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More grown up than Adrian Mole, less controversial than Alan Clark. The cut and thrust of life in a passionate creative agency.
This week our brand of the week goes to Apple.
After the casing around Hannah’s Macbook laptop cracked she thought it would be a nightmare of endless phone calls and costly postage to get it sorted. However, she couldn’t have been more wrong! One phone call to Apple Care and one trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar later and it was all fixed and ready to go! She even had time to do a spot of Sunday afternoon shopping!
It was the easiest repair ever and the customer service at the Bristol Cribbs Causeway Apple Store was Fab!
Thanks Apple, Keep up the good work!
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Here’s some clever use of social media from Alfa Romeo
With the imminent launch of the new Guilietta, Alfa have been using a combination of social media to spread the word: Facebook page, You Tube videos, Twitter etc.
But now they’ve gone a nose further by enabling you to park the car on your drive with their Virtual Owners Programme.
Simply enter your postcode or street name, navigate to your house, choose the colour of your new Alfa and hey presto! A new car parked outside your house. You can even send your picture to friends!
Click on the link below to try it:
Whilst we were eating our ice creams this afternoon we were discussing our favourate brand this week, well actually Nicky’s choice following her trip back from LA (how posh!). Nicky says…So we are loving Virgin now…Good ol’ Richie B, he seems to have the magic touch! The Virgin Atlantic brand and advertising oozes sophistication and sex appeal that makes you want to travel with them. From a stress free touch screen check-in, to a warm welcome from friendly cabin crew. the brand promise doesn’t disappoint. I wonder about their recruitment criteria but the beautiful air crew in bright red uniforms with matching lippy (and that’s just the males!) certainly made the 11 hour trip a little more bearable for my partner.
Our brand of the week is White Stuff, who make ‘lovely clothes for lovely people’. You won’t see their stores anywhere near a shopping centre and you certainly won’t see any adverts – yet this is a retailer on track for another record year.
White Stuff was originally founded by two “ski bums” who started selling t-shirts in the Alps to fund their lifestyle. But it’s come a long way since then, and has now evolved into a lifestyle brand. Their fun and quirky style is consistent across all their communications and their laid back and friendly approach extends into their multiple stores.
Each year they mark their presence with a fresh and distinct marketing theme. Last years’ ‘Sound of Music’ themed brochure included instructions on how to play the Alpine horn and how to make your own cardboard lederhosen! Keep an eye on their website which is updated regularly with news and competitions, with prizes such as a ‘pimped out’ caravan.
Nicky attended this CIM conference yesterday at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. It was an interesting session that covered the importance of digital marketing to the food and drink industry. We heard about Tesco’s strategy to highlight local products – see www.tesco.com/regionalsourcing/ and the innovative Virtual Farmers Market, who successfully combine ease of purchase with a novel 3D market experience.
Social media has become a hugely important part of the marketing mix and, if implemented correctly, is a fab tool for food and drink companies to engage with customers.
We’re working on our own social media guide at the moment – if you’re interested in receiving a copy drop me a line!
Charge Bikes are a UK based bicycle company, not too far away from Synergy, in Somerset, owned by riders and specialising in simple and functional bikes and frames. The brand, along with the bikes themselves is distinctive and contemporary. The Charge brand is only 4 years old this summer but has already built a reputation among cyclists for classy design, understated but modern graphics along with a cheeky sense of humour in the way the brand is delivered. For example, all of their bikes and parts are named after objects you’d find in a kitchen, strange, but in an odd sort of way it helps them stand out in an already saturated marketplace. For example, no other bike company has bikes called a ‘Tap’ or a ‘Plug’ or cycling gloves called ‘Oven’!
Delivered with this modern and cheeky brand is an impressive attention to detail with even the smallest bicycle parts such as handlebar grips presented in well-designed, fun and eco-friendly packaging. This attention to detail extends to their website which is well designed, simple and easy to navigate, whilst utilising some beautiful photography. The site presents Charge as more than just a bike brand, more of a lifestyle choice with projects, videos, and podcasts sitting alongside the usual information about products, stockists and the company itself. Charge even encourage you to customise your own Charge bike, then upload images to the ‘My Charge Bike’ section of the site to become part of their community (and also to buy their parts to allow you to do this naturally!)
http://www.chargebikes.com/
Charge Bikes – our choice for our brand of the week, not at all influenced by Christian’s recent purchase of a Charge Plug Freestyler!
This week we have chosen Blackberry! With great functionality together with their own app store and the ability to tweet, update, email and of course make a simple phone call what more could you want from your little handheld friend! As well as its functionality we all agree that Blackberry have really stepped it up recently with new look, stylish handsets and a great new advertising campaign. ‘Love what you do’ is their new line and we all love what we have been doing with ours!
We are keeping our twitter up-to-date with the Blackberry ‘Ubertwitter’ app – Take a look at twitter.com/synergycreative
We love to have a good gossip about brands we like at Synergy and this week our Brand of the Week goes to Malmaison. This luxury hotel group have got great style, great service and a lovely, chatty tone with their communications. We love their humour and quirkiness in the rooms. Room keys that say ‘Stick with me, I’ll open doors for you’ Cleaning the room cards that say ‘This could get messy’ – and your traditional Do Not Disturb saying ‘I need to be alone’.
All aspects of the brand work well together from their visual brand style, to their decor, their staff friendliness and service to their language. We love it!
Why not send us your Brand of the Week? Click here to see how to get in touch with us.
I attended the Bank of England business briefing this morning which provides an overview on the economy for the last quarter. It was really useful and here is a few snippets from my notes:
* The UK economy grew 0.3% in the last quarter, the first rise after falling for six consequtive quarters.
* Consumer spending is on the increase. This could be due to stamp duty relief, car scrappage scheme, the change in vat and people taking advantage of the standard variable mortgage rate.
* Household savings ratio has risen slightly. This may mean more people are paying off their debt as well as being cautious – this is a good thing!
* Company liquidations have not been as high as in previous recessions – yeahh
Outlook:
Economic growth is bumping along and output is a little weaker than was expected back in November. Inflation is rising sharply in the short term but is likely to fall back below target. So in general, cautiously optimistic!
I attended this conference yesterday in London which was great. Good to get a feel of the communications issues out there in housing, both external and internal. If you’d like a copy of the notes I took which includes ideas on what other organisations are doing, email me through the website. Have a look at some of our work in housing by clicking here. Gemma