RIP Public Sector

I have been busy at my desk to day, talking to clients looking at new work, new proposals and even some new prospects, it's safe to say I was feeling good until i was unfortunate enough to switch on the radio and catch the the Yah Boo Brigade that is our parliament shouting at each other like a room full of 3 years olds smacked out on panda pops (do they still exist?). I was amazed by the sheer volume and aggression that was being exhibited until I realised that this was the much hyped spending review - or the big slash and burn as it has become known in our office.

I'm not going to comment of specific cuts here as this isn't the place to do so but i would like to say something about the demise of the public sector and the completely barmy notion that the private sector can in anyway in-fill for the hundreds of thousands of people that will be looking at a very bleak Christmas. There seems to be none or very scant plans to help businesses grow, tighter regulation, tougher tax regimes, increased employer pensions contributions, none of these things say "take on new staff, it's boom time"!

None of our private sector clients are currently doing a tap dance in anticipation at having another 500,000 people applying for there Junior Account Executive role either! It really is time that we saw some balance in the austerity measures -

Last year we completed some stunning work for the public sector - work for the National probation service which was seen as radical and innovative - a department that will likely be halved by todays announcements. We also developed a series of films for Worcestershire PCT midwives which have already been used to support nearly 10,000 births across the region and they re in the process of launching the films in 4 languages nationally. Now some people might see these things as a waste of money but they all have proverb results and in the case of the birthing film can even save lives.

One of the first things that will be cut from any public sector spending is the communications budget - but my question to everyone in the public sector is simple.

"If you stop communicating what you are doing, what is the point in doing it in the first place"?

In a recession (Lets not kid ourselves about being out of that yet, the numbers may say different but everything else looks and feels like a recession still) the key to development and growth is not reducing your spend but increasing it, in a focused targeted way. The age of the generalist is gone and it is time for the specialists to takeover. Small perfectly formed and focused we can move quickly upscale and downsize as we need but retain a core knowledge which is both unique and sellable. But none of these things will help ease the pain from the demise of the public sector - the public sector is the biggest generalist of them all, all things to all people, the absolute opposite of a specialist because ether have to cater for the lowest common denominator.

Chris Street - BristolEditor Blog on Vision Bristol Website

It seems to have been a rollercoaster event for the management team behind the first Vision Bristol, and the attendees certainly came away with lots to digest. But it wasn’t all about Bristol.

I interviewed Gloucester-based Steve Garratt, of video production agency Giggle Group, who made the motorway trip to Bristol, to see what he thought of the 2-day creative fest.

1. What were your main reasons for attending the first Vision Bristol conference?

I really came with very low expectations. One finds these things can be quite self-serving, and an attempt to generate work for the speakers. Although the first session after the keynote yesterday (Wednesday) was a confirmation of my worst fears, thankfully from then on it’s been far more productive.

I have struggled with the monicure vision: although some sessions clearly had vision there hasn’t been much about a combined vision, and I’m not sure I really understand what the event stands for, or where it goes from here. However, I would come back, based on the quality of the speakers I have heard – and in particular the networking, which has been excellent.

2. How has it performed for you in terms of developing Bristol contacts, industry information, access to new opportunities?

Who knows? We have met with a lot of very interested like-minded people and stretched our hands out to some people who we would struggle to normally get in touch with. The proof will be in the pudding. In the spirit of Blair Enns though, it’s very much down to us as a business to nurture and convert these new relationships – and turn them into something meaningful.

3. Why was a Gloucestershire-based agency interested in a Bristol-centric event such as Vision Bristol?

Because location is increasingly less relevant and a good business keeps the competition close. We want to let people know who we are and what our position is, and we want to see who the competition are, plus understand how they are positioning themselves. In addition, they don’t do this kind of thing in Gloucester.

4. Who have you connected with who has changed any of your business perceptions, and how did they do it/what did they say?

I think a lot of people will be saying this, but Blair Enns showed the greatest sense of a new vision.

I love the fact that he practices what he preaches as well, he is focused and driven, and never deviates from his core offering. He lives his message and this is very powerful, which re-enforces his message even more. Can we win without pitching? Who knows, not yet. We are too generalist, as we stand although we have specialized a little we need to go further and become more focused.

5. What have been the high and low points of Vision Bristol for you as a creative Agency MD?

The high point was getting my business card into a few very exciting hands. Doghouse were a great new contact and I hope something we can build on. We are very similar in size and ambition and that’s always a good thing.

I have about twelve business cards in my top pocket and I would hope to convert at least three of those into business.

The low point is perhaps the realisation of how crowded the marketplace really is, and how difficult it is to get your USP out there. We are a production company, we do VFX for broadcast and we are developing our own IP. Unfortunately, the key USP is not the same as the one which will currently generate the highest revenue.

6. Would you visit again next year? If so, why, and if not, what needs to be improved?

I will look out for this event next year and make a decision based on the speakers, rather than the event itself being a must-go.

For me Bristol Vision lacked a bit of identity – this might be down to my own engagement with it, but there were a lot of delegates who were a bit surprised by who wasn’t here rather than who was. In terms of networking it needs to penetrate into some of the bigger institutions in Bristol, such as the BBC.

I would absolutely recommend my head of business development attends, as the focus of the event was geared in that direction.

NLFA - After The Whistle

Prospect Training are developing a whole suite of training tools for the NLFA and Giggle are doing all the animation work. Watch out for an IPHONE/ IPAD ap coming soon as well.

A great website

Ok, I won't be the first to write about this but it's a greta little website and it shows how great the web can be..

http://www.foxfromtheinside.com/

It's a cute idea, well executed, some lovely animation then tons of additional video content on top when you search around the inside of the car. This is the future of the web in action and you can only do this with video and animation - you can't write this stuff -

I don't care if it's flash or whatever all i want is for it to work and this does, really well. I'm a bit jealous actually it's a bloody good idea.

End of micro blog

Steve

On the good ship Arcadia

Once again Giggle are taking part in the communications directors forum. an extraordinary event run by Richmond Events. I was introduced to the concept last year by the fabulous Lillian Nolan (a mad Irish lady with whom I have drunk many bottles of wine).
It basically involves trapping hundreds of senior business people, real decision makers with a hungry pack of suppliers, each one trying to tout there wares in an endless procession. If that sounds like your idea of he'll then it probably would be but I have to say that the combination of intriguing location I.e. A boat and the fact that you couldn't escape even if you wanted to ( although my cabin has a wonderful view of the back of a life boat)! Does mean a real atmosphere of acceptance flows over the gathered crowds. They know what's coming and we know they have agreed to it. So in as casual a manner as possible we try to pitch our wares and show why we are the missing link in their communications plan for the coming year.

I do of course believe that Giggle is the missing link to everyones communications plans, but I might be biased there. however we are offering something different to our very experienced competitors and I hope this will set us apart once again.

We did well out of this last year, and I hope to repeat the success this year, and I will try to add something to the blog as we sail somewhere between the isle of white and guernsey I believe.

Now to see if my 3G sim card can deal with a simple little blog post ....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:As above

Show me the budget

I had a really interesting conversation today with one of our larger clients about budgets. They often find themselves working with agencies, very much like us and they struggle to pin the agency down to a budget and this is an attitude that I have always struggled with. The logic goes something like this:
If I tell you my budget you will spend it all!

This sentence is 100% correct, that is not my issue, my issue is of course we will spend all of your budget, because it's your budget. If you don't want to spend that much then surely it isn't your budget!

I know our instincts tell us to try and drive down prices, strike a deal but why? What's the point if in your heart of hearts, or your FD's wallet the will is not there to spend the money, just set the budget lower. I can't see the point in us playing budget tennis for four weeks when we could be working on your project... This is not the same in a tendering process of course, I'm referring to the situation where you are the chosen company.

So creatives and marketing directors stop playing games and let's just get working quicker... I only want to know the real budget and I promise to always over deliver - because that's what we always do at Giggle.


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Managing expectations

So this week has been all about politics and I mean that in the national and personal sense. Whilst the UK goes through it's very own Managment buyout I have several times found myself presented with a sensitive situation. In three of the cases it was about client expectations - over delivery ( a massive positive for the client but does this mean we did a lot more than was needed or expected and therefore didn't maximise the profit on the job) under delivered ( here the expectations based on our previous work created a sense that we could produce avatar for £1500 - we clearly didn't communicate the limitations of the budget against the asperations of the job) and the third case was no delivery at all because we didn't pin the client down to a brief in time and the oppotunity slipped through our fingers. We are in classic smal business land here, victims of our own success - under valuing our skills to achieve a sale which invariably comes back to bite us on the bum. My Yorkshire roots tell me it's better to be working for nought than doing nought instead of working - but I can assure you my accountant does not agree. As we grow, like a gangly teenager we have to get used to our new form, size and constantly redefine our place in the world and ultimatly our value. Like the new government we won't always get this right but we must stay focused and true to our core values - and manage expectations at whatever level the work is pitched.

The good news is all three films are now moving forward again - politics wins the day.


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Location:London St,Paddington,United Kingdom

An interesting day at the office

It's not everyday that I get asked a question that makes me stop and think. It's normally me challenging directors and managers about how they communicate or tell their stories rather than being stumped for an answer.

The question was simple " what do I want to achieve with my business"?

I, like many other owner operators of SME's have spent the large part of the last year just trying to find a way to keep moving forward and we have mostly been very succesful in our purpose. We are still here, even better we are expanding with new appointments iminent I am hoping we can capitalise on some recent success. But with all this fire fighting and reacting to the opportunities directly in front of us I have not considered the " why" part of running my business for a long time.

Although I don't think you need to navel gaze everyday it is essential you can imagine where you want to get to. Call it what you like without a prize or endgame in place it can be very difficult to decide if a certain course, job, aliegence or contract is the right thing to do.

A good case in pint is our decision this year to move away from producing live events. This very time consuming activitiy is actually quite profitable but last year we realised it no longer aligned with our core business and required to many resources -more resources than we had available - to deliver the events at the kind of quality we would want. We still supply videos into live events and even the odd presentation but we will no longer design and deliver complete live events. We couldn't have made this decision without referencing it to our ultimate goal, the prize.

So back to today, the sudden realisation that I had no idea why I was in the meeting I was in. I don't want to talk about the meeting yet but it was a really useful conversation. I spent the slow train journey home contemplating this idea - what's the point, what are we trying to achieve and are we in course to achieve this?

By tomorrow morning I hope to have the answer



-- Post From My iPhone

The new Giggle Group Blog

Welcome - If this is your first time visiting a Blog then you are in good company as it's my first time writing one - thoughts and comments are always welcomed but be gentle with us for the first few months.

So lets start by outlining what you might expect to read here. Firstly I (That is Steve Garratt MD of The Giggle Group) will be blogging about the big stuff - the future of video as we see it, whats hot and not in B2B communications (I promise thats more interesting than it sounds) and anything cool we are developing that might inspire or excite you all (This does assume someone reads the blog - how do I promote this)?

Later on James Sykes, creative producer will hopefully blog about what's happening in the studio and any interesting projects we are working on - for example we are working on a very exciting top secret pitch over the next couple of days and the studio is a buzzing with excitement about the possibilities of the project should we win it.

Finally - if I can persuade her to partake - Claire Opie- our fabulous new Administrator, Copy writer and all round efficient super bod will hopefully blog about what it's really like to work in a buzzing exciting sometime frenetic production studio - there might be a lot of honesty in her blogs so watch this space.

So - if your new to us take a look at a couple of our websites - www.thegigglegroup.co.uk and our YOUTUBE site www.thegigglegroup.tv where you can see a lot of what we do for our clients. Of course being in B2B comms means we can't show a large majority of what we produce but it gives you a very good overview of what we do and how well we do it.

Any thoughts opinions or things you would like to see on the blog let us know - contact us on info@thegigglegroup.co.uk