The Reptile Group

Describe your agency in five words

Reptilian – aggressively transforming client reputations

How would you sum up 2010 for your consultancy?

2010 delivered a good opportunity to begin executing against some key strategic initiatives, building on the platform established in 2009. We saw good growth in turnover and margin across the company in a fragile, recovering economy and built a strong digital capability. This was driven by a focus on our team. In particular introducing our R.Ecruitment talent acquisition, R.Evolution structured personnel development programme and R.World international network. During the year The Reptile Group has seen global brands and hot startup companies join as clients and some exceptional new talent join the company at all levels.

What was your consultancy’s high point of 2010?

The high point of the year was delivering against our, and our clients business goals during a continued tough economic environment. We spent considerable time focused on building an extremely solid and exciting company, assessing and refreshing talent, moving to a more strategic level of engagement with clients, driving digital skills through every employee, rewarding high performing employees with substantial salary raises, bonuses and adding the latest technologies such as iPad to our infrastructure.

What was the low point of 2010 for your consultancy?

A disappointing reality emerging that the economy wasn't going to recover as quickly as the world had hoped however this only continued to focus our efforts in the key areas - clients and employees.

Please give an overview of your staffing through 2010, including significant hires and internal promotions.

Across the board we have made some key appointments including Mo Elnadi as our head of digital, joining from Philips and prior to that Vodafone. Jo-Ann Lee joined our Komodo team bringing account management and public sector experience from her time at Mango. Steve Loynes was promoted to managing director of Chameleon. He has made significant changes within the Chameleon team introducing fresh new talent to support our promise to our clients to deliver exceptional service and business-led results. The professionalism and integrity of all The Reptile Group employees in their interactions with our clients determines our and their success.

Best three campaigns – Chameleon

Citrix – BYO
Chameleon and Citrix embarked on a campaign, ‘Rethink the desktop’, which focused on enterprises adopting Bring Your Own (BYO) / employee-owned computer schemes. BYO is an emerging market opportunity where the rules, methodologies and best practices are still being defined making it ideal for thought leadership activity. As head EMEA agency for Citrix Chameleon spearheaded the campaign through a series of collateral including pitch angles, news releases, media alerts, bylined articles and proof points which was implemented by a network of EMEA agencies. This approach was designed to educate strategic decision makers, influencers and employees through a range of target media. As a result, Citrix was established as the main thought leader across EMEA for BYO.

Holition – Selfridges/Tissot
London-based technology start-up Holition wanted to establish its profile as the leading international specialist in 3D augmented reality solutions. Chameleon worked with Holition to develop visionary campaigns for leading global luxury brands, supporting the launch of the world’s first augmented reality watch application. This involved working with luxury watch brand Tissot, where the campaign included a two week window display at London’s Selfridges department store. Consumers were allowed to try on, in real time, virtual watches which enabled them to virtually see watches on their wrists, gaining a real ‘look and feel’ of the product. The results were exceptional including over 190 people per day engaging with the window display, 600% increase in media coverage and over 83,000 views of the YouTube video to date. Tissot saw an 85 per cent sales increase at Selfridges and Holition’s profile significantly increased as the leading augmented reality specialist.

Scale Computing
Chameleon was given the challenge of launching the storage company, Scale Computing into the UK market. Focusing on the SMB market, Scale wanted to hit the ground running with Chameleon supporting a range of creative marketing and PR activities. The main focus for the campaign was to create brand awareness and credibility for Scale Computing. The campaign involved introducincat he company to key journalists and analysts through a CEO and CTO media tour which included briefings across three core areas: channel, technology and business media. Other PR activities included raising Scale Computing’s profile through features, comment opportunities and proactive pitching. The results were outstanding with 30 pieces of coverage in the first 3 months including 3,396,163 media impressions and an interview with the BBC.

Best three wins - Chameleon

Chameleon has enjoyed a tremendous year for new business, with each new client being significant for its own reasons. Motorola Solutions is both a flagship brand and demonstrates Chameleon’s expertise in working with clients in transformation. CashFac is of particular importance as it redoubles Chameleon’s presence in the financial services marketplace and success with venture capital-backed businesses, while Scale Computing complements Chameleon’s portfolio of B2B technology companies targeting the SMB sector.

Our greatest achievement - Chameleon

Chameleon has undergone its own transformation in the last 12 months. Without doubt, Chameleon’s biggest achievement during that period is its recruitment and professional development which identified, secured, developed and motivated the industry’s best talent. Without its renewed employee strength, Chameleon would not have been able to win so many new high quality clients and to continue to exceed client expectations in supporting their businesses through the delivery of value-driven results.

Best three campaigns - Komodo

Tesco.com
Komodo has a track record for bringing fresh thinking to its clients. For example, Komodo worked with one of the UK’s largest online retailers, Tesco.com, to educate consumers about a new mobile retailing app. To help drive adoption from ‘busy mums on the go’, Komodo secured a series of one-to-one demos with key media influencers to showcase the app. Komodo also commissioned engaging infographics and videos to show how easy mobile retailing is to our target audience . This resulted in a record number of app downloads for Tesco and ensured that they reached their target download numbers well ahead of schedule. Tesco.com now experiences a higher-than average number of transactions through mobile retail channels.

Royal Norwegian Embassy
Komodo has also worked with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London on a public diplomacy pilot campaign to engage with younger audiences. Komodo created and delivered a communications programme using social media which saw us create engaging, sharable, ‘youth’ content. This included backstage photos from London Fashion Week, live Q&As with celebrity stylists, giveaways for festival tickets and Facebook competitions to win funky Norwegian designer furniture. The campaign saw a massive uplift in engagement on the Embassy’s Facebook profile with its ‘fans’ growing over 300 per cent over the campaign period. Its Twitter followers also grew by over 500 per cent over the same period. The pilot scheme is now being showcased to other embassies and consulates across the world as a leading example of public engagement through social media.

Mozy
Finally, Komodo has worked with online backup company Mozy, to engage with, and drive sales from, new mothers by encouraging them to backup their precious baby photos. Komodo worked with celebrity mum Denise Van Outen, who fronted a Facebook baby photo competition app. Denise undertook a series of media interviews and fronted a Facebook campaign to promote the competition which attracted more than 2,000 votes and 6,000 public votes on Mozy’s Facebook fanpage. During the campaign, Mozy was signing up a new customer every minute and the campaign is now being rolled out across other countries.

Best three wins - Komodo

Komodo has pitched and won, against some of most respected consumer agencies in the country. In the last 12 months alone, Komodo has helped Time Out Group increase awareness of, and revenue from, its digital products (which includes its website and mobile apps); positioned Tesco Mobile as a leading mobile network by driving awareness and advocacy of its smartphone offering; and is helping to create a competitive advantage for iPhone, iPad and iPod accessories brand GEAR4, by building brand equity based on the attitude and desires of its core audience.

Our greatest achievement - Komodo

As a result of the exceptional work performed for clients during 2010 Komodo is a finalist for the CIPR's Excellence Awards - Outstanding Small Consultancy of the Year; and is shortlisted in two Sabre Award categories - Retailers and Government Agencies.

What trends did you notice throughout the year in the industry i.e.Clients taking longer to sign off budgets?

Clients continue to be cautious on spend however we are starting to see companies become more bullish and engage again in positioning, messaging and creative activity as well as execution. In addition, clearly, digital activity has increased and companies, both consumer and business focused, are starting to truly adopt online programmes to support the growth of their organisations.

How has digital changed the consultancy landscape in 2010?

In 2010 social media became mainstream and in turn changed the consultancy landscape forever by providing new capabilities tha compliment traditional methods to create real-time dialogue opportunities between clients' brands, their customers and other key influencers such as bloggers and journalists. Digital also created word of mouth opportunities between consumers strengthening PR campaign messages and providing ways to measure public sentiment.

At The Reptile Group we adopt a holistic approach when it comes to digital strategy; our approach brings together PR, communications and marketing through integrating traditional and digital PR channels to achieve the best brand exposure for our clients.

What are your plans for 2011?

One specific focus area for this year includes the addition of bigger brands to join current clients such as Tesco, Motorola, Citrix, Gear4, Royal Norwegian Embassy. 2010 not only saw brands such as these approach The Reptile Group companies for communications expertise but also to significantly increase the range of services delivered to those who have been longer term clients. We will expand our specialisms into new areas such as biotech and sports and also continue our extremely rigorous approach to recruiting the best talent into the company and a focus on continuous employee development. A key operational activity this year is moving office. Our current office is now full and to support our growth plans over the next 3-5 years we require more space and a new exciting environment to reflect our personality and profession.