Latest & Thinking

Chemistry Nottingham's 130 mile charity cycle

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:25:00 +0100

The North of England, August 2010 - On 8 August a group of mad keen cyclists took to the roads of northern England for a mammoth coast-to-coast bike ride in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care and St Luke's Hospice.

After four months of training, Neil Twigger, Ed Hallam, Charlie Gentle, Chris Bailey and Morgan Cox set off at an eye-watering 5.30 am in Whitehaven on the west coast, where they were accosted by a drunk pestering them for cigarettes ("Got a fag mate?").

They were cheered on by a support network comprising Pete Rix (who would have been riding had he not broken his hip - ouch), Robin Garms, Claire Davies, Amy Court, Zach Pillinger and Ruth Carter.

The cyclists arrived in Sunderland after a gruelling 13 hours and having conquered a very big hill. Unfortunately Neil Twigger had to pull out due to injury.

We can only hope that they had the forsight to wear cushioned shorts, which would have meant they were able to sit down and rest their weary legs once they got home.

Special mention must go to Russell Cavell who decided to take a more leisurely approach to the challenge. Instead of trying to attempt it in one day, he decided to enjoy the journey.

He project managed the entire trip in the kind of detail only a technical director could imagine, taking three days to complete the ride, roping in his partner and staying at luxurious hotels and dining out along the way.

The team raised a whopping £2,500 and made a film of their achievements, which you can watch here.

You can still help them reach the target of £5000 by visiting the sponsorship pages for Macmillan and St Luke's.

Kraft launches summer campaign for Tassimo

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:51:00 +0100

Kraft has launched a summer campaign that invites members of the Tassimo brand’s RM programme to take part in an online lottery game.

The activity, created by Tassimo’s European RM agency Chemistry Communications, has been designed to encourage MyTassimo members to use their hot drinks brewers even during the hot summer weather.

The lottery-style game ran for one week. Members were invited by email to visit a specially created page on the MyTassimo website to play a game to enter the prize draw. Prizes ranged from a €6,000 holiday in the sun, money off coupons, photo albums and personalised mugs.

The activity ran across the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Chemistry was appointed to manage and develop the MyTassimo RM programme across six European markets in 2009, the agency was also handed the brand’s UK below-the-line activity in 2010 as a result of the programme’s success.

Charity bike ride

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:13:00 +0100

This weekend sees a team of seven cycling fans from Chemistry take part in a West Coast to East Coast bike ride for charity.

Neil Twigger, Ed Hallam, Charlie Gentle, Rupert Dixon, Chris Bailey, Russell Cavell and Morgan Cox will cycle a staggering 130 miles across the UK from Whitehaven to Sunderland (see the map below) on 8th August.

They have been in training for four months and aim to raise in excess of £5,000 but they still have a long way to go.

Please dig deep and visit the links below to make a donation to either of these incredibly deserving causes.

Give to Macmillan

Give to St Lukes Hospice

Chemistry Summer Party

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:34:00 +0100

Chemistry Communications Group took to the waves for its summer party on Friday with a nautical fancy dress competition that resulted in wildy varying interpretations on the theme.

Some of the men, including Seb, Mark, Paul, Ray (above l to r) and Vic, used the trip as an excuse to express their inner sailor. Looking camp, they appeared to be vying for "captain" Pete Harle's attention.

Some, such as Harwin (above) and Shirin, dressed as tourists.

Some dressed as pirates (Tom Wilks with friend).

Many wore striped T-shirts, dresses and shirts, prompting managing director Diane Charlton to declare Chemistry a "stripe-free agency" for the next year.

Others chose more unusual costumes. Among them a parrot (Tom Robinson), Poseidon (Jacob Lawson), a Baywatch lifeguard (Jack Poynter complete with musclesuit and padded red swimming trunks), a deck chair (Rupert Dixon) and what looked like a blue version of Morph, but was in fact a blue snorkler (Andrew Strumnik).

The ladies fancy dress prize was won by Karen Sainsbury, who cut a very striking and glamorous figure as a ship's captain.

The men's best dressed prize went to Neil Twigger, who went as David Seaman, the...er...footballer.

Other notable mentions include Rob Trono who looked a bit too comfortable in a pair of sailing-themed open-toe wedge sandals matching those sported by Di and Liz.

Last but not least, on behalf of all the men at the agency, on and around the River Thames and on Fleet Street and the surrounding area at about 6pm (particularly the man in a white van who nearly cricked his neck as he drove past staring), a very big well done to Sareka, Stacey and Aimee, whose skimpy outfits brightened up an otherwise cloudy afternoon.

The end

Views Not News

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:03:00 +0100

Foreign Office diplomats are to be retrained as salesmen. With immediate effect. Or if they can’t do the job, business leaders are to be appointed as ambassadors in their place.

David Cameron has said that’s it, end of, full-stop. No more Foreign and Colonial Office johnnies swanning around all over the place on exes. No more pool parties. The black ties, the white panama hats…they all have to go. Along with the unlimited supplies of Fererro Rocher.

Britain means business, says our PM. As a nation, we sell more to Ireland than we do to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. That has to change. Carry on thinking that Britain might rule the waves if you must, but austerity rules the economy. We have to pay our way in the world. Being abroad means being a salesman for UK plc. Promoting Britain’s best. Unless you don’t want promotion, that is.

And you thought our second unelected leader of the Noughties was just posh!

So what’s a diplomat to do? How do you change the mindset of Uber Brit overseas and start to get down and dirty and sell UK plc abroad when most of your life has been spent carefully choosing charmingly inoffensive words and phrases over lunch and cocktail parties while consuming the finest of whatever it is that New York, Sydney, Paris or Rome has to offer, generally? Suddenly our ambassadors are faced with having to learn a whole other language: PowerPoint.

I’m guessing this may be somewhat, er…foreign to the Foreign Office?

Now, forgive the palpable immodesty, but we agency folk know a little about business and presentations and selling. And boy oh boy do we know about PowerPoint. Oh yes. You want charts and diagrams? You want flash animations and bullet points like you wouldn’t believe? Well, we are your men. And women.

So let me reassure any of those FCO ppt newbies out there to stop worrying. Help is at hand. And it’s available right now in not so foreign Fulham.

In the spirit of helping our great nation become Great Britain once again, instead of being the USA’s and India’s ‘junior partner’, we’re happy to knock up a scintillating creds for our lads who may be located anywhere from Hyderabad to Hong Kong as soon as they’ve got their contact’s agreement for a short, informal creds on why working and investing in and buying UK plc’s products and services is absolutely vital for the success of their own country’s future.

And in the best tradition of dishing out free samples, please let me give all those diplomats-cum-business-professionals out there just two quick tips to bear in mind if they insist on making their ppt creds look absolutely irresistible. Here we go:

Tip 1: Unless you can’t absolutely and completely avoid it, don’t go anywhere near PowerPoint when you visit your foreign royals, heads of state, captains of industry, rich developing-world dictators and billionaire, Russian, yacht-owning classes looking to invest in UK plc. Or anyone else, come to that.

Most folks’ brains freeze faster than a British staycationer on a Blackpool beach in summer when they realise ‘the dreaded PowerPoint presentation’ is coming their way. They only sit there and feign interest because they are too embarrassed or too polite to say that they’d rather you just tried to have an intelligent, two-way conversation with them rather than ask them to read a 76-slide presentation full of wall-to-wall text, bullet points, charts and animations.

“You want me to buy Breeteesh jet fighters? Tanks? Why you not bring some round for me to play with?” Good old experiential marketing. Works every time.

Tip 2: Carry on doing what you’ve always been doing. Keep going with the carefully-chosen charming words and phrases over get-to-know-each-other lunches and parties. Most people seem to like that. Indeed, our CEO is expert at it. In fact, if there is a vacancy for a business leader to replace an underperforming ambassador selling UK plc…I might just know someone who’s perfect for the job.

Chemistry wins Fru

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:03:00 +0100

LONDON July 2010 – Frü, the fruity sister to chocolate dessert brand Gü, has appointed the integrated agency Chemistry Communications to handle its experiential account in the UK.

The agency has been briefed to create an initial sampling campaign to encourage women aged 25-44 to indulge in the fruity puds by improving awareness, increasing trial and educating consumers on who and what Frü is to encourage them to repeat purchase.

The appointment of Chemistry forms part of the wider Frü support plan for the successful relaunch of the desserts in May 2010 encompassing the new Frü personality, brand livery and NPD.

The experiential activity, which will take place at summer concerts and on the high street is based upon the brand's existing premise of ‘throwing caution to the wind’; encompassing the Frü personality of free-spirited, hedonistic luxury. It will support the brand’s website relaunch, social media and on-pack promotional activity that the brand is undertaking this year to the target audience.

The sampling activity will run across Frü’s new range of desserts, which comprises Wonderfully Exotic Mango & Passion Fruit Mini Pots; Devilishly Alluring Raspberry & Blackcurrant Mini Pots; Intensely Tangy Key Lime Pies and; Sensationally Citrusy Lemon Cheesecake.

Sam Bennett, marketing manager at Frü, said: “We want as many people as possible to taste Frü’s new portfolio of chilled desserts and giving consumers the chance to taste the new flavours and engage with Frü will be a great way for them to try a luxurious and equally naughty alternative to chocolate desserts.”

Ingrid Purcell, client services director at Chemistry, said: “Experiential is a brilliant way to raise awareness of a product and given that Frü is such a fresh and summery range of puds, it will have great appeal to its core audience at the target events we’ve selected. Once they have sampled it through our targeted campaign we’re confident it will become as popular and well-known as its stable fellow Gü.”

Chemistry won the business following a three-way pitch against undisclosed agencies.

Orange launches smartphone comparison site

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:39:00 +0100

Orange is launching a website to help make the process of comparing and choosing a new Smartphone much easier for consumers.

Now that the age of the Smartphone has arrived, consumers looking for a new phone are faced with a minefield of information to sift through – from hundreds of models offering different combinations and variations of features to an increasing choice of operating systems and wildly differing prices.

The selection process is complicated further by differing opinions from reviews (online, in press or even in-store). So finding the best smartphone to suit a particular task can become an overwhelming task for prospective buyers.

As a result, Orange’s direct response agency, Chemistry Communications, has developed an intuitive online smartphone comparison tool, to help simplify the process.

The website, which went live on July 23rd aggregates, pools and independently analyses information from the most popular technology and mobile phone review sites about the smartphones available on Orange.

The site allows users to select from a list of smartphone features, such as email synchronisation, high speed internet access or touchscreen responsiveness, to create a direct side-by-side comparison in an uncomplicated format.

The user can choose up to ten smartphone features and list them by order of preference. The tool calculates which smartphones are the most suitable based on the analysis of the phone’s performance from independent review sites. And, for those uncertain about technical terminology a jargon buster provides simple explanations and benefits of the terms used throughout the site.

Once users have received a recommendation they are given the option to explore video content and read through reviews from technology sites such as CNet and TechRadar, be given an overview on tariffs and even download the full phone specification or email themselves information for future reference.

Malcolm Cotton, managing partner at Chemistry Communications, said: “The smartphone comparison tool is an initiative designed to help time-precious consumers research all the best smartphones in one site.

"By identifying this clear need to cut through the complexity in the market Orange is making it far easier for people to identify the smartphone which best matches their individual needs. What’s more, all the comparisons and reviews are compiled from entirely independent sources, so consumers can be confident in the results.”

Chemistry's Orange team ladies raise £1000

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:44:00 +0100

Complete with hangovers from the summer party the day before, but sans their glamorous nautical fancy dress outfits six brave ladies from Chemistry's Orange account team headed out in their running gear to raise a whopping £1000 for Cancer Research.

Charlotte Johnson, Ruth Stevens, Sara Blackie, Chiara Garosi, Rachel Dutfield and Sarah Whiteley all deserve a big cheer for taking part in five kilometer marathonette on Saturday 31 July, despite feeling worse for wear from Friday's festivities.

No doubt the training from the previous week's Orange sports day paid dividends.

Chemistry boosts promotions team

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:33:00 +0100

Ingrid Purcell, Chemistry’s client services director, has hired Louise Newton as account executive and promoted Mark Anderson to senior account manager.

Louise joins after two four month stints at two different companies: as media liaison assistant at a broadcast PR agency called Markettiers4DC and as a communications assistant at the digital agency lbdesign. She landed her job at Chemistry less than a year after completing her studies last summer. Louise now has a BA (Hons) in contemporary history from Queen Mary’s in East London and City University.

Mark’s well-deserved promotion comes after two years at Chemistry, working on high profile campaigns for SCA Hygiene. They include the Bounty-to-Plenty migration, which has won Golds at the ISP and the Brand Experience Award ceremonies and the ongoing Charmin-to-Cushelle integrated migration activity.

At the same time he has found time to complete the ISP Diploma Promotional and Interactive Marketing with a distinction.

Mark joined Chemistry from Pindar where he was marketing and corporate communications executive and he has a degree in marketing management from Northumbria University.

Diageo consolidates Baileys digital account into Chemistry

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0100

LONDON July 2010 - Diageo has consolidated the global digital account for Baileys, including its social media strategy and the global Baileys brand website, into Chemistry Communications.

Chemistry has been briefed to take over the management of the Baileys.com global website, which provides brand information, recipes and product information across 30 markets, as well as manage and develop the brand's social media strategy.

The appointment strengthens Chemistry’s relationship with Diageo for whom it already manages the Baileys Lounge global and UK RM programmes.

Chemistry was appointed to work on Baileys in 2003. It developed The Baileys Lounge in the UK in 2008 and as a result, was invited to create The Baileys Lounge site globally, which launched at the beginning of this year. The Baileys Lounge is now available in 19 markets to two million members.

Joe Garton, chief executive at Chemistry Communications, said: “I am delighted Chemistry are working more closely with Diageo in the digital space to what is a key and rapidly developing area of the business.

“The rise of social media as a platform for reaching consumers has reached critical mass and it will play an important role in how we move Baileys forward in this area, in addition to the other digital services we have already been providing.”

Chemistry hires integrated creatives

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0100

LONDON July 2010 - Chemistry Communications' executive creative director Pete Harle has appointed the award-winning integrated team, Neame Ingram and Paul Westmoreland, as senior creatives.

In their new roles they will be responsible for pushing creative boundaries across advertising and direct response, both on and offline for all the agency’s accounts such as Emirates, Orange, Diageo, Unilever and Kraft.

They join from WDMP, where they were creative group heads and latterly acting creative directors at its sister agency, Gravity.

They were previously at Mustoes (now called Kindred) where they worked on accounts including Kia and the Starlight Children’s Charity, for which they won a BTAA Bronze in 2005.

Among their career highlights was working at the legendary creative hotshop CDP. During this time they won Gold at Cannes in 2002 in the press category for the agency’s iconic Hamlet Cigars account.

Neame and Paul have also worked on digital accounts including creating the website for Tom Aikens’ restaurant, Tom’s Kitchen; microsite and online activity for Chelsea Football Club’s American launch as well as many banner and email campaigns.

Pete Harle said: "Neame and Paul are real thinkers with experience and ambition. There will be loads of opportunities for them to deliver the rich ideas that our clients want and need.”

Chemistry creates integrated activity for Velvet

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:51:00 +0100

Chemistry Communications has created an extensive online campaign to help engage consumers with Velvet's recently launched Campaign for Trees initiative.

Velvet’s ‘Campaign for Trees’ aims to push the brand’s environmental commitment to sustainability, which is that for every tree it uses it grows three more. Launched in May, the initiative has been designed to provide consumers with an easy way to participate in supporting the environment by simply buying Velvet toilet tissue instead of other brands.

The digital campaign involves interactive banner ads, skyscrapers and MPUs, which change when a user's mouse rolls over it, from a bear baron city landscape, to a luscious, green, tree-filled one.

The interactive ads drive awareness of the brand message while showing how more trees make dull, urban areas more beautiful and ‘softer, greener and lovelier places’ in line with the brand message. Consumers are offered the chance to claim a free baby tree (sapling) by visiting the Velvet website www.velvettissue.com.

Chemistry has built a dedicated microsite (www.velvettissue.com/campaign-for-trees) containing details about the campaign. It includes an option for consumers to claim one of the 250,000 tree saplings that Velvet is giving away to help consumers become engaged with its tree planting promise and get involved by doing their bit.

As well as providing free saplings, the campaign also involves a tree planting initiative in collaboration with the charity Trees for Cities, to which Velvet has donated £20,000. Consumers can vote on the microsite for the area that they think is most deserving or in-need of a tree planting initiative.

Rob Trono, interactive creative director at Chemistry Communications, said: “Velvet takes its responsibility to the environment seriously. This integrated activity helps engage consumers with the message highlighting their commitment to sustainability.”

Andrea Thompson, Velvet’s assistant brand manager, said: “Our Campaign for Trees is a way to help busy consumers who are concerned about the environment make a difference by buying Velvet toilet tissue.

“We want Velvet’s commitment to the environment to resonate with ethically conscious consumers and this activity provides an engaging way to do this. The sapling giveaway and funded tree-planting project through consumer votes will help align the Velvet brand more closely with our promise that for every tree we use we will grow three more.”

Harwin Chandra for Esquire magazine's best-dressed man?

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:49:00 +0100

Chemistry senior art director Harwin Chandra has been spotted by Esquire magazine's Best Dressed Man team who have been scouring the UK looking for the country's most stylish males.

Harwin was spotted in Knightsbridge in May and now appears on the Esquire magazine Best Dressed Man blog here

Harwin describes his style as: "Effortless chic. A laid back style with a touch of quirkiness – or perhaps you could call it casual Fulham road with a hint of Shoreditch cheek”.

The winner of the competition will scoop a massive £30,000 prize, which includes a wardrobe of designer clobber from Harrods, a day in the store’s new men’s grooming lounge, a Longines watch, a foldaway bar from Esquire US, and the chance to appear on the cover of our October subscriber issue.

Marathon madness at Chemistry

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:02:00 +0100

June 2010 - Chemistry staff are taking to the streets to run marathons and races or getting on their bikes to raise money for charity.

This weekend, Tom Robinson is running a half marathon to raise money for an orphanage in Guatemala where he volunteered in 2008. If you'd like to donate you can so here.

David Polayah is riding the London to Brighton bike ride on June 20th with his wife and friend. They have raised £200 to date so if you want to help them get to their target of £500 click here. David is one of the agency's cycle to work champions, completing a 25 mile round trip every day.

Agency action man Tim Jackson is planning to run the Berlin marathon in September, where last year he achieved his personal best of three hours, five minutes and 57 seconds. He's also hoping to compete in the Thames Cup event at Henley Royal Regatta, for the London Rowing Club at the end of June.

As well as those yet to complete their events, there have been a few impressive achievements already from within the agency.

Client services director Jo Boyden completed the Edinburgh Marathon at the beginning of June in a time of five hours and fifty minutes.

Olivia Hope-Hawkins ran the race for life in Battersea Park last month and more of the Orange team will follow in her footsteps later this year.

And last, but by no means least, Emma Chapman and Livvy Thompson completed the Regent's Park five km Race for Life in March in under 30 minutes and raised a whopping £600 for charity. Emma says they were amazed as neither of them "can run for a bus".

Chemistry overhauls Skywards' design with famous artwork

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:50:00 +0100

June 2010 – Chemistry Communications has created a new brand identity and redesigned all brand communications for Emirates Airline's frequent flier programme Skywards, moving the brand closer to the world of art in the process.

The redesign followed a total overhaul by Emirates of how the programme is structured and how miles are earned and redeemed by members to coincide with Skyward's tenth anniversary.

The new identity has been designed to make Skywards appear more contemporary and move it closer to the airline’s brand values. The frequent flier membership cards now carry famous works of art: the Gold card features ‘To Lure’ by Damien Hirst; Silver is a glasswork by Christopher Ries and Blue, a Comet Glass Star sculpture by Simon Cenedese.

The new designs, which will be used on all member communications, form the basis of a new initiative by Emirates to make a greater commitment to the art world.

Kashmira Motiwalla, Skywards product development manager, said: “The relaunch of Skywards marks a watershed for Emirates. As we grew to more than five million members, it was important to evolve the programme structure and make the brand identity much more contemporary.”

“The new look and feel captures the pioneering spirit of the renewed programme perfectly.”

Jason Foo, deputy managing director at Chemistry Communications, said: “Designing the cards proved to be a particularly interesting and creative challenge. We wanted to express the values of the programme but also impart a sense of the differences between the blue, silver and gold tiers. We felt the use of contemporary art was a wonderful representation of this.”

Chemistry was invited to pitch for the Skywards business as a result of its success at handling all Emirates' digital communications in the UK for the last three years.

Chemistry Nottingham's Go Karting day out

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:30:00 +0100

June 2010 - There were crashes, tellings off and eventually three triumphant winners at Chemistry Nottingham's (and Fulham's head of digital design, Rupert Dixon's) recent quarterly Go Karting outing.

Sarah Goodman and Morgan Cox crashed (separately - not even into each other) and Claire Davies, Anthony Campbell and Simon Burnett were told off for dangerous driving.

The three winners at the end of the day were Claire Davis, Kevin Durber, Ben Lloyd.

The filme was edited by Dean Harris and filmed by Steve Gilbert in Chemistry Nottingham's video department

Watch the video here

Will Webster joins the studio

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:23:00 +0100

June 2010 - Chemistry Communication’s studio manager Nic Guard has announced the appointment of Will Webster as a designer on the Orange team.

“I’d like to welcome Will to the studio as the new member on the Orange team. Will is going to be working with the designers and art directors to push the level of creativity on the Orange work coming out of the studio,” Nic Guard said.

Will joins Chemistry after a two year spell as a freelance during which time he first worked for the agency. His last full time permanent role was as a senior designer at Publicis Dialog, which he left in 2008 to travel to Australia, working at agencies such as Clemenger BBDO, Lowe and The Marketing Store, among others.

In the UK, Will has also freelanced for agencies such as Mother, Elvis, BD Network, VCCP and Chemistry.

Before working at Publicis Dialog, Will worked in a number of design roles at RMG Connect, auction house Sothebys, and the agencies Blue Thumb and Allegra.

Emirates launches Heights of Luxury campaign

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:31:00 +0100

May 2010 - Emirates has launched a luxurious direct marketing campaign offering a complimentary stay in a five-star hotel in Dubai for passengers who book a Business and First Class ticket.

The offer has been designed by Emirates to encourage passengers to book First and Business Class tickets as well as promote the Skywards programme to non-members. The airline partnered with five hotels in the city - Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach; the Jumeirah Emirates Towers; the Park Hyatt Dubai; The Address Dubai Marina and the Raffles Dubai - to provide the offer.

The Heights of Luxury campaign, created by Chemistry, was named Campaign of the Week by Marketing Week's DM Weekly newsletter.

The direct mail pack comes in a striking oversized envelope with the copy “Complimentary nights in Dubai for our Premium Customers” across the front. Inside is a wallet containing five imitation key cards, which look like they belong to each of the five-star hotels involved in the offer.

The wallet contains a ten-page brochure, which highlights each hotel’s features. It provides information about sightseeing in Dubai, additional services included with Business and First Class Emirates flights, such as Chauffeur-drive service, as well as information on the Emirates network. It also provides information on Skywards, Emirates’ frequent flier programme.

The DM is supported by press and trade activity and an online campaign. All communications invite consumers to book flights or join the programme by calling a dedicated phone number or by visiting www.emirates.com/beourguest.

Carrie Hopkins, e-commerce manager at Emirates, said: “This campaign communicates our offer of free accommodation in some of Dubai’s most exclusive hotels when passengers book a First or Business Class flight.

“The luxurious look and feel of this pack will leave people in no doubt that Emirates and its hotel partners deliver premium quality travel and accommodation. We hope that lots of our customers will take advantage of this very exclusive opportunity.”

Views Not News

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:19:00 +0100

The occasional small drink, etc., etc. Anyone who doesn't understand this really shouldn't be in our business.

Presenteesim, that's just hanging around in the hope of appearing to be 'working late'. Absenteeism, well that's just duvet days and snow days. Same with hangovers.

We're not talking alcoholism, here, but there's an interesting story in the news today about our views on being hungover.

And this is something we know quite a bit about ourselves. Especially as today is quite a big one for us after last night's IPM (nee ISP) Awards at the London Hilton.

Yep, we struck Gold (twice) and Silver last night. And two Bronzes, too. And today we are remembering the five-medal Olympian experience with some discomfort. With some hangovers, in fact.

So while we think we have a justifiable reason to go out, booze and then boogie till 4am on a Thursday morning and then come into work craving sympathy and soothing words for such selfless heroism, every occasional now and then, it's comforting to know that almost one in ten people in Britain say they go to work with a hangover at least twice a week. That's almost half a million people at work with hangovers every day!!! Were they all out winning awards, too?

And one in five of those admits -- they actually know this, they are remarkably ''drink aware", in fact -- that all this boozing works to their disadvantage and has an adverse effect on their work, according to research from Drinkaware. And here's the frothy truth about the dregs at the bottom of the glass: the World Cup = more drinking (surprise) = plummeting productivity and 'hangovers at work are likely to increase'.

I'm beginning to understand what economists mean by a double-dip recession. Perhaps putting and end to awards evenings might be a good thing for our industry and our output. In the meantime, I'm stocking up for the World Cup before that may get banned, too. Cheers.

Chemistry wins five ISP awards

Tue, 25 May 2010 15:16:00 +0100

London, 27th May 2010 - Chemistry went home with a total of five gongs, two of them gold, at this year’s ISP Awards ceremony held at the Park Lane Hilton last night.

The trophies were collected for campaigns for Plenty and Velvet, which are both owned by longstanding Chemistry client SCA Hygiene.

The Triple Velvet Tree Detective scooped three awards: Gold in the healthcare, household, fashion and beauty category; Silver for art direction and Bronze for brand experience. The activity involved a nationwide experiential roadshow at shopping malls, featuring the brand spokesperson, Baby MD, as a Tree Detective. Children were invited to hunt for trees in a virtual forest set up in the malls, solving nature related puzzles along the way. The game was also available to play online, which was promoted via a leaflet.

The second triumph of the night was for the Bounty-to-Plenty migration campaign. The campaign won Gold in the experiential marketing at the point-of-sale category and Bronze in the trial and awareness category. The activity involved an experiential game using Nintendo Wii technology in which contestants had to virtually wipe the Bounty name off the product to reveal Plenty as well as a leaflet, which showed the brand before and after.

Ingrid Purcell, client services director, said: "This is a truly great result and the wide range of categories proves the diversity of our skills as an agency. Plus to win for tissue products against the likes of Coke, alcoholic drinks, confectionary and automotive brands proves that you can create memorable and exciting creative in any category.

"A big thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of these campaigns."

Views Not News

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:17:00 +0100

Hmmm...I see there's now to be a Radio Amnesty. Trade in your old analogue radio and get up to 20% discount off your new digital radio purchase.

Nice idea, but want to know where it first appeared...? Here. On this very blog exactly one year ago. Check it out: Scrap Age (20 May 2009). Says it all.

So now I want to be the first to propose we go one step further. That we, true to our values of being a free-thinking, independent agency, offer something unique to our would-be clients: scrap your current analogue marketing and we'll allow you a trade-in value against your new digital campaign with us. Even if it's video...digital video, that is.

Good idea? 'Course it is! TV may have created a shiny new image for Nick Clegg but it was online what done it. More than 40% of us were influenced by online messaging, videos and exchanges 'to a fair or great degree'. And the bulk of those influenced were young. Quite a claim but not really a surprise, is it?

So forget your cars, your radios and even your TVs and boilers. Nothing wrong with a scrappage trade-in but it's so-o-o-o last year. But discounted ‘swappage’ deals for your new marketing campaign...hey, that could be a whole other story.

JustOneCapello

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:31:00 +0100

June 2010 - Chemistry creative director Seb Hill has revealed his latest out of office venture - a potential anthem for the World Cup, called Just One Capello.

Seb wrote and composed the song with freelancer Will Brooks. He enlisted Dave Washer, from TMW, to sing the song and together they have released it online with its own website www.justonecapello.com

The trio will no doubt be hoping that the England team give them something more to sing about in the next game than they have so far.

Emirates launches Birmingham International Aiport takeover

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:08:00 +0100

June 2010 - Emirates Airline has launched a striking year-long campaign, which dominates the exterior of Birmingham International Airport.

The campaign, by Chemistry Communications, promotes Emirates’ twice daily services from Birmingham to exotic destinations in Africa, Australia, China, the Far East and Dubai. It targets people who visit the airport but may not be aware of the variey of flights available to them with Emirates.

The two Birmingham AirRail Link trains, which run along a 585m long monorail track every two minutes between Birmingham International Airport’s passenger terminals and the airport rail station, have been completely wrapped, internally and externally, with designs featuring icons relating to each region. Complementary footage is also displayed on digital screens in each train.

For the first six months, one train will appear to have a Chinese ceremonial dragon onboard, while the other will look as though African safari animals such as a lion, monkey and zebras, are inside. After six months, they will be replaced by imagery promoting Australia and the Far East.

Conrad Clifford, vice president of the UK and Ireland for Emirates, said: “The creative has met the brief to raise consumer awareness of our twice daily service from Birmingham to key regions in our network in a very eye-catching and appealing way.”

Orange launches Motor Oil bottle DM to taxi firms

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:01:00 +0100

May 2010 – Orange is launching a striking direct marketing campaign in the shape of a bottle of motor oil.

The campaign brings to life the message that Orange and the HTC Touch smartphone can help taxi companies improve the performance and efficiency of their cab operations.

The strategy behind the creative is to demonstrate to taxi firms, which have been hard hit by recession, that by using more effective despatch, navigation and communications technology, they could pick up more fares.

The creative runs with the line ‘Give your business a bit of brrm brrm’ across the front of the pack. Inside, copy explains why the combination of Orange’s 3D network and the HTC Touch 3G Smartphone is perfect for managing taxi despatch. Among the useful features are a user friendly touchscreen and built-in GPS that allows drivers to find the best routes by avoiding traffic congestion as well as allowing the operations team to locate the nearest driver to a fare.

The piece draws attention to the fact that Orange has been voted Best Network Operator by the readers of What Mobile as well as to a promotional offer of a 30 per cent discount for those companies that sign up before June 30.

Malcolm Cotton, managing partner at Chemistry said: “Minicab firms that take up this offer from Orange will get to customers faster, get them to their destination quicker and, as a result, pick up more business without increasing the number of drivers they employ.

In the same way that oil improves the performance of a car, Orange can improve the efficiency of a minicab firm’s business, which is critical to their survival in a highly competitive market and at a time when people have significantly cut back on using cabs”

Orange urges customers to sit back and relax

Thu, 20 May 2010 14:40:00 +0100

June 2010 - Orange is encouraging customers to sit back and relax with a deck-chair themed DM pack that explains that the mobile provider is looking after their best interests.

The activity is centred around a direct mail pack that arrives in a transparent polylope designed to spark recipients’ curiosity. Once opened, paper engineering means that when customers open the die-cut pack, it folds out into a pop-up, desktop-sized deck chair.

The campaign, by Chemistry Communications, has been developed to promote Orange’s Best Plan service, which checks whether customers are on the most cost-effective plan determined by their recent talk, text and mobile internet usage habits.

Every six months, Orange reviews customers’ mobile usage habits and, if they could be saving more money on a different plan, offers them the chance to change. Orange does all the work by calculating which plan is best value for each individual customer and sending a text reminding them to look out for their recommendation. All customers have to do is log on to their account and choose whether they want to change tariffs. They don’t need to sign a new contract and it’s free.

The deck chair theme is also continued in bill messages and emails to customers.

Peter Meaklim named FD of the Year

Thu, 20 May 2010 11:58:00 +0100

May 2010 - Peter Meaklim, chief financial officer of Chemistry Communications Group, has been named financial director of the year at the PLUS Awards 2010.

The PLUS Awards were established to celebrate the achievements of companies listed on the PLUS-quoted market. The awards are based on a public vote and analysis from a specialist judging panel.

Peter's award was in recognition of his role in managing the agency's finances, during the year that Chemistry posted record growth during the toughest economic conditions for decades.

Chemistry's financial performance was also recognised by nominations in four separate categories, including a nomination in the chief executive of the year category for Joe Garton.

Seb Hill creates bedometer App

Tue, 18 May 2010 18:05:00 +0100

March 2010 - Chemistry creative director Seb Hill has created a bedroom iPhone App, which has become world famous.

The App, which measures how many calories are burnt during between-the-sheets activity, was Seb's brainchild with help from Neil Metson who built it and Olivia Thompson who helped promote it.

The Bedometer was written about in The Sun under the headline 'SlApp and tickle', with a quote from Chemistry's very own Omaid Hiwaizi. It was then featured as App of the Week on Fox News and mentioned on Virgin Radio and Russell Howard's Good News comedy show on BBC Three.

As a result of the notoriety it shot up the charts, but at 59p it hasn’t made Seb his millions yet. At least that's what we assume as he’s still coming into the office every day, but his colleagues wonder what he’ll be up to next.

According to Seb's website the Bedometer is the "ultimate bedroom athletics measuring tool. Simply ‘turn it on’ and see how many calories are burnt when things get hot under the covers! Comes with single or multiplayer".

www.bedometer.com

iPhone Apps

Wed, 12 May 2010 11:20:00 +0100

But with more than 58 million app store users downloading over 280 million apps between them, the question marketers now face is should they use apps to get closer to their customers, and if so how should they go about it? This presentation shares some of our thinking into the growth of the app economy, what apps work and, when you’re ready to enter the market, how to get your strategy right.

Download the presentation

10,000 women say Dove works

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:33:00 +0100

The trial established the claim that eight out of ten women who used VisibleCare Crème Body Wash for three weeks noticed a visible improvement in the appearance of their skin.

Created and executed by Dove’s relationship marketing agency Chemistry Communications, the campaign established another claim – that 83 per cent of women involved in the trial said that their skin felt visibly smoother and softer in just seven days. This claim is being used in the new TV ad, which is currently on air.

Dove arrived at these impressive discoveries following a long running campaign, which initially involved 38,000 members of the withDove programme who were sent full-sized free samples of the product.

Dove asked them to use the product every day for three weeks and report back the results. Out of those 38,000 women who received the samples, a massive 12,038 (an impressive 33 per cent response) completed the trial and sent back their views.

What's more, an amazing 10,621 (85 per cent) provided positive feedback about the new body wash.

The activity was conducted among the withDove relationship marketing programme earlier this year culminating in all-expenses-paid photoshoot in London for 60 women who took part in the trial.

You can see the results of the photoshoot at www.dove.co.uk and see what the women actually said about Dove visible care Crème Body Wash.

Developed and managed by Chemistry, withDove is Unilever's most successful RM programme ever.

Old time favourite

Mon, 10 May 2010 14:24:00 +0100

And as new media has grown and the sheer numbers of social media activists has exploded, the cries of ‘we’re all online now’ and ‘telly is so-o-o-o last millennium’ have drowned out any naïve hopes that TV would ever again become the dominant mass medium it once was.

So consider the 9.4 million of us who tuned in to the first TV leaders’ debate just over two weeks ago: was it just a complete coincidence? Was it simply the novelty factor? And when the Lib Dems started jumping for probable premature joy about their ten point upswing following the debates, is it possible to say that that response was down to the telly? I think it is. So have we all been guilty of ‘groupthink’?

We all thought this was going to be a new media election. Just like they had in the US. Email and blogging and social media and Twitter was going to change everything this time. Barack Obama had shown us the way.

But it hasn’t happened like that. TV still has incredible reach: 9.4m Brits is almost 40% of prime-time viewing. Also doing what it was set up to do — reach a truly mass audience — has been the national press. Newspapers may be in terminal decline but audited figures show that more than 8 million people ‘read’ the Sun every day.

So while 9.4m of us remember the TV debates and over 8m of us each day — and that’s just Sun readers — scan the various political parties’ progress (or disasters in Gordon Brown’s case) what happened to the brave new world of online? The world in which we work for our clients on a daily basis, actually! The answer is not much.

Think about it this way: the TV debates each lasted 1.5 hours; a newspaper (even the Sun) commands its readers’ attentions for about 30-40 minutes each day (I’m not going to say anything about Sun ‘readers’) and probably twice that much at the weekend. How many seconds to read an email? How many nano-seconds a tweet? It’s not difficult to conclude where real so-called ’stickiness’ exists and why?

OK, OK…like us, you still want to justify new media. Here’s the get out: it’s for young people. Bless. It’s true that almost 50% of live TV debates’ viewers (certainly the first one) were watched by oldies over the age of 55. These are roughly the same sort of reader demographics of the Mail and the Telegraph. But, hello…these are also the people who actually tend to vote.

Think of an email, or a tweet, something on your wall, that affected or infected you to reconsider / change your mind / go shout about it. Unlikely, isn’t it. And why should you have such hazy memories? Because the likelihood that you saw anything worthwhile wasn’t ‘out there’.

So let the numbers do the talking: of the candidates who have used Twitter in over 100 highly marginal seats (according to ‘Get Elected’) only 45% of them had a Twitter account. Their average following attracted just over 600 followers. As at yesterday, 4th May, President Obama had some 3.9m followers, but he’s special. Like Mourinho. An ocean of difference.

One final figure: the average constituency has some 74,000 voters. It seems like all 0.8% of them will be making their Twitter-informed views well heard. Be afraid, huh…?

It’s telly that has delivered the message. Tomorrow will deliver the numbers. And if the Lib Dems don’t do well then we can revert to our previous thinking: telly really is just about image.

See you again in six months’ time for the replay?

Chemistry bolsters Orange team

Mon, 10 May 2010 14:00:00 +0100

April 2010 – Chemistry has strengthened its Orange client services team with a series of internal promotions.

The team also has a vacancy for a group account director, which has become available following the recent promotion of Liz McCall (pictured) to client services director.

Reporting to Malcolm Cotton, the managing partner and planning director on the account, Liz is responsible for running the team across acquisition and base management communications. Before joining the Orange team, Liz was a senior account director on the award-winning Transport for London account.

“This is a very well deserved promotion for Liz and is in recognition of her hard work and dedication to helping the agency produce great work for Orange,” Malcolm said.

Following her promotion, Liz has made two further appointments. Olivia Hope-Hawkins has been appointed account director with responsibility for a team of account managers on the acquisition side of the business. Olivia previously worked as a senior account manager on broadband and business acquisition activity, before moving on to mobile across various integrated campaigns.

Within that team, Rachel Dutfield has been promoted to account manager working across business acquisition direct marketing campaigns as well as mobile and broadband press and online acquisition activity. Rachel, who joined Chemistry in January 2009, was previously a senior account executive.

Liz McCall said: “With her can-do attitude and commitment for everything Orange, Olivia is an inspiration and a strong leader within the team.

“Rachel is an absolute star in the making – her commitment, hard work and passion for the business is outstanding and is clearly demonstrated through the business-to-business acquisition work she is producing and the great feedback we have received from Orange,” she added.

Diageo launches global Baileys website

Mon, 10 May 2010 12:13:00 +0100

April 2010 – Diageo has launched a global website for its relationship marketing programme for Baileys Irish Cream, the world’s number one liqueur.

The new website is a global version of its Baileys Lounge site, which was launched in the UK in 2008, by the brand’s integrated DM agency, Chemistry Communications.

Following the successful launch of the Baileys GB relationship marketing website, www.thebaileyslounge.co.uk , Chemistry was awarded the task of developing and managing the next stage of the programme, www.thebaileyslounge.com .

Designed to act as a hub for the 1.9 million members in 19 markets across the world, the site features content chosen to strongly resonate with Baileys drinkers.

This includes exclusive recipes, lifestyle articles, hints and tips for entertaining, exciting competitions and third-party offers, which can be tailored to each different market.

Chemistry cycles for charity

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:09:00 +0100

A team of keen cyclists from Chemistry Group are plotting to cycle 125 miles in one day to raise money for charity.

The route starts in Whitehaven in the west and finishes in Sunderland in the east. It takes place on August 8 2010 and it is open to everyone who works in either agency.

So far seven riders from Nottingham – Morgan Cox, Ed Hallam, Chris Bailey, Charlie Gentle, Mat Hayward, Neil Twigger and Pete Rix – and one from Fulham – Rupert Dixon – have signed up for the ride.

Pictured above are the boys from Nottingham – (l to r) Ed Hallam, Pete Rix, Morgan Cox, Robin Garms, Neil Twigger, Charlie Gentle and Mat Hayward.

The team are getting into training already and get together every Wednesday.

Chemistry is hiring

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:00:00 +0100

May 2010 - Chemistry Group is currently hiring new people to join its London and Nottingham offices across its strategy, account, creative and digital teams.

The agency, which added 40 new jobs in 2009, is currently looking to fill eight roles in London and one in Nottingham.

Diane Charlton, managing director at Chemistry, said: "2009 was a year of solid growth for us and it is continuing this year.

"We've added new business, won more work from existing clients and the demand for our digital services is higher than ever before. As a result we are looking for a number of talented individuals to join our offices in London and Nottingham."

In London, the executive creative director Pete Harle is looking for a mid-weight and a mid-to-heavyweight copywriter as part of an ongoing restructure of the creative department.

In account management, a number of roles need to be filled across all levels of seniority on exciting accounts such as Orange. There are vacancies for two group account directors; a senior account director (maternity cover); and an account manager

The strategy team requires a senior planner with relationship marketing, integrated campaign development and digital communications experience. Another key role, as the agency’s digital capabilities continue grow, is for an information/user experience architect.

The Nottingham office is looking for a junior project coordinator, having recently filled a number of roles in its development team.

Please see the Join Us page for more details on all jobs.

Minority Report comes to posters

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:44:00 +0100

Japanese billboard manufacturer Comel, backed by Yahoo Japan, have produced some electronic signage that photographs passersby, analyses it using NEC's facial analysis technology, and guesstimates a viewers age and gender.

This allows tailoring of both brand message and tone of voice – a great creative opportunity for many categories - you sell insurance to people in their 30s very differently to those in their 60s, and products for reducing wrinkles are usually of little interest to 20somethings.

The actual face image is then erased, saving only a record of the passerby's age and sex. It’s a little big brother, but no more than cookies in web browsers, I think.

There's a piece in The Sun about it here (with a quote from yours truly).

By Omaid Hiwaizi
http://www.hiwaizi.co.uk/

The Neverending (patent) Story

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:30:00 +0100

So many “Internet of Things” pieces are more concerned with “broadcasting”, this piece by Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus reverses this flow and is even better for it.

Find out more about the piece here: http://storyteller.allesblinkt.com/ Not a muppet in sight.

By David Carr
http://davidjcarr.wordpress.com/

Pier pressure

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:18:00 +0100

Family outings, a stroll across the swards, gazing at the daffodils and spotting the Easter bunnies, or a bracing walk along our wonderful coastlines. What’ll it be?

Well, what it seems it will be is sleet, hail, driving rain or even snow that will accompany our planned leisure time. Indeed, we may yet be held hostage to the great British indoors and our central heating as usual.

Certainly, that’s what our French cousins are suggesting Britain is about: …the weather is difficult and the country has an image problem abroad, says Jean Pierre Courteau of the France Tourism Development Agency.

Really..? That we didn’t know our weather is crap and that our image abroad isn’t great? That x million Brits go abroad each year just to sun and sangria themselves is news to us? What next from those adorable Anglophiles…that our food doesn’t cut it, either?

Well, yes, actually: British food, for example, is not highly rated by foreigners…the traditional British breakfast, on the other hand, has a good reputation but is not marketed by your tourist board.

Zut, alors! Now it’s not just our weather and our food but our great British Tourist Board (does he mean VisitBritain?) is incapable of marketing a plate of bacon and eggs! Blimey, will these French people stop at nothing?

Non, actuellement. Because while our music scene is ‘OK’ and our B&Bs ‘good but expensive’, it seems we’re lacking in most things which would allow us to describe Britain as civilised as France.

London, argues M Courteau, overshadows the rest of the UK, no-one’s ever heard of the Lake District, our coastal towns are not destination resorts but accidents of discovery. Quel horreur…how was I to know I was living in such a tip? That such places like Clacton, Cromer and Prestatyn can’t hold a candle to Cannes, Biarritz and Monaco? That Blackpool can’t match Bordeaux? I know, I know…it’s difficult to believe. And I knew I was depressed about something…

However, there’s more. We Brits don’t have atmosphere. There’s nowhere charming to go for weekend getaways. I mean, nowhere. And lastly — this is the real insult — all we do is bung up a pier somewhere and fill it with ‘amusements’.

In France we would never try to add a pier or an amusement park for the sake of tourism, says M Courteau, who seems rather incredulous of our lack of the sense of naff. Please, this is not the time for anybody to mention EuroDisney.

So that’s it. Is M Courteau just angry that London is hosting the Paris Olympics in 2012? And that in the run up to that three-week sporting event in the summer we have…er…we have…well, a whole range of exciting and cultural things to see and do for anyone and everyone and all the family in this wonderful country of ours.

‘Course we do. But this weekend I’m looking forward to a bit of sunshine, some tasty cuisine and a drop of some lovely red wine with friends down in the Dordogne. Ah, the Dordogne…France without the French.

By Neil Cowan
http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness/

DIY chromosomes working overtime

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:15:00 +0100

That’s when we men — supposedly on holiday and supposed to be sitting in miles of motorway traffic jams and having pleasant family arguments — start stirring from our home improvement hibernation state and, putting our housing responsibilities to the fore, we herd on down to the British DIY aisles to get stuff.

According to B&Q, we buy 1.2million litres of white emulsion paint; 930,000 light bulbs (and that’s just at B&Q); and 150,000 B&Q grow bags. Groan.

There’s a pretty strict hierarchy of favourites for Easter time working, too: first comes shelving, then assembling furniture, filling holes, sanding, painting, electrics, tiling, stripping wallpaper… No more delaying: it’s time to get things sorted. There’s more — and we haven’t even mentioned ‘the garden’, yet — but I’m getting tired just thinking about this unending list of drudge.

Indeed, had Easter been a couple of weeks later, like now, the grass would have been growing so fast that we’d not have been able to open our back doors if we hadn’t rushed out to buy new lawn mowers to curb it. There’s even a DIY Doctor’s blog to make sure we don’t get injured in the process! And why not. The accident statistics certainly justify this nannying: DIY disasters include falling off ladders and breaking furniture; spilling paint or white spirit on the carpet and furniture; dropping things on glass tables; and drilling or hammering into pipes and cables.

So why should a holiday be such a fraught liability for us? An opportunity to ‘catch up with all those things we’ve been delaying for so long’? And get ourselves injured into the bargain? Is it all just good marketing? Probably. But as a nation of male DIY mad workers, we’re missing an opportunity to focus on what we men do really well: cook.

Yep…we’re the best. We featured exclusively as finalists on BBC’s MasterChef on Wednesday night and, since the re-launch in 2005, only one woman has won it. Ha! That Y chromosome certainly knows its stuff in the kitchen.

But do we get any encouragement for it? Nope. It’s not ‘poach that lobster’ or ‘reduce that jus’ or ‘make that mousse’. No. It’s ‘fix those shelves’, ‘Allen key those shelves’ and ’sand blast those walls’.

Sadly, women don’t like the heat of the ‘male dominated environment of the kitchen’, according to the Independent. Good. Everything’s in its place at last and now we know where we should be: a man’s place is in the kitchen.

As soon as he’s selected it, assembled it, fitted it, wired, tiled and painted it. Pass the bradawl, love.

By Neil Cowan
http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness/

The not so great ignored

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:58:00 +0100

I can safely say I am ignored, though. Frequently, in fact. Being ignored is pretty much the staple ingredient of new business. So, sadly, as someone who’s responsible for helping develop that business for the agency, I’m pretty much used to it.

Hello…? Just checking you’re still there. Good. Now, I don’t worry about being ignored. I’m used to it. Phoning anyone these days usually results in being put through to voicemail. Best not to mention call centres. And if they’re not instantly deleted, emails are more or less rapidly forgotten.

Being married and, especially, having teenagers really lets you know how pointless your existence can be sometimes, too. The secondary purpose of using an iPod is to let parents know that their offspring are NOT interested in whatever it is they might have wanted to say to them.

So now that I know I must have been ignored at previous elections, I’m actually a bit miffed. After all, why should it be only David Cameron that’s now suddenly offering to ‘fight for the great ignored‘? I feel short-changed — no one told me at elections past that I was being ignored as part of the great ignored. Just the opposite. I was told by all the parties that they had my welfare uppermost in their thinking.

But what I also remember from David Cameron’s recent soapbox speech by the river, with the image of Big Ben framed neatly in the background, was that I wasn’t alone in my state of being ignored: “young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight” were all included in this catch-all phrase.

Hands up

So, er…isn’t this everybody, then? I mean he didn’t say ‘male or female’ but I guess being as I am not young nor old, neither rich nor poor, but white-ish and straight means that I don’t quite know whether I am indeed qualified to number myself among ‘the great ignored’ now.

Rich business leaders and captains of industry, lottery winners…yep, they’re in. And good old bankers, too. So will be the socially disadvantaged, homeless and the unemployed. How about the NEETS, too? But not me right now: I don’t tick all the boxes.

Gosh…it’s all so very confusing. Despite my previous misgivings, I think I must be among only the ’semi-’ rather than the ‘great’ ignored. That’s why I consider myself to be truly part of the not so great ignored. Those middle-of-the-road fence-sitters, neither fish nor fowl and incapable of being truly one thing or the other. Dammit.

It’s interesting how this very act of demographic profiling — something we do all the time, as an agency, in order to understand different behaviours and values across the social / consumer spectrum — can actually have the opposite effect.

Being definitely part of the not so great ignored, therefore, means I must now resign myself to actually being ignored. Again. I was reasonably happy when I didn’t know I was being ignored. But not now. I bet you’re not listening, either. Thought so.

By Neil Cowan
http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness/

TeXt factor

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:35:00 +0100

IT strategists rubbished the notion. Until you write a one-page manual, they scoffed, you don’t stand a chance. They were right.

I remember some of those manuals, too. Sumo-wrestler thick and gym heavy, they were instantly shelved, if you could lift them that high, and shelved they remained. Pristine, unopened and uncared for until they were thrown out or the shelves supporting them eventually collapsed.

And that parallels how it may be with today’s political parties’ manifestos — all published this week. Who reads them? Indeed, how do you even get hold of one? Go to their website, I assume, and download it? Of course. Despite the likelihood of their being the most likely-to-read anything serious like this, I doubt the over-55s age-group will actually bother. Amazing when you think of their voting numbers and accumulated wealth.

So, just as nobody ever read(s) a manual, so nobody will read a political party’s manifesto. Nobody under 55, say, anyway. That’s why the new test of success should be not even be a ‘one-pager’; in the lingua franca of the times it should be but a text message. Get down with the kids, and all that. Especially as we all know that kids don’t read nuffink anyway.

It’s the sort of marketing challenge we face every day. Think about it: you have numerous ideas you need to get across — or in the Conservatives’ case, no actual policies to get across; just the invitation to turn up at Westminster on May 7th and start governing.

You also need to get everything communicated quickly and succinctly. Then you need to prevent attention deficit disorder kicking in and keep people from turning the page…or pressing the delete button after ten seconds. A party’s product — its policies — need to be consonant with its brand.

So forget the oldies and text your manifesto!

Here’s an example of how it could be done. It’s easy:

gr8 nuz 4 U. weL git d economy moving ‘gen. UL pA less taxes. mo monE 4 d NHS. We’ll kill d NI incrEs. hlp 4 pensioners & schools.£150 4 married ppl. reduce d national deficit. & we’ll mAk Britain gr8 ‘gen.

There. Dn n dusted.

ROFL

By Neil Cowan
http://blogs.chemistrygroup.co.uk/newbusiness/

Catherine McPherson hired

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:32:00 +0100

Catherine will work across all Chemistry’s clients delivering planning insight that will inform the creative ideas.

Catherine joins from Syzygy, where she was planning lead on clients such as Mazda and HSBC Private Bank. She was also the planning lead on winning pitches for Asos.com’s Facebook account and for QFinance.

Harle appoints creative team

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:40:00 +0100

Copywriter Stacey Buxton and art director Sareka Barwood join after a year of placements at a number of high profile agencies such as Partners Andrews Aldridge, OgilvyOne, Rapp and Joshua G2.

The pair teamed up a year ago and they have been honing their integrated skills on accounts such as HSBC, Vodaphone, NSPCC, BP, BT and British Gas.

Stacey has a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design/Advertising from Buckinghamshire Chiltern University College. Sareka has a BA (Hons) in Visual Communications/Advertising from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

More appointments will be announced in the coming months.

Chemistry goes to Madrid

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:32:00 +0100

October 2009 - As many as 87 Chemistry staff - from the chief executive and managing director through to creatives, designers and account managers - made the annual pilgrimage to sunnier climes for the agency's away weekend.

The trip, which is held every year, aims to help everyone let their hair down and hang out together away from the pressures of work and the unpredictability of the English climate.

The weekend involved a night out together on the first night in local bars and clubs and a spot of sightseeing the next day. For those who could take the pace, there was more partying on the second night or something more relaxed for those who preferred to go home without a sore head.

In recent years destinations have included Valencia, Palma, Lisbon and Seville.

Chemistry wins Gold for Aviva

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:51:00 +0100

The award was for Aviva’s ‘Moments That Matter’ campaign, which won in the Consumer category.

The campaign promotes Aviva’s life assurance and annuities products and ran across TV and online. Chemistry developed a rich media online campaign, which integrated with the TV campaign that was developed by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, with whom Chemistry shared the award.

The digital activity involved rich media banners, with which consumers could interact. The creative idea was based on the insight that consumers know about products such as life and retirement insurance, but they don’t take them out until they have an experience that provides an emotional trigger.

Dredging the Thames, March 2010

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:10:00 +0100

The initiative was the idea of interactive creative director Rob Trono’s, who is said to have held a lifelong ambition to dredge the Thames. As soon as he found out about the Thames21 Deep Clean initiative, which takes advantage of the lowest tide in five years to rid the river of some rubbish, he signed up.

He was enthusiastically joined by Chemistry Managing Director Diane Charlton, Human Resources Manager Elizabeth Mizon, Senior Account Manager Sarah Whiteley, Creative Services Director Deborah Collison, Designer Mark Harrison and junior interactive designer and art director Emma Chapman, who all got stuck in to do their bit to make the Thames a bit cleaner.

According to Newsnight and news reports online, a Civil War helmet was found near Fulham football ground and bomb disposal experts had to be called when a rusty hand grenade was discovered. Other items included shopping trolleys and a bike.

2010 Digital Trends

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0100

Taking this into consideration, what should we do (or not do) as brands, marketers and agencies? These issues, along with the Real-time web, consumer demand for control and value exchange, are covered by Chemistry’s Digital Strategy Director David j Carr in part 1 of his 2010 Digital Trends presentation.

Social Marketing Listening and Engagement

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:02:00 +0100

If social media is the area of the web that consumers use in real life then how should companies approach it? How should marketers talk to people in their personal space online and what can brands expect from the social media enabled consumer?

These are just some of the issues visited and revisited in Chemistry's latest insights into social marketing, listening and engagement.

Thought Leadership

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:55:00 +0100

Packed full of surprising and useful statistics, this presentation by Chemistry’s managing director Diane Charlton provides insight after insight into the average UK lifestyle.

Download the presentation

By Diane Charlton

Views Not News

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:47:00 +0100

The Journey's the Destination

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:31:00 +0100