High five for High Touch
We’re currently working with Croydon Bid on their re-election ballot and have been immersing ourselves in the feedback from their recent workshops. For Croydon, there are a lot of areas to address to increase footfall, not least the disruption that will be caused over the next few years following the huge investment in developments that are well under way. Helpful advice and clear communication will be key for the BID, as well as fighting the fight for SME’s as they adapt to change.
Overarching all this will be the need to be true advocates of the vision for Croydon. For the retailers, they need to look at how they will retain loyalty and build new relationships. In one area, the loyalty/offer card scheme we branded, ‘Checkout Croydon’, was challenged by some as only rewarding existing customers rather than growing the business, but given the current changes and drop in footfall, the flip side is that it helps to retain customers.
What is interesting for us, and the challenge for them, is all the different ways that brands try to build loyalty and it certainly requires more than a loyalty card in your consumers pocket. This recent article from Contagious contributor Tim Wade of Smith+Co caught our eye and has some useful and clear insights into this essential part of building relationships with your customers. You can read the article here.
A Chain Reaction
On 10th March, in the company of clients Sean Hanna and Skyler McDonald, our MD visited the Retail Design Expo and Retail Digital Signage Expo at Olympia. A great show that was getting the right reactions. The progress that technology has made was evident in all areas but it was the creative use of older technologies and different ways of using lighting and textured materials that caught his eye. With a few interiors projects in the pipeline and in progress, it was a great opportunity to discuss how some of our ideas could be brought to life by a few of the exhibitors.
Read the full blog and see some of the suppliers that impressed us here.
In a pickle about social
This month our wall of type for Twitter UK featured heavily in ‘Week In Week Out’ BBC documentary ‘The Savage World of Social Media’. Robbie Savage found out how far people will go in risking their lives for a like or a tweet. Twitter was the only platform to respond to questions but filmmakers seemed to spend more time getting artistic shots of the wall than mopping the fevered brow of Twitter Head of Policy, Nick Pickles.
Our iphone filming of this section on tv is here or for better quality the full documentary can be seen on iplayer here. The Twitter piece is 24 minutes in.
Alexander Calder
You’ve only got this weekend left to be inspired by some of the great works of Alexander Calder at Tate Modern. Well worth a view to see how he was inspired by the works of Mondrian, Picasso, and we thought a bit or Miró and Matisse, and brought his ideas to life in his ‘performing’ sculptures. The wire sculptures of people and circus performers were the most fascinating, with the added dimension of shadows. The later sculptures although interesting lacked the dynamism of movement. Due to their fragile nature and age you have to rely on the small video screens to see how they performed in the past.
A few photos were managed until we were stopped by security – such a shame that galleries aren’t more open to allowing photography for their promotion by visitors on social media.
April First
We love a good wind up and obviously today is the day for wind ups, or at least it was until midday. We hope you haven’t been fooled too many times but we’d love to hear of any good ones that caught you out. We went back through some of the ones that stood out for us but our personal favourite is this one from the BBC – a classic.
We will be posting any more we find to our facebook page so take a look here.