latest news . . .

October 2008 - Did you know?
Here's our top 10 nuggets of ethnic facts & figures for you to chew over this month:

By 2011 the UK's ethnic population is expected to make up over 12% of the entire population...
...and they'll have an estimated disposable income worth £300 billion.
The Indian population is the largest ethnic minority community in the UK...
...and the African population is the fifth largest ethnic minority group.
Half of Chinese men in employment work in the distribution, hotel and restaurant industry compared with just 16% of their white British counterparts.
Black Africans are the fastest growing ethnic minority group. The population has more than doubled in size between 1991 and 2001.
Young Chinese people have the highest levels of educational achievement of all ethnic groups.
The average total income of Indians is higher than any other ethnic group in the UK.
Official figures state that there are approx 400,000 Poles in the UK that have arrived from 2004 till 2007...
...and 82% are aged between 18-34.

How can marketing to the ethnic population help you? Contact us to find out at info@themarketingeffect.co.uk or call 0118 939 1374.

October 2008 - Ethnic dates for your diary
More and more brands are using ethnic cultural events and festivals as an additional way to build a relationship with the UK's ethnic population. An example is well known supermarkets using ethnic media to advertise special in-store offers around key ethnic dates such as Diwali and Eid. With that in mind here's a few dates for your diary:

2008
October:

Hindu - Navaratri - Meaning 'nine nights' and the festival symbolises the triumph of good over evil.
Muslim - Eid-Ul-Fitr - The end of Ramadan when Muslims celebrate the end of fasting.
Hindu/Jain/Sikh - Diwali - also known as 'the festival of lights' and one of the most popular of all the festivals from South Asia. It is an occasion for celebrations by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs.

N.B. Some dates may vary regionally because they are determined by the lunar calendar.

If you'd like to know more about how using ethnic events and festivals to reach the UK?s ethnic population can benefit your brand or organisation contact info@themarketingeffect.co.uk

September 2008 - Better, faster, stronger!
Better Business Our client Business Link were facing a challenge of attracting new ethnic minority owned businesses in the Berkshire region which is where we stepped in to help. A special event was staged at the prestigious Forbury Hotel in Reading for 30 local ethnic minority business owners from diverse industries covering accountants and solicitors through to ayuervedic clinics and catering companies. To give ethnic business owners a stronger attraction to attend, a special keynote speaker was invited to speak - Dr Spinder Dhaliwal, author of a new book called 'Making a Fortune - Learning from the Asian phenomenon'. The book offers valuable insights and advice from the UK's leading Asian businessmen and women, including; Lord Karan Bilimoria (Cobra Beer), Dinesh Dhamija (Ebookers.com), Dr Kartar Lalvani (Vitabiotics), Sir Gulam Noon (Noon Products) and Perween Warsi (S&A Foods). For information on future events or event management please contact info@themarketingeffect.co.uk.

August 2008 - A new month and new brand
Thames Valley Marketing is what we like to think of as our 'little sister' company. With more and more of our clients using our mainstream services as well as our specialist ethnic services we wanted to maintain the strong association between The Marketing Effect brand and ethnic marketing. With this in mind we decided to launch Thames Valley Marketing - a company which helps local businesses with their marketing and design needs. For more information and to see how we can help, please visit www.thamesvalleymarketing.com

August 2008 - Marketing Masterclass
Everyone can benefit from a little guidance and help from time to time which is exactly what the West Yorkshire Learning Consortium received with a 1 day Marketing Masterclass delivered by Harry Singh, Managing Director of The Marketing Effect. The Consortium required a presentation which covered:

An introduction to Marketing
Why is Marketing important?
What can Marketing do for the West Yorkshire Learning Consortium?
What are cost effective ways to market?
Marketing tools explored
How to use marketing tools effectively

Harry presented to over 30 delegates, all representing the various member groups of the Consortium at the BBC Radio studios in Leeds on behalf of the Media Trust Training Division. For more information on Marketing Masterclasses' please contact harry@themarketingeffect.co.uk.

July 2008 - Communicating with hard to reach groups training event
The Marketing Effect's Dal Singh, Ethnic Communications Specialist chaired the event held at Channel 4 with a panel of speakers including:

Ade Rawcliffe, Diversity and Talent Manager, Channel 4
Patricia Macauley, BME Communications Manager, COI Communications (the government's national inclusivity agency)
Manveet Patel, Healthy Ageing Healthy Living Coordinator, Age Concern
Allan Williams, Head of Policy and Research, Action with Communities in Rural England
Barbara Keating, New Media Manager, The Refugee Council

The event was for organisations with an interest in learning how to make marketing communications accessible to BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) and other hard to reach audiences and was attended by organisations including; Metropolitan Police, Arts Council England, Bowel Cancer UK, Deafblind UK, East and North Herts NHS Trust, General Medical Council, Greater London Volunteering, LloydsTSB Foundation, RNID and Shelter.

June 2008 - Reaching local communities using grass roots ethnic marketing
An exciting 1 day Community Festival was held for Time Banking UK - an organisation helping to raise the awareness of swapping skills and time to benefit individuals and communities at large. Held within the heart of the community in Lewisham Shopping Centre, a range of interactive activities were staged by local Time Banking members with the event attracting well over 3,000 people throughout the day. A grass roots marketing campaign was planned and delivered with support from an ongoing London wide above the line campaign that included; outdoor billboard advertising, tube advertising and local newspapers.

For images of the event please visit the Facebook page

April 2008 - Helping local SME ethnic owned businesses
Colourflow is an independently owned SME print company who needed a revamped website and marketing campaign to re-invigorate their brand in the face of stiff competition. With existing clients including Virgin Media, Q8 and Learn Direct it was vital to build upon their portfolio and present a contemporary image to prospective clients. The newly designed website can be found here

March 2008 - Preparing the ethnic population for the digital switchover
Digital UK is the independent, non-profit organisation leading the process of digital switchover in the UK. It was set up at the request of Government and works closely with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Business as well as the regulator OFCOM to prepare the UK for the biggest change in broadcasting since the introduction of colour.

As part of its remit Digital UK has to ensure the switchover message reaches the UK's hard to reach population which includes the ethnic communities. The Marketing Effect consulted for Digital UK ensuring that an effective ethnic marketing strategy will be included in the nationwide rollout which includes a combination of; outdoor advertising in ethnic areas, ethnic media, grassroots ethnic marketing, ethnic events as well as addressing hurdles.

Digital UK is owned by the UK's public service broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, S4C and Teletext.

December 2007 - The benefits of volunteering
'It's all about U' is a new national charity campaign that we're managing after recently winning a 3 way agency pitch. The campaign will run throughout December and January 2008 and aims to raise the awareness of the benefits of volunteering amongst excluded Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities which account to approx 1,270,000 people in the UK.

The integrated campaign will use: Bollywood cinema advertising, 48 Sheet billboards in high concentrated ethnic areas, ethnic radio & press, community outreach and an online campaign incorporating social networking site 'Facebook'. Recognising that we need to reach both 1st and 2nd generation ethnic groups we have planned a strategy that uses a variety of media that will reach and engage them effectively with the 'It's all about U' message.

www.itsallaboutu.org.uk
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=14722390575

November 2007 - Sponsorship opportunities
Sponsorship of an event can represent your 1st step in building a credible relationship with the South Asian communities. Apart from the primary benefits which include; positive PR for your organisation, branding, supporting ongoing marketing promotions and pre & post event publicity coverage, sponsorship also offers the benefit of your organisation being seen taking steps to reach out and engage the ethnic community in a positive and meaningful way. For more details on current ethnic sponsorship opportunities please email sponsorship@themarketingeffect.co.uk

October 2007 - Reaching hard to reach groups
It's been a busy month for presenting our ethnic communications solutions to organisations throughout the UK. This month saw Dal Singh our Ethnic Communications Specialist presenting at the Mentoring & Befriending Foundation's "South West Good Practice Conference" hosted at Somerset Cricket Club. The event brought together 60 of the regions Voluntary and Community organisations with the aim to present and share good practice workshops.

If you would like to book Dal Singh to speak on reaching the UK's ethnic communities please email chloe@themarketingeffect.co.uk

October 2007 - Scottish Proverb
"Charity begins at home, but shouldn't end there."

The West London Asian Society needed a PC to provide internet access to its members and we were more than happy to provide a brand new Dell PC with flat screen monitor for the long established organisation that has helped provide us access to West London’s large Asian population. The charity was formed to enhance the lives of Asian people who have become isolated due to illness, disability, old age or divorce, through the provision of culturally appropriate and acceptable opportunities for socializing and recreation.

If you are a charity looking for marketing support all requests will be considered. Please send your request to charity@themarketingeffect.co.uk

September 2007 - Book now for the monthly Ethnic Marketing Seminar
Don't know where to start with your plan to communicate with the ethnic communities? Are you confused with how to speak to each community? To translate or not to translate? What media can you use to target them? What events can you attend to engage with them?

All these questions and more are answered during our 1 day ethnic marketing seminars which offer organisations an opportunity to learn about communicating and engaging with the UK’s ethnic population. The seminar also covers; demographics, differences within each ethnic community, specific ways to target and communicate, use of ethnic media, case studies and a Q&A session.

This is what previous delegates have had to say:
"Very interesting and thought provoking. Have learnt more in 1 and a half hours than in years re: ethnic communications."
"I think the seminar has made me realise how complex this area is and need to rethink strategies!"
"An eye opener in ethnic marketing."

To find out more and book your place on the next seminar email seminars@themarketingeffect.co.uk

August 2007 - An exciting new cricket event
Superskills is a new televised event that tests top players’ cricket skills. Five teams of three players each compete over five events; Powerdrive, Strokemaster, Deadeye, Fineline and Speedster. Virender Sehwag, Shahid Afridi and other stars will be playing on the day with defending champions South Africa taking on England, Pakistan, Australia and India.

The event will be on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th August and 'The Marketing Effect' will be managing a below the line campaign to promote the event amongst the Indian, Pakistani, South African and Australian communities within London.

July 2007 - Strathmore Water
A.G Barr, Scotland's largest soft drinks company was referred to us by an existing client and we are pleased to be now managing a London wide promotion for their premium brand Strathmore Water. The campaign will use field promotion teams within wholesale trade to increase retail distribution and is being supported with a £2million marketing spend.

July 2007 – New to the TME Team
We’d like to welcome and introduce our 2 newest team members – Chloe and Maurizio.
Chloe Basterfield, a recent graduate from Reading University and a Facebook addict has joined us as a Marketing Executive.
Maurizo Liberato, who graduated from Italy’s Universita’ Degli Studi Di Teramo is a professional drummer and has joined us as our resident Web developer.

July 2007 – Up for Arts
After winning a 3 way pitch in July we are managing our 4th nationwide campaign for client Media Trust to help increase the awareness of the benefits of volunteering – specifically amongst excluded groups which include the Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities. ‘Up for Arts’ is a campaign that aims to encourage local communities to take part in a wide range of arts & crafts activities. From painting to pottery, drama to dancing there will be free events across the UK for people to enjoy no matter what their background, qualifications or physical abilities. The Up for Arts launch event was held at the Metro Centre, Gateshead on Sunday July 22nd and included workshops covering Bollywood dance, Indian drums and DJ skills.
The next Up for Arts event will be held at London Mela on Sunday 12th August. www.mediatrust.org

December 2006 – Reaching hard to reach groups
We’ve just completed a nationwide campaign for the MediaTrust (www.mediatrust.org) who needed solutions to target the hard to reach Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Chinese communities. We planned a press campaign using selected Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Chinese press titles using translated artwork along with a nationwide booklet drop to community centres and venues to support the press campaign. To get your message heard amongst the ethnic communities in the New Year why not get in touch with us.

September 2006 – The Ethnic Marketing Seminar
Over 15 organisations took part in the 1st Ethnic Marketing Seminar including London Fire Brigade, MTI, Business Link, Help the Aged, Southwark Council, Barking & Dagenham Council, Asthma UK and YouGov. Feedback from the delegates included, “Good amount of time for Q&A, and able to get some really good relevant data” with over 99% of the attendees rating the workshop as ‘Very good’. For more information on ethnic seminars please email seminars@themarketingeffect.co.uk

September 2006 – Welcoming our new partners Rich Visions
To increase our reach across all ethnic communities we’ve partnered up with Rich Visions (www.richvisions.co.uk) a Marketing & PR agency specialising in targeting the UK’s Black African Caribbean communities. Our 1st project together is delivering Ethnic Marketing Seminars to public sector organisations which offer highly practical and interactive one day workshops to show how to successfully reach the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK.

8th August 2006 - Lift Off!
On the 8th August 2006 at 1pm, The Marketing Effect was officially launched.