Category: News

Tips, insight, inspiration and enthusiasm – that’s what I came away with after attending the Membership Excellence 2019 conference yesterday.

With 700 delegates genuinely eager to learn – and a programme jam packed with speakers just as eager to share their knowledge and experience – the MemberWise event was an opportunity to take some time out and learn from forward-thinking membership organisations across many different sectors.

Organisations who face the same daily challenges as many of our clients, who are looking for solutions to the same problems and genuinely want to deliver value to their members.

Being on the agency side, the Membership Excellence conference really helped me think about things from our clients’ perspective. Enabling me to take a step back and appreciate the part our communications work plays in the overall member journey.

Building stronger relationships with members is key. But how do we do this? It’s all about understanding the motivations of our audience and communicating our value to different audiences in different ways. For some it’s about tangible benefits, while for others it’s the benefit to the overall cause they are supporting – capturing hearts and minds. Emma Day, Director of Membership at the British Horse Society illustrated this perfectly through some thought-provoking and powerful video.

It’s also about doing the right things at the right time in a member’s journey. Turning things up a notch and reinforcing member value at key points before renewals and saying thank you for member support at every opportunity.

Sian Hoggett, Head of membership and CRM at The British Museum and James Beardsworth-Shaw, Head of Commercial Services at the National Gallery brought this to life, sharing insights from each of their organisations through a fun and engaging joint presentation.

(MEMX highlights captured by Chapple Cartoons)

Another thing that resonated with me is how the enthusiasm of membership services teams has a direct impact on the members you’re trying to attract or retain. Success starts from the inside – get this right and you’re halfway there. If the team is empowered and enthused this shines through at member events, creating a buzz that gives members a more enjoyable experience.

Events like Membership Excellence really reinforce the value of knowledge sharing and networking with likeminded professionals. We’re all doing a lot of good stuff but through sharing our experiences, we can all do that little bit better.

So thank you MemberWise for an insightful day!

Thanks for reading,
Hayley.

That was the conclusion of the expert panel at a great Centre for London event last night to launch its new report on the future of the transport network and road user charging in London.

I was there with our client emovis, whose Chief Exec Anthony Alicastro was on the panel to give an industry perspective in front of a packed ‘standing room only’ crowd of around 200 delegates including London Mayoral candidates, campaigners and assembly members.

So, what might happen in London?

The Centre for London report titled“Green Light: Next generation road user charging for a healthier, more liveable London”, calls for London to move towards an innovative new road user charging scheme which charges drivers on a per-mile basis. Costs would vary by vehicle emissions, local levels of congestion and pollution and availability of public transport alternatives – and prices would be set before the journey begins.

The scheme would be integrated with London’s wider transport system via a new app and digital platform, which the report proposes would be run by Transport for London. The scheme, which the report calls City Move would provide Londoners with more choice about how they travel around the city.

City Move would utilise the latest technology to give Londoners all their travel information in one place, allowing them to compare, plan and pay for journeys. Drivers, for example, would be presented with costs and impacts of using their vehicle versus alternative modes of transport.

It’s not policy yet – but the report’s authors are calling on all Mayoral candidates in the capital’s 2020 election to make a commitment to tackle the issue, and momentum is gathering, so watch this space

What’s the role for communications, PR and marketing?

Where do you start. It’s all about good communications. There are challenges around public acceptance of the introduction of road user charging or tolling, but in cities like London the debate has moved on – it is no longer about whether to charge people – it is about how to do it.

Our top three tips for communicating with the public and stakeholders on road user charging are:

• Be clear on WHY you are introducing road user charging (e.g. to benefit the environment, to raise money for road improvements, to relieve congestion, to boost the economy). This doesn’t just shape what type of scheme you should deliver but it frames the public debate from day one.
• Be clear how you are going to use the money raised. Transparency is critical for buy-in and focusing on the benefits you are delivering will be crucial.
• Keep it simple – the great thing about the City Moveconcept is it keeps things as simple as possible for customers.

Once you get this strategic approach right you can get start being creative with the comms tactics and branding, but it is the messaging and positioning that sets the agenda and frames the discussion.

From our work on the merseyflow project and wider work with emovis over the past year on other schemes they are looking at around the world, it is clear this is something that both national governments and local authorities/major cities are looking at very closely.

In terms of maximising public acceptability, once you add in

• the possibility of road user charging replacing road tax and maybe even fuel duty
• an easy to use app that shows you the cheapest and quickest way to travel and gives you viable alternative public transport options
• a scheme that can offer refunds if there are delays…..

…..then my view is this starts to become a very meaningful and realistic policy option.

For London, City Move would be healthier, fairer, simpler and greener than existing charging systems. Hard to argue against when you think about it.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

How to be your designer’s best friend

Have you ever been bamboozled by a request for logos in a particular format or struggled to work out why that 5KB version copied from a word document can’t be made the size of the Empire State Building?

Then read on. We’ve created a simple starter guide to make your life a lot easier.

Your company logo probably exists in a whole range of formats.

The different formats can be identified by their extension, e.g. logo.jpg or logo.eps etc. But why are there so many formats? And which one should you use for different things?

The most common/useful formats and their best uses are:

EPS

These large files are the holy grail to a designer. An EPS file (known as a vector file) can be scaled to any size without losing clarity. They are perfect for print work and, as they are often the master file can be saved into other formats.

SVG

These are usually developed for web work, but these vector files will always be crisp and clear at whatever size they’re used. The small file size makes this format a good all-rounder.

PDF

You’ll recognise pdfs as being more often used as downloadable documents, but they can be used to provide a logo, as long as the logo was a vector file (not JPEG or PNG). As Acrobat Reader is free to download it is an increasingly common and accessible file format.

JPEG

This file format has different qualities like low, medium and high. Usually used to store photographs, image posts on social media, emails and websites. This format is great for digital work – although it doesn’t support a transparent background – low resolution (72dpi and small in dimensions) is not recommended for print work.

PNG

This has all the features of a JPEG file but supports a transparent background, which means no more unwanted white patches around your logo. This format is ideal for PowerPoint presentations and Word documents. Again, low resolution (72dpi and small in dimensions) is not recommended for print work.

Does it really matter? The answer is yes if you want to put your best foot forward. You can see from the different versions of the DTW logo included here what a difference it makes.

Recap

Best logo file for digital purposes – PNG files

Best logo file for print purposes –EPS files

And finally, three top tips to remember.

1. Changing the extension manually on a file (e.g. from a .jpg to a .eps) sadly does not alter the type of file – if only!
2. On behalf of our design team, please don’t send your company logo embedded in a word or excel document!
3. If you haven’t got or can’t find the right format, try your marketing or design team – whether they are in-house or outsourced – they will (or they should!) know exactly what you are talking about and be happy to help.

Thanks for reading

Paula

DTW has signed up to a new scheme all about giving young people from across the Tees Valley a taste of working life to help them become ‘work-ready’ as they set out on their career journey.

Chris Taylor, Managing Director of DTW, said: “We’re always happy to help young people step onto the career ladder and the Tees Valley Careers approach is great. It’s genuinely one of the best and most employer friendly initiatives I have seen.”

The appeal of the Tees Valley Careers scheme is that it isn’t just about offering work experience. For a small business like ours that can be a challenge due to client commitments and logistical challenges, particularly for school age children.

The scheme gives employers options like going into schools and chat to students, take part in mock interview exercises and careers days. We think these can be hugely valuable to young people in our area. The opportunities are all co-ordinated by the Tees Valley Careers team which minimises the ‘hassle factor’. It means employers like DTW can get involved when there are opportunities that fit in with our industry and which work for us.

For young people looking to take their first step into the world of work, anything they can do to engage with employers and gain a better understanding of work situations will really help them in their early careers.

Chris added: “We’re passionate about helping young people as they start out in their career. This is a great initiative that is local to us and something we’re very much looking forward to being involved with.”

You can visit the Tees Valley Careers website to find out more about getting involved.

The Tees Valley Careers scheme is being delivered by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

Last week we played host to a third-year journalism student – Joe – from Teesside University – on work experience. We think it is important to give young people opportunities and experience in the world of work and in the PR and communications industry in particular. And it also keeps us on our toes having bright young things coming in and asking lots of awkward questions. Good luck with the future Joe!

Read on to see Joe’s views on his week at DTW Towers.

Hi – my name is Joe – I am a third year Teesside University student studying Journalism.

I’m in the final stages of my degree and I wanted to learn more about public relations, how it works, how companies operate etc.

I was given this opportunity by DTW for a week of work experience to gain an insight into the world of PR. I learned a huge amount over the week as I spent the week learning how to write press releases, work shadowing, sitting in on meetings and learning about problem solving, strategies and the bigger picture of PR.

Everyone who worked there was extremely friendly and welcoming which made settling in quickly much easier and meant it wasn’t difficult to ask anyone questions when I didn’t fully understand something.

I spent the week sat with Chris, Managing Director and Karen, Senior Strategist. Again, this could have been daunting, but their friendly nature was relaxing. I learnt a lot and the experience was hugely enjoyable, it has confirmed that PR is certainly an option as a future career for me.

Thanks everyone!

Joe Robertson

What a night! The DTW team was delighted to come away with three Gold awards from the CIPR North East Pride awards on Friday night (7 December).

Hannah Cheetham (right) picked up the hugely well deserved Outstanding Young Communicator award. We also won two big awards for our work with Sunderland City Council on its new Northern Spire bridge.

All in all, an amazing evening put on again by the CIPR at the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle.

To win Regional Campaign of the Year and Public Sector Campaign for the Northern Spire work is a real recognition of the blood, sweat and tears that Karen and others have put in on this project over the past three-and-a-half years. We’re very pleased.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ annual PRide awards recognise the best public relations work done by agencies, freelancers and in-house teams across the UK.

What better way to spend a cold, dreary Wednesday night in December than with a glass of fizz and the people behind Teesside University’s exciting new media brand TUXtra?

Chris and Hannah (that’s me) did just that when we were invited along to TUXtra’s launch night to find out more.

So, before I tell you what we thought, let’s talk about what TUXtra actually is. A multimedia platform showcasing content produced by students and volunteers from Teesside University is what it says on the tin.

In other words, a news outlet, radio station and TV platform aiming to demonstrate the best work produced by the journalism, PR, film and TV and other students at Teesside University’s School of Computing, Media and Arts.

Now, providing students with a platform to showcase their work is great, but what makes TUXtra different from any other student newspaper or radio show? To start with they have some seriously impressive facilities which wouldn’t look out of place in industry, we were given a tour and there’s been a definite upgrade since I was a Teesside University student myself.

What’s really valuable though is giving students real-time ownership and responsibility over the whole operation, from a team producing the content, to editors with responsibility for sub-editing and selecting what appears online on a daily basis. It’s a winning combination to produce graduates who have more than just classroom experience.

As a business we enjoy excellent links with the University and it’s great to see them really investing in their students and offering a platform to develop experience and industry links which are so vital when standing out from the crowd after graduation.

Having a degree is a great starting point, but we can’t ignore the fact that businesses look for graduates with industry experience who can jump straight in and start benefitting the business from day one.

TUXtra isn’t a replacement for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty on a work experience placement, but it does provide a consistent, easily accessible way for students to gain that all important industry experience and boost their employability.

Our verdict? It’s still early days (TUXtra was created over the summer) but we’ll be keeping a close eye on how things develop and we’re excited to see what the future has in store.

The potential is there for this to be a hugely valuable resource for the University, its students, and their future employers. Kudos to Teesside Uni and its students for delivering.

Thanks for reading

Hannah