I particularly liked Peter York’s article in The Independent “How to get ahead in advertising” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/how-to-get-ahead-in-advertising-2069073.html , John Arlidge in The Sunday Times Magazine Report “Brand of Brothers” and Gideon Spanier’s article in The Evening Standard “Where have advertising’s Mad Men gone?” http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23874569-where-have-advertisings-mad-men-gone.do

I’m looking forward to the party!

Tom Holmes

Have a read of the article and let us know what you think.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/suits-take-centre-stage-how-a-new-edinburgh-festival-aims-to-get-the-backroom-mixing-with-the-talent-2056099.html

• Blue Marmalade - Blue Marmalade design, produce and wholesale “Products for the eco and style conscious” with three areas of focus; home accessories, lighting and design led gifts. Their products lie on a set of core values: environmental benefit, efficiency and rationality, functionality and value for money and are sold through independent design retailers, interior and gift boutiques and eco retailers with The Coran Shop stocking their lighting range in London, Paris, Ireland and Japan.

• Loopy Lorna’s Tea House - Loopy Lorna’s Tea House opened in Morningside in October 2008, it is a unique concept which marries the old-fashioned tea room, traditional home-baking and a trendy, quirky upmarket tea house. They serve high quality loose leaf tea, a wonderful array of traditional baking and Afternoon Teas with superb customer service and serious attention to detail. Due to the popularity of Loopy Lorna’s Tea House the company have opened new premises at the Church Hill Theatre with a separate room for hosting Afternoon Tea Dances as well as wedding receptions and private parties.

• Labels 4 Kids - Labels4Kids was started to meet a gap in the school market for vinyl waterproof labels, which are microwave, water, sterilizer and dishwasher proof and would not fall off.
  The range includes fully personalised vinyl and woven labels which can be stuck, sewn or ironed on to a variety of items of clothing and kit. The labels4Kids website allows customers to choose, personalise and order their label requirements from all over the world.

• Grow Story Grow - GrowStoryGrow is an online educational story-telling resource for learning languages, with over 100 stories covering a variety of educational themes, topics and ideas. By encouraging children to engage with the interactive stories this progressive, structured learning resource helps them to soon be able to read and communicate in their language of choice.

• Dakota Motorcycles - Based in the Edinburgh area, a new brand of motorcycle had been created, being the sole motorcycle manufacturer in Scotland; the DAKOTA Motorcycle is a high end cruiser built for the customer who wishes to demonstrate their individuality. The DAKOTA deliberately incorporates a large amount of “in-house” components and has received excellent reviews, with the most recent being from James May for BBC’s Top Gear

• Safetray - Safetray is a simple adaptation to the existing black service trays used throughout the global hospitality industry to carry food and drink to and from customers. The stability achieved with Safetray is so great that you can place a bottle of wine right at the edge of a tray and it remains totally horizontal.

For more information and to book tickets to the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival visit the site here: Edinburgh International Marketing Festival. Good luck to all involved.

How the “Brands of the Future” idea came about

The original idea for “Brands of the Future” came to me as part of my day to day job at creativebrief, where we have been increasingly involved in helping Scotland’s creative industry market itself to its local and national market. It occurred to me that with so much innovation and talent on the doorstep but unrecognised, and with the fact that  every company, no matter how small or large, needs marketing if it is to achieve commercial success, there was an inherent disconnect between two vital communities: On the one hand the creative talent to bring success and on  the other the  innovative entrepreneurs wanting to achieve it.

That’s the problem : Most smaller businesses, with limited budgets, don’t know where to go for marketing advice or know how to access cost effective channels to market.  Factor in recession and the inadequate support SMEs are getting from the banks, marketing becomes ever  more important. Potentially these businesses represent the future of Scottish industry and will help drive the economy.

Through ‘Brands of the Future’, we want to create an imaginative mechanism that recognizes these shakers and movers, provides them with a stage that connects them directly into Scotland’s dynamic marketing community, providing them with invaluable exposure.

We have been delighted to have the incredible support of Paula Bushell at The Scotsman and John Harkins and John Hughes at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, together we have created “Brands of the Future”, a competition that rewards Scottish enterprise and entrepreneurial ideas. Please come along and give “Brands of the Future” your support on Monday 23 August at 10:30 - 12:00 in Assembly Hall, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LU.

The festival, which this year once again, boasts the biggest names from the world of stand up comedy including the likes of Jimmy Carr, Simon Amstell, Jason Byrne, Julian Clary, Rhod Gilbert, Al Murray and many, many more, will be held at the three venues of the Brighton Dome (the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and Pavilion Theatre).

Show Director William Burdett-Coutts has come to creativebrief to help find a sponsor in order not to have to scale the show back in its anniversary year. This year, with sponsor Paramount pulling out after the 2008 festival, the operating budget has a £50,000 gap and unless a sponsor is found for next year, “it will be impossible to continue to stage the kind of show we want to put on” he said.

In an interview with Brighton publication The Argus, he said “Getting support has been incredibly tough because people are putting a lot more scrutiny into what they spend their marketing budgets on.”

“We have enlisted the help of creativebrief because of their connections with key decision makers of top brands – exactly the people we are looking to partner with.”

The festival includes 100 shows over 17 days and attracts over 30,000 visitors from London and the South East. “The public are the most important part of the festival and it’s their support that makes it a success. We hope this year - which is the biggest and best festival yet - the public back us once more by coming out to have a good night” said Mr Burdett-Coutts.

A dynamic sponsorship opportunity is available to a brand wishing to gain headlines in the lucrative and buoyant comedy market. For more information, please contact Lynsey Macdonald on lynsey@assemblyfestival.com

The Festival is the first of its kind worldwide and seeks to promote the role and impact of marketing within our everyday life, throughout society. We want to examine what happens when ‘creativity meets commerce’, and how this creativity is the powerhouse behind transforming many of the ways we engage customers, stakeholders and society in general.

The Marketing Society, creativebrief and The Assembly (the leading impresario of the Edinburgh Fringe) have developed a unique series of events to demonstrate how marketing permeates and fashions a lot of what we do in our society and how this influence to and from society is ever more prescient as technology, attitude and behaviours change and advance.

This event is a Festival of Marketing, not an industry conference, and as such we appeal to marketers of course, but also to government, educators and students, the media industry and the general public. Our other partners include IPA and DMA.

Glad to say we’ve got a really strong speaker cast now…including ITV, Sony Music, LoveFilm, McLaren, Google, BBH, VCCP, Octagon, Analog Folk, Bacardi, Fosters, P&G……..and many more.

For more detailed information, please refer to our website: www.eimfest.com

Strongbow have appointed Lean Mean Fighting Machine as their digital agency of record following a 4 way pitch through creativebrief, involving Airlock, R/GA and Weapon7 (link to showcase).

Lean Mean will be tasked with helping Strongbow connect with a younger segment of their audience (20-25 year olds) through the digital channel by reinforcing the association they have with music through experiential activity at festivals.

See the article in Marketing magazine.

AXA have appointed Crayon as their lead digital agency of choice following a two-way pitch against Grand Union for the financial services brand’s £3m business.

The pitch was called after a round of chemistry meetings during which AXA also met with Syzygy, Rufus Leonard and LBi.

Crayon will work across the entire suite of AXA business units which include Sun Life Direct, Winterthur, Swiftcover and a number of others.

The digital roster will also include Dig For Fire and Equator in support of Crayon who will take strategic lead.

The search is on to find the best emerging businesses in Britain.

Leading up to the launch of the inaugural Edinburgh International Marketing Festival, The Scotsman www.scotsman.com in partnership with the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce www.edinburghchamber.co.uk is searching for emerging UK businesses that will become successful brands of the future.

If your business could be described as “innovative”, “unique” or a “world’s first”, then there is an opportunity for you. Finalists shortlisted will present at a “Dragon’s Den” style final at the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival in August, where the winner will be revealed and awarded with consultancy from some of Britain’s top marketing agencies.

Tom Holmes, creativebrief Founder & Chairman and Director of EIMF said “I’m delighted to have been involved in the development of this great initiative and would like to thank Paula Bushell of The Scotsman and John Hughes and John Harkins at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce in making “Brands of the future” happen, we look forward to seeing some great entries”.

How To Enter

To enter, all you have to do is write a synopsis about your brand or business in no more than 500 words.  (The judges will be looking for evidence of a level of innovation and entrants should be able to demonstrate an unmet market need for their product or service.)

Then, complete the application form at www.edinburghchamber.co.uk where you will see a link to the Brands of the Future competition.

Your application form, synopsis and any visuals you would like to attach as illustrations should be submitted following the on screen instructions and contain no more than 5mb of data.

Entry Criteria

The competition is open to businesses based in the UK.  Entrants can be sole traders, partnerships, limited liability partnerships or limited companies.  The business must be independent of a larger trading group.  Entrants can be pre or post revenue.

The winning entry will be chosen by an expert panel of marketing industry professionals and business advisors:

• Bill Jamieson, Executive Editor, The Scotsman
• Tom Holmes, creativebrief Founder & Chairman and Director of The Edinburgh International Marketing Festival
• Graham Birse, Deputy Chief Executive, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
• Helen Hourston, Managing Director, The Gate
• Simon Farrell, Managing Director, Tayburn
• Nicki Sturzaker, Head of Edinburgh Operation, The Big Partnership
• Cameron Thomson, Regional Director, Scotland, Angels Den.

An agency appointment is imminent and the winner will initially create an umbrella brand proposition for the diversified product line, then deliver a truly integrated marketing communications programme for the brand – across TV, press, outdoor, DM, Digital and CRM.

The review is currently at pitch stage.  Watch this space for further news…

A world’s first

Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman of creativebrief, in association with Graeme Atha, Director of the Marketing Society and William Burdett-Coutts of The Assembly have played a pivotal role in bringing about Edinburgh International Marketing Festival (EIMF) to be launched in August this year.

It is set to be a world’s first, taking a view of the whole of the marketing industry, examining trends and emerging themes and discussing global issues, the EIMF will attract anyone with an interest in marketing from practitioners to students and members of the public.

Edinburgh is the world’s Festival City; where people come together from across the globe to share their passion for arts, culture and ideas. This welcoming, inspiring and open-minded atmosphere makes it a perfect host city for the International Marketing Festival.

Truly international scope

The EIMF will take up various key venues around the city to coincide with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including the Assembly, making it compelling for a range of audiences.

Already, in year one, we have a wide range of exciting events guaranteed to attract interest from the marketing industry and beyond. Agencies, brands and industry bodies are all signing up to host events and get involved.

Various partners are joining creativebrief and the Marketing Society to bring the event to the fore, including The Scotsman, the IPA and Tayburn and The Big Partnership, with the events sponsors and guest speaks to be announced in the coming months.

creativebrief will be announcing news of the latest marketing shakers and movers to be involved on a regular basis, so keep in touch with our blog if you are interested in finding out more.

For further informarion please contact Lis Faulkner, Project Director on 0131 623 3040 or lis@eimfest.com

Three of Ireland’s leading advertising industry CEOs recently talked to an invited IIBN and creativebrief audience at Forsters Mayfair Business Club, to Irish entrepreneurs and business leaders about ‘how entrepreneurial brands can stay ahead of the competition through clever marketing’ and offer their insight, while highlighting the level of talent and value on offer back in Ireland coupled with relevant case studies to demonstrate how effective marketing can make a real difference to business success.

Orlaith Blayney
Managing Director, McCann Erickson, Dublin

In 2002, Orlaith was made managing director of McCann Erickson; one of Ireland’s biggest advertising agencies, her appointment was particularly notable considering her age: 32. She was the first female and youngest ever MD of an international network agency in Ireland.

With a turnover of €40 million last year, McCann Erickson lists among its clients Heineken Ireland, Unilever, Coca-Cola Ireland, L’ Oréal, and Nescafe. In 2009, in the middle of a recession, McCann Erickson recorded its best ever performance in new business adding 3 Mobile, Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board), Kerry Foods brands, Charleville, Low Low and Dairygold and The Irish Times to its client portfolio.

Ian Doherty
Managing Partner of Bonfire, Dublin

Before launching Bonfire 5 years ago, Ian held a number of senior creative positions including Creative Director of Y&R and Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Ireland, an agency he had previously worked with in London.

Over the years Ian has produced campaigns for many of the country’s leading blue chip accounts including, Aer Lingus, Diageo, Bord Faílte, Vodafone, O2, Land Rover and The Sunday Tribune.

His work has won awards both at home and abroad including the Grand Prix at the National Newspaper of Ireland Power of Press Awards and a Gold at the IAPI Advertising Effectiveness Awards.

Stephen Bogan
Managing Director, Genesis, Belfast

Stephen was originally Board Director and Group Account Director at McCann Erickson Dublin, running the Heineken and Unilever accounts in Ireland. He then he took a big pay cut and decided to work a load more hours by retraining as a Strategic Planner.

In 2007 he moved back to the north to bring formal Strategic Planning to Genesis – and to Northern Ireland. Within 9 months he bought the company.

Genesis is a top 3 Advertising & Design Agency in Northern Ireland by size. And no.1 by new business wins.

Genesis clients include: SPAR across the UK, DALE FARM, Irish Distillers Limited, BBC, Firmus Energy (the NI subsidiary of Bord Gais), Invest Northern Ireland, Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Office.

Some of the brands that attended the event

 Conor Foley, CEO, WorldSpreads Limited and Chairman, IIBN

Eugene Forde, Counsellor: (Economic, Commercial and Finance) Embassy of Ireland

Andy Rogers, Chairman, Global Shares UK Limited

Tom Holmes speech to the IIBN in London:

Tonight’s subject is ‘How entrepreneurial brands can stay ahead of the competition through clever marketing’.

The original idea came to me when I was visiting agencies in Dublin and Belfast and I was impressed by the value and experience on offer.

I also thought it would be good for businesses over here, particularly businesses run by Irish entrepreneurs looking for more bang for their buck, and to make them aware of the quality of ‘talent’ on offer back in Ireland and the cost savings that can be made.

Hence, inviting three of Ireland’s leading advertising CEOs to talk to us this evening.

However, I also thought the timing appropriate to look at Irish marketing,  considering the observation made at the Irish Embassy by Mr. Micheál Martin,  Minister for Foreign Affairs at our recent IIBN breakfast, where the Minister said that it was important that Ireland now focuses on developing its ‘sales and marketing’ capability.

I was delighted by this statement as too often the marketing industry is undervalued by business and its contribution to the economy ignored by government. And because, at creativebrief, we believe in a simple truth, that every company, no matter how small or large, needs marketing if it is to achieve commercial success.

However, finding the most effective marketing partner can prove time consuming, confusing and expensive. That is why I built creativebrief, so that brands can find the most effective agencies to match their brief, saving time and money in the process.

However, before we focus tonight on advertising and look at some successful marketing case studies, I thought it might be good to talk a little about the creative and media industry in which advertising plays a pivotal part.

In the UK I had lunch recently with Siôn Simon, Minister for Creative Industries, as I’m working on an initiative with the MediaGuardian to revisit the government strategy launched two years ago to nurture the creative industries entitled “Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy“.

There is a huge opportunity to market the marketing industry both inside and outside the British Isles. Because, as Sir John Hegarty, the worldwide creative director of Bartle Bogle and Hegarty recently pointed out, it is now 30% cheaper for overseas companies to ‘create’ in the UK. With the decline in our currency we now offer unprecedented value. Given that government has long seen creativity as a potential export, rather than a spiritual asset, I think Sir John has a point. 

Growth in the creative and media industries has been fuelled not just by the continuing emergence of the digital channel and the proliferation of online and mobile communications, but throughout the industry as demands upon innovative creative and media, power exciting and challenging programmes.

As there is little prospect of the innovation engine powering this global growth slowing any time soon, our industry in its broadest terms, is set to continue its growth and indeed its share of economic activity throughout the world.

In fact, to put all this in perspective, the global ‘creative cluster ‘(defined variously as arts, culture, design and media), has now become a major player in developed economies. In the European Union this sector’s turnover is over €654bn (according to 2003 estimates) and this accounting for 2.6% of EU GDP…and a massive 6m jobs.
 
Closer to home the figures are even more dramatic – here in UK, the sector (according to UK govnt stats) was worth over £60bn in 2008, employing a staggering 2m directly or indirectly in the industry, and contributing to over 7.3% of GDP.

Clearly, we know the UK has a leading global role in the creative and media industries, but you may be surprised to learn that in Ireland the figures are even more impressive – a massive 7.6% of GDP or €11.8bn is accounted for and this sector employing 8.7% of the workforce, incidentally worth an estimated €300bn to the Irish exchequer!

When you also take into account that in Northern Ireland there are some 2,500 creative firms employing over 34,000 people, the island of Ireland can be seen as significant player in the European creative industry and the important bit – with loads of potential within and without its borders.

That’s why I’ve just got back from a round of meetings in Belfast where I met with Invest NI and number of the key figures in the Creative Industries Sector, and the Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure (DCAL), the lead NI Department in the development of Creative Industries. 

The creative industries not only contribute towards the economy directly, they also have a powerful, indirect impact on the rest of the economy - by adding style, aesthetics and freshness to differentiate our products and services. The creative industries also improve our quality of life and make our cities more vibrant by stimulating awareness and demand for the arts, design and media products and services. And nowhere is this more impressive than in my home town, Belfast, where the transformation of the Cathedral Quarter has been spectacular.

However, the bit of the creative industry that I’m particularly interested in is the bit where ‘creativity meets commerce’, especially the bit being driven by the brands!

I built www.creativebrief.com to connect this fragmented and complex industry and enable brands to find the most effective partners to communicate their message, across the spectrum of creative, marketing and media disciplines. 
 
Regarding Ireland, I’m delighted as we have more clients poised to review and we’ve already helped brands like Diageo and The RBS Group (Ulster Bank) search, shortlist and select agencies in both North and South.

Click here to view the article in the Irish Times 

creativebrief founder Tom Holmes will be chairing the event, which has the dual role of widening the scope of creativebrief’s business coverage in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as giving our member agencies opportunities for new business and exposure to clients.   

Details for the evening are:

Date:  Thursday, 25th February 2010

Time:  6.30pm for a 7pm prompt start

Topic:  ‘How entrepreneurial brands can stay ahead of the competition through clever marketing’

Location:  Forsters, 31 Hill Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 5LS

We will hear from key entrepreneurs and business leaders from the Irish advertising industry who will offer their insight, while highlighting the level of talent and value on offer back in Ireland (North and South) coupled with relevant case studies to demonstrate how effective marketing can make a real difference to business success.

The event will be chaired by Tom Holmes, Founder & Chairman of creativebrief and the panellists will be:

• Orlaith Blaney, Managing Director of McCann Erickson (Dublin)
• Ian Doherty, CEO of Bonfire (Dublin)
• Stephen Bogan, CEO of Genesis (Belfast)

If you are interested in attending, as either a client or an agency, please contact Fionuala Pender by clicking here.

The newly launched sister agency to Cow PR will manage the airline’s online communication, including reputation management, social media activity and word of mouth communications.

Rabbit was selected following a four-way pitch that included Cake, Band & Brown and Borkowski.

Rabbit launched on the 5 January, BMI baby is the agency’s first major client.