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Category: News

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In:News

5 KEYS TO SUPPORTING CHANGE

Agence Puck 28 June 2022 0

A rebranding, a change of shareholder or a takeover regularly affect the life and image of companies. For its business and its employees, a company needs to retain a clear image. These changes require a rapid transition and, if possible, turning this constraint into an opportunity.

In such cases, the teams in charge of change often come up against a degree of inertia, or even active or passive resistance. A lack of understanding of the challenges or opportunities, and fear of the unknown or of losing one's bearings, inevitably create resistance.

Instead of taking advantage of this opportunity for visibility and mindshare, the company then spends a lot of energy pushing through a change that sometimes takes months to apply and only distorts its image, both internally and externally.

In such a situation, the transition message needs careful preparation. Choose the positioning of the new entity in its market to show everyone the opportunity this change represents.

Next, the teams must be supported through this move, as they will be the ambassadors for what is new.

There are 5 fundamental keys to managing this change better.

1 – Prepare well

Based on the findings and objectives of the change, the action plan must be prepared by identifying the resources, tools, people to relay it and a reasonable timetable.

2 – Involve

You have to rely on relays within the company: managerial ones to pass on the information, and operational ones to monitor the change and its application.

3 – Win support

In any change, there is real and psychological resistance.
A lack of interest in a development, a lack of enthusiasm for a brand's evolution, fear of the unknown. A lack of communication and information creates doubt and can give the impression that each employee, in their personality or role, is being diluted in a new organisation.
Winning support means identifying the obstacles and, above all, motivating teams around a shared ambition with simple, clear and transparent messages. That's why the case for change must be carefully built.

4 – Make it operational

Implement the change policy by relying on relays.
Beyond the rebranding tools, this requires creating tools and messages for the relays (presentations, training, to-do lists, etc.).
The relays will be responsible for spreading the word and getting people involved.
The rebranding tools will be implemented at a chosen pace. It's very important to allow a sufficient but not too long period to create an impact, and to bear in mind that change overnight is impossible.

5 – Check that the change has happened

Change can only really be confirmed by evidence. It should be validated, for example with a photo report, especially if the company has several sites, and remember that, as always, the devil is in the detail, so be precise!

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5 KEYS TO SUCCESS AT A TRADE SHOW

Agence Puck 28 June 2022 0

Puck offers its clients a comprehensive service, from strategy to trade show communication tools, including full control of the design, construction and dressing of their stand, in France and abroad.

A clear, expressed strategy

You have to choose your communication angle. Trying to say everything and multiplying messages only creates background noise, adding to the many visual and audio distractions of a trade show. Do you want to talk about innovation or service, or highlight something new? You have to ask yourself what you want a visitor to remember from a visit to your stand.

A place of image and experience

You have to know how to make yourself visible and use strategic viewing angles, and be able to rationalise messages so that they support the chosen strategic line.

Visitors must live an experience so that this message is not only understood but also remembered. Circulation, the size of the spaces and the visual and audio stimuli must be designed with particular care. Let's never forget that a trade show is noisy, and that spaces offering a break, a sound bubble, are an undeniable plus for visitors who will spend a day or two there.

No excuse for not maximising relationships

Finally, it's a place for relationships. The comfort of both your visitors and your colleagues must be taken into account so that exchanges are as fruitful as possible, whether in terms of making contacts or doing business. In the age of Big Data, you shouldn't miss out on the wealth of information represented by the mass of visitors. Organising a competition and managing business cards can help you greatly expand your commercial database.

Before, during and after, communicate, communicate, communicate

Before, during or after, taking part in a trade show is an act of communication. Inviting your customers, making appointments, announcing your presence, leaving something in writing on the stand, but also thanking your visitors afterwards, taking the opportunity to show photos of the event to those who didn't come and displaying your optimism after the show should be the rule if you want to get the most out of this event.

Get the right support

Of course, this isn't exhaustive, so to benefit from our advice and experience, all you have to do is give us a few minutes to talk about your projects and help you take up your challenges. To make an appointment, click here

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BRAND POSITIONING: A BATTLE TO WIN YOUR NICHE IN CUSTOMERS' MINDS

Agence Puck 28 June 2022 0

The notion of positioning was devised by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the 1970s. What makes this invention interesting is that it rests on a reversal of perspective. Too often, companies, marketers and communicators focus on offers, messages or media. Al Ries and his partner analysed things from the point of view of our perception. They understood that a brand is goodwill, an intangible value generated in our minds, and not just a logo on a product. It's this added value that leads us to favour one offer over another, make a detour of a few kilometres for a particular shop, or pay a little more for products.

A thoroughly modern notion

Starting from the principle that we lived, even in the 1970s, in a world of abundant offers and hyper-communication, they first realised that we actually retain very little: just the simplest, most original messages, the ones that make a difference in their market. Then they took as a principle that the value of a brand isn't a question of quality. Do you think, for example, that a Rolex is of higher quality than another branded watch? It's unlikely, yet as the watch of famous people, it sells for a high price, a very high price. For one simple reason: it occupies a special place in people's minds. It's its niche, or positioning, that generates this added value.

So they tried to decode the components of this positioning. It rests on the conjunction of 3 interdependent notions: a target, a competitive field and a promise.

A target

For a brand to carry significant added value, this value must be shared. It's because a group of individuals attaches a common value to an offer that it grows and spreads. This group of people act as ambassadors or reference points for others. This target isn't necessarily a socio-professional category. It can be a behaviour, a state of mind, a sign of recognition. By focusing on creative people in the 1990s and 2000s, Apple targeted this population and at the same time sent a signal to many people by saying that its computers were designed for the best creatives. This was largely responsible for its success, as many people also wanted to enjoy the creative capabilities of these computers.

A competitive field

Our perception of an offer or product doesn't happen by default. We instinctively draw up a perceptual map of competing offers. We all make mental maps that place offers in relation to one another. The biggest players and the leaders take up a prominent place in our minds. The others position themselves in the remaining spaces.

There is one essential element in building this map: being able to choose your market and define your competitive scope. You can't compete with everyone; you have to leave yourself some room, because the more crowded the market, the less visible and relevant you are. Then it can be wise to create your own vision of the market in order to stand out.

A promise

The fundamental element of positioning is the promise. To stand out from your competitors, you have to promise something different from what others are doing, but beware: this promise must be legitimate, simple and credible given the offer. It's also essential to simplify the notion to the extreme, because people only remember a few things. This promise must then be proven to be legitimate.

Only after long, demanding and iterative work can you determine hypotheses and choose your niche, because positioning an offer means making a choice. Never let your customers choose your positioning for you. They would soon associate you with one or more competitors and let you sink into the media noise.

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5 QUALITIES OF A GOOD BRIEF FOR YOUR AGENCY

Agence Puck 28 June 2022 0

The brief is an art. And like any art or craft, it can be learned and practised. In some large companies, armies of young graduates spend years learning to write a good brief, and rewrite it 20 times if necessary. Why? Because the expected result will always depend on the quality of the brief.

So what are the qualities of a good brief?

1. Restraint – there's no point in producing dozens of slides on the company's history; only the information needed to understand the context and where you want to go is necessary. A good brief should fit on one page. You can then attach information about a product's functional benefits so that it can be used for adaptations.

2. Clarity – a brief must be understandable by anyone. This is an essential point, so test it on those close to you. You're not briefing engineers but creatives. A good brief must therefore ban jargon. This is especially true in a BtoB field.

3. Commitment – whoever writes the brief must commit, take a stance, interpret reality and choose rigorously, for example by choosing a USP (unique selling proposition). This is the key sales argument. There aren't 10 of them; indeed, you can't say “USPs” as I often see. There is one (chosen), which can be the synthesis of several ideas, such as “concentrated technology in a 10mm thickness”. Commitment must apply to every point of the brief. It also involves the decision-maker who will judge and approve the result, because afterwards there's nothing more counterproductive than telling the agency: oh no, that's not possible, but we didn't tell you…?

4. Singularity – a brief based on the market's generic expectations serves no purpose. It's your product or service that has to be promoted, so find what's specific about you in the market. You are the experts.

5. Motivation – for goodness' sake, put some spirit into it! You are addressing creatives, so stimulate their desire to give their best. Always remember that a good creative has already responded to thousands of briefs and hundreds of advertisers. They have already experienced the advertiser/agency relationship a hundred times more than you have. They are experts in it, which is the big difference between advertisers and agencies on this subject.

Details

Remember, a brief is a springboard: it says “where do we want to go?”, not how to get there. For example, if your technology is “best able to decontaminate equipment”, the creative might respond by saying “our technology was chosen by the Paris public hospitals at the height of the coronavirus epidemic” or “our solution uses active ingredients twice as powerful as standard medical solutions”.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty of the brief: the form

Now that we've been through the qualities of a good brief, scan each of the following steps with these criteria:

Reason

Why are we writing this brief? What are our objectives and the reasons for our actions?

Context

How to understand the market and its ins and outs.

Market diagnosis

Make choices and set out your strategy against your competitors and the place you want to occupy.

Target

Commit to the type of behaviour or individuals you want to address as a priority. In fact, this isn't a marketing or sales target, but the way you address this population will send signals to others. For example, for years Free was the brand for geeks, real ones, and addressed them in its communication, but this target is small. So who were the customers who came to it? Those who dream of being geeks.

You can add a corollary to this point: the “insight”, in other words the state of mind of the people you're addressing.

Benefit or promise

You have 2 ways of approaching the subject, like two facets of the same idea or the same result.

What benefit do you imagine your future customer will gain from your offer? Or what promise will you make to them so that they hold this opinion?

Proof

To support such a message, you need to provide proof of the promise you are making or of the benefit your future customer will gain from it.

Personality or tone

Don't hesitate to give your briefs a human touch. This isn't about style constraints such as “we don't want humour”, but rather something like: our company wants to emphasise its empathy with its customers.

Constraints

This is where you set your limits. Don't impose too many constraints on style or form: I could show you hundreds of cases where this type of constraint was dropped when faced with a creative idea. No, here we're talking about technical, legal or cultural constraints. Tell the agency, for example, that care will be needed with the symbols or images used in a particular type of market.

Final essential tips

Practise by rewriting the briefs of major advertising or marketing actions (Apple, Evian, LVMH, Airbus, etc.) as you look at them. That's how you learn.

A brief is iterative and shared, but not disorganised. Take the time to debate a brief you have worked on for hours with your management and your agency, and be confident: if you've worked on it for hours, you know more about the argument than they do, and you could be an important source of skill, analysis and argument for your company.

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HOW DO YOU MAKE A FILM OR VIDEO?

Agence Puck 28 June 2022 0

How do you prepare properly for making a video or film? What are the different production techniques? What is a storyboard for? What are the benefits of an audiovisual format in your communication? These are all questions we'll answer for you today.

Did you know that:

80% of internet users prefer watching a video to reading an article?
The audiovisual format can subconsciously convey much more information than text, a poster or audio content in the same amount of time.
76% admit that it's the channel that helps them remember the most messages?
Video combined with organic search techniques is 53% more likely to appear on the first pages of search engines?

Source: BDM Média

These figures speak for themselves: there are many reasons to use video. But what are the key stages in making a video?

Choosing the right provider to make your video

Making a video takes preparation and time, from both the client (the advertiser) and the chosen provider. The role of the communication agency is to add value to your message. Its job is to mobilise a number of specific skills to produce content that means something to the viewer.

A project manager to coordinate production, a copywriter and/or an art director to come up with the message, script and storyboard, and a producer to take charge of production of whatever kind (with film crews, editors, motion designers and a sound studio).

The aim of a film is to convince the viewer of the message you want to get across. All the stages must therefore be respected, from the marketing approach through to delivering the message. Skipping any of these stages only leads to disappointment.

Defining the right message to convey

A good video production starts with a good brief.

> Read the article “5 qualities of a good brief for your agency” Only this shared stage will make it possible to define the right objective, meaning where you want to go and not how to get there.

Preparing the screenplay

Whether your video is a short film, an advert, a corporate film, a TV film, a documentary or a feature film, the screenplay is the key to the success of its production and certainly to its effectiveness with viewers.

The script: the creative team starts by writing a story and defining directing intentions. It can draw on references to make these more explicit. At this stage, the team will propose messages and a way of achieving the objectives set by the brief.
The storyboard – based on key images, the production is paced, often from words or a soundtrack. The storyboard can be completed with a shot-by-shot breakdown if necessary. This key stage is important whatever the type of production: motion design, live action, 3D, etc.

Production

Once the previous stages have been completed, you can move on to the pre-production meeting, which will define the schedule and resources allocated to production according to what has been decided. The teams for 3D production, motion design or filming, and sometimes all three at once. Today you can also use video stock shot libraries, but take care to keep them consistent with the rest of the production.

Once production is under way, you need to plan the soundtrack and the recording of voice-over or in-vision voices. This should be considered with an edit that is already well established, or even final.

It's then time to export the sources for distribution in the right format.

Remember that at every stage everything must be done to obtain sources that match the desired quality. For example, if you include video sources from a smartphone in a 4K film (4 times high definition), the result won't be optimal.

You might say that for a video sequence to accompany a Facebook post the process can seem cumbersome. Indeed, you don't necessarily need as many people and resources. Even so, create a checklist covering each stage and allocate resources according to the size of your production.

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In:News

SOCIAL MEDIA: THE PERFECT POST

Agence Puck 29 March 2022 0

Curious how she gets so many likes? Why is her Instagram page so popular? Creating the ideal post isn't that simple! Influencers and community managers could tell you themselves: it's a profession! There are many techniques and tips for creating “THE POST”. Here are a few tips to help you get closer to it.

Identify your style and tone

It's very important to have an identity of your own that can be recognised at a glance. Throughout your news feed you must maintain a certain visual consistency, and also consistency in the tone you use (serious, inspiring, funny, etc.). Ask yourself whether your post is in the same spirit as the previous ones.

Know your audience

Obviously, you need to offer content your followers will like. If you have a page dedicated to your product photos, don't pollute it with posts of articles about general news. First and foremost, you need to interest your followers and offer the content they follow you for.

Quality is essential

You can use image libraries (some of them free, such as Unsplash or Pexels) and create a fine visual identity with excellent-quality photos. Better still, though, if you use your own original, unique photos to offer exclusive content to your subscribers; nothing stops you editing them or adding a filter to enhance your photo.

It's also worth using different formats such as videos or GIFs (80% of people consume video), but above all the quality must remain excellent.

Use hashtags, but don't overuse them

A hashtag is very important because it makes your post visible to everyone interested in that same hashtag, beyond your followers. The more “popular” the hashtag you use, the better your chances of attracting traffic to your post.

Post on the right day, at the right time

That's right, you can't publish just any old time! Here too there are rules to follow, depending on the social network you use. To be sure of not missing the “right moment”, it's a good idea to use a scheduling tool such as Buffer or Hootsuite to make the task easier.

Know how to create engagement

To achieve strong engagement on your post, you have to get your followers involved. Ask questions or encourage them to talk to you: “What do you think of our new product?”, “And who would you dream of seeing at a conference?”. This will also give the algorithm positive signals and lead it to promote your posts more often.

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THE 5 KEYS TO CONVERTING A VISITOR INTO A PROSPECT

Agence Puck 29 March 2022 0

Webmarketing has shown that communication agencies know how to turn their actions into qualified contacts. It’s a particular expertise we have been developing for years at Agence Puck to add another building block to our communication tools.

Using the following 5 steps, we set up a clear, precise process perfectly suited to B2B acquisition challenges. However, you have to start from clear objectives, have a competitive positioning and have identified your target. You then enter a process in which each step matters.

Start with an audit: based on your current channels and digital tools, as well as a study of your sector and competitors, we carry out a complete audit of the behaviours, lexical fields and content that generate audiences and online searches. This audit results in a costed action strategy that takes the 5 steps of conversion into account.

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THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRINTING

Agence Puck 29 March 2022 0

Once the creatives' work has been finalised and you have approved the files, it's time to print your print materials. To do this, you need to choose the printer that can meet your needs by offering the best result at the best price and within the best timescales. This is when many questions come into play: what type of printer and, above all, what kind of printing should I choose for my materials?

Print production is a profession in its own right, and for your large-scale projects you need to turn to production advisers. With our varied experience at Agence Puck and thanks to the printing works that is part of our Ocom&Co group, we combine all the knowledge needed to meet your needs. In this article, we explain the different printing options available to you.

OFFSET, DIGITAL, SCREEN PRINTING… WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES AND WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR?

OFFSET

Offset, a historic printing process that is probably the best known and is often described as traditional printing, involves printing on paper – in sheets or on reels – using rotary machines (printing cylinders) that offer very high print definition and very fast speeds. Suitable for very long runs (from several thousand copies upwards), it's the technique of excellence for printing newspapers, magazines, books and other publications, as well as stationery: business cards, flyers, brochures, etc. Although it is also used for other media, it remains reserved for very long runs, mainly on paper.

DIGITAL PRINTING

Reprographics, also known as small-format digital, meets the same needs as offset but is better suited to small quantities and only to small formats (<60cm approx.). Working much like a desktop laser printer, reprographics prints only on paper (<350g in general) and doesn't allow specific applications (spot varnish, lamination, etc.).

SCREEN PRINTING

Created to meet other needs, screen printing has the particular feature of printing on all types of media, flexible or rigid, and not just paper. It can print large formats on panels and reels, and is perfectly suited to medium quantities.

Screen printing can, however, reach its limits with small quantities, which don't sufficiently absorb the costs of make-ready, screen preparation, ink mixing and so on. On the other hand, it can offer undeniable advantages in terms of quality and price, and above all makes possible results that cannot otherwise be achieved: scented inks, fluorescent, silver, gold or glitter inks, and varnish application.

Screen printing is therefore in great demand for specific needs.

LARGE-FORMAT DIGITAL

Large-format digital, the latest arrival among printing techniques, offers a very wide range of printing possibilities with increasingly powerful machines. Ideal for small quantities or even one-offs, with lower make-ready costs than other techniques and therefore affordable prices, it can print all formats and all types of media. This printing technique also offers high printing speed and a high level of quality. However, contrary to certain received ideas, digital isn’t necessarily the best solution for every printing need in terms of quality, cost or simple feasibility.

The choice may seem obvious, yet it rarely is. Printing technique doesn’t follow an exact set of criteria that will always lead to the best formula, in other words the best value for money according to quantity, printed material, format and so on. Several techniques can potentially lead to the same result, or almost, but depending on the case, with potential compromises on quality, lead time or, of course, price.

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WHAT IS A PROJECT MANAGER IN A COMMUNICATION AGENCY?

Agence Puck 28 March 2022 0

The project manager in a communication agency leads the actions entrusted to them: they steer, coordinate, monitor (technical aspects and schedule) and ensure budgets are respected on behalf of their client.

To carry out the projects assigned to them, they identify their client’s expectations and needs in a brief so as to define the objectives. This step is essential to a project’s success.

See the article « 5 qualities of a good brief»

Once the brief has been drawn up, the project manager must explain the project's challenges and constraints to the in-house teams in order to get the best from each person. They do this through a copy strategy, which is in fact the translation of the client briefing for the teams. At this stage, the project manager's role is to be able to identify the real objectives and keep only what is essential to the creative work.

They must be able to adapt to the many subjects of communication, from internal communication and advertising campaigns to webmarketing actions and visual identity, and must also be a true coordinator of the creative and technical resources dedicated to projects.

Once the creative part is complete, it's up to them to prepare a recommendation proposing the creative options and action strategy to their client. They then monitor the project's production through to its implementation, in liaison with their client.

Responsible for seeing a project through, whatever its field of execution, and for ensuring that it runs smoothly, the project manager’s involvement in various tasks is necessary to the smooth running of the project, and they will be your mainstay in bringing it to a successful conclusion.

Sometimes, to have experts in the different fields, there are different project managers within a team: digital, 360°, print, event project managers and so on, but they all need the same core qualities: interpersonal skills, teamwork and meeting deadlines. However, some project managers are able to lead actions across different areas of expertise, which creates synergies.

And that's just as well, because at Agence Puck we highlight these qualities in all our projects!

The real plus of a project manager
The better they know your projects and your business model, the more they can offer you marketing or communication actions that act as business levers.

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FROM BRAND IDENTITY TO BRAND PLATFORM

Agence Puck 24 March 2022 0

Dozens of companies tend to reduce brand identity to a logo. Yet this subject has been extensively documented by eminent specialists such as Jean Noël Kapferer and Marie Claude Sicard. Brand positioning is the place, or the niche as Al Ries – the inventor of the concept – puts it, that you want to occupy in the customer's mind. Alongside this, brand identity is the set of attributes that will enable the brand to occupy this specific, chosen place in the buyer's mind.

Working on brand identity is a fundamental and specific role in a communication agency. It lies at the heart of defining the brand, an essential communication tool, but it calls on a strategic expertise that takes years of experience to master, whether in a communication agency or even on the advertiser's side when complex brand launches or brand architectures have to be managed.

So brand identity feeds on codes, images, values, messages and so on that enable it to stand out and establish itself on the market. The logo is part of this, of course.

These elements must therefore be brought together so that the company and its stakeholders can share these attributes and carry the brand's positioning. This is where the brand platform comes in. It can take very different forms.

Vision, mission, ambitions and values, which will feed a positioning made up of target, competition and promise, as defined by Al Ries.

J.N. Kapferer's prism is also particularly interesting when you want to define a brand's identity precisely at its creation. It attributes almost human components to the brand: physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection and mentalisation (self-image).

One example is the Lacoste brand prism. It shows that brand identity goes far beyond the logotype or name: it feeds the brand's world, creates a territory and helps it establish its positioning on its market.