Should social media be allowed at work? February 2, 2017
Posted by nicholas gill in social media, thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: employee engagement, social media, thought leadership, times
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With employees ‘wasting’ up to a third of their day being distracted with things like social media, office chat, going online in work hours, I was asked to comment this week in Times supplement, Raconteur on whether social media should be allowed at work. What do you think?
We don’t limit what our teams can and cannot do when it comes to social media, web surfing or office chat. We think they should be grown up enough to know how to manage their time and distractions without a rule book. In the service industry, our work hours and projects are rarely predictable so there has to be ebb and flow to balance the demands we will ask of our teams to deliver projects.
We use social media a lot for our clients so there is a natural need to spend time being involved to understand the changes, the content and what competitors are doing. The one thing we do ask is that in meetings, phones are not on the table as the clarion call of the notification bombardment is overwhelmingly distracting and you need to present and attentive to ensure meetings are effective and timely.
Digital vs Traditional: what works best for you? December 16, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in advertising, digital, digital advertising, Team Eleven, thought leadership, Uncategorized.add a comment
Latest thought piece in Marketing Business Forum on digital and traditional marketing.
Print circulation numbers are down. On-demand and streaming services – sans un-skippable ads – are on the up. So what’s a marketer to do? Ditch the dinosaur channels and throw the entire budget at Larry, Sergey, Zuck and their contemporaries? Targeting, re-targeting and the ‘viral’ promise are all reasons to believe digital and social now reign supreme for the modern marketer, but in this we neglect to acknowledge the in real life (IRL) experiences and halting moments that also drive word of mouth and brand consideration – online or otherwise. So before you do throw everything at the digital plan, please ponder the following…
Magic in the mundane
If you haven’t heard the term ‘mindfulness’ this year then you’ve probably been living underneath the proverbial rock (and who would blame you in these turbulent times). It’s a reaction to our age of hedonism and the breakneck speed at which we’ve been living our lives, and like most trends, this desire to slow down and simplify is being reflected in publishing and advertising. In April this year, Ronseal decided to take a risk with a live TV spot which offered Channel 4’s Gogglebox audience three minutes of the unthinkable – watching actual fence paint dry. It was an inspired and effective product demonstration that earned them a trending spot on social media.
Stop the press
The digital evolution of the print industry is representative of the consumer’s move to more accessible, tailored and instant news without the barrage of irrelevant print ads. Despite the declining print figures, some brands still have the foresight to take advantage of reactive placements in bulk circulations, which often hit a captive, educated audience of commuters who will be reading cover to cover. Norwegian struck an extremely timely note in September this year following the news of Brad and Angelina’s break up, with a stark but cuttingly comic ad promoting their LA price promotion. The result: a viral campaign that puts it firmly in the hall of fame with Oreo’s ‘dunk in the dark’.
The great outdoors
Out-of-home and experiential marketing are truly challenging media. Bus wraps are hardly remarkable and being chased by a sampler at Waterloo while you try to catch your train isn’t entirely conducive to positive brand perception. The Economist challenges that notion. The publisher is infamous for its minimalist and innovative OOH creative, but it turned its hand to an unsettling on-the-ground activation in 2015 which was rebooted in the US this year. ‘High-protein’ is the new “on trend” claim for the food industry, and The Economists’ ice cream samplers achieved theirs by adding insects, the new proposed solution for the global food crisis which it covered in a ‘future of food’ feature. The campaign generated significant online press coverage and was branded ‘eye-catching genius’ by Business Insider.
The learning? Search for new value in formats that have become hackneyed and contrived. Opportunities to reach a cynical populace using these traditional methods still remain and can be extremely successful for the creative and confident marketer. Whether you’re aiming for ‘disrupt’ ‘be bold’ or ‘surprise and delight’ don’t miss the simple proposition with cut-through messaging that’s right in front of you.
Rebrand shakes off naff 70’s image of ‘Spritz’ November 22, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: Team Eleven, the grocer, thought leadership
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Commenting in The Grocer on the revamp of the Blossom Hill Fruit Bloom (Membership required for the link – see images above).
From a wine consumer perspective it makes sense as ‘Fruit Bloom’ doesn’t help you to distinguish what the product is or why it is different from the main Blossom Hill range of rose, whites and reds. ‘Spritz’ has shaken off it’s perhaps ‘naff’ 70s image, particularly with the resurgence of the Aperol Spritz in the last two years and this association will help to firmly place the revised product packaging into the light and refreshing category, something which a lot of people are looking for as an alternative to serious wine consumption.
Equal Pay Day: How you can stand up to the gender pay gap at work? November 16, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: equal pay day, gender pay gap, sophie gibson, Team Eleven, telegraph, thought leadership
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Team Eleven Client Partner, Sophie Gibson, comments in today’s Telegraph on how you can stand up to the gender pay gap at work.
Sophie Gibson, founder of marketing firm Team Eleven, advises: “Asking to leave early can sometimes be difficult. But, given that awareness of the pay gap is growing, seize the opportunity to bring it your employers attention. Why not ask your employer for a quiet word.
“Say something like: ‘I am sure that the company does value my time in the same way as my male peers, but I’d like to leave an hour early today to ensure that my time reflects the salary I am paid. This is part of the equal pay day campaign. Should the pay gap be corrected, I’d be only too happy to stay. But unless the company can explain their position on this matter, then I’m sure you would agree it’s only fair.’”
Picture: John Lamb from Telegraph article.
Need some help with that, love? November 16, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in thought leadership, Uncategorized, work.Tags: advertising, sophie gibson, Team Eleven, telegraph, thought leadership, women
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Team Eleven comment in The Telegraph from Client Partner, Sophie Gibson, on how to respond to patronising comments at work.
“Being patronised is often the result of an unconscious bias, so wherever possible, it’s important to address the issue or it could become a barrier to progress or collaboration,” Sophie Gibson, founder of marketing firm Team Eleven, says.
“Keep the dialogue professional, but explain that what they’ve just said doesn’t feel like a fair representation of your ability, or that you’d prefer it if you weren’t referred to in that way as it doesn’t communicate a sense of respect.
“Confrontation on something which seems quite minor can be intimidating, but if it has bothered or even upset you, ignoring it could leave you with a sense of being less worthy in the workplace, even when you’re contributing above and beyond.”
Photo: people images.com from Telegraph article.
How do convenience stores attract students? Think laterally. November 15, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: FMCG, strategy, students, Team Eleven, the grocer, thought leadership
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Commenting in The Grocer on how convenience stores can attract students. (Membership required for the link – see images above).
The challenge for convenience stores with students is to dissuade them from the established and new ‘metro style’ convenience supermarkets and also, crucially, online shopping.
A simple search for ‘student food shopping’ will bring up a large volume of super helpful hints, tips and strategies for stretching the budget ranging form avoiding the supermarket and doing everything online, not going on student loan ‘pay day’ or an empty stomach to planning in advance and only sticking to the list. Variations on advice for most people really. But what they all seem to not touch is the convenience store. Likely this is because of the rise of Tesco et al into convenience stores is equalising the advantage convenience stores once had. Consider that sales of Tesco Metro, Sainsbury’s Local and Waitrose Mini grew by 16% Vs only 2.3% against Spar and Londis (Bernstein Research 2015). There has also been a great deal of movement in the non-supermarket brands with Nisa, Premier and CostCutter also joining the throng.
The independents have a a perception that convenience really means a higher price point to penalise you for the act of convenience. But this is not true when you see supermarket brand convenience stores charge prices up to 6% higher than the main supermarket with some in Central London up to 12% higher (Bernstein Research, 2015).
The opportunity to attract the student audience, however, needs to be more than just price. While budget is a key element and one expense that students cannot live without, the need to fit into they need to exploit the faster-living, smaller basket demands of this generation. Do not expect them to fill up with ready meals as these are expensive and also likely to be nutritionally unsound. Instead, think laterally – this generation is used to social communities, making new friends, connecting and helping. Embrace the sharing economy by helping them to facilitate this on a food basis. Create a localised ‘grub club’ where the power of the student community can participate and receive regular, wholesome – and likely spectacular meals – for a contribution rather than having to do everything themselves. Using social tools to the help them plan for meals; make it easy with store cupboard and ‘in the moment’ ingredients that are price sensitive. Giving them a reason to think about and continue to use you rather than just as a convenient grab and dash to refuel between lectures or nights outs.
postcards from the beach October 7, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: marketing, silicon beach, technology, thought leadership
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I haven’t been to any conferences or networking events for some time. Partly because of agency learning and development starvation but also partly because I had become tired of them becoming endless sales pitches or regurgitation of statistics or campaigns. I also detest networking events.
Silicon Beach is unlike any of this. Curated by Matt Desmier in an unashamedly selfish manner of people he thinks would be interesting and has spent the last year – or more – stalking on twitter and in real life to speak. And you know what, there was no filler – it was all killer. The boy done good.
For two days we had no idea who was next, what they were speaking about and pretty much no wi-fi. Which sounds ironic it being a an event with digital at heart but you know what, it was brilliant. It made you focus rather than trying to capture that oh so perfect tweetable quote.
It’s a week later and I’m still reeling from the inspiration, passion and the hypodermic needle of thoughts that we were subjected to.
It feels like what happened at the beach should stay at the beach because I don’t know how I could do Phil Adams’ ‘guns’ any justice beyond saying what a most incredible piece of storytelling it was.
Or how Pete Trainor made us all well up and make ‘big data’ feel real and powerful but also so incredibly ineffective when it comes to anything other than make giant corporates even more giant and corporate.
Or how Marcus Brown gave a piece of performance art that just blew my tiny mind but made us question everything.
If I were to write some seaside postcard thank you notes, it would be these:
Dear Phil,
Thank you for making me think about the importance of language and that caring about this will have impact on the overall quality of thinking and output. Your point about sharable versus share-worthy shall forever be at my beckon call. And for reminding me that ’Cashmore’ and his ‘guns’ have a place. But it’s not every place.
I’m still gawping at the work The Unseen do. Technology, fashion, biology, creativity. And black clothes. None of this is easy. It’s constant experimentation. Thanks, Jody, for the reminder to stop chasing the next big thing and focus on the problem, not the solution. That experimentation and pivoting is good. And they ‘how do we fix things?’ top tip that was super useful but so super simple: what’s the problem and how can you fix it? And then just go for it.
Dear Mark,
What would David do? Shamelessly copy, adapt and pivot. His whole life. And he was a genius. So why do we think we have to start with a blank sheet of paper every single time? Work out who has done it already. And copy. But copy with a degree of error. Because that’s where the magic lies.
Hey, Hey Human!
Get out of the deep end with consumer relationships and spend more time with the shallow moments. The moments that really matter. A bit of friction for the right reasons can be good. In our attention deficit world, creative primers that act as brain jolts are supremely important; fragments that consistently prime our reactions, our resonance and our relevancy to consumers.
Dear Glyn,
We get bombarded with the next big thing, the shiny new trend. You reminded us to look beyond this. Even though you couldn’t prove your bundling/unbundling theory, the provocation and the thought process reminded me to lift my head up and look at the wider world and what’s happening at the macro level.
Dear Marcus,
Getting off the grid is good for the mind, body and soul. A chance to breathe, to think, to escape. That by leaving the traditional agency world liberates you to do the things that make you happy but also that you would never be allowed to do in that world. And I’m never going to ingest any pill you give me. And thank you, Marcus for our conversation, it was very humbling and helpful. I look forward to walking with you when I’ve had my knee fixed.
See you by the beach next year.
Vertical ambition welcome here August 11, 2016
Posted by nicholas gill in Team Eleven, thought leadership, Uncategorized.Tags: advertising, start up, thought leadership
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We’re now in our 8th month since starting Team Eleven. We started with just us two, two desks and two chairs in a two-person office. In that time we’ve grown rapidly, in a way that completely exceeded all our own expectations and ambitions. We’re humbled by the clients who wanted to partner with us as we forged our way in this world without the safety net of a big agency. And the people who wanted to work with us based on who we are as people, our vision and our way of working.
Fundamentally we believe in the strength and depth of relationships.
Relationships with clients to truly understand and add value to their business to add immediate impact but also to sustain that momentum – something that the agency pitch process and slash and burn approach to agency roster management seems to have devalued into an instant magic formula.
Relationships with people in our team because they are the key to making things happen. I remember a long time ago some sage advise from Richard Marshall at TMW who told me, “people buy people.” It struck a chord then and it is something that Sophie, myself and everyone who works with us firmly believe.
And relationships with our partners. Critical given our operating model – a small, nimble core of talented client partners and strategists augmented by best in class creative, producers, designers, social media types, videographers, editors, copywriters, technologists, UX and more.
We’ve worked with a ridiculously talented award-winning sports marketing creative genius from New York, a video editor in Sydney, social experts in every major European country and a user experience and digital creative polymath from New Zealand. And some people just up the road from us too. We look after these people. We treat them right. And the upside for clients – and us – is we get to work with the best talent in the world, not just the next available person in the room.
Our approach also means paying interns. Our industry is notorious for making interns work like dogs and paying them in belief that having the hallowed agency name on the CV is something that people would chew their own feet off for. Ridiculous arrogance and pomposity. We have an intern and we’re paying her because it’s the right thing to do and we want her to enjoy the experience without having to worry how she’s paying for her bus fare or her next meal. We also want to make sure she feels that she can contribute, learn and grow with us.
Because the ‘debate’ is obviously not over. Kevin was obviously wrong. It seems that, for a lot of people, perhaps the nostalgia of Mad Men had become reality rather than period entertainment. Aggression and arrogance often misplaced as qualities that drive successful businesses. Where people seem to think that boorish, arrogant, bullying and outdated behaviour is good and wins the day and this is the way you all need to be. Traits like those, as much as they are rightly getting pilloried now, had previously been held in high regard and rewarded in the endless agency quest to climb the ladder and deliver growth above everything else.
The creative industry shouldn’t subscribe to that. We certainly don’t subscribe to that at Team Eleven.
We’re hugely proud that our board is 50-50 male-female. And that our team is 85% female. Not because of some quota chasing tick box, but because they are the absolutely best people to improve our team and deliver against our mission. And encourage the now infamous vertical ambition.
And ambition is something we don’t lack. Although Team Eleven only started up in January from a 2-person office, we have recorded phenomenal growth on the back of impressive client wins for Invisalign Europe, Renew Health and Asics Europe. We recently moved into a bigger office and have expanded the team from the initial two partners by making four additional hires in the last few months helping them, us, and our clients, with all our own vertical ambitions.
can american apparel recover from bankruptcy? October 7, 2015
Posted by nicholas gill in advertising, thought leadership.Tags: advertising, american apparel, bankruptcy, the drum, thought leadership
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Article I penned in The Drum on how American Apparel can recover from bankruptcy following lurid accusations in the boardroom, porn as advertising and poor performance at the tills.
Recovering from bankruptcy is the easy part.
There have been plenty of resurrection stories down the years with some big names surviving because of their importance to the national economy – American Airlines, General Motors.
Or those brands that survive and learn from it, coming back stronger and better with a renewed energy, work ethic and a revitalised core that is true to the brand, business and customer – Chrysler, Jeep, Aston Martin (several times now).
Then there are are brands that have come back from a seemingly never-ending downward spiral in results because of smart leadership changes, strategy changes, product changes and a deep-rooted love of the brand in the public – look at Marks & Spencer.
And then there is American Apparel. A brand whose founder has been dogged with allegations and whose advertising went beyond provocative into the lurid, disturbing murky waters of overt sexualisation and pretty much porn as advertising. The decisive change was not the filing for bankruptcy this week, it was the removal of the controversial CEO Dov Charney last year.
Sales are down, shops are closing. American Apparel made some bad choices. A lot of bad choices. Not least of which was Charney turning up to a meeting allegedly wearing nothing but a strategically placed sock. I don’t believe that was in Dale Carnegie’s playbook on ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’.
Yet the brand allure remains strong. The crazy guy at the top did some incredible things like making sure every garment was produced inside America to truly live up to the brand name. And he did this by making sure the largely Latino workforce was well paid and well looked after. For a brand that essentially made average underwear and t-shirts, it created its own myth, fuelled by provocative porn-a-like advertising that shocked in a world we thought was largely unshockable. Ads that looked more like the edgier editorial of high-end fashion magazines played out in RHS full exposure.
This worked to cut through, but lost its edge when people realised they were paying over the odds for some average undergarments. It was undone, not by cheaper brands, but by brands that people wanted to associate with. Brands like Hollister with its sunshine California sheen with beautiful people became more culturally and socially acceptable. And better quality. And it’s not cheap either.
So how can American Apparel truly recover?
As much as possible it needs to keep the ongoing lawsuits separate to the ongoing concern that is the business and the brand. It needs to reconnect the American values, ethic, sense of doing things differently and free spirit that ignited the company in the first place, and one that continues to have consumer resonance globally. It needs a retail experience overview as it looks tired, dated and less enticing than brands like Primark.
Lastly, it needs to find the people who can mainline into the fashion industry trends and be part of the ‘must have’ list again. Preferably they will know how to wear their socks correctly.
amazon’s deal with top gear trio indicative of global trend August 24, 2015
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Article in M&M Global I penned on the content streaming trends and the impact of Amazon Prime signing the former Top Gear trio Clarkson, Hammond and May.
The former Top Gear presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, signing up with Amazon is a real coup. Not only does it make a firm statement of the brand’s intent to go toe-to-toe with Netflix on original content, but it also continues to signal a shift away from traditional content providers.
We’ve already seen actors and directors wanting to work for organisations like Sky because they offer greater creative freedom and are able to take more risks because of their advertiser and subscriber funded model.
We’re now seeing the (currently) ad-free subscription streaming services take this to another level with original content also being distributed in a way that plays straight into our desire to time-shift our way of consuming content – they understand their audience and, like any clever brand, are designing their products to meet their customers’ needs, rather than the other way around.
Binge watching is now the norm and an entire generation has become used to watching every series and even the entire canon in one extended sitting rather than waiting a week to see the cliff-hanger resolved.
Spotted an opportunity
This change in consumer behaviour was also in evidence when Amazon Prime stepped in in response to a petition by fans of the BBC TV series, Ripper Street, to bring the show back for a third series. With the BBC not listening, Amazon spotted an opportunity – marking the first time that a subscription-based video-on-demand service became the main backer of an established TV show.
While we often hear the populist ‘TV is dead’ argument, it couldn’t be further from the truth. We are watching more TV than we ever used to. But across more devices and in different ways, for example, in the UK 11% of our daily total video consumption is now ‘playback TV’ and 67% is live TV (source: 2014 ThinkBox). While quality output is still winning, people will keep watching.
The shift in ways of consuming content is more evident in the US than in the UK where pay per view is further established and where breakthrough content such as Kevin Spacey’s House of Cards, which literally dropped overnight, has enabled fans to consume the entire show’s opening series in one supersized gulp followed by cult viewing such as Orange is the New Black.
But the approach works hand in hand with traditional superpowers like HBO continuing to invest in cinematic scale and quality series such as Game of Thrones which continues to stick to the traditional model and make people wait for series finales. And who can argue with the global viewing figures and Emmy awards for dragons, swords and Peter Dinklage?
Bete noire
Yet the streaming services are also attacking the bête noire of almost every television viewer – the mid series break. Sure, your PVR will pick up on it again when it comes back but you’ve forgotten, fallen out of love again. And then it stacks up on your PVR not watched list. The mid-series break feels outdated and with the technology we are now used to, it feels like the equivalent break in the film when they had to change the reels. I still haven’t watched the second half of Gotham because of this.
But, back to talent poaching. Having the former Top Gear trio on-board gives Amazon a real string to its bow, and it will undoubtedly have an impact when it comes to people choosing between streaming services.
It will be interesting to see how many of the global Top Gear audience follow Clarkson, May and Hammond and choose to sign up to a subscription based model rather than relying on free broadcasting. And also how the new Chris Evans-helmed Top Gear on the BBC will compete in content and viewing figures.
In my view this move has the potential to have a major impact on the growth of Amazon Prime in the immediate future – and it is a trend we’re likely to see in numerous markets around the world – as long as the content is up to scratch.
