Company founder and Creative Director, Ross Thornley talks about building a successful – and balanced – creative business, and his predictions for the future.
This month, RT Media celebrates a decade of creative campaigns, branding and web marketing for a client base spanning international, national and regional clients of all shapes and sizes.
Company founder and Creative Director, Ross Thornley, attributes the company’s success to a clear vision, a clear definition of success, a focussed drive to achieve it, and good timing – launching a creative agency at the start of the new media revolution.
Ross explains: “When I started the company I was 21, I worked from a bedroom armed with an Apple Mac, support from my family and a desire to prove myself. Ten years on, RT Media has grown organically to a 10 strong team with all the skills required to fully service 21st century campaigns. All this has happened against perhaps the biggest ever change for marketeers; the advent of broadband into our homes.”
RT Media strategic brand communications agency is celebrating the qualification of Online Content Publisher, Darryl Walker, as a Google Adwords Qualified Individual. The Google Adwords Professional Exam formalises Darryl’s existing skill set and has already enhanced and honed his experience.
Darryl explains: “The formal qualification is an extension of the experience and knowledge I had already gained from running Adwords campaigns for our clients over the course of several months, which can be used to demonstrate my personal knowledge of the programs. Now, with better understanding as a result of this training, I can run client and company campaigns even more effectively.”
Google Adwords is Google’s advertising program, allowing users to create simple and effective adverts online and display them to people already searching for information related to the advertiser’s business – effectively placing relevant adverts in front of the relevant people.
Creative Director Director at RT Media, Ross Thornley, commented: “While we have been able to offer Adwords campaigns for a while, we believe in providing the best possible service for our clients, actively encouraging further learning and continued professional development of all our team. The great thing about this qualification is that it is very ‘hands-on’, requiring Darryl to run an Adword campaign alongside taking the examination in order to qualify, demonstrating his capability. We congratulate Darryl on his success; we are already utilising his expertise to complement our clients’ ongoing and forthcoming campaigns to give them that essential competitive edge in the online marketplace.”
As would be expected, the training and examination took place online via the Adwords Learning Centre, which uses a special testing program and blocks access to other programs while the exam is taking place.
The examination, entailing 120 exam questions over the course of two hours with a minimum 85% pass rate, was in addition to managing and maintaining at least one existing Google Adwords campaign during a 90 day period.
It’s everywhere, inescapable. In every news outlet, in every country of the world (sometimes as a front page story), Facebook privacy settings are changing once again. That fact in itself is practically a landmark in the importance of social networking sites, but that’s a different blog post.
So you may be thinking, as I’m sure quite a lot of Facebook’s almost 500 million registered users are, what exactly is going on?
Not so long ago Facebook changed their privacy settings to allow users granular access to their privacy settings, to control exactly who can see what, when, where and in what context. Personally I thought this was a marvelous idea, and the first thing I did was set everything to private. Job done, straightforward and spelled out for you there in black and white.
Unfortunately this spelled trouble for people who found the level of control to be overwhelming and confusing, and after a few privacy gaffes (including a few choice comments from Mark Zuckerberg himself) and millions of users threatening to delete or abandon their accounts, Facebook have caved to the pressure and are rolling out a simpler, one click approach to privacy controls. But what exactly does this mean?
We have launched a new division to support companies who are serious about unlocking digital marketing and social media channels within their marketing mix.
GetShaking was brought about via the concept of people shaking hands by way of an introduction. This is, in essence, what social media allows people to do far more effectively than real-world, cross-globe travels to meet and introduce yourself.
We have a dedicated team of passionate, motivated and highly experienced marketing professionals who care about getting the right result for you! From email and internet marketing, to design and copywriting, through web development and strategic consultancy, GetShaking are the people that will help you fulfil your social media management and email marketing, ensuring success. We’d rather you went away with too many ideas and action points than not enough, because we know that communication coupled with an understanding of your business requirements are vital in getting the right marketing mix for you. We believe in marketing that builds relationships. Our focus is on your strategy and the ongoing support of that, because we know that short-term activity might get the quick sale or result, but it won’t maintain the result or lead to sustainable success or business growth.
In keeping with our unique and effective offering, E-Bob, GetShaking’s purple-faced character was developed by our in-house illustrators.
We currently have a diverse cross section of clients who are enjoying full success from our work on their internet presence. From established solicitors to experienced car body maintenance companies, all our GetShaking clients have committed to ongoing contracts as they have seen rapid results from the work we have undertaken for them.
Are you engaged in online marketing but don’t know if you have reached your maximum potential? For a limited time only, we are offering a free audit. We will look at your current online activity and evaluate the positives and highlight where there is room for improvement. The audit comes with no obligation – but will ultimately help you making the right decisions for your future activity.
When C4L gave us the challenge of creating a new brand in 7 days we said “let’s go”.
With Bournemouth set to have super fast internet via fibre optic cables, our client C4L, (the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 company) were keen to make their mark. The brief to create a new brand for this new super fast broadband service was not only tight in deadline but it also has an increadibly competitive landscape. Entering into the market where big fish like BT, Virgin Media and SKY are fighting for customers, we needed to box clever.
With the in-house teams shortlist of names; BEAR, BULLET and JUCIE broadband we first knew a name could make or break this brave new business launch.
Following an evening workshop with Ross Thornley, the South’s branding expert innovator led them through a process and into a market changing name. It was his plan to create a whole new category for the internet connection. Enter FIBREBAND, no longer will users be looking for broadband providers if they wish to experience the unimaginable speeds fibre optic cables offer, they will be asking for FIBREBAND.
This ticked so many boxes from protectability, multi lingual understanding, domain name availability and word defining opportunities.
We are proud to show the value of expert innovation coupled with great design principles will ensure the best possible chances of success.
The day at the CONFEX exhibition (http://www.international-confex.com/) at the end of February was quite a shock for a Wimborne girl! It was a huge hive of activity, ideas and experience. The exhibition was all about creatively engaging with clients/prospective clients. That was the crux of it – creative engagement.
We are bombarded by so many messages each day, most of which are blotted out by our tired brains or just ignored. That is why it is so important to forge meaningful connections, relevant to the target and encouraging participation. The flexibility to respond when you sense that the market is moving in a different way is essential, instead of bobbing along with the flotsam.
A very interesting speaker, Phil Crowther, explained that events (be it a concert, a public show or a party), which are high risk, were also high opportunity. Why? Because they creatively engaged with the target audience, encouraged participation and were voluntary. That does not mean there is no strategic direction, on the contrary it is as structured as all the other marketing routes. A good event is designed with objectives and evaluation in mind, however, that is often where the problems arise.
An event needs to be integrated into an existing marketing and branding strategy, not isolated, but included in the strategic direction. When that is successfully accomplished the risk is reduced, without reducing the opportunity.
CPA is an acronym you may not be familiar with. It stands for Cost Per Acquisition, in effect the amount of money you have paid (or are willing to pay) to acquire a sale, quote or registration via an advertising program.
CPA is primarily used for e-commerce websites, where it is much easier to track your “customers journey” from landing page to checkout confirmation page.
At TFM&A 2010 there was some interesting new ideas surrounding the usage of CPA in AdWords. Traditionally, CPA is used in addition to a normal advertising campaign to help drive potential customers to the site and convert them. Now though, some companies have been looking at using a CPA only approach with managed campaigns.
This is normally handled through an agency who can take the time to apply their knowledge to the situation. This starts with an agreed retainer with the actual costs for the advertisements ultimately coming out of the agencies pocket and an agreed number of acquisitions within a time period. The agency can then take this information and apply it to the campaign, starting off with the AdWords recommended CPA. Read the rest of this entry »
If I told you that we were going to play a game of Chinese whispers I’m sure you would join in.
If I told you we were playing for money, I would be doubly sure that you would join in. So, here is the deal:
- Firstly, the message must not be altered
- Secondly, if the message arrives at the final person unaltered, you win cash
Sounds easy? What if I tell you that if the message isn’t letter-perfect when it arrives, you owe me cash? Not sounding so good? Sadly though it is a common scenario. So many designers and agencies don’t communicate job statuses or latest progress accurately to each other… or the client. Communication is the key. That, and knowing what levels of communication to give to which people. Some people want an email to acknowledge their email, some people want to be left alone and told when the job is done. Some people need to be told about each change that is made, some people find out themselves.
The point is this: we are constantly passing ‘messages’ to each other, status updates on projects or latest files for a job. Keeping on top of these things is crucial, one day the message might not arrive intact, and you might not win the cash!
Imagine your new website goes live. You’re ecstatic about the feel, the look, new functionalities and – even better – the increase in visits, which might (and should!) Ultimately lead to more business. And then, one year on – what do you do? Do you look at your stats? Do you know what’s going on on your website? How many people have visited, where they came from, how many referrers you have? How long they stayed and what pages they looked at?
Or you’re engaging in email marketing. How many split tests have you done recently? Do you know what your database likes? Does one part of your recipients always receive a different version of your emails or does everybody always get the same design, same message, same “from”, same everything? And how many times do you change your Google AdWords to see if you can get in those extra % clicks…
Do you know which digital mix gives you the best conversions…?
Do you constantly test and improve…?
If the answer is yes – great! You’re doing the right thing to monitor improve your communication with the customer then this is what marketing is all about. If not, it is worth considering – simply because in the fast changing digital world something that worked last week, last month, last year can be the spanner in the works now.
The magic formula is testing, testing and again testing. Everything that can be changed in your digital mix is worth testing to ensure that your marketing works. Test your website (layout, images, design, the options are endless), test your email marketing, try different ads in your Pay-per-click, play around with your banners, test different approaches in Social Media and see what works and what doesn’t.
And then go out and do something about it.
One of the main points that has stuck in my head over a week on from the TFM&A exhibition is the line The Future of Online marketing is….Offline Marketing. I certainly didn’t expect to hear that at an online, technology based event, and especially not from one of the most influential figures in the UK digital marketing sector. How refreshing. Finally i have found someone who thinks a bit like me, perhaps it’s our age.
He explained that there was originally traditional offline marketing; you remember the old fashioned printed way, print, newspapers, direct mail etc. Then came this huge bang of digital marketing and the world went mad for it, but like all things now the fuss has died down slightly people are realising “you can learn from the good old tried and tested ways”.
Successful marketing comes from integrating the two forms, online and offline. By sharing data, strategies, success stories and failures the marketeer can now have a more informed and proven successful multi-channel approach to base their marketing strategy. Harmony of old and new.
Food for thought…
Inspired by a keynote talk from Craig Mawdsley at the TFM&A last month, I felt compelled to share some of his/my (mainly his) thoughts on uncertainty. The Head of Planning at AMV BBDO argues that marketers should embrace uncertainty, rather than embark on the long and arduous pursuit of predictability. I agree.
There is a real danger that over thinking strategy can lead to missing the crest of your perfect wave – the one you’ve been waiting for. To add to your frustration, you had the knowledge and awareness to see it coming, but didn’t have the confidence to hop on without being certain of the outcome.
Here’s a new philosophy: Doing beats thinking. Allocate a small but fixed amount of your time and resource to experimentation with new strategies; ideas that you wouldn’t bet your budget on but are engaging and out of the ordinary. Then listen, learn, and back success. Having the confidence to embrace uncertainty should ensure that you fail small and win big.
I am certain of this – it is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.
Small businesses can often overlook the notion that their brand isn’t entirely managerially constructed. One may tightly govern brand communications, but in reality, how these are received is partially beyond our control.
Consider this – perceptions of your brand that exist within the four walls of your office may not be totally (or at all) aligned with those held by your customers. That’s right. Your brand identity not only exists on your business cards, website or brochure, but also in the mind of the consumer.
It is frightening to think that consumers may interpret your brand in their own very subjective manner, but at the same time, this realisation should also be seen as an opportunity to re-discover the various (and often unexpected) meanings attached to your brand, adapt your communications accordingly, and ultimately reap the rewards of becoming a business who truly knows their audience.
So how do you discover how your customers make sense of your brand?
In short, you ask them.
Qualitative research, principally involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, can be an extremely useful strategic tool for businesses of all sizes. Research is vital, and here are a few reasons why:
• Provides a forum to explore and extrapolate ideas, which can act as an effective springboard to make your visions a reality.
• Enables you to drill down and understand the specific needs of your different market segments, providing a creative environment for consumer optimisation.
• Enables you to fully understand reactions to your marketing materials and packaging; identifying strengths, weaknesses, and uncovering any previously unmet needs of your customers.
• Helps you make informed business and marketing decisions, with confidence.
• Protects you from completely ‘missing the point’ with your brand communications, ensuring that you build a brand that strikes resonance with your target market.
Above all, it simply makes sense that a strong and current picture of your consumers’ mindset should underpin the strategic and creative process of building and maintaining a brand. You wouldn’t create a gourmet meal with your eyes closed would you? Well, you might try, but you would probably end up getting burnt.
With our passion for all things digital we decided to close the studio for the day hire a mini bus and spend a day at the TFMA show. http://www.t-f-m.co.uk/
As both the show and RT celebrate this year our 10th anniversary we felt it was an opportunity not to be missed.
#tfma is the UK’s only integrated marketing event and delivers all the latest industry insight, trends and developments giving the perfect blend for truly integrated marketing & advertising campaigns. All 10 staff have chosen their seminars and keynotes to attend and we will be looking forward to the day of learning.
Check this post throughout the day for our live video feeds below. We aim to record snippets every hour or so, and with the chat feature direct on the live video feed you will be able to interact with us too!
If you want to find out how you can stream live video from a smart phone, integrate it real time on your blog plus feed straight to twitter, facebook and YouTube then contact us tomorrow when we are back!
There aren’t many holidays that are left untouched by the world of social media, and Valentine’s Day is no exception.
This year, businesses are going all out to make a song and dance of the season, some quite literally. Even the world of confectionary has listened to consumer trends and included "Tweet me" as a new message on the American version of Loveheart sweets, Sweethearts
Amongst the many distinctly average attempts to create innovative ways of taking advantage of the day, I found a few gems:
The American greetings card company, amgreetings, has set up a daily Twitter contest in the run up to Valentine’s day, for its’ followers to produce the best romantically themed post. The winners are announced daily and have been winning up to $350 each. A costly use of the ‘free’ marketing tool, but they have certainly boosted their customer interactions.
Hallmark has created a line of Augmented Reality (AM) greetings cards. These are like regular paper cards, but when the image on the front of the card is held up to a webcam on a page on the Hallmark website it becomes a mini 3D animated world with sound and a fully rotatable stage. A bit of a gimmick? Perhaps. But a unique way to tell that special someone how you feel. See it in action here.
And of course, the iPhone has produced an impressive selection of the latest Valentine’s apps. The best of the bunch include virtual kisses that take an imprint of your lips and send it on, voice personalised e-greetings cards and even a two-person fingerprinting tool that can ‘accurately’ analyse the feelings between you and your loved one.
Following last years growth of over 27% on 2008 we are delighted to welcome Richard Webley who joined us this week as a Digital Projects Account Executive.
As a marketing graduate from the University of Exeter whose most recent role combined lecturing and research at Bournemouth University, Richard brings with him a thirst for digital technologies and a passion for all things brand and marketing.
Having previously completed a Graduate Training Scheme at a global consumer research agency in London where he worked with a range of FMCG, media and public sector clients, Richard is extremely excited about the prospect of nurturing brands and growing businesses with RT Media.
Brand and customer loyalty has been a hot topic for the past few decades. Since American Airlines started its first “Frequent Flyer Miles” program in the 80s, companies and brands all over the world have been coming up with new and interesting ways to capture attention and reward their faithful consumers for buying their products or using their services.
Traditionally these would come in the form of a barcode card, key fob or printed coupons. These schemes offer a combination of rewards and recognition, in order to drive up sales and customer retention rates. Credit card companies are notorious for their offers, with the majority now handing out flight miles, cash back, credit points and prizes if someone makes a purchase on the card. Through this, the idea is that they are helping the customer to stretch their budget that little bit further and keep them coming back for more.
Despite this, almost half of people still do not participate in these loyalty programs. And only half of those again are actively using them. So why is that? Could it be that most reward schemes come down to only one thing: freebies? As the concept has gained popularity over the last couple of decades it’s easy to see how it can be a double edged sword.
The problem is that it’s possible to get it wrong. While offering free stuff to customers the more they buy, an aggressive campaign could feel almost like a bribe, whereas a complicated system with different tiers and structures can only serve to confuse and confound the customer. Take Starbucks as an example:
My Starbucks Rewards
Last year, Starbucks introduced a Gold membership card. A customer could pay $25 dollars for a year membership, and in return they would get 10% off their purchases every time they went into Starbucks. For hardcore coffee drinkers this could equal some serious savings. The card would pay for itself in a matter of a month or two (or even a few weeks if you were a serious caffeine addict). Read the rest of this entry »
When we began 2009 we were prepared for a tough year, as a management team we sat down for two days to prepare our strategic direction and survival plan. We have taken the time every month to monitor and review performance and client feedback and success.
I am delighted to end the year feeling exhausted for all the right reasons. As a team we have grown, as a company had our most successful to date in the last 10 years and as a person I have begun to feel free again. Running your own business is a roller coaster of emotions and challenges so it is critical to maintain a self belief so strong it can withstand any cross fire.
Our talented team of 10 superstars has made sure we retained our clients whilst acquiring new ones that fit our strategic model. We’ve branded and launched 16 companies, re-branded 8 businesses, built 35 websites, produced 8 promotional videos including filming across Europe, we have continued to be the strategic marketing department and partner for 6 growing businesses, run a brilliant public vintage fayre, worked over 16,000 hours, drunk over 5,900 mugs of coffee & green tea, sent over 16,200 emails (not campaigns just day-to-day messages) ran 29 workshops for about 150 people, presented to more than 100 young entrepreneurs, shot over 13,000 photographs, and spent more than 2,000 hours on Facebook! And had a lot of fun doing it all!
We do what we do because we love it and we’re damn good at it! We like to be challenged and valued. We get stuck in and deliver results; we like freedom and learning and strive to be the best in our world.
But do you know what made my year? Reading this…
“I would just like to thank you and your whole team for the level of service, commitment, attention to detail and timely actions that you have all taken to give ooops.net limited that paradigm shift required of a business entering its eighth year of trading. As you know we are a five strong team at this moment in time and with your continued help I am sure within the year we will be an eight strong team! I am impressed with RT Media’s integrity; each and every member of your team are free to say what they think, to express themselves with a zealous passion for putting us first. This ensures we know we are getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth – important to winning! You are like an honest “coach” and “mentor” to us. I am impressed with RT Media’s creativity, I know it is your pre-requisite but there are a great many of your competitors out there that are not! I am impressed with RT Media’s strategic vision, able to see beyond the horizon, helping us let go of the shore! Ensuring we don’t waste money now, saving for the opportunities that will give the greatest return on investment in future. An example of this is our stopping of our Press advertising and moving into Social Media that is FREE! All in all – I’m as chuffed as nuts with you all!” Paul Booker – Founder of ooops.net limited
Well done to the whole team for a year to remember. I am looking forward to making 2010 even better.
Thanks to all who take the time to think of us, work with us and recommend us.
Ross.
Founder & Creative Director.
With any new web build comes the challenge of getting the website out onto the web at large. There are a couple of ways to do this, for instance through traditional marketing or online PPC advertising, but the most effective is search engine optimization. This is an important thing to do and do well, and is also something that an awful lot of people forget about.
While failing to optimize your site will not necessarily exclude you from search results on websites like Google, Bing etc it goes along way to making the process smoother and more efficient. The search engine bots that crawl the net can see the website metadata as well as the page contents, giving your pages and results more context and better relevancy. It also gets your website on there much more quickly so people can start stumbling upon you!
SEO isn’t just for new websites either. Pretty much any website could be improved SEO wise in at least one way. Much like the Aldridge Brownlee website that the team recently worked their magic on. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a really important realization for many clients and indeed agencies. Having designed countless websites, logos, brands and custom software it is important to know what exactly you are buying.
The following is an exert we obtained from one of the South’s leading law firms who specialise in these matters…
“If you have paid someone to design your website, logo, or brochure or create software for you, it is not unreasonable to assume that the copyright in the end product belongs to you. However, this will not be the case unless you obtained the designer’s express agreement to this when you commissioned the work.
If you haven’t obtained the designer’s agreement to the copyright passing to you, all you have is a licence to use the website, logo, brochure or software.
This may be all that you need, but it might become a problem if you want to sell the business or authorise someone else to use your “property” or get someone else to develop or change what you already have. The original designer can stop you unless you have his agreement, which will normally comes at a price.
Action Points
It is essential to ensure that you get the designer to agree that you will own the copyright at the time you negotiate the terms of the engagement.”
Add this to the T&C’s of an agency and you can easily become confused as to who owns what and where you stand. Reading the T&C’s of any supplier is essential however this is often overlooked as business is regularly done on trust. However lack of understanding from a client or the reluctance of an agency to explain exactly what is being bought and sold is not a valid excuse.
Website source code also remains the copyright of the agency unless written agreement has been agreed. Also this licence to use the source code like any goods remain the sellers property until full payment has been received as is the same with any designed product from a logo to a brochure.
So please be careful that you are aware of what you are purchasing when commissioning a design agency to build you logo, website and materials, that if you require more than a licence and wish to own the copyright then make sure you have the agreement and costing outlined at stage one.
As the South’s leading branding agency we are committed to helping consumers understand what they are buying from agencies and not only to be aware of this but work in partnership with them to build brands with value, success and integrity.
This is Alex, from the WebDev lair, I have an update for everybody.
Our previous and current projects give us ideas how to upgrade and modify our CMS. So what did we do? We revised the whole code, and made necessary tweaks, we fine tuned databases and slightly changed the interfaces. Thus, our clients are able to run multi-language versions of websites. Supported modules are: News, Addresses, Articles, Testimonials and of course: WebPages – all of what you need
If you have ever dreamed of reaching your customers around the world, even people speaking different languages – now you can do it. Armed with our CMS!
RT Media celebrates ten years of growth
Twitter update