Author: Roger Payton

Worn out the T shirt sums up Mr P. We have never presented a problem or opportunity to his team that they haven’t fixed or remedied to our absolute satisfaction. No job too big or small and always with a great big smile. Highly recommended. TV. Head of Marketing

Promoting my business responsibly

Clients often ask for promotional items that have been recycled or made from repurposed materials and that support their CSR strategy?

It all sounds a bit vainglorious but, it’s far easier than you’d imagine and there’s a tonne of products that are socially responsible & really useful. In 30 years we’ve done more pads than I care to mention and all of them FSC, responsibly sourced and recyclable.

We drink 1000,000,000 cups o tea every day in the UK so it makes sense to make cups from recycled/recyclable/reuseable/responsible materials?

Bamboo is really sustainable.

Coffee cups are a great example & becoming more and more popular with responsible businesses.

2.5 BILLION last year in the UK! And many were used once and then thrown away!

Include the lids and card grips and that’s a colossal waste mountain. If we said the average man and woman drink 2 coffees per day, giving them a re-useable coffee cup would seem to make great sense, both In terms of enjoyment of the drink (what could be more important), and the opportunities to see your brand.

We have some great promotional examples and offers. If coffee is important to your people, show them you care about the environment and show everyone they bump into, you care about them too.

The ubiquitous Pen is mightier than most every other item!

Cheap, useful and universally loved, there are few promotional items that provoke such a positive reaction and it never fails to amuse me the effort and time rtfacts put into creating really cutting edge and unique desk drops, to be rewarded with, “We loved the pens”.

They come in every size shape, colour and size and we can print in single colour to full 4 colour process. The pen example in the picture is made from recycled plastic bottles and says so on the barrel. We have delivered millions of pens over the years and nothing makes us happier than delivering products that are responsibly sourced and manufactured. Mores the pity that these are made in Italy and not the UK. Pens made from denim, tyres, money, newspapers all available!

Coasters sit nicely with the coffee and tea conversation and are now equally recyclable and sustainable.

Plastics have had a poor press recently with some justification. Recycling the raw material and making a useful desk item that prints beautifully has to make sense. I really think pubs and bars could do a great trade in recycled plastic coasters and rid themselves of the board versions that curl and peel when wet and are really only fit for purpose as who’s the toughest ‘Ninja little finger’ (I can do three coasters if you want a challenge), and I’d love to get my mates to have a go with the plastic ones! ha ha ha.

Responsibly sourcing your promotional items isn’t difficult and doesn’t cost more!

The product and print quality is easily as good and the ‘feel good’ factor as a result is way way better. Talk to rtfacts about all your promotional needs and that includes: #Pens, #pencils, #bags, #drinkware, #school & kids, #paper, #desk and office, #conference, #events, #lanyards, #house & home, #sweets, #confectionery #health and fitness, #seeds & flowers.

Call 01442 266 590 today and start the responsible revolution! Or lets just talk!

From nothing to WWWebsite in JUST 30 days!

If you’re a start up and you want a new website quickly prepare to be shocked. Go to any self respecting Web Agency and they will probably tell you it will take 3 Months from brief to go live!


Well, we are a self respecting design for web and print Agency and we’ve been around the block, so we know what we are on about, but a Month is doable if you have all your ducks in a row.


This site https://insurtech.rainmaking.io/ was ready to be populated by the client in 3 weeks and the client (with a little help) did the rest. Pretty impressive and shows what’s possible so aim high, even if you do need to be live in a jiffy!
The client said:  And she is happy to talk to you;

“The team were incredibly responsive, understood our needs and came back with a solution that worked. Fast, effective and within our budget.  They were always available when I needed some help so the project never felt like it was running away from me.  Rather, they had it all under control.  A great feeling when you’re working fast. And the product speaks for itself.  We’ve got a solution that we can manage, and continue to improve upon.“


If you want some, talk to Roger today 07831 7000 81 design@rtfacts.co.uk and if you want to talk to a client or two we can arrange that too.


While we are building your site get yourself ready to get the best DIY traffic. 

We run courses all the time and would love to squeeze you onto one, where you will learn the following:

Social Media 

  • Why are you doing it?
  • Who are you talking to?
  • Which platform should you use?
  • What should you say?
  • When should you say it?
  • How do you measure it?

We talk about the importance of keywords, images & video and look at the similarities/differences on the big four platforms:
Linked In, Twitter, Facebook/Instagram and You Tube and create a week plan with benchmarks to monitor.


Google Analytics 

  • Install the code and start tracking data
  • Understand the terminology
  • Set up filters & dashboards
  • Create KPIs for future benchmarking
  • Create audience, Acquisition, Behaviour & Conversion Reports
  • See where visitors are coming from and what devices they’re using
  • Discover which websites are linking to and referring visitors to yours
  • Track key events with goals & funnels
  • See visitor’s journey and draw meaningful conclusions


DIY SEO

  • Want to get the best out of Google organically?  
  • Why Google is the only real game in town
  • SEO in plain English that even my Nan understands
  • Free tools that you really need to know about
  • Your website is your voice online, what is it saying?
  • The impact you can make on and off the page for free

2 new websites this week

rtfacts launch 2 websites this week and wanted to share the first one:

CORVID PayGate are saving companies £000’s and will automate all your payments for long-term efficiency.

Reduce costs, manage cash flow and navigate the changing payment landscape with smarter credit and debit operations.

Its a powerful, cost-effective all-in-one solution for Bacs and international payment transactions.  Data validation, direct debit management, process automation and consultancy solutions blend with the CORVID PayGate brand of honest customer care to give you total peace of mind.

They proudly boast – We’re not just Bacs-approved software suppliers to our customers; we’re trusted experts working in partnership to keep payment security, efficiency and automation at the heart of your business.

“PayGate has helped us cut the time required to process our submissions by 75%, saving us over £25k each year.”

Canburyarmskingston.co.uk re opens

The Canbury Arms Kingston has had a brilliant makeover and is up and running.

If you’re in the vicinity and in need of refreshment or food, or both ideally, it comes highly recommended.

This is what they say about themselves: The Canbury Arms, Kingston upon Thames is a smart community pub with great fresh food, where eaters and drinkers alike are looked after with the same friendly and professional service.

Go on you know you want to. 

cOld news is old news

When we started rtfacts, in July 1993, 

I never imagined sitting here 30 years later doing the same job!

But here we are! Other than being a bit older, greyer and wiser, we are mostly the same team and still working with lovely clients.

We are moving office for the third time in as many years, to cater for the ever-expanding family working at rtfacts towers and this means more tidying. As a result, I’ve chucked away a tonne of interesting but now obsolete rt facts. I did find a folder with Testimonials (Faxed) and our letter from BT to say we were a roster agency (in Jan 1994) due largely to the help and influence of Tracey Wallace and Elaine Bradford. Thank you ladies, forever in your debt as we worked for BT for 13 years. Let’s say it was financially rewarding, we were half the price of London and double the cost we could have charged to still make a profit. It meant we did everything to perfection and got a lot of praise. I’ve added a few here just in case anyone nostalgic stumbles across this post and wants a read. Good old Andy Cooper and Glenn Tongue and we LOVED working with Marcia and Wendy! Nina, what can I say. The wife of our great friend Christian Devereux who died doing what he loved – racing cars. 

Nostalgia sucks sometimes. Let’s talk!

Security on mobiles and tablets is the next pain in the arse

We are so trusting!

Having watched this I am rethinking how I operate, particularly when I’m travelling and with mobile data such a minefield outside of Europe, (god only knows what Brexit will have to offer us after a resolution), if our wonderful Politicians can put their differences behind them and put the interests of the Country and the public first for a change! (Rant Over)!

Think twice before you sign in to ANY unknown source and get some security on your mobile devices for

F-Secure sake!

Im out

Europe are sick of this and in no mood to talk! 

Join the club. 

May has been true to the crap position the country stupidly put govt. in and tried to deliver. 

Most would’ve stuck their fingers up and walked by now. 

She can’t but I can. I’m out, Can’t be bothered with the politics or the politicians. 

How do I turn it all off and get on with my life without having to listen to more of this sorry mess? 

It’s so pathetic it’s not even funny any more!

It feels like everyone who voted out has been cheated and so have all us remainers!

Bye!

Disruption graphics and tension! Sounds painful

About 15 years ago while working for BT, we were invited to HQ at Holborn for a design briefing. 

We’d won the BT account after pitching for an online game, that was a bit ‘dungeons and dragons’, called Shades! Nothing like the video games of today and from memory sat next to a product called Telecom Gold, which always surprised me. (Think Teletext and you’d be about in the right place).  

I believe we won the pitch on merit but there was talk after the event, of one agency blowing it by creating an advert that threatened ‘We’ll drown the kitten in the toilet! (It was precariously held over the pan), if you don’t subscribe’!  

The other agency dressed a plate of food at the ‘gala pitch presentation’ with Ivy, (way before anti-bribery and not being able to entertain clients), and got no further as the boss thought she was being poisoned! Happy days for rtfacts as BT would play a major part in our future and shape our company over the next 12 years. 

Back to the design briefing – We’d been to a few and there were always interesting people presenting, today was no exception. 

A particularly stunning young lady exec from Interbrand New York explained the latest brand refresh to the agencies gathered in the auditorium. She strutted up and down in a very distracting manor (for all the men), (and ladies of that persuasion I guess), which was quite alarming to be honest. Notably for myself as I was unable to concentrate and remembered very little of what the aforementioned stunning young lady had said! 

She did say one thing that really stuck with me and there is a new version of the same thing I’m hearing again today, so someone somewhere has yet again recycled this great old idea. 

The new BT imagery was designed to ‘create tension’ with the reader!  

Whaaat? Why do we want to make them tense? 

I didn’t get it at the time and my simple boy brain wanted to re-imagine the whole idea as a perfectly simple visual metaphor, but that wasn’t what Interbrand meant at all. 

Their notion was that the image needed to be quirky and not make total sense and not always sit comfortably within the layout. The supporting text needed to challenge and question and make people think about what they were looking at. 

Build

The new version of the ‘Creating Tension’ is ‘disruption’.

We’ve seen it referenced recently with graphics, attitudes and culture!  

We’re in! So, if anyone wants to create some ‘disruption’ in the market-place give us a shout.  

We love a challenge and there is nothing and spark of creativity and a bit of disruption can’t achieve I’d imagine!

Out of the bedroom and into the boardroom.

Have you always wanted your business to be a big business but can’t really see how that’s going to happen?

Join our happy little cooperative and perhaps it might me one day? 

Let me start at the beginning.

rtfacts have been many sizes in 25 years and I can assure you big definitely isn’t always better. Yes, big comes with bonuses.

More money, more exciting projects, more recognition, but it also comes with headaches.

I became an ‘HR manager’ and spent more time looking after staff issues than I did my beloved clients.

Wages have to be paid every Month and those exciting jobs can take Months to complete – and Invoice.

Big clients have clout and don’t want to part with their money, some want 90 days credit, which can mean 180 days (yes half a year REALLY!)

to get paid for that big exciting job!

Cashflow is generated in many ways but the quick turnaround ‘down and dirty’ jobs create cash quickly and often fund the big exciting jobs, we were ‘so keen’ to work on.

Every job has its value and we’ve learned to love and appreciate all work clients bring through our doors, whatever the size, value or excitement.

rtfacts have at times been full service. What I mean by that is we’ve had ALL the skills in-house to provide every part of the marketing mix from copy and concepts to planning and buying.

That’s fine when everyone is as in demand as each other, but not so much when your highly paid copywriter isn’t working for two weeks as you have nothing to write. (I’m talking pre-blogs and social media where downtime could be actively beneficial).

As the dynamics of our business have changed we have swapped the ability to make money on every element of our design for web and print processes and instead, partnered with like-minded and compatible businesses, so we have a broad product offer but no responsibility for anything other than our passion – Design for print and web.

So an rtfacts client may come to rtfacts for Design for web and print projects but can also take advantage of the world-class PPC Google experts we have on site – www.mymustard.co.uk. If you need Photography we can put your team www.intheframephotographyltd.co.uk. An Event that needs AV and all the trimmings can be managed by www.eventsfocus.co.uk and after all that you may need to relaxxxxx – www.nutmegspa.co.uk isn’t in the office but it’s a few doors down and offers a unique spa experience. If you’re looking for some serious heavyweight IT staff recruiting http://www.entasispartners.co.uk can likely help.

And if you really want some really discrete service, Just Waxing sort of says it all and is based at 109, although not a lot of people know this yet.

We have one room free Air conditioned, fibre broadband and 247/365 access for the right partner?

I’d love it to be a programmer or writer or accountant startup that wants

Out of the bedroom and into boardroom?

If you read this and think Hemel old town might be for you, or a friend get in touch. It will probably be the best call you ever make.

BE THE BEST

Be the Best has been synonymous with the ARMY for as long as I can remember. 


There are many companies with slogans that really could do with looking at, (not because they are not PC or Inclusive), but because they are rubbish and don’t reflect their businesses in any way but, BE THE BEST sort of sums up the ARMY and needs no attention in my humble.

I have shown a couple of example below to illustrate why our countries ARMY slogan should never be made more politically correct and Inclusive and why it must always be supporting the notion that the best is the least the ARMY will accept?

ARMY

ANYONE & EVERYONE,

ARMY

QUITE GOOD IS GOOD ENOUGH, 

If that’s OK with you guys?

Seriously!

I was in the Fleet Air Arm aged 16.5 years and from that early age was told that we didn’t like the crabs, the pongos, bootnecks, or the smellies for that matter but, that was simply Forces banter. When push came to shove all the Forces combined into a well-oiled machine ready for anything. 

My Brother always tells people I was attracted to the Navy because of their slogan – Join the NAVY Feel a Man (pre homophobia and no idea what a PC was frankly), but If that made you laugh fair dinkum! 

I’m bound to say – If you wish for peace – prepare for war so

Keep the ARMY slogan!

Is it elitist? YES – That’s exactly the point! We should all want our ARMY to ‘be the best’, I for one hope they don’t dumb it down.

The caps in the top image we did for our friend Loucas Davenport (Dave to his ARMY friends), and I’m still proud to wear mine.

Let’s talk

That’s me at the start of the ramp! Invincible and the first Sea Harriers. And just hanging about!

109 High Street, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP1 3AH

© rtfacts design for web and print