Check out the article below...
Showing posts with label alliance and leicester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alliance and leicester. Show all posts
Monday, 1 February 2010
PR Week
We're in this week's PR Week as one of the case studies for 'using research as part of a PR campaign'. We conducted some research for last year's Alliance & Leciester campaign which helped to launch each celebrity mentor.
Check out the article below...
Check out the article below...
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
New Exciting Year
Right now we are touring the country for our new client Brylcreem, check us out at key shopping centres around the country from this Saturday.
...and we are wrapping up our fab work with A&L, check out our latest mcfly video on YouTube:)
Thursday, 26 November 2009
How to use Insights to Effectively Engage Text-Savvy Youth through Award-Winning Marketing CampaignsLast month our MD, James, spoke at the Haymarket Digi-Savvy Youth Conference. He wowed delegates with Insights into our Insight - a look at how we tap into our unique resource, our Peer Network - 8,000 under 35s - to deliver real results, showcasing this with our award-winning ‘Inspired Choice’ campaign for Alliance & Leicester, a campaign built using our immersive insight methodology. |  Lounge immersive insight study | ||||
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Tuesday, 24 November 2009
McFly A&L Masterclass rocks our world
Have a look at our heat link. The team did an amazing job delivering our finally masterclass of the season on Saturday.
We've had over 100,000 views in the first 24 hours :)
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Rocking the house
Yesterday saw us presenting at the Haymarket Youth Conference with our lovely client Marian from A&L. It was so much better than the frankly rubbish Haymarket Student Conference.
We chatted about our A&L campaign and give some top tips on how to really get under the skin of young people.
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Denise Van Outen announced as A&L's second celebrity mentor!
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We recently announced Denise Van Outen as Alliance & Leicester's second celebrity mentor for A&L's 'Inspired Choice' campaign.
We are really excited to have Denise working with us and she joins Danny Cipriani's quest to inspire young adults.
The master class will be taking place on 25th September so check out the Premier 21 website to find out more info http://www.prem21.co.uk/
We will also be announcing our very exciting third and final celebrity mentor later in the year.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Danny Cipriani to host A&L Sport Master Class
The last few months have seen The Lounge working extremely hard with Alliance & Leicester in securing some top talent for this years 'Inspired Choice' campaign.
England and Wasps rugby player, Danny Cipriani has been named as the first celebrity mentor for 2009 and he will be holding a sports master class for 21 lucky account holders in July. It's all very exciting and over the past couple of weeks we have been extremely busy filming his podcast, launching the campaign and talking to lots of media....
We'll be announcing the next celebrity mentor very soon so watch this space.
For more information check out http://www.prem21.co.uk/
Thursday, 12 March 2009
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!
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
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
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.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Inspired Choices and Great Opporunities
What an amazing day! Once again twenty-one young people prepared themselves for a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet one of their heroes. This time, the impressively talented and completely lovely Ryan Giggs.They winners of the Alliance & Leicester's Premier 21 Current Account Master Class made their ways to
Manchester Piccadilly this weekend where they were picked up and taken to Carrington Training Ground - the official training ground for Manchester United. This was the first time that anyone could remember anything like this ever taking place at the sacred pitches, where so much magic happens on a daily basis.After settling in they met Ryan, who told them about his life and how he got to where he is today. They got to ask their questions and get them answered by the legend himself - all this before Giggsy put them through their paces.
Now I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest football fan, but even I got excited about walking around the ground and realised how honoured I was to be able to meet these great people and see everything first hand.
After a warm-up and a spot of lunch they were off for some proper training and,
of course, a kick about.There was a great mix of people; some athletes, some pro youth footballers, some sports lovers and some who were just excited to be there - all of them had a great time and got some great advice.
They all walked away feeling that they'd been given a great opportunity - in fact one of them was later approached by Manchester United and may even be up for an assessment - who know's, maybe The Lounge Group could have introduced the next Ryan Giggs to Man U.
Good Luck to him - hopefully he'll remember us when he's rich and famous - or at least remember the tips he got on how to shoot to success.
Cheers,
Paul
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
When it Works
As a PR or Marketer, we always talk about what great results we get and how much awareness we've raised with our campaigns. We use figures and graphs, tables and stats to 
indicate our success. Sales have risen so much and research shows that attitudes have changed this much - therefore the campaign has been successful. This of course gives you a sense of pride and achievement.
However I recently experienced something that really made me smile. After a busy radio day with Ryan Giggs, who is working with us on the Alliance & Leicester Premier 21 campaign, I was walking along the road when I bumped into and old friend in a pub. We began chatting and when I explained what I'd been doing in Manchester, the doorman's ears pricked up. "You met Ryan Giggs?" he asked me, almost threateningly.
A little perplexed at the interruption, I turned and answered, "Yeah I'm doing a campaign with him at the minute."
"Oh right," he said nodding,"It's not that Premier 21 training thing he's doing with that bunch of kids?"
Well my jaw hit the floor! Here was someone who we had actually reached, whose awareness had been raised - the campaign was working! I could have kissed him flat on the mouth - but opted to shake his hand instead.
"Thanks mate," I said, "you've made my month!"
All in a day's work.
If you'd like to meet Giggsy too, go to www.prem21.co.uk,
Cheers,
Paulie
indicate our success. Sales have risen so much and research shows that attitudes have changed this much - therefore the campaign has been successful. This of course gives you a sense of pride and achievement.However I recently experienced something that really made me smile. After a busy radio day with Ryan Giggs, who is working with us on the Alliance & Leicester Premier 21 campaign, I was walking along the road when I bumped into and old friend in a pub. We began chatting and when I explained what I'd been doing in Manchester, the doorman's ears pricked up. "You met Ryan Giggs?" he asked me, almost threateningly.
A little perplexed at the interruption, I turned and answered, "Yeah I'm doing a campaign with him at the minute."
"Oh right," he said nodding,"It's not that Premier 21 training thing he's doing with that bunch of kids?"
Well my jaw hit the floor! Here was someone who we had actually reached, whose awareness had been raised - the campaign was working! I could have kissed him flat on the mouth - but opted to shake his hand instead.
"Thanks mate," I said, "you've made my month!"
All in a day's work.
If you'd like to meet Giggsy too, go to www.prem21.co.uk,
Cheers,
Paulie
I
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Mr Giggs
After another manic Monday, I am getting into the rhythm of my work week. Last Friday gave rise to some rather exciting news; we now have football legend Ryan Giggs on board for our Premier 21 campaign. I keep getting flash backs of my younger days, where Ryan used to grace the covers of all the young girlie magazines such us Sugar and More. I think I actually saved the magazine poster to stick next to Christian Slater on my bedroom wall at one point. Cringe. Might not mention that when I meet him!! He was the Beckham before Beckham. Anyway through Alliance and Leicester (and of course us!) a group of lucky young people are going to spend a whole day with him, an amazing experience for all those avid footie fans! We are busily organising podcast, PR and photography for next week so will update the results! If you are interested in spending a day with Mr Giggs check out http://www.prem21.co.uk/
B x
B x
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
A bit of Gok on the radio
Last week we had a Radio Day with Gok Wan for the launch of new Alliance & Leicester Premier 21 Campaign, it was an early start for all - but it turned out to be really successful.
Gok was a true professional, and although he made the odd innuendo and talked about his bum hanging out of his pants, he was really good at talking about the Premier 21 Account’s Master Class Day with him. He even mentioned the research; that 52 per cent of youngsters who leave school do so because they want to get a job where they don't need a degree. All morning radio hosts seemed really happy with the interviews.
He talked a lot about his early life and how he got into fashion; apparently the first time he'd spoken about that. All in all we did all have a giggle, especially when he was asked for a Summer Style Tip and came out with, "Don't forget girls, if you're going to the beach this summer, remember to trim your bush" - and let's not forget the naked picture of a naked woman on her breakfast table, which they wanted Gok to comment on. It turned out to be one of the radio presenters for a later show. I'm still laughing now!
Worth the early start, although I felt a bit sorry for Gok as he had to run off to a shoot and knew he would be working til quite late at night.
Looking forward to the next press day though - hopefully equally as entertaining!
If you are 16-21 year you can apply to spend the day with him through www.prem21.co.uk
Paul
Monday, 23 June 2008
Gok a liscious
Happy Monday from The Lounge.
The Lounge recently filmed a podcast with Gok for the Prem 21 Campaign, in which he opens up about his life, career, top tips and speaks about his experiences growing up, which he has never really spoken about before. Gok was very down to earth and a really nice guy – he looked every bit the fashionista we know and love! For anyone interested in breaking into the fashion industry or just love Gok you will enjoy the podcast….
The campaign is pretty cool. A&L are offering 21 young people the chance to spend a whole day with Gok at one of
I will keep the updates coming…
B xx
Thursday, 19 June 2008
The Lounge launches today
GOK WAN TO HOST PREMIER 21 FASHION MASTER CLASS PROGRAMME FOR STYLIST WANNA-BE’S
Gok Wan is the first celebrity expert to be named to Alliance & Leicester Bank’s Premier 21 Master Class Programme which launches today. The programme has been created to support 16-21 year olds who have left full time education to kick start their careers.
Research conducted by the Bank showed that almost half (52 per cent) of those questioned about the most desirable career for people in their age bracket, chose jobs for which no degree was necessary. In addition, one of the industries considered a great career path was fashion, a choice Gok, stylist and presenter of How to look good naked, definitely agrees with.
“It’s important that people realise that not having a degree isn’t the end of the world,” said Wan, “There are lots of options for young people to build a successful career in their industry of choice. However, if you’re young and starting to make money, it’s a good idea to start thinking about saving for the future. Nobody’s young forever,” says Gok.
Gok will host a Premier 21 Fashion Careers Master Class Programme in September for young people looking to break into fashion.
Andy Bayes, Head of Current Accounts at Alliance & Leicester said: “Many 16-21 year olds now make the choice to go straight to work rather than university and as a result are very career driven. We think it is important to recognise those who are just starting out in their working life and offer them support, especially in the first stages of their professional lives when they are likely to be making important financial decisions.”
“With this in mind, the Premier 21 Account has been launched to allow this group to maximise the potential of their hard earned cash. The account offers a 10% interest rate, the highest credit interest rate on the high street, to help make their money go further.”
For more information on the Master Class Programme, how to win a spot to meet Gok Wan and the market leading Premier 21 Account visit www.prem21.co.uk..
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