Appointed by Fine Foods International

Fantastic news. In October we were appointed by one of the UK’s leading coffee companies to develop a creative rationale, website and online activity for their leading own-label Fairtrade coffee.

Stocked by major supermarkets Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, our brief is to revitalise the brand following a recent redesign of its packaging. A lack of huge budgets has prevented our client from going head to head with the coffee majors so our aim is to target niche users, who care about the provenance, taste and value of the products they buy.

Fair Instant benefits from a unique relationship with Save the Children, donating over £500k from sales over the past few years.

Creative won’t break until February 2012 but we will be keeping you posted here with our developments.

And should you need a quality instant coffee in the meanwhile, don’t forget to buy Fair Instant Gold or Granules. For every pack sold 20p goes direct to Save the Children to help improve the welfare of children living in coffee growing areas of South America.

Viral marketing

Is it every marketers dream to create an ad campaign that goes viral, where the circulation ends up in millions, far surpassing any budget they may have been able to afford?

I know as a creative marketer I would love to put my name behind a hugely successful campaign but it’s not for the faint hearted. For every campaign that succeeds there are probably many more that don’t even reach the consciousness.

What makes a campaign go viral? Ask yourself what makes you happy to forward a link to a friend that they will appreciate receiving and not view you as a pain (certainly NOT the chain messages promising undying love and long life.)

Humour is often the key. It works for me but what one person views as funny another can easily take as offensive. And the big question is whether humour will work for your brand?

Try this link and see if it brightens up your day. It doesn’t sell anything, other than the brilliant skills of the designers, but it made me laugh. drawastickman.com. And if you like it, why not brighten up someone else’s day and forward it to them.

If that doesn’t work, then you can tell my sense of humour at 10mg. It’s probably best not to view this when the boss is around…

Is Direct Mail Dead?

The volume of mail sent in the UK has been reducing at a rapidly accelerating rate over recent years, from 21.5 billion items in 2007/08, to 18.8 billion in 2009/10*.

And it’s easy to see why; direct mail is time-consuming and costly to produce, let alone to post. Add to that the reduction in Royal Mail collections and deliveries and you can see why many companies have turned to the internet as a cost-effective way of reaching out to customers.

Why spend thousands printing brochures that cost even more to post, when customers can just look things up on the internet – and virtually for free.

So is it time to knoll the death bell for direct mail?

The answer is a surprising but resounding no and it’s a fact that many businesses need to sit up and take note of.

Direct mail is learning to adapt and change in the face of new media competition. Gone are the vast and uninspiring bulk mailings of the ’80 and ‘90s and in its place are highly personalised, higher value, targeted mailings.

As a medium to convey complex or emotive messages that reinforce your brand values,  direct mail is still second to none. Mail can be consumed at your own time and place. It can be touched, even smelt and formats can involve and motivate prospects. Carefully targeted and crafted mail packs are delivering surprisingly high response rates, not just the 1-2% expected of many years ago.

Direct mail gives smaller brands the chance to talk to their customers without the need for extensive advertising budgets. Used as part of an integrated campaign, direct mail provides the tangible, physical contact with your prospects that really makes your business stand out from the crowd.

Leading marketing services agency WPP recently reported revenue increases of 12.2% to £2.2bn in the three months to 30 September 2010, with traditional media driving the fastest growth.

The question for businesses now is whether they have adapted their thinking on direct mail?  Have you written out DM from your marketing budget or is it time to reconsider?

It is well known that brands that maintain marketing budgets during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can benefit from improved market share and return on investment during good economic times.

So next time you are planning your marketing budgets, don’t write off direct mail but take time to reconsider how it can be used within your marketing mix to build relations with your customers, to make them value you above the competition.

And if you are in any doubt of whether the returns will work for you, talk to us now…

* Postcomm, Annual Report and Financial Statement, 2009-10, HC 148, 15 July 2010, p 20

Non Traditional Portfolios

There are a lot of tedious things in life and top of the list has to be the traditional agency portfolio.

You know the sort of thing '.... a team of committed and experienced professional, dedicated to the highest standards of creativity...' and so it drones on and on.

When we attempted to show that charm, assurance and a little wit would stand out from the crush of pompous agency philosophies that live out their short lives from drawing board to landfill, we were enormously pleased that Rockport Publishing decided to feature our work in Design Matters | Portfolios 01.

So if you'd like to see what all the fuss was about, why not send us an email with your address details and we'll send you a free copy of the book.