Recreating a restaurant brand

The high street restaurant market is a crowded one. Ask Italian is one of the well-known brands battling to attract hungry consumers - in this case with a major brand transformation. In Marketing Week, an interview with marketing director, Catherine Salloux, shows how the process starts with creating a truly distinctive feel and one that portrays a more up-to-date Italian atmosphere. She explains, “All of the inspiration is rooted in Milanese design which is bright, colourful and contemporary. The idea is to break the paradigm of Italian restaurants in England where the design is general Tuscany-inspired dark woods and…Chianti bottles.” As well as restaurant design, the brand makeover includes the food and customer service. To ensure customers are aware of the brand changes, as it rolls out across all the company’s restaurants, Catherine is involved in a multi-layered PR campaign including a cook book project with Great Ormond Street Hospital. For more details on this retail rebranding visit http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/qa-catherine-salloux-ask-italian-marketing-director/4004511.article

The winners at the Campaign Big Awards

Last week saw the annual awards celebrating the ‘best creative advertising that has run in the UK’ at Grosvenor House  in London. The Campaign group says that it ‘endeavours to remain a true reflection of the diverse landscape’ of advertising. Awards were given to winners in a full range of product categories including charity, grocery, sport and financial services. Within each sector each discipline had its own award for areas such as digital, outdoor, press and radio. A winning campaign in one of the film categories was  ‘3 Little Pigs’ by Bartle Bogle Hegarty for The Guardian which was awarded Gold. In the charity sector, Vinnie Jones’ lesson in resuscitation to the sound of the Bee Gees was also awarded Gold – a campaign by Grey London for The British Heart Foundation. To see if some of your favourite campaigns were winners, read the full list at the Campaign website at  http://www.campaignbigawards.com/

Engaging employees with a new brand

A new brand launch needs everyone to be engaged and enthusiastic – including staff at all levels. EE, the new rebranded company bringing together Orange and T-Mobile, started its campaign to engage as many of its staff as possible with a meeting for 15,000 of them at the NEC in Birmingham. An article in Marketing Week describes some of the staff activities at the employee launch:‘a 30-metre sprint race to see if staff could beat the speed of 4G’ and a ‘silent disco to represent the ease of media streaming.’ The new company hopes that the enthusiasm generated will be there on Oct 30^th when the new EE stores open. Employees can then keep in touch on a new purpose-built internal social media network called Splash. For more on how these employee engagement tools are designed to reflect the EE brand values, read the full article at http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/how-ee-hopes-to-make-staff-its-key-marketing-asset/4004263.article

Digital media Q&A– a creative career sector in growth

Social media editors, digital media managers and mobile managers – many job titles in the digital media world didn’t exist a few years ago so keeping up to date is vital. In The Guardian’s series of online Q&A sessions, it was recently the turn of experts and professionals in the digital media sector to give advice. Their own job titles range from freelance digital brand consultant to online editor and digital innovator. Key points discussed included understanding the difference between using digital media – SEO, social media networks and mobile applications – in a strategic context rather than social. The discussion also highlighted that there are a huge range of skills and experiences that could be relevant to a digital role; from journalism and marketing to technical skills such as database management or photography. Whatever your experience, ensure your C.V. tells a coherent story. For the full discussion on the opportunities in this rising career sector read the article at http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/careers-in-digital-media-live-q-a

Market researchers – ten tips to get mobile

Mobile market research opens many doors for market research managers. Audiences can often respond at the point of experience and with permission, even passive browsing and purchase data can be collected. To get the most out of mobile market research, take a minute to read the top ten tips featured on the Research website from the Market Research Society. The advice balances the great potential of customer data uncovered this way with the need for privacy and data protection consideration. It also looks at both the need to design surveys in a completely different way for mobile devices yet urges not be transfixed by the technology itself. Areas highlighted that can now be used in market research include video input, barcode scanning and QR codes. With increasing consumer understanding the technology should be able to facilitate both quick response surveys and longer term projects.  For the complete top ten list read the article at http://www.research-live.com/features/mobile-future/top-ten-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-mobile-market-research/4007907.article

How key brands are working with Google+

The newest kid on the social media block, Google+, is celebrating its first birthday in September. In the latest edition of Marketing Week, its success is reviewed in a number of articles, particularly looking at which brands have started to use it in their strategic or tactical plans. Some of the key brands cited as having found Google+ as a useful tool are The Financial Times, Thomson Holidays, Cadbury and H&M. At Thomson Holidays, managers are using the ‘hangout’ facility to host virtual welcome meeting, allowing customers to engage before they reach the resort. Ian Chapman, Thomson’s director of holiday experiences, says this “helps build up the holiday buzz and positive feeling towards the brand.” He also says though that consumer understanding of Google+ needs to increase before they carry out bigger projects.  For more on how Google+ has fared in its first year read the series of articles here http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/google-a-year-on/4003495.article

Business to business – the importance of social media

Not having mass consumer markets does not mean a business should ignore social media. The business to business sector still needs to communicate regularly with key customers for a range of purposes from tracking key contacts to customer service. A detailed article in Marketing Week magazine review the latest initiatives by companies using social media in a business to business context. Some were initially nervous about conducting more conversations in a more open fashion but many have embraced the possibilities of Twitter, Facebook etc. Xerox now offers training for its employees called ‘social media fundamentals’ to help with customer service initiatives. Social media activity prior to exhibitions and  conferences are also proving popular. Dell Computers streamed content of interviews and events at a recent conference before and during the event. For more on this rising use of social media read the full article at http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/strategies-and-tactics/talking-business-in-social-circles/4002640.article