What We Do
Getting Started
- Read Marketing Week or Marketing
These are the two main magazines for the marketing industry. They cover advertising campaigns, new product development, news and issues. The classified sections have useful contacts for print and creative services (e.g. printed banners, balloons). The main features highlight what other companies are doing and which agencies are behind the work.If you fill out subscription forms and state that you work in marketing, you should receive free copies.
- Find an agency
The marketing world is huge and can be confusing. There are different agencies for advertising, PR, direct marketing, packaging design, customer publishing, online, media buying and brand development. Some agencies cover more than one discipline. All of them will take money off you if they can. So, some simple rules are:1.Use the industry bodies to find out who does what.
Institute Practitioners in Advertising
Institute Practitioners in Advertising for advertising and media agencies
www.IPA.co.uk
or call 020 7235 7020Association of Publishing Agencies (APA)
Association of Publishing Agencies for customer publishing (i.e. marketing magazines and literature)
www.apa.co.uk
or call 020 7404 4166Periodical Publishers Association (PPA)
Periodical Publishers Association for magazine publishers (i.e. newstand magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Country Life)
www.ppa.co.uk
or call 020 7404 4166Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Direct Marketing Association for direct marketing agencies (e.g. direct mail)
www.DMA.org.uk
or call 020 7291 3300Internet Advertising Bureau UK
Internet Advertising Bureau UK for online marketing (i.e. websites and viral campaigns)
www.iab.netChartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
Chartered Institute of Public Relations for PR agencies (i.e. news stories)
www.ipr.org.uk
or call 020 7766 3333Market Research Society (MRS)
Market Research Society for market research companies (i.e. surveys)
www.MRS.org.uk
or call 020 7490 4911Design Business Association (DBA)
Design Business Association for packaging and design
www.dba.org.uk
or call 020 7251 92292.Visit two to three top 20 agencies
Ask to meet the new business director for a coffee or lunch (you’ll need to pay for this) and have a tour of the agency.
Find out what type of work they do, who they work for and how they charge for the work (e.g. day rates, flat fee or commission). Avoid the agencies that are working for any of your major competitors, remembering that supermarket own-label is also a competitor.
3.Employ the best
The best people tend to work in the top agencies or new start-up/expanding companies. Find out which are the best agencies for each discipline. Some of the leading agencies (e.g. Saatchi & Saatchi, M&C Saatchi, BBH, BMP) may work for you if you have a good product and they believe that they can produce ‘award-winning’ creative work. This means that you don't always need to be a well-known company with a multimillion-pound budget.
Alternatively, many of the leading creative teams work as freelancers or for smaller companies, and can be employed on a project-by-project or day-rate basis. Freelancers can be found be asking around or by emailing us.
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