MattBigg

Not sure if you have seen the new "Music Every Day" or "Photos Every Day" adverts by Apple. But I love them. Apple have moved away from shouting about the Apps that you might not use and produced an experience sequence that you just can relate to and want to be involved in. Brilliant work!


Music Every Day




Photos Every Day

It has been a while since I wrote an update on the collective and I guess now feels like the right time to do it. We are 4 months into 2013 and these months have possible seen the biggest changes in the business since we started 12 years ago. Some good things, some bad things.

Let's start with the bad things. A couple of ongoing contracts that we had, came to an end. This was due to one business being sold and one business going bust. Things you can't really plan for or avoid.

And due to this we, like any business had to cut our cloth accordingly, which meant changing the number of staff we employed. We always have had a great relationship with the people we worked for and this process was possibly the most stressful situation we came across. It was like telling your mates, you didn't want to be mates anymore. But it had to be done. We had to take a business decision. Currently it looks like it worked out for the best for all parties, which is great news.

So, that was the bad news to start the year off. What is the good news?
By reducing a few overheads, the business is as solid as it has always been. We pride ourselves on the quality of our product and the way we deliver it. And that hasn't changed.

We also realised that we have a very loyal and wide range of clients. We have also been lucky to add to our client base throughout the start of 2013 and have some great people that are now using the collective for there design and marketing requirements.

We added to our freelance database working with Richard, Hannah and Andrew. It is also good to add to your network of people that can help if the work load gets a little too much.

We also placed a couple of adverts for people to fill our spare desks and are in the process of chatting. We have always had designers using our studio as a base and we are pleased to report that those desks are getting filled up. Always good working with different creatives and it looks like we will have a fun studio for the summer.

The other area of development to note, is the additional projects we are associated with. Firstly, although not fully launched, St Albans Delivered is heading in the right direction and hopefully this summer I will have something to shout about.

An Afternoon in the Pub continues to provide much enjoyment and fun and fingers crossed I will get to 10 events a month this time next year.

And I have also launched a series of Farmers Market websites, but more of that in a different post.

So that is the start of 2013. Bring on the next few months.

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Today, I treated myself and ordered a new watch. The Pebble is the latest thing in digital technology and I have a feeling not the last digital watch we will see. The rumour is that Apple is in the process of developing an iwatch.

However, when I saw the Pebble, I could resist. Looks great and the potential for this is huge. Take a look at the following video.




For more information about the watch here is their site - http://getpebble.com/

And as soon as it arrives (3 month waiting list) I will post my thoughts.

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We have some desk space which is ready to go and available today.

Here are the details.

1. Central St Albans location - just off Holywell Hill.
2. Would suit a creative, marketing, media, PR type business, but open to anyone.
3. Very flexible arrangement. No long term contracts.
4. We have 1 or 2 desks free, depending on requirements.
5. £250 per desk per month for everything. Tea, Utilities Internet that kind of stuff.
6. Parking might also be available, at an additional cost if needed.

If you are interested, then just give me a shout.

Matt Bigg - 07768 472 365

Matt@thecollectivedesign.co.uk

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Last August, I was invited to take park in the Dragons' Apprentice Challenge. To quickly explain what the Challenge is all about, it is a local scheme that involves a local business (Dragon), a local school and a local charity.



The idea is for the Dragon (that is me by the way), with an initial £100 fund, mentors, guides and assists a group of students to try and turn that money into at least £1000, which goes to the local charity.

A great idea which not only helps the charity with much needed funds, but gives the students a chance to test their business skills.

I was lucky enough to be given a group of brilliant boys from St Columbus College. They were full of energy and passion and were keen to do well. They came up with many challenges but overcame them to raise well over the £1000 for the charity, Grove House.

For people who are not aware of Grove House, it is a local hospice. For more information on their amazing services - http://www.grove-house.org.uk

Overall I think scheme was a success. As it was my first year, I wasn't fully aware of what was involved, but I learnt as I went and if invited back next year I think I would tackle things slightly differently.

If I had to change anything with the scheme, I would make the challenge slightly longer. Finishing at the end of February or March would really help. It seemed that Christmas and snow really hindered the process. And I am not sure by extending the scheme it would actually involve any more work. Just valuable extra time.

Last week I went to the awards ceremony. A great evening of prize giving, talks and celebration. 27 teams took place this year, raising over £30k for local charities. Amazing achievement by such brilliant young people.

For more information about the scheme this is the link to click -

http://dragonsapprenticechallenge.com

Last month I was lucky enough to travel to Ireland for work. Nothing new there. However, this time it was to provide direct social media assistance rather than our traditional design services.

Over the last 18 months we have been doing more and more social media work. This can range from designing a twitter icon, to manage Facebook pages, embedded feeds and content consultancy. And for us it is an area that is really growing.

We this particular client in Ireland, we set up their company twitter accounts, did a 2 hour seminar on the benefits of social media, a few tips and tricks. We also setup their company blog and did another 2 hour session on blogging etc.

It was a full, but excellent day and the client was very impressed with the results. They are now twitter, facebooking and blogging with confidence.

More recently we ran the social media for the St Albans Film Festival. For this we provided on location support all weekend for the festival. Latest news, announcements, ticket updates, photos and overall awareness was covered by us, using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and their website. A long weekend, but great fun.

Although we will never become a social media agency and I still hate the people who use the title, "social media guru" to introduce themselves, I think it is an area that is really expanding for us. I can see it run alongside the traditional digital marketing and design services we offer.

Ok, so how do you save the retailer HMV

Well, in terms of the online market, I really think they came to the party too late. When they finally started to shift from  high street to online, Amazon, Play and the supermarkets had this area well and truly covered.

You then move on to downloads and streaming and I think it is fair to say that most UK retailers missed the boat on this one. iTunes have the music sorted and it would take a massive budget to shift that monster. And with Amazon purchasing LoveFilm and Sky starting to dabble in movies on demand I think that will be a very hard area to move into.

So, it leaves the High Street. HMV currently has 239 stores and I am sure some of these make money. I guess you need to strip back to the core stores and start again. Or do you?

In St Albans, we have a HMV. And if you get rid of that, the only place to buy physical music / DVDs / Games etc would be one of the supermarkets. And there are not on the High Street.

I have an idea for St Albans. Here we go.

Split the store into 2. It is quite a big space, so easy to do this. Start selling the top 10 of everything, not the top 40. Have you docking stations to charge and download from a "HMV" online store. Sell products that are unique to the market. Headphones, cases, tablets. Have experts that can offer real advice. You can get help from Amazon, you just get "you brought that, then why not buy this" Real customer service might be the difference.

If you look at Apple, they started selling computers and then were forward thinking enough to get into mobile, downloads and Apps. I think their future might actually be in TV. However they keep launching retail stores in a time when retail is really struggling. And if you have been in an Apple store, it is a unique shopping experience. Amazing design in terms of their space, people that know the product, quick and easy ways to pay and you can try every product. And the interesting thing is you can buy all there products online and at many different websites. So there is a place for retail to work.

But, what to do with the other 50% of the store. In St Albans we have a milkshake shop called the Shaken Cow and pretty much every lunchtime / after school every day it is packed. On Saturdays and Sundays you can get in the door. I happen to know the owner and I think he has had 2 days off in the last 3 years. They are busy.

Why not stick one of those in, or a juice bar, or a non-alcholic bar or what every the kids are drinking now days.

And then add in a stage. Give it to the community for free. Get bands to play. And I am sure if someone played, the audience might buy something. I remember going to Tower Records to watch an album launch. It was excellent. I brought the album. What happened to those days!

If every lunchtime a unknown artist played a 5 /6 song set and I could eat some lunch and enjoy the music, I would go.

Make the shop a destination.

I for one, hope HMV survives. A massive loss for the High Street if it doesn't make it.

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So, another year passes. Here are some of the collective highlights for 2012:

1. We won the DWA darts competition.
2. Everyone became an iPad owner.
3. We loved the Hirst exhibition at the Tate.
4. We won a few pitches.
5. We moved office... again.
6. An Afternoon in the pub never lost its way!
7. We spent the day with Jodie Kidd.
8. We might have had our photo appear in the Times.
9. We did a lot of work for the group buying industry.
10. We launched a food and drink delivery service - St Albans Delivered.
11. From Ibzia to Yorkshire, we travelled a bit.
12. We watched a lot of sport. And I mean a lot of sport. Olympics, Euro's, Ryder Cup, Tour De France etc etc
13. We did a lot of Social Media work. Huge growth area for us.
14. We became a Dragon.
15. We launched the Job Bounties site.
16. Draw Something, AngryBirds and the Logo game were played a lot.
17. Homeland became the greatest TV series ever watched, slightly beating Hunted and Luther.
18. There were floods and then droughts.
19. We welcomed Mr Lovett back into the studio.
20. We got to hold the Olympic Torch.
21. We started sending email newsletters again.
22. We helped launch BagThat. A ton of work that we are very proud of.
23. We started drinking in the hospital club. Great venue. Thanks Dom
24. We loved the Olympics. What a summer!
25. We continued to offer work experience placements to students.
26. We added new services to our offering. PR, App's, Social Media consultancy.
27. An Afternoon in the Pub got nominated for an award.
28. We continued to organise Tweet Ups for the people of St Albans.
29. We worked in industry's that were new to us. Fashion, Estate Agency, Oil.
30. We produced a very large charity cheque.
31. We produced a college magazine.
32. We launched our new website and blog.
33. We designed the branding / site for the St Albans Film Festival. Can't wait for 2013.


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You hear the phrase "I'm really busy" quite a lot nowadays. Mainly by people, who if you have the time to tell you that they are busy, they really not.

If you follow me on twitter you will see that my updates have been very limited of late. And if you see my 4sq history you know I haven't been in many pubs lately. And if on the off chance you actually read this, it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. That to me says busy, rather than shouting about it!

And busy is great. I am really proud that we are busy. We work very hard at the collective and that hard work is paying off.

So, let me sum up September.

1. We won a couple of contracts this summer. That work has started.
2. I am trying to expand Afternoon in the Pub. In August we had 1 event. This month we have 3.
3. I am trying to launch a new business.
4. I am helping someone else launch their new business.
5. I have taken on the role of a Dragon. More news on that will follow.
6. We are re-designing our website. It should go live this month.
7. We are moving studio. Only 2 streets away, but still moving.
8. Staff reviews are later this month
9. Trying to secure some new business. 2 new business meetings this week for starters. This is the most important thing I have to do this month.
10. Trying to keep collective emails up to date. I have written half of 1. I need at least 3.
11. Making sure the kids in the studio are happy.
12. Trying to maintain a work / life balance. Really trying.

Ok, what do I want to say about the ticketing situation.

Firstly, I have been lucky enough to attend a few events, with a few more events planned this weekend. However, out of the 4 or 5 things I have / will be attending I only got 1 of these events through the ballot.

I think there are a couple of things that they could of done differently.

1. Maybe restrict the number of events you could of applied for. Maybe it would of been fairer to have 1 person attend at least 1 event, on a sliding scale instead of some people with nothing, others with loads of tickets.

2. Tickets on the door. If there was a standby list on the day, that if tickets become available during the day, you could queue and get what you wanted.

3. Resell. It works for Wimbledon. If you decide to leave an event earlier, then give up your ticket on the gate. And for the cost of a £5 (charity getting the benefit of that money) someone else can come in. Simple.

4. Invest in a ticketing website that works. I find it hard why ticketmaster seemed to have got away very lightly over this. I have heard comments that 2.5 million people have hit the site every day. That is the reason it keeps crashing. However, I think Facebook / Twitter get a few more hits than that, and they don't seem to have any problems.

5. Release all the tickets at the same time. Still don't get, why so many tickets were held back to sell at a later stage. Don't get me wrong, I understand creating a "demand" but did they really think that they would not sell all the tickets.

6. Free tickets for the football. Ok, I am not sure any one expected to sell out of football tickets, especially when you had to bid for the tickets without knowing which team you were going to watch. But with over 500,000 tickets left unsold, they decided to reduce the capacity of the crowd. Why not just give the tickets to the kids. Free of charge. I am sure a full stadium is so much better for everyone concerned that having the top tier empty. And who cares if some of the crowd got in free. It wouldn't of bothered me.

7. More day tickets. As people leave the Olympic Park after a morning event, then why not let more people into the park. I have spoken to loads of people that would be happy to stroll around the park, just soaking up the atmosphere, watching an event at Park Live. Surely this could of happened?

A few years ago, we sent out monthly emails. Clients seemed to really like the updates. Personally it was a bit of a 'mare keeping up with everything and remember to write something every 4 weeks.

And as the work built up the emails stopped sending.

However, we feel that currently we have a lot to tell and some important messages to get out to our clients and friends.

So the emails are back. We are not committing to a monthly schedule. We at just going to send them out as and when.

I hope people like what they read and if you want to get on the list, then please just let us know and I will add you.


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A few months ago, I came across a great idea. Twitter Island. A very simple, but brilliant idea. I looked at the people signed up and thought the content on this will be very good and I made sure this site was book marked.

I also added my name to the invite list, but honestly thinking that I might not get a ticket to join the other islanders. However next week, I officially join the island.

Each day, my music, film, website, book and luxury item that I am allowed to take on the island will be revealed. I hope it makes good reading and is appreciated by other islanders.

To follow the updates, then check out the Twitter Island website.

http://twitter-island.com/

Also, if you like the idea please comment and let its creator @SimonJ68 know.