Life's A Pitch

If, like me, you were pushed in at the deep end, you end up learning pretty quickly how to swim in agency life.

In this article I am going to give you 3 tips to pitch perfect.

First, Let's Talk Relationships
Depending on how you initially got the lead, the way you pitch to each potential client will differ.  So adapt and adjust accordingly.

An example: if a prospective client reached out and contacted you, they did so for a reason - Build on it.
If they were referred to you, then they are familiar with a piece of work.  Which one? - Build on it.
Once done, you have already established what it is they liked about your agency.
The most difficult relationship to strike up is those ones that came through a network, or cold calling route.  This is you when have to quickly establish yourself as a trusted firm or trusted figure.  Build it.

Make them sick.  Make them well  
This is a popular and very old adland tactic.  You first identify their problems and what is it that is causing their brand or website issues.
Sometimes it could be as simple as the features or lack of.  Our creative can be more minimalistic than what the client expected, but once you have identified this, use your creative to make the negatives a positive again.

It's Not Just About First Impressions
Granted, it is a well-known fact that a person’s perception can be created within the first 20 seconds of meeting you.  So it is equally as important to create a strong lasting impression as it is with the first.

I know from first hand experience that pitch presentations can be daunting, but don’t let that dampen your creative spirit!  Have fun with it.  Something I always wanted to try was to end a presentation by passing out small bags of gum balls with a tag that something along the lines of " Let's chew on some great ideas together".   

So next time you pitch at a creative agency, consider one of these three ideas and see how you get on.

Good Luck!  And remember.  Life is one big pitch. 

#Dear21YearOldMe

#Dear21YearOldMe

There is a profound lesson here for anyone who is about to enter their first work place, agency, environment.  We all fall, We all stumble. Some of us get demented by it. Some us enjoy the trek. Make sure its the right path, and keep picking yourself up. The choices are yours.  I wish I had known that at 21. 

“Work hard, Play hard”  goes without saying, though getting the balance right can be a bit of a challenge, particularly when the holiday season arrives. Seasonal work loads equal seasonal work entertainment. Culture is everything.  It’s where you spend most of your time during the day.  Your colleagues (if you so wish to choose) will be closer to you than your own family. 

Little brother who? nope, that intern is now your new little brother. 

No matter how hard your day has been at work the only person it comes down to; you.  The power of this is enormous. 

You can’t control if your client gives you briefs with 24 hour deadlines, what you can control is the way in which you decide to handle it. 

Above all, Don't be afraid to make mistakes. 

That's what your 20's are for! 

Office Musical Chairs

Hot desking is a term that is used when a desk has no specific owner, and is shared by a system 'first come first served'. This article underlines both pro's and con's to hot desking, as we explore which....

Office Musical Chairs- Hot or Not 

Pros':

With the term "Hot Desking" branded mainly in and around the creative industry, this term has now been adopted across a wide variety of sectors.
With the new and approved Internet and phone signals the fade of the permanent desk area. Increase in flexible hours, combined with the tightening of company belts see's this as having a positive impact, as it results in staff working remotely or from home; Less heads equals less over heads. 

Cons:

Of course you will have them rare day's when too many staff will decide to work from within the office, and the demand for desks will be too high. Not just that, but if you have an organisation that doesn't have the best telephone system, it can prove to be a real headache transferring through calls- Trust us we know form experience!

A more recent example was the BBC in Media City UK HQ, were employees were told to hot desk and clear paper work in preparation for the next occupants. What upset all the staff was the fact there was nowhere to keep their work safe, perhaps the BBC could have avoided this- if only they had lockers of some sort?

A good compromise of this is Coca Cola, as they moved London offices in April 2014. They decided against desk-hopping, and instead opted to alternative working environments encouraging flexibility.  

Of course for some, office space can be spared, but for many, this isn't possible. With the help of a good planning and design manager, pitfalls can be prematurely avoided.
For instance, breakout areas can also be doubled as work stations, if the right furniture is fitted then this would be work wonders for a happy workplace!

Of course it depends on the type of business and infrastructure you have; however, with the right modifications and design work, hot desking can work.

Conclusion:

The practise can certainly make up part of the solution for instance, if a colleague is at home sick, then it would make sense to replace another team member at their desk, enforcing at the same time 'Team Engagement', as it forces colleagues to speak to a member of the team they perhaps wouldn't normally.
This has the power to spark conversation and inspiration in one another, as well as build a stronger office team. 

Hot desking should definitely not be viewed as a one size fits all.

What will the future of the staff environment in years to come? will the traditional office cease to exist at all?
Perhaps the modern office will become a lot more flexible by making the best use of available technology and space? Although the transition will take many years, the future adoption of collaborations and communication will bee in essence what provokes the movement. 

Privacy In the Digital Age

Is Privacy Dead?

We find ourselves in the same predicament that we were in nearly 200 years ago, with the invention of the photograph and telecommunications. We have privacy issue laws with social media giants such as Facebook regarding how much information a company can collect on us, and for what reason.  Soon there will come a day when marketers will need to take a degree in law in order to proceed with digital marketing!

A recent court case in the US really caught my attention as it highlights this issue perfectly. The question is, do you think the right verdict was reached?

Riley V. California and United States V. Wurie.

Two famous U.S court cases were recently brought to the Supreme Courts, and the amicus briefs were filed in ‘Riley vs. California’ and ‘United States vs. Wurie’. In both cases, after the arrest of a suspect, law enforcement officers searched the arrestee’s cell phone without obtaining a warrant from a judge. Unsurprisingly, the suspect argued that examining the content of the phone without obtaining a warrant, had violated his constitutional rights. The Police argued that they had the right to search at the time of the arrest for their officers’ safety (in case suspects could potentially use their phone to detonate a bomb, or summon for accomplices).

Ultimately, the Supreme Judges had to determine if the constitution ‘protects’ the contents of a mobile phone from a search warrant arrest. They had to go right back to 1^st March 1792 when the fourth amendment was adopted. In June 2014, Supreme judges unanimously ruled (9-0) that the search incident to arrest exception does not extend to a cell phone, and that the police force will still need to obtain a search warrant in order to search an arrestee’s phone after the arrest has been made.

Here in the UK, it seems the Police have the right to search mobile devices, by copying everything off the device and processing it at a later date.

Here is an article from the Independent explaining more on the UK Police laws.

Undoubtedly at some point, the US Supreme Court’s decision will result in a UK debate over whether or not the same laws should be applied here.

What lawsuits such as these illustrate is that some laws of the horse and cart era have to be urgently reviewed in order to be relevant to our modern day digital society. Especially as the cracks of the old laws are now starting to show, and Internet ‘Privacy leaks’ become the norm that people have to deal with.

As always, we’d love to hear from you. Do privacy laws mean anything nowadays? Has technology evolved too fast to keep up with our own human rights?

Deck the halls with employee engagement!

What better time to promote employee engagement, than the jolly holiday season!

What some organisations don't know is just how valuable the week's that follow up to Christmas really is.
To ask the right questions, means the new year can be tackled head on, and have a positive impact for the future.

Re-engage: Being social with employee's from departments of the company you wouldn't normally speak to, is a great way to engage with colleagues. There's nothing more de-valuing than feeling invisible at a Christmas party.
Poor communication is one of the top key factors in employee dissatisfaction; Plus, it's always good to speak to the higher management.

Take Note: We all like to feel like we are being heard in our company, many organisations ask for employee feedback after a festive party, to see areas where they can better, and what they can do to change in the New Year. If your organisation currently does this, it would be great to hear what you do.

Finally, Celebrate! it's everyone's way of congratulating each other on getting through the year together, and successfully. A team that can celebrate together, stay's together.

Have a great Christmas, and an even happier New Year from us all at Rapport Agency!

4 Ways You Can Increase Sales This Festive Holiday 2014

I honestly believe that it is easy to adopt to a new email marketing campaign for the holiday season.
However "make it easy" doesn't mean take the minimalist approach to your campaigns. Here in this article on I will be informing you of, 4 simple ways you can increase conversion rates with your Holiday campaigns. Simple & Merry.

RESPOND!
If you want your customers to respond to your campaigns make sure you respond to them first, by making it readable on various devices. (Responsive).
(You only have to hear how well the android/smart phone industry are doing in order to realize the importance of responsive emails/websites).

BE SOCIAL THIS CHRISTMAS!
Make a social presence, If a customer likes or shares an article/product automatically enrich that prospects profile. Many vendors can do all this nowadays, and segment them in to a genre/field that will help emails that are sent out be more relevant and increase engagement.

LEAD SCORE!
Having just the data doesn't mean you will be automatically relevant, you will have to personalise your messages to your prospects/customers, but you could still risk the worry of being deemed irrelevant.
How to avoid this?

Combining data to interact in a more intelligent way will help increase how relevant you are to each customer. But you it is impossible to sit there and research what all your customers like individually, so why not let us help?

The score can be calculated from many aspects of a customers journey, their purchases, how complete their profiles are, interactions on social media and impressions they have made on emails.
Based on an individuals score we can then initiate 1-2-1 campaigns by being more relevant and appealing, remember no one-two people are the same. You yourself are unique.

Result: Increase in conversions.

SHINE BRIGHT!
Remember to highlight what makes you stand out, many people will be comparing their online shopping to many of your competitors, so ensure you stand out from the rest and apply the abandoned shopping cart & Lead Generation campaigns at least! T'is the season to be successful!
If all of the above has not be implemented then this could be a snippet of your customers this Christmas.

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3 Examples, Laughter is the best medicine

Life can be too serious sometimes, with a workplace or industry that can be too stern, can laughter be the best medicine? This article will briefly go through three examples across a wide industry spectrum, to showcase three positive companies that incorporate laughter in to their business ethics, and what impact it has on social engagement.

Why is light hearted laughter important in a work place? because, one of the major contributors to workplace stress, is fear of not being taken seriously, or thought of as "the joker". Stress is a common work place problem, and cause of long-term sickness absence in the UK to date, (Reference CIPD), resulting around £8 billion every year on the UK economy.

We have a fear of being seen as “the joker” which will threaten our professional position and career progression?
In history, the workplace has been seen as a place ‘to get the job done’; with employers and employees taking the view that if work isn’t a toil we simply aren’t working hard enough. What do you think?

The Productivity of laughter

"Surveys in the past have shown 98% of CEO's would much rather hire a candidate with a good sense of humour than a person without one. (Goodman, n.d).

That said, laughter is much more than a tonic to reduce stress. In fact, having humour in the workplace creates a positive environment that builds bonds between colleagues. encourages innovative and positive thinking, resulting in better communication between staff.

"Companies and agencies like Deloitte & Touche, IBM, Kodak, Monsanto, Honda and the internal revenue service have periodically hired humour consultants and organisations to infuse humour into their business (Nilsen & Nilsen 2000).

Here are three examples of how the world's largest organisations have embraced laughter & humour into their workplace:

1) Ben & Jerry's

We have all heard of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, and they too have set up monthly incentives to reinforce the value of humour at work. "The company feels that employees are more motivated and productivity is higher when they are satisfied with their work". (As cited in Partel, 2001, p.14).

An example of they implement it, is in their production area, employees can listen to music, which rotates the radio stations, broadcasted in that area, "Actually, the joy gang bought our stereo. We listen to music and enjoy our work," says one of the plant employees (as cited in Labbs, 1996, P55).

2) South West Airlines

Have reported a profit every quarter since 1973, the US airline strongly endorses the importance of fun at work.

"The most important attribute for a southwest employee is a sense of humour"(as cited in Adair, 1995, p 47).

How they implement humour in the work place, is by finding it in prospective employees, and presenting organisational results via a rap and music videos. Here are Rapport, we also did something similar to this with Capital One, and 1000+ of their employees, to see the case study click here.Another way Southwest airlines introduce humour, is by having their flight attendants reinvent their safety announcements. "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only six ways to leave this airplane". Pilots get in on the fun too. "We've reached our cruising altitude now, and I'm not turning the 'off seat belt' sign. I'm switching to autopilot, too, so I can come back there and visit with you all for the rest of the flight"(Freiberg, 1996, P. 211).

3) Deloitte & Touche

Believe too many hours are spent at work for it not to be fun. This company encourages laughter initiatives, as they understand the importance to collaborate, and see the results which include a more inclusive, supportive working environments to work in for their staff.

Creating a culture that is about enjoying each other, being passionate about what you do, and have fun doing it.

For humour to blossom, so does the environment in which it grows in. It is important for your staff to feel relaxed, welcomed and comfortable, this will then naturally inspire people to express themselves.

We don't always have to act serious in order to be taken seriously, or do we?

Perhaps you work in a fun environment just like the previous companies, if so, what do they implement?

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