Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
These days, I can't whiz round the shops in Leeds without maneuvering past a couple of experiential marking events / brand experiences. The stands/lorries/huts/inflatable domes are often full of shoppers happily enjoying free food/massages/entertainment or whatever but despite the amount of general Sales Promotion / Promotional Marketing / Shopper Marketing I've done for brands in the … Continue reading why spend on experiential when you’re so far removed from the purchase experience?
So in the last 48 hours I've been asked to explain what Black Friday is by my sister, the yard manager at the stables, the lady who does my nails, approx 16 focus group respondents and my Dad. Asda have clearly had a very busy and successful day with their enthusiastic embrace of USA-style Black … Continue reading SherlockLives on BlackFriday
I went to visit a friend in London last weekend and we decided to brave Oxford Street since it was their special traffic free VIP shopping day. It was a great idea in principle, but thousands of soggy shoppers clashing umbrellas with each other doesn’t make for a very VIP-ish afternoon (although the fake snow … Continue reading a festive tale of Johnny LouLous and the impromptu middle class sit-in
I was in Bristol last week to run some focus groups and I got there early enough to stretch my legs round the city centre. I couldn’t miss the massive Mercedes promotional set-up in the middle of the main shopping area, complete with three or four cars, a big event structure thingummyjig and a lot … Continue reading dear Mercedes, you might want to rethink your A-class promo activity
I stumbled across two big pieces of promotional activity going on in Leeds yesterday: The gist of this first lot of activity seemed to be, ‘Put Pork on your Fork! Bacon sandwiches are delicious! Eating lower salt ones means you can eat them more often! Here, have a hot bacon butty, the ketchup’s over there.’ … Continue reading an example of quality not quantity when it comes to sampling activity
Just after I’d finished the previous post (I often write posts the day before to avoid that whole post-in-haste-and-then-it’s-stuck-on-the-interwebs-forever thing) I popped out to go to the post office and found this outside the front door: I guessed it was a sample. A smallish 8 servings sized box of All Bran Golden Crunch. The clue … Continue reading All Bran’s sampling is all wrong
I’ve started wading through the transcripts of last week’s focus groups*. The groups were for a food brand and when I asked respondents about promotions and in store sampling one lady piped up: My friend does it. Yeah she promotes things like that, she did cheese last time. I got quite a few cheese vouchers. … Continue reading PM or SP, it’s all about quality
I’m in research mode again and when post-group I found myself in need of food late on Tuesday evening I headed to the local Beefeater. Stop sniggering, all you trendy Shoreditch types at the back, at least at this particular one (in a town I visit quite a lot) I know I’ll get a friendly … Continue reading another design fail – this time gamecards
To sit alongside the uplifting recent bout of sunshine, royal weddings, multiple bank holidays and whathaveyou, I'd like to share with you the smiliest instore promotions lady I’ve ever met, on behalf of Walkers Crinkles in Tesco yesterday: It would be fair to say that the poor folks from Walkers’ agency who were trying to … Continue reading another sample of feelgood
If I ever get asked to speak at anything like an Interesting un-conference again and have to talk about another of my secret obsessions, I think I’d choose Lists. I love lists and I love list making. The mere act of writing everything down on a piece of paper makes me feel calmer and more … Continue reading An ode to list writing – and why FMCG ad men should take note