Q1: When you order Hawaii from Wish

Business Lifejacket Podcast - Episode Description

Hello and welcome to the Business Life Jacket Podcast! 🚤 The podcast that doesn’t take itself too seriously and somehow finds a way to shoehorn as many nautical puns into the world of business as possible.

This episode is sponsored by the Anderton Centre, an award-winning education, training, and conference venue located in the Northwest between Bolton and Chorley.

Please note: The views and opinions shared on the Business Lifejacket Podcast are based on the personal experiences of the individuals involved and are not intended to be taken as official business advice. Always seek professional guidance when making decisions for your business.

Now, let’s dive in!

On today's episode, we’re thrilled to welcome Meena McDonald, the dynamic force behind Meena McDonald Marketing. With over two decades of experience in marketing, PR, and branding, Meena specialises in helping businesses of all sizes stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace. Her personalised approach and passion for creative storytelling have made her the go-to expert for driving growth and building impactful brands.

Tune in to hear about Meena's journey, the flexibility of running her own agency, and how she chooses to work with clients who are the right fit for her business and expertise.

In today’s episode, I’ll reflect on some of my own marketing mishaps in our regular segment, Dave's Story Time. And trust me, today’s story is a doozy—the Paddle Your Way to Paradise campaign disaster.  Let me take you back to a cold February morning when we launched a marketing campaign to promote paddleboarding and kayaking. It sounded genius at the time... until the weather (and the locals) had something to say about it.

From gale-force winds to a hula dancer becoming a meme, I’ll share the hilarious lessons I learned about honesty in marketing and knowing your audience. Spoiler: Lancashire’s beauty is a paradise in its own right—and sometimes, you don’t need a flamingo to sell it!

Meena McDonald Marketing 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenamcdonald/

https://meenamcdonald.com/

Listen now to hear more about the creative world of branding and marketing!

If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with others who might need a little extra support in their business journey. 

Until next time, keep learning, laughing, and making waves!

Credits:
Host: David Germain
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcgermain/
david.germain@andertoncentre.co.uk

Produced by: OneZeroCreative
www.OneZeroCreative.co.uk

Sponsored by The Anderton Centre
www.andertoncentre.co.uk
New Road, Anderton, Chorley, Lancashire, PR6 9HG reception@andertoncentre.co.uk 01257 484220 www.andertoncentre.co.uk

Learn more about the Anderton Centre by visiting the website, or contact David Germain for a personal tour. 

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Business Life Jacket Podcast. The podcast that doesn't take itself too seriously and shoehorns as many nautical puns into the world of business. The Business Life Jacket Podcast is sponsored by the Anderton Centre, an award-winning education, training and conference venue in the Northwest between Bolton and Chorley. The views and opinions discussed on the Business Life Jacket Podcast are based on the personal experiences of the individuals involved and are not intended to be taken as official business advice. 

Always seek professional guidance when making decisions for your business. Now let's dive in. On today's episode of the Business Lifejacket podcast. We are thrilled to welcome Meena McDonald, the dynamic force behind Meena McDonald Marketing. With over two decades of experience in marketing, PR and branding, Meena specialises in helping businesses of all sizes stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace. Her personalised approach and passion for creative storytelling have made her the go to expert for driving growth and building impactful brands. Welcome Meena.

Thank you.

So, tell me about Meena McDonald marketing?

Meena McDonald marketing has probably existed, oh, I think it's just about three years now and it is a small agency which I head up, and I work with other experts to bring in the skills that I don't have. The beauty of me and McDonald marketing is I get the flexibility and the freedom to work with who I want to work with. It's the basis of yeah, I might have some clients but if I'm not a fit really for them and they're not a fit for me, I can walk away and I can choose to work with the kind of sectors, the kind of individuals and companies that I want to work with and it's so far so good, I love it.

Brilliant. Now obviously we've known each other for a number of years now so I know about how interesting your background is. So where did your passion for marketing start?

I actually studied in marketing and I've stuck with it all these years, which I never would have believed at the grand age of 18 when I first started studying. So, I studied at university qualified and I actually got my first job, with a publishing company based down in Peterborough, which isn't the most exciting place in the world but it was working for a big publishing place called BBC Frontline and they were distributors for magazines and I actually got to work for a magazine that I used to read as a teenage girl which was just amazing, which was called Smash Hits.

Smash Hits, who doesn't remember Smash Hit.

And all those lyrics that were in there and I actually got to work on that in my first job so that was amazing. And I stuck with the world of publishing for quite a few years but then decided I wanted to be a broader marketer than just publishing and moved into the world of professional photography working for Fuji, the ad agency world with McCann Erickson and I flitted between agencies and the client side so I know sort of both sides of it. I know the expectations from a client and what an agency wants as well. And I've also had the pleasure of working with government. 

A rise smiles there.

Absolutely. and I did that for. It's the longest I've ever been employed in one place because I like the idea of kind of gaining experience and then moving on and not getting bored. But I stayed at a particular company called Glasgow’s, who were an event management company and project management and did that for 10 years and worked with all central government department. And I have to admit I learned a lot working ah there and it was which I apply now in me and Meena McDonald Marketing. So yeah it's all good. So a lot of experience along the way.

Absolutely. Now on the Business Life Jacket podcast we try and delve down into perhaps some of the more interesting and perhaps some of the more things that have perhaps gone wrong at times. So I got a couple of questions for you. What's the most cringe worthy marketing campaign you've ever seen?

Well I have to say in terms of marketing campaign I would actually say a cringeworthy one that I was actually involved in as in a campaign itself. It's a national pub brand, it's got pubs up and down the country. This is many years ago and they'd had a huge refurbishment so they decided they needed to modernise, make it look a little bit better and they'd shut them sort of sporadically throughout the country. As they reopened, we were ah, asked as an agency to look at the branding of the signage, the menus to fit in with the new colour schemes, etc etc. So we'd homed in as an agency on the fact that they'd gone a little bit more modern and upmarket and actually missed the point completely. So instead of thinking okay they are a pub and people like wholesome food and go into the pub and feeling very relaxed, we'd gone down the route of actually designing something that looked much more wine bar-ish. 

So we had beautiful fonts, beautiful colours, lovely imagery and when we presented that to the client they Were like, h not convinced with this at all. So we trialled it. We trialled it in the first few pubs that opened and it failed miserably. People looked at it and said, we quite like the modernised refurbishment that's been done. But this doesn't feel right. We're in a pub, not in a posh kind of wine bar. So that got dumped and we had to go back to the drawing board. Lesson for me really was, know your customer really know what it is they want, how they engage, why they go in there, what the emotion is. And they want a, wholesome experience, not a kind of wine bar type experience. We just missed the mark. We missed the mark completely. A bit embarrassing, but we did manage to rectify that. And then we got something that was much, much more appealing to the market, which was rolled out across all the pubs nationally.

Yes, so we success in the end.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But a big lesson in that we just made assumptions. We've made assumptions on modernising, going a little bit more at market. But that didn't change the clientele. The clientele was still the same. They weren't looking for a different client base, they were looking to go to basically the same type of client, just a wider range of them, some more of them. But it wasn't kind of changing it. But what we'd gone down the route of is saying, oh, no, you need different people.

And.

Well, no, they didn't. They needed more of the same because that's who it appealed to. And that's where they sat in the marketplace and they sat very comfortably and we're probably talking 30 years on. They've been there for years and they are everywhere. The pub still ‘exists everywhere and it's very successful.

That's really interesting. I've always thought marketing kind of key principle. It's just communication. You're just either talking or messaging or imagery, or you're just trying to convey a message. And, communication 101. And we've done a whole other podcast just on communication. The key principle is you've got to understand both sides.

You have to. Absolutely, indeed. And if you don't, it is very, very easy to get it wrong. Very easy. And for me it's listening. And I don't think enough people do listen to their clients. I think they make many assumptions and they think they know what it is that appeals to them when actually, in fact, they don't. And I think a lot more needs to be evidence based and I don't Think everything needs to be researched yet at all. It's just understanding. It's just understanding what it is, what motivates them, what motivates them to want to buy your product, your service, to come in, to visit you, to purchase anything from you. So it's really getting that understanding of what drives them, but that needs to be looked at more carefully by clients. That's what I find more often than not.

Definitely a deeper level, I suppose, in a world kind of full of noise, what's your kind of strategy for making sure your message cuts through and grabs attention?

For me, it's being authentic, being absolutely true to yourself. Because if you are authentic with your clients go wrong because you’re, being you, you're being what the brand is and if the brand isn't for them, then you need to find who the brand is for or you need to look at changing completely. But really, if you're authentic and you are consistent. So for me, what I find more than anything in terms of cutting through that noise is I find clients think they have to do everything, so they'll look at others and they'll think, well, we need social media campaigns, we need PR, we need this, we need that, the other. And actually, you're far, far better doing a handful of activities but doing them consistently. For me, absolutely. And the thing is, if you do a handful and you do them consistently, you can do them well, where that scatter gun approach means you do them all averagely and then you don't engage and you don't win over and your campaigns aren't as successful as they could be. So for me, it's doing less and doing it very, very well and doing it consistently and that will cut through the noise. But also not always being afraid to take risks and not always being afraid to add, ah, humour, have your own personality and, and show who you are as humans. I think that's one of the biggest things that people are afraid to do is show their personality of who their brand is, who the people behind it are. Ah. And I think the more you do that, the more people will engage with you because then you're more relatable and it's that storytelling. For me, storytelling is huge and storytelling gives you the opportunity to be open, to be honest, to be you, to be able to relate to the customer, to show them you're just the same as them. And I think that makes a big difference.

That's really interesting actually, because when I reflect on perhaps some of our own strategies here at the Anderton Centre. And just on a real mundane level, any social media post that involves any member of staff or any kind of interaction with somebody on a personal level, hands down, always has the highest level of interaction. So that speaks while use.

Yeah, it really, really does. And I think there's this mentality of we must be on every single social media platform, even though we don't really understand them all and we don't know how many of our customers engage with them all and we should post every day. And then it's boring, it's mundane. People get fed up seeing the same thing. Whereas to me, you're far better saying two of the platforms are absolutely spot on. We'll target those. We'll aim to do maybe three a week. And they can all be different and they don't have to be about what you're doing. It could be about the market, it could be about the people in your company, it could be about a product. Just vary it, make it interesting, but make it so they understand it's you. And that's all about your tone of voice and how you present yourself. And I think there's got to be a familiarity, you know, what a brand looks like. And I don't just mean the logo. You understand, the language they use, how they present themselves, and it gives you the opportunity to be more you. And I think people engage more with, that than they would with just something that's churned out, day after day after day and doesn't hit the mark every time.

You mentioned storytelling and authenticity there and how it sort of plays a huge part. Can you think of an example where you've used that to make a difference?

Storytelling? For me, the best I've seen at work is I work with quite a lot of, charities. And how I found that's always worked is so you'll get some of the charities I'll work with, some will be medical. There'll be a huge mix of things and they almost want to explain something that isn't so relevant to their client, to the person who basically, they want donations is what they want. so, to me, you need to give a real story of what that donation means, the difference it can make. So, for me, it's giving real life examples of the difference it has made to somebody, because that makes it so much more relatable and so much more honest and they can then see a value in it. So, where I've seen it work brilliantly is where you use real human beings or animals or whatever it might be. But real examples of the difference it can make and the impact it can have and what their donation will do and where it will go. And I think certainly in terms of charities, one of the things I find is, certainly, I remember in my younger days, but a handful of charities, so you picked one or two now the market is flooded and there is so many charities and lots of them have a value that will resonate with people. So, then you think, well, which one, those, that tell the story the best and those that engage with you the best and those that M are most relatable, they're the ones you're going to go with. So, to me, it's being genuine, authentic, telling a real story about what you're doing and also actually demonstrating where that money goes. And I think people are much, much more. They're really wanting to know where their money goes.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, it's not just process, it's not just on admin, it actually reaches where it needs to read.

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot. Obviously, we've looked at how we seek donations for the Anderton Centre and one thing I was really passionate about when we created our, Patron packages was that the people donating that money could see exactly where it wants. Its 'not to keep the lights on, it’s not to pay staff salaries, its creating opportunities for those young people and where possible, actually really have a physical connection. So that Company A sponsors community Group B, School B, you even come down on the day that they visit the centre. So, there is that huge emotional connection.

And that emotional connection, I think, is the magic. I think that's where the magic happens. And it's having a connection between what you're doing, and the impact you're making. And I think that's hugely valuable. And I think the charities that do the best, any organisation that does brilliantly, actually understands and engages. And there's that emotional value and I think that's huge. And I think you can do that through storytelling and I think that really plays a part and it just makes things more human. And I think people are crying out for more human now, particularly in a world where you're not quite sure what is human and what isn't. and I think you can see that. And I think people value that more and more. More. I certainly see that with clients is the success is where they are more personable, more engaging, more relatable and more human. And I think that makes a huge difference in the world.

Yeah, that's really nice sentiment, to be fair. I'm sure you're you are more than aware everybody bangs on about social media. That's the only market you need to worry about. Forget about traditional marketing methods, it's all about social media. It seems to have completely transformed marketing, possibly for the good, possibly for the better kind of. In your opinion, what are the best use of it and where actually you better use using perhaps more traditional methods.

Coming from a background of no social media. So that's what I trained. And so, as a marketeer when I was studying social media didn't exist. So, I've always been taught all the traditional methods of ah, marketing. All different tools to what social media. So, when the social media world came into creation and started to work, it was like wow. And I think it has an massive value. But it isn't the only tool. And the amount of times I speak to clients who say we need to do some marketing and you're like okay, which social media should we go on? And it's like, well hang on a minute. Marketing is much, much bigger than social media. You know, there's advertising, there's storytelling, there's newsletters, there's PR campaigns, there's so much more which I think people forget about. And to me the most successful are those that are integrated. So, you have a mix of traditional marketing methods, which might be TV campaigns, might be advertising, it might be any of those things alongside social media campaigns and the two go hand in hand and they've got to be integrated, they've got to speak the same language, have the same tone and they complement each other wonderfully. I think that is the absolute best approaches. When you have two and they do go hand in hand. Social media has an amazing value. And for me, you know, if you look at something like retail, that's where something like Facebook, Instagram with restaurants, etc work a dream. But there's also many other things that can work in those markets as well. And I think sometimes you're missing a trick because everybody is on social media. So how do you make yourself stand out? Whereas if you actually did something a little bit different combined with your social media, you might draw far more attention from people than anybody else will. So, for me there is a huge place for traditional marketing as I would see it, alongside with the social media where social media is very powerful, is it instant? It's very quick, it's very easy. But the downfall of it is there is so much noise. How many people are actually going to see it? How many people are going to engage with it and I think this is huge thing. If I have X thousand followers, I have this many like. Yeah, but how many people you actually engaging with? How many are you really, really engaging with and actually reaching properly? You know, are they just skimming past your posts, your ads, what are they doing? So, it's really getting to the heart of it.

It's also such a money driven business. I mean obviously, I grew up in the early days was sort of Facebook just starting to come on the scene. But you know I did a social media and business course about 20 years ago and it was all Facebook, Facebook. But everyone, Facebook's now dead by all accounts to some degree. 

There's a certain population still on Facebook but demographically they're all very, very different. And it's Instagram, it's TikTok, it's different platforms. I saw some stats at some point that I think the Anderson Centre has got 7,000 followers likes on Facebook. But if we post something on average between 1 and 3% of those likes would actually see it on their feeds. So, mean, what's my maths there, 70 odd people sort of thing. It's not a significant amount of people but you think you've got this huge audience. So actually, it's either you've got to pay to play in terms of you've got to pay for sponsored ads and ad posts or you've got to be creative in ways that people can engage with those posts because people are going to like share comment. That's obviously then will grow that audience.

Absolutely. And it's sort of incentivizing things. It's looking at things like competitions, it's looking, you know, sharing and to me this's huge value in collaboration as well with with somebody who does something similar to you or a partner or some way of doing that and then you've got a far wider reach number. Absolutely. And I think people are a little bit afraid of doing that because I see somebody else' competition and that is a world of where, you know, some companies live in that fear of we need to do what we do and we need to not tell anybody else how we're doing it because it's so unique. No, it's not. It's the same as everybody else. But you need to make yourself stand out and sometimes the power is in collaborating with other originations that are similar to you that can get you that reach to the audience you're maybe trying to reach, which is very difficult for you to get into. So, I think there's Huge value in that there ‘huge value.

Touched on an experience with branding, certainly an area that I know very little about. having never created my own brand, obviously you've created Meena McDonald marketing. What would your top kind of advice be for anybody? Either starting out as a kind new business and looking at branding or maybe even an established business looking to review their home brand.

Okay, so for me, everybody thinks your brand is your one.

Okay, yeah, that would probably be my immediate assessment.

That is absolutely everybody's assessment of it and that's one tiny part of it. So, your brand is absolutely everything. It's how you present yourself in sales, your accounts team, anybody who's out there doing the selling. It's your tone and voice in every form of communication you have, whether, that's sales staff taking a call or a call centre, whatever it is, every element is an art of your brand. And I, think that's where people fail to see. So, to me, your brand marketing, all of that is kind of works together in collaboration and everybody in an organisation is a marketer. It isn't just the marketing team. That's where people fall down, is they think they've got a great logo and they have this huge set of brand guidelines which are 50 pages which you must use this font and you must use it in this colour and this size. And that gives them a brand. No, it doesn't. It's everything around. It's your tone of voice, it's the language you use, it's how you present yourself and it's the whole thing. So, for me, as an example for myself as Meena MacDonald marketing, I looked at it and I thought, well, I've worked in everything from boring corporate, as you would call it, or as I would call it, to fun brands etc. And I very much didn't want to go into the place of being, as I would have classed it, a great traditional marketeer. So, for me, creating the logo, the brand, the website and how I presented myself was very much based on me as a person because I am the brand.

Yeh makes sense.

And therefore, for me it was bright colour, vibrant, fun, energetic, enthusiastic. That was what I had to get across. And so, for me, the website doesn't look like a traditional marketing website whatsoever. It's full of lovely imagery that I love. Somebody else might not, but they're bright colours, they're things that I love and the turn, the language of anything I do. So again, very much as I was saying before, in terms of doing a handful of things, doing them consistently and doing them well. For myself, I could choose 20 things to do, but I didn't. I do four things and four things only for me in the McDonald marketing. And that is a newsletter every single month. I keep my website updated. I do networking, which was something I was very nervous about, but, but I'm much happier doing. And I do LinkedIn which again, so when I first started in particular with LinkedIn, I thought I need to post every single day, I need to have something. And as I got into it I realised no, I didn't at all. I needed to post about something that reflected me, what I was doing, which could resonate with other clients or other people looking for something similar which would give a feel of what I do. So, for me the communication reflects me and what I offer. Now that might not be for everybody, but then at the same time that's okay. If I'm not the right person for somebody, then I'm very happy with that as well because I'd like to work with people who I'm a good fit for. But for me that works very, very well. So, for me the brand is me. It's what I present when I go to networking meetings, it's what I present. when I do a LinkedIn post, it's what I put on, newsletters. To me it's very human and very much me. and I think that's what a brand is and I think it's about everybody. And I think people need to realise that within an organisation you don't have a marketing person or at marketing team. Everybody presents the face of the company in some way and that is the accounts team and it's the sales team and it's the person on the shop floor, it's everybody. And it would be a lovely message that if organisations could kind of get that through to people because I think the ones who do it really well achieve the greatest success.

Absolutely. That's really interesting. I don’t, suppose you've got an example of where you've seen it done really badly.

Badly to me in many organisations where I think I've seen it done very badly where people are so siloed. So, then you'll have an environment where, you know, the sales team will go out to see their sales base and to the client’s slag off the marketing team. Well, I'm very sorry, I was meant to have these brochures with me today but our marketing really incompetent haven't got them ready. Whereas in fact there sat in his car and he's left them in his car or whatever it might be. They're not ready because they've not had the sales team's information or whatever it might be. So, for me, it's done very badly when somebody slags off another part of the company in particular, or you go to clients, you have an amazing relationship with them, but every time you go in, they say, payment hasn't gone through for X, Y and Z and such and such hasn't happened and it just leaves a bad taste in their mouth. And therefore, to me it's this. You're not presenting something as a whole, so you're saying one thing and the rest of the business is reflecting something else. So, you go and say, you know, we'll give you the absolute, I'm, here giving you the best, service. And you do, but then another part of the company doesn't. So, for me it's reflecting what you do. And so many times, where I viewed it, falling down is where the company is siloed. Everybody works in their own little bit. They do their own little bit brilliantly, but they have no idea how their little bit fits with everybody else. And, therefore the communication to the outside world kind of falls down because the other people see different elements. You know, they'll ring up and they get an automated machine and they don't get a reply. I was listening to a marketing podcast not very long ago and, I was listening to Innocent, the Drinks. And one of the things that stood out for me, which I think is just brilliant, is every single bit of interaction they have on social media, they have a human being replying to it.

Okay.

And to me, you think how much interaction they must have. I think that's fabulous.

And yes, it takes time, it takes effort, but how lovely is that? Because that's their brand's, who they are.

That's who they are.

After listening to that, if I'm stood in a shop and I've got Innocent and I've got another brand, I'll go for Innocent. I'll go for Innocent because I think that they've done their job then, haven't they?

And that's the power of marketing.

That's the power of marketing.

Shameless Plug now for the Anderton Centre. If your organisation has issues with working in Silo. We actually worked with an, international company recently. We'll keep their name out of it for now, but we put 80 of their key operation managers through a corporate events programme here and that was all focused around understanding how their role fitted into the bigger picture because they were all working in these silos. So, it's quite interesting that you mentioned that.

It's incredible though, isn't it, because it has a huge impact on the whole business and in terms of productivity and all the rest of it, it's just the whole thing. And if everybody understands and actually then you create some empathy and you create some teamwork. And to me, a marketer doesn't always have the best ideas for the company. The person in sales or the person in account m might have it. So why not collaborate and get their ideas? To me, it's a missed opportunity and it's a very easy thing to achieve as an organisation. It's just like collaboration and getting people to work together.

Regular listeners of the, Business life jacket podcast will be familiar with this segment where we like to do Dave's story time where I like to reflect on some of my own calamities that I've had over the years. and today's one is the paddle your way to paradise campaign disaster. 

So let me tell you a story about a marketing campaign. It sounded like a stroke of genius at the time, but ended up being more of a belly flop. Picture this. A gloomy February morning. Me, my team and I were thinking of ideas of ways to bring more attention to our paddle’s sports. Someone enthusiastically suggested we should create a campaign called Paddle your way to paradise. The idea was simple promote kayaking a paddleboarding as the ultimate escape from life stresses. We paint a picture of calm waters, blue skies and a break from the daily grind. To really sell the dream, we decided to include a competition with a grand prize of a free paddleboard session at, sunrise. Sounds harmless, right? 

Well, we got a little bit carried away. We threw everything at it. Social media posts with tropical imagery, palm trees, flamingos, coconuts. You know, things you definitely find in rural Lancashire. We even went as far as to hire a local actor to dress as a Hawaiian hula dancer to paddle around the reservoir for our promo video. 

The final touch. A dramatic tagline. Find your paradise. Just outside Bolton. The campaign launched and the chaos began. First, we underestimated the British weather. The day of the sunrise paddleboard prise session arrived and instead of paradise, our, winner was greeted with gale force winds, horizontal rain and temperatures that could freeze your wetsuit to your skin. 

They lasted five minutes on the board before retreating to the safety of our dining room where they had tea biscuits. Instead of a Zen escape we promised. Then came the feedback. Locals began messaging us, half-jokingly asking where the flamingos were. One cheeky individual turned up with his swimming trunks, sunglasses and flip flops demanding to see the white sandy beach. And let's not forget the person who accused us of false advertising because they thought paradise implied a trip to the Caribbean. But the cherry on top, our hula dancer paddle boarder from the promo video, became a meme. By the end of the week, he was dubbed the Bolton beach bum and plastered all over social media with paired captions like, when you order Hawaii from Wish, the impact. Well, unfortunately our bookings did increase. People were intrigued, but mostly to see if we truly managed to create a tropical oasis in Lancashire. However, many of them left feeling a little underwhelmed that paradise consisted of muddy boots, rain jackets and well-intentioned staff trying to explain the from lingos on, more of a marketing metaphor. So, the lessons I learned from this honesty sells. Turns out people actually like the authentic beauty of Lancashire. The greeny, the fresh air, even the rain. They don't need us to pretend we're something we're not. Weather is always a wild card. Never promise a sunrise paddleboard session in England unless you've got the backup plan and maybe a heated wetsuit. 

As we've already talked about today, know your audience, our locals, a brilliant sense of humour, but they also have high expectations when it comes to authenticity. They call out nonsense faster than you can say, aloha, mem. Potential is real. While going viral might sound exciting, it's better if the joke isn't on you. Looking back, it was a hilarious blunder. They gave us all a good laugh, and a lot of what we were thinking moments. And while paddle your way to paradise was far from perfect, it did prove one thing. The Anderson Centre is a place where even our mistakes come with a side of fun. What would you have done differently for us?

I would have been honest and, managed the expectations. So, the paradise part is Lancashire can be created as paradise in its own beauty. So, for me, the beauty is, you know, driving up the way I do just now through the gorgeous hills, the sunsets, the sun rises, the absolute beauty of the water, the stillness. So, I would evoke emotion around what you already have here. Yeah. And it sometimes we underestimate what we have and I think a lot of people do that and don't realise the beauty of what is there on their doorstep. And I think for somewhere like the Anderton Centre, it's a stunning setting and not Having been here for a little while, I've forgotten just how stunning. And it's absolutely beautiful as you're drive in and you see the gorgeous hills and you come down the drive and you see everything you have to offer. 

So, the paradise is here. And it's not realising what your own paradise is, and it would almost have been creating that paradise, but using your own real Lancashire examples of what that paradise is, and using examples of how on a wet day you can still create a paradise, rather than needing the hula dancer, which would have been great fun and how wonderful. And what might have been fun is having something like a, little sand pit or a sand area.

 So, you're creating a corner with a, false palm tree. So, you've almost created that as part of the humour, as part of the campaign. But the real beauty is the water, the boat, the greenery and the hills. So, you create that paradise but using what you've already got here.

Definitely. Thank you very much, me. So, just to kind of finish off, I've got a couple of quick-fire questions for you. So, most overrated buzzword in marketing.

There's only one for me and it's a, AI.

Okay, right. Care to expand a touch?

Yeah, absolutely. So, AI absolutely has its place and I think it's wonderful for processes and it's wonderful for systems and I think it's also very good for structure. So, if somebody's really struggling with structure for an article or structure of how to approach something, great. But if you were to tell me that AI is going to take over the world of marketing, particularly copywriting and storytelling, not a chance. And I've seen that first-hand with clients who have told me they've done an amazing job for an awards entry. And could I just look over it? Because the time scales were so tight and at first read thinking, wow, this is really impressive, and then at second read realising that every fifth sentence was a repeat of the question. And, though it was very flowery and beauty worded, it had not an ounce of substance and would never have got them through to the next stage and certainly into the finals as they did when it was rewritten from a human being.

I've noticed more and more that you can almost tell when things have been created. And in particular there's a certain format pulling through Americanisms. Absolute particular structure that uses bullet points. And for me it just loses its impact because you're like, well, that was written by AI.

And then where's the authenticity? Where's the Honesty. How do you engage with somebody you're not relatable anymore because you've just put something out where you've used something that isn't you.

Yeah, definitely a marketing myth you wish.

Would disappear a marketing back to AI. That AI will replace storytelling. Nothing can replace the human connection. And for me that's what marketing is all about and that's what communication is all about is that human connection you make with somebody that makes them buy your, that encourages them to buy your products or service.

And your favourite campaign of all time.

Oh, it's got to be the Levi's add with the guy with the washing machine. It goes back a long, long way. but I think the guy that created it, I still listen to him, he's very, very good and he goes back the fun of it and looking at it, it had so many fun of it. It evoked so many emotions and it's so memorable. I mean it's 30 odd years ago and I only have to mention it and most people get, I know which one you make so it's made its impact.

I think there's an element of we've had the best of adverts to some degree. Yeah, I mean some of those 80s and 90s adverts that everybody knows today.

Absolutely.

And yet you see so many adverts that you almost forget them. Ah, there's quite a famous comedian that will remain nameless whose bases his show around previous adverts and the amount of times only from one symbol, one word and bang you straight back there. You could have been eight or nine or something and it was on u telly and it just takes you back to that place.

It's incredible. It, it's like Smash the mash advert. you know everybody remembers that with those little robotic and I think in a way it's the simplicity as well. And you also know that those ads were created by human beings because it wasn't, you know, they were actually there and I think there's some real fun in them as well. And I think when you bring humour, which can go wrong but when you bring humour into it and you bring some a fun element to it, it's very, very memorable. And as you say some of that advertising from all these years ago, it's just fabulous.

I wonder how a health-conscious society now would relate to a “Mars a day helps you work, live and play”.

Absolutely, absolutely. And also, I don't know if you know this but you know we 'always told breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Do you know where that actually comes from?

Imagine it's a campaign by a serial.

It is indeed. Most people think it's scientific thing that it must be, but it wasn't. Kellogg's created it. Kellogg's created it. And I think it was for Cornflakes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And it stuck. And I remember saying that to my own children and now thinking, what? It was just a cereal brand that promoted, but its stuck.

British farmers carrots make you see in the dark.

Absolutely.

Just encourage young people to eat more veg.

Absolutely incredible, isn't it? But they stuck they stuck. And it's just like, you know, vacuuming a Hoover. Hoover is just a brand, but it's stuck. And, you know, people saw, say, can you do the hoovering? Please don't say, can you do the vacuuming? And hit the Hoover. It' just a brand set. It's very clever, very clever if you use it.

Mina has been absolutely lovely talking to you. We've bounced around a little bit, but I think we've touched on certainly some of the services that you offer as a marketing agency and consultant. Hopefully. We've, perhaps looked at some mistakes that perhaps organisations have made in our humble opinion. And I suppose just to kind of finish off, if you could give a life jacket a new business starting out there. So, what would be a primary focus to get moving?

A primary focus would be look at who your audience is, really understand them, and pick two to three very simple, straightforward things. They don't have to be expensive, have a way of engaging with and getting your brand and your name out there, and really speaking to them. And it doesn't have to be complicated. I think sometimes people make it far more complicated than they need to and.

It really doesn't need to be amazing. 

Thank you very much, Mina. Thanks for joining us. on this episode of the Business Life Jacket podcast, we hope you're leaving with a few new ideas, some lessons from our missteps and maybe even a chuckle or two. Remember, business doesn't have to be all storms and stress. Sometimes you just need the right life jacket to keep things afloat. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with others who might need a little extra support in their business journey. Until next time, keep learning, keep laughing and keep making waves.