Made me think, is this an interesting opportunity for Cadbury? Check it out. Bitesize Credit Crunchies!
Nice.
Merry Christmas
Monday, 22 December 2008
Overheard New Colloquialism
I was in a funky bar the other day. It was packed, buzzing with people, and as you sometimes do I suddenly honed in on a conversation. Two interesting looking individuals were chatting about things when one remarked "I like the fact it's not too Crunchy in here". Their acquaintance was unfamiliar with the term and asked what they meant by "Crunchy". "Oh, credit crunchy, as in if a place is empty it's Crunchy, this place is packed so not to Crunchy".
Made me think, is this an interesting opportunity for Cadbury? Check it out. Bitesize Credit Crunchies!
Nice.
Merry Christmas
Made me think, is this an interesting opportunity for Cadbury? Check it out. Bitesize Credit Crunchies!
Nice.
Merry Christmas
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Jeff Buckley vs. Simon Cowell
A brilliant blog on the fierce battle for the Christmas number one single between the late Jeff Buckley and the latest winner of Simon Cowell's television talent show, The X Factor.The shows bosses decided that this year's winner should release a cover of Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah as their debut, but various Facebook groups have been set up in opposition to the release in an attempt to keep the the latest version of the song off of the top spot.
Judge for yourself which one you prefer by checking out the Jeff Buckey version and the Alexandra Burke version...
Immersive Insight Studies
Immersive Insight Studies
To engage, involve and inspire consumers, brands need to have a deep understanding of what it is their consumers want and need.
Samsung insight study Immersive insight studies offer a way for brands to get under the skin of their target audience by observing their lives for several weeks or months, without having to leave the office, without physically intruding in their daily routine and without taking them out of their environments. A virtual community of target consumers are selected to become the ‘social researcher’ amongst their existing networks. They passively observe as well as actively interact with their networks (online and offline), recording everything through video, images and text. This immersive technique enables a far deeper knowledge and understanding than can be afforded through 2 hour focus groups or
a 10 minute questionnaire.
The researchers receive full briefings to ensure they remain passive in their observations without exerting any influence. Those being observed are in turn made aware of the activity, with permission gained. Whereas the target audience might be naturally cynical and suspicious of a brand, they are relaxed and trusting of their friends and peers. By working with a member of their social network, a brand can therefore gain access and cross boundaries that would never otherwise be possible.
Particular aspects of their lives to be observed and key questions can be seeded at any time, and over the course of the immersion a rich picture is painted depicting the consumers’ pursuits, passions, brand interactions and perceptions, influences, social network structure, communication preferences, media and information consumption and more. All of this enables us to determine how the brand can best add value to or aid their pursuits, passions and lives, what an influencer programme might look like, how best to communicate with them and drive WOM, how best to position a retail programme, what a media strategy could and should include and so on.
In short, from a detailed analysis of the consumers’ lives we can develop an engaging, motivating and inspiring communication strategy.
The target audience will determine the methodology through which the content is collated. Usually, a bespoke online social network is created where the researchers can get involved in moderated and unmoderated chats, adding another dimension to and perspective on the content captured.
This im
mersive insight methodology has been developed, tried and tested by The Lounge on behalf of clients such as Lynx, Sure Girl, EA, Samsung mobile and Alliance & Leicester. It has enabled us to gain powerful insights, which have formed the corner stones of communication strategies which have gone on to engage and inspire.
But we don’t stop our interaction with the target audience there. Once we’ve pulled out the key insights, we work with the target audience to co-create and/or validate the ‘creative concept’. And, where relevant, we work with different groups of consumers to bring it to market through peer to peer and influencer programmes as an integral part of the communication strategy.
In summary, the advantages of an immersive insight study, where a consumer community becomes the ‘social researchers’ are:
* We can get first hand experience of their lives in situ rather than lifting them out of their environments to participate in focus groups.
* We are passively observing the interactions of existing social groups instead of bringing individuals who have never met together in a situation where they might feel the need to impress one another and/or the moderator.
* The researched do not have to think about answers to a list of questions. Instead, the ‘answers’ come through simply being observed doing what they ordinarily do.
* The researchers and the researched relax into the process of observation over a period of weeks or months, overcoming any initial ‘performances to camera’ enabling a true immersion into the real day to day lives of the consumers.
* Consumers trust their friends, where they might not trust brands and corporates. By working with the target consumer to research their friends, brands are given access they wouldn’t otherwise be afforded.
To engage, involve and inspire consumers, brands need to have a deep understanding of what it is their consumers want and need.
Samsung insight study Immersive insight studies offer a way for brands to get under the skin of their target audience by observing their lives for several weeks or months, without having to leave the office, without physically intruding in their daily routine and without taking them out of their environments. A virtual community of target consumers are selected to become the ‘social researcher’ amongst their existing networks. They passively observe as well as actively interact with their networks (online and offline), recording everything through video, images and text. This immersive technique enables a far deeper knowledge and understanding than can be afforded through 2 hour focus groups or
a 10 minute questionnaire.The researchers receive full briefings to ensure they remain passive in their observations without exerting any influence. Those being observed are in turn made aware of the activity, with permission gained. Whereas the target audience might be naturally cynical and suspicious of a brand, they are relaxed and trusting of their friends and peers. By working with a member of their social network, a brand can therefore gain access and cross boundaries that would never otherwise be possible.
Particular aspects of their lives to be observed and key questions can be seeded at any time, and over the course of the immersion a rich picture is painted depicting the consumers’ pursuits, passions, brand interactions and perceptions, influences, social network structure, communication preferences, media and information consumption and more. All of this enables us to determine how the brand can best add value to or aid their pursuits, passions and lives, what an influencer programme might look like, how best to communicate with them and drive WOM, how best to position a retail programme, what a media strategy could and should include and so on.
In short, from a detailed analysis of the consumers’ lives we can develop an engaging, motivating and inspiring communication strategy.
The target audience will determine the methodology through which the content is collated. Usually, a bespoke online social network is created where the researchers can get involved in moderated and unmoderated chats, adding another dimension to and perspective on the content captured.
This im
mersive insight methodology has been developed, tried and tested by The Lounge on behalf of clients such as Lynx, Sure Girl, EA, Samsung mobile and Alliance & Leicester. It has enabled us to gain powerful insights, which have formed the corner stones of communication strategies which have gone on to engage and inspire.But we don’t stop our interaction with the target audience there. Once we’ve pulled out the key insights, we work with the target audience to co-create and/or validate the ‘creative concept’. And, where relevant, we work with different groups of consumers to bring it to market through peer to peer and influencer programmes as an integral part of the communication strategy.
In summary, the advantages of an immersive insight study, where a consumer community becomes the ‘social researchers’ are:
* We can get first hand experience of their lives in situ rather than lifting them out of their environments to participate in focus groups.
* We are passively observing the interactions of existing social groups instead of bringing individuals who have never met together in a situation where they might feel the need to impress one another and/or the moderator.
* The researched do not have to think about answers to a list of questions. Instead, the ‘answers’ come through simply being observed doing what they ordinarily do.
* The researchers and the researched relax into the process of observation over a period of weeks or months, overcoming any initial ‘performances to camera’ enabling a true immersion into the real day to day lives of the consumers.
* Consumers trust their friends, where they might not trust brands and corporates. By working with the target consumer to research their friends, brands are given access they wouldn’t otherwise be afforded.
Monday, 15 December 2008
New Looks Best Dressed Uni 2008
Modern Wishing Well
A 'little' discovery over the weekend. A new age wishing well erected in the middle of Convent Garden.
An Audio visual integrated dream/wonderwork! It is all about voice recognition software that recognizes your voice from a phonecall, captures it, transcribes it in text and play it in this dome through a voice recording (you can hear your wish and feel the vibrations of the voice) and project it on the LED walls.
A taste for all senses - REALLY COOL
Check it out on spinvoxwishingwell.com
Social Relationship Marketing
Social Relationship Marketing
People think big brands’ marketing activity is so cynical. That everything they do is purely self-serving. Clearly the majority of marketing undertaken is simply to shift product, why should it have any other role? Well, there is a change a-foot. What if brands could engage in marketing activity that, not only sells product, but also fundamentally benefits the life of their consumer?
So why would a brand want to add this social component? Well let’s go back a step, successful brands create relationships with their customers. These relationships in turn, drive value and loyalty with their consumers, this much you know. We have found that adding a new social component creates a faster means of establishing these deep customer relationships and driving behaviour change. We have called this method Social Relationship Marketing. We have implemented a number of campaigns that have seen some very positive results with this technique.
EA
EA: Big in the Game The first was for Electronic Arts, the computer games publisher. They came to us to create a programme to transcend individual game titles and establish EA as a “seal of approval” that would give consumers the confidence to try more of their products. We identified a number of groups to target with a Social Relationship Marketing programme - the first was urban youth. We spent time working with the target audience to create a nationwide programme called Big In The Game, which provided skills training in activities about which they were passionate.
The programme was designed to make a genuine connection with the target audience around hip hop culture. It consisted of expert workshops, which toured the country, building skills and confidence around the five pillars of hip hop – DJing, MCing, graffiti art, production and dance. Each session began with trial of a particular EA title, which went on to be the creative inspiration in each of the workshop disciplines.
The programme connected with this very difficult to reach target audience, not only at a grass roots level but also with the major players within the UK’s urban music scene, many of whom were keen to get involved.
Alliance & Leicester Inspired Choice
Alliance & Leicester came to us wanting to create a bank account that would appeal to 16-21 year old young workers. Rather than just create a simple gift with purchase mechanic, as all banks do, we instead developed a fundamental component to the account that would continue to give benefit to account holders in the long term.
Through our networks we gained a deep understanding of young workers needs and then identified a clear opportunity for A&L to take the high ground by genuinely adding value to their customers’ lives. We discovered that young workers are ambitious about their earning potential but often lack direction on career options and how to fast track within their careers. As a bank, A&L are well placed to offer advice to customers about their career prospects and associated earning potential. We developed a mentor programme that account holders could tap into. Working with 10 celebrity mentors we offered account holders the opportunity to learn from the best in their profession and get tips about how to achieve real success. Our Inspired Choice programme has driven a 225 % increase in bank accounts year on year and created a fundamentally different relationship between A&L and its young customers.
Orange Rokcorps
We’ve also seen some great examples of other brands adopting a social component to build relationships with customers. Orange’s recent association with RokCorps is another example. They put on a gig at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Busta Rhymes, John Legend, The Automatic and more. But tickets were not for sale. Instead, attendees had to earn tickets by giving 4 hours of their time to a voluntary project. Through this programme, Orange have enhanced their corporate social responsibility profile, fully engaged with young people who have actively participated in the project and achieved significant media coverage.
People think big brands’ marketing activity is so cynical. That everything they do is purely self-serving. Clearly the majority of marketing undertaken is simply to shift product, why should it have any other role? Well, there is a change a-foot. What if brands could engage in marketing activity that, not only sells product, but also fundamentally benefits the life of their consumer?
So why would a brand want to add this social component? Well let’s go back a step, successful brands create relationships with their customers. These relationships in turn, drive value and loyalty with their consumers, this much you know. We have found that adding a new social component creates a faster means of establishing these deep customer relationships and driving behaviour change. We have called this method Social Relationship Marketing. We have implemented a number of campaigns that have seen some very positive results with this technique.
EA
EA: Big in the Game The first was for Electronic Arts, the computer games publisher. They came to us to create a programme to transcend individual game titles and establish EA as a “seal of approval” that would give consumers the confidence to try more of their products. We identified a number of groups to target with a Social Relationship Marketing programme - the first was urban youth. We spent time working with the target audience to create a nationwide programme called Big In The Game, which provided skills training in activities about which they were passionate.
The programme was designed to make a genuine connection with the target audience around hip hop culture. It consisted of expert workshops, which toured the country, building skills and confidence around the five pillars of hip hop – DJing, MCing, graffiti art, production and dance. Each session began with trial of a particular EA title, which went on to be the creative inspiration in each of the workshop disciplines.
The programme connected with this very difficult to reach target audience, not only at a grass roots level but also with the major players within the UK’s urban music scene, many of whom were keen to get involved.
Alliance & Leicester Inspired Choice
Alliance & Leicester came to us wanting to create a bank account that would appeal to 16-21 year old young workers. Rather than just create a simple gift with purchase mechanic, as all banks do, we instead developed a fundamental component to the account that would continue to give benefit to account holders in the long term.
Through our networks we gained a deep understanding of young workers needs and then identified a clear opportunity for A&L to take the high ground by genuinely adding value to their customers’ lives. We discovered that young workers are ambitious about their earning potential but often lack direction on career options and how to fast track within their careers. As a bank, A&L are well placed to offer advice to customers about their career prospects and associated earning potential. We developed a mentor programme that account holders could tap into. Working with 10 celebrity mentors we offered account holders the opportunity to learn from the best in their profession and get tips about how to achieve real success. Our Inspired Choice programme has driven a 225 % increase in bank accounts year on year and created a fundamentally different relationship between A&L and its young customers.
Orange Rokcorps
We’ve also seen some great examples of other brands adopting a social component to build relationships with customers. Orange’s recent association with RokCorps is another example. They put on a gig at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Busta Rhymes, John Legend, The Automatic and more. But tickets were not for sale. Instead, attendees had to earn tickets by giving 4 hours of their time to a voluntary project. Through this programme, Orange have enhanced their corporate social responsibility profile, fully engaged with young people who have actively participated in the project and achieved significant media coverage.
Busy Ness as Usual
How nice to end the year on a high.
Here at Lounge HQ we are pleasantly busy, industrious even. Our clients are planning some interesting things for '09 and at the same time we've got more new business opportunities, briefs, and general good cheer than we've had since we started The Lounge.
Did you see our newsletter this last week? If not then check back here over the next week and you'll see the main articles. Oh there was some good stuff in that newsletter.
Oh did I mention we won yet another award for our A&L campaign? We just won a Silver DMA which was nice.
Friday, 12 December 2008
The Lounge Christmas partaaay!!
As the festive season is well & truly upon us, we Loungers were ready to let our hair down at the Christmas party. We started with a festive feast at a lovely traditional pub in Chalk Farm. When we were so full we could burst, the secret Santa begun! The team put their creative thinking caps on and some of the more daring presents included a whip and nipple tassles…need I say any more? We then headed to The Proud Galleries in
Happy days!! Enjoy.
B xx
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Totally Wired
This is the latest work from Benedict Radcliffe, a contempory artist living and working in London. His work combines engineering and sculpture with graphic design and his love of machines.In the past he has had work commissioned by Paul Smith, Puma, Red Bull and Comme des Garcons after carving a niche for himself by transferring familiar images into unexpected contexts, resulting not only in asthetically beautiful, but often genuinely challenging pieces.
Ben's other work includes Fluro Ride a flourescent bike that you may have seen him riding around on down Brick Lane, and his double-ended Dalston Jazz Car that was a feature in the foyer of the Hoxton Urban Lodge earlier this year.
To see more of Ben's work check out; www.benedictradcliffe.co.uk
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Bambuser - live broadcast from your mobile
Yet another nifty gadget that you should know about. If you have the right mobile, and luckily for you I don't just yet, then you can live broadcast video and audio right from your handset.
Makes for some very interesting research opportunities. Does it kill off MMS video, well probably. But then who really ever used MMS videos?
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Retail therapy pays!
Check out www.quidco.com to make money every time you spend money on the boring essentials.
Quidco links to hundreds of top websites (Carphone Warehouse, Apple, Expedia, Play.com, Tesco, iTunes, British Gas.....).
If you click through to any of these sites, YOU receive the referral commissions that would normally go to third party referral sites, search engines or price comparison sites.
For example, if you click through to Virgin Media's website through Quidco, and sign up to a Virgin Media package, you get £80 from Quidco. Pure cash in your bank!
Finance and utilities products pay the most, so next time you need to get a new mobile phone, arrange gas or electricty, open a bank account, book some travel or renew your car insurance, click through Quidco, and you can make yourself a nice bit of cash to spend on the fun things.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
WHAT A FIND...
Perfect 'little' decadent find in the heart of Soho!
Have you ever tasted the best cakes in-the-WORLD!!! Cakes that basically melts away in your mouth mmm mmm!
Go down to Princi, 135 Wardour Street, W1F 0UT
Princi is a distinctly authentic Italian bakery that offers its customers a mouth watering selection of pasta and meat dishes as well as some sumptuous freshly baked bread and dont forget about the unbelievable cakes.
PEER -TO-PEER, my one friend that is Italian (which never likes restaurant food as it never compares to his mom's home cooking) absolutely loves it!
The restaurant/deli is good for any occasion from a first date to a quick bite to eat with very nice ambience even a friendly doorman that welcomes in and greets you on the way out!
Go and enjoy!! Mmm mmm mmm
Friday, 21 November 2008
Movember Mofo
A few of my fell
ow Loungers may have noticed a fairly suspect looking piece of facial hair that I have recently been sporting. Do n
ot be alarmed it is for a good cause - Movember - the chance for men to grow that moustache they have always wanted and to make money for charity!
On the left is the dream, and on the right is the reality - but there are 9 more moustache growing days in Novemeber to become Tom Selleck....
...Seriously it is for a good cause and any donation that you could make would be massively appreciated.
ow Loungers may have noticed a fairly suspect looking piece of facial hair that I have recently been sporting. Do n
ot be alarmed it is for a good cause - Movember - the chance for men to grow that moustache they have always wanted and to make money for charity!On the left is the dream, and on the right is the reality - but there are 9 more moustache growing days in Novemeber to become Tom Selleck....
...Seriously it is for a good cause and any donation that you could make would be massively appreciated.
My Just Giving page is http://www.justgiving.com/edwardyeoman1
Thursday, 20 November 2008
New Looks Best Dressed Uni 2008
The Lounge recently organised a number of in-store parties at New Look stores in 6 cities around the UK
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Goodbye Itunes no more Buy Buy
If you have not seen it. Then click the title of this article.
Spotify is here. It is simply the ultimate legal music application, the Itunes killer and possibly radio killer.
Every tune you could want, streamed to you. It changes how you think about music. It's no longer about ownership and having to store tracks. Its about having access to broadband and an unlimited music library at your finger tips.
Run it on your mobile, or your Mac / PC. Winner.
It's from teh guys behind Skype. You need to try it.
Monday, 10 November 2008
Wall-Painted Animation
This is a wall-animation entitled 'Muto' by Blu - a street-artist from Bologna that my Italian housemate Alessio claims is a sort of Italian version of Banksy.
Wherever you stand in the debate over graffitti as art or vandalism, you can't deny that it is quite impressive...
blublu
Wherever you stand in the debate over graffitti as art or vandalism, you can't deny that it is quite impressive...
blublu
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Busy Week
Team Rainbow had such a busy week last week - It was AMAZING!!!
Except for our daily fun & games at The Lounge we had 2 events for the SWAY Campus Tour In Association with Need For Speed and EA @ Trafalgar Square for the London Games Festival!
First LGF!
The site was very impressive, EA took over the whole Trafalgar Sq, with 2 big LED Screens, 3 tents filled with EA pods and loads of games to interact with
I visited the LGF on a very rainy Saturday, to watch SWAY that was performing and to try my luck on the RockBand!
Even due to the rain, people took some shelter in the tents played away! Perfect activity for a Rainy afternoon!
Second : SWA
Y CAMPUS TOUR IN ASSOCIATION WITH NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVER
We launched the campus tour at a London based student night at the coolest new club Matter.
Matter was pumping with all the Hip Hop fans that came out to support SWAY & DJ PREMIER. In between the sets (& some between the sets - sorry guys) the ppl in the club came to play Need For Speed (again & again) coz with prizes like playing live against Sway and winning an XBOX 360 - who wouldn't want to....
Our Lucky winner James won in 24 sec! Poor Sway was left in the dark - but I think after his training at LGF, James will be in trouble.
Our second event happened in Norwich and was the final show for the Norwich Black Arts Festival.
OMG - What a hit!!! SWAY was amazing on stage, the crowd absolutely loved him and Need For Speed also felt lots of love with people queing up to play the game (and too meet the sexy Brand Ambassadors)
Will we be seeing you at our next events???
Catch us at:
Reading Univ - 15th November
Sheffield Univ - 18th November
Bristol Univ - 20th November
Warwich Univ - 21st November
Nottingham - Stealth - 28th November
Check out:
www.needforspeed.com
www.sway.uk.com
Except for our daily fun & games at The Lounge we had 2 events for the SWAY Campus Tour In Association with Need For Speed and EA @ Trafalgar Square for the London Games Festival!
First LGF!
The site was very impressive, EA took over the whole Trafalgar Sq, with 2 big LED Screens, 3 tents filled with EA pods and loads of games to interact with
I visited the LGF on a very rainy Saturday, to watch SWAY that was performing and to try my luck on the RockBand!
Even due to the rain, people took some shelter in the tents played away! Perfect activity for a Rainy afternoon!
Second : SWA
Y CAMPUS TOUR IN ASSOCIATION WITH NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVERWe launched the campus tour at a London based student night at the coolest new club Matter.
Matter was pumping with all the Hip Hop fans that came out to support SWAY & DJ PREMIER. In between the sets (& some between the sets - sorry guys) the ppl in the club came to play Need For Speed (again & again) coz with prizes like playing live against Sway and winning an XBOX 360 - who wouldn't want to....
Our Lucky winner James won in 24 sec! Poor Sway was left in the dark - but I think after his training at LGF, James will be in trouble.Our second event happened in Norwich and was the final show for the Norwich Black Arts Festival.
OMG - What a hit!!! SWAY was amazing on stage, the crowd absolutely loved him and Need For Speed also felt lots of love with people queing up to play the game (and too meet the sexy Brand Ambassadors)Will we be seeing you at our next events???
Catch us at:
Reading Univ - 15th November
Sheffield Univ - 18th November
Bristol Univ - 20th November
Warwich Univ - 21st November
Nottingham - Stealth - 28th November
Check out:
www.needforspeed.com
www.sway.uk.com
Monday, 20 October 2008
Context
The media want to increase their share of voice.
Increased viewers/listeners/readers equals increased advertising revenue.
Hence the media's drive to sensationalise, their incessant need to drive attention grabbing sound bites and headlines.
I get theses things, but now, right now, they are just not seeing the bigger picture. Sensationalising the economic situation does not do them any good in the long term. Their owners and sales teams need to get down in the editorial department and ask them to try to at least give some sort of balanced view. Stop spreading the gloom and panic. Actually try to make a positive supportive difference. Do it to protect your own revenue, do it to protect your own job.
So in an effort to prove a point I looked into the latest media frenzy around UNEMPLOYMENT. LONDON HIT'S X HUNDRED THOUSAND JOBLESS. JOB CRISIS. Please look at the below graph. It shows unemployment from 1980 - now.
We've just had it too good, and we love a good old moan. Unemployment is lower now than it has been for the whole of the 80's and 90's.
Don't believe the hype.
Now get back to work!
James
Increased viewers/listeners/readers equals increased advertising revenue.
Hence the media's drive to sensationalise, their incessant need to drive attention grabbing sound bites and headlines.
I get theses things, but now, right now, they are just not seeing the bigger picture. Sensationalising the economic situation does not do them any good in the long term. Their owners and sales teams need to get down in the editorial department and ask them to try to at least give some sort of balanced view. Stop spreading the gloom and panic. Actually try to make a positive supportive difference. Do it to protect your own revenue, do it to protect your own job.
So in an effort to prove a point I looked into the latest media frenzy around UNEMPLOYMENT. LONDON HIT'S X HUNDRED THOUSAND JOBLESS. JOB CRISIS. Please look at the below graph. It shows unemployment from 1980 - now.
We've just had it too good, and we love a good old moan. Unemployment is lower now than it has been for the whole of the 80's and 90's.
Don't believe the hype.
Now get back to work!
James
Thursday, 16 October 2008
The Kooks are out of touch
As anyone who has listened to the Kooks latest album, Konk, will know these poor lads have not got laid for quite some time. Or at least their writers haven't. All they seem to sing about are the challenges they face with the ladies and love. If only this was true for the vast majority of today's young people. Getting sex, and consequently STI's, has in fact never been easier.
We're currently working on a number of pilot initiatives with the COI to address just this problem. We'll be posting more to the blog soon, however in short we are piloting 3 new initiatives. Each targeting a different demographic. The first goes live in about a month. We are aiming to have a genuine impact on teenage pregnancy, STI's and the use of condoms, so much more of a Street's style song.
Transpant costs or hidden costs...
...that's the question...
Especially when it comes to two industries:
On a lighter but yet more annoying note, low-cost airlines - especially certain Irish owned, micky taking airlines, which shall not be names, famous for 1p flights.
Now don't get me wrong. I completely understand the merits of advertising flights for an amazing 1p. What gets my billy is the hidden charges for thinkgs like having luggage, airport check-in, inhaling more than 6 times in a minue...that sort of thing.
I personally would much prefer to have all the charges up front when I'm booking a quick flight to Barcelona, rather than having to sit there with three airline websites up, who all charge different amounts for different things and having to create some kind of bumbling formula to discover which one will actually end up saving me money.
Something like:
(flight + tax) x (insurance/food to buy) = ACTUAL COST
________
stupid bits
Maths was never my favourite subjest at school, and I would much prefer to have it there in fron of me: £75 to Barcelona, all included. No problems, no hassle, no fuss!
Now that sounds like a deal to me.
Cheers,
Paul
Especially when it comes to two industries:
- Retail Banking
- Low Cost Airlines
On a lighter but yet more annoying note, low-cost airlines - especially certain Irish owned, micky taking airlines, which shall not be names, famous for 1p flights.
Now don't get me wrong. I completely understand the merits of advertising flights for an amazing 1p. What gets my billy is the hidden charges for thinkgs like having luggage, airport check-in, inhaling more than 6 times in a minue...that sort of thing.
I personally would much prefer to have all the charges up front when I'm booking a quick flight to Barcelona, rather than having to sit there with three airline websites up, who all charge different amounts for different things and having to create some kind of bumbling formula to discover which one will actually end up saving me money.
Something like:
(flight + tax) x (insurance/food to buy) = ACTUAL COST
________
stupid bits
Maths was never my favourite subjest at school, and I would much prefer to have it there in fron of me: £75 to Barcelona, all included. No problems, no hassle, no fuss!
Now that sounds like a deal to me.
Cheers,
Paul
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
New Look!!
After much anticipation 'New Look- Best Dressed' kicked off across the country two weeks ago.
The campaign aims to find the best dressed Uni. We have 12 Brand Ambassadors searching high and low around their universities to find the most fashionable students. Once they have found these fashion conscious individuals, their pics are uploaded onto Facebook. This is where anyone can go on and vote for who they think the most fashionable university is.
Vote now on the Facebook page: New Look Best Dressed University 2008
The winning University wins and alphabeat gig for the whole university (exciting stuff!!!!)
The story so far...
Glasgow are currently flying ahead with 50% of the overall votes, Liverpool are way behind but votes are shooting up everyday.
The campaign aims to find the best dressed Uni. We have 12 Brand Ambassadors searching high and low around their universities to find the most fashionable students. Once they have found these fashion conscious individuals, their pics are uploaded onto Facebook. This is where anyone can go on and vote for who they think the most fashionable university is.
Vote now on the Facebook page: New Look Best Dressed University 2008
The winning University wins and alphabeat gig for the whole university (exciting stuff!!!!)
The story so far...
Glasgow are currently flying ahead with 50% of the overall votes, Liverpool are way behind but votes are shooting up everyday.
Our BA's are having fun taking pictures of some great dressed people
.... and some not so great dressed people.
They are doing such a good job, so keep up the good work BA's and we look forward to see thousands and thousands more votes.
Em x
Monday, 13 October 2008
Feeling crunched?
Now we're all well aware of the financial crisis that has been dominating our headlines, in fact, we're probably yearning to hear of something more uplifting however I fear this will be surrounding us for some time yet.
We are always looking at ways to keep costs down for our clients and how to think more creatively getting more bang for their buck but it's at times like this, it does make you stop and think about your own personal finances and where you can penny pinch....or indeed pound punch.
There are quite a few obvious ways in which one can be more frugal; cut out the luxuries, stay in one night at the weekend, cook at home instead of eating out, walk instead of tube/bus/cab but if these are things that make you smile after working hard all week then my advice is don't stop doing those things, find other more simple ways to save some cash and continue the things you love!
Some really simple ways of cutting back can be found all over the interweb and here's a few favouites;- Try not to leave appliances on standby - up to 10% of the total electricity used in your home is due to appliances left on standby
- Turning the thermostat down by one degree C can cut more than 10% from the average central heating bill
- Never shop for food when you are hungry - it can increase your spend by an average of 20%!.
- To find the cheapest petrol in your area, sign up to www.petrolprices.com and get emailed weekly updates of pump prices
- You should buy an annual rail card for £18-£24. Find the discount card that suits you at www.railcard.co.uk, or at your local ticket office, and start getting a third off all off-peak travel
- If you have something in your fridge and struggling to know what to do with it, visit www.waitrose.com/recipes/search.aspx and enter your ingredient as a "keyword" for ideas
- Go food shopping just before the supermarket closes, they offer loads of discounts
- Look out for BOGOF deals, if you work in the media/pr/marketing world, you're bound to get the discount vouchers always flying around
- Sample sales - make sure your friends in fashion keep you posted with the dates, these are especially brilliant and pentiful in the lead up to dare I say it, Christmas!
- Check out http://www.uswitch.com/ - it's brilliant for finding the best deals on just about everything
I went to the ATM this morning and it said "insufficient funds".
I'm wondering is it them or me.
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