I don’t know what it is about florals, but I love them. I love looking at them. I love smelling them. I love photographing them. Perhaps it’s that the lens captures so much more than my eye can. Perhaps it’s the ability to look at the petal itself in crisp clearness against a backdrop of nothing. Perhaps it’s the contrast between the dark tennis court green and a bright fuscia or lilac.
I don’t know what it is.
And living in Beaminster – it makes it easy to fall in love with the summer garden frenzy that takes over – despite the clouds and rain. When the sunshine hits, Garden Centres are full, the smell of mulch lingers on the breeze like the carrot cake you baked that morning.
Hope you enjoy these florals, just as much as I enjoyed snapping them.
KR
Anyone who works for themselves is bound to understand the familiar feeling that is one’s own company. So every now and then, I take myself and my busy workload, off to a local cafe (which usually ends up being either The Bull Hotel for their Pain au Chocolat and free wifi, or Symondsbury Kitchen for their hot chocolate and free wifi) and spend a morning getting all the little things done that I need to get done.
Yes, I do it for the hot chocolate. Yes, I do it for the nibbles. But – there’s such a bigger reason why I do this. Company.
You see – working for yourself invariably means you are so busy getting things done, and looking for the next opportunity – that you forget to look after yourself – and sometimes, all you need is some inspiration from other creatives doing some impressive things.
So that’s what this is about.
We’re organising a get-together for anyone and everyone who is a freelancer or self-employed, and who – like the rest of us – enjoys meeting up with other self-starters for a cup of tea and a chat. There is no agenda – no plan – just a simple Let’s have coffee and see where the wind takes us.
We believe in purposeful coincidence – and you never know who you may meet – or where you next business lead may come from.
When: Friday 29 July, 10:00
Where: Bull Hotel Bar, Bridport
Bring a friend. Bring your work. Or just bring yourself.
Please RSVP if you’re keen by popping me a quick email – so that I can give the Hotel the heads up.
Who doesn’t love a good contra ad? You know the sort – those adverts that slowly start to unravel a strangely familiar and coy bubbling in your stomach as you watch and realise the gently aggressive contra-message they’re trying to broadcast.
There are so many of these out there – many that often go unnoticed because you haven’t seen the original.
But we’ve found just a few that you may not already know about.
When Mercedes Benz brought out this 1991 advert of a car smoothly zipping around the infamous coastal road in Cape Town, South Africa, those who saw it were left speechless with a sense of awe and wonder at not only the storyline, but the warm-hearted, loyalty-rich advertising that sprung out of it. The background to this advert is that a chap had been driving along this road, naturally in a Mercedes Benz, but had lost control of the vehicle and plummeted over the edge and onto the rocks below at the edge of the sea. He miraculously survived – and thus a major advertising campaign was born.
Here’s the advert:
However – as always, in good tradition – BMW wasn’t to outdone – and soon released an advert showing a BMW making its way along the same piece of road – but instead of going over the edge, maintains its pace and stays en route. Of course, they just had to throw in the tagline at the end, which signalled the start of a new type of brand war.
But it would appear that it wasn’t only BMW who was hot on the heels of the Mercedes Benz marketing team. We may all recall the more recent advertisement that Mercedes Benz released where they used hens to demonstrate their “magic body control”.
Here’s the advert
And no sooner had we fallen back in love with that Diana Ross song (but this time only associating it with chickens), but Jaguar decides to release their contra-ad showing that they, too, aren’t scared of a bit of brand rivalry.
Rivals of a completely different nature – and not necessarily the types of rivals we’d expect – but, and we must admit, a bolshy move from Aldi. As most of us are aware, the fight for the best Christmas advert comes around like clockwork – where retailers battle it out to create the most evocative, thought-provoking, tear-inducing advert possible, which instintively are shared (laboriously) all over social media where again, we reap all types of opinion, love, emotion, frustration, and in my case, irritation. It obviously works – because what they have released, causes some type of reaction, making their brand stand out – and therefore we buy (usually).
But in 2015, we saw a different set of rivals come to the fore.
John Lewis is always synonymous with their beautiful Christmas Adverts. And in 2015 they launched the #ManInTheMoon campaign.
Here’s the advert:
Not too long afterwards, and a little more understated than what you’d expect from someone going up against a retailer like John Lewis, Aldi (the budget chain retailer) decide to show that marketing skill and expertise has got nothing to do with the price of the products you sell.
Here’s their version:
So – it does leave one to ask. Who’s the real winner here? The one that came up with the follow up or the one who is being followed?
We leave that to you.
When we speak about our “Content Services” – people often think it’s this blanket statement that covers mostly marketing blurb, and self-proclamation. But here’s a little fact that you probably didn’t know about us.
Fresh Brew’s founder, Katy Roberts, also has extensive ESL Teaching experience – having lived in Taiwan for a couple of years, teaching English to learners of all ages and all abilities – from A-a-Apple through to business negotiations in a bank. Just recently, Katy was asked to pitch for a project where the purpose was to create a set of lesson plans for ESL teachers and to come up with new and interesting ways to teach a vocabulary set, a specific grammar structure and to enable learners to be equipped in real-life conversational scenarios.
Fresh Brew is not just about creating what we think works – but very much about creating what you need, to drive business, towards YOUR business.
So – in the interest of sharing and caring – here’s a lesson plan (LessonPlan_BookingAHoliday ) she drew up a few years ago for a specific class looking to develop their conversational ability in a particular situation.
Along with the lesson plan, she also created the comprehension test, recorded an audio interview and created the vocabulary test cards required.
If you have a specific content requirement – but just don’t have the time – get in touch. Whether it’s a white paper, or a blog, an invitation or a Press Release – we can help create that for you.
No – I didn’t buy my likes or followers, but now that I have your attention – I’d like to share some Social insight with you. It may apply, or it may not – but hopefully – if you’re not already aware of the pitfalls of ImpSmeedFigs (Impressive Social Media Figures), then hopefully I serve as your beacon of light today.
So – today I saw this:
I’m not in the business of naming and shaming, so I won’t.
But what I will do is point out the less-than-obvious. Unless you’re someone remarkably well-known, or a startup brand taking the world by storm – the chances of having follower and like stats demonstrated above are, as my dad used to say, “not impossible, but highly unlikely”.
Allow me to give some background. This particular chap’s profile is just a website address, to an online clothing store. There is no location information. There is bio information. His profile or cover picture is nothing profound – and yet, he proudly boasts over 14,000 followers, and over 80,000 likes. Unlikely.
So – before you get completely stuck on analytics and influencers – and before you are led down the wrong path by people with impressive influence – remember: These stats can be completely inaccurate, fictitious and…. BOUGHT. What you want to look for to identify a true influencer is:
Keep your eyes open.
If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.
Find the real influencers – become a real influencer – the old-fashioned way. Through integrity and hard work.