Creativity, vitality & viral videos
I recently met an Olympic mountain bike and road bike trainer – with medals under his belt – who got in contact with me and said he liked the product, wanted to use it when training, and was there anything he could do for me (he has a lot of contacts and writes for cycling magazines).
He wanted my advice on starting a holistic training/fitness business (and a nice sandwich at lunchtime), no hidden agenda. The more I meet people in business, rather than in the corporate world of performance indicators, the more I see that creativity and flare is alive and well – you need to sometimes step back and rediscover your own creativity. I thought that as I enjoyed my walking meeting I would suggest this again, and when he suggested a mountain bike meeting I thought it a little too much of an unfair challenge, so the sandwich option won out. Anyway O2GO can quote this Olympic champion in our marketing material which will be absolutely invaluable.
Our new text message service is imminent and the first of
its kind in the UK. We have kept the service costs down to £2 per month which for a service that reminds you to drink more water is good value. Yes premium rate services are in the news at the moment but the PR from our service could be a good word of mouth tool.
I agreed to sponsor a walk in Harrogate for Diabetes UK and then got a call from the Head of Diabetes UK to ask if we would sponsor their national walks, which of course I agreed to. It is a good marketing move but most of all a good product for people who suffer from diabetes.
Other news is we’re exhibiting at The Vitality Show soon, which should be great, as it’s attended by a lot of people seeking out the latest health and beauty products; our two-year contract with the Irish MOD is going ahead to supply O2GO and O2GO Sport+, and my local squash club is going to take O2GO, so I am preparing for the onslaught of mickey-taking from those who know me there (they have been asking for a while!). I am confident in my product though, and proud of it too.
On the press side, we’re now listed on Amazon, the largest store in the world, under the electronics and photo category for some reason, though we can now associate with this fantastic brand. Paul my PR man has been able to contact 15 top UK magazines and get to the right people, a great achievement. Sainburys sales are doing well and word of mouth is taking hold which means that I receive a lot of customer service calls, media advertising requests and product questions. And we were in The Grocer again last week though didn’t know about it until I saw us after article about water (if we hadn’t have been featured I would have wanted to know why!).
A dilemma – how long can we keep the fact that O2GO is a brand new, innovative product as a selling point, and when does it become established in the market? Financially we may know, but it will pose a few perception problems in retailers and consumers. We need to develop, which is why O2GO Sport+ is so important to us now. We have no samples left as the Irish MOD bought the lot! Our new manufacturer wants us to buy it in 2 or 4-tonne lots now, but we don’t need quite that much yet, a massive problem that a lot of small manufacturers face.
I’m thinking of running half-day seminars once a month to give advice to people. I get loads of queries from readers of my blogs and am so fascinated by other people’s business ideas, that I would like to help other entrepreneurs properly. That might happen in the summer – I would like to put something back and pass on any useful tips so start-ups can avoid making some of the mistakes that I have along the way.
I’m off (in May) to Germany for a presentation at the International Food Design Summit as the closing keynote speaker (how nerve-wracking, lots of professors and key industry leaders such as the Marketing Director for Unilever will be there) and little old me. Fantastic for me but daunting too.
And back to technology and marketing – in ten minutes our first viral video is going out. Should be exciting and good fun to make, so links will follow …
