Turtle Tots is one of the world’s leading baby and toddler swim schools. With over 50 franchises across the UK and Ireland, it is a network of successful businesses that helps thousands of families by teaching babies and toddlers the benefits of swimming.
Launched in Bristol in 2011 by founders Caroline Sparks and Gabby Lixton, the business quickly grew with the franchise model enabling others to build their own flexible and rewarding businesses.
Their award-winning programme, begins with aqua-natal yoga lessons for mums-to-be, and continues with specialist and progressive baby swimming lessons from birth, and toddler/pre-school lessons. In 2019, around 13,000 babies and toddlers swam every week with Turtle Tots.
Every Turtle Tots teacher is trained to the highest international standards with Swim England or the Swimming Teachers Association (STA) and is endorsed by Professor Greg Whyte OBE, Olympian and Sports Scientist and board member at Sport Relief and Comic Relief.
Turtle Tots makes a difference in the lives of every family it touches. But they go a step further, every single franchise donates at least 1% of their revenue to charity.
Fruit Marketing has been proud to work with Turtle Tots for nearly three years, including developing Local Marketing Guidelines for each franchisee and delivering national campaigns for their classes. From 2018 to 2019, we helped increase their weekly client base by 11% and their year on year revenue by 11.7%.
As with anyone operating in the leisure industry, 2020 has been a challenging year for Turtle Tots. But they were recently awarded the gold award at the prestigious Approved Franchise Association 2020 Awards. With strong foundations in place, it is a business that is expected to bounce back strongly in 2021.
Co-founder Caroline Sparks said: “Fruit have been able to offer us the experience and knowledge that our franchising business model requires. Not only do they have a vast amount of experience in the sector, they creatively put together and manage our consumer campaigns, and perhaps more importantly are able to produce meaningful statistics showing the return on investment of our campaigns.
“On a personal level, it’s a pleasure to work with them, and I would have no hesitation in recommending their expertise and services.”
We define it as promoting your products or services to your target market in an engaging way, that defines, differentiates, and converts.
Effective marketing boils down to the very simple principle of “right message – right time – right channel – right audience.” Actually, you can add an ‘s’ to all of those.
At Fruit, we believe in a multi-channel approach and a rule of seven; that means that people will typically respond to a marketing message when they have seen or heard it seven times.
Of course, one size does not fit all. The same message at the same time on the same channel to the same audience will not reap the same rewards across business and across brands. There is no silver bullet for marketing. We wish it were that simple.
Marketing must be tailored specifically to each business, their objectives, a particular product or service and their customer profiles. A simple example is the Unilever brands Dove and Lynx, which utilise very contrasting approaches. One is softer, subtle with body positive content, the other is cheekier and more overtly sexual. We do not need to explain which is which.
If you need some support and guidance on crafting your marketing strategy and operations, please contact Fruit for a no-obligations consultation. We can help you get it right too.
From their low-key base in South Devon, it might not be immediately obvious the national and international level of expertise that lies behind the boat house doors of SeaSports Southwest.
Little more than a stone skim away from the back beach in Teignmouth, this small enterprise is a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) certified water sports training centre.
They are one of UK’s premier Water Sports Centres, specialising in water-based experiences and training courses for beginners through to advanced and instructor level, covering power, sail and paddle water sports.
They are also the foremost training base for one of the world’s greatest endurance challenges. Billed as “The World’s Toughest Row”, the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge takes place every year with dozens of teams attempting to complete an arduous 3000-mile journey from the Canary Island to Antigua.
To ensure a safe and successful crossing, SeaSports Southwest is the centre that more teams entrust their training to than any other centre in the world. From 2013-2019, they have trained 61% of all race participants from 16 countries, including 15 who have won the race or broke a world record.
SeaSports Southwest have trained more ocean rowing teams than anyone else in the world and are the only recommended training centre from race organisers Atlantic Campaigns
Fruit Marketing have been proud to work with husband-and-wife team Sue and Tim, ably supported by Sam and not forgetting Bradley the dog, who have led operations at SeaSports Southwest since 2017.
It has been a time when the website and brand have been refreshed and relaunched and new communications, marketing and advertising plans have been activated. It has resulted in an increase in social media following of 212%, off-season sales growth of 200% and an overall revenue growth of 35% whilst reducing previous adverting and marketing costs.
Sue Cox, Owner & Managing Director at SeaSports Southwest said: “What really makes Jo (Fruit Co-founder) stand out is that she has worked tirelessly to understand our business inside out. She listens to us and consequently her advice to us is sound and her marketing campaigns are successful.”
Life is not always plain sailing, but together, SeaSports Southwest and Fruit Marketing are safely on an even keel.
Social media has such a huge presence in our lives. You are probably reading this article after seeing it on social media first! For businesses, it can seem overwhelming and it is easy to fall into a scattergun approach. Instead, it requires a clear content strategy, on the most appropriate platforms. A sound strategy will support your business objectives, by reaching your target market, channelling them into a pipeline of prospects and ultimately, towards conversion. To help you decipher what platform and approach will work for your business, here’s a quick overview of the big players in social media in the UK today.
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 45m
MAIN DEMOGRAPHIC: 25-34 year olds (26%)
CONTENT: Videos are the best performing content on the platform. Content that is either inspirational, funny or practical consistently performs well.
NOTES: Keep up to date with the ever-evolving functionality. With video a key driver of engagement, the “Facebook Live” function and the ability to generate captions on pre-recorded videos are great features to lift engagement.
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 27m
DEMOGRAPHICS: 25-34year olds
CONTENT: High quality images. BUT, make them authentic, take people into your world. Don’t just share stock images. The audience is savvy. Tell visual stories, make use of the story option to multiply engagement.
NOTES: Go crazy with hashtags to get discovered by people looking for the content you serve, ie. content relevant to prospects!
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 9m
DEMOGRAPHICS: 35-54 year olds (an estimated 23% of the UK workforce are on LinkedIn)
CONTENT: Blog pieces of up to 2000 words that demonstrate thought leadership perform well. So too do quick tips
NOTES: Proving that every platform has a personality of its own, videos perform poorly on LinkedIn in stark contrast to almost all other social media platforms.
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 18m
DEMORAPHICS: Female 18-24
CONTENT: Images led content that inspires lifestyle decisions, such as recipes or home-making, even DIY
NOTES: It’s a platform remarkably devoid of negativity in relation to its social media cousins. It’s an opportunity for businesses working in lifestyle to bring their skills and expertise to a receptive audience.
TIKTOK
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 3.7m
DEMOGRAPHICS: 18-24 year olds (42% of users)
CONTENT: All video, popular content includes music or dance re-enacting and viral challenges:
NOTES: A major new player, but limited scope for brands yet.
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 15.2m
DEMOGRAPHICS: 18-29 year olds
CONTENT: Images outperform videos on Twitter. “How to” content works well. It can be a very confrontational platform, but there’s room for irreverence.
NOTES: Twitter needs time and commitment as content is fleeting with a short shelf life.
YOUTUBE
NUMBER OF UK USERS: 35m
DEMOGRAPHICS: 15-25 year olds
CONTENT: Vlogs from influencers are popular, so too are gaming videos, best-of videos and educational videos (how-to videos).
NOTES: YouTube is also a great depository to host videos that you can easily and embed on websites. Try not to hyperlink from other social platforms to YouTube. Upload videos direct to other social platforms where they will autoplay and save the user the torturous agony of another click and a visit to another site. Yes, we are that lazy!
If you want to talk to Fruit Marketing over your social media strategy and delivery, please get in contact today.
If you have spent the last few months living on Mars, you probably will not be aware of today’s US Election (November 3).
For the rest of us, it has been in our faces for some time now; an ever-present feature of the news cycle, peppered across our social media feeds and a topic of (socially-distanced) and sometimes fraught conversations with friends, family and colleagues. Donald Trump has been a virtually unavoidable presence in the lives of us all these last four years. Bigly.
The American election tells us so much about marketing. And not all of it is pretty.
Firstly, it dominates political strategy and spending. An eye-watering $14 billion is set to be spent on the Trump and Biden campaigns combined, a record that will more than double the spending on the 2016 election. Much of the spending is on social media. You may have joined Facebook not long after it launched in 2004. Perhaps you even “threw a sheep” or “poked” an old school friend?
Back then, it was unthinkable that Facebook and other social platforms, especially Twitter, would become such major players on the political landscape. But social media’s incredible breadth of reach, its ability to target demographics with specific messaging and – most worryingly – its relative lack of regulation over content have made it THE critical battleground.
It has made the environment more challenging for the more tightly regulated traditional media, who have had to adapt their own tactics with a multi-platform approach.
It is hard to imagine that someone like Donald Trump, with no political experience, could be elected the leader of the free world in a time before social media. It gave him a platform to build an audience, that he would have been unable to do otherwise.
It is also a reflection of the celebrity-obsessed cultures we inhabit. Trump’s celebrity from shows like “The Apprentice” gave him a currency of credibility that an equally – or even more – successful businessman with no public profile would not have. It is by no means a new phenomenon. But it is still a strange feature of human psychology that we will listen to and be led by people who have achieved fame and notoriety, even when they communicate on a subject they have little or no expertise on.
Another huge lesson from Trump is the power of simple, effective messaging. Like it or not, “Make American Great Again” is one of the most successful slogans in political history. It’s a simple four-word phrase that is both provocative and memorable. It cuts through to the audience and speaks over the constant noise of messaging we all navigate online and offline. There is undoubtedly a real ugliness to US Elections, more so in recent years.
But if you can bear to watch, there are marketing lessons to be drawn for businesses of all sizes.
Nights are drawing in and Halloween is creeping ever closer. The occasion is now big business, with Halloween consumer spending nearing on £500m per year in the UK, more than double from just seven years ago. Nearly £30m of that will be on pumpkins alone!
If you are in the business of seasonal fruit and vegetables, confectionary, costumes, toys and gifts, then it is a key period for marketing campaigns. But even if you are not, it is still an opportunity for some fun, engaging content on your social media channels. As with all effective content marketing, aim towards something that valuable, relevant and is consistent with your other content. But tread carefully…
DO’S
DON’TS
Have a devilishly delightful Halloween…and not a grim one.
Community life is practically on pause through the pandemic. And yet, there is a feeling of a stronger sense of community being engendered.
People are finding new and creative ways to connect with friends and family using video calls with online quizzes and zoom nights in. And the public displays of solidarity from children’s rainbows adorning the nation’s windows to the now-weekly ritual of clapping for carers bring a strong sense of societal fabric.
The situation the masses now find themselves is identical to that of minorities did before the growth of the internet, reaching out to find connections with people with a common purpose, interest or need.
The internet enabled minorities, based on sexuality, race, religion, medical conditions or niche hobbies, to better connect with those with a common interest or the like-minded.
At the advent of the internet, there was an explosion of online communities to overcome the barriers of geography, isolation, and a need for anonymity in a less tolerant time – in some cases.
With no sign of social distancing being brought to a conclusion, we now all find ourselves in this situation. We are social creatures and have had our social lives severely curtailed. And so, online communities are where many of us are turning.
There are several brands, who either organically or even strategically have established online communities. Lego, Apple and Starbucks quickly come to mind. There are others whose product is the community itself, such as Mumsnet.
Those brands who effectively enable consumers to connect are making themselves an indispensable service to a public who are craving a sense of community during the coronavirus crisis.
As ever, Fruit Marketing are available to talk with brands interested in developing an online community.
Behavioural science has always been of serious interest to the marketing sector and – of course to the world of politics. But its theories have taken on particular importance in recent months with the spread of the coronavirus and an international lockdown.
One such theory has been notably employed in the UK to influence the public to practice social distancing, self isolation and ultimately lockdown. Nudge Theory was first brought to prominence by US Academics Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.”
It articulates tactics that influences not through enforcement, but by presenting a “choice architecture” that nudges people towards adopting a behaviour that can benefit them and not significantly impact them economically. Humans respond better to being coaxed rather than being coerced.
COVID-19 has – of course – caused a significant change to people’s everyday lives. But the threat to lives positioned against the inconvenience of lockdown, softened by mortgage holidays and support for furloughed employees schemes makes the choicer easier.
Similarly, the current arrangements were not brought in wholesale and nor are the timelines stretching months into the future. There has been light kept just ahead of us in the tunnel.
We – the UK public – have been nudged along gradually from voluntary restrictions to the over 70s self isolating to the urgings over non-essential travel and on to lockdown.
The lockdown was to be reviewed after Easter and now we are moving towards an unspecified date. But still we are nudged along with daily Government updates supported by consistent messaging and any developments will be gradual. Nudge, nudge and say no more.