As it is the festive season, I thought it timely to post an article relating to real ale, as I’m sure many bottles will be consumed (especially in my household). The brewer Shepherd Neame has been running the ‘Bottle of Britain’ advertising campaign for around 12 years now. On occasion they have been taken to task by the ASA for pushing the boundaries of good taste and humour, but fortunately they have always been cleared. A number of the adverts poke fun at the Germans in particular, but are meant as light- hearted fun and are not meant to cause offense. They try to evoke the British World War II spirit, similar to that used in the TV programmes ‘Allo Allo’ and ‘Dad’s Army’ and I feel that they have captured the essence really well. The use of clever copywriting is what makes the adverts work so well. The website is great too – take a look. Let me know what you think.

Opinion: Paul Mabin – Managing Director

I spotted this poem on the London Underground. It’s called “This Is Just To Say” by William Carlos Williams and took me back to my uni days in York. I love the ambiguous balance between apology, confession and teasing…

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

(Opinion: Jim Green – MD)

MCE Insurance, one of the UK’s top 3 providers of motorcycle insurance, has just appointed us to bolster its online presence and communication style. We will be working with MCE’s in-house design and web development team, providing input on brand personality, tone of voice, copywriting and online marketing.

Our remit is to build better brand awareness and customer loyalty online, and the whole project came from a social media marketing idea we took to them earlier this year. The social media project will form stage two of the campaign, which begins with the in-house team’s redesign of the existing website. We expect this programme to drive MCE’s online leads and sales, and ultimately to reduce their spend on Pay-Per-Click. It’s a great project – particularly for Jim, who loves his bikes (despite having a small ‘off’ earlier this year)!