How to succeed as a marketer in 2012

Joel Harrison, Editor of B2B Marketing Magazine has been taking a look at how to be a great marketer in 2012 and offers his top ten tips.

He comments, 'We’ve got to accept that economic indicators don’t look great, and it’s unlikely to be a boom year for many companies. But that doesn’t mean as marketers we have any excuses to rest on their laurels – far from it in fact; unless they are prepared to roll up our sleeves, take some tough decisions and generally get involved, marketers may find themselves in a spot of bother, as companies constantly re-evaluate their spend and personnel. In other words, to put it more succinctly, in the words of the old cliché: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.'

Joel lists 10 things that a marketer needs to be to succeed in 2012:

1. A polymath – in other words, good at many things. A jack of all trades (and probably a master of a couple of those). That includes so-called ‘traditional’ and digital marketing disciplines.

2. Pragmatic – willing and able to change, responding to changing needs and demands.

3. Engaging – they must be excellent communicators, with anyone and everyone, across the organisation. That includes everyone from the boardroom to the call centre.

4. Technologically adept – analytics, automation and social media monitoring must be your new best friends.

5. Passionate – really believe in what they are doing and why, and in their brand and the organisation that they work for. Lip service won’t do.

6. Convincing – able to sell ideas and concepts, and rally others to their cause.

7. Robust – they must be able to justify and prove their decisions and actions.

8. Collaborative – able to work with other key stakeholders in the organisation, such as sales, IT and finance, where necessary.

9. Dogged and determined – able to keep going in the face of adversity.

10. Inquisitive – interested in new tools, techniques, insights and ideas. Marketing will continue to change, and practitioners must change with it.

To find out more read the full article here

RIBA hunts for unique pews and perches

RIBA has launched a competition inviting architecture students, recent graduates and emerging practices from across London to come up with unique ideas for public seating in association with London’s Pleasure Gardens.

The winners of Pews & Perches will receive funding to build their designs which will be showcased around the Royal Docks in East London in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The deadline for submissions is 30 January 2012.

Click here for more details

Ege introduces digital print carpets

EgeCarpets has launched their “Out of Nature” digital print carpet collection with the aim of 'allowing the beauty of nature indoors, right into your interior design scheme'.

These great digital print designs are available in wall-to-wall or custom sizes and in stone, wood or tile effects.

An interesting statement piece for any home.

See more of these great designs here.

D&AD Celebrates 50 years with classic 1965 Hancock

Marking its 50th birthday, D&AD has delved into its archive to highlight significant pieces of work that have featured in the awards. Creative Review will be publishing one a week.

This time, it's the turn of Mather & Crowther's 'Go to work on an egg' campaign which started in 1957 but was first awarded by D&AD in 1965. A classic Hancock.

See a celebration of 50 years of great design and advertising here

Not your run of the mill boat dock!

If you're looking for inspiration when designing the dock for your next yacht or speed boat then this amazing piece of architecture may just be the answer.

Located on a bend in Lake Austin, across from the Canyonland Nature Preserve, the Shore Vista Boat Dock by Bercy Chen Studio has rounded edges that peel away to allow more of the landscape to be captured into the visual frame.

See more on Contemporist here
Photography by Paul Bardagjy and Ryan Michael

'What design means to me', original art for the Design Council

Marking HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s contribution to the promotion of UK design, the Design Council has commissioned a one-off book,  'What Design Means to Me', of original artworks drawn by over forty of the Prizes’ previous winners, nominees and judges including Sir Terence Conran, Vivienne Westwood, Jeff Banks, Lord Norman Foster, Kenneth Grange and Sir Paul Smith.

See examples of the original artworks below:

What design means to me

View more presentations from Design Council

Most overused buzzwords and best ways to increase your profile on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been looking at some of the most overused terms and buzzwords of 2011, comparing them to 2010, and also suggest ways that professionals can increase the number of visitors to their profile.

In the 2010 study, buzzwords like “extensive experience,” “dynamic,” “motivated,” and “innovative” were the most overused buzzwords in various countries however LinkedIn says that since its global membership has grown from 85 million to more than 135 million members since 2010 the list has changed.

Here are the 2011 most used buzzwords:

1. Creative
2. Organizational
3. Effective
4. Extensive experience
5. Track record
6. Motivated
7. Innovative
8. Problem solving
9. Communication skills
10. Dynamic

LinkedIn has also suggested some tips professionals can act on to increase the number of people viewing their LinkedIn Profile.

Click here to find out more

The Think Tank appointed PR agency for B3 Designers

The Think Tank is delighted to announce that it has been appointed to provide PR support for Shoreditch-based B3 Designers.
This award-winning interior design studio specializes in creating distinctive, fresh and contemporary designs for the interiors of hotels, bars, restaurants and for retail spaces.
The B3 Designers team has currently been working on a number of projects including some exciting new ‘eateries’ in the Selfridges store in Manchester… watch this space for more news.

Looking at things in a different way

Lenticular images can be a great way to get a message across. We recently used this technique in a direct mail piece for a client, taking the recipient on a journey from illustration to final design.

Applied to a rippled surface in a certain way, a lenticular image shifts in and out of focus depending on the angle you view it from, sometimes producing an animated effect.

WebUrbanist has put together a great selection of graffiti, billboards, art and even children's toys that use lenticular images to great effect.

Click here to see some great designs.

Google's office interior is a walk in the park

If you're sitting in your uninspiring office looking forward to escaping at lunch then take a look at Google's new decor. With the purchase of other social channels, such as YouTube, Google has been bringing together its businesses into one building in London and the interior is as different as you would expect.

Including deck chairs, a Routemaster bus and a bath tub for a table this certainly is an interior to inspire creativity.

See more here on WIDN

The Christmas Party 'Walk of Shame'

Keeping the festive theme going is this ad for Harvey Nichols Womenswear by DDB London.

Quite humorous and I am sure we all have similar memories, either personal or third hand. It finishes by asking viewers to share their 'Walk of shame' moments.

Definitely worth 60 seconds viewing.

Twitter launches Brand Pages

Twitter has announced that it is launching 'Brand Pages' to meet the growing demand from advertisers to be able to promote their products more prominently than at present.

The pages have two key elements, both of which are free. Ad Age tells us 'They can be customized with large header images that advertisers can use to display their logo and tagline more prominently than under the standard format, where branded elements of the page design are often partially covered by the time line of tweets. Brands can also choose to keep a particular tweet at the top of their time line, and that top tweet also auto-expands to reveal an embedded photo or video from Flickr, YouTube or other sources, without requiring the user to take action.'

Ad Age interviewed Twitter's Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain to find out more about their plans. The launch will initially include brand pages for 21 marketers including American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell , Disney, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and McDonald's who are all deemed strategic partners.

To read the full article please click here or to find out more about how to enhance your page click here.

Twitter reviews the last year - what have we been searching for?

Twitter's latest instalment of a year in review shows what we’ve all been searching for and hastagging over the last 12 months.

It does have a bias towards US trends however this series of lists, blog commentary and  well presented overviews should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in social media.

Click here to view the latest installment

Which social media tools are B2B marketers using?

Pardot Marketing Automation has been looking at the most popular social networks amongst B2B marketers.

They found some interesting facts and created an infographic to show some of the key results. Twitter was deemed to be the most popular social network among B2B marketers however LinkedIn was found to create the most leads.

See the infographic here to find out more of the interesting results.

social-infographic-pardot.pdf (169 kb)

The Art of Dancing - A festive advent calendar

Looking for a bit of light relief this December then check out The Art of Dancing, an advent calendar of dance that will knock your socks off, or at least give you a laugh. A new dance every day up to Christmas - will they keep going?

Click here to see their moves

Nokia goes bizarre

This has got to be one of the most bizarre but entertaining ads we have seen for a while. Created by Fallon for Nokia, it is being shown in the Philippines, India and Nigeria. Just great.

See one version below and if you like it take a look at Creative Review's blog for another great version as well as some other interesting ads.

Foster + Partners vision of Thames Hub

The Thames Hub continues to make progress since Foster + Partners revealed the proposal in November. This £50bn project includes a £20bn high-speed Orbital Rail line around London, a new £6bn Thames Barrier and crossing and a £20bn international Estuary Airport, with annual capacity for 150 million passengers.

To see and read more click here to view on ArchDaily

Images © Foster and Partners

'Spotting the rot' - Permasense featured in the Economist

As part of a global PR strategy The Think Tank has been promoting a new wireless corrosion monitoring system for the oil and gas sector developed by technology company, Permasense. This new system is being welcomed worldwide, improving safety in oil refineries through continual monitoring of pipe corrosion in inhospitable environments.

As a part of this activity we have broadened our reach to great effect, culminating in an article published in the Economist this week.

The article comments, 'Oil men, then, should welcome an invention by Peter Cawley and his colleagues in the non-destructive testing research group at Imperial College, London. They have devised, and just finished testing at some of BP’s refineries, an automatic way of keeping an eye on the integrity of pipelines—and have helped set up a company called Permasense, to commercialise it.'

To read the full article please click here

Building cities on the ocean

In a recent article the Economist looked at Seasteading or building floating cities.

The discussion features modern libertarians, such as Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal,  who have the dream of setting sail to found colonies of like-minded souls and to do so they have decided that they must build new cities on the high seas, known as seasteads.

The Economist says, 'It is not a completely crazy idea: large maritime structures that resemble seasteads already exist, after all. Giant cruise liners host thousands of guests on lengthy voyages in luxurious surroundings. Offshore oil platforms provide floating accommodation for hundreds of workers amid harsh weather and high waves. Then there is the Principality of Sealand, a concrete sea fort constructed off Britain’s coast during the second world war. It is now occupied by a family who have fought various lawsuits to try to get it recognised as a sovereign state.'

To read the full article please click here

The Little Printer

Design studio Berg has introduced a great new product called the Little Printer, available from 2012.

According to Berg, the Little Printer "lives in your front room and scours the web on your behalf, assembling the content you care about into designed deliveries a couple of times a day".

Take a look at the video below or click here to find out more. Its a great little gadget!

Martini gets attitude

Take a look at this new French ad for Martini, 'Luck is an attitude'.

A cool, retro look and feel that uses a split screen to demonstrate how choice can change or make your day, especially if you 'choose Martini'.

Great to watch and very engaging.  

See the video below.

Interactive experience uses wine to build a masterpiece

Wine producer Navarro Correas has built a 13 x 8.2 foot interactive structure in Bogota, Colombia with 1000 acrylic cells that are filled by an automated robotic mechanism with 6 different shades of wine.

The concept was for members of the public to interact with the structure, choosing a cell via a text message to be filled.  

The end result was the recreation of Van Gogh’s self portrait and an interesting interactive experience but what a waste of good wine!

See the video below

Another successful night at the B2B Marketing Awards 2011

The B2B Marketing Awards 2011 were a great success last Thursday, 24th November.

For the fifth year The Think Tank managed the awards event on behalf of  B2B Marketing Magazine and it all went very well. The theme this year combined a 60's lounge atmosphere with the glitter of Las Vegas, setting the scene for a fun and enjoyable night.

Jack Whitehall took the stage to entertain the audience and present the awards and after a great dinner and 'refreshment' many headed off to the after-show party until the early hours.

Well done to all the winners and a big thanks to all The Think Tank team for running another successful event.

Dezeen's Temporium pop-up shop is back for Christmas

The Temporium, Dezeen's unique pop-up design store, returns to central London this Christmas with over 20 designers and brands selling their products direct to the public from 1-24 December.

Situated in Monmouth Street, Seven Dialsthe store will offer a wide range of gifts, jewellery, watches, books, home wares and much more by some of Europe’s most exciting designers and brands.

Click here for more details

David Lynch delves into interior design

David Lynch, filmaker and artist,  has applied his creativity to designing a Paris nightclub, Silencio.Opening last September it is inspired by the identically named Club Silencio, which is a key location in his critically acclaimed film noir from 2001, Mulholland Drive.

This follows his exploration into music last year when he released his first vocal single, Good Day Today, but designing a nightclub is a complete departure for the 65-year old.

To see and read more visit Blueprint

Unloved, thrown out and abandoned creations

Using orphaned & unloved antique plates Beat Up Creations has transformed these and many other throw away items, breathing new life into them in interesting and creative ways.
Great for Christmas presents?

See more here