ZigZag get their hands on the FA Cup!

OK, what I would like to say is that ZigZag became sponsor of the forthcoming FA cup final to be fought out on the hallowed turf of Wembley stadium, which would be nice.

The next best thing was the nice people at Eon Energy brought the FA Cup to my son and daughter’s school (yes the real FA cup!) and we had our photo taken with it amid the media frenzy that only regional TV and press can muster.

The event was featured on BBC News and local Meridian News, which caused great excitement locally.

So when you watch the cup final on TV, remember ZigZag were there first!!

ZigZag Creative – PR | Marketing | Social Media

Great Viral marketing campaign

This is a very clever viral campaign commissioned by the Swedish TV licensing people, that you can have a lot of fun with.

This version features yours truly…

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1264181885211RA67

Remember you heard it here first

ZigZag Creative | Marketing | PR | Social Media

Pack shot photography, ZigZag Creative, Canterbury, Kent

I spent the afternoon in the studio taking photographs of some packaging that we designed and without blowing our own trumpet (OK I will blow the trumpet) I am quite pleased with the results.

We like the design, nice bright colours and the packaging production company have done a great job on the production, which is always good.

Anyway the point of this particular blog is to shamelessly promote our in house pack shot photography capability from our studio in Canterbury, Kent.

We can digitally shoot your packs or products in our fully lit photographic cove with a variety of background colours or effects. These are ideal for catalogues or brochures or for e-commere or ebay applications. Cost wise it works out to be very competitive as we can arrange a discount for bulk photo shoots.

To find out more about our product pack shot photography service from our studio in Canterbury, Kent contact me on andrew@zigzagcreative.co.uk

ZigZag Creative – Product pack shot photography, Canterbury, Kent

What do internet forums say about your brands or products?

Do you know what people are saying about your products on line?

People in internet forums can be very opinionated, firing off comments from their keyboards about a whole range of subjects – some they are very knowledgeable about some are errrr less so…

The trouble is whatever they say, right or wrong their comments are very influential and once posted on the internet are visible for years.

I have just spent part of this afternoon looking at what people are saying on the internet about a client that we represent in a PR capacity. The results were quite surprising.

We took a sample of three products and went off into the internet forums to see what people were saying about them. We found that two of the products were thought very highly off with many compliments and satisfied customers saying very positive things about the products. All fine and dandy we thought. Product number three was less successful with many dissatisfied customers out there and guess what? They were not afraid to rubbish the product to anyone that would listen.

The results?

On a small sample of products we found seven negative threads on internet forums and eight positive threads. The bad news was that the negative threads had been viewed over 3,000 times. That was potentially 3,000 prospect customers put off buying our client’s products because of negative comments on an internet forum.

OK we can’t undo what people have posted on on-line forums but we can use our PR skills to limit the damage and turn the negative into a positive.

Makes you think doesn’t it? If you have a PR strategy don’t forget to include the internet, it is surprising what is out there in the land of the keyboard warrior.

ZigZag Creative – Marketing | PR | Social Media

Social Media UK – some interesting statistics

People talk about social media, it seems to be all around us, our children certainly use it, we use it, but how many people in the UK use social media and how fast is it growing?

First of all statistics change all the time, they are nice like that, kind of dynamic and shape shifting: statistics – the shape shifters of the numbers world

I am going to use figures from May 09 and May 08 for comparison from comscore World Metrix, these are figures for the UK age 15+ for home and work locations.

Total UK Internet Audience

May 08   34.5m

May 09   36.8m

% change    7%

Social Networking

May 08 27.1m

May 09 29.4m

% change  9%

Facebook

May 08 15.1m

May 09 23.8m

% change 57%

Bebo

May 08  11.8m

May 09  8.5m

% change -28%

My Space

May 08 8.3m

May 09 6.5m

% change -22%

Twitter

May 08 .08m

May 09 2.6m

% change 3,226%

Digg

May 08 1.3m

May 09 1.8m

% change 34%

Friends Reunited

May 08 3.2m

May 09 1.6m

% change -50%

Source .comScore World Metrix

What can we deduce from that?

Well, first there are a lot of people that are using the internet in the UK to interact with other people. The way that the UK population is getting its entertainment and information is changing dramatically. It was not that long ago that we all used to watch TV as a family with just three channels to choose from, you would discuss what you watched the next day at work or school, kind of a nation in information harmony. Now that has all changed.

To reach today’s audience the marketing and media world will have to use new techniques to reach their target audience, it is changing fast, a look at the stats above show the dynamic change as new technology comes along, pushing what we believed was established aside.

Social Media is one if the most exciting things to happen in the last few years, we are just seeing the start of a revolution in interaction and communication, there are interesting times ahead.

ZigZag Creative – Marketing | PR | Social Media

Mountain biking with wolves – yes wolves…

From time to time I like to take to the hills and ride my mountain bike, I have even been known to ride at night time, in the dark, in the forest, it’s spooky, here’s a little tale of what happened one dark night…

When riding in the woods at night you get to see a wide range of wildlife: badgers, foxes, owls, lots of rabbits and if you are at the back of the group the drooling fanged monster off the cover of the Iron Maiden album that is right behind you – just don’t look round.

You kind of take it for granted that in our part of the world that there is nothing big out there that might eat you, yes we have all heard about the big cat sightings but even a big cat is not really going to eat you, it will be full of discarded KFC and Mcdonalds and too fat to catch you.

There is a great big black dog that lives in a cottage in the wood, but apart from barking and the occasioanal nip he is fairly harmless so all in all we feel pretty safe and secure in our little leafy wood.

Being the sad bunch that we are we have named a number of trails and one of our favourites is called Agent Orange, it is nice trail through pine woods, with some ditches and gulleys to ride over plus a fallen tree and some exposed roots to bunny hop over. It is on the way home   so we often do this last – just for fun. Now Agent Orange runs alongside a local wildlife park that have a pack of wolves as a visitor attraction, they are normally quiet and docile and nothing to worry about.

Winding the night ride up we decided to do our favourite trail and passed alongside the fence adjoining the wildlife park which set the wolf pack off with an unholy howling and baying that was straight out of the Hammer House of Horror sound effect archive. You have never seen six blokes ride so fast in a desperate effort to not be the guy at the back. There were elbows and knees being used to good effect it really was every man for themselves, the ensuing panic meant the herd of bike riders stampeded off the trail and deep into the woods getting lost in the process whilst being pursued by the hounds from hell.

Fancy mountain bike £1,500, hi-tech lights £250, shell and base layers £100 getting chased by a pack of wolves… priceless

I want some ideas and I want them now!

Oi, you’re a bit creative, get busy with the crayons and create something for me…

OK, you don’t get many briefs like that but from time to time you are staring at a blank sheet of paper with a deadline looming closer and a head full of useless statistics that blokes carry round with them…

The lyrics to Karma Chameleon, who scored the winning goal in the 1976 cup final (it was Bobby Stokes, Southampton FC) the torquing sequence for a 1982 Ford Sierra cylinder head, you know useful stuff like that.

Once you have sorted through the equivalent of the kitchen drawer that is the typical guy’s mind and found no inspiration what do you do?

Internet, that is good, except it wastes hours and achieves nothing. Some do drugs but that is generally a bit of a dead end as any ideas that seemed fabulous at the time are pants when they have come down. Music? Hypno trance crossover fusion mix? I don’t even know what that means.

Sorry to shatter the illusion but there is no sure fire way to come up with ideas, they just come along at chance moments, they can be the result of a conversation, something you have seen  a whole bunch of different things, most of my ideas either pop into my head when I am in the shower (sorry folks) or when walking the dog, neither of which is very glamorous.

So that is how it is when you are at the cutting edge of ideas you need to take more showers with the dog, simple really

ZigZag Creative – Marketing | PR | Social Media

The power of social media as a marketing tool

If someone spoke to you five years ago and told you that they were going to promote their business using their own TV channel, making their own videos and broadcast them worldwide you would think they were either very ambitious or barking mad. If they went on to say that on top of that they were going to publish daily articles and have them published worldwide on a daily basis and then they were going to have a dialogue with millions of people world wide, sharing information and pictures as well as views and opinions you would, perhaps justifiably, think they were certifiable.

Oh yes and all this media was free…

Well fast forward to the present day and here we are, you can publish video and broadcast it worldwide, you can publish your thoughts and opinions in the form of blogs and you can spend your working day on Facebook. Trouble is what do you do with all this lovely new technology?

Well big brands are waking up to the potential…

Some are getting it wrong, some are getting it spectacularly right, it seems there is more to this social media game than there first appears.

After all how hard can it be?

Your teenage daughter spends half her life on Facebook, so to get a social media campaign going all you need to do is hire a moody teenager and stick her in the corner in front of a computer and away you go.

Whilst this may work and will probably make your new employee quite happy – getting paid to sit on Facebook all day how cool is that? The results would, I suggest, be unspectacular.

Social Media is just like any other media really, a very powerful tool that when used correctly can get astonishing results, but to get the best out of it you need some skill in harnessing the technology.

But where do you find these skills?

PR agency?

Digital agency?

Marketing agency?

In house?

Possibly any of these, let’s look at each and their merits and possible skill sets:

PR Agency

A possibility, some PR agencies are waking up to the potential of social media as a marketing tool, looking to the future and thinking ” we had better get a part of this”. The majority are sticking with conventional media and hoping that social media will be a passing fad – I can tell you that it won’t be.

Digital Agency

Again a possibility that a digital agency may be able to help you, but be careful, some agencies are strong on technical and not creative and vice versa. You will need a whole lot of skills beyond putting together great websites to deliver a successful social media campaign.

Marketing Agency

A full service agency may be able to help with a combination of strategic and creative skills that they should have as long as they can adapt these for social media. The skills required for a successful direct mail campaign are quite different to a successful social media campaign, so don’t assume that because your current agency designed a brilliant brochure that blew away all your sales projections, that they can just turn their hand to social media.

In House

Again an in house agency could work, they probably have a combination of creative and strategic skills as well as knowledge of the subject in question. One stumbling block is the resource and the level of commitment extended to social media, some organisations do it but don’t take it that seriously, assigning a junior member of staff, which generates unpredictable results.

Social Media, being a very new media requires an evolving skill set, it requires in no particular order:

Strategic skills – get the strategy right and you are half way there

Technical skills – how to get all that lovely technology to work and integrate with your existing activity

Creative skills – You will need to produce attractive looking, well written, entertaining and informative copy for your new audience

Innovation – you will to innovate and evolve with the technology and techniques, the web is constantly changing, what works today may not work tomorrow

To summarise social media can be a very powerful marketing tool, when used correctly, spend as much time selecting the team of people that will deliver it for you as you would any other campaign. Don’t assume that as the basic tools are free that anyone can use them effectively.

ZigZag Creative -  Marketing | PR | Social Media

Why use a Marketing Agency?

By ZigZag Creative – Creative Marketing Agency, Canterbury, Kent

There are many advantages to using a Marketing Agency. Probably the main one is convenience – a well established agency should be able to provide most of your marketing needs under one roof. For example they will probaly have on their payroll; graphic designers, copywriters, marketing experts, on-line experts, photographers etc. plus an army of tried and tested freelancers to bolster the team should a chunky project come through the door.

All of this may come at a cost, but the economies of scale that an agency brings should make this cost competitive.

But what about cost savings?

Can a marketing agency save you money?

The answer is probably!

For example if an agency does a lot of direct mail work they should have some very good rates negotiated with quality printers and direct mail fulfillment houses. If the agency buys a lot of media space the rates for advertising should also be competitive, these cost savings should be reflected in the overall bill for a campaign. What about management time? A good agency will manage your project for you delivering it on time and within budget, freeing you up to do what you do best and focus upon that.

So in summary a good creative marketing agency is worth considering, the overall cost may be less than doing the work in house when you factor in the management time as well as the cost of the project, plus you get access to some of the best creative brains in the business, that has to be worth something surely?

ZigZag Creative – Creative Marketing Agency, Canterbury, Kent

How to Create a Marketing Campaign in House

The phone has stopped ringing and the boss wants a new marketing campaign pronto

By ZigZag Creative – Creative Marketing Agency, Canterbury, Kent, UK.

Many companies successfully market themselves without the help of an external agency, Ryannair is one example of a company that produce their own ad campaigns and very successful they have been too.

But let’s assume you are not a European airline with a unique attitude, lets consider a typical company, with typical resources.

Most companies will start with the statement ” we need to sort out a marketing campaign” and arrange a meeting to decide what to do.

That’s where the fun starts…

Let’s assume, in the interest of simplicity that the company decides to promote product A to boost sales that have been flagging for some time.

Again in the interest of simplicity it was decided that an eight page direct mail piece would be produced together with an introductory letter with a special offer, which would be mailed to 2,000 existing customers and 5,000 prospects.

At this point there are typically two paths to take (assuming the example is not going to use an external marketing agency):

1. Write copy and design layout in house
2. Use freelancers/print company

For this example we are assuming that the company in question does not have an in-house design department so the design and copy will be down to the already stretched existing team. If you are creatively minded, have a clear brief, can write copy and have a flair for design then this should pose no problem. Trouble is this is rarely the case so the project gets put to one side to be done “when we have more time”.

Option 2 is to use freelancers – this can work really well if you can find the right combination of skills needed to complete the project. The copywriter and the designer need to work together and have the experience and capacity to complete the project.

Having come up with the creative design, great copy and had the final piece signed off by the boss you then have to get it produced and printed. Simple? Not necessarily. Print quality and price varies enormously, it is essential that you choose a printer that can produce exactly what you want at the price within your budget, we would recommend selecting and visiting at least three printers to evaluate the best match for your project.

OK, if you have read this far you may be able to see where this is going – Of course you can create and produce your own marketing campaigns in house, thousands are prepared everyday across the country, some successful many not.

In many cases it is better to perhaps at least consider an external marketing agency to produce your next campaign, here’s why:

1. An experienced marketeer will be able to take your campaign brief and work on it with you to develop it into an effective starting point.

2. You will get access to experts in campaign designs that will swiftly help you identify a product or services USP and features and benefits.

3. Creatives will develop you some cracking ideas

4. The copywriter and designer will be used to working together and quickly come up with professional slick concepts and copy.

5. It will be done quickly

6. When it comes to printing, an agency will have a whole range of printers that they work with, often at a lower price than you can achieve yourself

7. The project will be managed allowing you to get on with things that you normally do

So to recap, produce your campaigns in-house if you have the time and resources to do so, if not it may be more cost effective to consider employing a creative marketing agency – ZigZag Creative would be pleased to help.

ZigZag Creative

ZigZag Creative – Creative Marketing Agency, Canterbury, Kent, UK.