Grab your eggnog, warm up the mince pies – it’s time for Christmas Charades… and you don’t have to act even if you get it right; we’ve taken care of all that for you! Bag yourself the chance of winning a camera and watch us and our finest acting skills; guess all 10 charades that we’ve prepared for your delight and delectation and we’ll enter you into the prize draw.

No matter who you are or how successful you are in business you learn something new everyday.

So, you know that you know your stuff, after all, you don’t run a successful company for years blagging you’re way through projects and spending clients money on a whim. You’ve worked hard for the client list that you’re proud of.

But then the day comes when you are asked to submit a proposal – to show your abilities. You work hard as a team, you come up with some fantasically creative ideas, within budget and the timings are not an issue. You submit your proposal and wait for the call.

Seems straight forward enough right? WRONG… this falls within the ‘some you win, some you loose’ scenario. You didn’t win, and it hurts. However discovering why you didn’t win can be just as important in terms of experience as the winning for the development and progress of your company.

Asking the client for valid reasons why you weren’t successful can reveal invaluable lessons for your business. And a good marketing manager should always tell you where you didn’t meet their expectations. For example, from the lesson that we recently were given,  our client told us “We loved your ideas but you didn’t explain the process, the chosen agency explained in detail how they would go about making things happen, which proved to us their experience.”We were so excited by our creative solution we didn’t explain how we’d come to that conclusion. We should have been more earnest, given more assurance.

Here at wow! we are constantly being challenged each day with new briefs and projects that we love getting our teeth into. We’ve decided to take our challenging nature and give something back to the community by taking on volunteering projects for charity, that take us a little out of our usual comfort zones!

We feel that getting out and about, meeting new people and taking on new challenges will not only provide vital help to those that need it but will also allow us to broaden our own horizons as individuals and as a group, which can only be a good thing!

Our first challenge is going to take place this Wednesday (6^th October). We’ll be donning our painting clothes and decorating two offices for a great charity called Voluntary Action Swindon. This Swindon based charity offers a provision of services that help voluntary and community organisiations, aiming to improve the capacity and quality of facilities available to these groups. To find out more visit www.vas-swindon.org

We’re hoping that our help will enable an organisation to set up in these offices and give them a much needed base to work from.

We’ll be letting you know how we are getting on throughout the day via Twitter, so please come and follow us to keep updated (www.twitter.com/wowcreative). In the meantime, have a look at these ‘before’ pictures so you can see the task we have ahead!

If you have a challenge that you think we could help with then get in touch!

Hi, Emma here. To those who remember me, I’m back after nearly a year out on maternity and looking forward to working with you again. And to those who don’t know me, I’m still looking forward to working with you.

I’m back at wow! working part-time thanks to an understanding boss who appreciates the importance of a life/work balance.

So what have I’ve been doing for the last year? I’ve been busy taking care of my beautiful baby boy, Connor. Nothing quite prepares you for the hard work that being a Mum is, but it’s definitely worth it! They truly bring sunshine in to your life :0)

So what’s it going to be this year? One of those preorganised, generally lifeless productions that the whole of town end up at, or something that’s a little more personal? Often smaller functions take more time to organise but it’s so worthwhile. This year the wow crew are opting for a good slap up meal and then on for a few bevvies in the local. It’s small, it’s intimate but thank god it’s in our control! Oh and you know you’re always welcome!

Anyone have any suggestions for a good place to head for some food reasonably locally? We’re thinking of hitting Bath or Oxford. Or somewhere on a train line…