Making Christmas 2016 your best ever

We regret to inform you that we can no longer go ahead with the event scheduled on 19th October due to the RMT rail strikes. We hope to host another event soon, so please watch this space. Instead we shall be creating a series of blog posts aimed at giving top tips to independent retailers on how they can boost the festive trading period and make 2016 the best year ever!

 

The Leapfrogg team are continuing our crusade to help boutique and independent retailers learn the lessons of larger retailers and compete successfully online.

Christmas is an extremely important time of the year for all retailers so we are launching the first in a series of events for independent retailers to help you maximise your online results this festive season.

A three hour event to inspire, motivate and give you the tools to make this Christmas trading period – your best ever
19th October 2016
4.30 – 8.00pm The Froggbox, Central Brighton

The first part of the event will be an interactive workshop covering the following:

  • Learn from retailers who have been there and done it at Christmas. What worked, what didn’t. What they will be doing this year.
  • Delivering immediate, quick revenue wins. Turning the dial up on the activity you are doing already to boost ROI.
  • Increasing sales throughout the Christmas trading period. Promotional tips, navigating the big sales days, delivering the right customer experience.
  • Using the Christmas rush to build a database for customer engagement into 2017. Use a successful period of customer acquisition to boost sales for the rest of the year.
  • Networking with retailers facing the same challenges as you

After our interactive workshop on how to make the most of your Christmas sales, enjoy a glass of pre-festive bubbles while meeting the most influential bloggers in the South East who are keen to promote your products this season.

Our blogger showcase enables you to display either incoming Christmas stock, or existing ranges in an informal, relaxed setting with local, high profile bloggers looking for seasonal, gift guides and product review content.

£49.50 + VAT per retailer for workshop and blogger showcase space
The fee admits 2 attendees from each retailer

Go to www.leapfroggchristmasevent.eventbrite.co.uk to book your place now!

Rent desk space in The Froggbox

Welcome to the Froggbox!

Leapfrogg is opening its doors and renting out desk space and offering meeting room hire to you, the lovely residents of Brighton & Hove.

The Froggbox can accommodate start-ups and freelancers that require space five days a week or on a more flexible hot-desking agreement.

The office is a stone’s throw from the seafront and offers a lovely and relaxing working environment alongside the Leapfrogg team. Prices are inclusive of bills and include high-speed internet, kitchen facilities and access to a brand new glass meeting room and reception area. Prices vary from £75 – £250 a month plus VAT and we are offering a discount to the first 10 people to sign up for full membership, £200 for the first 6 months!

The Froggbox

We also have a lovely modern glass meeting room which is available to rent by the hour or for hosted meetings. The meeting room fits up to 8 people around the boardroom table and between 15 and 20 in a theatre-style arrangement. For hosted meeting’s we can provide refreshments upon request and we can discuss other bespoke requirements if needed.

Froggbox

If you are interested in discussing the options further and meeting our Office Manager, Libby, please call 01273 322830 or alternatively email [email protected]

Also please visit The Froggbox for more details.

Leapfrogg shifts into strategic retail consultancy

I’m delighted to announce some exciting changes here at Leapfrogg. We’ve evolved into a full strategic retail consultancy and merged with the well respected digital agency, Cobb Digital.

Whilst Leapfrogg’s core has always been in digital marketing for the premium and luxury retail sector, recent years have seen us take on a more strategic and consultative role to cater to the ever-changing needs of our clients. More and more of our clients, such as Rockett St George and Tocris, have been leaning on Leapfrogg’s years’ of retail expertise for customer insight and retail strategy to help guide them on their online journey and further support their in-house digital teams.

In order to accelerate our niche consultancy offering further, we have merged with our friends at Cobb Digital. Our team of highly skilled digital marketing consultants and portfolio of wonderful clients will continue to carry out and receive the fantastic quality and level of service they are used to as part of a wider exciting team led by James Dempster MD of Cobb Digital. The delivery team will now be based at Cobb Digital’s brand new offices in New England House and our retail consultancy arm will remain based at Leapfrogg HQ.

The merger of our delivery teams has fast-tracked our ability to not only deliver a fantastic multi-channel offer to the combined portfolio of existing clients but also accelerate the growth of our Insight, Strategy and Consultancy team here at Leapfrogg.

Leapfrogg and Cobb Digital will both remain separate companies, but we will work closely together as a result of this deal. The merger means myself and other senior consultants at Leapfrogg are now able to work more flexibly with retailers of all shapes and sizes and focus our time and years of expertise on delivering game-changing customer insight, retail, and digital strategy.  We will be delivering ongoing board level advice and mentoring to help retailers across the board build their business for growth and develop a market-beating proposition and experience for their customers.

Exciting times to come!

How Leapfrogg are supporting Brighton and Hove Impetus in 2016

Over the last five years, we have made a small but worthwhile difference to lots of worthy causes, including local charities, friends of our team (such as Life of Lyra) and larger charity organisations. This year we have turned to our doorstep again to support a charitable organisation doing valuable work within our local community – Brighton & Hove Impetus.

Impetus is an independent organisation supporting local people through various services aimed at improving wellbeing and the quality of life for vulnerable people within our city. One of their key services is a neighbourhood care scheme which I am personally involved with. The scheme recruits local volunteers to support elderly people, people with physical disabilities that may feel isolated in the community and also their carer’s.

The scheme operates in 10 neighbourhoods in Brighton & Hove, embracing about half of the city’s population. By volunteering your time, as little as once a week can make a huge difference to someone’s life. It can help build their confidence as they feel more connected to the local community and it helps with depression. The scheme users build valuable friendships and have the chance to have new experiences. Below is a short film by Anna Dütsch ‘Remembering Today’ about the neighbourhood care scheme.

Not only does the scheme benefit the person in need, but volunteers feel like they are making a real difference and they also value the friendships built and have fun. It is highly beneficial to both parties and such a worthwhile thing to do with your spare time. If you are thinking about doing something similar and you live in Brighton and Hove, then please do contact the neighbourhood care scheme, there may be someone in your local area that is in need of your time and friendship.

As well as the neighbourhood care scheme, Brighton & Hove Impetus support people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and those affected by cancer in various different ways.

So how are Leapfrogg supporting Impetus? As well as volunteering ourselves, we are raising money to support the organisation and also helping to spread the word about what they do and how you can get involved.

We are currently filling our bellies with yummy food in our ‘Great Frogg-Off’ baking and cooking competition. The money raised each week will be going to Brighton & Hove Impetus. So far we have raised £220 and are currently in the quarter-finals of the competition.

Frogg-Off

We love raising money for such great causes – it’s hugely rewarding, brings us all together and we get to have fun along the way.

Impetus Brighton & Hove have also launched ‘The Yellow Rose Campaign’ to connect friends, build communities and help to spread awareness about isolation in our city and surrounding area. Using a yellow rose as the emblem, the campaign features fundraising initiatives across the city connecting residents and businesses with Impetus’ varied services.

The campaign will coincide with the UN International Day of Friendship on Saturday 30th July 2016, and on this day volunteers and the staff will be on the streets of Brighton and Hove giving out yellow roses with a pledge to change someone’s situation.

If you want to get involved with the campaign then visit their website here. We will be joining in with the social Thunderclap to increase awareness and will continue our fundraising this year to support such a wonderful and local organisation.

If you don’t live in Brighton and Hove, then see what you could to do support your local community but if you do live in this wonderful city then please take the time to look at what B&H Impetus do and see how you could make a difference here.

You can also keep up to date with our fundraising initiatives by following us on Instagram.

Key takeaways from this years’ SheerB2B Ecommerce Conference

Leapfrogg has proudly been a part of the SheerB2B conference for the past six years. As well as the bigger industry events we go to, it’s our annual opportunity to check in with the premium retail industry at the smaller, more niche, luxury end of the spectrum. We always enjoy catching up with brands and our fellow speakers over its two days of panel discussions, presentations, case studies and networking.

As the Board Director accountable for bigger picture strategy for our clients, there were three main themes came out of the show for me:

    • Ensuring the longevity and value of a premium brand
    • Getting to know your data better
    • Breaking down your supplier silos

Ensuring the longevity of your brand

Driving sales vs. protecting your brand was the hottest topic this year.

With retail competition for the premium and luxury consumer fierce, a current retail culture for excellent service as expected and discounting the new normal, there were a number of retailers at the show all keen to share how best to keep a tight grip on their brand, whilst not losing revenue.

Sarah Weedon from Jigsaw inspired us with a very generous presentation about their brand ethos and stance against discounting culture. They have a “pricing referendum” – an honest and bold statement of product quality and ‘truth’ that that brand resolutely sticks too.

jigsaw
Jigsaw’s pricing manifesto

To ensure this ethos is lived by all departments, Jigsaw refused to participate in Black Friday discounting last year, claiming to “stand for something”; that ‘something’ being the quality of product and longevity of design. Their ecommerce team clearly communicate their sale dates to their customers at the beginning of the year and don’t discount stock below certain, pre-agreed level.

As Sarah told us, Jigsaw stocks some cardigans that can take more than 30 hours for one of their designers to hand knit – discounting something of such obvious quality is madness.

Their content strategy supports the business stance justifying the price point, materials and design ethos with ongoing storytelling around quality, fostering trust and belief from their loyal audience.

THE ITALIAN JOB a film by Jigsaw from Jigsaw on Vimeo.

Jigsaw’s designers are also very bought into the idea of longevity and create garments of silk, cashmere and leather that can be worn season after season. Jigsaw invests in its own in-house illustrator and works closely with designers to create hand created pieces each season.

There were also lessons to be learned from Martin Bartle from Arthur Ridley Esq and Michael Ross from Dynamic Action who cautioned against discounting. Many retailers know that any new customers you acquire during a discounting period, are more often than not, retained customers that feel comfortable purchasing at full price at the start of a season, but both were very clear to the delegates in the room that luxury and premium retailers just shouldn’t discount and realistically accept that revenue growth may well be slower because of it, but ultimately much better for the longevity of the brand.

Getting to know your data better

Martin Bartle and Michael Ross both gave presentations about digging into your data.

The quote of the conference has to come from Martin Bartle who said: “Your data is like an Agent Provocateur bikini; what is reveals is interesting, but what is conceals is vital!”

His argument that average order value (AOV) is a myth, and it was refreshing and exciting to hear both Martin and Michael argue that retailers make a disproportionate amount of their profits from a small segment of their loyalist E.I.Ps – Exceptionally Important People – and that this segment should not only be identified but treated differently from the majority their most loyal and retained customer segment.

This immediately inspired Will from our data partner rais and I, to start working on a new programme to start identifying our client’s average profile value (APV) per segment. This is an exciting element of insight that will only add value to the current segmentation, insight and strategy projects we’re working on.

Breaking down your supplier silos

We have been working with retailers for many years, helping the more forward thinking ones break down their internal department silos and ensure that all internal disciplines responsible for success in digital and ecommerce communicate and work with each other better. We’ve trained offline content teams to think bigger picture about online, structured reporting procedures and lobbied for buy-in from traditional bricks and mortar stakeholders into the value of digital, but we hadn’t yet started work on breaking down logistical supplier silos.

Presentations from our friends at Nosto and the logistics experts Temando, who we hadn’t met before, helped us see how the supplier chain could work more efficiently and cost effectively too.

It makes sense that the customer wants a seamless experience and seeing logistics and technology suppliers talk at the conference enabled us to see how the offline jigsaw could compliment the online one.

 

On the first day of the conference, our Managing Director, Rosie, spoke about how you can deliver a perfect personalised experience using data and insight and you can catch up with her presentation here. On the second day, I spoke about the level of customer intelligence within premium panel after analysing the results of more than 75 retailers who completed our Customer Intelligence Index. You can read a recap of my presentation here.

All in all another useful conference!

How to take an agile approach to digital marketing

Our Head of Delivery, Gwen, recently wrote about Leapfrogg’s move into an Agile way of working across our digital marketing.

She wrote: “An Agile approach to campaign planning and delivery enables us to further adopt the growth hacking mind-set of data, creativity, and curiosity. The heart of growth hacking is the relentless focus on growth as the metric that matters.It fosters greater future focused analysis, opportunity spotting, adaptable plans (that can move at the speed at which the digital landscape changes) and it allows us to overcome any barriers and blockers to hitting targets in a proactive and flexible way.”

Working in a more agile way means that we are no longer tied to delivery of a longer term plan but are now equipped to redefine our scope of work as needed in much shorter intervals to maximise success. It means we are fully focused forward at all times and we deliver results not work. We are able to move with the same speed of the wider digital sector and stay ahead of the curve at all times.

Agile has been around in the technology and development sector of digital for a long time, but it’s now being more widely spoken of in mainstream marketing circles.

There is a growth hacking movement in the USA that is hitting our shores. Marketers are breaking down traditional approaches to campaign planning and working in a far more flexible way.

Instead of planning a six-month programme of work across multiple tactics, they are breaking down the plan and focussing on one area at a time to maximise its impact.

For example, instead of putting together a full eCRM strategy they will focus first on the priority which may be growing the number of email sign-ups as quickly as possible.

Step 1 – Analyse what is required to encourage sign ups and develop idea to test
Step 2 – Test the concept in a short sprint period
Step3 – Measure the impact
Step 4 – Roll out if successful

Then move onto the next priority, which may be improving email click-through-rate.

Once that element is improved they then may move onto landing page UX or email personalisation – whichever they feel will get them to their target quickest.

By working in this way, marketers are always focused on the end result, moving forward, failing fast, and most importantly they are able to keep up with the fast pace of the digital landscape.

Multiple sprints can be running at the same time to ensure that different areas of the marketing mix are developing. The main differentiator in working in this way is that if an activity does not yield results in an agreed amount of time, the team are able to move on quickly to the next tactic or revise the approach to the current one.

Although this approach is faster and harder than a long-term strategy, basing your activity on strong insight and data is still absolutely fundamental. How else will you be able to prioritise the work required effectively?

This level of analysis beforehand means you can pick the activity that will give you the biggest return first, improve it and use the increased success to give you the resource to move onto the next priority.

For agile to work effectively marketers must be constantly using the cycle of analysis, test, measure, then roll out.

This will inevitably mean a change in internal structure and process and the level of investment upfront will reap quicker and deeper rewards across all of your marketing activity.

Start thinking now about how you can be more agile with your approach to digital marketing, or speak to us about how we can help.

Image credit: VFS Digital Design on Flickr

Leapfrogg speaking SheerB2B Ecommerce Conference 2016

On 8th & 9th June 2016, Leapfrogg are proud to be sponsoring and speaking at the SheerB2B Conference.

B2C online magazine SheerLuxe hosts an annual two-day eCommerce conference marked to the 100s of online and multi-channel retailers they have relationships with from working together on SheerLuxe.

On Wednesday 8th June, Leapfrogg’s Managing Director, Rosie Freshwater, will be speaking about how retailers can deliver a perfect personalised customer experience. Rosie will explore the core elements of personalisation and how retailers can prioritise and deliver them through effective customer data and insight.

On the second day of the conference, our Insight & Strategy Director, Lucy Freeborn, will be speaking about our newly launched Customer Intelligence Index and what the results so have told us far about the level of customer intelligence within premium retail.

You can follow the event via the hashtag #SheerB2B and we will be sharing insights and our talks from the conference on our blog.

Find out more about SheerB2B here.

sheerb2b-promo-image

A little insight into life at Leapfrogg…

Well hello there! I’m Libby, the Office and HR Manager here at Leapfrogg and my sole responsibility is to ensure that Leapfrogg is a fantastic place to work. To do this, we strive to create a happy and creative environment where development is encouraged and employees deliver excellent work to clients because they enjoy the work they do, the environment they work in and the team they work with. We like our clients to think of us as an extension of their business and that our employees are a part of one big Leapfrogg family!

So how do we invest in our employee’s happiness?

Our team is our most important asset and we invest in their happiness as much as we can whether that’s buying them a chocolate bunny at Easter or providing healthcare, flexible working patterns, volunteering opportunities, recognition initiatives, monthly innovation meetings or simply enjoying a juicy piece of fruit on a daily basis. Leapfrogg’s customer first ethos filters through to how we approach employee engagement.

We care!

The digital and retail industry are a fast moving landscape and that translates to agency life where we are constantly evolving our working methods to stay ahead of the curve and to deliver impeccable service and results. This sometimes comes with additional pressure, but we ensure we invest in their wellbeing and mental health to give them the skills and platforms to build resilience and thrive on the challenges we are faced with.

This year, we have already taken time as a team to concentrate on our wellbeing. We’ve learnt about how the pressures of everyday life can affect our bodies and how we can build resilience and excel under pressure. We took part in a workshop to practise mindfulness and learn how to ‘be’ rather than ‘do’. It is so important to listen to our bodies and learn to cope with stressful situations because we will all experience them from time to time. It is very important to me and to Leapfrogg that we don’t ignore our mental health and that time and money is invested into every employee’s wellbeing.

We even have happiness jars to capture those moments that put a big smile on our faces!

happy jar

We have fun

It’s so important to have a laugh as a team, and we certainly do that on a daily basis. I run the social team who ensure we spend quality time together outside of work – whether it’s going to the pub on a Friday for a cheeky pint on Leapfrogg, mackerel fishing in the summer or spending the afternoon in a pottery café learning to throw, paint and decorate ceramics.

Laserzone 3

We grow

Development branches outside of everyone’s job descriptions and we encourage everyone to open their minds to other areas of personal growth. If someone wants to learn something new, then we encourage that even if it isn’t currently a part of their job description. I’ve introduced the team to learn something new lunches on a monthly basis. So far we’ve had sessions on how to speak Lithuanian, play poker and make origami. It’s not just about learning within your role, we like to encourage personal growth in every aspect of life.

Learn something new

We listen

We encourage all employees to have a voice and input into the direction of the agency. If they have an idea we want to hear about it and we like to include everyone in some decisions across the agency. I like to think that everyone at Leapfrogg has an open door policy and that we can all speak to each other and build a supportive network. Through weekly/bi –weekly check in’s with managers and chats with the Managing Director, everyone has a chance to speak and be heard on a regular basis.

James and Lucy_2

So that’s just a little insight into life at Leapfrogg, if you want to see what the team has been up to then please take a look at Instagram and Facebook.

If you would like to learn a little more about working at Leapfrogg then visit our careers page and get in contact if you have a question or you would like to join the team. We are always on the lookout for talented and inspiring individuals, and that might be you!

Why Leapfrogg are moving to an agile way of working

In the ever changing world of digital, being adaptable and nimble is essential to succeed. Here at Leapfrogg, we are constantly evolving our working methods to stay ahead of the curve and to deliver impeccable service and results and now we are moving to a new way of working to enable greater flexibility in approach and a more agile way of working.

What is agile?

Agile is defined as “a method of project management that is characterised by the division of tasks into frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.”

Agile in itself is not a new concept. It has been used in software development for many years and its methods and process are well suited to growth hacking and in order to achieve growth everything we do is assessed by its potential impact on scalable growth.

Why are we doing it?

An Agile approach to campaign planning and delivery enables us to further adopt the growth hacking mind-set of data, creativity, and curiosity. The heart of growth hacking is the relentless focus on growth as the metric that matters.

It fosters greater future focused analysis, opportunity spotting, adaptable plans (that can move at the speed at which the digital landscape changes) and it allows us to overcome any barriers and blockers to hitting targets in a proactive and flexible way.

How are we doing this?

We are adapting our campaign and delivery planning to shorter “sprints” with continual review and revision in relation to hitting targets.
Client strategy is prioritised and timelines remain fixed within sprints with sprint deliverables detailed weekly.

Communication is in real-time, meaning at any given time clients have full access to exactly where we are against targets and activity. This has required some changes in how we report back and the format in which the updates are presented.

Real-time updates mean our planning and status reports becoming ‘living’ documents that are managed and updated throughout each week. Clients have full visibility at any point on their exact status and there’s no need to wait for their next status report to be sent over.

Real-time reporting keeps a firm eye on where we are against our target to date, giving quick and clear direction on when activity needs to change to achieve the agreed objectives. Our plans in terms of reporting are three-fold:

1) Making use of custom dashboards within Google Analytics means we can build a reporting dashboard that focuses on the important metrics within our clients’ businesses which have full visibility within Google Analytics

2) A target tracker of the KPIs that have been agreed is part of our planning document and is automatically refreshed as our barometer of success

3) Finally, we will be automating the paid search statistics, which again, are refreshed as part of our planning document

So what are the benefits?

Receiving real-time updates means our clients will have the numbers at their fingertips!

The data and performance analysis are of course, still front of mind and vital to success. Our analysis time will become even more future-focused and woven into each stream of activity so we can continually analyse, develop and test its effectiveness to achieve clients’ business targets whilst providing proactive recommendations to deliver results.

Streamlining all reporting and communication has enabled us to deliver more thinking and doing time, a greater focus on innovation, added value and a proactive ability to circumnavigate hurdles. We believe it’s an adaptable way to run marketing campaigns in an ever changing landscape.

Leapfrogg announces four new client wins

We’ve had a great year here at Leapfrogg, and we’re delighted to end on a high by announcing a whole host of new fantastic new clients.

First up, we’re delighted to have been appointed by Crabtree & Evelyn to improve ROI from their paid search campaigns. Founded more than 40 years ago, Crabtree & Evelyn create luxurious hand, body and fragrance products. They have evolved from a small, family-run business specialising in fine soaps from around the world, to an international company with more than 500 stores worldwide.

Unique and eclectic jewellery brand, Tatty Devine, has appointed us to grow their direct channel, initially via paid search but in time through other digital activity.

Sunuva has also chosen Leapfrogg with similar objectives in mind. They design luxury and stylish swimwear and beachwear for children which is unique in the fact that it’s UV protective and validated by the British Skin Foundation.

Sticking with fashion, we have recently started working with Gina Bacconi as they launch their new ecommerce website. Renowned for their beautiful selection of occasionwear and party dresses, Gina Bacconi offers modern silhouettes that are timeless and effortless. We’ll be covering paid search, natural search, content strategy and online PR.

Our wins come at a time when we are also delighted to welcome Matthew Martin to Leapfrogg as our Paid Search Manager. Matthew joins us with a wealth of retail experience having worked in PPC for outdoor and winter sports clothing retailer Snow+Rock.

We look forward to supporting these fantastic brands in 2016!