Putting the Fizz back into the Fireworks
Since 2013 Awaken Communications has focused its charitable efforts on sport in the local community, principally through the reformulation and repositioning of the annual fireworks event, taking place each year at the cricket club. The event, which has been running for over 50 years now, is a vital contributor to the funds need to maintain a facility which in addition to cricket, plays host to Hockey, Lacrosse, Tennis, Running and a host of kids and fitness camps. An event in decline Eight years ago, this event was in decline. Visitor numbers were trending down as the lustre of paying a few quid to stand on a sports field on a cold and quite likely wet evening, was steadily fading. Moreover, most parents had fallen out of love with the adjacent travelling fairground, which rocked up
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Managing expectation: the key to coming out of lockdown successfully
In his book Alchemy, Vice Chairman at the advertising giant Ogilvy, Rory Sutherland argues powerfully that doing the obvious is not always the right thing to do. It is certainly not the way to make breakthroughs, change paradigms or differentiate yourself from the competition. To do that you need to be creative. As anyone who has had the benefit of listening to him knows, Rory is a master of creative thinking. Customer insight As marketing agencies and practitioners begin to help their clients emerge from lockdown, I’ve had my own simple lesson in how doing the obvious thing is not necessarily the right thing. Europe’s largest golf driving range, World of Golf London, was among the first consumer leisure venues to get business moving again, when they opened their doors on May 18
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Copywriting for SEO: The Inevitable Balancing Act
Writing web content and blog posts is a real balancing act. On one hand, you want to tell a good story that evokes some emotion, makes a connection with the reader and suggests that you might be a good fit to work with. A great example of this is our Copywriting article you can read here. On the other hand, one of the main reasons for creating web content is to show up in Google’s search engine results pages. In this case, a more SEO focussed approach is required. In this post, we’ll examine how our original Copywriting article could have been improved for SEO purposes. The SEO Approach to Copywriting Starts at the Very Beginning Before you even begin writing, you should decide what keywords you want the post to rank for - "Copywriting" seems the obvious choice in this exampl
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Authenticity in design
I am passionate about design, typography and creative use of colour. But nothing hits the spot quite like the gleam in your client’s eye when you’ve really hit the nail on the head. It’s not about the praise (though of course we all love that), it’s about finding a design idea that is totally in tune with the client’s vision for the brand and expressing it perfectly through conventional or unconventional forms and media. I believe in authentic design – the sort that oozes quality, like the KitchenAid Stand Mixer (sorry, I love a bit of baking!), an iPad or a Fender Stratocaster. These designs are among the many ‘classics’ that never seem to age. They might be ‘tweaked’ over the years, but they never lose that one thing that made them famous in
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Copywriting – stick to the rules
There's at least a couple of our team members who would claim to be decent copywriters. People who understand some key rules, such as: Write for your audience Avoid overlong sentences Have structure Be human - show some personality Edit and Edit again Thoroughly proof… Clients even pay us to do this. So, its with some risk that I make the following confession, albeit in my volunteer capacity as Chairman of Tring Park Cricket Club. Like all cricket clubs we rely heavily on the goodwill of sponsors and at the end of the season, it is only right and proper that I should convey a sincere thank you for their generous support. However, when doing so, it's probably not a great idea to start the correspondence: Dear Fiends….. Yes, it's a true story and fortunately one that our sp
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Marketing tips from the Edinburgh Fringe
Hello My heart goes out to fledgling Edinburgh Fringe performers. With artists attracted by ‘the dream’ from all over the world, competition for the bums is intense and every marketing decision is a big one. Reflecting on my visit this year, it’s becoming ever clearer to me, what good Fringe marketing looks like. A great flyer/poster design Whilst it’s hard not to worry about the amount of paper on display (some serious recycling required), there’s no doubt that a cracking poster design can help grab attention. The design needs to smack the reader in the face with the core proposition – for a stand up comic this can be as simple as a top notch, creative mug shot – suitably compelling proof points such as review stars and quotes, and the essential details of whe
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5 tips to keep your Adwords campaign performing at its best
All too often when we look at a prospective client’s Adwords account, it’s clear that they have adopted the dreaded ‘Set & Forget’ Adwords campaign strategy. It looks like this: come up with a bunch of keywords, cobble together some ad copy, set a daily budget and sit back and wait for the enquiries to come rolling in. Worryingly, this isn’t just the case with internally run campaigns – so called ‘specialist’, outsourced Adwords agencies are also guilty of it too! Adwords is an extremely effective tool for delivering highly targeted traffic to your website. If you’re in the business of selling ‘widgets’ in Hertfordshire, Adwords can help you attract a visitor to your ‘widgets’ page who just googled ‘widgets for sale in Hertfordshire.’ Beautiful! Ev
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