Whilst online media continues to grow and offer cost effective marketing solutions, there is still a place for traditional media such as inserts and paper-based DM campaigns. Some companies may choose to shy away from this channel due to cost and environmental issues but thanks to an impressive change in their eco credentials, these targeted and highly effective methods no longer need to cost the Earth.

Demand for greener options has increased dramatically in the past decade and the print industry has seen some important developments.  Terms like FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council), PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) and recycled content are all now part of the Production Managers day-to-day language and it is considered the norm, not the exception, to use a greener method of paper production.

One thing which really highlights how is easy it is to produce print whilst minimising environmental impact is the launch of Carbon Balanced Paper.  Developed by paper group Howard Smith in partnership with the World Land Trust, this paper allows production and distribution to be carbon balanced, or offset, by the World Land Trust.  To further boost its eco credentials, most of the paper in this range is FSC certified and made up of recycled content, up to 80% in some cases.

Companies should be discouraged from hiding their green credentials under a recycled bushel; when carbon balanced paper is used the carbon balanced logo can be included on your print material along with any other relevant markers such as FSC and recycled content logos. Not only does this convey a brand’s commitment to delivering compelling communication in an environmentally responsible way, but helps to increase the awareness of these climate friendly materials.

To find out more about the Print Industry’s new greener policies visit www.twosides.info. The Two Sides campaign sets out to dispel common environmental misconceptions by providing users with info on why print and paper is an attractive, practical and sustainable communications medium.

Internet Explorer 6 is nine years old on the 27th August, and Microsoft are officially supporting the browser until 2014, but high profile websites such as YouTube and Google are starting to drop support for it now. However web statistics show that IE6 still counts for a large percentage of users, mainly because they’re within a corporate environment and are unable to upgrade.

As an interface developer I need to build sites that are accessible to all, so testing in IE6 is still a must. The list of rendering bugs is huge and there are many well documented work arounds for most of them. I recently ran into the ‘extra whitespace within <ul> elements’ bug, demoed below for those who haven’t had the pleasure.

The problem is caused by the display: block on the <a> which triggers IE6 to enable the tricky hasLayout. There are a few solutions to the problem; the easiest of which is to remove any whitespace between the <li>’s in your <ul>, however this makes your code both ugly and unmanageable – especially with large amounts of content.

Another solution is to float your <li>’s left, clear them, and give them a width – but that’s a pain and you’d probably have to make further amends for the other browsers.

My recommended and more elegant solutions is to set display: inline-block on the <a> element which forces hasLayout=true, and then declare display: block separately which tricks IE to setting hasLayout back to false.

    #navigation li a {
        display: inline-block;
    }

    #navigation li a {
        display: block;
    }

If you declare this within an IE specific style sheet (you are using condition comments [http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html] and not css hacks right?), you don’t need to worry about it affecting modern browsers. Thankfully the bug was fixed in IE7 so it will only pickup the last declaration; display: block.

Number 5

Compare the Market : comparethemeerkat.com

Love it or hate, you certainly have to admire the success that comparethemarket.com have had with their meerkat campaign.  Launched in January 2009, Alexandr came onto our screens and left us wondering “What on Earth was all that about?!” and I have to admit, I was certainly curious about what comparethemeerkat.com was actually like!  Since then, the campaign has gone from strength to strength, with an avid Facebook following, a dedicated Twitter account as well as iPhone apps to boot! You certainly can’t fault their dedicated approach to brand awareness, and whilst Go Compare have come back with “Gio Compario”, I think Aleksandr will still have the upper hand…or should I say paw?

Number 4

Lloyd’s TSB : For the journey…

A lovely heart-warming campaign which encompasses all of the Lloyds TSB Group businesses from retail banking to wholesale and international banking.  Featuring some lovely characters, LTSB are able to attract the attention of a wide range of audiences.  Whether you are a sophisticated student looking to open up a student account before heading off to uni, a doting dad looking to open a savings account for his new child or a loved-up couple taking out your first mortgage together – these campaigns target and appeal to all.  With the added appeal of little playful characters such as armadillos – you finish watching these ads with a warm fuzzy feeling throughout.

Number 3

The American Red Cross : “Earthquake Awareness” campaign.

This is something that I first saw in 2005, as part of a university study – but it is also something that has stuck in my mind as a fantastic thought provoking piece of advertising.  I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I admire the majority of charity advertisements – especially charities such as NSPCC and WSPA – hugely emotive messages that verge on the uncomfortable, but without putting the viewer off.  And it comes as no surprise to say that I now donate regularly to both these charities – just goes to show to all those cynics that advertising does work!

But back to the American Red Cross.  This particular execution was part of the wider “Prepare Bay Area” campaign helping to spread awareness and help San Francisco residents prepare for “the big one”.  Along side the parked billboards, strategically placed in front of streets and land marks, aid workers handed out bottles of water with just half the bottle full – prompting people to question “How would I survive if this was all the water I had left?”.  A brilliant emotive campaign, playing on the heart strings of a very proud city.

Number 2

Crusha : I want some Crusha

Bizarrely brilliant!!!!  I thought the first was was great – singing musical kittens in a field (one wearing a flat cap) crushing cows with bottles of milk shake mix…then came the Eric Prydz style aerobics kittens – purrfect!  I would have loved to have been in that meeting when the agency presented the concept to the client – or at least in the brainstorm beforehand when someone had the idea “I know, what about dancing kittens?!” I don’t really know what else to say about this really…but I just love it!! If you haven’t seen it yet – check it out on youtube

Number 1                           
Xbox360 : Gears of War (the first one)

I first saw the TV commercial in the cinema – and boy did it have impact!  I was more than aware that the game was coming out, as my husband (the boyfriend) had been banging on about it for ages.  But when I saw the commercial I thought it looked phenomenal.  Now, I knew that I wasn’t going to play the game – this isn’t my kind of thing, as I always end up running round looking at either the sky or the floor – but the sheer fact that the ad appealed to me, I found most interesting.  And I think seeing it first in the cinema certainly helped.  The big screen, the surround sound – it definitely had a cinematic feel to it – quite awe inspiring.  I thought the use of “Mad World” was inspired – and having since seen the game in action, was a perfect fit for the game. But also when you see Marcus Fenix picking up destroyed parts of the “world”, a “worn out face” of a sculpture – it was clear that this commercial was really well thought out, down to the very last details.

I have since found out, that it was in fact McCann that did this commercial – but this is not a shameless plug for my employer.  I genuinely loved this commercial…but there was something else they did as well which was awesome.  The day that GOW launched (or maybe a few days before…), Xbox monopolised all of the advertising space in Metro, and there was pretty much an xbox ad on every single page.  Which in itself was very powerful, but then half way through the paper, you saw a red ink stain…something which you assume is an print error, but as you continue to turn the pages it materialises into a blood stained “cog” – and for those in the know (such as my geeky self) this was just brilliant.

How do you know when you are a graphic designer suffering a midlife crisis?

• When you feel all the other designs are looking prettier than yours

• When you see a brochure and say – Why the “bleep” would you make typography that small – I would need a magnifying glass to read that (or my reading glasses). Thinking about it why did I laugh when someone suggested making body copy 12pt –  it’s just perfectly sensible

• When you want to get rid of your old Mac and get a newer more attractive model

• When you want an Ipad because – why?… well that still makes you hip doesn’t it?

• When you still have a fax machine in the corner of your office just in case anyone ever wants to send some amends through

• When you’re thinking about changing to Radio 2 for your background office music – because Radio 1 just repeats itself all day and what’s the “bleeping” dance stuff all about anyway

• When you still have a can of spray mount in the cupboard and have a little reminiscent sniff of its lid when you see it

• When you still think tranny means a 5? x 4? or 35mm slide you need to get scanned

• When you still love quark – and you don’t care what anyone else says, you know you’re right

So how did you do?

Obviously I am really far too young to have experienced any of the above, but thought the boys upstairs would relate to and appreciate it!

In search of shoes.
I’m not a fan of shoe shopping. It always ends up being a chore. I have long thin awkward feet that fit into anything from a size 5 to a size 8 and it’s just not fun trying on style, after style, after style that isn’t right.

Whinge over!
So, imagine my intrepidation at the thought of buying shoes for my all-important wedding day. Say “Wedding” to anyone, and you see the pound signs roll over in their eyes. “Stuff shops”, I thought, I’ll do all the leg-work and get a bargain online. So I made a cuppa and parked my bum in front of a computer.

 
In search of size 7s
Something I do like is search engines. Amazingly powerful things, crawling, indexing and categorising the vast amount of information available on the web.

It’s surprising to think that Google was only launched in 1998 as it seems so ingrained in our online experience; and ever since its launch, the search market has grown exponentially. Half of UK companies now spend over £50k per annum on paid search, and a quarter of companies spend that much again on SEO.

And, as budgets have grown, the search landscape has become increasingly complex.

So how do I search? Is it as simple as Google Vs Bing or Yahoo? There’s been plenty of media coverage around Bing recently, which claims to be a “decision engine”. So I start my search there.  It certainly looks pretty with a huge background image on the homepage (www.bing.co.uk). Click on the shopping tab and you’re delivered through to Ciao. But search “Wedding Shoes” and you get this:

How disappointing.
So, I return to trusty Google. I have yet more decisions to make. Do I search the “web” to return relevant sites? Do I use the “shopping” tab for visible prices? No, I first want to see a style that suits, so I use Google’s “image” search. Google seem to be beta-testing a new image engine which delivers all images onto one page. Great for finding a style I like without waiting for the page to reload.

But there’s so much more choice for search; it’s not about getting on page 1 for a keyword anymore, and marketers need to remember that. Search engines are now springing up to satisfy specific topics.
For shoes, I could go to Empora – The Fashion Search Engine, powered by Pixta. Unlike traditional search engines where images are tagged with data, Pixta can visualise the actual image, looking at attributes such as shape, texture and colour. Sounds exciting…but their actual database doesn’t seem comprehensive enough for this particular query.

Shall I use Twitter? The advantage of Twitter as a search engine is that it is real time… there’s no need to wait for a spider to index your site, as tweets are available in an instant. And it’s certainly made other search providers reconsider how they stay relevant.
For wedding shoes however, it’s mostly a bunch of strangers telling me how uncomfy theirs are. There are a few re-sellers promoting offers and competitions to win Wedding Shoes showing the platform’s value in generating links back to your site, but I decide it’s not the right for this particular search.
Or I could use Wolfram Alpha for computational search. If you’ve not tried it, it’s brilliant www.wolframalpha.com. It’s like a cross between Wikipedia and a calculator. I search “Women’s shoe size 7” and I know how long my foot is, and what European size I should buy. Much more interesting than shopping, but wasting time perhaps….

In search of some style…
From all the results I looked at from different search queries, the same sites reappeared time and time again – “Perdita’s Wedding Shoes”, “Wedding Shoes Direct”, “Online Wedding Shoes”. They seem to be ranked highly simply because of the volume of relevant content and longevity of their URL….certainly not through modern optimisation techniques.
Unfortunately all these sites are stuck in the 90s, and I wouldn’t even click on a page let alone give them my credit card details. Would you?

ARGH!!!
So, after 4 hours of searching, what did I do? I went to a shop and bought the second pair I tried on. But at least I’d satisfied myself that there was nothing better out there.
If only these sites would see the value of their search ranking and URL, and modernise their interface I may have been tempted to part with my money. Enabling your customers to find you is only half of the battle. Users expect a seamless online experience, and you should give them nothing less.

Mention ‘PR’ and ‘increase sales’ together in ear shot of PR practitioners and you’re sure to receive a mix of responses. For years, debate over the role that PR plays when it comes to sales generation has led to a lengthy justification of the discipline and its role in brand building. Certainly PR can help to generate leads and sales, but sales cannot live by PR alone.

Move on to a new era of social media and digital marketing and the same discussion reigns. Whilst social media can offer direct links to e-commerce, and therefore offers a closer link between PR and sales than ever before, the same trusty elements of brand building and online presence need to be appreciated and considered.

But how do you monitor the success of online PR and social media? How do you move away from the easier to understand ‘number culture’ where numbers of followers and fans are increasingly considered more important than quality of the campaign?

Social media is all about engagement of the right audience online not the largest. A niche subject will attract a niche following and it’s more important to consider the influence of your brand and how you are sharing with individuals (stakeholders) who can become positive ambassadors for your brand.
As with any campaign, measuring and evaluating success starts with the creation of key messages or KPIs. Understanding from the start what your online messages are and who you’re talking to can keep a campaign focused on the straight and narrow. You can then track activation and repetition of these messages and demonstrate how they travel. Word of mouth has always been a valuable PR tool and this is the golden ticket that all social media is based on.

There are many tools for tonal and message evaluation on the market from free tools such as google insight to paid for applications which give you a more in depth service such as Radion 6. By looking at these qualitative measures you can take a more sophisticated approach to social media and include more sentiment in your reviews. Snapshots quotes of what people are saying about your brand online or messages you’ve received from target consumers should all form part of evaluation.

PR and social media will always be at the centre of a debate on how tangible it can be compared to other forms of marketing, but the brands that take a holistic approach to brand awareness and understand the benefits of an ongoing strategic campaign that covers the important bases of listening, measuring and engagement will be the brand that reaps the social media rewards.

So much more than PR

Times they are a changing… if you asked me a few years ago what I did for a living.  I would have said I’m in PR.  Ask me today and you’ll get a different answer.

So what do I do today?  I work in communications.

It’s not just the old PR vs. marketing debate but with online/digital having entered the arena I believe that for quite some time now there is a bigger, better industry that has been bubbling away, growing and refining itself.  Yes – communications.  Forgive me if I am stating the obvious but have talked about this at length with colleagues and other industry professionals and I don’t know that everyone can see it as clearly as maybe I do.  I suppose it’s a bit like the EU debate.  Some want to be part of it (and are), some will not and still see themselves as individual member states and others will be in it to make the most of the benefits. 

Integration and understanding are key

Ultimately for me communications is about understanding and engaging with people in the most appropriate way and thus finding the right solution for the client.  Many people are still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and it’s not just wrong in an ethical sense but it’s a big waste of time for everyone involved.  People who do this are just setting themselves up for a big #FAIL. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think there will always be a need for expertise in different areas of the traditional marketing mix, however I think that the future holds integration and collaboration for PRs and marketers, a place where people allow themselves to see the bigger picture, doing away with tunnel vision and having the courage to admit that there is not always one solution.

So do you see yourself as a member state or will you embrace integration?

Don’t write

“Just because you’re called a copywriter, don’t start thinking about writing. The best copywriters are often highly visual. After all, a newspaper ad is just a blank sheet of paper in which you can do absolutely anything you want. As long as it makes a point.”

And don’t be scared to fight!

“People don’t like the great ideas. They’re original. Which means they’re unfamiliar and therefore frightening.

This explains why mediocre advertisements sail through without touching the sides, whereas people always find a million and one reasons why a great idea should never run.”

It’s opinions like this that made James Lowther one of the best copywriters in the UK, and one that I greatly admire.

Hooray, huzzah, whoop-de-whoop, yeaaaaaahhh boy-ee!

A fitting introduction for my first McCann Erickson Bristol blog post?

I think so.

As a first (of many) blog posts from myself, I decided to see what my face will look like in the hallowed pages of Campaign magazine.

So here it is, I’m in The Hot Seat!