Towards the end of last year, I announced (in slightly candid fashion) a shift in direction for Leapfrogg in 2010. With a much disrupted January now behind us (please, never mention the word ‘snow again!) the time has arrived to tell you a bit more…in our typically open fashion.

If you missed the last post, I explained how in the increasingly competitive and complex market for digital marketing services, it has become more and more difficult to differentiate one agency from another. Most of the good agencies tend to offer the same services and say the same things, just in a slightly different way (which adds to the confusion if you are a buyer of digital marketing services!).

The lesson we really learnt in 2009 is that regardless of the market you operate in, or the great reputation you may already have, you still need a business proposition that is unique. We realised last year that we had fallen into the same trap as many of our competitors in using the same old buzzwords and points of difference (which in reality were not that different at all!).

So what do we do to break the mould? Well, after a whole load of research, analysis, brainstorming, head scratching and the odd ‘eureka’ moment, we have come to the conclusion that demand is on the increase for specialist, boutique-style agencies, with exceptional knowledge and experience in one particular market.

So on the basis of this research, and our many years spent working with, and learning from, brands such as Feather and Black, we are creating a new division here at Leapfrogg focused on servicing premium retail brands; a specialist offering that helps differentiate Leapfrogg from other agencies, whilst providing premium retailers with a viable alternative to the ‘one-stop-shop’, ‘we service any client’ approach taken by many agencies.

The new division will build on the solid expertise we already possess in this market. For a number of months now we have been reviewing our existing services and how they can be finely tuned to better suit the requirements of premium retailers. We have already overhauled how we deliver work to clients with much more emphasis on research and planning, as well a more integrated approach to digital marketing that combines search, social media and content. It is our belief that these channels cannot operate in isolation but instead must be used in combination to maximise reach, targeted traffic, online conversion rates, levels of customer retention, as well as developing those all-important advocates of your brand.

New services specific to the needs of premium retailers, and in line with how we expect retail to change in the coming months and years, are also being investigated by our team. Mobile, augmented reality, rich media content, dynamic merchandising, cross-channel and customer retention tools are all on the radar with services due to launch over the course of 2010.

We will also be ramping up our ability to accurately measure results across all channels with an Ecommerce Analyst due to join the team in the coming weeks. A recruitment strategy focused on sourcing experts with the right blend of skills to complement those we already possess will be an ongoing theme.

Alongside all of this, we are going to be freshening up the Leapfrogg brand and website, a project kicking off in the next couple of weeks and one that I am particularly excited about.

With all of the excitement around a new division, it would be easy to forget where we have come from. But rest assured that won’t be happening. We’ll continue to deliver exceptional digital marketing expertise for new and existing clients in other sectors, running alongside the new retail division.

So that’s us…a new division, new direction and newly found strategic focus in everything from sales and marketing to recruitment. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below or get in touch.

Get involved
We want to involve premium retailers in the ongoing development of the division. This will begin with surveying dozens of the UK’s premium retailers to better understand their experiences of digital marketing. We’ll be using this research to compile an insightful report looking at the state of digital marketing in premium retail, as well as a series of round table events to explore the findings.

Keep a look out for the survey launching later this week.

Just a quick note to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

We’ll be taking a break over the festive period to recharge the batteries ready to be fighting fit for 2010. The office will close around mid afternoon on Christmas Eve and re-open bright and early on January 4th 2010.

For any urgent client enquiries, please contact your account manager or use the email address enquiries@leapfrogg.co.uk

Have a fantastic festive break. We look forward to seeing you in 2010. In the meantime, just for fun, a photo from our recent Christmas do. The theme was secret Santa with a twist. Each employee had to spend £10 on an outfit for a fellow employee from a local charity shop. So, not only did we look exceptionally silly but we also did our bit for chaaaarity!

All that leaves us to do is say goodbye the naughties…hello the tens…or teens…uhmmm, doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as the naughties does it?

Happy Christmas!

Love from the ‘froggers’ x

Well here we are, nearing the end of 2009. Let’s not beat around the bush; it’s been a pretty hard year for the vast majority of businesses. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably telling a porky!

2009 has led many people to reflect long and hard on the direction their businesses are taking, Leapfrogg included. We’d like to share with you a few of the lessons we have learnt over the last few months. Why? Well, two reasons really. Firstly, because it sets the tone for one or two announcements about a change in direction for Leapfrogg. Secondly; because our experiences are relevant to your business and the likelihood of you succeeding, particularly when it comes to your digital marketing efforts.

What has become abundantly clear for Leapfrogg, and for many of our clients, is that to survive, and indeed prosper, you need to be different, perhaps even utterly unique. Or you need to find a specific niche to tailor your product to. In our case, the market for digital marketing services is becoming more and more crowded with new companies popping up all the time; some of them good, many of them not so. Added to that, the lines are becoming more and more blurred between agencies who previously operated across different markets; web developers are doing search, search marketers doing social media and so on.

This increasingly competitive and complex market place makes it more and more difficult to differentiate. To demonstrate this I did a bit of research this afternoon taking a look at a number of the top agencies in the hope of discovering what it is that actually makes them different to one another. The same buzzwords came up over and over…

…‘best practice’, ‘established’, ’ experienced’, ‘professional’ (I love that one, as if you’d claim to be anything but!), ‘the biggest’, ‘flexible’, ‘award winning’, ‘operate globally’, plain speaking’, ‘bespoke software’, etc, etc…

Trying to put anything aside I already knew about the agencies in question, I could find very little to separate one from another. This is because the list of words you see above do not represent unique selling points, they are just features. Now I’m a ‘long in the tooth’, seasoned professional aware of what to look for in an agency. If I couldn’t find any major points of differentiation, goodness knows how difficult it must be for a prospect when searching for SEO, Paid Search or any other related service!

This fact, combined with a whole load of research, analysis, brainstorming, head scratching and the odd ‘eureka’ moment, has led us to believe that demand will increase for boutique style agencies who are specialists in a particular niche; who understand this niche inside out; who can offer a solution so well tailored to that niche it makes it impossible for a company operating in that niche to want to work with anyone else but that boutique agency.

So that’s where we are heading in 2010. Now we are not going to tell you what the niche is right now; we are still in the planning stages. But what we can say, from our experience, is that by selecting a niche it provides highly refined focus on strategy, sales, marketing, product development, recruitment, training and so on; direction that is nigh on impossible when you are too broad or do not understand what it is that makes you different to everyone else.

For Leapfrogg, what this does mean is the closure of our lovely little office in Southampton. Our new strategy does not demand regional offices because by being exceptional in your niche location no longer matters. We are by no means abandoning Southampton; far from it. We have made some great contacts there. It is just not necessary with a new strategy in place to have an actual office space in the city.

So we’ve learnt a lot in 2009 but what can you take away from our experiences?

Well, if you’re just starting out, reviewing your plans for 2010 or about to invest your marketing budget online STOP before you do anything and think really hard…

WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOUR PROPOSITION COMPLETELY UNIQUE?

I mean utterly different to everyone out there. If you don’t know, do as I did this afternoon. Look at your competitors; look at yourself; ask your staff; analyse your products and so on. Work out your unique selling point and build your strategy around it.

Because all the signs are 2010 could be as tough as 2009. And with increasing competition online you will need to work harder than ever to turn prospects into customers. If your proposition is the same as everyone else it will always come down to price. And not everyone can be the cheapest. So to prosper you will need to find your point of differentiation and build your strategy around it.

Unfortunately, too many business owners to this day believe that by simply having a website or throwing money at Google they will make their millions. Wrong! Digital marketing cannot operate in isolation. It will only be successful as part of a well thought out business strategy where your goals are crystal clear. Absolutely integral to this is knowing what it is that makes you different and using this to establish direction and, crucially, competitive advantage.

That’s what we’ve done and we feel great for it. We know where we are heading and the niche we want to target. The team are excited and focused so we can’t wait for 2010. So with that, we’d like to thank Southampton for our short term stay. We’ll still be spending plenty of time in that part of the world, just not with the luxury of our own office.

Until the next time…

We are delighted to announce that Managing Director at Leapfrogg, Rosie Freshwater has been nominated for Entrepreneur of the year at The Brighton and Hove Business Awards.

Leapfrogg are no strangers to the awards after last year winning the ‘best place to work’ at the same event. Despite the current climate, Leapfrogg has continued to see growth during 2009 and recently opened a second office in Southampton.

Rosie’s mission statement is to “lead with high standards, motivate and inspire Leapfrogg to be happy and the best it can be, remaining true, just and fair and pushing for success at all times.” She has been the driving force in shaping Leapfrogg into the successful company that it has become, achieving over 1000% growth in just under-six years of trading and establishing a great name within Brighton’s digital hub.

Tony Mernagh, Executive Director of the Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership, is head of the panel of judges and helping them in their decisions this year.  He is joined by representatives of Sussex Innovation Centre, MdHub, Wired Sussex, Acumen Business Law, Nido Marketing and sponsor representatives.

According to the judges: “The quality of the applicants goes from strength to strength and I am constantly amazed at the number of clearly world class businesses we have right here in the city. The judging gets harder every year because there are just so many great applicants to choose from.”

The ceremony is to be held on the 9th of October, and Rosie Freshwater will join 37 other local businesses to find out the winner of each of the awards. The venue for the illustrious Brighton award ceremony is the Hilton Metropole and shortlisted candidates will enjoy a full champagne reception, as well as a four course meal.

Rosie Freshwater said: “I am over the moon to be a finalist for the new Entrepreneur award at the BAHBA’s. Although the award goes to an individual, I firmly believe that an entrepreneur can only truly be successful if backed by a strong team. Therefore should I be fortunate enough to win this award it will be a testament to the team at Leapfrogg for allowing me to be the best I can.”

For more information about the BAHBA’s visit http://www.bahbas.org.uk/.

Due to a technical issue the Leapfrogg RSS feed has not been working properly for a number of months. As a result we have had to move it. Please find it at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Leapfrogg

Leapfrogg embarked on a physical endurance test a couple of weeks ago by taking part in a local business Volley ball tournament at Yellowave beach sports club on Brighton seafront.

When Jody told us we had been entered not everyone was overjoyed by the thought but a select few Froggers were up for the challenge. These enthusiasts included Rosie, Libby, Matt, Catherine, Dan and Mike. Unfortunately Christos, Steven, Suze and Sacha couldn’t play on the day of the tournament because they were jetting off to warmer climates, but they still joined in with our training attempts.

Christos, our voluntary trainer, took us to Yellowave to practise, as well as Brunswick Square and St. Annes Wells Garden. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised about volleyball, and soon we became very competitive. Most of us found it very easy to fear the ball and adopt a “crouch” position, especially when the ball was falling above us at ferocious speeds – demonstrated by MD, Rosie below:

After a fair few training sessions, some being before work at 8:30 am in the howling wind and rain (that’s determination for you) the tournament soon crept up on us. Our final 6-a-side Leapfrogg Team consisted of myself, Rosie, Matt, Catherine, Dan and Mike, our FD.

We brightened up a dull day with our rather fetching green t-shirts, thanks to Mike, and did ourselves proud by making it through to the quarter finals. There was only one minor incident when Catherine and Mike head butted each other in mid air, but thank god they escaped a broken nose! I think I can say we all took a shine to Volleyball and will certainly be playing a few friendly games in the future, so watch this space for news of a win!

Below are a few shots courtesy of Catherine’s sister, Mary:

Tonight we will celebrating the official opening of our Southampton office from 6-9pm at the NV Restaurant and Lounge. As well as the customary champagne and canapes, we’ll have our team of digital marketing experts on hand to answer any questions about website optimisation, paid search, content or social media.

If you happen to be in the area, please feel free to join us for a drink and informal networking. Also, by coming along to the launch party attendees receive a complementary invitation to a number of free digital marketing seminars we will be running over the course of the summer in Southampton. Watch this space for more details.

We’re extremely excited about getting involved in the Southampton business scene so hope to meet many new faces at the event. Keep a look out for some pictures from the evening that we’ll post tomorrow.

Leapfrogg are very pleased to announce that we will once again be taking part in the Sussex Internship Programme.

With the help of the wonderful people at Wired Sussex, this year we are looking for an intern to sit within our wonderful digital marketing team, which is headed up by our lovely Zoe. This means the lucky intern will be getting involved with a huge range of social media and online content activity. Ideally we would love to meet a Digital Media graduate with an interest in marketing and an absolute passion for digital. So if you live, breathe and dream it like we do, we want you to apply!

For more information on what we require from our intern this time round, please visit the SIP website where you can apply online as from 1st July 2009.

For those of you who spoke to us about our own Leapfrogg Internship Programme at the Wired Sussex jobs fair back in February (Blimey doesn’t time fly!) do not fear, the cogs are still turning and we are hoping to have this up and running and on offer in 2010, so watch this space.

Good luck to all those applying and we look forward to meeting our intern in September!