How to get your email campaign across during the festive season

As the potential targets for your latest email marketing campaign are getting ready for Christmas, at work or at home, your online campaign planning is going to have to work harder than ever to get the message across. According to festive advice from the ‘Mailing Manager’ blog, you still need to apply the same rules but this time get them pitch perfect.

An excellently written, punchy subject line becomes even more important as recipients are scanning more quickly than ever with so many Christmas distractions. According to the feature, the ‘from’ line is also important as people are increasingly wary of opening an email from someone they don’t know.

Despite other obstacles such as the usual spam filters, with a little extra effort and work, your marketing message can still get through to potential customers, along with other glad tidings of the season. Read the full feature with all its tips for email marketing managers at http://www.mailingmanager.co.uk/blog/email-marketing-%E2%80%93-christmas-email-deliverability

New publication launched for professional graphic designers

Graphic designers, illustrators, photographers and advertisers – all may be potential audiences for Future Publishing’s new publication – Computer Arts. The magazine is the first one of a planned bi-monthly magazine aimed at the global design industry, launched on the 8th December.

Editor Nick Carson, in an interview on the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) website, says that the magazine will include “Invaluable insights from your fellow designers...to help your own client briefs run more smoothly, while our specially commissioned Trend Report will ensure your studio stays ahead of the curve where it matters." It also has a section guest-edited by a different design studio every issue, looking at the full creative process, whether you are involved in the initial client consultation or final production. The magazine costs £14.99 and is available to order online at Future Publishing. Find out more at http://www.ppa.co.uk/news/industry/future-publishing-launches-computer-arts-collection/

Work locally – think globally. Latest design news from around the world.

Working in the design and creative industries locally doesn’t mean your work is just destined for a local audience. If you need to find out more about how consumers react to design in different cultures and countries, the Center for Cross Cultural Design or XCD is a good place to start.

This US based website is a great online resource that reviews design conferences from around the world, giving an insight into the key design topics discussed by other professional in advertising, graphic design or design management. Over the past year this online design resource has put together interviews and presentations from events such as Access Ability Conference in Toronto “Graphic Design for a more accessible world.”

More recently, the XCD team have just returned from the Taipei World Design Expo with further features on the latest from Taiwan on branding, advertising and interactive design. Save yourself the airfare and see more here. www.centercrosscultural.org

Digital campaigns in the world of publishing – 5 of the best

How do magazine brands ensure they are really engaging with consumers in an interactive digital age? In a feature from the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) website, five leading digital advertising campaigns are showcased where smartphone mobile technology is combined with the strength of established brand platforms.

Such campaigns require the expertise of three types of marketing professionals: the advertising agency, the digital technology specialist and the branding experts – in this case the publishers.

In the AR (augmented reality) campaigns for Hearst Magazines UK, three of their titles had special interactive covers. Harper’s Bazaar, in particular, featured five of the world’s top supermodels coming to life. GQ magazine, from publisher Condé Nast also had an interactive issue with footage from on-set videos, exclusive to the interactive ‘reader’, featuring amongst others - Lara Stone, U2 and Ricky Gervais.

Such digital campaigns are of are of great interest to brand mangers as brand engagement can be measured. Engage here: www.ppa.co.uk/marketing/features/5-innovative-digital-campaigns

Are you cool enough to work in market research?

Is being 'cool' a key element to a career in marketing? According to Research magazine, market research professionals at least need to know how to find out what's cool - or at least what consumers perceive as such.

In his article "The rules of cool', Robert Bain looks into conclusions from a book "How Cool Brands stay hot' by Joeri Van den Bergh and Mattias Behrer. Van den Bergh says, "If there’s one big challenge with the market research industry, it’s to get people motivated to participate in surveys. Surveys are boring and these [Gen Y] guys and girls don’t want boring stuff."

So what do market research agencies need to do in order to engage with these cool consumers who love their brands such as Apple or Converse? Techniques such as crowd interpretation are mentioned although 'the craft skills of research will still be required". See if you're cool enough to work in market research at www.research-live.com

Creative Review - calling for 2012 entries

Let your best advertising and design work reach an even wider audience.

Creative Design magazine is calling for entries for its Creative Review Annual 2012, showcasing outstanding work from the world of visual communications from illustration to graphic design. The winning entries, which need to be any single creative piece or a campaign of work, are published in the May 2012 issue.

This is a real chance to improve your profile with your work seen by more than 200,000 readers of the print or online version of the magazine that covers advertising, design and visual culture.

Although entries are judged in their own right and not in award categories, the judges offer a list of suggested types of creative work that can be considered including online advertising, packaging, digital media, motion graphics and editorial design. The deadline for entry is Mon 12th Dec with full details of how to submit your work at www.creativereview.co.uk/the-annual

Professional PR Advice

It’s often not what you know but who you know.

Get to know some of the experts inthe PR industry by reading their replies to graduates and junior P.R.exe cutives on Guardian Professional’s recent online Q&A session. Marketing and PR professionals answering questions include Emma Radcliffe from Beattie Communications, the UK's largest independent PR agency and Jon Cope, associate dean of the School of Creative Industries at the University for the Creative Arts.

One piece of good advice from Jackie Bates from Richmond Towers Communications advises “strong strategic thinking, excellent writing skills and being able to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders” as essential for a job in PR and most advise building up work experience as soon as possible. Marketing and journalism are all seen as useful starts to a PR career with many transferable skills. Wherever you are in your PR and marketing career take a look at the full interviews at http://careers.guardian.co.uk/pr-careers-advice