The Body Shop Case Study
Posted: January 26, 2009 Filed under: Brands and Brand Design, Offline case studies | Tags: Internal Comms, The Body Shop, WiseTiger Leave a comment »
The Body Shop
For many years, The Body Shop has constantly sought out wonderful natural ingredients from all four corners of the globe, and brings you products bursting with effectiveness to enhance your natural beauty. While doing all of this The Body Shop also strives to protect this beautiful planet and the people who depend on it — not because it’s fashionable, but based on the belief that it’s the only way to do business.
The brief:
WiseTiger has been working with The Body Shop’s since 2003, designing and producing investor relations and internal communications literature on an on-going basis. Our brief has always been to capture the excitement of a world-class retailer whilst respecting the requirements of investors and staff.
Internal Communications:
The company newsletter ‘Everybody’ is produced six times a year and distributed to 6,000 staff worldwide. Designed and produced as an interactive eBook it is sent electronically to minimise costs on printing and postage.
The newsletter remains popular with staff around the world.
“This newsletter is aesthetically beautiful and the content rich. It is a true indication of a global brand and sends the message that while each region has its personal successes, we are one company succeeding together.” Italy
“You guys did a great job and I think it’s such a great idea to know what’s happening to The Body Shop globally.” Indonesia
Visit Globalport’s case study at the WiseTiger website
Give me a call or drop me an email if you want to know more about this client case study.
Farnham Online Case Study
Posted: January 23, 2009 Filed under: Online case studies, Web Design and Online Communications | Tags: Accessibility, Farnham, Farnham Online, Web design, WiseTiger 1 Comment »
Farnham Town Council
Farnham Online is the website for Farnham Town Council – an online resource for residents, visitors and businesses. Farnham is an old English market town one hour south-west of London with narrow streets lined with some of the finest Georgian architecture in the South of England. The parish church and castle date back to the 12th Century.
The brief:
WiseTiger won a five-way pitch to design and produce the town’s website. Our brief was to produce an appealing and informative website to provide information to the residents of Farnham as well as promoting tourism and business in and around the town.
The website was also required to conform with the W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines and be built with a Content Management System to allow the team to edit content and add pages to the site.
The Answer:
The design of the website features a specially commissioned illustration of Farnham’s landmark buildings set against a backdrop of the River Wey and the North Downs. The site has been structured into four areas – for visitors, residents, businesses, and information about the council. Other features of the site include a news and events section, a live weather feed, online video and a document download library for council forms, committee minutes and agendas.
The Result:
Farnham Online is already being recognised as one of the best local authority websites in the UK for design, accessibility and content.
Visit Globalport’s case study at the WiseTiger website
Visit the Farnham Online website
Give me a call or drop me an email if you want to know more about this client case study.
How to use other people’s blogs to promote you business online
Posted: January 20, 2009 Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, Web Design and Online Communications | Tags: Blogging, Marketing, PR, The Times Online, WiseTiger Leave a comment »
Blog your way to success during the recession
As you know, I’m a fan of blogging. It’s a great way of generating current and relevant content online, which of course is seen by Google as a good thing. A good blog creates followers, discussion and interest in the blog’s author or business.
So I was delighted to read an interesting article at Times Online. Their case study of a Scottish brewer illustrates perfectly that successful blogging isn’t all about what you’re writing yourself! This canny entrepreneur identified the top bloggers in his key markets and sent product samples to the them. As sure as eggs is eggs, these bloggers then wrote favourably about him which created great ‘word-of-mouth’, debate and interest in the business. Through the use of comments to these blogs, the brewer then became involved in the blog communities, generating interest and revenue for his firm. His happy combination of self-promotion and PR works well.
It’s an interesting and relevant approach to marketing in an economic downtown, and a great example of the power of social media online. Read more at the Times Online website or contact me if you want to discuss blogging further. We’re experts in setting up blogs for our clients – see www.8020comms.com and www.launchgroup.co.uk.
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More news on marketing techniques to combat the downturn
Posted: January 18, 2009 Filed under: Brands and Brand Design, Marketing and Advertising, Web Design and Online Communications | Tags: Design and the economy, Email Marketing, Marketing, McKinsey, Simon says..., WiseTiger 2 Comments »
Beating the recession means thinking differently about your marketing approach
In other articles here on my blog I’ve referred to the need to continue your investment in marketing.
In the last few days I’ve reviewed more articles including an interesting post at The McKinsey Quarterly which suggests that Marketers who follow the survival techniques of previous economic slowdowns will fail.
So where’s this going?
Well, we all know that marketing budgets are being cut, with more bang-for-the-buck required for every marketing £ spent. We also know that marketing teams need to be more and more accountable for what they are spending and to be able to produce statistical analysis and results around their campaigns and communications.
In McKinsey’s report they say that “in previous downturns, it meant investing in proven advertising vehicles while cutting back on newer ones with shorter track records”. They go on to say that “new communications vehicles such as the internet, social networking, and mobile devices are gaining scale and delivering effective results…. most marketing plans therefore try to meet their objectives cost-effectively by using a mix of traditional and new vehicles”.
It’s worth subscribing to McKinsey’s (it’s free) to read the report in full.
At WiseTiger we’re certainly seeing this change on the ground. Email Marketing is hugely popular at the moment, reaching out to customers and prospects with carefully targeted campaigns, driving traffic to their websites and delivering measured results through our own email marketing software ‘Giraffemail’. And best of all, we’re managing this marketing within tough budgets. Give me a call or drop me an email if this is something you’d like to talk more about.
For sure, thinking differently about how you manage your marketing budget in 2009 is going to be critical.
Globalports Case Study
Posted: January 13, 2009 Filed under: Brands and Brand Design, Integrated case studies, Web Design and Online Communications, WiseTiger client case studies | Tags: Brand design, Case study, Globalports, Web design, WiseTiger Leave a comment »
Global Ports
Global Ports is a leading container and oil products terminal operator in Russia and the Baltics. The Group’s terminals are located in the Baltic and far east Russia and constitute key gateways for Russian container imports and exports and oil products exports.
The brief:
Global Ports is a new company which evolved from consolidation in the port and container terminals market in Russia. With no existing brand or website, the client’s brief was to create a slick, modern and international identity for the organisation. The website was required to be the main source of information about the Group and reflect their position as a market leader and fast-growing company at the forefront of the industry.
An additional requirement of the brief was to work alongside Global Ports’ financial PR agency Citigate Dewe Rogerson to deliver investor relations materials and presentations.
The Answer:
Working within a tight timescale, we designed and produced a wide range of items:
- Corporate identity design
- Investor relations presentation template
- Stationery design
- Brand guidelines documentation
- Website design and build
- On-going website support and analytics.
For more information:
Visit Globalport’s case study at the WiseTiger website
Visit the Globalports website
Everyone Active Case Study
Posted: January 12, 2009 Filed under: Brands and Brand Design, Integrated case studies, Marketing and Advertising, Online case studies, Web Design and Online Communications, WiseTiger client case studies | Tags: Everyone Active, Web design, WiseTiger Leave a comment »
Everyone Active
Everyone Active is the UK’s number one activity brand managing more than 65 local authority Leisure Centres across England and Wales. Their objective is to promote the benefits of activity not only in their leisure centres, but at home, in the workplace, in parks and the countryside.
The brief:
Our brief from Everyone Active was to create a Content Managed website at the heart of their marketing activities. The website requirements included:
- Quick site navigation to find local Leisure Centres
- Leisure Centre content, timetables and news to be individually managed locally by Centre managers through the Content Management System
- Online registration for the Everyone Active card
- Information and advice for healthy, active lifestyles
- Downloadable fitness planners and workout guides
- A secure online activity planner for members to set goals, record their activity and manage their results
- Email marketing newsletters to customers and staff
- Accessible website content to support the objectives of local authorities.
The Answer:
Everyone Active’s website successfully reaches a wide range of audiences from young families to seniors, fitness freaks to couch potatoes. With more than 70,000 visitors per month the site has been well indexed by search engines and is delivering considerable cost savings to Everyone Active as their reliance on printed collateral is reduced.
For more information:
Visit Everyone Active’s case study at the WiseTiger website
Visit the Everyone Active website
Increase your marketing spend during the downturn
Posted: January 12, 2009 Filed under: Brands and Brand Design, Marketing and Advertising, Web Design and Online Communications | Tags: Brand design, Design and the economy, Marketing, Simon says..., Web design, WiseTiger 1 Comment »Marketing through the recession…
It’s going to be a tough year for many companies with the global economic recession and continuing lack of business confidence. In speaking with many of our clients we’ve recognised the need to make every marketing and communication £ work harder and smarter. We’re helping to make every one of those 5 to 8 messages more cost effective. We’re also employing more non-traditional forms of marketing and communication for our clients, with lower costs and higher potential for return on investment.
It’s been proven that an increase in spend and a positive approach to marketing during a recession can gain a long-term advantage for your brand. Here are a few interesting articles to help in these troubled times from and Hill & Knowlton, Marketing Week and The Design Council.
Is more marketing really the answer to our current economic issues? Don’t just take our word for it – read The Financial Times which says marketing spend is the one biggest critical success factor in ‘Beating the Downturn’ – dont forget to come back to this email and read on for more success.
With 2009 in mind, we’re launching a new monthly e-Newsletter called ‘SmartThinking’ – a monthly Thought Leadership email, delivering innovation, trends and opinions in the online-offline arena. Building on our past successes we’re also launching a new website, some innovative new services and some great new ways of helping drive success for our clients. Watch this space; we’re gearing up to deliver even better results for you and your business in 2009.
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What’s this Blog all about???
Posted: January 2, 2009 | Author: Simon Verrall | Filed under: Creative comment | Tags: WiseTiger | Leave a comment »Happy New Year y’all!
Here’s hoping you all have a successful and prosperous 2009! Here at WiseTiger we’re hoping you have as great a year as we’re planning to have!
So what’s this Blog all about? Well, it’s a place where I can write my personal views in and around my professional life – about web design, brand design and literature. It’s also a place where I can share personal thoughts, experiences and opinions about some of the other things that make up Simon Verrall’s world; nature and the environment, food and drink, and running, (plus some random bits as well!).
Wishing you well.