Is your Marketing department a happy place?

According to a recent office survey by Mars Drinks UK, marketing and other creative types are the happiest people and most content with their jobs. Which is just as well, as they are in the office for longer, on average working for 45 minutes longer a day than the average office worker.
The survey, discussed in an article on ‘The Drum’ magazine website, asked questions about working habits from emails to office disagreements. According to the article, the average creative employee ‘ receives 31 emails and sends 28, both makes and receives 24 phone calls and drinks an average of three cups of tea or coffee.’ Despite cited irritants such as IT failures and colleagues gossiping, 50% of creative office workers said they were happy in their job with only 6% saying that they hated their role. To see whether you match up to the average, see more details at http://thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/01/23/creative-professionals-work-longest-hours-50-are-happy-their-jobs

Media Awards for South West

If you’re an innovative media or design company in the south west area, including Gloucestershire, you have a few weeks left to enter the Media Innovation Awards 2012. The awards are a joint initiative by the media, design and music clusters across the South West. Locally the Gloucestershire Media Group based in Cheltenham are a part of the initiative, as are the Gloucestershire and Swindon Design networks.

The 16 categories include branding, website design and exhibitions as well as a range of music categories, so many of the wide range of creative industries in the South West can compete. You have until February 28th to enter a project that was completed any time during 2011. The companies showing the ‘most innovative use of media and design’ can then look forward to celebrations at a Gala dinner in the autumn. See full details at the design awards website. ttp://www.mediainnovationawards.com/home.aspx

Marketing Week’s annual salary survey

Many marketing professionals are expecting restructuring in their marketing departments according to the annual salary survey carried out by Marketing Week and Ball and Hoolahan. In total 3,357 marketers took part in the survey from marketing directors to graduate trainees. Their responses covered changes in their departments and their reward packages.

Salary changes varied between market sectors and level of seniority. On average marketing managers saw a 10.7% drop in salary yet marketing directors increased by 4.7% at just below the rate of inflation. Those working in digital marketing or insight and research also did well compared to other areas. The top three sectors for remuneration proved to be the financial services sector followed by retail marketing and those in the FMCG sector. Find out full details on how your sector and salary stands up, read the full article at Marketing Week

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/cover-stories/the-marketing-week/ball-and-hoolahan-salary-survey-2012/3033165.article

Exhibitions in the digital world

How does the value of a trade exhibition stand up in the digital marketing mix? In an interview with Exhibition World magazine, Messe Frankfurt communications director, Kai Hattendorf, talks of digital innovations in exhibition planning management.

Working in the world’s largest trade fair company, Hattendorf sees many new innovations but is also clear about the need for face to face interaction. Although he says less that “less actual trade and fewer deals take place at trade shows” he still sees a need for “a platform for communication and the person-to-person interaction not facilitated through social media or networks.” Digital innovations for trade fairs include smartphone applications accessing exhibitor and product details to plan visits and business appointments. Many fairs also have Facebook pages, forums and virtual venues running alongside the exhibition to continue communication throughout the year. Read more about exhibition life at http://www.exhibitionworld.co.uk/featuredetails/114/advancing-technology-to-enhance-an-exhibition-offering

Are you ready for 2012? Top trends from key marketing agency

Are your marketing messages mobile? Are you engaging with rather than ‘broadcasting’ to customers? And are you being consistent across all communication platforms? In an article on the commpro.biz blog, ‘Top 12 Marketing and PR Trends to watch in 2012’, these are some of the key areas to get right for professional marketing managers and public relations managers in the coming year.

Both the benefits and the pitfalls of the latest marketing trends are highlighted in the list. Social media offers the chance to enhance the customers experience linking different mobile platforms together as well as linking mobile campaigns to more traditional methods such as print advertising and television. Successful marketing campaigns, however, should also always consider the increasing security issues such as spam and phishing. To get your marketing and communications strategy off to a good start in the new year, read the whole article at http://blog.commpro.biz/marketinghq/2011/12/top-12-marketing-and-pr-trends-to-watch-in-2012/