Day three began with a session by Paul Fella on Impact and how to acheive it. Before he started he said he'd be providing us with a CD-ROM with the presentation and his transcript on so we didn't need to take notes. At first I thought great, I can concentrate on what he's saying without madly scribbling (or typing) but after a while I decided taking notes helps me to concentrate, so I took to tweeting instead. It was a very visual presentation outlining some of the basics of design. Very interesting and we were going to put some of this into practice in the session after break.
So after coffee and more gingerbread if you had the capacity (think I forgot to mention that we'd been provided with the famous Grasmere gingerbread at break times) it was time for some hands on. I really enjoyed the practical session and wished that there has been more of this the day before (not that I hadn't enjoyed the day before, it's just that hands on breaks things up a bit). We had to design a magazine page using the techniques we'd been talking about, using images, headings, sub headings and text. Jacqueline and I worked together and after much deliberating were happy with our end result. Paul came round and said ours looked very funky which we took to be a good sign. One thing that would have made the session better would have been to see other people's work at the end and if Paul could have pointed out good bits and bits he'd change, that would have helped us. As it was we think we did a good effort but came away not being sure.
After lunch we all went out separate ways after a very enjoyable conference. Will do an evaluation post as I very quickly filled in my evaluation sheet and kind of wished I'd had more time for reflection because I would probably have written more.
Showing posts with label Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
PPRG Annual Conference - Dinner and quiz
After the library discussion there was time for another quick swim before dinner. Jacqueline was very impressed with the hot tub - it's just not really my thing, I think it's the proximity of strangers that puts me off.
Before dinner there were the PPRG Marketing Excellence awards, with gold going to Hertfordshire Libraries, silver to CILT Resources Library and bronze to Newcastle libraries. I was also very chuffed, if somewhat embarrassed when my marketing tip was draw out of the hat and I won the book Bite-sized marketing: realistic solutions for the overworked librarian. Picture evidence of this on flickr as well as other photos from the conference.
The conference dinner was lovely, as the meal had been the night before. We had a large proportion of men at our table, which we thought boded well for the quiz, as we all know men know everything - it was not to be. We seem to excel at recognising tunes played in the style of Les Dawson and didn't do too bad at history but as for the rest it's better not to say. We weren't last which was something - I can take little or no credit as I was rubbish. I'm never very good at quizzes but this was particularly hard. 10 rounds later, yes 10 rounds, we retired to the bar for another well earned drink and some more networking.
Before dinner there were the PPRG Marketing Excellence awards, with gold going to Hertfordshire Libraries, silver to CILT Resources Library and bronze to Newcastle libraries. I was also very chuffed, if somewhat embarrassed when my marketing tip was draw out of the hat and I won the book Bite-sized marketing: realistic solutions for the overworked librarian. Picture evidence of this on flickr as well as other photos from the conference.
The conference dinner was lovely, as the meal had been the night before. We had a large proportion of men at our table, which we thought boded well for the quiz, as we all know men know everything - it was not to be. We seem to excel at recognising tunes played in the style of Les Dawson and didn't do too bad at history but as for the rest it's better not to say. We weren't last which was something - I can take little or no credit as I was rubbish. I'm never very good at quizzes but this was particularly hard. 10 rounds later, yes 10 rounds, we retired to the bar for another well earned drink and some more networking.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
PPRG Annual Conference - Day 2 afternoon
Lunch was again lovely with another “pot licking” dessert (we didn’t, we just wanted to). Sharon Tuersley, who I mentioned earlier kicked off the afternoon and got us all up on our feet to do a bit of post-lunch exercise so we didn’t slump from too much food (very good idea). You couldn’t possibly of slept whilst she was on though, because she’s very good presenter and very easy to listen to. Sharon is from Warwick University and they have developed a very strong library brand over the last couple of years. There was major remodelling at Warwick which facilitated the creation of the brand. I mentioned in my previous post about a clear message and making that part of everything you do and Warwick’s message is “Connecting you with information, support and your community”. They ran an “it’s my library” campaign, which included snazzy bags with great imagery on the front and back up text on the back. I thought it was a great way to get users to take ownership of their space and hopefully then to respect it.
So how did they get there well they have a marketing advisory group, they did the branding in stages, they communicated well with other colleagues outside the advisory group and they provided support for staff in using the new brand. They have a library style guide (very glossy – nice) but not just that which reinforced what I’d heard earlier about supporting staff using the brand to get them on side, so they take ownership of the brand. This is your internal branding which allows staff to see where they fit into the grand scheme delivering the brand and creates a strong brand culture. It should provide inspiration to increase productivity and clarifies what is on brand and off brand.I like their small concertina leaflets and the Warwick library rocks rock. They also provided students with a card holder to put the leaflet in but that had space for your library card etc. Some of you may have seen their picks of the trick or treat stall – Sharon said this was a light bulb moment. A student who came to their staff at arrivals weekend said all you need is a pumpkin (in reference to the mass of orange on the stall) – so they very quickly set up their trick or treat idea. Students answered questions about the library for treats and the trick if they got it wrong was another question. As well as showing the human/fun face of the library but also gave insight into what students had and hadn’t picked up about the library service – could inform future campaigns. Their stall at arrivals weekend looked really professional (we need to get a table cloth for our welcome week events) and they said even though they clearly had their library branding all over it students came to talk to them. In the past we’ve deliberately not stood under a sign that said LIBRARY as we are in direct competition with pubs, clubs and societies etc. – but maybe arrivals weekend is a different set up to welcome week – I do not know. This year we did have Library and Student support on our new publicity behind us on the stall but I don’t know if it made a difference – something to think about.
This was followed by a library discussion - check out the tweets from PPRG on Twitter.
So how did they get there well they have a marketing advisory group, they did the branding in stages, they communicated well with other colleagues outside the advisory group and they provided support for staff in using the new brand. They have a library style guide (very glossy – nice) but not just that which reinforced what I’d heard earlier about supporting staff using the brand to get them on side, so they take ownership of the brand. This is your internal branding which allows staff to see where they fit into the grand scheme delivering the brand and creates a strong brand culture. It should provide inspiration to increase productivity and clarifies what is on brand and off brand.I like their small concertina leaflets and the Warwick library rocks rock. They also provided students with a card holder to put the leaflet in but that had space for your library card etc. Some of you may have seen their picks of the trick or treat stall – Sharon said this was a light bulb moment. A student who came to their staff at arrivals weekend said all you need is a pumpkin (in reference to the mass of orange on the stall) – so they very quickly set up their trick or treat idea. Students answered questions about the library for treats and the trick if they got it wrong was another question. As well as showing the human/fun face of the library but also gave insight into what students had and hadn’t picked up about the library service – could inform future campaigns. Their stall at arrivals weekend looked really professional (we need to get a table cloth for our welcome week events) and they said even though they clearly had their library branding all over it students came to talk to them. In the past we’ve deliberately not stood under a sign that said LIBRARY as we are in direct competition with pubs, clubs and societies etc. – but maybe arrivals weekend is a different set up to welcome week – I do not know. This year we did have Library and Student support on our new publicity behind us on the stall but I don’t know if it made a difference – something to think about.
This was followed by a library discussion - check out the tweets from PPRG on Twitter.
PPRG Annual Conference – Day Two - Morning
Up bright and early (well early) for day two and sat in bed finishing the blog post from yesterday. Need to go somewhere where I can connect to the wireless so I can post it. Loving my new Samsung N110 which is getting its first outing for this conference. It’s very comfortable to use and incredibly lightweight so am very impressed so far. I also am finding that the shift key is where I’m expecting so I don’t keep hit page up by accident (something I do on the EEEPC when touch typing). Hope the battery life lives up to its claims so I can continue to use it throughout the day. Hoping for an interesting day....
..... much later. Well day two was interesting. I started the day off with a swim – very nice pool in this hotel. It was lovely and quiet at 7am and set me up for the day. Breakfast followed which was much needed and very tasty. After breakfast it was straight into the sessions, the first being Mark Young talking about Human-centred design. So what is human-centred design? Well it’s not just about giving users what they want, because users aren’t designers. But having said that it also isn’t about designing them out of the equation either. Users need to be integrated throughout the whole process. Mark said there are 3 areas of human-centred design (it’s not all about chairs), physical, psychological and organisational. We need to integrate the human into the system design and operation to achieve the desired level of output. He looked at a couple of case studies, the PalmPilot and the Fender strat – both of which were good examples of human-centred design.
Human-centred design involves a number of different methods for engaging your users in the process, from the traditional interviews, questionnaires and observation to task analysis, error identification, performance times and interface design. Mark also told us about a Design Museum exhibition http://www.realdesign.org/, which was a public engagement project “to enhance the appreciation of ergonomics in society amongst researchers and the general public” and they applied the principles of human-centred design to the exhibition. The exhibition aimed to give a broader picture of human-centred design and not just focus on the physical which is most people’s experience of it (the chairs thing again).
So in summary human-centred design is observational design, evidence-based design and a philosophy of designing with users and designing with users in mind.
After coffee it Elizabeth Buchanan Elford’s turn who was talking about libraries: marketing and advocacy. Elizabeth talked about social networking and gave a good example of how social networking has benefitted a campaign – the Barack Obama presidential campaign which really took off – the Yes We Can speech. She said you need to decide what you message is and make sure that is in everything that you do so I guess for us that would be information; help; support – that is on all our new publicity so may we should be making more of this – this thought came back to me again in the afternoon session with Sharon Tuersley from Warwick, but more on that later. There are good examples of big companies and organisations who have embraced social networking as a way to engage with their customers – we need to be doing this, we need to tap into this market – I worry that we are being left behind and spending too long deliberating it. The presentation ended with the Did you Know? Version 3.0 video on YouTube, which I think I’ve seen bits of but I certainly hadn’t seen it all. Makes you think.
Another quick break then it was Judy Goodson from Staffordshire Library & Information service which underwent a major rebranding exercise. They used a really strong non-stereotypical imagery in some of their posters. They created bookmarks and flyers, radio jingles and junior learner packs amongst other things. They engaged their staff in customer service training, focusing not just on “library stuff” but retail concepts, which we seem to be more readily applying to our services. The main thing I took away from this presentation was the need for branding guidelines, and training staff to use these guidelines, but without stifling creativity. If staff are comfortable with what they can and can’t do they feel more able to work creatively within the brand. And then it was time for lunch. I was impressed with the battery life on my little device at this point but I did plug it in for a bit over lunch just to make sure it made it through the afternoon.
..... much later. Well day two was interesting. I started the day off with a swim – very nice pool in this hotel. It was lovely and quiet at 7am and set me up for the day. Breakfast followed which was much needed and very tasty. After breakfast it was straight into the sessions, the first being Mark Young talking about Human-centred design. So what is human-centred design? Well it’s not just about giving users what they want, because users aren’t designers. But having said that it also isn’t about designing them out of the equation either. Users need to be integrated throughout the whole process. Mark said there are 3 areas of human-centred design (it’s not all about chairs), physical, psychological and organisational. We need to integrate the human into the system design and operation to achieve the desired level of output. He looked at a couple of case studies, the PalmPilot and the Fender strat – both of which were good examples of human-centred design.
Human-centred design involves a number of different methods for engaging your users in the process, from the traditional interviews, questionnaires and observation to task analysis, error identification, performance times and interface design. Mark also told us about a Design Museum exhibition http://www.realdesign.org/, which was a public engagement project “to enhance the appreciation of ergonomics in society amongst researchers and the general public” and they applied the principles of human-centred design to the exhibition. The exhibition aimed to give a broader picture of human-centred design and not just focus on the physical which is most people’s experience of it (the chairs thing again).
So in summary human-centred design is observational design, evidence-based design and a philosophy of designing with users and designing with users in mind.
After coffee it Elizabeth Buchanan Elford’s turn who was talking about libraries: marketing and advocacy. Elizabeth talked about social networking and gave a good example of how social networking has benefitted a campaign – the Barack Obama presidential campaign which really took off – the Yes We Can speech. She said you need to decide what you message is and make sure that is in everything that you do so I guess for us that would be information; help; support – that is on all our new publicity so may we should be making more of this – this thought came back to me again in the afternoon session with Sharon Tuersley from Warwick, but more on that later. There are good examples of big companies and organisations who have embraced social networking as a way to engage with their customers – we need to be doing this, we need to tap into this market – I worry that we are being left behind and spending too long deliberating it. The presentation ended with the Did you Know? Version 3.0 video on YouTube, which I think I’ve seen bits of but I certainly hadn’t seen it all. Makes you think.
Another quick break then it was Judy Goodson from Staffordshire Library & Information service which underwent a major rebranding exercise. They used a really strong non-stereotypical imagery in some of their posters. They created bookmarks and flyers, radio jingles and junior learner packs amongst other things. They engaged their staff in customer service training, focusing not just on “library stuff” but retail concepts, which we seem to be more readily applying to our services. The main thing I took away from this presentation was the need for branding guidelines, and training staff to use these guidelines, but without stifling creativity. If staff are comfortable with what they can and can’t do they feel more able to work creatively within the brand. And then it was time for lunch. I was impressed with the battery life on my little device at this point but I did plug it in for a bit over lunch just to make sure it made it through the afternoon.
Friday, 6 November 2009
PPRG 2009- Annual conference Day One
Jacqueline and I arrived in at a rather wet Ambleside to Low Wood hotel, which is very nice hotel, complete with fluffy dog on the bed (named Sam). We are here for the PPRG (Publicity & Public Relations Group) Annual Conference in our capacity as part of the marketing team in L&SS, at LJMU.
After checking in a quick cup of tea it was time for the first session, which was by Sarah Godowski. It was quite public library orientated but she did make some good points. She said there may be a need to change perceptions of what you offer and what you are about. You need to choose one thing that you want to get right, try not to get bogged down in all the stuff that you do but focus on one area and market that well. Whatever you do needs to be consistent and well thought out.
There is a need to find a balance between truth and imagination and fact and impression. We must examine where we sit and what we offer. Brands that work convey optimism and confidence. She also talked about marketing campaigns that don’t directly relate to the product e.g. Rocky bars – this conveys something about you character rather than just your product. Your product is important but your character is also important – it’s how people perceive you.
We need to learn from retail. Shops market to customers and libraries need to do the same.After a short break it was time for the drinks reception (very nice) followed by dinner (also very nice). Dinner started with melon and strawberries in vanilla and mint sauce – not one of my favourites but very beautifully presented and then vanilla/mint combination was lovely. This was followed by roast pork, potatoes and vegetables – all very nicely cooked and didn’t spoil my slimming world regime too much. The same cannot be said for dessert which was white chocolate and raspberry crème brulee – not sure how many syns in that but it was divine. I thought Jacqueline was going to lick the pot out it was so good :) Good company on our table and conversation ranged from cross country running to how good we are a quizzes (there is always a quiz on the Friday night at these conferences), oh and we did talk a bit about marketing ideas too.
After checking in a quick cup of tea it was time for the first session, which was by Sarah Godowski. It was quite public library orientated but she did make some good points. She said there may be a need to change perceptions of what you offer and what you are about. You need to choose one thing that you want to get right, try not to get bogged down in all the stuff that you do but focus on one area and market that well. Whatever you do needs to be consistent and well thought out.
There is a need to find a balance between truth and imagination and fact and impression. We must examine where we sit and what we offer. Brands that work convey optimism and confidence. She also talked about marketing campaigns that don’t directly relate to the product e.g. Rocky bars – this conveys something about you character rather than just your product. Your product is important but your character is also important – it’s how people perceive you.
We need to learn from retail. Shops market to customers and libraries need to do the same.After a short break it was time for the drinks reception (very nice) followed by dinner (also very nice). Dinner started with melon and strawberries in vanilla and mint sauce – not one of my favourites but very beautifully presented and then vanilla/mint combination was lovely. This was followed by roast pork, potatoes and vegetables – all very nicely cooked and didn’t spoil my slimming world regime too much. The same cannot be said for dessert which was white chocolate and raspberry crème brulee – not sure how many syns in that but it was divine. I thought Jacqueline was going to lick the pot out it was so good :) Good company on our table and conversation ranged from cross country running to how good we are a quizzes (there is always a quiz on the Friday night at these conferences), oh and we did talk a bit about marketing ideas too.
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