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weare where we are.....

Posted by Andrew Grant on Thursday 03 Jun 2010, 18:10:00

The best thing about reaching the bottom is you can enjoy the journey back up.

Here we are and it’s June. How the hell did that happen?

Great news for the Nation1 team, all our hard efforts have paid off and we have a raft of new clients wins under our belt. Bank of Baroda have returned for a second year in a row and tasked Nation1 with developing a digital campaign to promote their new saver products. The campaign will focus heavily on affiliates (comparethemarket.com and moneysupermarket.com), as well as display, online PR and buzz marketing and a sprinkling of offline stuff around London. Watch this space for some bold new creative that positions India’s fourth largest bank as a real contender in the UK retail savings market.

We’ve also been appointed by City Inn the multi award winning UK hotel chain with developing an online summer marketing campaign to encourage people to take a city break and stay in one of their trendy city centre hotels (having stayed at the Westminster one myself many times whilst setting up Nation1 London) I can assure you not only do they have the best product on offer but their breakfast is second to none. The campaign revolves around the theme; “Go to town this summer” with a website that promotes all the stuff you can do in cities where there is a City Inn. The site also encourages users to post their own content and hidden gems as well as rate stuff posted by other users. Special offers and discounts are given as incentives to those who help populate the site with content.

CitizenM who open their first hotel outside of Holland in Glasgow this summer have appointed us to develop and distribute a viral campaign to promote their brand with the objective of developing a massive database of followers for their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Given their HQ is in Amsterdam, we are only too happy to have client meetings at their office.

We also have our two seminars this month – both of which have been phenomenally popular. We’ve teamed up with The Marketing Industry Network and The Drum Magazine to promote these with one taking place in London and one in Glasgow. Harvard Business review/Forrester Research as well as Brodies LLP and Outlaw.com are all on the bill as we help delegates understand the dangers of social media and how best to prepare a battle plan to tackle unwanted or negative online chat. Check out www.nation1.co.uk/events to book your place (15th and 16th June Glasgow/London).

Kingsbarns and LA Bartenders websites launched and Millionaires Choice website entered the final stages of production. The next step is for Nation1 to create a 3 minute flash presentation for Directors of the worlds leading brands showcasing the benefits and features of the website for the mega rich.

I was also flown off to Hong Kong at the end of May in my capacity as Board Director of EO a London based member organisation for entrepreneurs. It was typhoon season so no short sleeves or burnt shoulders however it was great to see this phenomenal city. Our hotel was on the bay looking onto Hong Kong Island and the highlight was sipping cocktails one night from the Philippe Stark Skybar in the Peninsula Hotel whilst watching the worlds largest light show. A ‘must see’ for anyone going to HK.

Added to all of that the team have been getting ready for our office move (into an old disused railway arch) in August. So all in all its been a busy but very productive month.

Personally im looking forward to Rock Ness on the 9th June as it serves as a mile stone and reminder from when things started to go downhill last year. As I stood in the dance tent at 11pm 8th June 2009 I was unable to really relax and enjoy myself as just about every client we had was pulling back on spending and the costs kept rolling on, and when you run your own business, you never really escape these things. This year Rock Ness is going to be a much more positive event, that’s not to say whilst im dancing away – im not going to be thinking it could all go downhill again.

Lets hope that we avoid the dreaded double dip and that people continue to accept “we are where we are, as that’s where we need to be” and work together to get out of this fine mess and remember: marketing is the one sure way to build a brand and drive sales