What a joy it was to find out I was going to have a son. I’ve been so excited to meet you. As I look at you now, I’m already wondering what type of child you’ll grow to be, what you’ll be like as an adolescent, and I’m excited to see you grow and develop into a man.

3:34am, Monday 29 January 2018

Here’s an interesting fact, 29 seems to be a lucky number in the O’Keeffe family. 29th November is your mom and I’s wedding anniversary (it is also the date that we started dating back in 2004. Unbeliebably that was also Monday, 29th). Your sister, Aoife, was also born on the 29th.

Your mom and I started dating when I had just turned 16 and your mom was 15. By Christmas time we were already in love. Before we knew it we’d been together throughout sixth form and we were starting to think about university and getting a proper job.

After a few short years I’d been to University and earned a degree in Fine Art, your mom had got a job in the Birmingham Law Courts to help support her family. After a few years of saving, we bought our very own house. By this time we had been together for 10 years and we were both 25. Shortly after moving in I proposed and of course, your mom said yes. Being creatures of habit, we set the date to get married as 29 November 2015, on our 11th anniversary. It was a beautiful day and your mom looked absolutely beautiful, her dress was stunning and the whole day was perfect.

On our first anniversary, we were greeted by the appearance of your sister, Aoife. We knew pretty quickly that we wanted to have another child. Growing up as a twin I always had a best friend with me, we loved the same things, and we just always had each other’s back. To our luck, we found out we were pregnant for a second time and 14 months exactly you arrived.

For the brave and faithful, nothing is difficult.

What’s in a name?

Fionn is a boy’s name of Old Irish and Proto-Celtic origin, meaning “fair,” “white,” and “blessed.”

In Irish Folklore, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, lead the warrior band, the Fianna. Fionn was not only incredibly strong but he was also extremely brave, handsome, generous and wise, a wisdom he aquired by touching the “Salmon of Knowledge” and then sucking his thumb.

According to the most popular account of Fionn’s death, he is not dead at all, rather, he sleeps in a cave, surrounded by the Fianna. One day he will awake and defend Ireland in the hour of her greatest need.

Many geographical features in Ireland are attributed to Fionn. Legend has it he built the Giant’s Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet; he also once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea – the clump became the Isle of Man

O’Keeffe Family Motto

“For the brave and faithful, nothing is difficult.”

“Do na daoine ata croga agus dilis nil a dhath doilligh”

You will face difficult and challenging situations as you grow up and go through life, but I want you to think about our family motto. If you are brave and face things head on, you will sail through life. I believe in you.

What I want from you!

Life doesn’t come with a guidebook; you must choose what is right for you. I decided to buy a house, start a family, and achieve success in my work. My aim was never to be the richest financially, but to provide for my family. In every meaningful way, you, Aoife and your mom have made me the richest man. So remember, chase your dreams and be brave. Stay hungry, stay foolish!

My promise to you

Fionn I will always love you and will try to be the best dad that I can. Along the way I will almost certainly get things wrong, but I promise to learn and grow along the way. I’ll share my wisdom with you and help you grow into the man you chose to be.

I love you Fionn!

Dad

In this blog post, we’ll explore what every marketer needs to know about ChatGPT-4 and how marketers could use it during the working day.

We will cover the following topics:

• What is ChatGPT-4?
• How can ChatGPT-4 be used for marketing?
• What are the benefits of using ChatGP-4 for marketing?
• What are the challenges of using ChatGPT-4 for marketing?

What is ChatGPT 4?

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI that lets users have human-like conversations with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist users with tasks like composing emails, creating content and writing code.

One of the most important things marketers need to know about ChatGPT-4 is that it is much more creative than previous versions of the chatbot. Marketers can use it to generate more engaging and exciting content for marketing campaigns. For example, marketers are using ChatGPT-4 to write blog posts, create social media posts, and even generate video scripts.

We’re already seeing examples of marketers using it to create marketing personas, develop strategies, write and make code more efficient, and manage marketing campaigns.

ChatGPT-4 trains itself on a massive dataset of text and code. This training allows it to generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer questions informally. It is still under development, but it has already learned to perform many types of tasks, including

• Following instructions and completing requests thoughtfully.
• Answering questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange.
• Generating different creative text formats, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc.

How can ChatGPT be used for marketing?

The most common uses of ChatGPT-4 include:

• Content generation: Many marketers are using the platform to write blog posts, create social media posts, and generate video scripts. It gets even better than that; marketers can ask it to personalise content for different audiences. For example, asking it to create different versions of a blog post for different target demographics. – Check out copy.ai, a tool built on OpenAI’s technology.
• Customer service: ChatGPT-4 is already being used to power some of the world’s most advanced customer-facing chatbots with its advanced conversation characteristics. 
• Lead generation: One of the most hyped uses is the ability to create chatbots that qualify potential leads. Sales and marketing professionals are using the technology to ask potential leads questions about their needs and interests and then pass this information to sales representatives. Drifted used ChatGPT to build a lead generation bot, which resulted in 1,000 leads in the first two months. 
• Marketing research: Marketers are utilising ChatGPT-4 to acquire a more in-depth understanding and gather data on customer behaviour. The advanced capabilities of ChatGPT allow for the analysis of consumer sentiment, the creation of surveys, and even the extraction of insights into industry trends.

What are the benefits of using ChatGPT for marketing?

There are many benefits to using ChatGPT for marketing, including the following:

• Increased efficiency and reduced cost: Marketers are seeing the benefit of automating tasks typically done manually. Automation can free up time for marketers to focus on other tasks, such as developing marketing strategies and creating content. This can save money on labour costs and other expenses. A study by OpenAI found that ChatGPT gave human-like responses 72 percent of the time, while humans generated human-like responses only 52 percent of the time.
• Improved accuracy: ChatGPT-4 can improve accuracy by generating text that is free of errors. This helps ensure that marketing messages are clear, concise and accurately represent the brand.
• Personalised customer experience: With ChatGPT-4, marketers can give customers a more personalised experience by tailoring the conversation to their needs. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What are the challenges of using ChatGPT-4 for marketing?

There are a few challenges to using ChatGPT for marketing, including:

• Accuracy: The tool is still under development and can be prone to error. It’s important to proof and fact-check any output from ChatGPT. The industry is already reporting to be replacing traditional copywriters with AI. 
• Bias: ChatGPT-4 is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, which may contain bias. This bias can be reflected in the text ChatGPT generates, which can damage the brand. Check out these nine examples of bias uncovered by the Daily Mail.
• Security: ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can be used maliciously. It is essential to take steps to secure ChatGPT to protect your brand and customers.

ChatGPT-4 is a valuable tool for marketers. It can quickly generate content ideas, structure blog content, write code, and draft press releases. However, it has its flaw – it is biased and can still be prone to error. Despite this, marketers should still consider using ChatGPT-4 to increase efficiency, allowing more time for creativity and innovation to drive marketing strategy.

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to the world in 2023, but this is what I think marketers will need to look out for.

For some, 2022 was a year of growth. For others, it was about rebirth and new opportunities. For many, the year ended with tough decisions and ominous feelings.

Marketers in 2023 have got to get to grips with several key problems. The cost of living crisis, inflation and looming recession will all play a role in the professional activities of marketers. They’ll have to understand how those problems affect their customers and consumers.

Here are my top 10 thoughts for marketing in 2023

Don’t miss out on number 10, it may surprise you…

1. The rise of personalised marketing

As data privacy becomes increasingly important to consumers, companies will need to focus on creating personalised marketing experiences that are tailored to individual customers. This could involve using data to create personalised recommendations, personalised email campaigns, and personalised advertising.

2. The emergence of virtual and augmented reality

Virtual and augmented reality technology is rapidly advancing, and we will likely see more companies using these technologies for marketing and advertising purposes in 2023. For example, companies may use virtual reality to create immersive brand experiences or use augmented reality to enhance product demonstrations.

3. The growth of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing, where companies partner with social media influencers to promote their products or services, will continue to grow in popularity in 2023. Companies will need to be selective in choosing influencers who align with their brand values and have a genuine following, to create authentic and effective campaigns.

4. The importance of sustainability

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their purchasing decisions have on the environment. Companies that prioritise sustainability will have a competitive advantage in 2023. This could involve using eco-friendly materials, implementing sustainable business practices, and promoting sustainable products and services.

5. The rise of voice search

As voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home become more popular, companies will need to optimise their websites and marketing efforts for voice search. This could involve using long-tail keywords and natural language in content and using structured data to improve the visibility of websites in voice search results.

6. The growth of video marketing

Video marketing will continue to grow in popularity in 2023, as more companies recognise the effectiveness of video in engaging and converting customers. This could involve creating explainer videos, product demonstrations, or live streams to promote products and services.

7. The importance of customer experience

In a crowded and competitive marketplace, companies will need to focus on creating positive and seamless customer experiences to stand out. This could involve investing in customer service, providing easy-to-use websites and apps, and ensuring that all customer interactions are consistent with brand values.

8. The rise of mobile marketing

As more people use their smartphones to access the internet, mobile marketing will continue to be a key focus for companies in 2023. This could involve creating mobile-friendly websites, investing in mobile advertising, and developing mobile apps to engage customers.

9. The growth of social media marketing

Social media platforms will continue to be an important marketing channel in 2023, and companies will need to stay up to date with the latest features and trends to effectively reach and engage their target audiences. This could involve using social media to create brand awareness, generate leads, and build customer loyalty.

10. The rise of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, and we will see more companies using AI in their marketing efforts in 2023. This could involve using AI to optimise ad targeting, personalise marketing messages, or analyse customer data to inform marketing strategies.

This article was written by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The whole thing. Marketers do need to understand that technologies like ChatGPT could lead to scepticism amongst consumers. 

Overall, 2023 is shaping up to be an exciting and dynamic year in the marketing industry. Companies that stay on top of emerging trends and technologies, such as personalised marketing, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, will be well-positioned to succeed in the coming year.

Marketers worldwide are asking themselves the question – Has advertising lost its edge? Has cancel culture taken over?

When we think about the most exciting and inspiring pieces of advertising, we think fondly of those adverts from yesteryear such as Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial or Surfer by Guinness.

Those adverts often have very little to do with the product they’re trying to promote and encompass some key marketing fundamentals associated with brand building and product fit. Advertisers have had to change their ways over the years to accommodate new laws and regulations, as well as the rise of digital media. Has it become too safe though?

A big shout-out to John Long for sharing a thread on Twitter about this topic. Thanks for inspiring this article.

The Fundamentals of great advertising

Going back to basics

If you ask 100 people, ‘What’s the purpose of advertising?’ You’re likely to get 100 different answers.

There are however some very basic concepts all adverts should follow.

• Does it represent the brand in the right light?
• Are we communicating the unique selling point(s)?
• Are we presenting the key features and benefits?

An advert needs to be able to answer one or more of these questions, and it should be applicable to 90 percent of the audience. Marketers should refrain from writing paragraphs of copy to answer those questions.

This ad from Orion Telescopes is a key example of answering those questions succinctly. Look at the ads and ask yourself those three questions.

Does it represent the brand in the right light? 

Are we communicating the unique selling point(s)?  

Are we presenting the key features and benefits?  

Don’t forget about the marketing mix

Looking back at adverts from long ago, we often think of them with nostalgia and fondness. There is warmth and sophistication about them.

Many of them, like this advert for Marlboro cigarettes, were incredibly successful. Marlboro and other cigarette brands would often be in the hands of cowboys and movie heroes and were fully integrated into popular culture.

However, society and the industry have had to move away from such adverts.

Advertisers mustn’t forget the role of advertising within the marketing mix. Advertising (Promotion) is just one part of the wider mix.

Price – Product – Promotion – Place – People – Process – Physical Evidence

The promotional mix has changed dramatically since the 80s and 90s with digital marketing forming a huge part of the promotional mix. Your brand and messaging must work hard to succeed in the digital environment.

Has advertising become safer because marketers are focusing more of their effort on the whole marketing mix?

Apple’s shift from customer orientation to product orientation

These Apple advertisements are a great example of shifts from a customer-orientated approach to a product-orientated approach.

In the 90s iMac advertising used phrases like: “Sorry, not beige” and “Chic. Not Geek”. Not overtly risky, but poking fun at what was on offer within the PC market.

They focused on brand and USPs. They knew the average customer wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between kilobytes, megabytes and shark bites. So they kept the message simple.

If you want a PC that looks good – Think different, think Apple.

If we take a look at Apple’s new iMac advert, it’s undoubtedly more product orientated. There could be two reasons for this.

1. Apple is much more of a household name than it was in the 90s and its consumer base is more tech-savvy. With that, the advertising has seemingly matured in line with its audience.
2. Or has their advertising become too safe?

ASA Rules

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is the UK’s independent advertising regulator, has over time cracked down on certain types of advertising. The ASA are there to protect consumers and businesses and take action to ban misleading, harmful, offensive or irresponsible ads.

Ads promoting motoring, alcohol and or directed at children all have their own classification of codes to adhere to.

How has this affected the way we advertise?

BMW

Looking at the examples below from BMW, we can see how the CAP code will have influenced the advertising message. The first advert shows an image of a car moving with great speed and agility. It covers about 80 percent of a double-page spread.

It’s very clear the car is built for performance. But what does the ASA say about this?

Section 19 of the CAP code states:

Marketing communications should not condone or encourage unsafe or inconsiderate driving practices.

Section 19 further states: ‘Marketing communications must not depict speed in a way that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly or to break the law.’ and ‘Marketers must not make speed or acceleration the main message of their marketing communications.’

It’s quite clear that the first advert would not be compliant as speed is certainly the main message of the advert. The second advert focuses on innovation and is more likely to be compliant.

Guinness

Guinness is another great example of advertising gone safe. In this case, the rules are very clear, stating:

Marketing communications must not imply that alcohol can enhance mental or physical capabilities

Whilst you may struggle to find too many people on a Sunday morning to disagree with that notion, Guinness famously claimed that ‘Guinness is good for you’.

One might suggest that a safer approach by Guinness has spawned a raft of award-winning and inspiring adverts.

This Know Your Limits campaign video is a great example of how an ad can be quite shocking and adhere to the ASAs rules.

Does ‘unsafe’ advertising still exist?

YES! It absolutely does still exist, and some of it is brilliant and on the edge.

John’s Twitter thread does provide a list of ads that have become safer over time, but brands are still pushing the advertising envelope.

Bodyform’s ad promoting the brand’s new Goodnight towels resulted in 798 complaints to the ASA. Some describe the sight of menstrual blood within the ad as “too graphic” and “unnecessary”, to being “degrading and demeaning to women”.

Bodyform certainly risked upsetting a large proportion of the population on a matter that many still consider to be a private affair.

Elvie, similarly, went all out with its LEAKS HAPPEN campaign. The ad’s purpose was to spotlight and champion women’s health, particularly the taboos around urinary incontinence.

Seeing a woman urinating on a billboard is clearly going to ruffle a few feathers. Ultimately its purpose is to get consumers talking about the core subject.

Elvie would call this campaign a success with the campaign video receiving over a million views and a 109 percent uplift in Google searches for the brand during the campaign launch week.

There is a line between risking offence to a small minority and causing mass offence. Marketing Beat has put together a list of the Top six most outrageous ads banned this year.

It does feel like advertising has had to become safer over recent years. Ultimately it’s in the public interest to ensure that certain types of products and services are more closely monitored and scrutinised than others.

Let me know in the comments if you think advertising has become too safe.

As we continue living and working in the era of the ‘new normal’, it’s good practice to look forward and think about what might be important for marketers to consider in 2022. 

2022 is likely to continue as 2021 ends. There will be scepticism but also a lot of hope. Hopeful that the things we enjoyed about pre-pandemic life will return to normal.

For marketers, this will signal a significant period of experimentation. If you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I don’t know where to start’. These are the four big things to be aware of in 2022. 

The move into the Metaverse.

Meta and the Metaverse are the latest buzzwords in the world of marketing and social media. Many people still don’t understand what a Metaverse is and what that means for them. 

The quick and easy explanation is that it is a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with other users and the digital environment around them. 

The truth is that we don’t yet fully understand how the Metaverse will integrate into our lives. Some of the practical applications might include gaming, shopping, meetings and socialising. 

Tech companies in Silicon Valley like Meta (Facebook), Alphabet and Microsoft are all investing heavily in the Metaverse. Many brands are already starting to think about how they can serve their customers in this new digital landscape, such as buying up digital real estate and creating NFTs which can be traded in the Metaverse later. 

Marketers will need to start thinking about how and where they should position their brand within the Metaverse and what percentage of the marketing budget this will control.  

Data privacy is going even further.

GDPR was just the beginning of increased privacy protection for consumers. It played an important role in helping to protect consumers, giving them more of a say about how their data is being used. 

We’ve seen in recent iPhone updates, privacy for consumers is now top of the agenda. You may remember previous updates where users were being asked to opt-in to allow an app to track a user once they’d finished using that app.

For marketers, tracking user behaviours across the web is useful for delivering more relevant ads and helps to track conversions more accurately. But the lack of transparency and openness was very clearly not a good thing. High-profile cases featuring Uber and Facebook didn’t exactly help. 

Apple’s latest software update brings extended data privacy options, which, for the consumer is a big win. Those updates include being able to stop data tracking within emails. Increased privacy when browsing on the web and the ability to create an unlimited number of disposable email addresses to mask personal email addresses. 

Marketers have become used to using data from consumers for personalised browsing and shopping experiences online. These updates make that so much more difficult. Marketers will need to rethink their marketing strategies and look at new ways of creating personalised experiences for consumers.

Growth in face-to-face experiences. 

The Covid-19 pandemic forced many brands to adopt or accelerate their digital-first strategies; for some, this meant closing physical spaces or reducing capacity. In certain sectors this makes sense, and a U-turn seems unlikely.

But not all sectors are fairing so well. Particularly where the operational side of the business is disconnected from the marketing. Don’t forget, where (Place) and how (Physical Evidence) are two of the Seven P’s of Marketing. 

While some brands are retreating into the digital space, others like Gymshark are doubling down on trying to create meaningful IRL experiences with their customers.

I think many of us are trying to predict how customers will want to interact with brands post-covid. Customers may opt for a more blended relationship with brands.

The rise and rise of NFTs 

Love them, or hate them, everyone is talking about NFTs. NFTs, also known as ‘Non-fungible tokens’ are on everyone’s lips right now. They are one-of-a-kind digital ‘objects’ that can be owned and traded on the blockchain. 

Currently, the most popular type of NFT is digital art. Beeple, who is one of the most well-known digital artists, is said to be worth $50 million, largely down to his sales of NFTs. This bizarre video of Elon Musk or ‘GIGACHAD’ is currently listed for $150,000. With NFTs reaching such high valuations, they’re certainly not to be scoffed at.

It is important to know that NFTs are not just a jpeg or a digital image. It’s something that is held and verified publicly on the Blockchain. So its uses are much broader than you think. Restauranteurs are looking to NFTs as a way to give consumers the chance to own a piece of a restaurant and receive a physical reward as a result. Check out Gary Vee’s Flyfish Club. 

Using NFTs as ownership of a restaurant might sound a bit out there, but it’s not a new idea at all. BrewDog’s ‘Equity for Punks’ has raised over £30 million for the business through the traditional purchase of equity. Despite giving Punks little more than a birthday beer and a discount at the bar, over 200,000 people have become investors.

Although this one may be somewhat further into the future, brands need to start thinking about how they could make the most of NFTs.

Still not sure how NFTs can be used, Identity Review has a great piece about the 10 future use cases of NFTs that you should definitely that a look at. 

Find out how you and your business can make the most of Facebook Ads.

Business is booming on social media

It’s no surprise to anyone, your potential audience on Facebook is massive. There are nearly 45 million people in the UK using Facebook every month.

So even if your business’ Facebook page has a few hundred or a few thousand followers, your potential reach through advertising is probably far greater than any other single channel.

80% – 90% of businesses in the UK are now using social media in one way or another. This number has risen sharply in recent years, matching the number of UK businesses who own a website. So, if you’re not on social media, why not?

Your potential audience on Facebook is massive.

With the vast majority of businesses using social media as part of their marketing mix, it’s time to think about how you can position yourself to customers and set yourself apart from your competition. Advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook is a no brainer. It gets you in front of your potential customers, across all of their devices.

How to start advertising on Facebook

Getting started advertising on Facebook couldn’t be easier, you can advertise straight from your Facebook business page.

There are two ways to advertise:

1. Boosting organic content – This is the quick and dirty way of sharing an existing piece of content to a wider, predetermined audience.
2. Ad campaign – this method is all about creating goals and objectives. It gives you more control over the creative and is more suited to those campaigns where you need to say more than one thing.

Some marketers will tell you steer clear of boosting your content because it’s a lazy and clumsy way of advertising. But if you’re just starting out, this is the perfect way to test out the platform without commuting too much budget.
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*Top Tip* 

If you’ve got thousands of dedicated followers, but they struggle to see your organic posts. Boost your best performing posts by £30 – £50, but keep your audience set to your followers. If your audience is relatively niche, try setting the audience as ‘People who like your Page and their friends’, as they’re the most likely people to have similar interests to your followers. 

Facebook ad budgets are cheaper than you think

You’ll often see marketers talking of using large multimillion-pound marketing budgets and of Facebook generating billions of dollars in ad revenues, but advertising on Facebook is more affordable than you think.

Typically you can boost one of your posts on Facebook from as little as a few pounds a day. But you are going to want to think about the industry you’re in and let that guide your planning.

If you’re selling £5 sunglasses then you may see the value in spending £30-£50 for a 1-2 week campaign.

For higher value purchases, you’re going to want to think about committing more of your marketing budget than that. Yes, even if you’re just starting out.

There are a couple of thoughts about how you go about starting to budget for a campaign. For me, the best thing to do is just test things out. That way you’ll start learning what is and isn’t working for your customers.

Never stop testing.

This article from Keap gives you a better idea of how to go about setting an actual budget.

Measuring ROAS on Facebook

The first time you commit to Facebook advertising you’re usually going to need to prove to your senior management team that the platform is profitable.

Every business is different, so you need to think about what your rate of return is for remaining profitable.

Return on Ad Spend is the easiest and simplest way of measuring how successful a campaign has been.

So, if you spend £20 on ads and that returned £100 worth of sunglasses orders your ROAS is 5. For each £1 you spend you get £5 back.

Test test test!

There are loads of different ad objectives, audience metrics and creative types to get into on the Facebook ad platform.

Although testing small budgets won’t give you all of the answers in terms of what will and won’t work for your customers, it should open up some questions for you to explore further.

Never stop testing!

Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Check out my marketing blog for tips, tricks and marketing ramblings.

Understand why you are starting this project and what success looks like

This might sound like an obvious point to make, but before you start , think about the project holistically. Have a good understanding of your project, how you would like it to be run and what the ultimate goal is. Entering a project without a definite end goal can be a sign of ultimate failure. It won’t help you hire a marketing agency any easier.

Build a solid team for managing the process (This should include key internal stakeholders)

A solid and experienced management team can help to ensure your project runs on time and on budget. It is important to consider what roles you would like members of your management team to take. These roles will vary from organisation to organisation and maybe one person fits into one or more hats. The size of your management team will also vary from organisation to organisation, for Woodbrooke, my team included three members of the senior management team. There is certainly a fine line between not having enough help and feeling isolated, and having too much input and creating a project by committee. You might find some of the character types below as a good starting point for building your management team.

Character types:

• Senior Leader – It is good practice to have a senior manager or CEO (director) figure on board. Change has to filter down from the top and having key stakeholders driving that change will help all stakeholders to see the benefit of your project. It is  worth considering what skills and experiences a senior manager or CEO (director) might bring from previous jobs. At Woodbrooke, the director provided technical expertise with a longer established career in software engineering in telecommunications.
• The Wildcard – You might want to consider that ‘wildcard’ type figure who you would expect to ask those ‘off-the-wall’ questions, and disrupt thinking in a constructive way. Be careful though, pick someone who you know will be a good team player and who is 100% on board with the project.

A solid and experienced management team can help to ensure your project runs on time and on budget.

• The Thinker – Never underestimate the power of a thinker in helping to guide a decision. Those, sometimes painfully slow and astonishing minutes, hours or days waiting for a decision are not intended to annoy, but allow time for decisions to sink in and settle.
• Millennial – Having someone in your team who is ‘on-trend’ will help to future proof your project, saving the embarrassment of launching a new logo or brand which although new, is already outdated. For instance many organisations who have refreshed their brands are going for flatter more simplistic designs.

The new Woodbrooke website

Have a well planned and well thought out brief

This might be one of those ‘isn’t it obvious?’ points. A well thought out brief will not only help you to clarify your wants and needs, but it will help those agencies prepare an ‘answer’ to your ‘question’. But where should you start? Think about including these 6 headings:

Context

You should consider outlining what it is your organisation does currently, what your business aims and objectives are, and where you want to be in the next 10 years. This part of your proposal should ideally be less than 1 page long.

Project Objectives

Outline your top line objectives here. For Woodbrooke, our two objectives we very simple.
1. Rebrand Woodbrooke, to consider how the brand can represent our history but also be modern and forward thinking.
2. Redesign the Woodbrooke website, designed for the customer journey, considering the three business streams.

Try not to go into specifics here, if you objective is to just have your website refreshed, ask for it. This is where you tell the agency what success looks like.

Target Audience

You should consider outlining who your target audience is. This can include some data on who currently interacts with your brand/website and if you are looking to re-position your brand, who you want your target audience to be. Here are some examples of what you might want to talk about:

• Age.
• Gender.
• Location.
• Religion.
• Race.
• Interests.
• Buying behaviors.

Woodbrooke’s target audiences can be quite easily defined for those in our different business areas – Learning, Conferences & Accommodation. Which become Woodbrooke’s taglines and main website sections – LEARN | MEET | STAY

You might want to consider including a list of competitor websites in this section also. Be brave and include websites that you think would be beyond your budget or are outside of your organisations comfort zone.

Key Insights

Bullets points are king here. Use this as a place to list your specific needs. If you want a live chat feature, then say so. If your website needs to have an commence function to it then if you haven’t already mentioned it, make sure you do here.

Cost and Timescales

It is important to be upfront and let a prospective agency know what your budget is and when you expect the project to be delivered by. If you are not upfront, you will more than likely be wasting an agencies time and your time.

If you’re budget is fairly opened ended, or you are not sure what cost to expect for the needs of your website, set a price range for an agency to pitch in-between.

Give as much detail as you can about timescales. If you need parts of your project delivered at different times, say so. More than likely an agency will need to propose a different timescale depending on how they work. It is important to have a 1-2 month contingency in place, should any problems arise. Let your agency know about this contingency, so they can also plan ahead.

Submissions

Think about the things you want to see in a proposal, and write them into your proposal ‘must haves’. This is an easy way to help with the shortlisting process. Have they submitted the required materials.

The following worked for me and you might like to consider it for your proposal:

1. Ask for a portfolio of relevant work. (In my case I asked for at least one example of project where the brand was changed and new website created)
2. If budget is important to of you ask for a fixed price quotation for carrying out the work plus day rates for any additional work requested. For websites, you will want to ask them to quote for the cost of hosting and security, these can vary from £400 year to £2,000 a year.
3. Get details on the availability of the agency between the given dates. Do their holidays or other projects fit in with your timelines.
4. Ask for a proposed timeline and working methodology.
5. Just like when you apply for a job, you will want contact details for 2 references from the last 2 years of relevant work.

How are you going to get proposals?

I would recommend the following ways of getting proposals:

1. Look for websites that you like and contact the designer. You will usually be able to find the designer of the website in the footer.
2. Take recommendations. Ask your friends, colleagues and other professional for recommendations, this is your chance to ask questions and find out more. But remember to do your research, check out the agency first, do they meet your initial requirements?
3. Open it out to tender. Use your organisations networks and your own professional network to promote your project. Remember to set a deadline which allows enough time for prospective bidders to digest your project and come up with a well thought out proposal.

Submission Scoring for shortlisting

This is where your team comes in. Think about a two stage process.

1. Send round proposals, with a scoring sheet in good time and to give your team the chance to fully reflect on each application form. This gives each member of the team an equal opportunity to respond to each proposal personally.
2. Come together as a team and make an informed and collaborative decision. Set aside a morning or an afternoon to work through your shortlist. You may want to think about having access to a whiteboard or paper to note down any joined up thoughts. Allow some time to take a tea break halfway through. Give time for informal and personal reflection.

Scoring can be done in a number of ways, you may want to think about having a number of questions or considerations which your team are able to comment on. You may want to use a scoring system on these points and use the total as a quick way to reject one or two proposals.

Don’t make it too complicated though. You scoring method could look like this:

Scoring table

You might want to think about asking yourself some or all of these questions against each proposal:

• Did they meet the specifics in the brief?
• Are they good value for money?
• Do they have the technical expertise to carry out the project?
• Do they have enough relevant experience for a project of your size?

It is always good practice to keep a record of how you shortlisted your applications. So make sure one person is responsible for collecting the scoring sheets and someone is able to take note of any changes in decisions against these scoring sheets. It is possible that an agency will have put a few hours into their proposal and might like some feedback as to why they were not successful.

THE PITCH

So you have shortlisted your proposals down to three or four agencies which best fit your organisational needs. You will then want to ask them to formally pitch to you. Just like a job interview, this is where you really want to test your candidates and ask some challenging questions. At Woodbrooke, we asked our candidates to pitch based on the following two points:

1. We want you to show us your favourite project which has included rebranding and website development. You should think about including the steps you took, what you found difficult and what you learnt from the process. (Max 15 mins)
2. We want you to show us a working example of a website(s) which you believe would stylistically and functionally best suite Woodbrooke’s requirements. This does not have to be a website you have built. (Max 7 mins)
   Set aside some time for questions, which like shortlisting you can use to make against your two points.
3. Time for additional questions (max  7 mins)

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For 8 months I dreamt about what it would be like to finally meet you, what you will look like and how you will sound. It seems like you were thinking about the same thing, and at 35 weeks +2, you decided it was time to say ‘hello’.

6:59am, Tuesday 29 November 2016

Interesting fact, 29 November is not only mine and your mom’s wedding anniversary (1st full year married), but it is actually the date that we started dating back in 2004. Which in case you are interested was a Monday. I had just turned 16 and your mom was 15. We had developed a friendship over the space of a few months and I remember us falling in love pretty quickly, saying ‘I love you’ by Christmas time. The years went on and we became closer and closer, growing and developing as adults together. Probably surprising a lot of people along the way. One year became two years, and two years became three, and so on and so on. In that time I had been to University and earned a degree in Fine Art, your mom had gotten a job in the Birmingham Law Courts to help support your granddad, and after a few years of saving we had bought our very own house. By this time we had been together for 10 years and we were both 25, shortly after moving in I proposed and of course your mom said yes. Being creatures of habit, we set the date to get married as 29 November 2015, on our 11th anniversary. It was a beautiful day and in some ways I wish we had decided to have you earlier, it would have been perfect to have you as a little flower girl. Your mom looked absolutely beautiful, her dress was stunning and the whole day was perfect.

For the brave and faithful, nothing is difficult.

How I felt

I knew I wanted to have kids all my life, I look up to my mom and dad so much and have always felt an urge to be the same kind of role model that they were to me. That’s not to say that as a teenager, in particular, I always agreed with my parents, including saying hurtful things, but now that I’m older and wiser I can honestly say I respect and appreciate my mom and dad more than anything else. They’ve created the foundations for you.

I was so excited when we decided it was the right time for us to start having children. I had a good job at Woodbrooke as a senior marketing officer and your mom was starting her nursing training through an access course. The day I found out we were pregnant with you, I was just over the moon, the feelings are almost indescribable. Fear, love, happiness, anticipation, scared, joy. It is a huge mix of emotions.

It took 20 weeks to find out you were going to be a girl, and I never entered into the idea of wanting a son first and then a daughter, but when the nurse said ‘It’s a Girl!’ I knew from that moment you would be my princess and I wanted so much for you to be a daddies girl. Of course my mom and dad were over the moon with a granddaughter. I think they were sick of looking after two twin boys.

On 28 November 2016, your mom thought her waters had broken (ask her about what happened at 30 weeks) obviously as I’m sure you will learn, I was a little sceptical, I just had 1st January as the due date, so the prospect of you coming in late November did not enter my Mind. After waiting a while and it being pretty obvious that your mom’s waters had broken,  we headed to the hospital with all of our hospital bags and after about 6 hours of observations and going through the motions, you were ready to come out. It is a strange feeling as a husband and soon to be father, because you see your wife in pain and discomfort, but at the same time there is that feeling of excitement. All I wanted to do was see you. 6.59am you were delivered, and taken straight from us to be wrapped up and checked over as technically you were premature.

Aoife means “beauty” from the Gaelic word aoibh

After about 15 minutes you were handed to us in a big ball of towels and we had about a minute to hold you and kiss you. This is all very weird. You spend months dreaming about what it will be like to have you, then suddenly, there you are and it just does not feel real.

What’s in a name?

Aoife means “beauty” from the Gaelic word aoibh. In Irish legend, Aoife was the greatest warrior princess in the world. I wanted a name which reminds you to always be strong and to stand up for those who need it.

O’Keeffe Family Motto

“For the brave and faithful, nothing is difficult.”

“Do na daoine ata croga agus dilis nil a dhath doilligh”

You will face difficult and challenging situations as you grow up and go through life, but I want you to think about our family motto. If you are brave and face things head on, you will sail through life. I believe in you.

What I want from you!

Some parents will say they want their child to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. The truth is, I just want you to be, you! There is not a guide-book for life, you have to choose what is right for you. I chose to buy the house and have a family, and be successful in work. My aim was never to be the richest man financially, but I want to be able to provide for you and be there as a rock for your mom, I wanted to be the richest man in every other way. You and your mom have made me the richest man. So remember, chase your dreams and be brave. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

My promise to you

I will always be the best Dad I can be and the best husband I can be. I cannot promise I will get it right all the time, or that I will not get mad or frustrated from time to time. But I can promise that I will always love you and will always put you ahead of myself. I will always have time for you and want to teach you everything I know in life so that you are a bigger and better person that I am. You can rely on me to be there and I will always be open and honest with you. Sometimes I will tell you things or ask you to do something and although I know at the time you are unlikely to always agree with me, I am trying to guide you from my past experiences.

I love you Aoife!

Dad

This blog is going to go through a bit of a transition I think, I need to think about what purpose it serves and how best I can keep it maintained. 

Easily my favourite photo from a recent photo shoot with Matthew Bayliss. Some of you may recognise him from a shoot I did last year.