Salmon are a gold sponsor of the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit taking place between 18^th and 20^th June 2013 in Monaco. At the summit you’ll find out how leading organisations are using IBM Smarter Commerce to meet the demands of empowered customers, and gain expert insights that will help you synchronsise the supply chain, optimise inventory, personalise promotions, micro-target marketing, increase relevant and exceed customer expectations across every channel.  You can also hear about how organisations are using social, mobile and cloud to better service their customers and to gain additional competitive advantage.

Keynote speakers include:

• Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco
• Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President, Global Sparkling Brand Center, The Coca-Cola Company
• Karren Brady, Vice Chairman of West Ham United Football Club
• Craig Hayman, General Manager, Industry Solutions, IBM Software Group

To register or find out more, please visit the Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2013 website.

We will be running the following workshops during the summit:

Tuesday 18th June
3.30pm – 4.15pm: Cross Border Commerce

Wednesday 19th June
10.15am – 11.00am & 4.45pm – 5.30pm: Everywhere Commerce – the new ‘e’ of eCommerce
12.00pm – 12.45pm & 4.45pm – 5.30pm: Cross Border Commerce

Thursday 20th June
10.00am – 10.45am: Everywhere Commerce – the new ‘e’ of eCommerce

To ask for a place at one of the workshops please email info@salmon.com

If you’d like to meet with a Salmon consultant while you’re at the summit, please Contact Us

]]> http://blog.salmon.com/index.php/2013/05/salmon-sponsoring-ibm-smarter-commerce-summit-in-monaco/feed/ 0 http://blog.salmon.com/index.php/2013/03/salmon-leaps-into-audi-uk-digital-role/ http://blog.salmon.com/index.php/2013/03/salmon-leaps-into-audi-uk-digital-role/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:42:29 +0000 Joanna Temple http://blog.salmon.com/?p=2779 Agency to support car brand in new digital and web strategies

Audi UK has appointed Salmon as its new strategic digital and web partner. The main brief is to work with the premium car brand’s in-house team to develop and implement new digital strategies focusing on the management of its website.

The appointment, made after Audi conducted its overall strategic review for 2013, will see Salmon assist Audi in creating digital marketing solutions across a variety of platforms including the hugely successful audi.co.uk website, which has over one million unique visitors per month.

Hugh Fletcher, National Digital Manager for Audi UK, explains: “The exciting partnership with Salmon will help place the brand at the forefront of digital marketing. The agency’s experience and expertise in e-commerce, both in terms of creative front-end solutions and outstanding technical expertise, will help us achieve our goal of giving Audi customers the online experience they want and deserve in this constantly evolving digital world.”

Andy Jones, Head of Customer Experience at Salmon, adds: “We fully appreciate the ever-expanding importance of providing innovative digital solutions and bring to the table nearly 25 years of knowledge and expertise in consulting, design, delivery and support services to leading premium brands.”

Alibaba.com, the Chinese online marketplace, has released an infographic comparing how much consumers are set to spend online by 2015.  The infographic compares retail eCommerce sales in the US, China, UK, France and Germany and brings together some interesting statistics.

In 2012, the US was the biggest market with consumers spending $209bn (£138bn) online, followed by China at $194bn (£128bn).  UK consumers spent $113bn (£75bn). However, in 2013, it’s predicted that things will change, with Chinese consumers spending $265bn (£175bn), US consumers $230bn, (£152bn) and UK consumers $123.4bn (£81bn). And by 2015,  Chinese consumers are predicted to spend $445bn (£293bn) online, compared with $270bn (£178bn) in the US and $143.6bn (£95bn) in the UK.

Other statistics from the infographic  -

• More than 242m people (48% female and 52% male) shop using the internet in China – six times more than in the UK
• Chinese shoppers spent an average of £703 a year in 2012, compared with the £1,083 spent in the UK.
• 12% of purchases were from mobile phones
• Top of the list for what Chinese shoppers is apparel and accessories at 68%.

 

MorrisonsCellar Home Page

Salmon, has helped Morrisons to launch its first transactional eCommerce site, MorrisonsCellar.com, which focuses on selling a comprehensive range of wines and offers customers a unique, personalised and enjoyable shopping experience, including:

An interactive Taste Test allowing customers to discover those wines most likely to suit their palate via three simple questions

The case builder tool giving customers the ability to build and keep track of a mixed case of wine

Integration with Facebook allowing customers to share information with their friends

The new site is built on the same infrastructure as Kiddicare.com, (part of the Morrisons family) using WebSphere Commerce, Coremetrics, Endeca and advanced content management functionality developed by Salmon.

Since the site went live:

• Repeat customers average 15 percent
• All KPIs have been greatly exceeded – visitors, conversion and sales
• Conversion is above expectation, due to the success of the taste test and the depth of the product range

Discussing Morrisons first venture into eCommerce, Scott Weavers-Wright, Kiddicare CEO and Kiddicare and Morrisons.co.uk General Merchandise Managing Director said; “This is the first step in Morrisons branded eCommerce and will enhance the overall wine offering for Morrisons. It will also provide valuable lessons on business processes and systems which will support the launch of other web sites and multi channel services. We knew that the underlying platform, WebSphere Commerce, and functionality would enable us to deliver the new site quickly and yet be scalable for the future.”

Ken Platt, Head of Multi Channel eCommerce Delivery for Morrisons.co.uk, added: “Morrisons has a late mover advantage. By creating a scalable platform, focussed on user experience, the rapid roll out of further categories is certain and promises to set Morrisons.co.uk apart from its competitors.”

Salmon has provided a wide range of eCommerce services to design and implement the site and will provide 24/7 application support. Salmon used innovative working practices and approaches which combined Morrisons’ deep understanding of wine and customer behaviour with Salmon’s extensive eCommerce expertise. These enabled Salmon to deliver an innovative and functionally-rich site in a short period of time, which not only matched Morrisons business vision but also enhanced it.

Craig Harper-Ashton, Director of eCommerce at Salmon said; “Salmon played a key role in making MorrisonsCellar.com a reality. We are delighted to see Morrisons realise the benefits of the new working practices adopted for this project.”

About MorrisonsCellar.com Taste Test
A clever, interactive test to help guide consumers through the mystery of wine, the Taste Test is based on a scientific principle relating to the number of taste buds any one person possesses. Consumers will be asked three simple, non-wine related questions, the answers to which are then converted by a complex algorithm and a piece of clever technology to reveal a score and flavour profile. The four profiles are sweet (0-3), fresh (4-6), smooth (7-9), intense (10-12).

The entire range of Morrisons’ wines has been tasted by a six-strong team with calibrated palates and awarded a score against agreed criteria to enable it to fit within one of the four profiles. Red, whites, sparking and fortified have all been judged using the same scale so if a customer is a score 4 it is expected that wines within the fresh category of all colours will appeal to them.

Salmon has been selected by DFS to create, deliver and manage the implementation of their new multi channel eCommerce platform. The platform will be a key component to help drive DFS’s new multi channel strategy.

Established over 40 years ago, DFS is Britain’s favourite sofa company and is now the largest company of its kind in Europe. DFS has over 90 stores in the UK and 2 in Ireland and was looking for a partner with strong multi channel experience to deliver a new online and multi channel experience for the UK and Ireland. With a number of existing suppliers and systems already in place, DFS needed a partner who could provide a wide range of services and who had experience of working with multiple third parties.

‘Given the nature of our proposition, the majority of DFS’s sales still happen in store. Our multi channel strategy is based on ensuring customers receive the very best experience to support their specific needs at the various stages in the shopping journey. The tricky bit is going to be bringing together all the pieces – people, partners and systems. Salmon’s experience in these three areas was key to our decision to choose them as our partner ’, said Tim Stacey, Online and Business Development Director.

Tim added, ‘With an experienced team at DFS and a clear online proposition for the UK and Ireland we very much look forward to working with Salmon to provide a world class multi channel offering for our customers ‘.

Neil Stewart, Salmon CEO, said ‘We are delighted to be working with DFS to deliver the next stage in their multi channel strategy.”

Have you settled back into normality after living and breathing the London 2012 Paralympics?

It’s been difficult adjusting since being involved in something so big with a global audience of millions and all the pressure of dealing with live television, to refereeing in front of one man and his dog on the local rec! I have also refereed a Futsal England training game yesterday.  It is also difficult to have to go into shops and buy food when two weeks have been fully catered!

Tell us some gossip about what it was really like inside the Olympic village?

At times it felt like being in a prison as we were surrounded by very high fences with barbed wire, CCTV monitored our every step and armed police were just walking around.  We were in uniform all the time and were advised to wear Adidas trainers, given Coca Cola drinks to ensure it was aligned with the sponsorship. The food hall was the size of three eleven a side football pitches with food from around the world including free McDonalds. But being the highly trained athletes that we are we declined the free chips! There were also rumours of athlete romances. That’s all I’m saying!

You tease! Who did you socialise with and meet? I know you were keen to meet Oscar Pistorius…

I didn’t meet Oscar Pistorius unfortunately BUT I did meet Boris Johnson! He is brilliant! Swimmer Ellie Simonds was in the queue behind me getting food just after winning gold and we discussed her win. I also met para dressage star Lee Pearson and we discussed his recent appearance in the Paralympics episode of Channel 4’s TV programme Come Dine with Me!

You tipped Brazilian striker Jefferson Goncalves as one of the stars of 2012’s blind football, how did that pan out?

Well as Brazil won their third consecutive gold Paralympic medal and he was instrumental in their success!

Who do you tip to be the star of the Brazil 2016 Paralympics and will you be refereeing?

Four years is a long time in sport. The Brazilian squad are ageing but being on home soil and the home climate, you have to fancy Brazil. David Clarke of Great Britain has just retired so sadly he won’t be there in playing capacity but maybe using his experience as a coach. As to refereeing who knows! Two weeks in Rio would be nice!

What was the most challenging aspect of the matches themselves?

When acting as a scorer (secretary of the game) I had to get information from the referees on the pitch and relay it to Omega who produced all the statistics for the media. On top of that I had to relay it to Olympic broadcasting service so it can be displayed live on screen in real time! Another challenge was in blind football we have a horn to communicate from the score table to the pitch but this was banned as it was the same sound for evacuating the park! So on the first match day we used a bell until one of the referees broke the bell. The next match day we used whistles but this was confusing for the players as there was already a refereeing whistle! So for the rest of the tournament we used air horns except I was unable to make it sound like an airhorn so LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) banned me from using it!

What would you like to see for the future of blind football?

There were eight nations that took part in the Paralympics. Six of those nations have full time professional players. It would be fairer if all nations had that ability as the length of time you train might be a performance factor.

How would you sum up this once in a lifetime experience in three words?

It was emotional.

Also in a wider sense it was a reminder to treat everyone as equals and that if you believe in yourself you can achieve the goals you strive for.

Working in some of the most deprived areas in Kenya and Uganda, Advantage Africa helps local charities and organizations provide sustainable and practical aid to some of the most disadvantaged children and adults in the world, aiming to tackle not only hunger and poverty but prejudice and exclusion of as a result of disability and HIV/AIDS.

Advantage Africa is not a fashionable, high profile charity with well-known celebrities publicly championing its cause and it does not spend the money it raises on TV adverts or advertising campaigns. It goes where it’s needed the most, to places where few other charities tread, to places where Salmon’s donation will have a real positive impact on the lives of disabled individuals who need it the most.

Advantage Africa’s Director Andrew Betts said: “This is the 6^th year that Salmon has donated to Advantage Africa and their support has been absolutely invaluable. It’s enabled us and our partners in East Africa to build schools and provide services for people living with a disability or HIV. It’s helped men and women gain the skills they need, for example in keeping small livestock or making crafts, to work their way out of poverty. And at a time of drought in East Africa, it helped us to provide life-saving food aid to the most vulnerable. We’re so grateful for Salmon’s vital partnership that has made all this work possible”

To find out more about Advantage Africa, or if you’d like to make a donation, please go to http://www.advantageafrica.org

Follow Advantage Africa on Facebook.

Stop

When was the last time you watched an actual customer (not part of your team) use your web site? It’s important to remember who your web site is for. It’s easy to forget or lose sight of the views of real customers. You may have too much knowledge around the difficulties and constraints of a system or industry which means that online experiences are bent to fit these restrictions. Or you may just be busy doing other stuff.

Look

Often the way you think your customers use your web site is different from the way they actually use it. And often what they do and what they say they do are very different things. Watch the mouse.  Very often this indicates which part of the site they are focusing on and what they are looking at.

Listen

Listen for the pauses. Are they having to think too much ? Are they confused or lost which is why they have gone quiet ?

Listen to the comments. Sometimes an off the cuff remark like ‘it would be great if…’ or ‘I’d like to be able…’ can give you a glimpse of an idea that you’d never thought of or considered important.

Spread the word, involve your team – how often are they watching the site being used ? Think about new members of your team, what a great training tool this can be by giving them from day one an empathy with the end customer.

In summary, taking the time to watch your customers use your site and acting on any findings can mean less frustration, more satisfaction for your customers, and a better chance you’ll see them again.

If you’d like to find out how Salmon can help you gain real customer insight from usability testing, please Contact Us.

How did you become a referee of blind football?

I referee on the FA National Futsal League and was introduced to the possibility of doing a blind conversion course in 2009. I was impressed by the skill level and jumped at the chance. I attended the international referee seminar in February 2010, I was selected to officiate at various home internationals. Then I was offered the opportunity to officiate at the 2010 World Championships in Hereford organised by IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation). It just went on from there really!

What do most people not know about blind football?

That the blind footballers only wear eye masks to compensate for different levels of blindness so they are all on a level sightless ‘playing field’ so to speak! But they wear plasters AND gauzes underneath. Blindness involves varying levels and types of vision impairment you see. Once when I was doing the checks referees are responsible for, ensuring they had all the kit, shin pads etc as well as the necessary eye wear, one player only had the eye mask not the gauze or plasters on. I thought, aha! I’ve caught someone out here. When he said his eyes were prosthetic I almost didn’t believe him, they appeared so real – that was until he offered to take them out and show me! That was soldier Craig Lundberg who had been blinded by a grenade in Iraq.

What are the major differences to refereeing a sighted player match?

The game is slower but your concentration is greater as a referee as you are forever looking out where the players are as they can’t see you, like one time I crashed into a Greek player and spent the rest of the game with blood pouring down my knee!

Are the goal keepers blind?

The goal keepers are fully sighted but are restricted to a two metre area in front of the goal.

Perry referees an England v France game

David Beckham attempted blind football recently, what score would you give his effort?

The Sainsbury’s advert showed Becks take a penalty and scoring. It did not show the two he missed beforehand! It was a challenge even for him. Perhaps if he loses his eye sight he may get to play in the Olympics after all!

Who do you tip to win the blind football at the Paralympics?

As a referee my job is to be impartial and take each match as it comes. When I was time keeper at the 2010 semi final in the World Championships, Brazil played England and beat them 5-1. The Brazilian striker Jefferson Goncalves is amazing and will be one of the stars of the games.

Are there any Paralympics participants that you are particularly looking forward to seeing?

If I got the chance to meet Oscar Pistorius I would be pretty happy, I’ll try and get my picture taken with him – watch this space! While being totally impartial I am looking forward to seeing David Clarke the GB Captain and the rest of the team, because I’ve seen the hard work that these players have put in over the past two years.

Which bit of the London 2012 Paralympics Games are you most looking forward to?

Living in the village and really getting involved, living and breathing the Paralympics for 13 whole days. Being inspired by the talent around me and their determination and in particular the talent on the pitch during the blind football games. I must admit to being a liiiiittle bit excited too about the opening ceremony, they’ve taken my measurements for my fitted suit and matching hat and a certain lady will be there – one that recently celebrated her 60^th anniversary and sits on a throne…

Follow Perry on Twitter @IBSAreferee

Get your tickets for the blind football here

Get any Paralympics tickets here

Click here to view the IBSA 2010 World Championships England v Spain match

Salmon was pleased to sponsor the Endorsement Manager of the Month awards at the London Market Group Forum on 26th July at the Willis Building in London. Congratulations to the winners – Ropner Insurance Services and Chubb.

The awards were presented by Christopher Croft, LMG Secretariat who also gave an update on modernisation. Chris attributed the fall in E-endorsements in June to the Jubilee celebrations, noting that the July figures have already ‘oustripped June volumes’.

Next up was Hayley Spink, from the LMG  Endorsements Group who shared good practice tips from brokers, carriers and MGAs who have implemented E-endorsements, including:

1. Having a strong visible senior sponsor.
2. Having access to good quality management information.
3. Setting targets,and including these in underwriters’ or brokers’ personal objectives.
4. Communicating internally.
5. Having champions within the underwriting or broking team.
6. Seeking and sharing feedback.
7. Sharing the Clause wording internally and with the client each time a  risk is being negotiated or renewed.
8. Talking to peers at other companies and sharing good practice.
9. ‘Hand holding’ when the company first goes online to ensure the first endorsements go smoothly.
10. Setting up internal competition between teams.

Paul Willoughby, Project Manager in Market Development at Lloyd’s concluded the morning’s proceedings on the topic of future technology. He talked about various market development initiatives, including the collaboration project.

Paul provided some background to this by summarising the process for the lifecycle of a risk as Preparation, Negotiation and Processing. He commented that in the Lloyd’s market the traditional face-to-face negotiation model can be very efficient.  However, he then went on to describe intriguing-sounding practices like ‘ping-ponging’ that actually make the negotiation less efficient. Fortunately, he explained that ‘ping-ponging’ was the repeated sending of a contract back and forth between underwriter and broker for many small changes.

Lastly, he shared feedback from the recent interactive ‘touch table’ experiment in the Lloyd’s coffeeshop. Paul said he was shocked by the 90% positive feedback from market practitioners.  He saw this type of technology as supporting the traditional Lloyd’s face-to-face business model but improving speed by giving underwriters and brokers access to everything they needed in one place. There are more details here.

All in all, an enjoyable and informative start to a Thursday.  You can  register here for the next LMG Forum on 23rd August.