We know that London is a talented place. So it’s fantastic to see so many London entrants reaching the Finalist stage of the Institute’s national Marketing Excellence Awards.

We’d like to wish all the London Finalists good luck at the glittering Awards Ceremony, which takes place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London on 23 February.

Good luck London! This is the London Finalists’ Roll of Honour:

Industry categories

Automotive / Transport

• First Great Western
• Heathrow Commuter/ Heathrow Airport Ltd
• LIDA
• Wand Agency

Construction / Engineering / Manufacturing

• TMP Magnet
• Tangent Snowball

Financial services – Banking and Investment

• RBS
• Greenlight
• Saint@RKCR/Y&R

Financial services – Insurance and other services

• McCann London
• CII
• ICAEW
• Bacs Payment Schemes Ltd (Bacs)

FMCG / Retail

• G2 Joshu
• RKCR/Y&R
• FreshNetworks
• AMV BBDO
• McCann London
• Addiction Worldwide

Hotels / Leisure and Travel

• Dare
•  Gabrielle Shaw Communications

Marketing team of the year

• EC Harris LLP
• Thomson Reuters
• Aon Hewitt
• City & Guilds

Media / Publishing

• McCann London
• AMV BBDO
• Seven

Not for profit

• McCann Worldgroup
• CII
• Blood Pressure Association
• McCann Erickson
• Pancentric Digital
• AMREF UK
• Other Creative Limited

Pharmaceutical / Health service providers / Medical suppliers

• SapientNitro

Professional services

• Navigant
• EC Harris LLP
• Thomson Reuters
• Other Creative Limited
• British Land
• SitexOrbis Limited
• Aon Hewitt
• Allen & Overy
• Lexis Public Relations

Public sector – Education

• Waggener Edstrom
• King’s College London

SME

• Lady Geek
• CII
• Rice Retail Marketing Ltd
• The Cinnamon Club
• Other Creative Limited

Technology / Telecommunications

• Mind Candy Ltd
• McCann London
• Rackspace Ltd
• UM London
• Other Creative Limited

It’s going to be a fantastic night of celebration at the industry’s showcase of the year.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing is predicting the demise of separate marketing and sales departments within the next ten years in it latest paper, ‘Marketing and Sales fusion?’ The paper takes the Institute’s centenary year as a motivation to reflect on the history of marketing and sales, and to consider the future direction of both disciplines.  It argues that businesses who have integrated their sales and marketing functions have experienced significant benefits, while those companies retaining separate departments are hindering their own growth.

Launched in London, the paper proposes that marketing has reached an evolutionary cul-de-sac, and must return to its roots in sales to continue to develop in the next decade. 

Members can download the paper, at no additional charge, and find out why we believe it could be time for marketing and sales to fuse together and work as one. Non members can purchase the paper for just £15 from CIM Direct

As Britain slides down the rankings from position 10 to 13 in the Future Brand’s Country Brand Index, a global study of country brands, it shows how factors such as economic problems and unrest have a negative affect on a country’s brand.

It’s not surprising. One minute Britain is basking in the pageantry of the Royal Wedding, relishing our history and sense of occasion. The next, the streets are full of rioters and unrest.

Having a strong country brand is pivotal as it influences the perception of tourists, investors and buyers of British products. Can we recover? The signs are positive having just won the bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championship, and Brand Britain marketers are hoping that the London 2012 Olympics will give us an opportunity to showcase a fresh image.

Let’s take inspiration from the countries who’ve improved their brand. Japan’s increased its ranking despite the earthquake, and Thailand is showing a strong performance in tourism despite political upheaval in the country. Brazil has seen a boost following successful bids to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, and Canada which took full advantage of promoting its natural beauty throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics tops the Index.

I’m hopeful that next year Britain will have a fantastic year. With campaigns such as Visit Britain’s tourism campaign to inspire the tourism industry to promote our country in the run up to the Olympics, we’re heading in the right direction.

I’ll be playing my part by working with British companies to help them market themselves effectively. We’re putting on a very British event, a family Olympics day and a Street Party celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 in Marketing Zone’s home town. And on the subject of Marketing Zone, we’re delighted to take our place on the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards Finalist List in the Retail Category.

30 November 2011
8:30
LCCI, Queen Street, EC4
£15 for CIM members
£25 for guests and students
What’s it all about?
A century ago a group of sales managers met in London and formed the Sales Managers’ Association, which eventually became The Chartered Institute of Marketing. This paper suggests that the time has come for the two disciplines of sales and marketing to be reunited, after years of fragmentation. It asks if sales and marketing intrinsically belong together. Organisations that do create closer links between them seem to post better results, have more effective inter-departmental relationships and create positive culture change. Yet the challenges to successfully merge these powerful business forces are significant.

What’s in it for me?
Sales person or marketer – join the debate!
Get insight into how sales and marketing departments can intellectually fuse together, gain one hour CPD and receive a complimentary hard and PDF copy of the paper.

Sign in, find out more and book.

Elections are still a top focus
November will see the elections for the Board of Trustees (BoT) and we’re encouraging you to get involved and vote for the candidate who you think fits the bill. The deadline for voting is 16 December 2011.

What’s the role of the Board of Trustees?
The BoT is the body that oversees the operations and future direction of The Chartered Institute of Marketing. That means they have input into every aspect of your membership; from research and facilities, to events and qualifications. So it’s important that you know what their plans are.

Mocky Khan, Chair of the Greater London Region is running for the election this year.

The Women in Marketing Awards and Events supports the charity Women for Women International.

This film was first shown at The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Women in Marketing Awards ceremony on 3 November 2011.

In this film, supporters including Annie Lennox, Todd Fisher and Joan Burstein speak about Women for Women International’s work and explain why they support the organisation.

Find out how to sponsor a Woman and more about the work of Women for Women International.

If you work in communications, then take a look at the next CIMCOM event, Brand reputation and crisis management, which focuses on both managing your brand reputation in the digital age and crisis management.

Taking place on 11 October at the BPP Business School, Matt Mckay, Head of Public Relations and Events at Biomed Central will speak on how to implement brand reputation as part of your PR strategy.

Crisis management
How would you react if a film crew arrived on your doorstep at 6am, asking you to comment on a crisis in your company? What you do in those few seconds can affect the reputation of your company, and your position within it. These days, every business continuity plan needs to include crisis management. Alan Stevens, Media Specialist will explain how to deal with bad news, covering both internal and external communications.

Registration is at 18:30 and the event starts at 19:00 and is worth one CPD category 10 hour.

You can find out more and book here.

Redemption

Of course there’s only one thing to write about this month … my summer holiday. I have just returned from two weeks bobbing about in the Mediterranean on a big boat. The big boat in question was the Celebrity Eclipse, a 122,000 gross tons floating luxury hotel cum resort catering for nearly 3,000 demanding passengers.

This wasn’t the first cruise ship my wife and I have been on – over the past 8 years we have been happy to spend as much of our children’s inheritance as we can on cruise holidays, alternating between P&O and Princess Cruises, but this year we fancied a change.

We chose the Celebrity Eclipse not necessarily for the itinerary, the service, entertainment, bars, restaurants, gym, casino, pools, cabins or the cost. The other cruise ships we have been on all offer similar facilities and services. What did it for us was the attraction of the Celebrity brand – and in particular the contemporary, genuinely exciting and unique design of the ship itself.

From the fully grown tree suspended in mid-air in one of two 12 deck atriums, the modern art and sculptures that adorned the stairwells and The Lawn Club (it really was grass) on deck 15 where we played boules each evening before getting ready for dinner, the only way to describe the on-board experience was “cool”.

I think it was Tom Peters who once said, “Design, as I see it, is arguably the #1 determinant of whether a product-service-experience stands out … or doesn’t”, so making something “cool” seems like a pretty good marketing strategy to me.

But if you are really going to win hearts and minds you have also got to deliver exceptional customer service as part of the whole package. This is where Celebrity Cruises also excelled – or to be more precise, redeemed themselves.

The second part of our cruise experience story relates to the Pool Butler “service”. On the basis that there were not enough sun beds for every passenger Pool Butlers would remove towels from any beds that were unoccupied for more than 30 minutes – freeing them up for other passengers to use.

Not a problem if you are taking a quick 10 minute dip in the pool, but what if you want to take more than 30 minutes for lunch and don’t want to have to search for another premium spot on the sundeck when you get back? You are on holiday – you don’t need this stress! Why should you have to leave a note on your bed saying “Gone to lunch, back soon” (yes, I actually tried this).

To cut a long story short, on two occasions my wife fell victim to over-zealous Pool Butlers removing her towel from her sun bed even though she had not exceeded the 30 minute limit, and when she complained to the officer in charge of the sundeck she got little sympathy.

Fortunately, guest relations were more understanding and not only apologised but also instantly provided us with two large, extra-soft gold coloured bath towels, normally reserved for passengers occupying suites, to use on our sun beds for the rest of the cruise. We were assured that the Pool Butlers, or “Pool Bullies” as we nicknamed them, wouldn’t dare remove them, even after 30 minutes. That evening they also sent a note of apology to our cabin accompanied by a bottle of champagne.

So next year we will be cruising on the Celebrity Silhouette, the newest ship in the fleet – essentially the result of a luxury brand living up to and exceeding its promise. We just need to buy a couple of large, extra-soft gold coloured bath towels and we will have another stress-free holiday.

If you are interested in the subjects of Customer Experience Management and Design keep your eyes peeled for two CIM events taking place in London. The first is on 29 September when leading customer experience consultant Mike Ashton, former Senior Vice President, Marketing & Brand Management of Hilton International and Anthony Thomson, Chairman of Metro Bank take to the podium. And early next year the CIM Creative Communications market interest group hope to run a session on Design in partnership with the Design Business Association.

Aspire will be the first charity to benefit from ‘Campaigns for Good’, a new initiative run by Media Trust and JWT London to give UK charities the chance to receive help and advice for a communications campaign to run in 2011. Aspire works to provide practical solutions and opportunities for people with spinal cord injuries.

The judging panel - Tony Quinn, Head of Planning at JWT, Jeremy Bullmore CBE, Claire Jackson, Board Planning Director at JWT, and Gavin Sheppard, Director of Marketing and Communications at Media Trust.

Charities across the UK were invited to apply for the opportunity and Aspire was chosen fro m four finalists following a presentation to a panel, including Jeremy Bullmore, Tony Quinn, Head of Planning at JWT, and Gavin Sheppard from Media Trust. Aspire will partner with a team of JWT Planners in a session to develop their campaign strategy and generate ideas. Media Trust will also provide ongoing volunteer communications support, resources and training over three months.

Chris Field, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Aspire said: “Every eight hours someone in the UK is paralysed by a spinal cord injury. Much of our work involves providing practical support and funding for wheelchairs, allowing those affected to live independently. However we currently lack the funds to assist 50% of the people who ask us for help and we hope that the campaign we develop with the help from JWT will raise awareness and encourage more donors.”

Gavin Sheppard, Director of Marketing and Communications at Media Trust, said: “We received a huge number of entries from some amazing charities and short listing them was really difficult. Aspire is an extremely inspirational charity and we very much look forward to supporting them and helping to make their future campaign a success by drawing on JWT London’s expertise.”

If you want to find out more about how your skills and experience or those of your team could be harnessed to help charities like Aspire and 100s of others, get in touch with Media Trust at volunteering@mediatrust.org.

With less than one year to go to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the British Paralympic Association (BPA) – responsible for preparing and delivering the ParalympicsGB team to the Games – is at a vital stage in their preparations. They have been planning for the London Games ever since, in 2005, it was announced that London would be the host city in 2012, with the knowledge that a home Games presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for Paralympic sport in the UK.

For the BPA, a home Games means more than the chance to win a bucket load of medals (they won 102 in Beijing and have come second on the medal table at the last three Games). A home Games is a chance to make the public sit up and take notice of the Paralympics, seeing them for the elite, fiercely competitive sporting event that they are, and ultimately changing the way the public view disability by helping audiences to see sport first, disability second. But planning for one event over a number of years is challenging, and the BPA have had to put together strict timelines to ensure the key deadlines and milestones have been achieved, working in partnership with a number of agencies to do that. At this stage in their preparations, it’s all about putting their carefully laid plans in to operation to ensure they succeed in 2012.

Celebrate International Paralympic Day – 8 September

Thursday 8 September is International Paralympic Day. Join the celebrations in Trafalgar Square with a jam-packed day of sporting demonstrations from ParalympicsGB and international athletes, including Ellie Simmonds and Oscar Pistorius.

It’s a great chance to find out about the 20 sports featuring in the Paralympic Games before tickets go on sale on the 9th. You can head to Trafalgar Square from 8.15am, or tune in to Channel 4’s ‘That Paralympic Show’ on Saturday 10 September.

Paralympic tickets go on sale – 9 September

Key to success is public support. The BPA want to see full stadium, packed with red, white and blue with British fans screaming in support of the home nation. In order to mobilise the public, it is vital that communications to them go out at the right time. Too soon, and the conversation loses its relevance; too late, and the window of opportunity will be closed. Vitally, tickets for the Paralympics go on sale on 9 September, with applications closing on 26 September, and throughout 2012 you will hear more and more about the British athletes going for gold in 2012 as the BPA plans come to life.

Show your support for ParalympicsGB and be there in 2012. To apply for tickets, visit www.tickets.london2012.com