eskimosoup are committed to a busy couple of weeks to promote a regional campaign commissioned as part of the National No Smoking Day 2012 programme.

The “Commit to Quit” campaign sees NHS Hull, NHS East Riding and NHS North Lincolnshire join forces with Hull City, Hull FC, Hull KR and Scunthorpe United to help supporters stop smoking and recognise that smoking is not the social norm in our area.

The campaign will use a number of activities to ensure awareness is raised around the Commit to Quit campaign and No Smoking Day, which takes place next Wednesday.

To answer any questions and give fans information on the NHS Stop Smoking services, the Commit to Quit team will be at the at the KC Stadium tonight as Hull City play Leeds Utd. Visiting Bridlington next Monday and Scunthorpe next Wednesday, so make sure you keep an eye out for campaign mascot Cyril the Cig.

These road shows will also inform people about the live league table, which everyone can play a huge part in.

Cyril made an appearance at Hull FC Vs Wakefield Wildcats on Sunday with the club fully behind the campaign; James Clark, head of communications, media and marketing at Hull FC, said: “We are a firm believer in working with the local NHS to send poignant health messages to our loyal supporters and we want them to understand there is support and advice available in the city.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of friendly rivalry and competition between all sets of fans from each club and plenty of ‘healthy’ banter, with a serious underlying health message of quitting smoking.”

For more information on the campaign and how you can support your club, visit www.commit-to-quit.co.uk and enter the live league table of pledgers and make your team proud.
You can also follow @commit_to_quit on Twitter for updates.

Good Healthy Marketing

When it comes to websites, blogs, brochures and things like this, it’s quite easy to talk-the-talk, though often this doesn’t provide the reader with any real substance. With this in mind, I thought it would be better to show you how when it comes to working with the NHS we walk the walk through an overview of eskimosoup’s recent experience and examples of creative solutions to some pretty tough challenges!

If you’d like to be sent our portfolio of work with the NHS, including profiles on 20 projects and campaigns we’ve delivered, please email john@eskimosoup.co.uk or call 01482 223866

In the meantime and for quick reference; here are 10 recent achievements to give you a flavour of our work:

1. Midwife Hull
We worked with NHS Hull to develop "Midwife Hull" the first interactive Facebook profile from the NHS. As well as achieving healthy lifestyle behavioural change amongst young pregnant women, the campaign achieved significant TV and press coverage. We even took a call from Facebook’s marketing team who wanted to use it in their PR!

2. No Smoking Day
We developed a programme of activities for No Smoking Day in Hull by setting members of our company an Apprentice-style challenge to come up with innovative and engaging ways of spreading important messages. We generated events with Hull City football club, Hull FC rugby club, a shopping centre, a brass band and even a group of student zombies out promoting health messages – crucially, the activity contributed to a 21% increase in stop smoking services accessed that month.

3. How's Your Business Feeling?
Along with NHS Stoke and partners we developed "How's Your Business Feeling?"; an interactive self-assessment and training resource helps managers and organisations to create a mentally healthy workplace that is inclusive and supportive of people with experience of mental health problems.

4. 365 (Annual Report)
Working with NHS Hull’s communications team we developed 365; a way of breathing new life into the Trust’s annual report through an attractive magazine-style design. The report received the Award of Excellence at the Association of Communicators in Business Awards in 2010.

5. Health Central
eskimosoup were appointed as marketing lead for the launch of Health Central; the UK’s first integrated healthy lifestyles centre on the High Street. The diverse launch programme of events was hailed a success and achieved the target of services being accessed within the first 12 months.

6. Throat Cancer Campaign
Humber and Yorkshire Coast Cancer Network commissioned eskimosoup to run a 3 month marketing campaign to raise the awareness of symptoms of laryngeal cancer and lead to behaviour change amongst men aged 45+ in wards of Hull and Grimsby. Still in progress at the time of writing this – the campaign has seen a healthy direct response through high impact communications at events, in press, radio and TV.

7. Blokes Jokes
eskimosoup partnered with NHS Hull to use Hull Comedy Festival as a vehicle to connect with men in Hull living in areas of deprivation on issues surrounding physical health. Working with local comedians and bars, we developed the innovative "Bloke Jokes" programme which independent researchers reported scored very highly in terms of recall and attitude change. This was followed by a second phase "For Better, For Worse" which is still in development.

8. Working for Mental Health
eskimosoup developed "Working for Mental Health" which is our first project used centrally by the Department of Health.

9. Peter’s Story (Suicide Prevention)
We were appointed by NHS Hull to roll-out a key aspect of their suicide prevention strategy. This involved targeted distribution of a DVD resource called "Peter’s Story" along with an events and PR programme which included TV, radio and press features. Due to the great work by NHS Hull, Peter’s Story is cited as a best practice case in the national suicide prevention strategy.

10. Path to Success
Working on behalf of Earning & Learning at the NHS we developed a programme called the "Path to Success" which was rolled out across all secondary schools in Hull and was facilitated by Britain’s Got Talent Finalists and martial arts duo, Strike. The programme received 100% positive feedback from all participating schools.

-------

We recently began working on some interesting projects for the teams at NHS Nottinghamshire and NHS Leeds, so hope to be able to report on more great results in 2012!

How do you measure success on facebook? Monthly Active Users?

Measuring success in Social Media is difficult.

If you promote your business on facebook through anything but a page (which contravenes facebook rules and could be deleted at any time!), you're up against it from the start. With a Personal Profile or a Group, you can gauge your progress through the number of friends or members you have and how many 'likes' and comments you get, but that only shows part of the picture.

Interaction, such as 'likes' and comments, is an indicator that a user has actually noticed you and paid attention, but many users only like to watch, so many more may have seen you.

How many people have visited you? How many times have your posts been seen?

With a Group or Personal Profile you just don't know, but with a Page, there's a detailed statistics package called 'Insights' already included. There's a lot of interesting data, such as geographic, gender and age demographics, with many indicators on how you're doing.

One particularly interesting feature is the Monthly Active Users (MAU) and this may well be the single best indicator of how a page's effectiveness. In faceboook's words, MAU is;

"The number of people who have interacted with or viewed your Page or its posts. This includes interactions from fans and non-fans."

So, this statistic tells you how many people you've reached, which at the end of the day, is what you want to know.

Let's look at some example facebook Pages that I have admin rights to;

Aerial Extreme; http://www.facebook.com/aerialextreme

This is one of our most successful pages, for a great company who offer 'high wire adventure courses' around the country. It has lots of great interaction, and even though the MAU is lower than the fan number, that's still a great reach.

Fans -6,244

MAU - 4,574

Eskimo Soup; http://www.facebook.com/eskimosoup

Our own page provides marketing hints, tip, and case studies, as well as insight in to what we do. There's really great content, but we're often too busy doing great work for a clients to spread it around enough, which accounts for the relatively low MAU.

Fans - 422

MAU - 251

Hugh Rice Jewellers; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hugh-Rice-The-Jewellers/108764349183128

This is the page for a chain of jewellers based in Hull. We've only recently taken over the admin for the page, but by introducing a regular content strategy and interacting with larger, relevant pages, have increased MAU by over 1,000% in little over a month.

Fans - 222

MAU - 1,402

Beverley Road, Hull; http://www.facebook.com/beverleyroad

A personal project, recently launched, looking to gauge opinion on an area of Hull. The difference here is huge and shows that just because your fan numbers are low, it doesn't necessarily mean that your reach is too.

Fans - 63

MAU - 1,213

The last two examples are very interesting. How can there be such a huge difference between fan numbers and the amount of people who see content, when 'likes' and comments seem so low on the pages themselves?

The answer is the 'share' link.

There is no indication on the page or in the 'insights' of how many times a post has been shared. It would be a hugely useful statistic for facebook to offer Page admins, but it's the only factor I can see to explain the disparity. I've examined page view data, i.e. when people come across or visit the page, and that comes no where close.

Though comments and 'likes' look great to visitors, the 'share' link is far more powerful in reaching a larger audience, yet it's the most difficult to measure. MAU could be a way, but the sooner Facebook introduce a concrete figure into Insights, the better.

Next week we'll look at how to maximise the impact of 'share'.

Back of the Net!

eskimosoup’s marketing team have continued a run of good form by celebrating the success of the inaugural Business Week 6-aside Football Cup.

Sponsored by the generous community champions; St Stephen's Shopping Centre, the cup took place at the outdoor pitches of the Bonus Arena, Hull on the evening of Wednesday 8th June. 20 teams took part as four mini leagues were whittled down to a knock-out tournament.

IT support company Primary Tech beat Humber Sports Partnership 2-1 in a gripping final to clinch the title, though went on to be beaten 5-2 in an exhibition by the Hull City Legends team, including two goals from eskimosoup’s very own Rich Quelch who somehow managed to sneak into the line-up somewhere between Stan McEwan and Stuart Elliott!

The event raised £2,875.00 for the Hull Children’s University and plans are being drawn up for a bigger tournament in 2012 – as they say; watch this space…

In the meantime a video showing many of the highlights (including a Rich Quelch goal and a successful cross-bar challenger) can be viewed here.

Spreading that Summer Feeling

The eskimosoup events team enjoyed a fantastic trip to Essex during the May Bank Holiday weekend as our “Summer Suitcase” came to Eastgate Shopping Centre.

“The Summer Suitcase”, part of our Retail Centred approach to events gave shoppers the chance to interact with products and learn about the essentials to pack for going away on your jollies.

The events team illuminated the centre (check out how bright the beach-effect carpet was!) with a display, summer tunes and practical style advice from Tina Gill and Amelia Thompson.

Over 17 retailers took part in the event, including Next, Debenhams, Domo Luggage, Barratts, Jane Norman and The Body Shop.

Alongside the ‘holiday style’ element of the event, we also ran a competition which gave passers by the chance to win £500 to spend at Eastgate by correctly guessing the weight of the giant suitcase.

During the two days, over 200 people were engaged with for product advice to directly generate sales and one lucky customer bagged themselves the £500.

Our team really enjoyed working with the Eastgate team and look forward to doing again later in the year.

Being Retail Centred

The management team at Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon has appointed eskimosoup to manage a “Summer Suitcase” event to help boost pre-summer sales for their retailers.

eskimosoup will be running an interactive event that presents an exciting way of positioning Eastgate as the place to be for the complete package ahead of the summer holidays. The event will showcase a wide-range of products and feature advice on the hottest summer styles from Tina Gill and her style team.

The Summer Suitcase is the first of a programme of events called "Retail Centred" that works with shopping centres keen to ensure that their tenants benefit from all ongoing events and marketing activities.

Check out the Retail Centred website to find out more.

Run by the community, for the community

eskimosoup have been working up in the North East (that’s more North, and more East than our base in Hull) to provide a suite of marketing materials that support the rebrand of a thriving day centre in Northumblerland.

Lynemouth Day Centre is run by the community, for the community. It has for over 25 years been providing quality care and a wide range of activities that support a full and active life for elderly people in the Morpeth area.

eskimosoup were awarded the contract after we were invited to enter a joint bid with market intelligence specialists Information by Design. The work, which includes a new website is part of a wider project to modernise the day centre and ensure that it continues to meet the changing needs of the community it serves.

A brief video that encapulsates the essence of the Lynemouth Day Centre can be viewed here.
It includes brief interviews from day centre workers and clients, including one lady recalling her 100th birthday party as a special memory of the centre!

The project has been a joy to work on with some lovely people involved. We look forward to seeing Lynemouth Day Centre being at the heart of the community for another 25 years.

Banner Jones Website Goes Live

Banner Jones are a Law firm with bases of operations in the Midlands and South Yorkshire. eskimosoup have been working with them since 2010 and have developed a website that better reflects their brand.

The website now has a better use of images to communicate the brand values and to help guide users of the website to services that are important to them quickly and easily.

As with all eskimosoup websites www.bannerjones.co.uk is built upon our own content management system, allowing Banner Jones to update their site at no extra cost. Analytics are built within the website and reporting features have been set up so marketing and business decisions can be made upon the information we gather here.

The website has been set up to take online payments from clients and can provide instant conveyancing quotes.

“eskimosoup have been a real joy to work with. From the very beginning they showed a genuine interest in our business which gave me the confidence that they were the right people to work with.  Their expert team are extremely helpful and a creative solution was found to every hurdle I came across. We are thrilled with the results and I know this is the start of a long working relationship with the team at eskimosoup.”

Ann-Marie Lowe, Marketing Manager

A GRAND performance

We are delighted to say that eskimosoup’s Chris Middleton, Rich Quelch and John Gilbert, completed their GRAND challenge on the first attempt today as part of the St Stephen’s fundraiser for Comic Relief.

Handling the pressure of being filmed by BBC Look North, first past the post was John who completed his 1,000 juggles of oranges. Complaining that his red nose was “interfering with his vision” John got through a few wobbles to keep it going for the required amount of time.

This left Rich to continue his 1,000 keepy uppies with a football, whilst Chris dug deep to continue 1,000 crunches in a row (Chris is so hardcore that he even had a heavy session at the gym before taking part in the challenge?!). Both men continued and reached their targets at almost exactly the same time.

As this blog piece is being written, the event is still going strong and DJ Chris Tyas is almost halfway through his 1,000 track mix marathon (on target to finish at 5pm).

There is still time to donate online here and support the fantastic Comic Relief.

PS: All going to plan, you’ll see the St Stephen’s GRAND challenge featured on BBC 1 Look North tonight!

Team to Take on the No Smoking Day Challenge

Today is National No Smoking Day! The campaign helps smokers who want to quit by creating a supportive environment for them, and by highlighting the many sources of help and advice available.

Here at eskimosoup, as part of a project for NHS Hull, four members of our team have organised distinctive events to promote No Smoking Day to local people and will be competing to see who can have the most impact.

Rich Quelch (Marketing and Events Manager) arranged for Cyril the Cig, the No Smoking Day mascot to appear at a Hull FC’s victory over Crusaders on Friday night and was back at the KC Stadium last night to appear at Hull City’s match against Burnley. Roary the Tiger was striking the ball from different distances on the pitch to try and hit the human size cigarette. Although, at Hull FC Cyril’s poor lung capacity was clear to see as he was trounced by the Airlie Bird in an obstacle course.

Karen Hodgson (Business Development) organised gymnasium staff from DST Leconfield to hold an event in North Point Shopping Centre. There will be 2 treadmills within the shopping centre encouraging the general public to take part in the military test.

Chris Middleton (Managing Director) arranged a human size cigarette and brass band to hit all the hot spots in the city centre. The cheeky Cyril the Cig will be approaching the general public and asking the individuals to put out their cigarettes. The brass band will have the message ‘Try doing this on 20 a day’ to express how smoking reduces energy.

John Gilbert (Marketing Director) has worked with students at Hull University and other volunteers from Hull to run a “Zombie Walk” down Newland Avenue, Prince’s Avenue and Beverley Road. The campaign is accompanied by a tongue in cheek list of comparisons/differences between smokers and zombies to highlight the disadvantages of smoking.

The activities compliment the “Big Reasons” project delivered by eskimosoup on behalf of NHS Hull which included the production of video case studies through which local ex-smokers share the benefits they have experienced since they quit smoking.
See www.youtube.com/nhssmokefree to view the collection.

Proud to be partners of Business Week 2011

eskimosoup have become the communications partner for the prestigious Business Week in the Hull and Humber region.

Now in its seventh year, Business Week is a celebration of star performers and inspirational speakers in the biggest event of its kind anywhere in the world. A programme of conferences and networking events will help promote the best practice of commerce and community across the Humber region, from tourism and the economy through to healthcare and education. The week’s grand finale is the Yorkshire International Business Convention (YIBC), which this year has a winning theme and is the overall theme for the week which runs from 5th to 10th June.

As communications partner eskimosoup will be designing the Hull Business Week brochure, developing a new website and managing media communications.

Yesterday, Business Week organisers where the headline story in The Business section of the Hull and East Riding Mail.

John Gilbert, Marketing Director of eskimosoup and communications lead for Business Week says: “We are very excited to be in the thick of it for this year’s Business Week. The hard work done by the organising team of the past six years means that we are off to a great start and with the ambitious and passionate team that have come together to take the reigns we are confident of building on this success.
I’m not convinced everyone realises just how significant Business Week is for the region and what it has achieved. It really is a global leader for this type of collaborate working between business with the public and third sectors. We are proud to have our role to play.”

Business Week is this year organised by Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation. Members of the steering group include representatives from City Council, Institute of Directors East Yorkshire branch, npower, Leonardo’s @ Quayside, Yorkshire International Business Convention and eskimosoup.

The 2011 Business Week website will go live in early April.

The HUB Phase Two Launch!

eskimosoup have been appointed to deliver a second phase of development to The HUB Yorkshire and Humber Working For Mental Health website in order to provide a valuable online resource for employers, employees and practitioners.

The HUB Yorkshire and Humber provides information and dedicated links to resources, and is a communication tool for people to discuss mental health in the workplace. The majority of people will have experience of mental ill health at some stage in their life; this is completely normal and part of what we deal with in everyday life. The HUB helps a range of people understand and manage these issues.

eskimosoup’s Marketing Director John Gilbert launched the 2nd phase at the ‘Sharing Learning, Sharing Excellence’ conference in Mega Centre Sheffield on 17th February to an audience of over 200 people.

We have now begun work on bringing the website to life through regular content updates, social media and showcasing events and the great being done in the field of workplace mental health across the region.

The first phase of the HUB Yorkshire and Humber can be found here: http://www.workingformentalhealth.co.uk

The Arena website launch

eskimosoup have completed the re-design and re-build of Arena’s shiny new website. The new design makes use of modern technologies and highlights Arena’s passion for customer service.

Arena Group is a leading business in photocopiers, managed print services, IT and electronic document management. They provide the hardware, software and service support that organisations need to copy, print, scan, distribute, archive and retrieve their documents. Their aim is always to help reduce costs and make organisations more efficient.

The website includes a fully featured content management system and integrates with their existing customer support tools.

The website has now gone live and can be viewed at www.arenagroup.net.

Valentine Vault winner proposes on stage!

Simon Forrester and Tereza Vannucci from Anlaby, Hull had an a truly unforgettable Valentine’s Day when Simon won a £5750 solitaire diamond ring in the Valentine Vault competition presented as a partnership between two eskimosoup clients; Hugh Rice Jewellers and St Stephen’s Shopping Centre.

When Simon opened the safe with the wining combination code, he couldn’t believe his luck. But Simon didn’t hesitate in inviting his long-term partner onto the stage to propose to her with the special ring!

Simon and Tereza have been together for 12 years and have three children. They have wanted to tie the knot for years but the expenses of everyday living have got in the way. Simon said: “I’ve never won anything in my life, so to win such a massive prize is fantastic. It’s even more special now that Tereza has agreed to be my wife. The ring looks absolutely stunning.”

Tereza was over the moon and is already thinking about planning the wedding. Tereza said: “We had planned a weekend away for our birthdays so I went along to St Stephen’s to buy a new outfit. I saw the Valentine Vault and entered the competition. It’s a fantastic story to tell the kids when they’re older about how Mum and Dad got married. I’d anticipated the proposal for quite some time, but I didn’t expect Simon to ask me on stage in St Stephen’s!”

The competition which offered an unprecedented prize in this region attracted more than 3000 entries.

Jim Harris, Centre Manager at St Stephen’s said: “The Valentine Vault competition was a once in a lifetime opportunity to win a £5000 solitaire diamond ring on Valentine’s Day. We’re delighted that Simon and Tereza received the incredible fine diamond solitaire ring from one of the region’s diamond experts. It makes a fabulous engagement ring!”

Mike Rice, Managing Director of Hugh Rice Jewellers said: “This prize really is something special – we selected one of our best diamonds to give away! As the region’s leading jeweller we always want to make Valentine’s Day extra special but it will be totally unforgettable for Simon and Tereza this year”.

eskimosoup will be working with St Stephen’s and Hugh Rice Jewellers on an ongoing basis, though the outcome of this successful campaign is going to take some beating!

eskimosoup supports Yorkshire's leading IT company

eskimosoup are really pleased to be working with Intrasource part of Intragroup www.intragroup.co.uk

eskimosoup has developed a direct marketing and telemarketing plan, which includes specific timescales and measurables in order to achieve the goals of the business plan.

Having prepared the plan our team are busy copywriting, designing and printing brochures, training the sales team and putting in place an email campaign and measures to evaluate the crucial return on investment.

Intrasource are a leading (and very friendly) Yorkshire IT company that has serviced the region since 2000, they service over 4000 users across the world and are now working on their next expansion phase. For more information on the services Intrasource can offer you please visit their website www.intrasource.co.uk.

eskimosoup client in the spotlight

Today eskimosoup helped one of our key clients; St Stephen’s Shopping Centre, create awareness of their steps towards helping the Hull’s green energy agenda.

As part of an ongoing PR strategy for the city’s leading shopping centre, eskimosoup has developed an ongoing programme of media activity that is helping to show that St Stephen’s is committed to the strength of the region’s environment, economy and social objectives.

Centre Manager Jim Harris said “Since eskimosoup took over as our PR lead St Stephen’s have received a significant increase in positive media coverage and on the events side its clear to us that you really do care about things being right and keen eye for detail. Keep up the good work!”

The latest feature in the Hull and East Riding Mail can be read here.

To keep up-to-date with the latest news and upcoming events from St Stephen’s go to www.ststephens-hull.com

eskimosoup Case Study: Keep Measles Out of Hull!

Here's the fifth in our series showcasing eskimosoup's work. We were commissioned by NHS Hull to develop and deliver their first Social Media marketing campaign.

The Approach

eskimosoup developed a participative campaign approach, striking visuals and facilitated educational workshops for three primary schools. Working with young children, we developed a range of promotional videos aimed at highlighting the dangers of measles and how parents in Hull can protect their children.

The products were promoted through a campaign of traditional PR and Social Media marketing.

The Outcomes

• Over 1,000 interactions with the target market.
• Significant increase in uptake of the MMR vaccine attributed to the campaign.

Give your loved one a gift with a major WOW factor this Valentine’s Day

St Stephen’s Shopping Centre has teamed up with Hugh Rice Jewellers; Hull’s Premier jewellery retailer, to give you the opportunity to win a diamond solitaire ring worth £5,000 with their Valentine’s Diamond prize draw.

The campaign was devised and is being managed by the eskimosoup marketing and events team to form an effective collaboration between two of our clients.
The event is a highlight of a programme of events, PR and digital marketing for St Stephen’s, and kick starts a new PR strategy for Hugh Rice Jewellers.

The campaign is promoted through radio advertising, banner space, social media, email, web, media stories and with a giant safe in the middle of the High Street at St Stephen’s!

For your chance to win this amazing prize all you have to do is go to http://www.ststephens-prizes.co.uk
Competition closes at midnight (GMT) on Saturday 12th February 2011. Here’s to hoping you’ll have a Valentine’s Day you will remember forever. Good Luck!

Electric String website launch

eskimosoup have worked hard to design a small brochure website with flash and content management for a Hull based company called Electric String Ltd.

Electric String Ltd was created by a former yacht electronics design team James Symonds and James Ward. With combined experience of over 20 years in providing solutions for the super yacht and professional audio industries, Electric String Ltd was formed with the aim of delivering the highest quality design, expertise and service to give you the enjoyment that an expertly integrated yacht, home or corporate space gives.

The website has now gone live and can be viewed at www.electric-string.com. We hope you like it as much as we do!

eskimosoup Case Study: Strength to Change

Here's the fourth in our series showcasing our eskimosoup's work. Today's example was a project commissioned by the Hull Public Health Directorate.

The Challenge

1. Design and print a published book to be used as a resource internationally so that health organisations can learn from Hull’s pioneering domestic violence service.


2. Redevelop the Strength to Change website so that it is suitable for a range of visitors.

The Approach

We used a striking design to develop a book that told the story of the development, launch and implementation of the Strength to Change service. The style had to be accessible for multiple reader types including directors and public health professionals at the 152 Primary Care Trusts in England, as well as service users, and the Department of Health.