Jon DunningtonMarketing Case Studies

BackgroundUNFOLD Student Life is a pocket-sized publication providing the students of Liverpool a one-stop shop for all the best offers, discounts and ‘things to do’ in the city.

ChallengeLaunch UNFOLD Student Life through experiential and social media. As a part of our overall strategy to place UNFOLD Student Life at the forefront of new and returning Merseyside students’ mind, we took over the Liverpool’s best venues for a full week of exciting parties and events in conjunction with a host of local celebrities and popular brands./ Target Audience: Students / Male & Female / 18-28 years old/ Budget: £5,000 - £8,000

SolutionThrough pre & post event social media, we encouraged students to join us to sample Liverpool’s legendary nightlife in a host of free events throughout Freshers Week. Guests were able to participate in games, giveaways and competitions whilst making new friends in a new City. We ensured a safe and fun environment to liaise with other students and the UNFOLD Student Life Reps and Brand Managers to familiarise themselves with the brand and directed to branded social media channels to share their experiences and photos online.

Results/ Distributed 12,000 ‘UNFOLD Packs’./ Personally engaged with 3,000-5,000 students (Judged on all event attendance)./ Recruited 20 new Brand Ambassadors./ Secured over £7,500 in brand awareness through PR in local blogs, magazines, newspapers and radio stations./ Gained over 3,000 new Facebook fans.

UNFOLD Student Life

We invited local celebrities and reality TV stars including Shipwrecked and Desperate Scousewives’ Danny Latimer (including an exclusive DJ set at 1 event) and Big Brother’s

Lauren Pope.

Offered competition prizes for best fancy dress

costumes including free bar tabs, promotional material

and VIP event tickets to partnering events.

Hosted an exclusive Freshers Fayre with

affordable exhibiting prices to enable popular

brands to showcase their business and offer

great giveaways.

Hired ‘sociable’ students as Brand Reps with

branded uniforms to promote events and the

brand throughout student populated areas around

Liverpool City Centre.

Introduced themed games such as outdoor Beer Pong

during the ‘Unfold Frat Party’ or paired games during the ‘Unfold Meet & Greet’ using Unfold promotional items as

prizes.

Whole host of promotional items for use in personal and professional photographs for further marketing in students

own social media profiles.

Familiar DJs with weekly bookings for local student nights such as the UK’s largest student night Medication, LJMU sponsored ‘CoolIt’ events and regular student haunt, Newz Bar.

Secured sponsorship from local popular radio station Radio City 96.7 in replacement for over £2,500 value of radio and online advertising.

We enlisted young and trendy entertainers and caterers for

specific events such as TV regular Magician, popular

street performance group and Hog Roast during Shipwrecked

event.

Stats & Figures

/ 12,000 Unfold packs distributed

/ 3,000-5,000 students engaged with face-to-face

/ 20 new Brand Ambassadors recruited

/ £7,500 brand awareness generated through PR

/ 3,000 new Facebook fans

/ 1,600 new Twitter followers

/ 1.2 million hits to UNFOLD Student Life website in 2 months

/ £3,000 under max budget (through sponsorships and associations)

/ 35% increase in advertising enquiries during consecutive months

UNFOLD Student Life was owned and run by myself, so please see below testimonials from previous advertisers from our pocket-sized publication:

“Everybody loves a bargain and the offers inside UNFOLD Student life have proved to be a real hit with Liverpool students. Pocket sized, quirky and with good discounts inside no wonder they have proved so popular.”Marc Jones - Director at Medication Ltd

“Unfold Student Life provides Arriva with the opportunity to communicate directly with the student market. A professional, helpful approach and great communication throughout has made working with them a pleasure.”Debra Heaton - Marketing Manager at Arriva Northwest

“Working with Unfold has been a pleasure from day one. A sharp, innovative thinking business who always go the extra mile for their clients best interests. The quirky marketing strategies they employ have been very successful and I am personally looking forward to working closely together in the future.”Tony Inman - General Manager at The Gym Group

“The pack looked great! Looking forward to getting our advert into the next print run. The Unfold team were very flexible and supportive. Really great to work with”Adam Gill - Product Development Manager at Club 18-30

“Having worked with the Unfold team in the first academic year I found them to be very knowledgeable about the service I required went about their work in a very professional and efficient way and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”Leo Jackson - Regional Manager at Wok & Go

‘It has been a pleasure to work alongside Unfold. They are extremely well organised, creative and great communicators. We looking forward to working alongside them again in the future.”Ashley Morrison - Events Co-ordinator at Revolution Bars

Jungle RumbleAdventure Golf

BackgroundJungle Rumble is one of the best and most exciting indoor adventure golf courses anywhere with both Liverpool (Liverpool ONE) and Bristol (Cabot Circus) housing two 18-hole courses.

ChallengeSince opening in 2010, Jungle Rumble seen a huge decline in turnover throughout 2012. We were hired to ensure consistent marketing throughout the year to increase turnover. Most of the marketing budget was allocated to our services leaving a low marketing budget per quarter. This includes building successful working relationships with brands throughout Liverpool and Bristol, including vital relationships with landlords Liverpool ONE and Cabot Circus./ Target Audience: Families (main) / Students / Couples - Dependent on time of year/ Budget: <£1,000 per quarter

SolutionWe worked closely with the relevant Directors and Management to ensure marketing structures were sufficiently executed internally with company staff (e.g. social media profiles, flyers, etc.). Throughout the first 3 months, we ensured POS throughout all stores were effective and built relationships with landlords to maximise exposure for store signage. We executed 4 marketing campaigns throughout the year to reach alternating target audiences dependent on time of year (e.g. September - November = Students). Seamlessly connecting these with general running of overall social media platforms throughout the year.

Results/ Worked with Management to lower overheads by 22% annually./ Built professional relationships with brands such as Build-A-Bear, Odeon Cinema and The Entertainer to name a few./ Raised awareness with 1,000s of new fans and followers on a monthly basis./ Assisted in competition entries securing 3 prestigious awards./ Secured over £36,000 in brand awareness through PR (to date)./ Increased Turnover by over £26k in 2012/13 - Over £106k in 2013/14.

We have suggested and implemented exclusive day-to-day offers, which are not only cost effective for Jungle Rumble, but make the services affordable to the target market. Two of the most successful of these include:

2 Rounds For The Price Of 1This was initially an incentive during the school holidays but due to popular demand we rolled this out as a permanent fixture. This is one of the most successful incentives, as there are no further cost implications on Adventure Golf and has increased wet sales due to additional time spent inside the establishment./ Average of 181 redemptions per week

£10 DealThe £10 Deal shows outstanding value for money to customers as they receive 2 drinks and 1 shot for just an additional £3.80, which is only a £1.20 reduction for Jungle Rumble if bought separately. But this deal has proven customers are more likely to purchase drinks with the introduction of this offer that initially had no intention of doing so./ Average of 466 redemptions per week

* Redemption figures based on April 2013 - April 2014

Partnerships & AssociationsWe have forged several strong working relationships with some great brands for Jungle Rumble. These partnerships allow us to extend the services we offer, create a spectacular competition (one-off in relation of Build-A-Bear or on a regular basis in relation to Gourmet Burger Kitchen) or simply allow access to another key demographics. Key partners include Odeon Cinemas, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Build-A-Bear and Pizza Express.

One of our key targets over the previous 8 months was to implement technological advances to Jungle Rumble. We focused on 3 key areas to introduce technology to the user experience:

Plasma ScreensWe introduced 6 plasma screens displayed around the course containing slides of different offers and calls to action in order to promote in-store purchases.

Group TournamentsUsing the above mentioned Plasma Screens; we designed a digital game for group bookings to play against each other in teams with scores displayed using the players’ mobile phones.

App and Digital ScorecardWe also designed the Jungle Rumble App containing a digital scorecard to eradicate the need for paper scorecards and pencils.

In-store Promotional DesignPart of the service we offer Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf is Graphic and Web Design services. We design, produce and source cost-effective printing for all in-store promotions. These range from Bar and Food Menus, scorecards, certificates and even staff name badges,

Stats & Figures

/ 22% decrease in overheads (to date)

/ 2,679 increase in Facebook Fans

/ 3,960 increase in Twitter Followers

/ 3 prestigious awards assisted

/ £76,500 in brand awareness (to date)

/ £26,352 increase in turnover in 2012/13

/ £106,116 increase in turnover in 2013/14

/ £20,910 increase in turnover on opening year in 2013/14

/ 19 successful campaigns executed (to date)

/ 13 brands created partnership or assocation with (to date)

Please see below testimonial from Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf:

“As the General Manager of Jungle Rumble Liverpool One i have been working with Jon for almost two years. We initially got involved in a student based one off promotion that he was running but quickly were impressed by his enthusiasm, professionalism and quality of service. Shortly after we approched his agency to become our full time Marketing and Design company. With DigitalHi on-board we were able to improve most aspects of our business especially brand awareness and social media as well as an excellent personal service to brainstorm new ideas and create targeted marketing campaigns. They have been an integral part of our excellent growth over the last two years and we look forward to working with them for the foreseeable future.”Gary Rice - General Manager of Jungle Rumble Liverpool

HookaSalons

BackgroundHooka Salons have been operating from 2 popular salons within Liverpool City Centre since 2006 and is known as one of the cool salon brands within the city.

ChallengeCreate an exciting summer marketing campaign to gain new and attract past non-active customers whilst showcasing the range of products & services. We were asked to re-establish the original Hooka experience and make the process of using their services feel more unique to a younger audience./ Target Audience: Female / 18-30 years old/ Budget: <£1,000

SolutionAs our solution, we created and produced the ‘Destination Hooka’ campaign (originally named ‘Holiday Hook Up’), which used social media and technological advances through existing mobile apps to attract the attention of the target audience. We focused on potential customers which are due to go on a summer holiday in the coming summer months and created free giveaways of holiday travel sets for full paying customers when they use Facebook or Foursquare to check-in to the salon, similar to that of an airport. We identified and created a whole unique experience for customers to integrate the campaign throughout different media, including the salon front and internal areas with a low budget.

Results/ Sampled 150 holiday travel sets within 12 days of launch./ Gathered data capture from over 200 new customers./ Massive social media engagement through Facebook and Foursquare./ 34% increase in colour service purchases over June and July./ Won ‘Best Innovation’ in Liverpool City Central BID Summer Awards.

Social Media MarketingWith great consideration to the target audience, we focused heavily on Hooka’s social media platforms to promote the campaign. In order to execute this we introduced custom designed cover images, backgrounds and took full advantage of the Facebook Apps to enable us to gather important feedback allowing Fans to effortlessly communicate with the salon. We invested a total of just £120 to promote specific posts to reach ‘Friends of Fans’ of a similar age.

Print AdvertisingDue to the low budget allocated, we used the minimum spend on print-based advertising and made the decision to avoid flyers and leaflets and invest in 40 A0 posters to be placed around Liverpool City Centre. To ensure maximum exposure to the target market, we specifically chose key areas with greatest footfall of the required age group such as around Concert Square (Liverpool’s most popular area for beer gardens), throughout Liverpool ONE near shopping outlets such as Urban Outfitters and American Apparel (where we expect the target audience to shop for holiday clothing) and around student populated accommodation such as Liverpool Grand Central holding 1,200 student residents (mostly of 2nd and 3rd year who are most likely to arrange group holidays prior to graduation).

Salon Window DisplaysDue to the fortunate location of both Hooka Salons in Liverpool City Centre, we utilised the window space of the salons to strengthen the campaign above and beyond the usual posters. We used inspiration from local Travel Agents and stripped the existing displays to give the impression of a Travel Agent itself.We replaced the previous price list and replaced this with a new custom design to give the impression of a currency board, and replaced old offer posters with deal boards designed to give the impression of Manager Special boards. Both of these are items you expect to see in most or all Travel Agents visited by the target audience (e.g. STA Travel, Thomas Cook or Thompson Holidays).

In-Salon DisplaysDue to the nature of the campaign and the idea of ‘Checking In’, we also designed and printed a large format poster, which spread across the entire of the reception. This made the reception area look like an airport check-in, accompanied by the salon staff wearing summer t-shirts containing the campaign branding accompanied by Hooka’s legendary ‘service with a smile’.

Stats & Figures

/ 150 holiday travel sets sampled within 12 days of campaign launch

/ 200 new customers

/ 720 new Facebook fans in 2 months

/ 280% increase in ‘Talking about this’ on Facebook Fan Page

/ 1,100 new Twitter Followers in 2 months

/ 34% increase in colour service sales in 2 months

/ 1 award for ‘Best Innovation’

/ £820 spent on entire campaign over 2 months

Please see below testimonial from Hooka Salons:

“Hooka worked with digitalhi throughout the summer of 2012 on the destination: Hooka campaign. We found the whole process to be very simple and Jon and Arron are great to work with, they managed to not only successfully boost our brand image but also injected some much needed excitement to our whole team for our busiest months. We would whole-heartedly recommend them to anyone. Great work guys!”Ian Sadler - Managing Director of Hooka Salons

Jon DunningtonApartment 21, 5 Concert Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1 4BN

T: +447711060201 / E: jon@jondunnington.com / Skype: jon.dunnington / LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jondunnington