of losing their complete fortune.

Unfortunately for the twins, the U.S appeals court ruled on Monday that they would not receive any further funds from Facebook, and were to end litigation with the company and its CEO.

Do you think that a $65 million settlement is enough for the twins or should they be entitled to more? Let us know.

WOW FACTORY’S NEW MEDIA GROUP BOOSTS BUSINESS

2011-01-31T12:58:00.003Z

19 October, 2010

The Wow Factory has strengthened its client offering by establishing a dedicated new media group which has captured several high profile national and regional clients.

The unit, which specialises in creating dynamic websites, search engine marketing and social media strategies, has won a series of pitches for clients including Specialist Golf, The Secret Gardens of Sandwich, Britelite and Regal Estates.

The team is headed by digital strategy specialist Adam Parsonage, who has eight years web development experience, and includes search engine optimisation and social media executive Heidi Robus, digital copywriter Jon Lane, and programmer Ricky Ellmore.

Says The Wow Factory managing director Simon Clubley: “Creativity, technical expertise and great copywriting is essential if clients are to maximise the impact of their online marketing.

“It’s the fastest-growing part of our business reflecting the national trend, as more and more clients appreciate that just having a website is not good enough – it has to work hard, and be properly integrated into their marketing plans.”

The Wow Factory was founded four years ago, and also provides advertising, publications and event management to clients including Premier Foods, Checkmate Group, Monarch Chemicals, IPC, Lansdown Place and the Reynolds Group.

Picture shows (left to right) Adam Parsonage, Ricky Ellmore, Jon Lane and Heidi Robus.

Clap your hands over your ears and squeeze your eyes tight shut.

2011-01-31T12:45:00.003Z

This article, written by The Wow Factory chairman Richard Harvey, appeared in the October, 2010 issue of ‘Kent Business’ magazine

Clap your hands over your ears and squeeze your eyes tight shut.

That’s the increasing temptation for many consumers, as they are assailed with a cacophony of advertising, online messaging, PR and promotions.

Kent Business readers understand that marketing which delivers sales is a bigger challenge than it’s ever been. The most prized goal of business owners and marketing managers is ‘cut through’, the ability for a sales message to be heard and seen clearly above those of competitors.

But with all that racket going on, how are you ever going to make your message visible, particularly when the f-d has put a vicelike grip on the marketing budget?

The answer is creativity.

You probably have your ad agency telling you to spend money in magazines and newspapers, your website guy urging you to splurge the budget on a new website, the PR people saying, no, that’s not the answer at all, what you need is editorial coverage.

The answer may well be a combination of all these, and more. Or, indeed, less. The real solution is distinctiveness – how you make your message stand out from the crowd.

Let’s take a small, off-the-wall example.

Earlier this year, a young man with an acute sense of humour and a shrewd appreciation that the way he framed his message was crucial put his customised Renault Clio up for sale on e-Bay.

Much of the text wasn’t, as they say in the more pompous broadsheets, suitable for a family audience, given that it made copious references to illegal and exotic substances, and was couched in the sort of ‘street’ patois adopted by some of south London’s criminally-inclined undesirables.

However, you couldn’t help reading it. Example: “Dig out your favourite, unwashed Umbro hoodie, and come cast your shifty little eyes on this. Enhance your street cred at the local drive-thru burger joint or council estate no end with this utterly tacky converted little Renault Clio…….not your gran’s idea of a lift to town, granted.

“You gonna need a baseball cap with this beauty, ideally one that comes with no fitting instructions. Heaven forbid that you should put it on the right way……” And so on, and so on.

Tasteless? Certainly. Funny? It depends on your sense of humour.

But effective? Unquestionably. Not only did the car sell in a matter of hours, it also cropped up as a Facebook topic, spread like wildfire through the ‘net, and resulted in the ad achieving more than 148,000 hits.

Clearly, this sales approach pushed the boundaries of acceptability. But it worked, because it was creative, different, challenging, and demanded attention.

Like the Shepherd Neame campaign for Spitfire, with its ‘don’t mention ze war’ theme which gently mocked the Germans and had the Guardianistas up in arms (which generated a whole load of free, spin-off PR).

Or, in a different way, the Cadbury’s drumming gorilla. What on earth is the connection between gorillas and chocolate? None, of course, but it became one of the most talked-about, Googled and You Tube’d ads of all time.

So next time you review your marketing spend, think about the most creative way your message can be delivered.

Don’t be lured into the ‘corporate wallpaper’ trap of same-again press ads, a ‘that’ll-do website’, a stating-the-obvious press release.

Dare to be creative. Dare to be different.

MARK PULLINGER JOINS THE WOW FACTORY BOARD

2011-01-07T15:04:00.004Z

Kent entrepreneur and businessman Mark Pullinger has been appointed a non-executive director of The Wow Factory, the fast-growing Charing-based creative agency.

Mr Pullinger, 40, began his career in retail management with the Safeway group, before training as an independent financial adviser, establishing his own practice aged just 27.

Since then, he has been instrumental in creating, or working with, some of Kent’s most successful companies, including the Michelin-starred Thackeray’s restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, the Regal group of companies which includes estate agents and independent financial advisory practices, as well as in fashion retail and property development.

Says Simon Clubley, managing director of The Wow Factory: “Mark’s experience of growing diverse businesses will be enormously valuable to us, following a year in which have more than doubled turnover and investment and trebled profits.”

The Wow Factory was set up in 2007, and delivers new media, design, advertising, publication and marketing programmes for clients including IPC, The London Bridge Experience, Britelite Windows, The Secret Gardens of Sandwich, The Pentland Group and The Emma Reynolds Group.

For further information, please contact:

Simon Clubley, tel: 01233 713946 or 07809 672939 or

Richard Harvey, tel: 01580 763605 or 07780 607209

Google vs Facebook - Battle of The Giants

2010-11-04T15:45:00.000Z

The ongoing feud between Google and Facebook has recently ramped up a notch with the news that Facebook is soon to work with Bing.

This partnership is a big step forward within social networking, as it will allow search to become social. The idea behind this concept is that Facebook search will be powered by Bing, and that users will be more inclined to click on links their friends have 'liked'. This is partially true, as I know myself that if one of my friends has used a link that they have found interesting and useful, then I would also be more likely to check it out.

I also think though that maybe this partnership has partly happened to annoy the bosses at Google. Google's market share has slowed in recent years, with the introduction of Facebook and other such social networking sites, where users have the opportunity to ask friends or look on the Facebook pages of companies rather than just 'Googling it'. And as Facebook increase its market share, and deny Google any shares within the company, I almost feel that this is Mark Zuckerburg's way of holding up a couple of fingers.

This is also a very clever move by Bing (formally MSN and Windows Live Search). Bing is far smaller than Google, and even their rebrand from Live Search to Bing in 2009 did nothing of any sustenance which enabled them to take on the Google giants; its market share is a mere 2.98% in the UK in comparison to Google's 90%.
So, why not team up with the biggest social networking site currently in existence - smart move Steve Ballmer. Bravo.

I think that it is safe to say that only in time will we see if this increases the market share of Bing, makes Facebook your one stop shop, and leaves Google crying. In the meantime though, Google should not be worrying themselves too much, after all, no-one 'Bings it'.

Cuts in marketing spend are easing.

2009-08-19T09:18:00.000+01:00

The latest Bellwether survey published this week (13th July 2009) has found that for the second quarter in a row the rate of decline in marketing spend has eased, linked to an improvement in business confidence; with companies surveyed reporting that their financial prospects have improved for the first time since the first quarter of last year. Although the rate of decline remained severe for Q2, raising the risk of marketing spend falling in 2009 even more than in 2008, one-in-three companies reported that their financial prospects had improved compared to one-in-four reporting a deterioration.

Rory Sutherland, IPA President said "To anyone optimistically inclined, the April Bellwether seemed to signal the bottom of the market, and the new report suggests that the worst is over. Budget cutting for all marketing communications categories seems to be slowing and, while the economy is still tough, the balance of executives reporting improved prospects moved into positive territory for the first time since Q1 2008."

Spend was reduced for all categories of marketing in Q2, but at a slower rate of decline. Budgets for main media advertising and ‘all other’ (includes PR, event sponsorship and market research) were again hardest hit amongst those companies surveyed.

Jim Marshall, Chairman, Starcom stated: "The media world is still expecting and braced for a very tough six months but the indication that business and financial confidence is at last returning suggests there is certainly an argument for optimism, and that the prospects for 2010 look more positive."  Matt Simpson, Head of OMD Group Digital and Chairman of IPA Digital Media Group also commented stating: “The 'internet' and 'internet search' continue to gain a larger share of advertisers budget, despite overall budget levels decreasing. This is likely to be a reflection of increased confidence in the tracking and accountability of the channel.”
The Kent media economy continues to reflect this trend with digital marketing growing ever more relevant, this doesn’t mean that traditional routes are redundant though- the marketing mix is still as important as ever it was. Having a web presence on its own is no panacea, funnily enough people do still go to the shops, they do still have 1-2-1 relationships with suppliers both B2b and B2C and a well planned sales pitch still works!

Undoubtedly the world wide web has moved marketing communications forward for the better, but ignoring other routes to market is frankly daft. Through the line communications incorporating digital, text, advertising, data all tied in to a creative message enables the 1-2-1 relationship to be fostered and developed and are absolutely vital to long term marketing success.

Take the example of Britelite Windows the Maidstone based home improvement company, with an annual seven figure marketing spend this client has grown its revenue during the last 18 months by some 12% as a result of maintaining the budget, but by employing ever more creative routes to market, essentially Simon Bourn the marketing director at Britelite includes press, direct marketing, telesales, a well trained sales force, outdoor, exhibitions, point of sale in addition to a thought through search engine optimisation and pay per click campaign for his website. Simon says “we continue to use traditional routes to market in essence to drive traffic to our price engine within the web site. This has led to significant leads which we work hard to convert into actual sales”.

Simon Clubley is director of The Wow Factory the Kent based through the line full service agency, whose clients include Premier Foods, IPC trading systems and more than forty Kent based clients.
http://www.thewowfactory.co.uk 01233 713852

greenstone signs De Caprio as Commercial Director

2009-07-02T16:09:00.001+01:00

greenstone data solutions, the successful and fast growing database marketing bureau, has appointed Marco De Caprio as Commercial Director to oversee all aspects of its future strategic growth, client management and business development.

Since the company launched in 2003, greenstone has quickly established itself as a leading and respected database bureau. Offering data cleansing, database design, hosting and management, software development and customer insights services, greenstone boasts an enviable list of national and international clients.

De Caprio joins greenstone after leaving EDF Energy where he was Head of Home Services in the B2C division. At greenstone he will report to the company's Managing Director Jon Hinkley.

greenstone’s Jon Hinkley said of De Caprio’s appointment as Commercial Director, “having worked with Marco before we are very aware of the skills and drive that he brings to greenstone. This is a pivotal appointment for the company, and is crucial to our continued success. We are delighted to welcome Marco to the team.”

Marco’s experience with EDF Energy coupled with his time at NDL International, Claritas UK and Altwood Systems, means that he brings his wealth of experience to mainstream database marketing.

greenstone announces record performance

2009-07-02T16:05:00.001+01:00

Innovative database bureau, greenstone data solutions, today announced record performance figures for 2008, despite the downturn in overall marketing spend.

The Maidstone based company, which was formed in 2003, achieved impressive processing figures on behalf of a range of FMCG, financial services, retail and marketing clients, delivering up to date data analysis on more than 20 billion records. This equates to an output of six billion records.

The record figures put greenstone ahead of many of its larger, more established competitors and secures its position as a leading name in the data solutions market.

Jon Hinkley, Managing Director of greenstone says, “We offer our clients a quality service at a competitive cost and it is this that has enabled us to continue to grow, despite a difficult market. Reaching such a high volume of records processed is testament to the hard work and expertise of our dedicated team and is all part of the subtle difference we provide our clients.”

Tony Lawes, Director (Transactis Ltd), says, “Transactis moved the hosting and management of our UK wide transactional database systems to greenstone in 2005 for three key reasons: Firstly, accuracy of matching & deduplication is critical to Transactis’ business and in the tests we carried out, greenstone’s ASM matching technology was proven to outperform all the other matching software that we looked at. Secondly the technology and the database applications that they have developed for us, give us the flexibility we need to develop and grow our business quickly to match our clients’ needs. Thirdly, we like working with them; their knowledge of working with data is strong and they are always willing to look at how to bring additional benefits to our business. We are already recommending their services to our own clients.”

CTR continues to decline.

2009-06-23T12:49:00.002+01:00

The IPA's Search Group update of its analysis of search brand terms reveals a continuing trend of declining Click Through Rates (CTR) on Google in paid search advertising but increasing for Cost Per Click (CPC). A consistent set of data, from January 2008 to March 2009, submitted by 12 agencies on 47 brands shows that average Click Through Rates have declined from around 40% to around 20%, whilst average Cost Per Click has increased from 6p to 29p.

“Says Rob Taylor, Search Director, BLM Quantum, “What we are seeing is a four-fold increase in brand CPCs in just over 12 months. This may be a reflection of the fact that brand terms are becoming more competitive in line with a decline in the economy. As search is so measurable, clients are beginning to realise that competitive bidding generates positive ROI, even though the quality score is against them and CPCs are high. It is important to remind clients to defend brand terms, but also to consider their competitive position as rivals may also be pitching to their customers at the same time.”

“It is also possible that SEM agencies are modifying their brand bidding strategy and chasing volume/efficiency rather than trying to net as many clicks as possible.”

Says Arjo Ghosh,“Search has and still is a very effective way of getting people who are looking for your brand to your site. The rising costs perhaps signify that we are becoming victims of our own success and that the market is just developing naturally and finding its point. The declining CTR challenges the notion that Google's trademark change was in order to benefit the user. To understand the full picture it would be good to see an analysis of user behaviour in paid and natural search to get a fuller understanding of what’s happening here. Data like this often poses more questions than it answers and we look forward to continue our engagement with Google on this.”

Touchpoints

2009-06-23T12:45:00.000+01:00

The IPA has commissioned a third TouchPoints survey from Ipsos MediaCT with a number of new additions. While the basic methodology will remain the same, the questionnaire and e-diary will be updated to reflect the media industry of 2009/2010 and will include word-of-mouth for the first time. The fieldwork for the survey will commence in September 2009 with the first data being available to subscribers in July 2010.

Says Lynne Robinson, IPA Research Director: “We are delighted to be able to commission TouchPoints3. The demand for this survey data shows that TouchPoints is fast becoming an essential part of the communications evaluation tool kit. We currently have nearly 60 companies subscribing to TouchPoints2 and expect this will increase with TouchPoints3. The new survey will provide us with some fascinating trend data. We will be able to directly show the changes in consumers’ lives and how they use an ever expanding range of communication channels dating from the 2005 boom into this current recession.”

This news was relayed to the 130 agency, advertiser and media owner attendees at the TouchPoints seminar last week who had gathered to hear a number of presentations on how current subscribers are using TP data alongside bespoke databases for new strategic brand insights.

Said Steve Williams, member of the IPA Media Futures Group and Chief Executive of OMD, “In this new world where consumers choose what they want, when they want and how they want it, if we do not understand the way in which they want to be reached then we’re doomed. TouchPoints give us this. It is the new benchmark in planning tools. The start point for the planning of any campaign. I would say: ignore it at your peril.”

How to make rich media even richer

2009-06-19T12:30:00.003+01:00

Rich media—image zoom, 360-degree product views, alternate views, video merchandising—have been vital to the growth of online selling. By providing shoppers with detailed product images, these applications enable online merchants to overcome a key objection on the part of many consumers: that they cannot get a good idea of how the product will really look.

But by overlooking some rich-media best practice, you may not be reaping all the potential of the applications. Below are just some things to consider

* Be sure to make image enlargements large enough. we recommend that product images for zoom or enlargement be at least 2,000 x 2,000 pixels.

* Try to maintain consistent aspect ratios. The aspect ratio is the image width divided by the image height. “In order to gain the most benefit from automated software tools commonly used to create rich-media viewers, all images within a category should conform to the same aspect ratio.

* If you offer a product in multiple colours, provide images of the products in each colour option. In other words, if you offer a blouse in red, white, and blue, don’t simply show the blouse in red and include small swatches of the white and blue options; include alternative views of the blouse in each of the three hues. “Buyers are much more likely to purchase a product that they can see in its actual colour than one that only has a small swatch available for preview.”

* When possible, embed the rich-media viewer on the actual site paper rather than creating a pop-up window.

* Avoid having the solution provider’s logo appear as part of the rich-media display. Rather than have the vendor’s logo appear as a 360-degree image loads, for instance, customise the loading animation with your own branding.

* Consider preloading options. “Rich media can be bandwidth intensive if site settings are not managed appropriately, preload schemes can be created to ensure that media is downloaded to the buyer’s machine in an anticipatory fashion so that the user experience is fast, while also minimising the amount of transfer for unneeded files.”

Plus 11 tips on monetising your website:

* Toot your own horn. “If your company has received recognition from the media, proudly let your first-time visitors know by displaying the recognisable icons on your landing page.”

* Don’t include a link to the page that your visitors are on. For instance, on the widgets category landing page, remove the link to the widgets landing page from your listing of category pages.

* Show visitors where they’ve been. “Change the colour of visited text links so the user doesn’t accidentally visit a page he or she has already been to. While some web designers dislike giving up this design preference, it will greatly help orient your site visitors. In addition, show a history of product pages that have been recently viewed. This will allow browsers to easily return to a product they were interested in.”

* Make sure that your logo links to your home page. Okay, this one is both basic and obvious, but enough companies don’t do it to make its inclusion here worthwhile.

* Include results for non-product sections of your site in your search functionality. A significant portion of online shoppers use search as their main navigational tool, even when they are seeking returns information, a privacy policy, and the like. Analyse your site logs to see what nonproduct terms people are searching for, and be sure to program your on-site search to provide the appropriate results.

* Show the user’s previous search query in the search box. “After a user performs a search, populate the search form field with the exact query the customer entered. This will allow them to realise if they made a typo when searching.”

* Make product images as well as text clickable.

* Indicate products that are nearly sold out. “In order to create a sense of urgency, show some type of indicator when a product is close to being sold out. This will likely increase the chances of the customer taking action now.”

* Offer links to a PDF of the product manuals. Providing an uncertain shopper with this information could help close the sale.

* Hide the site’s standard (top and side) navigation bars once a customer has started the checkout process. You don’t want anything to distract them from completing their purchase.

* Do more with your thank-you page than simply thank the customer. “Surprisingly, many ecommerce sites waste the thank you or receipt page by making it a dead end.” Instead, include on it a feedback survey, information on how the customer can track his order, a refer-a-friend form, or some other type of engagement.

How important is it for businesses to be doing predictive analytics? How can they benefit?

2009-05-08T09:44:00.003+01:00

It depends on the value of the improvement that can be achieved by applying
predictive analysis techniques, on the how well customer purchase behaviour
for what the company sells/offers can be predicted and on the data available
to drive any analysis work undertaken.

The availability of data - in particular the availability of well populated,
multiple variables (of releavence) is absolutely critical in creating models
that will work. If the right data for modeling is available, predictive
analysis can have a real value as it will help the client to better identify
who best to contact, with what offers and can help improve the timing of
offers made to potential / existing customers.

Knowing if or when a customer is most likely to re-purchase or buy
additional products and using this to drive timely, relevant communication
to the customer should increase sales and bring added benefits (such as
discouraging customers from looking elsewhere). However, modeling should
always be combined with common (business) sense; for example if a model
tells you to offer a new combi-boiler to a particular group of customers,
but it's the middle of July, you might be better waiting to communicate the
offer a few months later.

Is it necessary to understand something about the sophisticated modelling
techniques that are used, like logistic regression and CHAID? Do they need
at least some knowledge of statistics?

Some knowledge of statistics is useful and some level of understanding as to
what the software that you are using is actually doing is key - for
complicated analysis it is therefore almost always best to get help from a
specialist. More important than understanding the statistics or the software
itself however is a solid understanding of the data you are using. And most
important of all is how to combine understanding of the statistics, the
software and the data to best interpret the results of the analysis - this
is why best results in our experience are achieved when the specialist and
the client work closely together.

For example, analysis results can sometimes be self-fulfilling - i.e. you
might find the results of analytical work simply reporting back activity
that you have undertaken in the past - thus for example if a company heavily
promoted a specific product at a specific time in the past and the analysis
shows that this product should be promoted again, are the results really
showing this or are they simply showing up the fact that the product was
heavily promoted in the past. What's been happening in the 'real world'
always needs to be considered alongside the analytics, as some things may
not always be as remarkable or important as analysis results alone might
show.

Can any marketer create useful models on their desktop? Or are they better
advised to leave it to the experts?

Some useful analysis can be undertaken using readily available desktop
software, providing the user knows how to prepare the data for analysis
(which is usually around 80% of the actual 'modelling work' involved).
Where an expert will really show their worth is in the preparation and
selection of the data, using the right technique(s) for the particular
project and in determining how initial analysis results are best adapted or
re-run to generate the most valuable learnings. Simply relying on desktop
software alone to give you the answers first time can result in expensive
and painful mistakes being made. As most marketers are not analysis
specialists, it is generally a good idea to have an expert do the actual
data preparation and analysis work, but to do the interpretation of the
results together.

This article is posted by Simon Clubley on behalf of blog contributer Renee Hopmans.

For more information on Customer Modelling and Predictive Analytics please contact Simon Clubley at The Wow Factory. 01233 713852 | wow@thewowfactory.co.uk

The importance of local & planning a budget.

2009-04-30T12:01:00.001+01:00

Last month’s Kent Business seemed to be full of marketers all extolling the virtues of continuing to invest in your advertising and marketing budget. Now we have all heard this message a thousand times- you know the one, those that continue to spend their advertising pound will be the winners when the bad times turn to good. So I think you are going to be seriously surprised that a bloke who owns and runs an advertising agency says something a bit different, because I don’t always subscribe to that point of view.

Let me articulate clearly; let’s say you are running an estate agency, as a number of my customers do. In our opinion (and theirs) you would be completely barmy to be spending shed loads of your hard earned dosh promoting houses for sale right now. Why? Because even if you found a happy couple who want to buy a house today they probably can’t get the mortgage, so the available pool of customers is small.

When I was a lad the very first thing I was taught, when I began my career at the local newspaper in Yorkshire (on 3 grand a year) was match the budget of the advertiser to the seasonal trends of his customers, ergo for the estate agent, spend money in September because clients are looking to buy then! By and large this theory has stood the test of time, you don’t market houses for sale in December but you do in January, and those that have followed this maxim ain’t done badly.

So how do we get to market and what should we do when according to the media nobody is buying anything at all? The answer, for me, like all good answers is about common sense. Firstly remember the customers you already have, give them special care and attention, what do they need? Are they struggling with cash flow? If so how can you help? How can you add extra value? Is your sales person visiting/communicating regularly? Are you in short marketing to them in the best way there is and ever will be –face to face.

Next, what are you saying to these customers, how are you articulating your message? Are you expressing your unique selling proposition in an innovative and interesting way? Who is responsible for delivering this message? Are the board/senior management involved?
Right now selling more products to existing clients will help enable you to ride out the storm, so generate “cut through”, plan your campaign, think about it, don’t put it to the back of the list of things to do, work at it. Like most things in life the better you plan; the better the result. Think about the routes to market, most of us aren’t national brands, which medium is going to get the most bang for your buck?

Campaigns that always work best are those that incorporate as many opportunities to see/hear/smell/touch as possible. When booking a newspaper campaign, for instance, ask the question how many readers do you have in my catchment area? Marry this to your knowledge of your customers. Are they predominantly female? If so, what is the female readership, are they between the ages 25-34? If so, what is the penetration of the newspaper into this demographic and so on. All local media should have this information at their fingertips, and if they don’t ask yourself why.

When we watch Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares he constantly encourages his chef/owner to get on the street and promote themselves, and guess what? It works so copy it! Why not? Sampling a product is a sure fire way of creating advocacy and blimey it costs virtually nothing. So engage with your audience locally, be innovative and help yourself through these tricky times.

Good luck.

The beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning?

2009-04-30T11:53:00.003+01:00

The Independent Practitioners of Advertising’s (IPA) latest Bellwether survey has found that the rate of decline of marketing spend slowed in Q1 2009, suggesting marketing budget cuts may have reached their peak in Q4 2008. Business confidence has picked up from the all-time low of Q4, with the percentage of companies believing their prospects have improved rising from 5% to 14%.

Moray MacLennan, IPA President said “This data supports the view that the bottom of the market has been reached. It will be a long road to full recovery, but this maybe the turning point. It’s good to see a graph going in the right direction for a change.”

Although the overall budget cut is still the second steepest decline in the survey’s nine-year history, with spend set to fall again in 2009, the net balance of those reporting an increase minus those reporting a decrease rose from -42% in Q4 to -34% in Q1.

The hardest hit budgets were for main media advertising and ‘all other’ which includes PR, events sponsorship and market research. This is obviously reflected in the Kent marketplace where we have seen significant retrenchment in virtually all media in the county. Meridian’s strategy has been well documented in these pages. Northcliffe Newspapers (Adscene) have closed a number of titles and merged many others. The publisher of this newspaper - KM Group have also closed titles and reduced staffing levels.

Clearly, the revolution in media consumption continues apace, brand and relevance are the key drivers now more than ever in people’s media choice. The development of niche communities and the ability to retain the interest of these communities with relevant articles that appeal to the reader’s predilections are more than ever the “killer” functions. So what does this mean for media owners- they need to (with greater urgency than ever) understand the readers and listeners. In simple words data. Media which collate lifestyle information and exploit it will be in the box seat for many years to come, and most importantly will be able to offer their advertisers a more valuable proposition which will drive the all important yield/rate element for the future. As a marketer these are the basic innovations that I expect as we extract maximum value on behalf of our customers!

Getting back to advertising spend, remarkably, internet advertising suffered a record reduction in spend, but at a far slower rate than total marketing spend*, this indicates a gain in market share now estimated at almost 10%. With classified spend now being almost entirely on line the movement of this vital revenue stream has moved with incredible speed from traditional to new media, leaving print in particular with a massive headache.

Traditional media though should still have a part to play in modern communication strategy, it’s just that it will look very different from the past, specifically the days of pages and pages of cars, jobs and houses are unlikely to return. Estate agents, car dealers and recruiters should plan to use the papers as part of awareness and DR marketing in a similar way to that which retailers have done for years.

*The numbers in the report represent the percentage of companies increasing their spend minus the percentage reporting an increase.

Simon Clubley is a director of The Wow Factory, the Charing based full service agency and can be contacted on 01233 713852 or simon.clubley@thewowfactory.co.uk

The Wow Factory Appoints Richard Harvey As Chairman

2009-01-25T11:47:00.000Z

The WOW Factory, one of Kent’s most dynamic creative agencies, has appointed Richard Harvey as chairman.

Harvey was co-founder and majority shareholder of the Maidstone-based Edwards Harvey public relations consultancy, which he sold in 2002. He has continued to provide strategic marketing and PR advice to clients throughout the region, and is a partner in the Protect Your Reputation media training consultancy.

He says: “I’ve joined WOW because they have outstanding creative talent, and can provide clients with marketing solutions which are clever and cost effective.

“In the current business climate those capabilities are particularly vital in helping clients to survive and thrive.”

The WOW Factory, based at Charing near Ashford, was founded by former newspaper advertising director Simon Clubley, and celebrated its second birthday earlier this month with 52 clients enjoying a Big Red Bus party.

Clubley stated “I was delighted when Richard agreed to lend his considerable experience to The Wow Factory. Importantly, he shares our ethos – we enjoy what we do. Marketing may be serious, but we believe that imparting wit and fun is all part of the package.”

The agency provides advertising, PR, event management, corporate and web design programmes, and clients include Premier Foods, Regal Estates, Greenstone Data Solutions, The Ethical Telemarketing Company, The Perfect Group and Black Cat Computers.

For further information, please contact:
Simon Clubley, tel: 01233 713946 or 07809 672939 or
Richard Harvey, tel: 01580 763605 or 07780 607209

Kent Business. How gloomy is it?

2008-10-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

Annual marketing budgets last quarter were down by the greatest margin ever recorded by The Independent Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), according to their survey just published. This cut, the fourth successive quarterly reduction in spend, points to a marked deterioration in business conditions since the summer.

Hardest hit were budgets for main media advertising and ‘all other’ (includes PR, events sponsorship and market research). All marketing categories saw downward revisions with the exception of the Internet, but even this category saw budget expenditure for the year hold steady.

Moray MacLennan, IPA President was quoted saying, “I doubt these gloomy results will come as a surprise to anyone. In light of current headlines the biggest surprise may well be that 12% of companies’ budgets were revised upwards. The industry will be watching the next set of results with great interest, hoping the downward curve levels off, despite the impending recession."
Does the national picture reflect what is going on here in Kent? Well, there is a clear decline in traditional routes to market for the local marketer, with clients increasingly choosing to spend their (reduced) budget below the line. If this continues, what will happen to traditional media such as commercial radio, press, and TV? Well the short answer is they will have to re-invent themselves and create new revenue streams and interaction with the consumer will be key to this proposition. There have already been interesting approaches to this arena with the development of on call video/TV from the likes of BT, but clearly this fractionalises media consumption even more than is already the case, further hampering the efforts of the likes of ITV to maintain its share of the advertising pound.

Research indicates that audiences are becoming ever more sophisticated in media choice and advertising message; the social networking phenomena has been well documented in these and other pages but I wonder, has even this side of the media achieved its zenith?
So what does this mean for advertisers? Well if you are spending less, you need to make sure that what you do spend works harder - so there has never been a worse time for boring, ‘safe’ advertising. Surely the purpose of a campaign is to ensure people sit up and take notice, remember your message, talk about it, and in short create what at Wow we call ‘cut through’. This means your message hits the spot with consumers who are the right profile to purchase your products and services.

In summary, yes it is tricky out there for most Kent Business but there is still great opportunity to grow your market share and profit by creating a strong vibrant marketing message which your customers or potential customers will absolutely want to taste. Don’t whatever you do be safe. Telling people what you have always told them will get you the return that you have always had. Use this ‘credit crunch’ as an opportunity to expand your horizons and reap the benefit with new, exciting and innovative marketing that works.

Simon Clubley is a director of The Wow Factory t: 01233 713852.w: www.thewowfactory.co.uk e: simon.clubley@thewowfactory.co.uk