Summer Newsletter 2010

I’m not going to even think about the days getting shorter because I can’t believe we’ve just passed the summer solstice anyway! What a year it’s been so far….

We’ve added Gorillaz, Philips and Red Bull to our client list. The lovely people at Asda and Cancer Research have both come back for more. We’ve won another award for our first advergame for Vimto. I’ve been speaking at Elmwood’s Digital Picnic, Brandhouse’s Digital Sparks and I’m up next at the Develop Conference in July. And we need more desks and IT kit because we’ve got new Matmians on board – great!

Why has the downturn been Matmi’s up? Because we’re getting great results for our clients and making them look really good…..

Although our other halves have sometimes forgotten what we look like, in general the marvellous Matmians have been having a whale of a time this year. And I’m not gloating about it – there’s a very good reason.

What we do is working wonders for our clients and they keep coming back for more. Asda, EMI and Cancer Research have all run their second/third/fourth campaigns with us in the last six months because now they truly understand the power of branded entertainment as the new genre of advertising.

We’re talking TV equivalent airtime in terms of decades – and it’s voluntary, interactive, word-of-mouth marketing too (ie – the most influential type). Take a look at the Digital Diary for the facts and figures.

So what’s changed? Nothing – but when times are tough, people are more open-minded. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and all that. Now that a few big brands have successfully included cutting edge digital techniques (like advergames) in their online marketing, the rest have noticed and decided to catch us up.

That’s slightly scary for Matmi because we like to be “out there” in every sense of the word. But we put our business brains into gear (yes, we have that type of thinking here too) and work out the next move.

I predicted that the fusion of gaming with social media would be this year’s big trend – and it is. So much so that the big shakers like Facebook and Apple are only just keeping up. We’re a minnow in comparison physically, but we have a massive footprint digitally and that’s what qualifies us to show clients how to do the same. It’s no surprise to us that their Matmi campaigns are so successful – but it’s great to still be able to surprise them!

I think this is the beautiful secret of Matmi’s success. Give people what they want online (entertainment) and they’re really happy. Brand the entertainment – subtly – and the sponsors are happy. Come up with great concepts and challenging work and the marvellous Matmians are happy.

When everyone’s happy, you’ve got a success on your hands. I hope you can put the same principle to work in your business.

(And if you’d like to give it a test drive with an advergame, you know who to call).

Enjoy, Jeff.

June 2010