Happy New Year, everyone – it’s a big one.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics, the Paralympics, Euro 2012 will all grab media attention and will, quite possibly, bring London, if not the whole of the country, to a grinding halt.
If you’re clever you will have planned your marketing and communications to accommodate these highlights and if you’re not, there’s still time – just.
The ‘big one’ this year, for me, is the bicentenary of Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists in the English language.
We can all learn a lot from Dickens.
He took his inspiration from what was going on around him, walking London’s streets and talking to ordinary people to find out what it was like for them.
He drew on his own experiences to show that he knew what he was talking about – no ‘blue sky thinking’ or literary jargon for Charlie.
When it came to marketing he was spot on. He worked with more than one publisher and re-negotiated his contracts to reflect his growing value with the public.
He wrote novels that ‘spoke’ to ordinary people, as well as peers of the Realm, and showed that he was on their side.
He made his writings accessible in serial form, in journals that most people could afford, or easily get hold of, but he didn’t neglect the more upmarket readers of his books, networking with all the right people and allowing his novels to be published as volumes as well as in instalments.
Charles Dickens was a prolific writer and not afraid of hard graft. He often had more than one novel on the go and wasn’t afraid of criticism, adapting his work to suit his audiences – and all this during a recession!
Whilst we’re gearing up for the Olympics and all the other ‘of the moment’ events, buying our new Ipad and looking at who best to promote our businesses to this year we could do a lot worse than adopting the Charlie method:-
- Research your audience
- Talk directly to them, about things they relate to, in language they understand
- Keep an eye on what and who influences them and put yourself out there
- and………work hard.
All the best for 2012.
About Philippa