Ideashop - Just another WordPress weblog

BK Enterprises is a local convenience store that provides phone and Oyster top ups as well as Newspapers, snacks and food and drink. The shop is owned and has been run by a lovely dude called Kenny for 20 years. He also sells Jamaican patties (which in his opinion are the best you can buy), has recently set up an internet area in the back and is in the process of obtaining an alcoholic beverages licence. Over the last few years he has found his store footfall dwindling due to the appearance of a Tesco, Lidl and Costcutter nearby as well as other newsagents opening up over the road.

Our challenge was to get more customers through the door.

We suggested a number of things.

The first thing we noticed was that Kenny was a lovely guy with a deep knowledge of the local area and that actually he is a really strong selling point. So why not look at changing the name to reflect that. Nobody says ‘I’m nipping down to B K Enterprises for some milk’. They would however say that they’re ‘popping over to Kenny’s’.

One of the things we pointed out was that when people move into an area the first shop they go to tends to become their local. So we suggested going to the local lettings agents and giving them a welcome pack with local information and a welcome voucher for new tenants to the area. This would be redeemable in the shop for something like bread, milk and tea, or a free paper etc.

We also told them to put an A-board outside the shop to advertise the patties as no-one know about them until they are already inside the shop.

We suggested that for the internet users he offers a cup of tea or coffee.

They sell stationary and used to get customers coming in from the post office over the road. We discovered that his traffic had begun to decrease when it closed down. We thought that he could apply for a Post Office franchise as there are none in the local vicinity and there is already a post box outside the shop. And because Kenny was one of the people who campaigned to keep the original one open, this could make a great local news story and get his shop in the local press for some free publicity.

Post by Jamie Romain, Art Director, Ogilvy One

Macmillan Cancer Support visited the Idea Shop with a campaign brief outlining the need to raise awareness that people with rarer cancers should get fairer access to the drugs they need to prolong their lives. It’s a really important issue that the Idea Shop team were only too happy to help with.

The challenge:

The benefits of drugs to treat rarer cancers, while often hugely valued by patients, frequently prove non cost-effective under the NICE Technology Appraisal processes and aren’t widely available on the NHS as a result.

The campaign brief detailed a range of audiences that Macmillan Cancer Support intend to target including MPs, Health Thought Leaders, NICE, health correspondents, influential bloggers and the general public. The aim of the campaign is to generate national and regional coverage to raise awareness of the issue amongst the target audiences and encourage the public to get involved and write to their local MP / newspaper.

The solution:

We talked Macmillan through the need to pull together a detailed communications strategy setting clear guidelines on timing.  We recommended stretching the initial deadline to beyond May as the campaign would still be equally as effective working as a sustained campaign, rather than an immediate push before the general election when the media will be incredibly crowded with competing messages.

The Ogilvy team recommended splitting the target audiences into three distinct groups that each require different messaging and tailored approaches.

Ogilvy stressed the need for a case study in order to help people to engage with the story in a personal manner. An individual’s story would greatly assist the campaign in terms of the strength of the argument created for enabling fairer access to drugs.
We batted around a few ideas for ‘lines’ to promote the campaign, which we’ll keep under wraps for now.

Macmillan is currently very strong in terms of generating media headlines. Therefore we recommended focusing on amplifying current online activity – such as utilising the Facebook page and creating a Twitter stream purely for the campaign to raise awareness of the issues these people are facing. By utilising digital streams Macmillan can create a value exchange, enabling supporters to actively engage in the campaign and share their views in addition to spreading the word about the need for fairer access to drugs that treat rare cancers.
To that end we talked about initiating a “retweet campaign” to support the call to action to write to MPs or sign a petition.

Ogilvy talked about the importance of listening to what is currently being talked about online and then engaging in that conversation. Engaging influential bloggers is key to spreading online chatter and we recommended a listening exercise in order to help Macmillan identify relevant individuals.

We also talked about right and wrong ways to approach bloggers and active twitter users – think of it as a conversation you are joining, be respectful, earn your right to be there, then add your two cents, just as if you were joining a conversation down the pub or over the garden fence.

The chatter online will drive traffic to a dedicated part of the Macmillan Communities site where the call to action will be clearly stated, either in the form of a petition or a template letter.

Macmillan is keeping Idea Shop updated on their progress and we are fully behind the campaign.

Keep your eyes peeled for the latest coverage:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7189796/Terminally-ill-patients-being-penalised-by-Nice-for-having-rare-conditions.html

Get involved: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/macmillancancer http://community.macmillan.org.uk/whatsnew/default.aspx

Post by Sophie Gray, Ogilvy PR

The story was a classic class of Brand Identity. Josh Lever – charismatic, driven, enthusiastic (a Richard Branson in the making) clearly has an ambitious vision of how to manage his company Chemistry. Since the age of 15, Josh has been DJing and planning events. Today his enterprise has skyrocketed to a successful approach in managing high-end birthdays, weddings and celebrations. Marketing collateral was impressive with good visuals of what Chemistry can do in a brochure format and accompanying website. www.chemistry-events.com

The problem? How can Chemistry create a branded identity, and encourage further word of mouth, when it is their events that they should be primarily remembered for. Creating a distinctive identity would ensure future events and revenue in light of established competition. We sat down in a cafe for some tea and an oversized plate of chips and got to it.

We all warmed to Josh quickly, he knew what he wanted from Chemistry and articulated his brand principles clearly. Firstly it clear on talking with Josh that Chemistry provide experiences, not events. This distinction could set Chemistry apart from competition -  birthdays, weddings, anniversaries – these are all experiences. Each could be unique and tailored. Positioning himself as a provider of “experiences” rather than merely an “event planner” would allows Chemistry to be more experimental and risque – something Josh was keen on. And it would present a distinctiveness in the market.

How to create brand resonance though? We explored the idea of branding videos of the party for party-goers to take home with them. These videos would be fully immersive for the viewer – as if you were actually there – first person camera shooting / lots going on. The video would start: ‘Chemistry presents…..’  – in doing this Chemistry instantly creates ownership of the event, which would further encourage positive referral in a market dominated by word of mouth. Josh soon got the idea – by creating ownership, and taking leadership of an industry sector by creating that ownership – his company would become the market leader as matter of course.

Additionally we explored the possibility of Chemistry creating their own quality control organisation – imagine a ‘ Guild of Quality Service for Experience Events’ – Chemistry would set the standard in the industry – others would have to try and catch up! Creating a quality standards campaign could also be a great way to generate PR.

Josh clearly had a lot to drive him to success. With these minor tweaks in positioning and branding Josh will create a set of standards and a market in which Chemistry would be the flagship brand. The events that he’d managed in the past were clearly memorable and successful, by exploring in-event experience – e.g. video interviews – a multi-video wall of people from the party, post-event branding through video tagging software and customer testimonials – Chemistry will have even more successful events and a very successful brand.

Plus Josh mentioned he may be able to plan my next birthday party – so expect invites in the post soon!

Posted by Nick Bennett