Beta Tools: Mark Pearson on Evolving from Toolmaker to Solutions Provider
In this episode of The Build Up, Dan welcomes Mark Pearson, the UK and Ireland Country Manager for Beta Tools, a premium tool manufacturer with a century-long heritage. Mark shares his extensive background in the construction industry, highlighting his journey from sales to a hybrid role that encompasses both sales and marketing. The conversation delves into the competitive landscape of tool marketing, the importance of creating solutions rather than just selling products, and the evolving strategies Beta Tools is implementing to enhance brand visibility and engagement. Mark emphasises the significance of high-quality marketing materials and the need for a cohesive narrative that resonates with both end users and distribution partners. The episode also explores the brand's connection to motorsport, its commitment to innovation, and the challenges of marketing in a B2B environment, ultimately showcasing how Beta Tools aims to position itself as a leader in the industry by understanding and addressing the needs of its customers.
This podcast is produced by dissident creative agency, the original disrupters of construction marketing. This podcast is born out of our passion to create conversations that push boundaries as hard as our content!
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to The Buildup. This is the podcast for marketing
Speaker:in the construction industry. I'm
Speaker:Dan, the creative director at Dissident. We've been working with construction brands for
Speaker:a number of years. It's an exciting and rapidly evolving industry, and
Speaker:that's why we created a podcast dedicated to the weird and wonderful world
Speaker:of construction marketing. I'll be speaking to leading brands, other agencies,
Speaker:creatives, influencers, and startups. This is the
Speaker:resource I wish we had when we first started out in the industry. Thank
Speaker:you for being here and welcome to The Builder. Welcome
Speaker:to The Buildup. I'm Dan. I'm joined today by Mark Pearson. Right?
Speaker:Mark Pearson? I've said that right? That's correct. Yeah, yeah. I always like to double check.
Speaker:With a K. From Beated
Speaker:Tools. Keelan's on the Keelan cam. Say hello, Keelan. Very, very
Speaker:excited to have a tool manufacturer. That's
Speaker:exactly what we are. Amazing. On the podcast, we've
Speaker:never worked with any kind of tool brands, I don't think, for
Speaker:the most part. It's always something we've wanted to, because it's this idea of
Speaker:like the, it's, for me, it's a
Speaker:sexier product to market than a lot of the stuff that we work with, or it
Speaker:certainly seems like it's a bit easier. But at the same time, because it's
Speaker:easier, I imagine a lot of people already do it relatively well. especially
Speaker:It's a competitive environment, that's for sure. And
Speaker:it's long established with many, many
Speaker:Really excited to have you on. Thank you for taking the time. Can you tell us a bit about yourself,
Speaker:Mark? Tell us about your sort of background, how you got into this
Speaker:Yeah. So Mark Pearson, UK and
Speaker:Ireland country manager for Beta Tools, UK
Speaker:and Ireland. So we are one of the subsidiaries
Speaker:of Beta Group. So Beta is an Italian company, 100 years
Speaker:old now. So long heritage in tools. And me
Speaker:personally, I've been in and around the
Speaker:industry for a little while now. Probably started
Speaker:my sales career in the industry just over 20 years ago with
Speaker:hand tools. I've also worked in power tools as well. and
Speaker:in security, which was my last company before coming to Beta.
Speaker:So yeah, security products. Not as in bouncing
Speaker:and minding or anything like that, or surveillance or anything excited
Speaker:like that. But no, general security products, manufactured
Speaker:products. Yeah. So, um, but before that was also
Speaker:my interest in, um, experience around tools. I was
Speaker:a time served engineer as well, um, serving the traditional, um,
Speaker:apprenticeship, um, from school. So that kind of
Speaker:has really lent itself quite nicely to, uh, the industry and
Speaker:being around the industry and being able to understand products, understand
Speaker:solutions, understand end users and being able to converse
Speaker:quite nicely as well, but also needing to learn as
Speaker:things have changed over the years. And applications are
Speaker:always changing, innovation and R&D is obviously a big part
Speaker:of our industry and something that everyone's striving towards. So never
Speaker:too old to learn. But yeah, it's been quite a journey over the years. I'd
Speaker:say I'm a salesman by tradition. So
Speaker:that was, that was the passion side of it. So driven salesperson, but
Speaker:sort of grew my career through, you know, starting off as a, as
Speaker:a typical sort of area sales manager, moving into key
Speaker:and strategic accounts, moving into management side of things. And
Speaker:then eventually, you know, moving into a commercial director role
Speaker:that kind of included marketing, had a, you know, a marketing influence
Speaker:to it, looked after a marketing department and was kind of
Speaker:starting to encompass the whole sales and marketing journey
Speaker:and joining the two parts together. Um, and yeah, just,
Speaker:uh, two and yeah, nearly two years ago, um, I just
Speaker:over beta came and, um, and got in touch and,
Speaker:um, made an inquiry. It was interesting because I thought, yeah,
Speaker:of course I remember beta, um, from, uh, back in
Speaker:the tool days and thoughts brand I've not seen for a while and not
Speaker:sort of heard of for a while, you know, was, was intrigued immediately. So I
Speaker:had to have a look at it, you know, what the company was doing and we started talking and,
Speaker:went through quite a, you know, a process of the interview, but all
Speaker:the way and all the journey of it, I thought there's a project here. This
Speaker:is really quite interesting for me. You know, there's some, some development work
Speaker:to be done here. You know, there's work to be done. They had an objective and
Speaker:a desire to, to grow the brand further and grow the business further
Speaker:in the UK market. And, um, they caught my attention and probably at
Speaker:a right time from a career perspective. So, yeah, responsible
Speaker:for the UK team, the UK business. And we've
Speaker:So it's like a hybrid role then, Mark. So you, so it's like, it's like, is
Speaker:your, is there still a big element of sales in your, what you
Speaker:I'm passionate about the sales part of it because everything that we're trying
Speaker:to do is growing the business. So it's obviously revenue generated, picking
Speaker:up new channels, new customers, um, developing the
Speaker:marketing side of it. But of course I have the responsibility, um,
Speaker:you know, of all the operational side of the business as well. So it's
Speaker:wearing a few different hats throughout the week and
Speaker:working. So the weeks go fast, but it's exciting, you know, and
Speaker:when you're making progress and you can see you're making progress, makes
Speaker:What about your team size? I'm starting to get a similar
Speaker:kind of vibe to Arlie Partington who had him from Stabilo.
Speaker:It's like, so obviously foreign brand Italian, which
Speaker:is new to me in terms of like tool runs from
Speaker:Italy. I'd love to ask you a little bit more about that in a second. But in
Speaker:terms of like your team and kind of your support and stuff, is
Speaker:it a similar kind of thing? Like small team, everyone's kind of got multiple jobs
Speaker:little bit. Yeah. Yeah. You know, people have to be agile, which is
Speaker:a buzzword. It can be around
Speaker:the industry and around any, any kind of business really, where,
Speaker:you know, people have, have had to, you know, step out the comfort zones
Speaker:a little bit, or, you know, wear a number, a couple of hats. And it's
Speaker:very much like that. You know, we're very much, we're, a part of
Speaker:a subsidiary of a massive business, a huge business, but within
Speaker:our own channel, in our own country, you know, it's a small, small business. And
Speaker:when I arrived, we had about 17 heads in
Speaker:the business across sales, across operations, customer
Speaker:service, a little bit of marketing as well, and finance, of course. But
Speaker:we're already now at 25 heads inside
Speaker:18 months, which was needed, you know, putting more feet on the ground. getting
Speaker:more people out there, adding to roles and areas of the business where
Speaker:they're a little bit stretched and needed a bit more capacity with
Speaker:a roadmap now to add to that, you know, and before I know it,
Speaker:and before I blink with us planning for 2025, you
Speaker:know, we'll be knocking on the door of 30 heads in terms of
Speaker:that, you know, and that's been supported as well. And that's, that's important, you
Speaker:know, in my role, it's, it's drafting the plans of what we want to do,
Speaker:and how we want to do it but there's an investment in needed in doing that as well
Speaker:you know and we're seeing the benefits of it you know setting record months and
Speaker:and record revenues as we're going along which is great and great to
Speaker:see but you know there's a whole whole big area for us still to develop as
Speaker:a company and a lot more to do so it's all it's
Speaker:quite exciting but comes with its challenges as well and I have to take the
Speaker:responsibility to be and share my
Speaker:time you know and um and need you know across all the
Speaker:I imagine. Yeah, it's, I think you can't do that kind
Speaker:And about the, and I'll always be sales. It's wearing
Speaker:that sales hat. I think was the, you know, that was definitely the
Speaker:objective from our CEO, you know, on the interview panel and
Speaker:talking to them and they wanted you know, whoever was going to be coming
Speaker:into the role to be, you know, outwardly facing, you know, connecting with
Speaker:the industry, with customers and kind of leading from the front a
Speaker:little bit, you know, and looking for kind of like-minded people to come into the
Speaker:business as well, you know, and building up a team, a profile of team
Speaker:who all gel well, nicely together, but got a blend of
Speaker:experience around the industry and, you know, can open up new channels for
Speaker:I'm seeing this a lot more these days, this kind of hybrid between, um,
Speaker:so marketing and sales within an individual. Not
Speaker:just like combining departments but actually like sales
Speaker:and marketing as a responsibility of one person for the
Speaker:most part. And I wonder what your
Speaker:thoughts on that because you know essentially marketing leads, the
Speaker:intention for the most part is to lead to sales. So it
Speaker:makes sense for you to have a really good sense of sales and also marketing
Speaker:Yeah, I think so. And I don't think that's anything necessarily new
Speaker:either. I think the role of a, let's call it a sales and marketing director
Speaker:or sales and marketing manager, you know, has been around for
Speaker:a number of years and has been around, but it's just, I suppose, getting
Speaker:the individual who can blend those two areas together, you
Speaker:know, and use each to drive the other, you know, marketing lead
Speaker:generation, sales, sales generating leads and
Speaker:going round and round and round. in terms of where you're then
Speaker:building the proposition, building the business from that. But I think, yeah,
Speaker:the two have to work, you know, in harmony. And especially now,
Speaker:you know, where it's more important than ever, and you have to think a little bit differently in
Speaker:terms of what you're doing. You know, there's lots of channels to utilize. Are
Speaker:all the channels right for you, though? Are all the right channels? Have you got the right
Speaker:channels in the business? You know, and they're the decisions I think that you know
Speaker:somebody who's experienced and in that role have got to consider you
Speaker:know making the best of investment that they're going to be putting in
Speaker:but also the master the best of people's time as well they're going to be working in
Speaker:I love that uh yeah I think um because
Speaker:a lot of a lot of graduates will come out of a marketing degree and
Speaker:go straight into a marketing role having never never worked in sales or
Speaker:never owned their own business which is kind of naturally includes sales
Speaker:and Some of the best marketers go
Speaker:down that route. But having that experience of like, actually, this
Speaker:is how a sale goes. This is specifically what I need. And
Speaker:I think a lot of the time it can get lost, this kind of idea of, I've
Speaker:made some great marketing material and the sales guy's like, I don't
Speaker:Yeah, I think what's important, and again, you know, I suppose
Speaker:a person like me has a responsibility to make sure that
Speaker:if you're bringing, you know, as you mentioned, graduates into a business, making
Speaker:sure that they understand what work they're doing, and
Speaker:what involvement they have, and the actual day-to-day part of
Speaker:their job, how that contributes and what the impact of
Speaker:what they're doing means to the business. You know, one element of it, if
Speaker:it's producing, you know, catalog material, producing content,
Speaker:you know, producing PDFs or producing social media content,
Speaker:how that's going to impact, you know, the rest of the business. How does that
Speaker:contribute to the sale? What does that mean to the business? And then they can
Speaker:see from their part, you know, how that develops in how that works,
Speaker:what that's added, you know, and then build on top of that as well. And that's the
Speaker:Really cool. Can you tell us a little bit more about Beta because I've,
Speaker:I've always, gone down this route. And I'm sure
Speaker:a lot of people think like this, you know, when
Speaker:it comes to manufacturing and tools and stuff like that, you got your
Speaker:German brands, you know, you kind of like, they're, you know, they're
Speaker:rife across, you know, when you look for a screwfix catalog, it's
Speaker:like a ton of ton of German brands. But
Speaker:obviously Italy, well known for making performance sports cars
Speaker:and the motorsport industry in general. And that kind of leads
Speaker:quite nicely into beta tools because it's not just construction sort
Speaker:of tools and stuff that beta tools creates, right? It's like a real good
Speaker:mix of that kind of thing and also like
Speaker:We would term the brand as a premium brand generalist
Speaker:in terms of what we do. And that is where we're covering all bases
Speaker:and all different trades, you know, in terms
Speaker:of the offering that we've got from hand tools to workshop equipment,
Speaker:to workshop furniture, to power tools, PPE,
Speaker:abrasives, welding machinery, you know, there's a whole stable that
Speaker:have been added to the group for Beta's perspective. But it's been 100 years
Speaker:in the making, as I mentioned before. You know, it's still family owned.
Speaker:So the name above the door remains the
Speaker:Chicherry family. It was our CEO's grandfather who
Speaker:started the business. And, you know, the
Speaker:name remains within the business, which is great. And that passion remains
Speaker:within the business, but built up very much a premium brand
Speaker:tool, tool company, I should say, you
Speaker:know, and remaining in that space of, of offering and satisfying the
Speaker:needs of professional end users. That's where we are, you
Speaker:know, we would welcome and obviously
Speaker:any enthusiast, any tool user that wants to use our tools, but
Speaker:the tools are made, you know, for that professional end. Somebody that's
Speaker:wanting to use something 24, 7, 3, 6, 5, that's
Speaker:where we are. And that's where we price the brand at as well, importantly. That's
Speaker:how we market the brand in terms of what we do. And,
Speaker:you know, the association with various different trades is
Speaker:there, you know, and is evident with the customer base that we've got across, you
Speaker:know, a full pan-European and now international circuit
Speaker:of where the other branches in the subsidiaries are. But there's very
Speaker:much also an association, as you mentioned, you know, the passion for
Speaker:motorsport and Italian design and style. that
Speaker:has come with it, you know, and there's a long heritage, 50 years plus of
Speaker:motorsport heritage within the business as well. And
Speaker:in particular now, you know, very much focused on two wheels. Big,
Speaker:big supporter and a big sponsor of the MotoGP teams
Speaker:that are out there. You know, I'm very passionate about that. And
Speaker:you know, supply to the teams, not because they're forced to
Speaker:take the tools, because they want to take the tools, you know, you can, it's great walking
Speaker:up and down the paddocks, you know, at trackside and getting
Speaker:the privilege to be able to do that. But seeing the tools being used,
Speaker:you know, at the sharp end by all the professional mechanics, you
Speaker:know, in the sport and in around the sport as well. So that's
Speaker:a big part of the business. And that's used very much as well from the marketing side
Speaker:of things, you know, not just to bring in mechanics who
Speaker:are working on motorcycles or within motorsport, but also
Speaker:to really, you know, I suppose, emphasize the
Speaker:point of this is for professionals, you know, it's used at
Speaker:the most critical moments, you know, at the sharp end, by the professional
Speaker:mechanics you know they're happy with the quality and that's the quality that we
Speaker:aspire you know to produce and promote in there.
Speaker:So that's a big part of the business, big part of the DNA of
Speaker:things and helps us a lot with the content side of
Speaker:I didn't even consider the fact that, you know, when
Speaker:I was like doing my research on beta tools, I was like,
Speaker:okay, great. Like we know other brands that
Speaker:supply to, sorry, that sponsor like sporting events
Speaker:and things like that. I just want to get their name on something that the
Speaker:general populace are going to be interested in. I never thought
Speaker:about the idea of the fact that it's a double whammy. You can see the tools in the background, the
Speaker:engineers and the mechanics are actually using those tools, whereas Red Bull
Speaker:is just Red Bull. You know, it's a drink. You might see some guys drinking it,
Speaker:but, you know, when you see the guys in the paddocks, like sweating out,
Speaker:trying to get the bike ready and stuff, and it's all Beta branded stuff in
Speaker:And the guys know their stuff, you know, they wouldn't use it if it wasn't fit
Speaker:for purpose, you know, and the quality wasn't there, you know, they wouldn't be
Speaker:using it. And of course, you'd expect us to say that, but, you know, genuinely, you
Speaker:know, spoke to enough guys, you know, over the time I've been
Speaker:here, you know, and previously around the industry as well. And you know, you
Speaker:know, it's been there and it's there for a reason. So that's a big part of
Speaker:what we do, but it's not all about that. You know, and the spinoff from
Speaker:that is that there's many people who have a passion for motorsport and
Speaker:it's an attraction to it, but they're working in many different industries. You
Speaker:know, they're engineers or managers, commercial people,
Speaker:marketing people in various different businesses. But you know, engineers in
Speaker:particular, those end users, you know, that are working in logistics companies
Speaker:and food factories and the MOD and places like that,
Speaker:who are all influenced by the brand, you know, and see the band from
Speaker:there. And it works to our advantage that for sure, you know, and creates the
Speaker:desirability, but it doesn't answer every question either.
Speaker:and it doesn't provide every solution and one of the frustrations for
Speaker:me personally has been seeing all of this you know
Speaker:and seeing all the engagement that we get and all the association with
Speaker:the sport but actually you know knowing we've still got a massive hole
Speaker:to fill you know it's a channel for us that's certainly not
Speaker:our biggest channel in terms of sales and business
Speaker:revenues for us in the UK so it's an area that we need to exploit
Speaker:you know, beta in the UK itself has actually lent itself really
Speaker:fantastically well to the manufacturing side of things, the engineering side
Speaker:of things, heavier engineering, um, which again is a testament to
Speaker:the quality of it, but very much fixed in that channel. You know,
Speaker:and our job, my job now is to build on that, but also expand
Speaker:I love that. We talked, um, on, on
Speaker:the, on the pre-roll a little bit earlier about, um, the, the
Speaker:fact that you could sell someone a hammer, you
Speaker:could sell someone a tool, but what
Speaker:you do is a little bit more than that. You create solutions, which
Speaker:comes in perfectly for things like engineering, where you've got
Speaker:essentially a big workshop, loads of stuff going on. The efficiency of
Speaker:the guys and girls that are doing these jobs
Speaker:is paramount to making profit. If you can make it easier and more effective
Speaker:for them to do their job, Whether that be because of
Speaker:all the solutions, the fact that they've got a standardized set
Speaker:of tools across multiple different engineers and stuff like
Speaker:that, all counts to time
Speaker:saved, more efficient. And we're seeing that more and more, aren't we,
Speaker:Key, with our clients in construction. We saw that
Speaker:with the stuff that we did with big
Speaker:wipes where, you know, essentially I would, you know, when we were first doing a
Speaker:shoot with those guys, we were thinking, great, let's go straight to the
Speaker:end user and talk about like the plumber who's just like, oh, he just likes
Speaker:wiping his hands and stuff. This will be dead easy. And Big Wipes was
Speaker:like, no, no, no, we're looking to get into these kind of bigger, you
Speaker:know, engineering firms and maintenance
Speaker:firms, because our products, if,
Speaker:you know, if it's used by their staff, uh
Speaker:over a period of time because it saves them so much time can make the
Speaker:the company incredibly profitable as a result because it's
Speaker:because it's just like it's those kind of marginal gains type thing of
Speaker:just like it's you saved x amount of time here by just wiping this down
Speaker:as opposed to getting a cloth or whatever um what keep cleaning
Speaker:their tools making everything clean um and we're seeing this a lot in
Speaker:the industry now this kind of like It's not just
Speaker:about an object, it's about a solution. And I
Speaker:That's so cool. Absolutely huge, you know, and has become part
Speaker:of our narrative now, you know, and almost the elevator pitch
Speaker:of yes, you know, we, you know, we
Speaker:are now, you know, we see ourselves as a solution provider. you
Speaker:know, that we also sell tools, you know, and we transactional tool
Speaker:sales really important to us, but actually understanding the
Speaker:need and the pain points of end users to
Speaker:then deliver them a solution. That's the critical bit. And that has
Speaker:been the difference for us, you know, in terms of what we've been doing, delivering
Speaker:our workshop solution piece as a business
Speaker:of knitting all the the ingredients of us as a manufacturer, all
Speaker:the best bits of all the products and solutions that we can provide and
Speaker:pulling it together for, you know, a workshop space, for instance,
Speaker:you know, in wherever it may be, of going in there, talking to
Speaker:them about, you know, their needs, requirements, their pain points, and
Speaker:then coming back with a prescribed specific solution
Speaker:for them, something that's made to measure, furniture that's made to
Speaker:measure, that's going to fit the space that they're working in, and is going to work
Speaker:for them, you know, in the best space for them, so
Speaker:that they can work efficiently. and get to the tools that they need
Speaker:you know at the right times in the quickest times in that standardized
Speaker:way as well where everybody's working from the same solution you
Speaker:know the tool control side of things is massive now you
Speaker:know everybody knowing where everything is and where it should go back to
Speaker:as well from a traceability perspective but also from a safety perspective
Speaker:but you know really filling those gaps and us understanding that
Speaker:now about what do we do well what do we do best beyond
Speaker:just selling tools has been game changing for us. You
Speaker:know, and that's our opening narrative. That's our opening elevator pitch, you
Speaker:know, to people about what we really do well and scaling that
Speaker:from a small workshop, you know, one man band, two man people up
Speaker:to a workshop that's got 50 engineers working in there. That's, you
Speaker:know, I've got three shift patterns working within the day where everything has
Speaker:to be, you know, locked down. There has to be a security element to it
Speaker:as well, you know, in terms from a traceability perspective. but
Speaker:actually these companies, you know, have obligations, you know, and
Speaker:they can be receiving non-conformances from audits that are,
Speaker:you know, they're part of multinational companies. And this has become really important
Speaker:for us, you know, and has become a big USP for us. And it's changed our,
Speaker:as I say, it's changed our narrative and the way we go about doing things and,
Speaker:you know, brings to life then, you know, the opportunities more than
Speaker:just it being a hammer or a socket set, you know, or a
Speaker:screwdriver or a piece of workshop furniture, a
Speaker:roll cab, Actually, when you throw it all together into one solution, that's
Speaker:when it becomes interesting for people because they say, yeah, now I get
Speaker:it. You know, now I understand, you know, now I can understand how I can
Speaker:use that and why to invest in that, you know, and why to pay for the, you
Speaker:know, the investment of a large workshop, you know, which can run into significant
Speaker:amounts of money. It's capital expenditure, you know, in a big way for
Speaker:a lot of businesses, but their return on investment, you know, goes beyond
Speaker:just realizing, you know, going, wow, you know, that looks fantastic. it
Speaker:looks much better, it's much more efficient for the engineers, but attracting
Speaker:staff, retaining staff, you know, has become a big part
Speaker:of that. And I found that really interesting, you know, for people, engineers, you
Speaker:know, they're not as easy to come by as perhaps they used to be at
Speaker:one time, you know, and good people, good staff in any in any walk of
Speaker:life, being the same, but certainly in that specialist
Speaker:field, you know, where you're working in a specialist area, you
Speaker:know, having the good staff, retaining the good staff, but being able to attract good
Speaker:staff. They're using the investment of the tools and the products
Speaker:100%. I mean, it's the same narrative. And so we're looking at,
Speaker:so we're going from, it's a tool brand. the
Speaker:make elite tools, we could market towards the end user in terms of like
Speaker:this is a great tool, this is what it does, it's the high quality, all that kind of thing. We
Speaker:move from there, which is still important, move from there
Speaker:to marketing and the messaging changing a little bit
Speaker:to solutions based in terms of like this
Speaker:is going to make your business more efficient, you're
Speaker:going to be, you know, like conforming to regulations a little bit
Speaker:better, it's going to look good, and be
Speaker:uniform. So then we're actually using it as like a recruitment tool,
Speaker:you know, in terms of like, if you've got these, if you've got
Speaker:these tools in place, if you've got these, you
Speaker:know, and we talked about the, again, pre roll, say,
Speaker:we should stop saving all the good stuff for the pre-roll. Like,
Speaker:you know, the potential of like having an, like an engraved name on,
Speaker:Massive requirement, you know, and you put it together with, you
Speaker:know, a drawer that needs tools in there and
Speaker:you put those tools into, into foam sets. So everywhere has its
Speaker:place. And then you put a tool reference on there. a
Speaker:code that means something to the business, or even somebody's name, it
Speaker:improves the traceability. Straight away, you know, and it improves
Speaker:the who belongs to what, you know, and what belongs to who, I should say, in
Speaker:terms of that, you know, and improves that all for a business. You
Speaker:know, the internal policy is a big thing, you
Speaker:know, that's my kit over there. That's my kit over there. Well, no, this
Speaker:is your kit here. This is what belongs to you. You know, that's your responsibility. You
Speaker:need to make sure that everything's returned to there. you know, and you need to
Speaker:look after it, you know, in terms of that. And that again for seasoned
Speaker:engineers, but younger engineers coming through as well, you know, learning to,
Speaker:to, you know, look after the equipment that they've got, you know, and respect the
Speaker:equipment that they've got, you know, and knowing where everything is, you know, is massive. And
Speaker:that's been a big, big part of us whole solution that we put
Speaker:together. And again, it's not reinventing fire,
Speaker:you know, or anything like that. These solutions have been together and
Speaker:been around for many, many years, you know, in terms of where they've been born from,
Speaker:but it's when you put it all together as one solution for a company of
Speaker:what we can do for you, we can deliver all of this, you
Speaker:I mean, you can think of so many industries, you know, I
Speaker:don't really think about this. We do a lot of kind of recruitment type content. Very
Speaker:key, like, but like, certainly for different industries, or there'll
Speaker:be like a recruitment element to it, we need to make, we need to like a good employer. But,
Speaker:you know, like you think about production companies and companies like this,
Speaker:like the kit's going to be a draw, isn't it? To some extent.
Speaker:And if you've got cool cameras and all the best lighting and equipment, all the
Speaker:things that you haven't been able to play with up until this point, great,
Speaker:great recruitment tool. Like, so, you know, you can, you can see that
Speaker:and recruitment's one of the most difficult things to do at the moment, or
Speaker:Um, you know, people, one of the biggest advocates of it and,
Speaker:um, you know, listening to them talk about it for a considerable amount
Speaker:of time as well and explaining the difference that it was making as high street
Speaker:clothing name, you know, and, uh, massive on
Speaker:the logistics side of things as well. And their investment, you know, has been
Speaker:significant. They wanted the best of the best. made
Speaker:to measure, very specific for their
Speaker:tool engineers, for the type of logistics work,
Speaker:you know, that they were moving. They've got miles upon miles of conveyor belt,
Speaker:you know, and automated machinery, and they needed workshops that
Speaker:were going to support them. But their big advocate for it was that they struggled
Speaker:to recruit staff. and they were wanting to bring in new breed of
Speaker:staff as well, bringing on trainees, the apprentice side of things as
Speaker:well and giving them the best possible opportunities. And yeah
Speaker:it's you know other businesses are doing that as well but they were hugely
Speaker:Really cool, I'm sold. We'll get some beta tools in for no reason.
Speaker:Yeah you should, where is beta? We need to get some stuff in
Speaker:here. I bought a hammer the other day from from
Speaker:a retailer and I was like, I wonder which one to
Speaker:choose, you know. And I was with my daughter
Speaker:and she just picked the black one because she's a goth. And
Speaker:it happened to be the cheapest one but I've, you know, there's so many
Speaker:opportunities. There's so many opportunities where
Speaker:I'm like, damn, like as an agency that for
Speaker:the most part shoots content for construction brands.
Speaker:We've never actually owned a hammer in here. I think we had like a pink
Speaker:one that was like from like a little, like a gift set or something. So I'm
Speaker:just putting it out there, Mark, no pressure. I get your drift, I'm
Speaker:hearing you, don't worry. Can we talk about, very
Speaker:briefly, because two or three years in Ibiza, did
Speaker:If you can look at, it takes a
Speaker:long time to get stuff put in place and things like that. People think marketing happens
Speaker:like that. It doesn't. If you could look at the positioning of
Speaker:the marketing of beta tools at
Speaker:the time that you started, could you put that into
Speaker:a sentence? And then after that, what
Speaker:So yeah, it's quite easy and we're quite lucky as
Speaker:a, I suppose, as a subsidiary that everything marketing related
Speaker:in the most is served up to us by our HQ, the
Speaker:marketing function that works out of there. So thankfully they create
Speaker:and produce all the literature that's needed, all the core literature
Speaker:in terms of that. But we, I would describe ourselves very
Speaker:much as being very traditional to the industry. We were catalogue
Speaker:based. and brochure based quarterly
Speaker:promotions, bits of flyers, you know, an annual catalog that
Speaker:would be going out there, you know, with a million and one reference points
Speaker:in there was 16,000 products, you know, across
Speaker:30 different categories. So the, you know, the catalogs like that, which is
Speaker:great as well, because it covers all bases. But, you
Speaker:know, this was considered, you know, the core sort of, you know, marketing
Speaker:material, support material to get out there, the brochures again, and
Speaker:user driven in terms of what we were doing. So very typical, very
Speaker:traditional with the industry and some digital content,
Speaker:obviously PDFs available, website content available. The
Speaker:website that we'd had running for some time was again,
Speaker:traditional info site. you know, with some graphics on there, learn
Speaker:about the company, learn about the products, you know, a few downloads, quite
Speaker:a nice app as well. Um, so an app that was again, info,
Speaker:um, driven, um, nothing that you could buy from or anything like
Speaker:that, but you can go and find the products, learn about the products, download a
Speaker:PDF. So that was, that was actually quite good, you know, and all of it's really good
Speaker:by the way, cause it's very traditional, but that was what we were doing. And
Speaker:certainly from a UK perspective, we've kind of taken all of
Speaker:that taking the brochures the catalogs out you know and sharing them
Speaker:across the distribution marketplace the distributors that we've
Speaker:got and hoping that they would share them with the end users and
Speaker:doing that and kind of been in place for
Speaker:some time yeah and was how things were there was a dabble
Speaker:on the social media channels but not really particularly utilized
Speaker:it's kind of there yeah you know and it's good to be there in place it
Speaker:was okay but again just kind of static. That
Speaker:was it, you know, and not really having the time or
Speaker:the expertise around the business, you know, to, to truly maximize
Speaker:that opportunity. And the business was busy doing lots and lots of other things as
Speaker:well, at the same time. So kind of the foundations were
Speaker:there, you know, in terms of that. And I would say would be quite traditional with
Speaker:lots of other businesses that have been there. And what that
Speaker:wasn't doing, all of that, was that the catalogues remained
Speaker:important to us and it remains important to get them out there, but
Speaker:actually, you know, using the catalogues and the brochures, you
Speaker:know, to better effect as well and using them as an education tool
Speaker:as well. But more importantly, starting to blend
Speaker:that with the different channels. Are we telling people on social
Speaker:media about our catalogs being available and where
Speaker:you can download them from and why you should use the catalog and the
Speaker:promotions and you know the availability of the promotions
Speaker:and some special offers that may come with that. And that's been the
Speaker:job, you know, very simply from a marketing perspective of
Speaker:getting the messages out there, starting to talk to people more
Speaker:rather than just dropping off a book, a box of catalogs, making
Speaker:sure that actually, you know, the people that were dropping off the catalogs to
Speaker:understand how to use the catalogs, you know, simple things like
Speaker:that, you know, understand what's in the brochures and talk through them.
Speaker:But then more importantly, letting the wider audience know, you
Speaker:know, that these materials, all this content is available to
Speaker:use, and then using content from there across the channels.
Speaker:And that was the starting point. you know, of really getting behind,
Speaker:you know, promoting the business, driving the brand awareness, you
Speaker:know, and I sat around the whole team, you know, within the business, they would
Speaker:say, people will talk about us as the best kept secret. People
Speaker:will say, you know, yeah, Beta, yeah, but, you know, it's a bit
Speaker:of a secret, isn't it? You know, it's nice. It's just for us, you know, it's like, okay,
Speaker:okay, you know, not necessarily a good thing, you
Speaker:know, but a reality, you know, because of the, you know, the channel that
Speaker:it had been in. And then looking at things like, you
Speaker:know, the activity on social media, the number of followers
Speaker:that we had as a brand, the amount of engagement, you know, we
Speaker:needed to put some, you know, some horsepower behind those
Speaker:numbers. And that's been a big part of the job as well. And combining all
Speaker:of that putting that together as a strategy to say, okay,
Speaker:so how do we want to talk to people? What do we want to do? And that's been
Speaker:a big part of the job. That's what we've been doing from a marketing perspective,
Speaker:you know, to, to, to grow our follower base, grow our engagement
Speaker:levels, you know, and grow the material that's being
Speaker:produced, you know, and using that to best effect and using it across
Speaker:And, you know, we're in a tricky situation, aren't we, for the most part
Speaker:with B2B, because you guys sell to distribution, right? Through distribution, yeah.
Speaker:Nothing straight to the consumer. Nothing to consumer, no, but what
Speaker:we've recognized more and more is that that push and
Speaker:pull through marketing strategy has never been more important than
Speaker:it is today. And again, you know, when we talk about us as a
Speaker:solution provider, And being a solution provider, you know, the
Speaker:only way to do that is to demonstrate it and show people what
Speaker:we mean by that, you know, and talk to people about that and demonstrate that.
Speaker:And that's, you know, again, been part of the job, which is why end user
Speaker:engagement along hand in hand with the distribution marketplace
Speaker:It's we're in that sort of sticky situation where as
Speaker:marketers and creatives in the construction industry especially the B2B side of
Speaker:things like tools manufacturing. We've
Speaker:got twice the amount of work to do basically haven't we when it comes to marketing because
Speaker:we've got two different audiences that we've got to try and market towards. with
Speaker:various different channels. Some of the channels there's a bit of a crossover, some
Speaker:there isn't. And some we're heavily
Speaker:reliant on sales teams for, and BDMs.
Speaker:And others we can do purely digital, so we can do that from an office. We're very
Speaker:clever people in the office. We've got
Speaker:Yeah, of course. And you mentioned the sales team there, you know, and not
Speaker:striding over that by any stretch, but they needed to feel supported.
Speaker:You know, when they're going out and they're competing against the other brands and
Speaker:competing against the other ASMs from competitor brands
Speaker:that are coming into people, they've got all the armoury. They've got the things that
Speaker:they need. They've got the printed collateral, you know, that's up
Speaker:to date and is correct and it's what they need. And they've got lots of copies and
Speaker:lots of it available to them. but also they can point people to
Speaker:points of reference, you know, they can point people to a good website, they can
Speaker:talk about some of the new social media content, or most importantly,
Speaker:hopefully, someone talks to them about things that they've seen, you know,
Speaker:which has become a bit more frequent, thankfully, you know, improves, can you
Speaker:starting to get somewhere in terms of what we're doing, but also, you know, the
Speaker:other resources that they've got, and they need the tools in their box, you
Speaker:know, and they need, you know, the things will make them stand
Speaker:out from the crowd a little bit, you know, and present ourselves And we have a responsibility to
Speaker:that. And there's an expectation, I think, because this is a premium brand as
Speaker:well, that all of that material is at a premium level
Speaker:as well. All the marketing collateral, you know, goes with the kind
Speaker:of brand representation that we want, you know,
Speaker:and all of that comes together. And we weren't there, you know, we weren't
Speaker:there. And that's not, anybody's fault, it was because nobody had really took
Speaker:responsibility of it before, you know, and it hadn't become a core
Speaker:KPI, you know, and hadn't become a need in order to say,
Speaker:if we're going to grow this business and we're going to push forward, we're going to have
Speaker:to put some horsepower behind it, you know. And the whole business, I
Speaker:think, has woken up to that across the group, you know, the level of
Speaker:investment that the group are putting in, you know, on a European market space,
Speaker:but also internationally as well. you know, really ramping up the horsepower
Speaker:and, you know, the money it's been invested into everything, you
Speaker:know, is quite specific, you know, and in a short space of
Speaker:time for me, not quite two years, you know, seeing a difference to
Speaker:the company that I joined, you know, to what I'm part of now.
Speaker:you know, and seeing that difference, you know, and that's been driven, you know, in terms
Speaker:of the changes that are happening, you know, for a good reason. And that goal again,
Speaker:with content, content, show, show, you know, tell
Speaker:in terms of what we're doing, but awareness, you know, and not taking things
Speaker:for granted, you know, which again could be, uh, and probably has
Speaker:been a, you know, a, uh, an evil of many a company. Uh,
Speaker:we've been around long enough. Everybody knows who we are. Yeah. Yeah. Just assume
Speaker:You know, big mistake. And that's where, you know, companies
Speaker:have had to learn a little, you know, and accept that not everybody knows what you're
Speaker:talking about. Never assume, you know, and actually
Speaker:tell people what you do, you know, and what you're good at and where you can
Speaker:offer them, you know, solutions and things
Speaker:I think I think the whole of the industry is it's kind of
Speaker:on this kind of like trajectories, all of its RAM, everything's ramped up
Speaker:last couple of years, everyone's going quick, like, like, catch up. And
Speaker:I get the impression that perhaps is the same from head office at beta going, right,
Speaker:let's let's, we're seeing the benefit of this, let's put more money,
Speaker:more resource into the marketing into the into the, the new strategies. You
Speaker:mentioned something that really grabbed my attention was that the that
Speaker:all of the marketing material needs to be and collateral needs to
Speaker:be of a particular level and quality and that's
Speaker:something that's absolutely it's always been massive for me not
Speaker:just because we make a living doing this but I
Speaker:see so often this kind of, and
Speaker:this is the thing, we work with a lot of influencers, we work with a lot of UGC kind
Speaker:of content creators and stuff, which obviously for the most part
Speaker:these guys are creating stuff on their phones and that's fine. What I
Speaker:never like to see, it's not never like to see, I rarely
Speaker:like to see certainly premium brands putting out
Speaker:anything that's less than premium on their content. So
Speaker:social media, it's one of those really Rob
Speaker:Lawton said it really well on his episode the other
Speaker:day, that social media is free all you need is your phone. And
Speaker:he's right in that respect. But then my
Speaker:thing is just like, if you're a premium brand, if you're looking
Speaker:to position yourself in the market as this
Speaker:kind of leader in quality, every single piece
Speaker:of material has got to be consistently at that level.
Speaker:And as soon as you start to deviate from that and it starts to be inconsistent, the
Speaker:You send the wrong message, you know, and it can
Speaker:dissolve someone's opinion of you very, very quickly. you
Speaker:know, and, and yeah, you, you know, the person you referred to there was,
Speaker:is right. It is very accessible. It's really easy. You know, it's suddenly got,
Speaker:yeah, I'll get out my phone and it's very, making it very real. Let's do a
Speaker:little piece, you know, and video yourself in, in a certain scenario and
Speaker:things like that. But you need to take a breath. Is
Speaker:that right? Is it right? Does that match with what people
Speaker:expect from us as a brand? You know, everybody likes a lifestyle story,
Speaker:you know, and a real story. And again, we need to work harder as
Speaker:a business. It's something we talk about, about making ourselves accessible. Who
Speaker:am I? Who are we? You know, which is probably one of the reasons we're sat here today, you
Speaker:know, in terms of what we're talking about. But, but
Speaker:it has to be in the right tone. And tone of voice,
Speaker:the way you're expressing yourself, it's really important. And that needs to be considered, you
Speaker:know, with, with, with everything that we do, you know, there is an expectation. And
Speaker:I think, you know, a lot of us and our brand will be no different. You
Speaker:know, you, you look and you aspire to what people are doing well, you
Speaker:know, and I know our business, our group business has been mature enough
Speaker:to look around and look around the industry in particular that we're
Speaker:in and go, they're doing that really well. They really like that,
Speaker:you know, and not be intimidated by
Speaker:it and not be aggravated by it, actually be inspired by it, which is really mature,
Speaker:you know, and that's the way I think people need to think in respecting something that's
Speaker:good and going, okay, so let's not quite copycat it,
Speaker:but how can we relate that and make something that we
Speaker:do, you know, to that kind of standard and that kind of space,
Speaker:you know, and that kind of, you know, attraction facts that it may be whatever
Speaker:you're doing, whatever business strategy we may be doing, you know, have you seen something
Speaker:being done really, really well, you know, how can you apply their methods
Speaker:to yourself. And I think that's the mature way of looking at things. And
Speaker:that's certainly something that we've done. looking at other industries, the
Speaker:way that we do things, you know, Beta would put itself up
Speaker:there with a premium brand in automotive, you know, and aspire to
Speaker:be in if you're putting, you know, in classes. So, you know, what would you expect from
Speaker:a, you know, a Ferrari or a Maserati, you know, and
Speaker:that kind of brand, you know, again, you
Speaker:would expect a certain level of content and a certain level of look, you
Speaker:know, and I think us as a brand and other brands out there, you know, will
Speaker:Bad news for the finance department, because they're like, damn, we shouldn't have positioned
Speaker:ourselves as a premium brand, because now all the content's dead expensive. A
Speaker:quick point, though, on the Robbie Lawton thing, because it sounds like I'm throwing shade at
Speaker:him and Lawton Shoes, but the reason why
Speaker:I brought that, because that was a benefit to their
Speaker:brand. We discussed this. It worked really well for
Speaker:them, because they were, to give you a context, a
Speaker:copper tube company. where the marketing director and
Speaker:kind of the face of the business was really, really hands on
Speaker:with the end user. And they sort of
Speaker:create content around that. And all
Speaker:the end users shaking his hands at the shows and everyone knows him. And
Speaker:that's really beneficial for his brand. It kind
Speaker:of works for their positioning. But there'll be certain brands that we're
Speaker:just like, that would absolutely not work. And if anything, it would damage the
Speaker:brand. So you've got to be aware of this. I think a lot of people sort
Speaker:And I think you can respond to that as well of how other people are responding
Speaker:to it. You know, and if that's working for you, and that's really positive,
Speaker:and you've got a figurehead of the business, somebody that people recognize, and
Speaker:you're making it work, it's great, isn't it? You know, and it really brings that personal
Speaker:feel, that person becomes, you know, a real person, a personality.
Speaker:People, when they think about that company, will think about that person. And
Speaker:that's a positive thing as well, as long as it's working for that. And that doesn't
Speaker:necessarily, it fits with every business. And that's the decision that
Speaker:Yeah. We, I mean, we see it, we see some brands and we just like,
Speaker:um, you know, they've met, they've, they've hired the wrong marketing
Speaker:manager. They've hired the wrong decision maker. Uh, when it comes
Speaker:to the content that gets put out there, because there's a brand here
Speaker:that's, that's trying to be in this lane, but as a result, but as a result of
Speaker:the content they're putting out, it's just literally just someone going, I
Speaker:know how to use TikTok. So I'm going to now do all of the
Speaker:communication for this really premium brand. And
Speaker:it's just like a young graduate or something like that. And they're just following people
Speaker:around doing kind of like silly videos and kind of like trending stuff. And I'm
Speaker:like, it's not working. Please stop. Someone needs to look
Speaker:at this from higher up and go, oh my god, stop this. It's
Speaker:not that it's a bad thing to do. In general, it's just a bad thing for us.
Speaker:And we've been very much through all of that, considering
Speaker:all these channels, you know, and things like that. And every channel has
Speaker:been under consideration, you know, and talking to people, talking
Speaker:to distributors and customers who may use various different channels for
Speaker:what we do and going, okay, that's interesting. You know, would that suit us?
Speaker:How would that work for us? You know, and it's retaining responsibility, but
Speaker:control of our brand as well, you know, and being responsible enough
Speaker:to do that, not in an arrogant way, but saying, you know, think about
Speaker:the bigger picture. You know, how are people going to perceive that? How's that
Speaker:going to be taken? You know, be too quick to think about the return, the dollars, a
Speaker:quick sale. You know, you need
Speaker:to consider and we need to consider, you know, everything that we do. And
Speaker:we want to mean something, you know, across various different channels
Speaker:to lots of different people. But again, I think it's the marketeers responsibility
Speaker:to be able to recognize that. And I think that comes with, experience,
Speaker:you know, and education and looking and listening to what other people are
Speaker:doing, you know, and again, looking at what other brands are doing and how they're making
Speaker:Yeah, I think, I think the consideration for marketers is,
Speaker:I think it kind of depends on the business obviously depends on the higher ups, the C suite execs.
Speaker:I think too often is it a situation where
Speaker:marketing is a tick box exercise for
Speaker:a brand. So great, we need a marketer. Okay, get me the cheapest marketer.
Speaker:Okay, what's that? So that's a graduate or even,
Speaker:you know, so a social media specialist, so they assume that that's someone that's
Speaker:young, which isn't always the case. It can help for
Speaker:sure. And they go, right, okay, this
Speaker:person, this person knows how to use TikTok, this person knows how to use Instagram.
Speaker:That's, that's, let's give this person
Speaker:complete free reign on all of the communication to our end user for the next
Speaker:12 months or something like that. And just, we just, we'll, we'll, we'll
Speaker:figure out the engagement because they've got, oh, great. It's got great engagement.
Speaker:I'm like, yeah, it's got great engagement, but it's like damaging the whole brand
Speaker:and the sales and everything. Because it's like, yes, they're funny videos, they're
Speaker:going to get engagement. But that's like from an actual brand positioning point
Speaker:And chasing the numbers on the screen, how many of followers how many
Speaker:engagements? Like, yeah, the numbers can look great. It could be, you
Speaker:know, pumped up. But are they actually the right people? Yeah. you know, how
Speaker:many of that audience in there, you know, are actually people that we,
Speaker:you know, we truly want to engage with, you know, and are
Speaker:the right kind of audience, you know, that are going to be positively influenced, you
Speaker:know, by what we're doing. Yes, you're going to get lots of passive interest,
Speaker:you know, and people who do the, you know, the kind of content that we produce for
Speaker:us as a brand, you know, get passive interest as well. But again, it's looking
Speaker:at that critically as well. But I think also, you know, a point
Speaker:to make on the marketeer side of things as well, you
Speaker:know, I found at times, you know, especially more
Speaker:recently, you know, the, I think the
Speaker:expectations of people working in marketing roles, you
Speaker:know, can be a little conflicted, you know, and a
Speaker:bit unrealistic with what companies are
Speaker:needing, you know, we, for instance, being a product company, you
Speaker:know, we're a product-based company, quite a hands-on company, you
Speaker:know, and a growing company in terms of that. But a marketeer,
Speaker:you know, joining our business would need to be involved
Speaker:in the business, be around the business, you know, be close enough
Speaker:to be able to touch and feel the product. That's not a marketeer that
Speaker:wants to work from home four days a week. No, he doesn't want
Speaker:to travel and doesn't want to be out and about and things like that. You
Speaker:know, yes, there's a great benefit for people being agile now,
Speaker:you know, and hybrid working huge benefits to that, you know,
Speaker:a big advocate of it. However, there are times when
Speaker:people need to, you know, move around And, you know, touch
Speaker:and feel things and be around people. Go
Speaker:do a day's work experience. Expectations out there. And that's, I
Speaker:think something that, you know, people need to wake up a little too.
Speaker:Yeah. I think this is why, you know, some of the, some of the best, you know, best marketing agencies
Speaker:that they obviously have a lot of budget. They've got a lot of
Speaker:specialists that can kind of, that are all feeding off each other in
Speaker:a great structure. Not all businesses are blessed with that. You've
Speaker:got a team of two, three, max, a lot of the time. And you've got to make do
Speaker:with that budget and hire the best people and have the best structure in place. And
Speaker:a lot of that comes from the top. You know, it's got to,
Speaker:you know, lead from the top and the decisions that
Speaker:We do find though using agency useful
Speaker:as well, you know, and resource that you can switch
Speaker:on and off when you need. exactly is is really helpful you
Speaker:know in terms of that and that's worked for us and that's actually filled gaps
Speaker:um and is is is retaining remaining to and part of our
Speaker:strategy moving forward of trying to you know employ
Speaker:that perfect person you know that might not quite exist for everything
Speaker:that we need in terms of that you know with the same team growing the
Speaker:way it is you know getting that right person is in place but using
Speaker:third-party resource is really important for us as well you know and
Speaker:an absolute need and they bring a different perspective as well and
Speaker:as a fresh pair of eyes you know that are not in the business and
Speaker:make you see things in a different way and I think that's important and that's
Speaker:something that I've certainly learned the value of you know from a marketing perspective
Speaker:over the years of not to ignore that you know and ignore the
Speaker:I think there was a classic example I had with a
Speaker:client a while ago. They hired
Speaker:us to do some like high-end production stuff because they had an in-house marketer
Speaker:but they were kind of hired as a junior but had no
Speaker:one to learn from. So they stayed junior basically. They
Speaker:had the skill set that they got out of university but no one to actually learn from. So
Speaker:there wasn't a senior videographer, there wasn't a you know, director
Speaker:of visuals or whatever. It was just a junior videographer, and
Speaker:this was a massive company, and they just didn't put a lot of
Speaker:resource into marketing at all. Put a lot into design, but
Speaker:not into content. So these guys, this was actually like
Speaker:a group, so they had lots of different brands that they worked with, it was almost
Speaker:like a channel. And so they had this
Speaker:kind of junior who just kind of like learned as much as they could at university and
Speaker:kind of like got put in the role and they're just like, I
Speaker:have this limited skill set, you know, because that's all I've known.
Speaker:And they were gradually, you know, updating their
Speaker:skill set to some extent. But you're going to
Speaker:struggle at that point, whereas I think this is a massive like
Speaker:sort of selling point for agencies. is
Speaker:for that person's salary, you could have hired an agency
Speaker:of up to like 7, 10 people or whatever, or they're all specialists in
Speaker:a particular area, so that when those projects did come up,
Speaker:the agency are picking and choosing the right people for the right job, they've got tons of
Speaker:experience, but are also hungry and are always updating
Speaker:their skill sets because there are senior people, hopefully,
Speaker:Which means the output is higher. The quality hire is
Speaker:higher in terms of what's coming out of there. You know, and that's, yeah,
Speaker:I think, especially when it comes to production, most of the stuff that we do is
Speaker:production. So it makes sense
Speaker:to hire an agency. You're not going to hire a production crew in-house a
Speaker:lot of the time. Some brands will, if they're putting
Speaker:but it's looking there as going, you know, it's five days a
Speaker:week, for instance, to be traditional about it. What are you going to have those people
Speaker:doing? You know, what's the schedule going to look like, you know, does
Speaker:it become a bit gray? Yeah. You know, um, it's an easy place
Speaker:to hide in house. You could be guilty of
Speaker:producing too much content. You know, if you're going to produce something,
Speaker:make sure it's quality, you know, make sure it's frequent, but don't,
Speaker:you know, overdo it. It just becomes wallpaper and not them again.
Speaker:You know, you've got to choose your times, you know, and really stuff, you know,
Speaker:that's going to have interest and is going to grab people's attention, but remaining consistent
Speaker:And I think, you know, from an agency's point of view, well, we won't harp
Speaker:on about agencies too much because we're interested in what you do, Mark.
Speaker:Agencies are always hungry. They always want to do better work. And
Speaker:there are some great in-house marketers, some great in-house
Speaker:creators, all they want to do is produce the best work. But there's
Speaker:also a lot that aren't bothered. It's their job. Nine to five, there are
Speaker:people out there, which is absolutely fine, that are guilty of doing the
Speaker:bare minimum that's required of them, ticking the box and
Speaker:moving on. And agencies that do that don't get paid. So
Speaker:it's one of those things that if
Speaker:you're the right kind of agency, you are always striving to
Speaker:go one up, bigger and better than anyone else
Speaker:is doing because their funds
Speaker:And you've become a bit seasoned to it now. I can spot
Speaker:the difference between different people. think they're saying the
Speaker:right things and think they're saying what you want to
Speaker:hear, basically, but actually it's far from it.
Speaker:And then you realize the people that actually know what they're talking about and show
Speaker:a genuine interest and are seeing and looking for things within
Speaker:the business where they can add value. And that's where, you know, an agency comes
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's a smart move,
Speaker:especially when it comes to the really serious creative stuff. It's too niche
Speaker:to hire in. Anyway, we won't talk about Asians anymore.
Speaker:For anyone that's thinking about a career in in,
Speaker:in this kind of industry, a really good example of the
Speaker:how this works is agencies, you do cooler work, but get paid less. In
Speaker:house, you do less cool work, and you get paid a lot more. That's
Speaker:that usually that's the scenario. I would probably go
Speaker:with that. Yeah, it's about right. You see, there's always that compromise. I
Speaker:don't know many people that work in agencies that are like, I'm loaded and
Speaker:I do loads of cool work and work with loads of cool brands. There's always that
Speaker:compromise, you know, and this is why you see creatives flitting
Speaker:from in-house to agency. The agency stuff, quite
Speaker:stressful. They do loads of work. It's kind of cool. You've got a really cool vibe. Everyone,
Speaker:like, loves working with each other. You're never going to be loaded. It's just one of those
Speaker:I think it's also interesting from that perspective, again, not getting lost on it, but how
Speaker:I want to be sat in-house. I want to be able to disappear for
Speaker:And then all of a sudden the person who sat static in-house is going, I'd
Speaker:love to be involved in that, you know, a million and different one
Speaker:things. Oh, they're going all these different places, you know. And I
Speaker:think it's just that person deciding, but the grass isn't always green.
Speaker:It's not. And what we're doing with our agency is trying to get the balance of
Speaker:the two. So we're trying to get enough clients and be as
Speaker:profitable as possible so that we can do really
Speaker:good work, but all get paid relatively well. And
Speaker:a lot of that, and I speak to my team about this, is all about
Speaker:efficiency. It's not the creative stuff. The creative stuff's there. It's
Speaker:a given. You've got to make creative work. It's
Speaker:all the stuff around the creative work that's got to be minimized, like
Speaker:so AI. and processes and
Speaker:not faffing and all that kind of thing. That's where we lose the most amount
Speaker:of money is all the stuff when we're not creating things, admin basically. Is
Speaker:Is what you're doing, is it telling the story? Is it delivering the objective? If
Speaker:it's product based, is it explaining the true nature and
Speaker:benefits of that product to somebody? And if you're doing, if you're using
Speaker:all those techniques and it's not doing that, then there's something
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, a little insight into agency
Speaker:life. It's fun, isn't it Keelan? It is
Speaker:fun. We're skinned, but it's a good time. So
Speaker:really, I feel like we've gone off piste absolutely massively. In
Speaker:terms of channels, we've talked about that a little bit. If you
Speaker:could tell me one channel that you've got more of a
Speaker:focus on right now than any other, I'd love to hear that. One
Speaker:particular marketing channel, whether it be digital, socials, whatever.
Speaker:I think digital is definitely a
Speaker:big, big part going forward. and using all
Speaker:the best bits of digital to tell some stories and
Speaker:bring to life all the best bits of our products in
Speaker:real time to be able to explain to
Speaker:somebody, you know, of what we did for somebody. So a classic case
Speaker:study, but brought to life for somebody of explaining, you
Speaker:know, where we started in a conversation with somebody, what
Speaker:their pain points were, you know, through an end user perspective,
Speaker:for instance. And then what we did, what our journey was in
Speaker:terms of delivering a solution, you know, to remove those
Speaker:pain points. And what that looked like, you know, the specification of
Speaker:it, you know, the products that we used, why we use them, how it was
Speaker:going to benefit their business, their industry. And then at
Speaker:the end of all of that, the final solution, what that looked like. and
Speaker:three, six months, 12 months down the line, what benefit did they
Speaker:get from that? And that's, you know, one of the core, core
Speaker:objectives in terms of what we want to do more of going
Speaker:forward and bringing with that then the content of
Speaker:the products, you know, in terms of what we do, highlighting the benefits, putting
Speaker:things together again in that solution package while still
Speaker:Yeah, making it real, making it tangible for
Speaker:somebody, you know, and understanding not just that it's just a hammer, or
Speaker:just a socket set, you know, or just a cabinet, you know, actually bringing it
Speaker:to life. And that for us will be part of it. Because I think people
Speaker:seeing that, you know, end user level and hearing
Speaker:that end user level will relate to that. And that will then help
Speaker:our distribution partners and the distributors that
Speaker:we work with may drive interest towards the brand because our
Speaker:objectives are twofold. We want to make the brand more
Speaker:aware, drive our awareness, and make it more accessible
Speaker:in terms of what we're doing. So this digital strategy driven
Speaker:And is that, so we talk about case studies at
Speaker:that point. So that is, that's kind of like, that's kind of
Speaker:end user in some respect, isn't it? Because you're, they're
Speaker:the person that are actually going to be having the tools and
Speaker:the support and the services for their, for their
Speaker:like employees and stuff like that. Say it's a big engineering firm or something that's technically
Speaker:an end user. It's not your typical end user, obviously. In terms of like, it's
Speaker:like your mechanic, the guy that actually is using
Speaker:the tools. How do you split your sort
Speaker:of strategies between And like I guess
Speaker:traditional end user, a sort of more like
Speaker:a larger customer, I guess, in some respects, and then your actual distributors are
Speaker:Yeah, definitely. But not separated, connecting the
Speaker:two together and making it clear to
Speaker:the distribution channel. that we are working hard
Speaker:to generate brand awareness. Because essentially by generating
Speaker:that brand awareness, it's hopefully going to bring those end users to
Speaker:want and desire the brand. To get access to it.
Speaker:So pulling it through. So demonstrating that to them and
Speaker:supporting with them, give them access to that, acknowledging with them,
Speaker:even doing some in partnership. you know, and working with them. And
Speaker:because obviously if we've done, if we do a nice case study, you know,
Speaker:of a project that we've done, a work that we've done, we'll have done that hand in
Speaker:hand with the distributor and explaining how that relationship unfolded
Speaker:with the distributor and what part they played as that, you know, which
Speaker:would be a critical part of it. The relationship, how the relationship was
Speaker:managed, you know, there's a lot of moving parts to different things that we'd be doing. So
Speaker:bringing that on a journey, which is then supporting the distributor, but
Speaker:hopefully inspiring other distributors of different things that
Speaker:we can do as well, you know, and showing them how we've worked with other distributors, how
Speaker:we could work with them potentially, you know, and opportunities that we'd have
Speaker:and giving them the assurance that we're actually capable of doing this as
Speaker:a brand. You know, and then the flip side of that from a distributor and
Speaker:how we market into them is showing them all the, I suppose,
Speaker:the tools that we've got from a marketing perspective, all the
Speaker:different types of elements that we can help them with, with in-store
Speaker:display, you know, um, online content, digital content.
Speaker:If e-commerce is a big part of their business, how we can support
Speaker:massive. Yeah. So many brands are brands are really guarded
Speaker:with their content that they just they don't like so. And
Speaker:it's always it's baffled me I speak to some and for some I
Speaker:understand you got to hold some some stuff back. And
Speaker:and you've got to be careful about how it's used to some extent. But
Speaker:I'm like, Okay. So you've, you've, let's say,
Speaker:let's say you guys have just put 50 grand towards an amazing campaign for
Speaker:a range of tools and all these different, you've got loads of assets and it's really exciting. You
Speaker:put that on your, that out on your socials and that's going to the
Speaker:end users in terms of like the actual like boots on
Speaker:the ground people. They're loving that. It's great, but potentially they're
Speaker:wanting to, you know, go to their distributors and ask for these products and stuff like that. But
Speaker:if you're not sharing that with the actual retailers, the
Speaker:distributors, no one knows where to buy it from. How do
Speaker:Exactly, yeah. And that's a huge piece of our responsibility as
Speaker:well, you know, and something that we've had a, let's call it a culture change
Speaker:over. Um, in terms of that, you know, and how we manage our data
Speaker:and how accessible we make our data, you know, and I think, I
Speaker:think in comparison to examples I've seen in the past, you
Speaker:know, I think we do okay with what we do. We can always do better. Um,
Speaker:but making our, our digital assets, our content assets
Speaker:easily accessible, you know, and supplied in formats that
Speaker:people can work with and to a standard that they'd expect them to be.
Speaker:So again, you know, they can take all of that data, all of
Speaker:that information and then produce that on their website, you
Speaker:know, and that's a responsibility for us. And that's our support then
Speaker:to the distribution partner, you know, and the expectation of
Speaker:a distribution power, maybe multi trade, they'll have, you know, outlets,
Speaker:trade outlets in terms of bricks and mortar sites. but they'll have
Speaker:a big e-commerce channel as well and you've got to support both
Speaker:equally you know and in the bricks and mortar sites let's not forget about that
Speaker:you know still a big big part of our industry our trade our
Speaker:business you know we're getting access to a product now availability
Speaker:to it and being seen is really important so having in-store
Speaker:display and good quality in-store display as
Speaker:well is really important you know being able to help them you
Speaker:know, merchandise the stands, you know, put the products in
Speaker:the right place, keep them secure, but, you know, explain what the
Speaker:product is as well, even product reference codes and things like that.
Speaker:So for reordering of products, things, you know, little things like
Speaker:that, you know, can be really frustrating to distributors. And
Speaker:that's where we're working hard. to try and improve that and that's the distributor
Speaker:side of the marketing but also then giving them the content as well
Speaker:making sure they've got the brochures and the price lists and the
Speaker:accessible information that they need you know that's us working with the
Speaker:distributors and that's the expectation that's out there as well. You
Speaker:know, making ourselves desirable to distributors as
Speaker:well as to want to stock the brand. You know, why would I work with Beta? Oh,
Speaker:I've heard of Beta. I've not heard of Beta, which can be sometimes in
Speaker:the case, you know, and us then doing the pitch, what we're about as a brand, but
Speaker:also what we can give them and what we can support them with, you
Speaker:know, in order to be able to sell the products as well, you know, is equally
Speaker:Yeah, it's massive. You go, you know, let's say,
Speaker:for instance, you know, you're going into, So selling
Speaker:into a new retailer, you go, here's the tools. Great. Here's
Speaker:the catalogs. Great. Okay. That's how I sell. That's how I sell them to. But
Speaker:I'm like, what about my digital channels? Oh, sorry. Can't help you with that. You
Speaker:can, here's like some white background images or something like that. And
Speaker:I'm like, if you're going, no, here's a database. Here's
Speaker:a Google Drive link of all of the content you
Speaker:can use on your social channels, on your website, to
Speaker:populate as much marketing material
Speaker:as you can for our product, which means that you've got your marketing
Speaker:team happy because they've got social media content. They've got all this
Speaker:kind of cool stuff. And it's not just like product-based stuff. It's like storytelling content.
Speaker:It's the bare minimum you can give to
Speaker:it. a retailer is a white background cut out of a
Speaker:product, right? But if you're doing these really cool case studies and like tell
Speaker:you, tell you, you know, that perhaps you've got, you want to get some 60 second snippets
Speaker:of those kinds of case studies that are relevant to their target market. The
Speaker:market is seeming like great because I need to sell this product to make money. It's
Speaker:a lot of the, I think a lot of the time that kind of gets lost that
Speaker:If you can provide the materials to help your retailer, your
Speaker:customer, sell your product, both of you win, you
Speaker:And you know, sometimes it's beyond the, the sexy, fantastic,
Speaker:super stuff. It's the basics, you know, the basic information that's
Speaker:needed, the packaging information, you know, which is a critical part of
Speaker:what we do now, you know, the responsibility around packaging. Um,
Speaker:the materials that are used, you know, in terms of that side of
Speaker:things, but also the content in terms of what the products are
Speaker:made of and what's actually in, you know, the products that you're making as
Speaker:well. That's all the critical part of what everybody's doing now and having the
Speaker:content available to give people for that as well. So they
Speaker:can explain, you know, and actually. just give the basic information that's
Speaker:needed sometimes, you know, as a responsibility. And I know not every,
Speaker:every brand out there do that well. And we've had some learnings on that, make
Speaker:no mistake, you know, in terms of the things that we're doing and still continue to
Speaker:learn now, you know, in areas where we can improve upon. Um, and it's
Speaker:remembering, you know, that you've got to pull all of that together in
Speaker:one, you know, if you're going to deliver it well, and you're going to pull it all together well,
Speaker:and, um, it's a big piece, you know, it's a big part of the
Speaker:marketing side of things as well. you know, in terms of the production of
Speaker:all of that content, you know, which isn't all the, the all singing, all
Speaker:dancing stuff, but actually sometimes it's the most critical bits. You
Speaker:know, the data side of things is really, really important, you know, and remembering that.
Speaker:And also a point we made earlier, telling people
Speaker:why it's important, you know, the person that's producing that content and
Speaker:why it's important for somebody out there as well. Why accuracy is
Speaker:really critical in terms of the information that they're putting together. That's
Speaker:It's huge absolutely huge we talked quite a
Speaker:bit there about how to market how to market and to
Speaker:support. your distribution network. What
Speaker:about driving influence, sorry, driving brand
Speaker:awareness from like the end user and stuff
Speaker:like that. So we talked a little bit about channels and things like that, but me and you had a discussion over
Speaker:LinkedIn about the like this kind of using ambassadors and influencers
Speaker:and social content. It's the stuff that we get excited about because we're a social media
Speaker:agency. What's the plans going over for the next like 12 months?
Speaker:Yeah, there is. And it's something that we on
Speaker:a local level, so the UK we've worked with a couple of people so
Speaker:far, would I describe them immediately as influencing?
Speaker:We're kind of using the content to influence and
Speaker:through association really, but you know people that have
Speaker:really built a living out of you know their content that
Speaker:they're producing in certain channels That's an area of
Speaker:definite interest to us and
Speaker:an area that I expect us to engage in a lot more moving forward.
Speaker:We're doing it from a group perspective as well, you know, we've got a whole
Speaker:little team put together with a strategy and contracts
Speaker:and all that kind of thing that comes with it. But it's really important because,
Speaker:you know, people that are subscribing to that content and are following that
Speaker:influencer, that person of interest, you know, if we're going
Speaker:to engage with them, you know, and we're going to use products as we
Speaker:would, you know, in that kind of environment, you know, put products in
Speaker:there to be seen, but also used, you know, and put in for the
Speaker:right reasons and in, in, in the right way. You
Speaker:know, we're hoping that the kickback from that will be people aspiring to
Speaker:want to use the same products and seeing the benefits of the products
Speaker:being used as well. You know, and yeah, it's, as I say,
Speaker:aspiring to be an aspirational, but actually, you know, they think,
Speaker:yeah, I could do with some, you know, some equipment from beta. I could
Speaker:use that too. I've seen that being used in that way, you know, or something just
Speaker:looks attractive. It looks interesting. It's a brand that they've not
Speaker:come across and we have to utilize that well. You know, and I
Speaker:don't mean quite in the, you know, cheesy way of, hey, buy
Speaker:this thing from Beta, you know, it's amazing. It's actually, we've got
Speaker:to be a bit, you know, more subtle than that. And actually,
Speaker:you know, see, see the content used in the right way, you know, and any
Speaker:influencers that kind of wanted to work in that way probably wouldn't be
Speaker:You know, and again, that's choosing a match in the brand with the type of
Speaker:Same as brand positioning should determine what
Speaker:kinds of content you should be putting out. It's the same as what kinds of
Speaker:influences. And we use the term influences because it's easy but people
Speaker:think of influences as having 500,000 followers or a million followers
Speaker:on like Instagram and TikTok and stuff. These guys can have 3,000 followers now and
Speaker:still be of relevance. Absolutely. The quality. Yeah, it's
Speaker:got, you've got, you've got to pick the right people. And, you know, we've, we've done
Speaker:this, we've made mistakes on this, haven't we Kee? Or, you know,
Speaker:certainly we've, you know, we've, we've, we've guided our, our
Speaker:clients towards the right kinds of, of people for
Speaker:the brand, even though other types of influencers,
Speaker:that we believe aren't great for the brand have got much better numbers.
Speaker:We're like, don't do it. Don't do it because yes, you might get like a
Speaker:quick win initially, but in the long term, it's damaging because we
Speaker:should not associate our brand, our client's brand
Speaker:with these individuals. Yeah, regardless of
Speaker:And I do think people could get lost in that for sure, you know, and
Speaker:see bright lights and see big numbers. You know, I think, oh
Speaker:yeah, and you know, actually not take a breath to step back and go, okay,
Speaker:how, how's this going to work? What would we do? How would we make this
Speaker:come to life? And what's it going to mean to somebody? And you could quickly make
Speaker:a mistake, you know, and that's our responsibility. And It would
Speaker:be an interesting thing for us to see what mistakes we possibly
Speaker:make, you know, and how the relationships that we thought were
Speaker:going to be amazing. you know, and the decisions that we decide to
Speaker:make perhaps may not end up being amazing, you know, and we
Speaker:say actually, you know, it's not right for us, but hopefully that's what
Speaker:And an agreement between the two. Yeah. It's a
Speaker:six month thing, isn't it? A lot of the time, six months, 12 months, you know, you kind of,
Speaker:you kind of go like, let's see how this goes. Okay, great. We're going to part ways, but thank you so much.
Speaker:You've been a great help, but let's please do keep in touch. And that's kind of
Speaker:the way it goes. You know, we're not expecting influences to be on the books for the next 30 years.
Speaker:And trends change, don't they? You know, and the
Speaker:content they'll be producing will be forever changing, you know, it's
Speaker:not going to be the same. You know, certainly the guys that,
Speaker:you know, and gals out there that want to be producing, you
Speaker:know, for the longer term, you know, and making a living out of it, they've got to stay relevant
Speaker:and real and fresh. you know, and we need to make
Speaker:sure, you know, that we're coming along with that. And it may mean that what worked for
Speaker:somebody, as you say, for six months, we may end up moving on to somebody else
Speaker:or to something else, you know, and it's a channel that I'll say, you know,
Speaker:we've got the least amount of penetration in right
Speaker:We've needed help with that, give us a shout. It's not really a service offering that we kind of
Speaker:provide, is it? But in terms of like, that we're not like an
Speaker:influencer agency, but we've had enough experience in
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's that. And I think we will take
Speaker:advice and we'll take experience and I'm sure you and I'll speak about it again for
Speaker:sure. You know, with the experience that they've got, but to make a
Speaker:we need to take a chance and some speculation here but doing it in a
Speaker:considered way and not going we must it absolutely must
Speaker:it's got to be right it's got to work for us yeah maybe it does
Speaker:maybe it doesn't i think we're doing it in a considered way one
Speaker:of the things that it's it's an episode that's actually coming out um it's
Speaker:it will have been out by that by the time that this one comes out emma
Speaker:stefanati we had a discussion with her she um runs
Speaker:a company called limitless egs ejs And
Speaker:so she's essentially an influencer agency. She brokers deals between
Speaker:the brands and the influencers but
Speaker:also she supports both sides with extra services
Speaker:essentially. So she's kind of a very supportive kind of
Speaker:partner. And we discussed the idea of a loose contract,
Speaker:because influencer marketing is one of those things where I think a lot of brands want,
Speaker:OK, I want this, and I want this, and I want this. And I want that every single month. And
Speaker:these are the deliverables, because at the very least, I can track what
Speaker:you've given me. So I can deliver that to my financial director or
Speaker:my sales director and say, yes, they've delivered this. This is what we got for our money, which
Speaker:is nice. But the problem with that is, especially
Speaker:with influencer marketing, especially if these guys are properly on the
Speaker:tools, Let's say you've got a very specific,
Speaker:I don't know, let's say it's a toilet valve, because it's an easy one for me.
Speaker:You've got a plumber, and they've got
Speaker:a contract with a toilet valve company to do toilet valve content,
Speaker:and maybe some other things. But essentially, if they have to
Speaker:deliver one or a specific amount of content each
Speaker:month for that, and they don't have any toilet valve jobs,
Speaker:that it's not there. So they're either going to fake it
Speaker:or they're going to squeeze it in and they're going to cut some corners. And
Speaker:what they could have done is done something else really
Speaker:well on a different month. They might get two
Speaker:gigs on that particular month and they were both really, really good
Speaker:toilet valve gigs. And, but there are only contracts
Speaker:I think there's... And that's where I think there's a pitfall there, isn't there?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. Where it becomes unnatural. Yes. So I like
Speaker:the loose contract. So it's like, you know, we're aiming for this, but
Speaker:what I don't want to do is, like, have to sort of burn myself out by having
Speaker:to do this, do this piece of content, even though this
Speaker:month isn't the right month for this. And I can, but I can potentially do two
Speaker:next month. Having this kind of loose, fitting contracts is,
Speaker:I think, a lot better. And that's a lot more how we
Speaker:work with influencers now, is this kind of like, try
Speaker:your best. Eventually, I need to see some results. But we'll aim for,
Speaker:you know, Robin's doing a piece of content a month. for
Speaker:12 months, just do 12 pieces of content, regardless of where they kind
Speaker:of fit. I need them to fit roughly, but at least then you can be
Speaker:Yeah, it's quite, again, even that's quite prescriptive, isn't
Speaker:it? You know, and scheduled. And yes, you need, you know, some, some structure to
Speaker:things and things like that. But I think you've still got to have a little bit of license
Speaker:to do something a little bit different, you know, and something to provoke something. within
Speaker:a year and within a time frame, something interesting. You know, we've seen
Speaker:some really good engagement around exhibitions that we've been doing
Speaker:recently, much better, you know, and positive than perhaps
Speaker:even, you know, we would have expected. You know, and it's good to see that,
Speaker:you know, we're now 24 and heading towards the end of 24, but
Speaker:post pandemic, of course, but people that truly have, you
Speaker:know, come out to see people and come out to see brands, you know, the
Speaker:exhibitions that we've been at in particular, you know, and that'll be a part of
Speaker:our investment moving forward as well, you know,
Speaker:and feature more. It's something that we do and always have done as
Speaker:an industry and as a brand, you know, and always been part of it, you
Speaker:know, but there's been times where you've questioned, you know, the quality of
Speaker:the delegates that are coming through, you know, the quality of the conversations that
Speaker:you're having, especially if you find yourselves talking to exhibitors more
Speaker:than you're talking to people coming through, but that's definitely changed.
Speaker:And our experience just recently is really, really good,
Speaker:you know, and building up a pipeline of activity from that. But you
Speaker:build your marketing channel around some of these events as
Speaker:well, you know, and including all the other parts of the channels has been a big, big
Speaker:Yeah, we love going to the shows, don't we, Kei? We tend
Speaker:to spend a lot of time throughout
Speaker:the year shooting content for these shows we see them getting more and more dynamic
Speaker:and busy and the
Speaker:way that shows are kind of run from the brand's perspective is
Speaker:sort of advancing and it's becoming more of an
Speaker:entertainment thing as opposed to just a you know it's definitely I
Speaker:think you've got to you know we recognizing the
Speaker:interest in taking things with us you know and yes we've used the motorsport side
Speaker:for it, for sure. To have a little bit of a draw and something,
Speaker:you know, that pulls people onto the stand, you know, making yourselves stand
Speaker:out, you know, from the crowd a little bit. And it's easier for some than others,
Speaker:but I think where you can, you should. And
Speaker:you have to make things a bit more interesting and you're responsible for doing that.
Speaker:next kind of five years, construction industry as a whole, where
Speaker:do you think it's headed? Like what's your predictions? It doesn't have to be specific,
Speaker:I don't think we're going to change dramatically. I
Speaker:think it's an industry of consistency overall.
Speaker:But I do think, you know, some of the points we've touched on today, you
Speaker:know, those that want to stick around, you know, the brands that have been around
Speaker:for a while, and new brands coming into the industry will
Speaker:have to take responsibility for making sure they get the content right. You
Speaker:know and that they do think about the strategies and they do think about what we're doing
Speaker:and engaging at all levels you know and treating
Speaker:the content and creating content that's end user focus, but
Speaker:supporting the retailers, supporting the distributors, you
Speaker:know, a rounded up omni channel of content really, you
Speaker:know, that fits all. And I think that's, that's where it is. I think,
Speaker:you know, we, we will retain a balance, um,
Speaker:across the industry of e-commerce and bricks and mortar. Um,
Speaker:I don't see that changing dramatically. Um, and
Speaker:I think there's still, and remains a case where there was probably a fear at one
Speaker:time everything's going to flood online, you know, and it's going
Speaker:to wipe out the whole bricks and mortar stores. And we've seen an element of
Speaker:that, but actually people have been using now the two channels to
Speaker:good effect of driving people with digital content and
Speaker:e-commerce even into store. And to come
Speaker:and, you know, even the click and collect model, you know, has really come
Speaker:on board and that's the two channels blending together. and I don't see
Speaker:a dramatic change to that. You know,
Speaker:yes, there'll be a few disruptors coming along and there'll be something interesting, but
Speaker:I think it'll just be a continuation of just using more techniques
Speaker:and using different things to come together. Obviously, AI, you
Speaker:know, becoming part of things even more
Speaker:and more. But again, using that to positive effect and using that in
Speaker:the right way as well. But yeah, I'm not expecting any
Speaker:earthquakes or anything earth shattering, I just hope we all get better and better
Speaker:Wise words. Mark Pearson, Beat It Tools. Thank you so much for being on The Builder.
Speaker:Really appreciate it. That was a jam-packed episode. Amazing.
