Fountain Marketing

Lidl, just gets better and better

Stephen Bough — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 11:07:22 +0000

Not only is Lidl screwing the UK grocery retailers in the aisles, but its advertising is doing the same

Now that’s what we call good product design; functional, stylish and innovative

Stephen Bough — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 10:15:53 +0000

Plug it on the window

The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket.

Designers: Kyuho Song & Boa Oh

I was asked recently how often clients attend our sampling events and if they do, do they get in the way.

Stephen Bough — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 09:18:26 +0000

Our clients pretty much attend every one of our events and we very much encourage if not insist on their presence at some stage of the event.

Not just so that we can show off our response to brief, but also so that the client can get a real feel for the consumer perception and reaction to their brand and the value that experiential brings to the marketing mix.

We even have clients actively manning the stands for us. It does them a power of good to see consumers’ response to their product at first hand and also the work and effort that it takes the Fountain team to create a wonderful customer experience for all attendees whether consumer or trade.

Very interesting presentation by Mark Ritson on ‘Why social media is mostly a waste of time for marketers’

Stephen Bough — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:05:13 +0000

When clients ask us to include social media activity in campaign planning, our response normally goes down the route of ‘Think carefully about the ROI of social media before committing to a social media campaign that sacrifices existing activity with strong, well know ROI’.

They normally looked puzzled because everybody else is doing it and it smothers press coverage.

Click on the link below to hear Mark Ritson’s view on it. Very interesting and quite refreshingly honest. A must see if you are planning or currently undertaking social media activity within your marketing mix.

Our Fave Christmas Experience

Stephen Bough — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:20:08 +0000

Keeping marketing ‘real’ – WestJet, now my favourite airline

Digital, online, content, inbound, outbound, viral, video…. they are all essential for the effective support of our clients and their brands.

But this ‘event, undertaken by WestJet in Canada, shows how effective marketing in the ‘real’ world can be. Let’s not forget that our customers have real faces and real families, they are not just IP addresses hidden behind tablet and computer screens.

However, I do feel for the guy who asked for socks and pants as he saw the large TV being delivered,

The BBC’s rendition of The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’

Stephen Bough — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:01:39 +0000

Nothing to say about this apart from watch the video to see the BBC’s version of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows. The BBC at their ultimate best

Boughie, can you send me over a concise briefing form to distribute to my teams please as we seem to be a little inefficient in this area at the moment”

Stephen Bough — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:00:26 +0000

It is always a pleasure to help a client improve their briefing process so when we received the above request from a client we were more than happy to help. A good briefing is essential, and effective agency briefing is a key role for all those involved in brand communications.

Here are just a few simple considerations and thoughts to follow:

Before you write anything, think! – Don’t just fill out a form, but use the form to record your own thought process – be absolutely clear about the aims of your brief – include only the relevant and critical information in the brief with the remainder in attachments.

Simplicity, No need to be over complicated, there is nothing wrong with one page briefs, be clear, be concise.

The core information – the problem/opportunity – target audience – objectives – brand proposition – evaluation opportunities – timings – budget parameters.

Deciding what to leave out is as important as deciding what to put in.

Your agency will ask for more information if they require it.

Click the link for a copy of a briefing form, please feel free to amend according to your own requirements and sector – Click here for agency briefing form

Bring Down The King – very cool social media campaign

Stephen Bough — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 09:00:56 +0000

Sky – Game of Thrones

Ahead of Game of Thrones season four, Sky wanted to promote its premium subscription channel in New Zealand.

The campaign, created by DDB, rallied the online community around their hatred for the character Joffrey.

A 7m statue of the character was built with a rope around its neck. Each tweet (#bringdowntheking) received turned a winch eventually toppling the statue.