Solve’s Post

Three things I love: - Barbour - Aardman - Shaun the Sheep Three things I love together: - Barbour, Aardman, and Shaun the Sheep Barbour's recent Christmas campaigns have been *perfection*. They've consistently focused on their 'Wax for Life' offer, which is all about preserving a loved item, rather than replacing it. For the past two years, they've communicated this message with Paddington Bear, with heartwarming results, but this year they've switched to Shaun the Sheep for a more humorous approach. The message is still the same: the wax jacket needs repair, so the character tries to fix and rewax it for Christmas, and calamity ensues. BUT the environment here is what seals the deal. We associate Barbour as a brand with the fields, farms, and rural land of the UK. It's a staple of the countryside. And Shaun the Sheep is one of the most recognisable on-screen ambassadors for the countryside. So much so, that this year, he was chosen as the mascot for the Countryside Code. The continuity of Barbour's Christmas message - which is humble and built around reuse, rather than consumption - paired with a character and environment which complements the brand's identity and heritage, is a beautiful thing. I'll take Shaun the Sheep and the Mossy Bottom Farm crew all day, please. I hope this brightens your Friday. P.S. Oh, and Barbour, I'd love a Shaun the Sheep jacket pinbadge to go alongside my Paddington one. Okay cool, thanks. #content #christmas #marketing #advertising

80% of customers state that they would probably do business with a company if offered personalized experiences. However, although sending the right gift and choosing the right time can motivate consumers, research also shows that 63% of people are annoyed with the brands that overdo sending generic advertising messages. 90% of consumers think personalization is appealing. (Soocial) It's that time of the year again for Corporate Gifting. Demonstrate your genuine care for your clients and team – don't talk about it. Do it like you mean it! Our adventures have the power to transform lives and rejuvenate minds in the breathtaking outdoors! #corporategifting #companyretreats #employeeretention #gotfishing #Gameofzen

Dreamies and adam&eveDDB aim to prove that the 5% of cats that don’t love Dreamies treats must be humans named Cat. In a recent campaign, the brand plays on research that found 95% of cats found Dreamies treats irresistible, by investigating the 5% that don’t Leaning into the idea that it is difficult to find a cat who doesn’t like the pet treat, the campaign conducted research on humans called Cat. The Mars-owned brand called a fake convention for people named Cat, on the premise that they would meet up with other Cats “This campaign centres on the product truth that cats can't resist Dreamies treats, doing so with a humour that’s unique to this brand. The approach drives intrigue and amusement for cat parents, whilst also re-enforcing why Dreamies is the UK’s No.1 selling cat treat brand” - Kay Brown, European Brand Director at Mars Check it out via the Creativebrief platform: https://lnkd.in/e6aivpwb

😱 Last month, we were set the sort of challenge that sends shudders down an earned-first agency's back. ❌ It wasn't 'PR the advert'. ❌ It wasn't 'PR the brand's anniversary'. ☠ But it was 'PR the awareness day that nobody is aware of'. 🐄🍖 As everyone knows, June 12th is National Jerky Day. Established by Jack Link's Protein Snacks and the Wisconsin Beef Council in 2012, it is a day to celebrate the popular, cultural significance of dried meat snacks worldwide. ✋🏻 This would normally be the sort of challenge you gently push back on, but our client is...Jack Link's Protein Snacks. Ergo, we felt somewhat obliged NOT to push back on this one. 🙏🏻 But we're not 'Just Say Yes' merchants. We ran a media audit to prove that the UK media landscape was not yet ready to embrace National Jerky Day (more bluntly, one journalist just responded; 'LOL, no.') and persuaded the client to try a different path. 💡It was time for some out of the box thinking and our Joe Colquhoun delivered. 📍🌍 Joe lives on a different creative planet to the rest of the team and had become briefly obsessed with a chap called 'GeoWizard', a bloke on YouTube best described as a geo-adventurer. His 1.2m subscribers watch him do wacky gamified, outdoor challenges like walking the length of Birmingham without a map and crossing Wales in a straight line...but most pertinently, he often does these challenges while chomping on a bag of beef jerky. 🍖 ➡🌲 This was somewhat of a touch. Our client had been challenging us to position jerky as a great outdoors snack for ages. Here we had found a great outdoors enthusiast, with a great enthusiasm for beef jerky. The stars had aligned, now we had a creative execution to find. 🎉 🍖 So to celebrate National Jerky Day, we teamed up with GeoWizard to hide a lifetime's supply of Beef Jerky (yay) and £1,000 (also yay) in a completely random spot in the UK. GeoWizard - aka Tom Davies - would give some online clues to its whereabouts, but then it was over to the viewer to find the box. 🍖💰 The end result? Outdoor adventure enthusiasts competitively searching the Yorkshire Dales for a lifetime's supply of beef jerky...or maybe £1,000. 🙌🏻 Despite ZERO paid spend behind the two videos, we amassed over 350,000 organic views and an avalanche of positive comments. Remarkably the Beef Jerky was found within a day and even more remarkably, the winners looked as happy with the jerky as they did the cash. So, what did we learn: 🤝 Solutions-based pushback. 'This won't work.' = issues-based. 'This won't work, but this will.' = solutions-based. Do the latter. 💻 YouTuber link-ups can provide incredible ROI. Tom has 1.2m highly-engaged subscribers. That's an active, passionate audience most brands would kill for...and such was his love of concept and jerky, we barely had to pay him. 📆 National Beef Jerky Day is 12th June. Save the date. P.S. Check out the videos in comments for lolz. #creativecommunications #digitalpr #youtubemarketing

Something's fishy! Details matter in advertising. Obviously. As an avid boater and fisherman, when I see people fishing in ads, which is common, most of the time the rods aren't being held properly, the reels are upside-down, or the type of tackle is wrong for the environment. So instead of wondering which side effect riddled drug I'm going to ask my doctor about, or where my next dream vacation takes me, my brain goes to critiquing the person fishing. When creating a physical environment in your advertising, tackle the details because they matter. You don't want people to think your ad smelt. #advertising #medicalmarketing #pharmamarketing #creative #TVcommercials

When it comes to campaign results, we're like a dog with a bone! 🦴🐾That’s because we’re inspired by our (not so much) behind the scenes team: The Barketing Pod. Have you met them yet? Take a look at the top dogs in marketing and let us know if your campaigns could use some extra bite: https://hubs.ly/Q01WDJTJ0 #workenvironment #agencylife #creativemarketing

What on earth do squirrels, humans and dogs have to do with marketing? On Sunday, I took the pup to Goodwoof. For those that haven’t been, it’s a dog festival at Goodwood. Great day out. As we were walking from the car to the event, there were a number of dog fact signs and directional signage. Great for customer experience. When we got to the woods we found the one below. ‘Squirrels’ Talk about knowing your audience. The context and messaging needs for you audience are always key. If we break it down, there were three user groups for the sign. The squirrels - their requirement was to know which way they could safely walk through the woods as well as being able to find the location of other squirrels. The dogs - squirrels are always fun to chase, so the dogs requirement is to know where they can find the squirrels. The humans - they need to understand which direction their dog is about to dart off in. Getting to know your audience and their needs is key to your marketing efforts. #contextmarketingconsultancy #contextmarketing

Genius marketing. Why doesn’t every company at some point try a name change? Or, in this case, mess with something connected to it that evokes deep nostalgic connections? Do it just to see how “short lived” it becomes. It will spike emotions from consumers who have become loyal to the brand and resist anyone “moving their cheese.” It seems as if, based on history, this slick act of nerve-hitting only strengthens the consumer loyalty when it goes back to its original name. Customers feel validated and vindicated. And what did it cost the company in marketing? Probably very little. More a social media phenomenon. Hot diggity dog. With relish. 🌭

🐶 🐱 In honour of National Pet Month, we thought we’d share some of the Barking Mad marketing campaigns seen over the years. In our latest blog post we've looked at some campaigns that were the cat’s pyjamas but also those that were a bit of a dog’s dinner. You'll find the link to the post in the comments below. 👇 If you’re looking for help with ideas for your next marketing campaign and want to make sure it’s the pick of the litter, then get in touch! #NationalPetMonth #BarkingMadMarketing #MarketingCampaigns #ContentAgency #DigitalMarketing #MarketingStrategy

They understood the brief 👌🏻 Great job by the Marketing team at The North Face - they didn’t think too long and hard, just acted quickly and capitalised on a golden opportunity that was then executed beautifully. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ https://lnkd.in/gjkHqadR #marketinggenius #realtimemarketing #ugccontent #influencermarketing #digitalmarketingwithflair