Bankhall to take members to Wembley…

We’re celebrating our 4^th new business win of the summer as we work with Bankhall, the UK’s largest supplier of support services to Independent Financial Advisers, to produce its annual conference.

The conference, which will take place at Wembley Stadium in November, will see 500 IFA members gather for a one-day programme that will incorporate motivational talks, service updates, one-to-one meetings and the opportunity to network with colleagues and peers.

The annual conference is a key event in Bankhall’s calendar and we’re delighted to be working with them.  The conference is returning to London for 2009, having taken delegates to locations such as Monte Carlo and Cannes in recent years.  In the current climate, the new Wembley Stadium provides the perfect location and we’re excited about using its spaces – which will include the Great Hall and the Bobby Moore Suite – to create a memorable and engaging event for Bankhall and its members.

Internal repairs……

For many people, marketing means glossy magazine ads and expensive TV ads targeting potential purchasers. We see aspirational people doing aspirational things enabled by aspirational brands and products that we then want to buy.

All of that worked pretty well until the aspirational bubble burst and the tidal wave that is the current recession hit us full frontal.  Suddenly we are working in a hazy mist of mistrust, cynicism and disillusionment and the immediate future is no brighter.  We now inhabit a world in which you can’t trust your high street bank to keep your money safe and your own job is probably no safer.

So do we need a new kind of marketing?  Certainly, brands are going to have to work very, very hard to reassure the great British public and some are already trying pretty hard.  Note the recent efforts of good old M&S and Sainsburys to engender loyalty with big birthday messages – there’s nothing like longevity to stir feelings of trust and stability (we’re 26, by the way!).

But all of that just glosses over the truth and knowing that Sainsburys has been around for 140 years doesn’t make us feel any better about the brand when we’ve seen some of the chaotic moments of a typical trading day in the recent Channel 4 series, I’m running Sainsburys.

Repairing brands and ensuring that they’ll get a clean bill of health to be in the running when the ‘green shoots’ appear has to start from the inside out.  Employees can be a brand’s biggest advocate or their harshest critic and we all know which we’d opt for as employers.  There are more disenfranchised employees lurking in our corporate corridors currently than ever before and internal communications has a huge role to play in bringing Britain out of this recession and restoring faith.

Healthy brands are created from the inside out, not from the outside in and marketing in the new world order needs to reflect this.

Line Up give Mr & Mrs Smith some stick

Turnham Green last night played host to one of the most-eagerly anticipated clashes of the Chiswick-based businesses competitive sports calendar, when the mighty Line Up accepted the challenge thrown down by Mr & Mrs Smith – the boutique hotel people – and engaged in a game of softball.  The match was very nearly called off: as our Line Up heroes awaited their opponents in torrential conditions, a phone call from the Smith captain requesting a postponement came through.  Our reaction – one of steadfast refusal – was reported back to the opponents’ MD, reportedly eliciting a bellowed cry of “Who ARE these people?”

The psychological battle already won, Line Up proceeded to play the Smithsers off the park, racing to an innings victory in some style; home runs, athletic catches and brave pitching all contributing to a comprehensive triumph.  Gloating aside, the game was a welcome evening break from the office toil for both teams.  There is already talk of a rematch and diversification into other sports, with scouting around the area for other opponents also underway.

For now, the Line Up Allstars are enjoying the taste of victory and revelling in an unbeaten record.  Should any suppliers, site visitors or clients wish to take us on, we’re ready and waiting… although we’ll probably have to let anyone in that last group win.

Projecting the future: technological convergence

Hitting a camera store near you is Nikon’s S1000pj, the latest example of a seemingly unstoppable 21st century technological trend: convergence. We’ve had televisions that can surf the internet, games consoles that play DVDs and if your mobile phone can’t take photographs, access your email and tune to your favourite radio station, then you’re already behind the times.  Now, Nikon have come up with another innovation: a digital camera with a built-in projector.

Quite a few of the articles and blogs on this product today seem to criticise the manufacturer for jumping on the multi-function bandwagon and combining two pieces of technology for the sake of it – drawing unfavourable comparison with the much-ridiculed patent application featuring a washing machine with an integrated iPod dock.  However, it seems to me that a projector inside a camera is an inspired step: with the ever-increasing quality of digital capture, having a method of instantly viewing your latest snaps in all their large-format glory surely appeals.  Expect Nikon’s competitors to join the party sooner, rather than later.

As for the wider world of technological convergence, the challenge for manufacturers is to think of where to head next.  Perhaps we’ll see conference screens in the future projected directly from the show laptop, or listen to a presenter use his Bluetooth headset to link to the PA.  What pieces of kit would you combine to make life just that little bit simpler?  Personally, I’d welcome a digital watch that also doubles as a calculator…