Get out there and Get Fit

So the clocks have sprung forward, and ok we lost an hour, but so what spring is snapping at our heels and when we leave work tonight at 6 it will still be light. But the announcement of spring also means that summer is round the corner and that means dressing less and getting out those white bits that we have lovingly cultivated over the cold winter months.

If your New Year’s resolutions have run flat, your jeans are still on the snug side and the summer holiday, so tantalizing close, remains un-booked because you can’t face the prospect of a bikini (or trunks for you guys), fret not here are some credit crunch busting ways to get fit:

1. Get a decent pair of trainers and run run run yourself skinny. Check out www.mapmyrun.co.uk for inspiration, and to ensure your start-up runs aren’t too ambitious. Also head down to the London Marathon on 26^th April – you have to admire them…

2. Find a trainee practitioner – we have a lady that is training to be a yoga teacher and takes us for classes for just £1.50 a pop. We get some instruction and she gets to practice. You can’t argue!

3. Cut price lessons. You’ll be surprised at how many gyms and local classes are doing deals at the moment – they are feeling the burn too so call up to find out what’s going on near you… Also some personal trainers will take group bookings so you get to split the cost and get extra motivation from working out with friends.

4. Walk up the escalators lazy bones – Or are you one of those people who rushes and bumps past me off the train in the morning just to stand on the escalator and waste valuable butt exercise time, you know who you are…

5. Re-visit your childhood and get down to the local pool – I hate swimming (swimming costume = the most unflattering piece of awfulness ever made) but having dropped my nephew to his lessons the other day I was amazed at how hi-tech the local facilities now are. I’m still not going but if you’re brave enough give it a go.

6. Go for a stroll at lunchtime - http://www.londonforfree.net/walks/index.shtml. What more excuse do you need to actually get away from your computer at lunchtime.

Just think of the beach in July – Enjoy!

The best of the 'new Banksies'

Whether they're dropping impromptu pieces among the bins or launching full-on digital art happenings, London's street artists are moving fast. Below are some of the new street artists to watch out for!!

D*face
D*face creates classic street art. Like Banksy, his imagery is wry, graphic and accessible. He started out producing Disney-influenced pop characters, which he printed on stickers and posters. Now he makes more complex, playfully anti-establishment graphic pieces fusing gothic skulls with icons from Che Guevara to the Queen.

www.dface.co.uk




Eine
Hoxton man of letters
Eine is in love with typography. Over a few years he has transformed Hoxton into a giant sentence, covering many of the area’s metal shutters with colourful capital letters in a circus-style font.

Over the past two years, Eine has painted more than 60 of his letters in London, Newcastle, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Paris. ‘Every time I visit a crime-ridden city I try to paint some shutters. You only find shop shutters in places where there is a fear, real or not, of crime,’ he observes.
www.einesigns.co.uk



The artist known as Caliper Boy
If Tim Burton made street art, it might look something like Caliper Boy. Images of this disturbing Victorian character pop up on fly-posted prints in strange nooks of London, emblazoned with the words ‘Dirty Little Secret’ or ‘I Feel Damp’. The artist prefers to lurk behind his creation: a disabled boy in a full body brace with one hand down his pants. Caliper Boy has a whole backstory, loosely set in the 1850s.





Adam Neate
Cardboard is his medium, the streets are his sketchbook. Unlike many street artists, Adam Neate couldn’t really be called a vandal; a litterbug, maybe. For the past decade he’s scattered his paintings around London, dropping his work everywhere from Shoreditch to the unsuspecting galleries of the Tate. Notoriously, he once left 100 pieces among east London refuse piles for the bin men to deal with. Neate views his freely distributed pieces as the foundation for ideas he then develops in gallery work, a kind of giant urban sketchbook on found cardboard. For Neate, this alternative to canvas has the added attraction of scratches, scuff marks, dents and holes. ‘If the surface already has some feeling to it, it will help with the feel of the painting,’ he maintains.

New Stationary Arrives

Boxed Water is Better for the Earth

That is the view of Benjamin Edgar who has founded a company that endevours to make water packaging more sustainable. Boxed Water is Better uses recyclable carton packaging instead of the standard plastic bottle. According to the company's website they are "part sustainable water company, part art project, part philanthropic project, and completely curious."The packaging is made up of a very green 90% of recycled materials, and in terms of transportation, about 5% of a truckload of boxes would require about 5 truckloads of empty plastic or glass bottles!

To me it sounds like a brilliantly simple, genuinely sustainable idea and who knows, we could all be drinking water from boxes in the not too distant future.

Alliance & Leicester

On Thursday last week we went along to our first MCCA awards. We entered the PR category and the Best of the Best Planning category. I'm proud to say that we walked away with a Merit in the Best of the Best Planning category, up against some amazing agencies this was a real coup.

The campaign has so far won a DMA, Finance Innovation, and PR Week award. Oh and now an MCCA.

I just wanted to say a big well done to all of the team who made this happen! Kate, Lisa, Belinda fantastic work guys. Thank you!

A Basic Guide to Twitter

Twitter is fast turning into the latest web phenomenon. It is essentially a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters. With celebrities such as Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry spearheading a recent surge in popularity, we thought we would explain what all the fuss is about. Here is our guide of how to get started, as well as some recommended Twitter etiquette.

Firstly, get yourself registered.

Next, work out why you are using it - for work or pleasure. If it’s for your brand then outline what you would like to achieve through the platform. It is important to have clear objectives to maximise the potential of your twitter page. These can include:

• Making your brand more personable
• Active engagement with a certain target audience
• Driving traffic to your business
• Driving traffic to your website/blog

Next, ensure you build a successful business profile online, this can be done by using this checklist:

1. Claim your company, product, and appropriate brand names by registering your unique brand URL early.
2. Keep the profile honest.
3. Create a link between your Twitter profile page and website.
4. Be a helpful member of the community by answering other people’s questions.
5. Keep the tone true to your brand, whilst taking the opportunity to have fun and show some personality.

You can use Twitter to talk about your brand, but for it to really work you need something interesting to say. Ideally, if you have a ‘fan base’ of sorts, this will be a great tool for you to keep them hooked with tidbits.

An application called Mr. Tweet helps you to build relationships by looking through your network and your tweets. Mr. Tweet will regularly suggest good people and followers you are missing out on, recommend you to enthusiastic users who are relevant to you, and regularly update useful stats about your Twitter usage. It’s a valuable tool that will help you make the most out of Twitter.

Finally, and most importantly for marketers are the stats - Twitter Friends is a brilliant way of keeping abreast of Twitter friend numbers as well as how many followers your page has had over the past month.

All there is left to do is get twittering…

Harnessing the Power of Influencers

Harnessing the Power of Influencers

Every brand wants to create word-of-mouth and peer recommendation. We believe that influencers offer a credible way to drive this. The Lounge has been working with influencers for the past four years, involving them in our clients’ communication strategies to maximise both impact and reach. Here are a few of our tips on how to build an effective influencer programme.

Firstly, establish who influences your target audience. This is best done by talking to your audience. Those they look to for advice and leadership can vary from friends and family to avidly-followed bloggers, journalists, those at the top of their game within specific interest groups or major celebrities. At The Lounge, we identify exactly which influencers are likely to resonate best with the audience by talking to our Peer Network – an 8,000 strong panel of 11-35 year olds.

We divide influencers into four groups – peers, local heroes, major players and celebrities. We map out which levels are best to engage, and how, depending on the brand, their objectives and who the target audience is. Peer influencers are the early adopters and trend setters within grass roots social circles. Local heroes are those who are renowned and influential with your target audience in their geographical region, town or city. Major players are those who have risen to the top of their game within a specific industry, interest or lifestyle. And we all know who celebs are.

Secondly, ensure there is a real connection between your brand, your campaign and the influencer(s) with whom you’re working and that they have a genuine role in your campaign. To help with this, identify why influencers would want to work with you. This could be for several reasons:

i) Mutual benefit – We worked with Dirty Pretty Things (major players / celebrities) on the Samsung Band on Your Campus campaign. They were looking to promote their new album launch and saw the partnership as the key component in their marketing campaign. As such they immersed themselves in the campaign and spoke about it at great length in radio interviews on Radio One and XFM.

ii) Passionate about your brand or the campaign benefits – With ‘Big in the Game’ for Electronic Arts, we worked with 47 local heroes and 34 major players/celebs within the hip hop scene. They bought into and were passionate about the benefits of the hip hop training workshop programme we created to promote EA’s titles. They saw that EA was providing long-term support for the lifestyle and community, which was their lifeblood.

iii) Financial - If you have one of the first two motivations covered, it’s likely you won’t have to spend money to persuade your influencers to get involved, or if you do, it’ll be a lot less. If your influencer is only getting involved for financial reasons, it’s unlikely to gel.

Thirdly, be pragmatic about the appropriate level of involvement and commitment from different levels of influencer. Peers, local heroes and major players offer a focused approach if you’re looking to target specific locations or interest groups; major players and celebrities are more likely to generate national/international PR but will be a lot more restricted on time.

Fourthly, you’ll get a lot more out your influencers and wider coverage of their involvement if it forms part of a wider campaign. The influencers themselves are more likely to have a real role to play, which gives them something tangible to talk about through a variety of communication channels. If they are genuinely on board, they will also be happy to promote the campaign through their own media channels. For example, we recently worked with Sway to promote EA Need for Speed. Throughout the campaign, he posted updates on his popular MySpace and blogs.

If you’re interested in finding out more about working with influencers, from both an insight and activation perspective, drop us a line.

The Nine Prnciples of Marketing to Students

The Nine Principles of Marketing to Students

The Lounge are this year’s official partner for Haymarket’s Student Marketing Conference. We thought we’d try to summarise our decade of student marketing experience into nine principles for marketing more effectively to this audience. Here’s a summary. Click here to read more detail about each of them along with a few tips and examples.

1. Make the business case for students
2. Focus your spend
3. Immerse yourself in students’ worlds to understand their reality
4. Target the right students for your brand
5. Beware the culture of expectancy
6. Be the entertainer and experience provider
7. But don’t expect students to do too much
8. Don’t jump on the Facebook bandwagon without a strategy
9. Timing is everything

1. Make the business case for students
So why target students? The Lounge focuses on 11-35s, of which students are just one group, but students are the starting point for brands looking to nurture relationships with the high spenders of tomorrow. For many students, this is the first time they’ll be making independent buying decisions. They have access to a lot of money: from parents, the recently reinstated grants, loans, generous bank overdrafts, credit cards and from part time work.

So banish the stereotype of the impoverished, grungy student from your mind and think about the increasing numbers of female students satisfying their desire for designer gear by ‘wardrobe sharing’ with friends of similar shoe and dress sizes. This affords them the luxury of spending £400 on a pair of shoes or a designer handbag for half the cost. Yes, many do have this kind of money at their disposal and most don’t have any major ongoing expenses, direct debits, responsibilities, strings attached or concerns over debt...until after they leave uni.

It’s also pertinent to mention given the current economic climate that students are one of the only recession proof demographics. Whilst your marketing budget may be feeling the pinch, students’ wallets and purses won’t be.

2. Focus your spend
Why target students separately? Whilst they might consume some of the same media, their lifestyle and mindset is unique. They label themselves first and foremost as ‘students’; this is their ‘profession’. And they expect their status to be understood and addressed.

Never before or since will they live in such a highly concentrated bubble with like-minded individuals. Which makes targeting them highly efficient for brands. No other demographic lives with, socialises and spend most of their day with the same friends. This makes the creation of talking points to drive WOM a vital part of any student marketing mix. Their lifestyle affords them the freedom to socilise far more than any other group, which means less time in front of primetime TV and more opportunity for targeting them out-of-home; around university during daytime, at their social haunts at night, in their halls of residence and student houses, in their breakfast/dining halls and refectories. There are many opportunities to tap into their other interests through societies, sporting calendars, music, film and more. There are growing numbers of student specific media channels available as well as more bespoke programmes on campus and online.

3. Immerse yourself in students’ worlds so you can understand their reality
Most people who’ve been to uni fall into the trap of applying their own experiences to today’s students, even if that was 10 or 20 years ago. The classic student creative we come across is a mess of washing up, coffee stains and baked beans with a text book, lap top and mobile phone thrown in for good measure. Most students find this laughable and demeaning as they view themselves as fully fledged adults who’ve just gained true independence with all the responsibilities and liberties that come with it.

Today’s students are a more sophisticated, eclectic bunch who are discerning about brands and are looking to start relationships with those who take the time to understand them. The best way to understand the students of today...and tomorrow, is to spend time with them in their world, observing them and talking to them.

4. Target the ‘right’ students for your brand
Students are not a homogenous group. For many, university life presents an opportunity either to reinforce or reinvent their identity. But whilst the drive to be ‘individual’ is great, the desire to fit in, make friends and belong is greater. So they quickly morph into ‘tribes’ according to their lifestyles, interests and values. Whilst we won’t go into the different tribes here, (see the link to student tribes article in our December newsletter), examine which tribes hold most synergy with your brand and/or which is the most influential for your purposes and how you can tap into their particular interests and values to create a large group of brand advocates.

Similarly, it pays to work with key student influencers, instilling in them a passion for your brand. Red Bull was the first to formalise this with their iconic brand ambassador programme. As with Red Bull it’s vital to invest long-term in a programme such as this and so students come to respect and revere your brand’s ambassadors and strive to be selected.

Initial research and recruitment is key. Then build a deep involvement with your brand amongst your advocates. Give them the tools, a clear strategy and programme to roll out. And finally, put in place clear measurements. Integrate what you’re doing offline with online brand ambassadors, and you can transcend geographical limitations to reach students across the whole of the UK.

5. Beware the culture of expectancy
Students are amongst the most expectant of all young adults. They are so used to the raft of discounts and freebies, they’ve come to expect them with a ‘so what?’ attitude. Brands fuel this culture of expectancy with one-off gifts, never more so than in the banking sector. A few years ago, a £10 book or record token enticed students to open an account. Now, nothing less than an iPod or a five year rail card will suffice. So, what does this mean for brands? Do you have to compete with ever increasing-value gifts? And do students even really appreciate them?

The problem is, these one-off gifts are just that, one-offs. They have no long-term value. So, think about how you can build a relationship by providing ongoing benefits. Alternatively, how can you create valid experiences, which hold greater value and create a talking point, which brings us on to our next principle...

6. Be the entertainer and the experience provider
Students go to university to gain a degree. Well, that’s the official story. What’s more important everday is the lifestyle. Ask any student and they’ll tell you university is all about the experiences and the lifelong friendships formed. It’s these experiences that give them social currency and bonding moments with their newfound friends. It’s these shared experiences, which drive invaluable WOM. Brands who are the provider of those experiences will start a relationship with students, which can, in turn, become a lifelong and lucrative one.


7. But don’t expect students to ‘do’ too much
Hand in hand with expectancy comes the challenge of how to motivate and mobilise students, even when there’s a massive carrot being dangled in front of them. Think about how you can enhance their existing routines and experiences without asking them to step outside their normal routines or comfort zones.

You can also work around this culture of apathy by identifying the motivated few to bring the message to the unmotivated masses. Perhaps it’s that those few have something major to gain, perhaps it’s that they’re willing and able brand advocates, perhaps they enjoy the limelight and have an entrepreneurial spirit. Spend time identifying these individuals as investment in them upfront, will help you to reach the masses without asking them to ‘do’ anything they’re not already doing or something that feels alien to them.

A final thought on this challenge is a cross over with Principle 6. Tap into what’s important and you can win the hearts and minds of some faithful students. Invest in them in the long term and become a part of student culture as a ‘provider’ and you will become a natural part of daily student life, negating any worry for apathy and with the massive rewards that loyalty brings.

8. Don’t jump on the Facebook bandwagon without a strategy
Ok, so we all know that the majority of students are on Facebook (nearly 1m in fact). Facebook started in the UK as a uni networking site, and students have remained loyal. Not suprising then that for many brands, a Facebook profile is an automatic tick box. And it can be a fantastic medium through which to engage students, but only if there’s a point; a reason for students to engage with your brand. As we’ve already touched on, students are simultaneously expectant and apathetic, unless you find the hook through which to stir up their passion. This applies to online and SNS such as Facebook as much as the offline world.

Think about why students use Facebook - to chat with and follow their friends; it’s fondly nicknamed the ‘stalker network’. They don’t actively seek out brand profiles unless there’s a damned good reason. So, how can your brand credibly infiltrate students’ own profiles and how you can become an integral part of what they’re already doing and interested in? Here’s a couple of thoughts: use Facebook as a vehicle through which to communicate a valid and interesting message, not as an end in itself. Think about how your brand can add value to existing usage. Work hard to identify a few influential students who can be invited to experience your brand, and put in place the means for them to be able to become advocates to a far wider audience through Facebook.

9. Timing is everything
You might have the best idea, creative and communication strategy but if you don’t understand daily student life or the wider student calendar, both of which can vary by university, you could end up on an empty campus or trying to engage them when all they can think about is exams. So, do your research on reading weeks, term dates, exam timetables, popular student nights and other local nuances.

Another interesting conundrum is whether to target Fresher Fairs. We have many conversations with brands on this topic as for some, students equals Freshers. Hold on though. Do you only want to target first years? Do you have to speak to them at the very start of term? Would you rather spend less for greater reach, target all years and not compete with as many other brands for cut through? Your answers to these questions will determine whether or not you should target Freshers.

Festival Marketing

Getting the Most out of Festivals this Summer

How can your brand make the most out of festival involvement this summer? Here is a quick guide covering the basics.

Add value. Assist organisers and promoters with their bottom line by increasing the quality of the events they put on. In doing this, you will enhance the festival-goers’ experience. The key to this is to understand the type of person attending each festival and what they are looking to get from the experience. Then, make sure you keep your offering true to your brand. A tea brand offering luxury showers will do nothing to promote their product or brand message, but providing tea ladies or an old fashioned tea shop serving English afternoon tea will get their product into hands in a relevant, memorable and fun way.

Be aware that all manner of gimmicks have already been done so try to be original and test out your ideas with the promoters and festival goers beforehand. As promoter Chris McCormick points out; “Festivals are about expression, through artistry, not just music. Promoters are no longer hanging their hats on their line-up and are having to focus on other art forms and also elements of the experience and atmosphere.” Brands should take heed of this and look at a variety of ways to enhance consumer festival experience.

Good examples come from brands offering relevant and useful experiences. Last summer saw Duracell taking their Powerhouse to several festivals offering music late into the night from top DJs as well as a chance to exchange old batteries for new Duracell ones for free. Ecover went to 4 ecologically friendly festivals in 2007, providing free shower gel and hand soap at all washing stations. It was a brilliantly simple example of how to offer the consumer something useful and on-brand whilst fitting in seamlessly with the festival ethos. Other successful practical activities include Orange handing out orange ponchos at Glastonbury and Wrangler running a jeans exchange and laundry service.

Duracell Powerhouse - always the last tent to close!

Build momentum around, as well as at the festival. Whilst many festivals attract people from all over the UK, some benefit from strong regional and local recognition and followings. Maximise local opportunities by working with retail outlets, restaurants, bars and clubs. Leicester’s Summer Sundae is a great example of how the festival can belong to a city, reaching out to local promoters, venues, bars, shops and businesses to get involved and provide services, support and sponsorship.

Leicester’s Summer Sundae Festival

In the run up to the festival, online integration can also help to build momentum. Every festival will have its own website as well as a social networking presence on Facebook and MySpace. Take advantage of these opportunities to connect with the audience pre and post event. Build a campaign online leading up to the event and use online brand ambassadors to seed your involvement with the audience beforehand.

Evaluation. This is obviously dependent on your objectives. For example, are you looking to generate trial, drive sales, change brand perceptions or raise awareness? Reach and sales are easy to measure, both at the festival and from surrounding activity. But, what about WOM and brand perceptions? If your festival activity has truly connected with your audience, they’ll be raving about your brand to their peers when they get home. So put in place methods to capture data (whilst benefiting your customers) so you can continue the dialogue post event and get an idea of what the extended reach is.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

I got dragged to the cinema last week top see Woody Allen's new film, Vicky Christina Barcelona. It was a bit of pay-back from my girlfriend for having made her sit through two and a half hours of subtitled communist revolution in 'Che' the previous week.

However, I was pleantly suprised - it was in fact the funniest thing I have seen at the cinema for as long as I can remember. I recommend it if you like good acting, witty scripts... oh and Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz kissing.