Bath Marketing Consultancy believes that no single marketing initiative will work in isolation and suggest that between 6 and 10 initiatives is what each business should be running at any one time. As such, I have constructed 30 questions that each business must ask itself to test whether it is looking at its marketing activity correctly.

With under a 10 inch screen, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has called it “a magical truly revolutionary product”. Jobs said that what this device does was extraordinary allowing users to browse the web with it and manipulate the page with your fingers better he said than a laptop; “way better than a smartphone”, and a “dream to type on”.

With sales down 24.6% down year on year to 188,532, the IPC-owned lads mag ‘Nuts’ is rolling its new look in February supported by a £500,000 ad push across 49 football grounds around the UK, including Tottenham, Chelsea, Everton and West Ham using six sheets, in-washroom and concourse screen advertising.

The marketing campaign will also run across other IPC brands including NME, Loaded, Mousebreaker.com and Superbike, as well as on TV and online on Comedy Central and Mtv.co.uk.

New editorial features include a humorous take on the week’s sporting highlights – ‘Nuts about Sport’, a revamped news section, a new fashion feature called ‘Nuts 10 Must Haves of the Week’, bolder visuals throughout the title and more content on the title’s website Nuts.co.uk.

Dominic Smith, Nuts editor, said: “All our development focused on what the readers said they wanted more of from Nuts. They told us they love our classic mix of girls, sport, news, humour, gadgets and gear.
“The new look delivers a fresher, more modern feel to reinforce that mix, while introducing a new range of must-read editorial franchises every week…’’

BMC – I can’t wait, can you??!

Giorgio Armani & Reebok have teamed up to create a combined clothing collection which was unveiled last weekend at the Milan Fashion Week. Armani’s EA7 sports range and Emporio label have used Reebok’s sports heritage to create the ‘activewear.’

The co-branded clothing items will include footwear and clothing, aimed at both men and women and will be on sale to the public from July 2010 through Emporio Armani boutiques, selected Reebok concept stores and other retailers, which are yet to be announced.

Giorgio Armani said: “Today sportswear and active wear have become really important parts of our wardrobes. I wanted to offer my customers the possibility of wearing sports clothes that were stylish and comfortable. My new alliance with Reebok is a natural consequence of this philosophy.”

BMC – I am sure the celebs of this world will manage to look stylish while pumping iron and/or pounding the treadmill, but, as I am about to head out for my run in my tracksuit bottom, sweaty top, old wind breaker and tea cozy hat, I am not sure spending vasts amounts of money gear to look good will make any difference to looking dreadful at the end of a workout!!!

I get a lot of questions from clients asking me exactly what terms like CPC, SEO, SEM, title tag and in bound links actually mean.

So…..I have put together a list defining and explaining all these. For example, cost per click (CPC): Also called Pay per Click (PPC). This is a performance-based advertising model where the advertiser pays a set fee for every click on an advert. An advertiser can set a budget and bid on selective search terms. The majority of text ads sold by search engines such as Google and Yahoo are billed under the CPC model.

If you would like to receive this list please email me at paul@bathmarketingconsultancy.co.uk and I will send it over free of charge. Alternatively if you would like me to do an audit of your marketing activity, please fill out the contact form on my website.

Although this not a marketing related article, I do think it is very newsworthy.

After the devastating earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck in Haiti last week, Simon Cowell has announced that he is to release a charity single to help raise money for the victims. The earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people and left a further two million homeless.

Speaking at the National Television Awards, the music producer and TV executive revealed that he has received an approach from the (BMC – hopefully soon to be ex!) Prime Minister Gordon Brown and The Sun newspaper to help raise funds for the stricken country, and is aiming to put together a Band Aid-style single, imminently.

Rumours are already circulating about the people appearing on the record, but sources say that Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle, as well as Cowell’s ‘X Factor’ co-star, Cheryl Cole will contribute.

It has also been suggested that Gordon Brown has agreed to waive the VAT on all sales of the single, in an effort to maximise the money raised.

As part of the group’s £30m investment plan which will also see it refurbish all it clubs by 2012, LA fitness, the gym chain, is launching a £1m marketing campaign this week, featuring Strictly Come Dancing judge and pop star(?!) Alesha Dixon.

Dixon, the former Mis-Teeq singer turned solo artist who was recently named the gym’s brand ambassador, will front the campaign, which spans local and national newspaper advertising, leaflets, posters and online activity, as the company looks to boost membership numbers.

A promotion with Capital Radio has also been created where listeners will have the chance to take part in a workout with Alesha at an LA fitness club in London.

LA Fitness said the marketing spend represents a 20% year on year increase in investment due to “the intense competition between private chains to lure new members and retain existing ones”.

Here we see another brand signing a celebrity to be its ambassador in the hope that the association will pay dividends (see my article on Tuesday). As I am not a fan of ‘Strictly’ it is difficult to comment, but am not sure a former pop star and dance judge working. Cracking launch timing though…

To coincide with the brand’s 75th anniversary, Calor Gas, the bottled gas brand, is rolling out its first TV advertising for a decade. Calor is looking to target an estimated two million UK households which do not have access to mains gas.

I was watching the new series of ‘Build a New Life in the Country’ on Five last week, (BMC – what an amazing house they created!) and noticed the sponsorship. I am not sure the Q&A type approach really worked, but Calor will also launch a series of programme idents, as well as a digital marketing campaign to back it up.

In addition, the brand is launching a microsite to support the sponsorship, while ads will appear across Five’s website. (BMC – I wonder what they are spending and why Calor chose Channel 5?).
Jon Tanner, sales and marketing director at Calor, said the new sponsorship was vital in raising awareness of the brand on its 75th anniversary.

There seems to be a lot of debate in the marketing industry about ‘adwatch recall.’ By this I mean what advertisment or campaign consumers remember seeing on a weekly and monthly basis. These are researched, recorded and published. In addition, there are also advertisements that fall into the memorable, but annoying catergory (see Wednesday’s Blog).

What may surprise you is that the winner in 2009 was a certain insurance comparison site. What might surprise you even more that it didnt contain a meercat and wasn’t incredibly annoying. Yes, it was some, might consider a very basic, testimonial type advert demonstrating how new improvements to the site makes it even easier to use. I raise my hat to Confused.com

The advert is useful. The casting of the genral public type of actor is credible and broad enough to feel relevant to us the general public and the demonstration of the site navigation is simple and clear. Importantly, the ad feels like the product claim – utterly straightforward and empathetic. In hard times, people are more wary of being ripped off and Confused.com comes across as a powerful ally.

To quote Leon Jaume of Marketing Magazine – ‘It isn’t going to hit the jackpot on YouTube or at Cannes. We are right to celebrate the good things that do, but it is also right to remember that, if a product has something very clear to say, we can do worse than say it very, very clearly.’

Bath Marketing Consultancy totally agree with Leon as the testimonial approach is one that really gets the message across. Do you include testimonials in your marketing i.e. on your website?

…..Go Compare.com! Not really a surprise is it?!

They may grab our attention and then get inside our heads, but some adverts are memorable for all the wrong reasons and Gocompare.com tops the list for the most annoying ad of 2009! Having said that, according to Go ­Com­pare’s own consumer research, there has been a 200% increase in awareness.

s of the brand since the activ­ity started in August. (BMC – awareness vs increase in sales?)

Andy Nairn, executive planning direct­or of ad agency MCBD, sums it up beautifully – ‘Most peop­le have an awareness of Josef Fritzl, but it doesn’t mean they want to spend time with him.’

You can probably predict the rest of the top 20 – Swiftcover, Gillette, Greggs, McDonald’s, Webuyanycar.com etc – but the sacking of that useless limelight seeking, ‘celebrity’ Kerry Katona did remove Iceland from the list this year!!

The word on the street is that Halifax’s radio station is already topping the list for 2010!