In this session, you will get an overview of some of the ‘golden rules’ of marketing, the evidence behind them, and why they’re not restrictive but launchpads for great creativity. It turns out that marketing isn’t always complicated, just hard.
The talk will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A so come prepared with your questions. Book here
The session takes place from 3 – 4.30pm on Tuesday 21st January at Zone, The Brewhouse, Bristol. Tickets are £20+VAT for Bristol Media members and £30+VAT for non-members.
Nick has spent the last 12 years helping brands navigate the choppy waters of creating effective marketing with a rigorous evidence-based approach. He’s won numerous awards including the coveted DMA Grand Prix, judges on several awards panels and has been published in leading journals such as Admap.
Charities are starting to innovate digitally. Innovation teams are spluttering into life, and some charities are building new digital products and services that will reach new audiences, create new potential income streams and increase their impact. But it’s slow, hard going. Why is this?
Do charities have the desire, the imagination? Do they have the vision at board level? Is risk-aversion the big blocker? Do funding models stymie innovation? Or do previous failed attempts mean they’re once burned, twice shy? Frankly, do they have the guts?
All of the above and more is probably the answer. But, here, I’ll focus on overcoming the barriers to charities adapting the type of modern, agile product development process that drives digital product innovation from the civil service to Silicon Valley.
Let’s kick this off with money. In charities, procurement teams and budget holders like to know what they’re buying. They like big specs, clear outcomes and fixed costs. They’re less keen on Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), iterative development, testing learning and pivoting – uncertainty. Unfortunately, that difficult stuff is at the heart of agile project development.
If you aren’t ready to totally change the way you procure, a starting point is to break projects into small, affordable chunks. Assuming you are working with an agency partner: start with an innovation workshop; if that works take an idea forward in a ‘design sprint’ (roughly £15k to £25k); iterate on it; run story mapping to build a roadmap. Make each stage a micro-tollgate like a mini government service standards assessment. This way projects actually get started so they can gather momentum, and they ‘fail fast’ if they aren’t worth pursuing.
An example of this in practice is MQ Mental Health who are building a new product to engage the public in mental health research. MQ leveraged the prototype we built with them in a design sprint – to attract funding to build an MVP. MQ have funded this whole product development one step at a time, using the quality outputs of each phase to help engage the funders of the next. This can be slow, but at least it’s moving.
Be creative with the process too. We recently ran a Design Sprint with Sue Ryder (who are building a new in-browser video service to provide bereavement counselling and support ) with a ‘money back guarantee ’ – if they weren’t completely satisfied with the design sprint, they wouldn’t pay a penny. This gave the procurement team the confidence to sign off the initial phases of the project, while both teams got stuck into it with extra enthusiasm.
Creating a product culture in the charity space is tough. There’s not much experience about, yet experience is a really valuable component. We believe that the critical piece of the puzzle, is an engaged, skilled, empowered, client-side product manager. A good product manager keeps development aligned to business objectives and holds delivery teams to account, whether internal or external (this is particularly important when working ‘agile-ly’.)
This may all sound challenging for most charities – accepting more risk, changing funding and procurement models, developing an effective product culture – so let’s make it simple.
Here is a formula that might help you kick start innovation in your organisation:
Finally, try to remember agile projects can (and do) fail. Particularly, if you don’t have the right processes, people and culture in place. And failure is scary in the charity sector; especially if it threatens your public image. Nevertheless, ‘fixed scope’ innovation is an oxymoron. Leaders need to be brave enough to be prepared to fail.
Well-run product development processes, as outlined above, fail early, which helps. Something that doesn’t help is annual budgets. Ben Holt said in his valedictory post about the Disruptive Innovation Lab at Cancer Research UK, “disruptive ideas need to impact strategy with an eye on the future, not the annual planning cycle” and that is something we should all try to keep in mind.
Innovation products need a new, flexible ‘as and when’ funding approach, one where funding is aligned to goals or outcomes, rather than ‘project scope’ and that is something the sector will have to keep working towards.
Torchbox run a free Charity Digital Innovation Series of breakfast events. Here you can see the details and video of their last one, for Heads and Directors of Digital – where the discussions were on this same topic of challenges and success of Digital Innovation. Keep up to date on all Torchbox events on Twitter.
This article first appeared in Charity Comms.
*This event is now SOLD OUT. Please add your name to the waitlist and we’ll confirm if a ticket becomes available*
Humans are innately illogical, and make unconscious decisions based largely on our emotions. Yet when confronted with a business or personal challenge, we have become obsessed with absolute logic, rationality, algorithms and data, and it’s threatening to stunt us: politically, socially and economically. What if there were an alternative to logic and rationality –a ‘psycho-logic’–that was far more pervasive and powerful than we realise, and when employed correctly, creates the kind of magic (or alchemy) most businesses or economists can only dream of?
Join us for a keynote with Rory Sutherland, the legendary Ogilvy Vice Chairman, the ‘Don Draper of the UK’, and one of our most acclaimed behavioural economists, who will share insights into his book ‘Alchemy – The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense.’
Sutherland will use real case studies from his work and research with the world’s biggest brands and influencers, to reveal how we must learn to identify and understand the basics of ‘psycho-logic’, to get ahead in the modern world.
This keynote takes place between 12.30 – 14.00 on Tuesday 28th January at Foot Anstey, 2 Glass Wharf, Bristol BS2 0FR.
Tickets are 45+VAT for Bristol Media members (£60+VAT for non-members), a limited number are available to Bristol Media Freelance Members for £25+VAT.
Tickets include a buffet lunch and a copy of Rory’s book ‘Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense’ to take away.
Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioural science practice within the agency.
He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make. It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they have not noticed.
Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man, available on Amazon at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day, and Alchemy, The Surprising Power of Ideas that don’t make Sense, published in the UK and US in March 2019.
Check out more Bristol Media events on the What’s On pages
The development of apps is a multi-billion dollar business. According to recent figures, mobile phones generate 52% of internet traffic. Understandably, having a mobile app is considered an opportunity to connect with existing customers or acquire new customers. Yet, finding success in the mobile app market is far from easy.
The apple store receives over 1,000 submissions a day. According to Statista, there are approximately four million apps in the Apple Store. Meanwhile, the average person has 80 apps on their phone, of which just nine are used daily.
Just considering those figures for a moment, it is clear that the majority of apps in the marketplace are dormant. This is a considerable waste of financial resources. In this article, we’ll cover five tips to consider to ensure the success of your mobile app.
We all have days when we think we have come up with a groundbreaking business idea. However, many of these ideas don’t hold water when you look at them closely. Given this fact, one of the first tips to keep in mind when building your mobile app is the importance of validating the interest in your idea.
There are a couple of parts to this. First, you need to determine if there is an interest in your idea from your target audience. You can test the interest through interviews with people you perceive would be your ideal customer. One route I like to use for testing the demand is running paid ads to a landing page to test the interest of your target audience in real-world conditions.
Once you have tested the demand for your product, you need to consider the design. Start by creating simple wireframes of your app. These are visual representations of the user interface. You can connect these wireframes using online mockup tools to test functionality.
Creating wireframes is a cheap way of testing how your app would work in practice. You should spend a lot of time on this process, both designing a simple wireframe, a visual mockup of the app itself. Get this right. Making changes after the development company has started creating your app will be time consuming and expensive.
There are a lot of good app development companies, and indeed software platforms. If you are looking to develop an app with a simple feature set, then you might be able to use an online platform to create the app for you. This would be the cheapest option for an out of the box app.
The process for finding an app development company to work with is more complicated. First, you should set a budget for your app. This will help you frame your search (there are app developers that fit every budget). Then you will need to decide where the company should be based.
Working with a local company has advantages in the fact that it’s easier to check the quality of their work, and it will be able to visit the team as they develop your product. The trade-off is costs will be higher. Working with a company you find through a freelance website or similar will keep costs down, but it’s harder to assess the quality of their work
Unless you are a programmer, developing a full-blown mobile app is a costly endeavor. The average cost of an enterprise-level mobile app is estimated to range from $100,000 – $500,000. Most companies and individuals don’t invest nearly as much. Regardless of the figure, it is a significant investment.
To keep costs down, start by developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). That is a product with the minimum number of features that you need for your app to work and your audience to find it useful. This won’t be everything that you hoped for or imagined. However, keeping the features to a minimum will help you to keep initial costs down, while you test the demand for your app.
The final and potentially most important tip is to make sure you hold back a marketing budget for your project. There’s no point in investing all of that money in developing an app if you don’t have the resources to acquire customers. Most successful companies that develop apps allocate 30% of their total budget on marketing. This is enough money to see if you can get traction.
Digitally-centred marketing, shopper & sales promotion agency, Activation, has announced that it has appointed Claire Moyne as Client Services Director. Previously the Managing Director at Bristol-based Edo, a digital customer experience consultancy, Claire has joined to support Activation with it’s ambitious growth plans, leading and developing client relationships whilst heading the client services function within the agency as a member of the senior management team.
With 23% growth last year, and following a number of recent wins, Activation has a number of exciting brands on its books, and leading these relationships will be an area of focus for Claire. The agency also launched it’s reworked proposition in the summer, with a uniquely differentiated offering in digitally-centred brand, shopper and promotional marketing. This proposition is generating interest in the grocery sector, leading to a growing new business pipeline.
Matt Ramsay, MD of Activation comments – Claire brings with her a unique mix of skills with her experience in leadership, digital, customer and client experience and grocery brand promotions – we know Claire will be an asset to the business and we’re really looking forward to working together and introducing her to our clients, where her abilities will help us grow and improve our overall business. I’m delighted to welcome Claire to the A-Team
With this role, the agency has also embraced flexible working, with Claire also working the role around her recent purchase of a coffee shop in Bristol!
Liz Gadd, Co-Founder and Recruiter at Moxie and Mettle, is an experienced recruiter in PR, Communications, Digital, Social, Creative and Marketing.
In this workshop Liz will share with you some of her 30 years of experience placing freelance PR, marketing, creative and communications professionals. This includes…
Liz looks at CVs, Linked In, direct approaches, and general hints and tips about how to get the right work for you. It’s real world career advice with plenty of knowledge to share about what it’s really like and what really works in finding freelance work with clients and new job opportunities. Liz will also share how to create a perfect 10 second introduction for you and your services, when talking to prospective clients and new contacts.
This workshop will take place on Tuesday 20th November from 0930-1200 at The Ivy Clifton Brasserie, 42-44 Caledonia Place, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4DN. Tickets are £20+VAT for Bristol Media members and £30+VAT for non-members. A light breakfast is included in the ticket price. Booking is via Eventbrite.
*DEADLINE EXTENDED – We’ve had some fantastic applications, and are now looking for freelancers who specialise in Copywriting, Animation or Video production*
We’ve had several requests from our membership community to bring back our famous Portfolio Review Nights. Well, there’s good news! We’ve secured the date and the venue, and the next Portfolio Review night will be held on Wednesday 13th November at Origin Workspace, Berkeley Square.
If you’re a Bristol Media Freelance Member working in the creative sector, this is a fantastic opportunity to have your portfolio work reviewed by top creative directors from several of the most successful agencies in the region. We’ve got 15 creative directors signed up from agencies including Mr B & Friends, Oakwood, Epoch, Armadillo, Proctor + Stevenson, Zone, saintnicks, Great State, Bray Leino CX, The Way, Halo, Home , Six and Prophecy who are all eager to meet local talent.
Freelancers will have up to 8 minutes with each director who will offer their advice and constructive feedback in a speed networking environment. In the past, Freelancers have often secured a project or been invited for a further interview with the agency team, and we hear that the creative directors have a great time, too!
We’re now looking for freelancers working in the fields of digital, graphic design, branding, web development, video production, animation/motion graphics, VFX, photography, illustration and copywriting.
This is a very popular event which is for Bristol Media members only. We only have 15 places available.
Please email [email protected] saying why this is the perfect opportunity for you right now, along with a link to your portfolio or website. Applications close at 5pm on Friday 25th October.
We recently launched a new specialist MSc in Digital Marketing and are currently teaching our first cohort of students from around the world. The course trains postgraduate students in various digital marketing techniques as well as looking at the latest research in this field. Next year, the final project for these students will see them proposing and pitching a whole campaign of digital marketing activity in teams of 4 or 5.
We are currently looking for real businesses for the students to pitch their work to. Ideally, you would explain the nature of your business and marketing requirements to the students in early 2020. The students would then respond with a pitch in May 2020. Their pitches would include an outline website, search strategy, social media strategy, and e-commerce strategy.
If you have a project or business that would suit this pitch, please contact me for a further discussion at [email protected].
Leading one-day digital conference, Collaborate Bristol returned to the Watershed Bristol to celebrate the best in UX and design in the South West this Summer.
Designed and curated by strategic international UX agency, Nomensa, Collaborate Bristol was held on June 21st at Bristol’s iconic Watershed. Returning for its sixth year, Collaborate Bristol welcomed a mix of speakers including: Onkardeep Singh MBE, senior UX designer at Three; Juliana Martinhago, product designer at Monzo; Georgia Rakusen, design research lead at ConsenSys; Gavin Strange, director and designer at Aardman Animations; Hilary Brownlie, head of service design & innovation at Registers of Scotland; Catalina Butnaru, ethics track lead at City AI; Eriol Fox, senior product designer at Ushahidi; and Nomensa’s own head of UX, Jon Fisher.
Onkardeep Singh MBE, who opened the event with his talk around passion for your work said: “There’s a laidback and informal feel about Collaborate which not only aids in building the community but also helps to bring honesty to the table, demonstrating the key challenges that we all face as designers and UX practitioners on a daily basis. This works to bring about topics that we wouldn’t usually talk about in a design context and I believe that’s fantastic.”
As a firm highlight on the tech events calendar, over 200 of the top UK creatives descended upon Bristol’s harbourside for this sold-out event. Focusing on collaborative thinking centred around UX and design, Collaborate Bristol is renowned for its unique approach to digital conferences in the South West, elevating delegate knowledge whilst building on those critical networks.
Speaking of the event, Henry Carroll, events manager for Nomensa, said: “We are always incredibly proud to bring Collaborate to our home city of Bristol. Of course, we operate in multiple cities across the UK and Europe, but Bristol will always have a special place in our hearts, and we feel privileged to bring such an event to the city, partnering with local businesses to contribute to Bristol’s thriving tech scene.
“Despite running for six years, no two Collaborate events have been the same yet and we’re proud to bring a multitude of speakers to the stage with a diverse range of experiences and passions. This year, we were thrilled to be joined by representatives from Monzo, Three, our own Nomensa experts and more, all showcasing the latest thought-leadership in UX and design, encouraging a collaborative approach and out-of-the-box thinking.”
For more information, visit: https://collaborateconf.com/
John Thornton, Social Media Copywriter for Innocent Drinks, has been announced as the final speaker for the Digital Gaggle conference which takes place on Thursday 19th September at Watershed.
His session ‘One Tweet Away From The Sack’ will provide attendees with a behind-the-scenes look at how Innocent Drinks executes its social media strategy and engages with its followers.
Speaking about his talk, John said “People go on social media to chat, watch cat videos, and post pictures of brunch. They don’t go on to read adverts, which is a real shame for people who write tweets for a living…”
To get around this, Innocent Drinks have developed a cunning strategy: Not Advertising Smoothies™. Turns out Not Advertising Smoothies™ actually sells more smoothies than Advertising Smoothies and they’ve got a graph to prove it.
John’s talk will discuss the power of nonsense, how to give your social media a purpose beyond advertising, and why personality trumps tone of voice. He’ll then completely undermine himself because Innocent’s most successful tweet is actually a shameless advert featuring four separate product messages. He’ll also cover some of the many tweets that have nearly got him sacked, and why tweeting in the shadow of a P45 is worth the risk.
John is the eighth and final speaker to join the Digital Gaggle lineup. Alongside Innocent Drinks, you’ll also hear from Molly Evans who is Digital Analytics Manager at Plusnet.
Molly’s talk will discuss the concept of maturity models and how to use them to assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy so that you can identify what works and understand where to make improvements.
Other sessions at Digital Gaggle will cover topics like UX, inclusive marketing, crisis comms and how to come up with more creative ideas.
You can read more about the agenda and the speakers here.
Early Bird tickets are currently on sale until 12.30pm on Wednesday 28th August. Book your place here before they sell out.