Read about our various technology solutions below….

Display

As the display market moves towards impression level buying rather than site or placement level buying, we have a need to buy inventory for a particular consumer based on their behaviour and likelihood of them converting for our clients.  To facilitate this shift in the way we plan and buy media for our clients we have partnered with MediaMath, the market leading Demand Side Platform (DSP).

Locker Room chose MediaMath as our central DSP for their market leading technology and white label solution through Terminal One. MediaMath provides an unmatched combination of technology, automation, analytics and strategic advisory to enable best possible ROI from our client’s media budgets.

By embracing Demand Side Platform (DSP) technology we are able to bid for a particular impression in a real time (RTB) environment and gain efficiencies in customer acquisition for our clients.   We use a range of strategies such as prospecting, targeting specific data pools, contextual and remarketing, all focused on a set of campaign goals.

Furthermore we are able to monitor consumer conversion funnels and by linking into our Search Engine Marketing technology; Marin, we are able to efficiently manage media across multiple channels and converge display and search marketing strategies together.  The result is higher efficiency and improved results through multi channel.

Search

As an agency we are getting more and more sophisticated with our Search Engine marketing (SEM) and embracing technology means we can be more efficient and focus our efforts on analysis of campaign performance and optimisation.   By integrating with Marin we are able to manipulate data efficiently from multiple search engines as well as display, social and mobile campaigns.  Marin is a world leader in ad management software with powerful bid management and campaign optimisation tools, allowing us to spend less time pulling data together from multiple sources and more time generating conversions for our clients.

Marin allows us to plugin multiple ad solutions and data centres such as Adwords, Facebook, Tagman, Doubleclick etc and optimise campaigns from one central platform and dash board.  Increased efficiency means more conversions and improved ROI for our clients.

Affiliate Marketing

To further the improvements in ROI for our clients Locker Room have partnered with the market leader for affiliate marketing technology, the Performance Horizon group.

Performance Horizon have built their proprietary technology around an API that allows us to white label a full affiliate marketing solution across tracking, reporting dashboards, partnership management tools and a payment interface.

The technology allows us to offer our clients a branded in house affiliate programme, managed by Locker Room as an extension of their team to benefit from our expertise as well as market leading technology.  We improve efficiency through real time reporting, pivot data and analyse KPI’s by partner, product and channel.  We can deliver cost savings for our clients and improve ROI whilst feeding back improvements to PHG who ultimately as a technology business can implement and make further improvements to our campaigns.

Both Coca-Cola and Walmart have gone for historic references with Coca-Cola’s page containing an image of the hand written letter dating back to 1893 which praises the “satisfaction” of Coca-Cola whilst Walmart included an image of their very first store which opened in 1962.

Whilst Coca-Cola and Walmart have gone down the historical route, Ford, ESPN and the New York Time have gone down a more personal one. The Ford cover photo shows their main offices in America with ESPN displaying a behind the scenes image of their iconic SportsCenter programme. It’s the New York Times who have gone with the most personal touch though with a cover photo containing alot of the emploees of the paper:

Of course, it can be easier to keep these things as simplistic as possible. If you’re brand is well know then the product should be able to sell itself. This is certainly the case for Subway and Starbucks who ignore the history or personal touch and just let their products do the talking (we’re going to call it the Ronseal approach – “Does exactly what it says on the tin” – although Ronseal haven’t actually converted to timeline yet)

Below are some links to some more pages that we have found whilst researching this blog:

https://www.facebook.com/livestrong
http://www.facebook.com/fcbarcelona?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/nike?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/mustoclothing?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/lockerroomuk
http://adage.com/article/digital/meet-coolest-facebook-brand-timelines-coke-espn-ford/233015/

There are a number of new features that marketers of Facebook pages should be aware of:

1) The Look and Feel – the new structure includes a cover photo at the top of the page which scans the whole width of the page (or at least 851pixels of it). This cover photo allows marketers to really show the brand off and brings you a level of creativity to the page. The cover photo is 851×315 with a 130×130 area for the company’s logo. A couple of things to be aware of when designing  your cover photo and logo are that Facebook will optimise all photos so try to keep your cover photo simple and save it as high resolution. Also, you will still be required to design your logo to 180×180 but this will be reduced in size to 130×130 when uploaded.

Your cover photo must also confine to Facebook’s restrictions meaning that your photo must not contain the following:

• Any price or purchase information
• Any contact information (e-mail, phone, website, social media links)
• Calls to action
• Any references to Facebook features like “Like our Page” or any arrows or signs pointing to any similar feature
• Copyrighted material (of other people of course)

2) Reduced Tab Visibility – It is still possible to have Facebook tabs but these will be stored under a drop down list next to the 4 tabs underneath the cover photo. Depending on how many tabs you have, Photos, Likes and Videos will usually be displayed alongside one further tab. Therefore, the best way to advertise your tabs/application is via a post on your timeline.

3) No Default Landing Page – any visitors to your brand page will now go straight to your timeline making the content on this page even more important.

4) Pin Items to the Top of Your Timeline – You now have the ability to pin your most important items to the top of the page. This is expected to be the new preferred method of drawing attention to the more relevant posts on your timeline (before this information may have been found on a default landing page). A post can be pinned for up to 7 days but only one post can be pinned at any one time.

5) Replacing all 510px Images – When creating individual pages, the width restrictions that were in place on images has now been resized to 811px wide giving you much more space to make attractive images.

6) Private Messaging Between Brands and Users – This results in a better interaction between brands and their users and could also result in less clutter on the timeline as well as offensive or negative remarks being removed.

Now that you have an idea of some of the new features, let’s look at some of the basics of the timeline.

Each post in Facebook can now be dated meaning you can give your users as much past information as you want. Whether this is from when you got started on Facebook or perhaps you want to go back to when the business was founded, you can backdate posts by clicking on the pencil icon and selecting Change Date. You can also choose to highlight posts by clicking on the star icon. This will ensure that the post scales the whole of the page making it stand out more.

For more information on Facebook Timelines, check out the links below:

http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline
http://mashable.com/2012/03/01/facebook-timeline-brands-guide/#5121519-Getting-to-know-you
http://mashable.com/2012/02/29/facebook-brand-timelines-changes-marketing/
http://www.vectorash.ro/facebook-timeline-guide/
http://www.vectorash.ro/facebook-timeline-cover-photo/

Locker Room Media is a full service traditional and digital marketing and advertising agency specialising in PPC, affiliate marketing, display planning and buying, social media, eCRM, site sponsorship, creative production and traditional media. Set up in 2001 Locker Room is a top 15 UK marketing agency working with major clients within the retail, finance, telecoms and gaming space across a variety of bespoke marketing and full service solutions. Based in Putney, South West London, Locker Room is easily accessible by rail (Putney Mainland) and tube (Putney Bridge / East Putney).

Locker Room is a dynamic agency that is rapidly expanding within this space and will prove a great career jump for the right candidate who is quick to learn and eager to progress. Company URL – www.lockerroomuk.com

The Role

Locker Room Media is looking for a new Account Director to manage a series of key accounts in the business. The role requires an individual who is proactive, already attained a certain status in the industry and is willing to learn further with a desire to progress their career in a thriving agency. This role will lead a team of SAM and exec as a minimum and will either report into an Associate Director or straight in to Joint Managing Directors.

Responsibilities

• Channels to include
  • paid search through google, yahoo! and bing
  • performance media (through networks or more likely DSP)
  • Affiliate channel on Locker Room bespoke platform
  • adserving
  • tracking
  • analytics
• Take the lead on 5-6 Direct clients
• Reporting or co-ordinate team reporting on campaign activity both weekly and monthly to all clients
• Analysing marketing activity and effectively reporting on campaign performance
• Be comfortable to work on strategies across all clients
• Focus on multi vertical clients in retail, finance and gaming clients
• Acting as a client point of contact
• Working directly with an performance team on combined targets
• Planning and buying media where applicable
• Actively liaising with the search engines to source new opportunities
• Actively liaising with media owners to source new advertising opportunities
• Planning and booking creative with our studio

The candidate

Locker Room Media are looking for a candidate that can quickly understand the workings of their existing client base, who is client facing, eager to learn, able to hit the ground running and wishing to progress. Credibility in the space is a must.

Must Haves:

• Probably 4-5 years experience agency side
• Intimate working knowledge of analytics software
• Degree level qualification
• Brilliant presentation skills
• Ability to work as part of a team and to show intuitive leadership skills
• Ambition
• Good organisational skills

Please contact info@lockerroomuk.com

The star studded event had half time performances from Madonna with less than the usual controversy often caused by pop stars during the event which attracts over 100 million strong TV audiences.

With such a huge audience, TV networks are able to cash in on the opportunity and were charging $3.5m for a 30 second TV advert this year.  A huge amount of money for a 30 second ad break which makes you wonder how brands can ever get a return from their investment.

But Super Bowl is more than just a game of American football, it is the association with the event and the reason leading global brands pay through the nose for their ad spots.  With the rise of digital media and hype around the game, advertises are now pre-realising their adverts to cash in on the PR and pre match buzz of who is going to be advertising this year.  Adverts tend to be quirky memorable ads that will capture the attention of the massive audience.

Here is a collection of those ads put together by Mashable for 2012.

Locker Room which is based in London, impressed Time Out with the breadth and creativity of its ideas as well as demonstrating sound return on investment for the project.

Peter Hanford, Commercial Director of Locker Room said of the win:  “This is a really exciting piece of business running a broad campaign across a range of audiences creating relevant and motivating content which will engage and inspire as well as drive sales.   We are delighted to welcome Time Out to our list of clients.”

Locker Room’s ability to show an understanding of the importance of evaluating the return on investment was important as Lauren Macnab, Digital Acquisitions Manager of Time Out explains:  “We have a diverse range of products and services to offer a wide range of consumers and our focus is to develop the transactional side of our business through theatre ticket sales, deals, magazine subscriptions and restaurant bookings.  We were looking for a marketing agency to show creativity in developing a digital marketing campaign which would drive awareness and adoption of these products and services amongst a new, relevant and engaged audience whilst generating a positive ROI for the business.”

Locker Room will be managing a range of paid for media channels to make the best use of multiple customer acquisition opportunities, products and business models.  The range of services which Locker Room will provide will include PPC, display and creative for the UK, Europe and USA markets.

Furthermore Locker Room will use a range of tools and technologies to build dynamic landing pages based on the individual consumer’s product queries which will enhance conversion rates.

You can see from the post here that we didn’t do too well predicting only 17% of our 29!  And here they are;

• Online gambling starts to be legalised in the US – state by state
• Channel 5 to do deal with Endemol to show Big Brother - and it flops again
• Colin Firth to win best actor in the Oscars
• Christine Bleakley & Frank Lampard to get engaged
• Mobile media to “REALLY” take off – AGAIN

Looking ahead to 2012 we’re hoping we can do better…..

• Ricky Lambert picked for the England team
• England Lose final group game at Euros going out, Rooney is sent off
• Lewis Hamilton wins the F1
• Locker Room Senior Account Managers Dan and Fraser come out as a couple
• Tiger Woods to shack up with Kim Kardashian
• The economy to implode
• Locker Room to move and have 30 staff by Xmas 2012
• Jessica Ennis to win SPOTY – FAIL
• Holland to thrash Scotland at Sports Direct Arena@ St James’s Park in November
• No Mo’s at Locker room for the month of November
• England to win the 6 nations
• England to win 22 gold medals and 55 medals in total in the Olympics
• EU to collapse and France and Germany to set up independent partnership (maybe without an invasion this time)
• Manchester City to win Premier League & Europa League
• Andy Murray to win a grand slam
• Usain Bolt to break 100m record in Olympic final
• Wayne & Coleen Rooney to split
• Katie Price & Peter Andre to get back together and fall pregnant by Xmas
• Another famous 27 year old musician to die

Some of the team put forward some deaths for 2012;

• The Queen
• Forsyth and Lehman
• Collymore and Barbara Windsor
• Thatcher
• Sir Bobby Charlton
• Cliff Richard
• Michael Barrymore
• Harry Redknapp

The Drum surveyed 300 of the biggest and best agencies to audit the leading digital shops within marketing, technical and design and build.  Ranking agencies based on UK fee income Locker Room are ranked 73^rd in the UK’s Top 100 Digital Agencies, 49^th in the Top Marketing Agency category and 4^th in the Most Efficient Agency category.

Read the full results here

Here in the UK this is starting to take off, mainly as a marketing tactic, again intending to drive consumers to shop online.  This year saw Amazon UK getting involved offering Black Friday deals to consumers with discounts on 1000’s of products in a “flash sale” lasting a few days from the Friday after thanks giving through Cyber Monday.

For most UK retailers the main peak in Christmas sales comes on our very own Cyber Monday, or Mega Monday as most now call it, the first Monday of December.  Consumers have received their last pay cheque before Christmas, spent time over the weekend researching and preparing for Christmas and come online that Monday to shop for gifts.

Data from IBM’s Coremetrics Benchmark analysis suggests that sales on Cyber Monday 2011 were some 21.5% above those of the same day in 2010 whilst the IMRG suggests sales will be peaking from November 28^th through to the second week of December.  Many will remember the chaos from Christmas 2010 with heavy snow across the country affecting delivery, so perhaps this year consumers will be cautious and shop earlier.

Hitwise monitored 84.6m visits to online retail websites on Mega Monday, 5^th December some 18% up on last year, with 72m visits.  Amazon and eBay were winning the lion’s share of traffic with 10% and 1.7% respectively.

At Lockerroom we work with a range of high street retail brands and follow these patterns to see the impact of our Christmas marketing campaigns.  From PPC (paid search), affiliate marketing partnerships, display media campaigns and social media marketing we are tasked with delivering high revenues and ROI to our clients.

From a cross segment of our clients we are able to see the impact of Cyber Monday and Mega Monday and if the buzz around these dates is true.  Certainly a few of our clients had huge revenues in November 2011 vs. November 2010 and it is encouraging to see the staff at Lockerroom delivering results.

Looking at the data from a selection of retail clients we can see that Cyber Monday delivered 88% higher revenues than an average Monday’s trading.  Mega Monday has then provided a further 100% uplift in revenues from those on Cyber Monday.  Not buzz then, rather a significant day in the retail trading calendar with Mega Monday dominating the volume in the UK.

We wanted to see if indeed this peak is isolated to the one day event, or if it marks the start of the Christmas rush with peaking sales every day.  However looking at the Tuesday and Wednesday after both Cyber Monday and Mega Monday we see that sales drop away again to (slightly higher than) average levels, but still nowhere near the levels seen on those peak Mondays.

In addition to this we noticed some channel specific peaks for Mega Monday with one of our clients receiving some 462% uplift in revenue through PPC vs. an average Monday’s PPC trading.

We expect revenues to continue through to the Christmas last delivery date, December 21^st for most retailers.  Our account management teams are working hard to ensure we are maximising all opportunities in this critical trading period.

Some of the clients featured include Millets, Bodog, La Senza and Alibaba.

Check out our showreel for some of this work below and let us know what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.