Leigh Hammans | Page 3

Good ol’ customer segmentation & copy.

So hats off to Donald Russell! The Dunk Design #CreativeBrains brand of the week.

In the last week of August, my normal pack of Donald Russell promotional offers fell on my doormat. I have only ever bought one thing from them, recommended to us by a chef at Simpsons on the Strand – so definitely a brand with some kudos.

I always save the pack for my partner, who also loves looking at the meat on offer and dreaming of sumptuous steaks, delicious roasts and BBQs that are so tasty it doesn’t matter it’s raining. But this month the covering letter made me take a second look.

The ritual was normally to take the flyers out of the pack and save them for my partner. I wouldn’t bother with the loud envelope that screams MEAT, as it comes through the door, or the letter that will no doubt just waffle on about something that seems to take 4 paragraphs to get across. We’re only interested in the fantastic photography and dreaming of what we could do if we had the time.

But this time the opening line in the covering letter was genius!

It caught my eye and made me stop!

“I couldn’t help but notice that despite being a customer of ours, we haven’t yet tempted you with anything this year. Did we let you down in some way?”

Brilliant! I was immediately impressed. I also wanted to immediately respond with, “no, no, we love receiving your promotions, please don’t stop”.

And for a moment I was feeling guilty for not buying more from them.

Marketing head back on, I was impressed.

The copy was cut-through, attention grabbing, and created an emotional response that would result in a transaction. Not to mention my continued love of their overall brand.

Although the opening line was simple enough, I also realised they’d also undertaken some brilliant data analysis to bring this message to me. They’ve looked at my transaction history, understood my purchasing behavior and realized they needed a different approach to a segment of their customer base that was displaying similar behaviours.

The perfect strategy. And, what I have to say, reminded me of the good ol’ days of marketing. There was no digital integration, online app, or sexy brand campaign – not to say these aren’t all important tactics in getting a message that invokes a response. It was just a simple line of copy that connected with the audience as it was meant to, through good old fashioned direct mail.

Friday night, date night, will therefore consist of a wonderful Pave Rump Steak combined with perfectly prepared roast potatoes and steamed spinach. As selected for me by the Donald Russell Head Butcher, Mark Farquhar.

Internal comms – transformational heroes!

But why and what role is marketing communications playing?

As the roles in what “was” traditional human resources evolve further, we see the parallel evolution of what I’m calling “internal comms”. These are the marketing practitioners who focus their skills on employee engagement, talent acquisition, change management, brand development, and the list goes on.

These are the champions who work with corporate communications specialists, who focus on investor relations and CSR; as well as external facing brand and marketing specialists, who focus on connecting with customers and markets for commercial success; and with HR colleagues, who are driving employee engagement across the entire employee & employer relationship.

Phew! A lot to ask.

So how exactly is internal comms evolving?

Peter Cheese, Chairman of the CIPD, gave us some context at a London HR Connections event back in January of this year.

He said we were at an inflection point in business thinking, and it’s the most exciting time for HR. He also said we need a bonfire of HR policies and to look at employee engagement differently.

He was talking about the changes in how we work, where we work and the scope of our roles. So with more virtual working, networked business models and even brand partnerships, the landscape for the internal communications role is facing a revolution.

But marketing disciplines are changing too and this is where our internal comms heroes can steal the lead in this revolution.

The age of the company intranet is over. Sharepoint, Yammer, GoogleDocs, and even our favourite emojis on IM are all changing the way we align and engage with our colleagues and the employer / employee relationship.

Internal comms practitioners are at the heart of this revolution and are able to engage with performance data, behavioural economics and organisational design.

These are the individuals who are networked into the data scientists supporting corporate communications analyst-packs; as well as the marketing and design agencies that are delivering cut-through campaigns for customers; and the IT infrastructure teams that are helping HR connect with every single employee.

Theirs is the little black book worth having; and you can bet your bottom dollar that, for them, it’s no longer about newsletters and the company intranet. Now it’s all about well designed messaging that supports a fully integrated campaign across multiple platforms and metrics.

Take a second look at your internal comms people, they’re an asset worth knowing for the future.

A lesson in content.

Why? Because it’s so intellectual. It truly makes me ‘think’ and it takes me time to understand every piece, from the front cover to the back cover.

I love it.

It is the kind of content that is definitely King. The irony is that the Queen is the Patron of the RSA, so I suppose it’s fitting the content is of a royal standard.

But this issue is about policy and governments, driving growth and innovation. And the thing that has struck me most is the use of the words ‘growth’ and ‘innovation’.

Just like my addiction to my RSA Journals – and I still have the full collection from the date I became a Fellow – I feel like the words ‘growth’ and ‘innovation’ are good, great and exciting; but somehow wrong, out-of-place, or even dirty in the context of this content.

In fact, they’re being redefined in the context of what I’m learning about, what our future society could look like.

This content is changing me, not just passing me by.

So while I’m trying to understand Market Failure Theory and why social networks, the entrepreneurial state and policy must change, I’m reminded of why content is king.

Good content changes the way we become aware, consume and understand a message. The story changes around us by those influencing us, as well as by how the message is delivered. And this can happen fast.

We can now consume information so fast, in such enormous quantities, that we’re sometimes not sure where we heard it, or the context.

So as entrepreneurs, communities and marketers, facing enormous change, I wanted to remind you of a brand that remains consistently compelling through a truly effective content strategy…..and tip my hat to the RSA for maintaining their purpose.

Challenge me, inspire me, educate me and empower me. And never steer away from your content strategy – it is at the heart of what makes you great.

Millennial cynicism, or not?

I first saw it when caught in traffic. I noticed the poster on a bus shelter and it made me smile – the directness just appealed to me.

Then, during a client meeting, the simplicity of the Oasis drinks campaign came up and we all agreed that it was an interesting creative direction to take, but we couldn’t decide who it was aimed at.

And, this morning, a connection liked a photo of the campaign on LinkedIn.

Having now found out a bit more about it, it was apparently designed to target teenagers. None of the people talking about it, including myself, are teenagers or Millennials.

I’ve been assured this is the perfect mix of cynicism and pragmatism for the millennial generation, but is the message just too mature?

“You’re thirsty. We’ve got sales targets.”

The campaign created by The Corner agency is a brilliant eye catching piece of honesty, but does it say to Millennials that Oasis can be trusted or is it just appealing to their pragmatic attitude?

The Brookings Institution, one of America’s oldest and wisest Think Tanks, says that Millennials are the least trusting generation on record. Yes, they love their social impact motivations but they also believe that people can’t be trusted. They say this combination of social impact and mistrust shows itself in a truly pragmatic approach to life. I get that.

So how does the new Oasis campaign reach that generation?

I decided to call three Millennials that I know, including a teenager (although, I had to IM one of them because he’s too busy being an entrepreneur at the age of 22).

The responses were as follows:

“Sorry, I don’t get that.”

“Sounds to me like someone couldn’t be bothered or just doesn’t care.”

“Umm, I’m not sure I know what that means.”

Although the message was pragmatic, is the message just too mature? Can cynicism be used as currency, or is the Oasis message cynicism for another generation?

We loved it! We’ve even bought some Oasis drinks because we thought it was so clever. But is that the result Oasis was looking for?

Good ol’ customer segmentation & copy.

Internal comms – transformational heroes!

A lesson in content.

Millennial cynicism, or not?

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