Nicholas Newman at nicnewmanoxford.com celebrates a decade of successful business providing a range of business communications services for many clients involved in the production, trading and use of energy worldwide. Instead of holding the planned party for all my business friends in Oxford, it was decided, due to the current Corona-virus outbreak to launch a series of free to video blogs.
These new free to view video blogs are aimed at examining and discussing various energy and technology issues facing businesses today, which are available to view on www.nicnewmanoxford.com. These videos are aimed at providing the hard pressed business decision maker with in-depth quality insights in to some of the complex and challenging problems faced today.
Here are links to the first free to view videos, so far published:
1. Solving the Texas gas flaring problem https://www.nicnewmanoxford.com/solving-texas-flaring-problem/
2. Madagascar has big plans to turn itself into an oil hub for Indian Ocean shipping https://www.nicnewmanoxford.com/madagascar-oil-has-ambitions-to-turn-the-country-into-an-oil-hub-for-shipping-fuel/
As for the planned celebration party, when this current crisis is over, it is still planned to hold a party to celebrate Nicholas Newman’s decade of success with his business nicnewmanoxford.com.
Editor’s Note: to arrange an interview contact Nicholas Newman T: 01865-762710 M: 0758 0469 514 E: info@nicnewmanoxford.com W: www.nicnewmanoxford.com
Nicholas Newman at nicnewmanoxford.com is an Oxford based energy business communications service provider, producing expert content in a range of formats including advertorials, blogs, features, videos, reports etc., focused on the energy business, but also covering aerospace, engineering, environment, logistics, manufacturing, transportation and technology for leading industry journals and corporate clients worldwide.
We caught up with Dan Healy, Head of User Centred Design at the Satellite Applications Catapult to gather the most effective ways of running user experience and design activities remotely. Here, is our deep dive chat as part of our Ask the Expert series.
Sam @ ADLIB: To start things off, it’d be great if you could give us an idea of what Catapult does?
Dan: We exist to make the world a better place and to grow the UK economy through the effective use of space technology. We work on projects where there’s an opportunity to use satellite data to gain insight into a whole bunch of different things. It could be observing activity in the world’s oceans to track illegal fishing vessels or using something called remote sensing to check and ensure the structural integrity of bridges around the world. Some exciting, important opportunities – things that you wouldn’t even imagine were possible.
Sam @ ADLIB: Incredible. So, in the context of that, what’s your specific role?
Dan: My role is Head of User Centred Design. My role is as much to do with coordination, facilitation and oversight as anything else. In practice, that means that my job is about making sure that we’re doing and prioritising the right sort of work. I’m also responsible for evolving our culture of user-centred design so that it allows the organisation to take a user-centred approach to all that we do. I’ve got a team of really talented designers and feel like I’m well placed at knowing who would be well suited to particular projects, especially if I know that someone’s got an ambition to work on something.
My organisation has a solid history of user-centred design. One of the things that attracted me to the job was the fact that I hadn’t seen many examples of a ‘Head of User Centred Design’ being advertised and I loved the specificity of that. It suggested a maturity of thinking around user-centred design and design thinking. That said, we still have room to mature and that’s where I think I can help. I want to celebrate the incredible work that we’ve done but also look ahead to the exciting stuff that we’ve yet to do.
Sam @ ADLIB: As we know, Designers can come from a wide variety of backgrounds including research, psychology, graphics, product… What sort of skills and backgrounds make up your team?
Dan: It’s an amazing mixture. We’ve got skills in service design, product design, immersive visualisation, industrial design, and design research. My background is in user-centred design and in particular user research and accessibility. I enjoy helping people who are working on projects that have more of a user experience focus to enhance their skills in that way. For example, I’ve just been working with a member of my team with the design of a usability testing study, which was conducted remotely. It’s something that I’d like to do more of with my team.
Sam @ ADLIB: It’s an interesting exercise and one of the reasons I enjoy working in this sector so much, because of that diversity in people’s experience.
So to talk about the current situation; in your role as a Facilitator, a Manager and also a key relationship for internal stakeholders – I’d imagine having to work remotely has thrown up some interesting dynamics and brought about new challenges. Has the business been used to remote work in the past and what has that looked like?
Dan: That’s an interesting question and one that I’m going to challenge. A few people have asked me “how are you adapting to remote working? Is that something that you’re able to take on easily, or is it proving difficult?” We need to be aware of the fact that, what we’re doing at the moment isn’t simply remote working. Someone on LinkedIn said something along the lines of “this isn’t working from home, we’re at our homes during a crisis trying to work”. When I saw it, it resonated with me. I thought ‘thank you for saying that and acknowledging what this is because it’s not just remote working’.
I feel like I have multiple working personas. What I mean by that is, there’s Dan Healy, Head of UCD, who works at the Satellite Applications Catapult office four days a week. That’s probably my most productive version of working me. Then there’s Dan Healy, Head of UCD, who works at home on a Friday – that’s me, usually in a totally empty house, with all the broadband I could possibly want and no distractions. I’m pretty effective in that context too – I can get my head down and focus. Then you’ve got this version of me, where I’m working from my daughter’s cabin bed desk. I can hear the kids downstairs running around like maniacs and my wife (who’s also supposed to be working full time!) is trying to home-school them and to help me out with my busy schedule. This is an incredibly tough situation. This isn’t remote working for me, this is coping with the situation we’re in and trying to make the best of it.
Sam @ ADLIB: That’s very well put, there’s a huge difference between what we know as remote working and our current situation isn’t there.
It sounds like you’ve been working on a semi-remote basis before with the team, how has that changed what you’re doing now? And what character traits do you think are most important when working with UX and design teams remotely?
Dan: I think flexibility and creativity are essential in this context. It’s not good enough to just say “okay, we now have Zoom and Teams, let’s do all of our meetings on those platforms” but we won’t change anything else. That doesn’t work. As you’ve probably found out yourself, doing video calls all day is intense and it lets people into your life in a way that perhaps you’re not used to or comfortable with. At times, I’ve quite enjoyed the opportunity that it gives for showing vulnerability and authenticity. I think it’s helped me to come across to my organisation in a way that is perhaps more representative of who I am. For people to see the messiness, the chaos of my life makes me more human.
In terms of my organisation, we’ve adapted remarkably well. Over 150 people have pretty much moved out of the office and are conducting their work in a new way. Where we still need to do more work is around challenging our virtual behaviours. We need to rethink what meetings are for, to challenge the length of meetings and the tools that we use to facilitate those meetings.
One of the things I love about my job is that, as a user-centred designer, I’m invited into a wide array of different activities. I recently contributed to a homeworking policy that was put together at pace to try and address what’s going on at the moment and to give people assurances around what they could expect, what their rights are, and what is expected of them. I was delighted to collaborate with our Chief People Officer on that.
One of the things I did as part of that process was put together some guidelines on virtual etiquette. For example, if you want to chat with someone in the way that you would face to face in the kitchen or next to the water cooler, then ‘Teams’ is probably the best thing for that, but you should check if the person is available before you launch into a full conversation because that can be stressful for them. If you want to run a workshop, then we’d recommend using Zoom and something like Miro or Microsoft Whiteboard. Also, consider reducing the duration of your workshop or break it down into a number of shorter workshops. A workshop conducted in person is very different from a workshop conducted online. Not least because, certainly in my situation, I can’t afford the luxury of three hours. This means I can’t help with childcare.
Essentially, it’s about being as kind as possible to people. That’s one of the things that I encourage. We need to be kind to people and consider what they’re going through and how different it might be to what we’re going through. Everyone’s got their own struggles, it’s just that some of them aren’t as visible as others. There are different ways that you can exhibit that sort of kindness, for example, if you see that someone’s diary is very busy, and they’re in back to back meetings, could you maybe give them five minutes back between your meeting and the next one? Could you reduce your 45-minute meeting to 40 minutes or your 30-minute meeting to 25 minutes so they can get a cup of tea, go to the loo, get some headspace? Simple, seemingly trivial steps that are important.
Good practice around meetings is more important than ever. Before you book in that meeting, check whether someone is actually available, check whether you’re not triple or quadruple booking them, because that causes people to stress and that affects their mental health. Be considerate because if you’re double booking them or triple booking them, they’re going to have to spend time getting out of that mess. Put yourself in their shoes, what does that feel like?
Those are the things that I’m encouraging my organisation to adopt. I’ve already seen examples of it and that’s great.
Sam @ ADLIB: It’s interesting to think about some of those. Like talking about the communication etiquette that’s involved when actually the dynamic has changed a lot. You are in essence connected to (in some cases) somebody’s front room and their home.
When you look at some of the tools you mentioned and some of the practices when you talk about meetings and workshops, how do they look now compared to a few weeks ago when the world was so different and what have been the key changes that you’ve had to make?
Dan: They are different and, in some ways, I would say they’re better. I was facilitating a workshop recently and, before the pandemic hit, we would travel to one of our other office locations to run the workshop. I feel that changing the way these workshops are held has challenged the status quo and we’re now doing things in a different, more valuable way.
For example, for this workshop, we needed to use video conferencing for the conversation. That was an easy part, we would just use Zoom but the whiteboarding part proved a bit tricky. We’d been using Miro from time to time prior to the pandemic and so this time around it was a case of committing to Miro and seeing how it worked.
When I ran the session, I brought up the Miro board and said to the people at the beginning of the call, we’re going to do this as a bit of an experiment and let’s see how it goes, then started to put up sticky notes as things were going along.
Initially, the session would have been three hours, but I recommended that we break it down into two halves and made sure that we had a break in between. That seemed to go down well. At the end of the session, I asked how people found it.
I was delighted to hear that people thought it was better than doing it in person. It brought the whiteboard to the focus of the conversation, whether I was capturing things accurately. The areas that hadn’t yet been discussed were very clear and it felt like we’d got somewhere – we could all see the progress of our conversation. That was unexpected but great. If anything, it’s probably going to help us to show the value and the importance of what we do in the UCD team.
Sam @ ADLIB: That’s really interesting. In terms of how you communicate, manage and get the most out of your team is there a particular rhythm you’ve settled into? Or a working practice that is much different from what you were doing before?
Dan: When the pandemic hit, I was very aware of the fact that my team were used to being in the office. I’d spent a lot of time getting to know my team in person and doing my best to try to bring us all together. Now, we’ve been forced apart and this could have changed the dynamic irrevocably. We discussed and agreed on an approach to keeping in touch with each other. We have a virtual coffee for half an hour each day, which is optional. We can’t always make it but importantly, it’s not work-related, just a chance to chew the fat. I’ve enjoyed the fact that we’re six-plus weeks in and we’re still doing that.
Team meetings are working well – we still do those every week. We also have a session called ‘Design Horizons’, which is once every few months where we take some time out (typically about half a day) to focus on some of the more strategic, visionary things for the team. That’s posed a challenge. We’ve introduced different ways of doing it using Miro boards and Zoom and running a much shorter session. I broke it down into just two hours with a 10-minute break in the middle, but perhaps that was too short. You could say that I’m taking a user-centred design approach to this, too. It’s all about experimentation and iteration, seeing how good we can get. Things have changed a lot, but I think we’re still managing to keep in touch with each other and we feel like a team.
Our informal channels in Teams and WhatsApp have become more important than ever. I always make an effort to say good morning to everyone on Teams first thing if I can. I like to encourage that sort of positive domino effect of people chiming in. We’ve started to introduce (sort of by accident) a joke of the day, though sometimes we have to rely on Siri and Alexa to help us out. It’s good fun and we’ve done that pretty much every working day for six weeks now – quite an achievement!
Sam @ ADLIB: It’s quite easy in this situation for everything to become about work in a lot of ways and it’s good to encourage some of those things and I imagine some of those will probably stick way beyond the current situation as well.
Finally, is there one key piece of advice for people who are looking to get their teams functioning at their optimum in this situation?
Dan: A piece of advice I would give to someone in my position is, make sure that the approach you’re deciding upon is a result of collaborating with your team. Work with your team to find out what works – ask them questions, listen to their answers. This can feel like quite a vulnerable position for a team leader because you might feel that your team is looking to you to be the rock, the person that has all of the answers. However, imposing an approach that doesn’t work for your team risks a long-lasting and negative impact on the team’s dynamic.
This article previously appeared on the ADLIB Blog.
Despite the current state of lockdown, SearchStar’s annual Analytics and Conversion Conference is returning for the third time, albeit in a slightly different form, from Monday 22nd June.
Analytics & Conversion, 2021 & Beyond will run online across 5 days starting Monday June 22nd, as a series of 40-minute webinars held at 4pm each day. We’d love for you to join us for a week of informative and actionable webinars focused on the cutting edge of conversion and analytics.
You can see the full lineup of speakers below, and register for the webinar series here >>>
What? Analytics & Conversion Webinars
When? Monday June 22nd – Friday 26th | 4pm Each Day
Where? Register Here >>>
Monday June 22nd | The Role of Media Buying in Conversion Optimisation | Harry Martin, SearchStar
Harry explains the benefit of involving your media buying teams in your wider conversion optimisation strategy. He will explore the fundamental techniques available to advertisers, ensuring their website traffic is already primed to convert. Above all, Harry will challenge conventional ideas of where and when businesses need to begin the conversion optimisation process.
Tuesday June 23rd | How User Testing Can Amplify Your Conversion Optimisation | Ryan McCourt, Userlytics
There are many wonderful tools out there that can be used to monitor user flows or to tell you which page is better, but none of the tools tells you why something is going wrong. Due to this, many CRO experts are turning to user testing platforms to see what their users are getting tripped up on and listen to expectations. In this presentation, Ryan McCourt explains why user testing is becoming more popular, what issues a user testing platform can uncover that other tools can’t, and give some examples of insights uncovered during a simple user experience study.
Wednesday June 24th | Understanding a Non-Ecommerce Journey | Jon Boon, SearchStar & Connor Goddard, Pure Planet
SearchStar’s Lead Analytics Consultant Jon Boon and Pure Planet’s Data Scientist Connor Goddard will look at how Pure Planet embedded Web Analytics into their website and started using Google Analytics Enhanced ecommerce to measure a non-ecommerce website journey. Connor will go on to talk about how Pure Planet has used the data collected by Google Analytics to deliver actionable insights.
Thursday June 25th | Conversion Optimisation Case Study | TBC
Friday June 26th | Q&A and “Notworking”
Q&A will be held daily following each keynote presentation, and during this final day’s more social session. If you have any specific queries or questions about anything conversion and analytics, you can let us know during the registration process.
The world for agencies will certainly be different in the future. Some of you are holding your breath waiting for things to get back to normal. Others are expecting a ‘new-normal’ that will require a little bit of adjustment. But for most agencies their world will be altered significantly. Think revolution not evolution and fundamental change rather than refinement.
However successful you’ve been in the past; you won’t have an automatic right to thrive in the future. Some agencies will come out very well, most won’t, many won’t survive. This isn’t a false alarm. There is a critical challenge to understand how the environment will change and adapt to find your new place in the world. It won’t be easy to deliver true value for clients, employees and agency owners and this will feel like a real threat for a lot of agencies. But it will be a great opportunity for others. So, whatever battles you’re dealing with today, it’s never too early to be working on how you can become an agency fit for the future.
MUCH MORE THAN THE RECENT CRISIS
History has shown that crises can significantly reshape beliefs and behaviours. New social policies, ways of working, marketplace dynamics and customer needs have all been fuelled by major disruptions. The Second World War, 9/11 and the SARS virus have all played their part in influencing the world as we’ve known it. And Covid-19 will similarly drive change. And all that’s apart from the financial pressures brought about by the deep recession we’re entering now.
But for agencies the pressures are more fundamental than just this crisis. The agency world has been at a tipping point for many years. Originality and creativity have been fading, client connections weakening, employee commitment waning and profitability shrinking. Many agencies have become too elaborate, rigid and predictable. The door has been left open for newer types of competitors and they’ve fared very well.
If you’re an agency that has managed to stay fresh and ahead of these challenges, your preparations for the future are likely to be easier than others – but no less important. If you recognise any of these symptoms, you’ll need to be thinking and changing more radically. But if you do this properly it could be just what your agency has needed for some time – and set you up for years to come.
WINNING AND GROWING CLIENTS
The stagnation in agency sharpness and effectiveness has been felt by many clients for some time. We’ve all seen the increase in pitching, switching, multiple agencies and in-housing as clients have searched for people who can really deliver clever, joined-up solutions across the media landscape. And during this locked down period, they’ll have been exposed to even more agency offerings. They’ll have recognised new requirements, seen new ideas and found quicker, cheaper ways of getting good things done.
Agencies will be under greater pressure to convince clients that their level and type of expertise can genuinely add significant value. This will put more focus on smart thinking and creativity than on just ‘doing’. You’ll need to stack up well against new criteria in terms of offer and impact, taking out the gloss and eliminating unnecessary activities and timings. Relationships and financial rewards can still be mutually beneficial, but your clients will need to be chosen very carefully – and these might not be the ones you’ve had in the past or worked closely with during this crisis.
INSPIRING AND EMPOWERING TALENT
Attitudes and expectations towards work were already changing quickly before the pandemic arrived. The demand for greater meaning and flexibility was already challenging traditional approaches and putting pressure on leaders to be more balanced, transparent and fair. Recent experiences have deepened these desires, added a demand for a greater sense of belonging and prompted more people to feel the same way.
With clients insisting on only working with the very best, attracting and retaining talent will be more difficult than ever before. As leaders you’ll be challenged to define your purpose and to commit to these beliefs in your work every day. And to maintain motivation, productivity and profitability you’ll need to think radically about new approaches to roles, structures, recognition, remuneration, progression and empowerment. These are just some of the many new demands that will fall on leadership teams who must now become more skilful and more consistent than they’ve demonstrated in the past.
CREATING BUSINESS VALUE
With profit margins and dividend streams already under pressure, Covid-19 will only have made things worse for shareholders. And with the list of potential purchasers already much reduced, the current interruption to growth plans will make the chance of a good exit feel even further away. But dreams of easy growth and big sale values have never been realistic. The optimum strategy has always been to build the best business you can and keep your value options open.
Good agencies manage risk well and that will be even more important in the future. Agencies with low profit margins trying to grow their way to better results will have learned the hard way in recent months. So, it will be vital to keep things tight and not add back costs ahead of securing the revenues to support them. Be prepared to fundamentally change your business model – what you provide, to whom, how and for how much. And don’t be daunted by having 2020 as the base year for your new high growth track record, with the right changes the next few years could be significantly better than you would ever have achieved with your ‘old’ business.
EMERGE STRONGER
To emerge from this period as an agency with a clear, distinctive place for the future will be no ordinary task. Bold, fresh thinking and a rigorous process are vital. It’s not about guess work, nor about waiting to see how things shape up. You’ll need to understand the marketplace in which you’ll be competing, decide how you can play to win, assess your current business and act to transform your game.
We’ve set up a framework to guide this process and we’ve been working it through with a number of proactive clients. It’s been an exciting time for them to gain confidence, set a new direction, see new opportunities and remove the barriers holding them back.
If you aren’t clear why the world will need your agency – you’d better get moving. If you’re already on your way to a good place, keep going. It’s not for the feint hearted, but if you don’t embrace the challenge you might just fade away.
Make sure you’re ready and if we can help just let us know.
There is no denying the fact that Covid-19 has had a big impact on businesses. The pandemic has been affecting different industries in varying ways. The event industry is trying to find innovative new ways to combat the impact of Covid-19, with the business event sector seeing 74% of all conferences and exhibitions postponed to the last quarter of 2020, with the remainder cancelled altogether. Meanwhile, a rise in homeworking has led to a 37% increase in cyber attacks with people turning to the tech industry for solutions. It might seem like an inopportune time to be focusing on search engine optimisation (SEO). Quite the opposite. SEO presents the chance to pivot your digital marketing strategy, turning adversity into opportunity.
Since lockdown began, internet usage has surged by between 50% and 70%. This means that your brand will be visible to a higher number of people, provided that you employ the right digital marketing strategy. If you’re in an industry that has slowed, this is an ideal time to focus on your web and content strategy. Why not try out some new tactics to engage your audience, or reach a new one. If you are working in an industry that has experienced a recent surge in activity it is important to employ strategies that will increase the likelihood of customer retention. Essentially, use SEO to ensure that your business is in the strongest possible position when we return to the new normal.
That sounds good, but how can I improve my SEO strategy?
Research is the foundation of your SEO strategy. The most experienced SEO experts still need to research keywords and algorithm updates because search behaviours and algorithms are constantly changing, even when there isn’t a global pandemic. Covid-19 has led to big changes in search behaviour so your research needs to be founded on what keywords and SEO strategies are being used right now. When you’re researching keywords, concentrate your efforts on websites that collect real-time data. Google Trends is one that we recommend.
If you’re an SEO novice, you might find that your research presents you with more questions than answers. That’s why we’ve defined some of the most commonly used SEO terms:
Now that you’ve done your keyword research, you’re ready to start writing content. But where do you start? If you have a blog on your website, this can considerably boost your page ranking. The reason why blogs are so effective at boosting page rankings is because Google’s algorithms value websites that have consistent content updates.
If you already update your blog frequently, you will need to make adjustments to the type of content you upload. First and foremost, ensure that you are delivering content in a way that is sensitive to the current situation.
Build keyword research into your content writing. If you’re in the education technology sector your research may have shown that people are using ‘at home’ keyword modifiers when entering search terms. For example, before Covid-19 people may have been searching for “French courses” but there may now be a higher number of searches for “French courses at home”. Build these keyword modifiers into your content writing by including modifiers such as “online”, “from home”, and “during lockdown” in your blog titles and headers.
When you are writing the main body of your content, ensure that you are peppering your writing with keywords. However, balance is integral. You should focus on using one or two long-tail keywords per blog post to avoid keyword stuffing, which is something that Google’s algorithms will penalise you for. If you want to stay on the good side of Google’s algorithms, focus on longform blogs (1000-2000 words) but be aware that the current algorithm also favours consistency, so when you’re deciding how many blogs to post, choose a number that you can keep up with.
The best SEO writing answers popular search terms and provides value to the reader. For example, if you are working in education technology, tips for educating children from home would be a good blog post topic. Don’t forget to let your social media following know that you’ve published a new blog post as this will increase traffic to your website. For more tips on social media, have a read of our blog.
Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool used by businesses to manage their online presence across Google and is a useful tool for improving your search ranking. Google gave advice to their GMB users to update their Google listings with any alterations in operating hours. Expanding on this, we would also recommend that you update your website with a coronavirus statement that appears on the homepage, informing visitors of any changes to services, such as delayed delivery times. If you have an FAQ section on your website, it is advisable to also update this in line with your current operating procedure.
Website speed is another simple update that can be made to improve your SEO. This is a tactic which will add value to your website in the long term. To improve your website speed compress large images and use the Google PageSpeed Insights Tool to get bespoke recommendations for improvements.
Links are another simple update you can make to boost your SEO. If you have previously written content where you have referred to some statistics, or mentioned an article you’ve read, link back to the original source. There are two types of links you can include on your website: internal and external. Internal links send the user to another page of your own website, while external links send them to a different website.
Remember that keyword research? Now is your chance to use it. If your website has a blog, go through old blog posts and update them according to your keyword findings. You can also do the same with the other pages on your website. Just be careful you don’t overstuff them with keywords.
So what are you waiting for? Go forth and optimise! If anything in our blog piqued your interest, get in touch to have a chat about SEO.
At POPcomms we have been working with our clients and event agencies to help them to continue to meet and connect with their customers even though they can’t actually meet in a physical space.
We have developed an online 3D virtual platform that allows them to embed any kind of model, maybe they already have an exhibition stand model or we can create an environment from scratch for them.
Within the 3D space they can then include other interactive 3D models, interactive presentations, video libraries, PDFs, seminars, live presentations, one-to-one video calls, networking – everything that you would expect at a physical event plus more.
Combining creative techniques from the worlds of architecture and video gaming with powerful Progressive Web App (PWA) technology they can run on mobile, tablet or desktop from within your browser and being PWAs they can be used offline as well.
Below is a video showing some of the features you can include in a 3D environment
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If you’d like to know more please feel free to get in touch.
Damjan Haylor
07981 707 599
damjan@popcomms.com
www.popcomms.com
Could a crisis like the one we’re in now provide an opportunity for agencies to create closer ties to the brands they work with?
COVID19 is changing everything in our lives, including our professional relationships.
Steve Jefferys, Armadillo’s Client Service Director, explains in an article published in Mediashotz how this unique moment in our lives is focusing us on what those relationships should look like…
It’s a time-honoured saying that agencies seek to work in partnership with their clients as opposed to being just suppliers.
However, the daily intensity of delivering ‘Campaign X’ to reach ‘Quarterly Strategic Pillar Y’ by ‘Deadline Z’ leads to a need to focus priorities on the shorter term, meaning we’re not often close to meeting this ideal.
The recent global crisis has proved that it might take just that – a crisis – to get to the root of what a client-agency business relationship actually means.
The enforced lockdown as a result of Covid-19 has in many ways helped to strip back the client and agency relationship to its very essence: a partnership powered by subject matter specialism counterweighted with a blend of human empathy and emotional intelligence.
In fact, there are three ways we’re witnessing this in action at the moment (at least in the short-term)…
In pre-Covid-19 times, a typical client-agency relationship can be categorised more as a partnership the higher up the seniority ladder you go; where the bigger questions are being asked and answered.
The more junior interactions – largely focused on delivering ‘Campaign X’ – necessarily have a more transactional focus.
The current crisis has given everyone a shake, however. Suddenly, everyone is there for everyone: helping, advising, supporting, commiserating, delivering and being genuinely thankful.
Relationships previously only as smooth as the last campaign deployment now have a newer, longer-term and more deeply connected energy to them: galvanised through shared adversity.
This, in turn, is a great development opportunity for more junior client and agency staff, too.
It’s so easy to lead with work first, rather than lives first. From constant video calls with untimely background appearances from children to the newest form of competitor sports – homeschooling – everyone’s on a heightened state of alert.
With this in mind, treating each interaction with a lightness of touch has never been more important. Producing a laugh; getting to a feeling of solidarity; or sharing a look forward to happier times can shift frames of mind and support good mental health on both sides; turning what might have been a tricky, stressful day on its head.
The prosaic ‘how are you?’ agency missive so typical at the start of client calls now has a much more poignant, heartfelt tone to it. And people see the benefit of it. We should remember that when this has passed.
Rather than the normal ‘we’ll get onto that in the future’, the situation has enabled agencies to help clients think about tackling that bigger problem right now.
This is a positive step. It helps clients and agencies turbo-charge unlocking those more transformative problems whose solutions will pay dividends in the long-run.
This could be developing that new proposition, holding that long put-off budget conversation now or re-considering the whole channel strategy.
And it’s not just that these bigger problems are being tackled now. They’re being fast-tracked to solution quicker as client focus sharpens and we have the undivided attention of key decision-makers; keen both to future-proof their business and deliver discernible short-term output.
So what about when this is all over? It’s unrealistic to think we’ve fashioned a new utopia. Decades of office evolution and the last 20 years of digital acceleration won’t be undone following six crazy weeks.
However, the experience will have helped smooth the way for two distinctive, positive shifts.
Being there in the dark times – right alongside their clients – will give positive reinforcement to the outside perspective and rigour a good agency specialist brings to the table.
So rather than be a dispensable commodity that’s the first expense to go, the agency could be seen as the vanguard of changing things up (for the better).
The forced practice of stripping spend and priorities back to the essentials has highlighted where agency resources are best deployed. Agencies should see this as a positive.
So when the claxon call of 2021 budget setting comes around, agencies should feel emboldened and empowered to pitch their expertise at solving those problems that really need solving (and will pay long-term dividends).
Article first published in Mediashotz on 1/5/2020
Almost everything we do has been affected by Covid-19 – the way we use customer data is no exception. In adjusting your communication to reflect the sudden change in consumer habits it’s key to adhere to data guidelines, including GDPR.
You can only use data for the purpose for which it was collected, and only retain it for a reasonable amount of time before either erasing or reviewing it. GDPR doesn’t specify how long companies can hold information, but brands are advised to introduce their own guidelines to protect themselves and respect their customers rights.
If someone opted in but has stopped interacting you should consider removing them from your database after a year. However, online purchasing habits are likely to have shifted recently; in-store ones definitely have.
You don’t want to run the risk of inadvertently making a customer appear inactive when circumstances simply prevent them engaging as they otherwise would. The solution? Keep talking to your customers and find appealing ways to stay in touch with them.
Review your segmentation strategies
Many business rules for customer segmentation and targeting are based on purchase data, and so may need to be temporarily altered to reflect any changes in customer behaviour and purchasing patterns.
This could involve temporarily suspending the use of incentives to lapsed customers. Putting a pause into your segment criteria will enable you to accommodate this period of enforced inactivity.
Alongside reviewing segmentation strategies, you should also review any auto-triggered communications to ensure inappropriate offers don’t slip out under the radar.
Make customer relationship management a priority
Good CRM is impactful because it enables your brand to resonate directly and personally with people. With internet use purportedly doubling in the first two weeks of this crisis, email and online have really come to the fore.
Keep craft at the heart of your emails. There is no excuse for not sending out thoughtful and engaging comms. That means creating personalised and relevant messages.
As for content, the key is to identify what the customer wants from your brand during the crisis, and what they’re looking forward to when lockdown is lifted. My colleague at Armadillo, senior strategist Nick Beevors, has written a good guide here.
Looking ahead to life after coronavirus
Consider your warm-up strategy carefully when business begins to return to normal. Customers are going to be bombarded. How will your brand stand out from the crowd?
In some cases, a repermission approach will be a good idea. If customers were close to being defined as inactive before the slowdown in trading, it would be better to invite them to stay in the loop, rather than presume they want to. You may also be able to use legitimate interest and/or servicing principles to let a broader group of customers know your company is back up and running. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides some useful advice here.
Brands will have an important role to play as we gradually emerge from this crisis. Using your customer data wisely and considerately during this crisis will help you make the most of the positive times ahead.
Article originally published in Decision Marketing on 04/05/2020
We will be offering hands-on advice on how to grow tech & SaaS companies, using best practice digital marketing techniques.
Our summits will cover all things digital, as well as talks from scaling and established SaaS/tech companies.
Please check out our last summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lisQR3MISVU
If COVID 19 has given us anything, it’s an increased amount of zoom calls and webinars. This is a great way to stay connected and learn something new during a tough time. Studio Giggle’s managing director, Jonathan Brigden was on an expert panel of an EVCOM animation webinar last week (to watch the webinar and find out more, click here). But participating or hosting a webinar can really test your working from home set-up. It can also test your patience as having video conferences all day, one after another with bad sound and broken connections can create the worst kind of fatigue: Zoom fatigue.
1. All-in-one headphones and mic. Whichever you pick, the mic is a lot closer to the mouth, and so the quality increases dramatically. But if you go for this option try and avoid Bluetooth connected headphones and choose a wired set instead, for added reliability.
2. A lavalier microphone sometimes referred to as a tie or lapel mic. These are clip-on wearable mics, that plug into the audio jack or USB. There’s a lot of options on Amazon, and if you’ve got the budget I’d recommend a well-known brand like Sony or Røde (if you can’t find what you need on amazon check out CVP, Thomann or SCAN). With all mics, the price usually dictates the quality. The one downside is that this mic will make a distorted sound as it brushes against clothing, so if you do intend on moving around or being a bit more animated, option 3 might be for you.
3. The top-level mic would be a condenser studio microphone. This is the type of mic a professional voiceover artist might own because it is far better at processing sound waves and will pick up the nuances of speech. This should be reserved for those who want or need studio-quality sound. You’ll need to sit with it in front of you, so while it’s not hidden; it does look slick when talking into one, particularly if it’s held up with a boom arm. We recently bought a Røde NT1-A, which is great for webcasting.
Some more general tips for audio:
It’s fairly likely that your inbuilt webcam will leave a lot to be desired so I’d recommend investing in a decent HD webcam. We recently bought the Logitech Brio and the difference to the inbuilt cameras on my Mac was pretty drastic. The Logitech will record up to 4K, and the inbuilt mic was superb. You can treat it like a real camera and choose the field of view, frame rate, resolution, exposure, colour balance, autofocus and more, which will lead to a much better image. This is a great article for the top webcams on the market.
In reality, an HD 1080p camera would be fine though as most platforms compress everything down anyway.
If you are using a phone, then a tripod is a must-have purchase. This will raise your production value instantly (and save your arm from falling off!). A phone tripod is a piece of kit you can buy cheaply, and I would ignore the big brands to save some money here. Make sure the phone is on its side in landscape mode and if possible, stream in HD.
First and foremost, you should maximise the natural lighting in your room, by positioning yourself close to a window. Ideally, the camera would be in-between you and the window to help light your face. Try and avoid sitting with your back to a window as this is likely to have the opposite effect creating you as a silhouette and making you seem like you are in a witness protection scheme! While you may think the window makes a nice background, if you are talking for an hour, the lighting can dramatically change outside and by the end, you might end up looking quite gloomy.
If you do fancy getting a proper light, always go LED. They last longer and won’t get hot. A lot of Youtubers use a “ring light”, as they are soft and flattering to film faces with.
By now you may have experienced the custom background feature on Zoom. For me, this has led to many great calls with friends with the Tiger King looming over their shoulders. For Giggle’s Steve, a keyed background is the ideal way of hiding mess…
If your computer, like mine, can’t handle the background swap outs, or your webinar software doesn’t support them, then it might be an idea to actually tidy up.
If someone is watching you for an hour, don’t sit with your back to a plain wall like you’re steaming from prison. Up until now, the trusty bookshelf has been the go-to when it comes to Zoom backgrounds, but maybe check what books are visible first, otherwise, you could fall into the same hole as Michael Gove. Our own Jon has quite an interesting background when he is doing important video calls.
With all the kit in the world, your internet connection will play the biggest part in how clear you come across as streaming takes up a good chunk of bandwidth. If home webinars are going to be a regular fixture, it will be worth performing some speed tests on your connection and making sure you are in the best spot in the house, and with the best supplier for your area. Your streaming software should have a minimum and an optimal connection speed. A really simple way of doing this is a free test on speedtest.net. Make sure you check your upload speed as this will play the biggest role. If three of you are doing video conferences at the same time, ideally you need a connection that is something like 10-20mbps per person uploading.
If possible use a wired ethernet connection for increased reliability. Turning off any tabs in the browser background, stopping files that might be downloading, and turning off other Wi-Fi enabled devices during the webinar may improve the connection. You could also try and limit the number of people and devices that are using the internet at the same time as the webinar, as this may increase the risk of it interrupting your stream.
We hope you’ve found these tips and tricks for successful webinars helpful, and if there is anything that we can help you with then please get in touch.
*= delete as appropriate to Teams, Skype, Webex, Skype, Skype for Business, Slack, Whatsapp, facetime…the list goes on and on.
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