On a very rainy Thursday in January, Synergy launched RBS RugbyForce at Twickenham Stadium with ambassador Tom Wood and NatWest RugbyForce at Waunarlwydd RFC in Wales with George North.

RugbyForce is a nationwide community volunteer programme which helps local rugby clubs improve their facilities and safeguard their long-term future. Last year the programme helped more than 400 clubs in the UK and Ireland and it is testament to the initiative’s development that RugbyForce now exists across all four Home Union territories – Ulster Bank RugbyForce in Ireland, NatWest RugbyForce in Wales, and RBS RugbyForce in England and Scotland.

Our role was to maximise PR exposure from the launches in order to drive more clubs to sign up for the programme before registration closes at the end of March. At Twickenham we were also launching a special initiative giving English clubs, who sign up before England’s RBS 6 Nations games at Twickenham, the chance to have their names printed on the steps of the famous stadium.

The ambassadors were chosen to demonstrate the link between grassroots and elite rugby, emphasising RBS Group’s commitment to the sport at all levels. Both took every opportunity to explain to the media that they were promoting RugbyForce and delivered all our key messages about the importance of the programme and the fantastic impact it has on local rugby clubs.

At Twickenham, Tom Wood spoke to a number of different media, including an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph and a live appearance on TalkSport, as well as branded pieces in the Birimingham Post and Sunday Mercury, and a host of other online and radio interviews. The campaign was launched with the names of three lucky clubs, and representatives from each were at Twickenham to provide further online media content and enable us to target local press from across the country.

Tom Wood and the lucky club members

Meanwhile in Cardiff, Waunarlwydd RFC turned out in force to see George North, with around 100 kids and 60 adults attending. Media interviews went ahead with Swansea Sound radio, Scarlett FM radio, the Press Association, the South Wales Evening Post, the Daily Express, Rugby World and BBC Wales Radio & TV.

With the aim to raise exposure of the programme and ultimately drive registration, the day was a great success, generating significant coverage that really delivered on the RugbyForce messages.

All in all it was a hectic and sodden, but ultimately incredibly successful day in both England and Wales, showcasing the RBS Group’s commitment to community rugby. The day drove coverage that will encourage clubs to register and help them to help themselves become more sustainable businesses through the RugbyForce programme.  For more information go to www.rbs.com/rugbyforce.

By Jessica Enoch on January 25th, 2012

Tags: Celebrity, community, Default, PR, Public relations, RBS 6 Nations, Rugby

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Content forms an integral part of our work; understanding the factors regarding emotional and intellectual engagement with an audience are important in order to create meaningful experiences. The aim of this article is to trace the evolution of content creation and delivery in light of advances in technology and changes in social activities; hopefully giving some useful insight into options we have for our clients when planning campaigns.

“My biggest competitor today is someone with an idea”

Nabil Sakkab – Head of Research & Development, Procter & Gamble.

TV Content

In the days when the only mass media was broadcast and print, content producers had a one-way channel to engage their audience.

Typically, audiences respond best to content that carries authority (from factually trusted sources such as the Government) or authenticity (content that connects through personal or social relevance).

Successful TV has both authority and authenticity and the really successful ones are memorable – generally through well-executed, great ideas that appeal to the emotions (through shock or comedy).

A good example is Keira Knightley’s Women’s Aid commercial:

The production values are high, the storyline is strong and the effect of the film is to shock; but if we do not remember the website listed at the end, once the ad finishes we are left shocked but no longer engaged.

Internet content

With the arrival of YouTube came Manic Dog, Mystic Cat and endless wedding carnage videos. However, once TV producers started to talk with web developers (with the aid of a translation service) the result was a subtle shift in the style and format of programmes.

Interactive software has enabled content producers to give audiences a different experience; multi-layered options in story, format and delivery that no longer depend on high production values but instead rely on engagement through information and choices.

The Government anti-knife crime video campaign, ‘Choose a Different Ending’, is a good example of informed choice given to an audience:

Due to the interactive nature of the viral video, the user/target audience is forced to think about knife crime and the choices they are being asked to make. Each decision is then brought to life in the video, offering an insight into the consequences of carrying a knife. This is a good example of a campaign initiative that can only work online, as it relies on audience interaction.

The video engages the target audience in several ways:

- It is shot from an individual perspective i.e. the player sees the world through the eyes of one person

- It is shot on a council estate and then in the surrounding areas (park, nearby roads), so that the location is a familiar one to the target audience

- The cast is formed of the target audience, ensuring that the language and dress code would also be recognised by this audience

- The video was created with the aid of the target audience which helps with authenticity

Paid, owned and earned

For a while we settled into the comfort of three areas where content would be delivered and debated:

• Paid: TV commercials
• Earned: Comments on a YouTube video
• Owned: A company’s website

 

Of these three areas, earned has proven to be the most valuable as it carries authenticity through endorsement from peers.

Once hit counts and comments turned into real currency, producers soon realised that success with the audience required more than simply being in the same space, even if the content was clever or well-produced. It became clear that the appropriate tone, language and social context were essential for success.

Take the Government swine-flu film, 2009:

This was a TV ad that was also delivered and promoted online, receiving a whopping 380 hits on YouTube. The ‘Catch it Bin it Kill it’ message was generally dismissed as something for other people (perhaps the penalty for wearing bad jumpers in lifts).

The Government then commissioned a viral video to deliberately spoof the official one, involving actors from the target demographic and contemporary music. The result is much more fun.

Same message; different style (smaller budget); 1 million hits on YouTube. Enough said.

How we consume media

Almost more important to ‘where’ people are watching their videos is ‘how’ people are watching them.  This has an effect on the creative and production process.

Viewing habits can be grouped into three main types of activity:

- Snippets (spontaneous media activity)

- Boutique (speciality media searches)

- Catch-up (fitting TV schedules around our own lives)

A recent survey of 1,300 mobile Internet users below the age of 25, showed that most use a mobile device to talk to friends about the show they are watching, a trend known as ‘Social TV’.

Social media

Social media has altered the definitions of paid, earned and owned media or at least has blurred the lines between them. Now, the challenge that agencies face is figuring out how to integrate all three forms of media for maximum effect.

After all, social content, by definition, can lack authority but it has authenticity because it establishes relevance and context with our friends and our surroundings.

Let’s have a diagram.

Sponsorship events

We know there are Fans (consumers) who have Passions (Sport, Music, Art). Sponsored activities provide the magical third piece of the puzzle – the Location. This is not just the location of the event, but, thanks to mobile phones, the location of fans too. And this is powerful intelligence regarding media capture and distribution options.

Radiohead’s concert video shot in Prague in 2009 by 50 fans on Flip cameras makes you feel like you are standing amongst the crowd:

It appeals to fans because it was made by fans, contains fans and gives the fans that couldn’t go the feeling that they were there.

And the effects go beyond the concert. The video was endorsed and published by the band; further projects have been planned by the fans that in turn become a part of the history of the band, strengthening the relationship between all concerned.

The Social challenge – the media ecosystem

The goal is to connect the dots and integrate all media for maximum results.

It is not just about producing content for an event or campaign but to inspire the target audience to contribute, to collaborate and comment beyond the life of the event.

The media can take on a life of its own, especially if there are core community and social values – a mini ecosystem that can run beyond the campaign.

Mobile

Mobile is ever-increasingly becoming the medium of choice, particularly for image capture and Geo-positioning. According to Comscore, in the next 12 months:

‘We predict more than half of all mobile consumers will have access to mobile media, largely driven by growing adoption of smartphones. Identifying the synergies that exist between all consumer touch points – traditional PC internet, mobile media (via app and browser), tablets, etc. – and understanding how consumers use these devices to fulfil different needs and convenience levels will be of critical importance to marketers.’

How does all this affect production for Synergy Clients?

Social / mobile media is very powerful but it often requires a paid spark.

Synergy already produces world-class output and my goal is to bring broadcast, online and social production and planning experience into close proximity with the Synergy team and clients hopefully resulting in:

- Real-time intelligence on media options available

- Advice on production and delivery techniques, and suppliers to maximize creative impact

- Guidance on delivery options, channels, asset management (now and future) and measurability. If they are managed, assets can be re-purposed, like this COI text driving radio ad that was repurposed (very cost-effectively) as a viral video simply by adding graphics

Here is fifteen years of TV and web production distilled into my simple media AIM chart:

In Summary

- Content has developed from a one-way communication to an interactive conversation endorsed and measured through social reference

- The balance  of emotional, intellectual and social engagement should be carefully planned depending on the target audience and mediums available

- Technology and innovation drive the reach of our work but synergy between content producers and audiences fuels its impact

By Colin Burgess on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Branded content, Celebrity, community, Content, Default, Digital marketing, Facebook, Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Synopsis, Television, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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What happened?

Online fashion retailer ASOS has continued its pioneering digital approach by utilising urban culture to promote its new 2011 Autumn/Winter menswear collection.

Through a new online experience, the ASOS Urban Tour uses an interactive platform to showcase its latest range, by zooming in on a variety of street performers including skaters, dancers and musicians, in five of the most stylish cities across the globe: London, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles and New York.

Through an interactive scrolling map, similar to Google Earth, the application starts with a bird’s eye view of the globe and then zooms into the streets within your chosen city. The real funs starts when you click on any of the dancers, skaters or musicians who then start to perform. The interactive videos offer links for each of the performers and enable the user to see what they are wearing and how to purchase it.

Why we love it

Marketing something as personal and tactile as clothes in a two-dimensional online environment will always be a challenge. But ASOS continue to develop and push the boundaries, using engaging and innovative methods to showcase its clothing ‘in action’. This cutting-edge campaign, which combines lifestyle aspirations and fashion, represents a natural progression from the successfully executed online catwalk concept.

Research undertaken indicates that male consumers being targeted by ASOS are influenced in their fashion choices by what they see being worn on the streets, and therefore partnering with inspirational urban talent offers a fresh and relevant approach for the online retailer.

Urban Tour has been supported with extensive social media presence via the official ASOS Facebook page which currently boasts over one million ‘likes’. Inter-city rivalry has been utilised to spark conversation via an online poll, simply asking fans which city is their favourite – London currently sits at the top with 1,381 of the 2,895 votes. Fashion bloggers globally have been going crazy for this ‘mind blowing’ digital offering, describing it as an “entirely fresh and truly incredible experience.” So for those of you fashion-conscious men not making it to any London Fashion Week shows, I suggest you get your fix of urban style here!

By Emily Waring on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Branded content, community, Default, Facebook, Fashion, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Television, The Arts, Viral Marketing

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Sponsorship is dead, long live sponsorship

Those of you who are regular readers of Synopsis may have spotted a pattern. The lead articles are not Synergy’s random musings but rather the building blocks of a bigger story about the new rules of sponsorship.

But before we get to the rules, a little bit of context. Like all marketing disciplines, sponsorship has evolved over time…but every now and then, there is a paradigm shift which generates an explosion of innovation and introduces a completely new way of acting. Excitingly, we have entered one of these new eras – the 4th Era of Sponsorship.

Below is a rough timeline of how the Sponsorship Industry has evolved. There is never a clear line in the sand to separate the various eras (and of course there are always sponsorship programmes that are ahead of their time), but to keep things simple, they can be broadly separated into decades.

1970s: The Dark Art

The very beginnings of the sponsorship industry were characterised by informal deals done on a handshake in smoke-filled rooms — often literally smoke-filled, as much of the early days of sponsorship were driven by cigarette brands putting their brand on the side of fast cars to circumvent advertising restrictions.

1980s – 1990s: Off-the-Peg

Patrick Nally is credited as being the founding father of modern sponsorship. His ground-breaking partnership deal with Coca-Cola for the 1978 FIFA World Cup effectively ‘invented’ the concept of a rights package. This has set the template for how sponsorships have been packaged and sold by rightsholders ever since.

2000s: Tailored

Brands started to become much more sophisticated and proactive in terms of how they approached sponsorship. No longer was it thought of as a collection of off-the-shelf rights or as a separate marketing channel, but rather as an asset that could be integrated into the overall marketing mix and used to increase the effectiveness of the brand’s marketing activity.

2010: Social

The 4th Era is the “Social Era” for two reasons. Firstly, it has been enabled by social media which has allowed people (and brands) with shared interests to engage with each other at a scale and depth that has never before been possible. Social also refers to a sense of ‘Higher Purpose’ – the ability of a sponsorship programme to connect with its audience by delivering something that really matters.

The Rules of the Social Era

Moving to the Social Era has changed the game of sponsorship and everyone can benefit from knowing the new rules. We have analysed hundreds of best practice case studies from the world of sponsorship and beyond to identify and codify the keys to success in the Social Era.

We have been examining these new rules one by one over the past 5 months but now it is time to bring them all together.

It’s as easy as ABCDE…

Rule 1: Authenticity

Endorses for Courses by Jon Izzard

The best sponsorship programmes, the ones that really resonate with the audience, feel completely natural. The brand simply feels at home in the space. Think of Red Bull and extreme sports, Cartier and Polo, Robinsons and Wimbledon, Unicef and FC Barcelona, Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games, Moët & Chandon and F1. There are loads of sources of authenticity: products, geography, heritage, brand message and simple longevity.

Some brands have to work hard to establish authenticity in a given space, but it is imperative that they do because the very audience that a sponsor is trying to connect with can see through an imposter straight away. Skoda’s sponsorship of the Tour de France provides a great example of a brand working hard to establish credibility in a space where its source of credibility may not be immediately obvious.  Brilliant:

Rule 2: Beyond your Brand

What Can Sponsorship Learn from Farmville by Liz Brown

Sponsorship is about a brand becoming a natural part of their customers’ lives — but the audience needs a reason to invite a brand into their lives.  Brands that view the relationship with their audience as a one-way value exchange and think only in terms of “what will we get out of it”, have no chance of forming the kind of relationship they want. Again, there are a number of ways that brands can demonstrate “Beyond your Brand” thinking, focusing on delivering benefits to their customers (O2 Priority), the property (Converse and London’s 100 Club) and society as a whole (RBS RugbyForce).

Rule 3: Content

Is Content Really King by Ben Wilkinson

Consumers want to learn, laugh, discover, share, be entertained and be inspired.  And they want to do all these things around topics that are of specific interest to them.  That is what sponsorship allows you to do: create relevant content around your audience’s passion points.  But brands have to be creative to capture attention — posting a video of “talking heads” on YouTube and hoping for the best is not enough.  Great content is about innovation.  It’s about finding something that connects and resonates with your audience and providing it how they want it, when they want it and where they want it.

Our favourite example of this is Converse Domaination — a campaign that not only puts great content at its heart but also shows a perfect understanding of its audience.  Enjoy.

Rule 4: Dialogue

D is for Dialogue by Carsten Thode

Talking to each other, sharing ideas, working together, creating things, discovering  new stuff,  having fun, laughing, crying, flirting, arguing – everything that makes life worth living is built on our ability to actively engage with each other. Why should that be different from the relationships we build with the brands in our lives?

Yet for most of its history, marketing has been pretty much a one-way conversation where brands tell you what they want you to know and the customer has no way of talking back.  However, the digital age, and particularly the social media age, has smashed through the barrier separating brands from their consumers.

Now it is possible to source brilliant ideas from your customers such as Pepsi Refresh and GE Ecomagination, or to tailor your marketing in real-time to reflect input from your customers. The Old Spice Man is a classic case in point of how much more engaging the conversation becomes if you give your customers a voice.

Rule 5: Entertainment

Passion Pointers by Tom Gladstone

Sport has a particular ability to evoke strong emotions through its personal stories of courage, inspiration and determination; through its inherent unpredictability, excitement and drama. Those emotions are an essential component of successful sponsorship – and are as relevant across other sponsorship platforms (music, film, fashion, art) as they are in sport. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation.

But while simply being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of getting noticed, it doesn’t win a place in consumers’ hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or presence — engagement not impressions. Whether brands capitalise on moments of high emotion or they tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point, anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism, celebration, or even pain, they all need to exhibit genuine empathy and understanding.

This rule is articulated nicely by Mark Harrison, Chair of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum: ‘You can’t manufacture emotion. It’s already there. When you find it – just find a way to trigger it; tap into it; fuel it; and watch it grow into something remarkable.’

Using ABCDE

ABCDE is not a menu, where you can choose one or two elements to focus on. Rather, a great sponsorship programme will deliver against all the rules of the 4th Era.

Obviously, this framework isn’t rocket science, but at Synergy, we have found it to be incredibly useful as we advise our clients at every point of the sponsorship process.  We use it not only as a kind of checklist to diagnose where we are strong and where we need to work harder but also to ensure that all elements of the sponsorship programme - from creating the strategy and identifying the right assets right through to the activation – deliver the ABCDE.  So, before signing off, here are a few ways that it can be used to make your sponsorship programmes even more powerful:

1. Articulate specifically how you are using sponsorship to deliver all elements of ABCDE. Sponsorship strategies should use deep audience insight and a clear understanding of the business and brand to ensure that you are using sponsorship as effectively as possible in the 4th Era

2. When making the decision to acquire a new sponsorship asset, make sure that there is a concrete plan in place to deliver the ABCDE. Use it as part of the screening process and answer questions like: “What gives my brand authenticity in this space? How can I build or acquire authenticity?”  “What is the higher purpose of the sponsorship?  How are we adding value?”

3. When creating activation plans, be specific about which elements of ABCDE you need to focus on and how you will be able to deliver them.  For example: “How can we stimulate dialogue amongst our audience?  What role should our brand play in that conversation”

4. Factor ABCDE into your measurement. Create specific targets around each element and evaluate your success at achieving them.  Where do you have to work harder?

© Synergy Sponsorship a trading division of Engine Partners UK LLP 2011.  All rights reserved

By Carsten Thode on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, community, Consultancy, Content, Default, Design, Digital marketing, Event management consultants, Event management service, Experiential marketing, Food & Drink, Football Sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Sales promotion, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Twitter, Viral Marketing

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What happened

Tourism Toronto and Tourisme Montreal have erected “The Cheating Wall” as their newest campaign to promote tourism between the rival major Canadian cities.  The new marketing programme, developed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada, is encouraging residents of the two cities to have a summer fling with one another.

The Cheating Wall consists of separate HD video panels, located in high-profile locations in the two cities. Each wall is equipped with its own camera, microphone, sensor and speaker, enabling residents of each city to engage in live video chats and participate in a series of scheduled events, in real time.

The insight behind the creative concept is driven by the long-standing rivalry between the two cities, which is driven by the two cities’ statuses as Canadian business hubs and, of course, the rivalry between the two ice hockey teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.  It has resulted in a common perception that any visit to Montreal or Toronto is viewed as a ‘betrayal’ of your home city.

The Cheating Wall has been installed in the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto, and at 350 de Maisonneuve Boulevard in Montreal. The live interactive portals are open for live chats between 6am and 2am, and also host a number of live events such as “Tai Chi at the Wall” and “Street Magic”, as well as fashion and comedy shows, amongst numerous others.

The campaign is also available to view online at TheCheatingwall.com, and TrompeTaVilleMuramur.com, both of which link to Facebook pages where visitors can win flights to the respective cities, courtesy of Air Canada.  Participants are encouraged to share their experiences on Twitter, using the hashtags #cheatingwall and #trompetaville.

The initiative is being supported by transit shelter and poster ads in Zoom Media’s resto-bar network, which feature QR codes that take users to the Cheating Wall’s Facebook pages.

Why we like it

This live interactive portal provides a new and innovative way of promoting tourism. Rather than the typical tourism campaigns involving scenic landscapes and cheesy poses, this avant-garde campaign gives the users a corporeal, almost voyeuristic look into the lives of the other city.

By engaging the consumers and actually tapping into their personal interests, rather than forcing them to withstand a corny commercial or print ad, The Cheating Wall brings a whole new meaning to conventional advertising.

With its catchy and risque name, visual appeal, interactivity, enticing social media incorporation, and its ability to feed the voyeuristic tendencies of our contemporary world, this is the tourist campaign of the future. The annihilation of time and space gives us a live window into these two cities.

What the brand says

“We wanted to work on improving the travel between the two destinations,” said Tanya Churchmuch, assistant director, international relations at Tourisme Montreal.

“We wanted to remind people that there are two amazing destinations that are very different from each other and offer extremely different things to do, but are very close and very cool cities. You don’t have to go thousands of miles away to have a great experience.”

Let’s hope other cities think it’s as great as we do.

By Melissa Oberman on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Blogging, Communications, community, Content, Default, Facebook, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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What happened?

At the end of the 2010/11 season Sheffield United were relegated to the third tier of English football, joining their local rivals Sheffield Wednesday in League One.  Both clubs found themselves without shirt sponsors, with local companies airing concerns over sponsoring just one team for fear of being accused of favouring one over the other.

With no deal on the table, Wednesday went ahead and printed its 2011/12 season shirts, sponsor free, holding on to the hope that a company would come on board late in the day. Fans were even told they could bring their shirts back to the club shop to have the sponsor logo added once a deal had been agreed.

However, with no deal on the table,  the two clubs joined forces and took the unusual approach of looking to recruit a joint sponsor. Two local companies stepped up to the mark, a local car dealership and a health insurance firm, who combined to offer a reported six figure sum for the 2011/12 season.

The agreement sees Volkswagon dealership Gilders appearing on the front of Wednesday’s shirt when they are at home and United’s when they are away. Westfield Health will appear on United’s home shirts and Wednesday’s away shirts.

Why we like it

Other than Rangers and Celtic who both carry Tennent’s sponsorship on their shirts in Scotland, this deal is the first of its kind between rival teams in an English league.

Of course, some fans will always be against the move.  Who wants to have anything in common with their local rival?  However, the overall response has been positive.  Before the deal was announced, both clubs had uncertain futures, with rumours of a merger and even closure abounding.  When those are the alternatives, a joint sponsorship deal becomes much easier to stomach, even for the most diehard of fans.

While both clubs deserve credit for coming up with a savvy financial solution (Sheffield is a city used to having to pick itself up and this deal demonstrates the determination not to lose any more of the city’s icons), the sponsors also come out of the deal rather well.

Local derbies always create hightened emotions for football fans, so bringing together two teams through the sponsorship could have resulted in backlash from the fans. However, Gilders and Westfield Heath are two local companies who know the city and its people and they were confident that the fans would back the partnership for the sake of their team. The announcement was made in a considered manner and the quotes focused on preserving two iconic Sheffield brands and football culture in the city.

This approach resulted in blanket coverage across the sports pages of the UK press, propelling two local brands into the national arena. Coverage was positive and gave both companies a voice with the MD of Gilders quick to note that the deal had “brought together four such quality and iconic Sheffield brands”.

As an ex-Sheffield resident, I’ll be following the future of both clubs closely. It will be interesting to see whether the deal will still remain in place even if the Blades win promotion.  In the current financial climate, it feels a fitting approach to a sport that is often (rightly) accused of being frivolous with money. And if it saves two teams steeped in football history and with a huge following, surely it’s a no-brainer.

By Jennifer Mitton on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Communications, community, Default, FA Cup, Football Sponsorship, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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The inaugural Set4Sport Roadshow, supported by RBS took place on the 10^th August in South Shields, South Tyneside.

The brainchild of Judy Murray, Set4Sport was launched in June, with the help of Jamie and Andy Murray, and showcases games that Judy played with both of her sons when she was looking to improve their coordination and agility, whilst also providing some essential parent / child bonding opportunities.

With the British summer living up to its reputation, we had to put our wet weather plan into action and move from South Marine Park, to a covered area on the Seafront.

Whilst a smaller turnout was therefore expected, we were pleased to see the hardcore British Holiday-goers still come to the beach, no matter what the weather!  Immediately upon opening, we had families queuing to take part in ‘Double Trouble’, ‘Race ‘n’ Chase’ and ‘Jumping the River’, to name but a few of the activities. Our brilliantly enthusiastic coaches took the families through the games, all of which could easily be created at home with items such as cereal boxes, baked bean tins, cuddly toys, cushions and jumpers.

Judy led her team of coaches throughout the day and was never far from the action with a ball or hula hoop in hand, except for a quick radio interview or to chat to families as to how they could incorporate these games into their home life.

We are looking forward to the next event in Halifax on the 16^th August where we will be at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum.

By Samantha Pillage on August 17th, 2011

Tags: Andy Murray, Brand marketing, Celebrity, community, Event management service, Experiential marketing, grass roots sport, Judy Murray, Sponsorship

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With the hot topic of getting more people of all ages active in the UK, a campaign produced by Nike in Amsterdam recently caught my eye that really injected ‘fun’ into running.

What happened?

At the end of last year, Nike began its Take Mokum campaign (Mokum being the nickname for Amsterdam). This campaign was launched in conjunction with the Nike Run House in Amsterdam and looked to blend running with creativity in a way that encouraged people to run. To emphasise this desired relationship between creativity and running, Nike, as the world’s leading running brand, bravely used the concept that ‘running is boring’ as the big idea to this campaign.

Now I agree with this concept that running is boring. I say this because running is an activity that the majority of people take up in order to achieve a desired goal, usually weight loss, improved fitness or improved health. It is very seldom that someone speaks of the fun they have when pounding the pavements of their city. The Take Mokum campaign therefore looked to create a different reason, away from health, for society to get running.

Nike identified the creative segment of society, the segment usually associated with self-expression through music (hip-hop), design and art (graffiti), as a segment that would be receptive to the idea of a new, fun ulterior motive to run. Nike decided to appeal to this segments passion of self-expression and sense of underground culture while encouraging them to get out on the streets running. This is how Take Mokum was born.

Take Mokum gave people the chance to create a graffiti image of a running route around Amsterdam. These images ranged from a butterfly to a skull and could be constructed and shared with friends across various social media platforms, including Facebook. Allow this video to explain Take Mokum to you.

Why we like it

We like Nike’s Take Mokum campaign due to its creative approach in appealing to the passion points of Amsterdam’s youth in order to encourage them to get running. Nike has successfully incorporated a fun and creative solution to a campaign that’s primary goal is to increase youth participation in inner city running. In doing so it has brought authenticity to the perception that Nike is not just a running brand, but rather a lifestyle brand that allows you to express the individual you are – all while sharing it with your friends on Facebook.

Over the six-week period that the campaign ran, 9,000 people signed up and the app achieved 14,500 Likes on Facebook.  This may not sound that impressive initially but when considering  that Amsterdam’s population is relatively small (767,000), and that the 9000 Take Mokum runners would have acted as Nike ambassadors, it creates, by immersing itself in the consumer’s world, engaging conversations both on and off line around the Nike brand.

By Mike Russell on July 26th, 2011

Tags: Art & Design, Athletics, Brand marketing, community, Default, Design, Experiential marketing, Public relations, Running, Social Media, Sport, Synergy Loves, Synopsis

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Our relationships are all built on dialogue.  Talking to each other, sharing ideas, working together, creating things, discovering  new stuff,  having fun, laughing, crying, flirting, arguing – everything that makes life worth living is built on our ability to actively engage with each other.   Why should that be different from the relationships we build with the brands in our lives?

For most of its history, Marketing has been pretty much a one-way conversation – a kind of Orwellian 1984 scenario where brands tell you what they want you to know and the customer has no way of talking back (something Apple seemed to pick up on in their famous ad).  Of course, that was primarily driven by the available marketing channels which didn’t give customers a voice.

But like the hammer in the Apple ad, the digital age, and particularly the social media age (rather than the Apple Macintosh), has smashed through the barrier separating brands from their consumers.  And this starts to give us some fantastic examples of how brands are using these two-way channels to form deeper and more natural relationships with their customers.

Of course, there are lots of different roles for brands to play when fuelling this dialogue.  They can engage directly with their clients, but they can also fuel the dialogue in more subtle ways by becoming an integral part of their customers’ own conversations.  Either way, the principle is the same: give your customers a voice and enable them to have conversations with you and with each other.

Dialogue between your brand and the customer

There are many examples of brands engaging directly with their consumers.  One common form is around customer service.  Facebook and Twitter provide incredibly useful information about what customers really think about your brand.  Look for it, listen to it and do something about it.  When @interactiveamy’s pizza took over an hour to arrive, she vented her frustration on Twitter.  When the General Manager Raymon DeLeon saw her tweet, this was his response.  It’s a longish video – no need to watch the whole thing:

The famous Old Spice Man and Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” campaign are further examples of brands that respond to input from their customers with great results.  And, of course, Tippex gives you the chance to have loads of fun with their Bear in the Woods.

‘Crowdsourcing’ – actively soliciting ideas from you customers and doing something with them – is another form of dialogue which works for more than just funny marketing campaigns.

General Electric Ecomagination is an open call to businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students to submit breakthrough ideas for energy creation, management and use.  In addition to providing the ideas, the public also vote for their favourites.  With a pledge to invest $200m along with GE’s technical expertise to bring the best ideas to market, this is one form of dialogue that could literally change the world.

Pepsi are doing something very similar with their Pepsi Refresh project.  They are looking for ideas that will ‘Refresh the World’ with a similar commitment to funding the ideas that get the most votes from their consumers.

What is particularly strong about the Pepsi Refresh programme is how deep the conversations they facilitate flow. Not only have they created a powerful platform from which consumers can interact with the brand, the strength of the programme itself encourages consumers to build meaningful conversations with each other online, which grow into ‘real-world’ conversations (as individuals look to build momentum behind their own proposed initiatives), which culminates in a tangible legacy in an American community that consumers will talk about for years to come.

In a final example of engaging directly with your customers, Puma have just launched this Facebook App, which allows Spurs fans to play around with the design of their team’s 2011/2012 kit.  Of course, it would be even better if the fans had some input into the final design of the kit rather than simply “guessing the design” – but surely that won’t be too far away.  In fact, given the passion that football fans have for their team’s kit, and the ease with which they can speak to their fans, it is amazing that all kit manufacturers don’t get some form of fan input.  Here’s what happens if you don’t: http://bit.ly/mzWVT3.

Inserting your brand into your customers conversations

In addition to speaking directly to customers, brands can get their customers to talk about them by giving them the content or platform to fuel the conversation.

How did a Turkish Mobile Network get mentioned in 56,750 tweets (topping the Turkish trending tables for 8 days), which reached approximately 3.6 million people (in an initiative that probably cost them less than £20,000)?  Find out here.

Staying with mobile networks, Orange has also done a great job of creating a reason for fans to mention them.  In this example, which works particularly well on the back of their film sponsorships, Orange will make sure that your tweets are read out in the style of a film voiceover.  Go on, tweet your plans for this summer here.  And then of course, share it with all your friends and followers, who will receive the Orange branding.

Guinness FanFinder used a similar technique during their sponsorship of the RBS 6 Nations.  They published a massive picture of the crowd at various matches and encouraged people to find and tag themselves and their friends. With over 5,000 snap shots posted to walls via the Facebook App and an average of 130 Facebook friends per person that’s some more pretty good exposure for Guinness.

In an attempt to encourage dialogue around their new album, the Kaiser Chiefs kicked off a “create your own Kaiser Chiefs album” campaign for their latest album, The Future Is Medieval. Music fans get to pick out 10 songs from 20 of Kaiser Chiefs songs listed online, create their own album cover, buy it and then sell it online. To make it even better, for every sale of their album they will receive £1. Whilst socially engaging this campaign also pushes power onto the consumer removing them from their traditional role of purchasing products into the role of producer, giving them the chance to create their own product and sell it on to others. Thus creating a tangible benefit for the consumer for positive dialogue about the Kaiser Chiefs brand.

Finally, in a brilliant piece of work by our sister agency Jam, Samsung added considerable spice to the dialogue between tech bloggers and their audience via their “Extreme Unboxing” series of videos.

In all of these examples, the brands found an authentic role for themselves and encouraged conversations between communities with a common interest.

Where does sponsorship fit in to all this

So what does this all mean for sponsorship?  The answer is simple: passion.  People want to talk about the things that they really care about.  With all due respect to most brands, your customers are unlikely to care as much about you as they are do about sports, music, film, art, technology, the environment or activity in their community (to name but a few).  So, if you want to start a conversation with your customers, talking about something that they are really interested in is a good place to start.  And finding a shared passion with your customers is, of course, at the very heart of what sponsorship is all about.

In many ways, this blog goes hand in hand with the brilliant piece on Content written by Ben in last month’s Synopsis (definitely read it if you haven’t already) because the key to stimulating this dialogue is great content.  But, what I hope this blog makes clear is that creating great content and putting it in the right places is not enough.  It is then all about opening up the channels and fuelling the conversations that make life so interesting.

Principles of Dialogue

1. Listen to your customers, learn what they care about and value their contribution.  Actively open up two way communication channels
2. Find an authentic role for your brand (a reason for you to be there) and don’t overstep your bounds
3. Think about whether it makes more sense to talk with your audience directly or to get them to talk about you
4. Remember, this is about your shared passion – not about you
5. Have fun and be creative – remember engaging with other people is what makes life fun

By Carsten Thode on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Branded content, Communications, community, Content, Facebook, Media, Mobile, Music, Public relations, Social Media, Sponsorship, Synergy, Synopsis, Television audiences, Twitter, Viral Marketing, YouTube

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When I was eight years old, my Dad took me on my first museum outing – the Imperial War Museum in London – and a day climbing over and into tanks and cannons was as close to boyhood nirvana as it got. Ever since then, I’ve had a borderline obsession with museums.

From dinosaurs to ancient rocks to scrolls – you show it, I’ll walk round it (although given half a chance I’ll still climb on it). Social media sites like Facebook are as close to a personal museum as you can get, you curate your own life and share it with the world. So Intel’s taken a clever but natural next step for natural egoists like me by creating the ‘Museum of Me’.

It’s really an advert for Intel’s Core i5 processor but wrapped up in an involving way. It’s simple – you give permission for it to lift directly from your Facebook page and it then takes you on a virtual tour of a museum dedicated to you using photos, video and comments already on your page.

After moving through a mixture of gallery rooms dedicated to yourself with virtual people looking on, it culminates in a montage shot of your profile picture made up from all the shots on your page.

OK, being honest, I found parts of it a tad creepy due to the entirely random nature of it. For example an ex featured prominently throughout while my wife didn’t get a look in. In addition, I thought their opening line of ‘this exhibition is a journey of visualisation that explores who I am’ mixed with the emotive music tries to take it to a depth lost on me. But overall I thought as an interactive advert that taps into the core fundamentals of social media (narcissism) it was a very clever piece of work.

It’s simple, requiring minimal input for decent reward; it’s highly sharable and it works on a principle of a brand encouraging rather than dictating user behaviour. Most importantly, it fundamentally showcases Intel’s tagline perfectly –‘Visibly Smart’ and has over half a million likes so far.

Given a choice, I’d probably still rather climb over a tank but as a Museum I can visit in 30 seconds from my laptop it works.

By Dominic Curran on June 17th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Art & Design, community, Default, Design, Facebook, Media, Online communities, Public relations, Social Media, Synergy, Synergy Loves, The Arts, Viral Marketing

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