I went to the post office this morning to collect a parcel that was too large to fit through my letterbox. As I waited patiently in the queue, the lady in front of me was telling the poor postal office worker behind the counter in no uncertain terms how annoyed she was with Royal Mail.

She too had received a little card, courtesy of her postman, instructing her to collect an item from the sorting office. Apparently though, she had been directed to the wrong sorting office and had then trekked halfway round the borough of Stockport in search of her parcel, only to discover it was actually at her local post office all the time.

But this was just the start of her annoyance. What had infuriated and frustrated her the most was the lack of human contact when she tried telephoning the number on the Royal Mail ‘We tried to deliver’ card. The automated ‘service’ was of no help at all – and I could empathise entirely as I too have felt helpless with the polite, non-accented, female electronic voice on the other end of the phone. “Press 1 for this, 2 for that” – I have even recently been offered a choice of hold music by use of my telephone keypad.

Whilst technology can be a fantastic aid to a business, brands should be aware that, when in search of a great customer experience, people just want to speak to people – especially when there is a customer care issue to resolve. A complaint is best resolved by swiftly being put in contact with a real person who can offer an apology and then sort out the issue. The customer is then left with a feeling of being looked after and will no doubt return with future custom.

Businesses need technology – people need people.

A positioning statement is the foundation on which your brand is built.

It defines who you are and what differentiates you from your competitors.

So what should your positioning statement consist of to be effective for your business?

Here are 5 aspects to measure it against.

Is it relevant?

You should ensure it is giving the right ‘promise’ to your audience, meeting and fulfilling their needs and expectations

Is it deliverable?

Never offer what you can’t fulfil. Do you have the right assets, infrastructure and people to make good on your promise? If not, and you fail, you’ll throw away future opportunities forever.

Does it differentiate you?

It’s a frustrating fact that most B2B marketers offer products and services that others also do. The challenge is to discover how you do it differently or better.

Being able to this successfully will remove the perception of ‘just being one of the crowd’ and considered a commodity supplier.

Is it credible?

Unless something revolutionary has shifted the dynamics of your business, you can’t suddenly offer something radically different to your audience if they’re familiar with your past track record or reputation. They just won’t believe it.

Does it inspire?

Although it should meet the above criteria and will be a true, factual stance for your business, write your offering in an inventive and memorable way, especially if this is to become your strap line to sit alongside your logo

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to experience a trip to the world HQ of our client PetSafe in Tennessee, and now feel compelled to write about the lovely bunch of genuine people I was privileged to meet on my short visit.

The last time I was in the United States was to visit the E3 conference in Los Angeles and I found the whole experience nauseating.

The hypereal personalities, over-friendliness and wealth disparity (coupled with the journey shared my travel partner who insisted I didn’t sleep until I got home) made me feel quite annoyed and intimidated.

Quite frankly, it all left me with the feeling of never wanting to go back.

LA is like the back cover of the “Visit America Book” – full of false promise.

However when the opportunity arose to visit one of our biggest clients in their home town of Knoxville, and not wanting to judge a book by its (back) cover, I embraced the opportunity with both hands.

I eventually reached Knoxville at 23.00, after 17 hours on the move and was pleasantly surprised to discover I wasn’t greeted by the fake plastic service smile I was expecting.

What I did experience can only be described as genuine warmth and friendliness.

From the people at PetSafe, to the kind lady who was out shopping and helped me out with advice and information in the middle of down town Knoxville, the Southern Hospitality never wore off.

Thank you Tennessee for giving me the inspiration to come back and see the bits in the middle.

Expansion through to our office next door has hit a landmark today.

Construction workers have drilled through the final wall of plaster board to join the two halves of the Clock office and unite the two sides.

The momentous breakthrough links the left office to the right office for the first time since the buildings inception as a Working Men’s Club, during last century’s Industrial Revolution

To a throng of cheers, builders celebrated with black pudding – the only time this type of fayre has been consumed on the site since the building’s former use.

Tonwell builder, Mel Atherton, and his Clock counterpart, Mark Taylor, waved flags and shook hands as the first men able to walk between the two buildings without going outside.

We are looking for partnerships with PRs with International experience. A number of our clients operate Internationally and we run integrated campaigns across Europe, Australia, Canada, China and Japan. If you have experience of operating PR campaigns in International markets, we would love to hear from you. PR does of course include social media so please only get in touch if you are fully online conversant.

Contact Ann Rimmer for more information.

In manufacturing, many companies offer very similar products.

Often, a commodity or purely functional item that generally has the same features and benefits as the competitor’s version. So, the key to creating a real point of difference doesn’t just lie in the product but by the company that makes it.

1 Find your point of difference

Firstly, you need to assess what your brand stands for. Its vision and values, its personality – why it’s unique and special, what gives a competitive edge and its place in the market.

Do this by a SWOT and brand analysis exercise with your senior team, ensuring everything correlates with you all. Then research that the findings also resonate with your customers’ view of your business. (It’s surprising how often there can be a mis-match).

2 Ensure you have a relevant, cohesive communications strategy in place

By analysing your audience, you’ll know whom you want to target, you’ll also have a clear profile of them, their buying process and how they gather information. You’ll discover how to reach them in a targeted way, and how to sell to them in a manner they’ll find convincing. This should result in a campaign that has a distinctive, coordinated look across all media, generating strong recall and awareness.

3 Check that it’s working

Is the agreed strategy giving you the expected ROI? If you put clear business objectives and performance targets in place at the outset, then you’ll have something tangible to measure against.

With websites, it’s vital to constantly measure the hits and the visitor journey through to conversion, changing or amending anything that gets in the way of its effectiveness.

If all these points are covered, you’ll not only get a successful brand but a successful business.

Being very conscious and passionate about the power of brand –particularly in the B2B arena – I recently had a remarkable experience from a trade bathroom centre who had recognised the customer experience was an important part of their brand values.

I had visited the trade outlet as a consumer, looking for trade prices. I relished the comparison with the consumer-focused showrooms I’d visited.

My expectations were very low given I was entering a warehouse, not a showroom, and that I was going very price-focussed having done my browsing at a lovely warm showroom round the corner.

Surprisingly, I was quickly given a warm welcome and asked if I wanted a brew.

A warm mug of tea was made whilst the trade counter attempted to gain an understanding of the kind of bathroom I required.

The staff spent 2 hours explaining the different products, opening box after box so I could actually touch and feel the products, feel the weight of the British made taps and ancillaries they stocked. They helped me choose tiles to suit my budget, and that would achieve the finish I was seeking – selling under-floor heating whilst they were at it.

They were experienced bathroom fitters so were able to advise on the best products for the size of bathroom, age of property and finish required. Their level of expertise was exceptional – not one bathroom showroom I’d been to (and over the last 6 months I’ve been to a lot) demonstrated the passion and knowledge of the products they sold as they did.

Yes, passion. Passion for taps and how they are made. Passion for shower screens and the detail of their manufacture that ensures they are not only easy to fit but easy to clean. During the course of my 2-hour learning session of all things bathroom, many trade customers came and went and the staff knew the names of every one of them. They expertly and happily advised on products, fitting issues and budget restrictions.

They clearly loved their work and it showed.

Once my products had been chosen, we got down to talking money.  They saw this as their mission to beat any quote I’d had – and they did. To be honest, I’d have been quite happy to pay retail prices for that level of service, that level of knowledge and that level of care and enthusiasm. How often do you see that in consumer land, let alone in a B2B warehouse environment? They also were able to recommend 3 fitters, a helping me to shave an additional £1000 off the fitting costs. The clever part of this is that as a trade organisation, they are developing valuable relationships with their trade customers by recommending them and finding them work.

The learning to take from this is to ensure your front-of-house staff are well trained in product quality, recruit people who are passionate about customers and passionate about the products and services you sell. Encourage them to interact with customers and share their knowledge, building loyalty and ensuring people leave with a positive feeling about your brand and what it represents.

It’ll pay dividends. And it certainly did in my case.

The bathroom showroom round the corner won’t be getting my custom and it’s nothing to do with price. They simply weren’t interested in me, or their products. They didn’t bother explaining the importance of the materials used in taps or the inherent problems with shower panels. They only showed me the products in glossy brochures so I never actually got to touch and hold anything they were recommending. They also didn’t explain about guarantees or fitting considerations. In other words they had no differentiation, they are simply selling what every other bathroom showroom also offered – bathrooms. What I was really looking for was expertise, advice care and passion.

That, it seems to me, is a great basis for brand positioning.

How do I find the right words to describe my brand?

To start, here are some words not to use. Trite, clichéd or predictable ones.

‘Quality Value and Service’ all spring to mind immediately as they are often trawled out in the absence of anything else to think of. These offerings are ‘givens’ that your customers have a right to expect and, let’s face it, anyone who fails on these won’t be in business for long anyway.

So how do you go about finding the right words, or more accurately, the proposition for your business?

Simply by analysing your brand in a methodical way. For example, a brand workshop can define your strengths, differentiators and the things that make you special. Basically, it can uncover your brand DNA.

You will then have the right words to describe your business – words that are accurate and compelling, with promises that can be substantiated and delivered.

In conjunction with this, a more in-depth brand analysis programme can look at the shape of your market, the profile of your customers and the current activities of your competitors to show how you can capitalise on your competitive advantage.

The combined result is a clear brand personality and positioning, and this provides the platform for a focused marketing communications strategy. Also, this is something that can ultimately be measured against your company objectives to prove its effectiveness in the marketplace.

So, finding the right words is not only important, it can have a major effect on the success of your brand – and your business.

Every time I go into a supermarket I am bombarded with in-store deals, bogofs, promotional POS’s and not to mention the sample tray that seems to get me every time, all devices attempting to get me to impulse buy, but the thing is not a single item in that list has an effect on me purchasing what they are promoting.

None of it matters to me, I don’t care if there is a 2 for 1 on washing powder or that I will get free crackers if I buy a certain cheese.  If I want something I will get it. I simply won’t be influenced by kapow graphics hanging from the ceiling, and I bet many of the marketeers in FMCG aren’t too bothered either, because what they are actually interested in is me coming back time and again or capturing loyalty.

Now the first thing marketeers think of here is the all dominant loyalty card. It’s effective and also allows the statisticians to monitor your spending profile. Awesome for them to send me vouchers to redeem against buying more cheese and crackers. But bloody annoying for me because I don’t want cheese and crackers this week.

All that money spent on in-store graphics and huge databases to manage loyalty schemes and they are still not building any loyalty with me. So what will?

It’s simple really, and it comes down to a simple yet beautifully crafted human impulse.

The smile.

The smile that some store staff give me at the checkout or when I ask for help.

When it comes to building my loyalty this smile is really important to me, it’s what brings me back time and again.

Why? Because the happiness an employee projects is the confirmation that they are happy, content and supported which makes them the ultimate on the spot brand advocate.

For me this can be the single biggest measure of brand value and has complete influence over my loyalty.

So Mr Supermarket, next time you are looking at your marketing spend, do yourself a favour and invest time and money into the happiness of your employees, and whilst you’re at it remove the self checkouts because most of the time they just get in the way of delivering that all important smile.

We’re really pleased to have been nominated for The Drum Marketing Awards for our work with PetSafe on their Global Strategy. It’s a strong category, with some great brands, and we are very excited to be part of it.

The awards celebrate in-house teams and agencies nationwide and this year there were a record number of entries, many of which caused much debate amongst the judges. Good luck to everyone who’s nominated, we’re off to find our party clothes!

These days launching an operational website is simple. It can take literally minutes to spawn a template frame work ready for populating with content. WordPress, joomla and drupal all let you do this with an efficiency that would make a German jealous. But unless you have a plan for creating great functionality along with content that is engaging and relevant to your communications strategy you are going nowhere fast.

One of the secrets we have discovered on our binary travels is that there isn’t a quick way to build and launch a website. Sure, as smart developers we can recycle code and always build frame work that is quicker to deploy, but when it comes to delivering a complete user experience built on great content there are no short cuts.

Getting the user experience right comes from developing a deep understanding of how your site visitors want to interact with your brand online. This understanding is developed at a strategic level by building a detailed profile of who your site visitors are and what their needs and desires from your website are. Content and functionality, as well as design are of primary consideration to make the user experience fulfilling and deliver the content they are searching for.

When it comes to building engaging content to fill the void in your beautiful new website, not only is there a huge amount of consideration put into creating and publishing this content, there is also the time it takes a client to gather the resources that must be considered.

Micro detail such as how many input fields a form has or how a sentence reads can be affected by the knowledge published in a profile, and the time you invest into helping the client build content can take considerable effort.

Documents and decisions that effect the design process in this way just can’t be automated and written in an instant, they are detailed, insightful and truly valuable.

I’m on a stag do in Edinburgh this weekend and I was reminded of the old adage ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’. Now, I don’t have anything to worry about but it did make me think ‘is that even possible these days?’

With numerous ways of sharing what’s going on, from Facebook, to Twitter, YouTube and FlickR; can you really guarantee that events from a weekend like this won’t appear in the digital sphere in one form or another?

The simple answer is that you can’t. Details that paint you in a bad light will inevitably appear online and it’s up to you whether you acknowledge what is being said, or just ignore it. Personally, from a reputational point of view, I think that you should front up and embrace it, join the conversation. Only then can you exert any kind of control and persuade people you’re not really like that, that you’re a good person who sometimes get things wrong. And you never know, you might even learn something and get something out of it.

I think this same logic applies to brands. Online right now, people are talking, sharing stories and posting videos/photos about your brand. These might be negative stories, but they present an opportunity to demonstrate your brand values and build your reputation. You should be reaching out to them, embracing them and engaging with them – changing perceptions.

Lots of brain bending and furious note scribbling happing to day in the boardroom. You can read more about the value of Profiling here

Working with SMEs of all shapes and sizes, one of the things that continues to amaze me is how smaller businesses often consider branding as the sole reserve of large companies. Why is this? Further investigation leads me to conclude it is because they misunderstand what branding actually is, that is they consider branding as simply a form of marketing, a visual way of helping a company stand out.

By discovering what their brand is about and in doing so, understanding the importance of branding to their company’s success, they are often left amazed they managed without a clearly defined brand.

What is branding?

At Clock we refer to brand as the DNA of a company. It is the essential component that enables everyone within a company to work together to form a cohesive strategy. Without a clearly defined and understood branding strategy, a company struggles to deliver a cohesive customer experience.

So if branding is so critical why are so many companies being run without a brand strategy?

Often it is simply because they have never had it, therefore they don’t know they need it. The point they discover their brand lacks focus is when they find themselves competing on price and are struggling to stand apart.

We work with many companies who are seeking to define their brand positioning.

They are looking to uncover what differentiates them. What makes them distinctive and what makes them compelling to customers.

Business consultants would consider this their territory. The point is brand strategy and business strategy share the same territory. Done properly, they go hand in hand – by understanding the business vision, the strategic plan and the competitor landscape, the brand strategy is there to clearly and distinctively communicate a company’s relevance.  In other words if a company has a strong, clear, competitive brand positioning it gives customers a ‘shop window.’

SMEs not only need this as much as multi-nationals – they need it more.

They are often operating as ‘bottom-feeders’ – picking up business where the multi-nationals are not interested in going, often because the margins are too small.

By defining their area of specialism or unique operating style or personality, a smaller company can often create a space to sit free of many competitors. And in doing so, command a higher premium for their goods or services.

Now surely every company wants that?

There is nothing quite like receiving print back from the printers. In an accelerating digital world, getting your hands on tangible collateral like this really is quite exciting and always causes a stir in the office, plus the ink smells nice.

On February 15^th we hosted a brand workshop for SMEs who have recently been through a high growth programme at MMU Business School. The workshop aimed to help the attendees consider how a strong brand delivers tangible business benefits, what their brand is about and how to uncover and then exploit their uniqueness. After a brief introduction and some case studies explaining what makes a brand a Superbrand, the ambitious entrepreneurs were put to work considering why their brand should be considered a business Superbrand.

It was quite a revelation to discover that people assume branding is for larger companies and therefore they, as SMEs don’t need to focus on it – it was Clock’s job to change this perception and encourage them to think of their brand as the DNA of their business.

We focused on three areas; Quality, Distinction and Reliability. Using some creative tools (no powerpoint or laptop in sight) we asked them to start answering some fundamental questions about their business to unravel what they sell. Those selling product initially thought they were selling products, when they thought about why their customers buy from them, they soon realized their USP was to be found in the ‘softer’ side of the business, such as their level of knowledge, their bespoke solutions etc. One company provides construction services that save lives, they are an essential part of road transport safety yet they market themselves as engineers. For them, thinking about the emotional elements of their brand rather than only the rational was a real eye-opener. There was an air of concentration in the room and everyone took on the difficult task with great enthusiasm.

There were some fantastic insights revealed, areas for development noted, and one company decided to use the exercise for a training session so their staff “lived and breathed the brand as well”.

As a conclusion to the event each person was invited to talk through their board and their findings. Judging followed with prizes for the top three brands – first prize was a copy of the Superbrands Annual, which we hope will prove inspirational for the winner.

The event was run in conjunction with NW Insider Magazine and the MMU Business School. A full write up of the event will be featured in NW Insider in their March issue.

This morning I popped in to see a client to go through a few important details regarding an exhibition stand we are working on together. It was an 8.30am meeting so I stopped off at a local cafe and picked up two Cappuccino’s for us.

The client was over the moon to have been bought a fresh coffee and more importantly thought of in a way that friends would think of each other.

He was happy, we made some excellent decisions about the exhibition booth and I left an hour later with the sun shining and us both feeling happier about the day.

Looks like the the Ramsbottom space program is moving forward. We have a funny suspicion it is to be powered with beer from the micro brewery.

An interesting question was posed to us in the office this morning: what has been the best brand repositioning from the last 10 years? Immediate thoughts were around the obvious; Apple, Skoda, mobile phone technology. But when Paul suggested the Royal Family that got us all thinking.

Although we can’t walk into a shop and buy some ‘Monarchy’, They are quite clearly a brand that has managed to reposition themselves within the public’s hearts.

Most of this is down to William and Kate, the hype around the Royal Wedding and the ‘what will she wear’ conversations that dominated a lot of last April (not to mention the bonus bank holiday we all got!).

But on the whole the perception of the Royal Family has changed, given the advances in media recently we are given more access to their lives and therefore see them as people. Buckingham Palace and individual members of the family have Twitter accounts (as well as many spoof accounts) and 51,386 like The Queen on Facebook. TV cameras are following the Queens activities and interviews with her Grandchildren recently shown in a BBC documentary help us see the day to day lives and the hard work they do.

In the run up to the Diamond Jubilee the team around the Royal family have opportunity to cash in on the hype even and help secure their position as a the British Brand.

The balcony kiss (image via Associated Press).

Hey dad, I know how to work the internet.

Yesterday I spent all morning trying to upload a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file into a table in one of our client’s databases. Yes I know some of you hardcore techies are now sniggering away behind your Skylander collections, and I guess you are right it should have taken me the time to write this sentence to complete, but it wasn’t happening fast and everything I tried threw an error.

Needless to say, this frustrated behaviour continued for a good 2 hours-until a moment of magic happened.

Ray a designer who sits alongside me and was probably fed up with me swearing at my desktop, quietly suggested that I talk him through what I was doing, as a way of working out where the problem was.

Ray said nothing as I calmly talked through the problem stage by stage. By stage 2 in the process it quickly dawned on me exactly why the file had not uploaded correctly and within 30 seconds the data from the CSV file was loaded in to the database.

By simply calming me down and focusing my attention into describing the process in layman’s terms, the problem was quickly solved. Genius!

So why did I not spot this simple error earlier on in the day? Quite simply it was arrogance, driven by the belief that I and only I could solve the problem.

By bottling stuff up and believing you are the only one who can solve the problem can have you stuck fast in a frustration loop.

Frustration loops exist in various guises in many of our clients businesses and we find they are solved much quicker and with less effort when the challenges are shared amongst us.

Being able to share a clients challenges with them, however trivial can lead to new business opportunities and faster more effective results.

The key as Ray demonstrated to me is to say nothing and listen to everything even if you are no expert.

Last weekend I was sorting through some old family photo albums in the loft. Some of the photos date back to 1922 and contain the usual sepia toned family photos of past Aspden generations you would expect.

I love everything about these photo albums, mainly the fact they are tangible and were lovingly assembled by my ancestors.

After I had finished in the loft and precariously navigated the loft ladders, something chilled me to core. It was the stark realisation that when I go, there will be nothing tangible left for my child to physically flick through.

Every photo I have from 1996 onwards is stored in a digital format. I have floppy disks, random hard drives, memory cards, phones and Facebook stuffed with memories, none of which exist in a tangible sense. And although I have this digital catalogue of family photos for future generations to browse through and laugh at, it has occurred to me that there is something physical and very emotive missing in the experience of browsing these photos on screen.

I have realised that the thing I treasure the most about my old family photo albums is knowing that my mum, dad, grandma or granddad, sadly many of whom are no longer here, actually placed that photo and lovingly wrote an entry on the back. Knowing this gives me a real warmth that I think will sadly not be there for my child once I have been tipped off the boat.

Normally we don’t get sky’s like this in Ramsbottom so we had to grab a picture to prove it did actually happen.

Over the last few years I have become – along with the misses – quite a fan of gardening. This will probably shock a few people who knew me before I left my previous job as many will remember me as a big petrol head.

One of the reasons for changing my hobby was that the financial need to support a family far outweighs the need to drive a ridiculously fast car. But the biggest reason, which I later discovered whilst pottering about in the garden, is that I found I could truly switch off from the many digital distractions that switch me on during the week.

Emerging yourself in the digital world is truly tiring. The constant need to understand new technology, new standards, write 1000′s of lines of PHP code whilst tweeting and blogging can be at best, draining. So, to offset this constant binary attack, especially when the weather gives me the opportunity, you will find me at the bottom of my garden, pottering.

During a recent garden escape from things like PHP, jQuery and Linux, Nicola arrived home with some new plants, and to my dismay, I discovered that each plant pot had a QR Code printed in the side. Normally, I would have been leaping for joy at this obviously clever positioning of the medium, but I couldn’t, as the realisation hit me hard that the digital world is now invading my purposely un-digital hobby. And I maybe biased but this for me is all a bit to much. Or am i just getting old?

I’ve just got back fro the US and every time I visit, I’m reminded what great customer service looks like.

I can never work out if it’s just the way the Americans are or if they are very well trained and incentivised. To the reserved English, the glowing friendly and outward American can however seem OTT.

I’m sure the tipping culture provides some focus but it’s much more than that.  I had plenty of occasions to think that they are altogether more positive, friendly and polite than we are, it’s not every country where two young snowboarders would ask if I minded if they drank a beer on the chairlift (although it didn’t run to offering me one) however, there are plenty of folks in the UK who have good manners too – I suspect that there are just a lot less of them.

There are so many instances where I am underwhelmed by the service I receive in the UK that my default expectation is to be disappointed. How fantastic it is therefore on the rare occasions that I am overwhelmed, and how many people do I then tell about it – I can’t stop!

If this is the case then why don’t more companies on this side of the Atlantic give stand out service – it attracts a growing legion of brand advocates,  is the best form of brand development and is just good practice. Standout customer service has to be a major focus for every business that wants to succeed.

Connected white goods have been talked about for years and finally it has become reality. Samsung’s new RF4289 fridge on demo at CES 2012 really moves things along. The thing is, with us all wandering around glued to our mobile devices, is this all a bit to much?

I’m not sure it is. You see the fridge in our house is the central magnetic repository for everything important in our life, from the family calendar to the latest artistic creation from my 3 year old. So could Samsung be leading the start of something that becomes thing to have?

Over Christmas i was asked by a friend how do you embed the video player from Youtube using the iframe method without it sitting on the top of everything in the page and covering up important things like menus.

Now i have never been asked this question before and to be honest i always thought the answer was common knowledge and therefore the reason I had never been asked it. But the person who asked me this question is someone with serious programming pedigree and it made me think, does everyone know you can pass parameters such as ‘wmode’ to YouTube in the iframe URL?

Here is how to do it:

A standard block of code produced by clicking YouTubes embed button will look like this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AwJxQcf426U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you want to tell YouTube to display the video player with wmode=transparent your code should look like this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AwJxQcf426U?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you want to tell YouTube to display the video player with wmode=transparent and to autoplay your code should look like this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AwJxQcf426U?wmode=transparent&autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

A full list of other parameters can be found here

Two huge print jobs are flowing through the agency at the moment and yet again it highlights the need to have knowledge and experience on hand when it comes to printing – especially in large volumes.

Many businesses out there are looking at buying in their own print and management as a cost-saving exercise without understanding the amount of risk they are exposing themselves to.

Without the old-school knowledge and experience that many agencies have developed through years of practice, this gung-ho attitude to printing can quickly turn into a false economy. Just handing over a disc containing artwork is risky business at the best of times, but imagine doing this when you have the quality of £80,000 worth of brand collateral riding on it.

When an agency takes on the responsibility for buying and managing the print, there are many things specifically born out of experience that happen to ensure the finished article looks every bit as good in the final form as it did on the screen.

At the beginning of each job, time is invested into:

• Selecting the right stocks and inks
• Meetings with printers to make sure they are briefed to the best possible standard
• Getting the best price (this is not the same as the cheapest)

At proofing stage:

• Are all pages included in the proof, are the pages in the right order and are page numbers correct?
• Are all images/photos included and in correct placement?
• Do photos and graphics have good contrast?
• Are all fonts correct and is the text crisp and spaced properly?
• Are the margins and page alignment(s) correct?
• Double-check all names, addresses, email/web addresses and telephone numbers
• Double-check spelling and punctuation

When at print:

• Are there dust spots, printing marks, or dirt marks on the sheets?
• Check colour placement and colour consistency throughout the pages
• If you have received a colour accurate proof, are the colours correct?

When printed:

• Measure the final trim size and check folds for accuracy
• Verify any finishing elements such as die-cuts, embossing, foils, varnishes, etc
• Confirm the weight and colour of the final paper stock
• Finally – ask yourself, would you be happy for your name to appear on the piece?

The bottom line is, when you pay an agency to manage your print, you are contracting them to fundamentally manage risk on your behalf – saving you from potentially expensive errors – and, if anything does go wrong they are taking on the responsibility to put it right.

We spotted this hard hitting campaign from Israel earlier this month. It really smashes home the consequences of texting and driving. I really don’t think there are any words to describe how this campaign makes you feel after reading the message.

This morning John one of our designers pointed out that when he tried to call the office by using the telephone number posted on our web page the call immediately failed. It turns out that if we had formatted the phone number as +44 1706 822 888 it would work but we wanted to have it visually formatted as +44 (0) 1706 822 888 which is not recognised by the likes of iPhone or other smart phones.

After some research and fiddling it turns out that the solutions to this problem is quite simple. By using the ‘a’ tag you can add a phone number to your website, keep the format and still make it accessible to smart phones.

Instead of just placing the number on the page you should use the ‘a’ tag and format it like this.
<a href="tel:+44 1706 822888">+44 (0) 1706 822 888</a>
This way the smart phone uses the value of +44 1706 822 888 to make the call whilst still displaying the number on screen in the format of +44 (0) 1706 822 888.

This month sees Clock’s B2B Marketing supplement published in the January edition of the North West Business Insider Magazine.

We take a look at how B2B marketing is changing its tactics in 2012 and provide some insights for success.

“The team are extremely proud of the piece and have worked tirelessley toward its production – It’s a reflection of Clock’s growing stature and clearly demonstrates our passion in helping our clients to drive their businesses forward”. Mark Taylor – Managing Director.

Download B2B//2012

Usually when I stop at a motorway services the only advertising I am receptive to is the kind that promotes the eating of fried chicken. But whilst doing a pitstop on a recent trip to see one of our clients this particular UNICEF campaign really smashed me.

The pairing of treasured Christmas icons such as the tree and stocking with such stark text is powerful and really twists the emotive dial towards eleven.

Apologies for the image quality but taking photos in the gents is something that has to be done quickly.

I’ve been thinking about New Year’s resolutions and decided they’re worthless, no sooner have they been set they’ve been forgotten. So instead, I thought I’d set out our promises, something we passionately believe in and strive for in 2012.

1. We will seek to work with companies who are passionate about and committed to using creativity and strategic planning to impact on their marketing.
2. We will strive to measure effectiveness in everything we do. Even the tricky to measure stuff like PR.
3. We will commit to learning. The marketing landscape is changing fast. We will seek out and try new technologies, methodologies and invest in ourselves.
4. We will look beyond the obvious. Creativity drives everything we do and we will endeavour to challenge ourselves to do more, better and in unexpected ways.
5. We won’t work for free. If a company is committed to a project, they will commit budget. Only then will we engage our brains and expert skill.
6. We will champion effective B2B brand and marketing communications and commit to sharing our experiences and learnings with the business community.
7. We will have fun doing it. After all, we’re doing what we love.

Hopefully in 12 months time we will look at these and say that’s what we did. What are yours?

Three weeks have now passed since a few brave men (and sometimes women!!??) from Clock Creative decided to take part in Movember, the moustache growing charity event held each year during November. Movember raises funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

From a clean-shaven start, we’re now past the halfway mark now and the progress is beginning to affect our personalities – as you can see from our latest update photo.

But we’re not deterred. We still have the remainder of the month to grow and groom our Mos, and it’s time to really kick things into gear to raise some money.

So on that note, please lend your support to the Clock Creative team by visiting http://mobro.co/clockcreative and donating whatever you can spare.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer.

Well, it’s week two of Movember and the ‘taches of Clock are coming along nicely. If nice is the word you could use to describe a moustache that is!! Here are some shots we took yesterday of the work in progress.

It’s easy to donate to this worth while cause – just click this link and give what you can!! :-[)

You can compare this to how we all looked in week 1! All clean-shaven and baby faced! Bit of a change!

Well, it’s finally here. It’s the 1st of November and us Mo Bros have clocked in for Movember. We’ve had our photo taken with clean shaven faces as we begin a month of moustachery. We’ll post regular updates on the blog so you can see how daft/funny/brilliant we look as the month progresses. But really, we want you to visit our Movember page to donate to this wonderful cause! So please visit http://mobro.co/clockcreative and give what you can!