We would like to introduce the newest member of our team to you.
Please welcome, Murray Cox (we affectionately like to call him Muzza).
Murray joins us as a Social Media Consultant; heading up the new Content & Conversations practice within NixonMcInnes.
Murray is an ex-BBC online journalist who brings 15 years of mainstream media experience including 11 years spent in online news. Working in a variety of roles, including as an online journalist and producer, Murray has represented organisations including the BBC, Yahoo! and News International. During a stint in Australia in the late 1990s Murray worked on the initial launch and roll-out of MSN, underlining his heritage in online media.
Quote from Murray: “Every company is becoming a media company by virtue of their unfiltered, freely-published conversations with the outside world: my role is to help our clients create compelling content that engages, and so keep them at the forefront of this bold new digital world”
Quote from Will: “The shift in how big businesses engage with consumers makes the credit crunch look like a toddler’s garden party. Our mission is to help the smartest companies be bold, transparent and to drastically improve the quality of their engagement with real people: content in this is key.”
See the online coverage from PR Week.
Ruth wrote this on 06.02.09 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Interesting, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
The short version:
We are inviting applications from consultants at senior and mid-weight levels to join our growing team of specialist social media practioners. We have one vacancy immediately, and possibly another soon. Please find out more here and apply.
The long version:
A while back I announced, in a blaze of glory*, our search for a PR Pirate – someone to come from the ‘traditional PR’ world and help our clients with their new digital communications strategies.
Unfortunately, no sooner had I launched the search than we won a couple of significant pieces of work which this new team member would’ve – in an ideal world – helped to deliver. Instead, Anna and I went into full-blown delivery mode, which meant that the hiring process went on ice. There was literally no time (OK, not literally).
Being upfront, there were also issues with the hiring process, which was no bed of roses**:
- the title I gave the role of Account Director didn’t meet the scope of the role, which my PR pals told me was more what you’d call a ‘Board Director’ – a naive mistake on my behalf
- the double-bubble challenge of finding someone this niche AND keen on living or already living in Brighton seemed to restrict the number of the most senior-level candidates
Something good has come out of all of this, though.
Having done the work ourselves so far, Anna and I have been able to evolve a much clearer of understanding of what the company does and DOESN’T need. My understanding of how we’re going to shape our teams in the future has evolved, and I’ve been refining these ideas with Jenni, Pete and Tom.
As a result we now have a clearer idea of our needs.
We were building here at NixonMcInnes is a hybrid consultancy offering clients a range of services focused not by the ‘what we do’ but by the ‘where we do it’.
The ‘what we do’ range of services now regularly spans Research, Strategy & Planning, Training, Digital PR and Design & Build. This range gets our clients from ‘don’t know a thing’ to ‘actively engaging’.
The ‘where we do it’ remains the same as we continue to grow and enhance our ability to help clients in the specialised and evolving sphere of social media.
So our needs are a little broader than when we kicked off the search before.
We would still love for a senior consultant from a PR background to be this next hire: that will be spiffing if it happens. But equally we are now more open-minded to the benefits that someone from a market research, online marketing, agency planning or other related discipline can bring. Because our clients need help in a range of areas.
So if you or someone you know is passionately online, and keen to participate in how the internet is changing the world we live in from an HQ here in Brighton, UK, please read the job description and get in touch.
Alternatively, if anything is unclear or you have some feedback, I’m almost all ears. Thank you.
(* and ** are Bon Jovi references. No idea why).
Will McInnes wrote this on 11.11.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, Recruitment, Social media, Strategy box
I stumbled across this survey, Survey Reveals Brand Marketers’ Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future, produced for Sapient, which caught my imagination a wee-willy-winky bit.
The premise of the survey was ‘what would 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals describe as their Top 10 Wish List for Agencies of the Future?’.
I would add that given that it was sponsored by Sapient and was such a small sample size, the findings whilst useful and interesting aren’t conclusive in any way!
So here they are:
1. Greater knowledge of the digital space. With more than a third of marketers surveyed revealing that they are not confident that their current agency is well-positioned to take their brand through the unchartered waters of online digital marketing and interactive advertising, it‘s clear that agencies need to have a greater knowledge of the digital space in order to thrive. In fact, nearly half (45 percent) of the respondents have switched agencies (or plan to switch in the next 12 months) for one with greater digital knowledge or have hired an additional digital specialist to handle their interactive campaigns. Further, when it comes to an agency‘s area of expertise, 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital“ functions as ‘important/very important.‘
2. More use of “pull interactions.“ When trying to engage consumers with their brand, 90 percent of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions‘ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push‘ campaigns.
3. Leverage virtual communities. An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.
4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending. Ninety-two percent of respondents said it was ‘somewhat‘ or ‘very‘ important that agency employees use the technologies that they are recommending. For example, it is important that agency executives regularly use Facebook, Flickr, wikis, blogs, etc. in their personal social media mix.
5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing. Forty-three percent of marketers surveyed said that agencies with chief digital officers are more appealing than those without.
6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy. Sixty three percent of marketers surveyed said that an agency‘s Web 2.0 and social media capabilities are ‘important/very important‘ when it comes to agency selection.
7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior. Seventy-six percent of respondents deemed this as an ‘important/very important‘ aspect of their agency‘s online digital marketing and interactive advertising area of expertise.
8. Demonstrate strategic thinking. Seventy-seven percent of marketers surveyed ranked strategy/brain trust capabilities at the top of their agency wish list.
9. Branding and creative capabilities. Sixty-seven percent of respondents ranked branding at the top of their agency wish list while seventy-six percent ranked creative capabilities as ‘important/very important.‘
10. Ability to measure success. It‘s no surprise that marketers want an agency that can report on where campaigns succeeded, fell short and where they should be fine-tuned. Sixty-five percent ranked analytics at the top of their agency wish list.
My lightweight conclusions:
Well it’s awfully comforting for us digital agencies isn’t, as you’d expect from a survey commissioned by a digital business.
And doubly-triply-super comforting for those of us digital agencies that already specialise in the social media aspects of digital, given that this neatly ticks off points 1,2,3,6 and 7. (And for us at NixonMcInnes, where we hire on the basis of ‘Agency executives using the technology they are recommending’ too, so that’s nice).
But where does it really leave us? What are the gaps?
I think point 10, the measuring success piece, remains a yawning and tricky chasm between what we as marketers would like and what’s acceptably and reasonably achieveable right now. I hope that initiatives like MeasurementCamp are helping us take steps towards a better grasp of the measurement thing, but it’s a hugely complex task.
I reckon the other stuff on the list is very achieveable.
In fact, in the email I sent around to the team here at NM HQ, what I moved the conversation (or was it a monologue?) onto was instead the building blocks of professional services success that these wishlist items need to sit on top of.
Not the cherry-on-the-cake digital specialisms and cutting edge ‘Web 2.0′ expertise that clients also rightly demand, but actually the basics, the bread and butter. As I suggested in my email to the guys:
“However, I would add that this is built on top of a list of ‘What clients expect from all agencies’ which always includes things like:
- Delivery: they do what they say they’re going to, by when they said they would
- Communication: They keep me informed
- Honesty: tell me when they can’t do something
- Proactive: bring ideas to us, suggest things, don’t wait to be told or asked
- Responsive: can turn things around quickly, nothing is too much
And it’s here, in these much more mundane pragmatic areas, that we at NixonMcInnes are working hard.
The top list is well under control: that stuff is what we do, and we’re increasingly recognised by our clients and the client community for it.
But the bottom list, the agency-underpinnings, that’s where we need to do much much better…
As a small agency, our limited resources can be easily stretched.
And as a specialist in a new, complex and rapidly evolving area, how we actually deliver work can change on every single assignment. So these practical delivery bits are the pieces we’re now working on.
What do you think of these suggested client wish list items? Ring true, or sound a bit wonky to you?
Will McInnes wrote this on 08.10.08 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Industry news, Marketing, Mistakes, NixonMcInnes, Strategy box
An interactive and design led website for parents and children to use together for learning and play
The Nixon McInnes team are incredibly excited to launch today an impressive addition to our website portfolio in the children’s TV channel site Jim Jam.
Jim Jam is a cable TV channel which has launched in its first territory, Italy, with plans to roll-out across Europe. Hence why the site is in Italian!
The team has designed and built two sites for Jim Jam. The first site was a password protected press site made live in advance of the main channel and site launch to promote and manage media contact. This static HTML microsite was developed to tight deadlines to allow press release and media pack downloads.
The second and main site option is a bespoke design led site with interactive games created using Flash animation. The activities, colour and general vibrancy of the site makes it a welcome opportunity to demonstrate the creative design strength at Nixon McInnes.
The main site details the TV channel schedule which the client is able to populate using an EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) plug-in. The home page can also be updated to highlight changing channel promotions or seasonal themes.
View the Jim Jam site here.
Why not try your hand at the games – more fun than that report you should be writing!
Jo wrote this on 07.12.06 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Internet, NixonMcInnes, Our sites box
The Brighton and Hove Business Awards website has been updated and went live a few days ago.
Nixon McInnes is proud to be sponsoring the BAHBAs for the second year in a row, and – as a young team with a great reputation – is delighted to be sponsoring the New Kids on the Block award, which celebrates fresh new businesses that are creating waves.
Brighton-born-and-bred Director Will McInnes said “We believe in young business people and new businesses and we believe in Brighton. Sponsoring this award fits perfectly for us as a young, successful team so we’re keen to see who wins on the day”.
If you want to be part of an important (and actually fun) business networking event in Brighton, make sure to book your place in time, tickets sell out quickly!
You may also want to nominate your business for an award, the closing date is 30 June 2006.
See you there…
Gaëtan wrote this on 11.05.06 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, NixonMcInnes, Our sites box
