Russell Douglas Book

93 10

“

Russell is a dedicated and creative agency leader.

His upbeat attitude is infectious and his hard work and motivation ensures results for clients.

Niall McOnegal Head of Commercial Development Virgin Media

I’ve produced this book to give an overview of my work and achievements over the past 17 years; from Technical Illustrator & 3D specialist, Designer, Creative Director, and Marketing Consultant to my most recent post as Divisional MD at World Archipelago.

The book explores the key areas of my skill base; strategy, management, new business development, client services, creative direction and digital marketing, through a series of in-depth case studies. I hope it provides you with more of an insight into my career and the results I’ve achieved.

Russell Douglas info@russelldouglas.com www.russelldouglas.com http://uk.linkedin.com/in/russdouglas

Commercial + Creative + Marketing

Contents 04 Overview 18 E-Commerce case study 30 Dorling Kindersley

08 iPhone app case study 20 B2B case study 32 Annual Report overview

10 Luxury case study 22 Top 5 Achievements 34 Travel case study

14 Loyalty case study 24 Real Estate case study 40 Commercial case study

04

Overview Career overview

Until late in 2010 I headed up a division of World Archipelago, a digital agency based in London, increasing annual revenues by 39%.

I was responsible for the strategic direction, management, client servicing, sales and marketing, and creative direction for the division.

With over 17 years of creative agency experience and a unique blend of commercial, creative and marketing skills I’m well placed to take on a variety of roles within the agency world from MD or GM, to Client Partner or Creative Director. www.worldarchipelago.com

Over the years I’ve worked on projects for companies such as Abbey, British Airways, Barclays Capital, BP, BBC, Carter Jonas, DPP, Ernst & Young, Eurostar, King Sturge, The Financial Times, Inchcape, Legal & General, O2, Orange, Shell, and Strutt & Parker.

Up until the end of 2007 I was a Creative Director for Black Sun plc (£7.3m turnover) working across print and digital projects. My work for British Airways won several awards and I also took part in a number of judging roles for the Guardian sponsored CIPD Awards.

I started my career in Aberdeen, Scotland, working for ODL who sponsored me throughout college.

I worked on 3D visualisation and animation, video production, illustration, multimedia and print design for Shell, BP, Amoco, Amerada Hess and Schlumberger.

I also provided digital marketing services to Strutt & Parker, writing and implementing a digital marketing plan that helped to deliver £1.8m of revenues directly attributable to digital channels.

I then moved to London and joined Dorling Kindersley Multimedia where I led the interface design team on the Encyclopedia series producing a variety of cd-roms with award winning creative.

Our work was published in various industry journals across the globe and helped Dorling Kindersley win several awards.

I joined World Archipelago (WAI) in January 2008 to further my commercial and management skills by leading a team of sales, account and project managers, and taking responsibility for the strategic direction of the division. During my time with WAI I increased the divisions revenues by 39%, improved profitability and introduced a range of process and management improvements.

39% 10+ increase in my divisional revenues at WAI

WAI team members under my management

$$$ “

totally over the moon

I won the agency’s largest project within my first year

1st

place at the Marketing Direct Intelligence Awards

”

Jo Fidgen, Marketing Manager, David Phillips - Sept 2010

55

responsible for 55 client accounts at WAI

06

Overview Career overview

Commercial From January 2008 through to the end of September 2010 I was responsible for the growth and management of a digital division at World Archipelago (WAI) increasing revenues by 39%.

Core commercial strengths include; + Digital strategy and marketing + Division and team leadership + Agency management and business administration + New business development

core skills

+ Account management and client retention + Commercial partnerships + Product development + 3rd party outsourcing and offshore partnerships + Operational process efficiencies + Project management I’m currently studying for my distant learning MBA through Herriot Watt University in Edinburgh.

Creative For 15 years I worked in various creative roles up to Creative Director level. Projects over the years have included 3D modelling and animation, technical illustration, print based graphic design including brochures, corporate reporting, and loyalty communications.

I’m an experienced digital creative having worked on sites and campaigns for many blue chip clients including British Airways, O2, Radisson Edwardian hotels, Carphone Warehouse, and Barclays.

I’ve also won several industry awards for the effectiveness of my creative work.

Core creative strengths include; + Creative leadership, strategy and management + Proposition development + Design conceptualisation and end-to-end delivery + Equally adaptable to print and digital solutions

Marketing

A unique blend of commercial, creative and marketing skills

I looked after the digital marketing for Strutt & Parker, a top 5 premium estate agent in the U.K, for an 18 month period tasked with improving their digital marketing effectiveness. I introduced marketing management best practices, planning, and measurement and reporting which significantly improved the business’ understanding of their digital marketing efforts and ROI. Core digital marketing strengths include; + Digital marketing strategy + Digital marketing planning, management and control + Tactical marketing implementation + Supplier management + Reporting up to and including the Board I’m a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) ‘Chartered Marketer’ and hold a CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing through the London School of Marketing.

08

World Archipelago iPhone app case study

At time of writing there were more than 1.2m iPhones in the UK and millions more worldwide. There are now a recognised and enthusiastic audience for ‘apps’, the pocket sized programs that run on iPhones. Importantly circa 3-8% of real estate agent traffic comes directly from iPhone users and it’s growing all the time.

phone. home.

I managed the business planning, creative process, reseller agreements and marketing for the WAI ‘white label’ iPhone app.

The app seamlessly integrates with real estate agent management software and provides customers with almost ‘live’ access to properties on the move.

Giving clients more choice The iPhone app provides users with access to agents entire database of properties and widened their reach to the ever growing app customer base.

The app The new app allows customers to browse through properties on the move, flip through all of the property images, read full property descriptions, view their location, e-mail a friend, and contact agents directly. Users can also use the GPS feature to display properties in their current location.

What’s next?

Whilst apps are seen as highly innovative to most agents, augmented reality is the next step.

Customers can point their iPhone along a street and through the use of clever GPS and camera recognition properties for sale will present themselves on the iPhone.

10

May Fair Hotel Luxury Case study

mystery Re-launching the new May Fair Hotel in London Background Radisson Edwardian Hotels commissioned Black Sun to develop a launch campaign for the new 5* MAY FAIR Hotel in Central London, following a £75m investment in the hotel.

The Solution Through research it soon became clear that the hotel delivered ‘an extraordinary sensory experience’ and that every one of the guests’ five senses were stimulated in every area of the hotel. Thus was born the campaign proposition of: embrace your senses.

Having created the campaign proposition, we then developed a totally integrated campaign execution.

The campaign would demonstrate how the hotel enabled guests to embrace their senses.

This would be achieved by creating an experiential micro-site for the hotel, which evidenced how every area of the hotel enhanced your sensory experience.

Contacts were taken to the site through a series of five emails. Each one of these emails previewed a particular area of the hotel and how it appealed to the senses. In this way we were able to communicate the totally new sensory experience, and to promote each area of the hotel.

sensuality

THE MAY FAIR

May Fair Hotel Luxury Case study

“We are proud of the hotel we have created in central London, and are delighted with the launch campaign, which we feel clearly demonstrates our unique offering”.

Linda Plant Marketing Director, Radisson Edwardian Hotels

Email campaign

Landing pages

Results

200k 40% 30% emails sent

open rate

of opens visited the site

The campaign Over a 10 week period 5 emails were sent to the Radisson Edwardian database of existing and lapsed customers.

We also purchased an email database to market to which matched the demographic profiling of potential May Fair customers.

The emails focused on each of the 5 senses and encouraged users to ‘explore the senses’ which led users through to a specific zone of the campaign microsite. The site combined a blend of specially commissioned beautiful photography, music and animation. The user could explore

‘hot spots’ within each area and navigate through the experience to discover the key selling points of this fantastic new luxury hotel.

14

Barclays Premier Loyalty Case study

Rewarding high-value customers

Creating a Compelling Membership Programme for Barclays Premier The Challenge How do you create an emotional connection with customers in a typically functional relationship?

Life’s Pleasures delivers a range of exclusive benefits, events and experiences, personalised to each client’s individual interests in each of the following areas:

Barclays Premier Life provides a complete banking and investment service to affluent clients, and a series of valueadded benefits. One of the key challenges for Barclays was how to secure these clients’ brand advocacy in a market sector that is typified by functional relationships.

• Entertainment and the Arts - providing exclusive access to entertainment and arts based events across the UK

The Solution Understand the clients’ needs Research confirmed that these clients would only be motivated by a stand out programme with aspirational benefits they couldn’t easily find elsewhere.

Creating a unique proposition The core Barclays Premier Life proposition is one of the most complete financial services offerings in the marketplace. The big insight however was that although the clients were highly successful, they were also very time poor and wanted to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

We therefore created a programme that recognised there is more to life than money, and that success is about the quality of life, achieving business ambitions and personal fulfilment, and enjoying success with friends and family.

And so, Life’s Rewards was born.

Life’s Rewards provides members with once in a lifetime opportunities to attend iconic cultural and leisure events and meet the most influential business leaders, and get access to a host of other exclusive experiences. It consists of two key strands – Life’s Pleasures and Life’s Work.

• Lifestyle - enabling members to enjoy some of life’s luxuries and new experiences • Travel - giving members access to the more unusual experiences and destinations • Sports - enabling members to benefit from Barclays’ sponsorship of the Premier League and access to a host of other sporting occasions.

Life’s Work is geared to appeal to the client’s business life. It gives members the inside track on some of the news, views, and reports from across the world of finance; and through the seminar programme provides the opportunity to meet some of the people who have shaped the business world.

Delivering personal communications From the very start the relationship is personal, with clients providing their individual interests and preferences when they join the programme.

From then on subsequent communications are personalised according to this information.

The key communications elements were; • Life’s Rewards website - through which every member can view all the latest benefits, offers, events and experiences • Invitations to the exclusive events and experiences • Monthly e-news to alert members to the latest content in the site

www.premierlifesrewards.co.uk

• Targeted last minute offers

Results Increased customer satisfaction Reduced lapse rates Increased advocacy Life’s Rewards provides Barclays with a unique point of differentiation amongst financial service providers.

Alison Tattersall, Head of Premier Marketing, Barclays

“

As Creative Director for Black Sun, and lead partner for our website review, Russell proved himself to be an exceptional marketer in whom I had absolute confidence and respect.

Russell became not only a highly regarded colleague but also a good friend. He eventually moved on from Black Sun becoming Divisional Managing Director at World Archipelago. When I created my own business I continued to recommend him to varied clients with total confidence. To date, this has resulted in two major companies joining me in using his expertise.

I have no hesitation in recommending him to you.

“

Absolute confidence and respect Joy Moon Marketing Director, Strutt & Parker 1996-2007 joy@joymoon.co.uk

18

David Phillips E-Commerce case study

10 furniture sites 6 e-commerce 3 months 0 over runs Delivering a complete range of product sites using X-Cart and WAI’s latest site building tool - Supadu.

1. The David Phillips Packages website fully integrated with X-Cart e-commerce platform.

2. One of 4 development microsites managed by the client.

3. David Phillips Interior Design site being edited through the Supadu platform.

10 complex sites delivered on time and on budget for David Phillips David Phillips is the largest company specialising in the provision of furniture to professional property owners and managers in the UK. They are also one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK being added to the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

We were delighted to win a 5 way pitch for the re-development of their suite of e-commerce websites and to provide strategic digital planning for the ongoing marketing of their development packages.

We used our new site building tool, Supadu, for the main site architecture and integrated the X-Cart e-commerce platform to provide a seamless and integrated experience for David Phillips customers.

The David Phillips team have now embraced Supadu, and already have 3 microsites published with little involvement from WAI. It’s too early to track ROI but initial feedback from our client has indicated a significant reduction in off-line costs and several new client wins. They are also delighted with our work and have appointed us to develop offline work as well as continued digital strategy. www.davidphillips.com

Powered by Supadu about.supadu.com Supadu is World Archipelago’s brand new digital platform that creates great looking websites and campaigns without any technical experience.

The tool has already been adopted by the likes of David Phillips, Simon & Schuster, and John D Wood amongst others and is achieving some great results. Simon & Schuster have already saved 90% of their digital marketing microsite budget by adopting the tool and now hosts over 150 sites on Supadu.

• Drag-and-drop simplicity • Edit in the web page • No technical skills necessary • Add social media, video, RSS widgets

4. Next steps are to develop an iPad app which will be used by the David Phillips sales reps.

20

British Airways World Cargo B2B Case study

High-value customer identification and acquisition e-marketing The Challenge British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) originally requested a proposal for an online Christmas campaign for freight forwarding managers in Europe, the UK & Ireland. During that and subsequent discussions it became apparent that there were no communication or CRM programmes in place for BAWC’s high value freight forwarding managers and clerks.

The Solution We developed the ‘Forwarding Rewards’ programme, an interactive online promotional campaign that elicited feedback from the freight forwarding managers, and, as part of this process, incentivised them to forward the communication to their clerks. This enabled BAWC to capture valuable clerk email addresses for the first time.

The brief therefore evolved from a tactical campaign for freight forwarding managers into a strategic initiative to develop more valuable relationships with managers, but also to identify and open channels of communication with their clerks who take a significantly higher number of bookings each day than thier managers. This untapped and highly influential group could be targeted and encouraged to make more bookings with BAWC.

The creative solution engaged the target audience using a ‘retro’ one arm bandit interface rich with animation and traditional ‘bandit’ graphical elements. Two distinct versions were created, one for the managers, the other for the clerks each with their own set of prizes appropriately positioned for that audience.

The challenge was to: • Develop a means of gathering information two highvalue customer groups (managers and clerks) • Develop a cost-effective mechanism for communicating with customers • Develop measurable way of determining customer value

The information gathered on both clerks and managers was deliberately geared to enable continued communication to enhance their perception of the BAWC brand and influence their buying behaviour.

Subsequent communications took the form of a viral e-mail xmas card to thank the clerks for their business over the year and to encourage them to send the card on to other clerks that may not have reacted to the initial campaign. This resulted in further email addresses being added to the database.

1st

place at the Marketing Direct Intelligence Awards

36% response rate in UK & Ireland

22

Overview Top 5 Achievements

top 5 achievements

Increasing my divisional revenues at WAI by 39%.

Winning WAI’s largest account and delivering exceptional digital results for that business.

Being invited to the judging panel of the CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards.

Delivering ÂŁ1.8m of digital revenue contributions to Strutt & Parker in my first year managing their digital marketing efforts.

Becoming a CIM Chartered Marketer and continuing to apply this learning to my work.

24

Carter Jonas Real Estate Case study

Delivering new relevance to an aging brand and smashing targets.

The Brief In the spring of 2008 World Archipelago were appointed with a clear brief to enhance the Carter Jonas digital brand, drive monetisation from digital channels and help ‘connect’ the various divisions.

Carter Jonas wanted to better reflect the diverse nature of it’s business but above all it was the desire to connect the various disciplines, improving cross-divisional opportunities, that stood out as a unique opportunity to differentiate Carter Jonas in the marketplace.

The Solution The focus was to pursue innovation in a meaningful way while creating real value across the business. We did so by involving the business every step of the way and ensuring the very latest property search innovations and customer choices were prevalent throughout.

The new site has generated a bit of a buzz across the industry and we are delighted with the feedback we’ve received regarding the new property search functionality. In particular the map view, summary view and gallery view along with the ‘coverflow’ full details feature has positioned Carter Jonas an innovator in it’s field.

We smashed the targets set by Carter Jonas and have recorded the best digital marketing results on record for their business.

www.carterjonas.co.uk

Year on year results

34% increase in visitors

32%

higher than industry average for ‘time on site’

19.8%

bounce rate v industry average of 40%

Roger Wheaton, Business Development Director at Carter Jonas says, “World Archipelago have helped steer our digital strategy over the last 12 months.

The site has created a bit of a stir in the industry and we continue to be impressed with World Archipelago’s knowledge, innovative nature, and strategic approach to smart digital solutions - all of which will help us to deliver improved differentiation, a better experience for our clients and the measurability we require to achieve our performance targets.”

Carter Jonas Real Estate Case study

1.

1. The new homepage and revised site architecture provide users with a more structured approach ensuring key marketing goals are met. We have also brought to life their core proposition, ‘The Property People’, through the use of case studies, specifically commissioned people photography and personable biographies used across the site.

2. Each divisional landing page provides a range of interactive elements, cross sales links, useful information and calls to action. With over 85% of users visiting the site to conduct a property search we have ensured the search remains a constant throughout the users journey.

2.

3.

4.

3 & 4. We have also developed one of the most sophisticated property searches on the market providing users with a range of viewing options.

5. Case studies were adopted to present Carter Jonas people as accessible, friendly, and trustworthy. People you would want to do business with.

5.

Carter Jonas Real Estate Case study

Specially commissioned photography was used to capture the true essence of Carter Jonas employees. We shot a range of employees in their work wear but also donned in their ‘hobby’ wear to be used in high profile case studies on the site.

These ‘hobby’ shots told a different story, providing an insight into the real Carter Jonas people and making them far more accessible to potential clients.

The shots have been used on the web site but also in a range of marketing collateral.

Telling a compelling brand story through ‘The Property People’.

A range of reportage shots were taken of the Carter Jonas senior management team. We also shot more formal shots of the Chairman and CEO for use in marketing materials.

30

Dorling Kindersley Publishing case study Working at Dorling Kindersley with the other interface designers was one of the most rewarding periods of my career. The quality of the teams work was exceptional and we won several industry awards and accolades for our work.

I created the main console interface for all of the titles listed below as well as designing and building several activities and animations. I was responsible for the interface design and activity aspects of Encyclopedia of Space & the Universe, Science II, Nature II and History II.

Creative spotlight Dorling Kindersley Multimedia

32

Black Sun Annual Report overview

Carphone Warehouse Carphone Warehouse won the award for ‘Best Annual Report: Most Effective Communication Award for a FTSE 250 company’.

Tomkins The creative approach was to differentiate Tomkins in a crowded market. We achieved this by interweaving 3 key cases studies highlighting their innovative technological advances.

1. Carphone Warehouse Turning a corporate report into a powerful brand builder

2. Tomkins Creating a big idea to communicate persuasively

Whilst the printed report suite is still an important aspect of corporate reporting, the digital opportunities for businesses to communicate to their shareholders in a more effective way, whilst reducing costs, is an area I helped to affect whilst at Black Sun.

The theme for the Tomkins’ report was ‘ Profitable growth through technology’, an investment proposition that delivers its promise to the reader quickly and decisively through the use of compelling product illustration. The idea was in direct response to the brief: to demonstrate how Tomkins’ cutting-edge technologies are putting the company at the forefront of its markets and driving profitable growth.

The Carphone Warehouse reporting suite included an interactive cd-rom and investor website which provided analysts with access to important financial information.

The power of influential corporate reporting 3. Standard Chartered Coordinating an international production team We produced a series of reports for Standard Chartered and worked with their corporate communications team to produce innovative reports and reviews.

34 British Airways Recruitment Travel Case study

Reducing costs whilst increasing effectiveness The Brief We launched the British Airways (BA) recruitment web site in 2004 resulting in a significant increase in the quality of job applications and a £10k saving per graduate.

However, to attract candidates into the 5 key areas where BA had a skills shortage (graduates, engineers, cabin crew, pilots and I.T professionals), we were asked to pitch a range of interactive ideas to promote the company and the exciting opportunities on offer.

BA also wanted to ensure the interactive ideas were educational and that they provided information that would help prospect candidates to decide whether that position was suitable for them and whether they should apply.

The Solution Working closely with the British Airways design management team we looked to BA’s recruitment proposition, ‘Explore Our Working World’, to develop a range of interactive challenges for each of the target audiences.

Each challenge took several weeks to research and to develop the appropriate ‘game play’. We involved members of each area of BA’s business, in particular those areas that the challenges brought to life, such as engineering and cabin crew to ensure the game play was as real to life as we could make it.

We then set about creating the challenges themselves and delivered an engaging, fun and innovative range of educational challenges, which gave players a real taste of BA’s culture and what to expect if they worked there.

Each challenge was as ‘true to life’ as possible, and demonstrated the skills and abilities required for each role.

The challenges were designed to facilitate the collection of player profile data, for use by BA in targeted e-recruitment campaigns. With 13,000 players registered on the site, this data represented a valuable resource for the BA recruitment team and due to its successful effectiveness and innovative approach we won first place at the CIPD Recruitment Marketing awards.

1st

place at the CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards

£10k savings by redistributing costs

13k

registered players

British Airways Recruitment Travel Case study

British Airways Interactive Challenges

1.

1 & 2. The Flight Team Challenge The Flight Team challenge takes players through the fast paced working life of those in flight operations.

The challenge is to ensure a recently landed plane is prepared in good time for its next flight.

You take on the role of each team member and answer a series of quick fire questions. Answer incorrectly and the flight could be delayed or worse you could risk the safety of passengers and crew.

Answer all questions correctly and your flight will take off for its new destination on time.

2.

3.

4.

5.

3-5. The Graduate Challenge The Graduate challenge was a more intellectual game giving players an insight into the difficult strategic decisions made in the commercial department at British Airways.

British Airways had just opened a new route and players had to decide how to manage the planes potential ‘down time’. Would a service be appropriate or should the plane fly on to a close by leisure destination, or should it be used to service a local business route.

The decisions made could make the difference between British Airways making or losing revenues.

“

Russell is a dedicated and creative agency leader. His upbeat attitude is infectious and his hard-work and motivation ensures results for clients.

Never one to take the easy route just to get the job done, Russell is always looking ahead to create added value in the digital services his company offers.

He is also great fun to have onside.

Niall McOnegal Head of Commercial Development Virgin Media niall.mconegal@gmail.com

“

“

During Russell’s time at Black Sun he was the lead creative on a number of significant projects, many of which won industry recognition. The quality of Russell’s work was always of a high standard and he had excellent attention to detail. Russell has strong business development capabilities and is very adapt at forging strong working relationships with clients.

David Christopherson Chief Executive Black Sun plc christophersond@blacksunplc.com

“

40 DPP Commercial Case study

Transforming the DPP brand to meet the demands of the digital age www.dppllp.com The brief DPP, a town planning business with supporting services, had been going through a rapid transformation with new senior appointments, exponential growth, an excellent pipeline of new opportunities, and had started to promote its new found success with the media and other influencers.

However the brand lagged behind and required an overhaul to bring new relevance to the business’s positioning.

The Solution We won a 5 way pitch and started to work on developing a core proposition for the business, ‘planning a smarter future together’ which reflected the business’s core attributes; superior service, client focussed, trusted, and thought leaders.

The first phase of development has now been completed with the planning, design and build of a brand new website using the enterprise level content management system, Sitecore.

The site positions DPP as thought leaders within their market and has resulted in a number of their competitors redeveloping their websites.

DPP Commercial Case study

info@russell

douglas.com

Russell Douglas info@russelldouglas.com