Marketing

Marketing Excellence Awards

Last week I had the pleasure of attending The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Excellence Awards at The Grosvenor House in London. We were finalists in the Automotive category with The RAC Report on Motoring. It was a glitzy venue, good food and great company. And very nice to see our logo up in lights, even though we didn’t win our category.

Hardy’s Petrol Station Chardonnay at £35 a bottle was a bit steep in this ‘age of austerity’. And I do think the CIM should be a tad more innovative in their approach to events. It could have been for any industry and lacked inspiration. Continue reading “Marketing Excellence Awards” »

25 February 2011 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Design, Events, Marketing, Milestone
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A good time for a rebrand?

At Milestone we’ve worked on many rebranding projects from growing companies to household names. For some, a corporate rebrand is prompted by a change of company ownership. For others it’s about refreshing and repositioning the brand to differentiate and grow the business.

Whatever the motivation, we’re anticipating an increase in the number of organisations considering their rebranding options in the near future. And it needn’t be hell. Continue reading “A good time for a rebrand?” »

21 January 2011 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Branding, Design, Marketing
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A guide to New Year’s Resolutions

For those of us considering cutting out cakes, putting the lid on mid-week boozing or promising to spend more time with our families and friends in 2011, here’s a quick guide:

Continue reading “A guide to New Year’s Resolutions” »

6 January 2011 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Branding, Design, Marketing, Technology
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Cracking the QR Code

Have you tried using QR codes? Not only do they look intriguing but they offer endless new marketing opportunities. If you haven’t seen them yet – look out – they are cropping up on posters, packaging and TV ads and will be coming to a store near you very soon.

Milestone QR Code

Continue reading “Cracking the QR Code” »

10 December 2010 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Branding, Design, Events, Marketing
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Five best ways to ruin a re-brand

I think it’s quite sad that the big design story this week is about Gap’s u-turn on its dreadful new logo, launched in the USA. Sad, because I can’t believe anyone approved it in the first place. Also sad because it’s another high profile branding exercise gone wrong.

With this in mind here’s our five best ways to ruin a re-brand:

Continue reading “Five best ways to ruin a re-brand” »

15 October 2010 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Branding, Design, Marketing, Milestone
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RAC Drive-in Movies

Pull up in your car at a country park venue, grab a gourmet burger, fries, drink, popcorn. Pick up some fantastic RAC freebies while someone cleans your car. Then switch off, sit back and watch a movie. Not bad for £15 a car or even £30 if you’re a non-member.

On Wednesday night a gang from Milestone went to see Grease at Alexandra Palace on the RAC Drive-in Movie staff night. And it was great fun. This series of events is a concept we came up with for RAC back in December ’09. And now it’s happening – delivering the most amazing brand experience for those lucky enough to get a ticket.

It’s a truly integrated marketing campaign featuring events, competitions, radio, PR, social media, web, press and more. If you’ve missed it this year, let’s hope they run it again next summer. It’s worth joining RAC for this alone!

RAC Drive In Movie

13 August 2010 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Events, Marketing, Milestone
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Boulles up!

The annual Milestone Beer and Boulles evening was hastily scheduled in this year to take advantage of the rare balmy evenings (one year we played in the rain!) Held at the Royal Oak Pub near Marlow, which has a magnificent flood-lit petanque court. I’m not sure the exact difference between Boulle and Petanque but I believe it’s something to do with the number of balls you’re chucking.

There’s not many sports that everyone can compete at on the same unlevel playing field but this is one of them. Richard Collins was the overall winner with a consistent display of jack-touching accuracy. But we all had good fun. And good food. The only problem – we finished all the Rebellion Beer!

9 July 2010 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Design, Events, Marketing, Milestone
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Crowd pleaser

Someone sent me a free ticket to this year’s IPEX (International Printing Exhibition) at The NEC. I hadn’t been for years, so I thought I’d take a look to see what’s new in the world of printing. Driving into the NEC I was immediately intrigued by these cut-out crowds, randomly placed outside the halls. With no obvious branding, I scoured the massive exhibition for their source. It turned out to be Agfa, who’d run them straight onto foamex using their latest flatbed digital press. Coincidentally Jeni from Milestone’s Dad was on the stand and he kindly gave me a demo. It was certainly one of the most interesting things I saw and a clever way to subvert the whole trade show thing.

Agfa promotion at IPEX

26 May 2010 Posted by Ian
Posted in Blog, Marketing
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