Rethinking customer engagement with Artificial Intelligence

We are working together with Trondheim University in Norway as well as IBM Watson to explore new ways of customer engagement. Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionise the way people interact with digital assets, and we are experimenting with the capabilities of cloud cognitive computing. Soon, we will be able to announce more about what we are working on…

How to design choice architectures for digital marketing

Using ideas from paternalistic libertarianism and behavioural economics to design and build choice architectures in digital marketing. The presentation includes a case study for a “digital nudge” with one of our clients, a SaaS company.

Creating content for SEO

Feline Quanta design, develop and produce exciting and engaging content that supports a digital content strategy. We help our clients publish this content across all their digital channels, including social and email.

Moreover, we work with  our client’s marketing and communication teams so that they begin to operate as publishers of content. And we provide tested methodologies, tools and support to produce and publish great content across all media – and thus help drive SEO and search ranking.

Content drives SEO through word of mouth.

Content drives SEO through word of mouth.

 

Here are some examples of content, that can be shared across all channels and drive an organisations digital content campaign.

Articles. We develop, write and produce articles that explain their science and technology to a wide audience.

Interviews. We conduct and produce interviews with top management and key researchers, in print and in video.

Webinars. We organise, produce and facilitate webinars.

E-books. We produce e-books that explain an organisations’ science and technology.

E-debates. Producing and facilitating debates on the web.

We can help integrate ideas such as the above into interactive  newsletters and digital magazines that can be distributed on mobile devices (iPad, etc.), and connect with potential customers and other stakeholders.

We have working collaborations with animators, infographics producers and web designers, and we can cover all of our clients’ needs across all digital content types.

#HelplinesAreHere: creating a slogan for helplines

Feline Quanta have been working with Helplines Partnership, the UK’s association of helplines, over several months. We have delivered communication processes and training, as well as support in executing an integrated digital marketing strategy. This year Helplines Partnership celebrates 25 years of continuous service to its members, to communities, and to UK society at large. It is an important milestone in the history of Helplines Partnership, and one that will culminate in the annual conference on November 7th.

We were asked by our client to design and deliver a communication plan supporting and leading to the event, which we did. One of the main goals of the communication plan was to highlight the role of helplines to a wider audience, including the general public, the media, and policy-makers. So we came up with the idea of the slogan “helplines are here”.

What the slogan represents

Helplines Partnership is a membership organisation whose members are helpline charities, or charities that have helplines. As the organisation takes stock of the journey travelled so far there is one thing that sticks out the most: no matter what happens in the life of each and everyone of us, regardless of government spending cuts and the shrinking of public services, there are a bunch of people who are always there to help: helplines, the members of Helplines Partnership. They, employees and volunteers, are the last resort – and sometimes the first and only resort – for people in need. Often these needs are simple: a piece of information or advice, some help to make better sense of something. But, equally often, needs are of a vital nature. Many of our members provide support to people faced with desperate situations: homelessness, addiction, suicide, loneliness, and illness. No matter who is on the other side, whatever the need, helplines are always there.

This is a powerful and emotional story to convey. To celebrate the essence of what helplines provide to society, as well as the spirit of those who work in helplines, Feline Quanta has suggested he slogan “helplines are here“, to be used for Helplines Partnership annual conference.

parents_helpline

We believe that “helplines are here” represents who Helplines Partnership are as an association, as well as what their members stand for. Helplines Partnership has been around for a quarter of a century (read their history). Many changes have taken place in the world over the past 25 years. They have progressed with the times too. Take for instance technology, which has always been a fundamental aspect of helplines’ work. Helplines need telecommunication and information technologies in order to operate effectively and efficiently. Helplines Partnership wants to project the image of innovator and advocate for the early adoption of technology in their sector. Indeed, at the forthcoming annual conference several personalities from the UK charity sector have been invited, to present ideas about the digital transformation of helplines, and what the future will bring. But regardless of the future, or the past, there is one thing that always remains constant: human nature and human needs. The keywords “humanness” and “empathy” were central to devising the slogan. Feline Quanta wanted to connect helplines with what they actually do: talk to people when people need them.

Helplines are all about humans. Technology, however advanced and sophisticated, cannot substitute the human factor in an interaction with someone who is desperate and has no one else to turn to. People in need – as well as those who is not in need yet – must relate helplines with the message that “they are there” – always –  to help. This is the message our slogan aspires to communicate to society at large, to policy makers and the media, to anyone who cares about a caring society.


Slogan and digital campaign

Feline Quanta have suggested that the “helplines are here” slogan be used as the them of the arts competition, as well as a hashtag for a social media campaign. By giving a focus and a theme to the arts competition (part of the annual conference), Helplines Partnership will achieve a better response from artists who might be interested to engage and participate.

Information-and-Support-Helpline

As a hashtag, #HelplinesAreHere can initiate a conversation and the sharing of stories about helplines, on Twitter and Facebook. Feline Quanta have proposed as part of the communication plan for the annual event, the facilitation of a wider conversation about helplines. We have advised Helpline Partnership to invite everyone to tell their stories, whether they have worked or volunteered for a helpline – or indeed if they were one of the millions of people helped by a helpline in their hour of need.

Helplines Partnership a finalist at the Digital Leaders Awards 2014

dl_finalist_hrKudos to our client Helplines Partnership for being amongst the finalists at the Digital Leaders Awards 2014 in the NGO Category.

The annual awards celebrate digital innovation as well as uptake of digital technologies and culture in central and local government, NGOs, SMEs, health and start-ups. It is a great indication of trends and thought leaders in digital transformation in the UK.

Feline Quanta Communications are exceptionally proud for Helplines Partnership being a finalist at this prestigious award among hundreds of candidates. We have been working together with the Helplines Partnership executive team, as well as everyone in the organisation, to redesign – and sometimes re-invent-, the organisation’s business model in the age of digital.

By applying best practices in strategic communications we have developed processes that support Helpline Partnership’s marketing communications for  products and services, public relations and external relations. SMART Communications are currently being applied across every department, and  measuring the impact of communications activities is becoming part of the organisation’s culture. Furthermore, social media activation including the creation of a blog and newsletter, are providing Helplines Partnership with its own media channels with which it engages its members, its staff and volunteers, as well as the many other stakeholders that the UK’s association of helplines interacts with.

In the following months Feline Quanta Communications and Helplines Partnership will embark in the execution of innovative and integrated content marketing across all digital channels. Our common vision is nothing less but for Helplines Partnership to become a leader in digital transformation for UK’s charity sector.

Brand is the emotional signature of an idea

pepsiThe Pepsi Challenge has shown that Pepsi tastes better than Coke. Nevertheless, Coke consistently sells more than Pepsi. Neuroimaging studies have revealed why this is so: Coke evokes a stronger emotional response in the hyppocampus, the part of the limbic system in the brain that forms long term memories. Long term memories are formed thanks to stories. This is why we humans love narratives, and that is why we can memorise them so well. For millenia, and before the invention of writing, generations of human beings passed information through poetry to their young. Sometimes this poetry was several hundreds of thousand lines long; think of the Iliad or the Mahabharata, or Popol Vuh.

We connect with ideas, not facts. In the context of branding, and idea would be a product, a service, a country, a person, anything. If that idea creates a positive emotional signature to its audience, if we feel good when we see or hear or taste that idea, then the brand is strong. If we feel nothing, or feed negative, then the brand needs to do a lot of work.

But what is an “idea”? It is not the product, or the service, or the country, or the person. Ideas form from stories people say about the object of interest (product, service, etc.). As marketers we aim to create and encourage story-telling about the brand we want to promote. If we achieve that, and these are good stories, then we have achieved a positive emotional response (or “signature”) every time the brand is talked about. And that should be our goal.

Digital media provide us with interactive ways for engaging with people. Successful digital branding is all about telling and sharing stories about the brand.