Keep The Noise Down

Runners-up Award for Best International Campaign at the B2B Marketing Awards '10

On Thursday night I attended the B2B Marketing Awards 2010.  Myself and Mike Crossman were delighted to be invited as guests to this event by Kate Bresnan, Digital Marketing Manager at Colt. We (Colt and EMC Consulting) were shortlisted in the category of Best International Campaign for the campaign ‘Choosing to Turn Left’. 

It was a great night, bringing together 700 people, to celebrate some of the best B2B Marketing of the last 12 months.  Ego’s were left at home, and it was a fantastic atmosphere, with everyone there certainly getting in to the party spirit.  Tim Minchin hosted the event in his unique style, ending his initial routine with a poignant song about children!!! Wonderful stuff.

438 Marketing were the winners in the Best International category for their campaign for TNT Express. Colt & EMC Consulting received a well-deserved runners-up award for the ‘Choosing to Turn Left’ campaign.

Choosing to Turn Left

Colt was not particularly well-known by  SMEs throughout Europe.  Brand awareness, as  well as number and quality of leads, needed to be boosted.  The campaign included a web site that made it easy for businesses across Europe to research and select products online and choose their preferred way to contact Colt.  Colt engaged EMC Consulting and we worked with them to deliver a portal to engage customer primarily through the online channel, and to dramatically increase the number & quality of leads and drive higher conversion rates through better qualification

Colt fully understood the value of our user-centric design approach, and we went on a 6-month journey with them, putting their customer firmly at the centre of all the design decisions.  The resulting campaign was extremely successful.  Average  weekly visits to the site touched 6000, dwell time was an impressive 3 minutes, 18 seconds and 25,000 online enquiries were generated.   

Carl Robertson, chief marketing officer at Colt, said “The ‘Choosing to Turn Left’ campaign was a pan-European integrated campaign that catapulted Colt in to the new age of digital marketing.  It was delivered in a record 6 months, and exceeded all expectations in terms of leads and wins.  It is a shining example of a dedicated team working together and staying focused on results.”

The project was delivered in 6 months, and as part of the team I was witness to the blood, sweat and tears that a dedicated team, both EMC Consulting and Colt,  put in to this project.  It was fantastic work delivered by all involved and given the hard work put in to this by a very dedicated team it was all the more appreciated when it received the deserved recognition.

 

Credit: some of the content was ‘borrowed’ from the official B2B Awards Supplement.

A round-up of news, sites and humour from the last few days.

Social Media

Astroturfing is rampant on Twitter

If you don’t already know this term, well, it refers to imitating or faking popular grassroots opinion or behaviour.  Researchers have found evidence that  political campaigns and special-interest groups are using fake Twitter accounts to give the impression of a vast political movement.

 

User Experience

What do UX professionals have in common? (interactive card sort)

C’mon all professionals working in the field of User Experience…this interactive card sort lets you sort your skills and specialist areas, to provide insight in to what User Experience Professionals have in common.

 

Do Photos of People Improve Ecommerce Conversion?

Do “friendly faces and culturally appropriate colors” increase conversion?  It appears they can, but most importantly take the time to understand what works for your target audience…

 

Expedia on how one extra data field can cost $12m

I’m puzzled to how this happened.  Yes, statistical analysis helped to root out why customers who clicked the 'Buy Now' button did not complete the transaction.  But is this something testing should have flagged up?

 

Education & Careers 

Technology enhances learning (infograph)

How effective are different forms of education materials.  The Teachers response to this are shown in this infograph.

 

Course in Lady Gaga offered at US university

What is happening to education?  Students at a US university are being offered a course in the pop singer Lady Gaga.

 

Get a Job Through YouTube

Is there anything more personal to a job application than a video? It beats paper hands down so no surprise that people are turning to YouTube as a creative way to go get hired.

 

Fun (and educational)

Keep obsolete and unusual words alive

We’re having great fun in our Interactive Media team adopting obsolete and unusual words from the Oxford English Dictionary's interactive words wall.  It’s a concept that's screaming out to be more social, but still plenty of fun to be had.

 

eCommerce

High fashion stoops to e-commerce to find new markets (video)

Many luxury brands are nervous about the Internet, worrying an online presence will dilute the sense of exclusivity. Are we turning a corner as big players are beginning to sell high-end items online?

 

Technology

Apple is shifting black iPhones by the million, but for some reason it can't even manufacture the white variety, let alone sell it

Back in June at the unveiling of the iPhone 4, CEO Steve Jobs announced two models: one black, one white. The white phone has failed to make it to market.  Why are the white models more challenging to manufacture?

Given the choice, would you prefer the black or white model?

C'mon joblers, adopt a word...

We’re having great fun in our Interactive Media team adopting obsolete and unusual words from the Oxford English Dictionary's interactive words wall, an online campaign that has been around for some time.

In their own words ‘Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language.  Old words, wise words, hard-working words.  Words that once led meaningful lives now lie unused, unloved and unwanted. “

You have the opportunity to save these words.

To save them you need to “find room for them again in conversation and written communication. Each time you use one of these words, you are keeping it alive in the English language”

So go adopt-a-word from www.savethewords.org

This is a fantastic and engaging concept which has had our team adopting words such as frutescent, jobler and mingent.  Expect to see these words find their way in to our team’s conversations.

The one criticism is that this concept promises so much but fails to deliver a more social experience.  My inbox is full of conversations on who adopted which word and crazily constructed sentences which use one or multiple newly adopted words; the words have even found their way in to a colleague’s birthday card. If only the concept had integrated social tools to support such social activity. It's frustrating that I can’t even copy & paste the fantastic descriptions in to Twitter as it’s all in Flash! 

Imagine how viral it could have been - gees, the fact it's been around for nearly 2 years and we've only just stumbled upon it speaks volumes. 

A great idea which should have been even better. 

'Real' Running Tips

As someone who is new to the running game, going from couch potato to a diehard runner has taught me these valuable and ‘real’ running tips:

Thinking time 

Mental performance improves when you’re active, and running is a fantastic time to generate oodles of ideas. The risk is that once you’ve warmed down and enjoyed a relaxing shower, those ideas will have escaped.  Therefore scribble those ideas down as soon as you’re run is over otherwise you’ll soon forget them.  I keep pen and paper by the door so as soon as I’m done running I scribble any thoughts down.  I’m still on the look for a voice recording mind mapping device of sorts to capture any ideas as I have while on the go.

Location, location, location

Running in the forest rocks, but if you’re dodgy at finding your way along those forest paths then have some GVS device to hand otherwise a 5 mile run soon becomes a 10 mile one.  If you get lost, a device such as the Garmin 405CX will help you find you way home.

Pacing yourself

GPS tools help you keep track of pace, but music is a fantastic means to maintain a target pace.  Pick your music carefully – different genres and tempos for different runs. I plod to hip hop (90 bpm), canter to tech house (around 130 bpm), and do my best interval training to punk!

Don’t be distracted

It’s common to pick up the pace as you run past attractive passer-by’s so  a run that’s rich in pretties can cause you to run out of juice by picking up a pace you can’t sustain.  So let your ego go and don’t get distracted.

Do your research

Running partners are vital for inspiration and motivation when your energy runs low. Do your research before selecting a running partner.  Some folk boast they’re fast but turn out to be plodders, and other are modest and say they’re ‘OK’ but then you find yourself killing yourself to keep up with them.

Don’t stop running when Summer is over

Running cross-country is the most fun. However, the rain brings several lessons:

• There’s an art to looking proud when  you slip over in the mud - I haven’t mastered that yet.
• Your new trainers will get trashed at some point, so don’t be precious about getting them dirty.

 Don’t go running without your common sense!

• Running with a backpack is good training.  I use it when camping in the countryside to run to the local village and pick up the morning breakfast.  However, load your backpack carefully with items that can survive a pounding.  You may think you glide smoothly when you run but the nectarines will say otherwise!
• If you nip for a pee behind a tree then check all directions. If your chosen tree backs on to a cycle path then be prepared for whoops and holla’s when a cycle school rides past.
• Not everyone is pleased to see you.  Don’t wave at Hells Angels! It’s not cool for them to wave back, especially not at people engaging in sporting activities