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“The business card is dead. Long live the business card!” In the digital age, there’s a fierce battle going on between those who believe that business cards are no longer relevant and those who believe they’ll always be an important weapon in a great businessperson’s arsenal. So which side of the battle are we on? We’re firm believers that the business card is here to stay and in fact, may actually be more relevant than ever! The power of the physical memento Have you ever made a great connection with someone at a business event, only to realise in horror 24 hours later that you can’t remember their name? If so, you’re not alone! Today, we forge more connections with people than ever before, so it can be difficult to keep track of everyone we come into contact with. This is where the humble business card can work its magic! In the scenario outlined above, if you had exchanged business cards at the event then you wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting names or scribbling down a misspelt name. It’s the perfect physical memento of the first contact! A handy little tip we have is to write some notes on the business cards you collect about the person you met when you met them so that when the time comes to follow up with them, you’re well-prepared. Rise to the top of the stack Business cards can also help you stand out from the crowd if they are designed in a way that makes them truly unique. You need something with a “wow” factor that will make all the difference between someone contacting you and your competition. Read on for some creative ideas to make sure your business card sits at the top of the stack. Material In almost every case, the first thing people will notice about your business card is the material that it is created with. Did you know that some people actually claim to take people with flimsy business cards less seriously? To avoid this, we recommend using high-quality, thick card stock. You can also add a bit of flair to thick cards with metallic foil, layered and embossed elements and a glossy finish. Or, if you have a larger budget to play with, why not branch out with some of these even more creative business card materials? Wood Metal Cotton Silk Shape and Layout While most business cards are rectangular and 3.5 x 2 inches, there are no hard and fast rules to state that you can’t break the mould! In fact, with die-cuts, your business card can come in almost any shape you can imagine. If your business is an energy company, you could have a light bulb shape to make your card more memorable. Similarly, if your business is in the environmental sector, a tree or leaf shape would certainly get people talking. If the thought of using a different shape is a bit too quirky for your brand, you might consider a more subtle shape alteration, such as rounded corners or shaped cut-out elements within the business card. Traditionally, business cards are designed in landscape format but recently we’ve witnessed the rise of portrait-style business cards. This is also something you could consider to make a more impactful impression without straying too far away from the norm. Colour Did you know that a coloured card typically lasts 10x longer than the standard white card? With this in mind, it’s worth creating a card using one of the bolder colours from your brand’s colour palette. If your brand isn’t the most colourful, take a look at our guide to colour psychology to help you select the perfect colour for your business cards. Digital Elements The business cards of today can work a lot harder for us than the business cards of the past. This evolution is another reason why we believe that business cards are alive and well! Thanks to innovations like QR codes and shortened URLs, you can connect the online and offline worlds seamlessly, simply by adding these simple elements to your business card. For example, you could use a QR code to link people to your website, a PDF, a video presentation, an audio file or any other element that would bring value to your newly forged business contact. The possibilities are endless! --- Do your business cards pack a punch, or do they need an upgrade for the digital age? Get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how DMA Partners can help: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

With LinkedIn reporting that 62% of B2B marketers believe that video is the most important content format, it’s no surprise that the platform has recently made native video content publishing and advertising capabilities available to business pages. With this in mind, there’s never been a better time for B2B brands to experiment with starting or scaling up their video marketing activities. To help you get going, we’ve compiled this handy guide with our top four tips to ensure your videos capture the hearts and minds of B2B decision makers. 1. Be clear & concise B2B decision makers are seriously busy people, and they have thousands of internal and external stimuli competing for their undivided attention at any given time. To ensure your video content cuts through the noise, it needs to be clear and concise. The shorter your video is, the more likely people are to watch it in its entirety. Sticking to a rule of ‘one key message per video’ will help you cut the fluff and keep your videos short and sweet. If you have already created some more extended video content that you don’t want to waste, why not split it up into smaller clips to create a video series? With shrinking attention spans, getting your point across in as short a time span as possible can be quite the challenge, but if you’re looking for some proof, we have the perfect example. In the video below, Zendesk was able to communicate one of the key benefits of its products AND generate a giggle in 15 seconds flat. What’s more - a member of the public thanked the company for making ads that are actually enjoyable to watch! 2. Communicate value No matter what the objective of your video is, it should always communicate value to the person who is watching it. There are many ways to communicate value in B2B video content, for example: Can you entertain the viewer to bring them a sense of enjoyment? Can you inspire the viewer to think differently or take action? Can you educate the viewer on a topic that’s important to them? Can you convince the viewer that you have the solution to their problem? The value levers that you choose are likely to vary by video and will depend on your brand, your goals and your audience. Want to witness one of the value levers in action? One of our favourite examples of an entertaining B2B video is the below example from Hootsuite. The company created this funny video of their employees reading out ‘mean Tweets’ it had received about its product to announce the changes it had made in response to the feedback. Some food for thought - would you have watched the video if it was framed solely as a product update announcement? 3. Consider the buyer’s journey As technology continually allows marketing to be much more sophisticated and personalised, it makes sense to consider the buyer’s journey within your video strategy. For the best results, it would be ideal to create a suite of video content that serves the unique needs of a customer at each stage of the journey - from awareness to consideration and decision making. This way you can get the right message, to the right person at the right time. Let’s take a closer look at some examples of the different types of content that would work best at each stage. Awareness Brand introductions Feature/benefit teasers Consideration How to’s Quick tips Decision Customer testimonials Case studies Ultimately, the goal is for your videos to move potential customers along the buyer's journey and inspires them to become brand advocates who share your content with more potential customers. In effect, your customers can become a reliable source of video distribution with baked-in social proof. 4. Double down on distribution A recent LinkedIn survey revealed that 26% of B2B marketers are planning to spend more than £300k on video advertising this year - and rightly so. You could have the most captivating video in the world, but if you don’t get it in front of decision-makers, you’re unlikely to get results. This is why a good video distribution plan is vital. The first thing to consider when it comes to distribution is the mix of platforms you’re going to use. For example, this might be your website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or your email newsletter. Where do B2B decision-makers tend to spend time online? Do you already have access to an owned database of B2B contacts that you can reach via email, or do you need to reach a new audience via a social media platform? Secondly, it’s important to get clear on your targeting, especially if you’re using a paid distribution method. LinkedIn is second to none when it comes to targeting B2B decision makers because its targeting features allow you to hone in on attributes such as job title and seniority, amongst other things. Be sure to pay attention to the distribution channels and target audiences that are the most receptive to and engaged with your content and use these findings to inform your future video distribution strategy. --- Spotted any eye-catching B2B videos lately? Tweet us your top picks at @DMA_Partners! Looking to leverage B2B video marketing to achieve your business objectives? Get in touch with our Managing Partner, Philip Martin, at philip.martin@dma-partners.com to see how we can help you create and execute a winning video strategy from start to finish.

With a focus on effectiveness and “cutting out the middle man” in everyday business, sprints and agile methodologies are taking the business world by storm. A five-day process made famous by Google Ventures for solving complex design problems, sprints are like the 100m for your product, helping teams move from idea to tested prototype within a fraction of the time. Imagine being able to fast forward through the stages of a project to see how customers react before you invest in producing a real product that doesn’t actually work. Want to know how to carry out a successful sprint? Then hold onto your seats as we speed through the most productive working week ever. Monday The first stage is all about mapping the problem. Create a goal – in an ideal world what would this product/service look like? Then list all the problems or risks that could threaten this. Using a map to show how a customer moves through your service, get everyone to take notes starting with “how might we”, a handy tip for ensuring all notes are in the same format. Then the designated leader will choose the most relevant/reoccurring “how might we”s to focus the sprint on and hey presto you’ve got your big question to answer. Tuesday Tuesday is time to sketch your way to a solution. To lay the foundations, it’s useful to start off with lightening demos in which you review successful solutions that other companies have come up with. Individuals will then create their own design sketch, thus avoiding the typical brainstorm that more often than not ends up with everyone shouting in a desperate frenzy of creativity. It’s important to add that finished sketches don’t need to be a beautiful masterpiece, just something with a clear purpose that everybody can understand. Wednesday You can’t prototype and test all the solutions so it’s time to implement the “Sticky Decision” method. To start, everyone reviews the sketches in silence using sticky notes then altogether the team gets to suggest which aspects to take into the prototype. You’ll either be able to see a clear prototype or there will be competing design ideas that equally all have promise; either way, you’re heading in the right direction. Finally, using the chosen sketches from earlier, take the main elements and create a storyboard to demonstrate how the product/service prototypes will be carried out, avoiding the temptation to add new ideas. Thursday Now it’s time to build a realistic prototype to simulate what the customers could eventually get their hands on. Choosing the correct tools to make your prototype is essential; following the sprint principles it needs to be able to develop your product quickly yet effectively. Once you’ve chosen, divide the prototype up to ensure that one person isn’t responsible for the mammoth task of creating it from beginning to end. At the end, an elected individual aptly known as the “stitcher”, needs to take all the pieces of the prototype and make sure they flow cohesively, ready for a trial run on the final day. Friday The final stretch is crucial for ironing out any small errors that may have previously slipped under the radar. This involves 5 1-1 interviews from customers who match the target profile for the product, allowing the team to gage the customer’s immediate reaction and better understand what went well or not so well. Then, once all these notes are amassed, you’ll quietly look for patterns in the feedback. Armed with this key insight, you’ll probably want to run a quicker follow up sprint which simply involves updating the prototype, finding a new set of customers and testing it again. In using this method, you´ll have the answers to your most urgent questions almost immediately instead of waiting until a product launch. How do you solve tricky design issues? We’d love to hear from you! Tweet us @DMA_Partners and let us know your thoughts. If you want help with designing cutting edge branding and marketing material, get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how we can help: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

When asked to identify one common trait found in creative people, Rory Sutherland a creative director at Ogilvy stated one word- curiosity. “Without curiosity, inspiration becomes limited”. It is hard not to be curious in a city like Madrid. Unlike London and New York, Madrid has not yet caught onto the trend of displaying street maps at every roadside, making it notoriously easy to get slightly lost. Staring at the buildings with their pastel colours and tiny balconies, inhaling the smells of freshly baked croissants it’s all too easy to feel a sense of timelessness and wander endlessly from barrio to barrio. Part of the joy of wandering is discovering local hotspots you’d never find online, and contemplating how, in an era of TripAdvisor, Yelp and the internet, a place can survive on word of mouth alone. If you wander down a few narrow streets in Madrid’s barrio of Lavapiés you might be lucky enough to stumble upon a tiny place called Bar Santurce. From the outside it’s very easy to overlook, it’s the kind of place you’d walk right by on your way to somewhere else. The sign is small, nothing about it tries to seek attention. It’s a minimalist white background with black text. All it announces is “sardinas asadas” ‘grilled sardines’. Not exactly a call to action is it? The fascinating thing about this bar is that, were you to stumble upon it on a Sunday (market day in el Rastro) you would be hard-pressed to find a seat, let alone jostle your way to the bar. The bar sells very few items, a glance at the menu reveals sardines, peppers and beer, no-frills or exciting USP. So how has such an unassuming, basic place, succeeded in gaining such popularity that getting to the bar has become a contact sport? The key it seems is simplicity. In presenting a no-frills approach, Bar Santurce has addressed one of the biggest issues irking consumers today- the paradox of choice. Being inundated with options and advertising has made consumers increasingly wary of gimmicks and shiny posters promising novelty. A return to simplicity allows people to rise above the noise of garish advertising and offers a charming authenticity. At Bar Santurce you can’t get artisan beer or speciality ceviche, what you can and do get is grilled fish, sautéed peppers, and good old beer to wash it all down. Bar Santurce reminds us of the power of getting the fundamentals right. There is a Basque culinary warning which goes if a restaurant serves you a headless fish smothered in sauce, run away. The only reason to need a strong sauce and the removal of the head is to hide bad produce. If the foundations were good, the sauce becomes unnecessary. Good writing can learn something from this too. Before we go about adding linguistic flare or visual accompaniments, we need to go back to basics. Does the writing actually convey our message? Is the visual directly linked to our purpose? In his essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell outlined 6 rules for good writing: Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.[1] Orwell’s guide to writing well hinges upon brevity and coherence, using ordinary language devoid of pretence. Sometimes the best approach is not embellishment or hyperbole, but rather honesty and letting your work do the talking in the clearest and most concise way possible. [1] Politics and the English Language, George Orwell, p.8

Many B2B marketers are investing a significant proportion of their marketing budget in content creation and this figure tends to increase every year. However, simply creating content is no longer enough, especially when you take the amount of fresh content that is published every second into account. It’s a noisy world out there and your content must be discovered and consumed by your target market for your efforts to pay off. Once you’ve created a new blog post, whitepaper or video, it’s important to target the right distribution channels to boost the reach of your content. This all depends on what channel your target audience is using regularly. Social Media Organic social media posts can be the simplest way to get your content into the hands of your target market. While LinkedIn company page posts and Tweets are the obvious go-to’s, don’t discount other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. With the recent algorithm changes negatively impacting the reach of business accounts on many social media platforms, many savvy B2B marketers have opted to supplement their organic social media posts with a paid social media strategy. CMI & Marketing Profs report that this figure is 71%. Paid social advertising allows you to tightly define who you want your content to reach and pay the social platforms to distribute it to them while enabling you to track and measure your ROI in real time. If you have the benefit of a large staff, you can also leverage their networks to boost the reach of your content. Think of your team as in-house influencers! A simple, incentivised employee advocacy campaign, where employees are rewarded for sharing your content on their own social media accounts, can have a huge impact. Another tactic we recommend for companies who have multiple team members who author content for the company blog is to use LinkedIn Articles. Simply creating abridged versions of your blog content and adding a link back to the full blog post to give people the opportunity to dive deeper into the topic can increase your website traffic if done correctly. Email Your existing email database is another great way to promote your fresh content, especially as it is made up of people who have already shown some form of intent or interest in your products or services. If you already send out a regular email newsletter, be sure to include your most recent content within in. On the other hand, if you don’t send a regular newsletter and are publishing content less frequently, consider sending out a solo email about each new blog post you publish. These tactics will not only get your content seen by your target audience, but will help to build the know, like and trust factor and ensure your business stays at the top of their minds. Podcasts and Webinars If your content marketing consists mainly of written content, you could be missing out on forging a connection with prospects who prefer to consume information via audio and video. Furthermore, a CMI & Marketing Profs study uncovered that 64% of B2B marketers increased their use of audio/visual content in the past year, so now is the time to get involved. Consider how you could repurpose your existing content into new formats, such as podcasts, live webinars or YouTube videos to reach a fresh audience. Similarly, you could pitch your organisation as a “guest” speaker on a relevant podcast or YouTube channel based on some of your most recent blog posts. Other Websites In recent years, blogging platform Medium has proven to be a great way to connect with millennial influencers, particularly in the tech and creative sectors. You can import your company blog posts into Medium within minutes and add them to your own branded publication, with no SEO penalty. In addition, guest blogging for industry websites and those of associations relevant to your target market can also be lucrative for B2B marketers. Why not make a list of the top 10 in your sector and email them with a polite feature pitch? Lastly, the often overlooked Quora can be another effective way to get your content seen by those who are actively looking for solutions to problems you can solve. Search for questions people may have asked that can be answered by your existing content and provide a simple, helpful response that links back to your blog post. This not only positions you and your team as thought leaders but also paints you in a good light by providing great value for free. --- It’s important to keep in mind that not every piece of content will be right for dissemination on each of the channels we’ve mentioned, but this should give you a good starting point. Our closing advice? Test different channels, analyse the data and adapt your content distribution strategy accordingly. --- Would you like your B2B content to reach more people within your target audience? We can help you build a winning content distribution strategy that will boost the impact of your efforts. Get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how DMA Partners can help: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

Since most countries went into lockdown it is estimated that people will spend a whopping 100 minutes per-day watching online videos! Not surprising as most contact shifts itself to the 'net', narrowing the channels with which to communicate. With this phenomenal figure set to rise dramatically year on year, it's important that your brand should ensure that compelling video content becomes a key component of your marketing strategy over the next few months. To help you get into the swing, we’ve outlined some of the most popular video marketing trends to inspire your strategy. 1. Audio Waveform or Podcasts to you Right now, we’re in the golden age of podcasting with Michelle Obama launching her much anticipated podcast this week (30 July). Numerous B2B brands are going all-in on this trend by launching their own branded podcasts. While this may seem like a strange thing to mention in an article on video marketing, hear us out… Most of us have been 'zoomed' out recently with the online team calls, client meetings and webinars, oh the webinars! If you had told me I'd be spending 5-6 hours on webinars a week I would have laughed in your face. Well who's laughing now? The great thing about podcasts is that the speakers can be natural without having to worry about what books they have on their shelves, or making sure the door is boarded up to keep the kids at bay. Podcasts provide an intimate message one on one with the listener. If you throw in a snappy jingle too and keep it lively with a few guests you may just create a new audience. It's well worth a go, there's some great software out there to help you record locally and it's worth investing in a really good mic too. 2. Personalised Videos If you’re looking to improve the quality of the leads you generate from your video marketing efforts, then it’s well worth exploring personalised videos. Personalised videos allow your business to provide unique video experiences for customers with the right message at the right moment. As such, they’re most often used in email marketing campaigns. As this is slightly more complex to facilitate, jumping on this trend now means you’ll be more likely to reap the early adopter benefits. For some fantastic examples of personalised videos, check out this post by Vidyard. 3. Soundless Videos Were you aware that 92% of consumers watch video with the sound off when using their mobile phones? As a result, captions have now become a necessary requirement to allow audiences to consume videos when they are in situations where they'd prefer to be silent. Looking for an example? Check out this product explainer video we did for Traveknowledgy. 4. 360-Degree Video As AR and VR technologies continue to advance and become more mainstream, we can expect to see more 360 video activity in the B2B arena. If you want your video marketing to stand out from the crowd, then this is certainly an avenue to invest in, since 98% of consumers agree that 360 videos are the most exciting video format. Here are some potential B2B 360-degree video use cases to explore: Product demonstrations Showroom walkthroughs Virtual event attendance Practical training 5. Multi-Size Video In our digitally-moving world, the chances are that people will come into contact with your video content in a variety of ways - from their mobile phones to desktop computers. As a result, marketers need to ensure their videos are the optimal size for where they are located. For example: Vertical format for mobile and social media Horizontal format for desktop and websites Extra considerations thus should be taken at the video production stage to ensure that your video can easily be edited to work well across multiple formats and sizes. --- Could your business benefit from a boosted video marketing strategy? Take a look at our showreel here Get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how DMA Partners can help you capitalise on this year’s top B2B video marketing trends: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, the financial sector is still the sector least trusted by consumers today. Since the global financial crisis hit just over 10 years ago, financial services companies have been working hard to rebuild that trust, but there’s still a long road ahead. With trust being so critical to the bottom line, we’ve outlined 3 marketing methods financial services brands can use to build more trust within the marketplace. 1. Case Studies In a post-trust world, consumers are less inclined to take a brand’s word for it than they were in the past. Now, they demand proof that your products and/or services are legitimate, genuine and effective. Case studies are an excellent tool to build trust and communicate the value of your offerings. By showing how you have already solved a challenge for someone in the same shoes as your prospects, you’re more likely to inspire confidence that you can do it again. Consider creating a dedicated case study hub on your website to showcase your achievements and display your track record without people having to enter their details to download it, which is an outdated tactic. In recent years, we’ve also witnessed a shift away from PDF case studies and towards video case studies, where the people and firms involved tell the story of transformation. Presented by a third party, case studies can pack an extra punch because they show that someone else is willing to help build your reputation in return for a job well done. It’s the ultimate form of social proof! 2. Behind the Scenes Increasingly, consumers want to get to know the people behind businesses, as well as the brands themselves. Introducing the public to the key figures within your business can help to build that all-important know, like and trust factor. Let people take a peek behind the curtain and position your senior leadership team as key voices in your industry via thoughtful blogging and quick video insights. With this method, you can also communicate your brand values, which are the unique elements that set you apart from your competitors and can give your prospects another reason to want to choose your brand over others. Furthermore, trust can be broken much more easily than it can be built so this method can work well as a maintenance strategy to strengthen your bond with current customers. 3. Useful Content One of the best ways to quickly build trust is to show consumers that you really care about them and have their best interests at heart. By creating useful, original content that helps your target audience to: solve a problem answer a pressing question, better plan for the future, or makes their daily tasks easier to complete can be very effective. We’re big advocates of producing content in many different formats to cater to the varying preferences of the marketplace. Some trust-building content formats you could consider include: Whitepapers Infographics Podcasts Webinars This will encourage people to view your brand as a “trusted advisor” rather than a marketing powerhouse out to separate them from their cold hard cash. A recent LinkedIn study revealed that after consuming thought leadership content, 76% of executives are influenced in their purchasing decisions. Clearly, the time to start creating more useful content is now! --- Could your financial service brand be working harder to build and maintain trust in the post-trust society we now live in? We can help you build a content strategy that inspires confidence and can set you apart in the financial services sector. Get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how DMA Partners can help: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

Artificial Intelligence has been at the top of the agenda at almost every major B2B marketing conference this year. This comes as no surprise to the team here at DMA Partners, as what was once viewed as a futuristic fantasy when we set up the business 15 years ago is fast becoming the new norm today. As savvy B2B brands clamour to capitalise on the benefits of AI and the potential of the technology becomes more apparent, it’s clear that AI is here to stay. Let's explore three significant ways that AI is already shaking up the B2B marketing landscape. 1. Better Personalisation While the brightest marketing minds of the past few decades have extolled the virtues of customer segmentation, forward-thinking marketers have already identified that we’re in the midst of a shift from mere customer segmentation to full customer personalisation. With AI technologies that are currently on the market, marketers can turn raw data into behavioural insights that can be applied to communicate with prospects on a much deeper, individualised level. So how does this work in practice? In this scenario, a B2B brand is looking to sell software to HR Managers. Before AI, they were only able to segment their customers by seniority. However, with AI, instead of HR Manager Jenny simply being categorised as an HR Manager, an infinite number of layers could be added to further categorise her and impact upon how the business communicates with her. Using AI, the business could send Jenny a more personalised email which draws upon the fact that she’s a recently promoted HR Manager based in Edinburgh who works at a law firm with 50-100 employees. Consider how different this email should be from the email that is sent to Colin, an HR manager based in London who has been with a 5000+ employee FTSE 100 brand for 17 years, and you can truly start to appreciate the power of AI. With this in mind, generalised, mass-market style messaging will very soon become a thing of the past. Today’s customers will quickly come to expect AI-powered marketing that has the right message, delivered at the right moment, through the right medium. This more sophisticated, personalised and relevant method of B2B communication is likely to resonate with customers on a much more profound level and lead to better results for businesses. 2. More Efficiency Heard the prophets of doom preaching that AI will soon make marketers redundant? Don’t believe the hype. The majority of B2B AI technologies have been designed to improve human capacity, not to replace it. One major area where this can already be witnessed is when it comes to increasing the efficiency of B2B marketing. Perhaps the most popular use of AI in the B2B sphere so far has been that of ‘lead scoring’. This is when AI is used to sort through a CRM to pinpoint and predict the best leads. For example, AI could be used to determine that 80% of your previously closed leads all shared the same job title, suggesting that in future your sales team should focus on closing new leads who share this job title. While it would take a human being many days of data-crunching to create and execute a sophisticated lead scoring method like this, AI could achieve it within minutes. With AI making marketing processes like this more efficient, marketers can make more informed decisions at scale and at speed. This means that they can put their time to better use in areas such as relationship building or collaborating on creative campaigns - the exact areas where a human touch is vital. 3. Greater Accuracy Just as AI can improve B2B marketing’s efficiency, it can also lead to greater accuracy when it comes to analytics and attribution. Firstly, AI empowers marketers to rely on data to make decisions, rather than guesswork and gut feelings. Paired with the removal of human error, the elimination of bias in the interpretation of data can make campaigns more objective and outcome-driven. More sophisticated B2B AI solutions also deliver predictive analytics and projections. This means marketers can discover in advance which campaigns are likely to perform better, saving them the time and money they would have previously had to spend finding this out. There is one small caveat to keep in mind with this final point - “garbage in, garbage out” as they say! The data that an AI is fed must be strong, up to date, accurate data in order to produce a positive outcome. --- Have you explored how AI could improve your B2B marketing efforts? Get in touch with our Managing Partner, Philip Martin, at philip.martin@dma-partners.com to discuss how we can help you integrate artificial intelligence into your marketing strategy.

The wisdom of one of the world´s best-known designers, Milton Glaser, kickstarts our DMA Partners series, ‘Three lessons from…’ which takes a look at what we can all learn from some of design & communications’ most influential individuals. The creative who never stops creating Milton Glaser (1929), is a graphic designer, illustrator, and co-founder of Pushpin Studio. Even if you don’t know the man, you will have definitely seen his work. From the ‘I ♥ NY’ slogan to Fortune 500 and Esquire covers, Milton Glaser´s portfolio serves as inspiration for all of us. Three lessons from Milton Glaser 1) – Use beauty to grab the viewer’s attention- Glaser remarks: “Beauty is a mechanism to move us towards attentiveness…You realise we all have a genetic capacity and need to experience beauty.” We all love beauty, so next time you´re about to finish a project it´s worth asking yourself – is it as beautiful as it can be? 2) ­–It´s important to like your client- “All the work I have done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client”, Glaser writes. Our best work is often for those we like best. Find people you truly like and work for them. 3) -Every good work needs an element of puzzle- Think of some of the greatest artists that have ever lived… Picasso, Dali, Duchamp. Their work is seldom immediately understood and yet millions are fascinated. We love a puzzle and as Glaser states “the reason for using a puzzle is that things that are said directly and obviously are very often ignored.” If you´re interested in knowing more about Milton Glaser, here are some interesting resources: Milton Glaser on conveying information through puzzles: https://www.forbes.com/2005/10/19/glaser-milton-design-branding-comm05-cx_lr_1024glaser.html#4c8417b17c42 Milton Glaser: 10 things I have learned: https://www.miltonglaser.com/files/Essays-10things-8400.pdf Milton Glaser Big Think interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV9pdtgXuvM Milton Glaser´s portfolio: https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/ And for a great documentary, Milton Glaser: To inform and delight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ1YHqgZzGQ And please let us know your thoughts: toby.carpenter@dma-partners.com

A portrait of George Lois in 1964 and a second taken over 50 years later in 2016. “To read George Lois on advertising, is to read Leonardo Da Vinci on art, Julius Cesear on warfare and Clifford Irving on fraud.” - American critic Gene Shalit. George Lois (b. 1931) was a pioneer of the 1960s Creative Revolution in American Advertising. From making Tommy Hillfiger an instant hit with a single ad, to changing the fortunes of a failing MTV with his “I Want My MTV” campaign, to designing some the 20th century´s most iconic magazine covers, Lois is a master communicator. Here are three lessons we can all learn from the creative genius. 1) –“Truly great graphic and verbal communication reflects, adapts and helps to change the culture”- Take Lois´ Esquire cover “The Passion of Muhammad Ali”, which pictured the Boxer pierced by arrows, standing as a martyr in the fashion of St Sebastian, for refusing to fight in the Vietnamese war. Ali´s decision led him to be sentenced to jail and stripped of his heavyweight boxing title. Together with the controversy of his deeply unpopular conversion to Islam four years earlier, this scenario created a highly charged cultural affair. Lois knew this, adapted this and reflected this in the cover. As the art director says, great advertising “should encapsulate the culture.” 2) –Learning your art history is essential for creative work- A knowledge of “the world around you and especially the 7000 years of art is essential to doing creative work,” Lois fervently states. After all, “The Passion of Muhammad Ali” would never have existed if it wasn´t for Lois´ knowledge of Francesco Botticini´s Saint Sebastian, ca. 1460. 3) –“There is no such thing as a cautious creative.”- “We´re gonna get into big trouble with this cover,” Lois would regularly say to Esquire´s editor, Harold Hayes. An example? Lois´s first Esquire cover. This pictured the heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, an 8-1 favourite for his upcoming title fight against Sonny Liston, lying dead in the ring of an empty arena. The prediction initially became a laughing stock in the sports world and the cover only ran because Hayes threatened to quit if it didn´t. Less than a week later Liston destroyed Patterson and the cover became legendary. Bonus quotes from George Lois 1) “The more innovative your idea, the more courageous you must be to sell it.” 2) “In the act of creativity, being careful guarantees sameness and mediocrity.” 3) “Throughout your whole career, no one ever can make you run bad work. A client can kill, kill and kill what you think is right for him, but he can´t make you run bad work.” If you´re interested in learning more about George Lois, here are some great resources: If you do it right, it, and you, will live forever: George Lois at TEDxThessaloniki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzHIZOnCQLc Big Think Interview With George Lois: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-92PkAXJIqQ&t=1898s George Lois speaking at CreativeMornings on his experience in advertising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BRsOSgfl6E&t=746s

What's your value proposition? Did you know a value proposition is made of two parts. The first is a promise of the value your business will deliver to your customers. The second part is the customer ́s perception about how that value will be received. For many B2B marketers, defining exactly what their “value” is can be a daunting task. This is why we recommend referencing “The B2B Elements of Value” chart. The chart was created by Bain & Company in 2018 and is based on a study carried out by the firm into what matters most to B2B buyers. This chart breaks down the different elements that can play a part in an organisation’s value proposition. To make it more digestible, the elements have been broken down into 5 categories, each with their own subcategories. To help you get the most out of the model, we’ve created a short list of questions you can answer to get a clearer understanding of your organisation’s value. Inspirational Value Vision - What is your company’s vision for its customers and the world? Hope - How does your company inspire hope for a brighter future? Individual Value 1. Career - Network expansion - How does your business help someone expand their professional network? Marketability - How does your business help someone become a more attractive candidate in the job market? Reputational assurance - How does your business boost and safeguard the reputation of a client or customer? 2. Personal - Design & aesthetics - How does your product or service’s design add value to a client or customer? Growth & development - How does your business aid a client or customer in their career growth and development? Reduced anxiety - How does your business alleviate worries and fears for clients and customers? Ease of Doing Business Value 1. Productivity - Time savings - How does your offering save clients time? Reduced effort - How does your offering enable your clients to use fewer resources to complete a task? Decreased hassles - How does your offering reduce common customer pain points? Organisation - How does your offering empower your clients to become more organised? Connection - How does your offering improve the connection between departments in a client’s organisation? Integration - How easy is it to integrate your offering into established business practices? 2. Access - Variety - Do you have one offering or many? What are the benefits of your chosen approach? Configurability - Is your offering customisable or not? 3. Relationship - Responsiveness - How quickly can your team respond to queries? Expertise - How knowledgeable is your team regarding the industry and offering? Commitment - How dedicated is your team in helping clients achieve their desired outcomes? Stability - How stable is your business within the marketplace and current economic climate? Risk reduction - Does your offering reduce risks for your clients? Reach - Does your offering allow your clients to improve their reach? Flexibility - Is your offering a flexible solution? Component quality - Are the various elements of your offerings enhancing your client’s own offerings? Functional Value 1. Economic - Improved top-line - How does your offering improve a client’s business growth? Cost reduction - How does your offering allow your clients to cut costs or save money? 2. Performance - Product quality - Is your offering exceeding the expected quality standards within the marketplace? Scalability - How easy is it to scale or roll out your solution within larger, global organisations or different departments within smaller organisations? Innovation - How is your offering ahead of the curve in comparison to others that are available? Table Stakes Meeting specifications - Does your offering meet the specifications your target clients have in mind? Acceptable price - Is the price of your offering acceptable within the marketplace and reasonable for the value demonstrated? Ethical standards - Does your organisation demonstrate ethical standards that are in line with those of your target clients? --- Would your organisation like to refine its value proposition to make a bigger impact? Get in touch with Philip Martin to discover how DMA Partners can help you use the elements mentioned in this article to strengthen your position in your industry: philip.martin@dma-partners.com.

Growing up I was often accused of “being in a bubble”. Ever since school, I found the best way to learn or plan my approach to something would be to set a routine by running, walking, or somehow isolating myself so I could collect my ideas and have fewer distractions. By keeping my thoughts contained and allocated to their own space, ideas would then link together until finally everything became clear. A couple of years ago, this bubble was slightly shaken. We worked on a customer conference centered around the idea of looking at things differently. All attendees were recommended the book “Messy” by Tim Harford, which outlined different examples of how disorder and disruption can often transform our lives. This seemed like the antithesis of what I’d grown up learning and my core approach! One example that stayed with me was a study on interrupted commutes and how this caused people to change their route. After an episode of disruption, results showed that 1 in 20 people stuck with their new commute as they found it preferable to their original choice. Could it be that there is a better way if we are open to it? We face ‘interruptions’ like this on a daily basis. Instead of reverting back to our bubble we can look to these as opportunities to help us become more flexible and responsive. In the creative communications world, it’s vitally important that we are open to the inspiration of new ideas and stimuli. As we observe and absorb, new cerebral connections can be made that we can store for later and use in ever-changing circumstances. With recent social distancing measures, more and more people are finding themselves caught inside their own bubbles. At the same time, brands are continuing to find innovative ways to break through these barriers and create new, relevant and impactful content that aims to connect and inspire others (I particularly liked IKEA’s response to the pandemic for its simple, on-brand creative approach). Personally, I find “the bubble” still useful sometimes, but while also allowing ourselves to step outside our own learnt patterns and letting this messiness create new opportunities which bring surprising and better results. Georgia Walker, Senior Project Manager.