A short video encapsulating the fantastic Mash Culture that exists and has grown over the last 5 fantastic years and is fundamental to how we work and play. Enjoy

Our very recent Masher of the Month Christiana Dobbie has very kindly put together some helpful hints to get the most out of a day in the field with Mash.

You have been selected as one of our Mashers who we consider to be extra hard-working and who performs well over long shifts requiring high-energy, which is why we thought you would be suitable for this fun activity! We want you to have the most enjoyable working day as possible and to perform at optimum level right the way through!

Below are a few hints and suggestions we have to make your day go by as comfortably as possible. While they may seem incredibly obvious (or amusing!) to you, and we imagine you will have many of them covered already, please take a minute to go through them as they have been compiled from direct feedback from Mash staff working on previous jobs similar to the one you will be undertaking, so these suggestions from your fellow Mashers may be handy to you:

1) Bring extra water and soft drinks with you than you would normally to work.

2) Eat a good breakfast. And bring plenty of lunch and energy snacks such as bananas, nuts, cereal bars and any other protein-rich snacks. NB. Caffeine and energy drinks only provide short-term boosts followed by an energy ‘slump’! Also avoid too much sugar as it can make energy levels fluctuate.

3) Consider bringing a pack of mints for your breaks (particularly peppermint) which apparently have revitalising properties.

4)Consider bringing extra pair of socks (and foot sprtiz) to keep your feet comfortable.

5) Consider bringing an extra pair of comfy shoes to slip on during breaks. Even if you’re wearing comfy trainers or flat shoes as part of your uniform, a pair of flip flops/sandals etc worn on your break gives feet the chance to cool down and get some air.

6) Consider bringing spray deodorant to pep you up.

7) In a break, rubbing the back of your neck for 60 seconds can stave off an energy slump by improving blood flow to the brain. Try splashing your face for a second with cold water too.

8)  If you are taking part in vigorous activity it might be an idea to stretch beforehand and even on your break if you feel a little achy.

9) Get a good night’s sleep the night before.

10) Avoid drinking excessive alcohol the night before, even the smallest amount can affect your sleep or make you feel a little fatigued the next day.

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Thanks for reading over this, we hope you enjoy the activity and thank you in advance for your hard work!

Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a woman approached him. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art. When asked how much he was owed, Picasso asked for five thousand dollars. The woman questioned why did the portrait cost so much given it took him less than one minute to draw it. To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.”

The legend of Picasso is at the heart of a contemporary challenge in the advertising industry - the value and cost of ideas. There lies the problem. As an industry we are obsessed with ideas. We complain when these ideas are not accepted. We feel cheated by having to put a price tag on the enterprise of our ideas - how can I be asked to price passion and the selfless pursuit of an idea?

When we recognize we are in the business of “value creation” can we begin to shift our thinking from “‘What does it cost us to generate work and ideas a client wants?” to “What is the value of the services and materials we are creating for the client?”

Value creation forces us to decentralize the idea creation process. Instead, everyone’s job must become value creation. Value creation forces us to establish a strong personal and commercial relationship with our clients; truly understand their business as opposed to their latest brief. Value creation demands we measure and place more value on the outcome of our work.

Our latest idea is more than a campaign concept; it is value creation. Was the agency responsible for creating the Staples’ plastic Easy Button, a $4.99 gadget (that’s sold more than 1 million units since its launch in 2005) aware of that? Apparently not because they received no financial reward beyond their original fees.

Financial advisors are paid on the basis of value creation. This is accepted given their decisions have a direct and measurable impact on wealth. Digital marketing, like no other channel allows us to directly measure the value created for a brand, be it revenue or perception. This is part of the problem with digital marketing, value creation has been completely tied to quantitative metrics - sales, revenue, ROI.

If value creation is proven and measured every day, the degree of compensation then becomes a question of positioning. If clients regard an agency as just another operator on their marketing conveyor belt, value creation is not possible. Value creation requires partnership. Unfortunately most clients regard their agencies as just operators in a large conveyor belt. In response, and to extend their control and influence, agencies try to be the “jack of all trades”, operators in all realms of digital marketing. The focus is then on depth of offering as opposed to value creation. These new services are generally sold to clients at a discount - lowering overall compensation levels.

Client and agency must be willing to invest in value creation. When this occurs, the conversion of two intangibles - time and ideas - translates into a tangible and sustainable compensation model.

Despite the shrinking market place, the tightening of belts, reduced margins, profit warnings and hysterical doom mongering, this economic bobsled has delivered the greatest growth period in terms of innovation and product enhancement that our business has seen since inception 4 years ago.

They say that in good times businesses get richer and in bad times they get better. Having forsaken the riches, the pay off has been huge leaps in quality as we finally find that much sought after 20% excess time that can be leveraged to work ‘on the business’ rather than in it. As a result, and in a strange twist of fate, the huge flux that we’ve all experienced over the last 6-12 months has in effect improved our business and set us up to deliver more innovative staffing solutions, a leaner and fitter business and ultimately, a stronger partnership offering to our clients.

Our industry, tactical staffing, is suffering just as our clients suffer, budgets continue to be slashed and burned, and the pipeline is no longer a reliable indicator of revenue for the coming months. We have reached a stage in the cycle where some suppliers within the space are starting to resort to survival pricing, costing activity at any price to win the business, and as a result damaging the value perception with clients and putting further pressure on the earning capacity of the field staff who continue to experience frozen pay rates.

The staffing agencies who are resorting to such drastic price cutting have clearly exhausted their quality driven proposal and as a result, clients should be wary of these agencies delivering the ‘cheapest service’ as opposed to the ‘best value’.

The quality providers within the industry appear to be faring relatively well, considering, and the agencies who look to innovate and continue to strive to deliver additional value rather than pure cost cutting, will manage through this recession whilst retaining their quality proposition. For Mash, our driver for this year is ‘excellence’, capitalising on the 20% time to further enhance our service offering, leverage the goodwill that we have built with our field staff community and further strengthen our partnerships. As the economy recovers and our partners start to grow once again, we’ll prosper in turn, delivering a greater partnership offering and operating in a space where only the strong will be left standing.

Leyton Ede, Client Services Director, Mash Marketing Ltd

Being in advertising during a recession is like running up the down escalator. To make progress you’ve got to run like buggery or Linford Christie, whichever’s faster. What’s more, Martin Sorrell thought it was going to be a bath-shaped recession. Now, apparently, it’s going to be a double-dip affair (in plumbing terms, that means toilet-shaped). But is there a creative recession, I ask myself?

If you saw the Spitfire ads, you’d probably say “roger”. Not because of the parsimonious production budget - great ideas are often in inverse proportion to the size of the budget - but because of the paucity of puns about the French Resistance, Secret Service and The Joystick. Victoria Cross was the best one, but even that made Reviewer Tetchy. Generally enough to make Douglas Bader want to saw off his drinking arm as well.

During recessions and other times of strife, we’re told, we revert to family values, and Weetabix has stampeded back to home territory, with a campaign that uses children’s imaginary games to steer mum towards the energy-giving properties of the brand. Now I personally worship and adore Weetabix but imagine it has all the energy-giving properties of a Spotted Dick. That niggle aside, it’s well targeted, nicely art directed and charming enough. If not quite as Withabix as it was before.

Womankind reminds us that it’s not all soft focus in the real world that women inhabit today. The other world of domestic violence, rape and murder is all too common. The juxtaposition of sensual cosmetic pictures and brutal facts makes the point strongly. But does showing the sexualised packaging of women make Womankind as much a part of the problem as part of the solution?

Another thing people do in a recession is drink. This Christmas’ Drink Drive campaign is sensibly aimed at the toping masses, who believe that all drink drive advertising is aimed at everyone in the known universe except their good selves, because they can hold their drink. A man, who has just “had a couple”, is following a kid cyclist down the street. The nail is accurately aimed at the heart but when the inevitable denouement happens, it is tapped in rather gently rather than being smashed in with a hammer.

One strange thing about this recession is that the “consumer” (OK, I mean my wife) hasn’t really caught on yet and is still spending as if there is no tomorrow (mind you, with Dubya around, there probably won’t be one). Barclaycard, unsurprisingly, is trying to encourage this trend, with its three new spots. The best shows a couple measuring up the Mona Lisa for the front room on the grounds that it matches their skirting boards. Nicely acted and a gentle smile. Will it work? If my wife buys The Blue Woman to match the toilet cleaner, I’ll let you know.

Finally, a triumphant “No” to the question I posed at the beginning.

As long as there are ads like Nike’s latest two around, there is no creative recession. Nike knows there is only one thing to do when the climate, either economic or actual, turns nasty - put your running shoes on. These spots positively revel in crappy weather and it is a tribute to the ideas and stunning photography that they do it so triumphantly. In their way, they are an anthem not just to sport but to bad times and how to get through them.

Martin, the recession is not bath- or toilet-shaped. It is puddle-shaped. Splash through them and you’ll win through. If you have a blonde with you, it could even be fun.

As published in Campaign Live

Question: There are few things that motivate consumers to buy more than getting a sample of the product into their hands, particularly when it’s a food and drink product. How best can marketers give shoppers a taste of their brand in-store? How can you guarantee quality of serve, given the challenges of transportation, storage, preparation and presentation?

My perspective on this is quality of serve will ultimately come down to the individual communicating to the consumer.

The fundamental quality driver in any consumer interaction is the brand ambassador tasked to deliver the ‘perfect serve’.  Our remit is to guarantee and deliver a standardised quality provision through staff that ultimately motivates a purchasing decision and brand engagement from the consumer.   There are the fundamentals that form an essential part of the preparation to succeed including correct certification, profiled brand fit, relevant and recent brand, venue and mechanic experience and thorough pre activity training; consisting of brand education, testing and activity role play.

 However, these elements are all ‘tick the box’ fundamentals in any preparation.  What we require is an engendered sense of commitment from the field team that delivers not only against the brief, but above and beyond, delivering enhanced consumer engagement that tips the balance in favour of the brand.   Brand ambassadors need to feel a sense of achievement as they implement the activity, understanding the commitment from all of the stakeholders, brand and agency, and subsequently feeling a sense of fulfilment as they deliver the ‘perfect serve’.  We achieve this in a number of ways;

• Training > In addition to the standard training, a full background on the brand, it’s marketing strategy, ambitions for the year, stakeholders etc., ensures that the brand ambassadors understand the wider picture, appreciate both the financial and resource commitments from all parties and recognise the importance of their position and our reliance on their professionalism to make the activity work.
• Incentives > An effective incentive scheme, rewarding excellence in delivery, is an excellent way of motivating the field team to deliver against objectives. Through years of experience, we have refined the way we incentivise and believe that an effective incentive scheme rewards sustained excellence rather than peak performances, continues to motivate the whole even when individuals excel, and is measured against variables aside from just sales uplift and volume of samples.
• Measurement > Effective measurement initiatives, both in the field site visits and insightful data analysis, ensure that the field teams feel both supported and driven in their delivery, proactively working with any measurement data and feedback to improve as the activity progresses.

Guaranteeing quality of serve includes a host of challenges, all requiring a systematic and considered approach to maximise the perfect serve opportunity.  The most fundamental variable in the mix is the field staff, the brand ambassadors that make or break the campaign. Understanding their challenges, proactively supporting their implementation and engendering a team spirit and commitment from them, ensures that perfect serve.

Author: Julian Johnson, Commercial Director, Mash Marketing