Russian Standard Vodka is widely recognized in its homeland as a benchmark for excellence, therefore it is little surprise that their team turned to Mash Marketing to provide fantastic hostesses for their recent, exclusive members night.

Look out for the Mash girls at the upcoming Russian Standard Vodka Originals Film Festival, in collaboration with Empire Magazine - which sees truly classic films playing in luxuriously decadent cinemas right across the country - kicking off with a VIP launch night in London on 31st August at the Everyman Cinema in Belsize Park.

Hailing from Colombia and having just recently completed her 3rd year in the field for Mash…we’d like to say a massive well done and thanks for 3 years of dedication and professionalism to Monica Botero.

Monica has completed hundreds of projects for us and never lets us down and always prepares really diligently and thoroughly for every campaign. She is currently knee-deep in her dissertation for her Masters in Marketing - and is focusing her project on Experiential Marketing.

Mashing through the years has clearly inspired her to take her experience to the next level and is hoping to land a graduate role with a top agency soon…

In the meantime, she’s still holding out for that elusive “Salsa Dance” campaign…

Well done Monica from all at Mash Towers.

Partnership underlines every element of the Mash Manifesto.

We are so highly thought of because of the emphasis we put on our relationship with our field staff, affectionately known as ‘Mashers’, and the resource we dedicate to ensuring that our community feels valued, supported and motivated to deliver the very best staffing solution in the UK.

We have built this business on a respect driven manifesto based on the following principles;
> Recruit only the best promotional staff in the market.
> Recruit based on charisma and personality rather than just looks.
> Train and support all staff.
> Reward excellence.
> Do not tolerate average.
> Open, honest communication at all times.
> Remain open and objective, listening to all perspectives.
> Performance manage from brand ambassadors through to event managers.
> Be open to constructive feedback.
> Assist in career development.

Our Senior Brand Champion Christiana Dobbie recently held a 3 day Recruitment Event at the Marriot Hotel in Central Birmingham and the results and quality of new ‘Mashers’ on board has been outstanding.

Whittling down 145 applications to 55 interview slots is hard enough but then ensuring that only the very best succeed and proceed to full Mash Registration is no easy challenge. We are delighted to welcome on board 40 new Mashers in the Midlands who all successfully completed a detailed application on Moogle and were then taken through a series of role plays, interactive learning sessions, fun quizzes, Q&A sessions and of course, the ‘Mash Manifesto’.

As well as all of this, our new Mashers have had to display passion, integrity, charisma and confidence as well as many more  traits from the very first application right through interview and will now carry these key values into the field for Mash.

We deliberately don’t make it easy to get on to the Mash books as we want to ensure we add value to the process from the very first moment you engage with us via Moogle.

Look out for more interview days coming in an area near you soon and remember; “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”.

If you want high-energy in your promotion, then you should look no further than Agata Madurowicz. Agata joined Mash in September 2009 and since then has contributed hugely to a number of key campaigns for Mash.

When Agata says she is an ‘energetic and proactive’ employee in her personal statement on Moogle - she really means it and we - along with our many partner brands - feel the benefit of it as her performances over the last 8 months have been outstanding.

Agata happily agrees that working on the Rayban Campaign at the Isle of Wight Festival in June was a Mashing highlight to date….you only need to look at her video on the Mash Fan Page on Facebook to see how much she enjoyed that.

Those are the kinds of jobs out there for top and consistent performing Mashers so get involved and give it your all!

Look out for July’s Masher of the Month coming soon!

We have decided that it isn’t enough to reward our Masher of the Month with the ‘celebrity status’ our blog and facebook give as well as the £100 shopping vouchers…..our new promise to our TOP Monthly Mashers is that they will be our FIRST PORT OF CALL FOR EVERY JOB  in their area for a whole month. They obviously won’t always be free but we want to recognise their outstanding performance by giving them the first opportunity of work for a 1 month period.

First up to walk the Mashing walk of fame….

Rachel Walker joined Mash back in October 2007 and has gone on to deliver campaign after campaign with consummate professionalism and a wonderful smile on the face. Rachel always responds brilliantly to the huge variety of briefs thrown at her and has often accepted ‘last minute changes’ with complete flexibility and positivity.

Rachel is also one of our main ‘npower girls’ and has contributed to the ‘best team yet’ and we’re all looking forward to the remaining 4 Tests from the end of July.

It’s great to have you Mashing Rachel - Well done!

Lords Cricket Ground in London saw the beginning of the Summer 2010 Test Cricket Series last week and not only did England win but Mash Marketing’s npower girls kicked off another great Summer with a fantastic 5 days of activity.

npower are one the UK’s largest investors in sports sponsorship. npower’s unique relationship with the England & Wales Cricket Board ensures that they obtain maximum coverage both at the live game fixtures as well with the televised Test series.

Piers Morgan says hello to our cracking team of npower girls

An integral part of this branding and implementation is the team of ‘npower girls’ that provide a strong visual presence at all the live matches. MASH are the premium supplier of brand ambassadors for all of the npower fixtures and are proud to be in our 3rd year of a fantastic partnership.

npower have also recently announced that they will be taking over from Coca-Cola and sponsoring the Football League from August 2010 until June 2013 which is fantastic news for all concerned and we can’t wait to be supporting them in this exciting new chapter.

The fantastic npower team!

Keep your eyes open for the npower girls at the cricket across the country  this Summer.

Please see the npower website for more details.

Mike Gatting has a tough day at the office...

Stephanie McWilliams came on board with Mash during the recruitment and selection process for a top whisky brand sampling campaign at the end of last Summer and she really hasn’t looked back.

Hailing from Belfast - her natural charm and professionalism has seen her build a really solid relationship with fellow Brand Ambassadors, Managers and Clients alike.

Well done Stephanie - Happy Spending!!

Our January Masher of the Month is Hannah Lord….Sheffield based but a real ‘nationwide’ Mash trouper.

A fantastic and consistently high standard of Mashing….

She has really excelled on the ongoing Lavazza campaign and now feels like the main challenge is “keeping the standard high”

Good work Hannah.

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

Blogging is almost the grandfather of social media. There are millions of blogs and bloggers worldwide, some read by millions, others by only a few.But, done properly, blogs can be a very important part of social media marketing for small businesses. Here’s why:

Convey your brand personality - even the best websites can be a bit dull. The best way to spice up your site is to include a blog. Here you can be more informal and get across your personality and the personality of your brand.

Demonstrate your knowledge, experience or expertise - blogging is a great way to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. By going into greater depth on a subject you will engage with your visitors and demonstrate your knowledge

Make your website feel alive and up to date - static business websites can often feel as though they are ignored and are rarely updated. A blog will give regular, dynamic content that is changing on a frequent basis.

Give your customers added value - by blogging regularly, you can give visitors yet another reason to come back and visit your site, especially if you are using RSS or Twitter to send out updates about your recent posts
Help with search engine optimisation - a blog is a great way to build extra visibility with the search engines. Make sure your content is relevant and includes plenty of your popular search keywords.

Give visitors a reason to buy - whilst your website will give visitors lots of information about your products or services, your blog will offer a way for you to demonstrate why they are important or valuable. This could be through tips, guidance or possibly even case studies.

Become a thought leader - by blogging on a regular basis, you will build up a following in your industry and this will improve your recognition and publicity far and beyond your traditional customer base.

Valuable content for other social media channels - with so many social media networks out there, the challenge is often knowing exactly what content to share. Having regular blog posts provides a vast array of new, fresh content that you can tweet or share to your heart’s content!

Show you care - the time and effort that you dedicate to blogging will show to your website visitors that you really care about this business and are happy to go that extra mile

Embrace the blogosphere - blogging isn’t the end of the matter. If you are really going to make a blogging strategy successful, you need to be out there in the blogosphere commenting on other blogs and joining in the conversation. If you do this, your blog will be better known and your traffic will really start to grow
What else is there? What other reasons do you have for why small businesses should blog? Let us know in the comments!

By Social Small Biz on November 29, 2009