Comms Team Newsletter – 05
Here comes The Buzz, our snazzy way of sharing industry updates, top tips and team news.
We hope you enjoy the read š
Pushing the boat out
The origins of the phrase āPushing the Boat Outā lie in its literal meaning. Pushing the boat out from the shore was a job too large for one person, so helping a fisherman to do so was seen as an act of generosity. Later, this came to mean monetary generosity, like slipping that extra fiver into a leaving present fund.
On the Comms team, we like to push the boat out creatively. While we get our creative kicks from pinterest, magazines and galleries itās important to bear in mind the waters that your proverbial boat is being pushed out into.
We like to follow five simple rules when pushing the creative boundaries with clients. That way, everyone is happy and the end result is great! Not blowing our own trumpet or anythingā¦
Know where the line is
We get so excited when clients approach us with requests to ‘go wild’ on the designs! But, before getting carried away in the excitement of free creative flow, it’s important to establish what that means for each brief. ‘Wildly creative’ can look very different for every client, soĀ our first step in the process is sharing examples of previous work. Knowing where they fit on the scale between ‘safe’ and ‘bonkers’ helps us understand the boundaries of their comfort zone so we know exactly how creative we can be.
Feed your brain
Like athletes, who cross-train with different sports to target different muscles, we creatives can do the same thing. Neuroplasticity says that our brains are constantly capable of change as long as we use them. So, we take inspiration from everywhereĀ and help out across the team on loads of different projects. Turns out that 3 hour Pinterest hole you fell into last week wasnāt a waste of time after all, eh?
Colour schemes
We put together lots and lots (and lots) of colour palettes when creating brand concepts for our clients. An interesting trick weāve been trying recently is researching the associations between colours and feelings. For example light red makes us think of affection, while dark red indicates rage. And pinkĀ makes people think aboutā¦ Us!
Engage feelings
Engaging our audience is easy if we keep them and their needs in mind. Especially as weāre talking about benefits! There are real people at the other end of our campaigns who we may be helping to make real decisions that will have a very real impact on their lives. If we manage to help even one person change their world for the better by engaging with their benefits, then we have done our job.
Great artists steal
If we really want to grab the attention of our clients with one of our more creative concepts, itās a good idea to start with something thatās already in their head. That way, the client has a part to play in the conception of the idea but we can put our own twist on it and start to push that boat out. Thereās no shame in taking someoneās idea for yourself, after all it was Picasso who said āGreat artists stealā. And we know heās good as thereās a certain namesake update to Darwin on the horizonā¦
Continuous Engagement: Best in Show 2018
If youāve ever had a chat with the Comms team about packages and bundles or asked us when weāre down the pub āSo what is it you actually do?ā youāll have heard the term āContinuous Engagementā.
In case you havenāt, Continuous Engagement very much does what it says on the tin. We believe in engaging employees with their benefits beyond annual window and life events to get the best ROI we can for our clients.
Letās face it, human beings are naturally forgetful. Do you ever walk into a room and forget why you went there in the first place? Yeah, us too. And our clientsā employees are no different.
One client who has been keeping us on our toes to create something spectacular for their continuous engagement process is Samsung.
October finds us in full Money Month mode, creating a whole new creative campaign to engage Samsung employees with their finance-based benefits. We love working on Money Month for many reasons:
1. Itās FUN.
Samsung always challenge us to come up with our brightest ideas to make sure the Money Month brand looks and feels exciting, accessible and most of all, personal.
2. Thereās loads to do.
A month is quite a long time to keep people interested in one topic, so we need to make sure thereās lots of different deliverables that engage the audience in different ways.
3.Ā It nails Continuous Engagement!Ā
Money Month gets employees to re-focus on their benefits and think about how they can be making everyday savings or dreaming big for their future, all with a helping hand from their Samsung reward package.
We love how the Money Month campaign has turned out this year. Featuring our new favourite way of jazzing up ordinary photos ā the humble doodle! The illustration on a simple picture highlights each subjectās dreams and aspirations, instantly creating an emotional connection and a wonderful feeling of empowerment. Take a look at the brand here, we hope you like it as much as we do!
If you think you have a client that would love to rock continuous engagement as much as Samsung, get in touch for more information and other examples.
Psstā¦ Looking for something for a smaller budget? Keep your eyes peeled for our exciting new Comms on Demand portal, going live soon!
Top four TFM takeaways
Over two beautiful late-September days, the Comms team descended from the Sky Garden on to Olympia where the 2018 Technology for Marketing conference was taking place. Here are four things we brought back with us for our Comms strategy:
1. Go where your target audience is.
Businesses often jump into new channels because they want to do what everyone else is doing. Facebook Live is a good example of this. Before investing, we should find out whether our audience ālivesā there before deciding that the channel is right for them. Sometimes itās not about new channels but about doing something new within your existing ones.
2. Know your audience.
Further to number one, understanding our audience is so important and one way to do this is by researching and developing audience personas. Focus on the people who use our product, how and why they would use it. From here, we can create personas for a range of audiences along with bespoke communications for them.
3. Create dynamic, useful content that people can engage with.
One example of dynamic, useful content are āHow-Toā videos. They are one of the most popular video formats around; they engage audiences, incite action, can communicate without words ā crossing language barriers, and put a human face to a brand. Weāve recently explored this with our Darwin system animation, which is proving to be a hit so far!
4. Be authentic.
When talking to the internal audience it pays to be authentic. This means actively listening, telling the truth and behaving in a consistent manner. In the end, it never pays to hoodwink your people, they know exactly how the sausage is made AND theyāre running the farm!
Come and have a chat with us if your clients are looking to improve engagement with their employees. Weād love to help!
Peace out! A short message from Oscar
How times fliesā¦ it sounds silly (and rather like a comment of an old man!) but in the blink of an eye, and without realising, Iāve spent over a decade with the Comms team at Thomsons. I would have never imagined it when I joined a Comms team made up of two people back in the old office in
Francis St!
Now, over ten years later, ever passionate about creativity and with a love for design still intact, Iām moving away from working with clients in the Comms team. Instead Iāll be working part-time, dedicated to the Thomsons brand and working on new Thomsons spaces, current and future!
The Comms team is now bigger and better than ever so I look forward to being amazed by their creativity and extraordinary campaigns. Iāve grown and learnt so much from the Comms members through the years that no doubt I will continue learning from them ā this time from the other side of
The Buzz.
Wishing you all the best,
Oscar š
The Buzz Banter
Up in the Sky Garden the Comms Corner is buzzing with the sound of Emma and Lauraās laughter, Jae and Ilze sharing interesting thoughts on the latest in design, Kaivai humming his favourite tune to get himself in the zone, Tetley scribbling some fantastic illustrations, or Kirstie and Vicky sharing knowledge with the rest of the team.
We think itās only fair that the happiness we experience every day is shared amongst our fellow Pink People! Introducing, our brand new feature *drum roll please* THE BUZZ BANTER.
Each quarter weāll be sharing some of the more amusing sound-bites you might hear if you spend longer than 10 minutes around our weirdly wonderful Comms team. This quarter it ties in perfectly with a little re-introduction of the team as most of us are new to Thomsons!
We conducted a quick-fire interview to give you an ~exclusive~ insight into the lives and loves of the Comms team and to get to know the new faces.
What can you always be found snacking on in the office?
Whole team: BANANAS! Itās every man for himself when the fruit basket arrives in the morning.
Emma: Peanut butterā¦ with a spoon. Always with a spoon.
What does your average day on the comms team look like?
Ilze: Lots and lots of coffee.
Vicky: We do work as well! As a team weāre always bouncing ideas off each other and helping out.
You get the exclusive chance to use a time machine. Where would
you go?
Vicky: Definitely the roaring 20ās. But Iād have to be really rich and exclusively go to parties like in the Great Gatsby.
Kirstie: Iād go to the future and check out some other planets, maybe live on Mars!
Laura: I quite fancy myself as a detective on the Jack the Ripper case in the 1800s, obviously.
What will we find you drinking at Beer Fridge Friday?
Jae: Cider, whisky or anything with an umbrella in!
Kaivai: Everything.
Do you have any funny nicknames?
Vicky: Oscar seems to have given us all names over the years. Iām āSpongeāā¦
Emma: And Iām āBaby Spiceā!
Tetley: Some people call me āTitāā¦ I donāt hate it.
Youāre a new addition to the box of crayons. What colour would you be and why?
Tetley: Chartreuse. Because it sounds complicated.
Laura: Black like my soul! Only joking, we could all be rainbow crayonsā¦
Vicky: and glitter!
Tell me about the best adventure youāve ever been on?
Ilze: It has to be trekking in the Himalayas! It was incredible.
Kaivai: I have to say Blackpool with my mates! It was my first trip out of London and we had so much fun.
Emma: I think people need to know that Kaivai is from New Zealand!
What would your autobiography be called?
Emma: The Adventures of Egg! It would be a cracking tale about a girl that looks suspiciously like an egg.
Jae: Life of Pi(e in my belly).
Laura: The Misadventures of Miss Fortune. It writes itself!
What would your pet say about you if we asked for a reference?
Emma: āOh look, sheās bought ANOTHER house plantā
Share one quote or saying you love, that keeps you going in life.
Ilze: āJump and the net will appear.ā
Beaming smiles on the sofas in our Sky Garden home – Tetley, Vicky, Kirstie, Kaivai and Emma; standing proud at the back – Oscar, Laura, Ilze and Jae.
And thatās it! We hope this column helps you get to know our team a little better, and that you have enjoyed the first edition of The Buzz Banter. You can find out more about each of us and what we do by visiting our Comms Team page here.
Until next timeā¦
Thanks for reading!
Remember, if you have any thoughts…
Love, The Comms Team š