One of my favourite viral videos

The video shows two global 'institutions' that one wouldn't necessarily associate with each other. Both at the top of their games performing something quite remarkable. Arguably Volvo trucks are riding on the resurgence of Van Damme (particularly in the UK) after a succession of very popular TV ads, most notably with Coors lager. Everything about the video fits extremely well, the opening scene and ambiguous voice over at the beginning. The music, Only Time by Enya, when the camera pans away. The jaw-droppingly unbelievable nature of the splits, especially when one can see that the trucks are in fact reversing.

Watch video on YouTube

The video received 8 million views after two days and to date has received over 60 million. Not quite sure if the video will have a massive affect on the sale of this type of truck but it will certainly get people talking about the trucks and their dynamic steering. So it will undoubtedly raise the profile of Volvo trucks.

Free the slaves

Slaves working in a mine

On a recent trip to Spain I downloaded some videos to watch on my journey. As I browsed through the usual iplayer and itunes nonsense I thought I’d try TED. For those of you that don’t know TED, it is a website, app, conference that is devoted to ideas worth spreading. Their mission is to spread ideas that will change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world. TED challenges the world most fascinating thinkers and doers to give the talk of their life in 18 minutes or less. On the TED ipad app there is a feature called ‘Inspire me’ and I happened to click on the video entitled LisaKristine: Photos that bear witness to modern slavery. 

Lisa is an already well-established photographer, writer and documentary maker documented modern day slavery. She works with, Free the slaves an NGO dedicated to the abolishing of slavery. She touches on some jaw-dropping facts, such as there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, which is double the amount taken during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The average cost of a slave during the slave trade was about three times that of the average American worker $50,000 in today’s money. However, today an entire generation of a family can be enslaved for a debt of as little of $18. 

Such stats are a sobering reality to those of us that thought much of physical slavery had been resigned to the history books. Free the slaves works with slaves to break them out of their vicious cycle and gives them the tools to survive once they are free. I highly recommend you watch the video if you have a spare 18 minutes. The video doesn’t make easy viewing, but is well-worth educating yourself on how our fellow human beings are being treated. If you’d like to support the abolishment of slavery, Free the salves.    

Taking it easy on a Spanish beach or a supermarkets captive audience?



Holiday - Nerja - Spain

Relaxing on a beach on the southern coast of Spain – you may think you were free from most marketing messages especially those of the large supermarkets. I mean what could they possibly do to impair my relaxation on the beach, in the sun, looking out to sea?

They could fly a plane along the coastline with a banner trailing behind it inviting all beach goers to visit Lidl. Lidl know that on a hot day the beaches will be packed with holiday makers so where better to communicate with them? They have a captive audience of beach goers that couldn’t get away from Lidl’s message even if they tried. This may do one of two things, remind the beach goer of something they need to pick up for this evenings dinner, or to stock up on sun cream at Lidl or infuriate the beach goer to such an extent that they will actively shun Lidl in the future as punishment for infringing on their otherwise peaceful day.

I think Lidl overstep the mark here, as consumers we expect their messages on bus shelters and other outdoor spaces however we don’t expect to see it flying above us as we relax on a beach. It feels more like an intrusion than a gentle reminder.

London 2012 guerrilla construction marketing

Image shows similar signage

As I was walking around the Olympic park I happened to notice two construction companies take advantage of their site positions in the vicinity of the park for a bit of shameless self-promotion. One can hardly blame them especially with LOGOCs (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) stringent rules with regards to publicising involvement with the Olympics, which heavily regulates contractors communicating involvement in Olympic construction projects. I noticed this one by Ardmore and one by Barratts on a nearby site. 

Any company or sub-contractor that has supplied the Olympic Games with products or services has to agree not to publicise any part of their involvement until the end of 2012. This obviously gives the official sponsors (that have paid millions for the privilege) to capitalise on their involvement. I think a more lax approach would have been beneficial particularly to the construction industry. What have McDonalds or Panasonic got to lose if a major contractor publicises their involvement in construction the athlete’s village on time and on budget? For the construction companies however, having such a prestigious and well-known project under their belts may have helped them in securing work in the immediate aftermath. So who can blame Barratts and Ardmore for jumping on the tailcoats of Olympic the Olympic park?

The 'Crane Mobile'

This unbelievable series of lifts at a Liebherr customer day at their manufacturing centre in Germany is one of the jaw dropping, eyes wide open moments. The event attracted 1800 visitors across the two days and certainly didn’t disappoint. Amongst the usual show-casing of new models and innovations this incredible lift was the focal point of the meet. It was the brain-child of Hans-Dieter Willim, Liebherr’s chief crane designer, a very brave and confident man! The largest crane, the LR 13000 lifted the smaller crane and so on,. The engineering, mathematical calculations and weather forecast must have been incredibly accurate for the lift to work so well. It’s great to see companies like Liebherr pushing their machines to the fullest. This exhibition doesn’t only show how capable the cranes are but creates such a reverberation of chatter in the construction plant / lifting communities. It’s a great way for Liebherr to showcase it’s cranes on the world market.    

LR 13000 lifted all three cranes - with a combined weight of 1,430 tonnes which was 94 percent of its capacity. In front of an astonished audience, the LR 13000 rotated as well as moved in a travel direction with this 1,430-tonne-heavy “crane mobile”.

Why marketing is necessary in construction, now more than ever

The marketing budget is quite often the first to be slashed when the economic outlook worsens and the order books start to slacken. The UK construction sector has seen prolonged limp market activity since the wider slowdown in 2009. This is why construction firms have been looking inward and cutting whatever they feel is not strictly necessary.

Such short term actions can be detrimental for the company in the long run. If a construction company increases or sustains their marketing budget in a time of economic gloom they should, at some point, expect a positive return on their investment. When things pick up customers are going to spend with the supplier they have the relationships with.  Any marketing spend should be measured against coherent marketing and company objectives. Measuring and tracking marketing activities has never been so important. If marketers can prove their activities produce results then there shouldn’t be a problem in securing budgets. The onus is on the marketer to prove that having a marketing presence is financially worthwhile for the company.

The UK contractors group states that every £1 invested in construction generates £2.84 in economic activity. Although there are variants on the amount generated in economic activity it is widely accepted that if you invest in infrastructure and construction projects there will be a positive social and economic return on investment.

This may go some way in explaining why George Osbourne has today (18 July 2012) announced he will be providing guarantees for up to £40 billion worth of projects in the National Infrastructure Plan. There will also be a £6 billion lending programme to kick start stalled public and private partnership schemes. This will be a welcomed initiative in the construction sector that has seen a hesitance to invest stunting many major and mid-sized projects.

If the marketing budget is spent wisely companies will be better placed than their more conservative competitors when the market picks up or when something like the guarantee or lending programme kicks in. The contractors and companies who have stayed at the forefront of their customers minds will be first approached when customers start spending again. This is true for contractors, sub-contractors, consultancies, building product manufacturers and equipment manufacturers.

The Personal Branding Guide (for beginners)

Website

Business cards

Blog

Video CV

Twitter

Email

Linked in

CV

Facebook


Website
Website can be free ie make your own and then just use the url it gives you. So if you use wix.com to create the site then your address will be www.wix.com/username/what you've called the site. But if you buy a domain from someone like Namesco you can just point all traffic to your wix address from your professional address. "davidjfitzgerald.co.uk" is actually hosted by wix but the wix address doesn’t show up in the address bar it stays as my professional one.

My website is quite out dated but it just has a ‘quick cv’ a lot more info about me, some of the work I had done and a link to my blog. It just gives a potential employer another look into your personality. You can make it quite professional and fun.

www.davidjfitzgerald.co.uk

See the links to all of the personal websites:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website/

Business cards
These are just something I done I used to leave them with people at interviews or even when I was out and chatting to people who were in marketing. Might be a bit over the top but I had my name, number, email website, twitter on them. £5 for 500 from vistaprint.

Blog
Set-up a blogger profile and if you think you have nothing to talk about then talk about current affairs in your chosen area of work. Or politics as everyone has an opinion on politics or if nothing else talk about your job search / uni course, the trials you face etc.

Video CV
Video cv – there are loads on youtube – I have never done one but was going to before I got a job. I would keep it a min and a half tops and keep it as funny and interesting as possible maybe do it in movie maker where you can add graphics and writing at the bottom of the screen. Even if you don’t want to put yourself in front of the camera make a slideshow to share online http://www.slideshare.net/

Or check out www.prezi.com which is a really interesting way to make presentations.

Twitter
Make sure all your tweets are something that you wouldn’t mind a potential employer seeing. If you have a particular area or industry you want to be in then tweet about that and try to network.

Email
Email address should be firstname.lastname@whatever.com

Have an email footer that links to all online profiles.

Linked In
Make it as searchable as possible which means filling out the profile completely.

CV
I would say keep it quite traditional but link to everything that is mentioned here. Let the CV be the portal to the rest of your online profile. Always send cv’s in pdf format.

Facebook
This is something I kept completely away from all of my job-searching make sure your profile is completely private.

Useful article:

http://mashable.com/2012/02/10/students-job-search-social-media/

Lets kick them out – RIGHT out

Racism in football has been in the headlines recently with Suarez’s eight match ban and Terry facing criminal charges. For a lot of fans in the UK the revelations have been a shock as the remarks were so crude and have put the games reputation back years.

All of this is happening under the watch of FIFA’s bumbling, corrupt, racist president Sepp Blatter who claims there is no racism in football. It is impossible to quantify the extent of racism in football but it’s definitely there just below the surface. We know this as it often rears its ugly head around Europe and in international competitions. However, how can the game rid itself of racism if the man at the top has – to put it lightly – very questionable morals. He is footballs own Prince Phillip and I think a lot of football supporters are fed up of his bad leadership. It seems the only way he will be ousted is if the big international FIFA sponsors withdraw their support. If they haven’t done so far what on earth will it take for them to lose confidence in him?

The fact that it was mainly UK football fans that were so outraged by Sepp Blatters’ comments goes to show how far this country has come in the fight against racism in football. It can only be a good thing that the stories about Terry and Suarez have been given so much attention. It’s great to see the players that are aggrieved stand up to the remarks and publicly denounce racism. The days where racist remarks were a part of banter in football have gone and no player in the premiership should have to suffer the crude, xenophobic and offensive remarks and gestures made by footballers, supporters or the footballing establishment.

I think this country needs a fundamental shift in the way we support our football teams. I believe that everything about supporting a non-national team is negative. If a friend’s team loses a big match more often than not they will be ridiculed by friends rather than commiserated. We’ve all had that text after a loss that we could have done without! Young boys (and girls) who are brought up in a culture of being a football supporter are taught from an early age that one team is superior to the other. Manchester United is better than City! Red is better than blue! I am better than you because I support the better team. Football by nature makes rival supporters polarised and distanced from one another; as a general rule of thumb rival supporters will rarely agree with one another about their respective teams. These, for the most are not the kinds of attitudes we wish to instil in our young. Does the fact that we are passionate about football contribute to racist views in the game? Perhaps the rivalry and antipathy for other teams is a breeding ground for racism. We already have the hatred of a group of people who are dissimilar to us (a rival team).

Of course football can be a unifying game as in the case of the world cup, however this may also unify one country in hatred for another.

Football and racism should be wholly removed from one another.

(Just for your interest I support Liverpool who happen to be the best team … in the world)

Govern-mental

Monday, 4 April 2011

Westminster

For the past two weeks (and next ten) I have been working in a central government department on a short term contract to manage a project that will improve integration between the department and stakeholders.

I have joined the department with my eyes wide-open. I know what the department does, who heads it and how they have come into power. I made the decision to apply for the job because I thought it would be interesting, I could do it and make a difference whilst doing it. I made the conscious decision before undertaking the role that I would not let my political views and persuasions have any governance over my performance at work. I thought it necessary for me to draw the line between my work –something I do to the best of my abilities in return for money. And my political views, which are something I hold dear and are something I choose to invest a lot of my time and effort into formulating.

If anyone reading this are anti-coalition/cuts/conservatives/lib dems and could not imagine working for this Government, I can empathise however cannot entirely agree. The job I am doing is to help senior civil servants engage with industry and public sector organisations. Whatever your political persuasion you cannot disagree that this is a good thing for the economy and the department itself. The department, as with all public sector departments is under-going a process of cuts. These cuts are taking place in every area possible. From my perspective; a temporary employee working under contract I can say that the cuts are coming into action a little too quickly and very drastically. The department will play a crucial role in the future success or failure of the country and if you cut it too deeply you will stifle potential growth that it can create. In my personal view this department should be given the same budget as previous years if not a bigger one. This is because central government departments’ role in the UK is an integral one and an extra £200 million invested here may result in an extra £700 million being produced in the private sector. At the moment the department are waiting to hear who is to be made redundant, approximately a quarter of the staff will go. The department are expected to do the same job – if not more than before but will be drastically understaffed. This will result in disgruntled staff over stretched, stressed and unable to give projects the attention and effort they deserve. I foresee that projects which come under this departments remit will suffer a.) because of the lack of support the department will be able to give because of the lack of staff and b.) the lack of investment the department will be able to make.

I believe that the government are under pressure to make these huge internal cuts for their public image rather than any strategic savings reasons. As the money they will save from cutting the size of departments won’t scratch the surface of the immense deficit. I believe that a little more investment or sustaining previous amounts will, in the long run be better for the economy and therefore the country as a whole. Especially in the departments that are actively involved in the economy, business and creating growth. However, if the Government do not cut its spending in all departments there will be public outcry not least from members of the general population but from the government departments that have been cut. So I think the governments hands are tied in terms of selecting who and what to cut. As local authorities really start to feel the pinch from the cuts they will be watching central governments budgets very closely. Both local and central government play imperative roles, however it is generally considered that local authorities provide more of a front line service whereas central departments do a lot of work ‘behind the scenes’ for the economy as a whole. Therefore, the voting public will be much more aware of cuts to local government rather than central as they will be affecting the front line service they are exposed to on a daily basis. However, central government departments are looked at with a lack of understanding as to what it is they actually do. Many view it as ‘Whitehall Boys Club’ where favours are exchanged between those who went to the same outrageously expensive Boarding Schools, an elitist club if you like. I am yet to make up my mind about this. Yes the top positions in the department are filled with aristocrat-like public servants all speaking identical versions of the Kings. However, there is a good mixture of people within the department with varying local accents many of whom fill the lower paid roles. So is there a glass ceiling in central government to keep the peasants where they should be? I have yet to experience this, however I strongly expect there is.

I conclude that certain reductions in spending, people power and investment will lead to a reduced growth rate in the future. Furthermore, it will lead to a reduction of the top level staff in the public sector as many will migrate to the private as working conditions become worse. This will leave the department with a skills gap not able to perform at the level it should be at and once was.

*The views expressed in this blog are my own and in no way reflect the views of my employers or any government department.*

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Stella Artois ... Cidre?

Wednesday, 9 February 2011

Stella Artois are to launch a brand extension, Stella Cidre. This is due to be released in the UK around Easter and will add to the growing range of alcoholic drinks Stella have in their stable.

Stella have struggled with their brand over the past ten years as not too long ago they were fighting a battle with the type of people who were drinking their lager. Stella became a firm favourite of the ‘Chav’ due to its high alcohol content, wide availability and relatively low price when purchased in bulk in shops. It earned it self the title ‘Wife beater’. This is something I have looked into some years back in detail and I was fascinated as to how a brand had to distance itself from a core customer group without completely quashing their sales in a key market. At the same time Burberry were struggling with their brand as their widely used iconic beige tartan pattern was being widely imitated and reproduced for the masses. They successfully shed the image but it cost them the use of the pattern on many of their products. Stella combatted their negative brand association by introducing a brand variation Stella 4%. This made existing Stella drinkers view the brand differently. It was no longer a drink only bought by thugs and drunks. It won its more sophisticated, premier and high quality image back. The Stella 4% was branded and advertised very wisely and communicated directly to those Stella wanted to be buying their products not to those who previously were.

Stella now believe their brand is so strong and so synonymous with high quality they are extending it into the cider market. Their new brand Stella Cidre will be selling alongside some very established cider brands such as Magners / Bulmers, Westons, Aspalls and even Strongbow. However, Stella say their closest rivals will be the Westons and Aspalls because they are known for their premium quality and this is where they are positioning themselves.

I do not foresee Stella posing a credible threat to any of the existing cider brands in the UK market.

Stella are trying to do what Coca-Cola has successfully done before, diversify into different product ranges in their core sector. Coca-Cola has done this very successfully selling us bottled water, Orange Juice and sports drinks. However, Coke had the foresight to rebrand their different drinks in their respective markets. This was crucial to Coca-Colas success as every market requires very different things from their products and a complete rebrand is certainly necessary. Using the Coca-Cola brand to sell Orange Juice simply wouldn’t work because of the connotations that Coca-Cola has with sugary unhealthy drinks. This would not only severely damage the Orange Juice brand but weaken Coca-Colas position. Professor John Quelch, a branding professor from Harvard Business School, made the point that while brand extensions occasionally succeed, they usually fail. And in the worst-case scenario they not only fail, but also weaken the brand in its original category.

Stella are positioning themselves as a premium cider brand, however they have no heritage in this area. I do not believe that serious cider drinkers will switch to a cider that’s heritage is solely in producing lager. Stella is synonymous with lager/beer and I believe it will struggle to distant itself from this to become a credible cider producer.

However I can see why Stella are so tempted to enter the cider market. For one, Mintel expects to see the cider market grow by 45% over five years. So the potential growth for Stella in the cider market is undeniable and they would be foolish to not try and take advantage of it. I just believe they are going the wrong way about it. I believe they should have created a separate brand, distanced themselves from the lager producing heritage and concentrated on the cider itself. Stella have a “double digit” million pound marketing budget for the promotion of the new drink and they also have the distribution network in place to make the drink widely available. I expect sales to be relatively high whilst the drink is being heavily promoted and people try it for the first time. However when the promotions fade I expect the sales to fade with it.

I believe brands should stick to their original core markets and if diversification is necessary then rebranding should be applied to ensure the new brand is able to stand alone and not depend on the original brand. Let’s be honest we don’t want a Sminoff lager or a Forester’s vodka do we?

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UNIONS: Unite or Divide and Fall?

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

This post assesses the power of the modern day union and with public cuts and people being forced out of jobs how likely is it that we will see the mass demonstrations and strikes that are common place across Europe.

However, unite effectively handed power to Ed Miliband the leader of the Labour party. Most of the big unions are in support of him due to his support of the worker and his belief that drastic cuts in public expenditure will increase our time in the red, rather than decrease it.

With the Conservatives in power we are seeing the biggest cuts in living memory, spending on public services is likely to be decreased by £60 billion and around 700 000 public sector jobs lost, not to mention the private sector jobs lost as a result of the lack of spending and services. The unions see this as a personal attack on their working class members, taking a problem that was caused by the rich (financial industry) and dumping it on the poor to suffer for. The unions see this as their biggest battle since Thatcher and in some respects it’s a bigger battle as the Governments actions has the ability to affect all people living in the country, rich or poor, young or old.

As hardliner Lee McLusky is set to become the most powerful union baron in Britain, yesterday (24^th Oct 2010) threatened a new wave of militancy saying there is, ‘no such thing as an irresponsible strike.’ This is worrying as it comes from the likely General Secretary of the UK and Ireland’s biggest union. Are we going to see a battle between the unions and the government? I’m not sure, but I do know that many are preparing for such an event. People are starting to come together because they are feeling as though they are under attack, their pensions, wages, taxes, public services etc. The only voice they have is that of the unions. Bob Crowe (RMT), probably the best known General Secretary of all the unions is calling for an organised fight back, including strikes and demonstrations. Mr Crowe is not one to make empty threats as he was behind the tube strikes on Sept 7^th. Is Bob Crowe the class warrior he likes to think of himself or is he a relic with out-dated fascist political views? He is a former Communist who insists that Capitalism has failed mankind. He has quite a confrontational and boisterous nature.

Do the unions have the same power they had in the 70’s? The simple answer is no, membership has dropped from over half the population to a quarter only seven million members of the workforce are now unionised. However most of these members are in the public sector in roles that if not present can do real damage to services. For example, look at the RMT Unions strikes at the London underground, only for one day but the chaos it caused for the six million or so passengers that use TfL was immense. There are also laws put in place now that discourage the long drawn out strikes that took place decades ago, but as the RMT has shown short one day strikes can have a real effect.

If effective strikes are to take place there needs to be cooperation between large sections of the population and I believe for this to take place there has to be a unifying force. This could come in the form of people personally being affected by the cuts the Conservatives are making. I feel people will need a very good reason to mobilise, strike, boycott and hold demonstrations to change the Governments actions. I feel we differ from our European cousins in this way.

Looking into unions in a bit more detail it is hard to tell if they are there to protect and serve their members or for their own financial gain. General Secretaries earn six figure salaries and are given countless perks, it’s a far cry from the people they are representing and who they are supposedly in-touch with. There are also allegations of corruption at the highest levels of some of the biggest UK unions. None of which has been proven in court, however the evidence is there for all to see. There are also thousands of allegations of sexism against union officials as it seems the unions have not lost their mind-set from the 70’s and 80’s when representing coal miners and other traditionally male jobs. Union bosses are all male and high in rhetoric and very brutish in nature. The allegations of sexism stem from the fact that typically male jobs (90%) such as refuse collection, gardening and road workers would almost double their basic pay with the bonuses secured for them by the unions. For example road workers would get a bonus for digging up each tree stump in a certain area. Councils later found out that a lot of works were said to have been carried out but were not, resulting in fraudulent bonuses being paid. This is in comparison to jobs predominantly carried out by women such as carers, cleaners and caterers with less than 10% of them receiving bonuses for targets met. The councils and unions argued it was justified as the male workers needed the monetary incentives for motivation and it was necessary to pay them more money as they were commonly the main bread winner in the family. It is interesting to note that these bonuses were all negotiated for by Unison and other unions and they worked with the councils to head off the legal action from the women. I find it unbelievable that women are still fighting equal pay battles in 2010.

In conclusion I believe the need to strike has to come from within individuals and should only be a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted. However, I do believe we will see an increase in strike action particularly in the next six months. The country is in a mess and it is too easy to blame the faceless international banks that undoubtedly got us into this mess. The point is we are in a situation and have elected a Government to get us out of it and they have decided to take a very hard lined approach to cut the deficit by as much as possible as quickly as possible. It will now be very interesting to see what Britain does in the future, will they come together and take a stand or swallow the inevitably bitter pill. I believe this decision will be based on how well the economy does in the next six months. Will the Conservatives be hailed as heroes or detested for being wrong?

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