Warning: It’s soap box time… This rant started yesterday morning, I put some washing in the machine, and that’s when the fabric softener caught my eye. I’ve attached the picture. What can you see is wrong? The design? nope – it does what it’s meant to – it portrays fresh, natural… all the things you would want to associate with the product.

No, the thing that got me is the words “essential oils”. “Essential Oils”? When on earth did I miss the point in our evolution that made us reliant on essential oils?! Where did the cave men stop chasing down the odd Sabre Tooth Tiger to cover themselves in essential oils? (Ignoring the whale blubber of ancient fishermen and Eskimos – I don’t think Surf were referring to that when they put it on their bottle).

Oils aren’t essential, in fact very few things are essential in this life. And come to mention it, those ‘modern’ offices that I see being offered by Commercial Agents really aren’t that ‘modern’ at all…

You see, my gripe isn’t about Fabric Conditioner per sé, it’s the absolute diatribe that we all use in order to try and sell things. Words that try to portray something that is not. I feel insulted when I see things that are ‘essential’, ‘modern’, ‘ground-breaking’ or ‘not-to-be-missed’… unless of course they really are.

Having been in the advertising and marketing business for far too many years for my age (ahem), I know that many a time I’ve tried to use a few words that really don’t stack up against the evidence. I’m sure I’ve fallen into that trap when the lack of a true USP or marketing angle has failed. However, I think it’s the sign of the times when a 1980’s office block with mirror windows is described as ‘modern’, and oils in a fabric conditioner can be described as ‘essential’.

Of course, if you look it up,  the definition of ‘essential oils’ is: “An essential oil is a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the “oil of” the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove.”

But when did that happen exactly? Who decided they were to be called ‘essential?’. When it suited the market that needed to promote them. They aren’t essential to anything. If you didn’t have them, you wouldn’t die. Essential water? Yes, essential oils? Total nincompoop.

So often I’m proud to see the work that marketeers put together, promote and produce. Imiganitive, thought-provoking and challenging. However, there are other times when I believe we deserve the reputation of  ’hoodwinking’ society. Capturing them with misleading words and products. And that’s when I’m disappointed. Like a customer who bought a DFS sofa when it wasn’t in a sale…

So my call to arms – for me and anyone else who wants to join in, is to challenge our approach in marketing. Stop relying on phoney words and suggestions. Start coming up with incredible products and communications. Stop coming up with misleading statements and start thinking about what’s best for the consumer. Fill the need.

I’m expecting to make mistakes, a trap of twenty years is a hard one to get out of… and sometimes mabe there will be a fine line (after all you want to grab attention) but none the less it’s got to be worth trying so that I can, once more, be proud to say I work in marketing. ]]> http://www.wowcreative.co.uk/blog/is-it-really-essential-why-marketing-needs-to-think-before-it-speaks/feed http://www.wowcreative.co.uk/blog/don%e2%80%99t-just-join-a-social-network-%e2%80%93-create-one http://www.wowcreative.co.uk/blog/don%e2%80%99t-just-join-a-social-network-%e2%80%93-create-one#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:06:23 +0000 admin http://www.wowcreative.co.uk/blog/?p=174 Social-media is the biggest thing since sliced bread in marketing circles. If the industry gurus are to be believed you need community managers and Facebook fans and you should be tweeting your every move.

However, these sites are great for large numbers, or for retail outlets facing the public, but when it comes to industry specific networks the benefits can seem less advantageous. Hence we’ve recently developed our second industry-specific networking site on behalf of our client, Project Leaders.

Tailored to their own networks, HR Business Network and Finance Business Network

Two years ago we designed and built the HR Business Network – a successful site for top-level HR professionals to network and connect with their peers. The site offers detailed profiles, advice sections, discussions, events and of course, messaging. With over 2000 approved members, all senior figures within the HR industry, the site has been a huge success encouraging industry networking.

The project was deemed so good that Project Leaders asked us to replicate the project for the Finance Sector, and we’ve just rolled out the Finance Business Network.

Current social networks don’t fit all business models, so if social networking isn’t working for you, talk to us about creating a social tool that can get you connected to the right people. It’s often better to be the facilitator and align your business with the heart of the discussion than to join an ocean of ‘me-too’ companies.

I’ve always been keen to question the norm when it comes to business – not just for the sake of it, but because what seems to be standard practice is often proven to be built on weak foundations, or at the very least an out-dated concept.


Flexible working

It all started a few years back we introduced flexible working hours for our team. Nothing new there, except there was only a handful of us at the time and we’re a service based company. Eyebrows were raised by a number of people – how could we possibly deliver a good service to our clients if we weren’t in by 8.30 and there chained to our desks until at least 6.30pm?

The answer was simple. We trusted our staff to take responsibility for dealing with the needs of their clients in a timely manner. And as a team, we ensured that the phones were always manned within ‘normal’ working hours by taking it in turns.

The course wasn’t entirely smooth running – trying new things will always require a few tweaks, but the benefits to our staff and therefore our clients were evident. Happier staff and more creative thinking. As a creative company we don’t always have our best thoughts between 9 and 5.30, some of us are more creative early in the morning or late at night. Some of us have children and want to be there for them when they get home, or in the morning, others just like a lie in!

Challenging the office set up

The change in working hours also had a knock on effect to our office. It’s often been very empty, with two or three people rattling around in a space that could hold 20. A few months ago when we were reviewing the business, one of the team drew our attention to the space we had and how it wasn’t being used. It made us review the current situation – the whole relationship with our business and the office.

We questioned everything, from the management information system, to the time spent ordering toilet rolls (a bugbear within the company!), to the way we work and interact with each other and our clients.

We found 5 main things that was wrong with the current office set up:

1. We pay for space we don’t use: More space encourages the storing of files that aren’t ever really needed, it costs more on rates, bills and upkeep. Our staff are spread across locations and work flexible hours but for most of the time we use about a fifth of the office.
2. Our telecommunications were costing a bomb: BT’s charges for standard line rentals and broadband were astronomical for a company our size. Yet sometimes we needed the four phone lines, 1 fax line, 1 alarm line, two broadband connections. We were paying through the nose for something that we utilised fully for about two days a month.
3. Caught up in upkeep of the office: With standard office leasing agreements we are responsible for the day-to-day running of the office. That may sound like whinging, but actually, any time spent on menial things (air con, broken door handles, leaking taps, parking – the list goes on) takes you away from your core business – the stuff that makes you money, keeps you profitable.
4. Staff don’t always want to be in an office environment: Let’s face it – 60s cement blocks aren’t the most inspiring, corporate cubicles even less so! We’re not Google, unfortunately we don’t have money to spend on making our environment any more exciting than nice desks and comfortable chairs, so the same walls get a little uninspiring. Even for creatives.
5. The best people don’t always live on your doorstep: Being based in one place and requiring all the team to be in that one place limits the staff that you can hire. Swindon is great for business, but not all the top people live in Swindon (yet).

Rethinking the office model

Knowing now that we’ve blindly been walking through the office mire we’ve started to challenge the business model.  We’ve addressed all the issues and we’re making some bold moves. This is what we’ve done to overcome the issues:

Problem: Paying for space we don’t use.
Solution: We’ve down-sized the space to the barest minimum, we’ve recycled so much of our stuff and mulched files that are over two years old. We’re ebaying stuff that still has use and giving to charity the things that can’t be sold. We’ve had to be harsh with ourselves but keeping things for the day they may come in handy again just costs money and 99% of the time won’t get re-used.

We’ve found an office that’s a flexible space (month by month lease), we can have more space if we need it (or less if needs be). It’s got a meeting room that we can hire if we need to (but again, we’re only paying for it when we need it).

Problem: telecoms costing a bomb
Solution: The offices we’ve found has a leased line (a dedicated broadband connection direct to the office) – it gives us upload speeds of 30Mb about 30 times that of the average connection. This means that we can now utilise that connection for voice over internet telecoms (VOIP), so phone calls cost almost nothing. The phone system that comes with the office enables us to programme it over the internet, so if anyone is stuck at home (remember the snow?) they can connect online and forward their calls to their mobiles.

The fax line has also gone online – we get about 4 faxes a month, for which we are paying the line rental, plus the consumables and the cost of the electricity. We’ve found an online solution that sends faxes directly to us as emails – and we can send them from our computers too. The offices are already alarmed and patrolled so now we don’t need the telephone line for monitoring the alarm either.

Problem: Caught up in the upkeep of the office
Solution: The office we’ve picked comes fully managed. The telecoms and IT are all integrated, the shared spaces are all looked after. Toilet roll is no longer our problem! If we have an issues with the phones, the internet, the alarm – it’s all covered. No more waiting in line for BT to answer their customer service line (“press one for mind-numbing pain…”). Parking comes with the office.

Problem: 60s office blocks are uninspiring
Solution: Now we start to get a bit more radical, we’ve set up things so our staff are free to work where they like. If they don’t want to, they don’t have to come into the office everyday. If they feel more creative in a Café, or their lounge or in the local library, they are welcome to work there. The same rules apply as they do for the flexible working – the phones have to be manned and our staff have to be responsible for their clients.

Technology has moved on since we started out, so much of our work is done online, new tools are available allowing us to free ourselves from the confines of the 60s cement block. We found a new online management system that allows us to manage our jobs, our estimates and invoicing, we use an online scheduling system to book in jobs and plan our workload and we’re utilising skype for general chatter and banter.

Problem: Not all the best people live just around the corner
Solution: By taking a lot of our system online we’ve opened up the opportunity to take staff on that aren’t just based within Swindon. We’ve opened up the opportunity to get the best people for a job rather than the best person locally.

In summary

It’s all radical thinking, but we honestly believe that we have to always question standard practice in order to stay lean and ahead of the game. The changes that we’re implementing not only seem to make good business sense they make good financial sense – we’ll be cutting our overheads by a third!

We’re expecting teething problems, I’ll update the blog with how we’re getting on, I’m sure we’ll find that we need to change a few things along the way but those tweaks won’t frighten our focus away from the bigger picture – to create an innovative business that is right for our clients and our staff. I don’t believe that investing in your staff is just about training, it’s about thinking about the way work interacts with life. If you get the balance right, you get a better result all round. Happy clients, happy staff and a profitable business.

We’ll let you know.


Useful reading:

If you’re thinking of doing some radical changes to the office – I’d suggest some of the following as a starting point:

• There’s a great post about ‘distributed offices’ (the name for companies that are spread in different locations) from Toni.org
• There’s information about Pure Offices – a business that seems to be going from strength to strength
• Need an online fax machine with a local number? Try My Fax
• Also information on the management system that we’ve implemented – WorkflowMax –  they’re a great team of people and the service really suits our working practices. There are others from BaseCamp and Get Harvest to name a couple but do a search online and you’ll find something that suits your business.

Flexible working was originally proposed by the Government for parents with children under 16 – where employees could request the option from employers. However, at wow we’ve been operating a flexible working system for over 3 years now.

We introduced it to take the stress and pressure out of the lives of our staff – we also recognised that as a creative team, not everyone is at their most creative stuck in an office all day. We asked ourselves the question –  how can millions of people all be at their most productive between the hours of 9-5.30?

Being a service led company we have to consider that our clients need to contact us but modern technology has helped free the shackles of the conventional office and it’s standard hours. It means that we’re working to the times our bodies works best. As an example, this morning I wrote a brief for the studio at 5.45am – but I’m heading out this afternoon to visit someone at hospital.

The key to making flexible working work for you is communication – good, strong communication, that doesn’t mean your available 24/7 – that’s not what flexible working is. It’s about taking time to rest and enjoy a balanced life. To bring that good feeling to your work, wherever and whenever it best suits you.

There’s a number of online tools that allow you to work anytime and anywhere. We’re just about to put our management information system online using WorkflowMax, we’ve also got an online schedule planner, plus our work server will all be online soon too. Couple that with smart phones, skype and tools that allow you to collaborate online as well and we’re a powerhouse fuelled by flexibility.

Bet you wondered how we’re so darn happy all the time!

Either way we’re finding things are picking up in our business. Is it because there really are ‘green shoots’ or is that we’ve worked really hard on focusing on our core business and stopped faffing around on things that don’t add value? I think it could be a bit of both.

The recession for us has meant a long hard look at our costs and the way we work and we’re in the process of implementing some really lovely and exciting changes, utilising technology to help us work smarter and perform better for our clients. I’m actually left with the feeling that if (or when) the recession is really over (and not just by the 0.00001% growth we’re meant to be experiencing) we’ll be left working on a beautifully efficient, innovative and energised business. That’s really floating my boat.

We’ve just got back from art directing a recent photo shoot for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

For the third year running we’ve been involved in creating the creative concept through their photography which runs as the back bone for their communications for the rest of the year.

The concept was originally developed three years ago after market research showed that their audience wanted to get to know the individuals that make up the orchestra. We scratched the surface and discovered that there are some real personalities within CBSO – all we had to do was show it in the design! That’s when we hit upon the idea of using their interests and their personalities within the photography.

In the first year the members of the orchestra were a bit shy and nervous about being photographed, now they’re volunteering to join in the fun. Over the years, we’ve had pilots, scuba divers, gardeners and the fun of five golden retrievers.

The photography can be seen throughout a number of publications, within their season brochure and general marketing promotions.

Below is a selection of last season’s photos alongside one of the newest shots:

Both Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Enterprise UK have had major rebrands in the last few months and each were looking for a creative team to help reconsider and develop some of their marketing collateral, making the most of the new style.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer needed to implement their new brand across a number of items such as their fundraising support pack. And there was a mad push to ensure that Enterprise UK’s marketing collateral was all ready in time for the Global Entrepreneurship Week.

On top of all that within the last month we’ve been excited to start working with adidas on a couple of major projects. We can’t give you any details as it’s confidential but watch this space for updates as and when we can.