LinkedIn session at St Stephen's Club

January 2oth saw the second in a series of talks I'm giving focusing on different aspects of social media and getting to grips with the major platforms. The Wednesday session took LinkedIn as its subject and specifically how this online networking tool can best contribute to sales and marketing efforts.

It was aimed at those about to register on LinkedIn but not sure of the benfits and those that may have been registered for some time but still unclear about how to make it work for them.

In the event the audience spanned those completely unfamiliar with the service at one end and a few that could be considered as advanced users managing their own groups and having migrated to fully paid-up subscribers, at the other.

My intention over the course of this two hour session was to bring some clarity and structure to making the most of this excellent networking tool. This aim wasn't helped by losing all my carefully prepared screen-shots about two hours before the start of the talk. This meant that the session was delivered live on the internet rather than canned. And possibly the better for all that if the feedback is anything to go by. Here are a few of the comments made:

"David's workshop on LinkedIn was clear and concise and exactly what I needed to get me started. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this seminar to anyone interested in making the best out of this site and I look forward to attending his other workshops."
Mary-Jane Maybury Photographer

"The session was an excellent insight into LinkedIn and how I can make the most of networking opportunities it offers."
Mike Goldwater Photographer

"I came to the session totally bewildered about how to utilise LinkedIn for my business. I left with an understanding of the power of Linkedin and how I can access that power to improve my sales. Excellent value for money."
Duncan Morrison Upstream

"The course was a revelation! I can highly recommend David's seminars to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of social media."
Ian Freeman Freelance Journalist

"David really knows his stuff and his sessions are excellent value for money and highly recommended."
Lin Sagovsky Play4Real

"Invaluable course which every business owner, networker, should attend, even if you are already a Linked-in member and are active, as I am. I got some helpful tips and I met some really interesting people too. The course was very well presented and good value - very worth my time. I am looking forward to the next one."
Adria Bannocks Infinity Associates

"David brought linked in alive for me - so I now see the benefits and can start using it as a business tool."
Liz Emtage Liz Emtage Ceramics

"The presentation was informative and concise and delivered in an informal style. LinkedIn - previously perceived by me as a complex business website for people skilled in online networking has turned into a user friendly online resource that will now hopefully become one of the many ways that I create new business leads. Well done David!"
Brigitte Halliday The Core Process

It wasn't a unanimous vote of approval. I had one delegate who didn't think I'd done that good a job and I'll be working on the particular criticisms for next time. Speaking of which the attendees voted for YouTube and web video generally, to be the next subject for exploration. I've yet to set a date for this but it's likely to be towards the end of February. If you're interested you can drop me a line and I'll add your name to the circulation list.

A thank you to Keren Lerner for our latest client win

Keren Lerner of Top left design kindly recommended us to SAV Mayfair Developments Limited a building contractor providing residential building services UK. Thankfully they took up her advice and we are now helping them build a larger and more qualified stream of traffic to their website.

Small business training

The London School for Small Business has appointed David and Associates to work on developing its web site and marketing material. The school, set up by Lisa Temperley and Peter Goonery, has been established to offer high quality online business education at low cost. It provides a series of video-based training modules to ensure business owners make the biggest possible impact on their business results in the shortest possible time.

Given the current economic climate, the timing couldn't be better.

Currently they have a special launch offer that saves clients £150 off the regular course price. They also have free downloads available on subjects such as time management and attitudes and traits of successful business owners.

Associates form new partnership

Nick and Sue Asbury (née Rogers) married in April last year and following this major statement about their personal relationship they subsequently formed Asbury & Asbury - an outlet for joint creative projects. The formation of Asbury & Asbury also co-incides with a move back to their roots in the north of England.

Office move

This month the David and Associates HQ moved from Whitfield Street to Grafton Way. So it's goodbye to 'tenants village' in the Saatchi and Saatchi complex on the corner of Chitty and Whitfield streets and hello to 68 Grafton Way, W1T 5DS. We're now sandwiched between Cafe Rio on the one side and The Grafton Arms on the other.

Jane Wake appoints our creative collective to work on new site

Jane Wake worked with us on her original site for body-a-wake and has returned to with a brief to revitalise the main site and develop a second site: baby-a-wake, focused on pre and post-natal fitness and well being.

Another Olympic victory

Not so long ago, Mike was asked to help production company New Moon with the films they were making for the London 2012 Olympic bid.

As you probably know, that bid went rather well. And now Mike and New Moon have scored a second Olympic victory, creating the films for Russia's bid for the 2014 Winter Games.

It was a tough job. Sochi, the Black Sea resort chosen as the Russian candidate city, was the long-shot candidate. The ones to beat were the established experts in Salzburg, and a vigorous bid from PyeongChang in South Korea. But there was a powerful story to tell. Because this was a chance to transform the future of winter sports in Russia.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia's winter sports facilities have been decimated - a terrible fate for a nation still holds the most Winter Olympic gold medals.

So the Russian government had already pledged to spend billions of dollars regenerating the slightly dilapidated resort of Sochi - perfectly located at the foot of the Caucasus mountains - into a world-class winter sports resort.

Sochi's combination of balmy coastline and reliably snowy mountains meant the Russians could offer the most compact, efficient Winter Games ever - as well as revitalising sport for the nation.

Mike was closely involved in the creation of the films showing the infrastructure of the Olympic Village, and a more emotive film capturing the spirit of the bid. And it worked: Sochi was recently announced as the host of the 2014 games.

Crown Jeweller disappointed

I don't tend to keep tabs on our clients' other suppliers but the news that Garrard has lost its position as Crown Jeweller did catch my eye. It's a position they've held for more than 160 years. An amazing and enviably long tenure first granted by Queen Victoria in 1843.

The current holder of the post, David Thomas was the Crown Jeweller at Garrards when Piers and I were producing the souvenir guide of the Crown Jewels for Historic Royal Palaces. He was the only one allowed to touch the precious pieces during the photo-shoot. Now he's handing over the white gloves to a Mr. Harry Collins who runs a small family run business in Tunbridge Wells.

Apparently the Queen's decision to change is as a result of a recommendation from a friend and has nothing to do with Garrards decision to appoint Christina Aguilera as it's new face.

Just goes to show - the power of word of mouth marketing can even overturn a 160 year relationship.



David Thomas with assistant curator Barry Sanderson in the old Jewel House, Waterloo block, HM Tower of London

Pentone Honoured

Nick Asbury is set to make an appearance in this year's D&AD annual, as one of only five writers recognised in the 'Writing for Design' category.

The project in question is Pentone, a self-promotional piece inspired by the Pantone colour-matching system used by designers everywhere. This time, instead of colour swatches, Nick has produced a set of 'copy swatches' ranging from 'Boring' to 'Wacky' to 'Spam' and the unmistakable 'Daily Mail'.

The design is by our very own Sue Rogers.

You can see the online version here, or get in touch and we'll send you a copy of the printed piece.

A big success story for the IFC

Earlier this year, associates Piers Rutterford and Mike Reed created a new brochure for the International Fundraising Consultancy.

Recently, the David & Associates team met up with the IFC for a very jolly Christmas get-together. It was made all the jollier when John Baguley, the IFC's esteemed Managing Director, revealed that the brochure had gone down such a storm with clients and prospects that he was about to order a second reprint of the brochure.

And they say print is dead.

Gold stars for yellow frames

Last year, Sue and Nick worked together on an exhibition promoting the launch of a new book called From Here to Here: Stories Inspired by London's Circle Line. (Nick and Mike also contributed chapters to the book, which you can buy.)

The result has attracted widespread praise and is now set to feature in this year’s D&AD Annual, as well as the Communication Arts Annual – a collection of the year’s best design work from around the world.

All this with a few cheap picture frames and a tin of yellow paint....

For the full story, visit suerogers.co.uk

The FBI's most wanted list

A flyer announcing the inaugral meeting of the FBI (the Fitzrovia Business Initiative, in case you were wondering) was our small contribution to getting this local business support group off the ground.

The first meeting takes place downstairs in the suitably named 'Fitzrovia Tavern' in Charlotte Street on the Tuesday 18th October. Kick-off is at 6.00pm with the main business of the meeting completed by 8.00pm.

The idea is to create a local business club run by the members to encourage and enable residents and business located in Fitzrovia to have regular communication and develop social and business relationships for the benefit of the area.

Fitzrovia is the area between Euston Road and Oxford Street and Gower Street and Portland Place. So if your in business in that area - come along.

BAE SYSTEMS makes a welcome return to the client list after a seven year absence.

We're delighted to have BAE SYSTEMS back on board. The current project aims to raise awareness of the many services available through the HR function and is due to be completed by mid September.

Now there's gratitude for you

Normally we make do with cash as a suitable form of remuneration for our efforts. So it came as a very pleasant surprise to be honoured with lifetime membership of 26 in addition to being paid for the work done creating their html newsletter template. In the hope that this isn't just a one-off we're now actively seeking other clients whose ranks we'd like to join.

A little piece of heaven

We've just finished a small site for a friend's rental property in Spain. 'Cielo' ( heaven, sky ) is a lovely house to rent in the historic town of Vejer de la Frontera in Cadiz province. Alison bought it about two years ago and has been doing it up ever since. She's just started to rent it out for weekends and longer breaks.

Vejer is a typical 'peublo blanco' perched on the top of a hill in Spain's Costa de la Luz. It's ten minutes inland and within striking distance of Tarifa, Cadiz, Jerez and Seville. You're away from the hurly burly of the immediate coastal towns during the summer months and it's a beautiful retreat out of season.

HTML newsletter template for 26

I have Mike Reed to thank for the opportunity to work on the newsletter template for 26.

It's always a pleasure working with well written copy. Nevertheless, for me, the highlight was probably the illustration for 'What not to write'. It was produced by the keystrokes 2 and 6 in the font 'Zapf Dingbats'. A very happy accident. Well, it made me smile.

I helped Mike set up his email newsletter quite some time ago. It was an early effort that came hot on the heels of two newsletters for myself: one for Indochine, and the other for FlySoup - real-time web traffic analysis that is currently being trialed for free on the 26 site.

Since working on my own newsletters I've put together templates for all sorts of businesses, including recruitment companies, market researchers, photographers, management consultants and film producers. This, however, is the first one I've produced which is designed to work in conjunction with a blog site.

New additions to Indochine site

We've recently added to the indochine web site. You can now buy a range of table lamps in addition to the lanterns and lacquerware that the site launched with.

Each lamp has a shade made from a twin layer of silk that creates a unique pattern when lit (reminiscent of watersilk) - consequently, no two lamps are the same. The range includes single colour and twin coloured shot silk including Oyster, Crimson, Papaya, Absinthe and Copper. The dark wood bases are hand finished in either a classic 'ricebowl' design or traditional 'lotus leaf' scrollwork.

Dark art , true colours

In the Guardian's media pages 14/3/05 Deborah Bonello put forward the notion that Art and Design were more closely related in the 80s and cited a piece of work my company was responsible for as an example - the 'Tate by Tube' poster for London Underground.



The article stated that this piece of work was originally an advert for the gallery but was now considered a piece of art in it's own right.

Back in January Tim Ashton - Creative Director at Antidote (a clever bunch of creative people working across a broad range of media, without regard to traditional sector boundaries) opined in 'Creative Review' that the Tate by Tube poster was "an advertising idea brilliantly executed by a design company". One of the only examples he could think of in that regard.

I can't complain that nearly two decades later people still have nice things to say about the piece, but it does seem odd that it's relevance is being re-framed. It's almost as if being a good bit of design is somehow not a sufficient end in itself. For it to have any real merit it has to be appropriated by another area of creative endeavour.

Whatever the case, over the intervening period, I've noticed an increasing reluctance for clients to either consider or afford new art - either with a small 'a' or otherwise. London Underground has a long history of commissioning amazing public art and I consider myself fortunate that my company - The Fine White Line - came under their spotlight at the time.

There have been increasingly rare opportunities to create lasting pieces of graphic art since then.

Image libraries, it would seem, now rule the roost - off the shelf and just-in-time solutions seem to be the norm rather than the exception.

Could it be that with technology fuelled reductions in the overall cost of production, original commissioned art - which was an important but modest part of the overall cost of any job - has now become a conspicuous element in the production mix? And as a result has come under the increasing scrutiny of the 'beancounters'. Certainly, aside from big budget productions, the use of original illustration and photography seems to be in decline. More's the pity. It was always one of the most cost effective ways of creating a uniquely identifiable presence.

Thoroughbred

February saw the start of a new breed of agency - one without any creative resource of its own. Instead Breed creates a dream team for every brief it works on. It does this by drawing on a massive pool of supremely talented freelance writers, art directors, planners, designers - you name the discipline and they'll build a team that fits the bill. And for their own branding they picked David & Associates - which was nice.

But it's not simply about access to creative resource.

They work in different ways with different clients - sometimes as part of an established roster for larger clients, or as an agency of record for clients with smaller budgets who are nevertheless looking to access first-class communications teams. Either way, they'll listen to you first and assess the particular demands of your brief, before using their experience and contacts to put together precisely the team you need.

The company is managed by seasoned professionals that already have eight years worth of track history working with advertisers in this different way.

The senior management team is made up by:

Adam Sunderland

Adam is the former deputy managing director of WMGO and a vice president management supervisor of O&M New York. He has 23 years’ experience in advertising in the UK and USA.

John Stuart

John joined the production department of Collett Dickenson & Pearce in the late 1960’s – right at the time the agency was revolutionising British advertising. He introduced an innovative creative management system by forming a dedicated traffic function to control time and costs. Unheard of back then, this function was later adopted by virtually every agency in London. John went on to establish the agency’s production services group, which soon provided over 50% of group profits.

In 1980, John co-founded Parkway, the first electronic image manipulation company in the UK – and voted AIM company of the year in 1983. Whilst retaining his CDP responsibilities, John also formed WLCS. Its focus was on providing start-up agencies with an outsourced production and time management resource. In its first two years of trading it provided services to eight of the ten agencies that opened their doors at the time.

John was later responsible for conceiving CDP’s Network Group of Companies, enabling the agency to offer holistic campaigns to its clients. In 1995, having been part of the strategic team responsible for the sale of the agency and the re-organisation of the management team, John left to set up White Door. As Chairman of White Door Consulting, he is actively involved in major consulting projects and has provided innovative solutions for a wide variety of clients in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Breed is his latest venture.

Martin Handyside

Martin started his career in the mid seventies in the post room of a small family run ad agency who specialised in 'postal bargain' ads in the back of the national press for incontinence pants and the like. It took three years to figure that there was a much bigger world out there, so joined the biggest agency of the time; JWT.

After several other agency moves in various Creative Services roles Martin helped set up a creative services outsourcing company called Woodlodge to help the raft of start up hot shop agencies in the mid eighties including BBH. Another one of these hot shop agencies was Hedger Mitchel Stark, the most highly awarded agency of the era, whom Martin finally joined as Creative Services Director.

Martin then became a founder member of the ridiculously named Still Price Court Twivy D'Souza which set up after Saatchis bought Hedger Mitchel. Still Price enjoyed fanatastic creative success, so much so that it was bought by Lintas. The company went through many different guises and Martin finally resigned his position as Operations Director of Ammiratti Puris Lintas to set up White Door in 1995 and in 2005 formed breed with Adam and John to progress a specific section of the White Door offer.

New AOP Photographers show their skills

Mike Chick, one of David & Associates' clients, is currently showing at the AOP gallery as part of 'Portfolio' an exhibition of 13 new photographers specialising in advertising , fashion, architecture, still life, editorial, and lifestyle.

Apart from Mike's work, which has pride of place near the entrance to the gallery, there are interesting presentations from Pasquale Caprile, John Darley, Colin Gotts, Kai-Uwe Gundlach, Nicholas Guttridge, Tim Hetherington, Enamul Hoque, Olga Lavrenkova, Will Sanders, Morgan Silk, Alys Tomlinson and Julian Wolkenstein. The exhibition runs until the 3rd March at 81 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS

All their portfolios can be viewed on-line at the AOP website. Well worth a look.