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September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

Winston Churchill* Fails to ‘Win Back’ His Glasses in Northampton Auction

A Sir Winston Churchill look-a-like failed in his attempt to win a pair of Sir Winston Churchill’s glasses, which were auctioned for £11,210 to a telephone buyer, understood to be from overseas. ‘Sir Winston’ went along to the auction with the manufacturers of the glasses, and the world’s oldest independent eyewear company.

It was hoped that the glasses, which featured in an auction of antiques and collectables at Northamptonshire auctioneers JP Humbert could be ‘reclaimed’ by the manufacturers in an attempt to preserve them as an important piece of British history.

The auction catalogue described the reading spectacles as being made made in 1954 for the former prime minister who was often seen wearing the distinctive glasses when speaking in public.

“It’s disappointing that we were unable to win the glasses. We thought the bidding was likely to go high, but we didn’t anticipate that the glasses would be quite as popular as they have proved to be!” the bidder commented

The timing of the auction couldn’t have been more perfect with the eyewear manufacturer launching its first new collection in a generation. The collection, which is inspired by Sir Winston Churchill’s frames is now in shops.

September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt 6 Comments

Rocket Fuel UK investigates the role of environment vs audience in effective brand advertising

I went to a breakfast debate hosted by Rocket Fuel UK (which has now been incorporated into Sizmek). For those unfamiliar, Rocket Fuel is a real-time ad targeting company whose technology combines all data-driven targeting techniques, from behavioural to contextual, into one system that automatically adapts campaigns in real time to get their clients most bang from their buck.

The debate was focused on the whether the most critical ingredient in effective brand advertising is environment or audience? Which has the greatest impact and traction, and should these tactics be combined or do they work better as separate strategies?

Marketers agree that getting the right message to the right audience at the right time is the holy grail of marketing. However, it does leave the question where budget is best allocated: Should the bulk of the advertising budget be kept in brand advertising within trusted and known content sites, or should this budget be reallocated to ‘the most precise audience you can reach,’ not necessarily engaged in reflective content.

The introduction was provided by Dominic Trigg, MD or Rocket Fuel UK who gave an overview of today’s discussion and introduced the speakers:

Tom Bowman, VP Strategy & Operations BBC Worldwide who’s presentation was entitled ‘Content is King’, and Pete Robins, Managing Partner of Agenda 21 talked on his subject entitled ‘Data is the New Oil’.

Dominic talked about the fact that digital advertising is no longer a secondary channel in the chief marketing officer’s arsenal. Once a bastion of simple banner flipping and annoying pop-up ads, display advertising is rapidly overtaking traditional media as the preferred channel to drive targeted awareness and the customer pipeline.

Yet with all the advancements in digital formats and devices, the dramatic shift to digital advertising is more likely a function of data—the explosion of anonymous online databases categorizing individual Web users based on their demographic attributes, surfing and purchase behaviour, and content preferences.

The demand for audience targeting has never been greater, and the demand for premium brand association has never waned. Getting the right message to the right audience at the right time is the holy grail of marketing. But it leaves the question, where to allocate your budget: should marketers keep the bulk of their advertising budget in brand advertising within trusted and known content sites, or should this budget be reallocated to ‘the most precise audience reachable,’ not necessarily engaged in reflective content.

This was demonstrated by a study carried out by Pubmatic in March this year with 644 advertisers and publishers – 2/3rds buyer and 1/3rd Publishers. This showed 97% using audience targeting this year), advertisers wanting the best of both audience targeting and premium brand association, and summed up by pointing out that publishers now have the ability to combine both in order to meet market demand and increase their yield from ads.

Trigg then pointed out:

• That in 2011, the available data volume is predicted to grow to 1.8 zettabytes (a trillion gigabytes).

• Data is crucial at Rocket Fuel, with the data warehouse having grown from five billion events to 30 billion events a year which takes 2 petabytes of storage

• Traditionally in advertising, content has been king, but significant impressions can be wasted.

• In the survey, asked if they could only pick one: “Right Content vs. Right Audience”, which one is more important, more than 70% of the respondents replied ‘audience’.

• The nature of data not only includes browsing behaviour, the referring url, site actions, etc, but can also track purchase intent, interests and psychographics, painting a rich portrait of the consumer, and reaching the consumer at the right time of day is crucial.

The next speaker was Tom Bowman, VP Strategy and Operations at BBC Worldwide. He pointed out:

• That advertising needs to shift from commercial messaging to consumer-led stories, augmented content, be innovative, engaging and fun.

• That the best definition of a brand is ‘the most valuable piece of real estate in the world – a corner of someone’s mind’.

• The voracious appetite for content, with for example, 48 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute.

• But that the appetite for advertising is smaller, with Advertising Association tracking data showing how public favourability towards advertising has been in steady decline since the 1990s, but are far more welcoming of sponsorship and product placement.

• When it comes to reach – the dominant role is still played by broadcasters and (perhaps surprisingly) this has not changed in the age of new media.

• Despite huge growth of content, TV watching is up, and viewers stick with respected TV broadcasters for the vast bulk of their media consumption

• That the role of the aggregator has been extended – it now covers the curation of content, a badge of quality and shortcut for consumers seeking great content on any platform. This is particularly important for brands looking to secure acceptance and viewership of content across multiple media platforms.

• The social network numbers for broadcast TV brands are an indicator of the potential for brands to leverage broadcast relationships across other media. This example is Top Gear, which currently has over 11 million Facebook fans across two profile pages.

• Brand augmented content can wrap around authentic, premium content that comes with guaranteed audiences, create a layer of utility, entertainment and extra information built into brand engagement, and an enhanced experience for content consumers.

He concluded with a quote from John Hegarty: “Targeting specific audiences is a wonderful science but unless you include broadcast in some way within your marketing strategy you’ll be talking to an ever shrinking audience. And that’s not particularly good for the long term health of any company.”

The final speaker was Pete Robins, Managing Partner of Agenda 21 who spoke on the subject ‘From gut instinct to data instinct’.

Pete pointed out that serving effective ads is allowing exploration of content units in the form of ads or website hubs which means that data planning and exploiting technology becomes more crucial to get mass specificity.

And that a ‘mass of audiences’ is not a ‘mass audience’ – the message needs to be relevant to the individual given their scale and range.

He also pointed out:

• That more channels means more opportunities and therefore more need for media agencies to keep up to date… but that we’re waging a battle with increasing complexity.

• As digital becomes even more important to even more businesses even if you’re an agency, advertiser, media owner, audience aggregator, we’ll need stronger justification to support the inevitable growing share of market.

• It’s only going to get more complex too – we’re going to need ‘depots’ of data sources that are reliable and most importantly we have confidence in.

• He concluded that the rules of engagement should be that technologies within digital media channels are rapidly exposing weaknesses in communications strategies and that the key will be to establish ‘why’ an individual will be saying things rather than just ‘what’.

• Merging messaging with the right technologies which can increasingly take decisions based on swelling data sets should lead to be more specific across all digital touch points, and this will mean more relevancy – it means people will be able to opt in and opt out as they go, it ultimately gives them more choice and control.

Dominic Trigg concluded that it is not about using one tactic or another but it’s about understanding the usage and benefits of each and combining them to get the best results.

September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

MBAs from £4000 from the Online Business School

An online business school is revolutionising business education by offering routes to undergraduate degrees and MBAs costing a student as little as £4,000 – while also enabling them to study “anywhere at anytime”.

The Online Business School (OBS), founded by distance-learning pioneer John Holden, provides ‘pay-as-you-go’ pathways to business degrees and MBAs, and is exploiting the wealth of free online learning materials.

OBS enables business students to access learning resources from some of the world’s most respected universities and earn credits to gain a university accredited qualification.

A student can study two thirds of an undergraduate degree or MBA with OBS, which can cost less than £1,000. The university top-up cost is from £3,000.

Mr Holden said: “Many universities charge £9,000 a year for a three or four year undergraduate course. When you add learning materials and transport, a student’s total costs for a university degree are more than £27,000, with MBAs as much as £40,000.

“But web-based social learning resources are revolutionising higher education – and OBS is doing this in the field of business education.

“Quite simply – why pay £27,000 for a business degree, when you can secure it for £4,000? And why pay £40,000 for an MBA when you can get one for a tenth of the cost?”

Importantly, while other online providers of business education only offer their own learning resources OBS taps into the wealth of free learning materials available online. Many universities, including Cambridge and Harvard have developed educational resources called massive open online courses (MOOCs). These are available to anyone with internet access. There is also a vast range of other learning resources on the web. OBS guides its students towards the best and most appropriate of these materials. In addition OBS provides specifically designed learning modules complete with online assessments.

Mr Holden said: “The reality is that most people just don’t realise that high quality lectures, tutorials, workshops, video and academic reports are available free. Even if they do, they don’t know where to find them.

“Plus, working people who want to further their business career by securing prestigious qualifications have constraints on their time. As well as work, they may have family commitments. This makes university attendance, even part-time, impossible.

“OBS provides the answer to this problem. We want to open up this vast business educational resource to anyone who wants to use it. OBS allows business students to study ‘anywhere at anytime’.”

OBS also enables students to enrol on a programme in just a few minutes, compared to several weeks with a traditional university.

Mr Holden said: “It can be frustrating trying to enrol on a university course and it can even deter prospective students. Plus, as OBS is online there is no limit to class numbers so there is not the problem of courses being oversubscribed.

“We are taking the painful processes out of the initial pathways of learning and providing students with a more flexible route.”

John Holden is one of the most respected leaders in higher education online learning.

In 1990 he founded Resource Development International (RDI) the world’s largest independent provider of UK university qualifications by distance learning. He sold the company in July 2011.

Mr Holden said: “OBS’s mission is to increase participation in business higher education. “We are using the latest web-based technology to offer lower fees, a huge range of learning resources, and programme flexibility. This sets us apart from other distance learning providers. OBS is the future of business further education.”

How OBS works:

* Students are provided with specially developed web-based learning materials such as tutorials and study guides. Using social platforms they study with fellow learners, similar in concept to a traditional university seminar.

* Each module receives a credit that is recognised by a range of universities for advanced entry into their own programmes.

* The equivalent of the first two years of a degree is studied online with OBS. After this students can transfer their credits to a range of universities that offer distance learning ‘top-ups’ to complete their degree. The process for an MBA follows a similar route. The MBA path provides 120 credits which requires a top up of 60 credits, usually by dissertation or one module plus a dissertation.

* Regular assessments are conducted online so students can monitor progress. If they need further help on a topic they can pay for extra resources such as one-to-one tuition.

* All OBS materials are designed and written by professional academic authors. Each interactive module is aligned against specific learning outcomes specified by OFQUAL, the Government’s body for academic standards.

* OBS’s web-based modules allow students to learn what they want, when they want and how they want. OBS has a 24/7 student networking platform, personal dashboards, 1-2-1 online tutorials, group webinars and bank of pre-recorded group webcasts.

* OBS’s entire programme is recognised by ATHE, a government recognised examining and awarding body for business and management students who are successful partners with many leading universities.

* OBS has no term dates. Courses are offered as and when a student requests. A course can begin any day of the year.

* OBS will added IT and hospitality courses to its prospectus in 2015.

September 21, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

Taking Bank Holidays Costs UK Small Businesses Over £2,500 Each Year

The month of May each year sees two Bank Holidays, but British small business owners stand to lose an average of £506[1] during May and £2,163[2] annually by choosing not to operate and instead take the extra day’s rest over long weekends.

A study of 1,500 UK small business owners by Yell Business reveals that ‘shutting up shop’ on any given Bank Holiday costs an average of £253[3] per day, with 62 per cent[4] of the nation’s small business owners choosing to do so.

On average sole traders lose out on £263, which is £105 more than micro businesses owners[5] who lose £158 by closing their services.

Nationally, Scotland is the most expensive country in the UK for small business owners to take Bank Holidays at £479 per day, or £4,311 annually[6].
England comes next at £256 per Bank Holiday or £2,048 annually[7].
Northern Ireland is third at £139 per day or £1,390 annually[8].
But it’s business owners in Wales who lose out on the least revenue, at £123 per Bank Holiday, or £984 every year[9].
However, 38 per cent of small business owners remain open over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Mark Clisby, Marketing Director at Yell Business said: ‘Although small business owners can lose out on revenue by closing for the Bank Holiday, it’s important to balance this with the benefits that ‘time off’ can have. As a small business owner, taking a break from the day-to-day responsibilities of work, allowing time to clear your head, spending time with your family or maybe even focusing on how you want to develop your business, are all important things to take into consideration.

However you plan to spend your time over the Bank Holiday, if you are choosing to close, our advice would be to ensure you update your website and social channels with your opening times so it’s really clear to customers when they will be able to use your services again.’

[1] Nationwide average
[2] Nationwide average (taking into consideration variable numbers of Holidays per country in the UK)
[3] Nationwide average (taking into consideration variable numbers of Holidays per country in the UK)
[4] 925 of those who were surveyed choose to close over Bank Holiday. 43% of these said they do lose money, 57% said they don’t
[5] Businesses employing 2-10 people
[6] There are 9 Bank holidays in Scotland annually
[7] There are 8 Bank Holidays in England annually
[8] There are 10 Bank Holidays in Ireland annually
[9] There are 9 Bank Holidays in Wales annually

September 17, 2019 By Bill Hunt Leave a Comment

27th January Marks Holocaust Memorial Day

I’m privileged to have worked as photographer for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Holocaust Memorial Day is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

In addition to singling out Jews for complete annihilation, the Nazis targeted for discrimination and persecution, anyone they believed threatened their ideal of a ‘pure Aryan race’.

Nazi beliefs categorised people by race, and Hitler used the word ‘Aryan’ for his idea of a ‘pure German race’. The Nazis believed Aryan people were superior to all others. Their devotion to what they believed was racial purity and their opposition to racial mixing partly explains their hatred towards Jews, Roma and Sinti people (sometimes referred to as ‘Gypsies’) and black people. Slavic people, such as those from Poland and Russia, were considered inferior and were targeted because they lived in areas needed for German expansion.

The Nazis wanted to ‘improve’ the genetic make-up of the population and so persecuted people they deemed to be disabled, either mentally or physically, as well as gay people. Political opponents, primarily communists, trade unionists and social democrats, as well as those whose religious beliefs conflicted with Nazi ideology, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, were also targeted for persecution.

Hundreds of thousands of lives were destroyed because of Nazi persecution, and many groups did not receive acknowledgement of their suffering until years after 1945. (credit: hmd.org.uk)