Official Diamond Jubilee logo

2012 is going to be a monumental year for the UK as far as events go … It’s the year of the Diamond Jubilee AND the 2012 Olympics. And we should all be celebrating, arranging themed events, boogying-on-down at a record number of street parties to spread happiness, love and joy … Yes, it’s time for BIG SOCIETY to get even BIGGER.

There is one snag though … One of these international events is branded so far up its own you-know-what, that it won’t allow UK citizens to promote Olympic related events using the word ‘Olympic’! Yes it’s brand-awareness gone bonkers. The Olympic Committee’s ‘brand protection document states: “The information provided is intended to help people stay within the law and LOCOG expects it to be used in good faith. In areas of doubt, please respect the spirit of the law and do not undertake any activity which is contrary to LOCOG’s aims and objectives.”

The document includes a flowchart of controlled representations:

The Olympic Symbol (ie the five interlocking rings)
The Olympic Motto
(‘Citius Altius Fortius’ / ‘Faster Higher Stronger’)
the words:
“Olympic(s)”
“Olympiad(s)”
“Olympian(s)”
(or anything similar to them, or translations of them)
The Paralympic Symbol (ie the three “agitos”)
The Paralympic Motto
(Spirit in Motion)
the words:
“Paralympic(s)”
“Paralympiad(s)”
“Paralympian(s)”
(or anything similar to them, or translations of them)

We do consider that it is in rather poor taste to be so over-protective and to not ’share’ in times of economic melt down. You can download the full document by clicking here. We strongly suggest that you do read the ambiguous document if you are thinking of designing a poster to advertise your ‘OxxxxxC’ event!

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations are for everyone!

On the plus side, the Diamond Jubilee organisers have included a useful page on their website dedicated to event branding. Organisers of Diamond Jubilee Events will find links to the official emblem (above) so one can download and include official emblems for their event promotions.  You can find this page by clicking here.

In contrast to the Olympic brand guidelines, the Diamond Jubilee guidelines advise: “The official emblem is available, free of charge, for download from this website. It is available for use for activities associated with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations including community and national events, publications, retail and merchandising. View guidelines for use. It is intended that the emblem be used widely by individuals, organisations, companies and charities for celebrations to mark the Diamond Jubilee. This includes use for commercial purposes and advertising.

How can two major event committees send out such contrasting brand messages?

At The Brand Surgery, we publish a variety of magazines and promotional material and already we have been asked to promote a number of events (after our Wow Factor success back in November 2011). One of our clients is so concerned with the misleading Olympic brand guidelines that they have decided to pull out of promoting any Olympic themed events within their customer information magazine. We don’t blame them as the olympic guidelines suggest that promoting community events with the olympics logo maybe construed as ‘passing off’ of as an official Olympics event.

A message to all of you at Olympics head office. Please get off your high horse – you are not more important than the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and you should take a leaf out from the Official Diamond Jubilee organiser’s book and share your ’symbols’ so everyone can promote this amazing event!

We appreciate that your sponsors pay £millions to use the dreadful 2012 olympics logo – we don’t particularly want ‘that’ logo. However, how did the five interlocking rings symbol created by Pierre De Coubertin in 1914 come to be copyrighted by the International Olympic Committee?

The five interlocking rings have a meaning: “These five rings represent the five parts of the world which now are won over to Olympism and willing to accept healthy competition.” (from Wikipedia so must be true!). Perhaps the Olympics Committee is concerned about a little healthy competition from community events – hardly surprising really. I’m surprised the Olympic Committee sold any tickets with their backward system.

We salute the Diamond Jubilee Committee for getting it so right. We ask that the Olympics Committee consider sharing.

If you would like advice on how to use the Diamond Jubilee emblem on your marketing material and website, please give us a call on 01903 324229 or email vicky@thebrandsurgery.co.uk. We also design exceedingly successful logos which we encourage you to share!

The Brand Surgery, marketing and website agency serving Sussex.

Anyway, after undergoing the process for submitting to both online app repository’s, we thought we’d compare the two processes and have our say on their pro’s and con’s. We have broken the process into several categories.

Development Environment

Ok, so we love both Mac’s and PC’s at The Brand Surgery, the Mac is brilliant for design work, especially when using Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and the PC is great as a general purpose machine and has many advantages for web development. (Not that Mac’s can’t be used for web development). But put simply, we like the option of choosing what we work on and the Android Market allows us this freedom. We can download the development tools for any platform! Apple however, restrict you to only developing on a Mac, which is somewhat frustrating for those that don’t have a Mac – this could greatly increase the cost of development!

Apple 0 – 1 Android

Cost

If you’re going to enter the world of mobile development, there is going to be a cost involved (at least if you want to use the market leaders) so this is purely a case of who is cheaper! Now, neither development programme is expensive (at least it seems), but Android Market charges $25 (around £16) as a one-off fee. Apple however have a slightly more expensive fee of $99 (around £64) per year. So Android wins again!

Apple 0 – 2 Android

The Review Doctor on the App Store

Sign-up Process

Androids process was quick, simple and intuitive. In fact, if you already have a Google account, you simply associate it to your development account. Easy, brilliant, thank you very much Google!

Apple however, require you to (if you sign-up as a business) provide proof of your companies existence by sending off various documents, etc. and we found them extremely awkward and arduous to deal with! After sending off our certificate from Companies House (as requested) they then changed their rules and wanted something else, and we ended up going backwards and forwards for several days!

Apple 0 – 3 Android

Support

Now it must be said, that we haven’t required much support from either Apple or Android, but Apple does appear to be far more equipped with a plethora of documentations, examples, videos and various other resources within it’s ‘Member Centre’ (presumably what the large cost is for) and although Android does have documentation, Apples is just far superior.

Apple 1 – 3 Android

The Review Doctor on Android Market

Submission Process

This was for us, one of the biggest differences between the two platforms, and to be perfectly honest, a perfect medium would be somewhere between the two!

Android accept pretty much anything onto the Market, once you  have created your app, you fill in the details to be displayed in the Android Market, upload the app and click submit. Then as soon as it has uploaded, and you verify this, the app is live in the Market. Brilliant! Or is it? Not exactly. It’s great for people like The Brand Surgery who are designing and developing quality applications because we get into the Market quickly, but consider for a minute those that are producing apps which are broken, pointless and poorly produced. These apps also get instantly approved and enter the market, filling it with a lot of poor apps to search through. Not ideal!

Let’s look at Apples approach then. You submit your app in much the same way as Android, except your app gets sent off for ‘review’ by one of Apples staff. This obviously allows for the rubbish apps to be rejected (although with some apps on the App Store, you may wonder who was reviewing them) but it also adds considerable time to the submission process, especially if your app is rejected. This would then result in a longer appeal process unless you make the necessary changes.

Neither gets the win in this round so it remains:

Apple 1 – 3 Android

Market Share

Simple, Apple hold the market share, so they get the win! We are able to reach far more people on the App Store than we can in Android Market. Ask us in a year’s time after the Google branded Android builds momentum, it might be a different story!

Apple 2 – 3 Android

So after all is said and done, this suggests that Android is the better platform to build for. Wrong! They are both of equal marketing value as each other. Each holds a significant weight in the market, and it gives off a better overall brand if you have both of those names attached to your website, application, concept or company. We highly recommend you add some weight to your brand by creating a mobile application and we’d be more than happy to help you out! Not only would you receive our fantastic design and top quality development, you will have all of our CIM Chartered Marketing experience and branding skills on tap as well!

Call us on 01903 824229 or contact us on online to arrange a FREE, no obligation quote or meeting.

Both pages were designed to match the restaurant branding and feature a range of animated images which cycle through, showing the range of food available in the respective restaurants above a bulletin style set of boxes promoting the unique aspects of the restaurant and the other restaurant.

In addition to the Facebook pages we created, we also set-up a Twitter Account for each restaurant so that each restaurant can ‘Tweet’ about relevent things to their restaurant, but every news article that is written on the Pan Asia Group blog will be fed directly into both Twitter feeds and the news feeds of both Facebook pages.

If you think that your company could do with some social media branding, then give us a call on 01903 824229 or email us by using our contact form. If you don’t think that social media could help your company, then give us a call anyway and we’ll explain just how it can help your business!

Remember, if you book your Facebook and Twitter page design by the 31st January you will receive our ‘Beat the January Blues’ rate of £65 per hour so get in touch today!

The application features a fun, yet simplistic design which we feel reflects The Review Doctor’s current branding whilst keeping the look and feel of a mobile app, which is important to make sure mobile users feel at home on the app!

By presenting the user with a map view, using the GPS location sensors and/or Wi-Fi of the mobile device to detect the users location, the user can easily see what business (that are listed on The Review Doctor) are immediately around them. If the business they want to read/review isn’t listed, they can easily add them by ‘tapping’ where they should be on the map!

For those using the app that aren’t near the business they are trying to look up, a simple directory search is available using both Alphabetical Order and Categories to make it easier to find your listing.

Check out the screenshots below to see how the app looks:

The app, which is FREE to download from the Android Market, is available now, and the iPhone equivalent for the Apple App Store is currently in the process of being verified and will be available in the New Year.

If you have a mobile application that needs developing, please give us a ring on 01903 824229 for a FREE, no obligation chat.

We are very proud to add event marketing (including PR, branding and organisation) to our list of services.

Recently we have marketed and managed several large events including:

• The Wow Factor – starring X Factor 2011 artists – we were given just three weeks notice until the event date and we sold over 600 tickets at £12.50 each without advertising – using just social media and our PR services;
• Broadwater Royal Wedding Picnic – this event attracted 3000 people and raised £1500 for charity, using our social media and PR services;
• Worthing Idol (2 years running) – attracted 20 acts each year, funding and audiences of 400+.

The Brand Surgery, the number one design agency in Sussex, designed all logos, marketing material, wrote all the press releases and managed the PR, designed the websites for these events. Plus we organised the events including venue location and hire, catering, prizes and tickets.

Our event success is largely down to our Facebook and Twitter setup and posting: Branded to match your existing company branding or new event branding. The benefit of setting up a specific Facebook or Twitter page for your event is that your event will get found more easily so will lead to new customer acquisitions, create lead generation, encourage client retention, improve marketing because of its viral effect which is excellent for event brand building.

Earn cash by telling your friends and acquaintances about The Brand Surgery

We are offering incentives for referrals: We will give you £50 per referral which will be paid to you once an invoice has been cleared by the new customer. Just think about all that Christmas shopping you could be doing!

If you would like further information (no obligation) on any the above services, please call Richy or myself on 01903 824229.

Vicky Vaughan passes Professional Diploma in Marketing

As you may know, Vicky Vaughan, managing director of The Brand Surgery is in the middle of studying towards a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) “Professional Diploma in Marketing“.

Fantastic news! Vicky has passed her first unit which means she is quarter of the way to becoming a Chartered Marketer.

The unit brief (Managing Marketing) was to introduce a performance measurement standard into a non-profit organisation. Vicky had to research the full range of  performance measurement standards including ISO 9001, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and The Balanced Scorecard (BSC).

With the research done, Vicky matched her case study’s organisational objectives with the most appropriate performance measurement standard which in this case turned out to be The Balanced Scorecard.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is becoming more popular as a performance measurement standard, although originally it was designed as a strategic planning tool by Kaplin and Norton in the early 90s. It is a fantastic tool because it looks at four perspectives of your business, instead of focusing too much on one perspective at the expense of another. For example, without the BSC you may be so focused on improving your bottom line that you forget about your customer care KPIs.

You can’t do that with BSC: The four perspectives are Finance, Internal Processes and systems, Training and Customers/Stakeholders. And when this system is used, all the departments within an organisation will have a positive cause-and-effect relationship upon each other.

Introducing a performance measurement standard (PMS) into your company will give you a huge competitive advantage, as when you tender for projects, you can list the accreditations. Also, performance measurement standards systemise your company and help to make it ‘lean’ and help you to prioritise your corporate objectives.

The Brand Surgery are planning on introducing The Balanced Scorecard once Vicky has completed the whole course. She has just submitted the second unit which is The Marketing Planning Process. The third unit which she has started is Developing Customer Value through Marketing and Vicky is studying product and brand management for this. The final assignment is Project Management in Marketing which starts in December where one lucky organisation who entered the prize draw has won a free report (they will be the case study).  Then Vicky will be a Chartered Marketer next year.

What other branding agency in Sussex has in-house Chartered Marketeer expertise? When we design websites, we have the strategic marketing knowledge which will keep you one step ahead of your competitors.

Call Vicky on 01903 824229 if you would like to discuss your marketing needs, whether you need a marketing plan or are thinking of introducing a performance measurement standard.

Digital Marketing Campaign is a Royal Success

Broadwater Community Association is still celebrating after the amazing Royal Wedding Picnic event which attracted over 3000 people and raised £1500 within a few hours.

The success of this event is down to a creative agency called The Brand Surgery who are based in Worthing, West Sussex. The organisers said: “We needed to promote this community event to raise money for a local charity called Broadwater Community Association. The Brand Surgery came up with a fantastic online marketing campaign which included an event website, plus a combination of Facebook, Twitter,
Linked In and blog posting.”

Vicky Vaughan, Managing Director of The Brand Surgery said: “We are thrilled with the success of the Broadwater Royal Wedding Picnic. It was an amazing day. People said they heard about the event via Facebook and Twitter, which just goes to show how powerful social networking is when combined with innovative and creative minds! Whether you want to attract businesses, children, adults or couples to your event, our social media marketing expertise seems to work a treat. Thanks to the brilliant event organisers for their time, passion and enthusiasm.”

We spoke to Vicky Vaughan to find out a few trade secrets to online success.

How does one begin to promote a successful event?
VV: It is best to create a new page on your company website especially for your event. If you don’t have a website, then simply create a new one for your event. Then you need to create Twitter, Facebook and Linked In accounts which should all link to your website. Ideally your social media accounts should be branded to match your organisation’s corporate identity. We created a logo for our event as it is an excellent excuse for marketing, PR and promotional give-aways. Social media is an amazingly cost effective marketing tool.

How did you raise money using social media?
VV: We set up a ‘shop’ in Facebook and people donated through this. They can also donate via our website. Then we energetically tweeted and used our online PR skills.

Why did you decide to get involved with social media?
There is a demand for social media as getting your message out there at a reasonable cost is essential, so armed with our copywriting skills, we launched the first in our range of social media services: blogging. We now have many customers who benefit from this wonderful search engine optimisation (SEO) tool and they all reach top spot in Google for their chosen keyword searches.

Does The Brand Surgery still design logos and websites?
VV: Yes. Our branding and website services are very popular and have won awards for us and our clients. We have in fact just completed a brilliant website for Manhattan Furniture. Look at what they said about us: “The Brand Surgery has just completed our website and we are thrilled with it. They took our brief, and enriched it with innovative ideas using the latest technology and our website is now leaps ahead of our competitors. The Brand Surgery is professional in all communications with us, and the team has made this an enjoyable project. They have looked after us along each step of the way and we would thoroughly recommend The Brand Surgery to any company who wants a competitive edge.” Phil Kethro, Marketing Manager, Manhattan Furniture
Anything else you want to say?
VV: Yes! Just incase you didn’t know, in 2009 we were commissioned to design the entire fleet of Coastliner 700 buses which cruise between Brighton and Portsmouth every 10 minutes. We are still celebrating this achievement. Helen Martin, Marketing Manager at Stagecoach South said:
“We have been working with The Brand Surgery for five years and always find the team enthusiastic and full of new ideas.
Not phased by bigger (literally) projects, The Brand Surgery did a great job of the striking illustrations of south coast iconic images that now brighten up our Coastliner 700 buses.”
Finally, we are soon to become Chartered Marketeers and to celebrate this achievement, we are offering one lucky organisation a free strategic report worth £1000s. Simply email to enter the prize draw. Terms and conditions do apply. Please ask for details. Everything mentioned in this blog is produced in-house. To find out more about how our range of services can give your company a competitive edge, contact
Vicky Vaughan at The Brand Surgery on 01903 824229 or 07909 693172.

Sunny Worthing Food and Drink Guide

We are the proud designers of the first ever Sunny Worthing Food and Drink Guide.

This interesting project utilised many skills from within our branding agency. First we created a concept for the front cover design, and one inside page. We wanted to promote the ‘Sunny Worthing’ them, so we added sun rays around the Worthing Town Centre Initiative logo. We then created a ’sea’ effect using a combination of illustrations and photo effects to create a rustic effect.

Next, to continue with the ’sunny’ theme, we created a ’sun’ with food objects such as strawberries and chillies. Once this concept was signed off, we then set to work importing all the catalogue data from Excel documents supplied by Worthing Town Centre Initiative. We set all the data in the listing style that had been approved by our client. This was a lengthy task as there are over 125 restaurant listings distributed over 40 pages!

The brochure was then printed with a lovely gloss laminated cover. The whole effect is stunning and we are immensely proud of it.

Manhattan Website Goes Live

It has been a big week of websites for The Brand Surgery. We are currently working on two new websites having just switched Manhattan’s website to ‘live’. It feels so good when we flick the switch! There is lots of testing before that happens though!

The Manhattan website is not just a pretty website, it is functional and is a persuasive sales aid for the Manhattan sales team. You can view the full product range and specifications, check out Manhattan credentials, browse the photo gallery and much more …

With this website, we followed the corporate identity which has already been in place for a number of years. Click here and see what you think. If you fancy a stylish and slick website like this for your business, you know where we are. Just a quick reminder: You can call us on 01903 824229 for an informal discussion.

Chartered Institute of Marketing for The Brand Surgery

It’s official! The first assignment has been submitted and Vicky Vaughan, Managing Director of branding and website agency, The Brand Surgery, has already started work on her second assignment. Vicky is on track to becoming an officially qualified Chartered Marketeer by July 2012.

Vicky’s first assignment consisted of choosing a performance measurement standard for her chosen case study – the organisation  cannot be revealed until August 2011. Vicky had to critically evaluate the organisation’s current KPI’s and measurements, and decide which performance measurement standard to introduce. There is a wide choice, including Six Sigma, the ISOs (9001, 14001 etc), EFQM, TQM and the Balanced Scorecard. They all have their pros and cons, and now Vicky is familiar with them, she has the ability to recommend the perfect performance measurement standard for your business.

Whether you are measuring your website visitors, marketing campaign success, event success, productivity achievements, return on investment, social return on investment or even your personal development targets, there is a performance measurement standard suitable for your business.

Vicky’s next project is to launch a new product, or relaunch an existing project for a new organisation. The lucky organisation is getting two months of strategic marketing free-of-charge.

If you would like to benefit from the latest strategic marketing expertise, call The Brand Surgery on 01903 824229 for an informal chat.

Chartered Marketeer status coming soon for The Brand Surgery

The Brand Surgery referral scheme

Hey, here’s a brand new concept …

A branding agency that rewards you for referring your friends and networking buddies.

Simply pass The Brand Surgery referral card to your friends and networking buddies who you think would benefit from receiving our award-winning branding, logo design and website services. Your friend will receive a 10% discount off their very first order placed with us.

Remember to write YOUR name and  YOUR email address on the referral card because after we receive five referral cards with your details on the back, we will email you a voucher for one of our most popular services, each worth over £500:

Which reward will you choose?

• Five hours of design time (this would get you a bespoke double sided A4/A5 flyer or leaflet)

• E-marketing campaign software set-up (with username and password plus one hour of training time)

• One month of blog writing (one blog per week – great for improving your Google ranking)

Further referral cards can be posted or emailed to you by request.

Terms and Conditions:  (1) Referrals must be genuine. (2) Rewards can not be exchanged for money. (3)  Happy networking is essential.