Marstons EPA sponsorship of Stratford Fringe Chiltern Railway poster
Over the last couple of months, the Leader design studio has been working closely with our associate company CHM to deliver a suite of marketing collateral to support the lead sponsorship of Stratford upon Avon’s Fringe Festival by real ale brand Marston’s EPA. The Stratford Fringe Festival is now in its second year, and features over 100 acts across 40 venues, from 28th May - 5th June, with headline acts including Ardal O’Hanlon and Tony Christie, as well as a host of other more local talent, so we’ve been delighted to join in the fun.
CHM had negotiated the sponsorship with the Fringe on behalf of Marston’s, and once it was all signed and sealed, they briefed us. Most important was to design a combined logo, to underline EPA’s status as lead sponsor. You can see it on the Fringe’s own website at www.stratfordfringe.co.uk. Then it was a case of designing kits for pubs stocking EPA to drive sales, which is, after all, the reason behind any sponsorship. So far it seems to be working, with several new stockists of the brand in the offing, in the all important free trade sector. You can join in the fun too by visiting www.marstonsepa.co.uk/fringe and submitting your favourite joke for the chance to win two tickets to see Ardal O’Hanlon on 3rd July.
Tags: Design, Marstons, Stratford Fringe
E-reading is the flavour of the month, with Amazon’s Kindle helping e-books knock paperbacks into 2nd place in the US, and the Apple iPad leading the charge for tablet computers with the potential to change for ever the way we read everything from newspapers to business documents.
Leader's e-brochures are fully iPad and iPhone compatible
In this context, Apple’s refusal to accommodate Flash on the iPad (and indeed the iPhone) has caused a particular headache to anyone offering animated (and generally Flash-based) e-brochures and booklets.
For that reason were delighted to confirm that our latest generation animated or ‘flipping’ e-brochures are indeed fully iPad and iPhone compatible, well as working on a full range of desktop and mobile browsers.
If you already have an e-brochure from Leader then contact us for your free upgrade. And if not, contact us on marketing@leader.co.uk to find out how e-brochures can help you get your message across in a creative and cost-effective way.
Is there ever any excuse not to use your best creative marketing ideas? Well yes, in certain circumstances we think there is - circumstances in which we found ourselves only last month.
We had been working with a client to create a fantastic new brand and identity, and then to roll it out from logo to website and sales literature, and on into social media spaces. When it came to the stationery, Leader’s creative team produced (as it generally does) two concepts - one the natural roll out of the great new theme, but the other really pushing the envelope - a great business card concept in particular.
And the problem? Well, it was just one new idea too many.
Branding is about the brilliance of the whole, not each individual item. The cards may have been very desirable (and they were). But were they necessary or appropriate? Sadly the answer was probably not. So we shared everything with the client, made our recommendations accordingly and eventually all agreed to put the brilliant new ideas on ice for a while, while rolling out the more ‘obvious’ first set.
And who knows? Perhaps when a brand refresh is called for somewhere down the line, we may still have a chance to let that great new conceptsee the light of day. I for one certainly hope so.
Posted by Marc on Apr 12, 2011 in
Leader News,
Marc Sanderson,
Marketing
From time to time we receive emails from one purported SEO specialist or another, usually claiming they can get us ‘a Guaranteed # 1 Google Ranking’ for £50 a month or less, or some such variation on a theme.
As it happens we are very familiar with these services, and over the years we’ve spent more than a little bit of time looking into them – after all, if we could maximise client returns from all the websites we are involved in for just £600 a year, why wouldn’t we be interested?
Unfortunately (and probably unsurprisingly), this kind of proposition isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Now, at this point the words “well they would say that, wouldn’t they” might be springing to your mind. After all, online marketing is part of our own range of services. Well, fair enough, perhaps you’ve got a point – and of course we’re happy to talk to anyone about the best way to manage the search engine marketing process for their website(s).
But the real point about these apparently amazing email offers is that however you choose to do your SEO, it is really worth thinking carefully before signing up with a service that claims results this good for prices this low (and without any impact on your own time). Here are five things you might want to consider before hitting that Reply button…
1. Calculate the true cost of a your SEO
£600 a year (or similar) might seem like great value, but if you’re missing out on business because the service is failing you, then that isn’t the true cost. With millions of business sourcing decisions every day start with Google, it is worth asking looking at your marketing spend and yourself whether £600 or thereabouts is an appropriate allocation of resources for this.
2. Good SEO depends not just on action, but on planning
Effective search engine marketing is based first and foremost on the quality of your keyword setting – on finding the words and phrases which deliver the right balance of relevance, achievability and conversion potential. Done properly it should involve your marketing function, your sales function, senior managers as well as any external consultants you are using. That’s not something you can just delegate to a supplier without some careful thought.
3. Websites aren’t just for search engines
Presumably you spent a long time planning the content of your website. You will probably have written it carefully, spent ages over the design and layout, and made sure that it presents your brand, your products and services properly. Unfortunately, anyone who is hell-bent only on getting you that all important ‘#1 Google Ranking’ isn’t going to be so considered – you’re more than likely going to see keywords crowbarred into odd places, sentences corrupted with strange grammar, random acts of emboldening and highlighting text – stuff that might work for the search engine but is going at best to confuse human visitors: and at worst it could leave a distinctly amateurish impression.
4. Online reputations are fragile
A golden rule of SEO is that if you play fair with search engines, search engines will generally play fair with you. Good content, appropriate linking and keeping things simple are the order of the day. Break those rules and you could be in a world of trouble (see here for a great example of search engine marketing going badly wrong).
Unfortunately your online reputation is as fragile as real your world reputation – a long time to make, no time at all to break, and a long, long time to recover. Outsourcing your SEO might look like a quick and easy low-cost decision, but do make absolutely sure you know what’s being done online on your behalf.
5. What’s in a promise?
And finally, ask yourself what anyone ‘guaranteeing’ a number one spot on Google actually means. After all, it’s a promise made by a stranger would doesn’t yet know what your online objectives are, what your optimum keywords might be, exactly how the famous Google algorithm works (whatever they say, no one does) or even whether SEO is a relevant or viable part of your marketing mix.
The good news is that there is a better way, and it needn’t cost the earth.
Good SEO isn’t difficult, but it also isn’t something to be done at arms length by an anonymous room full of SEO ‘specialists’. It’s something to be treated seriously, and if outside help is required then it should be as a partnership between you and your support team.
Good planning, good site optimising, careful link building and tailored content development by a team that understands your business might take a little time, and might cost a little more than £50 a month. But if Google and the other search engines matter to your business, it’s almost certainly worth it.
