Please sir, can I have some more(ish)

We have sweets in the studio today. Not just any sweets - old school sweets like Chewits and Refreshers :)

Whilst we started chomping our way through them, one of the guys said a pet-hate phrase of mine:

"These sweets are really moreish"

I can't decide if I like the word "moreish" as it just doesn't seem to fit with either the use of "more" or even "ish". Consider this definition of "ish":

Ish. Kind of, sort of. Multi-purpose suffix for everything. Can also be used alone--usually with a waggle of the dominant hand.

http://www.pseudodictionary.com/-ish

With that in mind, attaching it to "more" just doesn't work does it? Played out a little further, you could look at it this way.

Example 1:

(Confident context)

"What colour are those sweets" "Red"

(Unsure context)

"What colour are those sweets" "Reddish"

Example 2:

(Confident context)

"How are you feeling?" "Cold"

(Unsure context)

"How are you feeling" "Coldish"

Both these examples work fine in either context right? So how why can "more" not be used in the same context successfully? The word moreish doesn't adhere to the rules you would normally apply to 'ish' and also can't be used to add uncertainty to a confident statement. To make it worse, the phrase "These are really moreish" isn't actually an uncertain statement at all! It's very much a confident one that states somebody's clear opinion; no room for question.

So, now that I've mused over this, can I have some more sweets guys?

"no-ish, they've all been eaten"

Sigh :(

Ring out the old & bring in the new

Following a feedback session with our clients, partners and industry peers, we've updated our brand statement. We've set free New Media, Marketing & PR and embraced Digital, Brand, Media to clearly define our integrated services. Our services in web production, mobile and e-marketing are very much about the digital world and everything it covers. That's why we replaced New Media with Digital; it's not new anymore and it's here to stay. We've also erased the broad definition of Marketing as it was simply too wide a topic and doesn't say enough about what we do. Communications produced by Persona Creative are always rooted in branding (which we love doing) and because we act as stewards for our clients, the focus has to remain on Brand. Last but by no means least, we have extended PR to cover our entire Media function; whether it's in an editorial capacity or media planning for campaigns and publicity. In addition to this we have a number of projects bubbling under the surface that will offer much more than traditional PR. So the final result is: Persona Creative: Digital, Brand, Media What do you think?

I'm a sceptic and am unconvinced about marketing communications.

To be perfectly honest, we don't try to convince sceptics about what we do. We've spent many years learning how to market and communicate on behalf of our clients and we've come to understand that the only way we add value is if our clients appreciate what we do and are willing to work closely with us. If you are sceptical about using a marketing agency such as Persona Creative, then there is other forms of support you can gain from organisations who can supply services on-demand in a commodity form. If you are frustrated with your marketing activity not being effective and are open minded about how to turn that around, speak to our team on 0115 948 4454 and we'll be happy to work with you.

I'm a marketing professional and am evaluating suppliers.

Because our services and skills span multiple channels to market, we believe we make a great marketing agency to work with as a supplier or partner. As your organisation grows, working with Persona Creative becomes more valuable over time. You can be confident that the services and advice we provide is unbiased, because we don't need to push any particular service to our clients. We simply work on the strategy and projects that will benefit you. A typical scenario: As an established organisation, you are looking to actively promote what you do. With limited time and budget, you need independent marketing advice, compliment your in-house capability and use suppliers who can deliver the projects - but only when you're confident of it's value. You've tired it in the past and maybe even had your fingers burned by suppliers who have rocked your confidence when outsourcing. Persona Creative can slot in easily to provide strategic account management to help you develop your marketing plans. We can work with you to plan opportunities through digital channels, brand development and media platforms. We don't charge for our account management, so you can be comfortable of spending time with us to define your action plan without being committed to a spend level. When you and your team are happy with how to deliver your strategy, we can undertake the projects needed with a full understanding of what is expected from them and what budgets are available to achieve it. That way, there is no need to worry about your agency overcharging or trying to push ideas you simply don't need. If this sounds like the scenario you are in, call our client team on 0115 948 4454 to chat through how we could work together

I'm a brand manager and need to spend less and achieve more.

You and your team have an established brand and proposition that needs to grow to the next level, but because you're responsible for protecting the integrity and equity in your brand, finding suppliers you can trust is not something that can be taken lightly. It's a tough remit to have - not only do you need to increase marketing activity, you need to reduce costs, ensure quality and improve results. To throw yet another thorn into your side, online and digital marketing is growing faster than ever, yet paid search and advertising is getting more expensive; supply and demand is starting to work against the brand owners and in favour of the media owners - just like traditional above the line media. At Persona Creative, we're fully equipped in talent and facilities to be able to cover all your marcomms requirements. We can handle anything from e-marketing to brand publicity and media exposure. Most importantly though, we work with an audience focus at all times, so we don't prioritise our own creative over the message that needs to be communicated. Our working practices have been developed over years of experience working at global advertising, publishing and digital agencies. We deliver projects on time and budget and our base costs are far lower than other agencies, because we have less protocol and overhead to cover. Quite simply, when you work with Persona Creative you get more for your budget as well as gain a creative partner who genuinely grows your brand with you. Set us a test and we guarantee we can deliver. Speak to the team on 0115 948 4454 and make 2006 the year marketing proved its' value to your organisation.

I'm a small business owner/manager and need to improve our marketing.

When you're directly responsible for creating, managing and growing your business - it can often seem the world is trying it's best to stop you doing it. We know what it's like. Not only have we created Persona Creative from the ground up, we've worked with many small and growing businesses over the years who need support not exploitation. That's why our services have been designed to be of value on your business plan, not direct cost. We work closely with business owners and managers to understand what you're trying to do and then use our skills and experience to help you plan how to do it. With a clear picture of costs and expectations, both our clients and us can get on with delivering results. We don't look to do one off projects, but rather create long term relationships so that as our clients grow, our relationship as a supplier or partner grows with it. If you need to have additional help and resources available to market your proposition, talk to the team on 0115 948 4454 and we'd be happy to spend some time with you.

Vacancy: ASP.NET & SQL Web developer - Contract/Freelance

We're looking for a contract or freelance web developer to work on an exciting project we are launching.

Core skills you must have:

• ASP.NET (using C#, not VB.NET)
• SQL Server development (Database design and stored procs)
• HTML & CSS

The project will involve development of a simple content database and web forms to add and edit records. In addition to this, a user login system will be need to be created for accessing members only pages on the site.

Please do not apply if your skills are in JSP, CGI, MYSQL or PHP as we won't be using these technologies.

Starting in mid February, the project will be based at our studio in Nottingham city centre. We have Microsoft Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, SQL Server and development and staging web servers all ready to use. We also have Visual SourceSafe in place for version control. Any experience you have using this type of development environment will be a bonus.

Make sure you send us example URL's of web projects you have developed, including details of your specific involvement.

To apply for this contract, send details of your availability and contract/freelance rate to careers@personacreative.com

2006 Freelance Roster

We're opening our roster for freelance creatives for 2006, so if you are a talented individual in any of the following areas - get in touch with us on careers@personacreative.com Digital

• Flash animation & Actionscript
• Web design
• ASP.NET & SQL
• HTML & CSS (Standards compliant)

Brand

• Graphic design
• Desktop publishing
• Illustration

Media

• Copywriting
• Public relations
• Account managers

All freelance applications should include examples of your work, details of your daily / hourly rates and a confirmation that you can work at our Nottingham city centre studio.

The freelance roster will be closed at the end of March 2006.

you might find the following information useful when applying

http://blog.personacreative.com/2006/01/whats-it-like-to-work-at-persona.html

http://blog.personacreative.com/2006/01/guidance-for-applicants.html

Blink and you've missed it

An interesting post on the BBC today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4616700.stm

The research done here shows how important the aesthetics of a web site are in terms of instant impact and trust. With most of us only scan-reading web sites and advanced users (and purchasers!) skipping from site to site quickly, I don't find the results that surprising at all.

Getting a good result in a test like this will no doubt rely heavily on colour theory and contrasts, so these are very important factors when designing a site. Usability guidelines don't go far enough to ensure quality in this area, but it's a start.

The next step is to make sure your designer knows what he's doing!

Stop Press....Stop Press...

PR is the vehicle for the spoken and written word of the business community. It communicates current newsworthy items which are best suited to column inches in publications or broadcasting, online or offline - it's a great way to enjoy exposure and it also generates ongoing public interest. Here at Persona we know that PR is an integral part of a campaign activity and that's why it's our third discipline. No matter how good the product or service, without press exposure a campaign is only half complete. Our agency is unlike most; your campaign will enjoy the benefit of the combined experience of the account team, which means we can bounce ideas off one another to find the most effective way of communicating not just with your audience but also with the press. Our expertise spans both publication genres - trade and mainstream press. We have the knowledge and experience to author different styles of copy which will attract editors of both press platforms and have established our own contact through press release distribution. We know the best way to approach the press, what stories they are looking for and we know how to make their lives easier. We do this by producing well written copy which requires very little or no editing. By using us means your story will be read and considered for publication because we have a great relationship with the press on a number of levels. If you are serious about seeing your company in print regularly, then you need to talk to us.

Vacancy: Flash & Web designer

We're growing our creative team and as such we're looking for a talented designer with the following skills:

- Flash animation and interactivity - Hand coding HTML & CSS - Photoshop & Image Ready (We use CS2 here) - Dreamweaver MX / 8

Bonus points will be awarded if you also have the following skills:

- Actionscript - Basic ASP.NET - Compliant HTML & CSS

You'll get to work on great client projects as well as develop our web site and internal sales projects. We're looking for a friendly and ambitious person, who can join our close-knit team in Nottingham quickly. You will work in close partnership with one of our existing designers as well as be given art direction and copy support from the senior team members.

In order to apply, you will have to have live URL's of your work to show; otherwise you won't be considered. The work should be from clients you've worked on, but we'll consider your own projects and university work if it is of exceptionally high standard.

We're looking to bring somebody on quickly, so send us your CV, salary expectations, URL's and a covering email telling us about your personality and we'll set up an immediate, but informal interview without delay.

Send your application to careers@personacreative.com

Buying from people v's buying from brands

These slides are taken from a seminar I delivered to The Marketing Group. I had great feedback for this as a visual way of describing the idea of using brand as an extention to your selling ability and so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Viral Email - how it works

Not to be confused with the transmitting of malicious code, viral marketing is ideally suited to e-mail. By creating content that attracts viewers instantly and encourages them to forward it to their 'inner-circle' can be a highly effective way to boost response rates in your direct campaigns. Because we think visually, we created this simple animation as part of a client pitch to explain how it works.

What's it like to work at Persona?

We're a fast-moving and forward-thinking agency. As a group of specialists we work together to deliver project work beyond client's expectations, you'll be engaged in a number of projects at any one time, where managing your time and working to very tight deadlines is paramount and still being able to produce your very best piece of work every time. What you can expect from us is a great working atmosphere, plenty of variety (as two days are never the same), continual learning and lots of social nights out! We're not nine to fivers as this industry is 24 - 7; it's certainly an exciting and a most interesting profession to be involved in and those who work with us must share the same ambition and enjoy life as much as us! Comments from the team: "I've been working for Persona for a year and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I can't believe where the time has gone, it feels like I've been here for years!

Headway - The Brain Injury Association

About the Client Headway, the Brain Injury Association is a charitable organisation offering support and information to those directly and indirectly affected by brain injury. The central office is based in Nottingham and is where the charity co-ordinates much of it communication through media, publications and advertising campaigns. Headway's regional groups and branches provide support, information and guidance to those who are in need of daily respite care for brain injury survivors, their families and carers; located nationwide each group or branch develops its' own individual activities with local people in response to local needs. Our Brief Headway's communications department had created concepts for a highly visual poster to hightlight the charity's Brain Injury Awareness Week in March 2006. The poster will be displayed in high visibilty areas such as Accident and Emergency departments, Doctor's surgeries, church halls, Headway House Centres and Headway charity shops. The concepts whilst strong, did not make the most of the opportunity the awareness will provide and so we were asked to produce alternative concepts; firstly to give additional art direction to the campaign and also to prove our ability before a commission was given to us. Brain injury affects people differently be it physically, mentally and emotionally. With this in mind, careful consideration had to be given to the sensitive subject matter; paying particular attention to the use of copy and the style of imagery used. The Execution We consideration a number of alternative approaches to the brief. We presented Headway with 5 concepts, each with a different tone and illustrative style. The concepts included the use of a jigsaw puzzle for symbolism as well as more artisitic graphics with a Picasso influence. The concepts were presented at a regional marketing meeting and the winning result was a very crisp vector illustrated style, using multiple cogs and silhouettes to represented the change of personality and function brain injury can have.

Wireless Gurus

About the client When a team of highly experienced IT professionals got together to create a mobile information services company, something special was started in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. With an ever growing team of engineers, Wireless Gurus plan and implement mobile connectivity solutions on Blackberry and Windows Mobile on both the server and client end. In addition to this specialist service, they offer the full range of IT services such as structured cabling, network design and management and technical support and consultancy. Our brief Despite being a new venture, the experience and skills within the team at Wireless Gurus are more than capable of punching above their weight. They needed a brand identity and communications strategy that would position them firmly as a player in their niche, as well as show that they were a professional outfit. We were tasked with creating a logo style that would transmit the 'wireless' focus in a clear design as well as defining a colour palette that would be non-intrusive to their corporate audience. We created the logo by manipulating the typeface to add shape and complimented it with a bold red; moving away from the highly over-used blue tones in IT brands, but still being enough of a corporate statement to get noticed. We also created a miniature version of the logo as 'WG', giving room for the company's future products and services to be branded. We then designed a web site that has high visual impact, yet a navigation structure that suits their core content. Moving forward, we are tasked with managing their PR and industry communications as well as a number of development projects.

Anglia Self Storage

About the client With a self explanatory name, our client is a new entrant into the domestic and commercial storage market, with the first site based in Lincoln, East Anglia. Using industrial containers at an easy access city location, the no-frill service was conceptualised to make using storage easy for the local community. Our brief We were approached by Anglia Self Storage to create a brand identity for them that would help differentiate them in the industry. With an emphasis on personal and accessible service, the brand needed to carry those values through visually. With an identity in place, we'd execute that in the service literature and customer brochures as well as outdoor signage, stationery and a web presence.

Guest Speaker at The Marketing Group

Back in November, Hammad our Creative Director took to the stage at The Marketing Group explaining that product, brand and sales development isn't just for major organisations, but for smaller ones too! Carefully considered planning can produce effective communication campaigns; make one of your New Year's Resolutions to get your company noticed!

Launching a Brand

The Mortgage Business Expo at Earl's Court in London has established itself as one of the leading events in the mortgage calendar with 200 exhibitors; the 2005 event attracted 4,846 visitors compared with 4,250 on the previous year, with a 9% increase making it another record for the show. Visitors included lenders, networks, clubs, packagers, technology and legal companies. It was imperative for our client to have a big impact to stand out amidst such illustrious neighbours. Using a stand positioned directly opposite their competition to our advantage, rather than a disadvantage, CasePRO dominated the show thanks to our striking design. Rather than going down the pop-up screen route, the usual cost effective but not effective approach. We were challenged to make innovative use of the small 3X4m space scheme and by using light boxes to highlight the brand, plasma screens to animate the demo and a specially commissioned kiosk from which to test drive the software. Exhibiting at a show is a great platform to showcase the launch of a new product, brand or even just to maintain your market position. We've visited plenty of exhibitions to know that playing safe isn't effective enough. Stand design needn't be complicated, but the key to attracting new and existing ones is to be different as your exhibition stand is a representation of your business. Wowing attendees at the show, our client's unique exhibition stand attracted a whopping 300% increase of visitors - much to the delight of the CasePRO team!

Custom branding photo shoot

We were commissioned to undertake a branding project, which for the second part of it required imagery. Having brand illustration means the service or product can be put into context and conveys a stronger message to its' audience. The imagery would be implemented into corporate literature and communication, the web site and advertising campaigns.

We looked for ways to illustrate the brand using commercial stock photography. We found rights' managed or royalty free imagery either too expensive, unable to maniuplate creatively or control its' availability. Comparing the difference between commercial photography and our own photographic shoot, bespoke photography turned out to be cheaper as well as giving us full control means that CasePRO investing in an image library has increased its' brand equity. Because the delivery of this imagery had to be of top quality, we needed a principal photographer capable of capturing our art direction. In an exciting collaboration, we were able to use our partnership with world renowned master of photography Maz of Leicester; whose credentials include the only Asian and 5th European photographer to have achieved the accolade of Master of Photography from the Professional Photographersâ?? Association of America. Synonymous in the photographic industry with creativity, visual excellence and the ability to create art through a lens, the one day shoot captured over 300 high quality images for use throughout the CasePRO material, with differing scene and object setups being used to add variety in the image library. Check out our handiwork on http://www.casepro.co.uk/ .

Predictions

So what's going to fly this year? Our three hot tips for the year are:

• An all out explosion in 3G Mobile Marketing. Everybody is talking about it. Everybody involved with marketing is watching this space very closely. With sales of 3G devices up by 150% since the beginning of 2005, with the latter half of the year seeing a further 50% growth this new wave of marketing via mobile technology is set to soar.
• The rise and rise of Ethical Marketing and Ethical Consumerism really is climbing the ladder of conscience, over the last year we've heard of plenty of reasons why. It's one that we'll all be embracing and reacting to - mark my words.
• And of course the giant of Online Marketing is set to continue to grow. However, some some search engines are implementing fines or hiking the cost of PPC fee for poor or inaccurate landing pages. Make sure yours is up to the required standard to avoid being penalised.

Contact Persona Creative

Our studio is in the city centre of Nottingham. You can get to us easily from any of the Nottingham M1 Junctions (24, 25, 26) by following signs for city centre. We're also a short walk from the mainline train station and city tram stops. Our full address and contact details are: 5 King Edward Court King Edward Street Nottingham NG1 1EW Tel: 0115 948 4454 Email: team@personacreative.com A map to our studio is below. We have parking on site for visitors, so no need to worry about paying for city parking.

New Persona Creative Web Site Goes Live!

To document our achievements, we've developed, designed and deployed our new web site which has a number of new areas to explore and visit as well as revamping existing ones. We've retained the Big 3 - Digital, Brand & Media ; we've also introduced our client portfolio and a Blog. Rather than having lots of pages to wade through that could invariably be overlooked, we've decided to use a Blog to post our press activity and white papers, along with client concepts and ideas. As the Blog is live, you'll be able to check the regularity of our projects, activities and keep up to date with the latest trends and news. In addition the Blog will be illustrated, so there'll be plenty to look at as well! Best thing about having a Blog? With content being added regularly, search performance is greatly improved - no need to keep changing that Meta Content every 5 minutes....

3D Site maps

Many of us have seen a tree-diagram representing a web site structure. Pretty logical and a process we use in the early stages of planning. No need to reinvent the wheel right? Well, having a wheel is all well and good, but we've defined a technique of adding another dimension to a web site map; think of it as the axel that joins the wheels together.

When browsing a web site, most of us rarely navigate top-down through the main navigation. We move side-to-side; going on tangents as the content, layout and visuals stimulate our behaviour. After all, it's an interactive medium isn't it?

By planning this lateral movement through a web site, we can define a user journey and design layouts and content to encourage browsing viewers to move around a site in a way that matches the information they seek. Different audiences you cater for can have their own user journeys planned and the investment you make in your web site can be further justified by increasing your average number of pages per visit.

Anatomy of an email

Working on an email campaign recently, we got into conversations with our client about the logic used in designing an effective layout. There are many ways you can design email layouts, but one simple structure we've put together can be seen here in a wire frame.

Hopefully, it makes it a bit easier to see how content can be broken up to dedicate screen real estate to priority content and keep the balance between information, structure and calls to action well balanced.

Guidance for applicants

At the present time, we are unable to sponsor or help arrange work permits or visas. In order to work at Persona Creative, you must be authorised to work here either as a citizen of the UK or EU.

If applying for any of our positions, please let us know your current working status, salary and notice period. If you are not from the Nottingham area, please also tell us your intended travel arrangements.

Applicants without this information will not be short listed or contacted.

Guidance for recruitment consultants

We are looking for professional recruitment consultants who can assist us in growing our team. Typical positions we may use agents for include:

• Graphic designers
• Web designers (HTML & CSS)
• Web developers (Microsoft technology only)
• Key account managers (creative agency backgrounds)
• Copywriters
• Creative service project managers

Criteria for suppliers

To be considered for our shortlist, you must send us the following information.

• Short executive summary of your company and services.
• An outline of your recruitment process.
• A candidate testimonial - this must be from somebody placed in a creative position or within a creative agency.
• A client testimonial - this must be from a creative services or media organisation you have placed a candidate at.
• Details of your commercial proposition and costs.

Note: Applications without the above information will be rejected by default.

Interested parties can submit their intended services by 31 March 2006. The supplier list will be effective until the end of 2006.

Overview of studio facilities

Data centre Super-quick Internet connection Large format proofing In-house photographic studio

Compare us to other agencies

Our team has worked in many places; everything from a small publishing houses to global advertising agencies. We've had to work in environments where we've been restricted in what we can offer clients because of the services of the agency. We've also worked in full service corporations that offer so many things that administration process becomes a bottleneck for creative thinking. That's why the structure of Persona Creative has been designed to offer a flexible combination of Digital, Brand and Media services that is accessible to every size of client and budget. We can deliver the same level of quality and service to a global brand leader as we can to a small local business. Our commercial model is at a price point that is comparative to a single service creative supplier and more than 50% less than large agencies. Our business model allows us to deliver our services cost effectively to clients, whilst still operating a profitable business for our team. Because we don't have to push a particular product or service, our advice and account strategy is unbiased. We simply help plan and deliver projects that add value. The diagram here is lifted straight out of our business plan and shows exactly how we compare to other agencies throughout the UK. Thankfully our clients agree that we've got the balance right, so we intend to continue this winning formula for a very long time.

Super-quick interweb

We're one of a lucky handful of companies in Nottingham to be given a 4MB SDSL wi-band connection for our Internet. In English, that means our datacentre has a 4MB upload and 4MB download speed at all times; which is far superior to broadband (which is only fast to download). To make it even better, the connection has a 1:1 contention ratio - meaning we don't share our bandwidth with anybody else. Of course, just to be on the safe side, we have a redundant 8MB broadband too as well as a couple of ISDN channels. Using iTunes just got interesting... ... Erm, I mean, back to work!

On site parking

Did you know that unlike nearly all other creative service companies in Nottingham city centre (and most other city centre's for that matter!), we have ample free parking for our visitors, making it easy for you to come and discuss ideas, attend account meetings or pop over to join us for a social after work. Our choice to be in the city centre was for the benefit of our clients, not just so we can try and be flash. So true to our word, you can come to Persona HQ anytime without having to worry about the parking meter, the wardens or the queue at the car parks.

Massive investment in our IT

As of late 2005, we have upgraded the servers in our in-house datacentre to quad Intel Pentium Xeon processors; each having a minimum of 2GB of memory.

Our servers all run RAID5 for performance and security and are all on hot-swappable drives to reduce downtime when making changes. Each server has three redundant power supplies as well as UPS and tape backup. The network that these servers power is a fully integrated Active Directory, based on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and the .NET Framework. Core applications servers include:

• Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 (Intranet & extranets)
• Project Server 2003 (Centralised project and resource management)
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management and workflow)
• Exchange Server 2003 (Internal, Web and Mobile mail and scheduling)
• Visual SourceSafe & Adobe Version Cue (Version control and document workflow)
• IIS 6.0 (Development, Staging and Live web servers)

In-house large format proofing

Whilst we are not a printers (nor do we intend to be), we produce lots of work for reprographic purposes on behalf of our clients. By having colour accurate proofing onsite, we can produce conceptual artwork and final proofs for our clients without involving print houses. This means we can turn around jobs faster than most other creative agencies and reduce problems later in the process. We evaluated the usual suspects when it comes to suppliers and technologies, and have invested in Epson UltraChrome K3 large format proofing. We now have a calibrated proof printer, complete with RIP that can handle up to A2+ cut sheet and 17" x 100' roll media; including film, gloss, matt and textured papers. Complimented with another A3 Epson, both printers work to Postscript Level 3 and are supported by dedicated crop and mounting space within the studio.

In-house photography studio gets underway

We've started converting half of our ground floor office space into a photographic studio to make full use of our skills on all our work without being restricted by lack of shoot space. Because we won't need to rely on third party studios, we'll be able to save valuable time and cost for ourselves and our clients. We're now fully equipped with soft box lighting, synchronised flash guns, umbrellas, large format backdrops and the latest digital SLR Nikon cameras and lenses. With this capability under our roof, we are now able to take direct commissions of desktop product/object photography as well as portrait work. To make things even easier, we have model changing facilities, storage and ample parking with ground-level loading. It's all very exciting!

Track record of the team

We're often asked about our backgrounds by our clients, suppliers and generally nosey people. So, we thought we'd put some of the basics down for everybody to read. Creative Director As head of the agency, our creative director has been working on the front end of creative delivery for 10 years. Throughout that time, he has remained focused on practical design, rather than just the visual aesthetic and has developed many of the techniques used in Persona for planning, producing and managing creative workflow. With a background heavily influenced by technology; for over three years, he was part of a key R&D team working on innovations in consumer e-commerce; winning an award from Microsoft along the way. He has worked on site with brand leaders in the UK, North America and mainland Europe. He has also spent a number of years working in project and team management, mentoring resources and developing their skills. From this he moved into a more account management focus, growing relationships with clients through strategic planning and advice. To the envy of many, he brings with him a history of working for some of the best brands in the world. At Persona, our creative director heads up our art direction and turns commercial propositions from clients into deliverable results from the team. Production Director Our production director has a BA (hons) in media arts and broadcasting, which she gained in London. From there, she spent time working in graphic design for an IT vendor before taking a hiatus to gain a masters from the University of Nottingham. Since then, she has racked up a huge amount of experience managing production and communications projects in travel and recruitment before moving into creative services. Working on the agency side, she has effectively managed client accounts as well as production teams within a design and build web agency and prior to co-founding Persona Creative was a producer for one of the worlds largest advertising agencies; working on brand execution and customer loyalty projects for their key account. At Persona, we have her invaluable operations knowledge being used to manage the creative team, ensuring timescales are planned and delivered properly and that quality and budgets are controlled at all times. Marketing Manager After studying in the south of the country, our marketing manager has spent time in London and the south coast working in publishing, marketing and event management for a number of organisations. A key figure in establishing a B2B publication, her experience in forging client relationships that last is second to none. As well as being the lifeblood of the team, she is central to our marketing analysis and result reporting capability.

Why we started Persona Creative

Our team has had a good run so far; having worked with some great people and some great brands. We've enjoyed delivering top-quality projects on time and on budget - and the buzz you get off that is something you get hooked on. It's been a great time learning our trade and knowing how to add value to an organisation through creativity and communication. But that's not what gave us the motivation to go it alone. It was the other times spent working in creative services when we saw projects go to hell, profits out the window and clients and team members alike go out of their minds. Most of this was down to bad management; and I can tell you that watching a creative agency go to waste because of bureaucratic process is like watching something beautiful die a slow death. Having seen the good and the bad sides, we gained the confidence to define a business model that would work. We set out to establish an agency that was flexible in it's business processes, so that creativity is never compromised and clients get the quality and service they pay professional rates for. By having an agency that could operate profitably on project results, rather than throughput - we think we've created a unique style of professional creative services that simply doesn't allow for red-tape to influence decisions. As an additional benefit, we thought that by having an agency that had such a structure, we'd be able to create a working environment that suits creative people like designers and copywriters perfectly; letting them come up with excellent results, without restricting them with process and profits. With such a tempting dream in sight, we were ready to quit our jobs and start to live the rest of our lives.

British Heart Foundation

Our Client The British Heart Foundation is the leading UK charity fighting heart and circulatory disease - the UK's biggest killer. Raising money for the charity means this much needed research can continue and with the ongoing promotion of healthy living will help to reduce the risk of heart disease. In order to keep the research funded the British Heart Foundation conducts year long fundraising campaigns, some of which are at national level whilst others are specific for each region's needs. Those participating in fundraising are from different sectors of the community such as schools & groups, friends & relatives and businesses; some have chosen to get involved with fundraising activities because they have been affected by heart disease, or have decided to choose the British Heart Foundation as their charity of the year, or simply because they want to keep fit and it's fun to do! The events in which many of these people participate include: organised jogs and fun runs, bike rides, marathons and trekking - taking place here in the UK and abroad. Raising awareness of such events is proving to extremely competitive as local and national charities are all jostling for pole postion to get in front of potential sponsors, donors and fundraisers. Our Brief Our Account Manager had a previous relationship with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), having worked on published advertising campaigns. Following an introduction to Persona Creative (at our launch party in early 2005), we were approached by Region Five of the charity to help them open up communications within the business community. The BHF have excellent relationship with the local community, but they wanted to reach people in their professional lives; in particular large teams and businesses who could become corporate charity sponsors. We discussed ways of targeting this audience and using electronic media was the agreed to be the most effective method. The brief set by the BHF was to design and send rich HTML email campaigns to businesses to encourage business owners and their employees to take part in a sponsored jog along Castle Wharf in Nottingham and at Graves Park in Sheffield. As part of the creative, we needed to adhere to the well established visual identity of the British Heart Foundation. The Delivery When we started to design the email campaign we considered a number of factors which we knew to be of importance in it reaching the audience effectively. Firstly we produced an email which fitted exactly into the reading pane of popular email clients such as Microsoft Outlook - this is crucial as emails which require unnecessary scrolling loses the interest of the recipient and results in it not being read and ultimately deleted. We produced the email with the images being downloaded by the recipient after its' reached the appropriate inbox. This was to avoid unnecessarily clogging up users' inboxes and to circumvent spam filters as much as possible. By sourcing localised data for the campaign, we were able to personalise the subject line as well as the body copy of the email. This helps to improve the unique click rates and return click rates. We know this because as part of our service we use a mail management system which reports on the success of such campaigns, these reports provide details specifying hard and soft bounces once again measuring its' success. We can also detect the varying levels of website traffic before, during and after the campaign, as we include the domain name address of the company on the email to encourage further interest. To this end we are able to monitor the accuracy of this campaign with the response the client received within a matter of hours, this is a much more controlled and measurable way of conducting a marketing exercise, which led to the British Heart Foundation to use us again for another campaign elsewhere in the East Midlands region.

It's January, let's get depressed!

Did you you know that Tuesday 24th January is now regarded as the most depressing day of the year and it's clearly becoming a calendar milestone in it's own right? The professed day of misery even has a formula, which in theory helps us to understand why we have adopted this state of mind. Here comes the science bit: (Cue Jennifer "L'Oreal" Aniston) "The formula reads, 1/8W + (D-d)3/8XTQ MXNA." Even though we're not of Lab Rat extraction the formula seems relatively easy to equate; where W is weather, D is debt - minus the money (d) due on January's pay day - and T is the time since Christmas. Q is the period since the failure to quit a bad habit, M = motivational levels and NA is need to take action and do something about it. Simple. Here at Persona we love the New Year, there is just so much to look forward to:

• The days start to get ever so slightly longer and the nights shorter.
• Spring isn't that far away.
• Marketing budgets are set for the year!
• We're all able to focus and start afresh

Anyone fancy a bevvy?

New Year's Resolutions

It's fantastic to start the New Year with great intentions and we're no exception. With our first year under our belt we've been working on a number of projects to start 2006 with a bang. Predictably, our New Year's Resolutions aren't much different to those of other businesses; but just so that you know, our top three are:

• Help grow and develop our client's businesses
• Grow and develop existing client's accounts
• Win more clients

2006 promises to be a very exciting year here at Persona HQ.

Stay tuned.