Social Matters and Natters

With so much doom and gloom recently the media seems to be more Eyore than ever before! But never fear, the C word is (nearly) here! CHRISTMAS! Over the past week or so most of the major retailers have provided us with the excitement of their festive ads! Ho ho ho (where's the prosecco?!) So on a happy not let's take a look at them shall we... First up, John Lewis.  The anticipation was intense. How were they going to top last year? Well here we have the answer... Meet Buster the Boxer - watch the ad here . Now, hear me out here - but I now think that the John Lewis advert has more impact than the Coca-Cola ad?! When the email dropped into my inbox announcing John Lewis had released their ad I was on to the link straight away, cranking the volume and waiting for the Christmas feels to hit. And boy did they deliver. On a related side note... If you aren't sick of the election etc. take a look at the parody ad here . Keeping on the department store/clothing...

100% stolen this from my friend Ross... but I am sure he won't mind! So he hit 25 and made a 30 before 30 list, which I think is awesome. What a great idea, perfect motivation! This week I celebrated my quarter century so naturally, I am now copying him! I was in two minds about sharing all 30 things, but hey, it's happening... If anyone wants to join me in making one of these things happen, let me know! Get social and hit me up! (Don't judge them though, they all have some form of meaning to me!) In no particular order... 1. Girls holiday with my uni girls 2. Vegas Baby! 3. Spend New Year in another country 4. Visit Barbados 5. Get another piercing 6. Learn how to Pole Dance 7. Go to a festival 8. Run a marathon 9. Buy a house 10. Invest in myself 11. Adopt a cat 12. Buy a homeless person a meal 13. Go wine tasting in a vineyard 14. Drive around a city in a limo 15. Weekend in Edinburgh 16. Go to a yoga class 17. Cross the glass in Tower Bridge 18....

Quick catch up from me... September has been a busy one so far with lots going on! Being a busy bee is always good though, as well as maintaining my "social butterfly" status. WOO. Lots of trips out with the uni girlies which is my all time favourite thing to do. This blog is looking into the changes in marketing over the recent years, including the demands from customers... read on, read on people. Top tip... if you find my blogs boring, don't read 'em! This is my place to voice my own opinions, thoughts and musings. So, marketing has definitely changed over the last few years,  it's moved from planning and implementing, to real-time. Digitalisation is by far the largest contributor to this, with social media and website development. Maybe more prevalent in B2C environments, this is also evident in B2B (my primary knowledge). When it comes to a promotional campaigns, Marketers now need to plan for the unexpected. We have to be on our toes and be ready to co...

This point is one that I am extremely passionate about, so apologies if I sound like a broken record. To me, communication is essential in every walk of life, and I don't understand why not everyone can see that...! Outside of the workplace, we are exposed to "everyday" methods of communication. We communicate daily - verbally, digitally, yet are we actually communicating what we want to say? A lot of people hide behind their keyboards, never saying what they really mean, or being overly confident and saying things they would never say to your face. In every relationship and social interaction we have on a daily basis we communicate. Be that thanking someone who've served us in a shop, to discussing with your family what you're going to have for dinner. It's so natural and yet there's so much that is going wrong now that we have all these methods of communicating! The digital age is something I love, I've grown up with digitalisation of EVERYTHIN...

So it's been a while... But I am back! There's a lot of blogs in the pipeline, so watch this space. A few marketing, advertising, personal and all sorts going on. But here's a short blog to let you know what's been going on with me since my last blog... So much, where to start. Promotion. Holiday. Sleeping. Wild times! But in all seriousness, I'm been so busy hence why the blogging has been serious slack. The summer has been so busy, but so brilliant. We had a little family holiday to Bergerac, in France. It was a lovely break, and so needed to just catch up on some chilled time. Sun, wine and cheese... safe to say Slimming World is back on now! But hey, enough about me, what's everyone else been up to? Comment below or get social with me! Lets get social! Get  tweeting  or  LinkedIn  or even Insta - helenc91 Disclaimer: This blog reflects my own opinions, not those of my employer

I know I sound like a broken record but this is a topic of conversation again. Recently Marketing Week posted an article about brands needing to recognise and adapt to consumers wanting a "digital detox" - read the article here . The key feature of this article that caught my eye was Innocent Smoothies with their Unplugged Festival - pure genius, where do I sign up?! Last weekend I went camping with little access to my phone and the digital world, and it was brilliant! I then went out on date night, where we were out in a beautiful restaurant along with several other couples or small groups... 80% of which just sat on their phone, not actually enjoying each others company or the lovely surroundings! We are so immersed in the digital world that we are missing so much round us. Don't get me wrong, I know for a fact that I fall into this category, just writing this I have already sent three texts, snapchats and checked Twitter... What is wrong with us all?! My age brac...

So this week is Volunteers Week - it's been trending on Twitter today as we see the start of June marking a week of celebrating volunteers. The aim of this is to celebrate those who currently volunteer, as well as encouraging more people to give up their time for a worthy cause. Volunteering is something I have done since I was 15, and is something I feel strongly about. When I was 15 I started to volunteer as a young leader at my local Rainbows (if you don't know what that is, it's like Brownies for 5-7 year olds). Then I got the opportunity to go to Mongolia as part of World Challenge Expedition in 2008. This provided the once in a lifetime opportunity to do some charity work in a school in outer Mongolia - we painter, lay flooring, fixed up odd jobs in the kitchen. It was a truly great experience and I am very lucky to have gone. Currently, I volunteer every week by running my local Girl Guides group. We meet once a week and do a wide variety of activities. They ...