There were 1600 people in and an amazing atmosphere. The night before BeWILDerwood had been awarded the title of the best large attraction in the East of England, beating Duxford Air Museum and Woburn Safari Park at the regional Enjoy England for Excellence Awards.

Having spent time there when it was that busy. I’m not surprised. The children were having a great time, swinging and whooping in the woods and the Twiggle Team had put on free lantern making sessions for all, leading to a giant lantern parade through the woods as the light fell.

It was a magical procession, with well over 500 people parading happily through a totally unlit woods on their way home. They were lead by a giant lantern bat called Snagglefang.

It seems so simple to get children to play again and for their parents to play with them, yet many get it so wrong. BeWILDerwood proves it can be done beautifully and elegantly and without breaking the bank. Seven of us ate and drank at lunch for £32 and we ate well, with the biggest hot dog I have ever seen, made from a beautifully tasty award winning Norfolk sausage. It was as good as if you’d barbecued it yourself, having made the effort to get lovely ingredients first.

The slides were brilliant too and you can see from the face of young Charlie here, quite how much fun he’s having.

I know I’m biased because we’ve been involved in BeWILDerwood from the outset, but to see the way that my kids played and our friends kids played and how they all slept on the way home, it was an absolutely brilliant day out for very many families. I love this place, my kids love this place and my friends all love this place and I’m not surprised it’s been recognised as the best in the east!

Bring on the new season.

And how cool does it look at night?

BeWILDerwood at night

But we had to win, because Simon Egan from BeWILDerwood had his awards suit on. It looks suspiciously like the one he wore here.

Simon and Mich in the cab - as you can see, Simon has his award suit on

We met our good friends from Hemisphere who won a Silver award for their work with Manchester Central Convention Complex.

Our good friends from Hemisphere

And then after all the celebrating was over, we went back to the hotel, where I noticed that Simon Egan talks with his hands more when he has had a few drinks. This is a snapshot of one such conversation.

Simon gesticulating - Part One

Simon gesticulating - Part Two

Simon gesticulating - Part Three

As you can see, I have my pint and a whisky and ginger in front of me too. I’m not sure from the way I feel today that I should have had that last one.

The Far Tree at BeWILDerwood - A truly embedded brand

Exceptional branding is about creating and controlling every single element of the customer experience. The way you put these elements together is the way you are. It is you. It is what, who and why you are. It is your brand.

Branding is a way of being, a way of thinking and your way.

Wolff Olins, the agency that are widely seen as the creators of modern branding describe it as creating the situation where you become ‘one of one’ and not one of many. You become unique in your own market.

Bill Schley in his book ‘Why Johnny Can’t brand’, takes this a little further. He says that to create a brand, this could, or maybe even should, be in a market you have invented yourself in order to allow you to differentiate yourself clearly. More of this in bit.

The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has a rather different and remarkably narrow view on what constitutes a brand. To us it appears out of date and well wide of the mark of where current thinking is based.

branding
noun [U]
The act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services:
Example. ‘The successful branding and marketing of the new beer has already boosted sales and increased profits.’

I’m afraid I take a different view again. A brand to me is a way of being, not just a new style of advertising and packaging.

Its more than the way you act, it’s the way that you are.

The dictionary view may be that it links to the marketing of a product, for me, its intrinsically linked to the whole outlook of the organisation. It sets the entire agenda for how the marketing should begin to behave. It is most definitely NOT just the ‘prettying up’ of the advertising and packaging.

Virgin, Nike and Google, to name but three, are not just about clever marketing. They are about being built on a brilliant basis throughout every possible touchpoint.

They set an agenda for how their brand should be perceived and work incredibly hard to ensure that wherever anyone comes into contact with them, they will get the correct Virgin, Nike or Google experience. What makes it even more exceptional with these three is that they are not even that paranoid about the logo being consistently used.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in this for all of us?

Have a look and see what you think.

If you want to take your kids there, it is officially the best Children’s adventure park in the world!

The very lovely Laura from Aura PR in Scotland presenter of the first award

John Lyle with Drum Marketing Award Grand Prix for BeWILDerwood

John Lyle with Richard Draycott Editor of the Drum and all round good man

Angela Lawrence of Itero Marketing - Emerging marketeer of the year - Who was my fellow Whooper at the awards as neither of us knew many people there!

Keith Vernege of the COI Publications - Chairman of the judges and obviously a very wise man

As promised, here are the pictures from the awards the other night.

Firstly I have to explain the unshaven look. Its a lucky beard. We had an amazing few weeks, winning new business and both my daughter and son winning major football matches. It couldn’t have been anything else but the lucky beard, so it had to stay for these awards.

And the reason I have no dress shirt on is not because I’m trying to be cool, its because I forgot my cufflinks and had to wear the scruffy linen shirt i’d had on all day!

Considering I went to the dinner on my own, not really knowing many people, I ended up chatting to loads of people and having a thoroughly good night out. I guess it’s always better when you win stuff.

When I was standing around in the bar, nursing a beer on my own, Angela Lawrence from Itero came over and just started gabbing away to me. We agreed that if either of us was lucky enough to win an award, we would whoop and holler for each other.

We both won!

for even more pics, have a look here

www.thedrummarketingawards.com/gallery/

Our shortlist was for BeWILDerwood – Marketing a swamp – in the New product/service strategy. As we’ve never entered a marketing award before (we normally do the design ones) it was a bit of a surprise to actually win the section. Its a nice trophy too.

But then to top it all, we went on to win the overall Grand Prix.

Have a look at the work and the other winners here

But here are the trophies with a poor pic taken on my phone.

I’m sure there’ll be some pictures to follow of the Kate Winslet Moments, which I’ll post when I get them.

But it was great to meet some friendly folks from other agencies. All the nice people from Hemisphere, True North, MCMNet, Laura at Aura, Rosie from Oxford Marketing College and Richard and Victoria from the Drum.

Thanks for a great evening and a fuzzy head today.

Pictured during the speech and then looking very relieved afterwards, Tom was rather excited to get the chance to address the whole group with a very weepy acceptance speech, just like they do at the real Oscars.” I have to thank my Mum, my Dad, my Wife, Son and daughter for making me the man that I am……….

Anyway, a good night was had by all and it is one hell of an honour to speak to EVERYONE in the industry.

Enjoy the pics that are shown in order.

1. The nervous speaker
2. Looking more relaxed
3. Very relieved pair of Simon and Tom
4. Proud wives Lesley (Tom’s wife) and Alex (Simon’s wife)

THEA is an annual award ceremony for the Californian-based Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), celebrating the very best of themed entertainment throughout the world. The award is for Purple Circle’s work with BeWILDerwood – the children’s woodland adventure park in Hoveton, Norfolk. A truly worldwide organisation, all of the big players and many famous names in theme parks and live entertainment are members of TEA – Disney and Universal Studios to name but two.

This year’s award ceremony took place on 7th March at the Disneyland Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Purple Circle’s BeWILDerwood entry was the only British theme park receiving an accolade, and was one of only two European attractions recognised. Other winners for 2009 included the teams behind the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics and The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.

John Lyle, Director of Purple Circle, was very excited about the award; “We have known about the award for a few weeks now, but competition is fierce and the winners have to remain a closely guarded secret until the official announcement. To see our little adventure park rubbing shoulders with the likes of Disney is amazing; we believe in the BeWILDerwood brand heart and soul – of course – but it is still incredible that we have achieved such status in such a short time.”

Purple Circle has worked with BeWILDerwood since the park’s inception, creating not only the branding but also the theming and the tone for the entire attraction. The park has been a runaway success since it first opened its gates in May 2007; in 2008 it attracted over 140,000 visitors, a figure more than double the number projected.

Purple Circle operates as an integral part of the BeWILDerwood team, partnering them in all of their creative efforts, including the design of much of the merchandise that is sold through the park and online. This includes the popular children’s books ‘A Boggle at BeWILDerwood’ and ‘BeWILDerbats’ by Tom Bofled, the founder of BeWILDerwood.

John continued “Branding is far more than simply sticking logos on things; rather, it is about an organisation – however big or small – setting a tone for its entire communications and ensuring that the core values of the company pervade every aspect of the business. If you can do this, it doesn’t matter whether you are speaking to your team or to your customers, you can create a brilliant brand – even with a swamp to work with.

This award shows what compelling branding can do when you consider that BeWILDerwood, created on swamp and woodland on the edge of a small Norfolk village, captures the imagination of a worldwide organisation such as TEA, as well as those of British families. Our entry consisted of an eight-minute video letting the kids do the talking – showing them enjoying BeWILDerwood to the max – and we think this is what swung it for us (every pun intended!)”

You can see release on Pressbox by clicking here

That may seem like a bold or even an odd claim, but the growth of feedback websites is proving it.

We are just starting to work with one of the best called Feefo

They are delivering feedback to their clients customers that is transforming their businesses. It has been amazing for BeWILDerwood in that it has helped them learn what they are doing right and wrong and really helped focus some decisions about where to invest in improvements.

For Charles Tywhritt it has been what they have built their entire business model on and 99% of their customers seem to love them – which is an amazing figure for any retailer, let alone an online one.

Gartner inc forecasted some years ago that by 2010 there would be 1 billion camera phones in the market place. Add to that the fact that they are now mostly web enabled and you have a very powerful customer voice indeed.

Richard Branson of Virgin fame, who runs a brand that is properly loved was forced to actually ring a customer who not only wrote him a complaint letter but took pictures of what he was unhappy about and then posted it all over the web. It is one of the funniest letters you will ever see.

Have a look at it here. It’s brilliant and well worth reading.

but here are some of the beautiful camera phone pics he took!

Makes you want to tuck straight in, doesn’t it Richard, tuck straight in.

What this shows you is that with any brand you have to really listen to your customers

If they decide that your brand is offering them rubbish, they will tell the world. What you need to encourage them to do by tapping into the power of User generated Content and the likes of Feefo, is harness the power of their compliments too.

Bye for now

John