Balloon Dog

Wear it Pink!

We're supporting Breast Cancer Campaign's Wear it Pink day in the office today. Stewart, our FD, is actually wearing pink trousers.

Some like it hip hop

Sadlers Wells, London, 20 October - 19 November

This show, playing London's Peacock Theatre right now, is from the Zoonation troupe who never fail to simply amaze. They manage to make you feel simultaneously utterly inspired and utterly useless by their dancing, singing and general superhuman talent. Special mention for the three main vocalists who are worthy of a show in themselves, singing blues, rock, jazz and an array of R&B/soul/pop for the troupe to perform their show to. And then there are the dancers themselves: how they do what they do, night after night is just beyond me.

Lead guy is Tommy Frantzen, with co-leads Lizzie Gough and Teneisha Bonner, the first two were finalists on "So you think you can dance?" recently on telly. That certainly seemed to be pulling in the punters - the night we went it was packed, even Diversity were in the audience - and it's a show that is guaranteed to have everyone on their feet by the close. The entire cast is incredible and every single member clearly puts their whole being into their performance.

If street dance is your thing, or even if it isn't and you just enjoy a good musical, this really is a must. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Find out more and book tickets.

Greig

Making all the Rightmoves

A lot of tails wagging this week in balloon dog towers, with the news that we’re up for a gong at this year’s DMA awards. As it delivered such great results – or, as we like to call it, ‘brand payback’ – we entered a campaign we’d created for our client, Rightmove. And we’ve now been told that we’re down to the final three. 

Rightmove is the UK’s biggest online property portal, but not all estate agents are aware just how effective it is.

Our job was to prove how it outperforms all of its major competitors in all areas, using a number of key stats, with data broken down to postcode level. A joint campaign first targeted non-Rightmove estate agents in London and then across the country.

The bottom line is both campaigns delivered phenomenal brand payback. In London there was a 23% sign-up rate, within four weeks of dispatch. The nationwide campaign delivered an equally impressive 20%. No mean feat, especially in such a tough market. And the DMA obviously agree.

The DMAs are basically the Oscars of the DM business, recognising and rewarding the real movers and shakers in the industry. This year’s winners will be announced with a suitable fanfare at the awards ceremony in London on 7 December. We’ll be there to find out if we’ve won Gold, Silver or Bronze – and maybe enjoy a drink or two to celebrate. We look forward to sharing the news with you. Watch this space.

Back to black for Barclaycard in the US

In 2012 Barclaycard will be launching a new premium black card to corporate customers. But the first step in the journey was to launch it internally, to Barclaycard colleagues in the US, replacing their existing American Express corporate cards. Naturally.  

So, we were asked to design an engaging delivery device to hold the card, welcome booklet and letter, showing that this new card was, well, a little bit special. We were also asked to write a strapline to convey the premium nature of the card.

Leading with ‘plastic has never been so precious’, we created a rather neat ‘push/pull’ wallet to hold the card and accompanying information. It was used to unveil the new card at the Barclaycard US head office by MD, Dennis Bauer, to big ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ from a suitably impressed audience. But it wasn’t just the card they were impressed by.

We’ve since learned that six weeks after the launch, while the card is in people’s pockets, our ‘push/pull’ wallet is still sitting on many desks.

 

 

 

Pret A Manger's recipe for email success

Following the rapturous reception Pret A Manger's new balloon dog designed email template received (one commissioned to celebrate their 25th Anniversary in July), Pret decided to adopt it as their standard email format... a decision that has already given cause for further celebration.

Since we launched Pret's monthly newsletters in October 2010, they've proved a massive hit with their fans.  Open, click-through and interaction rates have been exemplary, and they've played a crucial role in building their social media presences too.  Despite having blazed such a trail of email success, we were stunned when we read September's stats.  Why?  Well, high as our expectations are, a 27.97% open rate and a click-through rate that was nearly five times industry expectation* at a whopping 16.08% came as something of a surprise.  

So what was it about Pret's September mailing that got its subscribers so click happy?  Well, as per usual we plumped for a recipe that blended menu news, an exclusive competition and a dash of Pret charm, this time in the shape of our sweeping broom image. This, when framed within a template that was attractive, easy to navigate and stressed the call to action early, delivered the goodies.  Put simply, Pret continued to follow the golden rule of email and gave their subscribers what they wanted, something that (like their food) comes to them naturally.

*Source: Mail Chimp Resource Centre, Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry http://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks-by-industry/

 

My absolutely Great North Run

By Jules Montgomery-McCullagh

Sunday 18 September 2011 had arrived. After months of training, getting up at 5.30am, trying to fit in runs before work/school runs and at weekends in between the children’s activities, it was the time for the biggest and most famous half marathon in the world, the Great North Run. 

After travelling up to York on the Saturday and staying at a friend’s house, we were both up and out at 6am the next morning, ready for our big day. The train from York got incredibly crowded as the journey progressed, with some poor people getting turned away. Imagine all that training and not being able to get to the race!

We alighted in Newcastle to find a mass of faces of all ages, races, sexes (some more dubious than others) and sizes. We had a mad scramble to get to our section of the start, easier said than done when there are 53,000 runners amassed in one place. The atmosphere was dazzling, as was the weather at that point, with the sun shining through the clouds on the masses of people. There were lots of people in fancy dress of all types, dressed as animals, soldiers wearing full backpacks (mad), three Teletubbies wobbling along together and some rather buff rugby types wearing hula hula skirts, to name but a few.

The Red Arrows had a flyover to signal the beginning of the race, and we were off – or more accurately, the elite runners were off, at a sprint. I was allocated to ‘White Zone G’, as I’d put a completion time of 2 hours 10 minutes on my entry form.  I had failed the first rule of competition running races – always lie about your time on the entry form.  So we did a slow shuffle forwards and eventually crossed the start line a full 21 minutes after the race had begun. My time had officially started and my friend set off at blistering pace and I struggled to keep up with her. All of a sudden 13.1 miles seemed an awfully long way.  

The first five miles seemed to last forever, a continuous uphill climb which was tough. I lost my friend in the melée, due to constantly looking around for a gap in the crowd, to move faster, and then down at the ground to make sure I didn’t fall over someone’s feet.
 
5 to 10 miles was quite enjoyable. I was running at a steady pace and enjoying watching what was going on all around me. I started to see the same people around me who were running at a similar pace. Then the rain started, which wouldn’t have been too bad, but I was wearing prescription sunglasses, which I couldn’t take off as I’m as blind as a bat.  

At around 8 miles I spotted a guy who was holding a sign saying ‘2 hours’. My brain didn’t compute at first, but then I realised he was actually a pace maker and I was keeping up with him. I realised that I had a chance of completing the course in under two hours!
 
The route for the Great North Run starts in Newcastle, passes through Gateshead and then finishes by the sea in South Shields. For much of the route you are running on the ‘A’ roads near those cities, so you would think it’s not the nicest of views, BUT wow, the supporters were amazing. They were all cheering us on and if they saw anyone struggling, they cheered all the harder. My name was printed on my running top and total strangers were shouting, “Come on, Jules, you can do it!” Heartwarming stuff.  

There were also bands playing along the route – from steel to rock – and cheering points, with representatives from the supported charities. I was running for CLIC Sargent and their cheers at 11.5 miles gave me a real boost. I needed it.

 
I was starting to feel tired and wondering how it was taking this long to finish. Then at 12 miles I passed a very senior looking Elvis Presley impersonator, giving a full rendition of ‘Teddy Bear’. It’s hard to laugh when you’re running and tired, but it did the job of spurring me on for the last push. Then, at 1 hour 52 minutes, my phone, which had Runkeeper (monitoring my time and speed) and importantly my music, died on me, so I had to run the last part of the race with nothing. Sign for 800 metres, then 400 metres and finally the finishing line was up ahead. Runners and spectators were shouting and the BBC TV cameras were filming as we made a final dash for the line and ……….I DID IT!!  

 
After collecting my medal, getting a drink, snack and a lovely leg massage at the CLIC Sargent tent, I eventually found out my time – 1 hour and 56 minutes. I went around smiling like a Cheshire cat! Under two hours for my first half-marathon. Not bad.
 
So, my annual challenge is going well. Last year I raised £3,200 for CLIC Sargent doing a charity trek in China. This year I’ve raised about £320 for the same charity and hope to get more. So if you’re willing or able, please visit my sponsorship page – all donations are gratefully received. Many thanks, Jules.

Making a difference and being your best

A couple of recent jobs have been designed to help two of our clients help others – Barclays and Beat, the UK’s leading eating disorder charity.

Every year Barclays organise Make A Difference Day, where they give all staff around the world a day off to help their local community, in hundreds of sponsored projects. Our job is to create an emotive suite of communications that would work internationally and in different languages, to encourage staff to take part.

We're looking to build on last year's campaign, which saw a huge uplift in the number of volunteers – 49% in both the UK and Asia. And globally, 97% of respondents said that Make a Difference Day made them proud to work for Barclays. This year we're hoping to further increase on these already impressive results.

For Beat it is something different altogether. We were asked to create an online environment to help rebuild the confidence and self-esteem of young people.

Our solution was an interactive website to help individuals achieve ‘My Personal Best’. The most important thing was that they were not competing with others, only themselves. A range of tools enabled them to set personal goals, report achievements and encourage support from their peers. We also created a rich resource area where they could find out more about helping themselves and others.

Apart from excellent user feedback, My Personal Best also won the Most Exciting Newcomer at the Nominet Awards 2011. It’s also been nominated for a social media award at the upcoming some comms awards.

Community spirit? No, we want community action!

by Giles Luckett

Online communities have become something of a brand obsession in recent years. Many proudly espouse their number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers in the same way that homepage hits and linger times were boasted in the days of the dot com boom. And why shouldn't they? The continuing shift from search to share and the rise of phenomena such as social shopping means brands have to build online communities if they are to survive, let alone thrive. Alas, what many have yet to grasp is the fact that simply having an online community isn't enough and if they really want to benefit from such groups they need more than community spirit; they need community action.

Let's get back to basics for a moment and recall the old direct marketing adage, 'Numbers are vanity, revenues are sanity'. In the social and 'mocial' age as we now obliged to call it, it could do with updating to 'Numbers are vanity, actions are sanity': for getting your online community motivated is one of the key challenges that all forward thinking brands face. Large follower and fan numbers are great; they make you look successful and interesting, they help with SEO and give marketing teams a warm feeling of a job well done. However, if they are merely passive observers and occasional commentators then they become like a massive but unresponsive direct mailing list - a potentially costly headache.

Brands need to seek true engagement and learn not to see the 'Like' or 'Follow' as job done but as job begun. Such clicks are often not an indication of undying fascination but may be based on a single facet of your brand, a single post or simply a momentary whim and from then on in you'll be competing for their attention with every other brand who has received the same, potentially greater, expression of interest.

It's a real problem and to counter it brands must make communities places members want to be active citizens of. How? Well, there are several ways this can be done. For a start you can encourage greater levels of interaction from a broader spectrum of the members. The average Twitter community, for example, sees less than 1% of its members contribute more than 99% of the content. If only 5% became involved the community experience would not only be richer, but increase the chances of others getting involved as the range of conversations is so much wider. A trick for doing this is to post periodic 'soft' tweets - ones that show that having something profound, witty, insightful or clever is not the requirement to participate many believe it to be.

An all too common mistake is for brands to just talk about themselves and their communities' relationship with them. Brand navel gazing - unless you're a cult such as Apple - may be fascinating to you but will soon have the bulk of your fans turning off or dropping out. Remember you are part of their community as much they yours, so talk to them about issues that are beyond your brand but which are contiguous with their other interests.

And finally don't forget to think outside the box... Wall, Stream or Circle, and post and re-post beyond your social media bases onto blogs, forums etc. This will not only give you a free SEO tickle but will draw voices into your community that might have otherwise gone unheard.

Of course, the ultimate goal, the Holy Grail if you will, is to convert your community members into digital advocates: loyal followers who will actively sing your brand's praises and have a multitude of new fans beating a path to your virtual door. And to help you find your way to such a digital heaven (because we're nice like that at balloon dog!) here are five easy to steps...

• Make it worthwhile from click one - incentivise not just your 'Like' or 'Follow' but the first post, retweet or share. Get them in the habit early and it'll soon become second nature.
• Get to know them - who are they? Where do they go when they're not with you? Do they regularly visit your site? Look at their interests. Are they regular posters - if so, are they ripe for digital advocacy?
• Keep the barriers to activity as low as possible - technical barriers are coming down all the time - Google+ instant photo sharing for example - but make sure you keep perceived barriers down too; a dearth of posts (or worse a dearth of responses) will keep people at bay, as will uninteresting ones - telling the world that you've a new name for a new product won't get much of a response; asking them to name it will.
• Constantly reward - from a simple thank you for following to a win a year's supply of product for the most popular post of the year. Nothing encourages like encouragement.
• Make it feel like a real community - get behind community-sympathetic online campaigns, arrange events, hold regular hangouts in Google+, celebrate members (with their permission), gossip, share, speculate, crowd source and collective create just as you do in the real world.

Your online community are potentially your greatest online asset. Encourage them, motivate them and give them a reason to care about the community and then no matter what you're trying to achieve online it will become much, much easier. Ignore them, bore them or lose sight of the fractional nature of the community membership and you'll turn attractors into detractors.

Grease monkey to mac monkey

by Rob Hines (Digital designer at balloon dog)

In my spare time, if it’s not a Pantone swatch book in my hand it's a spanner. 

Ever since I worked at Halfords before stepping into the creative industry, being a mechanic was what I wanted to be. It wasn't until I started to notice the poorly designed POS and packaging that I began to think I could do better. 3 months later I enrolled at college. However, the love of taking things apart and putting them back together again never stopped. 

I recently rebuilt a 60s bug (top image): new engine, new gearbox, spray job, lowered on new wheels, etc. I’ve entered various shows with the bug over the years, including Santa Pod. I’m currently now spraying and working on a Caddy (below image) ready for next summer.

 However, I do have one rule... It has to be a VW. The older, the better!

1st for charity

balloon dog’s Tom Carter got his trainers on last Sunday to take part in a fun run, raising money for Norfolk-based charity NORCAS. NORCAS helps both adults and children to overcome drug problems, alcohol dependency and gambling addiction.

The run took place in superb conditions over a 5k lakeside course at Whitlingham Country Park. Tom finished in first place, with his dad Robin finishing a close second. The run raised almost £600 in funds, with donations still continuing. If you’d like to donate to NORCAS, please visit here.