Advertising plan

Advertising Plan

Overview
We are advertising the artwork of our client, Nikki Sims from Saffron Walden. She has two parts to her company that are landscape paintings and portrait paintings of all different sizes and textures. She would like us to promote her artwork using two different methods. Both methods are left down to me and Amy but she has been specific about what she would like. Nikki has told us that she would like her landscape paintings to be promoted to a corporate audience; hotels, offices, etc. She would ideally like her work to be displayed in prestigious hotels where they will be appreciated and recognised, helping her business to progress. Nikki has told us that she would also like us to promote her portrait paintings.

Audience & Target Audience
She would like a few more customers, around 10 - 20 as she would like to broaden her experience and gain more customers to be more recognized in the area. She would like to be more recognized in a larger area rather than just Saffron Walden and Furneux Pelham, which is why we suggested that she broaden her audience to around the Cambridge area.

Campaign Message
The campaign message that we would like to put across to our audience is the fact that Nikki is a talented artist whose talents aren’t as recognized as they should be. Everyone in the area should know how Nikki Sims is and should be aware of the artwork that she creates.

Method & Approach
We have decided that we are going to split these two tasks evenly and focus on one each, allowing us to give each suggestion she has given 100%. I am going to focus on the landscape paintings for the hotels and Amy will focus on the portrait paintings.

I have looked at a couple of different ways in promoting the artwork to hotels and offices where they will be seen. I have conducted research on distributing work to corporate audiences. Also I have come to the conclusion that distributing Nikki’s work through hotels would be the best way to approach the job; this will enable our client to successfully build her business. I am an artist herself and will choose a selection of our clients work, given the atmosphere and architecture experience. I will take these paintings to hotels after arranging a meeting with those in charge of interior design at the hotels. I am also going to speak to whom it may concern about leaving a small stack of our clients business cards at the hotels so that anyone who views the work and appreciates the work that our client has created will take a business card and hopefully be in touch.

First I will email the following hotels and ask about distributing work on their premises and what are their thoughts and feelings on this. The hotels that she will email are – The Varsity Hotel & Spa, Anstey Hall and Double Tree by Hilton. To stretch our client’s audience, we believe that Cambridge should be a very easy area to advertise; there are lots of students, parents and people of all ages and backgrounds. I believe that this will be a successful way of showing Nikki’s artwork and gaining clients.

I have come up with a couple of different methods that can be used to help promote Nikki's artwork. The first idea that I came up with was using social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Although, if I, myself, advertised her work on either of these social networking sites using my own account it would only been seen by people my age which I don't think is the best way to approach this situation. I would have to make a new Facebook page or a new Twitter account that I would use entirely to promote Nikki's artwork and this would be a struggle to start up but once it was going it would have a positive outcome. Although, not everyone uses social media sites which means we are leaving out a percentage of people from the Cambridgeshire area as they will not have access to see her art work. 

The second idea that Amy has come up with is flyer distribution, Amy will create a flyer using Photoshop and also some of Nikki's artwork and then distribute these to potential customers around Cambridge. Another method that Amy could use would be posters. Amy will create a poster using Photoshop and add images of Nikki's art. At the bottom of the poster she will add tabs which can be ripped off which have Nikki's name, email address and also her phone number. Out of these three ideas I personally think that the best one and the most effective would be the flyers, as it would be personally interacting with potential customers for Nikki also the corporate idea would be a good idea as she's like more private clients to buy her bigger at work (more money)

Audio and Visual
We also thought that on the website and audio and visual moving advert would not be appropriate. Instead to increase the target audience we created an interview with Nikki about her work which shows how passionate Nikki is about her work and will encourage more people to want work from her/lessons.

Promoting
The budget that we are using is low. Nikki has five children to support at the same time as running her own business so we would like to use the most cost-effective way to advertise her business to the people of Cambridge. As much as we would love to promote an art exhibition that she could be doing it is very expensive if she is running her own one. Although, she doesn't need an exhibition to show off her work as there are plenty of others ways that can be used.

Aims & Objectives
Amy and I have come up with many objectives that we are aiming for. We would like to distribute Nikki’s artwork and help her out by broadening the area in which she is working in and promoting her company – brand awareness. Rather than just Saffron Walden we would like to gain customers from Cambridge. Which would then help Nikki to progress further in the future, allowing her to build on this and gain more customers from a wider range of areas. Nikki told us that she feels that her business is too informal, which is why she would like us to focus some of our time on corporate companies which will help to turn her company more formal and give her a more professional look. This will help her in the future, she will be viewed on a higher level rather than just an average artist from the area - this is one of our main aims. Another aim that we have is to publicize Nikki as a person. 

We would like to show off her talents and show that she is a unique artist, different to the others around the Cambridgeshire area. We would like to recreate her image, such as create a new website for her as at the moment it doesn’t show off her full potential. Although, our key objective is to bring more customers to Nikki and help to expand her business, helping to broaden the area where her customers come from.

Seasonal Events
There are so many different events in Cambridge that support artists and help them to be recognized in their area. They also bring artists and local people together to create a positive relationship between the two.

Cambridge Open Studios is a flourishing community of over 450 artists, crafts people and designers working throughout Cambridgeshire. Their aim is to help bring artists and local people together. Every July they invite the public to visit their workshops and studios as part of the annual Open Studios even. This provides an opportunity for the public to see their work and find out about the techniques the artists use and the passions that inspire them. The 2015 Open Studios will take place over each of the four weekends in July. If an artist would like to take part they must register by the 31st January. Although this isn’t in the season at the moment this is something that our client would need to sign up for in this season that would help to promote her business.

Broughton House Gallery is a commercial art gallery showcasing monthly exhibitions of paintings, prints and sculptures - this is something that our client could get involved in. Art is very seasonal and seems to be popular in the summer; a lot of people spend their time looking at art in the summer time. Due to the weather being colder at this time of year people seem to spend more of their time inside rather than outside, so this idea would be a lot better in Summer. Also, stickers don’t last and they will last a lot longer in the summer time.

Launch Schedule
We would like to launch our campaign on the 1st February; we are going to launch this with the flyers in Cambridge. This will be followed over the next few days with myself and Amy, visiting hotels and promoting Nikki’s artwork. By the end of the first week of February we would like to have all of our printed flyers handed out and at least corporate business to have make contact with Nikki about her artwork. We have decided that we are not going to go through with the sticker idea, as it’s not the right season for it (Stickers will get wet from rain, through research most stickers are put on cars, bikes exc). We are going to distribute the flyers on a Saturday, as the city centre is always busiest on a Saturday. There tends to be a lot more families out on a Saturday which is a good group of people to target.

Legal & Ethical Issues
One of the main legal issues that pops up when advertising is copyright. When creating the logo for our clients company we need to make sure nothing we use is copyrighted. This could really let our client down if we did use something that was copyrighted as it could affect her business negatively if she uses a copyrighted logo for her company. Another legal and ethical issues that we need to remember if the fact that we are trying to gain her customers of all ages and backgrounds so when showing off her art to possible customers we need to use suitable pieces of artwork. Our client, in the past, has painted nude images, this would be unsuitable to show off to the public and could get our client some negative responses which is the last thing that we want to do.

What we have brought to our client

After looking at our clients website both me and my colleague agreed that for an artist the website was slightly bland. There fore we offered our client an upgrade to interest wider audiences to her product. I have completely remade Nikki Sims' website starting from scratch so that the website would become more appealing to potential customers. Here is a link to her website.
http://nikkisimsart.com

After thought she also decided that she wanted us to create a new logo for her company as the logo she already had was too bland and she never used it anymore. 

Audience Research

How I will go about distributing Nikki Sims' work

I have done some research on distributing the clients work to a corporate audience. I have decided that both Hotels are the key distribution channels to enable my client to successfully build her business. As I am an artist myself, I will choose a selection of Nikki's paintings (given the atmosphere and architecture) and aim to go to these hotels and ask them if they would have them hanging in their Lobby. I will also ask if they would have a stack of nikki's business cards on their desk so that any of their customers would pick one up seeing the painting hanging in the lobby. First I will e-mail the following hotels to ask for permission to distribute her work on their premiss- The Varsity hotel & Spa, Anstey Hall and Double Tree By Hilton. To stretch our clients audience, i believe that Cambridge should be a very easy area to advertise, there are lots of students with parents, tourists ect. which would be easy to branch out to. After further research I discovered that looking at Offices were no longer a priority as I believe that it wouldn't work because each company would have been different and we want a company which would be interested in art work (around Cambridge there are very few) I understand that this would not be a successful wat of showing nikki's art work and gaining clients.

Where to distribute Nikki Sims' art #1

Through research- speaking to Nikki Sims I think that a corporate audience would be the best for her landscape and large pictures as apposed to her portraits which would impact a smaller audience. With larger pictures that are not specific to a certain client (portraits etc) they would be easier to sell as she has lots of these pictures where as with portraits she's have a client and take up time to complete them which means she'd have less clients. Through a lot of thought I have come up with 3 main ideas for a corporate audience:
Hotels

Placing pictures in Hotel lobbies would be a good idea as it would be seen by all of the hotels clients. Also having her business cards at the lobby desk promoting her larger pictures is a good idea to draw in more clients.

-The Varsity Hotel & Spa 

I think that rather than the main lobby, the dining area would be best for her work seeing as the colour theme is very bland. Adding a colour in here would be more attractive to clients. Seeing as this hotel looks out on to the river I think that having a piece of art work like the paintings shown would go extremely well with the atmosphere. 

-Anstey Hall 

This hotel is a lot more boutique and old fashioned so I think this would be more ideal for one of Nikki's older art work that is more fine art than abstract- duller colours that match the wooden style of the hotel. 

-Double Tree by Hilton

This Hotel is very modern so maybe some of Nikki Sims' newer work would be more convenient for this area. This is also by the river cam so more water pictures would be a potential success in this hotel. 

Offices

Galleries

Media Channels for Nikki Sims Art

Nikki Sims is not a very well known artist so to be able to advertise what she does, we need to stick to the local area but maybe distribute the advertisement to london as well seeing as it is not too far from the village (essex) Newport. Here are a few newspapers that are popular around the area and would benefit the advert hugely.

As seen above, Cambridge News has 506,041 viewers per month online. If you distribute your advert on their website for a month it would cost around £7,590. This is expensive to advertise your business but it could be useful as you can appear in a certain section.Nikki's company would be the art section or the family section as most of her clients ask for family portraits. This means she will be reaching out to these people specifically.

Flyers are also a successful way of advertising. This is a good way of grabbing the publics attention because as well as reading the flier they also get the chance to have a personal interaction with the person handing the flyers out. If this person is friendly ect. they're more likely to read the flier. If we were to chose this idea then we would design the flier ourselves rather than picking a company to do this as our budget will be fairly low. A flier can be a very cost-effective form of advertising. In its most basic form, a flier can consist of a simple sheet of paper that is stapled to a telephone pole. This type of advertising is virtually free and can prove effective, depending on what you are publicizing and the placement of the flier. For small business ventures, simply placing fliers in advantageous locations, such as on grocery store bulletin boards and at busy intersections, can have an impact that produces revenue. A downside to using fliers in your advertising is that they can be seen as cheap, dated and out of touch. This is especially true of fliers that are poorly designed. If a flier does not look polished and professional, paired with the fact that it is considered an old-fashioned medium, it can lead the consumer to think likewise of your business. Even though fliers can stand out in the Internet age, if they are not executed perfectly they could make your company look crude.

Another way of advertising is Billboards. 

Advantages
Huge and eye-catching
Targets a large and diverse market
Easily registered information
Increased frequency of consumer exposure
Effective medium of awareness advertising
Targets middle and upper classes
Photographic information (strong visual effect)
Builds company reputation and product image
Quick rise in sales
Guaranteed audience
Customers find you
Disadvantages
High costs for brief exposure
Risk from vandalism, weather conditions
Visibility issue
Stationary mode of advertising
Time insensitive
No feedback
No advantage of space
Does not target a specific market
Short term advertising tool
Limited information
Upside of Using Billboards

It may seem like a big investment. Yes, a billboard can cost you anywhere starting from $1000. But, it will help your company build a brand image. Imagine, a stationary billboard at one location will be noticed by all the people passing by. This will strengthen your product presence in the market as you reach numerous target groups simultaneously. The size of the billboard makes it impossible to not notice it. Although, your audience has a very limited time to take note of your ad, there will be a high frequency of customers being repeatedly exposed to it. This results in the ad automatically getting registered in their photographic memory so they will remember it. Advertising by billboards is especially useful if you want to create product or brand awareness for your company in the market. You do not have to go around looking for customers because they will be attracted to the product. Think about it.

Downside of Using Billboards

There can be some uncontrollable factors like harsh weather and vandalism that can damage your billboard, although, chances of vandalism are less likely in traditional billboards that are several feet above the ground. Also, if the site of your billboard is blocked by a tree or a branch, it will hinder its visibility. Again, this is less likely because all obstacles are generally removed when the ad is put up on the billboard. If you are looking to target a specific target group, billboards is not for you. It does not cater to a specific segment of the market. Another disadvantage is that you cannot ascertain whether your billboard has successfully drawn new customers. Even though a huge space is available for advertisement, it only gives a short message that must make a strong impact on prospective customers to stimulate sales.

Nikki Sims Art- Brief

Please produce an eye-catching advert to promote Nikki Sims Art for the following:


One aspect of my business is to produce a tailored piece of art to suit a client's interior. For instance, at the moment I am working on a large mixed media painting for a previous client. I visited the client in her home and spoke to her about the images she liked and we discussed the feel of the room, the colours etc. The client wanted an abstract piece so I suggested a collaged, textured painting of birds on a wire.

I am keen to explore a new market, not just focussing on the domestic client. I would like to appeal to a corporate client, so advertising how I could meet with a client in their office and work with them to create a joint vision through the artwork I supply.

It is important that the images used and the colours, font etc. on the advert produce a strong consistent message. It should project quality, style and be very contemporary. I prefer neutral colours and love white and dark greys like on my website but I appreciate I may need your expertise on how maybe there could be a more striking accent colour to add some interest. Maybe an acid green, a pink or orange? Im not sure.


Recently for a small advert/card I used the image of a grey sofa against a white wall and superimposed a jpeg of my artwork against the wall. I am sure you could come up with something much better that suggests a very smart corporate interior (maybe for a magazine type industry, architect or high-end hotel?)

Should you need to use any jpegs you can use anything from my website which I can send you separately.


I have attached a few images which I feel may work in a larger office or foyer of a company/hotel. The two on the right are my 'signature style' but I have sent the others in case you need different colours or sizes although perhaps they are less illustrative of my brand.

Let me know if you need anything else to help you with your project.
Good Luck!

Media Channels suggestions

Local paper, what are the local papers and how much is it to advertise in each one?

Flyers-how will you produce a successful flyer and how much would this cost to do so? Where would you distribute them? Who would distribute them?

Transport adds, train adverts local trains, buses, sides of buses etc. How much does it cost?

Local outdoor spaces, billboards. Where are the local billboards? How much does it cost? Bus stops, how much does it cost and where does it have to be?

Stickers, positives and negatives or stickers. What are the costs for this? If you stick a flier up on private property then they have the right to sue you. But if its just a sticker then thats ok because its just a sticker.

Postcards, you can use postcards, leave them around. But not stick them around as if on private property then they can sue. Like graffiti. But just leaving them around is ok.

Social Networking, paying for adverts such as on youtube and google so pay per click. You can pay Facebook to help you advertise a page.

Posters.

Stunts. Big the stunt up using social media. Video it and try and make it go viral. Press release, in the local paper. Flash mob for example.

Highlight the company in the small social media groups such as pages which a lot of people from the local area follows. An example of this could be the 'spotted in' pages.

Direct marketing, the business of selling products or services directly to the public, e.g. by mail order or telephone selling, rather than through retailers.

Agency profile

The agency for the Skoda 'Cake' advert is a company called Fallon. Fallon was born in Minneapolis in the summer of 1981, during a recession and without a founding client. The agency was established by five idealists with a shared passion for understanding consumers and their behaviour, as well as shared values and common-sense organisational principles. Fallon London launched with these same beliefs and values in 1998, and in today's world of multiple media channels (and in another recession) the philosophy of using creativity to outsmart the competition is even more relevant today than it's ever been.

This is a screenshot of the advert on their website.

Advertising company- city cycle

City Cycle Hire is situated on Newnham Road, Cambridge. The company specialises in letting people from around Cambridge hire out their bikes for a certain period of time. The time period that they can borrow the bikes from can be a little as half a day and up to a whole year. The price of the hire changes depending on how long the bike will be hired for. Below are the prices of how much it is to hire out a bike and how long you can hire it out for.  

The City Cycle Hire company has their own website which can be found here - http://www.citycyclehire.com/home-1/

There website has a very dark background and has a colour scheme of mostly different shades of black and yellow. I think that this looks effective but personally I would use the colours of black and yellow as they tend to be used for signs such as danger. The website need to have more outdoor colours such as greens and blues. I personally think that it would look a lot better with those colours which is maybe something that the company is looking for. 

On their website they talk about the different types of bikes that you can rent out and the prices that they charge for the bikes for hire. They also have a section for students to click on which tells you about the fact that they have some bikes for sale which can be bought. On the student part it also tells you about the deals that they can for the university students or the international students. The website includes the bookings which gives you a chance to book a bike to hire. It also supplies the contact numbers and the address on this page which is useful for those who are having trouble booking or those who haven't booked before.  

There is also a gallery on the website with lots of different images that have been taken by those who have hired out a bike. Some of these images are shown below:

Advertising company- Backstitch

Backstitch is a fabric and haberdashery store based in Cambridgeshire. It was established in 2010 by Alice Synge with the mission to supply modern craft fabric and quality haberdashery to UK sewists. A keen sewer herself, Alice stocks only products she would want to use herself, so the selection has been curated to her modern sense of style, and with keen attention to quality. The shop is run with military efficiency and provides excellent customer service. Orders are shipped out double quick and if you have a query Alice is always ready to help.

They use social media sites to advertise themselves such as Facebook...

…Pinterest…

…Twitter… 

The company has its own website which looks very good and is very easy to navigate around. The colours that are used in the website are very pale colours such as pale pinks, yellows and greens.

Currently the brand has a very good look to it and looks very craft unlike some of the other sewing stores in the area. They currently have a very simple but effective logo which I personally think looks very good. I love the fact that its just one solid green mixed with white. But I believe that when looking at this logo on its own you wouldn't be able to tell that they sell craft products and sewing equipment. Think could have more detail added to it to show more what kind of items that they sell in their store.

Cambridge News wrote an article for Backstitch on the 1st May 2014. I believe that this article really captures what Backstitch is really about and why they run this store.

'Spend five minutes at Backstitch and, pound to a penny, you’ll develop a sudden and powerful urge to applique a cushion, patchwork a quilt, maybe run up a jaunty string of bunting. So you’ve never so much as threaded a needle? Details, details...

The latest addition to Burwash Manor, Barton’s chichi rural shopping centre, Backstitch is a trove lined with bolts of fabric, rolls of felt, reels of thread, tubes of buttons. Everything is bright and beautiful: it’s impossible not to feel inspired.

“It’s amazing how many people walk through the door and immediately start stroking the bolts of fabric,” laughs Alice Synge, the passionate hobby sewer behind the business. “It’s all very tactile. And I hope seeing these beautiful things does inspire people. I love sewing – and I want other people to love it too.”

The shop only opened a few weeks ago, but Alice has already recruited a veritable army of regulars. “See this quilt?” she asks, gesturing to a spring-themed patchwork, spread out across the window workbench.

“A customer made that. She came in one day and said ‘How do I make a quilt?’, so I told her to take a pack of squares away and stitch them together. Once she’d done that, she came back and I told her how to make the edging panels. She did it bit by bit – and that’s the end result. Isn’t it lovely?

“To be able to share my enthusiasm for sewing is brilliant; I do get very excited by other people’s projects. On occasion, I fear I become overexcited: they come 
in for some thread and I find myself saying ‘Look! If 
you take this felt and this button you can make 
yourself a fish!’…

“Sewing is like art, really, except you don’t have to be able to draw. Actually, in some ways, I think sewing is a bit like magic.”

After years in the cultural wilderness, sewing has recently come in from the cold. Do we have TV’s Great British Sewing Bee to thank? “The renewed interest in sewing was already there; it’s been building for the last five years or so,” says Alice. “So Sewing Bee tapped into that, rather than the other way round. But there’s no doubt the programme has had a big impact: when the first series aired last year, I sold no end of dress patterns.”

Alice has, you see, been running Backstitch since 2010. But it was solely an online enterprise until the March of this year, when the Burwash store opened.

“I don’t really know why I wanted to sew; I’m afraid there’s no great story,” admits Alice. “I’ve always been interested in colour and design, I suppose, and I’ve always loved fabric.

“My mum had an old Singer and when I was a teenager I used to get it out and make myself the most horrendous clothes: circle skirts and waistcoats. Well, it was the Nineties.

“Then, when I was in my 20s, I wanted to start sewing again and went hunting for a book to show me how, but there was nothing – nothing! – out there. I ended up making a bag which looked like a nosebag for a horse: it was totally unsuccessful. But I kept plugging away.”

It was when Alice had her children – Mil, now 7, and Emmett, 3 – that she started to sew more seriously. “When you make something for someone, what you’re really giving them is your love, isn’t it?

“I make the kids shorts for the summer, bags to take their stuff away on holiday – that kind of thing. I think they just think it’s normal for mums to sew; that’s all they’ve known.

“They think the iron is for sewing. Which it is, of course: it’s for sewing, weddings and funerals…”

Alice’s greatest sewing love is making quilts. “The first one I ever made was for my little sister when she was born; she’s quite a bit younger than me. I’m not sure what happened to that one, but I’ve still got the second quilt I made: that was a nine-patch (for the uninitiated, that’s a repeat pattern of nine-square blocks).

“Usually the first one you make is for a baby, then you make them for children’s beds, then maybe for a wedding present… There are lots of nice reasons to make a quilt. And you’re making something which keeps people warm – what more could you want than that?”

It was while at home with her own babies, living in deepest, darkest Somerset, that Alice decided to start her online fabric shop. “There was nothing online at the time – we’re talking five years ago now – and there was no John Lewis to go to. I saw a gap in the market and decided to fill it. In fact a handful of other online stores opened at the same time.”

Carving herself a niche online – specialising in bright, bold and contemporary fabrics – Alice says part of the pleasure of opening the Backstitch store has been in broadening her range.

“I didn’t do any haberdashery before, so that’s exciting. And I’ve also introduced dress fabric: I buy from a company which sells ends of designer lines – Paul Smith, all sorts of lovely things. That means I offer something a bit different; a lot of what you’ll find in high street shops is very samey.

“I’d describe my fabrics as fresh, modern and vibrant: all the good stuff! I am diversifying a bit – I want to get some more traditional florals – but I’ll never be able to buy a print I don’t like.”

Alice believes the credit crunch and ensuing austerity have stoked the renewed interest in sewing. “It’s not that sewing something yourself is cheaper than buying it from a shop; it’s almost certainly not.

“It’s more that, if they’re having less, people want the things they do have to be better quality – to be made to last – and also to have emotional significance; to mean something to them. I think the novelty of being able to go into a chain store and buy 10 pairs of pants for £2 has well and truly worn off.”

When Alice, her husband and little ones relocated from the South West to her native Cambridgeshire, to be closer to family and friends (“We felt we were missing out on all the fun stuff, being so far away”), she decided it was time to focus on what had been, up to that point, only a part-time business venture.

“I’d been searching for that thing, you know? That thing that was going to let me run my own business. And I realised sewing was it. I carried on working – I worked for a market research company, looking at buyer behaviour – up until this September, when I decided it was time to take Backstitch to the next level.

“It had been pootling along on the internet, but I knew I had to increase volume to make it viable, and I couldn’t do that from home. Plus, I wanted to be able to meet and get to know my customers. What I really want to do is make people happy.”

And Backstitch is a very happy place. The fabrics are lined up along one long wall in colour order; like a huge textile rainbow. That alone is enough to make any shopper smile. And all the bits and bobs – dinky enamelled embroidery scissors, spools of bright ribbon and ricrac, kits to make everything from a needlepoint clutch bag to a cushion in the shape of a lion – call out to be admired and, indeed, purchased.

Alice says the Cambridge area is a hotbed of crafting: “I get lots of customers who say ‘I heard about you at my crochet class/my quilting club/my WI’ – there are so many crafty types around here.”

But she adds that lots of people love the idea of sewing, but find the reality too daunting to try. “The truth is, it’s not that hard. Honestly! Some customers come in and love everything, but admit they’re too scared to make anything. Sometimes they’ve actually got a sewing machine, but it’s never come out of the box. The way I see it, all they need is a little push…”

That’s where Alice’s workshops come in: from this month onwards, she’ll be running regular classes, ranging from basic skills sessions for complete beginners (“literally how to turn the machine on, thread the needle, go backwards and forwards”) to a whole dress-making course.

“I love it when someone comes in with a colour code written on a little piece of paper, walks up to the rack of threads, finds the one they want and then heads straight to the till to pay their £1.60,” adds Alice. “You know they’re right in the middle of a project – and you’re helping them finish. There’s just something very satisfying about that.”'

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Getting-creative-Backstitch-Bartons-new-sewing-store/story-22749655-detail/story.html#ixzz3OnX4XtTz

In Cambridgeshire there are other stores that sell similar items to what Backstitch offers. Some of these shops are quite large shops with a lot of customers and can be well recognised. Companies that are similar are shown below:

Sew Creative has been established for over 40 years. They are a main dealer for Bernina, Janome, Brother, Frister + Rossmann, Elna, Babylock, Husqvarna, Singer and Pfaff sewing machines plus Horn Cabinets. In addition to sales of new machines they also stock used machines and offer a full servicing and repair service.

Sew Creative are the main supplier to schools and colleges for sewing machines & servicing in East Anglia.

They stock a vast array of craft materials and yarns, 100% cotton fabrics for patchwork and quilting as well as patchwork accessories.

They pride themselves on their product knowledge and customer service. Staff are fully trained to be able to offer advice on all models, including overlockers and the latest computerised embroidery machines and design software.

Although this company is not only situated in Cambridge it is also situated in Bury St Edmunds and also Norwich. 

Another Company in Cambridgeshire that is similar to Backstitch is Bee Crafty.

This company is run by Sarah and Julie who are good friends who decided in 2011 to open a new kind of craft shop which is accessible to all. A place 'where a friendly welcome and a culpa along with a helping hand is as important as the wide range of beautiful stock.'

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the shop is open for social stitching. People from around the area are invited to bring a project and join in with like minded crafters. On the second Thursdays of every month they do crochet club. In November 2012 Bee Crafty was awarded retailer of the month by British Patchwork & Quilting.

Advertising companies- NikkiSimsArt

Nikki Sims Art
This company is just managed and directed by one person- Nikki Sims, a local artist who lives in Newport essex. It's a very small company and she works from home in her studio located in the garden. She paints with many different styles using many types of media. She also teaches private lessons in her studio charging £20 per hour. She publishes her work in exhibitions around Heartfordshire, Essex and London. She also has private clients, usually painting portraits for her clients and charges them based on the materials she has used, the time it has taken her to complete the painting and the price of the canvas (depending on thickness and size) Here is some of her most popular work:

Portrait of Jenny Eclair

Portrait for Client

http://www.nikkisimsart.co.uk/

Nikki Sims' website is fairly bland but sophisticated and to be highly critical I think that it would be seen to a viewer as fairly boring for an Artist. If I were to work for this client i would add a striking element of colour to draw attention to the advertisement so that hopefully Nikki could draw in more clients. Market position- she works from her home (Mulberry House Cambridge Road Newport CB11 3TN) She teaches- charging her clients £20 an hour and charges her clients by the quality, size and time taken for her paintings. There are many local artists around the area but I think that Nikki is a unique client as she does a variety of different styles which makes her in a position where potentially she can do weel, adapting to the clients needs. The best that has been advertised is Nikki using social websites such as Facebook and Twitter, plus a business card that she produced herself. 

legal and ethical issues of Skoda 'Cake' Advert

After researching the legal issues to this advert, I didn't find much wrong with the advert at all, it just states the permission that they had to be given by certain companies, particularly for the music which was used from 'The sound of music' the song being 'Favourite things'- One bit of trivia about the Skoda advert: Julie Andrews gave her personal approval to the soundtrack, following Skoda asking EMI's permission. In able to get the permission, the creative team would of had to determine who is the copyright owner of the material intended for use, contact the owner, and request the right to use the work in the territory and format intended, and -- in some cases -- pay the owner a fee.

The creative team went through an enormous amount of trouble to go to for an advert - some estimates say that it cost £500,000 to make; one newspaper pointed out the comparative value of a Skoda (the advert costs 62 times as much). This is seen as a problem because it was a big risk to promote their car to the extreme;spending this much money could be seen to the public as just a way of trying to make their company look good but also greedy. They told the media that instead of disposing the cake they would donate it to charity; the cake was not edible by the time it had been sitting in the studio so the cake ended up in a compost heap.This could also be seen as them not sticking to their word which could make the company look unreliable.

In recent research Skoda has been found to employ many prisoners in result of shortage of skilled labour that affected so many enterprises in socialist societies.They made up 90 per cent of the pressing plant, for instance. When they were freed during political amnesties in January 1990, it left a gaping hole in the factory's labour force: higher wages could not tempt them back. In one of the ironies of history, conscript soldiers were briefly ordered to fill their places but because they were less skilled, production remained far below demand and Skoda's debts, acquired in the 1980s, continued to grow.

"VW has been good for Skoda," says Prof Bailey. Thanks to VW's help, it has become the only central-European engineering enterprise from the Communist era to have turned into a competitive household name - thanks to management flexibility, deep commitment and recognition of the brand overhaul needed. And Skoda has, in turn, been good for VW.

Understanding how Skoda 'cake' was distributed and promoted

Cake is a television and cinema advert launched in 2007 by Skoda Auto to promote the new second-generation Fabia Supermini car in the United Kingdom. The 60-second spot forms the centrepiece of an integrated advertising campaign comprising appearances on television, in cinemas, in newspapers and magazines, online, and through direct marketing. The campaign and its component parts were handled by the London branch of advertising agency 'Fallon World wide' Cake was directed by British director Chris Palmer. Production was contracted to 'Gorgeous enterprises', with sound handled by Wave Studios. It premiered on British television on 17 May 2007. The campaign was a critical, popular, and financial success. It has been credited for the significant improvements in awareness and public opinion of the brand, and received honours from a number of advertising festivals and awards ceremonies, including several from the British Television Advertising Awards, the 'Cannes Lions International advertising festiva'l and the 'Creative Circle Awards.' 

Cake premiered on Thursday 17 May 2007.The dedicated microsite went online at 6pm, while the 60-second commercial first aired on ITV, Channel 4, Five, and on several multichannel television networks between 9 and 10pm -Wikipedia 

^ By launching a premier it interested certain viewers which would help promote the car further. They also picked the channels carefully, as it says the advert was aired on ITV, Channel 4, Five and on other multichannel networks. This was chosen because they believed that the viewers to these channels suited their product and advert best. Also airing it between 9/10 pm, the advert was obviously not aimed for a young audience as these people would not be watching at this time. The advert was obviously aimed at the older generations ranging from the ages of 16+ This is very clever because although children would enjoy the advert (it's made out of cake) the audience is focused on an audience which is a lot older considering those are the potential customers to the product they are being drawn to.  

Skoda Advert- televised

When watching this advert which was televised in 2007, the very first element, personally was very significant: the music. This piece is called 'my favourite things' from the famous film released in 1965 ' the sound of music' This could imply that 'my favourite things' relates to the elements of the car that they're advertising- as well as referring to each part of the car being built by cake. This is also very cleverly advertised; using this song draws attention to other audiences (lovers of musicals) Not only do they now have a typical audience- car lovers and cake lovers, now they also have the viewers that enjoy music/ the older generation who watched 'The Sound of Music' as a child. As i continued watching the advert I discovered that each worker building the cake/car is either very concentrated to the detail of the development or they are smiling, happy with the model that they are building. This could also show the viewer that they are a friendly team at Skoda and that they enjoy their job but also portray that they take what they do seriously which could provoke the viewer to be more interested in the make of car, visually seeing the team in action. The purpose of this advert is to promote a new model of car by Skoda and make the audience feel connected in order to provoke the viewer to purchase the product which is being promoted. Both adverts, print based and televised contain exactly the same content. They both have the final product of the cake as a car which shows the audience a positive product which lifts the viewers mood.

Skoda Advert- print

The advert that i have chosen is called 'Cake' by Skoda. It was a television, cinema and print based advert which was eventually released in 2007. This advert was used to promote the new second generation Fabia Supermini car which was released first in the UK. As you can see by looking at this print based advert it shows the car in the centre of the page with a team of bakers/artists around the car. The car has been made out of cake and assembled by the team that is shows on the advert. Surrounding the car is a very plain background using the colours grey and white which directs the audience's attention to the orange car that stands on a raised platform with the team also standing directly next to the car; this suggests that Skoda is all about team work and customer service and they believe that they are the people that have made Skoda what they are today. The fact that the car is made out of cake it shows that it would have taken a lot of time, effort, a steady hand and 'love' to perfect. This is the message that Skoda is trying to portray to the audience. The slogan which has been typed across the middle of the page underneath the car is 'The new Fabia. Full of lovely stuff.' This slogan is fairly informal which tries to make the viewer feel like they are part of the team. Also they have included the word 'stuff' which uses the viewer so that they have their own idea on what the word 'stuff' could mean. It also suggests that the car has been made to perfection by using the word 'lovely' which is a luxurious term to use for those who are perfectionists. It also tries to grab the audience by assuming that everyone loves cake which is why they have taken this road into building the car itself out of cake. The car sitting on a raised platform shows the viewer that the car is a higher class to standard cars of the time era and is second to none. The shadow underneath also exaggerates the platform so that the audience has a clear view that Skoda is the best choice and number one.