Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years’ experience. In 1999 he founded Peak (now known as Matt Somers – Coaching Skills Training) and has since worked with a host of clients in North East England – where the firm is based – and throughout the UK and Europe.

Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock and how releasing potential in this way transforms the performance of all organisations.

Through their work with client organisations Matt and his team have found that coaching represents the most effective way of developing sustainable high performance as it is an intervention that is both performance focused and yet performer centred. The firm has developed coaching interventions for organisations as diverse as Toyota Europe, Citigroup and the City of Edinburgh Council.

‘Matt is definitely not a “low achiever”!

The programme remained interesting and stimulating over the 2 days. Matt held my attention well and has helped me grow and develop myself. An excellent course with an excellent trainer!!’

Leila Hashemi, Customer Relations Advisor

Toyota Europe

‘This course has made me very self-aware…invaluable! Would recommend to all’

Sharenya Kumar, Training Officer

Citigroup

‘This course was fun, informative and useful. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to develop their coaching skills’

Karen Saunders, Team Leader, Supporting People

Edinburgh City Council

Matt is a regular speaker and the author of many articles on coaching. His book Coaching at Work was published by John Wiley in 2006 and its follow up, Instant Manager: Coaching by Hodder & Stoughton in 2008.
Matt holds a MSc in Human Resource Development, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and an active member of the Association for Coaching, who have quality assured our core programme.

To find out more about ‘Coaching Skills Training’ please visit our website at www.mattsomers.com

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Helping managers motivate their people to higher levels of performance

At last an alternative to constantly having to tell people what to do and how to do it!

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30th September 2009

Join one of the UK’s most awarded creatives on his crusade against the self-indulgent, the vague and the dull and enlist on his quest for the intelligent, the clear, the engaging and the relevant.

When Steve Harrison launched his book How to do better creative work in June, here’s what leading figures in marketing had to say:

“Steve is one of the dying breed of creative directors that clients crave.” Charlie Smith, Head of Brand and Marketing, Vodafone UK

“I came away with 10-12 things I wanted to share with the rest of the team at glue and it also fortunately gave me some confidence that we’re getting a lot of this right already” Mark Cridge, CEO, glue London

“Steve is one of the few people capable of looking at a notoriously self-obsessed industry and saying ‘The Emperor has no clothes.’ And he’s one of an even smaller number who can look at its problems and say ‘Here’s how you fix it.’” Jon Steel, author of Truth, Lies and Advertising and Perfect Pitch.

“This is essential for anyone who wants to demystify the creative process. Harrison’s simple common-sense approach makes you wonder why so many campaigns fail so spectacularly” Larissa Vince, Campaign magazine

Now here’s your chance to “demystify the creative process” in an audience with Steve Harrison. As creative director at OgilvyOne Worldwide and HTW, he won more domestic and international awards in his discipline than any other creative director in the world – and he did so for such clients as Vodafone, IBM, The Royal Marsden Hospital, Rolls-Royce, American Express, Xerox, BT, Royal Mail and Microsoft.

It will be our pleasure to welcome you to this highly creative and interactive evening on 30 September. Just make sure you reserve your places as there are only a limited number of seats available. Learn how to:

• identify and apply the simple problem/solution dynamic
• draw on the problem/solution dynamic for your big marketing ideas
• use “relevant abruption” to produce big creative ideas
• simultaneously build a brand AND get response

Whatever your sector, discipline, function or experience, you’ll come away with advice you can use and a proven framework to consistently persuade customers that your product is better than the competition’s.

Detailed joining instructions will be provided by email seven days before the event.

Agenda

Sponsor this event

This evening will be marketed to the IDM’s members and customers, and offers a cost effective route to a higher company or product profile and the opportunity to develop relationships with the 60-100+ senior marketers who attend. In return, IDM members and guests benefit from attendance fees held at 2007 prices.

The sponsor package comprises:

• Sole sponsorship of the event and billing with the IDM
• Logo and link on all event promotional material, including:
  • Member and customer communications
  • Solus emails to our member and customer database
  • Event webpage on the IDM website
• Exhibition stand within the refreshment area
• Mention of sponsor in opening and closing speeches
• Title and holding PowerPoint slides displayed during event
• Insert into the delegate pack
• Opportunity to offer added value items/research/case studies to delegates in post event correspondence
• 4 delegate seats

Event Sponsor Package @ £500 + VAT

To secure this opportunity contact Lisa Turner on 0208 614 0255 or email lisaturner@theidm.com.

Venue

Our venue is the CBI Conference Centre, Centre Point Tower, 103 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1DU. Download map.

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Tue, 25 Aug 2009 | By Charlotte McEleny

He told Bloomberg that a surplus of engineers due to the recession has presented the social network with an good opportunity, suggesting the areas of growth for the company would be on the engineering side and not commercial.

“No one else has been hiring. It has been a great environment for us because the economy has helped out,” said Zuckerberg.

Facebook currently has 1,000 employees, approximately 50 in the UK.

Earlier this month it bought social news feed aggregator FriendFeed for £30m, in a bid to improve its real-time search capabilities.

Competing social network MySpace cut staff by 30% in the US and by over 60% in the UK in July.

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By Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 06 August 2009, 10:04am

Carphone Warehouse plans social media campaigns

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Annual National Conference 2009

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Peperami invites public to create ad

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 | By Rosie Baker

Peperami, the Unilever owned meat snack brand is turning to the public to create its next ad campaign.

The move to crowd sourcing sees the brand parting company with advertising agency, Lowe, which has handled Peperami’s advertising for 15 years.

Peperami is launching the global search on Ideabounty.com, an online creative community, inviting people to submit ideas for the next press and television ad campaigns for the brand with $10,000 (£6,000) going to the best idea.

The campaign brief goes live on the site on 28 August (Friday) and the entry deadline is 23 October.

“It’s a test to see if it works for the brand with a long-term view to using it in future advertising,” says a spokesperson for the brand.

The brand wants to retain the iconic Peperami Animal character, originally created by Lowe in 1993, because it’s such a well-known and recognised part of the branding.

Noam Buchalter marketing manager at Peperami says: “We believe Peperami is a brand that deserves radical creative solutions and are confident taking our brief out to thousands rather than a small team of creatives will provide us with the best possible idea and take our advertising to the next level.”

When the finalist is decided, the campaign will be produced by specialist agency Smartworks.

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Orange reviews retail marketing account

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 | By Camille Alarcon

An Orange spokeswoman says it is talking to a number of agencies, including the incumbent BD Network.

Earlier this year the mobile operator appointed Proximity to its agency roster following a pitch against several undisclosed agencies.

Other agencies on its roster include AKQA, Chemistry and Poke. Fallon handles the brand’s above-the-line work. They are not expected to be affected by the review.

Orange is planning to launch a major marketing campaign to promote Monkey, a free music service created in partnership with Universal Music and Channel 4.

The campaign by Fallon and Poke, will be unveiled early next month and encompass television, press, outdoor, online and experiential activity.

Fallon has also created an ad campaign to promote this year’s Orange RockCorps, the music-led volunteer programme.

The ad campaign echoes the Orange brand message “Together we can do more”, by showcasing the positive difference people can make when they come together.

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The main aim of the marketing activity will be to attract health-conscious consumers and to reposition Clover as providing a good balance between taste and health with its “half the saturated fat” messaging.

The campaign kicks off with a burst of new TV advertising, created by Grey, which focuses on Clover having half the saturated fat but still with a great buttery taste.

The ad creative states: “The middle is the best of both, the happy place…

Clover is proud to be smack bang in the middle”.

The TV ads will also be supported by a new website, direct marketing, PR and promotional activity.

Dairy Crest says that the relaunch has been designed to continue the strong growth of Clover, which is currently the number one brand in the dairy spreads sector by value sales, according to Nielsen. It is also worth £79m and is the fastest growing dairy spreads brand.

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Through the uBar, Phones 4u hopes to create a more active exchange of customer feedback and ideas, and create an ideal testing environment for new products and services.

Current and new Phones 4u customers will be invited to join the uBar via store and online at www.theubar.co.uk

uBar members will be regularly invited to participate in various research topics and surveys, including testing new mobile phones, products or marketing concepts and ideas. Monthly prizes will be given as a thank you for uBar members' feedback and opinions.

The socially interactive platform also allows them to engage in dialogue with other uBar members, socialise, share opinions and find out about new handsets and all things mobile related.

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