Culture

Four ways brands can make early adoption easier and less painful

A recent trip to Japan got me thinking about the disadvantages of being an ‘early adopter’ of new products and technology, and how brands should encourage and reward those of us who get in ahead of the crowds.

Japanese technology shops are particularly fun, with blaring advertisements and garish coloured banners everywhere. 

In one, I found ‘easy to drink from’ vacuum mugs in a wide range of colours with a variety of sophisticated caps and drinking spouts. 

The humble black screw top I had bought in the UK was completely upstaged by these colourful, feature packed newcomers.

What are the essential skills for modern marketers? [infographic]

Looking to future proof your CV? Want to make sure your marketing team has the right mix of talent?

Our recent Skills of the Modern Marketer report defines the skills that senior marketers are seeking for their team. Both the broad knowledge areas and the deep vertical skills needed to be successful in marketing. 

As Neil Perkin’s blog post on the report mentioned last week, we also found a surprising focus on soft skills – in particular, adaptability, inquisitiveness and willingness to collaborate.

We created this infographic to summarise the findings of the report, based on interviews and a survey with senior level marketers. 

15 essential skills for modern marketers

What are the skills needed by marketers to be succesful in the future?

In our research for the Skills of the Modern Marketer report, we asked senior level marketers that question and have come up with 15 essential skills – organised into three ‘top five skills lists’ for marketing.

Why three lists? When we asked respondents about the skills essential to marketing there was a surprising focus placed on the soft skills.

So in addition to the usual broad knowledge areas and vertical skills areas, marketers need the right soft skills to be able to work across the organisation. The best ideas will founder without buy-in across the organisation and support from multiple teams.

Marketers also need to be able to adapt quickly in response to the rapid pace of change all around us.

So that leaves us with three top five lists, one each for soft skills, broad skills and technical skills.   

How brands can make the most of corporate sponsorship

With Summer now here, brands need to be clear on how they can get more out of event sponsorships.

Typically, brands stick to reaching consumers on the ground. At Glastonbury 2013, mobile network EE targeted throbs of sweaty music-lovers by offering them a free 3G connection, courtesy of their own Wi-Fi tractor.

Also at Glastonbury 2013, another brand, Southern Comfort, created Juke Joint, an on-site music venue that mimicked the ambience of a New Orleans bar.

Both EE and Southern Comfort went above and beyond handing out free samples. Though their tactics landed them a fair amount of coverage, they were still only interacting with festival goers on the ground.

How marketing and IT are working together

Businesses are becoming increasingly customer centric, which is moving the focus of marketing efforts firmly onto improving the customer experience.

To help with meeting that core objective, marketers are looking every which way for technology that can help them deliver a better customer experience. They want to do it all, and they want to do it now! 

IT teams, on the other hand, have been in the game of buying and implementing technology a little longer. They know there are considerations that have to be made before diving in headfirst, and they’ve dealt with the repercussions of security and integration issues. 

With the lines blurring between technology ownership, I’ve been looking into how the relationship between the two teams is – or isn’t – working. 

slideshow

Eight SlideShare decks to inspire cultural change

There is one true irony that many businesses are yet to understand: business success in the digital age is just as much about people as it is about technology.

Every single roundtable I attend as an analyst seems to confirm this fact.

However, many companies are still getting by with arcane working practices and toxic environments, despite a glaring realisation that companies that do not transform are unlikely to see out the next few decades.

So where should those looking to “shake things up” turn to for inspiration? To assist, I’ve selected a few Slideshare decks on culture that I hope will inspire those at the highest rungs of business to wake up and smell the coffee.

Enjoy.

Start Me Up! A profile of PayasUgym.com

Gyms are one of those services that start debate. Maybe it’s because a lot of us don’t cherish the thought of visiting them, but their membership terms can seem unreasonable.

And of course you have to trawl through their individual websites, as Matt Owen has done previously.

PayasUgym.com is a start-up that aims to make gym day passes easier to obtain, giving flexibility to the gym goer.

Graeme Horne was the first employee at hungryhouse.co.uk, and has just left after seven years to join PayasUgym.com, based in London. I spoke to Graeme and CEO Jamie Ward.

The rise of the freelancer: stats

Freelancing. Early 19th century in origin, as two words, denoting a mercenary.

In the US, gigging (freelancing) is a well-established phenomenon. An estimated 20–33% of the workforce consists of independent workers (Accenture).

The top 10 skills supplied by UK freelancers (listed below) are pretty much exclusively utilised in the service industries involved with the web and marketing.

Surprisingly, a fifth of UK grads with a first class degree have already freelanced. With flexibility and earning potential, not to mention the lack of a ‘real’ boss, being major attractions for some of the best and brightest, how can you work well with freelancers?

In this post I’m revealing findings from a new report from elance looking at trends in freelancing in the UK.

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