By Dominika Jankowska

The author of Tribes, Seth Godin, argues that people like to align themselves with other people like them. He also says that we like to be in tribes, we like to be connected. Therefore, it is so much easier to be led as a group and the author of Purple Cow strongly believes that marketers should use this opportunity to target their products/services. Also I really liked the ‘life’s too short, you should quit’ concept which I strongly believe is the way out from the job you haven’t got faith in. Taking into account creative industries sector, for instance, if you don’t believe you will make it with your deadlines and the overall strategy you will fail. The markets change too quickly to having the organisation piggybacked without  serious consequences. Mr Godin, not without a reason draws our attention to ‘changing from within’ which, he argues, is also marketing. If there are like-minded people in your organisation it is possible to align them to make change which is critical here, since the overall result is delivered together, in a tribe.

It is also crucial that apart from changing from within there is a presence of a manifesto and wanting the things to get better. It really makes me think of the current economic climate and the tendency of thinking ‘survival’ and hoping for the things to get better. So does that make marketers better in their jobs now? Does it tease out the deepest of their skills due to facing the recession? Maybe, in fact what people wait for is someone to say, “Here’s an idea or here’s a service or a product or a candidate that will take us somewhere new, let’s go.”

Moreover, the whole essence of building a tribe in the organisation as he suggests is having people bringing them new members instead of reaching for them. I think word of mouth which is a final result of how the clients/customers perceive the service/product delivered to them. The better customer satisfaction, the bigger chance to gain new members.

Internet is the next crucial element for building tribes. ‘Real tribes almost always come from a sense of authenticity, people who have connected to the real world.’  Such connection, as the author suggests, can be done through press releases which help being noticed by people. And here, I’m almost grateful for mentioning press releases, since I believe they’re the most effective way of communicating with the world ‘out there’ and you might be also interested in reading a short piece on this magic tool of communication here.

Summarising, the credit crunch became the biggest opportunity the marketers and other organisations have ever had. ‘It’s the biggest opportunity of your lifetime. It’s during the recession that great companies and great brands are built’. And I completely agree with that and you can see that here.

Or

How to make journalists love you.

NESTA is committed to supporting small and medium enterprises and recognises innovation as the key to success in the current economic climate:
“Innovation is the single most important condition for transforming the current economic crisis into an opportunity. Never before has innovation been so critical to the UK’s economy and society.”

Media Skills Masterclass was the event held by Creative Republic in Fazeley Studios, Digbeth on Tuesday 21st April.
This short piece constitutes the 2nd part of “Attacking the recession” series which presents useful skills needed in your media organisation.

The appointed guests from the West Midlands region shared their ideas with their colleague journalists, pr and digital media personalities and other entrepreneurs.

Anna Blackaby, small business journalist for Birmingham Post answered the following questions: How to get yourself in a newspaper? and How can you better your own PR? Having taken a look at creative industries sector she emphasised the importance of the role of press releases and how the businesses can communicate better through them with the target audience. These short pieces of writing should be as concise as possible, catching eye and containing new current ‘stuff’ (the recession subject would always be on top and definitely catching reader’s eye!). Journalists will love you for that especially if you save them long-hour-coffee-after-coffee researching of what you want to say! Secondly, try to avoid adjectives (facts only!) and get the habit of including quotations. Thirdly, use your own creativity (“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself”, Alan Alda); send the picture over etc. Fourthly, establish yourself as a commentator – if you have an opinion share it with others. Finally, if you have any stories, opinions etc, send them over through e-mail to the press office and therefore you will maintain a great relationship with them.

Now you will not only be loved but absolutely adored by a journalists’ team for your perfection at press release writing!

Another key point is Birmingham itself, the city of numerous opportunities, the creativity hub and economy city. If we pick up key segments and try to develop the mentality of the key sectors that drive the Birmingham economy we will be able to beat the recession. Targeting and attracting journalists should become catchphrases for each entrepreneur in the WM region. Why not target travel journalists (nota bene, probably most influential journalists among all); get them to the city and let them experience it? Why not using the hooks (case studies, extraordinary people in the heart of the real story etc.) they are absolutely mad about?

Finally, don’t be afraid to put your ‘stuff’ on the website, be noticed by your target audience and keep this relationship closely. Inform them through RSS feeds, tweets, direct mail etc. Social media is the answer.

by Dominika Jankowska

Introduction

On 31st March The Studio in Birmingham city centre hosted an event entitled Crunch Time and was organised by Screen WM and Creative Republic. The debate undertook the topic on how the organisations within creative industries can beat the recession. Among the creative guest speakers there were such personalities, as: Suzie Norton (CEO, Screen WM), James Meadway (NESTA, co-author of “Attacking the Recession”), Helga Henry (Creative Republic), Lara Ratnaraja (Sector Development Director Creative, Cultural and Digital, Business Link), Chris Unitt (Editor, Created in Birmingham) and Ruth Ward (Managing Director, Rewired PR). Despite different backgrounds, all of the appointed entrepreneurs had something in common; fresh and innovative ideas on how to face credit crunch and not only survive within this time but also progress, as this is the key to success for each organisation.

“Attacking The Recession”
West Midlands region accounts 10% of total unemployment which is the highest in the UK. Cultural and Creative industries which are characterised by innovation, risk taking and creativity, are probably most vulnerable to economic changes. The co-author of Attacking The Recession, James Meadway recognises the importance of enhancing innovation through public funding and partnerships with businesses and enterprises, ‘The UK will need new growth sectors to make up for the dynamism that has been lost from financial services. The development of those growth sectors will require a mix of intelligent public investment, partnership with business and entrepreneurship. Decisive government leadership and public investment will be critical to innovation in many fields, from scientific research to cultural funding.’ Moreover, the biggest gains for society, he adds, will be found in those sectors that both offer the most immediate growth potential, drawing on the UK’s existing strengths, and help meet long-term challenges, such as green energy, environmental services, biotechnology, and services for ageing society. These need to form part of national economic strategy and be able to set long-term goals along with the political credibility to help deliver them. However, this approach needs to be combined with a mass of entrepreneurial activity which searches for new markets, opportunities and is characterised by innovation. James Meadway also adds that the recession will create a new platform of growth if business entrepreneurs emerge to take opportunities in new growth industries and social entrepreneurs address emerging social challenges.
Strong emphasis has been also put on networks and how people relate to each other. NESTA’s policy analyst argues that lack of these was one of the main reasons for collapsing of the global economy. Through digital networks and strengthening business-client relations creative industries can start breaking through the economic downturn. Recent statistics showed that Internet and BBC iPlayer account of 10% of the UK’s total internet usage which characterises the national market as driven by technological changes. Therefore, he finds the importance of using the technology as a main objective in companies’ strategies which help them meet their goals. Finally, cultural and creative industries will be driving the UK’s economy forward. It’s just the case of experimentation and creativity as long as these two work and bring the expected results.

Show me the money
Thomas Blount (Fund Manager, Advantage Proof of Concept Fund) supports small businesses and recognises the importance of innovation as well as intellectual property. As all of the guest speakers, he also supports social media which are necessary in formation of a long tail and organic growth of enterprises. However, he argues that the biggest block in growth is the access to finance – more specifically – to funding.
Skills development and Train to Gain
The panel strongly emphasised the development of skills and gaining new qualifications. This could be done, for instance, via Train to Gain, a joint investment – organisation and Government working together to boost business by improving the skills of the individual staff members. In the collaboration with Business Link, Train to Gain is a perfect tool for the business to use in the times of recession. It not only helps improving business performance and efficiency towards increasing profits but it also help the staff grow in motivation and confidence.
Summarising was the massive figure of 60% given by the panel which represents total percentage of graduates within creative industries who have, at least, gained BA degrees. This means that it is highly important to gain extra qualifications and training in this pretty competitive industry. Multi-talented qualified people represent another element of succeeding in the current economic climate.  Ergo, skills and qualification development and apprenticeships will help reach this goal.

No Budget Marketing
The panel’s guest speakers were Chris Unitt and Ruth Ward. Both guest speakers emphasised the importance of online media, direct marketing and direct mail, and social networks, such as Twitter, as keys to maintaining business-client relations. Surprisingly, there are still many creative enterprises which don’t really employ these tools in their overall business strategy. That’s one of the reasons why they don’t succeed these days.
Another useful point was that the organisation must not follow the crowds but be more innovative through using different tools of communicating with clients. Ruth also mentioned her PR organisation and how they communicate with their clients. Be different, innovative and remarkable are key elements for the current and future growth. Ruth mentioned the main steps to success and these were as follows:
•    You are biggest asset
•    Bring back bartering
•    Become your own broadcaster
•    Get creative (!)
•    Listen to what people say
•    Don’t be afraid to ask for leads
•    Be a connector
•    Become an authority on your industry
•    Ask clients for endorsements
•    Be the best at what you do

Change or die?
Tom Lawes (Electric Cinema) and Paul Davies (Television Junction) drew my attention to a very simple and how successful tool within the organisation. Diversity. ‘If you diversify your day you diversify your skills too’. Anything you do during the day at work; meetings with your clients, conferences, training they will be a good opportunity for diversifying your skills as well. One of the biggest skills, however, is to figure out where the money is and try to get it. It can be easily done through recognition of consumer preferences and current trends in the market. Once recognised they should be implemented into action and maintained.
Another crucial point was passion. The passion to work comes from skills and creativity. If you’re a creative person you will find fulfilment in anything you do (Tom Lawes).

I hope all of the above will help understand the importance of application of various approaches during the current economic situation and I will be looking forward to hearing from you what you think about it.

P.S Sorry for expanding my word count but I realised that everything discussed during Crunch Time was equally important =P

I am still extremely overwhelmed about our Inspirational Speakers Day!

Taking Oliver Leggett, for instance, and his presentation on leading and managing creative team, I need to agree that there were some really useful points. First of all, networking and people by people techniques which help in growing the business organically. Also, very interesting suggestion was that everyone in a creative enterprise can be a leader and this can be seen through being innovative or simply through pointing out if someone else’s ideas are better. The key point, however, were values and, therefore, he pointed out that it is extremely important to know yourself and to be true to yourself. Moreover, focusing on values and strengths are the main keys to success. It makes me think of, in this point, about our PPD module where we had a chance to assess your skills and values. I am recognising the importance of it now even more..

The other two guest speakers, Rachel Hargrave and Alan James were very inspirational in terms of the dynamics of the creative enterprise. Rachel, moreover, drew our attention to the importance of communication. Also, in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive market she says, “You have to be really good at what you do” and “It’s not important to be a big agency and exist but to be different”. Finally, as the same speaker, admitted, media convergence is also very important since it dictates how, or rather in what ways, the audience receives the message; if it is through, traditional media, or through social networking applications, mobile phones, iPods etc..

Don’t you think that what we’ve learnt so far from the modules from the first semester is all captured in practice within creative enterprises? The main task for us, however, is to apply everything what we’ve learnt to a real life and take the most out of it.

Dom.

Hi everyone! I am writing this blog post a day after our creative guest speakers gave such motivating speeches. Also, there will be one more post coming (hopefully today) commenting on Inspirational Speaker Day.

First of all, I would like to draw our attention to first assignment in Cultural Entrepreneurship whose deadline is on 6^th March. I have been thinking recently about any possible relevant case studies which would form the basis for the final report. What do you think about recent story about Jade Goody and how she uses media to show her illness? Don’t you think that she is an example of a cultural entrepreneur? Selling her fitness videos and DVDs, perfumes, autobiography, etc. and using all different kinds of media (including her appearance on celebrity Big Brother in 2008) brought her huge profit already. In addition to all this, she decided to shoot the reportage about her illness and how she struggles to survive each day showing other women, who suffer from cervical cancer, the importance of spending the last months with the closest family friends. It’s like Horace’s carpe diem (‘seize the day’) the phrase which probably reflects the feelings of this ‘entrepreneur’ and helps her create something culturally important for the British nation that no one has ever done before.

Maybe I’m going the wrong direction but I’m considering many different case studies at the moment.

Dominika Jankowska