Day One at Agent | Placement One

| Day One |

AM

My first day began with looking into Agent Marketing's online presence including social media& how they portrayed themselves as a brand online;

Twitter @Agent_Marketing

Facebook AgentMktg

Instagram agent_marketing

A feature I particularly liked was Agents Thought Of The Day, I think this creates a particularly personal feel to the business& something that can be interesting to an audience each day.

I then looked into Agent's previous work & what I liked/thought could be improved about it.

Make It Happen

Statement colour to catch attention.

Quite unisex to suite all audiences.

Short sentences to catch the reader, nobody really takes the time to read extremely long sentences.

NHS South Sefton

Bold Imagery - not to be overlooked.

Bright colour &quirky characters.

Mixture of all people; race,gender,size etc. so suited for everyone 

"Staying local together" - all as one.

Liverpool Womens

Faces to names, many people are nervous about hospitals so putting friendly faces on boards/adverts may mean customers recognize them & feel more relaxed.

Colour - Eye catching and brands the hospital as it matches the logo, people will instantly relate these colours to the hospital.

Hand signed signatures allow the adverts to feel a lot more personal & individual.

"part of the Liverpool Women's Family" - friendly as well as a play on words as the woman's is aimed to pregnant women.

 

Can Cook

Straight to the point.

Imagery means you instantly know the website is promoting food/food based business.

Layout is easy to see/understand &highlights any important information e.g. pop up kitchen workshops.

80/20 Foundation

Colours being primary/bold, quite nature like which could mean the company is down to earth?

"Time To" is almost a slogan - also time is used within the slogan as the 80/20 are small sand timers.

"Why wait when you could be investing now?" - Time related again, quick moving, motivated business.

First Ark Group

Tonal shades & colours - all match and can clearly see the brand identity. 

"creating success together" - no business level & consumer level, all together making the customer feel safe& trusting in the company.

Seasons/ day&night - the company is always there for you no matter what time of day.

"A journey" - all together, nothing you ask is to much.

___________________________________________________________________

Hillside Fact Find

As a extra I completed a small amount of feedback to a website Agent recently for a high school:

Hillside High School

http://www.hillsidehigh.co.uk/ 

About the School – have a look at the about us section and search for their vision, mission and values statements? How many pupils are there? What is their tagline?	By reading the head teachers opening paragraph you instantly understand her wants and hopes for the children of her school, not only to achieve their best academically but maintaining a passion and interest in their talents and hobbies during school time to. In terms of missions I believe the school want to promote a bond between not only the school and pupils but parents to, keeping them in the loop so to say. There are currently 915 pupils enrolled at the school. I believe the schools tag line would be “We are aspirational for our pupils and see it as our duty to ensure that at the end of five years with us our pupils have the best life chances possible.”
Results gained – both from OFSTED and their own performance levels (this should be on the website). Also state when their last Ofsted was.	Hillside High’s most recent Ofsted report was during October 2013 (the 4th) at which they achieved mainly positive of feedback. After reading the most recent ofsted report I could see that 53% of pupils had gained at least 5 GCSE’s at A*-C level. For their own performance levels I headed to the result section where I could easily view the exact facts and figures of the school throughout the current year as well as previous, during 2012 42% of pupils gain at least 5 A* - C grades yet 2014 achieved a slightly higher amount of 52%, this showing an increase and therefore an achievement.
About the Team – who to they introduce within their website? Who are their Governors?	The page features 11 members of staff accompanied by their full name, a photograph and job title. The page includes not only the head and deputy head teacher but also three assistant heads and five other team members. Although only a small variety of staff photographs are shown, a full list is available to download if the website viewer wished to. I think by adding a photograph a parent or pupil could look at this and feel more relaxed about attending an open evening or interview, just as they could recognize a staff member and see it as a friendly face. There are a team of seven governors supporting Hillside School including; Mr J Rimmer (chair of governors) Mr D Walker (vice chair of governors) Mr P Reed Mr P O’Brian Mrs S Lees Mr R Webb & Mrs F Stoddart.
Marketing Tools – is there evidence of using social media, newsletters, are there any downloadable materials?	The marketing tools included on the Highside High website include direct links to each of their social media platforms, these being Twitter and Facebook. A entire page is used to maintain a regular update written by the head teacher herself, the updates are regularly updated to share the most recent news and information about the school, along with anything that could benefit a pupil or parent e.g. a school trip, a visitor any out of hours clubs etc. I noticed a huge amount of downloadable information on the website such as reports, staff member lists, letters that would be sent by post etc. What I particularly liked about this was just how detailed each downloadable item was, I think it would make the parent/viewer feel confident within the school as if nothing was been hidden from them, almost as if the school isn’t just telling them what they want to hear. I think the opportunity of downloading all letters addressed to parents is a great idea as children don’t always remember to share letters and leaflets with them.
What do you like – give a general overview as to what you think about the site and if it works for you.	As a general overview of my opinion of the website I liked how the colours and theme coordinated with the school uniform/badge as I think this instantly adds an identity to the school, the website was easy to use and each link could be found quickly and easily which would be suited for a parent who’s maybe not the best with technology. In terms of content for the website I particularly liked how a list of uniform is provided, a lot of school’s don’t give a exact list about what a child needs to purchase or wear, (especially for their first day). By a parent knowing exactly what they need will make the initial idea of school feel a lot less daunting. Another thing I liked was just how detailed every step of the website was, I think any question/enquire a pupil or parent could ask they would be able to gain a answer online, however if not the contact details were extremely east to find which I also thought was good. The only changes/ additions I could think of for this website would be maybe adding a achievement page to feature the children at a more personal level, the page could include any photographs of recent theatre productions, a place to display art work, poems etc. with this in mind the school could also branch out onto more social network sites maybe Instagram or Youtube. However in design terms I believe the website is particularly well suited to the client and their target market.

_________________________________________________________________________

PM

Costings for press releases: Each advert&coverage is worked out by a costing table.

Article Height X Price of Table X 2.5 = PRICE

PR articles are worth 2.5 times more than an advert as the business has to pay for an advert whereas a press release is free coverage and in a way more worth as it hasn't been paid to feature/sponsor. 

Product Placement - You can not force clients - they must be confident with the brand/product and want to buy it.

Researching into PR articles and seeing the difference from adverts and press releases.

Details/ Layout of a Press Release:

-          Synopsis: Overview snapshot of story.

-          Background & Why: who, when, where & why?

-          Background of organisation: details, scheme, idea.

-          Quote: Usually from the highest member of the team (manager of shop, director of company).

-          Call to action: The reason for doing so, what will they gain?

-          Editors Notes: Facts and figures about the company, background facts.

Examples Of PR

_________________________________________________________________________

I then wrote my own example press release for the Made in Britain clothing brief :

Taking Flight

Liverpool’s well known Bold street will soon be joined by an exciting new menswear shop. The new brand will keep in fitting with the well know quirky fashion scene of the street itself as well as adding something a little bit new in terms of the cut of garments and daring prints.

Made in Britain Menswear was created by two Liverpool based graduates who have decided dressing vintage doesn’t necessarily mean having to buy an old moth balled shirt from a second hand shop. Instead they have taken on a whole new approach to the modern day vintage man. To celebrate the opening of this exciting new take on menswear clothing, the store shall be hosting a vintage kilo sale as well as showcasing their never before seen designs, all starting at 7pm, Saturday 31^st May at the ‘Made in Britain Menswear’ shop, 11 Bold Street.

Both designers have developed their clothing line from a range of vintage sportswear garments, taking most inspiration from the likes of aviation and racing sports. Not only has vintage clothing inspired each of the designs sold in the shop, but also the extremely high quality of the garments to. Each piece is handmade here in Liverpool from start to finish in the shop itself, meaning the new menswear brand really does have something completely new to offer to the city centre. Although the initial idea may have evolved from a love of vintage, these designers really are creating bold looks for the modern day man. As quoted by M.Jones at Made in Britain Menswear “ long gone are the days of pocket watches so why not buy a coat with a different pocket specifically sized for your iPhone or tablet instead?”.

The new individual clothing brand are hoping that not only do men still wish to buy well made yet creative garments, but that fashion students will see them as the inspiration future graduates  need. ‘Made in Britain Menswear’ wants to be proof that it is possible to set up and continue running a successful business once graduating, and prove that the hard work will pay off eventually.

Editor Notes

Bold Street, Liverpool is the most well know street in the city centre for small bespoke and independent businesses. They feature a lot of alternative coffee shops as well as vintage and bespoke fashion.

Newly founded company, Made in Britain Menswear team currently consists of two designers and one machinist. They are also competitors in the Graduate of The Year Award, coming up in October of this year.

For further information send an email to MIBmenswear@gmail.com or head to the store opening this weekend.