Like many, I will be joining my 35-strong family for a celebratory garden party, complete with champagne, a vol-au-vent or two and my royal spirit for the gathering of the year.

At the bright young age of 24, I have declared myself an avid royalist. My grandmother will be extremely pleased with this comment, as one herself. Keen to celebrate royal family events, I went all-out to enjoy the nuptials of Will and Kate’s big day last year with a picnic in Hyde Park.

Some of my more cynical and republican friends couldn’t understand my newly developed patriotic style (and neither could I, if I’m honest) but nevertheless, I became hooked on the lead-up to the wedding, buying copious copies of Hello magazine featuring Kate, alongside wedding memorabilia.

I was quick to share my opinion with anyone who deemed the wedding unimportant, or who had an otherwise negative opinion. This year’s no different. I was shocked to hear emails being read on BBC Breakfast this morning from viewers who are ‘sick to the back teeth’ of hearing about the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. These events are fantastic occasions to showcase our country and celebrate what Britain has to offer.

There’s so much doom and gloom around that it’s nice to have a bit of cheer and there is nothing like a grand old royal occasion to give a bit of a feel-good factor.

Being part of the 100,000-strong crowd in Hyde Park was honestly one my fondest moments in recent memory, and I have never been so proud to be British as that day. Some may argue this is silly, but I am proud to fly the flag to celebrate our great heritage.

So, my Great British public, I am cordially inviting you on this four-day bank holiday weekend (bet the anti-royalists won’t argue about that) to be in good spirits and raise a glass (or two) to the Queen. And, of course, to do what we British do best - celebrate!

I don’t think so. In fact, ads are getting better.

The first commercial for Bulova watches aired before a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game and cost a wallet-busting $9 for 20 seconds. Since then, television advertising revenue in the UK has increased by 2.2% year-on-year to a record £4.36bn in 2011 (compared to Facebook’s $3.1bn in revenue in 2011). 

In January, Thinkbox produced its annual TV viewing report, showing that each UK TV viewer watched an average of 47 TV ads per day in 2011. We’re actually watching more television now than 10 years ago, despite having other distractions such as video games and social media. With the rise in social networking for all ages, over ¼ of Britons now engage in ‘chatterboxing’ – the activity of watching a TV programme and simultaneously commenting about it on a social networking site. 

On 16th April 2012, The Gadget Show broadcast a live augmented reality advert that allowed viewers to view the ad in 360 degrees using their mobile phone camera. The audience was teased on Twitter for hours, then minutes before the live broadcast and were given instructions to download the app and watch Channel 5 just before 8pm. During and after the advert, Twitter exploded with superlatives from stunned followers raving about the new advertising concept. Try it yourself here.

What if the adverts you were watching were watching you…? 

Microsoft is set to debut its new motion-sensitive advertising project, NUads - short for Natural User Interface Advertising - it’s a platform that will see interactive advertisements on the Xbox 360 (not initially a popular idea with gaming communities). It’s a move that Microsoft's Mark Kroese says "will change television as we know it - forever." These advertisements can be simply and quickly interacted with, requiring only a short phrase or a flick of the hand from the user.

5 suggestions for how advertisers can make use of NUads technology: 

1. Social advocacy, in which an advert can be shared by the user simply saying "Xbox tweet".
2. A request for information, where saying "Xbox more" will result in further details or discount codes being emailed to the user.
3. Near me, which will send a text message with directions to nearby retailers when prompted with "Xbox near".
4. Calendar reminders in response to "Xbox schedule".
5. Gesture-controlled voting. 

Still need persuading?

Read how augmented reality can help lead generation and sales

The main problem with HTML5 and CSS3 is that they are web standards. Until they are fully adopted and stabilised by the mainstream browsers, how far the technology has progressed and what it is capable of are not as relevant as you might first have thought!

Adobe has another product that can convert flash files into mobile applications: the Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR for short. AIR is usually misunderstood as another way of running a Flash file. However, AIR is actually capable of a lot more than that and does not have to use a Flash file for application building.

So what is AIR and how does it differ to Adobe Flash Player?

What is Adobe Flash Player?

Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser plug-in that enables interactive and media-rich content to be delivered to users via games, animations, web applications and video.

What is AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime)?

AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that enables a rich set of features for standalone applications.

Applications deployed in browsers do not require installation, while one deployed with AIR requires the application to be packaged, digitally signed, and installed on the user's local file system. The advantage of this is that it provides access to local storage and file systems, while browser-deployed applications are more limited in where and how data can be accessed and stored.

However, whilst content must be developed for Flash Player using Adobe proprietary technologies (namely ActionScript, Flex, Adobe Flash Professional, and Adobe Flash Builder), AIR allows the added flexibility of being able to build applications using existing web technologies such as HTML and JavaScript as well as ActionScript, Flex, Adobe Flash Professional, and Adobe Flash Builder.

Devices that support AIR-deployed apps include iOS devices, Android, BlackBerry, personal computers and televisions. With Mobile Flash Player becoming defunct, Apple’s refusal to support it and with less and less new mobile devices carrying the mobile Flash plug-in as standard on their browsers, it looks as though there is still a place for Flash as installable applications on mobile. 

As Flash is still widely regarded as the king in the types of experience and content it can deliver, despite its recent decline in popularity for content delivery on the web, I hope to see it find new life in AIR applications across all platforms.

Already presented on the 21st May in NYC, the final winners are now available to peruse at the Webby Awards site, conveniently organised into best in class by industry and digital specialisms such as ‘best navigation/structure’ and ‘best visual design – aesthetic’.  The awards are genuinely global, with nominations received from all countries and judged both by the experts in their field via the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and everyone else for the ‘People’s Choice’ nomination in each category – making the winners some of the most democratically decided for this kind of accolade, with nearly 1.5 million votes cast from 207 different countries this year.   

For anyone looking to see where the bar is being set in their industry on the ‘net, I recommend they take a look.  Some of my personal favourites are Google Music, People’s Choice for Best Navigation – simply because I think it quite literally rocks in demonstrating exactly how we might just be playing with our websites in the coming months and years. Also, Dropbox, one of the best free file-sharing solutions currently available online, is a favourite. Other winners include Draw A Stickman, which I think is a little slow, but shows the general shift towards interfaces that are less direct and more playful than the norm, in much the same way that Google Play does.

Overall, there is amazing content to explore and, together with the nominees’ sites, it’s something that is going to be on my bookmarks list for the foreseeable future.

Nowadays, most undergrads have only had part-time jobs and don’t know if they will fit into the industry they’re considering working in. That’s why placements are so popular and essential for professional development. Work experience was something I wanted to do, as I aimed to expand my knowledge, gain business skills, become more employable and network too.

The WAA experience started while I was searching for a year-long placement. I was lucky to be invited for an interview and my visit made me fall in love with WAA. I was given the chance to work with some of the best advertising practitioners in the UK and I embraced the opportunity with excitement and eagerness.

As part of the ‘New Business’ department, my responsibilities included researching new and prospective clients, helping the team with their daily assignments and doing admin work when required (interns usually find this daunting, but I believe it was extremely valuable). 

As this internship was my first degree-related work experience, I felt that I learned the most in the very first weeks, in terms of how an agency operates and how the marketing theory I was learning at university works in practice. I was involved with real projects for clients and the business awareness I built is incomparable to any other learning experience I’ve had. The abundant support from Ellen, Aimie and Cassie made my stay at WAA valuable and fascinating. The work was supplemented by many rewards, such as occasional free candies for the WAA staff, as well as many funny moments, like the situation when I thought I won an iPad from one of our client’s online contests, which was actually a sleeping EYE-pad, but I did let the whole agency know about it (and subsequently laugh about it!). 

WAA is much more than an integrated agency. The reason why it’s one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For is that it feels like a family. Once they take you on board, they share their knowledge and make sure you get involved in every little bit of the work. The WAA internship gave me both practical and theoretical knowledge and improved my work skills; plus, it made me more confident and definitely more employable – proof of this is my success on the very first interview for a placement I got after I joined the agency. 

As Leonard Huxley says, “Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.” So, if you are a proactive person who wants to learn something more about business and advertising, and who wants to develop their work skills in a wonderful environment amongst creative and friendly people, I would not hesitate to recommend the WAA internship. 

And although there may have been some light-hearted opportunities for a bit of fun-poking (apparently David Cameron doesn’t know the difference between laugh out loud and lots of love), the damage done by this situation is far reaching.

I was chatting to a friend this weekend about some national press coverage we were working on for one of our clients, and in that conversation I was asked: a) whether the story was real; b) how the ‘deal’ worked with the publications, and c) whether the media in question cared whether it was a true or not.

This level of cynicism is hardly surprising given some of the revelations that have emerged, but it is a real shame that the value or professional journalists bringing stories to their readers and the PR industry facilitating that have been massively undermined.

Headline filling stories of the antics of various ‘spin-doctors’ have created an impression of a smoke and mirrors industry that treats its end consumer like an idiot in order to direct their thoughts and feelings in a way favourable to their client.

The truth is that good PR could not be further from this. The majority of the time it is about extracting the great stories and messages that already exist within a client organisation and helping highlight them to their audience. And that goes for the media too.

It is as difficult as ever to secure good media coverage, and it relies on information being interesting, unique, available and able to stand up to scrutiny.

Don’t get me wrong – it is essential that the Leveson enquiry runs its course and exposes every bit of bad practice and wrong-doing that has been involved. But I hope people see what has happened as the exception and certainly not the rule. 

If that means anything to you, then you may be jealous of my score or you may look down from a 70-plus position and remember those lowly days as a fifty. Or, you may have no idea what I’m on about and be rather glad that you don’t. Unfortunately for you, I’m going to explain a little bit about Klout, what it means and why you should care – maybe.

Klout is a website that measures your social media influence on a scale from 1 to 100. It measures your personal social media data: how many people follow you, frequency of tweets, retweets, likes, comments etc., all building a score that represents how influential you are and how much you and your opinions are being heard.

At first glance, Klout seems harmless - an amusing pub conversation or a light-hearted colleague competition - but if I told you that companies in the US now take Klout into account when recruiting, you may think twice. Luckily there is no word of this happening over here, but bear in mind that if your Klout score is low, it may count against you in the future. Of course, holes are easy to blow in this concept: Justin Bieber (of haircut and teeny-bop fame) has a perfect Klout score of 100, whereas Barack Obama (of US President and Hope fame) has 91. So, according to Klout, Bieber is more influential in social media than Obama - which is fine, as long as Obama is more influential in everything else. 

Whilst there are problems in the idea, and the benefits of taking into account social media influence when hiring are questionable, there is no doubt measurement of this type is here to stay. Data, when it comes to marketing and advertising, is king. If you were able to target your product, service or idea at consumers who are measurably more influential than others, you would. Indeed, Klout regularly offers users with high scores perks such as free subscriptions, discounts and offers. As a user with 50 points, I’m entitled to…pretty much nothing, because it’s all based in the US. UK users have been much slower on the uptake than our American cousins, perhaps because we’re not so keen to rate each other publicly, as it doesn’t quite fit our British sensibilities. Indeed, Klout is public and proud of it: you can see the Klout of all of your Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Google+ circle and more. So, even if you don’t know what your Klout score is, chances are one of your friends does.

For businesses, the commercial application of this data is still young and relatively unexploited. Brands are beginning to recognise Klout as a social platform in itself, encouraging high-scoring brand evangelists to spread the word in return for freebies. So keep your eye out for more of this thing coming to the surface, as social media continues to grow in influence (and marketing spend).

When the figures were released, construction was named as the big disappointment, after shrinking 3% in Q1. However, on closer inspection, marginal growth in the services sector - a sector that represents nearly three quarters of the economy - may be more responsible for the disappointing figures. 

The economy seems to be stuck. It’s not hurtling downwards, at least, or soaring upwards, but is staying flat and will likely stay that way for a while. All in all, this means that although the news is not great, it could be much worse. The danger is that these figures will damage consumer confidence at a time when we should be encouraging spending. As a result, now, more than ever, connecting with consumers and developing meaningful relationships to generate spending is important, not just for businesses but for the economy.

It’s not all bad news, though. The IPA Bellwether survey, published on the 19th April, gave us some welcome good news. It revealed that business confidence is the highest it’s been for two years. Although businesses remain cautious, marketing spend is on the up - so looking forward, we can remain optimistic that this confidence is a sign of better things to come, double dip or not.

All signs point to the fact that NOW is the time to think differently about your brand and your communications.

Even the most difficult sectors can outperform during a recession with the right approach. Positioning and customer engagement were key when we were brought in to turn around premium health club brand Esporta and prime them for sale. In an undifferentiated market we repositioned them as the club for a healthy, balanced lifestyle. To engage consumers we took on a common enemy for potential gym-goers and developed a ‘Changes for Good’ programme, moving away from quick fixes towards a balanced programme of exercise, relaxation and helping people to maintain healthy lifestyles. We then launched ‘Resolution Amnesty’  encouraging people to submit broken resolutions to receive a free guest pass, allowing them to turn resolutions into lasting, healthy changes. This broke all records during a recession and increased membership by over 7,000 in just a matter of weeks.

More importantly, we turned the business around, into one that sold to Virgin Active for a sizeable profit less than 6 months later – all without touching the spend of Esporta’s competitors.

We achieved this thanks to one principle, which is paramount in a recession. To succeed, you need to outthink and act smart. Insight and commercial drive are essential. It’s no longer about throwing money at your brand and consumers. To this end, we have created a toolkit of proven key methods, honed over the past three years and geared to driving sales within a recession. With a focus on acquisition and retention, it’s these strategies that are producing outperforming results. 

Twelve members of staff are set to complete the 8.5 mile route on June 12 in aid of the WAA Foundation which uses funds to support a variety of local causes.

Andy Wilson has said: “The fun run is a great way for us to show our support to local causes in our hometown. It’s an annual event and we take pride in our great team participation year upon year.

“Mark Degenetais is an avid supporter and has in fact completed the fun run every year since its inception which is a fantastic achievement and one we all look up to.”

The team will be running alongside an estimated 6,000 other participants on the day.  To date the Great Midlands Fun Run has raised over £200,000 for charity and organisers hope this year will bring in more donations than ever.

Created earlier this year, this is a registered charitable foundation administered by a board of WAA staff, which aims to raise money and create positive change for the charitable causes that matter to WAA employees - ultimately helping people and groups in need around the local community.

Speaking from the finish line, Andy said: “It’s important to us to give back to the community, so to celebrate the company’s 25 years in business, we set up the WAA Foundation. 

I completed my first marathon back in 1988 - not long after we founded WAA - so what better way to kick off the launch of the foundation than with my second marathon, 25 years later? Having trained over the winter, the heat and 50% of the course being narrow cobbled roads it certainly wasn’t easy but I’m pleased to say that over £1,200 has been raised. 

We haven’t decided which local cause this will go towards yet, but it will definitely help an individual or group and change lives for the better.” 

So, on 14th April, WAA held its first internship recruitment day, with the hope of finding the next generation of talent to join our ranks. 

We were suitably excited to receive over 100 applications for a place on the day and on our intern programme itself. Of this 100, 19 graduates have since been offered placements, which will see them working across our creative design, PR, marketing, copywriting and planning teams. 

Andrew Wilson, WAA’s founder and chief executive, said: “We are thrilled with the number of applications we had for our internship recruitment day and hugely impressed by the passion and talent demonstrated by the graduates that attended. 

“Internships provide valuable work experience and, in a diverse company like WAA, an opportunity for young people to try their hand at different aspects of the role, test their talents and identify areas of interest. For any young person looking to build a career in the creative industries, a successful internship can provide a prized foot in the door.

“We have an established work experience programme, and a number of permanent employees in the agency began as interns. We take the programme very seriously and ensure those investing their time and energy with us receive a comprehensive and challenging experience.”

We’d like to say thanks to everyone who applied - and congratulations to the 19 who made the programme. 

This year marked the teams’ first foray into the Midlands League - and they began by sending a clear signal of intent, going on an unbeaten run in the Winter League that lasted the season. 

As a result, the WAA First Team finished top of its division, with the newly formed Second Team coming 2nd in its league. Both teams have been awarded promotion - in the First Team’s case, for the second year running - making them definite ones to watch. 

We spoke to Lisa Reeves, Wing Attack, who said: “This shows how far we’ve come in the last three years. Thanks to coaching support from Simone Robinson, we’ve taken the league by storm - but we’re still just playing every match as it comes, so let’s hope we can keep up our winning form.”

So, what next for the girls? The Summer League kicked off on the 18th April - with WAA continuing their winning ways, with a 70-2 victory. 

Given the summer of sport that’s on the way, can we expect Team GB’s exploits to have the same success? Time will tell...

The application of  VAT to currently exempt baked to cool categories (sausage rolls, Cornish pasties etc) went relatively unnoticed in the budget itself, but when George Osbourne admitted he couldn’t recall the last time he ate a pasty it suddenly became a battle of the classes.

Lesson learned by David Cameron – or was it? When confronted by the same question Cameron was in no doubt about his last pasty, it was from the West Cornwall Pasty Company store at Leeds Station.

On delivering this news he even joked that the Sun was probably dispatching a reporter there to get full details as he spoke, a gag that backfired hours later when it transpired that the store in question had closed five years earlier.

Now here I must declare a vested interest in this story – we represent West Cornwall Pasty Company and were handling the story for them. And while it was certainly good positioning to be labeled ‘David Cameron’s favourite pasty company’ it was an ill judged decision from the PM.

Mr Cameron was clearly advised to show he was ‘connected’ to the issue, and the truth is he probably does like a pasty. But his obsession with the detail of the anecdote has yet again proved to be his undoing.

And opposition leader Ed Milliband wasn’t far behind him in the queue for obvious brownie point scoring – his photoshoot purchasing sausage rolls at Greggs was cringe-worthy to say the least.

And the annoying thing is that none of this has done anything to inform the British public of the pros and cons of the argument, or allow people the opportunity to voice their opinion. How can that be good PR?

Going Viral Rule 1: Create the unexpected. Shakespeare used people of the highest stature and wrote them into inferior or villainous roles in his plays (Iago in Othello, Macbeth). This amused the public but, more importantly, caused many of his plays to be banned and his productions to be closed. 

Rule 2: Evoke strong emotion. Another theory is that he wrote to incite outrage and rebellion against the government and crown. Another writer who employed the same tactics, the Marquis de Sade, wrote explicit sexual novels that caused such outrage, even while he was incarcerated in the Bastille.

Rule 3: Target a specific demographic. Some of Shakespeare’s plays are historical accounts (Henry V, Richard III), which were - in my belief - intended to show the common man how the royal and the rich behaved. We know the plays were open to all, from commoners to royalty, but considering that Shakespeare was supposedly from common descent, his plays would likely be targeted at his own social class.

Rule 4: Release to key influencers. It’s rumoured that he used his plays to influence Queen Elizabeth, and she purportedly attended some of his plays as a great patron of the arts. It’s also rumoured that she liked the character of Falstaff in Henry IV - so much so that she requested a play to be written where Falstaff would fall in love. Hence, The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Of course, most of this cannot be proven, as most of the records of Shakespeare's writing have been lost. However, I believe that, whether deliberate or not, this was viral marketing at work  - something we now see all the time, be it a new brand launch or a revitalising campaign. So, to round off my point: did Shakespeare beat us all to the punch with viral marketing? I guess we’ll never know, but it’s something to think about. 

Here are some of my favorite viral campaigns:

• Citroen,  Robot Dance
• Old Spice, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
• Cadbury, Gorilla 
• Blendtec, Will it Blend?
• Volkswagen, The Force 
• John West Salmon, Bear Fight

Until next time - parting is such sweet sorrow.

With assistance from the Entertainments Team, the Easter Bunny hid a delicious array of chocolatey goodies around the WAA offices for the staff to find - and subsequently scoff. 

Raffle tickets had also been sold throughout the week to raise funds for the WAA Foundation; the prizes up for grabs being a hamper full of Easter-themed treats and a bottle of bubbly. Congratulations to Technical Team Leader Andy Swinburne, who took home the fizz, and Mandy Frearson on the Creative team, who won the big basket of choccie.

The raffle ticket sales raised a generous £53.00 for the WAA Foundation, so a big thank you to everyone who entered the draw, and - of course - to the Easter Bunny and his team of assistants for making this year’s Easter Egg Hunt an egg-cellent one! 

This year Google have gone all out to make sure they blow away the competition, so far we’ve spotted 9! Others to take part in the fun include Virgin, Subaru, moo.com and firebox.com. 

Here are the ones we enjoyed the most. 

From Google:

1. Relive your NES days and start a quest with 8-bit Google maps
2. Double your typing speed with this revolutionary new keyboard, Google Tap
3. If your search results just aren’t what you are looking for use the Really Advanced Search
4. The Chrome team have realised we are wasting 50% of our hands when browsing, but don’t worry, they’ve got it covered with Multitask Mode
5. Are you tired of your emails and messages being clogged with Jargon, well now it can be translated for you! Introducing Jargonbot
6. NASCAR is about to get the biggest shake up since fuel injection. Watch a demo of the new technology here and get ready to start your engines!
7. They’ve changed how we use the internet and now they want to look after our health with Google Fiber
8. Click through rate is so 2011! Start using Click-to-teleport today.
9. Now you can have YouTube with you even when you are offline! The YouTube Collection

From Virgin

1. Sir Richard Branson to Launch Journeys to the Centre of the Earth Through Virgin Volcanic
2. Virgin Holidays unveil the 'Branson', the newest currency to use while on holiday

From moo.com

Satisfied that the quality of the printed products is superb, moo.com have now set their sights on creating the ultimate packaging for your business cards. The lightbox.

From Firebox

A range of products from firebox.com for people who will buy just about anything!

• 1:2 scale replica Titanic
• Giant Gummi Bear
• Personalised fireworks
• Footbooteo
• Dubstep ladder

From England and Wales Cricket Board

To lower the risk of injury the ECB are introducing ball fetchers in the form of Bulldogs.

From Subaru

Reclaim those weekend hours and let your car clean itself!

From Sainsburys

Sainsburys are attempting to combat banana related injuries by being the world first supermarket to sell ‘non-slip’ bananas.

From The North of England

More cuts in UK spending come in the form of a merger between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Will you visit Larkshire?

Candidates will have the opportunity to tour WAA’s offices, speak with team members (some of whom started out as interns), and view some of the projects created by the company on behalf of its clients.

WAA is offering a number of 4 - 12 week placements within its creative design, PR, marketing, copywriting and planning teams. Interns also spend one-to-one time with WAA’s founder and chief executive, Andrew Wilson, who provides coaching skills and career advice. In addition to establishing and running WAA, now respected as one of the best marketing agencies in the UK, Andrew also speaks regularly at Cranfield Business School and the University of Warwick.

Chief executive Andrew Wilson comments: “Internships provide valuable work experience and, in a diverse company like WAA, an opportunity for young people to try their hand at different aspects of the role, test their talents and identify areas of interest. For any young person looking to build a career in the creative industries, a successful internship can provide a prized foot in the door.

“We’re very keen on meeting graduates from the local area looking to break into our industry so have decided to host this open day. There’s no limit to how many interns we may take on – we’re interested in passion and talent, not numbers.  

“We have an established work experience programme and a number of permanent employees in the agency began as interns. We take the programme very seriously and ensure those investing their time and energy with us receive a comprehensive and challenging experience. Interns can expect to be involved in live briefs and be given the opportunity to create their own work. They will be encouraged to push themselves to develop their skills and understanding, helping them develop.”

WAA’s intern open day will take place between 10:00 and 14:00 on Saturday 14 April at WAA’s offices in Wren’s Court (off South Parade). If you are interested in attending please send your CV and cover letter to internship@waa.co.uk before Wednesday 11 April.

There are numerous apps I have downloaded for her from Postman Pat through to colouring and painting applications. She also enjoys the TV episodes I have downloaded for her and knows how to select them and get them to play (she is currently watching an episode of Ben & Holly in bed as I type this – part of her bedtime routine!).

Everyone knows the importance of mobile and the advancement of tablet devices led by Apple’s iPad, but it I’m not sure all brands are considering how engrained the future generation already are in using this technology – I know my daughter Poppy is not alone in being a 2 year old who loves her Dad’s iPad.

Add to this the fact that education is fuelling the growth and usage of these devices and their importance and the opportunities they present for brand interaction increases considerably. Bolton's Essa Academy, a 900 pupil 11-16 year old school in Bolton has started a scheme where every teacher has an iPad and every pupil has an iPod touch, revolutionising how children are learning and reportedly delivering impressive results. Stateside Apple are also quietly pushing the use of iPads in US schools from pre-school upwards – running events across various states, which is driving large purchases of the devices. There is some scepticism of moving away from traditional teaching standards, but given the rise of this technology and the fact two year olds are using it before they even get to school, it can’t be ignored.

Brands are already embracing Apps for phones and tablets, but this is mainly aimed at an adult audience. There is a real opportunity for brands to engage with consumers from a young and impressionable age, however cynically this may be viewed, the opportunity is there and could be embraced if it is done in the right way.

Some are already doing it, such as the famous colouring brand Crayola, who understandably will feel their core product range will be threatened by new technology such as tablets where their traditional users may now prefer to colour in using an interactive application on an iPad rather than using a crayon and piece of paper. Instead of fearing this, Crayola have correctly embraced it and have four different iPad apps available, all of which are free and encourage interaction with their brand, undoubtedly ensuring they are front of mind when a child does decide to pick up a real crayon, or when their parents are about to buy a colouring set for Christmas.

Another forward thinking brand which has developed an iPad and iPhone app to interact with children are Innocent Smoothies who have released ‘Innocent Kids: The Dude's Banana Plane Game’, aimed at promoting their range of smoothies aimed at kids. Gurdeep Loyal, brand manager, Innocent Kids, said: "2011 has been a year of firsts for the Innocent Kids' brand, creating this huge fun and fruit-filled world for kids to explore and lose themselves in, and we’re really excited to be extending the experience to the iPhone and iPad." This is in tandem with a recent campaign aimed at mothers promoting the health benefits of their products for children.

That last point is vital – in order to engage with children through interactive phone or tablet applications you need to have a justified and moral reason. Crayola products are part of a child’s education experience and Innocent Smoothies provide genuine health benefits to kids in a world that is increasingly looking at child eating habits.

These are just two examples that I have found, but the opportunities are endless for brands brave enough to consider engaging with young consumers in such a way. There are various products and brands which promote their benefits to health, the environment, child safety and education. There are definitely quick wins to be made for brands in the right industries willing to take the lead in this area.

Even brands without real moral reasons for interacting with this new generation of young mobile device users can embrace it through sponsorship of educational applications or even the supply of hardware to schools given their seemingly growing importance in education, which is beaming on the horizon like an iPad lit up in a dark room.

How many other 2 year olds are demanding to use their Dad’s iPad? More than enough I imagine, to consider integrating a brand engagement strategy through these devices with the world’s future consumers.

December 2011 was a landmark occasion when journalists were given the green light by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge to tweet live in court – even in the most serious of cases. 

Lord Judge may have announced “Twitter as much as you like” to journalists but is this morally correct? 

We only have to look to the trial of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp. The court had to be suspended and a new juror sworn in after a Guardian reporter tweeted both the name of a juror and the legal argument that took place in the absence of a jury. 

Not only does this case highlight the pitfalls involved with this so called new freedom, it also raises questions surrounding accuracy. Speed and keeping the public in the know may be one thing, but as one journalist noted is this just multi-skilling gone mad? 

Reporting from court takes a great level of skill and concentration, taking countless notes to ensure all details are thorough and correct. A story goes through an array of approval processes from the reporters to group editor. When it just relies on one person and 140 characters what’s to say an error won’t be made? 

There are many questions that still need answering around how this will realistically be monitored and supervised. How long will it be before the public are allowed the same privileges? And what’s from stopping them doing it now? 

Only time will tell on how this legislation will play out. My view is unlike Twitter itself it won’t pass a sixth birthday, but in fact result in a case being suspended because of a rogue tweet which is deemed by its author in the interest of the public. After all, that was the reasoning of the phone hacking cases of late and look how that’s panning out. I rest my case.  

In the digital team we live by our Digital Methodology. This isn't a strict 1-2-3 process but a roadmap of techniques and deliverables that ensures that we put the user at the centre of every decision we make when planning and building a digital project. Over time we've developed a seven stage approach that works from initiation through planning to optimisation. 'Build' only appears at number 5 in the list, and as they say, launch is just a stage. Our job ends in optimisation. 

We often work on just one or two of these stages. Innkeeper's Lodge asked us to go back to basics and develop an information architecture, design and functional specification that would deliver revenue while enriching their brand promise of 'character hotels with a welcoming pub next door'. This project was all about developing real-world personas and developing user journeys to take them from research to purchase while drawing them into the richness of the brand. 

Simon Stringer, Marketing Manager for Innkeeper’s Lodge said: “We wanted to completely update our online presence so tasked WAA with designing a website that would provide visitors with a more engaging site experience and simplify the way they would find and book our hotels. The new design, combined with the improvement of navigation and the user journey, has helped immerse our website visitors in the Innkeeper’s Lodge experience and provided us with a site that fully reflects our brand ethos.” 

It’s not techie… 

The results are nicely focused on the audience. It’s not all about mobile-optimised images and reducing HTML & CSS, which you get from W3C-style validators. Everything is very business-led: you choose your category and it has some relevant, ‘real-world’ questions to assess the suitability of the website for the audience, beyond the obvious (i.e. does the site look broken?). 

What’s Google’s gain here? 

With m-commerce not quite yet establishing itself as many predicted, mobile marketing is still relatively untapped. This means mobile-specific ad campaigns are not yet the norm. This is currently a gap in the market, which could make a real difference to a business if used in the right way to capture the mobile market. With Google’s mobile-specific ads only running if the landing page is also mobile-specific, it’s in Google’s interest to help drive mobile sites. Inevitably, this will push the mobile market to be more competitive, resulting in mobile advertising (and Google AdWords campaigns) really moving forward. 

The result 

Ultimately, you get some nice feedback about your site, some good tips, and some simple and intuitive recommendations, all in a very handy and well-presented PDF. There is also a list of specialist mobile suppliers that can help with your mobile site. When all’s said and done, it’s effectively a good assessment that’s free and fast. Lets hope it’s the push that’s needed to start really driving mobile advertising and kick-start m-commerce. 

 http://www.howtogomo.com

So what is it?

Conceived in 2009 by Ben Silbermann, a Yale graduate and former Googler, Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site. Whilst browsing the web, if you come across a picture of something you like, you ‘pin’ it. The picture gets added to one of your self-titled ‘boards’ and it’s there for you and your followers to see. It’s that simple. Yes, there have been online bookmarking sites before (Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon), but Pinterest is easy, fun and - above all - beautiful. Which could help explain why an overwhelming 97% of its users are female. The difference between Pinterest and other social media sites is that it’s about what you like, not what you are like.

How does it work?

Although it’s still invitation only – you can apply direct or get someone you know on Facebook or Twitter who’s already a user to email you an invite – the turnaround is quick. The setup process is simple: create an account, add the bookmarking ‘pin it’ button to your toolbar, create some ‘boards’ (think: categories), and hey presto.

You’ll be presented with your homepage, where you’re recommended like-minded people to follow and a screen full of images of items akin to your own preferences. So much so that you’re likely to lose a good hour or so drooling over and ‘re-pinning’, ‘liking’ or commenting on a large number of them.

Once you’ve got an account, you’ll be one of the 1.3million+ daily visitors who spend an average of 15 minutes per visit addictively expanding their imaginary shopping list. And don’t worry - if you need to go out, there’s an iPhone app already and an iPad app on the way.

Will it last?

Pinterest has its flaws, as with any high-profile site. Retailers are slow to sign up (although that’s sure to change), there’ve been concerns over copyright law violations relating to sharing images that aren’t owned, competitors are hot on their heels and some users are storing some not-so-savoury images.

We have to remember, though, that it’s only in its 2nd year and still in beta. Pinterest is rapidly growing, with only a handful of staff and multi-million dollar investment before it’s even thought about selling ad space…so it’s not going anywhere just yet.

From a grey morning in Birmingham, my unashamed jealousy prevents me from writing too much about the happenings in Texas, but I thought a ‘South By Top 10’ would do the trick.

I was lucky enough to visit a couple of years ago and, from my own experience, the scale of the place is daunting. You will never be in the right seminar at the right time and your sponsor party will always have a longer queue (and less free booze) than the one your friend got a guest pass to. So, with the benefit of hindsight and the world’s greatest concentration of geeks at the end of a Twitter feed, these are some of the big things I missed (not bitter at all…)

1. Homeless Hotspots

SXSWi always has a strong thread of using technology for social good. BBH caused a healthy stir by turning local homeless people into wireless hotspots, with users donating via Paypal. Street papers for the 21st century? A spotlight on a neglected issue? Exploitation?

2. CNN Grill

CNN reportedly did a great job of hosting the CNN Grill venue. Its site curates news and chat from the event and presents it in a simple, current interface. No mess, no ‘news’. And, of course, there’s been a lot of talk about…

3. Rumours of CNN to buy Mashable

Rumours surfaced at the same time as SXSW (coincidence?) that CNN is ready to buy Mashable, the social media news site. The general consensus is ‘at least it’s not Fox News’. Channel 4 gives comment.

4. Eye-Fi wins Technical Achievement at the SXSWi awards 

If it hadn’t won, I would never have heard of this incredible device. Slip a card into a digital camera to send photos wirelessly. Download the app.

5. Pepsico serves ads based on your face

At the What If Unconference, Pepsi served up over 35,000 ad impressions customised to the viewer based on their gender and age using facial detection. The future of bus stop advertising? Campaign magazine features this in its SXSW diaries.

6. Did you know Al Gore was there?

He urged the crowd to use digital tools to fix a ‘no-longer functional U.S. government’.

7. Had enough Pinterest yet?

The SXSW keynotes are always well attended with stragglers even taking seats on the floor. Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann was one such keynote, talking about starting out, glossing over copyright questions and hinting at where next for Pinterest. Read the review at the Austin Chronicle.

8. All the keynote sessions…in pencil

SXSW has a tradition of visual summaries, with illustrators capturing the highlights of the sessions in graphic form. Ogilvy supports and captures these at the Ogilvy Notes site. Try hiring a Graphic Recorder for your next board meeting.

9. Turntable.fm secures licenses from majors

During their ‘the future of music is social’ panel, the online listening service where users DJ in virtual rooms announced a deal with all 4 major record labels. I can’t wait to see what brands can do with this or how labels get on board to tap into H2H (hipster to hipster) marketing.

10. Andrew Bowyer makes a vow

This is the last SXSW I’m missing. Tickets go on sale for SXSW 2013 in August.

Web design is still seen as an extension of print and, as such, is still looked at in a very permanent, static way. It’s important to remember that visitors can access your website using a variety of different browsers (from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome) and devices (from laptops to mobile phones). Every single device and browser will render elements of a website in slightly different ways. By accepting these differences, you’ll actually start to reap the benefits:

Time spent on improvements

Creating rounded corners, gradients, drop shadows or animations is simple in modern browsers - but you’ll have a developer begging for mercy when trying to replicate it in older browsers, such as IE7 or 8.

Ask yourself this: would time be better spent making these elements look identical in older browsers (when the percentage of people seeing it is always falling), or should it be spent improving the user experience, carrying out user testing or adding some extra aesthetic touches?

Target a growing user base

As browsers are improved, the number of visitors using older browsers is shrinking every day. Why would you want to spend money on this area when you can create a website that will improve as the next generation of browsers are released?

Speed matters

By including functionality to allow all browsers to render a website identically, bloated code is created, alongside the need to load additional imagery that isn’t necessary for modern browsers. Broadband users now expect websites to load instantaneously, so there is no excuse for a slow-loading website.

Search results

The speed of a website could not only affect your conversion rate by users dropping out - it could also affect your search rankings. Google uses page size and loading time in its search algorithms. A fast-loading page will rank better than an identical page loading in double the time. Images and bloated code all contribute to the download time of a page.

Built to last

Building a page using old techniques to cater for a small percentage of users will inherently mean that a website has a shorter lifespan than one built using the new tools available to developers. As browsers develop, you may find that including code to cater for older browsers limits your website’s potential.

Quicker updates

What seems like a simple job could potentially take many extra hours if a website is built to operate fully in older browsers. Colour changes can involve recreating images rather than a simple CSS modification, for example. This extra time eats into a project’s budget and means less work can be completed.

Pushing the boundaries

The web is all about pushing technology to the edge, and designers love to challenge boundaries. The sure-fire way to de-motivate a designer is to hold them back and insist their ideas work in outdated browsers. Would you rather have a website that sings as loudly as it can, or one that simply fades into the background? 

But visitors will notice!

You will actually find your more accomplished users already using modern browsers, and those who aren't won't miss the round corners or drop shadows because they won't know to look for them.

This has always been a difficult point to explain but a comment I heard by Andy Clarke summed it up perfectly. It's a very well kept secret, but...

'Only geeks have more than one browser installed!'

Your average user will have one browser and would never think to compare a website in Chrome and IE7. So, by accepting this, and acknowledging that there will always be differences between browsers, we can design and build websites to their greatest potential.

It’s provided an interesting insight into why PR in this sector has changed so dramatically over the last decade, with many more factors needing consideration than ever before.These changes offer both opportunity and threat to organisations operating in this area, with the 'glass jar' effect meaning that everything is now visible to the consumer.

Previously, a PR agency that could affect and manage good relations with travel writers would be able to deliver guaranteed coverage and predict the shape of annual activity. Although this still remains true, it is now an essential part of the housekeeping of a tourism PR account rather than the core.

As with many sectors, the main driver of this change has been social media. TripAdvisor is one of the most referred to sources of information before the purchasing decision in any industry - 90% of people read reviews before making their final decision. Facebook and Twitter means instant posts and running commentary, meaning PR and customer service have become inextricably entwined.

To quote a cliché, someone with a fly in his or her soup may previously have 1) complained, 2) written a review/letter to a newspaper/ management, and, in extreme cases, 3) been interviewed by a newspaper and published (fly in soup shocker).

Now, the customer can instantly take a picture of the fly, Tweet the picture noting the establishment itself, and even flagging this to journalists, authorities, etc. This means that swift and appropriate handling of the situation is more crucial than ever before – and the same PR principles apply in terms of the credit to be gained by proper handling of a difficult situation.

But it’s not all doom and gloom on the social front by any means. The rise of citizen journalism presents a huge opportunity for organisations that embrace and encourage feedback to create interaction that will help share their unique selling points and humanise them in a way that brochure copy would never be able to.

This article originally appeared as part of a series for The Birmingham Post.

The accolade completes a hat-trick for WAA, having been named amongst the UK’s leading employers on two previous occasions. 

The award lists the top 100 small companies in the UK according to their performance in eight key indicators: staff engagement, leadership, relationship with management, personal growth, wellbeing, teamwork, corporate responsibility, job engagement and fair treatment of staff.

WAA founder and chief executive Andrew Wilson comments: “This result is a tremendous achievement and a tribute to all our employees and clients. At WAA, we recognise the value that an engaged workforce adds to the overall performance of our company, which in-turn makes the agency a fun and vibrant place to be.

WAA has been in business for 25 years and my focus has always been on attracting and retaining the best talent in the industry so it’s great to see that focus being recognised in this way.”

The Sunday Times ranking follows the annual Recommended Agency Register (RAR) survey, which rated WAA eighth place in the best creative agencies outside of London. 

Although this video is pretty campy, I’m sure that anyone who has ever worked as (or with) a PM would laugh and cringe (as I did) at the various clichéd sound bites that it poked fun at.

The role of an agency PM is hard. As the video shows, we’re generally misunderstood creatures - but we don’t just say this stuff for our health. It really is vital to effective project management. To demonstrate why, I’ve picked out a few real blinders from the stuff we say and elaborated on exactly why we say it.

So we have a bit of scope creep…

Delivering a project against key milestones is crucial to getting best value for clients - which is key to project management. Scope creep can eat into estimated time and, if unchecked, compromise the quality of the ultimate solution.

Has the statement of work been signed yet?

The statement of work details the commitments and expectations of both client and agency. A signed SOW signals the start of the project and acceptance of the deliverables laid out within – basically, the benchmark for measuring final outputs against. 

We’re going to need to take this offline.

Sometimes, unexpected issues occur and need resolving as quickly as possible. For an online project, the quickest way to do this while minimising any impact is to take it offline.

Thanks for sending the files, but they’re flattened and we need them layered.

Any files requested for amendment need to be layered (where the image elements can be isolated and worked on individually). This will always be the case. If a PM requires flat images, they will ask for them.

Would you say these requested changes are mandatory or nice-to-haves?

Establishing project priorities allows the whole schedule to move forward efficiently and smoothly – ideally, priorities would be provided with additional requests!

So next time you hear a PM utter a timeworn phrase such as those above, don’t just sigh mentally, but appreciate that we are just trying to get the best job done, in the quickest time possible, for the best cost, while protecting our clients’ interests – the essence of good project management.

Step 1. Discover more about your customer

Successful businesses will try to predict what a past customer will need or want to buy next, and when it might be best to contact them. The key to this insight, however, often lies outside the data they gather through trading. It is all too easy to overlook extra information that is readily available to buy and import from specialist sources and, as a result, transform the contact strategy.

A recommended first step to finding out more information, however, does not require external sources - simply ask the customer with a survey!  

Additional customer profiling services may be worth considering to supplement the information with a whole range of data you wouldn’t want to ask in a survey. It is possible to obtain personal and household information such as income, age, house and tenure type, family life-stage, financial status and demographic profile.  Adding this information to the original data on each matching record allows for detailed filtering and segmenting. 

Step 2. Communicate with greater relevance

Trying to predict when someone is ready to buy is the key to direct marketing success.

We have all had experience of receiving effective, timely marketing. Examples might include an eye test or car MOT. These offers have been triggered by a calculated time period from an earlier visit. However, even if your business does not have such a predictable calendar to work from, using a survey you can ask your own questions to find out when a subsequent sale might be due.

Timing is not the only tool in the retention marketing toolbox. Segmenting the communications by demographics is also a potent way to improve relevancy: for example mailing weekday holiday breaks to the over sixties or weekend family breaks to parents of young children.

Time and again however, the best responses are driven by recency and frequency. A recent customer is potentially at their most responsive to the suggestion for a follow-on offer linked to their recent purchase. Likewise, the most frequent purchasers are likely to be very responsive, especially if you can predict their timing.  

Step 3. Work harder at keeping in touch

A mistake we all can make is assuming that our customers are still out there, engaged, in touch and just waiting to make that additional purchase when the time is right! 

It’s all too easy to forget that circumstances change, whether that’s a house move, a divorce - even a death. In business, it’s even worse: roles change, people are promoted, and employers restructure, move, merge or close.  Furthermore, your competitors are constantly working to lure away any neglected customers.

It’s a sobering thought to know that 45,000 people die each month, and 10% of households move annually. In business it has been estimated that up to 30% of business contacts on a database can change each year.   

Fortunately, these days it is simple to keep on top. Data services are available that enable new contact names and addresses to be found for the majority of your hard-won customers, before they are found by your competition.

And finally

It’s surprising that companies that rely on their databases of customers for repeat sales fail to keep their precious records in top condition. All too often, they allow the database to deteriorate, necessitating repeated cleaning exercises and running the risk of reduced retention rates. Following our simple steps is one way in which you could avoid joining them.

We’re all about trends, aren’t we? 

• 85% of consumers only use their smartphones for work emails. 
• More people read episode synopses on Wikipedia than watch TV.
• Homeopathy will overtake science as the dominant medical practice by 2013.*

But just relying on trends could set us up for a fall. Just look at Honda: to fill the hyper-competitive, big-money Super Bowl slot, it jumped on the 1980s music, fashion and film revival of the last few years, paying ‘homage’ to Ferris Bueller. 

Last year’s most talked about Super Bowl ad, VW’s ‘The Force’, was fresh and entertaining. This year, Honda’s effort falls flat, all because there’s nothing new - just a tired retread. 

Capitalising on a trend without having the creative guts to build on it can be fatal. But, at some point or another, we’ve all hidden behind a trend or statistic, because they’re the nearest things to the figure that the client always looks for: return on investment. 

But, while cash is cold, hard and (usually) reliable, marketing statistics and trends are often not. Whether it’s the unreliability of qualitative data, lack of validity in quantitative data, or the bias of the researcher, there are inherent dangers to jumping on statistics to underpin a campaign. Especially when we take a few of them, roll them up into a big ball, and call them a trend. 

Now, trendwatching.com’s 2012 trends are fascinating - and useful. But how many brands will go away and use them as the basis for their entire strategy? This all too easily creates a ‘me too’ culture of lacklustre campaigns. You can almost sense the consumer backlash (not least in the Facebook group ‘Ferris Bueller Would Not Drive A Honda’). 

Wouldn’t it be nice if brands stopped inferring strategies from trends? If they were brave enough to understand their place, accept their limitations, and create fresh content that goes against the trend? 

To bastardise the work of Derrida, a deconstructionist viewpoint may be useful: it’s worth looking at the unexplored gaps between trends - Star Wars isn’t exactly new, but the role it plays in a child’s imagination (and the public consciousness) gives us a rich vein of material to play with. By poking around in this dark matter, opening up the gaps and finding what hasn’t been tapped before, we can create something truly new and avoid being also-rans. 

What I’m saying is that trends have their place in a strategy - but they aren’t the be-all and end-all. It’s challenging them, exploring them, and building on them with creativity and imagination that’s key - and that’s something we should all try to do, every day. 

Used well, trends are the springboard from which to do something creative and clever that secures ROI. And cleverness, creativity and cash? They’re why we’re all in this and not on the bins in the first place.

* These are made up. Or are they…?

It was a tough job for us taste testers, sampling generous helpings of chocolate cake, lemon cake and cheesecake - as well as the cupcakes lovingly made by Project Manager Dave Shaw’s two year old girl, Poppy (or so he claims). 

However, it was Dave’s project management teammate Hannah Newbold, with her innovative heart-shaped sausage rolls, who won the affections of the WAA office, winning the coveted prize of a romantic meal for two. 

The proceeds from the bake-off went straight to the WAA Foundation, which has already raised over £5,000 for good causes - so well done to everyone who took part!

The whole experience starts with our relationship with universities, which are our primary channel to reach students, whether that’s identifying, mentoring or nurturing talent. Listening is a key attribute here, so get this stage right and the rest just flows.

So, what do we need to do? Firstly, we need to ensure that both the student and the business will benefit from the placement. Once an intern has been chosen, it’s all about ensuring that they quickly become integral and add value to the business, and that they get the most out of WAA, in terms of pushing their skills and expertise, challenging them and helping them grow.   

The real key to our internships is that they enhance not only students’ academic training but also their personal skills. We offer real opportunities, from getting involved in live pitches to research, to being thrown in at the deep end with bespoke design work. It’s all great fun, and adds a lot to everyone’s work here.   

By the time our interns leave (if we haven’t convinced them to stay), they can expect not only to have gained practical and challenging real-world experience, but to have improved their academic background and cutting-edge skills - giving them a real advantage, whether they become a planner, designer, copywriter, or even a HR manager.

Here’s what a few of our students have said about their placement at WAA:

• Loved working with WAA people. They are so passionate and interested in what they do, and I now definitely want a career in advertising. 
• It has helped me grow as a person. I was quite shy when I came here, but now I am a little less shy.
• My work is now in the public domain.
• I loved the photo and welcome letter.
• It has given me a great opportunity to see what the world of advertising is really like, and I love it.
• I have learned so much, my head is going to explode (in a good way).
• People made me feel so welcome, I love it here, only wish it was longer.
• The industry is not like I thought it would be - it’s better!
• This opportunity has given me an edge. To have the chance to work at WAA makes me much more employable. I’d love to work here.
• WAA has allowed me to grow in a structured environment, and allowed me to learn by my mistakes.
• I thank WAA for this experience, one that I will never forget.

Ultimately, students are our future, and giving them more of a challenge, more project work and more trust in their skills is crucial. 

Finally, just so you’re clear: it’s not all about what students gain from a WAA internship - it’s about the value they bring to WAA too. Students can advance our thinking in new areas, new ways of working, new concepts, new thoughts processes, and their fresh ideas make an excellent contribution to our creative solutions. For example, after speaking to a member of staff (who was indeed an intern), the advancements in how we use social media as a business was invaluable. 

Our WAA students give us a breath of fresh air, a different approach, cutting-edge learning and boundless enthusiasm. They have the ear of many marketers, creatives and consumers, and are our voice in the public domain. 

It goes without saying that some of our students are now valued members of WAA, which stands as a testimonial that internships really do work. The benefits are endless and, with students’ shared expertise and knowledge, we can improve processes, and ultimately develop the next generation of professionals.

An amazing hat-trick of Twitter stories have each highlighted a different consideration to be accounted for when seeding, or responding to, a story.

The first demonstrated how consumer campaigns can gain momentum quickly and powerfully. A decision by LA Fitness to refuse a contract exit route to a financially struggling couple exploded onto the ‘Twittersphere’, forcing an embarrassing climb-down after members threatened a mass boycott.

The second story could be the start of a far different trend, with brands capitalising on the phenomenal followings enjoyed by celebrities and treating their Twitter feeds as another media vehicle. This approach was demonstrated by Snickers when it engaged the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Katie Price and Cher Lloyd to seed short tweet bursts designed to suggest the accounts had been hacked owing to their out of character content.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and, in fairness, you can see why the Snickers marketeers maybe thought this jovial wind up would lead to a series of retweets and new follows. However, it actually led to a follower rebellion against being overtly advertised ‘at’ in a channel they were using to gain information and insight.

Completing the trio is the #McFail of McDonald’s ‘promoted’ campaign to focus on the sharing of sourcing stories under the #McDstories tag. Designed as a way of changing perceptions of the food production process, it was quickly hijacked for the aggregation of horror stories surrounding McDonald’s food and outlets – until the promoted hashtag was withdrawn.

Don’t get me wrong - I am not discouraging brand interaction with social media. Rather, I’m urging a reality check. Social audiences do not take kindly to marketing ploys that offer them nothing but a sales message – but that doesn’t mean they won’t respond to ideas that offer them something in return.

Just check out the parody accounts created for the Inbetweeners characters ahead of the film’s DVD release. Each has around 150k followers and they have them because, although they are selling, they are doing it in a fun, original and interesting way which followers have chosen to enjoy.

This article originally appeared as part of a series for the Birmingham Post.

Whilst the economic environment remains fraught, there are some positive signs on the horizon (phew...!). The Bank of England has forecast that inflation will fall during 2012, easing the squeeze on consumers’ purchasing power - which, in recent months, has been weakened by rising unemployment and high inflation.  

Further, a survey by IPA Bellwether indicates that companies are not cutting their marketing spend in this challenging economic environment, as marketing budgets look set to rise relative to 2011 actual spend and brands look to protect their market share.   

Therefore, it’s not all doom and gloom, and in the spirit of looking forward, we have checked out trendwatching.com’s top trends of 2012 to see what consumers will be drawn to, will avoid, or maybe even desire in the upcoming year.

1. Uncensored and Transparent

Consumers are increasingly empowered, as they capitalise on the information on the internet to dictate their purchasing decisions as well as to voice their complaints, views and queries on products, services and price. Indeed, Deborah Womack, of Experian Integrated Marketing, states that brand loyalty is a thing of the past, due to the sheer breadth of information available at the customer’s fingertips.

When, in the past, a customer complaint may be voiced to 10 friends it can now be broadcast to thousands of consumers, as the effect of word of mouth is multiplied. This trend has been building for a few years now and, in 2012, brands can no longer afford to not react to this changing environment.  

Brands are going to have to respond to online conversations about their products and service both publicly and quickly. I have seen many examples of brands failing to achieve these two things - a common example is responding to customer complaints on Facebook by requesting they forward the complaint to a direct email address. As well as causing the individual who made the complaint to feel frustrated (I have experience of this and I promise you it is annoying!), other customers who read this comment are hardly going to feel reassured.  

Here are a few examples of brands getting it right…

Four Seasons Hotel

Starwood Hotels

2. Right Here, Right Now

This trend refers to the consumer’s constant connectivity through GPS-enabled smartphones, which - again - has been building for a while.

What this means for brands is consumers who want real-time and relevant information, offers, products and experiences. For brands, the brilliant benefit of this technology is the ability to target customers at the right time, as well as enabling them to encourage a behavioural change in their customers’ purchasing habits - such as encouraging them to visit your restaurant/pub/store on days when they typically wouldn’t (for more, see Michael Nutley’s article).  

This can mean offers that ping to your customers as they enter an area in which your brand has a presence. 2011 saw mobile discount vouchers explode, with one in two adults regularly using vouchers and almost one in five consumers saying they would stop visiting if they could not get a discount (Allegra Strategies, July 2011). Therefore, if brands are not present on these voucher sites and apps, there is a fear that they could be losing their market share to those that are.

One of ClickZ.com’s social media predictions for 2012 is that brands will move away from offering individual offers and deals - as consumers increasingly suffer from deal fatigue - and instead develop social media programmes that find and reward their advocates for sharing content, information and offers to friends, whether through Twitter, Facebook or blogs.   

Who’s doing it right?

Windows Phone UK 

3. Human Brand

trendwatching.com predicts that, in 2012, brands that contribute positively to society, stand for something or just have a bit of personality will be embraced more than ever by consumers.

This trend is linked to the erosion in public trust of big businesses, as consumers become increasingly drawn to brands that convey their helpful, reasonable and flexible approach.

trendwatching.com has identified 7 traits that make a brand ‘human’, including empathy (understanding not just what your consumer wants but how you make them feel), generosity (giving back), humility (letting consumers talk about you - linked to increased transparency), honesty (brands being open about their flaws) and humour. With nine of the ten best advertisements in Nielsen’s survey of the UK's most popular television ads of 2011 (based on likeability and recall) being humorous, the ability to engage customers through comedy is vital.

One of the best platforms for a brand to convey their personality is through social media, with recent research revealing that 26% of consumers prefer business tweets that show some personality and brand perspective (AYTM Market Research).  

4. Community

In 2012, brands will need to convey the positive contribution they make to their customers’ local communities, as consumers more and more look to support their local area and people. To this effect, Konstantin Pinaev argues that the increased desire to be part of a community is a counter-trend to globalisation. 

Again, social media will play a key role in the ability of a brand to do this. A pub with multiple outlets can empower individual managers to engage with their community through social media, enabling them to build the relationships and loyalty that can be achieved effectively by individuals the consumer can know and identify with, as opposed to a faceless corporation. This could mean sharing local content, concerns and campaigning for local needs. ClickZ.com found that localised content creates 7-10 times higher engagement levels than non-locally relevant content.

5. City Lights

Again, a trend that has been building for a while: urban dwellers are increasingly identifying with their resident cities. Brands that can tailor campaigns and products to reference these cities can capitalise on this urban pride. An example is Umbro - a Manchester heritage brand - that developed the Umbro Industries campaign, in which they donate up to £10,000 in funding to help Manchester’s entrepreneurs launch an idea, whether it’s an exhibition, club night or band.

If you’ve a view on any of these trends, or you’ve seen any others, feel free to chat to me about it. Just email cassie.holland@waa.co.uk. 

However, here at WAA we’ve put the brakes on and taken a look at what was happening in 2011, and attempted to make a few assumptions about 2012. Here’s what we found:

Online activity 2011

• 35% of consumers spent 180 minutes or more online per day
• 78% did product research
• 66% bought a product
• 61% used social networks
• 28% of organisations were moving their marketing budget to digital channels
• 24% of overall marketing was spent on digital in 2011
• 64% of businesses planned to increase their budgets for SEO
• 70% said they intend to increase investment on third-party social media services such as Facebook
• 54% increased their inbound marketing (blog, social media, SEO, etc.) budget in 2011
• Companies say that the social media sites that have generated most consumers are their company blog and LinkedIn (57%), followed by Twitter (48%) and Facebook (42%)

In short, it’s set to be a big year for businesses, both across the social networks and with a clear focus to secure the right search engine results and website traffic.

Combine this with our predictions (see below), and 2011/2012 will be seen as a watershed moment across the digital landscape:

• Mobile (smartphone) marketing (50% of UK phones predicted to be a smart phone by 2013)
• Search and social marketing will become one
• Google+ will grow at incredible rate, challenging Facebook – especially for business
• Data: the analysis and interpretation of data is key. How you interpret it and translate that to your customer is crucial

So, what are your thoughts? Agree, disagree, or just want to have a catch-up on all things digital? Just drop us a line.

Sources referenced: www.silicon.com, www.emarketer.com

When sat in front of clients, we are regularly asked ‘what can we do to get more conversions from our website?’ So, here are my top 5 quick wins: the 5 conversion techniques I always look at first. Get these fixed, then we’re on the right track.

5 tips for successful conversion marketing

1. Segmentation

Who’s your customer? What’s your target market? Where’s your product most used? Something to think about is who you are aiming this at. The companies with the highest rate of online conversion in 12 months were those that looked at over double the number of segments.

2. A/B Testing

Significant improvements can be seen through testing elements such as content, layouts, calls to action, images and even colours. But remember: not all elements give the same level of improvement. Therefore, by looking at the results from a variety of these tests, it’s possible to identify those elements that consistently produce the greatest improvements.

3. Usability Testing

This is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users. Users are asked to conduct tasks, to see where they encounter problems and experience confusion. If users encounter similar problems, solutions are needed to iron out these issues. We usually find it boils down to a simple design issue.

4. Customer Journey Analysis

A customer journey analysis provides results that allow positive changes to be made to your site. More customers can, therefore, find what they’re looking for and complete the purchase.

5. Web Analytics

This can be in the form of SEO or PPC, and facts and graphs on Google (for example) provide invaluable insights into the behaviour of the customer, including breakdown information such as bounce rates and demographics. In our experience, it’s this that makes up the biggest part of any overall conversion marketing strategy because this will help determine the elements on your site that are working and which need improvement. 

Published in Friday’s issue of The Drum, the Recommended Agency Register’s annual Top 100 recognises agencies’ growth, efficiency and profitability. It’s an important indicator for clients looking to identify the best agencies of the year – so you can understand why we’re thrilled to have been rated so highly.

No agency can get on the list without solid recommendations, so we’d like to thank our clients, including Halfords Autocentre, Warwick Conferences and Bristan, for taking the time to put in a good word for us. 

The case studies – so well presented by Spotify, We7 and Last.fm (just 3 of over 400 digital music services) – were inspiring, but what left a greater impression was how digital audio providers like these are becoming the much-needed link between brands and bands, labels and agencies. 

The music industry has sharpened up. The decreasing income from record sales and the democratisation of the music marketplace have driven them to be more hungry, innovative and, most importantly, collaborative. Those labels believing that their business was to sell records have had a very rough time. 

But still, we see barriers between brands (and their agencies) and labels. We need a ‘glue’ in the middle: a group of people equally passionate about both commercial and creative elements, and that can talk both languages. Each speaker pitched a slightly different angle, but it was clear that these providers can be the key to making things happen, rather than being just a media platform.

Nicky Birch, from content creators Somethin’ Else, opened up and immediately presented a client list perfectly split between publishers, agencies, brands and labels, with them in the middle. Point made. She then went on to define their marketplace in 6 categories:

1. Music players
2. Broadcast platforms
3. Personalised radio
4. Listening rooms
5. Web aggregators
6. On-demand playlists

Of all of these, it was clear that the exciting areas are on-demand playlists, listening rooms (if they can make them work legally) and – above all else – personalised radio. The Holy Grail of all of this is surely a true marriage of online audio services and proper radio (with real talky bits).

The surprise of the night: how genuinely enthusiastic the speakers were about radio. 

James Cridland, a career radio man and part of the team behind iPlayer, summed up the importance of innovation and collaboration in this area with the line of the night:

“Stupid radio is doomed. If radio is nothing more than 200 songs in a row, it will die.” 

90.7% of people in the UK listen to the radio every week and radio still has an 82% share of voice. That’s only 18% left for everything else. What we’re seeing is that listeners are not after cheap, non-stop music – they’re after interaction and personalisation. This sounds a lot like a golden rule for brands looking to work in this arena.

At the practical end of the discussions, it’s clear that agencies have a role to play in developing personalised advertising. Of course, this is available now, but no one in the room successfully defended the quality of what we have currently. 

Last.fm’s Scrobbling technology may be the ‘glue’ in this challenge. Developed as a Southampton University dissertation, a Scrobble is a listening moment, a barcode of when and how someone listened to a piece of music. Last.fm holds 60 billion Scrobbles – that’s more data than Dunnhumby has for Tesco’s Clubcard.

Scrobbling data is available via an API for smart people to do great things with (try Exit Ahead). Can these smart people make personalised advertising work? 

So here’s what I learned tonight: agencies and brands are needed to push innovation in online audio. Listeners are willing to get involved as long as the quality and the personalisation are there. And most of all, there are some great creative technologists out there that are eager to get involved and make it happen. 

Havas carried out a piece of research across 14 countries, 300 brands and 50,000 people, and the headline results are either alarming or reassuring, depending on which side of the brand fence you sit on. 

The vast majority of people surveyed said they didn't care if “70% of brands disappeared”, whilst believing that only “20% of global brands noticeably improve people’s quality of life”. 

We all know the transformational power of advertising – who was it that said "stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time"? But in the changing media landscape, the Havas study reinforces a pretty obvious point: advertising alone will not create the emotional resonance consumers are looking for in late 2011. Indeed, advertising alone won't make your brand meaningful. 

Which brings me on to IBM and 'Smarter Planet'...

You may have come across Smarter Planet as part of IBM's sponsorship of ITV's coverage of the Rugby World Cup, or come into contact with it since its launch in 2008. At its core, it brings together global examples of how smarter systems can solve the world’s most pressing problems: economic growth, sustainable development, water management, traffic congestion, etc. 

If you were only to see the advertising, you may be forgiven for seeing an okay creative attempt to humanise corporate technology. Look further, however, and you begin to see Smarter Planet acting as an organising platform for IBM, which is aligning the entire business. And, going back to the Havas study, what a clever idea it is. 

By forging the smartness of a technically evolved and relevant company, with the practical impact that its products can have on both the planet and its people, IBM has created something with depth and substance. Its success is not in its message, but in its ability to act as an organising platform for its products, people, opinions, voice, content, view and relevance, and – in the process – making IBM meaningful. 

In many respects, it's no surprise that a company that has embraced radical openness and is at the forefront of what they call H2H ('Human 2 Human') transaction should embrace such a platform. Being a largely B2B brand, they haven't made the Havas top 20. They would, however, get my vote, and other brands may benefit from thinking more about an organising platform – before they think about advertising. 

Top Stories, and a smaller role for the ‘like’ button

Facebook has added a control in the top left of each story, that users can click to check/uncheck to mark/unmark a Top Story.  Facebook uses this information over time to automatically generate relevant news feeds with ‘Top Stories’ for each user via an algorithm – which also takes into account the number of ‘likes’ and comments on a particular story.  Now that users have more control over their news feeds, brands with boring or irrelevant news feeds will have much lower visibility.

Get users to share and interact with content

Unless a fan actively participates in a brand’s Facebook Page continuously by sharing a brand’s content, leaving comments or ‘liking’ posts, then a brand’s status updates will cease appearing in the fan’s Facebook stream.

This means that if those who 'like' your Facebook page aren't interacting with it, then you're probably not reaching them.  From now on, marketers are going to have to work much harder to earn their place in users’ news feeds.

Keep an eye on the Ticker

The ticker was one of the more controversial changes, however users are starting to appreciate the real time updates it provides.  It can offer real time marketing benefits too.  Via the ticker, users are able to discover Facebook pages that their friends are commenting on.  Every time a user interacts with a post, then all of their friends can see the post and the comments thread, in their own tickers, and from there can potentially join in.  

Sharing great, relevant content– that will stimulate sharing, comment and discussion, and doing this often, will ensure that you remain visible in users tickers.

More public sharing than private

Now users can create lists of contacts (close friends, family, colleagues) to share content with.   Visibility settings for shares, tags, mentions and posts can be changed, and although no data is available, these seem to be becoming more public than private.  As a result more content from our wider network of friends of friends and the public is becoming visible in our tickers.  This means great content is travelling further on Facebook, which is becoming a more viral distribution channel.

Use photos to tell a story and encourage reshares

Facebook has made changes to the way that photos are displayed, dramatically increasing their size and prominence in our Newsfeeds.  The display of thumbnails is visually much more engaging, providing the opportunity to tell a story and encourage interaction with the content and re-shares.

There is definitely an increase in the presence of shared photos in our Newsfeeds, have you noticed?  Apart from the fact that photos now look so much better in our Newsfeeds, we can now change the visibility settings of a photograph to ‘public‘, and Facebook has added a ‘view shares’ count beneath every post, which encourages further sharing.  

Brand pages ‘opened up’

Facebook has opened up brand pages so that wall posts and comments can be made by anyone, not just those who click "Like”.  This opens up the opportunity to engage more users and for that engagement to be more visible via the ticker. 

The introduction of "frictionless sharing"

This is an area that you’re going to be hearing much more about, and will be the subject of a subsequent post so watch this space.

Open Graph is a new Facebook Application Programming Interface (API) that allows marketers to create a new class of applications that integrate with your website, and let users share what they listen to, watch, and read with friends.

Frictionless sharing is Facebook's term for when something you are reading, listening to or watching is automatically shared to your Facebook Timeline.  Until now, sharing has been a manual process e.g. clicking a Facebook "Like" button, With Facebook's frictionless sharing, once you approve an app, all of your activity in that app is automatically shared to Facebook.  Here’s the official video.

Facebook changes signify a shift in importance towards action and engagement (i.e. the number of people that have added your content or application to their timeline) rather than how many ‘likes’ you have.  Brands are going to have to be ever more strategic, creative, and relevant to their fans to get noticed.

Searcys operates the catering and private member facilities at a number of iconic London venues including the Gherkin, the National Portrait Gallery, the Army & Navy Club and the Hurlingham Club, and also owns several champagne bars at well known London venues including St Pancras Station, both Westfield Shopping Centres and One New Change in the City. It recently added Blenheim Palace to its roll call of impressive clients.

The company is experiencing tremendous growth following a successful MBO in 2010 and has now engaged WAA to shape and deliver a PR programme that capitalizes on this success and relays its rich story to a wider, new audience.

Now based full time at WAA's offices in Sutton Coldfield, Guy is concentrating on satisfying the increased demand across the board for data, insight and analytical services. Insight sits at the core of WAA's business creativity proposition and Guy's considerable expertise is now being channeled into developing this capability for the group. 

Send is now in the very capable hands of Peter Robinson. Peter joined the WAA group via our acquisition of Seal and Send Ltd earlier this year and has extensive experience of running mailing house operations. 

Next year is set to be a big one for many reasons, with the economic picture becoming clearer and a host of key sporting events in the calendar - headlined by the Olympic games which begin in July.

So to that end, WAAs ‘Flying Start to 2012’ event had a distinctly athletic theme - with former Olympic 400 metre runner Daniel Caines delivering a speech which highlighted:

The mindset of an athlete and how business can learn from their preparation and planning 

The focus on performing all the time but peaking on the most important occasions 

How businesses can link with athletes ahead of 2012 to achieve mutual goals

With that in mind, we also invited leading legal firm Browne Jacobson to outline the various different legislation surrounding marketing activity around the Olympic Games in London, with Sara McNeill walking attendees through the major dos and don’ts.

By using live examples of marketing materials that either complied or breached the IP rules, Sara was able to address many of the questions and concerns raised by clients about how they support the games and engage their audiences without enraging the powers that be!

And finally on the speaking front, WAA’s master of creative Chris Bailey delivered a thought provoking piece on standing out in a crowded marketplace.

He said: "Everyone is fighting for the same pound now - and you cannot win that fight by simply shouting louder and louder.

"Brands need to find an ownable space and the show customers how they can add value and provide them with a great experience. It is too easy to get sucked into marketing the same way as everybody else to make sure you don’t miss out, but in truth that does nothing to get you selected."

And with high performance at the forefront of their minds, everybody headed to the Alex’s indoor athletics centre where World and Olympic champions Darren Campbell and Philips Idowu were joined by London 2012 high jump hopeful Tom Parsons and world renowned coach Toni Minichello for a session of insight and demonstrations.

Within just a few short minutes, Tom and Philips had willing participants (including WAA founder Andy Wilson) leaping like Salmon while Toni Minichello and Darren Campbell trained their own sprint sides in a team challenge.

Andy said: "The event was a great balance between planning and creative tips for 2012, insight into Olympic opportunities and the chance to get into the minds of some of Great Britain’s most successful past and present athletes."

As a result my Newsfeed has been full of complaints, which happens every time Facebook makes changes – and these changes appear to be the biggest in its history. So let’s explore what they are, why they been made and what this means for business organisations. 

Firstly, the Facebook changes arrived just days after Google+ went public, and are widely regarded as an attempt to keep users on the site in light of increased competition from Google+ and Twitter (and I think they will succeed). 

They certainly appear to be aimed squarely at what the competition has got right – notably Twitter’s real time updates and Google+ providing the ability to place your contacts into ‘friends lists’ so that you can be selective about what you share with whom. 

Here’s a quick look at the changes:

The new News Feed

Perhaps the most controversial, since it has changed the look of the Facebook homepage. Gone are the chronologically ordered posts, now ‘Top Stories’ appear at the top, each marked with a blue corner – and ‘Recent Stories’ are listed below, in the order they were posted. 

What’s causing most concern is how Facebook determines what is a ‘top story’. Essentially it’s a ranking algorithm that considers your relationship to the person posting, how many comments and likes it has received, whay type of story it is etc. 

 The good news is that you can filter by friend lists and hide an individual or story type. You can click on the blue triangle to remove a top story, or click the top left of any post to mark it as a top story – in doing so, you can tweak and ‘teach’ the system what kind of story you would like to see at the top of your newsfeed. 

 Learn more about the news feed changes here.

The improved ‘Friends Lists’

 Have a look at your friend lists. You will find that new groups of friends have appeared (i.e. ‘smart lists’ by school, employer, city, family, etc.). Using the new lists features gives you a quick optional way to organize friends so you can control what you see in your News Feed and post updates to specific groups of people. Very useful, and a direct attack at the ‘Circles’ feature on Google+. 

There are three new lists that have been made automatically by Facebook: 

• Close Friends: Your best friends, who will show up more in your News Feed 
• Acquaintances: Friends who should show up less in News Feed. 
• Restricted: Friends who can only see posts and profile info you make public. 

You can add your friends to these lists, without them being notified at all (which is nice..) This way, you can also go straight to photos and updates from the friends you care about most and skip the news from acquaintances you don’t know well. 

Learn more about the friends list changes here.

The News Ticker

Facebook has now put Facebook in the top right of Facebook so you can Facebook while you’re on Facebook. 

The scrolling news ticker (grab the bottom of it with your mouse, and drag down to the bottom of your screen – recommended) shows friends' updates in real time, and displays them in chronological order - replaces the function of the “Most Recent” section of the News Feed - and provides a 'Twitter' like experience. If you click on the updates, a box will appear showing the full story and all related comments and likes. 

This has cause privacy concerns from users, however, it is worth noting that only users commenting on your ‘public’ updates or to updates to 'friends of friends' will become visible to users outside your immediate network. 

The Subscribe Button

This new feature allows for users to follow public updates without becoming friends, very useful for celebrities and public figures. 

Also, by using the subscribe button, you can pick and choose the types of content you would like to see from individual friends - ‘all’, ‘most’, or ‘only important’. 

Learn more about the new subscribe button here. 

The social network has since made more announcements this week, unveiling a music and media-sharing platform and a major profile redesign. 

All of these developments are being made with a view to making Facebook more engaging, to make people spend more time using it, now that their connections are established. 

For brands the outlook looks very positive. The best companies in the socia space have known for some time that social media is about engagement, rather than simply counting the number of 'likes'. And with people spending more quality time on Facebook the brands that get it right should find that this means users spending more quality time with them. 

Stay tuned for another update which will follow the launch of the new Facebook Timeline, and we’ll take a closer look at what the changes may mean for company Facebook pages and applications – notably, the new ‘Open Graph’. 

 At the moment it’s pure speculation, but many commentators anticipate it being a case of ‘back to the drawing board’...

This reaction has been delayed for many reasons. Pressing economic concerns have led to a necessity for short-term thinking and only recently has the fuse really been lit on the build up. 

The classic reaction to this ticking clock can be easily mapped. Someone at the top of the organisation asks the question: “What are we doing to capitalise on London 2012*?” (*replace with World Cup, European Championships, etc as appropriate in different years), and then the marketing team scramble round to find an answer. 

And this is the stage many people are currently at. 

But the key word missing from this whole process is ‘credible’. We’ve all seen cringe worthy examples of bandwagon marketing and customers can be as turned off by these as they are engaged by truly meaningful links. 

The other thing worth bearing in mind is that the impact on a business may not always positive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that doing nothing is the best solution. 

This is a discussion we have been having with clients for many months and we are currently in the midst of organising campaigns that range from full blown sponsorship deals of Olympic gold medal hopefuls right through to briefing hotel managers on maximising long-term opportunities from this short term boom. 

So the key questions are these: What permission do we have to talk about this subject? What content or thought do we have that is unique, interesting and engaging to our potential audience – and will our audience care? What territory can we own and how do we talk about it? 

This conversation may lead you to getting Dame Kelly Holmes to front a campaign, but it may well also show you that your voice will be lost in the noise and you would be better talking about a subject you can be louder and more confident on. 

So when you see ‘Going for Gold Haircuts’ or ‘Sprint to the Snack Bar’ and wonder what connection they have to the Olympics – the answer is probably none at all.

However, if the recent furore surrounding the News of the World has shown anything, it is that people do care about newspapers.

In between declarations of shock and revulsion in recent weeks, there has also been a sense of ‘what am I going to fill my time with on a Sunday morning now?’.

So I’ve been surprised to hear some commentators talking about the fact that there would be no replacement for the NOTW as declining readership figures meant there was no real market anymore. 

I beg to differ.

At the time of its termination, the NOTW was still selling 2.7m copies per week. No other Sunday paper had its reach or influence on the UK’s working class masses.

Clearly, what happened in Wapping is indefensible and drastic action was needed, but from an agency point of view, I think the NOTW will certainly be missed. 

It was a great vehicle for mainstream consumer brands, and the quality of areas like its sports section meant that good brand ambassadors could help brands make a real impression.

Indeed, from a PR point of view, it was often seen as the Holy Grail for a strong consumer story. Clients report real benefits in terms of website visits, social media interaction and general enquiries when their brand adorned its pages.

In time, the shockwaves will subside and News international will launch its replacement, founded no doubt on more honourable principals. But I think the challenge in making this paper a success will not be one of reputation but one of making it consumable.

News consumption is now so complex, with consumers choosing how and when they consume and news breaking in real time rather than obeying media deadlines.

Newsprint won’t die, but the future is more complex than offering print and a replicated version online. 

Solving this convergence conundrum with the NOTW’s successor is News International’s opportunity. I hope they rise to the challenge.

Jacqui Lennon is managing director at WAA.

Day two is always the more enjoyable and productive day of a conference. The agency/client barriers have been broken down by dinner chat, too much wine and giant Jenga. Delegates also have more to talk about from the previous day - and a few shared jokes from the night. Agencies calm their efforts to collect business cards and just start enjoying the experience. This atmosphere fitted perfectly with our next presentation: an honest take on the client/agency relationship.

The day opened with Guy Esnouf, E.on UK’s Head of Corporate and Internal Communications, talking about social media from the client’s perspective. What struck me was that, again, the presentation included a lot of on-the-ground practicalities and actionable advice. Secondly, E.on’s strategy was born not out of customer service, but as a way to engage and minimise damage from protesters who had targeted its power plants and corporate policy.

We, as agencies, were again reminded to cut the crap and stop trying to force our clients to be as cool as we think we are. Guy’s own words were something like: “Be better, be faster, don’t be social-er. Don’t make your client look like me trying to dance”.

Each brand here has learned in a different way. By communicating in the same space as their most vocal (even violent) detractors, the PR team (who handle E.on’s social media activity) have very quickly learned first-hand about the realities of a space they don’t own outside of a safe, campaign-shaped social media bubble.

We were re-introduced to the Gartner Hype Cycle, which describes the hype and inevitable disappointment when new technologies are introduced, and works brilliantly for describing a brand’s adoption of social media. Perhaps the real opportunity is to help those clients ready to start climbing their own Slope of Enlightenment. 

In Guy’s words, E.on’s agency search was a celebrity death match at times. He was left to feel like John Major dating Lady Gaga (which left me feeling a little queasy). He admitted a two-faced approach to choosing an agency, wishing and fearing in equal measure, but ultimately looking for some very simple things:

• Honesty
• Understanding and support
• Meaningful metrics (conversations matter, noise doesn’t)
• Innovation
• Action

As agencies, we also need to remember how hard our client has to work on the internal sell. Another great sound bite from Guy: “My job is to stop bewilderment from paralysing our executives.” This is part of the reason that E.on placed social media (against its agency’s advice) within its press office. By adding another channel to an existing team, they could hit the ground running with an internal credibility that helped get the senior team on board. As they were already trusted to speak on the organisation’s behalf, the perceived risk of doing the same in a new channel was much lower.

This internal sell was essential to the success of a strategy that involved directly conversing with protestors in their own spaces. Video was a big part of this, and the E.on YouTube channel included content generated by the protest groups as well as E.on videos of violence at its power stations. It’s clear that E.on learned very quickly by getting involved in the most authentic end of the social media spectrum, opening up new lines of communication and talking with grass-roots movements as well as global organisations.

What’s really interesting is that an organisation so apparently comfortable in the sharp end of social media admits to not yet knowing the role of social media in customer service. Guy saw no choice but to get involved when detailed plans of E.on power stations were found online – but tackling customer service is a brand new issue. The energy industry is surrounded by negativity in a time of squeezed household budgets, ranking as the second-most distrusted industry. Guy made the point that E.on’s customer relationships are based on inaccurate information in the form of estimated bills, so trust is difficult to secure.

Inevitably, “Do you need a social media agency?” was amongst the closing questions. Hopefully every agency in the room wrote down the answer. E.on doesn’t need an agency to handle its social media. It already knows what’s real. What they do need an agency for is for worthwhile, accurate measurement, integration with marketing activity – and to tell them what really matters.

As the biggest non-food brand in the UK, everybody knows Andrex – yet nobody notices it. Maybe it suffers from ‘puppy fatigue’. So another great speaker, Andrex’s Matt Muniz, talked us through how they solved this problem by re-launching the Andrex puppy in a new CGI form, and how the brand is generating content and, therefore, loyalty from this property.

Matt did a great job of simplifying the case study, and if there is a clear theme to this year’s Brand Republic Forum, it is real-world practicalities. Very little conversation is focused on highbrow strategy. Instead, marketers are keen to find out how to actually implement social media and content activities.

Within agencies, the story of the strategy is often the acid test. If it doesn’t make sense on one slide, the chances are, it is too complicated. The Andrex study is a great example of this. Everyone in the room got it.

The Brief: Encourage existing customers to spend more.

Very simply, there are two ways to ask existing customers to spend more. Repertoire customers can buy more often, and loyal customers can trade up.

Objective

• Increase Andrex loyalty.

Obstacles

• The brand is seen as expensive and is not noticed enough.

Solutions

• Engage with the consumer like never before.
• Offer better value every day.

I’ve talked about the first point here and will save the second for another day.

The brand looked for the piece of insight that would help them build a richer, more meaningful relationship with customers. Statistics show Andrex’s sales increase in the run-up to Christmas. Households up and down the country invest in premium toilet paper when they are expecting guests. This is possibly the most stereotypically British buying trend I’ve ever heard of!

Andrex interpreted this as a small act to show our guests we care - it’s the little things that make a difference. And so the new line was born: “It’s the little things”.

Everyone loves the Andrex puppy, but apparently we find him (I’m guessing it’s a him) commonplace, part of the furniture. A jolt was needed to shake buyers out of their routine, and so the CGI puppy was created and launched online. With a great uptake and 7,000 page Likes a month, the challenge is now to maintain momentum. Judging by the audience reaction and the flood of questions, this is a key challenge for brands that perhaps have just completed their first 12 months in the social space.

Another great, simple slide: by looking at the competition, Matt’s team found that sustainable content ticks three boxes:

• Relevance
• Freshness        
• Focus

For me, ‘focus’ was the most interesting point. Many brands suffer at the hands of the Gartner Hype Cycle (more about that to follow…) and suffer a dip in visibility as they become disillusioned with the activity. Andrex had a clear brand promise to deliver and Matt was honest enough to say that keeping the internal and external teams focused on this was the biggest challenge, but one that gets easier once everyone lives and breathes this common purpose of delivering value through the little things.

I’ll admit that I struggled with the ‘relevance’ argument, and one question from the floor asked if Puppy’s Facebook profile just spoke to the dog lovers out there. I asked if he could see a day when they ran out of things to say about Puppy, but with Puppy’s 40th birthday around the corner and ‘the little things’ theme to explore, there’s little chance of that.

Matt revealed a killer tactic to win over the doubters. Negative comments about the new CGI puppy, like “I don’t like you as much as the old one” often get a reply back from Puppy such as “that makes me sad”. Perhaps this is relevance and focus in action, but I couldn’t help but think of the executive who has to pretend to be a puppy all day.

Another interesting point is that Twitter was rejected by the brand. While a feed straight from Puppy sounds endearing, the brand found a low representation of consumers and, instead, a lot of industry users debating the re-invention of the brand. Facebook, on the other hand, has worked very well and, while campaign spend has now stopped, they are seeing organic growth of 250 Likes a day.

Have your questions answered direct from the Brand Republic Forum. Leave a comment below or email: andrew.bowyer@waa.co.uk.

Brand Director Mark Given talked about how Fosters decided to become a “leading voice in UK comedy”, creating a brand platform that consumers could believe in to turn them into ‘Choosers’.Content marketing is a big topic at the moment and ad-funded content always makes for interesting case studies. Mark did not disappoint, with an honest and detailed account of the Fosters Funny strategy.

I’ve attempted to play back the key points from his presentation – hopefully we’ll have a SlideShare to follow soon. I’d love to disagree passionately about every detail but the fact is I wanted to share this because it’s pretty spot on.

The 4% lager market is crowded and dominated by promotions. Supermarket customers scan for offers before selecting their purchase. Fosters needed to move beyond price promotion. The holy grail in beer marketing is to turn an inherently disloyal consumer into a Chooser – one that reviews the bar taps and says “pint of Fosters, please”.

Without a clear brand identity and a set of values to align themselves with, consumers have a hard time building affinity with a beer brand. For a long time, Fosters lacked a brand platform – something that the consumer cares about. Mark was honest in admitting that this had troubled Fosters for a long time.

The brief: develop a brand platform to convince Tribal Drinkers (the target audience) to choose Fosters.

Sport is over-crowded, music has better-suited partners and food just doesn’t fit. Comedy, however, does. Furthermore, it’s finally living up to its ‘new rock & roll’ badge, growing in online popularity and social potency. So Fosters developed a long-term strategy to ‘own’ UK comedy and develop from a purveyor to a creator of quality content.

The word ‘creator’ is key here.

The strategy relied on the same three ingredients that are (or should be) at the heart of content marketing:

• Awareness    Sponsorship of comedy on 4.
• Credibility    Grass roots investment through the Fosters Comedy Award.
• Engagement    Create new comedy, ‘Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge’.

The opportunity arose to work with Steve Coogan and Baby Cow, and Mid Morning Matters (an original Alan Partridge series) was created to go live on Fridays on the Fosters Funny website.

Production costs were paid by Fosters, which owned the rights to the show for the duration of the Friday episodes, whereupon the rights revert back to Baby Cow (the original producers of Partridge), which is free to sell on the content with percentage revenue going back to Fosters.

Comedy is divisive and the approach was a risky one. What is interesting – and maybe a testament to the culture at Heineken UK – the internal sell-in was not the biggest challenge. Senior management were involved at the earliest stages and were prepared for flak. The comedy community can be unforgiving, with Stuart Lee one of the outspoken critics.

The biggest challenges were the contractual and rights issues, and Mark is proud of Fosters’ work to climb the learning curve, securing the services of an ex-music industry consultant to work with them and Baby Cow to develop contractual agreements.

The presentation wound up with golden rules. Everybody loves a golden rule.

• Get the basics right, and understand your objectives and your strategy.
• Think long-term. Fosters are using a 5-10-year plan.
• What are you bringing to the party? How are you contributing?
• Quality is everything. Without quality, you have nothing.
• Leverage PR.
• Get your contracts right and secure access to talent.
• Create a seamless consumer journey joined by the content.
• Be brave. They only saw the finished video 2 days before airing.

We finished with questions that understandably sounded a lot like “how much?” (“not telling you!”) and “how do we measure this?”, which I’ll cover in our round-up of the forum.

With such a well-prepared presentation and a great preview of the new Vic & Bob show, this one was a success. Next up is Mike Hoban from Confused.com talking about in-house advertising.

Have your questions answered direct from the Brand Republic Forum. Leave a comment below or email: andrew.bowyer@waa.co.uk.

For the first time, the ever-popular Revolution Forum has been combined with PR and marketing events to become the Brand Republic Forum. In their own words, “…the chance to boost (your) integrated approach to marcomms while breakout sessions on digital, PR and marketing provide the opportunity to gain vital knowledge in a fast-changing sector.”

The three-day event is a combination of pre-arranged, one-to-one meetings, networking sessions and seminars. I heard the word ‘workshop’ mentioned, so I’ve brought my felt tips. In short, it’s a great opportunity to learn, discuss and network with marketers and other agencies.

Attending with our MD, Jacqui Lennon, and Head of PR, Dan Clifford, my task is that of roving reporter. I’m here to hear what the important issues are first hand, to join in the debate and to feed back here, on the WAA blog.

The opening session this morning featured Thomas Delabriere from Innocent Drinks speaking on ‘Marketing premium brands to cost-conscious consumers’. I’m looking forward to grabbing his presentation and posting it here. We see the mid-market in decline in many sectors as consumers struggle to see the value in brands that don’t either appeal to their emotions or offer penny-stretching value. Of course consumers are switched on to the money-saving power of the web, but how many brands use it to give true, added, emotional value to premium products after the sale? Let's wait and see what Thomas has to say.

I’m hoping to play back as much of the forum as possible. I’ll be posting and tweeting from the event, and sharing links and presentations wherever possible. And I’ll be sure to include some grinning pictures of Jacqui and Dan.

So, with the brain warmed up and typing fingers at the ready, I’m looking forward to it.

Have your questions answered direct from the Brand Republic Forum. Leave a comment below or email Andrew direct: andrew.bowyer@waa.co.uk.

My first point is almost too obvious: think what you expect to be the outcomes of the work – and be prepared to challenge your initial concept. It’s about more than just setting commercial objectives. ‘Gaining greater brand awareness’ or ‘driving to purchase’ don’t really mean much. Become the consumer: understand how you want them to feel and what action you want them to take. Better still… 

Involve your audience. I’m genuinely surprised how rarely work seems to involve the target audience at the planning and concept phase. Involve them early and learn from them (and I don’t mean persona writing and focus groups – I mean real involvement in the creative process). I’ve never spent time with a brand’s consumer and not come away with a better perspective. 

Create a value proposition. Poor marketing should be treated like excessive packaging. Ask yourself this: is your work like a beautifully wrapped gift? A couple of sharp tugs on the ribbon, and you’re in? Or are we talking about trying to open your child’s mass-produced toy, with so many plastic ties that they’ve given up (and so would you if you could)? You get around this by creating real value for your user. You’re asking them to interact, to click, to spend time. They need a really compelling reason to do that. 

Your brand identity is not enough by itself. It’s a gateway to an experience, but you need to craft that experience. I see brands’ Facebook pages with huge numbers of followers, and time and time again I ask: “Why aren’t you creating an experience? These people like you. Treat them like it!” 

Which means… Entertainment, education, insight, access, trust and involvement. Not chucking out lazy, lame content. You’re trying to develop a relationship. Here’s that word again for effect: relationship. 

However… Saying that, understand the limitations of what you are capable of achieving. A relationship takes hard work. It takes time to develop. It’s based on human emotion – and it’s rarely just rational. You need to be ready for what a relationship entails. 

 If thinking about technology feels daunting, think about screens and movement. Will your audience be still or moving? Will they be on a small screen or a large one? Will it be a mix? How do you know? 

Make it easy. Sure, consumers might like your brand and its light relief might put smiles on their faces. They’ll feel great that you’re involving them. But above all, they’ll thank you for making their experience easy and simple. 

 Finally, for those that read Mitch’s article, this point wasn’t lost on me: 

Copying is not flattering. It's boring. It's even more boring when the copy isn't better than the original. 

Sorry Mitch, but what do they say? “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” 

Not much good has come out of the Ryan Giggs fiasco (unless you happen to be his lawyer or Max Clifford), but it may be one of the best examples of why it’s often better to confront a bad situation than to hide from it. 

There are countless examples of how shocking or surprising news has emerged, been expertly handled and gone away relatively quickly – sometimes actually boosting public opinion of those involved. 

What people don’t want to see is cowardice. You were desperate for them as an audience before, so you can’t just turn the tap off because the flow is starting to go against you. 

Giggs, it is claimed, feared his reputation as a family man would be shattered and his endorsements and sponsorship deals would wane should the news emerge. 

Really? I don’t think people are that unforgiving, but they do want to see someone hold their hands up, apologise and explain how they will make amends. 

Ask a good marketer about the operations side of their business and they may quote a golden rule: “Customers will give you more credit for a well-handled complaint and resolution than for good service in the first place.” 

So why not apply that to your PR and marketing? A client of ours recently undertook research that showed that customers felt let down in some key areas, overshadowing an otherwise great service. So they confronted it head on. They talked about it in their communications, accepted responsibility, explained how past mistakes had come about and, in turn, how they had fixed the problems. And guess what? Positive sentiment towards the brand went up. They hadn’t ‘let the cat out of the bag’ about something they had been doing wrong – they admitted they were addressing areas that everyone was talking about anyway. 

So my advice to a client thinking about ‘keeping your head down and hoping it all blows over’ is this: think Giggs. 

But sometimes – rarely – they’re worth making as a stark reminder to those of us who get absorbed within a project’s world and forget to join all of the dots together. 

So, here goes. One blindingly obvious statement coming up. Ready? 

The user experience does not begin and end with digital. 

Now that’s been said, let’s take a look at a few examples… 

• Booking a flight online is easy and helpful. But it’s not so helpful if the post-purchase experience becomes painful and the pre-flight hassle turns out to be worse than expected. 
• Ordering Christmas gifts online is perfect for getting that smug feeling that you don’t have to wade through the festive masses on a rainy high street. Not so much when nothing arrives in time because the UK grinds to a halt whenever we get a bit of snow. 
• Getting excited about a hotel through its website, validating your choice through reviews on TripAdvisor (yes, even when you scrolled down to the negative comments) and setting off – only to be disappointed with poor check-in and a room that overlooks a wall. A wonderful start to your break. 

You get the picture. It’s the whole experience that makes customer satisfaction happen. Whether at work or in our own time, we’re always engaged in user experiences. And they’re only as good as our most recent experience, online, offline, phone, mail, text, or face-to-face. 

Of course, the digital side of things always needs to work – and work well. It needs to be simple and efficient, engaging and rewarding, fun when required and serious when needed. All things we strive to achieve in what we do for our clients every day. But all that work falls over if the wider world experience shatters the image created by online interactivity, functionality, creative and copy. Of course, sometimes digital sucks as well – so it’s important to get the whole experience right. 

So, what’s the overall point? Like those blindingly obvious statements, it’s actually really simple. 

Think like a customer in everything you do. 

• If I was a customer, would this experience be positive? 
• Am I confident that this digital work leads to another experience of equal quality? 
• If I have doubts, who do I need to raise my concerns with? 
• What about the experience before the digital one? If there isn’t one, should there be? 

Normally, people don’t segment their experiences. Customers don’t think by channel. They don’t think digital, DM, PR, TV or press – they think company, product, service, value and quality. Any one touchpoint can annoy and disgruntle. But any one touchpoint can also delight and reward. Join them up and provide a great end-to-end experience and you’ve really achieved something. 

And – something else that’s blindingly obvious – by doing so, you’ll make more money.  

KPIs help us understand if we're on-track to achieving our objectives – they're not the objectives themselves. Often, the issue with choosing KPIs comes from the lack of understanding of what we want to get out of social media beyond the over-used term 'engagement'.

Taking the example of Facebook, one of two things can happen. Either the new space prompts us to go back to basics, look at objectives, then indicators of success, then metrics, then measurement tools. Or we just aim to 'get as many Likes as we can'. After all, everyone likes to be Liked, don't they?

Agencies are as guilty as clients for entering the race for Likes. It gives us a nice, simple number to show the client we did well, and that the client can showcase in board meetings. I'm not saying Likes are wrong – after all, they're one of the few universal benchmarks we can apply, but we should be confident to look beyond this to KPIs that actually indicate our performance against a business objective.

This Econsultancy article provides some good starter information on Facebook KPIs, including some benchmark figures. An interesting KPI for engagement that we're testing here is the number of interactions per post divided by the number of fans. This is useful for comparing pages with different numbers of fans.

The trade press announced IKEA's Peace Love and Storage campaign as an attempt to kick-start IKEA's UK Facebook page and increase the number of Likes. According to this NMA article, this was a key objective.

The TV spots, first aired on 1 April, featured 4 stand-up comics debating who is messier, men or women. The debate continues on the Facebook page, on which users could vote via an app and add their voice to the debate.

This caught my eye for several reasons: 

• A TV spot supporting the Facebook interaction. 
• A rare chance to review another agency’s activity. 
• ... and another lovely IKEA spot from Mother. 

I set about recording the Facebook numbers every day for a month (okay, our intern Lauren did all the hard work and put together a great report). 

Here’s what we found:

The audience did indeed get involved by voting for the messiest gender. The total number of votes far outstripped the number of Likes, which slowed significantly after week 2. The number of YouTube views also peaked here, while the rate of voting was still increasing at the end of the month. The spike in total online mentions was even shorter-lived, but trade and consumer news pieces will have contributed to this. 

Within the first 4 weeks and with the support of a national media spend, the number of new Likes only just surpassed 5,000, many of which were gained in the first 2 weeks. The voting activity continued to grow strongly, exceeding 45,000. Does this show that users are happy to engage with the campaign but not the brand? Or perhaps they get everything they need from the page without subscribing? 

Either way, the real triumph of the campaign lies in the way it provided multiple levels of interaction. Users could choose how deeply they got involved. In this case, they happened to choose to vote and a share a very heavy hint with their messy partners at home. 

 The key lesson? In this space, nothing is predictable and, as long as we’re measuring the right things and learning as we go, we’re on the right path. 

I’d love to have seen how the IKEA campaign would have performed without the TV support, but I’d call it a success. Only maybe not to those who just want to be Liked.  

Accessing websites on the move is rapid increasingly; mobile is forecast to overtake desktop internet usage by 2014 . Any business should be considering the opportunities this presents and the challenges involved. 

Going ‘Mobile’ is often seen as an accessory, nice-to-have or something to do in order to match competitors. However launching a mobile site or application is no easy task. 

Planned effectively with a clear goal, a mobile presence can add real value to your business and give great rewards to the end user. 

Target audience and their devices? 

Who are your mobile customers and what devices do they use? This is probably the most difficult question and one which can take some research. Short of doing extensive surveys and analysing statistics the alternative view is "Which devices and browsers will support my site the best for my customers". Targeting browsers and devices is a sea of combinations, which can lead to you attempting to cover all. Look at the standards and features they support, current market share and forecast growth for the device brand and browser. 

Also look at industry leading technologies, these provide a wealth of resource detailing much of the research which will be crucial to developing a mobile site. jQuery Mobile provide an excellent graded browser support matrix, which cross-references the platform with the browser and the support offered. This provides a valuable insight into which platforms give the best results and therefore should be targeted. 

Building a mobile site? 

Keep it simple! The key to mobile development and getting it right relies heavily on the design and architecture. More so than the actual development, some key considerations: 

• What would people on move be looking at – tailor the content accordingly E.g. contact details and map on the landing page
• Keep it light on imagery, slow loading pages on unstable and slow connection will cause customers to switch off (literally) – use W3C validator
• Cut out non-essentials E.g click through ads
• Always aim for the most direct route to any content
• Include a full site link - always give the choice of visiting the full site
• Make use of mobile features, if geolocaton will be of use then build it into the site 

Testing

Now comes the difficult part. While choosing targeted devices may have left you going round in circles, trying to test a mobile site can well do the same. Start small and look at the device and browser combinations from earlier. 

Testing on physical mobile devices is a must, there are many emulators available but physical testing is the only way to guarantee the look and (more so) feel of the website. 

Use a mobile testing company when starting out. Getting a host of devices in house is both costly and can become dated quickly, so why not have someone do it for you? There are several companies which specialise mobile testing, allowing you to test on multiple devices quickly and many even operate on a pay as you go basis. 

As with anything on the web you can’t test enough, however mobile has so many more variables that testing has never been so crucial. 

It’s an exciting and ever changing arena – start with a simple mobile version, use this to test out the concept and refine then model. Then continually enhance this and see where else mobile can take you. 

“The Wall” as he - yes it is a he – is known as, is a space in the WAA recreation room for staff to display their ideas on how we can further enhance the agency and the service the client receives.

Topics of conversation on The Wall are pretty fluid, but the general sense of purpose is simply how we can keep improving what we do.  In a digital age, where communication is desk-based and often less personal for it, we wanted to free up the mind for the posting of images, sketches and trends within a social space and provide focus for our creative community.

So, nothing ground-breaking you may say, but The Wall may just take us all back to an age where anything was possible and the tendency to dream acceptable.  If that is the case, that large expanse of black and the possibilities he brings may just be the ticket to ensuring we continue to out-think the competition. 

Our recent expansion into the adjacent building freed up a lovely piece of loft space, one of the largest rooms in the building, conveniently tucked away from distractions and right next to the kitchen (how can one expect brilliance without tea?).

The jury is still out on the ‘straddle like a bike’ stools but the huge table, natural light and the 4 different ways to stick things to walls have been massive hits. For me, the real success is the focus that the room brings to the work. It’s turned out to be a real get-the-job-done space where a Business Creativity^TM team can walk in with a question and walk out with an answer. Over the coming weeks we’ll be shining a light on our approach and I think the new Pitch Room is perfect for this. I’m thinking a time lapse video of an all-day session would do the job brilliantly, and apart from anything else, you’re always going to look that bit cooler working in a loft.

“Why do they call them ‘fun’ runs?”, I thought.

However, despite that moment of discomfort around the six mile mark, myself and other members of WAA had an incredible time at the Great Midlands Fun Run.

On Sunday morning an agency team comprised of everything from walkers enjoying the sunshine, to hardcore competitors who had been training for months, gathered in Sutton Coldfield town centre alongside an estimated 6,000 runners.

It was my first organised run and I wanted to get a decent time, so I was strangely nervous as we shuffled towards the start line, but also amazed at the crowds that had gathered to cheer on participants.

This support was not limited to the start. The entire 8.5 mile route, mostly through Sutton Park, was lined with well-wishers shouting encouragement to all. It was quite touching and a fantastic display of community.

Some Suttonites who lived along the route even set up sprinklers so runners could enjoy a much-needed en-route cooldown.

A few WAA runners notched up some impressive times. Senior creative Alex Obradovic romped in at under an hour, while junior account manager Katherine Pooley and account director Paul Stonuary came in at just over an hour. Meanwhile, commercial director Brian Coleman, project coordinator Jess Morgan and my good self came in at around an hour and a quarter.

After the run we assembled at the office for a BBQ and wind-down drinks for staff, friends and family. More than a few WAA staff have caught the running bug and are looking forward to the next WAAthletic challenge!

A big congratulations to everyone involved, especially the entertainments committee who organised it.

His view was that Birmingham is in danger of being relegated as Britain’s second city. So what? In this day and age, what does our geography actually mean?

Look at our business. We’re based in Birmingham and we enjoy all that the location offers, but it’s not something that’s ever discussed with those we do business with: they come to us because we excel, not for our location.

So I can’t help but think this whole city status argument is parochial and counter productive.

We don’t worry about being compared with London, so why would we worry about being compared with Manchester or Glasgow? And I’m sure vice versa must apply - do our colleagues in other cities have conversations about this?

In any case, I’m sure they’ll agree that there’s a certain shallowness in building your fame points on the back of football and pop music.

Like any major conurbation, Birmingham has a rich heritage that has created its culture together with great, OK and bad bits. There’s also a host of attributes that do benefit us, not least the fact that this is Europe’s youngest city. For a growing company looking to employ tomorrow’s talent, this is of course a huge benefit.

The reality is most of our businesses began here because it’s where our founders lived when they had their entrepreneurial urge. It wasn’t a decision based on our so-called rankings in the hierarchy of UK cities.

So sorry Digby, this isn’t an argument I think we should be wasting our time on. I’m very happy with the city I call home, but I’ll promote it because it’s great, not because of its ranking.

Being here and aiming to be the very best in the field in which we operate is the most productive thing we can do for Birmingham – not squabbling about a podium position.

Taking a look at the WAA website I was impressed with WAA’s past work, the case studies on the site included a range of creative and compelling campaigns. I was excited that such an innovative agency was located just down the road from me!

My internship started a couple of weeks after contacting the HR team, my first month was spent in the PR team. I worked alongside Jeremy, Dan and Sam who were great fun to work with, I felt like I laughed all day! Although a brilliant team to work with I quickly realised my interest and skills were better suited to the client services or new business teams. I expressed an interest in gaining further experience in these areas to Sarah from the HR team who acted swiftly to secure me a further months internship in the new business team. I’m really appreciative that all the people I have worked with during my internship considered what I wanted to get from my time here and ensured I gained the experience I needed.

Working with the new business team has presented me with a great opportunity to learn how strategy is developed for clients to provide them with a competitive edge. The senior members of the new business team, Claire and Jacqui, have a wealth of knowledge which I have been fortunate enough to tap into - which is exactly what I wanted from my internship. I have been responsible for researching and analysing potential clients, their competitors and the market they work within. I’ve really enjoyed been able to work on a wide a range of clients. I think the most rewarding experience of my internship has been contributing to an on-going project working with a leading University.

This project has been particularly stimulating because the brief presents a number of internal and external challenges. With the increase in tuition fees being introduced in 2012, universities are having to work harder to attract students. Having graduated from a Masters only recently, I am close to the target audience of this client and have therefore been able to offer insight into the factors prospective students take into consideration when choosing a university. I have also been able to offer my opinion on the impact the fees increase will have on prospective students’ decision making process. I have made further contributions to this project through extensive research and analysis of the client, its competitors and the changes to the university system all of which will enable the development of effective messaging and positioning.

The social side of my experience at WAA has also been great, the people are fun to work with and the company have an entertainments committee who organise social events for the WAA team. My highlight has to be the brilliant comedy night we all went to but also the seemingly endless pancakes on Pancake Day!

After a month working with the new business team I was delighted to be offered a permanent job as a new business executive.

My experience has been incredibly rewarding, it has been great to work with such a dynamic organisation that is ambitious in its goals. I would highly recommend the internship programme at WAA, the company constantly considered how they could tailor my internship in a way that would assist me in my future career.

From March 1st, OFCOM’s relaxation of product placement rules means brands can showcase their wares during some of our favourite programmes, a new era heralded by a reported £100,000 deal that saw Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby ‘ignore’ a Nescafe coffee machine sitting proudly in ITV’s This Morning kitchen.

The new rules have been met with wild industry optimism in an era when advertising revenues have been badly affected by fragmented media channels and a suffering economy, but a word of caution is needed.

Comparisons with the US market are largely irrelevant. Product placement represents 5% of TV advertising revenue in the States (£150m if replicated in the UK) but it has a different mentality and a more developed market.

It’ll be a long time before the UK reaches anything like that level, and it will be punctuated with fall-outs between brands and potential customers over intrusive marketing.

We Brits just don’t like people wasting our free time – especially in our own home. We don’t like people ringing up to sell us something we haven’t asked for, and we won’t react well to incongruous clumsy product placement.

The suspension of reality is already being interrupted by a branded “P” on screen at the start of shows to let us know we’re about to be sold at. Are we going to lose track of content while we’re being irritated by a game of spot the namedrop?

ITV has devised a points system to determine the relevance, impact and value of product placements, but brands will be wary of jumping into an arena with tensions between viewer and advertiser.

Anyway, while you look for annoying product placements I’m going to have a refreshing Coke and peruse the internet on my lovely new iPad 2.

First, there was the shock news from the Office for National Statistics that the economy had contracted once again.

Then, the latest Bellwether report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising solemnly told us that marketing budgets have again contracted and confidence has dipped to the lowest point in 18 months.

They paint a gloomy picture, but give little clarity on the detail that matters. And there lies the flaw inherent in all these backwards-looking studies: you just can’t derive confidence from yesterday’s facts.

It’s a similar situation we all face when dealing with our own company metrics. The ones that are easy to measure – financials, customer volumes, website visits and so on – are arguably the least valuable when it comes to steering your future efforts.

Confidence comes from building insights into the key drivers of your business. And while you can’t necessarily measure what hasn’t yet happened, you can apply metrics that bring the right things into sharp focus.

In our business, this means having an eye on the harder aspects like the strategic conversations our people are having, our business pipeline, and the factors influencing our clients’ customers.

The factors important to you may differ, but they’re seldom uncovered via spreadsheet crunching. Rather, they’re the product of a rigorous focus on measuring the factors driving your business.

It’s an approach that requires discipline and a culture of accountability, but the hard work is worth the pain because in this climate, predictions based on relevant and reliable insights powers up your business.

If there’s one good thing to come out of the recession, this fundamental shift towards non-financial measurement is it.

Our clients’ appetite for data is more voracious than ever and this real-time visibility is fueling confidence, enabling decisions and stimulating growth in marketing expenditure.

There will always be a place for reflective reports - but their value pales into insignificance when compared to the very real and hard-fought for insights that give me the confidence to continue on driving forward at pace.

It sounds simple, but there is a huge difference between a communication that receives a positive response and one that provokes a negative reaction.

The objective is always to engage the customer, improve the experience they have with your brand and encourage them to do more business with you.

Think about what you want from a company whose product or service you regularly use or do business with.

What comes to mind? Often, being appreciated and acknowledged as well as having questions answered can be the critical elements a customer feels are needed in order to do repeat business

At the other end of the scale, communications that are detached from the customer will - at best – provoke a shrug and get binned or deleted.

At worst it could seriously backfire and make the customer feel neglected, or even angry at their continued expenditure and lack of insight you’ve shown towards them.

Imagine a keen gardener who is a loyal customer at the local branch of a national garden centre chain. He’s sent a two page letter telling him about the company’s corporate restructuring, new customer-centric approach and exciting changes being made at a national level.

“So what?”, he thinks, as he tosses it in the compost. “I just like plants.”

Now imagine that same gardener has been sent a letter thanking him for his custom and containing rewards, timely details about new products and promotions (perhaps tailored to his purchasing habits). He will come away with a warm feeling about the company, feel his custom is valued and be much more likely to make a visit or purchase.

A direct mail campaign or e-shot can cost tens of thousands of pounds, as well as time, manpower and other resources.

The cost of developing it is nothing compared to the cost of getting it wrong.

The last thing it should do is disengage your customer – or even annoy them.

Twelve months on though, the conclusion is that 2010 has been more fruitful than perhaps we dared hope.

Our industry, it seemed, collectively emerged from the gloom, brushed itself down and got on with creating some cracking work.

So to round off the year let’s celebrate three notable highlights...

John Lewis’ emotional TV ad, 'always a woman’, depicted key moments in the life of a female character, from birth to old age, and sparked a huge response. One tabloid newspaper even claimed the ad ‘has got the nation weeping into our teacups’.

The campaign was not only a coup for the retailer, but also for the makers of TV ads everywhere. At a time when many brands are diverting budgets away from traditional media, this 90-second spot proved that a good TV ad still has the power to win our hearts.

Old Spice on the other hand showed us how to nail it online with the brilliant ‘The man your man could smell like’ campaign. Rather than change the smell (which I’ll confess to loving!), Old Spice changed the game, creating first an ad we’d actually want to share with our friends, before responding to 100 of the thousands of comments posted online through a series of short YouTube videos.

Some have criticised the campaign as a case of style over substance, but I disagree – it’s done a remarkable job of revitalising a deeply unfashionable brand, increasing sales by 107 per cent according to Neilsen.

And with 26 million views of the first ad alone, it has to be the most talked about campaign of the year.

Continuing the theme of consumer-influenced content, my third highlight was the return of Gaffer, Sydney, Clarence, and co - the Tetley Tea Folk. After a decade away from our screens and 10,000 requests for their return, the gang reappeared in September to remind us that nostalgia remains a powerful sales tool.

Whether you choose to celebrate tomorrow night with a glass of champagne or a nice cup of tea, I’d like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

In Walkers case, customers were invited to design their next flavour of crisps; Queensland, Australia offered the chance to win the The Best Job in the World, while Dove’s acclaimed campaigns claimed back femininity and sexuality for all women.

As an approach this makes a lot of sense, strategically, creatively and commercially.

Strategically it allows brands to form a closer relationship with their customers. Creatively it has tapped into the whole collaborative culture to produce if not always the best-executed work, certainly some of the most talked about and PR friendly campaigns. And commercially there have been well-documented and significant increases both in sales and brand awareness.

However, at this years’ Cannes Lions (effectively the Oscars for the advertising industry), one of the big wins was for a campaign that didn’t put the customers at the heart of the idea but the employees.

Twelpforce was an idea created by the American agency Crispin, Porter, Bogusky for Best Buy, an international retailer of consumer electronics.

As their Cannes entry described: “The back-to-school season is a nutty time for any retailer. But especially for Best Buy. Because people are looking for complicated items like computers, and they need a little education on what’s right for them. Problem is, Best Buy can’t help those who don’t walk through their doors. To extend the knowledge of their expert Geeks and ‘Blue Shirts’ beyond their walls and into the digital space, Best Buy created the Twelpforce - a digitized army of Best Buy employees available 24/7 on Twitter. And not to push products, but to provide Twelp (a new term for technical help in tweet form). Anyone with a question could shoot a tweet to @twelpforce, at any time. And over 2000 expert Blue Shirts would race to give the fastest, bestest answers. Plus, the collective power of Twelpforce would scan the Twitter-world for tech-issue tweets and quickly lend a hand, without anyone asking.”

The Twelpforce was a truly integrated campaign working online and off, and helped to exceed Best Buy’s laptop sales goals by 40%, as well as attracting 24,000 followers on Twitter.

In short, it was not just a communication idea - it was an idea that created business. What I liked most about the campaign (in addition to the results it generated) was that it showed that putting your employees at the heart of your communications, whilst seeming almost counter intuitive to the way brands and businesses have been behaving, could in fact be even more beneficial internally and externally - not to mention in terms of its power in recruitment.

Like Best Buy, at WAA we believe that it is your employees who make the difference to the work you create and the experience your customers have; when they are more knowledgeable, more passionate, more creative, more service-minded than the competition, this is worth more than its weight in (Wispa) gold and one well worth shouting about as part of your communication strategy and creative.

It was this thinking behind our website, our passion and truth blog and behind this Insightful, which you are reading right now. As service industries face more and more competition in their sectors, the importance of having quality people AND communicating the difference they will make to the customer experience is every bit as important as competing on the other P’s in your marketing mix. However, there has to be a balance of making sure you are using your employees in the right way in your communications.

As a cautionary note, for every Best Buy there is a Subway naked staff calendar or a British Airways television commercial with staff running around the streets of Australia handing out cold drinks and hot towels.

Both may be ‘fun’, if that is indeed your thing, but neither play to the commercial strengths of those involved, instead copying aging formulas that exploit those involved rather than capture their potential in a mutually constructive way.

However, if - like Best Buy - you can celebrate your people with integrity and in a way that is credible and relevant to the audience and to your own brand, and not simply treat them as stooges in your latest stunt, then it’s a route I’d encourage you to consider.

And while talk in the media has now moved to what’s next for the intrepid 33, for the rest of us, there are some very valuable lessons to take away from the drama in the Atacama Desert.

Aside from coordinating the remarkable feat of engineering, during the past two and a half months the Chilean government has also provided us with a textbook case study in crisis management.

Whereas BP and Toyota floundered with their own recent crises and suffered appalling brand damage and financial consequences as a result, the comms effort led by President Pinera has been a breath of fresh air and one we should all learn from.

It’s extraordinarily unlikely any of us will ever face an incident of this magnitude or with this level of media attention, but crises do happen to businesses like ours too and the consequences can be brutal if the response is misjudged.

Chile’s example is one of responsibility, transparency, detail, control, compassion and charisma; every one a crucial ingredient for winning hearts and minds. The world was always going to rally around the trapped miners, but those responsible for their extraction were far from guaranteed an easy ride from the attendant media.

And this is where the Chilean authorities demonstrated exceptional media savvy. Through being organised and accommodating, they generated tremendous goodwill amongst the media, and by understanding the 24 hour news agenda and making every detail of the operation accessible, they effectively killed the story about the neglect and bad policy that allowed this accident to happen in the first place.

Engineering genius may have led to the safe extraction of those men, but it was the slick execution of an exquisite crisis communications strategy that’s transformed Chile’s image and reputation.

It’s said you should ‘never waste a good crisis’ and the Chileans have given us proof of that. The rest of us will do well to remember their example if crisis ever comes knocking on our door.

We painstaking draft plans every year and I often consider what we can do to ensure they go on to deliver maximum return.

So I was particularly interested to learn of research completed by a number of psychologists that challenges the conventional wisdom of how we should behave once we have developed new goals.

The commonly held belief is that goals should be shared because once they are, we are publicly committed to them and the fear of failure acts as a motivational force.

However, according to experts the opposite is in fact true.

They say that when you announce your intentions to others, your own mind as a business leader is tricked into feeling the task is already part complete and the wave of satisfaction you subsequently feel leaves you far less motivated to actually do the hard work of driving home the actions needed to ensure the goal is actually realised.

It’s a phenomenon called ‘social reality’, and the resulting recommendation is that if you have a goal you really want to achieve you need to keep it to yourself.

Of course, it’s impractical and too literal to actually adhere to this principal in the business world.

This aside, there’s a key insight amongst this theory - your mind is a wonderful, obeying instrument and therefore easily mistakes talking for the actual doing.

This perhaps then explains why only one in ten firms successfully manage to drive strategy throughout their business. After all, business success does not come from simply stating our annual goals, but from driving them through all actions, at all levels, on a daily basis.

A good analogy would be that planning is a fertilizer for business growth but it’s only the beginning of the process, not the end - don’t let your brain fool you into thinking you’re ready to enjoy the fruits of success too soon.

I started my role as a PR account manager a mere three weeks ago and the day proved an interesting insight into my new workplace.

At the risk of sounding like teacher’s pet, I was astonished at the energy, inspiration and optimism on display among the staff here.

Still, their confidence is not surprising considering the agency’s success throughout 2010. CEO Andy Wilson’s morning presentation outlined WAA’s performance in the last year - the figures are impressive:

WAA has gained 14 new clients, won over £2million of new business, hired at least 30 new people, massively invested in its digital capability, and existing clients are spending more.

It was, as numerous people pointed out, a stark contrast to last year’s event, which was held in the teeth of the recession and a difficult period for all agencies.

WAA met the economic slump head-on and adapted to new market realities by readdressing their structure and playing to people’s strengths, investing in new business and existing relationships, and recruiting and retaining the best talent.

The measures paid off and WAA is keen and fighting fit for the upcoming year.

After the presentation we blew off some steam with an entertaining yet insightful workshop on communication and creativity with the inimitable Paul Bourne from the Menagerie Theatre Company.

We were then whisked off to a farm where colleagues from every corner of the business were split into teams for a competition where, I kid you not, we got to race dune buggies, drive a Land Rover blindfolded, shoot rifles, ride quad bikes and other activities. It was, quite frankly, brilliant.

This was followed by a meal at a country hotel and a quiet drink - rapidly followed by many noisy ones - and some bad dancing, mostly from my good self.

But the day wasn’t just a bit of frivolous fun; it was a reward for the extraordinary hard work and passion the staff at WAA displayed throughout 2010 and a chance for us all to get to know each other even better.

Coming into an agency in the midst of a creative renaissance is a thrilling experience. I look forward to being a part of its future.

(Photos of our afternoon of fun can be found on our flickr page)

Now to be honest, I’ve no idea what the truth is here. But the story did remind me of a lesson told by advertising guru Rory Sutherland at last year’s TED conference that illustrates why a creative thought can be better at solving big problems than big (and expensive) solutions so often deployed.

Speed cameras work on a principle of punishment: they instruct us to slow down and obey the law or face a negative consequence. On the surface, this seems like a practical solution to a big problem. But of course humans frequently fail to behave in a predictable manner, which is why many thousands of us still get flashed every year!

But the real gem in the story is the revelation that those little signs you see that flash your actual speed as you pass are actually more effective at reducing speed than ubiquitous cameras.

And there are now signs that combine a display of your speed together with a smiley or frowny face which researchers claim are even more effective, preventing twice as many accidents as cameras - and at a tenth of the cost.

As a marketer, I find this insight into human behaviour fascinating: the simple device that delivers no real consequence is more effective at changing behaviours than the one that comes with a threat of a £60 fine and three penalty points!

In other words, a gentle tug on our emotions succeeds where a threat of punishment fails.

The lesson to take away from this is that while it often seems that big problems require equally big solutions, more often that not there’s a creative approach, just waiting to be uncovered, that can give a better return.

After all, as the story of the smiley sign illustrates so simply, many flashy, expensive fixes serve only to obscure better, simpler answers.