When to view marketing as an investment

It’s a long held belief within our profession that marketing should always be viewed as an investment, not an expense. Well why should we see it any other way? After all our business will expand or contract based on our clients expenditure on building their brand and getting it to market.

At Origination, however its not quite that black and white. Naturally we want our clients to invest in marketing but for us, it should only happen when both parties are confident in this partnership, knowing exactly what we are expecting to accomplish.

Therefore, return on investment plays a big, big part in how, what, where and when we market our clients products/services. Every piece of marketing collateral is there to create awareness or drive demand – or both. Therefore when it works, we’re pretty confident there will be the opportunity to invest even more.

Whilst our client base is predominantly B2B and B2C, sport as an industry sector has been hardest hit by the current economic slump. Perfectly demonstrated by the fact that only two football league clubs in 2011/12 Championship campaign have enjoyed an increase in their respective average attendances – namely Derby County and Middlesbrough.

Its fair to say that it cannot be pure coincidence that both have invested in marketing with Origination. In each case, we took the time to research and analyse the history of the club, what they stand for within the communities they serve, and how best to engage stakeholders along a journey of controlled improvement.

For Middlesbrough, this was centred around the return of former player and club captain, Tony Mowbray, as their new manager, and a theme of ‘Boro. It’s in our blood.’ and a campaign entitled ‘fly me to the moon’. In comparison, at Derby County we expanded the ‘We are Derby’ message we originally developed back in 2008 and extending the theme with a ‘Black and White Forever’ campaign.

Derbyshire Sports Awards 2011

With London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games fast approaching, Origination was proud to attend the Derbyshire Sports Awards 2011 and be category sponsor of the Junior Disabled Sportsperson of the Year Award.

Held at Derby’s iconic The Roundhouse, the Awards saw Ellie Bamber, from New Mills, named Origination Junior Disabled Sportsperson of the Year. Origination’s Managing Director, David Leatt, and Wimbledon Referee, Andy Jarrett, presented the Award to Ellie, who has won gold in the British Long Distance Postal Swim, and two gold medals and two silver at the DSE Open Nationals. Robert Abraham, from Breadsall Village, was named runner-up.

As well as providing sponsorship at the event, Origination developed an energetic yet elegant design concept, inkeeping with the established Derbyshire Sports Awards brand. The event’s creative approach was applied to all aspects of presentaion, including: stage branding, photo back-drop, invites, table numbers and name cards, seating plan and programme. With an iconic back drop, the Awards was a superb event celebrating sporting excellence across the county.

Marketing Derby Food and Drink Awards 2011

The Roundhouse in Derby played host to the Marketing Derby Food and Drink Awards 2011 on Monday 7 November, and Origination were in attendance as the proud sponsor of Best for Lunch.

The three nominees were Le Bistrot Pierre, Restaurant Zest and Zest at Bennetts – all excellent restaurants enhancing Derby’s dining experience. After some serious deliberation (and fantastic food), the winner was Le Bistrot Pierre on Friar Gate.

Main image: Compère Ross Fletcher looks on as Le Bistrot Pierre Assistant Manager, Gemma Bolton (right) celebrates with Origination Director, Valerie Leatt (left).

Above: All the winners from the awards.

Website launch for International sport consultancy: matchplaysport

In the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Origination has been working closely with professional badminton coach, Andy Wood to establish matchplaysport, an international sport performance consultancy, dedicated to maximising and inspiring athlete performance.

With input from some of the most successful coaches and sporting achievers in the World, including three times Olympian Donna Kellogg MBE, we identified the businesses core objectives, which led to the creation of a confident but understated brand identity supported by the cool strap line ‘inspired performance’. The professional look and feel shaped the consultancy’s new website, a key information source for the international sport community.

matchplaysport provides a range of services including individual and squad performance coaching, coach education, mentoring and events, across the globe.

To view this website and find out more please visit www.matchplaysport.com

Bombardier Photos

Many thanks to all 214 who joined us on the ‘Spirit of Derby’ train to London. Delivering the ‘time to save British train manufacturing’ campaign was an honour. Derbyshire and proud of it.

Bombardier employees and its supporters arrive in London

We are proud to announce that today saw Derby’s support of Bombardier being taken to the capital to press the case for a reversal of the Thameslink contract. A delegation made up of politicians, business and civic leaders, trade unions, Bombardier employees and families all made the journey on a special train to London. The train itself was donated free of charge by East Midlands Trains to the delegation. The British-built Bombardier train has also been renamed ‘Spirit of Derby’ especially for the trip.

The purpose is to capture national media attention on the day that the Transport Select Committee meet to discuss Bombardier. The subject could also be raised at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Origination organised the event and arranged all activities for the day as well as design and print of all collateral and promotional items, our MD David Leatt said “As David Cameron continues to duck issues regarding Bombardier with inadequate answers, it is important that the businesses of Derby come together and continue to apply as much pressure as possible on the Government”.

The campaign has already attracted national support including a petition signed by 50,000 people and a rally in Derby attracting 10,000 participants.

Origination unites Derby County and Toyota at Pride Park

Derby County Football Club challenged their creative digital media partner, Origination, to design inspirational and aesthetically complementary graphics to be installed on the outside of Pride Park Stadium.

As part of a new three-year sponsorship, the football club and Toyota motor manufacturing were looking for high-impact graphics that would reinforce and celebrate their links through football with the wider Derbyshire community.

The concept that Origination focused their creative on was the twenty-year link between the history of Toyota car manufacturing at Burnaston, and the history of Derby County during the same period.

David Leatt, Managing Director of Origination, commented: “Using current club captain Shaun Barker to ‘partner’ the Yaris and Rams legend Igor Stimac the Carina E seemed an obvious avenue to explore.

“However the unique nature of the one-piece graphics enabled our designers to build the artwork around base elements such as, retaining the club logo, and the look and feel of the existing cladding to maintain realism and perspective on the overall graphic.”

He continued, “We also wanted to reinforce the statement of what ‘We Are Derby’ stands for by incorporating Rams fans in the new contravision element above the main entrance. And as you will see, MX Display did a great job installing it all”.

Direct mail has a place in our letterboxes

A recent episode of Panorama asked: why hate junk mail? A question arguably loaded to sway public opinion even before the episode had aired, raised intrigue here at Origination as we successfully embrace targeted advertising mail for many of our clients.

Panorama’s investigation began by attempting to define targeted and blanket direct marketing as always falling into the category of being junk mail. Then, before the viewer could draw a clear definition of the difference between these two, it shifted the focus of the programme to scam mail.

Here at Origination, we’re in full agreement with Panorama that scam mail, as well as being illegal. is quite clearly a wrong practice. However, to attempt to paint a picture that targeted direct mail and scam mail are one and the same is poor, misguided journalism.

Targeted and effective advertising mail, if based on a relevance to the recipient, particularly with the aim to re-engage the consumer post-purchase, does offer value to the household or individual concerned. Additionally, the nature of targeted and blanket direct mail in isolation can be a cost-effective method of marketing for businesses that otherwise cannot afford mediums such as television, press or outdoor media. Whether delivered in print or digital form, it will continue to be beneficial for businesses for many years to come.

For more information on direct mail please visit the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) to view their factsheet.

Afterwards, let us have your thoughts on the subject via the comments on our Facebook page.

Website design for education: Derby Grammar School

As part of our ongoing working partnership with Derby Grammar School we recently redesigned and launched their website.  Our strategy for the project centred on the need for a tone of voice complementary to the identity we had developed, with a design reflecting the quality of education.

The introduction of this new website could not have been possible without the strategic definition of Derby Grammar School’s identity.  In conjunction with the school, we determined their core aims and beliefs to evolve and refine their existing identity, including introducing the strapline ‘Bringing Education to Life’.  This has allowed for a uniform approach to all marketing activity, allowing stakeholders to effectively engage with the brand.

The website itself has a number of bespoke features tailored to the needs of the school and its teachers.  Most importantly it is targeted towards pupils and parents, both existing and prospective.

The website attributes include information on the school, a virtual tour featuring detailed illustrations of the school buildings, a login portal for parents and a section on the homepage to listen to music from school pupils.  In addition the website features a news section allowing visitors to be kept updated on school activities as well as a page ensuring prospective parents can register their interest and obtain a prospectus.

To view this website and find out more information please visit www.derbygrammar.co.uk

Bound to remember

Sometimes I wish that all the bits of paper, letters, photos, memories and things I’ve collected could be in one nice neat little book on my bookshelf. Maybe it’s a bit OCD, but I think scrap books are a bit messy. So I’ve created a book to house some of them and had it printed and bound. Worryingly, I’m now considering scanning in all my old yellowing photographs and making a much more streamlined version of my old crumbling photo albums.

My first book is a collection of poems written by my husband’s Grandfather. It’s an elegy dedicted to his eldest daughter Liz, who died from cancer at a tragically young age. His ten poems are so fabulous that I felt the four sheets of wrinkly A4 paper they were written on didn’t seem to do them justice. So I typed them up, laid them out and created a timeless book in memory of them both.