Tracks of 2012

As another passes I reflect on another year where I criticise myself for becoming more removed from new music.  I still love that moment when you discover a tune or an artist that contains something special.  In this digital age, discovery should be easier than ever, but I find it increasingly difficult.  Why?  Two linked reasons: 1) the internet actually makes sourcing recommendations much more fragmented, there is no "go to" place (though if I had to choose one, I'd suggest Marc Riley on 6Music); 2) I don't have enough time!

With this in mind, I thought I'd share my limited experiences of 2012 and my favourite songs of the last year.  I hope that this provides you with a taster of some music that you might not have otherwise heard.  

The list isn't in order, other than to say that First Aid Kit is absolutely a favourite.

Please leave a comment if you want to share your tunes of 2012 and, more importantly, tips for 2013.

First aid kit - Emmylou

An incredible album, but this song blows me away every time I hear it.  About the only lyric of the year I remember is "Stockholm's cold, but I've been told, that I've been built to endure this kind of weather".  Not sure if that's a classic line, but I love it.

Sharon Van Etten - Give Out

It feels like this song has played on every run I've been on in the last few months.  So good

Trailer Trash Tracys - You Wish You Were Red 

There's a handful of songs that have a guitar sound that makes me ache, this is one of them

Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks

"Ba da da da da da da daaa, hey!" I defy this to not make you dance

Francois and the Atlas Mountains - Les Plus Beaux

A real dreamscape of a song.  Beautifully put together

The Dø - Gonna Be Sick 

Heard this in session and loved it ever since.  I'm gonna throw up...

Darren Hayman - I Taught You How To Dance

Almost cried the first time I heard this and every time since

Chilly Gonzales - Othello

What a pianist.  The notes to the album say that the piano is a limited instrument and this is an attempt to make it sing.  Absolutely achieves that

Two Door Cinema Club - Sun

Got me at the end of the year, and seriously catchy (should the song partly credited to Mark Owen?)

Martin Rossiter - I Must Be Jesus

See here for more thoughts on Martin, whilst the lyrics are deliberately outrageous, the Bacharach influenced piano is the thing that attaches me to the song

http://www.martinrossiter.co.uk/media/ (check out the music player on the right hand side of the screen)

Laura J Martin - Spy

In the first 6 months of the year, I must have listed to Laura J Martin's album more than anything else.  The best flautist since Ron Burgundy

http://www.myspace.com/lalajmartin/music/songs/spy-68042788

Drawn Back To The Deep End

The first gig I went to without parental supervision was Gene at the UEA in Norwich.  It was a coming of age.  It was also the first time I tried to smoke a cigarette.  I quickly proved that smoking wasn't cool.  This was a major step of my independence, and fuel for my future passion for live music.  Gene became a flagship band for my teenage years.

As much as I liked them, my friend Marcus took it on himself to let Gene into his inner sanctum of idols and this passion helped sustain my interest throughout the years.  A few acts have been granted immortality by Marcus and he is rarely wrong.

I was naturally excited when Marcus told me that my birthday present this year was an exclusive listening session for Martin Rossiter's new album with Q&A with the legend himself.  Even though Gene weren't the biggest band, and haven't been around for years, I believed that he would be of such wealth and importance that to gain his audience must be a rare privilege.  And that is absolutely was.

The present was gifted through Pledge which I urge everyone to use where possible, bypassing record labels where the artist puts in the effort to build a relationship direct with fans. 

Listening to the album in a room of c30 people was a surreal experience.  I couldn't tell you the last time that I just sat down and listened to music.  I resisted the itch to unlock my phone and look at something, it would have been disrespectful and I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.  It was harder than I expected (a problem that requires much more analysis), but it was lovely taking in the details that would typically pass me by.

The album is an ambitious piano and voice record, sung brilliantly and with accomplished songs that have been lovingly pulled together.  Martin talks about these being hymns and I can see that description.  The overriding image I had was of a deeply melancholic Burt Bacharach playing piano and singing songs he wouldn't dare record for the outside world, alone in a beautiful house with open windows overlooking the ocean on a rainy day.  The last bit of this sentence shows how my imagination was allowed to run away.  This was occasionally replaced with an image of Martin playing piano loudly in his home and wondering if his neighbours ever complained of the noise (he absolutely belts out some of the notes).

After the listening, we had a Q&A with Martin in which he was incredibly open and honest.  He was much more accessible than I expected, again assuming infinite wealth and importance. I had presumed (hoped) that he would be his cutting self, but he wasn't, he was just honest.  I now wonder if headlines like this are misquotes (eg "Blur and Pulp can f*ck off to Butlins").  He was humble of the situation he was in with the release of the record and proud of his work which was refreshing.  At times I feared it could become like "An Audience with Alan Partridge", but his self awareness reigned it in.

(Had this been the case, I was sitting next to Jez - I suspect Marcus has a tattoo of Martin's face on his back).

Most of the questions were introduced with a story or summary of how important Gene and Martin were to the audience's life.  Having thought Marcus and I were strange for many years, it was great to take some comfort that others had seen and fallen for the same things.  Few live bands could match Gene's energy - and although this is a blog about Martin -the guitar playing and general musicianship was beyond the size of venue they were typically playing. But the songs were powerful too and resonated with my teenage frustrations and ambitions (I originally started a list of songs I loved, but that is too boring, even for this blog).

Given this emotional attachment, can I be truly objective about the album?  Probably not, but I have listened to the album 4 times today and it stands as an incredibly accomplished work, without the history.  I heard one of the songs on 6Music the other day and it did not sound out of place with new songs in the same way that many songs from Gene's era can do. 

You're unlikely to be dancing to the album, but give it the attention it deserves and it will keep giving.  It's taught me to take more time actually listening to music, which is only fair when we consider the effort that goes into the creation.  

Do me a favour and listen to an album from start to finish with no distractions.  It's worth it.  I recommend it be this one.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/martinrossiter

http://soundcloud.com/martinrossiter

https://itunes.apple.com/album/defenestration-st-martin/id575906261?v0=9988&ign-mpt=uo%3D1

Pinkerton

For me, all bands should sound like Weezer.  I love the energy of songs that sound as if they are being played in the garage.  It brings back great memories of doing the same myself (though with much less quality!).  On the face of it there are the pop sensibilities of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, but an underlying ambition drives the whole thing forward.

Buying their first album in 1994 was a milestone in my musical heritage.  Predictably, I came to it because of Buddy Holly, but I have stayed with it ever since because of Undone (the Sweater Song) and Say it Ain't So and every other track.  I have been quick to buy any subsequent albums ... but not Pinkerton.

It is wildly illogical, but for some reason I never got around to buying Pinkerton which is often remarked as the band's best album.

I now find myself in the position of laying my hands on a masterpiece that I have never known.  Imagine that The Beatles snuck in an album in between Revolver and Sgt Peppers and it had only just been made available.  That is the excitement I'm now faced with.

I'm trapped on a long flight to San Francisco and making the most of the trip to listen to an album that has inexplicably passed me by.  I can remember reading the rave reviews about it.  I can remember being intrigued about Rivers Cuomo's break from Weezer to study classical music at Harvard University. I can remember standing in front of it in Our Price and choosing another album.  I can't remember what the other album was.

There is no doubt that I really enjoy this album.  But the pervading emotion is one of regret.  This is an album that was written for the 15-17 year old me.  This album should have been the soundtrack to my melancholy years but for some inexplicable reason, I ignored it.

The sound on the album is darker than typical Weezer.  The guitars have more fuzz and are louder in the mix requiring the vocals to strain to be heard, which brings out the desperation of the lyrics.  It's an incredible mix of garage band meets emotion and intelligence.  The essence of why I adore Weezer.

Before I get too carried away, those years life had a great soundtrack which allowed me to wallow in the atrocities I faced (typically rejection by girls or more accurately perceived rejection as I liked to create my own dramas without the inconvenience of incurring rejection!).  This music sticks with me today, like good friends who were always there when you need them.  

So today I find myself greatly enjoying the album, but knowing that I'm missing the fundamental emotional connection to make this part of my lifeblood.  I will be filing for future reference to pass to my son.  What a weird moment that will be: "here you go son, here's a load of music to make you feel better when you think the world hates you".  I'm sure I need to find a smarter way of doing that.  

For now, I picture myself in my old bedroom, listening to the album and writing very bad poetry.  Oh Pinkerton, we would have been so good together...

Bad Revenue

“Is there such a thing as bad revenue?”  I think the answer depends on how much you need it , but it does illustrate the dilemma that a usually positive thing can bring. 

Lately, I’ve pondered this whilst wrestling with the question of whether display advertising should be shown on classified sites. 

At its most basic, the answer is probably “no – it interferes with the user experience”.  Classified sites, unlike content rich sites (eg news, review, blogs etc), make their primary income from the advertising listings on the site.  As a result, it is easy to conclude that this is the purpose of the site and anything that doesn’t serve these advertisers is a distraction.

The case against continues when you think of the space on the site that is given up to display advertising.  Leaderboards sit at the top of the page pushing down any listings, and often relegating the site’s own brand to the next level.  MPUs, the must-have ad-spot today, can look great when served with video, but are of such a width that many classified sites have had to make compromises to make them fit onto the page.  But one of the biggest things that weighs against display advertising is the additional weight they can add to a page, slowing down the speed of response.

At this point, have I made a decision?  Philosophically, potentially…

As ever though, things aren’t that simple.  The revenue that is generated from display is actually quite useful.  It is revenue that we don’t have to ask for from our other advertisers.  It is also a feature that can enrich the general content of the site if it is complementary – though worth noting that very rarely does this seem to be the case. 

In my regular trawl of classified sites, I’ve been surprised by the variety of approaches to display advertising.  Some such as Rightmove look initially brave enough to take it off the site, until you discover some well integrated display slots that don’t interfere significantly with the experience – I particularly like the text links which are on topic .  It seems even the biggest players have not been brave enough to provide a clean experience for consumer or listing advertiser.  Other classified sites around have sacrificed their UX to the promise of making more money from display than listing, a very dangerous model if you ask me.

The majority of this thought is weighted to the negatives of display advertising, but still sites are not brave enough to forego it having structured their businesses around the expectation of receiving it.  Revenue has a way of being quite persuasive. 

I Don't Know ... Or Do I?

Recently it struck me how, at work, I am often compelled to answer “I don’t know”.  Admittedly a lot of the times are simply because I don’t know, but it also seems to be an inevitable consequence of management.

I strongly believe in being open with everyone where I can, but the caveat is exercised more than it should.  In fact, by being open with people you are often furnishing with information that allows them to ask questions that you simply can’t answer.

On a recent drive home, it struck me that this simple phrase has a number of different meanings.  Below is a list of interpretations I can think of:

• I don’t know
• I do know but can’t tell you
• I do know but don’t want to tell you
• I’m really sorry but in due course you’ll understand why I couldn’t tell you
• I do know but can’t think of a quick lie to sidestep you
• I do know but you won’t like the answer and I need to bide time until I can find a way of telling you
• I should know and am worried about looking stupid if I get the answer wrong
• I wasn’t really listening (more likely to be greeted with a “yes”)
• I do know but don’t have the time or energy to tell you
• I’m not sure you should know enough to ask me that
• I think you might use the answer against me if I don’t answer it properly
• I think you’re a spy
• I’ve answered the same question before but can’t remember what I said and don’t want to be inconsistent
• I’ve forgotten the question and don’t want to look stupid by asking you to repeat it

I wish I could pass on any “tell” that I have about which of the above I am using.  The only tip I can give is if there is a delay in my answer and a glazed look in my eyes, I’ve probably just forgotten the question or wasn’t really listening.

After that, if you ask me “what do you mean by ‘I don’t know’?”  I’m afraid the answer might be doubly frustrating.

Consequently, if anyone ever does give you this irritating answer, remember there is only a one in fourteen chance that they actually mean it.

Why I'm so excited...

It’s been about a month since Motors.co.uk joined the Manheim family, and life has certainly been busy.  Now that I’m trapped on a long train journey, I wanted to take the opportunity to express how and why I’m so freaking excited about the future.

My appetite has been particularly satiated having watched physical auctions at the Leeds site over the last 2 days.  It really brought home the vision of integrating Motors.co.uk into the Manheim product set and the opportunity to create something unique for the UK automotive industry.

There are a number of work streams underway to identify and prioritise the development opportunities available to us – we are in a lucky position to have a large number of ways to build value together, but the trick to the success of the acquisition will be addressing the points in the right order.

We have a self-fulfilling path to success.  At a high level it’s not particularly complicated (or secret) and here’s how I see it:

• Integration with Manheim can help increase exposure of  Motors.co.uk in the dealer community
• A site with more advertising dealers creates a bigger pot for investment in building audience, which will build response for advertising dealers
• More response means more sales for our dealers
• Increased audience means better data that Motors and Manheim can use to help inform our customers about stock and pricing
• Enormous number of product development possibilities for reporting, transferring data, unifying systems that either significantly reduce dealer effort or improve ability to understand business performance
• Greater profits for our dealers .  QED

It is easy to ask “so what is the vision?” but the reality is that this hasn’t changed for either business - helping dealers to maximise profitability.  This was the driving force before the acquisition, but united we have many more tools to execute this.  As such, much of life is business as usual as we pick off the opportunities one-by-one.

From a Motors.co.uk perspective, the overriding theme of conversations is how we can make the site as efficient as possible in generating valuable response for advertising dealers.  This has two enormously exciting strands: 1) optimising the consumer journey on the site (making the site as enjoyable to use as possible) and 2) developing further products (or integrating existing products) to provide dealers with the tools to improve their business.

The vision also fits with AutoExposure and CAS whose products have a great fit, providing further depth to Manheim's product portfolio as well an opportunity to link systems and provide packages of enormous value to dealers.  Each of these businesses have products that are smarter than the average bear, and they're about to get smarter.

At this stage, I appreciate that this sounds like brown-nosing, non-descript, management guru waffle – but trust me it will become real.  Watching the cars line up in the lanes at Leeds, the above is clear, obvious and kid in a sweet shop exciting! 

ps - for insight into another team that are handling an exciting acquisition, have a look at Felix's blog on the EvenBase acquisition of Job Rapido.  Like the Motors/Manheim tie-up, I know that there is no way of ever conveying the amount of work (performed by many good friends of mine too) that will have been undertaken to complete the deal.  Good luck chaps!

Lent and the jeopardy of online journalism

For lent I gave up my holy trinity of websites - BBC, Daily Mail and Guardian - in the hope that I'd be opened up to a world of unhidden treasures.  I was mostly disappointed and believe it shows us to be at risk of increasingly poor content

I worry that the “free” nature of content on the net is reducing the quality of content we have access to.  The costs of good journalism against the paltry financial rewards of display advertising seem to make it an inevitability that without an understanding parent, you can end up like Richard Desmond and not bothering about online at all.  As someone who adores the internet and its breadth of content, this scares me.

I was unsure if my own consumption of online articles skewed this view.  My overwhelming sources of news content came from BBC News (and Sport), Mail Online and Guardian, to the point that I was compelled to give them up for lent and try and find new sources of enjoyment on the net.  The internet has the potential to offer you almost every piece of knowledge in the world, I shouldn’t be restricting myself to the football gossip on BBC Sport.

However, I do think that each of these sites are able to offer the experience they do through unique funding routes:

• BBC – with licence payer money, this site is effectively subscription based , with some advertising on non-UK IPs.  For speed of delivery it is unrivalled and it does offer “value for money”, though I do wonder whether people would actually pay for it if pushed in a form other than unjust (and poorly distributed) tax of the TV licence.  Despite being a heavy user, I also believe the existence of the BBC exacerbates the problem of content on the net.  Why would you pay when the BBC offers quality, free content (and free of advertising)?
• Daily Mail – competing on scale by trying to attract global brands with traffic to rival MSN, Yahoo etc, and also having the starting base of content written for the paper.  It should be stated that the viability of this has yet to be fully seen, but I’m pleased someone is trying.  It’s easy to be snobbish about the celebrity gossip, but I LOVE celebrity gossip.  
• Guardian – massively heavily staffed paper, trying to compete on the global level but has a parent who has a mandate to ensure content of this nature is in the public domain.  It is by far the best site for in-depth opinion and coverage of the media industry.

One of the main objectives was to see if there was anyone out there capable of providing the consistent breadth that the above 3 covered.  In short the answer is no.  Each of them is peerless in their specialities, but there are certainly gaps – primarily in opinion driven essays.  None of the alternatives were able to compete with the above 3 for timeliness of delivery which was my single biggest frustration.

-      Main sites that filled the void:

• Huffington Post  – Worth visiting for the guest blogs alone.  The news is shockingly light and rather too SEO heavy to make it easy to read.  However, I have greatly enjoyed the blogs on the site – in particular Greg Jenner whose narrative on history and application to today has entertained and challenged (check out this piece).  This is an excellent forum for politicians, celebrities etc to use and whilst I enjoy it, I’m often disappointed by how little they have to say (eg Gordon Brown’s thin efforts ) 
• Independent – The antisocial Facebook integration worked! I was frequently led to the site via articles other people read.   What’s more, I began to follow on the basis of specific friend’s readings.  What surprised me was how good some of the opinion pieces on sport were.  The news was bit disappointing though…
• Telegraph – I believe the Telegraph slightly squandered the opportunity to corner the “opinion” market with excellent columnists who say what they think, but the site seems to have tried to pic up the battle with Mail Online (and will lose) by going picture led.  This site is always worth a visit when Boris Johnson has submitted an article (think what you will of his political profile, but he is an outstanding journalist – with the quality of argument that is lacking on the internet).  Enormously disappointed at how slow the site was to update with news (and sometimes crash) 
• Economist – This is slightly cheating as I have full access as a subscriber (goes against the aim of seeing what you can get for free), but it’s so good that it’s worth a mention.  As a result of my exile, I spent significantly more time enjoying the site across print, iPad and online and enjoyed it.  Though I do wish they’d have a sports section… 
• New York Times - Visiting the site shows you why British newspaper sites are performing so well in the US, the layout is really poor and incredibly text focussed.  However, it benefits from some brilliant journalism with articles of depth and breadth of coverage.  Here are two articles that I read in one day on the site, great variety and both entertaining:  http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/travel/rock-cruises-bright-spots-for-the-cruise-and-music-industries.html?pagewanted=all and http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/nyregion/leyland-e-george-lets-his-mixtapes-do-the-preaching.html.  Carefully choose your articles on this site as you can only view 10 a month before the paywall comes up which feels a bit ridiculous outside of its core market – but I also acknowledge I offer them minimal commercial value, which makes me wonder if they should make such a big deal about not losing the mantle of world’s largest newspaper, after isn't it just a regional title? 

I was disappointed that I didn’t find myself drawn into a hidden world of quality blogs, though in part this was filled by Twitter which has opened my eyes to the content created on the net more than any site – do not get me started on Google News, it is dire.  Twitter has been a constant source of interesting information and links to new sources, though it was surprising how many times the links of interest were to my forbidden sites.  The only escape into blogs came from Guido Fawkes (my current Twitter favourite) and Back of the Net which is useful for providing both score updates and amusing comments on the big football matches.

So lent is over, I’m already sick of chocolate and I still haven’t been back to the sites I banned myself from.  I don’t feel less well informed (except on transfer gossip) and, in all honesty, I have probably spent less time reading articles on the internet.

My eyes haven’t been particularly opened, I knew about all of the above before and would be an occasional visitor to each, which either means I am crap at finding things on the net or there simply isn’t much out there.  What’s more, I continue to believe that the quality of online journalism will only deteriorate as it’s difficult to see how the economics can justify the investment.  The Huffington Post provides the most hope as it has approached things from an online only route, but even then relies on its status to attract relevant contributors.  I fear that like many traditional newspapers, the world of online journalism will require a few more philanthropists (or, more cynically, rich people looking to have a voice!).  

Blogs can quickly be made to sound important, but the reality is most of them are a bit rubbish really … I’m sure you’d agree with that!

A Daily Mail Child

I started my paper round a week before my 13^th birthday and I remember being taken aback by how many people read The Sun or Daily Mirror.  Why didn’t everyone read the Daily Mail like my parents did?  I noticed that the handful of houses that did take the Daily Mail were a bit tidier than those receiving red tops.

From a young age, I was hooked into the genius of the Daily Mail as the voice of those aspiring to the middle class.  For the last 3 years I have had the privilege to work for the group that publishes the title.  This week that came to an end as Motors.co.uk was acquired by Manheimfrom the Daily Mail & General Trust.

On a paper round of 35-40 houses, I would deliver at best one or two national broadsheets (only The Times and The Daily Telegraph) making them feel niche.  The Daily Mail, therefore, was my only understanding of a “quality” newspaper.  Holding fast to Thatcher’s vision, no media was probably more influential in my youth.

I know that the fashion is to view the title with cynicism, but I have grown to understand that the title is a masterstroke of positioning.  The target audience is middle aged housewives in lower/average middle class families, but its trick is that it feels like so much more to these readers and always holds the impression of being a quality newspaper without being snooty and “too wordy” (my mum’s words) like The Times. 

The paper faces an ageing readership and a society that is reading fewer newspapers, but the Mail rises strong online.  The profits may never be as big as print, but there is no doubting that the vision/strategy/luck of backing a celebrity news driven website has been the right one.   I felt a sense of pride when the site was named the most visited newspaper website in the world.  I chuckled that the mighty New York Times had to resort to a debate about audience measurement, I’m not sure too many care about comScore’s classification methods. 

The website became an addiction of mine.  Not because I worked within the same office where it was created, but because I am a shameless internet news junky.  Consequently, I have given up the Daily Mail website for lent (along with the Guardian and BBC websites – other mainstays).  My conclusion so far?  No other site is able to provide the immediacy and variety that I’ve become so used to. 

But the thing I’m really struggling to find on other sites is opinion.  I may not always agree with the Mail’s view (remember I’m not a housewife!), but at least there is one.  In this abstinence I have even considered a subscription to The Times online as no other site provides free access to strong (and professional) opinions.  With this I really hope that the government relaxes rules on the independence of television news. 

Fox News may irritate many, but it entertains significantly more.  I would love to see a Daily Mail news channel on TV.  I’m confident that opinionated (but never extremist) news content would make news accessible to the masses.

Although Motors.co.uk moves on to an exciting future with Manheim, I will find it hard to accept that I’m no longer part of the Mail machine (even though I was never properly involved).  But herein lies the paper’s ability to embed itself firmly in the hearts and minds of its loyal audience. 

We often hear theories about the future of media and the influence that the Mail will have should not be understated.  And what’s more, we shouldn’t be scared by it…

Good marketing

As a growing brand at Motors.co.uk, we spend a lot of time trying to think about how we can do things differently.  Whilst we exist commercially to increase response for car dealers, the route to how we achieve this is in making ourselves well known to consumers and also optimising the search for a used car.

An area that we believe serves both purposes is championing the cause of the motorist and ensuring that we get a fair deal with easy access to information.

Recently this area overlapped with my personal life when my son grew out of his baby car seat.  A good friend had opted for a rear facing car seat and had made me aware of the key safety benefits (eg 7 times more likely to survive a crash).  I understood the basic physics and I felt compelled to make the purchase.  What I couldn’t understand though was when I searched the major retailers websites I couldn’t find any rear facing car seats.

Internet access proved vital, drawing on the excellent www.rearfacing.co.uk as well as retailers www.pushchairsandcarseats.co.uk and www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk.  But most frequently I found myself on the pages of the manufacturers themselves to make sense of ridiculous fitting requirements and which cars fitted which models.  When I would find a model that I liked, I had to spend time Google’ing to find whether the model was available in the UK – invariably they weren’t.

I found myself indignant at the poor choice in the UK, particularly given that the manufacturer sites I was looking at were brands we recognise in the UK.  But for some reason UK consumers are not privileged to have the option to buy the safer option.

Clearly retailers are worried about the potential extra work of installation which is a fairly appalling reason to not offer the choice (simply reflect it in the pricing).  The car seats are expensive compared to forward facing, but this I’m sure is a victim of the low volumes being ordered into the UK.  Fundamentally though, the British consumer needs to have the choice.

I certainly don’t want to suggest that rear facing car seats should be mandatory, but we should be at least be given the choice and education as to the benefits of both.

If I had struggled to find this information, having had the benefit of a friend who was a minor expert and having spent hours reading various articles on the internet, I was fairly certain that the general public would be lacking.  Consequently, at Motors.co.uk we commissioned research into awareness of rear facing car seats.  Unsurprisingly, but disappointingly, 53% of parents felt there was a lack of information, and 52% of parents would consider buying rear facing once presented with the safety benefits.

The survey allowed us to get valuable media time for a number of experts on the subject including Helena (rearfacing.co.uk) and Jullian Preston-Powers (neuroprotective specialist at the University of Sussex).  I also made a couple of radio appearances too (there was even rumours at one point of a slot on This Morning).

In all honesty, I was disappointed by the initial media coverage as I passionately believe this is a subject that is dreadfully covered in the UK.  This fits squarely with the Motors brand of empowering the motorist and promoting choice and so we will continue to investigate how we can increase its exposure.

January was a humbling month in general for our marketing team as we also launched our “most deserving” campaign to give a local hero up to £10,000 towards a car as well as £2,000 for a charity of their choice (mostdeserving.motors.co.uk).  Some of the stories have blown us away, with individuals who set an incredible example of selflessness and support for others.

The end game of our marketing budget remains the same, but it is certainly rewarding when we are able to find ways of using it to coincide with pushing good causes. It’s too early to say what the correct mix within our budget should be, but it has certainly encouraged the team at Motors.co.uk to think wider. It's nice to think that marketing an online brand can go beyond Google, and influence change.


Ps it should be noted that since we launched the campaign John Lewis made available the Recaro Polaric rear facing car seat, but it’s still not a good enough choice…