Tag Archive for brand

Blatant plug for AQR’s Bring It!

April 22, 2012 AQR, Networking, Qualitative Research No comments

Booking now open for AQR’s ‘Bring It’

How do YOU enter a room? Do you ever find yourself watching other people present and wish YOU could swagger around the stage like you own it? Do you know what first impression you make? Find out how to be more confident, charismatic and memorable with performance coach Charlotte Austin.
I know you think you can’t draw. But you can. And not only can you draw but you can get better, quicker and more concise in your ability to distil a single thought into just that great one-liner. Learn how with marketing cartoonist Jake Goretzki.
Co-Founder of the London Comedy Film Festival (LoCo) and screenplay writer Jonathan Wakeham will get us thinking about how we tell stories and how we can tell them better by following some simple rules of genre, character, plot and action. Debrief as Spaghetti Western? You got it.
Even the term cliché is a cliché. Nick Southgate’s bag of tricks will help us unleash our inner creative beasts and think outside our boxes as we turn idea into insight. Feel the fear and do it anyway. What goes around comes around and you’ll never take language for granted again.
Finally, Datch Datchens (really), copy-writer at Saatchi & Saatchi will pit us against the clock to create memorable, snappy, meaningful descriptions of brands. You think they just sit and drink martinis all day. Well, maybe they do, but we can all sip with them.
During Bring It we’ll all be challenged to make weird noises, weird shapes and use words we tend to forget when we write our debriefs. It’ll get us thinking harder, being more confident and ultimately, remembering that we do is a lot more creative than sometimes we give it credit for. It’s not often we get to spend a day with such inspiring, charismatic and clever people…and that includes you…so come along.

Friday 18th May, 9:00pm – 6:00pm
Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre
108 Stamford St, SE1 9HN (a few minutes walk from Waterloo)

£210+VAT for AQR members and £350+VAT for non-AQR members (includes 1 year of membership)

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Session leaders include:
Charlotte Austin is a Performance and Development Consultant to some very swanky people indeed, including creative agency AKQA, the BBC and the Ministry of Justice.
If she can get chap from the Ministry miming ‘climbing the stairs’ and ‘opening the gate’ (with sound effects), then she can do anything. Seriously though, her expertise lies in helping you do things, say things and BE things you didn’t know you could be.

Jonathan Wakeham is the co-founder of LoCo and the London Comedy FIlm Festival at BFI Southbank. He was an advertising planner in a past life (AMV, St Lukes)
and has worked with entertainment companies including Disney, Discovery, the BBC, ITV and Random House, and is a director of Arts Emergency and Camden People’s Theatre. His screenplay The Nile will be directed by Susanna White. He’s still trying to work out whether he’s a man or a Muppet.

Nick Southgate is the IPA’s very special advisor when it comes to all things Behavioural Economics. But fear not (or I’m sorry), we’re going to be borrowing his skills as a ‘thinker’ for this course.
He’s a philosopher, a planner, a lover of art. And he teaches people ‘how to be cool’ at the School of Life.
You never know, if we stand close enough, some of it might just rub off on us.

Datch is an enigma. A man for whom only one name is sufficient. And whose surname is Datchens. Proof that some traditions in ad agencies are still upheld, he is a copywriter
who has worked alongside his art director partner (Reuben) since before they got their first ‘creative pair’ job at RPM (they’re now the hot stuff at Saatchi’s).

Jake Goretzki is a freelance researcher and consultant but that’s not why he’s Bringing It with us. He’s also a satirical cartoonist and illustrator, specialising in cartoons that lampoon,
reflect, challenge our marketing ways. Can’t think where he gets his inspiration from.

To Book: complete and return attached form or book online at http://www.aqr.org.uk/calendar/info.shtml?event=TC12BI

Keep Calm and Carry on Up the High Street

January 12, 2010 General No comments

Remember the thrill? You’ve wanted that dress for months. You think you might even have wanted it before it was even a chalk mark on a stretch of fabric. That dress is yours. You start to track it…you log it in Debenhams, Net a Porter, eBay. It’s December 24th. You’re just about to log out of work and check in to Christmas. And then…just one final google. Bam. It’s there. Only 30% off. But that’s still off, right? House of Fraser. Boxing Day. 12am. Your family is at home tucking into the cold turkey. But you’re in the queue and you’ve got that dress. And as you make the final purchase 0f 2009 you think to yourself, maybe for me too, cold turkey. No more spending. And then you see just the most perfect handbag…
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Shooting foxes used to be a common Christmas pastime. It’s not anymore. Playing board games with grandpa used to be a common Christmas pastime. Not anymore. Shopping, just for fun, used to be a common pastime. Not anymore.

We don’t believe that consumers have stopped shopping for fun but that the definition of that fun is being rewritten.

Fun used to be about whiling away the hours between a coffee and an M&S sandwich, having a gossip, finding a parking space, dawdling in the changing rooms – now it’s about the hunt. You linger – you lose. We’re shedding some of those very British inhibitions; voucher clipping, queue barging and bartering and we’re quite happily turning even the smartest department stores into our own person Souk. You want another 10% off in Debenhams? Just ask. You think it’s tacky to print out a BOGOF coupon for Pizza Express? Not when your night out with the kids only cost you £20.

And you know what? Learning these new ways of shopping is turning out to be quite fun.

We’re speaking to consumers, albeit not at the most strapped end of the spending spectrum, and none of them have entirely lost that glint of pleasure in their eyes when faced with the prospect of shopping. If they’re in the supermarket they’re getting more savvy about the relative values of loyalty points vs. product offers. They’re not just counting their points, their strategizing their point collection. If they’re looking for higher ticket goods, yes, they’ll comb a few sites and check back a few times before they commit. But this knowledge gathering is becoming a conversation in itself. Friends will send links to each other if they know others are looking for specific objects and a good deal will be posted as a Facebook status update.

Furthermore, some brands have stopped being merely aspirational and now feel within some consumers’ grasps. If they’re savvy and stealthy they can actually make the dream of a designer handbag a reality. It’s not about the money anymore, it’s about patience and wit. Where some consumers would not have dreamt of shopping for designer goods before, now they think they can (and they are).

Of course, it’s not all about handbags and pizza. Many of the consumers we speak to have pressing financial concerns and they are pretty scared. But, getting a good deal on the winter coat you do actually need or tripling your points by just buying the right chicken, those expenditures are still a drop in the ocean against a backdrop of worry.

And let’s face it, despite our growing chutzpah when it comes to the haggle, we’re still British. We keep calm and carry on up the high street.

Chloe