At SHIFT we look after social media marketing for a growing number of clients and we see great success in growing the numbers of Facebook Likes and Twitter followers. However, it’s important to pause occasionally and ask “Why?”. Why do we spend our time growing Likes and followers? What does this mean to a brand’s bottom line?

Socially Motivated
There are a number of reasons why a brand might want to grow its presence on social media, ranging from solid strategic goals to “everyone else is doing it, so we thought we had to”. We make sure that those brands who are ‘doing social’ because everyone else is convert those fans and followers that they have already into something more useful than simply a list of people that they can broadcast messages to.

From a brand and product marketing perspective, anyone who has taken the time to follow you on social media is one step along the process towards purchasing something from you. In the classic response to advertising, the process is known as AIDA – that is, a purchase funnel which looks like this:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Awareness
Despite the varying algorithms and interfaces social networks have, the common factor is that they bring together people with similar interests. I follow a large number of SEO and social media professionals on Twitter, along with an increasing number of people in the bike industry. On Facebook, the people I interact with most are the people with similar views to my own. Broadly speaking, if my friends are talking about or liking a brand there’s a strong chance I might be interested in it, too.

Interest
Once you have someone being aware of your brand, then how do you move them on to Interest, Desire and Action, generating sales and creating ROI for your brand? In classical marketing, in the interest phase you demonstrate the advantages and benefits of the product. In social media marketing we tend to think that we’re skipping this step, but we’re not. Through regular posting about our products and conversation with fans and followers we’re demonstrating why our products are what a potential customer might want or need. At SHIFT we regularly respond to questions asking about specific product features, how compatible a product is with another component and tell potential customers what the benefits of a product are.

Desire
Desire is the stage in the classic purchase funnel that social media excels at. If a picture says a thousand words, we know that a picture can also get a thousand ‘Likes’. There are huge numbers of people following brands because they are aspirational brands, people want to purchase them, and follow them because they want to be seen to be associated with desirable brands even in some small way. A ‘Like’ or follow costs nothing to an individual and shows the world what you aspire to be. From a brand perspective it gives you access to creating further desire and therefore more potential sales direct to people who have told you they like your brand and products.

There are of course people who follow some brands on social media simply in the hope of getting discount deals or winning something, and if the brand’s strategy involves these kinds of promotions then these followers are equally as valuable as the aspirational followers of other brands. These followers are also demonstrating their desire for your products.

Action
The final stage in the classic purchase funnel is action. Action is simply someone buying a product. This, sadly, is where social media falls down. Not because people aren’t buying as a result of interaction on social media (I strongly believe that people go a long way towards a purchase through social channels) but because of attribution. How many people buy a bike and feedback that purchase to the manufacturer by saying that they bought it because they found out about the bike on Twitter? Or how many people purchase a high value product directly because of a Facebook ad? Not huge numbers. If you’re a retailer then you can much more easily assign a ROI figure to social media, but for most of the rest of the industry it’s harder.

Satisfaction
Fortunately though, there’s another step that’s been added to the AIDA model in more recent years, an ‘S’ for satisfaction. This ‘S’ is social media’s trump card. This is where we see people posting on Facebook pages pictures of their bikes, telling us how much they love them, showing us the helmet that saved their life, where we get instant feedback from customers on how much (or in some cases how little) they enjoy the products we’re looking after for our clients. If they love them great, if they don’t, then we’ve got an opportunity to make things better for them and give them a great experience of the brand. To make things right.

This ‘S’ for satisfaction is the most important part of the purchase funnel when it comes to social media. Customer satisfaction and turning customers into brand advocates, thereby increasing awareness, interest, desire and action in others is why we spend our time on social media. It’s hard to measure sales, but social media is the easiest place you have as a brand to measure customer satisfaction, previously the most elusive of metrics.

James Morell, Digital Director

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The Role

SHIFT Active Media is looking for an experienced Art Director to join our growing team based in Bath.

About You

As Art Director you will be responsible for working with the team at SHIFT and our clients developing strategic and tactical creative marketing campaigns.

The role will be varied, busy, challenging and very creative. You’ll work across a number of clients, developing campaigns meeting the strategic goals through unique and best in class creative execution.

From print campaigns, digital campaigns and Facebook adverts, all the way through to brand concept work, the right candidate will love the variety this role offers.

The role will be focused on the following areas:

●      Developing print and digital brand concepts

●      Working with the team at SHIFT developing creative tactical campaigns

●      Developing new and creative ways to meet clients’ strategic creative goals

●      Creating stand out social media creative campaigns

Skills and Experience

You will have a proven track record in developing and creating print and/or digital brand campaigns. You’ll have excellent organisation skills and will schedule and manage your workload to meet daily, weekly and monthly deadlines.

The successful candidate is likely to have 4+ years print or digital design experience with a media company and/or agency.

Clearly, InDesign and Photoshop would be your best friends!

HOW TO APPLY

Send us your CV and covering letter explaining why you are perfect for the role. You’ll also need to tell us the salary you think you deserve.

Send everything through to Peter Stothard, Managing Director: peter@shiftactivemedia.com

The post Work At SHIFT appeared first on SHIFT Active Media.

The Role

SHIFT Active Media is looking for an experienced Account Director to join our growing team based in Bath.

About You

As Account Director you will be responsible for working with our clients developing the marketing and strategic direction of their businesses. The role will be varied, busy, challenging and very creative. You will work closely with a number of clients to understand their strategic goals, deliver the brand marketing strategy, and provide strategic and tactical marketing solutions.

The role will be focused on the following areas:

• International marketing communications
• Global print, digital, and TV advertising
• Event and athlete marketing and sponsorship activation
• Strategic and tactical brand development
• Project management
• Press and media relations

Skills & Experience

You will have experience of developing strategies as well as project and account management. The successful candidate is likely to have team management experience and a minimum of 4+ years of relevant work experience. And as we are a global agency, language skills are desirable but not essential.

MARKETING EXECUTIVE

The Role

SHIFT Active Media is looking for an experienced Marketing Executive to join our growing team based in Bath.

About You

As Marketing Executive, you will be a core member of the SHIFT Active Media team. Working with the Creative Planning Director and the creative, commercial, and digital teams, as well as creative suppliers, you will be responsible for the production and delivery of print and digital advertising to international media owners to meet the client’s brief, and contribute to the creation of clients’ social media campaigns and other marketing activity. The role will be varied, busy, challenging and creative.

The role will be focused on the following areas:

• Print and digital advertising production and delivery
• Writing creative briefs and managing creative suppliers
• Maintaining and updating production systems
• Contributing to social media campaigns
• Writing copy for advertising and marketing campaigns

Skills & Experience

You will have excellent organisation skills and be confident maintaining production systems, scheduling and managing your own workload to meet daily, weekly, and monthly deadlines. You will also have an excellent knowledge and understanding of print and digital media and production, plus the ability to rapidly absorb and apply new technical information. The successful candidate is likely to have 2+ years of print or digital media experience with an enthusiast media company and/or agency. Language skills are desirable but not essential.

ABOUT US

Shift Active Media is the leading specialist international media communications agency with a sole focus on cycling. We are responsible for the international marketing for Colnago, Fizik, Santini, FSA, Wiggle, Selle Royal, SwiftCarbon, Garmin and other global cycling brands.

We work on a variety of projects to help our clients achieve their strategic objectives. These include website creation, social media management, advertising design and placement in international magazines and websites, producing TV commercials and videos or even organizing helicopter banner flights in Australia.

We’re a small but growing business, and while the atmosphere in the office is relaxed and fun, we are very ambitious and work hard to meet the demands of our clients. The team at SHIFT have a passion for bikes; it’s important to us and our clients so be prepared to join the rest of the team on rides during the year!

HOW TO APPLY

Send us your cv and covering letter explaining why you are perfect for the role. You’ll also need to tell us the salary you think you deserve.

Contact – Account Director

Apply for the Account Director role by contacting: Peter Stothard, Managing Director, on peter.stothard@shiftactivemedia.com

Contact – Marketing Executive

Apply for the Marketing Executive role by contacting: Matt Skinner, Creative Planning Director, on matt.skinner@shiftactivemedia.com

The post We’re Hiring appeared first on SHIFT Active Media.

The former Team IG Sigma Sport rider retired following this year’s Tour of Britain race. Simon takes up his new role at SHIFT in early October – and will be part of the company’s team of specialists – working across its expanding roster, taking a key role in pro-cycling projects.

SHIFT Active Media was founded by Simon Wear in late 2010 and continues to grow from strength-to-strength. Dedicated to supporting cycling related businesses, the agency represents a number of globally recognized brands, including Colnago, fizik, 3T, Selle Royale, Santini and FSA, as well as leading international cycle retailer, Wiggle. SHIFT also supports RCS Sport in raising the profile of its iconic Giro d’Italia race.

Commenting on his move to SHIFT, Simon Richardson, said:

“I’m delighted to be joining SHIFT Active Media. I am relishing the opportunity of working at such an exciting company and it’s a real privilege to be joining such a successful team of people.

“After ten years as a professional cyclist this presents a fresh challenge and I can’t wait to get started.”

Simon Wear, Founder, Shift Active Media, added:

“Simon achieved great things in competitive cycling, and I’m delighted SHIFT can help him take his first steps in a new direction now he’s retired from the sport.

“We’re always looking for exceptionally talented people to join our team, and I’m confident Simon’s experience and insights as a pro cyclist will introduce a whole new set of skills to our team, which will massively benefit our growing client base”

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With IG Markets presenting the Yellow Jersey at the race, SHIFT has created a series of nine short films that enable the growing audience of pro cycling fanatics to get closer to their idols and the race than ever before. Once again, Dan Lloyd of Team IG Sigma Sport, himself competing in this year’s Tour of Britain guides fans through each stage – offering unrivalled insight into the tactics used by pro riders, and the challenges ahead of them.

The films were storyboarded, directed and produced by SHIFT over two weeks – with the project headed by Vix Box – Creative Director of its video production arm, SHIFT Images. With the short films promoting IG’s commitment to pro cycling, they were successfully syndicated to many of the world’s largest cycling media outlets – and were included in TV coverage of the race, broadcast internationally.

IG also worked closely with SHIFT to create a competition for consumers on its rapidly growing Facebook page. SHIFT devised and operated a competition that gave away £6000 worth of pro cycling prizes throughout the week of the Tour – highlighting IG’s involvement in the race, and celebrating their passion for pro cycling.

The competition was promoted by influential cycling brands and recognised figures across social media, and through cycling press and generated thousands of entries – bringing hundreds of cycling fans into the growing IG Cycling Facebook community for the first time.

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With SHIFT working to publicise the Giro and other high profile races as RCS Sports’ international media agency, a Shortlist writer attended two stages of the race with SHIFT and got to interview Team Sky riders and principals about their experience of the race, including Mark Cavendish and Dave Brailsford. The award-winning weekly magazine now distributes more than half a million copies a week across the UK.

Following their trip, Shortlist devoted four pages of its May 24th issue to the Giro d’Italia, focusing on the passion of fans and the physical challenge for riders. Writer Andrew Dickens stated, “The Tour de France maybe more famous, but the Giro makes it look like freewheeling.”

Andrew’s report, ‘The World’s Toughest Race’ is in the May 24th issue of Shortlist magazine, or can be found Shortlist Online

The post SHIFT delivers Giro coverage in UK’s largest men’s lifestyle magazine appeared first on SHIFT Active Media.

With its commitment to pro cycling, as sponsor of Team Sky and Team IG Sigma Sport – IG Markets is committed to raising awareness of the sport, and uses its experience in financial market data to create the IG Pro Cycling Index, which delivers unrivalled insight into the performance of the world’s greatest riders.

Vix Box, Creative Director of SHIFT Images – the video production arm of the specialist media communications agency, took IG Market’s commitment to delivering unrivalled insight to the next level, by creating a series of four Giro d’Italia themed promotional short films on location in Italy. The films were storyboarded, scripted, directed, shot and produced by SHIFT over a three week period. To capture the emotion and environments, SHIFT specially composed bespoke soundtracks for each film.

The films star pro riders Dan Lloyd of Team IG Sigma Sport and Dario Cioni of Team Sky, who use their many years of experience to reveal the secrets behind four of the Giro’s most challenging stages – 11,15,17 and 20.

Created with pro cycling’s growing global fanbase in mind, SHIFT was also responsible for syndicating the films beyond the websites and social media profiles of IG Markets and its partners. SHIFT made the films available in a range of formats to both mainstream and specialist media outlets worldwide. Sharing the content saw IG’s promotional films and branding appear worldwide beamed into 125m homes across 59 countries on Eurosport and many of the world’s largest websites, including Cycling News, Gazetta dello Sport and Telegraph Online.

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The launch of Salva i ciclisti in Milan was attended by Kaya Burgess, Features Writer at The Times, and organizer of its successful Cities Fit for Cycling campaign, which has successfully raised awareness of cycle safety across the UK, and influenced government transport policy, following a serious bike accident for a Times reporter.

The groundswell of the UK campaign was felt by SHIFT client RCS – who recently saw a Gazetta journalist lose their life in a bike accident.

To add extra significance to the Italian press launch in Milan, SHIFT approached The Times and secured Kaya to speak at the event. SHIFT also handled Kaya’s itinerary and transportation to the event – which secured major coverage across major print, online and broadcast media in Italy – and was covered by The Times in the UK. SHIFT also produced a short video with Kaya – which was made available on The Times Online.

In its position as the international cycling media agency for RCS Sport’s major races – SHIFT were able to ensure that all bikes competing in the classic Milan-to-San Remo road race, including World Champion, Mark Cavendish had The Times Cities Fit for Cycling logo, alongside the Italian Salva i ciclisti logo.

The post SHIFT secures support from The Times for launch of RCS MediaGroup’s Salva i ciclisti campaign appeared first on SHIFT Active Media.

The Giro d’Italia is described as the world’s toughest race in the world’s most beautiful place and is one of the most prestigious races on the UCI WorldTour calendar. This year the Giro d’Italia will be held between May 5-27, starting in Herning, Denmark and finishing in Milan. The three weeks of racing will include a team time trial in historic Verona, a visit to the spectacular Cinque Terre, several testing mountain stages in the Alps and Dolomites and the highest ever Grand Tour finish atop the Passo Stelvio.

SHIFT Active Media will work closely with RCS Sport throughout 2012, advising on international cycling and lifestyle media strategy and the production of effective and media-friendly communications.

RCS Sport is owned by RCS Media Group, the Milan-based international company that publishes La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere della Sera newspapers in Italy, and owns numerous other magazines, websites, radio stations and book publishers.

SHIFT Active Media is a specialist media consultancy that focuses 100% on cycling. It was founded in 2010 by CEO Simon Wear, the former COO at Future Publishing. Its highly skilled and experienced staff are experts at media planning, advertising, design, communications and business strategy. Sports industry veteran Andrew Croker is Chairman, and provides invaluable media and sports business knowledge.

SHIFT Active Media’s current portfolio of clients include premium brands such as Colnago, 3T, FSA, Santini, fi’zi:k, Selle Royal, Rapha, global online retailer Wiggle and IG Markets -the international market-maker in financial derivatives that sponsors Team Sky and several other cycling projects. Other major new clients are set to be announced during 2012.

Simon Wear, Founder and CEO of SHIFT Active Media said: ”RCS Sport’s cycling events are not only some of the most prestigious and fiercely contested but are also some of the most historic and beautiful cycle races in the world.”

“We are hugely proud to be working with Michele Acquarone, Matteo Pastore and the team at RCS Sport. It is clear they are focused on expanding the international profile of their events and have an innovative approach to interacting with the media and cycling fans around the globe. As a highly specialist international media consultancy we believe SHIFT Active Media is well placed to help RCS Sport develop further media partnerships and expand the international profile of its prestigious events.”

Andrew Croker, Chairman of SHIFT Active Media said: “Cycling is becoming a truly global sport and attracting a much wider and more modern audience. RCS Sport knows how to organise spectacular races that have a unique Italian feel. I’m sure SHIFT Active Media can help promote their iconic races to a much wider global audience.”

RCS Sport Media Rights & Relations Director at RCS Sport Matteo Pastore said: “Choosing to work with SHIFT Active Media is part of our strategy to become a more globally focused event organiser and to strengthen our relationship with international media, broadcasters and sponsors.”

The post SHIFT Active Media appointed as international cycling media agency for RCS Sport appeared first on SHIFT Active Media.

Founded in 2010 by former Future Publishing Chief Operating Officer Simon Wear, SHIFT Active Media is a specialist media consultancy that focuses on cycling. Clients include premium brands such as Colnago, FSA, Santini, fi’zi:k and global online retailer Wiggle. SHIFT Active Media has numerous other projects under development with international clients for 2012.

James has a diverse marketing and media background having worked in the project management of exhibition space before moving onto TV production and radio promotional support. He recently worked with media companies on sales and business development across events, digital and print media. He skillfully combines creative thinking and business strategy.

James is our in-house triathlete having competed in countless races, including the Ironman Lanzarote.

Simon Wear, Founder and CEO of SHIFT Active Media said:

“I’m delighted to have James as Account Director at SHIFT Active Media. He is a very driven individual but is also a great team player who is highly respected in the triathlon and cycling industry. James has already started to coach the other members of my team and is trying to convince us all to enter a triathlon.”

James Dando, Account Director said:

“I’m thrilled to join SHIFT Active Media in what are very exciting times for the company and the cycling industry in general. I’ve watched SHIFT Active Media grow rapidly during the last 18 months and I jumped at the chance to join a team of industry experts.”

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