Exhibition marketing lecture at London Met

Today, Monday 10th November, Clear Focus’ own Charles Fenoughty delivered a lecture to the Events Marketing Management Masters degree students at London Metropolitan University.

The lecture was entitled Traditional and Digital Marketing Methods for Events and Exhibitions. In his presentation Charles described the various financial models for an event, the classification of audience types, establishing a budget and the options available to a modern marketing manager.

Invited by the head of the course to bring practical experience to the students we saw it as an excellent opportunity to engage between business and academia.

The talk was well received and might well be the first of many.

“Thank you. Your presentation today rounded off the content of this semesters' studies, and provided an interesting grounding for studies next semester.“

Justin Lance, Academic Leader - TSCI Course Cluster Leader

Our Psychic Family

Our Psychic Family – TV documentary

A new six part TV series for the Biography Channel (Sky 156) is centred on one of our clients, Craig Hamilton-Parker and his family. From Craig’s and his wife Jane’s position as international famous and respected psychics the series follows the brood as they exercise – or in indeed exorcise – their powers candidly in full view of the cameras.

More kooky than the Addams family and more functional than the Osbournes, Our Psychic Family also shows the every day lives of an extra-ordinary family.

The first episode “The Psychic's Apprentice” airs on Thursday 20th November at 9pm and features the search for an apprentice to Craig and Jane.

A full episode guide can be seen here: www.electricsky.com/catalogue_detail.aspx?program=2114

When the going gets tough the tough get marketing

THINKTHINK

When the going gets tough the tough get marketing

“There’s no easy money to be made unless you’re prepared to leave town.”

If you listen very carefully, perhaps in the dead of night, you can hear a strange leathery, creaky, tinkling noise. You will hear it louder near estate agents, banks and financial institutions and it will be almost deafening the closer you get to the Square Mile, which is the City of London. It is, in fact, the sound of many stout belts being tightened. Actually I was making that bit up about being able to hear them; these belts aren’t really making a noise – they are metaphorical, of course, or in modern jargon, perhaps they are virtual belts, either way they don’t exist But, if you rely on the popular media as your news source, you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. You might also believe that there were purse-strings that needed tightening and shoe-strings to be lived upon.

In fact not since the Second World War has there been so much scaremongering, entreaty to thriftiness and make do and mend. Buy all your clothes in charity shops, have your boots repaired instead of getting new ones, do all your shopping at the cash and carry, turn down the heating, batten down the hatches – there are tough times ahead. Before long we’ll all be living on spam and powdered egg and there’ll be a man in the pub with a dodgy moustache offering you some nylons and a length of parachute silk, no questions asked.

All this doom-saying by the media would have a slightly comic edge if it wasn’t becoming a downward spiral of self-fulfilling prophesy. And it is hard not to be sucked in, whatever the reality of your own business. The overwhelming message is ‘if you’re not feeling the pinch now, just wait, you will.’ But is this really the case?

There are many who are not convinced. ThinkThink is not in the business of being an economic analyst but there are plenty of people out there with bigger financial brains who are prepared to say that yes, there are those who will be caught by the economic downturn, however, they may have already been heading that way. ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’ – in other words if you were riding very high you have a long way to come down. If, however, you were cruising at a reasonable height you are unlikely to be so badly hit. Banks, estate agents, hedge fund managers and the like are in for a rough time but the rest of us need not buy into the prophesying. We can ThinkThink ahead and look at the reality of our situation and – this is the best bit– actually come out of the so-called recession in a stronger and more powerful position than when it all began. How? By marketing, that’s how.

You may be thinking in the words of Mandy Rice-Davis ‘He would say that wouldn’t he’. After all my friends at Clear Focus are in the business of design and marketing so we may have an axe to grind. But what we say is backed up by hard facts. If you advertise correctly during a recession you will not only increase your market share during that period you will be ahead of your market when the dust has settled.

“When other companies simply battened down the hatches, seeing only risk during the recession, the more successful competitors found opportunity and pressed their advantage… “ [ Source The McKinsey study; an independent report, that studied nearly 1,000 companies over an 18-year period (1982–99) including the US recession of 1990 to 1991,which showed that companies who increased their spend in a recession were the only ones whose profits rose substantially when the economy recovered.]

The Financial Times is at present running a campaign that reads ‘Global downturn; what’s the first mistake most businesses make?’ The FT’s marketing director Frances Brindle, says the campaign “…supports the argument that cutting back on advertising spend in recessionary or turbulent times hands a significant advantage to your competitors. There is considerable evidence to suggest that companies that continue to invest in advertising in tough times emerge stronger than those that don't."

The people at McKinsey and the FT aren’t the only analysts to have studied the effect of a recession or economic downturn on various businesses. Professor Patrick Barwise of the London Business School conducted an extensive review of the evidence about different advertising strategies in recessionary times. He advocates three positive strategies for coping in a recession:

1. Look for new creative, targeting or media opportunities. Slower market conditions can create new possibilities.


2. Strengthen your market position against weaker rivals, through your marketing strategy.


3. Keep going. The advantages of maintaining or increasing marketing effort are greater than the short-term benefits of reducing spend. Maintaining or growing ‘share of mind’ is much less expensive than trying to rebuild it later on.

The last of these three is most pertinent to the mind-set of many business-owners. The panic-inducing economic statistics (many of which are incomprehensible to even the keenest brains) will have many executives in charge of advertising budgets reaching for the phone to cancel the campaign they were about to run. ‘Let’s put it on the back burner’, they will say. But this is a big mistake. If you are brave enough to pick up that phone and call the marketing agency and say ‘Right, what can you do for us to make sure the business grows over the next year’ you will already be ahead of the competition. If you spend money (wisely) on advertising when others are tightening their virtual belts then they (and the consumers) will wonder what edge you have and what you know that the others don’t.

If this sounds like psychology then we put our hands up – it is, but then who said that advertising wasn’t a psychological science that relies on skilled designers and copywriters to make it work. And this is very important; when you are advertising in a recession you need to do it right. At Clear Focus they know you always need to get it right and that is what they do; but there is no time when this is more important than right now.

In this internet age when even your granny has her own blog, we have been lulled into thinking that everyone can write – good grief every footballer and his wife has a book out, how hard can it be? The truth is that writing for advertising can be very hard indeed and unless you know exactly what you are doing you might as well get your granny to write it for you because it will have the same effect. You need hard, edgy, tight copy that is set against strong, focussed design. You are going to get people to spend money they are being told they don’t have – you have to get it right. Bad design and weak copywriting will elicit little or no response but a well thought-out campaign run by professionals will more than pay for itself.

Companies must show the consumer that they are stable enough to withstand hard times, it is this feeling of confidence that will give your business the edge and make it stand out because the competition will be hiding under their desks waiting for it all to go away. You will become the market leader because you look like a market leader, your slick and well-thought out campaign will convince the consumer that you must be ahead of the competition because you have such high visibility.

And there is more than one advantage to advertising in a recession – not only will you stand out from the competition but you will pay less for the space than you would do at normal times. A good agency will be able to negotiate rates that will mean you get a lot more for your money at a time when you can stand out and make a much bigger impact.

Clear Focus Design and Marketing is an agency with the talent and experience to help your business to succeed. They employ talented designers and copywriters who will think, research, plan and act. Can you afford to be without them?

Give them a call today on 0845 225 0325 and see how they can help you succeed in trying times.

UKIBC

UK India Business Council first annual summit

September 1st saw the first annual summit of the UK India Business Council, held at the Mermaid Conference Centre, London. The event which concluded with a gala dinner was a resounding success, well attended and much praised for its running and its appearance.

For our part Clear Focus was there on the day in force, with Barry covering the event for press, Charles roped in at the last minute to run the day’s AV elements and Tom participating in the event itself.

We were responsible for all of the creative aspects of the day, including the stage presentations, the stage design (although not the manufacture) and all of the marketing material, including their website. http://www.ukibcsummit.com/

Soon to be posted online will be video highlights.

Evict a Tenant live

The website for Evict a Tenant, a fixed rate service for landlords has now gone live and we will shortly proceed with a full online and offline marketing campaign.

Owned an run by Lawson George solicitors, the site is a way for landlords to know exactly what they are getting themselves into with tenant issues. With most landlords agreeing that they need solicitors but are always afraid of how expensive things will turn out to be, a fixed fee service offers clarity and piece of mind, as well as being very affordable.

For more information see http://www.evictatenant.co.uk/

Clear Focus in China

Charles Fenoughty has just returned from China representing Clear Focus at the Dragon Design Festival in Dalian. We were invited by The Guanghua Foundation as part of a UK delegation put together by Dr Zhen Ye of the University of Hertfordshire and Xiamen University.

The Dragon Design Festival was part of the Chinocs 2008 programme of events and was a large trade show ranging across all design disciplines.

Speaking at a major roundtable discussion on design in China – a meeting which brought together several heads of industry, including Xio Yong

the designer of the Olympic medal for 2008 – Charles put forward to opinion that design in China and the UK aren’t as different as so many people say. Highlighting the cyclical nature of influence and dispelling the myth that we are more developed in the UK for design, after all China had printing 1000 years before us. For both countries there’s as much inspiration looking backwards as there is forwards.

Many interesting meetings were had in Dalian and as a result we’ll be looking to do more in China, so watch this space.

BETT

BETT CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY

With the BETT show in January efforts the visitor campaign has now begun in full. The creative concepts are finished, the advertising has started and the direct mail tickets are going to print as we write this piece.

The show is an educational technology show owned and run by EMAP. It will be help at the Kensington Olympia, 14-17 January 2009.

For more information see http://www.bettshow.com/

Keeping it brief or To brief or not to brief

THINKTHINK

Keeping it brief or To brief or not to brief

So you’ve had this great idea. It absolutely cannot fail, You are going to reach a trillion customers by the end of the year. You’ve got the okay from the board, now all you need to do is get those chaps in from the marketing agency, tell it like it is and ask them to get on with it. Do that design stuff and make sure the customers buy it.

No problemo. That Bugatti is practically in the garage.

But hold on. One of those designers from the agency is on the phone about a ‘creative brief’. Says it would help the design team no end if they had a bit more information. Honestly. They’re the arty ones. Can’t they work it out from the notes you scribbled on the back of that menu? Oh right, they can work it out, but would we like them to write this brief thing for us and make sure they are going to cover all the points? Splendid. That sounds marvellous

But whilst they are on ask them exactly what a creative brief is and do we really need one.

The above scenario is a fiction but it isn’t entirely beyond belief and you can see how it happens. You have a product and you understand absolutely everything about it, down to the last widget. You have been sleeping and eating this idea for so long you know it backwards. And now you have to hand it over to a bunch of design and marketing specialists you hardly know for them to work out how to make the best of it.

So once ThinkThink had begun to consider this it seemed but a short step to start investigating the concept of a design brief and how important (or not) it would be to start a project without one.

Let’s think it through for a minute. You have presented the product to your design and marketing agents, given them some really pretty pictures or graphics and of course the name. You have explained very little more.

Now designers are arty, imaginative and creative. Where we see a colour they see a whole rainbow, when we see black and white they have a kaleidoscope of shades in their head. Designers are rarely made, they are born. They just have it.

But before we get carried away with the whole idea of art for art’s sake let us remember that these designers are professionals. These people aren’t designing for themselves or because it looks pretty, this is commercial design. Commercial design is something that grew out of a need for skilled individuals who could present products and environments in a way that would appeal to people.

Without the commercial element design is simply art. Beautiful, of course, but of no particular use other than to adorn the waiting room wall.

You would expect artists to know about shape, form and colour and yes, that is going to be very useful in selling this marvellous product. But it won’t be enough. Not unless you give these artists some direction, it won’t. You’ll get something visually superb from your photos and graphics; something that the MD can talk about over dinner for years to come, but you won’t sell a bean. Not unless you link the flair and creativity of the design element with the whole purpose of the campaign. And that is where the brief comes in. If you can channel these arty types and inspire them to use their skill to place your product in the most dynamic and appealing light and surroundings, then you will really see some results.

So let’s go back to our initial scenario. Let’s revisit this go-getter with the great idea and see what would happen if he decided to ‘wing it’ and just leave the brief at a name and some shots (no not Tequila, photos).

Let’s suppose that his product is linked in some way to people of pensionable age; it might be a financial product, a health plan say or some sort of investment. Anyway it’s quite a ‘serious’ product. It has to be bought before the end of the tax year for it to be any use, it can only be bought by people who fulfil certain age and health criteria and the company has authorised a budget of £1m.

Now in the way of all good game shows, we know all that information but the design team does not. It knows that the product is financial in some way, but the brief is so woolly that it has no real idea of its client’s target audience – where they live, work, shop; whether they watch TV, read newspapers, magazines, surf the net, have children or pets, drive a car, ride a bike, go on holiday…You get the picture. They know nothing. Zilch. Nada.

So what? Says laddo after a large lunch. You’ve got the graphics. Just Get On With It.

So our designing friends do as they are told. They decide to take a sort of ‘mean’ age group – 30 sounds good; then they make up the rest of the information about the target audience until they have built up a picture of the sort of person they think they should be appealing to.

They’re wrong of course and they are so fundamentally wrong that it is downhill from here on in. But let’s follow them anyway, because it’s not their fault.

The design agency people are now trying to decide what sort of a campaign their clients would like (and can afford). Are we talking brochures, flyers, TV ads, celebrity endorsement, a radio campaign, newspapers, glossies, a conference, exhibition material, internet ads, a website…? Can anyone read how many noughts there are supposed to be on that budget figure on the back of the menu? There’s a stain of what? Has anyone from the client’s company returned our calls? No. But they’ve sent an email saying ‘is it ready yet?’

You get the picture. Mayhem.

Someone has to take a decision. So a 20-page glossy brochure is designed. In it there are gorgeous photos of thirty-somethings frolicking in meadows, skiing, swimming and partying. It’s got a jokey, comic font and cartoon figures feature quite heavily.

And it’s handed over to the writers.

If we thought the designers were in trouble that was nothing. Writers are a very difficult bunch and they are very precise. They can spot a greengrocer’s apostrophe in a heavy fog and need a lie down if they see one. They like facts, facts and a few more facts. Let’s remember again that these are not arty writers of short stories or novelettes, these are commercial writers, copywriters, in fact. Their skills lie in being able to draw out the most important and appealing aspect of a client’s campaign and write it in such a way that it hits you in the face and sells itself. They eat and sleep headlines, slogans and bullet points and can remember the words from ad campaigns when they were nine years old. And they can turn 1500 words of rambling, turgid facts into 200 words of tight and punchy prose. But they can’t do much with a few vague scribbles on the back of a menu. As well as the obvious product profile, without which they can do nothing, they need to know their target audience, how to pitch the prose – should it be jokey or serious, heavy on facts or easy to read. Are they appealing to readers of Hello! Magazine or the Financial Times?

The copywriters are given the ‘visuals’ (brochure) by the designers plus the client’s instructions and are told to go away and not come back until it is done.

Now these are real professionals so unlike we mortals they can get the gist of what the product is about from the menu - but they aren’t psychic. So they don’t get the time limit tie-in to the tax year and there’s a 55 that looks like a 65 and that changes all the figures. And so on, and so forth. It’s a mess.

Now Laddo has spent the morning browsing the internet looking at infinity pools for his villa in Portugal. He’s got the big one in the bag and he’s as happy as the proverbial pig. So he’s a bit miffed to get a call on his mobile over a very nice lunch with his broker telling him to get to the boardroom. Pronto. It’s a bad line but it sounded like someone’s briefs weren’t up to scratch. Surely this is a matter for Human Resources.

Laddo is history by tea-time.

The long-suffering design agency people are asked to come and see the new head of marketing. They are briefed with time limits, budgets, target audiences and goals. The company love the campaign. It’s a runaway success.

ThinkThink has decided that good design is an investment not a cost. But it can only work if you get the brief right. My friends at Clear Focus believe that so much that they will even write the brief for you – they are good like that.

With Clear Focus, your marketing is measurable, profitable and provocative. Call us now on 0845 225 0325 or click
here and we’ll call you back.

An impromptu at the China design seminar

Designernapped’ right after lunch, the afternoon ‘wish I could have a kip’ was filled with a roundtable for heads of business from all sectors of Chinese industrial design to discuss with us – the nominated four UK representatives – what we thought about and how we could see the future of design in a more eco-directed post Olympic China.

Not aware of this and slightly blindsided I made a quick speech about the origins of a green revolution which is from the people for the planet and not the other way around. Hoping that designers wouldn’t preach our message to an unwilling audience but would engage with media and use a process of creation that looked into the past – embracing a long history and rich culture – as much as it looked forward. The goal, to create products, marketing and design solutions to help people – all the people.

The session was congenial and ended nicely with meeting the participants, interestingly – the head designer of the Beijing Olympics who chaired the session and then a designer/lecturer who did the gold meddle this time round – if anyone’s interested Mr Xiao Yong is going to guest lecture at Central Saint Martin’s next term, a great chap to meet.

Following the forum, hoping for a rest we were given a 5 minute warning to be in the lobby for dinner – at 16.45 this could be worrying, but presuming a long journey we all made the deadline.

Dinner was an amazing banquet hosted by local dignitaries with a few welcoming speeches and much toasting. The eating is sociable, congenial and above all varied, the sea cucumber (I am sure we called it sea slug but hey) tasted much much better than it looked. And the Abalone rightfully has its place as the most splendid of sea delicacies.

The post dinner reception was in another hotel location, a mere short walk guided by a delightful group of umberella-ella, wielding girls and guys, to a red carpet entry and a huge hall for a gala celebration. They certainly know how to impress a few designers, that’s for sure.

Speculation of course moved on to how we would handle the games come 2012, I wonder will we pay host to out guest as graciously?

More tomorrow….

Dragon Design Festival china

I think perhaps a better title for this entry would be:

We need more brochures! But that seems to be the way here.

After a long day – 25 hours in fact – travelling and then a clear day doing not much apart from walking around the city soaking up the culture, graphics, smell and delightful lack of street advertising the main event started.

Well there was a 3 hour set up for the stand at Dragon Design Festival - the annual design festival held in china with the mission of promoting industrial (that’s graphic and product to us) design in china. but this was down whilst the other members of the UK delegation were derelict of their duty in the local pub – Bavarian themed, of all things!

So first day of the festival the Clear Focus exhibition stand was well prepared with bilingual designs and brochures – thank you Pauline Weng for your translations – but nothing would prepare me for the sheer onslaught of interest we were subjected to. From 9.30 for the next two hours the stand was engulfed in a swarm of brochure hunters, voraciously consuming every element of design we had to offer.

Taking photos of our posters, asking for photos in front of the giant logo on the pop up stand and requesting business cards. Curiously and almost the opposite of meeting people in the UK, I ma now very used to exchanging cards with person two whilst hardly breaking conversation from person one.

Meeting a huge variety of wonderful and interesting characters, from local students to national leaders in their field, all of whom were equally interested in learning anything they could about how design in the UK differs from their city and their country.

In between meeting and topping up the literature stand I managed to slip off for a cheeky photo with one of the two Olympic torches, larger than it seemed on TV that’s for sure.

But the most heart warming element was the endless photography of the posters though – what greater flattery is there for a creative and marketing company than other designers seeking inspiration from our own work!

Thank you Guang Hua foundation for inviting us to your country and your festival, there’s days two and three plus the forum yet to go.

We’re gonna need more brochures (sorry Barry, I know as head of client marketing you’d soundly tell off anyone for running out of marketing material). But as Geoff McCormick of Alloy put it when I asked him – it gets too expensive to produce that many brochures. Interest from China is enormous.

China conference a resounding success

Creative exchange with China conference

Run by the University of the Arts London and the London Business School's "Centre for Creative Business" with design and marketing by Clear Focus Design and Marekting http://www.clearfocusdesign.com/

About the conference

The conference held on March 13th, aimed to help creative businesses from both China and Britain to get to know each other before exploring the business potentials of the rising industry. 200 creative entrepreneurs, creative business managers and executives, policy makers, practitioners academics and researchers were in attendance.

Michael Bichard, rector of the University of the Arts London, said in his keynote speech that “If we remain isolated, we would not be able to achieve our creative goals of building global brands. To make collaborations effective, it takes much deeper look into the respective industries instead of superficial one" he said.

Bichard, who is also chair of Design Council UK, hopes that Design Council would cooperate with China not only academically, “but across the business to develop tomorrow's creative industry. It is not just about money, it's about understanding. The Olympics is a strong link between Beijing and London. two countries together can achieve great things."

Wang Yongzhang, director general of cultural industries at China's Ministry of Culture, elaborated on China's policy improvement on the cultural industry over the years to serve as a backgrounder to the audience and representatives from British and Chinese creative companies also shared information about their experience in China during panel sessions.

The afternoon session dwelled on three topics with participants discussing ‘Investing in China’, ‘Investing in the UK’ and ‘Managing Creativity in China’.

The one-day conference was sponsored by the Centre for Creative Business, University of the Arts London and London Business School, is part of China Now, a six-month celebration of Chinese cultural and history across Britain.

Clear Focus Design and Marketing

If you are interesting in talking to us about marketing, advertising or design please pick up the phone, we're here to help and happy to talk - 0845 225 0325 or email info@clearfocusdesign.com, to see some work examples: www.clearfocusdesign.com/our-graphic-design-marketing-portfolio.html

Another Creative Conference

Announcing the Creative Exchange with China Conference
http://www.creativeexchangechina.com/

Run by Creative Centre for Business a joint venture between The University of the Arts London and the London Business School.

After a three way pitch Clear Focus Design and Marketing (http://www.clearfocusdesign.com)/ were appointed the contract for the design and PR for this prestigious event associated with some top names.

• The University of the Arts
• The Centre for Creative Business
• The London Business School
• The Southbank Centre
• Think London and
• The London Development Agency

We were awarded the job to create the branding for the event and the on the day branding, design and build the website, write and design all amrketing pieces and run the press campaign.

We're very pleased to be working in such good company and look forward to delivering some top quality pieces.

---

Announcing the Creative Exchange with China conference for UK creative industries.

The conference will be held on Thursday 13th March 2008 at the Purcell Room, and Royal Festival Hall at London’s South Bank Centre. The event is a joint venture between Europe's premier creative university, The University of the Arts London and Europe's leading business school, London Business School, under the Centre for Creative Business banner.

This is a new event from the Centre for Creative Business, which will feature experts experienced and successful in exporting the best of British creativity to China and Chinese business experts looking to develop partnerships with UK creative industries companies.

The day will provide those working in the sector with a rare insight into the way that the Chinese creative industries are developing and how industry pioneers have led the way for British companies to enter and win market share in China – one of the fastest growing and potentially lucrative economies in the world. It will also feature some of the most prominent names in Chinese business providing top-level insight into how to attract Chinese business investment and cooperation.

The event will feature an impressive creative industries speaker list. Professor Xiong Chengyu has been confirmed as the key speaker. He is special advisor to the Chinese President on Internet policy, Director of the Center for New Media Studies at Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Director of the National Research Center for Information Strategies and Board Member of the China International Culture and Exchange Center.

Additional information and booking information can be found at the official conference website, http://www.creativeexchangechina.com/

Clear Focus Design and Marketing

If you are interesting in talking to us about marketing, advertising or design please pick up the phone, we're here to help and happy to talk - 0845 225 0325 or email info@clearfocusdesign.com, to see some work examples: www.clearfocusdesign.com/our-graphic-design-marketing-portfolio.html