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Post by Blandine Escoffier, OgilvyOne

Lands’ End started from small beginnings in Chicago – selling yachting equipment, duffle bags and jumpers, and have now grown into a multi-channel mail order company that today delivers their own-brand range of clothing, footwear and outerwear.

Since 1993, Lands’ End have served the UK from Rutland, the European head office, and comprises a state-of-the-art distribution centre, call centre and outlet store. More than that, it’s home to the 400+ hard-working people who are dedicated to making sure that customers’ experience is first class.

Their current marketing challenges are:

• Low brand awareness
• Increase brand perception
• Appeal to a slightly younger age group (55+)

The objective of the session was to generate ideas as to how we can help Land’s End to achieve this.

Idea Generation

Sponsorships:

• Take advantage of the link with artist Richard Long. For example, sponsor walks in and around Cornwall to promote a healthy and active life, and thus linking the activity to the Lands’ End range of comfortable, high quality clothing
• Associations with children’s charities. For example, team up with a local childrens’ charity to re-reinforce community spirit, and hopefully get the brand in the minds of a younger market

Facebook:

• Include competitions to generate dialogue amongst customers. There is an already existing competition section on the homepage, but carry this through to the Facebook page as well

Website:

• Include blogs or testimonials on the homepage to make it feel warmer and more community based

Research:

• Visit eHow.com to find out what the target market is talking about, and what they are interested in. Could give some very intersting and useful insight on what slant to take with marketing activities

To find out more, visit http://www.landsend.co.uk/

Post by Anne Dorst, Business Director, OgilvyOne

Mencap is a charity for people with learning disabilities.  They have a number of activities and partners. This brief was for the Make it with me/Bake it with me projects, which were launched recently but are not pulling the projected number of likes or followers on Facebook or Twitter.  The client wanted ideas on how to improve these, with an eye to making the sites eventually commercially viable.

Make it with me focuses on crafts, encouraging people to get together with friends or family and make crafts, then donate money to Mencap. The site also allows people to download project cards. The Bake it with me site encourages people to bake something and then donate. This site has recipe cards.  Both sites are fully stocked with content, professionally designed and thorough. They both have gallery sections where those that participate can upload their projects/cakes. They also both have companion Facebook sites and Twitter feeds.

Idea Generation

Overall, the team assessed the projects as excellent, well thought through and well designed ideas. Most importantly, they  tapped into the current trends and allowed participation.

However, they both seemed to suffer from lack of focus. With so much content and so many ideas, it could be confusing for the target to know what to do. They also seemed to lack a strong call to action – the link to donate was not very clear.

• Overall, it is critical to establish a clear call to action.  Tell people exactly what you want them to do and when.  Is it a party at whch you charge for admission? A donation amount per item? When should it be done by?  Clarity, focus and urgency are key.

• One idea might be to create an event.  Say for example, a national bake off day or a crafts day.  This should be a named date and all communication should be focused on getting your target to do something for or by this specific day.

• It might also be useful to focus on one event – either Crafts or Baking. Although both are excellent ideas, it may be a source of confusion to people which may mean that they fail to act. Team overall felt that the Bake it with me event had more promise.

• A strong partner would also raise the event’s profile. Companies like Hovis, Homepride, Waitrose/John Lewis or Hobbycraft might be ideal.  Alternatively a celebrity endorsement or participation would also be useful. Client did note that partnerships can and do take time to establish and the team agreed, but encouraged that lines of communication might be opened now in time for a partner launch in Sept or October in time for a big event. If bigger partners are difficult to work with, consider others such as Budgens or Costco.  Long term partnerships with educators in which the Bake it Me event becomes part of home economics courses or Make it with me part of design technology annually could also be promising.

• Tying the event into a seasonal occasion might also be powerful – either with or without a partner. This might be a summer tie-in as this is traditionally a time for parents seeking activities to do with children, or later in the year Back to school, Halloween or Christmas. Should you create an event, particularly one for parents and children to do together, you could easily get coverage of this on shows like GMTV, Blue Peter, etc who are actively looking for ideas for children.  Other shows such as Can’t Cook/Won’t Cook might be worth considering, or creating a bespoke event with a show such as Richard and Judy in which they both sponsor and participate.

• Possible summer seasonal ideas included : bake your own Harry Potter character for July 15 movie launch, or a child friendly theme for the summer such as monsters, Horrible Histories, what I did on my summer holiday etc.   A Parent/Child bake off competition or challenge might also be an idea.
• Sponsoring a world record such as “biggest cake” or “longest sandwich” or similar might also be ways of attracting followers and PR.

• Consider using current mailing lists and supporters to drive support for the event – push out the idea to them first. Also consider other organisations for parents and children such as summer camps and local council activity centre lists.

• Stock the current FB or websites with more content, especially video. Don’t be afraid to make it homegrown – get staff to bake something together around the theme, or a key group of supporters, and upload the video. Remember that people do love and share video content naturally these days, especially if it is fun or amusing.

• Use other Mencap friendly distributions networks who have natural affinity with your cause – Mumsnet, Teacher’s TV, educational groups, supporters, friends and family.  All of your events should be seeded with these networks automatically.

• Consider a higher profile for Make it and Bake it sites on the Mencap homesite – it is very hard to find

• Deepen FB and Twitter usage by researching other groups and liking them. On Twitter you can search by subject and follow lists – search crafts, baking and other topics such as these.   Search engine optimisation is also worth looking at – ensure that both sites are stocked with the most searched phrases for parents, teachers and children looking for activities.

Spellathon:

• Quick discussion was held about Mencap’s other big event – the Spellathon.  Mencap is building a selection of apps and games around spelling.  Team thought that these sounded promising. For younger adult supporters, advice was to create a game that could be played on a mobile phone during down times such as waiting in queues, on the tube, etc. Building in a sense of competition would be key for attracting male gamers in particular. Ideas around this involved allowing the gamers to track their points and perhaps encouraging them to donate an amount per point. Better still, allow the gamers to challenge each other and the loser has to donate a pre-agreed amount each time they lose.

Piggybanks:

• One last idea was piggybanks. Could Mencap sponsor piggybanks and get them into children’s homes and schools? This could let parents and teachers to discuss charitable donations and our obligation to help others, as well as make it easy to donate to Mencap.

Find out more at http://www.mencap.org.uk/

Post by Anne Dorst, Business Director, OgilvyOne

Collins Education is the children’s division of Harper Collins publishers. They have a list of approximate 65 children’s titles and also run an annual children’s writing competition.  This year there will be 15 new titles on the list and the writing competition will be run again in September, with 3 children being published. Currently the competion has a microsite and contestants can enter via mail or online. Competition is open internationally although all entries must be in English. It will have a theme (last year was Secrets) but this is generated by the marketing department, not PR.

Collins has recently brought their PR in house and client was looking for PR ideas, including tips on PR basics.

Idea Generation

Team suggested that the children’s writing competition is the best place to start – gives the PR a focus and a date to work with. The competiton starts in September, and will be themed, with the closing date in December. Team suggested using the competition as the first PR story, and using it to build a base of friendly media contacts and lists and then use these to launch the new titles.

• Consider stocking the website with more content, particularly video. This should include tips on how to start writing, as well as kits for both educators and teachers which include tips on how to get children involved. Other ideas for content include interviews with current authors and other leading figures such as educators, government ministers and/or people who are known for their interest in literacy and education.
• Launch the competition on a named day and ensure that you have a full list of key media targets in advance. These lists can easily be compiled using specialist PR software. Begin with a list of your key markets and create target lists.
• It is worth making a list now and begin contact now. A practice run with journalists is always recommended.
• It would also be worthwhile considering a media tour or book event. These should include the children who won last year, being interviewed or reading from their new books. These can be simple events in the children’s homnetown, or could be done with national and/or regional TV shows with an affinity for literacy and children. Consider local and regional TV channels in the children’s hometown or children’s programmes such as BluePeter, Ceebeebies. Other possible programmes which are aimed at parents should be used such as GMTV, ITV Today, etc.
• Ogilvy PR will forward a list of PR basics and tips to the client, along with software recommendation. CIPR also recommended as a good source of advice.
• Client should also consider working with marketing to create a theme that works with PR and media. Ideas around this include topical issues such as boys and reading, kids and imagination (ie versus gaming/video – can kids still create?) Sites such as Commonsense, aimed at parents, or Geek Out, which encourages children to embrace education might also give ideas for themes.
• Consider other ideas of create new interest – you could create or sponsor a survey using SurveyMonkey or similar on a key topic. It is important that at least 2000 respondents reply for any survey to be taken seriously.
• Look into search engine optimisation urgently. Current microsite is difficult to find. Consider getting a basic text on this subject and stocking the microsite with the most used phrases and words that are used by parents and educators when looking into ideas for children and reading.

Find out more at http://www.collinseducation.com

Post by Jon Ellison, Project Manager, OgilvyOne

Shorters Club is an e-commerce site offering wholesale prices to consumers without any membership programme. Their short term goal is to compete with the “big four” supermarkets (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s & Morison’s.)

Idea Generation

The team initially focussed on the current website, its potential to improve through m-Commerce and how the company could improve on their current social network offerings:

• It was raised that the homepage of the site did not display correctly in Internet Explorers 6, 7 & 8 (which still control a significant market portion.)
• In the same way that consumers check electronics prices online, Shorters Club could position themselves so that a dedicated mobile version of their site could be used to let customers see how much they would be saving when they are in the supermarket.
• The numbers of users recommending products to their friends through Facebook and other social media was relatively low. In the week since Ogilvy had shared a product on Facebook, only 6 other people had shared a product with a friend (according to the widget on the Shorters Club homepage). In order to drive this up, it was recommended that each page not only have a share by email button but also have a Facebook sharing option.
• The current Facebook page had a number of customers complaining that they hadn’t received their orders. At present this only presented a negative with a member of staffing saying that they would try to get them delivered soon – the team suggested that this needed to be turned around into a positive, possibly giving the customer something for their inconvenience. It was suggested that this could be along similar lines to Pizza Hut’s response to US YouTube criticism, or Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Idea” scheme to turn negative feedback into a positive for the company.
• It was suggested that the Twitter feed should be used less as a series of announcements, but more about creating a conversation and getting consumers to interact with Shorters Club. This type of interaction would then better drive followers to convert their interaction into sales.
• As future room for development on the website it was also suggested that repeat ordering functionality and a “let me know when you start stocking…” option could be beneficial.

Moving away from the technical element of the site, a number of suggestions were also made about the general Shorters Club brand and the way they market themselves.

• Owing to the way that Shorters Club mainly has an online presence, it was felt that more should be done to incorporate the URL into branding and around the logo on direct mailing materials.
• At present, the same DM leaflet was placed into each delivery. A variety of leaflets would make the marketing feel more dynamic, especially if targeted DMs were used for the customer’s first order and for retention.
• An actual “Shorters Club” was suggested to offer special discounts for members, as opposed to casual visitors.
• Ogilvy enquired what Shorters Club exactly stood for. It was felt that it stood for:

- A fair price
- A young audience
- Good communication & customer service – they always phone about substitutions, in contrast to supermarkets
- Based upon earlier articles in the Daily Mail it was felt that more of a brand image should be built up around James Shortridge (MD) and his young family, the characters within the company and the way that they are helping other young families.

• The concept of a “mum’s council” was also created, leveraging the popularity of sites such as Mumsnet and creating an affinity between the Shorters Club brand and their customers.

Find out more at http://www.shortersclub.co.uk/