Last week, AgencyUK attended MAD//fest, the UK’s boldest and most distinctive marketing event in the heart of London’s tech and culture scene. The space where top brands, agencies and publishers come to connect, form new relationships, fix industry issues, pitch visionary ideas and celebrate all things Marketing, Advertising and disruption!
We #gotourwings2022 and won two fantastic awards at The Independent Agency Awards 2022, including ‘Best Use of Social Media for Chewits’ and ‘Best FMCG / Retail Campaign for Chewits’!
Rebecca FitzHenry, AgencyUK Senior Account Manager says: “We’re so excited to have won two awards for our work with Chewits. It’s been so great working with Cloetta to reawaken the Chewits brand (and it’s cheeky dino friend Chewie!) This integrated campaign has been a real AgencyUK team effort, from strategy and creative through to continuous learning and optimisations with the social and digital teams. With some amazing results to date, we can’t wait to see what’s next for the brand.”
Huge congratulations to all members of the Social, Digital, Creative, Strategy and Client Services teams for all of your hard work- it has definitely paid off! And that’s not all… AgencyUK were also Highly Commended for the Agency Purpose Awards and shortlisted for Independent Agency of the year!
Sammy Mansourpour, Managing Director says: “In 2019 the AgencyUK management team embarked on an ambitious programme of self improvement for staff, community and environment. Recognition and a Commendation for our efforts by the Independent Agency Purpose Award judges is invaluable and motivating for our team and peers. We cannot wait to continue this journey and share our experiences with the judges again in next year’s entry”.
We are so proud of our achievements as an agency and look forward to creating more great content this year and beyond. See you next year MAD//fest!
We’re delighted to support premium cycle tyre brand Vittoria by launching Great Expectations. This series of mini-docs and social content reveals the inner thoughts of professional riders as they reflect on what cycling means to them.
We created the campaign to take a more personal approach, giving riders the freedom to express what cycling means to them as they prepared for the new season – and The Ride Ahead. It’s all part of The Ride Ahead positioning we developed with the brand’s leadership team that’s now being rolled out across Their global communications.
Filmed on location at the team training camps, Great Expectations launches with riders from XC team Santa Cruz FSA and road team DSM. The films open the door on the curiosity, optimism and courage of each rider in a series of intimate portraits as they share their hopes and ambitions.
“Visiting many places helps you to grow as a man – as a human – because you can see the world from different points of view,” says Maxime Marotte, Santa Cruz FSA, in one of the films.
“One of the nicest things in cycling is to go on a new road – that brings you to a beautiful place,” adds, Romain Bardet, Team DSM.
Firehaus worked with Italian production company Yanzi and director Marco Marcasolli along with the brand’s marketing team on the mini-docs and a range of short edits.
Vittoria CCO Ernesto Garcia Domingo said “ Great Expectations brings a new approach and fresh voices to our audience with pro riders sharing some of their personal insights and motivations. This has been a great collaboration so far under The Ride Ahead banner and we look forward to sharing more over the coming months”.
Ian Bates, Founder and Creative Partner at Firehaus said “This series of mini-docs has given us the space to produce content that is more personal and inspiring”
The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series led by Prof. Michele Barbour Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol.
The series has been created to inspire entrepreneurs and help them to realise impact from their ideas. Michele interviews founders, researchers and academics from different disciplines and career stages who’ve been part of the University’s Enterprise ecosystem. Each episode is a treasure trove of information covering a range of topics from funding, licensing and IP, consultancy, contract research and business incubation.
Guests include Konstantina Psoma, Professor Wuge Briscoe, Professor Roberta Guerrina and Dr Tom Carter.
Bristol now tops the list of UK universities for the return on investment achieved by spinouts and is ranked in the top 3 for equity investment.
Prof. Michele Barbour said: “The University of Bristol has an impressive track record of enterprise and innovation and we’re keen to share that knowledge within our community as well as with a wider audience. The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series that brings to life the personal stories of spinout Founders and how our enterprise ecosystem has them.
Firehaus took our idea and created a branded content series, introducing the broadcast-style interview approach, as well as the name and look and feel. The approach has allowed me to develop rich conversations with our interviewees and showcase their experience of our ecosystem which will be of huge benefit for anyone involved in research, innovation and enterprise.”
Nick Barthram, Strategy Partner at Firehaus said: “Firehaus has worked with a range of organisations in the Research, Innovation and Enterprise space, including UKRI, Made Smarter Innovation and The University of Bristol. Consequently, we’ve developed a clear understanding and methodology to ignite opportunities at the intersection of academia and industry”.
Strategy, Concept and Art Direction: Firehaus
Film Production: JonesMillbank
The D word. It’s something we don’t talk about enough in our culture, and even when we do, we can’t seem to get the word out. Pushing up the daisies, kicking the bucket, biting the dust… There are so many metaphors to help us avoid directly talking about Death.
This poses a problem for marketing professionals in the charity sector, where gifts in Wills account for up to a third of annual income. When 30% of your revenue is at stake, encouraging your audience to face the inevitability of death becomes essential. Bristol-based CRM agency Flourish have identified this as a challenge and are helping charities to maximise their potential for legacy donations.
A legacy donation is made when someone leaves a gift for a charity in their Will.
For many people, including a charity donation in their Will is a way to ensure their beliefs are honoured when they’re no longer here. Some people choose to pledge a set amount, whereas others opt for a per centage of their estate. However, there are others who slip though the net, and don’t get round to updating their Will at all.
Fortunately, there are awareness days around gifts in Wills – and two of them are on the horizon over the next couple of months. To help charities make the most of these, Flourish is planning a series of articles, case studies and social media posts to help raise awareness of legacy marketing and the challenges that surround it.
Record numbers of people are leaving gifts in their Wills today, partly thanks to increased awareness, demonstrating that an appetite to do something meaningful is there. Charities who provide a sensitive, thoughtful legacy journey have the potential to capture many more legacy donations.
Kim Martin, Executive Creative Director, said, “Fundraising Managers should start planning now to capitalise on awareness days later in the year. It’s a golden opportunity to find hand-raisers who will become pledgers in the future.”
You can keep up to date with the campaign by following Flourish via LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter and by visiting the Flourish website blog.
Flourish have worked with a range of not-for-profit organisations over 15 years, providing creative and strategic planning to raise legacy funding from gifts in Wills. This has resulted in some increased revenue for charities including PDSA, Crisis, St Mungo’s, Diabetes UK, CLIC Sargent and many more.
If you need help communicating about legacy fundraising to your audience, get in touch with Flourish and we’ll be happy to offer a free customer journey review in time for the upcoming legacy fundraising awareness days.
Wednesday 29 June saw us attend the UK Digital Growth Awards in Marble Arch, London and return to the South West triumphant, with three trophies in hand!
Launch was awarded Best Use of Data for ISO consultancy client IMSM and B2B PPC Campaign of the Year for office property client Argyll, before going on to scoop PPC Agency of the Year as the evening drew to a close.
Judges’ feedback noted how ‘everything Launch brought forward as an agency was interesting’ and recognised how ‘impactful’ and ‘well planned and executed’ the campaigns were. They also highlighted our people-centric focus and positive employee experience, where we’ve placed an increasing emphasis on our staff’s wellbeing and happiness, having tripled in team size since the beginning of 2021.
These awards follow a string of other wins this year at the UK Paid Media Awards, European Search Awards, and The Drum Search Awards.
Jaye Cowle, Managing Director at Launch, says: “It’s absolutely brilliant to be able to add these Growth awards to our awards shelf – particularly following such a tricky time in the industry. We’re delighted that the judges have recognised our dedication to our staff and their happiness. It’s an ongoing mission of ours and this just proves we’re on the right path.”
See the full list of other winners on the UK Digital Growth Awards website or read the award-winning Argyll and IMSM case studies.
Video marketing is fundamentally the use of video content to promote and market products and services, increase social and digital engagements, and educate and reach target audiences. That’s a lot of potential uses, which is why video marketing is becoming ever prevalent with our clients and the brands of today. Audiences are also watching more online video content than ever before. This growing appetite in viewership and engagement has made it an ideal channel for performance marketing.
Something that has become crucial to the acceleration of video’s success within marketing is that now it is truly measurable like the other more established performance channels. Marketers and brands are now able to feel more assured by results like Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) offered by video, as we’re able to effectively see its influence on traffic, leads, sales and audience impact. Video is a tried and tested way of driving high performance ads and generating results across a variety of metrics.
Performance-driven creative and creative-driven performance.
What? Well, traditionally campaigns have either been led around an innovative creative idea, but this idea, whilst it may be unique, or eye-catching, lacks value if it doesn’t lead to tangible actions or results. At the other end of the spectrum we see campaigns heavily led by KPIs, but lacking creativity. We believe in finding a sweet spot; we’ve proven that great things happen when you find a balance and believe that brands of today will need to shift their focus from one or the other and merge the two.
Rethinking the way we approach creative to be optimised for performance is not about being less creative or restricting big ideas, it’s about bringing data to the forefront and using that to inform our decisions and learnings. By re-prioritising the way we approach creative, with data-led insights upfront helps ideas reach the audience effectively, resonate emotionally with their needs and drive the desired outcome. By no means should data mean ‘do the same as everyone else’, it should give you the ground to understand what resonates and how to differentiate yourself in your market. Ultimately, performance-driven creative is focused on the end result, the desired action, therefore for the concept to work, it needs to deliver results.
Bringing this back to video, with an ever-changing landscape of video trends and platform capabilities, even on a daily basis, our creative intuition of how to capture attention best can be subjective, emotionally led and provide a narrow view. This is where data helps to steer our vision towards what is proven to be most effective, ensuring that ideas are backed by something more than instinct. As well as steering the idea, it’s also important to be aware of the best practices for each platform with a generic view and specifically for your audience – for example, are the majority of your audience watching on a mobile device or desktop, do they perform better with or without sound, what length is most effective? Each of these data points can inform how to optimise your video content.
When it comes to optimising channel-specific content, take this example from Mercedes Benz. This YouTube pre-roll concept has really embraced the requirements of this format and engaged the audience in a creative way that directly links to their specs. The ad creative makes clever use of quick video cuts and great sound design of a roaring engine to engage its viewers’ senses. This way, its audience can actually see and hear the intensity of reaching 60 MPH in only 3.8 seconds.
However, from our experience this also works on a much smaller scale, with more agile budgets. Take one of our consumer brands, independent, family-run company Cotswold RAW. We’ve been working with them since they started up and video was a new consideration for them – something we were keen to grow to differentiate them in the pet market and demonstrate their expertise, unique offering and quality of product. Working within a limited budget from a one day shoot, we managed to create two master ads (one consumer focused and one for their retailers) social cuts (for Facebook & Instagram) and cut downs for YouTube pre-roll ads – that’s a lot of content! When it came to results, we managed to get tails wagging. On a limited ad spend over a highlighted month period, this led to an incredible conversion rate of up to 46.6%. Off the success of this campaign, we are now currently in the production process for a new video series.
On the other side of our client roster, Cytel, the largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design and execution, looked to us to develop and support their new brand messaging. For this we took a multi-channel approach to video, we utilised LinkedIn to ensure we could reach their defined target audience within the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We also created additional uplift in awareness by integrating YouTube into our approach, which allowed us to target specific relevant video content to generate the most effective levels of engagement and retention. This gave us a multilayered approach and therefore greater depth to our brand awareness results.
Finally, test and learn, test and learn. A huge part of the success of our campaigns relies heavily on optimisations and an integrated approach to reporting. Feeding back learnings to evolve existing campaigns as well as using them to inform new development of visuals and messaging is a huge part of creative performance. Testing and analysing efficiently is the best way to be effective.
Historically video is (generally) approached by the industry as “part of a wider campaign” and often handed to a one-off production agency and director who haven’t been involved in the same brand journey and strategy as the creative agency.
Being fully integrated at AUK, our unique approach helps us to ensure video is ingrained at the heart of our brands journeys and considered as part of a wider marketing strategy, not just a singular campaign activation. We think beyond just making amazing content, we also consider how and where to use it for maximum impact and results.
AgencyUK is an agency that supports, nurtures and cares for everyone. From the bigger events such as charity walks and abseils to the smaller amenities like ensuring free breakfast and fruit are provided daily. AUK proves to its employees that they have their wellness at heart.
I’m Megan, Paid Media Manager at AUK and I started working here in October 2021 after leaving the busy London life to move closer to my family and friends. After COVID-19 and working at home at my kitchen table for the past two years, it was important for me to find a workplace where I can go back to working collaboratively, contribute to my development and most importantly feel valued. After my first interview, I knew that AUK puts people and its employees first.
I recently watched a film called ‘The Brand New Testament’ that spoke about the concept of working as ‘renting your time out’. Your employer essentially pays for your weekly time to work for them. You wouldn’t rent out something that isn’t worth your time or money, so ensure that the time you rent is worth it for you. I think wellness and wellbeing is key in this.
Since joining I have (but not limited to) – been offered the flexibility of hybrid working; taken full advantage of the free fruit, breakfast, tea and coffee; been on an incredible camping trip to Wales where we spent some well-earned time out in nature team building and canoeing; walked the London Moonwalk marathon for “Walk the Walk” charity; watched our AUK bees enjoy their new home in the AUK hives and joined the first cohort of AUK’s new initiative called “Agency for All”.
“Agency for All” is an amazing programme run by Systemic Team Coach Victoria Coxen and Psychotherapist Carolyn Bird. The aim is to guide AUK’s employees into exploring and understanding themselves as individuals, how we connect and build meaningful human relationships with our team and peers, and then how that affects the wider agency and business. It’s about being the best version of ourselves in order to strengthen the team from the inside.
This scheme has been a success, with everyone finding it insightful and appreciating the time to come away from work to sit and think about ourselves and our feelings. We look forward to everyone in the agency benefiting from this experience.
Working for AUK makes me feel confident, comfortable and valued and I’m excited to see what else AUK have in the pipeline to ensure we all have positive wellbeing… I’ve heard rumours of a summer BBQ and beekeeper training!
At AUK we not only make a meaningful difference through our work, but we have a strong focus on creating positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of our team. Our strong values surrounding health and wellbeing mean we get the best out of our day, both mentally and physically. Creating a working environment that supports good nutrition is key to AUK’s approach as it’s the backbone to how we function, especially as a creative agency. We need to get those creative juices flowing!
In 2021 we joined forces with Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant Laura Clark to become our own AUK nutrition and diet advisor, guiding us on our learning and development. Laura has already helped the team take a look at the connection between mental health and nutrition, and this year we have a strong focus on maintaining our energy levels.
“How we choose to fuel our working day has the potential to have a profound impact on our productivity, energy levels and mental resilience. However, we seem to be fond of creating a structure in which we expect our brains to do it all simultaneously. Food should be tasted, savoured and enjoyed, if only for a few brief moments away from the keyboard. We tend to succeed more with all tasks that we decide to devote our attention to. Appetite regulation and energy management are no different.” Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant
Being an agency for all means we love to give back, so we wanted to share our ways of working to our AUK friends to give them a deeper understanding of our values surrounding nutrition and our approach to the work we create. Check out their thoughts:
“We spend a lot of our lives at work, so ensuring that we are fuelling ourselves with the best possible things to optimise energy feels really important to me, now more than ever after attending Laura’s talk. It also made me realise that it’s not just all about me. It’s about the impact I have on others too. If I’m running low on energy or having a slump, others will feel that impact too.” Kate Gray, Cookpad
“Good nutrition fuels our minds and bodies – our two biggest tools when it comes to doing impactful creative work. Feed your body, nourish your brain. It was great to see Laura take a realistic look at nutrition and wellness. She explained how to balance a diet that is realistic and sustainable for working professionals.” Alyssa Jaffer, Deliveroo
“Creating a flexible culture where breaks to eat at a time that is right for individuals, away from the desk and in a mindful way, is encouraged will foster empowerment to personalise wellbeing through food, which ultimately will benefit all.” Amanda Butterworth, Trust My Care
“Managing energy levels is key to productivity across a team, and nutrition plays such a huge role in this and affects everyone regardless of their exercise habits or sporting interests.” Simon Rollings, The Canned Wine Co.
“We all deserve the opportunity to fuel our brilliance. With small tweaks and an ethos that supports the foundational aspects of employee wellbeing, we can really set ourselves up for success,” says Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant.
Gen Z is officially the next generation of spenders. Moreover, they have grown up with the concept of, not only the internet, but social media and all the platforms involved; digital nativists. They are composed of 2.1 billion impressionable minds and with so many owning mobile devices it infers that the most effective way of reaching these digital nativists is through social media.
It has been reported that Gen Z spends an average of 7.3 hours on screens throughout the day.
The perfect opportunity to seize for digital marketing.
Despite the teaching of ‘stranger danger’, the younger generation has an extraordinary, sometimes dangerously naive, ability to trust others through social networks. This can be through one-to-one conversations, all the way up to ‘viral’ influencers.
While paid promotion may seem a waste, especially for B2B marketing, the reach of the advocates is extremely wide. Many control thousands and even millions of devoted followers, ensuring high visibility for brands is linked. Looking at this characteristic psychologically, many individuals follow and like the content with which they identify or aim to become. This identification could also be related to a form of psychology discovered by Albert Bandura; Social Learning Theory. This finds that the more others wish to be, or are already aligned with a role model (in this case, an influencer), the more likely it is that they will repeat their behaviour (buying or interacting with your business).
As the younger generations are so heavily led by social media, it creates the perfect opportunity to market. An influencer is also another great idea due to the human touch. If Gen Z’s can see the personal, relatable side of an influencer, they can identify and imitate more behaviours. This is what many organisations overlook; so, having a ‘friendly face’ as an advocate for your business may go a long way.
TikTok is a prime example of how beneficial influencers can become. Branded Mission is a new feature that has been added recently, where brands decide an aim, and influencers are alerted to create videos for it. Many of these have become ‘viral’ and gained much momentum. Omolala Jewellery is a success story; 1.8 million+ impressions on TikTok, in turn giving 20.5k followers on Instagram, and a highly impressive sales rate.
Gen Z’s are arguably the most moral of the generations, after various movements and liberation such as LGBTQ+ and BLM. With the use of social media, many injustices have been brought to light, making this age range immensely concerned with ethical backgrounds. To hone into this characteristic is of high importance in 2022, as many Gen Z’s support organisations that are in line with their own, personal morals. Emotive marketing can highlight this personal, and ethical viewpoint to engage with the younger audience. Adverts are also becoming decreasingly effective on social media, as many ‘skip advert’ features have been developed. So to keep interested, and gain impressions, the best cause of action would be to align with the social movements.
Sustainability is a huge aspect of Gen Z’s life, as they strive towards a healthy planet. Whether it is tweeting about the latest way to save paper waste, or partnering with sustainable brands or influencers, this will definitely attract Gen Z. Invest any time you have in building an ethical, eco-friendly view on social media, however, make sure that it remains authentic otherwise you may be seen as greenwashing.
While it may be a slightly undesirable trait, Gen Z holds the shortest attention span of the ages; 4 seconds less than millennials at 8 seconds. This means that any advertising has to be short and snappy. There is no point in prolonging a message for Gen Z’s, as they will simply skip through. If adverts are the route your organisation chooses to go down, guerrilla marketing may be the way forward, as they will keep the audience engaged and spark interest. While blogs and articles give a greater depth of insight into brands, many Gen Z’s instead prefer video content. This is why Reels have become so popular on Instagram. Tweets should be condensed into one or two sentences, usually with a catchy phrase and emojis.
For example, Skin Care by Hyram, a start-up cosmetics line, influences Gen Z through social media. The main feature when individuals view his website is the big lettering and serene picture. There is little text on the page, except the quote “Hello you wonderful person”. This small yet effective catchphrase plays into the emotive marketing strategy, and immediately creates a sense of belonging and loving. This is such a short line, to grasp the audience’s attention, but also leads them to the main page of products, by appealing to their short attention span. Skin Care by Hyram has grown an extensive following and fanbase, in line with his social media platforms. Hyram has achieved 1.2m on Instagram, 4.5m on YouTube, 6.8m on TikTok.
To summarise, Gen Z’s have many differences in comparison to other age groups; adding a new perspective to the working world. The marketing and PR strategies therefore must adapt as well to keep up with the many changes in age perception, helping to effectively reach Gen Z.
Analysing their differences can positively affect your organisation’s marketing and PR strategies, so from the Oggadoon team, we highly suggest a revamped social media plan when reaching Gen Z.
If you would like to find out more to discuss marketing for different age groups, please contact [email protected].
Good form design is a cornerstone of conversion optimisation.
Without good form design, you risk disrupting the overall user experience.
A well-designed form removes frustration, makes clear the next steps, provides a positive experience for the user and will help to increase conversions.
Earlier this year, our Conversion Optimisation team headed to Experimentation Elite in London.
A celebration of CRO and experimentation, the conference provided a platform for marketers to share and expand their knowledge.
And the conference keynote – given by Craig Sullivan – got us thinking from the off. Good form design shouldn’t be difficult, so why do so many businesses get it wrong?
In his talk, Craig listed 16 ‘crimes’ that occur within form design. But, for the sake of brevity, we’ll summarise the most important and common that we see.
The copy on forms can have a greater impact on conversions than people credit it for. If you’re hiring developers and designers, skimping on copywriters could be costing more in the long run.
When handling form errors, offering inline validation and feedback will result in an increase in conversions. Providing this feedback while the user is completing the form, rather than waiting until submission, can minimize friction and irritation on failed submission.
Password constraints and too many rules create friction in many user journeys as people are left grappling for new ideas. It is recommended here to prioritize length over complexity and avoid “negging” by offering a password strength meter.
It is recommended that forms disable autocorrect and auto-capitalize on fields that may not have answers matching a phone dictionary, such as names. Autocorrecting answers where there is no mistake can be annoying and in some cases discriminatory.
Are you suffering from Premature Error Ejaculation? Craig identified in his presentation that “PEE problems” can frustrate and discourage site users so to prevent this, form field error validations should not appear before the user has finished their input.
It’s not just form design. There are so many crimes we see every day against Conversion Optimisation generally. And, as with form design, they’re mostly avoidable with just a little thought and planning.
The Crimes Against Conversion are often so deeply rooted that they can be hard to spot. But if you can avoid them, you will save yourself a huge amount of time, budget, and a lot of unnecessary pain.
You can read more about the Crimes Against Conversion here…
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