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Newspapers and magazines have been full of their ‘Best of’ lists for 2011 and in traditional style I compiled my own, something I share with a few like-minded music-bores. Music is my one regular luxury purchase and has been for many years. In 2011 I bought over 50 albums, on vinyl, CD and as downloads. With the news before Christmas that HMV was in trouble and a continuing decline in the number of independent stores I had a think about this close-to-my heart sector and wondered where a positive future might lie.

In common with many sectors the music business is constantly chasing audiences that don’t ever buy their product instead of identifying and nurturing their best customers. I think it was alway like this. Home taping didn’t kill music, bootlegging didn’t kill music and now file sharing isn’t the real problem. You either want to ‘own’ the product or you don’t. Do music retailers have any research on who actually buys music on a regular basis? But even for music buyers the tax advantages (soon to be outlawed) and other benefits of purchasing online have damaged retail stores to an extent that it might be impossible for them to survive. Unless …

The record shop has to be more than just a place to buy music. It has to become a destination for music lovers – the people who still want to own music in its physical form. Here are 5 ideas that might just work:

1. Make listening to music in-store a real and enjoyable reason to visit: sofas and listening posts with headphones
2. Monday launch coffee mornings: list new releases and invite customers to discover new releases
3. Make it more than a record shop: present books, posters, band merchandise and artwork in sympathetic surroundings
4. Circulate album release dates to tie in with magazine reviews to encourage pre-orders
5. Create a ‘club’ atmosphere: with gig trips, record swaps, readings, theme events

With the obvious caveat that I have never run a record shop in my life, I wonder if any of these might be heading in the right direction? And here’s to new listening experiences in 2012.

I may be overstepping the mark. I’ve never met Richard Bowden, 33-year old Digital Marketing Innovation Manager who lives with his wife in Surrey. I didn’t even know he existed until I saw him in a double page spread advertisement in The Times on Saturday. It was an advertisement for British Airways. Actually, he was the advertisement for British Airways.

I’ve been scratching my head ever since I saw this £20,000 waste of space. Why on earth would my choice of airline be determined by the life and thoughts of a 33-year old employee of the company who has nothing even to do with the product experience? He likes motorbikes by the way.

And then I remembered all the other companies currently thrusting their employees into their advertising in a desperate plea: ‘don’t hate us … look we’re just like you.’ It’s the advertising equivalent of holding a child hostage: ‘look who’ll get it if you don’t like us enough to do business with us …’ In the worst of them, for Halifax, the staff are actually singing. As if they are people able to make decisions in their customers’ interests.

It is a very poor, knee-jerk, stage one, elementary school response to negative publicity and it’s quite shameful.

Now, where’s that idea for BP: the children of their staff cuddling puppies. Should work a treat.

I was alerted to the following by Michael Gass in one of his always-informative tweets. It’s by Kenneth Roman, former CEO of Ogilvy and is timely because, on 25 August the Marketing Society in Scotland is celebrating the life of David Ogilvy with a series of events as part of the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival. It was posted on Adforum, an American site. Hope that acknowledges everyone.

I. Select your clients carefully. It’s imperative to know which clients you want to work for, says Roman. Follow these three guiding principles when making that important decision:

a. Find products or services you believe you can market and advertise sensibly.
b. Make sure these are people you want to work with. Nobody wants to deal with bullies or unpleasant people.
c. They must be people who want you to make a fair profit over time.

If these three things aren’t present, sooner or later you’ll be fired anyway. Create a target list of companies you’d like to work with and develop 10 to 15 clients that would change your company.

II. Treat your client as your best new business prospect. Year after year at Ogilvy & Mather, executives discovered that approximately 60 percent of new business came from either current clients, or through them. A good client will find a way to get you more assignments or pass your services alone to another diversion or company. If you have done a great job they are going to give you more business in more places.

III.  Take a proprietary interest in the health of your clients business. Once you’ve decided to work with someone treat their business as your own. If you see, say something! Make suggestions and feel free to offer views. “I want you to have a successful business, and if I’m associated with that you will grow and I will grow,” says Roman.

IV.  Get agreement on strategy. Before you get into specifics hash out the strategy. Who are you trying to reach, what is it about this target audience you should know? Do your homework and think about what it is you are trying to accomplish for you client. Put in writing. This will provide a basis on how to manage a relationship when you don’t always agree because you won’t always agree.

V.  Give clients ideas that they didn’t ask for. Show some initiative. Offer one new idea per month. “At the end of the year you’ve given the clients at least a dozen ideas they didn’t ask for,” says Roman. It worked for Ogilvy and will likely work for you.  Your competition isn’t doing this.

VI.  Build bridges at multiple levels. There is danger in limiting your contacts. When one person on either side of the relationship changes, the whole relationship with the company could change. That’s how you lose business. Bonus point: Pay attention to the junior people. Take the trouble to talk to them. Not only will you learn more about the company from a different angle, one day these guys will be the bosses.

VII.  Listen. Clients really get angry when you don’t listen. Ask questions before offering opinions. Take notes. Put it in writing. But know this: Once you agree to something you absolutely, positively must deliver.

VIII. Treat the client’s money as your own. Spend their money as careful as you would your own. Put the client’s interest first and take a long term view. You will be rewarded.

IX.  Deal with issues not people. When you have problem with somebody do not comment on people- deal with issues. Don’t make it a people issue make it an issue.

X.  Make friends with your clients. It’s very hard to fire a friend.

And finally a guiding principal to do business by: You win new business on creative ideas and lose it on relationships. You lose business because something has changed and the client doesn’t trust you any more to solve their problems. They don’t trust you to fix it. They instead say “we want fresh approach in our creative or say that want a fresh approach for a new product.” You must continually build and grow business relationships.

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Publishing it here is the same, I think, as pinning it to the notice board: something to read and live by.

The four ‘P’s of traditional marketing are well-known. Investigating the potential of QR codes I believe there is a similar ’4P’ logic to define the potential opportunity and benefit of incorporating these strange, black and white squares into marketing communications. The new four ‘P’s are: Provenance, Price, Purchase and Pleasure.

Provenance: Consumers want to know the story of the products they are considering. Where it comes from, how was it produced, fair trade, sustainable etc.

Price: Price comparison is easier than it is ever been. QR codes allow an immediate and updatable price comparison to be presented, instilling purchase confidence.

Purchase: Smartphones have revolutionised opportunity to purchase. QR codes turn a shop window into a 24/7 retail space.

Pleasure: From showing how to instal a product to how to apply make up, to serving suggestions to additional purchase opportunities, QR codes help increase consumer pleasure.

The challenge for marketers is to make this new element of consumer interaction as involving and rewarding as it possibly can be. Watch this space for more ideas.

QR code made from 1,000+ post-it notes

QR codes are a door. Nothing more, nothing less. If you don’t have a good web site, there’s no point inviting anyone to visit it. But if it is good, or you’ve produced audio or video content, or you’re organising an event, or you want someone to phone you, a QR code is a perfect interface between a smart phone and you. But too often QR codes are presented as anonymous black squares with nothing to define them as part of any brand communication. My work with Cyberlogos shows that you can be far more creative. QR codes can play an integral part in the presentation of your brand and create an intriguing portal to your web site. There’s no limit to what can be achieved. Watch this space: we’ve done chocolate drops, beer and honey … a few more are in development.

In the beginning was the product. And if the product was good, a business gained competitive advantage. But over time product differentiation lessened and most products today deliver most of what they claim most of the time. So along came service and businesses tried to show they cared by getting ‘close to customers’. This often ended up, however, in the opening of a telephone call centre staffed by uncaring or incomprehensible operatives. In 1996 a campaign I directed for Locate In Scotland used research into the affect of accents on a company’s credibility, friendliness and trustworthiness. The campaign was a huge success and underpinned the growth of call centres in Scotland for several years. But many companies still went for cost of labour as the single defining factor in call centre location.

We are now most definitely in the post-service age. Social media has enabled consumers to create a running commentary on their dealings with business. In the last month I have followed three instances, in Newcastle, Edinburgh and London where a company had fallen below customer expectation and the interaction was played out, in one-sided fashion only (by the customer), through social media until the situation was resolved. In each case the companies salvaged it through good social media interplay but everyone has examples of non-existent or corporate approaches to social media interaction with customers.

The digital agency Edelman has 1,000 employees on twitter and sees them as ‘1,000 points of light’. Navajo Talk is a UK company working to show businesses that the fulcrum has shifted. It’s now not enough to talk about marketing; the most important director should now be the ‘Communication Director’ or even better ‘Director of Conversations’ and your most effective communications partnership should be with an agency that understands this new landscape.

Test it out for yourself. Which companies do you really admire? Are they companies that you feel talk to you, and listen, and engage, and respond? And are they also a company you might want to work for?  Thought so.

McDUFF

Stands Scotland where it did?

ROSS

Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself.

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 3, 1605

The SNP’s historic election victory positions them for five years of majority government, the first time this has been achieved in the Scottish Parliament since Devolution. The ultimate objective for the government is a referendum, and following a Yes vote, an independent Scotland.

But rummage through the politics and you will find something just as historically significant. If you’ve been listening you’ll have discovered something vital for marketers in Scotland. The next five years will be as much about culture as politics.

Just listen to the first two speeches by Alex Salmond. They are studded with literary, cultural and geographic references, from artists and historians as diverse as Steinbeck, MacCaig, MacDiarmid, Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun and The Corries. But not The Corries of the bitter ‘Flower of Scotland’ but of ‘Scotland will Flourish’ with its invocation: ‘Scotland will flourish secure in the knowledge, That we reap our own harvest and ring our own till, And let us be known for our kind hospitality, A hand that is open proper to friends, A hard working people, proud and unbending …’

No matter what your politics, the next five years present a uniquely positive time to be living and working in Scotland, and promoting Scotland’s products to the world. The appointment of Fiona Hyslop as a Cabinet Secretary responsible for Culture and External Affairs underlines the government’s commitment to a place on the bigger stage and the role of Scottish culture in establishing this place.

This means that if you manufacture a Scottish product, if you offer a service from Scotland or if you utilise any aspect of Scottishness in support of your business then you have a fabulous opportunity sitting waiting to be maximised. For the first time since 1999, and perhaps for decades previously, there will be a concentrated focus on a positive image of Scotland.

The time has come to present Scotland the best, Scotland the brand, a phrase I’m sure that will be remembered by older readers and reminded to me by Alice Wood, whose new venture, Edinburgh Restaurant Walking Tours, beautifully combines this new-found confidence in Scottish produce, Scottish restaurants and a global interest in discovering the best from Scotland.

Scotland is no longer a country ‘Almost afraid to know itself’. The next five years will combine a broadcast of everything that is good about the country and a determined effort to put right the failings and inequalities of the current state.

For marketing professionals, the first step should be to re-define your own strategy in the light of this situation. How can you maximise what you have, and what you offer? How can you position yourself and your product with this new cultural determinism? How can what you do, in our home market and abroad, benefit from this focus and ambition? We’re very rarely given an opportunity as significant as this. The challenge is: will you take it?

Whether you are a Scot or not, whether you live and work in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK, you cannot fail to have noticed that the SNP won the recent election and now forms a majority government at Holyrood for the next five years. Nothing particularly remarkable, perhaps: ‘party wins election’. It would be easy to ignore it and carry on regardless. What could a marketer possibly learn from a political campaign?

But wait. So many aspects of this are historic that it is worth pausing and reading on. Firstly, the simple word ‘majority’. The Scottish parliament was established with a voting system specifically introduced to prevent majority government. Does your business operate in a market designed to stop you succeeding as you’d like?

As someone who was closely involved in both the creation and implementation of the campaign, I believe there are at least five lessons that are worth considering, whatever market sector you inhabit or consumer behaviour you want to influence.

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY

I’ve been involved in hundreds of marketing campaigns over the last 25 years, across all business sectors, in both the public and private sectors. In that time I encountered very few that actually had a clear marketing strategy. Not a plan, not tactics: a strategy. As robust as any military strategy, as carefully thought out and as detailed. A strategy that took five times as long to develop as it did to implement, a strategy that covered every aspect of the ‘battlefield’, every ‘weapon’ at one’s disposal, and every eventuality; a strategy that was delivered consistently and in detail to, and through, every participant. The strategy was created over four years ago. It has been honed and refined since and came to fruition in 2011.

Have a think: does your company have what could be held up and described as a strategy?

2.  COHESION, AS MUCH AS CONSISTENCY, OF MESSAGE

A political party is a complex organisation: full of hierarchies, regional and personal differences and ideological interpretations. The SNP appears to me, as an interested observer and marketing communications partner, to be no different. But what seems to mark them out is an understanding that everyone in the party, and particularly candidates standing for election, need to know and feel and support the communication messages.

And so presentation of campaign materials within the organisation was just as important as any external messaging. And it wasn’t just the finished campaign materials, as you might get at the launch of most marketing campaigns. Briefings across the last six months have featured the social insights behind the campaign, the emotional and psychological context of messaging (specifically the belief in positive campaigns) and the importance of integrated campaigning (particularly the power of online activities).

This gave the team confidence that in even the furthest reaches of the campaign, it would be cohesive in both delivery and outtake: the absolute measure of a ‘brand’ in marketing terms.

3.  AUDIENCE INSIGHT

Long before the campaign launch, the SNP had been undertaking audience research. Masterminded by the brilliant Mark Cuthbert, who has been working with the SNP for over a decade (that’s another lesson: find good people and stick with them), focus groups and community days had allowed the party to get under the skin of voters, understanding their fears and aspirations, their propensity to vote and the clues as to what was needed from any campaign to achieve success. We did not use research to ‘mark’ creative work: we used it to determine tone of voice, messaging and detail. From this research, brilliant creative work could then be developed.  Our advice to the SNP was: let the media do the opinion polls; spend your money on gaining insight and advantage.

How many marketing teams undertake research separate from evaluating creative work or measuring awareness?

4.  POSITIVITY

Contrast the SNP campaign with those undertaken by the other parties. Every aspect of the SNP’s campaign was positive. Not just in message, but in delivery too: whether it was spoken, published, broadcast, tweeted or blogged. Both officially and unofficially, by candidates and supporters alike. That’s pretty amazing. Most companies are scared stiff about employee tweets, customer reviews and other ‘uncontrolled’ aspects of, mostly, online activity. But if you have a committed organisation, that understands the intellectual and emotional power of positivity, then it becomes second nature.

Is there a positive ethos within your organisation that permeates everything and everyone? If there isn’t, I know someone who can help you get it.

5. INTEGRATION

At a meeting in January 2011 there was general acceptance inside the SNP that the mainstream media would continue the incredible negativity that had blighted the four years of minority government. True integration of the campaign, starting with an understanding of the potential role of EVERY media channel was a key element of the campaign’s success.

How could we ensure our message got through, even in press titles hostile to our message? Projecting the words ’RE-ELECT’ in 50-foot high letters behind Alex Salmond at the manifesto launch, for instance, ensured that even the Daily Telegraph spread the word!

By the end of that weekend in January each minister was on-line: tweeting his or her day-to-day activities and thoughts. Since then the Cabinet Secretaries have tweeted over 2,900 times.

Empower yourself and your organisation through grabbing the potential of online channels, direct communication, events, and even traditional media: you can do it if you have an integrated plan.

It’s wonderful to look back on a successful outcome but the real pleasure was in being part of the planning, the thinking and the creative process that was so beautifully directed by SNP Chief Executive, Peter Murrell.  I saw the campaign as a race. We had a race plan, we knew our speed, our tactics, how to compete, when to hit the front, when to sprint and most importantly, what victory would look like.

As the American Football coach ‘Bear’ Bryant said: “It’s not the will to win but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference”.

The Cor Agency team

Project Director: Ian Dommett; Research Director: Mark Cuthbert; Art Director: Jim Downie; Copywriter: Will Atkinson; Designer: Sam Hinks; Artworkers: Frank Brown, Claire Lovie, Steve Johnstone, Matt Armstrong; Online Director: Ewan Macintosh; Broadcast Production: Greenroom Films; Radio Production: Red Facilities; Media Planning and Buying: The Media Shop.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the impact and potential of QR codes. One obvious weakness of a QR code is its anonymity. It is very hard to determine from the image itself what the subject matter is, without some surrounding explanation. Now there is a solution and the next generation of QR codes has arrived. Cyberlogos are more than just nicely designed QR codes. They integrate dynamic branding to be a stand alone representation of the brand and contain more information (tracking stats, geolocation indicators etc) than standard QR codes. We have teamed up with one of the leading companies to promote the power of cyberlogos to forward thinking organisations. If you want to find out more, click the link here or contact me directly.

Press salute perfect campaign

I’m not going to downplay the result of the Scottish elections of 5 May 2011. Seismic is a good word, historic has been used widely, although our work in 2007 also led to historic references so this must be bigger than that. What was our part?

It wasn’t political: we didn’t advise on which policy would be better or worse than any other. We brought the campaign to life.

Through a clear, confident, positive, rock-solid strategy. Through insightful research undertaken by the brilliant Mark Cuthbert. Through the amazing creativity of Will Atkinson and Jim Downie, the wonderful design skills of Sam Hinks and the masterful type of Frank Brown, Claire Lovie, Steve Johnstone and Matt Armstrong. Through the film production skills of George Barr and his colleagues at Greenroom Films, and their counterparts at Red Facilities when we needed a bit of radio. We created the best online campaign ever seen in a UK election, masterminded by our friend Ewan McIntosh. With printers, production houses and other suppliers and particularly the media team at The Media Shop. Directed by the most perfect client, Peter Murrell, with strategic direction and political content from Stephen Noon.

This team is what Cor Agency is all about. And the result is way beyond even what we could imagine.

We’ve been totally absorbed in our work with our client, Scottish National Party, and new posts have been few and far between. Anyone who’s been following the campaign will know that a 10-point deficit in the opinion polls has turned into a similar lead. But we won’t celebrate anything until the result is known. So, with fingers crossed, and the last bit of work to complete, we wait until Friday to say any more.

There, said it. After 25 years of pitching. winning, losing and … ‘no result we’ll have to do it all again’, the aim of Cor Agency (to present the very best, most appropriate talent to clients) means that we cannot take part in competitive pitches.  So we put together a team sheet of practitioners perfectly skilled to deliver the campaign you want. If needed, they can wheel their awards to a meeting in a wheelbarrow.

If you don’t think the team can deliver, then best it’s decided before anyone (usually the agency) spends time and money on a fruitless exercise. The outcome of this is to keep costs low, not waste any time creating work that doesn’t run but instead to focus on delivering brilliant campaigns for clients who enjoy the collaborative, participative approach of working with the very best people.

Our new Party Election Broadcast has gone down very well at Conference this weekend and the enthusiastic response every time it was shown was the icing on the cake of a very enjoyable part of this election campaign. Credit therefore to the team behind the film. Script and art direction was by Jim Downie and Will Atkinson; production by Greenroom Films, led by George Barr; direction by Eric Haynes; DOP was Ali Walker and Chris Campion captured the sound. And thanks to Peter Murrell, our client, without whom …

You can watch the film by clicking here. Much more to follow in the 50 (and counting) days to go.

Mysterious little black squares are appearing everywhere. From their origins in Japanese car plants to now appearing in advertising, in press articles and magazines, QR codes (Quick Response 2d bar codes) are a brilliant way for smartphone owners to take an interest in a subject further than is possible in the original medium. So you’re sitting on a train, you see an advertisement for a product you want, or a subject you’re interested in? A QR code scanner on your smartphone links you to the source website and before you’ve reached your stop you’ve bought what you wanted or found out what you needed. The creative possibilities are also become clear. Here’s a good example in paint tins.  And here’s one we’ve done recently in chocolate drops. Who said they were just little black squares?

Jeremy Bullmore is one of the most respected figures in marketing.  He’s not only walked the walked for decades but when he talks the talk, people listen. Here’s what he had say a couple of years ago in Campaign about the best way to choose an advertising agency. Just as relevant whatever the marketing communications channel.

Q: One of the big holding companies has offered to set up an ‘agency of agencies’ to service our brand, while the other group in contention has proposed a ‘lead’ agency solution. My question is this: which of the two should I accept, all other things being equal? Or should I consider setting up our own in-house agency?

A: Most service structures can be made to work – at least for a time. The way to think sensibly about them is not top-down but bottom-up.  What your brand needs is not a holding company or an agency of agencies or one agency ‘leading’ other agencies or your own in-house agency.  What your brand needs is the close personal attention of a number of clever, inventive and complementary digital-age people who between them have enough business sense, strategic ability and creative firepower to make your marketing money go twice as far. They should be led, cajoled, inspired, admonished and flattered by an individual who in another life would make a brilliant feature-film producer. In other words, what your brand needs is the only kind of taskforce that can get things done on a regular basis. It’s not a department, it’s not an agency – it’s that scandalously under-rated operational unit called an Account Group.

There’s a regrettable tendency to apply the term Account Group to account persons only; with perhaps the occasional planner thrown in to add a little intellectual Tabasco. That is not an Account Group; that’s a uni-disciplinary bunch of suits. A proper Account Group is by definition multi-disciplinary; it should contain every individual who is expected to make a contribution; and every member, though totally committed to each client, should work on at least one other piece of business. Total commitment does not, and should not, mean enslavement. Enslaved agency people rapidly become proxy clients and lose their value.

An in-house agency will never work for long because the best advertising people are restless, promiscuous and endlessly adventurous. Once they feel trapped, they’ll form escape teams and dig their way out.

Cor Agency is a very different, imaginative but quite obvious way to create and deliver the best marketing communications.  Just get together the most experienced, most brilliant people and set them to work for you … simple.

You don’t need an agency, you need a team.  A team of dedicated, fabulously creative advertising, PR, digital, design and direct marketing experts, all ready and willing to answer your brief and bring their talents to meet your business objectives.

If this sounds like what you are looking for, why not send me an email: Ian Dommett or call me on 07792 270 262.