Three Wise Projects

By Mark Fones - Client Strategy and Creative Director

As we approach this special time of year and look forward to the festive fun, I wanted to share with you a tasty selection box of our very best creative work. 2010 has seen our star rising, and here are three of our wisest projects - all of which offer something truly original in terms of quality and thinking.

First to appear over the horizon bearing gold is a brand repositioning project for AESSEAL.

A global player in the specialist mechanical seals sector, AESSEAL is a business with a passionate commitment to exceeding expectations. Offering world-class reliability and performance - plus high speed assembly - their unique modular component system supports a staggering 10 million permutations and can quickly deliver seal solutions for virtually any application. Above all, they have a passion for service excellence - their overriding objective being to exceed expectation and redefine the 'customer experience' within their sector. Our challenge was to capture this new 'experience' and repackage AES as a true global player that would ensure customers never need to source another seals partner. With 'Experience the Exceptional' as the brand's new strap line, AES boldly launched (October) a Web 2.0 based website supported by an on and offline advertising campaign, plus a whole new range of corporate and product focused literature. The design was professional and contemporary with a strong technological 'look and feel', and real customers, and real outcomes, were used to tell a powerful yet simple story. In the first week alone, AESSEAL's new site saw over 350 users (customers and prospects) register for industry and product specific content.

Next to dismount, is Legrand's launch campaign for its latest Salamandre cable
management system.
A revolution in trunking technology, the new Salamandre has been designed with ease of installation in mind. In recent 'speed tests', it has been independently proven to be 50% faster to fit than existing alternatives. Despite this impressive competitive advantage, getting loyal installers to switch to new products in this sector is a challenge. And that’s exactly how the Legrand Grand Prix speed challenge was born.

Utilising an integrated campaign approach that combined traditional advertising, direct mail and email marketing with the exciting possibilities offered by Facebook, YouTube and demonstration based roadshows, this product promotion launched in December. In early 2011, Legrand will run 100 events that encourage installers to engage with the product and rise to the challenge of becoming the UK's fastest fitter - after all, in this market we know demonstrations mean sales. Alongside this roadshow, social channels will play host to the times set, pictures taken and videos filmed whilst building product awareness, brand following and helping to drive sales. Vvvvrrroooom...

Watch this space….more on this project to come in the New Year!

Last, but not least of our three wise projects, is the rebranding we delivered for Lancaster University Management School.

Founded over 40 years ago, Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) is now ranked as one of the UK's top four management and business schools, and as one of the world’s best too – with its MBA being considered to be in the top 30 globally. Impressive, true. Yet, despite such world-class credentials, the extensive research we undertook revealed that there was little awareness of LUMS among the target audience and that, once prospective students had explored their 'offer' more deeply, the best applicants became disengaged. The reasons? Perceptions around location, 'employability' and the extent of its international culture were all highlighted as negatives. Our task was to address these misconceptions and focus on carving out a unique and more emotive positioning for LUMS in a sector that typically practices 'blanding' not branding. After working with key target audience groups (UK and overseas) our research led us to the following positioning statement: 'Partnering tomorrow's business minds'.

To capture the idea of a personal and professional journey in partnership (i.e. a collaboration between peers, teaching staff and business being key to their teaching approach) we developed – after exhaustive thinking and testing - the 'Today. Tomorrow. Together' brand platform. This positions LUMS as a place where people enter with an already successful track record and are helped to grow and realise their full potential. By using aspirational and thought-provoking 'before and after' photography, we were able to convey this creative message clearly, and with impact.

These are just three examples from a growing stable of clients. If you've got a great story to tell your customers just let us know and our team will set off from the West (Midlands) to greet you. In the meantime, from everyone at Wyatt, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year!

Right, I'm off to see if there's any room at my local inn.

Mine's a Harvey's Bristol Cream. Classic ;-)

Mark

WIIFM?

(What’s in it for me?)

It’s a phrase we hear more and more often in today’s society. Kids expect payment in sweets for emptying the dishwasher and the likes of Orange (RockCorps) and Disney (Give a Day. Get a Disney Day) even have to bribe people into volunteering.

Popular theory points the finger of blame at digital TV and the interwebz. We’ve less free time than ever, but a greater choice of ‘stuff’ to fill it with. If it doesn’t make an instant impact, we’re off.

But why am I telling you this? Indeed, what’s in it for you?

Social media, as discussed in our earlier pub analogy, is about joining conversations and speaking to people on their terms, in their language. It’s also about (and I loathe to use this phrase) ‘adding value’. But I do mean adding genuine value, value appropriate to the situation. To do this you have to put yourself in the place of your audiences and ask – what’s in it for them?

WIIFM isn’t corporate information style-guided to within an inch of its life. If someone genuinely wants to read page after page of your latest press releases, they’ll go to your website and look at your news section. Verbatim copying and pasting of releases, into a blog or other feed, is missing the point and (most likely) duplicating your website. What does that offer a visitor?

Think about when people use social media and what they’re hoping to get out of it. Most companies block Facebook, Twitter etc, so most employees only access these sites at home – in their own free time. What you do in your free time – do you watch funny YouTube clips you’ve been sent, strain your eyes playing Bejeweled Blitz and enter the odd competition?

Probably. You do those things because there’s something in it for you. They make you laugh, you enjoy doing them, you might get free stuff. There’s no hard-sell, no preaching, no pressure.

That’s how you engage people with your social media. Not every post has to be fluff, of course, and it’s perfectly OK to post more heavyweight items since they offer value to readers too. Balance it out. But by drawing potential customers in through offering them something of value for free (a proverbial carrot of clips, relevant articles or prizes and samples), or inviting them to interact with you (polls, competitions or surveys) then you open them up to the wider world of your business. Not just them but their friends – they share your funny clip with their mates; their mates now know who you are. They retweet your article; their followers are sent to your blog.

And we’re back in the Newt & Cucumber again – the couple you initially struck up a conversation with might have no need for your product, but since they like you so much they’ll introduce you to someone who does.

Measuring Social Media?

I was forwarded a very interesting article this week by Gill. In it, Liana Evans of Search Engine Watch discussed “What is your ‘R’ for ROI in Social Media?”

Evans brings up an interesting problem, one which we as a B2B specialist agency are undoubtedly going to face when forming social media strategies for our clients…

If not for sales, then why do it?

“…defining the "return" on a social media activity doesn't always have to be a direct sale. It's actually very rare…This is why it's a difficult to sell senior leadership on the idea that attempting to tie your direct return to a sale will prove that social media works…”

When trying to explain the value of social media, you can’t fall back on “because everyone else is doing it” – that’s the wrong reason to do anything, as many of you will remember from the delightful cliff and jump cliché many of our parents treated us to.

You can’t even try “because social media just isn’t going to go away”. No, it isn’t and businesses need to be aware of that – however it doesn’t mean you have to do everything, tackle every network, set up fifty profiles. Not every social medium is right for every business.

My personal go-to analogy is as follows. Imagine…

A young couple are enjoying a Staropramen (other premium lagers are available) and a dry white wine in their local. Unannounced and uninvited, a salesman draws up a chair. They tolerate him for the first few seconds as he’s told them an amazing and slightly inappropriate joke, but after that he becomes tiresome. They’re not interested in any of his wares and, moreover, they’re in the pub. They’re trying to relax and are not looking, not buying. Cue a friendly yet firm "sod off, mate."

Social media is that local boozer, café or park bench. That young couple are your customers – you are that salesman. If that’s not how you’d behave in the real world (and it isn't, hopefully), why do it online?

Now picture the same young couple, same bar. You’re the salesman, and you’ve been listening to their conversation for a good few minutes. You know what they’re drinking, you know she prefers salted while he likes a dry roasted, you know what they do, where they holiday, what they drive. You have an idea of their aspirations and hobbies. Now you can go in with your killer joke, and strike up a friendly conversation instead of giving them the sales pitch. When mutual trust has been built up, and this may take a fair few sessions in the Newt and Cucumber, you might mention a product of yours – with no hard sell and no obligation on their part. Even if they don’t buy, you remain friends.

What have you gained – what’s your “return”? A friend, a receptive ear, a good reputation. Reputation. The cornerstone of PR which has somehow been lost online. You might have made a sale, you might not, but you’re engaging with your audiences.

Putting this into a social media scenario, your “friends” might forward your details to someone they know who does want your product. They might post your killer joke and funny clip to Facebook, ensuring more hits and aiding SEO. They’re helping get your name out there.

“…those can all be measured as a "return." …increase the number of subscribers to your blog, get people to your website to take a quiz of some sort… get people to participate in a contest that raises brand awareness. All of these can be measured…”