• Cover all of the entry criteria to give the judges a full picture of your campaign
• Provide a separate application for each category – you can enter as many as you wish!
• Stand out from the crowd and get creative!
• Include testimonials and feedback as part of your supporting material
• Submit your entry online, don’t send separate hard copies

For the latest information, details about the categories and to enter, visit www.wimawards.co.uk

You can also visit the Women in Marketing pages on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In to keep up with the latest news.

Have you heard about the Linked In group for London members? It’s getting a lot of attention from members and plenty of discussions have been springing up daily, so it’s well worth a look.

The group is an online addition to the popular Meet with Drinks networking events that take place every month across the capital. So now, you can keep in touch between events and start topical discussions with like-minded marketers.

When you arrive on the Linked In website, you’ll need to search for the group called Meet with Drinks – Network for London Marketers and request to join. It’s that simple and you’ll be in touch with a whole host of opportunities to make good connections within your industry. What are you waiting for!

The Prostate Cancer Charity Marketing Industry Triathlon

The Prostate Cancer Charity Marketing Industry Triathlon is an event held specifically for those in the marketing and communications industries. As The Prostate Cancer Charity is the charity partner of The Chartered Institute of Marketing Greater London Region, it would be great for members to get involved.

Held in the beautiful setting of Dorney Lake at Windsor, the site of the 2012 Olympic Rowing Venue, this is an opportunity for you to take on your rivals in the marketing world.

Dorney Lake, Windsor. The site of the 2012 Olympic Rowing Venue.

Taking place on the 2 July, you can enter as an individual or in a relay as part of a team.

John Lunt, Managing Director of Human Race, the event organisers, says “This is a celebration of the marketing world through sport. Get involved at this fantastic venue!”

 This is a great networking opportunity for the marketing world to unite in healthy, fierce competition. The event is aimed at all levels of competitor, from complete novices to more seasoned triathletes, so there are different levels of difficulty for varying abilities.

Get involved!

If you would like more information about this event and how to sign up, please visit our website.

The Prostate Cancer Charity is the title sponsor and official charity of this event. Please sign up and get involved and help support the fight against prostate cancer.

(C) Jakub Hlavat

This was the title for a talk I went to at the ICA last week, about the human instinct towards storytelling and how we react to stories when we’re overwhelmed by narratives.  And these days, stories are all around us.

Individuals, brands, politics and organisations use stories to construct, distract, disrupt, persuade and position.  Why?  Because everyone loves a good story!  It’s one of the ways we make sense of the world and our place in it.  Stories capture our imagination.  They elicit an emotional response.  Stories can literally make us believe.

But how do you tell a good story if you’re creating it for a brand or a cause?

Keep it real – Use your imagination and creativity (it makes a story interesting), but be authentic.  Remember – a true story is easy to tell, but living a lie is hard work.  To make others believe, you’ve got to believe it yourself.  If your story feels like a good fit, it’s more likely to resonate with your audience.

Tempting timing – With the web and increasingly the mobile web, it’s easy to get your story out there and out there fast.  It can be tempting to get the word out there before your first chapter is finished.  Don’t be the 20-year old Z list celebrity who publishes an autobiography after a year of fame.

Pick the perfect place – Your story is important to you, but imagine you’re one story in a library full of them.  It’s not just how you tell it, it’s where you place it.  Don’t expect a 10-year old child to find your fairytale, if it’s on the shelf with the self-help books.  It sounds obvious, but it’s crucial.  Is your story suited to a TV appearance, a trade show or Twitter?  It could be all three.  Be aware of where your audience is.

Get people involved – A good story gets great when it’s shared.  When someone hears a story and likes it, they pass it on.  It could be a story about a brand.  It could be a story about a cause.  That story will change when it’s shared, as people make it their own.

Some great stories: Marmite, the Mini Cooper, Band Aid, Barack Obama.

Next time you’re faced with a new product or campaign, consider a story to make people believe.

Ade Onilude, Event Organiser

Finally I’ve been inspired by the amazing women I’ve met since conception of the Women in Marketing event in 2004. From the team who represent the various branches of the Greater London Region, to the speakers and distinguished guests we’ve had over the 5 events. My greatest inspiration has been the attendees – some who have become friends, so launching the awards is for them.

The winners will be announced when you join us for a glamorous ceremony with distinguished guests, in November at the May Fair Hotel, London. You are still welcome to attend if you have not entered the awards. Download a brochure for more information about the Awards, and we look forward to receiving your entry – good luck!

Ade Onilude, Event Organiser.

Hi there!

We are well and truly into autumn now and it’s still dark at 5.30am now so harder to get out of bed in the mornings! But life is ticking along here down under.

For today’s update I thought I would give you an insight into the marketing industry here in Brisbane at the moment.

Marketing – smart recruitment or not?
On a marketing front things are slowly picking up work and employment wise but it is still proving a difficult nut to crack for marketing peeps out of work especially for those with many years of experience. It’s very much an employer’s market which is great for employers but not for people trying to get jobs. I would imagine it is the same in London?

Many people that I know are actually taking lower level jobs simply to pay the bills and what this is producing is very happy employers but not necessarily employees! Why you may ask…well my theory is they figure that they can get someone completely over qualified for a position which means they are not only filling the position but are then hiring someone that they can tap into for their higher level expertise, all for the grand cost of a lower level salary.

Will this backfire?

What about the employee?

As soon as the market picks up I am sure that employees will be on the lookout for bigger and better things that match their experience more. This then means that the company that originally thought they were smart in their recruitment strategy will have to recruit again.

I spoke to Victoria Pickard, Marketing & Communications Agent at Aquent an international recruitment consultancy about the current market situation for marketers, in relation to employees with a lot of experience working in lower level roles. Victoria said:

“Not only will these employees be the first to move as soon as the market picks up, there can be a number of other negative impacts. For one, if someone is reporting to a staff member who does not match or exceed their experience, this can cause frustration and dissatisfaction amongst the team. The detrimental effects of reporting to a supervisor who has less experience can impact on everyone. It can also lead to the new employee going above their immediate supervisor’s head, which in turn disrupts the reporting structure, and can leave existing staff feeling under appreciated.”

She continues “It may be an employer’s market, however cutting costs in recruitment, can often lead to short term fixes, and long term issues. Investing in a new employee costs both time and money, and if they are only accepting the role as a short term fix whilst looking for a more suitable role, it can end up costing the employer far more than expected. Using a specialist agency at least provides some safety net to employers in securing a replacement, should this happen.”

For more information, Tim McNamara also an agent at Aquent recently wrote an article about employee retention which you may find interesting.

Bye for now! Zoe Gell

Well what a weekend it has been. I went to the coast up to Bunderburg and my husband and I got caught in all the Tsunami warnings for South East Queensland. So on the way home we drove inland and discovered some tiny towns that we never even knew existed such as Goomeri – the winner of the ‘neatest town’ award, Ban Ban Springs which I got excited about and then discovered there were no springs, and Nanago which was a very small country town and made me feel like I was really in the outback!

The latest news in Australia hot off the press at the moment is that Kmart has decided it wants to go against tradition and open on Anzac Day which is a memorial day that Aussies take very seriously over here – so there is a public outcry at the moment. It will be interesting to see how it affects their brand in the long term.

Australian market recovery
Things are looking up here in Australia economy wise with Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens recently reporting that Australia’s economy is stronger after the GFC which is very positive – see the article for more details.  In addition Stephen Long of ABC News recently reported that Australia is showing encouraging signs of economic strength, with new figures showing a 5.5 per cent increase in new business investment in the final quarter of last year. See link. At the end of his article Long remarks that the Reserve Bank is worried that Australia is entering a new economic upturn with spare capacity.