Sherie Griffiths

Last week, five venues across London played host to a five-day conference entitled: ‘Marketing for Startup Britain’. Startup Britain is a private initiative supported by the government – although not financially. This event was staged with a lot of help from the Marketing Agencies Association and its members.

I first heard about the conference via Twitter and decided I had to go to at

least one day. I’ve been in business for seven years, but I’m currently preparing to launch a new brand and I could see some great potential networking opportunities. Also, I’m a firm believer in the idea that however experienced we are, we can always learn.

I finally made it on Friday, to the session called ‘All you need to know about marketing a startup’, which pulled together a lot of the topics from earlier in the week. It was a fantastic day, both from the networking and the learning perspective – of which, more in future posts!

Almost every presentation was streamed live on the web and recorded – so I’m now working my way through the ones I missed.

I started this morning with ‘The Power of Talkonomics’ by Bambos Neophytou, Head of Planning at the marketing agency, Exposure. ‘Talkonomics’ is a trademarked term, coined by the agency, to describe the influence of word of mouth on people’s purchasing decisions.

I watched the video very early in the morning and had to resist the temptation to applaud and cheer – in case I woke the neighbours! For years, I’ve been explaining the power of speech to clients. Recommendation by one customer to another is invaluable for any business –and when all that potential is harnessed on a grander scale – in a word, WOW!

Word of mouth en mass, as I call it, used to be the preserve of the big brands, with huge marketing budgets, who could afford luxuries like radio promotions. Whilst adverts shout at us to ‘BUY!’, the promotion talks to us about a product, via someone the brand hopes we trust – the presenter. Research shows that we’re more than twice as likely to buy something when we hear about it from someone we trust. Promotions also give us the chance to get involved, to experience the product firsthand (the quickest way to create an advocate) and entertains us along the way.

As I said, all this used to be the preserve of the larger brands – but digital media has put the tools into the hands of anyone with something to talk about. The trick for anyone looking to capitalise on these opportunities is to work out what exactly their potential customers talk about when they discuss their brand. Bambos pointed out that it often isn’t what we would traditionally think of as brand drivers – the fact, for instance, that driving a particular car tells the world we’re successful. Marketing people are always telling us to ‘focus on the benefits’. It may be true that we buy for the benefits – but more often than not, we talk about the features – and not always the obvious features.

I’ve recently finished an audio-visual series on customer service for a client – and, for better or worse, customer service, it seems, is one of the best conversation starters there is. (Just look back at my posts under the heading ‘The OOPS! Awards’ if you want proof of that!).

Entertainment also gets people chatting – which is why I’m about to start work on a series of comedy sketches, for a businesswoman with a cracking sense of humour – and a serious commercial message. Some clients are a bit nervous about making entertaining downloads or putting together live presentations with too much fun in them. Obviously, the audience is key here – if you’re talking to a group of people who see levity as a lack of professionalism and you need them to see you as the ultimate pro, you probably shouldn’t try to make them laugh; but generally, I’ve seen time and time again that education might bring you appreciation, information will make sure you’re remembered – and entertainment is guaranteed to get you talked about in very positive terms.