Page 11 - September October 2017

“Use the page to show people what you’ve done during your time as Marketing Coordinator”. These were the words of our new Roundhouse editor, Peter Bowen, fol- lowing the announcement of my ‘retirement’ at the AGM.
In 2010 the Region was advertising for a ‘Publicity Officer’ and I met with Mike Arnold. After some discussion we agreed that the Region needed more than just simple publicity – it needed proper marketing. With little coordi- nated marketing or publicity work having been carried out in the past the task was challenging. To me it was inter- esting as it allowed me to reuse my skills from 20 years of owning and running a printing business. During this first period of my role some tasks I carried out included
• Preparation of posters
• Negotiated discounts for members
• Coordinated trip to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg • Started the stand at Brighton Model World
I worked closely with various Presidents and Vice Presi- dents to work through a strategy to bring the Region up to date and provide a more professional, unified image. The first thing that was required was to establish what we did (product). After consultation and many email exchanges with various members we finally came up with what we, as an organisation, do. We exchanged ideas, information and expertise. This was distilled into one simple phrase – sharing know-how. There were other major updates and marketing initiatives including a complete revision of our brochure but possibly the biggest change was updating our logo. This was not some frivolous impulse but a care- fully considered initiative to show people that we were making changes that would enable us to move forward.
In addition to this I’ve worked on
• Adverts large and small for Continental Modeller
• Adverts for shows; Brighton, Alexander Palace
• Prepared various laminated posters
• Introduced roller posters
• Laminated layout badge / information / ‘bookmarks’
• Suggested and designed ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ • Appeared live on Dubai Radio for nearly 15 minutes • Got the NMRA mentioned in the Telegraph and
Country Life magazine
• Written an article on making decals used on the 2015
Milepost 70 loco
• Milepost 70 campaign including writing article for
Continental Modeller
• Organised a trip for NMRA members to the last general
running session of Bob Phelps layout prior to his move
to France
One regular event I’m proud to be associated with is taking the region stand at Brighton Model World from
a simple 6 x 6 stand under the stairs to full use of the mid level bar areas. I was given total control over how I presented this and over the period used it as a test bed for many of the ideas I later incorporated into the Region marketing material. This show, over each 3 day period, also interacted with around 20 members who attended to help man the stand. Everyone seemed to enjoy the atmosphere (at least most of the time) even through my sometimes autocratic management style.
Much of this article is written in the first person using
‘I’ but without the help and cooperation of many NMRA members ‘I’ could not have achieved anything. They are too numerous to mention individually here so I must content myself with saying a great big THANK YOU to one and all.
My skill set is firmly rooted within the printing industry. Today’s marketing has migrated to use electronic media. The Region has a number of members who have skills in this area. Having laid out the marketing ground work over the past 7 years or so I feel certain that they will take the Region further forward while I enjoy my ‘retirement’ giving me time to work more on my personal layout as well as attend events in a purely ‘visitor’ capacity.
Mike Hughes
October 2017 - ROUNDHOUSE 11