Marketing Workshop

2010-05-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

Location: Design Centre - Islington...
I'm not great at 9.00am on Saturday mornings, but that was the only time the team could meet up, and with a looming launch date, there were no other options. Fortunately, Alex didn't just bring 'Post Its' and flipcharts, so it wasn't all bad!

First we had a gentle 'Warm-up'. Hmmm pink sticky notes for me - this could be a really long day. The initial brainstorm was useful and helped us all reflect on our own perceptions of Geoware Media, and warmed us up for the more grueling tasks ahead!

Making up our 'think tank' for the day was Leyla (Business Analyst and Software Engineer), Alex (Head of Marketing), and John and myself (between us we make the tea and coffee, and do a bit photocopying). Luckily for John he stayed behind the camera for the day, so no shots of him ;(

Our initial warm-up was v. useful. One of our activities involved us defining our product in just one word. Between the four of us we came up with: 'local' (x2), 'uncomplicated', and 'quality'. Not surprisingly 'local' cropped up repeatedly throughout the day!

Before long we got stuck into the tasks for the day, which included looking at key business objectives and branding, to name a few. Sheet after sheet was filled and pinned up round the room. At one point Alex ended up on her knees cramming as much as she could onto each successive page!

The crunch session was working on the Geoware brand; clarifying our discriminating truths, through to the 'essence'. It made a nice change from getting bogged down in the macro details, as can so easily be the case. Even though were were all clear what the strengths of our sites are: no advertising, well designed, feature packed with classified and networking tools, it wasn't easy to define the essence. In the days following, it was revised and refined until we ended up with 'Supporting Local Life Online'. Not that it's something that will appear on all our sites, but it helps keep us focused on what we're about.

With 18 high quality geo-domains, including Wolverhampton.co.uk, Exeter.co.uk, Coventry.co.uk, Nottingham.co.uk, Swansea.co.uk and Southampton.co.uk, we had to also think about which would be key sites to focus our time and energy on in pre-launch marketing. All 18 city sites were pinned up, and then the 'post it' match-up began. 1=highest priority, 5 = least. Good fun, and interesting to see how the team valued some of the geo domains, and the locations they represented. I found it hard not to be biased! Well, I've owned Cardiff.co.uk for 10 years, but Plymouth.co.uk was my largest investment! (and yes, they both made it into my top 5!)

As we wound up the meeting, I found I could hardly move - let alone get out of my chair. Was it the excitement of our first marketing workshop and the possibilities ahead, or the fact that I was completely mentally drained? It was then pointed out that I'd eaten my way through all 8 of the croissants (the complete bag in fact.). Surprisingly enough, I haven't been able to face one since!

Geoware Media Ltd

Marketing Workshop