The leap of faith
While we’re as keen as anyone on sound campaign planning, setting clear objectives and generally demonstrating the ROI of what we do, I get pretty frustrated by the amount of brands that seem unable or unwilling to take any risk when it comes to their marketing & PR spend.
Yes, money is still tight and no, brand owners shouldn’t carelessly throw their budget around without thinking carefully about it, but, at the end of the day marketing (in whatever form) always has and always will carry an element of uncertainty about it. It’s just not possible to guarantee that any campaign will work before you execute it – there are too many factors in play. Good planning, great creativity and hard work can minimise this risk, but you can’t eliminate it altogether. It seems that marketing people recently have become less willing to accept this. Perhaps it’s because they’ve grown up in the digital age and are used to everything being instantly measurable and trackable, or maybe it’s just a reaction to tough economic times.
Whatever the cause, the net result of this risk-avoidance approach is that these brands will end up doing nothing at all, apart from a narrow range of tactics that they feel will “definitely” work, but which won’t truly engage with consumers or make a lasting impact.
Think about the great ad campaigns over the years – Skoda, Meerkat, Cadbury Gorilla etc… – most of them could easily have fallen flat on their faces but the agency and the client were willing to step outside their comfort zone and do something different based on gut instinct. The same applies to PR campaigns, and I’m not talking just about taking creative risks. Sometimes, just deciding to work with an agency and commit to doing something is enough of a first step, but you have to take it, otherwise we just end up writing endless proposals that could have made a difference, but no-one will ever know, and the client ends up doing what they’ve always done, but not really getting to where they want to be.
Eddie M.
Looking for a head of digital
We are looking for our first ever head of digital. Job spec below – is this you??
JOB SPEC: HEAD OF DIGITAL
Threepipe is an independent PR agency that integrates digital, social and traditional media to create campaigns that shape perceptions and influence behaviour.
We regularly pick up industry awards, including Best Small Agency, Best Digital Campaign and Best CSR Campaign at the PRCA Awards in 2009. We are PRCA members with CMS certification.
Our current clients include Vodafone, EA Sports, Campari, Rachel’s Organic, ATP World Tour, Dunlop, Slazenger, Seven Dials, Scalextric, Leapfrog Toys, Kiddicare.com and The Football League.
Founded in 2004, we are now a team of 20 people based in Covent Garden.
Although we already offer digital and social media services to our clients and have won several digital PR awards, we are now looking for a Head of Digital to help take this offering to the next level.
The Role
This is a brand new role within the agency. The Head of Digital will
- help to shape our overall digital and social media offering
- work with all account teams and clients to provide strategic and practical advice
- develop and sell “add-on” digital services to our existing client base
- coach and mentor other members of the team to develop their knowledge and skills
- play a key role in new business and pitching as a digital and social media expert
- take the lead on maximising Threepipe’s own social media presence
You would report directly into the Managing Director and Creative Director, and work closely alongside all of our account teams, from AD through to AE.
The Person
We would expect the successful person to:
- Be degree-level educated with a minimum 2.1 and strong A level results
- Have a strong agency background (either PR or digital) with a real emphasis on digital and social media, to at least AD level
- Have a genuine passion and knowledge for social media, with their finger on the pulse of what’s coming next
- Have a deep understanding of how PR integrates with social media
- Be creatively and strategically strong
- Be an excellent presenter with the ability to sell campaigns and projects to new and existing clients
- Be a great communicator and able to share knowledge with others
- Be entrepreneurial with a desire to work within a smaller agency
- Have an established profile within the industry and an established social media presence of their own
Package:
Competitive salary dependent on experience
Performance-related bonus
New business bonus
Potential for share options after first year
Benefits include:
- Detailed personal development meetings every six months
- Tailored individual training plan & £2k annual budget
- 25 days holiday, plus an extra day for each year’s service
- Half day off on your birthday
- £250 personal development allowance
- £1000 Travelcard loan
- Free financial health checks
- Wellbeing Wednesdays each month
- Company away day/weekend each summer
- Annual exchange trip to New York for one employee
- Quarterly agency updates and regular social events
- Company pension (3% employer, 3% employee)
- Laptop & mobile phone
Status: Permanent with three month probation period
Start date: ASAP
Contact: eddie@threepipe.co.uk
About Threepipe
Our vision is to be recognised as the best place to work in our industry.
We will create an environment to attract, reward, develop and retain the best people in the industry.
As a result of this, we will have the best people producing outstanding, award-winning campaigns that successfully integrate digital, social and traditional media.
All of our campaigns will combine rigorous strategic planning with creative inspiration to produce results that make a real, tangible difference to our clients.
As a business we will grow consistently and profitably through growing our relationships with clients and winning new business.
Our Values:
People-focused
Strategic
Creative
Professional
Passionate
Effective
Innovative
For more, visit www.threepipe.co.uk
Seven Dials links up with The Hospital
Be Part Of The Winning Story
We’ve been working closely with the nearby Hospital Club for an exciting competition for one of their online members to win retail space in the heart of Seven Dials, WC2 (our client).
Thanks to coverage in the likes of Stylist, Drapers, Retail Week, Design Week, Who’s Jack and Time Out, the competition attracted 150 entrants, which were then whittled down to four finalists.
After a Dragons Den style interview process hosted by The Hospital Club, Shaftesbury PLC (the Seven Dials landlord) and a member of Threepipe’s Seven Dials’ team, Eyebrow Productions were selected to host their ‘In An Instant’ exhibition.
Playing on life changing moments, Eyebrow Productions will be using the space at 18 Shorts Gardens between 21st and 28th August to host an engaging installation, which asks members of the public to share their response to ‘it was a day like any other and then, in an instant’ on the back of a postcard, which will be hung and displayed with others for all to see.
The space will also offer week day, bite-size theatre at lunchtime between 1 and 2pm to Seven Dials shoppers, local workers and residents, as some of the best new writers around share their stories, with two plays performed every lunch time, and live music at the weekends. The plays include Happiness is a Choice by Amy Abrahams, Publishing A Piece and Quiz Night by John Sheerman, Eyes full of Pornography by Michael Ross and Snap by Emma Jowett.
‘In An Instant’ opens to the public on Saturday 21st August through Saturday 28th August. The space will be open Monday – Saturday 11am – 7pm and Sunday 12pm-5pm. Entrance is free. For more information head to www.thehospitalclub.com/sevendials
Rules is rules…
Drama at the USPGA golf last night when the big-hitting Dustin Johnson thought he was in a three way playoff, having just missed a putt at the 18th for the outright win.
Unfortunately, eagle-eyed officials had noticed he’d grounded his club on the 18th while playing out of a “bunker” that was actually more like a bit of trampled sandy ground. For all non-golfers, if you ground your club in a bunker it’s a two shot penalty, even if it’s an accident.
The net result was that Johnson was penalised two shots and lost the change of his first major win. My first reaction was that this was a ridiculous example of applying the letter and not the spirit of the rules, and is the sort of thing that can put some people off the game of golf. But on further reflection, it’s this absolute application of the rules to ensure fairness that makes golf such a great sport and sets it apart from virtually all others. Johnson took it in good grace even though he must have felt like punching a hole in the nearest wall, and his time will come.
At the same tournament, Rory McIlroy came within a whisker of making the play off and I’m certain he would have won it. He’s got huge talent and seems to have the temperament for the big occasion too. Good call from our client EA SPORTS to put him on the front cover of their game alongside some chap called Woods!
Eddie.
Selina’s work experience blog
It’s coming to the end of a fabulous two weeks of work experience with the Threepipe team and I have to say, I’ve never worked with a friendlier bunch! They certainly know how to make the ‘new girl’ feel at home. My responsibilities over the week have mostly centred around clients Rachel’s and LeapFrog, including tasks such as: updating media lists, researching premium kitchenware and regional events for the ‘Mornings with Love’ page, as well as producing a coverage board, which allowed me to get the creative juices flowing. A new experience for me was liaising with celebrity agents over the phone with the hope of sending their clients a range of LeapFrog toy products for their kids, which I really enjoyed.
My highlight of the fortnight was attending the GBK charity event in collaboration with Capital FM’s Help a London Child, which was held at the Martin Luther King Adventure Playground in Islington. The ongoing partnership sees the re-launch of their fundraising campaign, ‘Quids In’ –the gist of it is, head to your nearest GBK restaurant, buy one burger or main course salad and get a second for just £1. GBK will then donate that £1 to 95.8 Capital FM’s Help a London Child, who offers financial support to grass-root projects for London’s less advantaged children. Last year’s campaign raised over £80,000 which allowed Help A London Child to provide financial support to at least 40 grass roots projects working with disadvantaged children in the capital city. Sounds like a great way to help out the community while dining guilt-free!
With Jennie and Clare as my mentors, we liaised with clients GBK and Help a London Child, helping with the preparation of the event and ensuring that everything was running smoothly. The day got into full swing when Capital FM ‘Drivetime’ presenter, Greg Burns, arrived to host. The children of the Martin Luther King People’s Partnership seemed to be having a great time, especially when they found out GBK were handing out their delicious free burgers at lunch! As well as gaining valuable PR experience, I came out feeling more inspired than ever to try out GBK’s new summer menu, with exotic bites such as the Jamaican burger -a 100% Aberdeen Angus burger topped with tangy yet sweet mango and ginger sauce, salad and mayonnaise. With the Help a London Child promotion running until the end of August, there’s still plenty of time to get through the menu.
And so my two weeks are almost up –thanks very much to Eddie and co. for giving me the opportunity and being such a great team to work with!
-Selina
Mitre roadshow
We’ve been working with Mitre over the last few months, helping to launch the new official 2010/11 ball for the Football League & SPL – the Mitre Tensile.
With its revolutionary 10 panel design and 30% less stitching – which optimises power and efficiency, improves airflow and reduces drag – the Tensile is all about Speed, Accuracy and Control.
To put the Tensile to the test, in July Threepipe travelled to 5 Football League and SPL clubs to test out the new elements of the ball.
Armed with a speed gun, some cameras and a bag of balls, we took to the road and headed to Colchester United, Watford, Barnet, Coventry City and Hearts – to really take the ‘player’s ball’ to the players.
Once there, we set up 3 ‘tests’ for the players, with the aim of producing some engaging video content dedicated to the Tensile and its attributes of Speed, Accuracy and Control.
Speed – To emphasise the increased speed the Tensile has been designed to provide, we set up a speed gun behind the goal and asked the players, from the penalty spot, to give us their ‘best shot’.
With the average speed of other balls coming in at around the mid-60’s (mph), the Tensile produced some great results with players regularly achieving results in the mid-70’s using the Tensile – with Danny Graham from Watford recording 76mph on only his second short and Coventry’s Gary McSheffrey taking the crown of the fastest shot by smashing 77mph!
Graham scored 2 for Watford in their first league game of the new season at Norwich – no coincidence there!
Accuracy – The Tensile’s design means that players need to only concentrate on where they’re putting the ball, and not what the ball will do. The improved airflow means unlike some balls, the Tensile will go exactly where players want it (in theory, and if you’re good enough!). To put this to the test, we set up two cameras – one behind the goal and one strapped to the goal post, and told the players to hit the camera! Which they did. Many times.
(Thanks go out to Watford’s Scott Loach for his effort – which resulted in us buying a new lense!)
Control – To prove how easy it is for players to have complete control with the Tensile, we asked the most skilful players from each club to show us their skills. The ball’s been designed to improve player’s control – and we weren’t disappointed with a huge array of tricks and talent. Check them out on the video… We must give a special mention to the Hearts U19 boys had all sorts of skills in their locker, and they’ll soon be making an appearance on Sky’s Soccer AM’s skills school – too (Using the Tensile…), so keep an eye out for that!
by Duncan.
Wedding Bells
Big congrats to Faith who just got engaged. That brings the total of nearly-married women in the office to three, and it’ll be a race to the line between Lauren, Laura C and Faith to see who can get down the aisle first!
Fun & Games
It’s not every day that combines a spot of go-karting with an afternoon of croquet by the Thames and a night out in “Windsor’s premier R&B nightclub”, but that’s what our annual summer away day delivered this year.
Big-up to Shirley for organising the whole thing brilliantly, a fact totally unconnected with her “winning” the go-karting! A great day was had by all, helped by the glorious weather and fuelled by lashings of Pimm’s. PR can be a pretty full-on, relentless job, so it’s nice to be able to take a day out and say thanks to all our team for helping us have another successful year.
Bring on the Christmas bash!
The art of pitching
Yesterday I took part in a PRCA discussion on best practice in pitching – an admirable effort by the PRCA to bring agencies and clients together to talk about one of the biggest issues in the industry. Pitching takes up a vast amount of time for both client and agency, much of it probably wasted because the process isn’t quite right.
Apparently (and I can believe this) almost 1 in 3 pitches are done without a written brief, and a large percentage come with no budget attached. This can only lead to clients ending up with the wrong agency or not finding what they were looking for at all, with nobody winning the work. The other worrying statistic was that many pitches now involve six or more agencies – this is for the actual pitch, not just a chemistry meeting. There should never be more than 3, or maybe 4 including the incumbent agency. It’s just a waste of everyone’s time to see more than that. Do clients realise just how much time and effort goes into each pitch? Of course, it’s also up to each agency to decide whether or not to pursue the opportunity!
Everyone seemed to agree that the client should explore all the other options before calling a pitch, including identifying why they think their current agency isn’t up to the job, and understanding the skill set of the agencies they already use. Obviously there’s a job for the agencies to do here aswell, to make sure they are regularly reviewing their work with clients and updating them on developments in what they can offer.
Looks like the PRCA will be updating their guidelines on selecting agencies for clients. That should help, although I doubt it’ll radically change how things work!
Eddie
An eventful week
Our sports team had a busy time of it last week…
On Tuesday night there was a launch event for Skate3 – the latest skate boarding title from EA Sports, followed by a trip to Celtic Manor on Wednesday ahead of a day spent with Rory McIlroy to promote Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. Rory, who is no 9 in the world at the tender age of 21, showed plenty of patience as he worked through a busy schedule of motion capture sessions, photo shoots and media interviews. He even found time to head on to the course to show us all how to ping a 3 iron 210 yards onto the 17th green! Why can’t I swing a club like that? He got a par 3 on the course and then headed back inside for his first go on the new video game. Showing his genuine talent for golf in any format, he stepped up and got a hole in one on the same hold that he’d just played outside. Incredible, and all captured on video which will be up on the web very soon!
After that was all done, we raced back to London for the Sports Industry Awards – a very glam event. Our Great Exhibition campaign with the ECB was up for the Best Use of Digital award. It was one of the last ones to be announced and nerves were building, before we got the great news that we had won! Cue lots of excitement around our table and the chance to meet Kirsty Gallagher and shake hands with El Tel. Excellent!
Then it was up bright and early for another Skate3 event at 8.30am on the South Bank, where a load of skaters had gathered to celebrate EA Sports City Skateover – spending the day skating around London.
