blog

Event Interview: Birmingham Mela – A trio of brands for GottaBe!

FMBE’s Frank Wainwright spoke to GottaBe’s Tomasz Dyl after his agency delivered a trio of activations at the festival As a celebration of Southeast Asia, Birmingham Mela’s musical and culinary celebration of the region and its influences is a joyful must on the calendar for many. This year’s headline sponsorship from Spotify marked the growing […]

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Insight: 2020 Vision – Guinness World Records

Neil Foster has spent the last 25 years working in PR and Integrated Advertising agencies in London, Sydney and Melbourne.  In his role at Guinness World Records, he leads the creative and commercial records Consultancy across EMEA and APAC, which  specialises in creating tailor made record solutions and marketing campaigns for brands and businesses. Introduction In […]

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Frank Wainwright: Special K Fits In with Link Communication

Simplyhealth’s partnership with Great Run Company is right up there with the most seamless of all sports sponsorships. The link has been forged between people who value their health and, who are at the same time motivated to try and stay healthy. And the events themselves, include a jewel in the crown of running, The […]

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Guest blog: The Power of the Actor, Joel Smith, head of brand, Ingenuity

Actors can be some of the world’s most powerful sources of inspiration and influence. Not only do they have control and poise over how they present and carry themselves, they are also powerful communicators and storytellers. Within their career, they’re expected to create emotional and meaningful connections to influence others and their perceptions. These skills, […]

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Reaching Maturity – Frank Wainwright

This year’s FMBE awards has seen signs that we are maturing as an industry. The entry and judging process has been an illuminating one. These are the four main discoveries. 1.  Our industry prides itself on being a ‘people’ business but for many years agencies have looked like employers, rather than specialist, outstanding employers. The […]

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Insight: A nation of sustainable fashion followers; 9 in 10 Brits seek upcycled garments- InRiver

With Fashion Week looming on Friday 13th, Oxfam is encouraging fans of fast fashion to forgo their frivolous shopping sprees and instead get their fix by buying second hand this September. Research from product information management company inRiver reveals consumer attitudes to sustainable fashion lie around cost and quality–proving that brands and retailers must make it a priority to effectively […]

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Guest blog: Don’t make creativity a risky game – Symphotech

Symphotech, a specialist event health and safety consultancy, was on hand to support Sketch and nhow hotels as they made creative history by becoming the first people to install temporary infrastructure in the form of a colour-changing 8m chameleon, onto the Old Truman Brewery chimney. Creating spectacular brand experiences carries the responsibility to manage the […]

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Guest blog: The business of being sociable – Sam Coates, Keith Prowse

The face of entertaining and hospitality is changing as recent research from Keith Prowse highlights. Our organisation, which serves up premium experiences at the UK’s major cultural and sporting events, has delved deep into the needs of the corporate buyer to find out what ticks the box, the demands, trends and best practiceswhen it comes to […]

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Guest blog: How to organise a Bestival success, rather than playing with Fyre – Michael Zajdel, Acuity Law

With memories of Glastonbury 2019 still with us, we are now half way through the festival season with Lovebox, Latitude and Creamfields just around the corner. The festival industry has experienced significant growth over recent years with new festivals popping up across the UK. Despite this, some festival operators are still waiting to generate any profit due […]

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Guest blog: 5 tips to sustainable sampling – Ella Newton, Kru Live

“Today we have become the greatest threat to the health of our home but there’s still time for us to address the challenges we’ve created, if we act now. We need the world to pay attention.” –         Sir David Attenborough We now, more than ever, share the collective responsibility to be sustainable. For any business, the […]

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Guest blog: Bringing alcohol brands to life in the real world – Lou Garrod, Sense

Lou Garrod, managing director at global brand experience agency Sense, looks at the incredible work alcohol brands are doing to increase audience engagement and drive sales, along with key factors to bear in mind when planning a successful experiential campaign.  Increasingly, alcohol brands are stepping out of the TV screen or advertising hoarding and off […]

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Guest blog: Retailers must embrace their physical side to co-exist with online shopping – Fiona Rayner, Blackjack Promotions

Bricks-and-mortar shops can’t beat the e-commerce giants head on – in a data war, the likes of Amazon will always win. But physical stores can still survive, if they focus on the face-to-face interactions with their customers, says Fiona Rayner, head of experiential and international operations at Blackjack Promotions I recently had the privilege of […]

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Experiences in retail – Harriet Cramer

Although news outlets are constantly pushing the idea that the high street is dead and announcing large chains shutting their bricks and mortar stores on a monthly basis, we as an industry, know for a fact that human contact and the shopping experience remain popular. Research by Marketingsignals.com shows that 85% of adults favour shopping instore […]

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Guest blog: What Amazon needs to succeed in the real world is real people – James Rix, Crowdify

James Rix, CEO of 21st Century marketing agency group Crowdify, has helped some of the world’s biggest online on-demand services companies, and a growing number of e-commerce start-ups, find their audiences – and he has some advice for Jeff Bezos as Amazon expands its physical presence… The news that Amazon is closing down its pop-up shops […]

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FMBE Fast Five – Part 1

Every week, Field Marketing and Brand Experience Magazine is catching up with five previous FMBE Award winners to find out what they have been up to since winning gold.   N2O- Jody Measures How did the team celebrate winning an FMBE accolade? I’ll be honest, there was a fair amount of champagne involved! Winning not […]

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Guest Blog: Why retailers should invest in brand activations when launching a new product – Set Creative

Retailers launching a new range or collection are being encouraged to focus on experiential marketing activations, as new research reveals that nearly three out of four (73%) of people in the UK and US are more likely to purchase a product if they’ve participated in a brand experience. Experiential agency, Set Creative’s report, “The Value […]

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Guest blog: Havas and Vivendi uncover the future of entertainment

Thanks to technological advances and a rapid influx of content, people are now considering and consuming entertainment in fundamentally new ways. Yannick Bolloré, Chairman of the Vivendi Supervisory Board and CEO of Havas Group, explains: “The digital era has revolutionized the field of entertainment. People have now placed entertainment at the center of their existence […]

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Guest blog: Productizing – Martin Richardson, Ten Thousand Hours

Over the years we have seen many leading agencies ‘productise’ their creative offering. Distilling what they do into a process – and as such, implying that anyone can just follow that process and create an amazing event. But creativity isn’t like that. I believe that everyone can be creative, it’s not reserved for the monocled, […]

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Guest blog: The changing face of launches – Nick Gold, Speakers Corner

Launch events have looked a lot different recently. We are increasingly seeing companies organising panels, workshops or TED-style talks rather than focusing on product placement. Take Captain Morgan, for example. In collaboration with Bompas and Parr, the iconic rum brand has just launched their ‘Lost Lagoon’ experience. Their aim is to bring to life the […]

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Guest blog: Missing an Open Goal – UK’s Professional sports clubs fail to use social to its full potential- Red Hot Penny

Red Hot Penny, the search marketing agency, has launched its analysis, “The Social Scorecard: Sports” which examines how the UK’s top professional sports clubs across football, rugby, cricket, basketball and ice hockey are engaging with their social media followers, and if they’re effectively leveraging their followings to drive their retail business. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter activity […]

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Guest blog: Embracing marketing creativity through collaboration – Steve Martin, managing director, LiveRamp

Companies struggle to know their customers. This is the harsh reality for all marketers. Achieving a full view of their customers’ data is almost impossible especially when analysed in isolation. So how can brand-side marketers collaborate with retailers to bring creativity to the table and make the most of multiple sets of data? The current […]

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Guest blog: Utilising smart sampling to minimise waste and give consumers an experience to remember – Richard Lloyd-Williams, Collider

Waste from ill-conceived sampling campaigns isn’t just an environmental problem. From an audience perspective, campaign wastage can be the equivalent of paying for an ad for golf clubs in the middle of The X Factor Final. Done smartly, however, sampling to showcase a product and introduce it to a new audience remains a powerful tool. […]

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Guest blog: Event digitalisation: The race is on – Gav Dandridge, CTO at Meshh

Embracing digital is inevitable. This is now part of any business venture and the events industry is no exception – it is painfully aware that the digitalisation of event processes and experiences is increasingly necessary for sustainability and growth. But for an industry with a strong legacy of tried-and-tested methods to entertain visitors and measure […]

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Guest blog: Why events in 2019 need to be doing even more to adapt to the transformative state of ‘personalisation’ – 4D Design

88% of Marketers predict their clients and prospects expect a personalised experience but are still not completely satisfied with the sophistication of their personalisation efforts. Claiming that the real issue is with achieving personalisation at large scale, posing the question ‘how much is enough data and how do we use this to fuel visitor experience […]

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Guest blog: Lessons for brand marketers from the housebuilding sector -Ben Quigley, e>erything d.fferent

In the era of personalisation, a one-size-fits-all way to communications no longer works. Audiences are diverse as are their motivations to making purchasing decisions. From students to pensioners, the challenge for brand marketers is to create strategies that will enable them to communicate with consumers in different life stages. This, in turn, will help them […]

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Guest blog: The internet vs marketing… are marketers playing a losing game? – Richard Foster, LiveRamp

The rapid pace at which the internet has developed over the years has meant that the marketing industry is often struggling to keep up. Where the high-street retailers once drove buying trends, consumers have now gained control to dictate the market. At a time where it seems almost impossible to keep up with rapid innovations, […]

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Football: Missing an Open Goal – Frank Wainwright

When a brand truly gets hold of a sports property, you can normally expect action – something seriously experiential. Live sport is living drama and the fans and participants are involved in an emotional dynamic. The biggest advertising gig of the year is the Superbowl, for a reason. This event sells series chicken wings. These […]

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Guest blog: Winning in retail – lessons from sports brands, Rob Ellingham, Creative Director, smp

The British high street has suffered major blows in 2018, with House of Fraser announcing store closures and Debenhams reporting record annual losses. Spending at UK department stores fell for the thirteenth month in a row in November, while sales figures for December revealed it to be the month’s worst performance since 2008. In the […]

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Guest blog: Why identity resolution matters to every marketer – Richard Foster, LiveRamp

Marketing in all its forms must work wherever consumers are – and that is everywhere. Identity resolution is at the epicentre of a successful marketing strategy in today’s digital industry, and arguably the most important aspect of people-based marketing. Research suggests that long-term customers spend 67%more than new ones. These are the people that marketers […]

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Guest Blog: The high street lives on – Fashion Retail Academy

Online shopping might be on the rise but more than six in 10 consumers say they still like to try clothes on in-store before making a purchase, according to research from the Fashion Retail Academy. Although recently retailers, such as M&S, have lost faith in their high street stores and have started moving online, over […]

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Guest blog: Sounds of slaughter: When brand experience goes wrong – Rose McDonnell, Sense

What can brands learn from the widely reported recent failed restaurant demonstration in support of veganism? Sense Communications Director Rose McDonnell reveals all… A group of vegan activists recently found out what happens when you don’t think through a live stunt properly. Storming the Touro Steakhouse in Brighton, demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere waved placards […]

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Guest blog: Winning in retail, lessons from beauty brands- Rob Ellingham, Creative Director, smp

Our culture is obsessed with youthfulness and beauty. Thousands take to the high street in search of an elixir, with more than two thirds of consumers admitting they are willing to purchase products even when watching their spending. Beauty is no longer a luxury. Consumers flock to stores seeking enhancement as a way of gaining […]

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Guest blog: What are the customer trends that will impact strategies in 2019? – Caroline McGuckian, CEO at Meshh

2018 was undoubtedly another huge year for mobile marketing, with stories of both success and struggle, as companies strive for supremacy in a one of the fastest moving sectors. Mobile itself is evolving and, remarkably, is becoming even more embedded in our everyday lives – both at home and at work. Smartphones are getting smarter […]

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Guest blog: Are You Listening? Here’s what customers really want in 2019 – Rebecca Martin, CMO at Calabrio

We’re in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution. Thanks to technology like the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), the digital, physical and biological worlds have converged. Not only is technology changing the way people interact with each other, it’s shifting how companies communicate with their customers and it’s evolving the entire […]

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Guest blog: The power of storytelling and bringing brands to life at events- Simon Lockwood, The Brewery

We’ve all heard the words ‘experiential’ and ‘immersive’ being thrown around over the last few years, but what do they really mean? For many, a themed cocktail is enough to qualify as experiential, but we believe there’s a little more to creating something that’s truly deserving of the title. For us, it’s all about creating […]

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Guest blog: Why New Year revolutions beat resolutions – Ed Owen, head of programme content, IDM

New Year resolutions are not effective at changing your behaviour, and there are sound reasons, explained by Behavioural Economics, for this. Try a revolution instead according to the IDM’s Head of programme content, Ed Owen. . New Year resolutions are not remotely new. Ancient civilisations like the Romans and Babylonians would make promises to their […]

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Guest blog: 2018 marketing review: Locally relevant content supporting key trends gives the best results – Fiona Campbell – Roberts

Fiona Campbell-Roberts, UK head of marketing for Hammerson It’s that time of year again when Christmas lists are being written across the UK. The chat around this year’s Christmas TV ‘blockbuster’ commercials is creating a stir on social media channels. John Lewis’s ‘Elton John/Piano’ offering has split opinion and Iceland’s ‘banned’ commercial was a key […]

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Guest blog: Bringing Britain’s once bustling highstreets back into the digital fore – Matt Redwood, head of self-service at Diebold Nixdorf

It’s no secret, the festive shopping frenzy is in full swing! Retailers are still competing to offer good deals and a bargain on the high street, following a 12% drop in the value of Black Friday sales this year compared to 2017[1]. However, with the rise of social media-driven shopping, mobile shopping apps and even […]

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Insight: UK pensioners face marketing blackout from utilities providers – D.fferent

New research conducted by advertising agency d.fferent reveals almost a fifth of pensioners face a marketing blackout from utilities companies, with 18% reporting no communications through any channels. Bright Sparks:  How Smarter Comms Can Boost Utilities is the first report in d.fferent’s Game of Life series. Based on independent consumer research, the report examines what […]

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Guest blog: Stubbornly sentimental or repelled by premium prices? Why shoppers are holding on to smartphones and laptops for longer than ever – Retail Marketing Group

Andy Boothroyd, Business Development Director, Retail Marketing Group   In the golden era of technology, gadgets have become increasingly consumable as shoppers now upgrade to the latest models and versions well before there is any technical need to do so. Despite the latest designer smartphone brands continuing to seemingly fly off the shelves, recent studies suggest […]

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Guest blog: There’s an app for that: Targeting today’s ‘digital native’ students – James Rix, StreetPR

Cleaning house, dividing up the bills, organising transport and even scheduling in some study time – apps are an integral part of modern student life. James Rix, Founder of StreetPR explains why real people in the real world are key to marketing digital services to ‘digital native’ students. I love students – I spend a […]

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Guest Blog: Thanksgiving condensed into 5 ads – Clare Hill, VP of Marketing, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

Thanksgiving is taking place today in America and the country is starting its holiday period with celebrations across the country. But there’s an overarching belief that Thanksgiving doesn’t get the same hype that other holidays do. After the ghosts and ghouls get pulled off the shelves, we are greeted by rosy-cheeked Santa Clauses and a […]

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Guest blog: A silver lining for UK retailers in 2019, following a year of trials and tribulations – Andrew Boothroyd, Retail Marketing Group

In the worst year for high street store closures in a decade, 2018 has been characterised by major retailers such as House of Fraser, Debenhams, and Toys R Us facing massive losses. To some extent this has been spurred by the technological revolution that we find ourselves at the centre of. After all, online shopping […]

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Guest blog: Adding in-store theatre to attract Gen-Z customers – Dan Mayer, C J Retail Solutions

As Generation Z comes of age, it has become even more important for retailers to harness the power of digital to attract them into their stores. By delivering experiences that are more likely to drive sales and encourage brand loyalty, Dan Mayer, field marketing specialist, from retail experts C J Retail Solutions, explains how retailers […]

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Guest Blog: The retail property opportunity on a ‘struggling high street’ – Marcus Fox, iD

While the challenges many brands are facing on the high streets of the UK are well known, the rapidly changing nature of retail provides a number of opportunities for innovative brands to turn the current world to their advantage. The catalogue of retailers that have sadly collapsed or shrunk their store footprint significantly in the […]

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Guest Blog: Why experiential marketing is an extension of digital – Andrew Dobbie, MadeBrave

Instagram and Facebook recently launched ‘Your Activity’- a tool that allows you to see how much time you spend on the app, with some pretty eye-opening results. And a recent study showed that every day, the average person is said to scroll around 2km worth of content – yes, that’s 2 kilometers. That means our […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #10

Logobrand’s Sally Davis, continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series.   Fairtrade? Changing Supplier & Transitioning At Logobrand we are all about understanding our clients Pains and turning them into Gains and really understanding their jobs and targets. We have provided some case studies to back up our suggestions and claims to give […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #9

Logobrand’s Sally Davis continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series   Data is your BFF The effective use of real time data has championed in all of our previous Top Tip sheets. Everyone’s using it and there are lots of claims being made about how it’s being used. It seems everyone thinks they […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #8

Logobrand’s Sally Davis continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series.     You can’t manage what you don’t measure You duly sent your field sales team out to store this morning At some point you’ll learn if your forecasts are on schedule But do you really have all of the latest figures on […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #7

Logobrand’s Sally Davis continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series. Relationships…  LTM a brilliant sales team? Retail is a business built on relationships and you have to maintain a regular presence in store to create real leverage?  Yes – it has benefit, but what’s different about your reps relationship with the store to […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #6

Logobrand’s Sally Davis continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series Promotional Compliance: The Holy Grail The reason you invest in promotional campaigns is to increase visibility, drive sales and penetration. Your buyer can promise you the world with best intentions, but the problem is you can’t and they can’t control how a store […]

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Guest Blog: The role of measurement within Experiential… one size does not fit all – Paul Stanway – XYZ Agency

Why do brands continue to invest multi million pound budgets into flagship stores and retail sites when respected e-commerce surveys and forecasts suggest double digit growth of online purchase in the next few years? Many brands have flinched at this prospect, downsizing or closing their large stores, yet some of the world’s most successful and […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #5

Logobrand’s Sally Davis continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series.   Free Display Space…. FMCG brands certainly want it all from us agencies! More, more more! You, the retailers and your agency have something in common:  To Drive Sales Store managers want to maximise their sales just as much as we do. But […]

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Wednesday Wisdom: Sally Davis- Winning at Point of Purchase #4

Logobrand’s Sally Davis, continues her Winning at Point of Purchase insight series. Rocket your NPD into Retail Orbit NPD & innovation is a major area of investment for all FMCG brands, with 1,000’s of new products appearing on shelf every month all fighting for fixture space.  The pressure is immense to hit that golden rate […]

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Blog: That’s The Ridgeway done – Frank Wainwright

The Ridgeway, Britain’s oldest route. This June and July it has passed from some kind of warm and heady floral trail to a dusty bleach blond escarpment. It has been my backdrop for 5 days as I have zigzagged my way all over it – a 3 day walk from Avebury to Ivanhoe Beacon – […]

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Throwback Thursday – A tribute to 2014

We take a look back at 2014, we didn’t do nearly as well in the World Cup but our FM and BE teams took home their own trophies. In honour of Harry Kane’s blinder of a Hat Trick we will kick off by looking back at Circle Agency, who scored three FMBE golds in 2014. Most […]

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Throwback Thursday: When it was 2016, it was a very good year!

Here’s  a look back at the agencies and brands that rocked the 2016 FMBE Awards and celebrate their winning campaigns in this week’s throwback Thursday. Outsourced Sales Performance of the Year Channel Assist’s work with Panasonic was a unanimous winner for this category. The feedback and testimonials for the instore training for Panasonic Viera, from […]

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Guest Blog: The best engagement strategies are made of this – Elevate

Elevate discusses terms of engagement with Field Marketing and Brand Experience Magazine Two hundred million people classify their Facebook relationship status as “single.” So, grasping the potential, Mark Zuckerberg announced that a dating service is coming to the social media site. Long-term relationships, not hookups, are the goal of the service. But, numbers for other dating sites […]

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Throwback Thursday – Most Effective Sponsorship Activation

We take a look back at how a  sponsorship activation can be mutually beneficial for all parties involved and result in agencies winning an FMBE trophy. Leith Links – Irn Bru 2015 (Commonwealth Games 2014) – Gold  Irn Bru enjoyed second tier sponsorship of the 2014 Commonwealth Games hosted in Glasgow. Irn Bru enlisted Leith […]

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Guest Blog: Why instore shopping is still an event – Andy Tow, Retail Marketing Group

Andy Tow, managing director Retail Marketing Group reveals five brand ambassador attributes that will take a CX strategy to the next level Whether it be in anticipation of a baby or to celebrate moving into a new home, purchasing new goods can represent a new chapter in our lives. There is a significant opportunity here for retailers and […]

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Guest Blog: Fieldwork vitally important to market research – Protel Fieldwork

Protel Fieldwork shares Gabriela’s case study with FMBE Magazine Marketing graduate, Gabriela Boyadzhieva, knows just how valuable fieldwork is to good market research – but she didn’t gain that insight from the classroom. It wasn’t until she took a job at Protel Fieldwork, a Coventry-based agency with a national reach, that she fully understood the […]

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Guest Blog: The pros and cons of licensing costumed characters – Hamilton Sargent, Blackjack Promotions

Hamilton Sargent, Contentainment & WDFG Account Manager at Blackjack Promotions offers his top tips on licensing costume characters for campaigns and explores the pros and cons of using off-the-peg or creating your own. We’ve all become used to seeing costumed characters promoting products in shopping centres, railway stations, airports and other public spaces, and brands […]

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Retail Execution in Ireland – Gordon Neil, Development Director, McCurrach

McCurrach Development Director, Gordon Neil shares his insight into the stark differences between the UK and Ireland FMCG retail market, and gives us some tips on how he thinks both field marketing agencies and suppliers should think about Ireland.   “I thought it would be good to talk about retail execution in Ireland because, given […]

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Guest Blog: Crossing the line! Now more than ever getting the in-store experience right is crucial – Victoria Satterly

Mentally strong. Physically strong. Incredibly motivated. Empowered with knowledge. You could be forgiven for thinking that I’m talking about an elite level athlete. I’m not. The above actually describes the traits needed by brand promoters located in-store at retail locations across the UK. It seems like every day we’re being told about the latest retailer […]

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Throwback Thursday: Stand and Deliver – Displays and Stands that have scooped an FMBE gold

The annual Field Marketing and Brand Experience Awards are now open for entry. FMBE takes a look back at some of the gold winning Most Effective Stand or Display Unit entries over the years. This is a category open to both Field Marketing and Brand Experience entrants, which always sees an exceptionally high standard of work […]

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Guest Blog: Why retailers need to leverage the power of experiential to connect and convert – Charlotte Johnson, Live Consultancy

According to recent Eventbrite research, 3 out of 4 millennials would rather buy an experience than something desirable. Today people do not connect with just products they connect with emotional experiences – the product is a result of an experience or connection. When we need something, we tap in the palm of our hand and it arrives tomorrow. When […]

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Photo Friday 23/03/2018

Sylvanian Families unveils world’s smallest fashion show    Lagerfield, Wintour and The Queen doppelgängers watch the mini marvels strut their stuff  at Hamley’s, London on Thursday March 22nd.    

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Guest Blog: Introducing Zaptic

Who are Zaptic? Zaptic is a UK-based SaaS business. We offer a solution for the field marketing industry which has been implemented by brands, retailers and agencies and has attracted investment from Silicon Valley, including former Microsoft executives, responsible for bringing Excel and Word to the world. Why did the product come to be? Zaptic […]

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Guest Blog: Soap & Glory case study – Elevate

When Soap & Glory decided to roll out their first ever UK national tour, they approached Elevate. That was in 2015 and since then the relationship has gone from strength to strength. Being the first major piece of experiential Soap & Glory had engaged in, high expectations were set. As an experienced staffing agency, Elevate […]

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Blog: Women’s Sport – A golden opportunity for live agencies – Michael Brown, MKTG

Women’s sport is an ever-evolving narrative. The lives and achievements of those athletes without a Y chromosome stand poised to smash the dominance of male sporting endeavour in the hearts, minds, wallets and purses of UK sports fans and casual audiences alike… and with good reason. British female teams are the holders of two world […]

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Guest Blog: The key to getting people to talk about your event on social media? Don’t use a hashtag – Joe Stevens, Bigdog Live

I noticed something interesting at a recent event. Two brands – let’s call them brand A and Brand B — with two very different strategies for generating social buzz around their presence at the event. Brand A had a well-designed poster asking fans to share a selfie with a short and snappy branded hashtag for the chance […]

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Guest Blog: 2018 is the year of tech in retail, but don’t forget the customer experience -Stuart Parker, Retail Marketing

From virtual reality to voice recognition, modern technology is changing the world at an unprecedented speed. Unsurprisingly, this has transcended into the retail industry with the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. In fact, 2018 is predicted to be the year that technology revolutionises the sector; a claim that drives intrigue about […]

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Guest Blog: A Stich in Time: Slaughterford 9 – Francis Larkman

Weetabix On the Go trialled its vanilla flavour protein drink to Slaughterford 9 runners last week. Why? Well, as this blog by event participant Francis Larkman shows, there’s little more authentic association for a brand than strongly ingrained and meaningful community events. Comparatively, we are all terrible runners. Running is like that. Because there can […]

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Guest Blog: Iceland wins supermarket plastic battle – Adoreboard, Conran Design Group

Plastic packaging, especially some of the shadier exported landfill recycling practices, and the impact on our oceans is on everyone’s agenda at the moment. Industry comment and opinion is rife about the topic, but how does the UK consumer feel about the actions being taken by some of the most criticised users of plastic: supermarkets? […]

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Guest Blog: People buy from people – the power of strategic staffing, Carina Filek, Elevate Staffing

Carina Filek, managing partner, Elevate Staffing UK & US discusses promotional staff selection in the beauty and cosmetics sector. Engaging and on-brand promotional staff are key to successfully carrying out any sampling, guerrilla or experiential marketing campaign, but they play a particularly important role for any company operating in the beauty and cosmetics industry. In […]

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Guest Blog: 10 Tips For running a successful pop-up Hannah Rowlands, Sanrio

Hannah Rowlands, Marketing & Digital Manager at Sanrio, shares her top tips for running a succesful pop- up with Field Marketing and Brand Experience  Magazine  Plan, plan, plan Plan for all eventualities! The weather, staff sickness, regulations and health & safety (especially if you’re popping up in a larger store), is there particular rules you will […]

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Guest Blog: Field force planning, David Jones – CACI

When I started out in the area of field force planning, some 25 years ago, there was no attention paid to the amount of driving a rep (or merchandiser) did getting to their first call, or returning home in the evening after their last. It was just expected, with the company only generally concerned about […]

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Guest Blog: The power of demos – Carina Filek, managing partner, Elevate Staffing UK & US

There’s nothing quite as powerful as getting potential customers to try out a product or service. You can have the best and most sophisticated marketing strategy ever, but ultimately, there’s no substitute for actually putting an item into a consumer’s hands. According to 80% of attendants from Event Marketer 2017, live demonstrations and free samples […]

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Guest Blog: Looking Beyond the Event – Provision Events

Provision Events (PVE) is celebrating another successful experiential activation at Happy Valley racecourse in Hong Kong that has driven footfall, engaged visitors with the event sponsor and most importantly, added to their growing portfolio of iconic images that have been picked up by the world’s media throughout 2017. The Happy Valley activation encouraged visitors to […]

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Guest blog: Traditional retailers must return to the personal approach – David Buckingham, CEO, Ecrebo

Before the days of supermarkets and megastores – and long before the internet, shopping was almost always a personalised experience. It would not have been unusual for the grocer, butcher or draper to greet customers by name and give individual recommendations based on what they had bought previously. How retail has changed. Paradoxically, it is […]

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Guest blog: Why promotional staff will make or break your brand campaign – Carina Filek, Elevate Staffing

It’s a tough market for FMCG companies. New brands are looking to make a stunning impact and established brands are trying to recapture their share of a market. Often they need a killer product sampling campaign to cut through the noise. Staffing is one of the most critical elements of any marketing strategy in the […]

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Guest blog: The human experience – Yasmin Bartlett, senior staffing executive, Sense

Brand ambassadors, the real people behind experiential campaigns, have never been more important. Sense’s Yasmin Bartlett explains why… Experiential marketing is becoming increasingly innovative and sophisticated, embracing social media and new technologies. However, the importance of real people in experiential should never be under-estimated. In a world where 92% of consumers believe there’s a disconnect […]

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Guest blog: Reaching the ‘selfie-aware’ – how brands should approach students – James Rix

Considering targeting ‘The Student Market’? Think again, says James Rix, founder of Street PR, who recommends a far more targeted, authentic strategy to engaging your loyal customers of the future. Students are often defined in narrow inaccurate terms as an homogeneous group. The reality is that they are varied and changeable – and that includes […]

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Insight: Medium-sized creative agencies are feeling the squeeze finds New Business Barometer from JFDI

Agencies with 51-150 employees are at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to new business opportunities, found the second annual New Business Barometer by JFDI in partnership with Opinium Research. Responses from agencies across 16 core disciplines from tech and experiential to design and branding confirm that medium-sized companies are feeling the squeeze when competing […]

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Guest blog: Maximising efficiency through tailored marketing solutions – Mike Watson, IO Integration

In a relatively short space of time, consumer tastes and demands have shifted dramatically. We now live in a world that is so much more connected and socially active than any time previously, and this has changed how brands must market themselves. Simply put: a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing has never been less relevant or […]

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Guest Blog: Keep Black Friday shopping free of fake goods – MarkMonitor

MarkMonitor, the global leader in enterprise brand protection is advising online shoppers to be more vigilant leading up to Black Friday. In the annual search for bargains and discounted goods, consumers are more at risk when it comes to unintentionally buying counterfeit goods. The last weekend in November is designated ‘Cyber Weekend’ and stretches from […]

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Guest Blog: No time to waste/Giving up my weekend for Grenfell – Phoebe Le Saint, Sense

Sense Senior account executive, Phoebe Le Saint, tells the story of her recent volunteer work organised through the company’s ‘No Time To Waste’ initiative and explains why other businesses should follow the example. Those who were lucky enough to survive the terrible Grenfell Tower fire lost their homes and possessions overnight, leaving them stranded on […]

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