Today, during our MA Media Enterprise lecture, we had talks from Justice Williams MBE (founder of TruLifeMagazine and Birmingham Media Group, amongst other things), Daniel Bower of econversions and VoucherCodes.co.uk, and Ruth Ward of Rewired PR. Al of them had interesting and inspirational stories to tell about their businesses, and I picked up a lot of useful tips. I recorded the talk by Justice and it’s embedded below (apologies for the poor quality, TV and camera work was never my forte!).
This is my first blog post for mediaenterprise.co.uk and I thought I would start with my recollections from the MA Media and Creative Enterprise so far.
At the beginning of the course I was also taking part in Insight Out: Managing a Portfolio Career, which was fantastic and I feel it has prepared me well for the rest of the MA.
I found a lot of crossover between the Enterprise module and Insight Out, which was helpful because it enabled me to really take in what I have learnt. However, the module I have found most intriguing (and most perplexing at times!) has been Creative Industries and Cultural Policy.
The ‘hot topic’ at the moment seems to be the role of the creative industries in the UK’s economy, and whether the sector can pull us out of recession (and for some people the creative industries also encompasses digital and IT). Several events have taken place during my short time on the MA including Digital District, Hello Digital, the Big Debate and the national Cabinet Forum.
All of them were concerned with the future; how improving Birmingham’s broadband infrastructure could have long-term benefits for SMEs and the economy (Digital District), how the digital industries can pull the UK out of recession (Hello Digital), how Birmingham’s creative industries should band together to try and achieve the same (Big Debate) and so on.
Has there been enough discussion?
Despite those three events dealing with slightly different themes, all pointed towards the creative industries and how they can move forward in Birmingham. Though I found them all interesting and relevant, maybe now it is time for the discussions to stop and action to begin, especially from policy makers.
The biggest event of them all was the Cabinet Forum, simply due to the amount of hugely influential creative workers and policy makers in attendance. One major subject of debate was copyright, which is of particular interest to me due to my involvement in magazine publishing and I will be studying it for my first assignment. Some delegates felt that the copyright debate is getting ‘old’ and the debate needs to move on, others felt that it was a hugely important part of the creative economy and problems with copyright protection in the digital age (such as illegal file sharing) need to be addressed.
As entrepreneurs, there is no doubt that copyright (and intellectual property in general) plays a big part in what we do. If our intellectual property is not protected, our product won’t be unique; it will be exploited and our ideas will not be our own. One such incident happened to me recently when an article I used for my final year degree project was re-used several times by the FA and other companies without my permission (it was a digital magazine and my contact details were clearly visible on the website). I wouldn’t have minded but I wasn’t acknowledged for it. The (c) symbol doesn’t matter to people in the digital age.
On the other hand, people (creatives and consumers) are unwilling to pay for photographs and articles, but there is the compromise of Creative Commons, where authors can make their work available for free as long as they are acknowledged.
On that note, I am going to leave you with a very good talk by Dr Lawrence Lessig (who came up with the idea of Creative Commons) about copyright and current policy.
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.
Seth Godin is the author of business books and a popular speaker with appearances at Google, TED and a number of charities. One of his famous publications is Purple Cow, and it really stimulates my interest and curiosity in marketing.
In the first paragraph of Big shot, Godin mention about the new marketing is leadership. This point of view let me associate with Oliver Leggett’s lecture in Media Lab, both of them think leadership is very important in business. However, in Godin’s concept, leadership is not only about how to lead your employees, but also your customer, or your “tribes”.
We got hundred of TV channels or magazines, and there are thousands of advertisements in these mediums. Here comes a question: How to catch the audience eye? Nowadays people want something different, we cannot touch the audiences by “creative” anymore. Inthe book All Marketers Are Liars, Godin mention that a lot of businessman has creative, but how to make it become a “story”? It is the key point that makes your idea and advertisement extraordinary.
In brief, no matter we are a little project marketing planner or a big industry manager, if our story is just like our competitor, even how hard we work, it’s still not enough. We must tell something extraordinary and not only catch the audience eye, but also lead them to become part of our “tribes”.
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.
Seth Godin, Author of the Purple Cow, The Dip, Meatball Sundae and he’s latest book Tribes. Some points and thoughts from the article in ‘the marketer’ (12.08/01.09) Godin describes how marketing has changed; it’s no longer thrusting marketing to the masses but being leaders of tribes. “The new marketing is leadership”.
There are two routes you could go if as a marketer you find yourself in a company your values don’t align too, either quit or lead a change of culture from within. Seth Godin states that organisations need people who are the later.
What struck me is that Godin says that conservative people do not follow tribes. People who do not join tribes do not want to improve life and want to keep everything the same, so they aren’t looking for a new product or service therefore not looking at your ads. Your audience are the ones who want change, who gather like tribes and connect with each other. Adding to this most people want to follow and to be lead by someone. The new leader according to Godin is the marketer. ‘What people are waiting for is someone to say, “here’s an idea or here’s a service or a product or a candidate that will take us somehere new, let’s go.”
He goes on to say that tribe building is easy, as long as your customer/member is delighted in what you do and not feeling ripped off, they will help build your tribe by recommendation. Spreading your ideas freely also attracts interest, membership and sales. “Once you have it, a tribe makes money all by itself. If you go into it saying, ‘I want to make money from this’ you fail.“
Personally, what I’ve got from this, is that I want to create that kind of feeling in my business, becoming very tribal!!!! This is how I see the business culture at IE Design and the customer relationship and philosophy with keepandshare.co.uk. Godin ends this article on advice to marketers with the recession in mind.
• That this is the biggest opportunity any of us will ever have.
• He believes that great companies and brands are built in this environment.
• To create real value and real change.
• And to hire amazing people who can’t get ordinary jobs because there aren’t any. “This is what you’ve been waiting for and I hope you don’t miss it.”
I’m going to take this on, that he is right and see what I can create in the world!
See Seth Godin really cool blog! http://sethgodin.typepad.com
Look you, if you are a Seth Godin tribe member you can get a doll to!
Amy Twigger Holroyd was great. Sticking to her personal values she has successfully branded her rural Hertfordshire, knitwear company as an ethnically minded product based on building relationships between herself and her customer.
From research on her MA in European Fashion and Textile Design, on sustainable fashion, she based her ethos for her Knitwear Company. Amy feels that using recycled materials in the fashion world is really just scratching at the surface of the problem. If we keep the over massive consumption and recycle a bit on the side, it makes us feel good but doesn’t actually solve any problems. Amy took that provocative statement and investigated in what other approaches she could find to look at sustainable fashion, not just remodelling old clothes. The more definitive solution is to keep something; this became her mission, to create garments that people want to keep for a long time.
‘The more definitive solution is to keep’ View on Colour, 2002
She now designs not just the look but is conscious of how people will feel towards the garments. In a way designing their emotions. She found that people kept garments that had some emotional attachment or story behind it, like an interesting or memorable experience when they buy the garments and/or how they interact with her.
Amy describes herself as an individual designer and does not design by focus group. Although she has learnt what works in the way of which style and colour sells best, at the end of the day, if she likes a particular colour she will use it. Amy sells to both retail and wholesale but concentrates mainly on the retail selling through her website www.keepandshare.co.uk. Not only is selling direct to the customer more financially rewarding, (selling at 2.5 times her retail price, as there is very little profit in the wholesale price), but it’s more personally rewarding as she builds up a relationship with her customers and gets feedback which informs her what works for future collections. Her market research is ongoing and contributes to her success.
A year into her business a London PR agent contacted her and for about 5 years she worked with them. The PR agent was extremely effective with articles in Vogue boosting her sells at home and aboard. However since the downturn, Amy now does that in house as it was not becoming cost effective. However PR is not a struggle in that the magazines know who she is because of the relationships she has cultivated.
Amy describes her approach to her business philosophy, by not even trying to compete with other designer knitwear, ‘don’t stand out of the crowd, stand in a completely different room’ which really sums up Amy. This is shown in that her personal dislike of celebrity culture, she would not dream of using the celebrities status to promote her knitwear.
I’ve never come across this, but you can borrow garments before buying to see how it fits in with your life. Amy informed us that giving the trust out has worked as most people buy the garment but if not they return it in perfect order. Remarkably she doesn’t take down any cards details but it’s a reflection of the type of person that buys from her.
Another amazing service that she provides is a washing and mending the garments, not something you get from many online and high street stores!
Since the downturn Amy has diversified in her approach to survive; she now barters for free pitches at festivals, in exchange, she teaches knitting on her stand. Amy now, runs knitting workshops so now you can knit your own cardigan and this embraces her central philosophy of creating memories around her garments. From left over yarn from previous collections, Amy now produces her very own yarn and finally, she provides a make-over service for your old T-shirt, a form of recycling and individualism which really describes Amy being a totally one-off original.
On Wednesday (22 April 2009) I attended a private reception of an exhibition of photos by Pogus Caesar. From Jamaica Row – Rebirth of the Bullring is a selection of 15 limited prints of photographical portrayal of the destruction of the 1960’s Bullring to day before of the opening of the new iconic landmark of today.
After an introduction from Roger Shannon, Pogus said a few words about why he took it upon himself, without funding, to document this historic event for Birmingham over the couple of years it took to reconstruct. He remembers with fondness, like me, shopping trips with his mother and spotlessly cleaning the stairs at his home, so he could hang out at the Bull Ring, presumable with his mates (not like me). Sharing this, brought memories of my childhood and I reflected on my own relationship with Birmingham.
We have to thank Pogus for recording this transformation, as nobody else thought it important enough to do so, which even though the old bullring, too some, wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, it was still a part of Birmingham’s history and should be acknowledged, at the very least as being that. I hope that some of our 1960’s buildings do remain, as they are equally important to Birmingham’s history, than the admired Victorian and Georgian buildings of Colmore Row etc.
Lets hope the bulldozers don’t flatten all the iconic 60’s buildings in Birmingham!
Not only did I meet the man himself, Pogus, but I meet some other very interesting people, two of which, Gary Hoctor and James Fair from hellocamera are looking into setting up a film festival in rural Ireland. Having just completed an assignment for my MA, looking into an International Film Festival for Birmingham, it was interesting to discuss this and offer a copy to them in helping with their project. As I’ve mentioned in my previous blogs networking is a key element in success. Somebody said, and I can’t right now remember who, said, ‘Your net worth is your the worth of your network’ or something like that!
The exhibition is on until 30th April 2009 at Kinetic AIU Studio, The Factory, 108 Northwood Street, Birmingham B3 1TH and is by appointment only. Catherine Fudge at Kinetic AIU, T: 0121 212 3424, E: cf@kinetic-aiu.com
Sponsors are ERCO, Kinetic AIU, OOM Gallery, Swish, Barefoot Wines
No holds barred, Alison really pumped us with nearly 2 hours of TV industry insider knowledge. From day one in her first job Alison learnt a important lesson – to be one step ahead of the game, which influenced her not only on a daily basics on how she operated in the workplace but also how she managed her career. Networking, was the key in her career progression, something that hasn’t until recently really hit home personally for me! In TV networking is crucial at all levels. When you are making a TV program who are the audience?
Who are you selling to? Viewers..Broadcasters Commissioner..Advertisers?
All three of these are valid as your audience.
How TV has changed. It’s not just about making the show for TV broadcasters etc. A lot of money can be generated through the value of rights! By just having a great idea you can sell it, license it and receive royalties.
Interestingly, this came about from government policy change in 2005. It allowed the TV production companies to hold onto the rights of the program and elements of it. This changed the working practices of TV companies and opportunities to exploit their brands and ideas on a local and global platform, a part of the information economy.
A Cambridge graduate with a MBA, Alison has worked as a production manager to being involved in the strategy of the ‘bigger picture’ of TV. Now, a consultant for TV companies, Alison has worked for companies like Fremantle Media andHotbed Media.
I wish to thank Alison on behalf of everyone in taking time out of her busy life to talk to us.
Enterprise | Karen Patel | Tuesday, November 17, 2009 | 
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