Seal of royal approval for the coronation

Seal of royal approval for the coronation

by | May 2, 2023 | Copywriting, Marketing, PR & Comms, Working practice

How to create a successful marketing campaign: Seal of royal approval for the coronation.

How to create a successful marketing campaign: Seal of royal approval for the coronation.

The latest in our irregular series looking at successful marketing campaigns and how you can create your own winning promotion.

With less than a week until the coronation of King Charles III, the shops are full of every kind of product you can imagine to commemorate this historic occasion. It seems like almost every brand has thought of a way to show their patriotism. And you might need access to the privy purse to afford some of the products. Here we look at some of the products, who has got the royal connection right, and who should be heading to the Tower?

All the usual suspects have special wares just for the coronation; think Marks and Spencer, Fortnum and Mason, Emma Bridgewater, and Sainsbury’s – all the usual Great British retailers.

Marks and Spencer has everything from soap and moisturiser to light-up cushions. And of course, there are special Colin the Caterpillars! What national event could pass without a special Colin?

Sainsbury’s has various special items including their Coronation Ale; brewed in England of course and apparently with a biscuit flavour.

Talking of biscuits, it seems every retailer has a special biscuit set and tin to commemorate the occasion. McVitie’s has its Coronation Commemorative Biscuit Selection, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, and Fortnum and Mason have their own too. But if you fancy a fancy biscuit then don’t miss the Biscuiteers King Charles III coronation biscuits and tin.

As well as biscuits, John Lewis has developed a special cocktail for the occasion: Kocktail King Charles III Coronation Crown Martini. The Crown Martini is ready mixed, requiring no effort to celebrate. The drink includes Hepple gin, dry vermouth, elderflower liqueur, rhubarb, cucumber, and rose tea. A perfectly British mix.

Fortnum and Mason have a veritable smorgasbord of items to buy. Starting at £8.95 for their Coronation Chocolate Coin Tin up to their King of Picnics hamper for £500!

Kingsmill bread has released special packaging for the coronation and Pimm’s has its special No.1 Cup Coronation Edition.

And non-food items also include pottery gifts from Emma Bridgewater and clothes from Cath Kidston and Joules. Or how about a puzzle from Goviers; something to keep you entertained during the coronation service.

So, as you can see there’s plenty on offer but which of these warrant the Royal Warrant, and how you can take advantage of these for your organisation?

Be relevant

The best of these products are the ones that have a clear link to the coronation or are clearly ‘British’. So the soap and moisturiser set from Marks and Spencer seems a bit tentative. But the Kingsmill bread and Pimms all hit the right note. What about your organisation is really British? Play up those connections. For example, if your development charity works in every country of the commonwealth shout about that and show how all over the world people are celebrating their new Head of State.

Be exclusive

A winery in Sussex is offering a limited-edition sparkling wine, with only 1,000 available. Products like these are great; exclusivity makes the product desirable. How can you create exclusivity? Perhaps the first 100 donors receive a special gift or invitation to an event. For example, a conservation charity could plant a tree in its coronation wood for each person who donates before the Monday 8 May, and put their name on a plaque at the entrance to the wood.

Be useful

Many of the coronation products work well because they are useful. People up and down the country will be celebrating this weekend, so food and drinks will always work well. Especially at street parties when people want to show off to the Joneses. How can your organisation be useful? Perhaps a charity working in mental health could offer a blog on coping with the coronation weekend and the effect it may have on mental health?

Be long lasting

One of the reasons things like biscuit tins are so popular is that as well as the collectability of them, they are long-lasting. Many people still have tins from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and even her father’s coronation. And they are still being used to store cash, receipts, buttons, and a plethora of other household items. How can your organisation demonstrate its longevity? What product or service can you release to mark the coronation? Perhaps a new fund, award, or scholarship?

It’s not too late to create a product or service or even just write a blog that links to the news-worthy coronation just follow these four tips to make sure what you create hits the mark and drives your organisation objectives too.

So, tell us, how is your organisation celebrating the coronation?

Pic courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Fortnight

by | Mar 1, 2023 | Branding, Marketing, PR & Comms

How to create a successful marketing campaign: Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Fortnight.

The latest in our irregular series looking at successful marketing campaigns and how you can create your own winning promotion.

Fairtrade is a global movement for change that works directly with businesses, consumers, and campaigners to make trade deliver for farmers and workers. It has a strong and active presence in the UK, represented by the Fairtrade Foundation. The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 by various charities, campaigns, faith, and women’s groups as an independent non-profit organisation. In the last 30 years, the Fairtrade Foundation has grown and 65% of people in the UK say they choose Fairtrade. And it’s growing; Fairtrade sales increased by 14% in 2020. But like any organisation, it can’t rest on its laurels and needs to keep promoting itself and most importantly it’s products. So, each year the Fairtrade Foundation runs Fairtrade Fortnight. So, what makes the campaign so successful?

Strong message

Fairtrade Fortnight has a simple message and in 2023 links in with climate change. This year, they have used the rationing of fresh produce as a hook. One of the reasons the message is strong is that it combines head and heart – something that always works well when it comes to consumer buying behaviour. The ‘heart’ message of the cause of the people producing the food and planet, mixes well with the ‘head’ message of you can make a difference through your day-to-day purchases.

Strong stunt

Taking the strong message, the Fairtrade Foundation has created a great stunt that will create headlines and column inches. The Endangered Aisle will shine a light on the supermarket staples most at risk of becoming endangered from the climate crisis, including coffee, bananas, and chocolate.

A strong call to action

The final thing that makes this campaign successful is a clear, simple call to action: Buy fairtrade. The campaign has explained the issue of farmers not being fairly paid, and land suffering climate change effects and then set out what everyone can do about it.

Taking note of these three things could make all the difference to your next campaign. How can you create a message which reaches both heart and head? Can you create a stunt that catches people’s eyes? And the most important thing is to make sure you have a strong call to action. Indeed all your marketing materials and activity need this so it’s worth spending some time on.

Let us know which of these tactics you use and what success they have brought you.

Pic courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Pic showing a stall selling different vegetables with a Fairtrade sign at the back

Toilet Twinning and World Toilet Day

Toilet Twinning and World Toilet Day

by | Nov 18, 2022 | Marketing, PR & Comms, Social media

How to create a successful marketing campaign: Toilet Twinning and World Toilet Day

The latest in our irregular series looking at successful marketing campaigns and how you can create your own winning promotion.

The charity Toilet Twinning was established in 2010 as a joint venture of NGOs Tearfund and Cord. Since then 175,337 Toilet Twins have been created and 1,052,022 lives have been transformed through safe sanitation. It raises money for sanitation projects through ‘toilet twinning’. For £60 you can twin your loo with a family’s household latrine in a vulnerable community in a country of your choosing. You then get a certificate to hang in ‘smallest room’, along with with a photo and GPS coordinates so you can look up your twin’s location on Google Maps. Lovely! You can imagine, it’s a quirky gift idea for that hard to but for uncle at Christmas but probably quite a hard sell to get people interested the rest of the year. This is why we love Toilet Twinning’s World Toilet Day campaign. Yes, World Toilet Day is a thing! So, what’s so good about this campaign and how can you recreate its success?

1. Great hook

Making use of an awareness day, anniversary or other time of public interest can save you a lot of hard work. There will already be other people, brands, organisations who will be sharing content on this topic and using the hashtag so you can piggy back on that too. The most important thing is that the hook you choose is really relevant to your organisation. World Toilet Day and Toilet Twinning were made for each other. Find your perfect fit and then run with it.

2. Make it Pun-ny

Talking of runs with it (see what we did there?!), Toilet Twinning is not afraid of a good pun. And we are here for it! We love a pun at We Are Comma. Toilet Twining use puns to great effect for topics which can be quite taboo still. They use the #bigpush to encourage their fundraisers to get those donations. And their headline fundraising initiative for World Toilet Day this year is the Big Squat – encouraging people “Squat 60 times a day from 1st of November to World Toilet Day on 19th of November and raise money for life-changing toilets!”. If that sounds to active for you, how about a piece of cake with their ‘soggy bottom bake sale’?

3. A clear target

This campaign is very clear in what your fundraising target should be. £60 – the cost of twinning a toilet. 60 squats for £60. It all adds up nicely. And it’s achievable. Getting friends and family to club together and help you raise £60 seems do-able. And the more people who think they can achieve it, the more people who will join in.

So how can you apply these lessons to your organisation, ahead of your next campaign to make it more successful?

You can find out about We Are Comma, who we are, and the services that we offer on the website. Or to start a conversation you can email hello@wearecomma.com or use the contact form.
Pic courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Pic showing a senior team leader with her team planning strategy
Get noticed on Google

Get noticed on Google

by | Jul 5, 2022 | Marketing, PR & Comms, Social media, Working practice

Get noticed on Google

To get noticed on Google can be important for most businesses and organisations. With Google reviews playing a vital role. According to Blue Corona, 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations and 90 percent of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.

And it’s not just prospective customers that google reviews affect, but also anyone searching for anything to do with your business, as they affect the search algorithm. In short, having more good reviews means higher google ranking and therefore results in more leads followed by more sales and eventually higher revenue.

Furthermore 85% of consumers don’t trust reviews which are more than three months old. And only 40% of people look at reviews from the last two weeks. So keeping your reviews up to date and asking customers to add new reviews regularly is important. But it doesn’t need to be onerous. Below are three top tips for getting more reviews – and therefore getting your organisation noticed on google.

1. You don’t get if you don’t ask

After every successful project, purchase or event send your customers a personal email, thanking them for using you, asking for feedback and saying you look forward to working with them again in future. Explain that all feedback is read and used to improve the services you provide. Ask them to leave you a google review and provide a direct link to make it easy for them to do so. We are Comma can help you create a direct link to send to your customers.

2. Ask, ask and ask again

Don’t be disheartened if a customer doesn’t leave a review the first time you ask. They could have forgotten to do it and a reminder will push it back up their to do list.

It is fine to ask a customer up to three times after each interaction. Create some templates which you can customise. A week after the first, thank you email – check your google reviews and if the customer hasn’t left a review use your second template email to remind them. Again, personalise the email and ask again for a google review – including the link again. Then repeat the process in two weeks’ time again.

If the customer still doesn’t leave a review then don’t worry; some people never will but it’s worth a try. And regular follow ups help to keep your organisation fresh in customers’ minds.

3. Reply to every review

After taking the time to write a review; the least you can do is reply. Whether the review you receive is the great recommendation you expected or more negative, it is important that you acknowledge it.

For every positive review, thank the customer and say you look forward to working with them again. Do this in the most personalised way you can.

For every negative review, you still need to respond – and quickly. Every review you receive should be replied to within 24 hours. But don’t respond in anger, don’t be personal and don’t give excuses. It can be helpful to have a template response which includes the following:

  • Thank the customer and quickly apologise for the experience they’ve had. You must apologise whether you agree or not; whether you feel you were in the right or wrong.
  • Try to address the issue the customer has mentioned.
  • Attempt to resolve the complaint privately – ideally via telephone, if not then email. You can read our full blog on how to respond to negative reviews here.

Google provides this advice on responding to reviews – and the importance of making sure you do.

If you receive a fake review then contact google to get it removed. However, you should still respond as if it was a genuine review but it can be helpful to say something along the lines of “we can’t find record of this project however we are keen to get the matter resolved, therefore please contact our office on Xtelephone numberX as soon as possible.”

And finally, the basis of all of this is continuing to provide great customer service. Your organisation cares about what customers think of you. And you want to provide the best service/products so getting feedback is important to help you keep getting better. So take the reviews you receive and keep improving.

What’s the best review you’ve ever had?


Pics courtesy of Adobe Stock
Graphics representation of the search engine search screen using simple coloured blocks
4 types of content your organisation needs

4 types of content your organisation needs

by | Jun 27, 2022 | Copywriting, Marketing, PR & Comms, Social media, Working practice

4 types of content your organisation needs

You’re busy. We get it. Even when clicking on this blog you were thinking “do I have time for this?”. We know that social media can seem like just another thing on your never-ending admin list. And that pressure can take away your creativity. So here is some inspiration to get your juices flowing again. Here we share four types of content that all organisations benefit from.


1. Evergreen
This is the stuff that you create and can use again and again. It’s particularly good for when you have no time – when that unexpected ‘thing’ happens and social media really falls to the bottom of the to do list.  Spend an afternoon creating posts which you can share, adapt and recycle. Your future self will thank you.


2. Little buds
Your clients, donors, supporters, and anyone else who follows you want to hear about your latest news. It doesn’t have to be anything big but they want to know what you’re working on. What services, products and events might be of interest to them. Share it all. People often like a tease too so if you are working on something but can’t quite share the full details then just share what you can and let them know you will spill the beans as soon as you can.


3. Perennials
These can also be useful too for when you are feeling uninspired. Introduction posts, opening times, what you do and offer posts are great to pepper your content with from time to time. Just try to give them a fresh twist when you can. These are great to use when you notice you have had an influx of new followers.


4. Seasonal
Reflect what’s happening in the world but linked to your organisation. For example, you might like to share a photo of the office dog for bring your dog to work day. Just remember to make sure you are staying authentic and not just shoehorning in an awareness day, event or holiday for the sake of it. For example, if you run a cats rehoming centre then bring your dog to work day probably isn’t one to take part in.


Remember social media is all about creating community. It’s a place where your fans, clients, supporters etc can come together to get the latest news, events from you as well as keep in touch with your organisation but it should be just as much about them as you. Ask lots of questions and get discussions going.


Remember, if social media gets too much and you can’t keep up, you don’t enjoy it and it isn’t giving you the rewards you want you can contact We Are Comma for a free audit. We can suggest ways to improve. We can create content for you, give you a schedule or we can run your social media accounts. Drop us a line and see how we can help you: hello@wearecomma.com


So, to practise what we preach, tell us: what types of social media posts do you find most engaging? Drop us a line or comment on this post. You can also find out more about the services we offer by visiting the What We Offer page on the website.


Pics courtesy of Adobe Stock
Pic showing a group of people working on ideas for social media content