Author Archives: Ian

#SMBenchmark

This week, we spent an interesting morning at Bloomberg HQ in London for a Social Media Benchmark event with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

With speakers including Thomas Brown – Head of Insights at CIM, Josh Graff – EMEA Marketing Director at LinkedIn and Dara Nasr – Industry Head at YouTube UK, it was a great opportunity to delve deeper into the insights and discussions around how businesses are using social media. It was a great event with lots of stats to bring back to the office.

So, who’s doing what? The CIM’s research shows that 71% of UK businesses are using Twitter, although just over a quarter are saying they are ‘just experimenting’ with social media.

Company investment in social media in 2011 was on the increase with 2012 set to grow even more rapidly. Over half of organisations who took part in the research say they are planning to improve social media skills in 2012 by investing in employee training.

Key points we took away: Experimentation is great, but without using the relevant analysis tools available you’ll never be able to measure your success. Social media is a dialogue – it’s more about listening to customers than selling them things.

Even with the global social media boom going on all around us, brands are only just scratching the surface… #SMBenchmark for more information

17 February 2012 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Events, Marketing, Milestone, Social Media, Technology

Tags: CIM, SM benchmark, social media marketing

Strength in numbers…

This week on our blog I thought I’d share a few thoughts on a new buzz word in marketing – the ‘Infographic’. On display is one we created for RAC. It’s a summary of stats from their award winning Report on Motoring done as a ‘Charticle’. Making data come alive like this is right on trend at the moment. It’s not just about pretty pictures either. Cool infographics make great sticky web content, attract Google searches and they encourage the sharing of factoids through social media. What would make a great infographic about your industry, market or product range?

For more inspiration in this field take a look at work of David McCandless and the original master Edward R Tufte.

13 January 2012 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Design, Marketing, Web Design

Tags: infographic, RAC, Report on Motoring

3 Cs of branding – a remedy for new year branding resolutions…

Last year at a presentation I was giving on brands and branding a lady asked me what I considered to be the three most important characteristics of strong brand. I can’t remember exactly what I said at the time, but I can remember that my answer probably involved four factors rather than three.

The start of a new year is a classic time for organisations to take a fresh look at their brands and branding – for a quick health check, light refresh or perhaps the full rebrand workout.

If you are embarking on this process and looking for some simple critique criteria, these basic pointers may be a good place to start. So here they are, rationalised down to three essentials. And in a classic 3 C marketing format.

The three Cs of branding:

Credibility

/ Is it relevant to the values and goals of your company?
/ Is it relevant to target audience?
/ Does it give instant reassurance and trust?
/ Is it in step with today’s world?
/ Does it encourage an emotional connection as well as a rational one?

Consistency

/ Is it executed to a high standard across all applications?
/ Do your people understand your brand and its importance?
/ Is it easily recognisable – look and feel/tone of voice/behaviour?

Competitive

/ Does it stand out?
/ Does it support your USPs?
/ Does it add value?

6 January 2012 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Branding, Design, Milestone

Tags: brand, branding, Rebrand

Value propositions today…

Today, in the ongoing realm of austerity, cuts and general belt tightening, company value propositions are changing. They are increasingly about how brands help deliver more value for less.

Traditionally, the value proposition describes the thing or things that elevate a standard commodity into a must-have brand. When times were good value propositions were often about an amazing service, experience or leading edge design, performance and innovation. They justified a higher price with superior standards.

Tesco has been on the value case for a while with ‘Every little helps’, but here are two recent campaigns built around new value propositions that reflect the current trend:

Sainsbury’s: Live Well for Less.

Kodak: Beautifully Cheap Printing.

Both neatly combine a saving message with positive benefit. Kodak has even embraced the ‘C word’ of value – Cheap. And Sainsbury’s is crediting its new line with a 6.6% rise in profits.

So, it might be time to reconsider your own value proposition: does it communicate real value alongside a big positive customer benefit? If not it might be worth talking to Milestone about our brilliantly cost effective branding services…

9 December 2011 Posted by Ian

Posted in Advertising, Blog, Branding, Marketing

Tags: Kodak, Sainsbury's, value proposition

Branding fish

River Cobbler and chips anyone?

The naming and branding of fish is something that’s intrigued me for many years. It started when I discovered that the old chip shop fave Rock Salmon was actually a type of Dogfish. Of course, our job at Milestone involves the naming and branding of organisations, products, services and events. So who gets to do fish? And how do they come up with such unlikely names?

Fish is good for you, so we should be eating more of it. Right, but they are also a scarce resource so we should be choosy about which ones we go for. Against this backdrop is a new sustainable selection coming to a slab near you:
Basa
River Cobbler
Pangasius
Panga
Vietnamese Catfish
Mekong Catfish

Sounding a bit fishy?

Well, the thing is they’re all the same fish. Latin name: Pangasius Bocourti, it is a type of catfish from the Mekong River in Vietnam. I’ve tried it and it’s OK – firm, white and bland. Just how we like fish in the UK. But I can’t help thinking that the confusion with the naming just leaves a bad taste, so to speak. Brands work best when they are confident and single minded. Like cod or haddock.

So, next time you’ve got a new product to name think fish. And if you can do better than River Cobbler you’re laughing.

2 December 2011 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Branding, Environment, Marketing

Tags: branding, catfish, naming, river cobbler

CorpComms Award Winners

Milestone and RAC were celebrating a win at the Corp Comms Awards this week. We won best corporate publication for the RAC Report on Motoring. It was a great team effort from everyone involved that made it an award winning entry this year. Milestone’s Peter Wilkinson and Paul Napleton from RAC accepted the award from comedian host Alun Cochrane.

25 November 2011 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Events, Milestone

Tags: CorpComms Awards 2011, RAC, Report on Motoring

The future’s electric

If you think electric cars are for tree huggers only, think again. We went along to the RAC’s Future Car Challenge on November 5th. Like a London to Brighton run in reverse, it was a showcase for the latest EVs (electric vehicles) with a finish line in Regent Street. Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud was taking part in a Delta E4 Coupe – just one of a new wave of British electric sports cars. Pictured here is the amazing Lightning GT.

For more information about their range of electric sports cars visit the EEMS Accelerate website.

11 November 2011 Posted by Ian

Posted in Blog, Design, Environment, Events, Marketing

Tags: delta e4 coupe, eems accelerate, electric vehicles, lightning gt, RAC future car challenge