Hel’s Angels have rolled out frontline training in the casual dining groups where Seedlip is listed. Specially trained SeedSowers are providing bar staff with further insights on this more complex alcohol-free alternative.

Seedlip is a non-alcoholic spirit from Lincolnshire based distiller Ben Branson, that finally solves the question of ‘what to drink when you’re not drinking’. Hel’s Angels have provided a team of expertly trained ‘SeedSowers’ who are educating bar tenders and restaurant staff on the complexities of the brand and how to create the perfect serve.

A typical training sessions takes participants through a journey, from the background of the brand, through to the meaning behind the label artwork and the number of each bottle. Seedlip are investing in training of this kind to help bartenders to understand how to talk about the drink and serve it, giving consumers an informed choice.

A focus for the training session is the process of distillation. It is important that staff understand how it is made because one of the most common consumer questions is “how can there be no alcohol in it?”.

Helen Hanson, Founder of Hel’s Angels, says: “This is the type of activation which Hel’s Angels is uniquely placed to offer, as it is all about training our Angels to deliver an in-depth engaging experience which benefits the brand, the barstaff and the consumer.”

To date 40 accounts have been visited, with the Seedlip SeedSowers training 159 staff.

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According to the third annual JFDI New Business Barometer, the definitive guide to new business trends in the UK advertising and marketing agency world conducted by Opinium Research, it appears that medium sized agencies are now in the sweet spot for new business success in 2019.

In the previous year (2017), medium sized agencies (50-150 employees) found themselves squeezed between the well-resourced large agencies (150+) and the energised smaller agencies that were taking the lion’s share of new business opportunities. However, in 2018 the medium agencies reacted quickly to the squeeze, took actions to improve their new business operations and are now benefiting from this change in strategy.

The JFDI Barometer found they are also benefiting from changes in the market that is affecting both the way clients are purchasing services and what they are looking for from their agencies.

The key trends in the JFDI 2018 Barometer found medium sized agencies:

• New business targets dropped by £385k over the year to £1.75m, reflecting a more realistic approach to new business targets
• In 2019 the main focus will be creating more new business opportunities/ filling the pipeline and building upon the 5.8 new business opportunities a month pursued in 2018 (up from 2.5 per month in 2017)
• Became less effective (38% down from 47%) in converting these opportunities to pitches leading to an average of 2.5 pitches per month with a high 49% win rate, of which 73% were valued over £500k
• Pursued higher value opportunities with 73% of new business opportunities now over £1m compared to 42% in the previous year
• Increased spending by 10% to £91k on agency marketing which is 2.5 x less than the big agencies spend which secure higher value pitch wins
• Use client referrals and lead generation agencies as their main prospecting tools
• Overwhelmingly (91%) have an agreed written marketing plan agreed with senior management, an increase of 10% in the past year

In further analysis, the research found that medium sized agencies are struggling to compete with the smaller and larger agencies to demonstrate their relevant expertise / capabilities which is given as the main reason they lose pitches.

The Barometer covers small, medium and large agencies, and provides an in-depth benchmark of their new business performance for new business managers and business leaders. In summary it found:

• Small agencies are fighting for advantage, with little resource, in an increasingly competitive market and from rejuvenated medium sized agencies
• Medium sized agencies grew-up in 2018 and their investment and focus on new business prospecting is delivering results
• Larger agencies are accelerating the benefits of working within larger networks but may face headwinds with clients buying ‘what you can do for me’ rather than the brand.

This article provides a brief summary of the JFDI 2019 New Business Barometer comprehensive analysis of the UK advertising and marketing and agency world. If you would like further information about the Barometer, please contact mark@jfdi.uk.com.

The IPM Learning team has announced an exclusive, Member-only partnership with JFDI for 2019. IPM Members receive a 15% discount against a selection of JFDI’s commercially-focused half-day sessions. Click below to find out more about the next workshop ‘Feeding the New Business Pipeline.’

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Integrated Marketing agency, ZEAL Creative, is on a mission to become the ‘World’s Most Recommended Marketing Agency,’ aiming to achieve this by building and inspiring a great team – achieved through constant training and personal development.

With this in mind ZEAL has announced a unique training partnership with the IPM to deliver their coveted IPM Diploma to 11 of their team in an exclusive intake.

The ZEAL IPM Diplomats 2019 are as follows: Colleen Rea, Gabi Sulek, David Gill, Sophia Huddlestone, Lisa Nyman, Chris Mitchell, Lexy Woolley, Callum Saunders, Lucy Cranshaw, Jen Grayson, Kenya Peters.

This is the first time that an agency has committed to such numbers in one intake and as a result the IPM have brought their IPM Diploma in-house to ZEAL.

IPM Managing Director Paul Cope, applauds ZEAL for taking the lead on training: “It’s great that so many of our members use the IPM Diploma to train their teams on brand activation, shopper marketing, and experiential.  ZEAL’s commitment to our programme this year is unprecedented and underlines their ongoing journey to create the very best work. I was last at ZEAL only last month to award them their European IMC Effectiveness Award and I’m sure that this latest step will only improve their ability to deliver industry leading work for their clients”

IPM Learning Manager, Anna Kinast, outlines the learning journey ahead:“For ZEAL we have brought the IPM Diploma to them, at a time which suits the agency best. The 11 candidates that ZEAL have put forward can look forward to an intense but hugely rewarding training experience combining face-to-face training days alongside online learning.”

MD of ZEAL Rachel McHale explains why the agency has made this commitment: “As myself, and ZEAL’s founders Rob and Stewart grew up in this business, the IPM Diploma was a big part of all our development journeys.  Over the years the IPM Diploma has successfully evolved to cover the wide world of brand activation and shopper marketing and as a result it is the best in class option for training our team in the skills of our industry.  By working closely with the IPM we have together created a programme that dovetails perfectly with the day-to-day demands of the agency.  I am excited to see how this investment will make an already brilliant team, even better.”

For more info on the IPM Diploma, visit the IPM website.

The IPM Diploma officially opens at ZEAL on 23^rd January with the first training days on 12^th and 13^th February.  The whole agency will be supporting their IPM Diploma candidates in their learning journey and wish them the very best of luck.

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Aliya Ladha, Marketing Executive at TCC Global, shares her experience of this year’s IPM 30 Under 30 programme.

To anyone thinking about applying for the IPM 30 Under 30 programme, I highly recommend it. To say that the programme has been a fantastic experience is an understatement. It has given me the opportunities to stretch myself and offered me learning experiences that will be vital not only in my career but also in the personal decision-making process.

I was totally over the moon when I found out that I was chosen as one of the 30 candidates to participate this year. There were hundreds of applications from candidates with some of the best credentials and from all walks of life. Hence, you can’t help but feel a little lucky even though candidates are picked on merit. Only 30 special unique candidates progressed through to the programme for 2018 making us the 30 Under 30 young future leaders of the promotional marketing world.

The application process: I submitted my application in time for the October 2017 deadline and by mid November I was notified of my successful offer of a place on to the programme. It almost felt like a validation of my future ambitions because the programme recognises you as a young future leader of the promotional marketing world. Your employer could nominate you or you could nominate yourself for the application process. The wait for the results felt long but was well worth the wait once the 30 names were announced online! To celebrate we had a special awards evening where for the first time the 30 Under 30 cohort met, mingled and celebrated our first step into the programme with receiving award certificates which took place in December.

Before joining the programme I attended the webinar where the team answered valuable questions like if moving employer/ cannot make a session etc. What happens if you are unable to make a session and so on? This really got me excited about being part of the programme and showed how much the IPM 30 Under 30 cared for us on such a strong programme.

The IPM 30 under 30 programme has opened myself to so many opportunities and I have met some of the brightest people in the industry. I am sure I will be able to establish professional relationships with most of these people and collaborate in exciting projects in the future. Any person to be on the programme or thinking to be on the programme would learn lifelong skills to put into practice at any time in their careers. So on a cold evening I travelled to central London to attend my first session just to receive an warm welcome by the participants and the IPM hosts. It really makes you feel included from the word go.

The sessions: The programme involved 4 sessions throughout the year led by industry experts, which added real value to every session we attended. These covered: Career and Personal Development; Client Development and Negotiation; Smarter Working and Managing Stress and IP Mythbusters.

The sessions were very informative and gave us the chance to ask the experts about their experiences, challenges and solutions to problems they have faced within the sector. I could not believe that I would have the opportunity to share the same platform with the best and brightest in the industry without IPM 30 and 30. The whole programme is designed to take your imagination, thoughts and capability to the next level.

Networking drinks after each session were another great additional aspect organised by the IPM team after each session. This gave us another opportunity to interact with the industry leading experts. It also allowed our group of peers to mingle and share experiences, journeys and grow our network. In a nutshell, the programme really does instil the belief in you that the sky is the limit.

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Brands are needing to communicate their brand stories with more authenticity than ever to meet the demands of ever-changing consumer behaviour, says Ceri Gravelle of eventeem

Telling the brand’s story has never been so key in the experiential industry. With consumers becoming more and more savvy to commercialism, promotional staff are needing to communicate product information and the brand’s story to the tiniest of detail at experiential events.

Consumers want to know if a product is gluten free, vegan, cruelty free, recyclable, organic and along with this, they want an authentic brand story that they can believe in.

Ensuring promotional staff have strong knowledge and clear passion for the product is so important in order to win over the consumer. That means employing promotional staff who are the right fit for the brand is vital.

They need to be able to demonstrate genuine knowledge of the product – for instance, if what’s being promoted is an organic and gluten free product, you need staff who are passionate about organic foods or eat gluten free products themselves, so they can offer genuine interaction with the consumer.

As always, consumers need to ‘buy’ the person before they buy the brand.

Over the past couple of years, clients have been putting more creative thought into the way they communicate brand’s stories to meet the changing behaviour of consumers. One of the key trends has been bringing individuals involved in the production of the product to the sampling events – for example, for the Rachel’s Organic Yoghurt brand, the Welsh dairy farmers who supply the organic milk for ‘Rachel’s’ came along to sampling events.

With the consumers being able to interact with the people involved in the production first-hand, the brand story becomes more reliable and trustworthy, and the customer is more likely to become invested in the product.

Not all clients are able to provide this kind of interaction, but for those that can, it creates a level of authenticity that consumers buy into and that resonates, driving more loyalty, sales and increased brand affinity in the long run.

Another emerging trend over the past year or so is the amount of thought being put into the times of day and the location of an experiential event. If you are promoting a breakfast product, for example, then organising sampling in the mornings around busy commuter areas like train stations will give people on their way to work the chance to try it at breakfast time.

By sampling a product where and when it’s supposed to be used like this, the consumer is better educated and the product becomes so much more useful and relevant to them. Even if you’re running these events in locations with lower footfall, if your activity mirrors the consumer’s real life behaviour, it will have a bigger impact.

Historically, measuring the success of an experiential food or drink sampling campaign has been difficult. The usual protocol is to measure how many products have been distributed, how many people interacted with the staff, and the customer feedback.

But marketing and brand managers are becoming more accountable for their budgets, so they’re having to provide evidence of campaign success in more detail than ever before — and this includes how the consumer’s behaviour has been affected by the campaign and the Return on Investment (ROI) from live engagements.

The industry is trying to tackle the issue of ROI measurement in experiential – so the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) is developing on a new model to evaluate the effectiveness of experiential which explains how behavioural change of consumers by live engagement should and can be measured. The IPM has put together key principles and a step-by-step approach to how this can work, for pop-up retail, creative sampling, gamification live stunts and performances, to name a few.

This new model will be rolling out over the next 12 to 24 months and will be a huge benefit to those in the experiential industry looking to emphasise the worth of sampling. I know we at eventeem will definitely be looking to utilise it to evaluate our sampling success.

Ceri Gravelle is Managing Director and founder of promotional staffing and experiential agency, eventeem, which specialises in the organisation and staffing of sampling events.

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The IPM’s 30 Under 30 programme, sponsored by Sodexo, is aimed at identifying some of the brightest and best young talent in the UK promotional marketing industry. The 30 successful candidates are then offered access to a an extensive professional development programme to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

Every year, IPM Members are invited to submit the names of suitable candidates. They can be from any role, any level – as long as the person concerned is under the age of 30 before the closing date of entry and works for an IPM Member.

Submissions are then assessed by a panel of independent professionals and senior IPM Members, who select the 30 successful candidates who are then offered access to a suite of learning experiences to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

Over the next few months, www.promomarketing.info will be featuring comment from selected members of the 2018 30 Under 30 programme on a range of topics relevant to promotional marketing. The first topic is the impact of digital marketing and online shopping on the traditional retail industry…

Alice Hennell

Alice Hennell is client manager at secure digital voucher system provider, i-movo

In this connected, digital age it is true to say that the impact of digital on the shopper journey has been incredibly disruptive. What is less certain, however, is exactly how this disruption will play out in the retail sector in the long term.

You could argue that the prevalence of digital is proving detrimental to our traditional bricks-and-mortar retail industry. Shopping Amazon from your office desk with an abundance of choice and free shipping to your home address is an easy option for most consumers, and it’s one that doesn’t make bracing the high-street on a chilly December evening the most appealing alternative. But the impact of digital on the shopper journey has also resulted in opportunity and growth for retailers, and it is this that I find incredibly exciting.

The grocery convenience market is vast: over 60,000 stores across the UK trade as independent businesses, providing access to essential products for communities. These convenience stores aren’t listed on Amazon, the majority don’t have an online presence or use e-commerce platforms, and a marketing budget is not a common allocation of business funds.

Yet from my viewpoint, the ever-increasing impact of digital on the shopper journey can be leveraged to the advantage of these convenience retailers, leading to increased footfall, basket spend and, overall, profit margin.

In the FMCG sector, brands are increasingly using digital channels to serve consumers with promotional offers and vouchers, and it is this brand behaviour which will support and grow traditional smaller retailers in the foreseeable future.

Digital promotions can drive in-store visits, offering a life-line to sectors like the grocery convenience model, where innovation is required to stay competitive in the ever-changing retail landscape. A free chocolate bar voucher can be the trigger to getting a consumer to visit their local grocery store — and this is the point retailers can use to their advantage.

Publications like Retail Newsagent report on a weekly basis the innovations that independent retailers are employing to delight and retain the customers that visit their stores.

Customer service is key, as is following customer-led demand, driving the creation of extensive ranges of food-to-go, fresh produce and quality frozen meals. Cross-merchandising is another favoured technique for up-selling, while stand-alone services like coffee, fresh juice and ice cream machines are becoming more regular within a convenience store setting. Retailers are adapting to the changing climate and focusing on a more customer-centric approach.

What may seem at first seem like a one-time promotional voucher for an FMCG product can in fact lead to long-term shopper loyalty not just for the brand being promoted, but also for the retailer fulfilling the promotion.

As long as retailers can be agile in their responses to their market’s needs, there is scope for both bricks and mortar and e-commerce retail environments to thrive.

The impact of digital on the shopper journey may be substantial; but with the right strategy, it can actually aid retailers, both on and off the web.

Amber Morin-Farraway

Amber Morin-Farraway is a planner with agency whynot! thinkpeople

There’s a reason why people have been driven to online retailers; with convenience at its heart, it’s a tempting, straightforward path to purchase that you can complete in the comfort of your own home.

This shift from bricks and mortar to online purchases, as well as the rise and spread of social media, has meant that the traditional shopper journey has gained many more touch points throughout the years.

Digital has given us a wonderful and fun opportunity to speak to consumers across a new platform, allowing us to add value along the way by creating content built around the customer experience that supports the physical retail environment.

Bridging the gap between these offline and online worlds is of course our mobile.

It can function as a seamless link between multiple touch points, acting as the glue that holds it all together. It has the potential to be the hub for multiple functions, such as data collection, product availability, in-store experiences, purchases, payment, loyalty schemes etc. Encouragingly, a recent report from Mindshare titled Future of Retail CX, stated that 65% of consumers could see themselves using mobile more in the future to improve their in-store experiences. Therefore, it is vital for retailers to understand at which touch points they can utilize and optimize mobile for the best shopping experience possible.

And let’s not forget the prospect of personalisation.

Although shoppers are visiting a general store environment, there are opportunities throughout to take all of the data points collected and make something truly useful and personalized for shoppers.

Imagine a couple walks into a store, and floor staff is armed with their personal details.

Do they have any un-purchased items in their online basket that you can provide information for? Can you offer advice or guide them to relevant areas or brands based on their previous browsing history? Can smart shelves be utilized to deliver real-time information to their in-store location? Or perhaps to tell what items they have picked up in order to offer personalised incentives to purchase?

Such an integrated system can only offer more exciting and tailored shopping experiences in store, helping to create a richer and more immersive experience.

In my opinion, disruption, evolution and adaptation will continue to drive the shopper journey forward, becoming a frictionless and rewarding experience for the individual, whether making their full purchase online, in store, or a combination of both.

As Trevor Edwards, president of Nike brand, recently stated: “undifferentiated, mediocre retail won’t survive.”

Therefore, digital will not be the death of retail, but second-rate offerings will be its ultimate demise. No matter the platform, we should always be trying to create the feeling of a meaningful relationship between buyer and brand. In the end, the digital and physical environments can live independently from one another; however, when they’re used together, you’ll find you’ve hit your sweet spot.

Fiona Tindall

Fiona Tindall is Head of Domestic Retail at staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist Blackjack Promotions.

The rapid rise of online retail and the continued growth of digital technologies had many people predicting the rapid demise of the high-street store. But like the years before, 2017 proved that this was far from the case. Bricks and mortar stores are likely to be more important than ever this year, as more and more online retailers get physical. The flip side is that high street outlets will increasingly embrace digital technology as they learn more and more from online retailers.

The explosion of online retail has resulted in a rush to create increasingly personal experiences for consumers as each strives for that key point of differentiation to help it stand out from the crowd. Key to this is mining customer data to help retailers get to know their audiences as deeply as possible to better understand their needs and preferences. This is also being used by physical stores to deliver more immersive and engaging in-store experiences.

Meanwhile, consumers are now carrying multiple smart devices which they are increasingly using to conduct their own price comparisons in-store with the likes of Google and Amazon. These are key lessons for physical retailers when creating in-store customer experiences and trying to push the ‘value’ message.

More and more, retailers are also thinking not only about how to create bespoke brand interactions in the physical space, but also how to reach out to consumers through their own devices in the digital space and how to bring the physical and digital worlds together.

Something few experts would have envisaged is digital retailers invading the physical world, yet this trend grew in 2017 and will continue to flourish this year. Amazon’s Christmas truck sent shockwaves through high street brands this Christmas as it set up (mobile) shop in the real world. But, of course, this was just one example of the increasingly popular pop-up retail outlet.

Although used by brands that don’t traditionally have their own retail outlets, as the year goes on, we will see more and more online retailers using them to deliver a physical experience to consumers to create a greater point of differentiation by immersing people more deeply in their brand.

Online beauty retailer Birchbox, for example, opened its first pop-up in London on the famous Carnaby Street not so long ago. Its mission has always been to “offer women a personalised way to shop for beauty” and the brand feels connecting with them face to face will help deliver further on this promise. This followed the opening of two permanent Birchbox stores in New York and Paris earlier in 2017.

What’s interesting is that Birchbox’s stores mirror the online experience putting a more intuitive twist on the traditional store environment, which predominantly physical retailers can learn from. Online retailers’ invasion of the high street – both temporarily through pop-ups and via permanent stores – will continue.

To keep shoppers coming back in a digital world, physical retailers will increasingly turn to presenting real theatre in store. The more advanced ones will lose some of their shelving and convert it to experiential space where brand ambassadors engage with shoppers. Racks of products are becoming less important than telling an engaging brand story and allowing people to experience it.

Furthermore, one of the biggest trends in retail at the moment is instant personalisation, with brand ambassadors actually creating something unique while the shopper waits. At Christmas, for example, you’ll see an outbreak of customised Christmas stockings, names engraved on perfume bottles, even consumers’ own personal messages on food or drink packaging. This makes consumers part of the brand and will be a growing trend.

To further improve the physical experience, this could be the year that augmented reality starts to realise its full in-store potential. Increasingly, customers will be able to use AR to scan a product in a high street outlet using their smart phone, then select the product they want to buy and place the order online. Apps, such as IKEA Place, will grow in popularity, and as AR technology matures, more retailers will explore ways to use it.

Robots are also on the rise. As more consumers embrace instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers will use these platforms to talk to customers and streamline communications. For instance, if a shopper wants to track their order, they can just “ask” the retailer on Messenger, and a chatbot can automatically retrieve the shipment information. The use of chatbots will develop further, with retailers widening their use. Victoria’s Secret, for example, is already using chatbots to showcase its product lines.

It’s going to be some time yet, however, before robots replace people in stores – if it ever happens at all. Nothing can offer a more personal service than an actual person. The rise in retail theatre and the growth of pop-up stores means brand ambassadors who truly represent and embrace both retailers and the products they stock will be more important than ever this year.

So from data, chatbots and AR to pop-ups, retail theatre and brand ambassadors, 2018 will see the line between the physical and digital retail world becoming more blurred than ever before.

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The Institute of Promotional Marketing, the UK industry body for promotional marketing, has just celebrated the latest graduates on its key training courses, the IPM Foundation Certificate, the IPM Diploma and the IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma.

Students on all three courses collected their certificates at a graduation ceremony at the House of Commons on Thursday 8th February 2018 from IPM President Lord Black and Chairman John Sylvester and in front of an audience of 120 people, including fellow students, family, friends and colleagues and course markers and mentors.

In his welcoming address, IPM Chairman John Sylvester congratulated all the graduating students on their achievements and also stressed the importance of a solid grounding in all aspects of the promotional marketing industry.

Sylvester said: “For marketers, expertise and professionalism have never been as important as they are today. Gaining one of our qualifications means you truly understand your subject and you have the right skills and grounding in the law, regulatory system and best practice to promote your clients and their brands effectively. It also means that you are qualified to invest their money in activities that should engage their target audiences and grow their brands.”

The IPM Diploma is seen as the best possible grounding for anyone responsible for running promotions within the UK and mainland Europe. The course involves a series of assignments and a set brief that has to be completed within a six-month period.

Candidates leave the course with a foundation knowledge of promotional marketing necessary to understand the discipline’s role within integrated communications campaigns, including planning, instigating and managing effective promotional marketing concepts with confidence.

The IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma is a qualification specifically designed for the reward and recognition industry. It takes the form of a distance learning programme with a range of modules covering different specialisations and a set brief, all of which have to be completed over a five-month period.

It provides a thorough understanding of incentive and motivation techniques and is widely recognised within the industry as the benchmark for best practice, ensuring that candidates are able to confidently plan, instigate and manage Incentive & Motivation campaigns.

The IPM Foundation Certificate is an entry-level qualification which has been designed to give candidates as complete an introduction to and grounding in the Promotional Marketing industry as possible. It is aimed particularly at those at the beginning of their Promotional Marketing careers.

Full details of the IPM’s training and education programme can be found on the IPM website.

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Former Managing Director of specialist experiential and staffing agency Blackjack Promotions, Sally Alington, has launched a new global consultancy, Ethos Farm, which aims to help companies transform their approach to the customer experience.

“Business leaders across the globe undervalue service. Yet it can deliver real differentiation in an increasingly commoditised world,” said Sally Alington, Founder and CEO, Ethos Farm. “Companies talk about having a customer-facing workforce but what’s actually needed is staff who fully understand the corporate values and business objectives. Only then can they deliver exceptional service levels that meet both customer and company needs.”

The idea behind the Ethos Farm name is about positively transforming attitudes and corporate cultures, supporting the development of a successful company ethos in which workforces become advocates of the company.

“We help organisations to do this by combining best practice in employee learning and training with the latest communications technologies to transform workforces into brand custodians,” Alington explained.

Alington has brought together a team of globally-recognised experts with in-depth understanding of the latest management practice and training theories, coupled with years of real-world experience at rolling out service improvement programmes for some of the world’s best-known companies, brands and organisations, including Heathrow and Dubai Airport, the BBC and Westfield, to name a few.

She says that at Ethos Farm’s heart is a unique ‘Customer Service Architecture and Engineering’ concept.

Architecture refers to the company’s Consultancy team, headed by Alington, which helps companies develop a blueprint for customer service to align workforces with their values and aspirations.

Engineering relates to the Learning Development and Technology teams, led by Josie Barton and Mat Garner respectively. These provide the building blocks to make the new service blueprint a reality and transform the customer experience.

Alington is a former Director of Retail and Experiential Services at OmniServ and Managing Director of staffing solutions and experiential marketing agency Blackjack Promotions. She has a deep knowledge of designing and implementing customer services solutions and brand ambassador training.

Josie Barton is former Head of Operations, Finance and Planning at the BBC. From building competency frameworks for British Airways to playing a key role in relocating 2,000 BBC staff to BBC Media City in Salford, Barton has 25 years’ experience of people and corporate development, including designing and managing apprenticeship strategies. She also helped set up the BBC’s first ever joint venture outside of the UK – the Media City in Abu Dhabi.

Mat Garner is former Operations and Customer Services Director of a 2,000-strong operation at Heathrow, ex-Head of Commercial for Manchester Airport Group and Passenger Services Director at Stansted Airport, and is highly experienced at designing and developing technology solutions that are built with the end-user in mind.

Ethos Farm Learning and Development is designed to inspire the highest levels of performance from teams using a range of next-generation training tools and techniques. These include specially developed ‘Performance Rooms’, where the Ethos Farm team can deliver immersive training experiences.

The latest state-of-the-art technology will play a vital role in supporting the efficient and effective delivery of Ethos Farm’s customer service design and development concepts. This includes both bespoke and ‘templated’ solutions to drive enhanced service levels and colleague engagement from frontline workforces, as well as providing data analysis to drive insights into staff behaviours and avoid service problems.

“Using a range of tools, we will guide clients and their teams to develop the insights and approaches that will ensure they stay close to their customers and are able to adapt and thrive in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world,” adds Alington. “Our role is simply to help clients find the unique formula that will inspire the highest levels of performance from their people.”

The fourth member of Ethos Farm’s founding team is Lauren Walsh, who heads up the company’s operation in the Americas, based out of New York. Walsh is former Global Head of Client Services at Blackjack Promotions, and was previously Travel Retail Regional Manager, L’Oréal Luxe UK for YSL and Biotherm.

The new venture has already secured backing from global facilities solutions provider ABM, with Andy Donnell, Group Managing Director of ABM UK, joining the company’s Board of Directors. ABM is the current parent company of Blackjack.

For UK clients, Ethos Farm is able to advise companies on the complexities of the new Apprenticeship Levy and will soon be accredited as an approved Apprentice Training Provider.

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Carey Trevill, Managing Director of the Institute of Promotional Marketing, says: “Amongst our Membership, we see emerging talent that creates success and innovation at every point. And we’re not just talking financial success – we’re talking about teams being built, lives shaped and hearts won in the pursuit of promotional expertise. Recognising this next generation of leaders is crucial to the creativity, success and tempo of the promotional marketing industry.”

The chosen candidates will now be officially welcomed to the 30 Under 30 2017 programme at an event to be held on December 8th 2016 at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

The IPM 30 Under 30 2017 programme was launched on September 27th 2016, with a call for entries from IPM member companies. Candidates could be of any level and any role, so long as they were under the age of 30 before the closing date of entry, which was 23.59 hours on Friday October 28^th 2016. They also had to work for an IPM member.

The IPM is dedicated to championing professional development for the up-and-coming in the promotional marketing industry. Candidates were asked to state clear reasons why their inclusion on the programme would make a difference to their professional and personal development, together with evidence and endorsements.

The judging panel consisted of  Chris Baldwin, Director of Consumer Programmes at Fotorama; Victoria Walsh, Founder, The Believe Consultancy; Richard Pink, PinkKey Consulting; Hina Parmar, Legal Counsel AB InBev; and Sam Jones, Founder, TwentySomeone.

They sifted through a massive number of submissions to find the winners and their choices can now be viewed on the IPM website.

The candidates chosen for the programme will now be offered the chance to participate in a range of learning experiences to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can take away and share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

The next call for entries, for the 30 Under 30 2018 programme, will open in September 2017. If you are an IPM Member and would like to register interest for the next intake, please contact the IPM team.

The IPM 30 Under 30 2017 programme is sponsored by Fotorama, part of the Sodexo Family.

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