Following news that 70 per cent of CEOs in the UK have lost their trust in marketers, the Midlands first ever creative consortium came together last week to prove that, when done strategically, marketing can have a positive impact on business development, regardless of industry sector.
WCF Team at launch event
A diverse range of businesses from throughout the UK attended the launch of Warwickshire Creative Fusion (WCF) at the Welcome Centre in Coventry, where they enjoyed a series of linked seminars based around nine different disciplines of marketing.
The event came hot-on-the-heels of a recent report by Fournaise Marketing Group that questioned more than 1,200 CEOs about their marketing departments, revealing the overwhelming lack of confidence they have in marketers.
In order for CEOs to really experience benefits, Warwickshire Creative Fusion advocated the need to make marketing highly targeted, strategic, consistent, and creative. The seminar sessions covered all aspects of marketing from conceptualising campaigns. Specialist areas included direct marketing fulfilment and international marketing strategy.
WCF member Rebecca Fahy from Jigsaw CCS told delegates: “Companies need to be very clear on their goals, whether they are large or small, and specifically identify their target audiences. If they can then also test their marketing ideas properly and use the most appropriate channels, they will achieve very measurable results. This approach, rather than using scattergun methods, is proven to work and may help to instil confidence back into an area that is vital to all businesses. ”
Attendees left the event with a number of fresh ideas for their marketing campaigns. Cathryn Goodwin, Creative Engagement Officer at Creative Enterprise, founded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Coventry University said: “I gained some very useful tips about how to tell the story of my organisation, what we do and how we do it, and it was really good to talk to the supportive members of the team about how their skills could help our business and our clients. There was a good mix of people at the launch with a friendly positive vibe. We’re looking forward to dealing with the Fusion members again.”
Sam Skillings, head of marketing at Warwickshire’s award winning art gallery Compton Verney, said: “This was a great event with lots of opportunities to get new ideas. Going forward we will be thinking carefully about how we integrate snippets from our YouTube videos through social media to make them really work for us. I can’t wait to try some of them out and look forward to the next event.”
The overall message from Warwickshire Creative Fusion is that when utilised strategically, the nine key areas of marketing; public relations, video production, design and branding, direct marketing, translation, print, photography, and web development can really deliver an effective return on investment, increase sales, and raise profit margins.
Warwickshire Creative Fusion founder, Tony Probert, said: “With the huge leaps in technological advancements businesses there is now such a vast spectrum of new channels available that it’s easy for marketing strategies to become distorted, which is probably why CEOs are struggling to see return on investment. The aim of our consortium is to provide a bespoke selection of the services that individually suit the need of each client, and which really help them to make their marketing activities work for them.”
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