Nation1 digital agency

Social media and preparing for the "scammers"

2012-02-16T13:14:00.003Z

For the last six months, there has been a thorn in the side of one of our social media campaigns, which we have been running on behalf of an ambitious client, eager to buck the economic gloom, invest and try and make a difference. Often I meet marketing directors and entrepreneurs and sell them the benefits of social media, and just as frequently I am told they don’t want to put their head above the parapet. Its all too easy these days for folk that want to make trouble, to make trouble. I have been the victim of such cyber attacks myself. However that taught me how to deal with such nuisances. Bottom line, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. Engagement and honesty are key, and you need to know that the truth will prevail and the public are no fools.

Here’s a summary of what happened and how we are dealing with it

29th November our Social Media Manager explained to him how the competition worked after a post on our FB page questioning the competition (immediately alarm bells rang). He was happy with it.

6th December - our Social Media Manager sent our Managing Director and him an email telling him our Managing Director would like to talk to him and explain this was a genuine competition (after he again posted he thought this was a fraud) - no reply from him.

3rd January - he posted on the clients Facebook wall he thought it was a scam (for all to see). Not giving any reason for this. Our Social Media Manager emailed him right away explaining that it was not and saying he could simply unlike the page if he wanted to which he replied "Why would I unlike the page just because I think it is a scam, it would be my duty to notify other users and entrants."

16th January – over Christmas Facebook made redundant/deprecated a protocol they asked use to use for our voting app. All the images were taken down bar two (as soon as our Facebook devs received the update, from being subscribed to the Facebook developer blog, this situation was sorted and all photos were put back online: check the Facebook dev blog over xmas for information about this – and if you’re running anything on Facebook, best to keep an eye on this stuff, as they don’t tell you, they just do it). One of the images which came down was his. He emailed asking if this was the final gallery, full well knowing the comp rules. our Social Media Manager told him no that we just had to upload the pictures again - no reply.

19th Jan – he emailed thanking us for the Ikea vouchers we sent him and asked for an email address to send a thank you email to the client, and again asked when the voting for the grand prize started. our Social Media Manager didn't reply to this as he had answered this question before and I didn't want to give the contact details of the CEO of our client.

Here’s what he wanted, what he was getting at, what his objective was all along: I will be seeking compensation for the potential value of the contract which are as follows:

1.Return flights from London to Miami with Virgin Atlantic

7 Nights Stay at the Dream Hotel South Beach, Miami,

£1000 Spending Money

2. £7,000 in the form of a cheque

Companies need to try and not be afraid of guys like this, who are hell bent on making trouble and cashing in. Its all to easy also to burry your head in the sand and hope it will go away.

Here’s a quick heads up of how we are dealing with this

We have not deleted any of his posts from Facebook, instead replied quickly and honestly.

We have responded to every email sent, within 4 hours

We have kept detailed notes of every interaction and have a file saved in chronological order

I, as Managing Director of the agency responsible for the campaign have emailed him three time, politely asking to chat about his concerns, each time the invitation has been made in writing by email.

Our client has been kept informed throughput, from the very first post to the most recent threat and demand, as have our lawyers, who speiclise in social media, advise companies like Facebook and Google and are one of the biggest firms in the world.

We brought this to a head today, before the competition heats up too much and we get to close to the final (we don’t wan this taking away from the fact that our client has invested so much in making this a success)

Finally we have got it out in the open and been totally honest about what has happened, including what we did wrong and where we dropped the ball.

Lets hope for the sake of everyone concerned that this is the end of it, however should this continue we are prepared on all fronts to take this head on.

Change nothing, and nothing will change...

2012-01-24T16:59:00.004Z

Tesco have issued their first profit warning in over 20 years with their new CEO stopping short of blaming global expansion and out of town hypermarkets. Philip Clarke has promised over £500m investment in core UK operations refocusing the retailer on fresh produce and customer service. Hitting their bottom line.

As an active member of Scotland's Entrepreneurial Exchange (a network for growth focused businesses in Scotland with £1m turnover or more) I had the honor of often sitting next to a captain of industry or multimillionaire businessman (or woman).

When in such great, experienced and successful company it's hard not to ask, "how did you do it?"

Each and every one of them cited the same things:

Passion, Determination, Never giving up, Belief (adding being in the right sector, at the right time selling something people wanted to buy)

But dig a bit deeper, normally after the main course, a few glasses of champagne and before the evening’s speakers start and you get a ‘money can't buy’ lesson on how to grow a business.

Empire building, the downfall of some of the greatest companies ever created. There are so many examples of good companies, that focused on a core proposition, aligned their human resources and marketing to deliver this proposition, built formidable reputations and became great (RBS, STV, AOL) BUT instead of remaining great, they refocused on growth, on empire building. Often fueled by greed (delivering investor returns) ego or both the company failed to remain great. They simply became big, having lost focus, passion and self-belief.

Will Tesco agree they have fallen into this group, recognise that it is a great British retailer and retreat from their global campaign. Or will shareholder greed and senior management ego drive the business to pursue growth in developing economies where it has no experience of operating in, a corporate culture that is at odds with regional attitudes and a one size fits all approach that doesn't cater for local appetites?

Empire building is very much a phenomenon of the post Thatcher entrepreneur, big is best; where turnover, office size, location and staff numbers are seen as a measure of success. I don’t know how many times prospective clients in a pitch process asked me: what’s your turnover, where are you based, how many staff do you employ. The ironic thing is, today most of the agencies we lost out to back then, because they had big turnovers, with glorious offices populated by payroll, are now bust. Gone forever. Nothing more than a name check on the ‘100 Greatest Ads Ever’ TV show and subject of folklore and old skool stories.

At Nation1 we understand change is inevitable even essential - no more so than in the fast moving world of digital. Great businesses have always challenged the way things are done, and have been brave enough to challenge this and change this forever. Nation1 today, officially, launches our new, industry disrupter business model by being the first agency (yes that’s true by the way) to accept the new economy and adapt the agency to accommodate the fact that clients want something different: flexible, scalable, nimble, agile, responsive teams that are able to provide professional advice with no bias or hidden agenda.

We’ve shut our physical offices, we’ve handed back the keys and we’ve sold all our furniture. We’ve binned the server (it was out of date, a few months after we bought it anyway) and moved all core services and process to the cloud, we made all but five of our staff redundant and re-employed the best on a pay as you go project by project basis, we’ve hunted high and low (and managed a number of recruitment and procurement rounds across the UK) to assemble the best in breed with regards to human resource and digital talent, we’ve handed over equity to senior players and we’ve refined our offer to focus on products and markets, we’ve incentivized our teams so their interests are our interests which are our clients interests (and vice versa) and we’ve aligned our resources an award winning standard at competitive costs.

It was one hell of a roller coaster ride but today Nation1 is a lean, mean effective marketing machine that can count Barclays, Grant Thornton, CitizenM and Glasgow City Marketing Bureau as clients.

The final step in this initial journey is to launch our new positioning. Our new website(s) go live in February promoting our three core specialisms:

Nation1: (DIGITAL CONSULTING) joining up the digital dots by offering high end, top level KPMG style consultancy (but digital) exclusively for financial institutions and professional services firms. This is where our senior team (consisting of: strategy/planning, creative, social, search, mobile and media) help these guys (at a senior management and/or board level) get their heads round the fast changing digital economy, what this means for them, how it will affect their business, what they need to do and organizational change to be implemented to make the most of it. Joining up the digital dots (both internally across different departments and externally over multiple agencies) to deliver efficiency and maximize returns.

Great British Mobile: (UK RETAIL APP) after the successful development and distribution of the iPhone and Android destination retail apps for Glasgow, we have further developed the app (which includes GPS store listing, real time offers, in app advertising, local retailer offers, push notifications, local events listings and local business listings) so that for the fixed price of £9,950 other cities, shopping Centre’s and destinations can have their own version of the app (both iPhone and Android) with their branding, data and local information.

Shoreditch Social Club: (SOCIAL MEDIA FOR RETAIL) its not just about stats and numbers, its about engagement and sales. We’re focused at turning footfall and browsing consumers into active shoppers and purchasers. By taking the day to day headache of social media away from retailers who don’t have an in house resource, managing their central and regional Facebook and Twitter activity making sure every mention is handled professionally. For retailers that have social covered and a full time skilled resource in house our team can bring local and central teams and agencies together helping them work smarter, delivering more effective, creative and engaging campaigns. Added to this we deliver training, support and best practice as well as helping the biggest names on the high street manage their different agencies, recommend where they should be and how to get there, delivering cost effective strategy and resource management offering solutions that deliver commerce.

Keep you eyes peeled for our new websites; email marketing and social media activity kicking off this spring followed by the launch of our events and PR campaign across London in September.

If you are a bank, professional service provider, retailer or destination give me a shout to find out how Nation1 can take your headaches away EMAIL ANDREW

People don't give a shit about burgers

2011-10-25T10:11:00.003+01:00

I remember meeting the CEO of a leading UK car rental business two years ago selling him the idea that he should set up a Facebook page with a competition to spot branded vans around the country to win prizes.

He was impressed, intrigued and equally terrified. The old "don't put your head above the parapet" mentality….

Nowadays it seems everyone is jumping on the Facebook bandwagon (and this could be Facebook’s downfall. Maybe, just maybe). According to recent research kids are now far more likely to engage with social content via their Blackberry messenger service or Twitter. After all its not very cool to be on a website where your gran is your friend. But Facebook’s downfall: I have faith that the guys at Facebook HQ will sort this current trend out and come up with some killer creative app that addresses the "granny effect".

It always astonishes me how clever people fail to get their heads around so-called technological advances. Social media is really the same as handing out leaflets or advertising in the paper. You wouldn't buy a billboard and shove one of your daughter’s nursery school paintings on it to promote your law firm, so why do so many companies feel its OK to adopt the digital equivalent online. A bad social media presence is far worse than no social media presence at all and once its up - who is going to manage it, update it, engage with your fans and followers through it and what's your KPI and ROI etc etc etc

I was sitting with the CEO of Trident Insurance (a Nation1 client) showing him how Facebook worked and what other brands are up to. So many (that should know better) are getting it dangerously wrong. Take McDonalds for example http://www.facebook.com/McDonaldsUK. One of the biggest brands on the planet and they have only 38,635 UK followers. Their Facebook wall is a dreary list of old adverts special offers and a countdown to the re-launch of the Big Tasty. There are few user comments and no real engagement. Even Ministry of Sound are pretty piss poor (and they should know much better. Tut tut guys)

It seems the amount of "Likes" you get is the measure of success. The other day BA announced "hurrah we have 100,000 likes' I posted the following comment: “Not very good to be honest. U have more staff than that. Ur FB page needs an injection of creativity and social engagement” I then got this comment in reply: BA usually responds (and fast) to negative comments posted on its wall. It’s been almost an hour since yours and there is still radio silence. There were not even comments from other people after that. Except for the number of employees (I checked), you are right! I cannot believe you left BA speechless”

To punt insurance for Trident we developed www.facebook.com/therealtrident. The idea is simple: everyone loves showing off their homes and people love looking through the keyhole. Known within the building industry as "house porn”. So we teamed up with Ikea, Stirling Akroyd the London estate agents, The Delano in Miami and Virgin Atlantic to offer the best photo submitted of home made interior design a holiday worth £10,000. Monthly winners get Ikea e-vouchers. Added to that we are using our wall as a destination for all things cool about design, interiors and architecture, aggregating stuff from other sites and inviting guest bloggers to get involved with style tips and advice. Most importantly we headhunted a guy that loves interiors, design and architecture to run it all for us - not some social media executive.

As a wee aside its worth pointing out anyone that is looking to run a ‘Like’ campaign on Facebook that you now need to develop an app to run this, as Facebook don’t want you using their own functionality.Facebook have recently been taking down pages that don't follow their new T&C for pages and competitions.

Social media is all about creative ideas that get people engaged and following through, with openness and integrity. Use your nut, get all your employees involved (if THEY can't be arsed - forget it), integrate your email marketing and blog. Support it through your PR and advertising. Set objectives, measure them and incentivise staff and customers for getting involved.

People don't give a shit about burgers, insurance or rental cars. So you need to give them something to talk about, to share, to get involved with. Its the same as the old billboard: come up with a great creative idea and the rest runs like clockwork (in fact with Facebook, come up with a killer core creative idea and sit back and watch them do it for you).

Club nights and porn stars

2011-09-12T21:28:00.004+01:00

That’s the end of summer, officially. I have had the best summer of my life. I kick started the journey with the opening parties on Ibiza in June, followed by a weekend in Amsterdam (to meet a client!) a few more trips to Ibiza, ten days in Barcelona, ending on a high by hanging out with Sharleen Spiteri and partying on a yacht in Ibiza.

As much as I’m name-dropping and showing off, there is a point to this.

Back in the day, when I was working in the murky world of nightclubs in Glasgow, you’d be hard pressed to find a venue in Ibiza that didn’t have as its star attraction a UK super club as resident: Cream, Gatecrasher, Ministry of Sound, Twice as Nice, Clockwork Orange and Renaissance were the big boys. Blag a guest list to any one of the islands top mega venues today and you’ll be hard pushed to find a Brit on the dance floor, let alone the line up. If club promotion is one the most innovative and creative breeding grounds for great marketing ideas (where anything goes and client sign off just doesnt exist): what does this say about the future of the UK’s creative community?

It’s a popular belief (and one I agree with) that the great innovations on the marketing front start with porn, infect the clubs, evolve into music and spread across brands.

A great example of this is how the porn studios are giving away total free access to their content, setting up aggregator sites with full access to some of their most popular work and promoting that content across a range of ‘white labeled’ gallery sites making it look as it the content has been illegally uploaded or stolen. The viewer therefore feels as though they have got one up and something for free and tell their friends about their discovery.

Last year, Spanish mega club Supermartxe (who now own the Friday night, top billing, Ibiza residency at Privilege - the worlds largest club which can hold 14,000 people) decided they needed to do something amazing to spread the world they had this enormous space to fill. What they did was employ one of the worlds top dance producers to create a chart topping dance track (that still gets airplay across the worlds clubs and radio stations today).This track advertised the club, location, launch date etc within the lyrics. Next they asked media whore and global IT girl Paris Hilton to strut about a $30m Miami style MTV Crib surrounded by beautiful dancers taking the piss out of the track and herself with a severe helping of glamour and style. Finally they seeded the video across influencer blogs and forums worldwide. Everyone from No.1 blogger Perez Hilton to the pop fans on Facebook commented, tweeted, re-tweeted, followed, embedded, ripped and downloaded the stuff. They encouraged people to rip apart, rip off, reproduce and remix everything. The content went viral, spread like a Trojan Virus and the super-club still own top billing in Ibiza today.

Some time ago, when Nation1 were developing the marketing material for our annual legendary Halloween bash we asked the sponsor if we could use their TV advert and cut in our own footage to create a video that promoted the event but was in keeping with the theme and their brand. The response was, “there is no way you can touch our brand assets.”

This is the moral of the story and the reason for my showing off and name-dropping (well actually there is no excuse or reason for that!) Today and for the foreseeable future, to be successful in the social space you MUST accept that you are not longer able to control your brand, like a Nazi the way you once did. Brand guidelines should be rewritten and replaced with ‘my brands guide to letting it all go”. To really succeed in social you have to develop the platform, create the social object , stimulate interest, engage the audience and ignite the imagination. Then sit back and accept what happens next, happens next. The respect you get for this will be far greater than the protection you achieve from over the Gestapo style controls.

I ‘like’ the Pepsi group on Facebook and I was surprised to see that when they asked the question on their wall last Friday evening “Pepsi Movie Night: stay in with a Pepsi tonight but what’s your movie choice?” as well as the typical posts like Twilight Saga and Star Wars etc someone posted Lesbian Dildo Sluts. Pepsi did not edit this out or remove it.

Search has become so competitive and AdWords is so expensive that social is a great alternative, if done right. Make sure you do it right.

Whilst I have been enjoying the good life, the Nation1 team have been working hard to ensure its also been a great summer for the agency: MacLean Electrical (one of the worlds leading component suppliers to the oil and gas sector) returned to ask us to develop a brand, website and marketing campaign to launch and promote their new Lighting and Energy design company. Top five global accountancy firm Grant Thornton appointed our senior management team to work alongside them in a consultancy capacity to develop a digital strategy for using social media to target new customers and build deeper relationships with existing clients. Trident Insurance’s social media project created and executed by Nation1 was a resounding success with the client re-appointing us for another 6 months to develop and evolve the activity. And the online marketing campaign by Nation1 for SocietyM (the business club concept from award winning Dutch hotel group CitizenM) has smashed all targets set and keeps on growing.

Nation1 also celebrated two years in London this August (how time flies) by teaming up with Richard Draycott and Gordon Young of the Marketing Industry Network and Harry Fowler of Cogs Agency to put on a mid-summer piss up at The Light Bar on Shoreditch High Street. With access to a private outdoor courtyard, free bar, stunning weather and deep blue skies the event was a perfect way to celebrate with friends and clients, old and new a successful start to our London adventure.

Keep on growing.

Check out the pics here from our summer party here

Check out the Supermartxe track here (Youtube)

The future's bright, the future's social

2011-07-30T12:46:00.008+01:00

We have all known for some time that social media is changing everything, but unlike the advent of the Internet, where the bandwagon was the no.1 place to jump: companies have been more cautious about social media. Here's a wee overview of my thoughts, which have been influenced by the people I have met over the last few months and what they are saying about social media.

Starting with the valuations of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and Linkedin.com etc, I think the general vibe is this is a total bubble and these valuations are over the top. Yes, it is amazing that Facebook has over 500m global customers, and yes just about everyone seems to be on it, added to that it's generating cash and we can see more and more users searching within the network and referring brands and products etc. But my experience of Groupon is pretty poor: do I really want a bikini wax for £9.99 or laser hair removal (7 sessions for £99). Whilst Linkedin.com is popular, I think the advertising team (the guys that sell advertising opportunities within the network) have to get real: a three month campaign targeting London based PAs and CEO's that have connections (an office or large number of contacts) in India (circa 2,500 people) was coming in at more than £60k for Inmail, banner adverts and a branded group profile. And whilst Twitter is amazing and has so, so many uses: how are they really, really going to make vast sums of money - and if they can't, how long will they be propped up by VC funds and optimism about their potential future value/revenue streams?

The value of the above social stuff will depend on two things in my opinion: how many users and how many customers (clients paying money to advertise). I have been pedaling the social media stuff for some time. However it now seems that the penny has dropped. Some forward thinking consumer brands have been doing social, very well for some time, but now it appears the rest are finally waking up to the idea and I'm seeing a handful of forward thinking professional services firm start to dabble in this space for the B2B Market.

Having said all that, I’m not complaining about any of the above. It doesn’t really affect me if Twitter makes money or not, or that Linkedin is overvalued. I’m grateful to all these guys for offering us access to their platforms and the opportunity to use them to speak to our client’s customers directly, for a very low cost (sometimes even free). Like any advertising campaign, you need to be aware of where your audience are and what media they consume, why and when – but really it boils down to your killer creative idea. Wonderbra could have bought just one billboard (in fact I think that’s all they did) for their ‘Hello Boys’ poster, and we still know and talk about it today. Really understanding how these new social media platforms work and how users engage with them is the key to developing a killer online campaign (for a fraction of the cost of a billboard advert)

Last week we launched our first Facebook campaign for a privately owned insurance firm Trident, who have now extended the project well into 2012, next month we launch a social media campaign for top five accountancy firm. At the tail end of the year we step up a gear with our social media work for CitizenM who have chosen to invest 90% of their London launch budget into digital/social. More and more, these guys are getting their heads around the fact that PPC is expensive (it delivers, but reduces your margins, and the more competitive your industry, the more of a hit your margins take) and that SEO takes time and too is highly competitive. Better to create a loyal community of advocates and get them to do the work for you. Until now, it's been a brave man/woman who has turned off the PPC/SEO tap, but that's about to change as agencies become more sophisticated with regards to planning, tracking and execution and clients become more wary of depending totally on Google for their livelihood.

The big agencies are waking up to this also, with most of them on the look out for start up social media shops, that have a ready-made infrastructure and client list,. The big boys are willing to pay a premium for this type of business. But in my opinion, the future doesn't lie in one or the other: it lies in being able to offer clients all the digital stuff, fully integrated, all talking to each other with a killer idea at its core, driven by awesome content.

For some time now we have been building Nation1 Digital (our social media division), which offers all of the above and more. I have spent the last 12 months hunting down the best talent to work with us; from the guy that sorted out Eurostar's social media meltdown last Christmas and advised BP to the best professional services team for Linkedin.com B2B prospecting. But just like every marketing campaign since that first advert for Pears Soap you need a good idea, or it's simply wall paper, fish 'n chip wrapping or spam.

FREE SEMINAR ON MOBLE: SCOTLAND 21ST SEPT

On the 21st September Nation1 team up with top global law firm Latham & Watkins again to deliver our ‘Apps, stats and the future of mobile’ seminar to our Scottish clients at societyM Glasgow, before we jump across to do the same in Edinburgh as part of Digital Media Week. RSVP glasgow@nation1.co.uk to attend either (tell me which City).

CELEBRATE TWO YEARS OF N1 IN LONON THURSDAY 4TH AUGUST

This Thursday we team up with Marketing Industry Network to host summer party to celebrate two years of Nation1 in London, 6.30pm Thursday 4th August The Light Bar Shoreditch High Street. Click here for more info

To speak to me to discuss how social media can transform your business, or if you simply need someone that knows how to manage your Twitter and Facebook email andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

Celebrate two years of Nation1 in London with Kate Moss

2011-07-11T21:43:00.003+01:00

To celebrate two years of Nation1 in London we have teamed up with Richard Draycott and the guys at Marketing Industry Network and fellow Scot in London Harry Fowler from Cogs Agency to through a wee summer party on the roof terrace of Shoreditch/City favourite The Light Bar. Kicking off in Scottish style with free booze with a warm welcome from our piper for the night; The Caledonian Cowboy followed by xxx on the decks until midnight. Initially our plan was to make this exclusive to Scottish agency folk in London but we figured it would be good to get along some Nation1 clients and friends/supporters to make a real night of it. Entry is by guest list only so make sure your name's on the list by visiting www.nation1.co.uk/summer

Nation1 wins digital support for a threesome with Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Boy George: adding a serious wee bit of glamour to the Nation1 portfolio of clients the Nation1 team will be working on a 6 month campaign, kicking off at The Edinburgh Comedy Festival to support award winning comedians Trevor Lock and Chris Dangerfield with their "Lock in your lounge" project. This innovative format involves Trevor and Chris doing stand up in real living rooms. The Edinburgh Festival gigs will all be from the living rooms of fans across the city followed by a four month tour of the UK with the comedy duo visiting a different lounge every Saturday night between September and December. To receive the event in your lounge punters have to follow the “Lock in your lounge” Facebook page and post a comedy comment. The best comment each week wins the gig. Nation1 Digital will support the activity with social and buzz marketing, Facebook ads, online PR, manage the comedians blogs as well filming all the gigs and seeding them on YouTube and other video sharing sites. "Where's the glamour?" we hear you scream, well already signed up to host the duo in their living rooms are Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Boy George. I have offered to be on site for these key gigs, just to ensure the campaign is going according to plan. I just hope that George has thrown out the padlock and chains, or I could be in for a long night.

Nation1 is also seeking brand sponsors/partners for this project. Contact andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk for a detailed sponsors pack

Apps, stats and the future of mobile

2011-05-30T16:50:00.008+01:00

Waking up with a shaft of sunlight piercing through my bedroom blinds directly into my eye was nothing compared to the pressure of presenting to a packed City crowd at the London offices of one of the worlds largest law firms, Latham & Watkins on 18th May at 0830am. In attendance were some of the biggest brands in the UK including Barclays, Apple, Harrods, Amazon, Sky, Diageo and RBS. No pressure then? See photos of the event click here

What started as a idea to help cement our growing reputation as one of the UK’s leading mobile agencies grew arms and legs and before long our wee report was a 52 page beast with five people working on it, data and research taken from 12 different sources and over 85mb in size. To download our report click here

The idea for all this was borne out of the fact that whenever I went to meet a prospective client to discuss mobile they would ask me the same questions: how big is the app market, what handsets for what audience, what about the different operating systems, what are other people doing and where is this technology going? It became apparent that there was not one definitive go to guide that had all this stuff. So we set about pulling all the research (from Mintel and ComScore etc) and arranging it in a document that would inform and educate as well as provide our clients with a one-stop shop for mobile information, which they could cut and paste to help them formulate their own mobile strategies.

Some of the fascinating information we came across is that there are on average 10 apps on a Blackberry and 37 on an iPhone. Samsung has invested so heavily in production that this year it will probably replace Research in Motion as the globally no.2 smart phone producer shipping 85m units (and has also dropped Android in favour of its own Beda system). 100%, yes 100% of 16 to 19 year olds polled by Forrester said they used their smart phone as their life organsier and couldn’t live without it. There have been over 1b apps downloaded from the Apple store since is launch. 3% of the UK population has an iPad and 2% have another tablet device, 68% of people over 65 have a mobile phone and smart phones make up 16% of the UK mobile market. On average clients are expecting to develop 6 apps this year which is up 183% on last year. 87% of developers now see Cloud connectivity as essential and 28% of app users become loyal using the app more than 10 times.

However the really interesting stuff came from Latham & Watkin who have their own apps on the App Store. Passing off, IP protection, collaboration and privacy were their key themes. Did you know the frightening amount of data your mobile shares, without your knowledge or permission, and the future implications of this? Something that really hit home with me, was that Nation1 need to re-invest in developing our terms & conditions for our mobile work to both cover ourselves and our clients, something we are now working hand in glove with Lathams on. It also struck me that not many app developers will have been exposed to this level of legal insight (as Nation1 was whilst developing this event with Latham & Watkins). That already puts Nation1 ahead of the game and gives us another USP in the mobile game. We now know what clients need to look out fo, how to mitigate risk without impacting on the users experience and are developing a suite of ready made T&C's which can be cut and paste to protect you against issues arising for any cutting edge app stuff we create.

To view the event presentation click here or to download a copy of PART1 of our 10 part report click here

All good stuff. Added to that we have picked up few good leads from the event and forged a great relationship with Latham & Watkins to boot. Given all the hard work that has been done we now plan (together) to deliver the seminar in Scotland on 21st September at societyM (register here on our home page to make sure your on the mailing list for an invitation) and possibly again in London later this year.

To find out how a mobile app can drive awareness, delver sales, develop deeper customer relationship, aid growth or avoid decline and increase your bottom line contact me

Change or die (dramaramma or what?)

2011-05-12T11:18:00.002+01:00

Change: the subject of a seminar I attended this week run by Harry Fowler at @cogstalks. One of the two speakers for the evening was Chris Reed, who presented on a topic that I believe will be more and more relevant over the next few years to anyone still in business. The core theme of Chris's talk was that the world has changed, dramatically and the internet has, largely been the catalyst for that change. Every person in the western world is connected to and affected by the internet and by it's very nature, every time we actively or passively engage with the net we are changing it. After the web achieved initial penetration, followed by rapid mass adoption we experienced the social revolution that was "web2.0" and the creation of global super brands (literally over night) including household names such as Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, Skype, Foursquare and YouTube (all of whom have recently commanded inconceivable multi billion dollar price tags).

With the launch of the iPhone and subsequent competing smart phone products from other manufactures we witnessed the advent of the "always on" phenomenon; where our mobile devices are almost always connected to the net sharing data with other mobile devices and servers all over the world creating a virtual nucleus of information available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Where I am, what I like, who I’m friends with, what I watch, where I go, what I buy, what I listen to and so on is now published almost without me giving it a second thought (don't even start on the privacy issues surrounding apps that "always allow this app to share your location". Something our seminar with Latham & Watkins next week will address)

That's the landscape today. It will be even more radical tomorrow. So what are big businesses doing to adapt to this new world? They are struggling that's for sure. I know as many of them speak to me about the issues they face and the lack of senior management and Board level appreciation of the problem they face, let alone a credible solution. Some of the more forward thinking firms have brought in in-house social media guys and set up listening centres (BT, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic to name but a few) but this merely paying lip service to the trends, not tackling the issues. A few have empowered an elite gang to manage their Twitter and Facebook stuff and a cackle of agencies have been retained to support the in-house teams effort. But this is literally like painting over the cracks of the Fukushima power-plant, post Tsunami with one coat of B&Q matt egg shell emulsion.

What organisations really need to do is reinvent themselves from the core. Their values, culture, organisational structure, process, reporting and communications. Most Boards employ a "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mentality, which means many will leave it too late and the stalwarts of the FTSE100 will soon be replaced by a new breed of businesses that place the consumer at the core. There is only one question ever asked at Google, which underpins everything they do: "Is this good for the user?" if the answer is YES, then it's good for Google. These new businesses will have their data stored in the cloud, employees will have an interest in the success of or equity in the business. Decisions will be devolved downward with a flatter more "dandelion" approach to organisational structure and everyone that is part of the company will be empowered to engage with consumers/clients and communicate on the corporations behalf using social channels. Call centres will be obsolete and social media type stuff will replace the way we engage with brands. All of this will be tracked and transparent with every consumer being an editor with the power of a front page journalist.

So what are you doing to deal with this, and are you really going to wait until it's broken to fix it?

In September 2011 Nation1 will launch our consultancy service, employing people at the top of their game, with a proven track record in this sector offering an Anderson/KPMG/Bain style approach to management consultancy and change management, with digital at it's core specialising in getting FTSE250 companies get ready for the digital future that's already par of our every day lives. To find out more or get us in to discuss what we do, how we do it and the outcomes we will achieve drop me a line

Nation1 launches digital marketing team

2011-04-15T13:32:00.005+01:00

In January Nation1 officially launched Nation1 Mobile, after successfully building our client base and team over the last 12 months, delivering apps for Barclays, The Style Mile and Hospital Club. Next we are proud to announce the launch of Nation1 Digital; which delivers project based, niche digital marketing campaigns and B2B social media activity.

The first major win for Nation1 Digital is SocietyM, CitizenM's new business/office concept which is being trialed at their Glasgow hotel ahead of roll out across the group. The project sees the Nation1 team work hand in glove with the clients award winning Amsterdam based branding agency Kessels Kramer. Our team will develop the SocietyM website, direct the clients in-house team on social media strategy and manage all PPC and SEO around the project.

Added to the above London based Trident Insurance has retained the Nation1 Digital team to develop a new brand, website and digital marketing campaign targeting London based Gay professional men. The digital campaign, which launches this month across London is also supported by an innovative guerrilla media plan that includes washroom panels, mirror stickers, event sponsorship and beer mats with QR codes - all with location specific creative and copy. Online PR and social media will compliment the activity.

Adding a serious wee bit of glamour to our trio of clients wins the Digital team will be working on a 6 month campaign, kicking off at The Edinburgh Comedy Festival to support comedians Trevor Lock and Chris Dangerfield with their "Comedy in your living room" project. This innovative idea involves Trevor and Chris doing stand up in competition winners living rooms. Nation1 Digital will support the activity with social and buzz marketing, Facebook stuff, online PR, blogs, filming the gigs and seeding them on YouTube and other video sharing sites. "Where's the glamour?" I hear you scream, well already signed up to host the crazy duo are Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Boy George. I'm going to make sure I get invites, just to ensure the projects going according to plan. I just hope that George has thrown out the padlock and chains, or we could be in for a long night.

Finally, to cement our growing position as one of the leading mobile app agencies in the UK, Nation1 mobile is launching a report on "Stats, apps and the future of mobile" on the 18th May at 08.30 at Latham & Watkins LLP , 99 Bishopsgate, London (map). We have teamed up with Latham & Watkins, one of the largest law firms in the world, to offer clients a broad overview of what's going on with the smartphone market and what the future holds for apps. If you fancy coming along (it's totally free) email me

We all have something to say. Be different. Listen.

2011-04-04T22:24:00.002+01:00

Bare with me, i have a point about digital marketing here: for some reason BT have been sending my bills to the flat next door. My neighbor dropped by to give me a nasty red letter (obviously guilt ridden that he had caused this by not passing on the others). I called BT to pay by credit card and was told I have to pay an additional £28 reconnection and £7.50 for late payment. Aghast, I explained that they had never cut me off (or I would have known) and they were sending the bills to the wrong place etc etc. To my astonishment (and I did have to laugh) the guy on the phone told me "it's just your good luck sir we never cut you off." How can they charge me for doing something you never actually did? And so this saga went on, with the employee continually referring me to BT's terms and conditions. The end result being that even the supervisor couldn't do anything, but repeat BT's terms. After three phone calls, an email and a good hour or two wasted I was no further forward, but mighty pissed off and now had a point to prove.

Enter social media, stage right.

So, being a tight Scotsman, prone to a good moan about things that wind me up, I tweeted about this outrage. No less than fifteen minutes later I had a reply. Someone, somewhere, with a greater appreciation of how much it takes to acquire a customer then to retain one, and with enough seniority to make immediate decisions, offered to fix the problem for me. Next day I received an email confirming all the charges have been refunded. My next bill arrived and there were the charges, and on the reverse page there they were again as deductions. Net effect, I didn't have to pay more than I did before the saga started.

Lesson: big business is starting to listen and things are changing.

Social media is the future; some reports say that it will be more widespread than email within the next five years. I can already see signs of this with some firm’s trialing private social networks to manage conversations with their customers and develop deeper relationships. Other wee examples include my mate who manages and swaps his shifts with other Virgin Atlantic crew across the UK via Facebook.

I'm 35 and my mates and I all use social media. My niece is 3 and there is one thing for sure, she won't be calling BT on the phone to sort out her bills when she goes to Uni. In fact I'm pretty sure we won't have call centers full of individuals managing one specific function within a company. The call centre employee of the future will work from a mobile devise, based in a coffee shop with the agility answer all your enquiries and deliver a delightful experience. Well, there will still be the odd ball that doesn't play the game. Banks and businesses will use their own niche social media environments to keep in touch, manage services, communicate and feedback. In fact many of these will integrate with each other and ALL will be accessed via mobile devise. With the introduction of SIM authentication, store cards and credit cards will be replaced with the mobile phone. Integrate social media feeds and stir in some forward thinking and the next big thing could be created by you and just round the corner.

So what are you doing to prepare yourself for the inevitable?

One thing we are getting asked to do a lot of at the moment, from services firms, to publishers, banks and FMCG brands is strategy: “look at what we have, what our competitors are doing, tell us where’s its at and help us formulate a plan for where we’re going”. The senior management team at Nation1 now cover: creative, social media, online PR, mobile, digital media, web design, development, search optimization and digital media planning. Each of the team joins Nation1 from a high profile position with an impressive track record and real life experience of their chosen specialist subject.

If you would like to chat to Nation1 and unlock the experience of our cream team and ensure your business is well ahead of the curve, give me a shout (via twitter, naturally @andrewnation1)

Nation1 picks up Thomson Reuters account

2010-11-30T22:38:00.003Z

Thomson Reuters has appointed Nation1 to run a social media campaign promoting the services of its wholly owned subsidiary, Contact Law.

The initial campaign, which is due to launch over Christmas, will target the area of employment law. At its core will be a campaign-specific website that will feature top tips on the most popular questions and topics surrounding employment law with the objective being to promote a more approachable face of Contact Law. Each of these top tips will be brought to life by a three minute video filmed by BefourCreative at Glasgow’s newest hotel, CitizenM.

Contact Law works as a referral system, with more than 5,000 solicitors located throughout the UK who can help individuals and businesses in all areas of law. These include family, employment, litigation, commercial, personal injury, will & probate, immigration and conveyancing.

As part of the campaign, a blog will also be set up providing more detailed advice and tips on each of the featured subjects within employment law. Online PR will be used to maximize the volume of the campaign, and Twitter will be used to target anyone Tweeting about employment issues and unhappy workers. This will enable Contact Law to engage with them with a view to building up a loyal following and reputation online as being the no.1 place to go when looking for an employment lawyer specialist.

Dan Watkins, founder and Director of Contact Law, said of the campaign; “We invest a considerable amount of money each month in online and offline and we are keen to see if the social media approach will deliver strong results.”

The campaign for Contact Law is one of two campaign wins for Nation 1. The agency is also developing a new website for Scottish based networking club, Thrive. The brief is to communicate the key benefits of joining Thrive for business whilst promoting the personality, warmth and culture of the company through the design. The back end of the site is bespoke and pretty complex. It allows members to network, send messages within the site to people they want to connect/network with, promotes sales and referral opportunities between members as well as provide access to past and future events and a speaker and members database.

Amanda Kremer, MD and Founder at Thrive said, “I have known Andrew for some time and like his approach. So far the team have bent over backwards to accommodate our needs. We love the designs created and the functionality of the site will help take our business to the next level. We look forward to launching our website with Nation1 before the Christmas break.!”

Gatorade take the biscuit

2010-11-16T14:28:00.005Z

This morning (Tuesday 16th Nov 2010) I attended a really interested (and well attended) breakfast run by Out-law.com at Pinsent Masons HQ in Clerkenwell London. They claim to have had over 1,000 people register for the event at their offices across the UK and it shows that clients are finally waking up top social media and realising they have to be where their customers and and get down and dirty with them on their level (or risk being left out inn the cold or worse still, irrelevant).

The guys presenting did a good job using case studies to highlight their points (the main focus being legal and IP issues surrounding social media). Businesses are increasingly using social media for sales. The example given Starbucks has 16m social media following on Facebook (sixteen million followers!) so they are using this (and their Twitter) to send out vouchers and promote/test new products/flavours as well as invite followers to provide valuable feedback.

They spoke about humanising a brand and Robert Scoble who blogged passiomnatley about Microsoft in 2001 and did such a good job that they employed him to be the friendly face of the firm. Another US example is using social media to build good will, and the CEO of on-line shoe retailer Zapos who tweeted about his great customer service. The business was later sold to Amazon.com for mega bucks ($billions).

Next the spotlight was turned on the concept of crowd sourcingh. (tow popular platforms being zopppa/crowdspring) and the example they used was the recent new Gap logo (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11520930) some cynical people in the audience said they thought this was a massive PR stunt. No disrespect but i really don't think any PR agency could have cooked up such a master plan and had the ability to get the client to agree, let alone a listed business to have the balls to do this. No way. It was a f*ck up, that turned good in the end because of social media and good advice.

The best example as far as i was concerned the guys gave this morning was Gatorade (in the video above). Awesome vision by the client and because of this, gives them incredible insight into their brand and consumer engagement with it, which can only benefit their marcoms stratecy, far more than any qual/quan research or overpaid agency planning team can deliver.

The final message was to empower your workforce to use social media to speak about your brand: Get them to give advice, steers on products and support. Their followers would see the posative chat and as long as the time invested by employees is controlled this can only be a good, no, great thing. How many of you have the balls to take this bold move through. Be honest! Its important to provide training for those that sign up to such an in-house social media experiment and that you offer a buddy system.

All of thins brings me neatly on to the great news that this week the niche digital marketing team (the guys that do the social stuff at Nation1) have picked up the account for ContactLaw (part of Thomson Reuters). This is a major advance for the mega firm and a bold move into social media. We will be using Twitter, Youtube, Blogs, Forums and on-line PR to drive awareness, trial, repeat business and loyalty and reduce the clients dependency on a massive monthly Adwords spend.

As always, if anything in this post takes your interest, i am only to happy to tell you more and show you how Nation1 can and is helping an increasing number of clients take advantage of this great new media.

Samsung takes on Apple (at last)

2010-11-02T22:34:00.004Z

The countdown to Christmas has arrived. Christmas songs in the shops, decorations going up and the annoying ads on TV, but this year Christmas is kicking off with a fight and a fight that many of us have been eagerly waiting for.

I attended a conference in London this summer run by Grant Thornton and they had the head of product design at Samsung speaking. He explained that the top brass as Samsung are obsessed with Apple. Everything they do, is driven by the need to one day be better than their US competitor.

If the press is anything to go by, that passion and drive might have finally paid of with the Samsung Tab widely accepted to be the first credible rival to Apples i-pad, with a built in camera and ability to make calls the Tab employs a lot of the things you wanted and expected for the i-pad, but Apple omitted.

Running off of Google Android the Tab will also be developer friendly with Samsung already having developed its own suite of Apps.

Now with more than 200,000 apps on i-tunes developing an app for the Tab in Android seems like a shrewd tactic.

Windows also launches its app store this month, but so far the dev community had been slow to take up the offer to create apps for the Microsoft platform. However Windows do have the ability to through cash at the platform until it takes off, so don’t write them off just yet (as many people have, before they even launched).

So who will win the fight this Christmas: Apple of Samsung? Bookies are all betting on Apple and most devs would agree, however at last we have a fight worth watching and for clients who are ready to move into the app space the emergence of Samsung as a contender for the tablet crown does provide the opportunity to steal a march on their competition if they get in early and develop a class app for the Tab.

If you’re interested in speaking to us about developing an app strategy you can contact me andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

Smash Martians take the top prize at Nation1 Halloween Ball

2010-11-02T22:27:00.008Z

When Miss Gaga appeared on stage at this years Nation1 Advertising Legends Halloween Ball nobody was prepared for live vocals backing dancers and a stage show equal to the quality of the real thing.

Miss Scotland and Paolo Nutini certainly approved, as did all our other VIP invited guests. An honorable mention to our prize winners: The Ready Brek Kid who won the Harvey Nichols pamper day, The Baby Bio girl who won dinner for two at Corinthian, The Smash Martians who will both enjoy a days extreme sports at Xscape and the Virgin Atlantic crew who won best ‘advert’ and will enjoy a cocktail mixology session at LA bartenders.

A massive thank you to Tartancat who managed our Twitter campaign, Kelly Cooper Bar who helped us with the guest list, Finx who provided the AV and lighting, LA bartenders who kept the free cocktails flowing, DJ Josh Barr and comedian Chris Henry, Shearer Candles, Luke at Befour who filmed the event and Mutely and the gang at SWG3 our venue for the night. Lastly a massive thank you to Julie Cuthbertson
Office Manager at Nation1 who was the gel that pulled it all together.

It takes a lot of pull off this event and we are delighted that everyone that made the effort to brave the harsh Glasgow weather on a cold October night had such a great night.

Here’s to 2011 - get your thinking caps on now: new theme Goths and Neds

Check out all the PICS here CLICK HERE

Check out the VIDEO here CLICK HERE

Integrity will be your shield.....

2010-10-14T20:17:00.003+01:00

I went to see Wall St last week at Canary Wharf. Loads of guys in suits at 8pm on a Friday night (some I reckon got changed into the suits to come see the film).

In any event: the film really got me thinking - we have allowed ourselves to tolerate a world where we are making money on money (or money for nothing). The question everyone asked two years ago: 'where did all the money go' in relation to the trillions the world governments had to inject to save the economy can be answered by the fact that there was no money there in the first place. True wealth was not created; cash was acquired on the back of hedges, trades and bets - that paid off.

The guys in the movie all make a quick buck (or loose it) on the back of betting on the markets, and not one person cares about what they are creating (other than income for themselves). Stone also makes reference to the US vs China debate: with the Wall St guys pitching to the Chinese investors to pump money into oil (to shore up their exposure and make a fast buck) but the Chinese refuse explaining oil is yesterdays news, they are searching for something which will return when their grandchildren are sitting in their place. A somewhat simple but thought provoking comparison between the two financial giants cultural attitude to risk.

This is the moral Stone leaves us with: to make money you must create wealth.

Which brings me on to the question: what is wealth in the new economy? A person surely will not be measured just by how big their house is or fast their car can go. The future wealthy will be those that have created something great and lasting. Bankers will cease to become the masters of the universe and it will be those of us that create great things that become wealthy.

Last week I also met up with a leading media man. He shared his views with me on the media industry and pointed out that in the next 50 years there will be NO media industry, 'we're managing decline' he said. In the future media will simply come to mean the platform people use to share their content. Artists won't need labels, production companies won't need TV channels and brands won't need agencies. The customer will be king, the truth will be his sword and integrity will be your shield.

did you watch the cabin crew demo?

2010-10-12T12:40:00.001+01:00

I stumbled upon this, and thought what a great way to deliver the air safety message. When have you ever seen anyone taking photos and stop and get up to watch the safety message? More brands could take note – do things differently, have some fun, get noticed and be remembered.

which platform do we develop our app on?

2010-10-07T21:01:00.001+01:00

The demand for mobile apps rumbles on, with more and more proposals flying out the door and meetings being set up to discuss the new mobile media; this surely is the future of the web.

Blackberry announced they are going to release a tablet PC to rival Apple’s i-pad with Blackberry’s biggest USP so far being they will run Flash. The arrogance of Apple with their staggered release of tech, never quite making enough to supply demand, ensuing people queue to even touch their products, the way the handled the i-phone4 fault was handled (Jobs telling loyal followers; “just hold it differently’) and the fact Apple don’t recognise Flash as a global media platform, should make for a more level playing field in the tablet war which will inevitably kick off on the run up to Christmas.

As usual it creates that now age old conundrum for clients and their agencies: which platform do we develop our app on. The great thing about the web was it was totally free – as long as you had a computer the web worked. In future the way we consume the web will be dictated by the technology we choose to consume it – call my cynical, but it does appear big business is starting to carve up the web.

Away from the work we are doing with our new Mobile Apps team, Nation1 was appointed by leading Scottish business networking organisation Thrive. The thriveforbusiness.co.uk website – which is a pretty cool bespoke bit of kit (even if we do say so ourselves) integrates with the clients CRM system (Netsuite), promotes their events and allows online booking as well as a tired pricing system for members, non-members and guests, integrates with the members calendar, allows online networking and selling through the business directory, member search, forums and notice boards as well as host of other stuff designed to deliver added value to Thrives members and keep them coming back to the website.

Nation1 launches Indian bank digital marketing campaign

2010-10-05T21:35:00.009+01:00

The brief create and execute a digital marketing campaign that drives qualified traffic to a landing page advertising the highest saver interest rates in the UK, focused on converting visitors to customers of the bank.

The solution baroda Max: think big, think Baroda.

The first thing we had to do is convince a non Asian UK population that the Bank of Baroda is a serious player. Therefore all creative focused on their banking values, their massive 35million strong customer base and the fact they were founded in 1908. Moneysupermarket.com was chosen as the sole affiliate partner and creative was developed around a cute and happy Baroda Max elephant. A logo was developed for the campaign and these assets were then worked across MPU/banners/display, in-branch posters, TV, viral, youtube, press supported by online PR. The Global Chairman of the bank launched the campaign in London with a presentation created by Nation1.

The results over 40,000 online applications in two weeks

Quote: Nation1 and responsive, creative and professional. They are a pleasure to work with, produce world class creative and always meet our objectives.” Abhinav Iyer, Marketing Director UK

be afraid, be very afraid....

2010-09-16T21:02:00.006+01:00

So another week has past, and what have I learnt?

I was in Glasgow tail end of last week: and the more time I spend in London, the more I grow to love and miss Glasgow. I was up for the launch of CitizenM's spanking new hip city centre hotel (www.citizenMglasgow.com). You can tell these guys know their stuff, a lot of thought and preparation has gone into the concept, the brand, its positioning, the offer to the customer, staff recruitment and training. The end result is an impressive stylish experience that genuinely leaves you feeling better than when you arrived. The challenge will be to sustain this quality as the brand grows internationally. Their plans for growth are impressive with London due to open in under 18 months.

More and more my new business meetings are revolving around mobile apps. Its definitely a reflection of the fact we are starting to carve a niche for ourselves in this area and have a proven track record.

One thing that's for sure though, that is that mobile is going to be the next big thing. We currently have four i-phone apps in development and a pipeline of at least a dozen more.

I had an insightful meeting with one prospective client who asked me why you need an app over a mobile version of your website. That is a good question, and one I'm glad I was given the chance to answer. A website provides a task orientated experience (book tickets, buy products, contact someone, get information). An app is perceived to be occupying someone's personal space (i.e. their mobile phone) therefore you get to have a greater depth of relationship with them and they are more likely to 'play' with your brand than simply complete tasks. An app can also work without connection to the internet and can deliver exceptional user experience (UX). An app can also seamlessly integrate with your camera, calendar, address book, phone and increase speed of background processes (and speed is not restricted to your internet connection).

Its important to remember that apps need to add value and provide a premium user experience. In essence they need to make the users life a little bit better.

Its also worth noting that if you're thinking of getting a sponsor for your app: what are you offering the sponsor. Awareness and branding aren't enough, as most brands are bombarded with opportunities on a daily basis. They can pick and choose - what makes your proposition better than a billboard? The best partnerships integrate the sponsor into the functionality delivering a better experience for the end user.

Promote your app with online PR targeting twitter, blogs and forums to generate as much buzz as possible.

….. and don’t forget analytics. App analytics is at the very early stages (some of the key problems are that you cant monitor what’s going on when the app is not connected to the internet), however with some clever kit and tactical tagging – you can set it up so that the analytics bundles off-line activity and sends the pack to Google every time the app re-connects to the internet.

It obviously goes without saying that we can handle all of the above: from scoping the app and helping create the strategy, through to design, development and UX, sponsorship and promotion.

Give me a shout (click here)

Hot off the press is the news that our Advertising Legends Halloween Ball is back and confirmed for Saturday 30th October at SWG3 (click here for venue info). Last year we had 450 invited guests turn up. This year we expect the event to be even bigger, with over 50 guests confirmed and we’ve not even invited anyone yet.

Website and PR will be kicking off before end Sept along with email and snail mail invites to lucky people.

Glasgow Style Mile App by Nation1

2010-09-14T17:21:00.007+01:00

Background

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau is responsible for the effective promotion of Glasgow’s style mile – an area of retail real estate that stretches from Sauchiehall to Argyle Streets. The most effective way to deliver information to people about the style mile is to ensure they are able to get this while they are out shopping and therefore developing a mobile app seemed like the natural evolution of the digital strategy.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Results

Phase 1 was a glowing success with over 200 businesses and 2,000 users involved over a period of 8 weeks.

Phase 2 was an equal success with the average time taken to identify a business to suit their needs reduced by over 97%. To date we have achieved over 5,830 downloads of the app and over 660 businesses are actively engaged.

Retailer Quote: Susan Nicol, General Manager, St. Enoch Centre:

“With specialist boutiques, unique fashion spaces and major retailers, cosmopolitan cocktail bars, cool cafes and refined dining, there’s a lot to see and do in Glasgow’s Style Mile. The new app acts as your own personal shopping guide – helping seek out special offers and, for those who’re visiting the city, steering them in the right direction. This real time app is a great example of technology being worked hard to deliver a user-friendly product for Glasgow businesses and customers.”

Implementation

The Style Mile application was developed as a client server application. A server component was developed, which allows GCMB to manage application content, as well as provide a facility to businesses to manage their own content. The iPhone application automatically syncs its content with the server component on a regular basis so information is fresh and most importantly relevant.
Development was done in Objective C utilising the various Apple libraries. To ensure greatest compatibility amongst users, the application was built to be backward compatible to iOS 3.1.3 which supports the very first iPhones and iPod Touches released. In addition, the application also takes advantage of the new features available in iPads and iPhone 4s

Click here to find out more
or email andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

Can anyone take a bite out of Apple?

2010-09-07T11:21:00.005+01:00

So the big news last week in the land of digital stuff was that the competition have clubbed together to take on Apple.

The i-pod, pad, phone trio is going to be challenged head on by Samsung, Google and Sony.

Apple in the meantime looked to take a bite out of SkyTV and BT Vision with the launch of AppleTV(2) - shame some UK company already uses ITV. The first version was available before Christmas in the UK and received great reviews, but consumer take up was weak. The new version is only $99 and has greater connectivity.

Ive managed to bag myself AppleTV – and I have to say, as this platform (and internet based TV on demand – as opposed to a TV channel on demand like 4OD) evolves it offers advertisers a great opportunity to produce high quality branded content that sells as well as adds value. Watch this space. We will see far more big name brands launch their own TV quality content and the lines between advertorial/product placemen/TV show will start to get very blurry.

“Organisations should think of their mobile strategy ahead of their internet strategy. Mobile is the hottest area of computer technology. The smartest developers now are writing apps for mobile before they write for Windows or Apple Mac desktop operating systems. Part of that is because these devices are hugely personal to us when we use them.” Eric Schmidt CEO of Google
On the apps front, more and more firms are starting to offer mobile apps as alternatives to conventional sites, however many make the same mistake they made with their website: they forget to ask 'why would anyone want this?' Moreover once they've got it, why would they keep coming back.

The i-pad app IS the next big thing and expect to see one of these on just about everyone’s Christmas wish list to Santa, with bars, coffee shops and beaches awash with them next year.

The question every client asks is what hardware do I develop an app for? With over 22m smart phones in the UK, Android phones growing at a staggering 43% per month (and growing) and the launch of the new Samsung tablet PC to rival the i-pad, the only answer is whatever format best suits your target audience, or if in doubt cater for Apple and Android (and Blackberry for now - however they need to get their act together and address their sharp decline in sales, something the experts doubt the new touch version will address).

All this activity and growth around mobile has been the motivation for Nation1 launching an app team combining strategy, research, creative and development under one roof.

This week we launched the Style Mile app to critical acclaim with the client admitting they were 'blown away' by the app we created for them.

Download it for free here

To have a chat with me about how an app can improve your bottom line click here.

Nice bumping into you, to bump into you nice...

2010-08-27T12:32:00.003+01:00

This week I spent three days in Glasgow. Since moving to London I've had an amazing time. I've met incredible people, networked with successful entrepreneurs, picked up some new high profile clients, developed a strong pipeline of house-hold named clients, sourced great new suppliers and even danced in the sun at 8am on a Sunday morning under a palm tree (did that really happen?)

In short Im a big fan of London.

However my wee trip home to Glasgow this week highlighted one major flaw with London I'd not noticed so far: bumping into people.

Whilst in Glasgow I bumped into at least eight people who I'd not arranged to meet hadn't seen in ages and had a great time catching up with. In the street, in the gym and in the bar. Added to that the banter from the four taxi's I took and the successful/productive client meetings I had whilst I was there all served to remind me how important it is to just bump into people you like and know.

In London you rarely bump into people.

But this got me thinking about the whole online thing too - as more and more people migrate to manage their social lives online they are increasing their chances of bumping into people (mind you some you want to avoid). Sitting on Facebook last Saturday night, after resolving to not go out post my Ibiza holiday - I ‘bumped into’ an old Uni mate, now working in India. We'd not spoken in ages and I spent a good few hours on Facebook messenger just talking crap and having a laugh about what we did and what we're doing.

There's a lot of negativity (sometimes rightly) about privacy etc surrounding social media and with Eric Schmidt CEO of Google’s quote this week "what happens when everything is available, knowable & recorded by everyone all the time" is valid if (not a thought experiment too far) stirring up a frenzy, its easy to understand why. But there's a lot to be said for visibility. Even more so if you're a brand or selling stuff. Too many brand owners shy away from social media for fear of what damage it can do, and let's be frank: it can create problems, but it can also solve them too. With a well thought out strategy and a good team to execute it (with the necessary experience to also effectively deal with any problems you encounter’ social media for business could have you bumping into more customers that you otherwise would.

Hard work pays dividends

2010-07-25T17:26:00.001+01:00

I remember a taxi driver once saying to me, you'll never meet someone that works hard and doesn't have money. I'm not sure I agree totally. The evening standard is running a 'end poverty' campaign for London - and it seems there's plenty of people down here that get up at 4am to start work finishing their third job at 10pm just to make ends meet. Whenever I feel hard done by: perhaps an unrealistic target or a series of late nights to meet a deadline, I always think of those who have to work much harder and longer than me, and it puts things back into perspective.

But the taxi driver was right in the sense that you reap what you sew. Over the last ten months we've busted every nut we can to increase our pipeline, deliver projects with ever reducing budgets and increasing expectations, sign up new clients and evolve our business model.

This week saw a key number of Nation1 projects go live.

Glasgow's Style Mile i-phone app launched. The success was instant. Massive PR coverage around the globe and awesome feedback from users, partners, press and stakeholders.

Click here to download the app for free

See what the press say click here

We launched the summer campaign for CityInn - a nifty wee site that helps city visitors discover the hidden gems as recommended by the locals.

Check out the website click here

We also launched the UK's best saver account with Bank of Baroda. This product offers the best interest rates in the UK and is available through moneysupermarket.com

And the future's bright too. With Style Mile already getting stuck in to phase2 of their i-phone app and an amazing new win for the London team thanks to Morston Assets (founded by Tom Harrison and Sir Tom Farmer) to property developer behind the Yours Networks concept which sets out to revolutionise the way we live, work and play. Watch this space.

Finally: we've started the planning for our annual and now legendary Halloween Ball. Theme again will be advertising legends and we're back at the same venue SWG3, however we've got bigger (much bigger) prizes, bigger (much bigger) sound and light and bigger (much bigger) capacity. Keep your eyes peeled for your 'money can't buy invite' or simply RSVP click here

when i grow up, i want to work in advertising...

2010-07-02T22:05:00.000+01:00

End of another month. Its now July and I'm sure we are all left wondering where the hell 2010 is going...

I've taken on the project management of a select few clients: and I have to say I have new found respect for those that choose this career path. Its has also provided me with a great insight into what makes a good project manager and the importance of taking time to properly scope and price a project as well as manage your clients expectations.

Most of all its confirmed how vital the relationship between project manager and client is. For if you develop a great relationship, those inevitable tough calls are easier to make. The closer you are, the better you understand the pressures on the other side and the better the end results.

We are in the final stages of a project for Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, City Inn Hotel Group and Bank of Baroda and I have to applaud each client for their professional attitude and focus. Together we have delivered three first class digital projects I am proud to put the Nation1 name to.

Its also been another good week on the business development front. We have progressed to the final stages with an international airline, a bank, a property developer, a car brand, an uber cool private members club and an iconic british retail brand. Hard work and determination definitely pays off.

I've been out and about touting my new business idea to potential investors across the UK and had the privilege of meeting Jim McColl of Clyde Blowers when in Glasgow last week. When one of Scotland's most successful entrepreneurs tells you your idea is excellent and to remember him when you're a rich man (which I promise to do Jim!), it does give you a wee confidence boost. It was also fascinating to learn how Jim has grown a multi billion pound business from investing in Clyde Pumps 14 years ago, a business turning over £3m. He attributes his success to hard work, employing the right people and having the right model.

The return of the disgruntled employee

2010-06-23T08:05:00.002+01:00

The shit's about to hit the fan, again....

So I figured let's get this out in the open, once and for all. Only this time I have a better understanding of how to deal with this menace.

I got this email yesterday:

"I now have a court order for the amount I am due. I waited to speak to you the other morning but you left while i was standing there.

I will be publicising this court order very shortly. If you would prefer the court order not to go public, i suggest you pay me what i am due - quickly. I trust with your new international clients that you will be able to pay me now.

There is another court order from another source ready to join my own in the public domain, and im sure more will follow.

I will allow 48 hours for you to respond. Yet again i am giving you the kind, easy first option to pay me and settle the matter - the way it should have been over a year ago.

Ramsay MacFarlane
DESIGN & CREATION"

Last time I avoided the facts. So let's start there this time. Ramsay Macfarlane was employed by Nation1 in December 2009 to help us complete the Powerleague website. Ramsay was recruited by Victor Brierley, my Managing Director in Glasgow at the time, who is also Ramsay's uncle.

At the end of Ramsay's month at Nation1 Victor informed me we had to agree what to pay him. With total astonishment I demanded to know why this hadn't been agreed BEFORE he started to work for us. There was no adequate response. Ramsay then demanded £4,500. I refused to pay this to a 23 year old guy with two years experience (its about the same take home pay as a 70k salary). I offered £1,750, which was duly paid to Ramsay.

Ramsay then took Nation1 to court for the full amount, where even the judge said he was unlikely to win and should consider accepting my offer of an additional £500. He didn't.

Eight months later, he called me up to threaten me with the 'pay now, or regret it' chat. And we all know what happened next.

During this time I had accepted an investor in the business and in order to ensure the most tax efficient method of investing my accountants proposed to shut down Futurecomm International Ltd and set up Nation1 Group Ltd where the new investment would be placed (the new company would have no value and no assets, thus avoiding CGI). Nation1 Group UK Ltd then set up and owns Nation1 Glasgow Ltd and Nation1 London Ltd. Providing me with a structure to attract top talent and offer options in local offices.

I never bothered to incur the further costs of a lawyer to defend Ramsay's court action, given the plans to shut down Futurecomm (which is not yet liquidated fully).

Shortly after the Ramsay incident I terminated Victor Brierley’s contract.

Trading conditions over the last 18 months have been harsh for our industry in Scotland and I have been grateful to everyone that has supported me: from my competitors who have said I dealt with the Ramsay issue well, to clients that have stood by me and above all the loyal staff that work at Nation1.

I don't think the employee in question realizss what he is doing to his own reputation as well as mine, however the fact he has enough time on his hands to continue with his attacks, threats and blackmail suggest to me he's got spare time on his hands.

I have learnt a lot during this experience and I recognise that ultimately people are the most important asset. This could all have been avoided if my MD at the time had done what he was employed to do, instead of leaving me to now carry the can.

I'm not flawless, I've made mistakes and I have regrets but I continue to learn and accept when I'm wrong.

Have I dealt with this the right way? Who knows? Will Ramsay grow up and go away, I doubt it. Will Nation1 survive and grow, there is no doubt.

weare where we are.....

2010-06-03T19:10:00.000+01:00

The best thing about reaching the bottom is you can enjoy the journey back up.

Here we are and it’s June. How the hell did that happen?

Great news for the Nation1 team, all our hard efforts have paid off and we have a raft of new clients wins under our belt. Bank of Baroda have returned for a second year in a row and tasked Nation1 with developing a digital campaign to promote their new saver products. The campaign will focus heavily on affiliates (comparethemarket.com and moneysupermarket.com), as well as display, online PR and buzz marketing and a sprinkling of offline stuff around London. Watch this space for some bold new creative that positions India’s fourth largest bank as a real contender in the UK retail savings market.

We’ve also been appointed by City Inn the multi award winning UK hotel chain with developing an online summer marketing campaign to encourage people to take a city break and stay in one of their trendy city centre hotels (having stayed at the Westminster one myself many times whilst setting up Nation1 London) I can assure you not only do they have the best product on offer but their breakfast is second to none. The campaign revolves around the theme; “Go to town this summer” with a website that promotes all the stuff you can do in cities where there is a City Inn. The site also encourages users to post their own content and hidden gems as well as rate stuff posted by other users. Special offers and discounts are given as incentives to those who help populate the site with content.

CitizenM who open their first hotel outside of Holland in Glasgow this summer have appointed us to develop and distribute a viral campaign to promote their brand with the objective of developing a massive database of followers for their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Given their HQ is in Amsterdam, we are only too happy to have client meetings at their office.

We also have our two seminars this month – both of which have been phenomenally popular. We’ve teamed up with The Marketing Industry Network and The Drum Magazine to promote these with one taking place in London and one in Glasgow. Harvard Business review/Forrester Research as well as Brodies LLP and Outlaw.com are all on the bill as we help delegates understand the dangers of social media and how best to prepare a battle plan to tackle unwanted or negative online chat. Check out www.nation1.co.uk/events to book your place (15th and 16th June Glasgow/London).

Kingsbarns and LA Bartenders websites launched and Millionaires Choice website entered the final stages of production. The next step is for Nation1 to create a 3 minute flash presentation for Directors of the worlds leading brands showcasing the benefits and features of the website for the mega rich.

I was also flown off to Hong Kong at the end of May in my capacity as Board Director of EO a London based member organisation for entrepreneurs. It was typhoon season so no short sleeves or burnt shoulders however it was great to see this phenomenal city. Our hotel was on the bay looking onto Hong Kong Island and the highlight was sipping cocktails one night from the Philippe Stark Skybar in the Peninsula Hotel whilst watching the worlds largest light show. A ‘must see’ for anyone going to HK.

Added to all of that the team have been getting ready for our office move (into an old disused railway arch) in August. So all in all its been a busy but very productive month.

Personally im looking forward to Rock Ness on the 9th June as it serves as a mile stone and reminder from when things started to go downhill last year. As I stood in the dance tent at 11pm 8th June 2009 I was unable to really relax and enjoy myself as just about every client we had was pulling back on spending and the costs kept rolling on, and when you run your own business, you never really escape these things. This year Rock Ness is going to be a much more positive event, that’s not to say whilst im dancing away – im not going to be thinking it could all go downhill again.

Lets hope that we avoid the dreaded double dip and that people continue to accept “we are where we are, as that’s where we need to be” and work together to get out of this fine mess and remember: marketing is the one sure way to build a brand and drive sales

I have a dream

2010-04-24T12:02:00.000+01:00

This week I attended the Brand Innovation event in London. Headline speakers included Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi NY and Guy Kawasaki founder of Altop.com.

At the same time (on the same day) The Entrepreneurial Exchange in Scotland held their annual conference at Gleneagles.

The main theme from all the speakers at both these events was: “just imagine what you can do.” The sun is always shining if you want it to, dare to dream, follow your dreams and never give up as long as you believe in what you are doing.

Kevin explained the future of the world is inclusive capitalism. The world will be a better place if we can develop more entrepreneurs and grow more new businesses. Guy said sustainable enterprise is built from the bottom up out of the wreck of exclusive greed. Bake remarkability into every aspect of your brand in order to create irreseistable companies.

Eight years ago I heard MT Rainey (Rainey Kelly Campbell Rolfe ad agency) speak at an IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) event in Edinburgh. She was explaining that agencies don’t add cost where they add value and they don’t add value where they add cost, this stuck with me. I also remember the late Alan Frame of Frame (which at the time was a little know ad agency in Glasgow) say that it’s too late for the agency model to change as we’ve made our bed, we must now lie in it.

MT’s comments on billing and the fact that Alan Frame went on to build one of Scotland’s most successful agencies really stuck with me.

Over the last 12 months our industry has seen clients cut back and drop out from spending on marketing when we should be the last advisors they drop. A good agency will drive sales, add value and improve the bottom line.

If you look at the great UK brands – made famous by their advertising agencies: how many ad agencies have lasted as long as the brand they created?

So this got me thinking; there has got to be a better way of doing this and the more I attend these visionary London events the more I realize the successful guys in the room challenged the way things were done and came up with something radical and new.

I’ve always dreamed that Nation1 can be something bigger, something special – sometimes to my determent as I’ve invested in growth when the agency wasn’t ready. However the one thing Nation1 has always lacked is a real point of difference. Creativity is subjective, everyone says they deliver great service and its tough to focus on one sector as that leaves you open to risk if that sector falters.

So what can I do to make Nation1 really, really, really different and recognise my vision of great success beyond the UK?

On October 14th 2010 at Shoreditch House in London I will be launching Nation1’s radical new business model which will revolutionize the way clients and agencies work delivering priceless value to our clients. We will be complimenting the launch with a new website, public relations campaign, viral marketing activity and the announcement of some key new appointments.

Our new business model will challenge the pitching process, remuneration set up and staff retention issue.

My dream is to grow a remarkable agency.

Ill leave you with this thought from George Bernard Shaw (we used this quote when we launched Nation1, but over time as we grew we dropped it. We never should have. It defines what we are all about.)

“You see things and you say why. I dream of things that never were, and ask; why not?”

Nation1 launches LA Bartenders website

2010-04-14T18:22:00.000+01:00

Nation1 has completed and launched the new website for LA Bartenders targeting brand managers of UK based drinks companies promoting the companies diverse range of services targeted at the UK drinks market.

LA Bartenders is one of the UK’s leading events and brand solutions company. Providing services such as training for bar staff, mobile bars, corporate events, brand development and marketing solutions.

They were looking for a new website that confidently explained their complex mix of services and positioned them as a market leader able to sit comfortably alongside the brands they represent, such as Smirnoff, Absolute, Gordon’s and Kastel Krug. Nation1 developed a site that pulled on the styling and concepts of the LA space itself from graffiti to contemporary art, corporate events and even took reference from their funky wallpaper. Functionality was key as was clarity of their sales message. With initiative use of some of the latest technology and total flexibility through the Nation1 CMS system the client now has a website that delivers the big brand image required and is a great foundation from which to grow their business online.

''I would to take this opportunity to thank Andrew and the team at Nation1 for their incredible work on the LA Group website, from start to finish I have been extremely happy with the attention to detail and quality of design work your team has shown, It has been a digital revolution to how we operate, communicate and advertise as a company. I sincerely look forward to working with Nation1 and their skilled team on more projects this year and next ''
Scott Gemmell, Managing Director, LA Bartenders

View website – http://www.labartenders.co.uk/

Nation1 rubs shoulders with the jet set…

2010-04-06T09:48:00.000+01:00

Nation1 has been appointed by Millionaires Choice to develop their online strategy.

Millionaires Choice is the brainchild and personal project of George Jatania, founder and Chairman of Lornamead and one of the UK’s wealthiest Indians.

Over the last ten years George has been involved in a number of high profile restoration and projects; during these luxury developments he has established a network of connections with the worlds leading suppliers of premium goods and services. An entrepreneur to the core, George has turned that network of contacts into a new business model; targeting the ultra high net worth jet set from across the globe offering them access to the best of the best via his invite only web based club.

Membership to the site will be by invitation only and will offer members access to a world of exclusive goods and services; from one off Cartier timepieces, handcrafted ostrich feather sofas to top performing hedge fund managers and private jet designers.

Nation1 has been tasked with the design and build of the website, creating a site that comfortably sits along side the most premium brands in the world, delivering a word class user experience and engaging the audience with carefully scripted copy.

George Jatania explained, “Nation1 have demonstrated they can design world class websites and have worked extremely hard to create a site that fits with my vision. Andrew has personally project managed this website. It has been a pleasure working with Nation1 and I look forward to a long relationship with Andrew and his team.”

Nation1 have also completed the branding and website for Kingsbarn Distillery in St Andrews. The project which will see the creation of a new distillery, visitors center, shop and restraint located alongside one of the most famous golf courses in the world will be going live in the coming week. Doug Clement Managing Director of Kingsbarn explained, “Throughout the whole process Nation1 have been a pleasure to work with in terms of the originality of their ideas and the ease in which they were communicated to us. This has resulted in a logo and website we are proud of as well as a long lasting relationship with the agency for years to come"

Handbags at dawn

2010-03-28T18:23:00.000+01:00

Google has won a recent European Court battle against Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH – who own Glenmorangie in Scotland) over the use of trademarks on the internet. Judges had said that Google was not breaching any trademark law by selling key words to the highest bidder. LVMH argued that people searching for its products could be directed to rival sites and even counterfeit products. The European Court ruled that Google could not be held responsible for trademark issues.

However, those who use the AdWord system to purchase sponsored links for brands to which they have no link can now be successfully sued.

This is great news for anyone that has been on the receiving end of such shady tactics.

As many people within the Scottish Advertising scene know Nation1 was recently the focus of a cyber attack by a disgruntled ex employee, who felt he was due more cash than he was actually paid. After taking advice from lawyers and PR experts I choose not to enter the slagging match and to release balanced statements via the press that avoided being drawn into the detail.

It is important that Nation1 take a stand, on behalf of anyone that runs a business and is open to such attack, and make an example of this guy – at best its cyber-bullying at worst its blackmail. What he did was wrong and illegal. It’s probably enough that anyone will think twice about employing him in the future, however we now intend to sue for passing off, defamation and trademark infringement.

On the back of this we have teamed up with The Drum, The Marketing Industry Network and a leading UK law firm to run two seminars on Digital Terrorism and Online Brand Protection where we look at recent case law and real live case studies (including the recent Nation1 attack). We will suggest ways to deal with this (investigating the legal, SEO, online PR and more guerrilla options). The first of these events is to be held 18.00 25th May at Adam St private members club, 8 Adam Street off the Strand in London and the second to be held 10th June 16.00 Club29 Royal Exchange Square Glasgow. We have also been approached by the FT to comment on the events and how we dealt with them.

I am also delighted to announce a few new client wins with the most important being the digital marketing campaign we have created for ‘We will remember them’ a digital download charity album in support of our service men and women in conflict around the world. Nation1 has teamed up with WebberShandwick London to deliver an innovative online campaign which focuses on the real live stories of people touched by conflict around the world and presents these stories as a series of videos on Youtube.

My agency is broken…

2010-03-13T15:24:00.000Z

On Thursday and Friday last week I had the great privilege of being a guest of Grant Thornton’s at The Economist Designing Business Summit.

The event was aimed at businesses with a £5m-£250m turnover and targeted at Senior Executive/Director level. At one stage I found myself chatting to some old American guy only to find out he was the President of Green & Blacks Chocolate.

Without doubt the networking was great, however the real value came from the content of the speakers...

Capitalism is broken, there has been a moral reboot across the western world and we are all waking up to the fact that unless we do something major the UK will be little more than an amusement park reminiscing over the good old days. Our economy is in decline, our population is ageing, there’s a massive pensions catastrophe heading our way and we are in denial.

Right now we have the most incredible opportunity to change what is broken. Almost every business has suffered due to the recession, with many shedding tons and tons of staff and cutting back on every aspect of expenditure. Yet how many of you are simply going to rebuild what you had as things get better. Its no longer enough to look at your competition and say I want to be better than them. You need to redefine your niche, own it and then defend it.

Starting with clean sheet of paper we are able to create a business model which is structured for the future. The ‘what next’ model, not the ‘what now’ This is the time for bravery and vision. Its about a fundamentally different way of doing things

Take the advertising industry as a perfect example. The agency model is broken, and has been for years. We don’t add cost where we add value and we add little value where we add cost. The digital agency is just as bad, charging by the hour for work done on a clients behalf. Some of the bold/desperate amongst us have chosen/been forced to go down the revenue share approach – but is that not just another way for the client to get what we value most at an even greater discount.

The last time there was any real innovation in our industry (and I mean fundamental change) was when the Saatchi guys popped up and acted like double glazing salesmen with a fierce ambition to take over the world. Sure there have been cute wee amendments to the model like what St Luke’s did by giving all their staff equity in the business. But it didn’t really work and the guys who set the whole thing up ended up getting booted out. How’s that for incentivising staff.

So who is going to be the brave new face of advertising?

Who is going to turn our challenges into opportunities?

The best example of a recent ‘industry disturber’ is the phenomenon that is Xfactor. Simon Cowell looked at the SonyBMG model with his mate Simon Fuller and said how can we turn the challenges into opportunities. So they looked at the challenges:

Highly paid A&R guys that get it right 20% of the time.
Artists that once you make them famous, bite the hand that feeds them.
Declining single sales due to online channels and piracy

Whilst all the other labels were looking at fixing the biggest issue of online sales and shift of power, Cowell was looking at a fundamental change in the business.

Replace the A&R guys with the actual consumer, and hey, make them pay to tell us what they want to hear.
Sign the acts to mega contracts before they even consider themselves as artists
Do it all via TV and wrap it around xmas and add in a phone vote with massive live gig element.

And there you have it. Other examples are Easyjet, Amazon and the mighty Apple.

SO – I put it to you, as we lick our wounds and hope to god that we are finally coming out of this terrible financial crisis, which of us is going to be the brave man/woman that changes the face of advertising forever?

The power of the social network (and how to deal with disgruntled ex employees)

2010-03-05T09:02:00.000Z

Last night I got a text from a close friend as I sat catching up on the days emails which said “who have you pissed off recently?”

For anyone that underestimates the power of Twitter in the corporate world or thinks that blogging wont affect their bottom line let this be a warning to you.

The tweet in question was started by an ex employee of mine directing people to a website which questioned the integrity of my agency. Its not the type of microsite I’d have developed myself, however I was impressed they took time to get our branding right.

Im not about to dwell on the issue behind this, fact is the guy behind this is pissed off and wants revenge and the internet offers him a massive stage. We’ve all been here, it’s a fact of business life. Some of us have suffered more than others. Just think of the “We hate Arnold Clark” web campaign.

But what impressed me was the speed at which the URL was spread across twitter (use the twitter search facility and you can see everyone that RT the nasty URL, keen to be part of the gossip). What surprised me were some of the names that had chosen to RT this URL (you know who you are!) and I hope now you RT this link to restore balance to the world. I was able to survey the damage by establishing how many and who the followers were of those busily spreading the news.

Lets face it at some stage we are all going to piss someone off and with the rise of internet its only too easy for them to make a mountain out of a molehill. So what should you do?

First off don’t ignore it, it won’t go away (look at Tiger Woods). Stand up and face the music. The next thing is be aware of your legal rights – they may say they won’t turn up to court, but if they are “passing off” or “cyber squatting” their host is legally obliged to rip them off the web. Regarding "passing off" legislation if you can prove who posted this (and that’s where the www.domaintools.com comes in handy – or www.register.com), they are passing off as your company and you can hit them legally. Check the www.outlaw.com website one of the market leaders in digital legal stuff – also follow @jsmackenzie (a partner at this law firm) and @BrodiesTechBlog (a partner in charge of IT etc with Brodies - a leading Scottish law firm) who are both specialists in this area. That isn’t the only option – and its common knowledge lawyers can be a tad expensive (sorry guys).

If someone has the name of your firm in their URL chances are that when someone searches for your firm by name through Google they will pop up. We had a house builder client that had some guy blogging about how bad they were due to the fact his house was not ready on time. They spent a fortune on legal fees but he was telling the truth and not ‘passing off’ so they came to us. Using SEO tools (i.e. key words etc) we created a bunch of other websites and social networking profiles (microsites, Youtube profile, Linkedin company group, blog etc) which we made sure ranked higher than this guys blog and in doing so removed him from the first two pages of the search results.

It also worth keeping an eye on your system passwords (change your wi-fi password regularly, keep you finance and HR files locked away online). Make sure employees dont have access to your Twitter account (remember what happened to Vodaphone recently when a disgruntled employee tweeted homophobic chat on their behalf – which made the newspapers).

Another idea is to insert a Non-disparagement clause into your employment contracts. These are a relatively new type of agreement and have arisen primarily to prevent employees putting comments about their employing organization onto the Internet. Non-disparagement clauses can be a tool to "manage" information flow from employees who may be upset that they were terminated. Further, the non-disparagement clause should clearly extend to all forms of communication, including e-mails, chat rooms, instant messaging and all other forms of electronic communication.

Before you go, check this out – a while back two domino pizza disgruntled employees made bad comments, the CEO reacted immediately and a social media consultant explains why that reaction and candid response neutralized the attack.

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/97241964/dominos-pizza-and-why-there-are-bigger

As the guy in the video says, don’t be afraid of social media, accept that you can’t control it, however, you must understand it, embrace it and if you know what you are doing you can also profit from it.

Tweet me if you want to find out more @wearenation1

Mark Zuckerberg vs Robin Dunbar

2010-02-22T10:25:00.001Z

I decided to have a quiet night in this weekend. I was watching TV and caught the start of some BBC2 show about the rise of Facebook, investigating how this new technology was transforming society.

It was pretty good and thought provoking, one of the major thoughts that rushed through my head was that any serious digital agency of the future should not only have an in-house planning resource but add to that an in-house psychologist.

The show talked about The Dunbar number (following extract taken from Wikipedia)

Dunbar's number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person.[1] Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.

Dunbar's number was first proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who theorized that "this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained." On the periphery, the number also includes past colleagues such as high school friends with whom a person would want to reacquaint themselves if they met again.

What the show was saying is that on average we manage about 15 close relationships on a regular basis, and that we can only handle about 150 relationships in total and suggested that people with ‘facebook friends’ totaling more than 150 cant manage that level of contact.

There was also the mention of Burger King’s digital campaign that offered a free Whopper to anyone who removed ten ‘facebook friends’ the campaign generated 235,000 free Whoppers. Suggesting that people valued these friends less than a piece of meat!
The show then went on to explain how our minds process and file information through association: the information I know about my gran is based around memories of her babysitting for me, her cooking, her perfume, her favorite colour, going to see her at her home in Invergordon. However today’s information is presented and stored in a linear fashion which makes it difficult for us to store and recall.

They then went on to ask, “When u grow up in a world expecting to be able to find info at a moments notice, what does it do to your ability to hold on to that info?”

The show conducted a study of teenagers vs adults and found that the teenagers didn’t spend too long holding on to info and were bored easily and reluctant to dive deeper for further info and more in-depth analysis.

It made me think of the difference the calculator did for mathematics (i.e. when I studied CSYS Math – I had no idea how to do the sums without my calculator, however it was second nature to my parents.) Mind you has this held me back?

I also recently attended an intimate round table discussion at Google on innovation. One of the bold admissions Google made was they had no idea what the future was going to look like, and no body can know.

How will the web and the world look in fifteen years time, when the people who have grown up to know nothing less than instant access to data are in control?

One thing is for sure, this is all moving so fast even the big boys cant keep up. Those of you who are reading this and haven’t yet looked at ways to integrate the web into your business have no option but to evolve.

www.dontbeadinosaur.com

Fancy eating out, go to Burger King

2010-02-12T15:47:00.000Z

Last night I attended the Marking Industry Network event in London and I have to say I found it really, really good. On the Panel was Sarah from Burger King, who heads up their marketing. Really interesting to hear how they have defined their positioning and sales proposition. They realized that in order to address the ‘crazy fast food protestors’ that they had to come up with something different. So they chose to focus on the idea of premium products, which is why they introduced Angus with Blue Cheese etc. Added to this were the premium range of deserts. When the recession hit the launched their value range with the ‘so good you’ll think you robbed us campaign’. What they have seen happen is that people want to eat out, but now they are going to BK and upgrading to the premium range of products. So the recession has actually seen YOY growth.

As ever at any marketing event, the focus was on digital. And for a panel of experts (one of whom was marketing director for E-bay) there was a clear lack of understanding of the digital space, with one panelist suggesting we leave it alone and stay clear of social media. I wanted so much to argue with them, but I was too shy…

The e-bay guy talked about how e-bay was now more of a digital mall and that retailers should use online branding to influence sales – the same idea as you have your favorite brand from where you buy clothes, music etc therefore digital branding and positioning is better for sales of emotional stuff leaving search to drive sales of logical stuff like buying a new TV.

Interestingly groceries and clothes biggest growth online – which explains the recent news of Ocado’s IPO.

It was agreed that digital has blown the traditional agency model out the water, that clients now have to get used to being billed for our time and perhaps start looking at equity and profit share for our ideas. Media strategy needs to start with the digital and everything integrates into that. Digital and recession are the biggest seismic shift within marketing since TV and clients are now demanding a return on investment

There was a really good debate over what clients expect from their agencies: they expect them to be their partner in crime, understanding they will be together only for a short period of time, so let's watch each others backs, be there as part of the team. Clients are looking for clever thinking, great ideas and the people working there. With media, creative, planning, project management working hand in hand. Brilliant and challenging ideas that cut through, add value, build trust. Ultimately clients are looking for an agency that ‘gets it’ - listens to what the client really needs and are saying and delivers ideas that hit the mark.

Didn’t need to attend the seminar to learn all that, but its good to hear that what we are doing at Nation1 is what clients are looking for from their agency.

Blogging for profit

2010-01-31T22:19:00.000Z

So that's January out the way.

The snow has gone, the recession is over (with 0.01+ growth) and Steve Jobbs announces his latest must have product.

One thing I am noticing is the interest from business in iphone apps. And with the ipad now launched this presents another opportunity for marketers to get in front of their target consumer with zero wastage and measurable ROI. We are currently seeking to recruit more iphone developers. Check out the careers section on www.nation1.co.uk

I met Nereej and Natascha last week. Neerej showcased his Bombay based CGI production showreel - demonstrating how technology has changed the face of film and with the rise and rise of India’s creative and technical scene - all but rung the death knell for UK post production.

Talking of which last week saw Adam Crosier take over at ITV. Let's see what he comes up with as any forward thinking leader must ensure that digital is at the core of their offering to not only thrive, but just to survive the future.

Which leads me nicely on to highlight the launch of our www.dontbeadinosaur.com campaign. With a selection of airport posters, business magazine strip adverts, animated banners on key business websites and a supporting email marketing campaign - we hope to get lots of businesses signing up through our microsite to take advantage of our free digital consultancy offer.

Finally if its free advice you're after don't miss our Blogging for Profit seminar 4pm 17th Feb at 29 Club Glasgow. We will also be launching the first ever Scottish Blog Awards sponsored by Apple in partnership with The Drum and Marketing Industry Network, the awards will recognise the best of Scottish blogging. Check out the events section on http://www.nation1.co.uk to register for this free event.

Welcome to our world...

2009-12-24T13:13:00.000Z

It’s taken longer to make than Avatar and if I had a $1 for every time someone asked what was up with our website I’d be richer than Cameron, but at long last our website is finally revealed to the critics. We’ve employed some killer effects using some of the most up to date technology and digital thinking however just like Cameron’s masterpiece our website is a little light on content. Something we are going to address over the coming weeks.

Have a poke about, tell us what you think. Join our mailing list for invites to educational seminars and VIP events and follow us on twitter for tips and how to guides on digital marketing.

2009 has been a year to forget for most companies. As things seems to turn a (small) corner I have been out meeting our clients catching up on how things are going, there is one common factor; its been a tough year and there’s concern that the coming year will be just as tough.

So what’s the year been like for Nation1? A bit of a rollercoaster to be honest, like so many we were let down by our bank, when we needed them most and we were forced to make some tough decisions and have some difficult conversations, however we have definitely ended on a high. Some of the highlights of our year include opening our London office in the summer with John Henderson joining us from JWT as Creative Director. Mark McIntosh joined us as Creative Director in Glasgow having worked on some of the UK’s leading fashion e-commerce sites (Reiss.co.uk, Allsaints.com, Dechamp.com, Bench.co.uk). Colin Boyd came out of early retirement to set up our search marketing department. Conosco retained our London office as their digital advertising agency and Barrhead Travel signed a 12 month contract for us to manage their SEO. We refined our positioning to focus on mid market growth focused entrepreneurial clients and we developed The Nation1 Way a detailed guide for all employees explaining our values, culture, operational practices and processes.

So what does the year ahead hold for us? We have a strong pipeline of clients and a solid base of contracted work with a great team that has a proven track record of delivering. We are investing in a sustained marketing campaign in Scotland to reinforce our positioning and help us ensure we are the no.1 choice for mid market growth focused clients looking for an agency. We have an exciting calendar of events that includes seminars in London and Glasgow including our legendary Halloween Ball. Our London office will relocate to 48 Leicester Square in April with the launch of a unique proposition that will separate Nation1 from the competition and make us the no1 choice in London for growth focused clients. The most exciting development on the cards for Nation1 in 2010 is our expansion into Mumbai, India. We have already picked up UK marketing contract for The Bank of Baroda (India’s 4th largest bank) with several more Indian clients in the pipeline.

Advertising Legends Halloween Ball 2009

2009-11-01T14:57:00.000Z

Every year im astonished at the effort people put into their costumes at our Halloween Ball. Over 300 people ventured out on a wet and windy Friday night and found our secret venue tucked away under the railway arches down by The Clyde. Winners included the Tefal Man, naked girl as a Peta advert, Starbucks girl, Aqua fresh boy, Bodyform roller-skater and Ferrero Roche advert. We also had Snap, Crackle & Pop, The Man from Del Monte, the Zovirax babe (complete with helmet AND cold sore) and Shake ‘n Vac lady (complete with retro hoover). I also have to mention the Lego men, the most impressive effort of the night.

This year we moved the Ball to a bigger venue SWG3, which provided a spooky setting for our guests to get their groove on. LA Bar Tenders served up bucket loads of booze with a aselection of Halloween themed rum, whisky and vodka cocktails. Cameron Presentations decked the place out with plasma screens and projectors which the N1 creative team ensured were filled with interesting stuff. Finix installed state of the art lighting and Shearers Candles provided the icing on the cake for our spooky theme with over 1,000 candles scattered throughout the venue. Hive PR ensured we got some famous faces in the crowd and Blueprint Media helped bring some of the press along.

Thanks also to The Radisson, Town House Hotel, The Men’s Store, Fake Bake, Taylor Ferguson, and Rose Confectionery.

Next year we will be back, and even bigger. If you want to get involved in the most unique corporate event of the Scottish business calendar email me at andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

For pics of the night check out www.nation1.co.uk/halloween

This is IT.

2009-10-28T21:35:00.000Z

Conosco one of London’s leading suppliers of fixed fee outsourced IT to mid market companies within the M25 corridor, has retained Nation1 for the next 12 months to employ the web to further increase market share.

After a record breaking successful 12 months which has seen more and more companies cut back on fixed overheads and outsource business functions such as IT, Conosco has chosen to capitalise on this growth and reinvest to further develop market share.

Employing a similar model Nation1 has allocated Caroline Howes, one of their London based project managers, to work on site at the clients office managing their twitter, linkedin and blog activity in partnership with the client's retained PR agency Six Degrees. Nation1 will also be managing Conosco’s SEO and PPC activity as well using tools such as blogger.com to promote client case studies and testimonial based work.

Ben Gladstone of Conosco said “Nation1 demonstrated a good understanding of our business and experience within our sector. The team shared our passion for the brand and clearly understood how to work the digital landscape. We look forward to a long a mutually beneficial relationship.”

HSBC global CEO relocates from Canary Wharf HQ to Hong Kong.

2009-10-02T10:34:00.000+01:00

John Randall CEO of HSBC Scotland was one of our speakers at the Nation1/UKIBC Next Gen Indian Calling event at Ocean Terminal on Monday 28th Sept. Up against a Bank holiday in Glasgow and a rainy Monday night in Edinburgh 30 invited guests from the Scottish and Asian business community joined John and actor Ricky Dhillan to celebrate the ties between Scotland and India.

Whist Ricky entertained us with story’s of positive mental attitude, his rise to celebrity status and his family’s journey from India to Scotland, John struck a more serious note sharing HSBC’s view of the economic climate in both countries and what the future hold for each. Most striking of all though, was the news that the global CEO of HSBC is relocating in the near future to Hong Kong to follow the shift in the balance of power and influence in the global financial markets.

Another wee fact shared by John was that HSBC was originally founded by a Scotsman named Thomas Sutherland. Another interesting note is that both India and China have based their business infrastructure on that of the UK (India adopted this due to Colonial rule and China snapped up the best bits of our system with the repatriation of Hong Kong).

The future for the UK (and Scotland) has to be to get returns from our experience and knowledge of running and growing businesses. Which is a reassuring confirmation that Nation1’s vision to expand into the BRIC markets selling UK creative and digital thinking is bang on the money.

Halloween, India and web strategy.

2009-09-09T13:09:00.000+01:00

Thursday 27th saw me deliver my presentation on how to make money out of Twitter. Over 40 people attended the event and I have to say im pretty chuffed. It did take me a good few months to gather all the information and do the research though. A big thank you to Amy at MediaVest, Colin at Zantay and John Henderson for your input you can see my presentation by visiting www.nation1.co.uk/twitter

We’ve also confirmed the details of three other Nation1 events. The first of which celebrates Nation1’s ambitions to expand into Mumbai in the near future and is sponsored by HSBC to be held at The Whisky Shop in Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh at 6pm on Monday 28th September. This UKIBC ‘Next Gen’ event celebrates Scotland’s unique place in India’s History and is a platform for developing our network of contacts within this sector. Speakers include John Rendell new CEO of HSBC Scotland, Sharon Bamford CEO of UKIBC and The Indian Consul General we also have a full Indian buffet courtesy of Tony Dhillon and whisky courtesy of Ian Bankier CEO at The Whisky Shop.

Then there’s our legendary annual Halloween Ball. Friday 30th October at SWG3 in Glasgow West End sponsored by LA Bartenders, Cameron Presentations, Rose Confectionery and Netjets this event proves to shake the cobwebs off the traditional corporate event and rise the dead with a new brand of entertainment. With a guest list of 450 Scottish entrepreneurs and media types, enough free booze to sink a ghost ship and deadly beats from the Grateful dead and DJ Josh Bar, our advertising legends theme will be sure to draw a crowd and is not to be missed. For tickets go to www.nation1.co.uk/legends

Finally on Wednesday the 18th November we team up with legal eagles Brodies to deliver the next in our series of digital events; How to develop a niche digital marketing strategy. To be held at 4pm at 29 Royal Exchange Sq this event caters for medium to larger sized firms that already have an effective web presence covering all the major bases (SEO, PPC, affiliate) and are looking for new, creative, value driven and effective ways to increase traffic and revenues online. To attend this event email me andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

Also watch out for our new website, with full events listing and booking system and our Twitter feed (Wearenation1) for regular updates on events, Nation1 news and digital media tips and info.

Will the Cloud ever be self aware?

2009-08-10T18:12:00.000+01:00

The internet is changing (everything)

I can't quite remember the exact time Skynet became self aware, but it had a pretty big consequence: the annihilation of mankind. The Cloud. If you haven't heard of it, you soon will and its going to be bigger than the SNP. The Cloud is like the national grid for IT, it reverses the traditional model of data storage, Cloud based devises store nothing. They are merely connecting devises that draw down the info we need.

As of next year every new TV sold will allow you to connect it directly to the internet as will video cameras. Imagine a future where readers can stream media to their note book, video to their TV or music to thier ipod direct from The Cloud, on demand. Imagine what this means for advertisers. Add to that the news today that News Corps Mr Murdoch plans to micro charge for content across all his newspapers with the FT announcing its to follow suit. Could the music industry have a future now too?

Apple is already working on a portable, wafer thin, tablet sized computer that is always online. The plan is for it to be free when you subscribe to Cloud based online services (like a mobile phone).If we all put our stuff on The Cloud imagine the data and intelligence The Cloud would contain. If Google can search the web with total accuracy I imagine someone or something could do the same with The Cloud.

So think for a moment, we have computers just now that think for themselves. Imagine we created a super brain and told it everything we know and told it how to search this information, process it, upgrade it, develop it and execute whatever it wanted.

Sarah Conner might not have been crazy after all......

Nation1, now available in London...

2009-06-28T22:42:00.000+01:00

That’s London sorted.

On Thursday, with a stinking hangover and some of the hottest weather the capital has seen so far this year John and I moved our office equipment from my flat in Mile End to our new office at 35 Great Sutton Street, which we are sharing with the talented and generous guys of Bear Design.

We also signed up Bank of Baroda as our first London client and Shailesh Vara MP and shadow deputy leader of the House of Commons joined the team as a consultant.

Im back in Glasgow this week to close a few more sales for the team up there then back down to London to pitch to Ki Performance and John Lewis.

This week will see us hand over Tulloch, London Town Pubs and Powerleague web projects from the Glasgow office and add Grant Management to the expanding list if Glasgow clients.

We also welcome Julie Cutherbertson to the team as FT administrator and Financial Controller replacing the legend that is Louise Brannan. Who has been a god send and heads off to help her husband Jim set up his own business.

From Rock Ness to Scottish Parliament

2009-06-21T15:33:00.000+01:00

What a week. Started off recovering from Rock Ness, an amazing boutique style festival on the banks of Loch Ness. Met tons of people I've not seen in ages and had a great time camping. I attended an interesting event on tuesday run by scottish enterprise called winning on the web where gordon beattie launched his new digital agency by showing his firm was not even at the races on the strategic front. Shaf Rasul the new Dragon on the BBC TV show was on the panel and did himself no favours on the PR front when asked about viral marketing. Say no more. Wed saw me attend an intimate lunch with the US Consul, Leader of Edinburgh Coiuncil and others at DLA Piper LLP before attending the Recruitment Agency Awards, which were very poorly attended. A clear sign the Scottish economy is far from showing these green shoots I keep reading about.

Thursday it was back through to Edinburgh to attend the annual Business in Parliament conference. Where I had the pleasure of sitting next to John Mclelland ex Chairman of Rangers FC before sitting up enjoying some light hearted banter till 2am with Scottish Education Minister Fiona Hyslop.

Back to Glasgow Friday for a meeting with the team, off to my mates Julia for dinner (and freshly baked victoria sponge cake - the highlight of the week!) and now on a virgin train to London.

Shattered, but can honestly say running your own business is the best fun in the world!

Keep on growing...

2009-06-07T16:02:00.001+01:00

There’s been a fair amount of change at Nation1 over the past few months. Almost three years ago I took the decision that the future for us was in digital. And since then we have been turning the ship around to allow us to sail the online waters. Its not been easy and im sure some of the people that used to work here wont be keeping me on their xmas card list, but in business its not always about doing what makes you feel good or look popular. Successful businesses make tough decisions and take these decisions because they believe they are the right ones and in the best interests of the business.

So what’s changed? We’ll the team for a start. With the exception of me and Vic (designer) all 12 previous employees are gone and replaced with a new digital team. We have welcomed Mark McIntosh as Creative Director in Glasgow, Colin Boyd as Online Marketing Director, Donna Canning as Project Manager and Brain Coit as Senior Developer. We also recently added Luke Henderson and Willie Brown to the development team. The result is an experienced, talented and award winning digital team with a proven track record of delivering (most of these guys were responsible for the multi award winning Allsaints.com website).

I have also appointed Julie Cuthbertson to the role of Office Manager with a focus on Finance.

We have also ‘soft launched’ our London office. Very low key. We are sharing office space with Eddy and Roberto and their team at Bear Design in Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell. John Henderson ex RMJ Creative Head is our London Creative Director.

Its taken a long time to get here and the journey, at times, has been tough. But we’re still here and with the support of the new team we’re thriving and expanding.

Id like to take this opportunity to thank all the past employees of Nation1 as without you we wouldn’t be where we are today.

One things for sure, at Nation1 we are going to keep on growing.

Watch this space.

Does Twitter pay dividends?

2009-05-20T23:32:00.001+01:00

How can you grow profits using Twitter?

I must confess, it took me until last week to finally get round to using it. I'd heard that Stephen Fry was using it to tell his fans to call for help when he got stuck in a lift and that the two founders of lastminute.com had set up an agency to help clients exploit it. But I just kept thinking what's the point?

Then one quiet Friday night, while munching my Old El Paso Fajitas, washed down with Pepsi with Sky+ playing 24 in the background I thought; its about time I had a wee look at Twitter.

if and when you get round to finding the time to register for Twitter you'll see why it is going to be so big and change the way we market. In a nut shell you set up a profile and then you 'Tweet' (you can set this up via text or through Blackberry also) People then choose to 'follow' your Tweets, somehow I have 70 people wanting to hear what I have to say (which now puts pressure on me to say something good).

So how do you make money for your business? For example Yo Sushi can tell people its '2 for 1 now', Barrhead Travel can advertise cheap flights and promo codes for immediate redemption, John Lewis can sell special offers through their website and because I'm getting something from you I keep following you, hell I even tell my mates to follow you.

Think of Twitter as a sophisticated, measurable and cool coupon system. And that's just the start.

To find out more or have Nation1 set up and manage your Twitter campaign email me now, ill through in a free scone for everyone that meets me for a coffee (who says us Scots are mean!?)

Razorfish Digital Review (summary) 2009

2009-04-07T09:57:00.000+01:00

Which came first; the chicken or the egg? A question mums across the globe have been asked for generations. However this Easter more and more mums will be encouraging their kids to log on and use Wikipedia to find the answer. Wiki in turn will ask them their opinion, which in turn will be read by another curious young person who will no doubt post a reply…. and so the cycle continues……..

This is the year of the web. We said that last year (and we were right!). However, as advertisers look for lower costs, increased returns and accountability, so they turn to the web and yet again it delivers.

I’m just finished wading through the Razorfish ‘Digital outlook for 2009’ report - all 180 pages of the bloody thing (which I read on the train from Inverness to Glasgow). For those of you who don’t have a copy or can’t be arsed with most of the marketing wank contained within, here are the highlights …

Digital is now been heralded as having the potential to re-imagine a consumer connection or re-invent a business model (see the T-mobile article below in my blog for an example). Agencies are no longer required to just ‘say’ things on behalf of their clients. They now have to ‘build’ things (whether that be conversations, ideas, connections, objects etc).

The advent of the all-conquering iPhone will change the mobile media space in 2009. The question brands need to ask themselves now, as it relates to mobile, is: how can they add value to their customers’ experience in this environment? A good example is the iFood app for Kraft, which offers recipe and dinner ideas through the mobile phone.

IPod apps (which is basically a programme, or application for your iPhone you pay for and download) will form a greater force in the advertiser’s arsenal. Think of ShopSavvy, an app that turns your iPhone into a scanner, allows you to scan barcodes in shops, and then tells you where you can buy the items cheaper and, using the GPS on the phone, even tells you the nearest location too. There are now more than 10,000 apps for the iPhone (these include mega useful programmes like iBeer and iFart).

With regards to online ad spend there will be an increasing reliance on ROI and proven channels like search. A continued shift of budget away from portals and renewed fragmentation of the ad network space. There will be a major shift in trend in online ad spend in money allocated to ad space on entertainment category which includes video and lifestyle sites. Facebook and MySpace will continue to dominate ad spend (after search) attracting 24% of global ad spend.

The portable device will fuel further innovation (which means you better factor mobile into your digital strategy somehow!). Facebook connect, for example, will extend users’ connections to other sites, and this barely scratches the surface of what is possible. For example, imagine your personal profile being used for targeting content and advertising, and imagine this happening across the web and not just on the social network where the profile resides. That means websites can use your personal profile to market relevant stuff to you on general websites … think 1984 on acid.

The other big thing is that ‘friendsters’ (that is the technical term for people you have as friends in social network land, that aren’t really friends, and you may not even know) will become more important as they will be the ones that bring you fresh ideas, opinions and messages. Marketers will need to understand how to harness these connections.
The intranet will join the web. Your employees will want to collaborate with people outwith your organisation and you had better give your employees the tools to do this, as they’re gonna anyway. The CEO will join Facebook. I bet you £1,000 they do within 12 months (if they haven’t already).

2009 will also see advertisers make significant investments in search centric sites and landing pages as they look to develop their search platform and improve the user experience.

Here’s one for you: social marketing strategies will increasingly revolve around the social object! People don’t just talk, they tend to talk around ‘objects’. For example, I’m speaking to my mum about the flowers I sent her. ‘What flowers?’ I hear my mum ask. ‘You never sent me flowers.’ However, the point is that it’s the flowers that are the social object. If we, as advertisers, ask what makes a great social object then we can create engaging and meaningful ways to harness the power of the social network. A better example (than the flowers) is Smirnoff’s Secret Party, which allowed users within the social networks to discuss the event, as well as who the mystery DJ might be. Smaller ‘social objects’ were deployed in the forms of clues and puzzles in a digital treasure hunt for free tickets. Cryptic clues inspired conversations to take place within social networks between users. AGPS system embedded the clues in the blog and enabled users to venture into the real world to search for tickets that might, for instance, be taped under a park bench. These real world tickets sparked debate, conversation and were viral.

A wee insight into the future of retail. A look at a poll conducted by BusinessWeek concluded that today’s consumer is shopping differently.
69% research products online before going into the store to purchase.
62% have looked at an online review in the past week before making a purchase.
61% want to be able to scan barcodes and get other stores’ prices.
39% compared a product price across multiple retailers online.
9% used a mobile phone to text a mate about a product while shopping.

Other themes that will float to the top in 2009’s retail space are mobile coupons, barcode readers on mobile phones, social shopping via SMS AND MMS, GPS and location-based search.

Email marketing is poised to grow over the next four years and, according to Forrester, will account for a $4billion industry by 2011. Mainly being used as a way to gather information, notification of customer service mechanism, promotional device and as a conduit for social management and networking.

And finally, back to the digital mum. According to Neilson more digital mums connect with social networks today (65%) and SMS (56%) than with news sites (51%) and just as many can be found gaming online or via a gaming console (52%) or consuming their favourite shows online (27%). So the question really should not be: which came first; the chicken or the egg? But who’s gonna be first online today to find out the answer?

HAL9000 is closer than we think.

2009-03-13T23:50:00.000Z

OK, check this mother out. Whilst searching for stuff to add to our newly created Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/WeareNation1) we came across this. After a bit of digging it seems this is not for real, but just imagine for one second. If nothing else those smart dudes in California must be working on this kind of shit, whilst eating sushi and doing Thai Chi. HAL9000 is closer than we think.

Why marketing agencies are now top of the food chain

2009-02-27T15:30:00.000Z

Last night I sat next to Mark, the HR director for T-mobile. For the last six months Nation1 has been developing our culture, values, guiding principles, work practices and operational instructions in an attempt to stndardise and process map our business allowing greater freedom on the creative front and providing scalability ahead of our London launch this June.

Over dinner we moved onto the topic of marketing...... and he asked me if I had seen t mobiles Liverpool St station advert? I had, it was amazing. He went on to tell me how it was a junior member of the marketing team that came up with the idea and how they have since been promoted to head of brand, but what impressed me more was when he said that all over the UK, staff in their stores were being asked by customers to teach them the T-mobile dance. And if you walk down any high street and glance in the door of a Vodaphone store you see staff eager to pounce and sell, yet a peak inside T-mobile will see customers and staff dancing about, some even being filmed on their mobile phones in action as they perform. Employee engagement has gone through the roof, recall of the ad is massive, Youtube is peppered with footage of the event captured real time by real people who happened to be at Liverpool Street at the time of the stunt and there are even groups of people using social networks to organise “flash dances“ where a disparate group who have never met arrange to meet up in a public place at an agreed time and recreate the event for a minute before dispersing to never meet again.

This is marketing, it’s not digital, not above or below the line; it’s just fucking brilliant. Great fun, relevant to the brand and product. It captures the imagination but above all based on one simple idea.

This is why the marketing agencies of tomorrow will be more important to their customers than the advertising agencies of yesterday.

Nasty pudding

2009-02-10T10:01:00.001Z

Did u see the news feature about the ruined Virgin Atlantic journey due to a poor quality custard pudding? Awesome. I've been part of this and I feel cool.

Going backwards, the Virgin pudding headline appears on news in pizza shop Thursday night in Amsterdam, hungry diners were fixated. A few days earlier whilst in Istanbul I get an email from a good mate, that's been about a bit(the email, not the mate – although she may have seen some action back in the day) with a copy of a complaint letter to Richard Brandson attached, about a pudding.

On Jan 15th virgin launch new TV ad. On Jan 2nd virgin TV ad appears on Youtube. Dec 19th online industry mag Mad.co.uk talks about new virgin campaign and return to form for the advertiser.

Totally genius, totally integrated and in total synch with the brand. Mixing online, public relations, viral and TV to generate hype and get across the message that Virgin are cool, relevant, irreverent and give a shit (Richard replied personally to the complaint letter – of course he did.)

If you like the sound of this and want some for yourself, let me know and ill show you what nation1 can deliver for your brand.

Visit the complaint letter
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/11975/

Is the glass half full or half empty?

2009-01-25T21:58:00.000Z

Check this out……. Somebody at Cadbury’s obviously came to the conclusion some time ago that adverts featuring people enjoying chocolate were just plane dull and didn’t really stand out. So they devised the clever ‘A glass half full production’ concept where they use wacky attention grabbing and even surreal scenarios in an attempt to represent the feeling you get when you enjoy their products……

So here’s their latest offering. Seeded on Youtube first (at time of this blog post not yet on TV) some of the 530 comments on this particular post of the ad include “fuck all to do with dairy milk but a monkey playing drums didnt either. funniest ad going.lol”, “Where the fuck did that ballon come from lol” and “anyone know the track? “ (to which there is a reply with a link to where you can buy the track)

Ill leave you with this…… how many of those comments were created by the agency and how did Cadbury get 100,301 views in 24 hours….. if you want to know or want to know how your firm can achieve the same results, give me a shout.

You Tube Virgin

2009-01-11T14:16:00.000Z

New year, new ad; for Virgin Atlantic. This new ad is a return to form for client and agency and aims to recapture the glamour and excitement of air travel in the eighties (as today’s air travel experience is so far away from that).
My dad was in the army which meant he travelled a lot and consequently I went to boarding school. Every school holiday was extra exciting as not only did I get to go home and see my folks, but I got to fly there. Most of us had parents that lived aboard and I remember how exciting it was on the count down to end of term. We all went to bed on the last night and hardly slept at the anticipation of waking up at 5am. We would get dressed and tip toe downstairs to have some breakfast (in the house – which was a treat as we normally had to walk half a mile to the canteen). Mr Reid our greasy haired, 60’s music loving, heavy smoking taxi driver (it was the same guy every time, perhaps Mrs Collier had a thing for him?) would drive those of us on the red eye to Edinburgh Airport where we would be personally met by a BA rep. We would check in as unaccompanied minors and get VIP treatment, we’d get to sit in the cockpit as the plane took off and we would be chaperoned from one lounge to another by friendly, tall, attractive ladies who knew everything. Gone are the days, but its nice to see Virgin accept that! See what you think of the new virgin ad.
Interesting to note the ad was placed on YouTube on 4th Dec and has been viewed 190,000 times, has 199 comments and has been rated favourite by 867 people and there are 24 profiles that have showcased the ad with a total view of 456,889.

Terror in Mumbai

2008-11-27T16:23:00.001Z

I received a text from the sister of one of my business partners in Mumbai on Thursday 27th November asking me if I had heard the news from Mumbai. I was in Inverness at the time and had not been near a TV or newspaper all day. I assumed she meant her brother was looking for me.

As I watched the events unfold on Sky, I could not help but think only four weeks previously I had been staying at the Oberoi. A few of the meetings that I attended with locals there would be conversations about the Taj Mahal Hotel’s over-the-top security measures not allowing guests to drive their cars to the front door, in contrast to the Oberoi’s more relaxed policy. They knew things were going to happen. They just didn’t know when.

At the time of writing this, there are no confirmed perpetrators, but names are being thrown about and suggestions being made.

The question for me is: will this change things? Nation1 has been building towards a launch of Nation1:Mumbai in January 2010. To be honest, for me this doesn’t change a thing. If it did, we would avoid doing business with New York, London, Madrid etc. Mumbai is a great place to live and work and India is a land of endless opportunity. It sends a shudder down my spine when I think that it could so easily have been me in that hotel, but that changes nothing really. We don’t stop going on the London tube or attending meetings high above Manhattan.

I would like to take this opportunity to also send my deepest condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one, friend or colleague during this terrorist attack, but to also say that for what it’s worth, Mumbai is a great place to do business, especially for Scots firms.

is STV now for sale to News International?

2008-11-12T13:46:00.000Z

On Monday 10th November I was invited to attend one of SCDI’s (Scottish Centre for Development and Indsusty www.scdi.org) Influencer Dinners, this was well attended (for a miserable Glasgow Monday night) by 40 of Glasgow’s business leaders. The speaker for the night was Rob Woodward CEO of STV plc.

As an agency that works in the digital space and employs two of STV’s former digital employees it was with great interest that I listened to what Rob had to say about the future of STV and its online portal www.STV.tv
I was curious to know, given the broadcasters focus on local content and limited catalogue, how this would stand up when competing online with global players like Youtube and Google (Google's deal with NBC Universal marks a significant step in the company's ambition to become a one-stop shop for advertisers across all media by expanding its self-service AdWords system to other sectors.) "The Google TV ads platform is making television advertising more accountable and measurable and we are pleased with our progress to date," said Tim Armstrong, the president of advertising and commerce for Google North America.

So where does STV sit in this new age of online, on demand content, user targeted adverts and IPTV?

Rob gave a convincing argument that local content will be the key and referred the audience to News Internationals acquisition of a number of local channels across Europe with a view to positioning its online network as a global provider of local content. However there is one fundamental problem with this in my opinion and that is the restrictions in place due to licence agreements and deals with other networks. This requires the online broadcaster to geoblock content based on these agreements (i.e. if a terrestrial channel in Australia has paid for Taggart then you can’t show it online in Australia for free). Also is rob suggesting that www.STV.tv could be sold to News International? Rob also rightly pointed out that in the not to distant future that the difference between digital and IP TV won’t matter, as the consumer won’t know when they are watching a given format, the box that delivers this will do all the work and the consumer will just watch TV as they always have. He also touched on 3D TV and other innovations, but never fully explored how STV plc would exploit these, more due to time than anything else.

Rob also impressed me when he candidly admitted that their current online platform is a ‘start’ and that www.STV.tv has a ‘long way to go’. Personally I still think they need a real unique hook to get people online as seeing Taggart, North Tonight or Postcode Challenge before anyone else is not going to cut it globally and although Rob suggested their online consumer is younger I don’t agree bingo is appropriate (whilst im sure it’s a massive earner).

The main point of Rob’s pitch was this; that Scotland needs STV, and I agree. During his talk, Rob said: ‘Fundamentally, stv embraces the power of being local, delivering a combination of high quality network programming combined with compelling Scottish content. This model, which has served Scotland well for over 50 years, needs to evolve, not disappear. We are seeking a regulatory settlement (out of Ofcom’s Review of Public Service Broadcasting) that builds on the here and now by recognising our heritage and skills but most importantly our ability to provide high quality programming in a digital age.”

As a nation we should all back their or at least engage in dialogue to help them refine them, because as we all know only too well, if you don’t use it, you loose it.

Dead sucessful, dead gorgeous Halloween Ball

2008-11-03T18:23:00.000Z

What a dead successful, dead gorgeous Halloween ball. Friday 31st October 2008 saw us take our annual Halloween shin dig up a level. This year we joined forces with Jaguar to co-host the event (giving away a JagXK and a race day experience), we also had a Gucci handbag for most gorgeous female, diamond necklace for most dead female, VIP day out for most dead male and loads of other awesome prizes. “Best agency party I have EVER been to. In fact, you can quote me on that. Thanks for the invite, I was surprised how many people I knew.” David Reid, Branding Consultant and Ex MD of 1576 Advertising. Says it all.

The costumes were all amazing, with over 370 people getting into the spirit of things. Roll on 2009 Halloween – any ideas on a killer theme? Liz Howells you are a star, Kelly Copper Bar, thanks for all your support, Lynne and Gordon at Jaguar thanks for keeping the faith and to everyone who made the effort on the night, well done and thank you for your support!

Check out DEAD GORGEOUS NATION1 in facebook for more pics

2008-10-31T10:56:00.000Z

India is an incredible place, it takes a bit of getting used to but once you do you’ll fall in love. I did. I was over on an SCDI/SE sponsored mission to expand the Nation1 empire and agreed heads of terms with my business partners Danny Suresh and Thomas Cherian. This deal, which will see Nation1:Mumbai launch in January 2010 will be the companies first steps into internationalisation and an exciting development for everyone involved.

There are over 44,000,000 active internet users in India, growing 30% every year. Broadband is poor and connection speeds slow, out with main cities rural areas have limited or no net coverage. Therefore it is essential any digital offering for this market considers the mobile space. Of the population online male ABC 25+ make up 50%. Put into perspective Times on India (the countries largest newspaper has 6.8m readers, Yahoo India has 17m unique visitors a day, moneycentral.com has 1.6m. Mobile marketing is huge as 1 in 10 Indians have a mobile, sometimes people don’t have a home but they have a mobile. Mobile phone networks are adding new customers at the rate of 10,000 A DAY, yes that’s not a typo 10,000 new subscribers A DAY. What this means is that any firm entering the marketing services industry in India has to understand how to exploit mobile media.

This makes the announcement of Google Android all the more exciting. The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, developed Android: the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. Which will transform the way we use mobiles and market to users via their phones. To find out more (hey – never miss an opportunity for a sales pitch) drop me an email andrew.grant@nation1.co.uk

2008-10-01T18:20:00.000+01:00

Ive not updated this thing for ages. Its been mental. The biggest news is that Victor our new Glasgow Managing Director has started, and what a difference it makes having someone with his experince leading the team. It made me realise how important it is to invest in good people and find people better than yourself. Since Victors arrival we have won a bunch of new clients that all fit our new positioning (high growth privately owned or AIM listed) and the team are winning 8 out of 10 pitches.

I have now set a March 09 date for my London launch plans and i have found three amazing people to help run the agency with me down there (Digital/Creative/Client Services) we also have a client in our sights that will underwrite the whole venture.

This month we have three major events, Sir Tom Farmer in Inverness, A Google a Day Seminar in Glasgow and our Dead Gorgeous Halloween party in association with Jaguar. Ill be sure to update you with info on all of the above. But for now im off to a dinner, then at a training course all day tom, the Hottest Night Dinner at Hilton on Thurs and IBIZA (!) Space Closing Party at the weekend. bye for now.

PS - if you would like to attend any of our events or find out more (you can also book online) visit www.nation1.co.uk

Getting started....

2008-07-16T15:04:00.000+01:00

As MD of a digital agency, i thought it was about time i started to keep a blog. The challenge will be to make it interesting and keep it up to date.

I want to provide a interesting and honest insight into what happens at Nation1 and provide some insights into the world of digital marketing, whilst not giving too much away to our competition. I guess the best place to start with is with what has happened of late. We were re-appointed by Culture & Sport Glasgow to the Glasgow Young Scot account for the next two years (a big account by any standard), even although a local competitor poached one of our designers in an attempt to win said contract. Sorry Guy(s). We've also won a truck load of other new business, but you don’t want to read a long list of stuff we've won and it will only wind up our competition.

On Dec 4th 2006 we opened an office in Inverness (very low key) and on March 12th 2008 we had to shut that office. The MD up there raised £30,000 worth of invoices for which there had never been an order placed. It was a difficult period for the agency as we had to make good people redundant in order to reduce our costs and deal with the fact we were going to be down in terms of profit and cash. However the up side is that we are now a far leaner, meaner, cost focused machine which is a good thing given the current climate.

This Friday we pitch for our biggest digital contract to date, we are down to the final two (the original line up was a beauty parade of London agencies). To get this far is good, but not good enough. Ill keep you posted, however im confident we have given it our best shot. I have also appointed a Managing Director for our Glasgow office, he starts August (watch this space to find out who). This will give me more free time to work on growing the business outside of Glasgow.

That’s all for now, im off to finish the costs section of Friday’s presentation.