Something nice we like to do when a site launches (along with sending our lovely clients booze) is to send them a set of MOO cards, well it is de riguer right? It’s a wonderful way for our clients to promote all their hard work (and ours) and a really nice way for us to say thanks for working with us - talk about an integrated communications campaign.
Joshua wrote this on 27.08.08 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Design, Free things, Funny, Interesting, Marketing box
Here at NixonMcInnes we like to do our bit for the greater good and nothing says that more than growing a handsome moustache.
TacheBack is organised by the charity Everyman to raise money for testicular cancer. Tacheback’s aim is to raise as much money as possible by encouraging as many men as possible to sport a crumb catcher during the month of September. The male members of the NM team have heard the call and have flocked to make their pledge.
The TacheBack folks have developed a great website where you can sign up to recieve your own ‘Tache Warrior‘ page where you can add pictures, join a team and most importantly receive donations.
We are all very excited about being part of Tacheback and look forward to seeing you all donate tons of cash *hint hint* to the cause.
Cheers to makelessnoise for the pictures used for the tache montage.
Edward wrote this on 20.08.08 – 7 comments
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes box
Over the last eighteen months or so I’ve been involved in defining strategies for, planning, designing, building and deploying widgets.
Widgets are one of those digital technologies that come along, all loosely defined, with the threat that if you want to succeed online you MUST divert your spend into them now. There’s a sense of panic-y ‘I need a widget, and I need it now’, in the same way that in the 90s some marketers needed a website - but couldn’t really say why or what it needed to do.
At the mashup event devoted to Widgets back in February there was a slightly aggressive undercurrent, with the audience (mostly made up of corporate marketers and VCs) demanding that the panelists ‘show me the money‘. I sensed that this atmosphere was largely due to a lack of understanding of what widgets actually are and how they might be used strategically as part of the marketing mix.
It doesn’t help that Google in its wisdom calls them Gadgets but for my purposes here I’m going to define a widget as a piece of content or functionality that can be sited and shared anywhere on the wider web. This is still pretty loose but we’re getting there - bear with me!
Broadly speaking we can then break it down further into ‘personal’ widgets and ‘public’ widgets. This refers to where the widget might be placed and for whose consumption it is.
Personal widgets would be placed on a private space, such as the desktop of your computer or a personal start page. As they tend to be of some utility they will typically have low reach - but more engagement and therefore longevity. For this reason they can provide an excellent branding mechanism.
Examples might include the weather widget I keep on my desktop (to save me the effort of looking out of the window to check if its raining) or the London Underground journey planner I have on my iGoogle start page.
STA (the student-focussed travel agent) have created a set of widgets that appeal to young travellers, including a trip countdown and a tool to check the weather at your destination.
So, a personal widget is a tool that provides ‘branded utility’ - a long and lasting connection with your customer that defines you as useful and helpful and keeps your brand front of mind in a very positive way.
A public widget is generally a very different thing. Ivan Pope, Brighton-based guru of all things widgetty, has called them the ‘bumper stickers of the web’ in that they are used as badges to proclaim belonging or afilliation. This might be easier to visualise if we think where a public widget might be placed - picture MySpace and it should all become clear. A successful public widget would typically see a very high take-up but with little longevity - making this type of widget better suited to campaign activity.
Bloggers also use widgets, generally to give a more rounded view of themselves and how they exist across the social web - so we can see what tracks Dan from Innocent’s been listening to via last.fm, who’s been reading Anthony’s blog via MyBlogLog, the photos the NM team has taken on flickr, Will’s minutiae via Twitter or even where Matt is visiting via Dopplr.
For these online properties share-ability is a key part of the strategy for success - last.fm and flickr are ubiquitously used amongst the blogging population not only because they are excellent services but because they are so portable - and each placement on an influential blog leads to more referrals for the service - a form of free stealth advertising.
As ever understanding the needs of your audience is key to deciding what kind of widget would best serve your business needs - but it’s fairly certain that if you do use online as a significant business channel (and who doesn’t?) then widgetisation is something you should be considering.
Why? Because it’s all about distribution - and we’re marketing to an increasingly distributed and fragmented world. It’s no longer enough to try and shout your message to as many people is as possible - money can’t buy as much influence as it used to, but participation and usefulness can more than supplement that
As a marketer it’s kind of obvious that I’m going to slip in a bit of soft sell alongside all this educational stuff - so of course I’m going to mention our expertise in the planning, design and delivery of wonderful widgets. So far, we’ve run educational workshops for clients (including one of the largest search agencies in the UK and a major clothing retailer), we built and deployed the Sugarscape widget for UK publishing giant Hachette Filipacchi (check out the case study) and delivered two campaign widgets for Oxfam. We know our onions and are more than happy to share them with you.
Thanks to Flickr user jyri for the pic
Jenni wrote this on 12.08.08 – 3 comments
It's filed in the Marketing, Strategy, Widgets box
Disclosure: Channel 4 is a NixonMcInnes client and we like them very much. Everything we say here and on this whole website is biased.
Channel 4 has set itself the task of leading the industry in embracing the new era of online communications.
A bold mission, and one we’re outwardly chuffed to be helping with.
To accomplish their bold mission, like a few other smart brands (including BMW, who we’re also helping along a similar path) the head honchos in the Channel 4 Press and Marketing teams have recognised the need for a dedicated digital dude to unify and glue together the two converging worlds (Marketing and PR). This person - who could be you, or your friend - will help to continue driving Channel 4’s online marketing and communications activities ahead by being the lynchpin of a new virtual team to pioneer new techniques, new levels of engagement, new activities and new tools and processes.
So we’re hereby promoting this role to any smart cookies out there: if you’re a switched-on digital PR & Marketing person, check this little bad girl/boy out:
——————————
The Department
The Press & Publicity department is responsible for all Channel 4’s editorial dealings with other media. The department publicises Channel 4’s programmes across print, broadcast and online media, to drive viewers and users to the Group’s programmes and services and help it deliver its commercial objectives. The department also aims to protect and enhance the Group’s public service reputations through external communications. It is responsible for rapid rebuttal of critical press comment, generating positive executive profile and managing issues arising out of content and operations.
Key Responsibilities
Reporting to the Chief Publicity Manager and/or the Head of Marketing, New Media, he or she will:
- Co-ordinate a “virtual” digital promotions/publicity team, bringing together resource from across picture publicity, listings, publicity, marketing and new media to promote key programme priorities most effectively through online digital media.
- Lead the execution of the highest priority promotional campaigns in online digital media, seeding content across the web including social networking sites, portals and blogs.
- Establish, run and maintain community sites for these and other campaigns.
- Work with genre publicity teams to ensure that all lower level priority PR campaigns have a significant online element.
- Act as the key point of liaison between Channel 4 Press & Publicity and any journalists working primarily in online media.
- Create a directory of key sites, online journalists and bloggers for use by the press department
- Introduce publicists to key contacts at social networking and other sites to open dialogue about content placement
- Educate the wider press department about tactics for online PR
- Lead on opening up the press intranet allowing great access to press materials in conjunction with the New Media department
- Identify a set of metrics to assess success with the longer term aim of helping Channel 4 secure an equivalent share of voice in online media to print media.
Essential Skills and Experience
- Wide experience of delivering promotional campaigns in online media, including proven track record of using social networking.
- Extensive contacts within social networking and other key sites.
- Excellent personal/written communication and influencing skills
Desirable Skills
- Experience of consumer PR with leading UK brand
- Knowledge of UK broadcast sector.
Cool eh.
I think this is a brilliant opportunity. Genuinely.
Why?
Because it’s a super brand, because it’s a role sympathetic to the new online ecosystem (you’ll see words like community, dialogue, access and education above) and because these guys are already ahead of the game in that they’re thinking about this stuff, planning, and (ahem) working with some recognised specialists like us to pave the way.
Know someone? Apply here.
Will McInnes wrote this on 10.08.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Industry news box
Josh Russell has done a fantastic job of importing Social Media Cafe to Brighton. I’ve never managed to get to one of the London events so it’s great to have one on our doorstep.
It’s a free and informal meet-up for anyone interested in social media to chew the fat with their peers. Even the coffee is free, which is supported by sponsors (naturally we volunteered to sponsor the first event.) If you’re thinking of coming along, add yourself to the wiki. See you there.
First event: Sat 16 August, 11:00AM - upstairs at The Quadrant pub (map)
Tom wrote this on 09.08.08 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Brighton, Events & conferences, Social media box
We have recently announced the appointment of Pete Burden as our new non-executive Chairman. Pete has been working with us for two years as a business coach and mentor; this appointment formalizes the existing relationship between us and demonstrates our commitment to strengthening our management and governance. Read more…
Ruth wrote this on 07.08.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Business, NixonMcInnes, Strategy box
The background
Traditional digital marketing has been around for at least 10 years now. During that time benchmarks and standards have built up around this form of promotion. We have tried and tested techniques to measure and apply best practice to this area. At present, no such principles and values exist in relation to measuring social media and online PR. Queue MeasurementCamp.
Read more…
Ruth wrote this on 01.08.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Events & conferences, Industry news, Social media, Strategy, Web analytics box
Since 26th May, any UK company breaking the EU’s Directive on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Commercial Practices faces prosecution, fines or even jail terms for staff.
The kinds of activities this includes are:
- Using websites to create a false impression of grass-roots support or to inspire viral marketing
- Posting entries under different aliases to make something look more popular than it is
- Posting favourable evaluations or ratings to make something look more popular than it is
Companies caught out previously include L’Oreal, Sony, Wal-Mart and numerous politicians together with the Indian Prime Minister. So it is attractive but the consequences are now much greater.
Any blogger will admit it is tempting to add a few fake comments to get conversations going and to make a blog look more active but they will also agree conversations with a lasting impact are natural ones with real readers.
So work on content instead:
- Be controversial
- Be open-ended
- Invite comments
- Interact with comments
- Make it easy to comment (i.e. no log-in)
- Break news to encourage readers to link to you and come back for more
- Write about lasting issues that will still be popular in the future
- Be useful (educate and share information)
Remember: blogs should have integrity. The regular bloggers you are most trying to influence and get to pass on the good word about your company or product are influenced by the post not the number of comments.
Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/debaird/
louise wrote this on 24.07.08 – 6 comments
It's filed in the Blogging, Business, Industry news, Marketing, Mistakes, Social media box
This is some stuff I banged out for a recent Neilson Online newsletter.
It’s brief, and shallow, but it addresses something I’m spending a lot of time thinking about and working on with our clients. The ‘who owns this’ part of the getting to grips with social web and online conversations.
I keep drawing this picture to illustrate the challenge:
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Who owns the social media beast?
Suddenly the world is different…
In the good old days everything was safe, stable and known inside the big corporation. We were cosy.
Marketing created the outgoing noise. Customer services dealt with the incoming noise. PR owned the media. And Brand owned the brand. Yeah this is overly facile, but the divisions on the playing field were pretty clear, and were largely respected. And then the internet changed everything.
Now social media, with consumers publishing and sharing digital oceans of content amongst one another on a flattened, frictionless, disintermediated plane, has made a nonsense of our demarcated areas of responsibility. For example, if a consumer publishes a hate-ridden review of a new mobile phone, and many other consumers join in, adding their weight to the story which gains momentum and swirls and snarls and bites, is this a PR issue, or a marketing issue, or a product issue, or a customer services issue? Who ‘owns’ the social media beast?
The answer, we think, is easy. Everyone!
It’s true but it’s probably not what we want as senior people or business owners (and I know, because I am one). which is usually a simple focused solution: a clear one-stop go-to-man approach. ‘We’ll appoint someone: David owns social media!’ Nope. It won’t work.
The clue is in the problem.
Social media is very hard to define because it the spaces, channels and technologies are many, and ever-proliferating, and the content, the topic matter, is as broad as life itself. Fascinated by ant farms? Find everything you need to know online. Desperate to know who King Tubby is? Find the answer and his biggest fans online. So the challenges and opportunities that our businesses face in this new online era are as multi-coloured and multi-flavoured as we can imagine (and then some) - they will cut across every part of our organisation, of our industry and of our brands.
So we all own this social media beast.
You own your part of it. If you’ve buried your head or hoped and expected Ted in marketing to pick this up, think again. The world is out there. Your impenetrable company fortress walls have been broken. So whether you’re in market research or engineering, take a peek outside. Start listening and learning and participating in the conversations. The sooner you do, the better you’ll do. Take ownership of your part today - you won’t regret it.
=========
Yes? No? Bovvered?
Will McInnes wrote this on 17.07.08 – 5 comments
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Social media, Social networks, Strategy box
Role
Account Director*
* It’s been helpfully pointed out that this may be a higher level position than the average Account Director in a PR agency. Basically, head up the loving and looking after of our clients, and in time shape and mould that function, and reap the financial and real-world rewards as they grow. If you’re as good as we want you to be then you’ll be a board director, a company director, take on other areas too, end up running the joint. I’m getting carried away (maybe), but the point is this isn’t just ‘you get the word director in the job title’. This is: you behave like a director, think and act like a director, make good shizzle happen.
(plus any fancy words you want to add e.g. Digital Account Director; Social Media Account Director)
Rewards
- A rewarding combination of Salary and our juicy Annual Profit Share Scheme will be negotiated
- Indicative salary range is £35,000 - £42,000
- Assuming we’re all performing and flying along the bonus will be thousands of pounds but not tens of thousands
Background
NixonMcInnes has acquired an enviable client base of top brands, and would like to find a capable, experienced Account Director to join the team to nurture and develop the relationships within these client organisations to ensure that we deliver the most value we possibly can.
Purpose
To grow our business by growing the relationships we have with our clients, and consistently delivering incredible business value to those clients.
To focus on profitability through to delivery (as opposed to sell it and run).
This new director will be a peer to the two founding directors, Will McInnes and Tom Nixon and will join a talented, young management team mainly grown from within.
The role will be focused on clients, but with a flexible remit to help shape and develop the business. It’s an exciting opportunity to be a part of a successful business that still has a huge amount of potential.
Experience & credentials
- Management experience in an agency or professional services firm: especially PR, or digital media; marketing, management consultancy, strategy or similar.
- We are particularly interested in candidates who have worked at director level, however this is not an essential requirement.
- Experience of managing top brand clients for professional services where individual clients may have an annual value of >£150K, as well as proven track record growing such relationships from an initial smaller ‘in’
- Experience delivering high quality consultancy, speaking, training and reports
- Demonstrable experience of making improvements to how an agency business performs.
- Managing and developing people.
- Expertise in at least one practical discipline related to the services that we deliver for clients. This might include PR, brand; design; content; strategy; marketing.
- Professional or graduate qualifications would be interesting but not required
- Excellent industry contacts.
Responsibilities - high-level
- Aggressively expanding our client relationships by ensuring that clients rate the quality of the relationship with us and the business value they derive from our work together as greater than that of any other agency they work with
- Taking full responsibility for the relationships between our company and our clients’- the buck stops here, with you
- Ensuring that the client expectations set at the sales stage are exceeded.
- Contributing to strategic company decisions.
- Helping to recruit, manage and develop other members of the team.
Responsibilities - in detail
Understanding client needs:
- Understand an individual clients needs – at all levels from business to project.
- With the client build an annual strategic plan that identifies new opportunities and projects, and required service/maintenance activities.
- Understand the environment the client operates in – by understanding their industry trends, competition, market, financial situation, operations, culture, IT infrastructure, business challenges. and so on.
- Support the Sales team with the development and submission of pitches, and closing sales.
- Work as a consultant to help the client understand their needs and issues and lead them proactively towards finding solutions.
Resources:
- Ensure the resources required for the execution of the client’s strategic plan are made available.
- Help the client find the resources they need either within NM or elsewhere.
Relationships:
- Build a strong and trusting relationship with the most appropriate client contact.
- Ensure strong and strategic relationships are maintained and developed between the client team and the NM team.
- Facilitate the creation of networks of people both within and between multiple clients.
- Create a context for successful relationships between NM and the account, including creating and implementing project escalation processes and procedures.
Intelligence:
- Ensure clients have an accurate and up-to-date picture of the services that NM provides.
- Keep the internal NM team informed of the client’s strategic and tactical direction.
- Prepare accurate forecasts for renewal business and input into the sales forecasting process.
- Give input to Marketing, and input into marketing campaigns.
- Give input to product and service development within NM based on what clients need.
- Ensure that all necessary information about the client and the relationship is available and up-to-date.
- Report progress in achieving results with clients to the Board/Sales Director.
Developing NixonMcInnes:
- Support and coach other people working with clients.
- Contribute to the broader development and growth of NM.
Characteristics
- Organised; likeable; optimistic; robust; assertive; diplomatic; ambitious, streetwise.
- Excellent commercial awareness.
- A passion for the web and social media.
- People-oriented and approachable.
- Willing to challenge and change the business.
- Able to lead a cross-functional team, and to convince and carry the team and client when necessary
- Ability to Get Things Done.
- Commitment to our highly open, transparent and democratic company culture.
- Ability to step back and look at the big picture.
- Ability to balance short- and long-term results.
- Sense of humour and fun to be with.
Company info
Nixon McInnes is a digital agency specialising in social media. We are based in central Brighton, 200 metres from Brighton Pier. Founded in 2000 we are now a team of 17 and widely recognised as leaders in our field.
We help our clients to understand the changing world online and then craft the campaigns, websites, tools and ways of working that enable them to harness social media to improve the way they communicate with the world.
The work we do truly blurs the lines between online marketing, online PR, business strategy and web design and build.
Our clients include Channel 4, BMW, O2, Fat Face, MORE TH>N, First Capital Connect; Neilson Active Holidays; Harley Medical Group; Stannah; Southampton University and Cisco.
Company culture
We have a refreshing and unique company culture based on a number of guiding democratic principles:
- Freedom: To work the hours that suit you (very flexible working policy - way more than flexitime and duvet days); wear what you want; change and improve things.
- Transparency: Open book accounting so everyone knows what everyone else earns and how much profit is made; open communication and distaste for secrets.
- Participation: Flat company hierarchy; voting on key company decisions; regular guest seat at company board meetings.
- Personal development: Regular one-to-one catch-ups with a director; a training budget; books and subscriptions; conferences; personal development planning; a chance to shape your career within a successful, growing company with a wide range of promotion opportunities.
- Rewards: excellent salary; performance and company profit-related bonuses. 24 days holiday per year plus bank holidays and a company vote on additional holiday at Christmas. We like a nice team lunch on the company regularly too.
- Fun: Life’s too short to focus only on money.
Application process
You wanna apply? Cool! To apply, please email Will McInnes with your CV (first name and then our domain name above).
Successful applicants will have an initial brief telephone chat with Will, and then a series of informal and formal meetings with the directors and co-workers at NixonMcInnes. At later stages we will introduce a few small real-world tests or scenarios to give you a chance to prove your abilities and strut your stuff.
For short-listed candidates we will then also be using a personality test because a previous (wonderful, and insightful) team day indicated we had a bias towards some particular personality types and we are looking to create a more diverse team in every sense.
Every applicant will be contacted with feedback.
I hope you see the thoroughness demonstrates our commitment to quality. Bonjour.
Will McInnes wrote this on 16.07.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
