Archive for April, 2010
Another Success
As you know, I am always interested to hear from all those who entered the Den, especially if it is a success story. One such company is Runawaybrideandgroom.com.
Here is a very exciting update from Zara & Rosemarie who featured on Series II Dragons’ Den recently. Fantastic!
….In response to your last blog commenting on the cost of marketing I agree but I also feel that entrepreneurs who do not have the privilege of a dragon should not give up, as marketing can be about spending cash or otherwise you need to get creative….which is what we have had to do.
As you know we left the Den with no investment after filming in January. Our business of Weddings and Honeymoon services had been planned, but not yet launched and in hindsight we made the fatal mistake of over valuing the company.
Since January however we managed to launch the business, generate sales and establish our brand Runawaybrideandgroom.com internationally on a limited budget. The Den was like a brilliant free consultancy service we could never afford and after we fluffed it we went home and re-adjusted our business plan. We knocked on doors of every business person we knew and did a road show of presentations. Two weeks later we secured Euros40K for 20% of the business after some negotiation from Ciaran Rooney, Director of 1st Ireland Insurance.
We were Euros60K short of what we wanted but lucky to get anything in the climate. Our marketing plan to launch Runawaybrideandgroom.com was based around the PR of the offer of “The Ultimate Job In Ireland”. Six months travel around the world for 2 people plus 20K in their pocket! By our own admission a pure copycat of the Queensland Tourist Board’s Best Job campaign. However, our budget was limited and the travel bill alone would be around Euros100K so we had to get creative! We decided we needed credibility and proper advertising otherwise people would think the campaign was a scam. So we approached The Irish Times and agreed a media deal with them. They would associate themselves with the competition and we would get Euros250,000 worth of free advertising. We also agreed 6 months worth of editorial in their GO Magazine to report on trips – this was the critical link to enticing other travel sponsors (we could guarantee logos, branding and photos in what is widely regarded as the best Irish Travel Supplement).
That done we contacted 100s of airlines, hotels, ground operators and eventually selected and secured sponsorship for the entire 6 month trip to luxury destinations around the world. The finale trip is sponsored by Queensland Tourism which we think is very apt given we stole their idea in the first place! In return the selected sponsors will get editorial coverage in the Irish Times, on Ireland.com and many eyeballs on our own site and through blogs.
The first ad went out in the Irish times end of Feb and the response to the competition was very poor in the beginning. We had no budget for online advertising although in desperation we paid Euros320 for facebook ads. We sent out press releases to everyone around the world we could think of and to all our friends. We’ve all travelled a lot and I am involved in travel so that was a lot of people. After week three the viral marketing effect started to happen. In the end we received over 30,000 applications for our Ultimate Job in Ireland from over 98 different countries.
The Job was the lead story on CNN Travel, Fox News, Yahoo, The China Daily News to mention just a couple. My colleague Rosemarie spoke on 123 radio stations in 9 different countries. We tracked the job being talked about on over 40 TV stations around the world…all this generated over 500,000 links to our new site and 8.5 million visits in less than 3 months as well as lots of enquiries for weddings and honeymoons along the way of course. We were inundated by producers wanting to either follow the couple or make reality TV about the concept…in the end we signed a deal with the Wolper Organization in LA who have in turn signed Warner Bro’s. Oprah Winfrey’s producer also contacted us! Phenomenal and nope we did not plan that bit or the extent of global exposure.
Our winning couple will be chosen on the 9th May and with finalists from all around the world we knew that tea and scones at the local church hall would not be an appropriate venue. We were able to enlist the support and generous sponsorship for a full weekend of activity and games thanks to several top hotels and restaurants in Kinsale culminating at the fabulous Ballincurra house for a gala dinner with champagne sponsored by Bollinger. We have organised press and some international TV crews will be over thanks to Tourism Ireland so Kinsale will benefit enormously with the exposure of being marketed as a fantastic wedding destination.
From here the business has two challenges. The first is we need to see returns on our campaign and our service of weddings and honeymoons is simply not global enough…its too Irish consumer focussed. So we have brought a new partner and investor on board to further commercialise our site and create a portal with expanded services that are suitable for a global market. The other challenge is we need to continue the momentum of driving traffic to the site so we have launched the search for the successive Ultimate Couple and given our experience to date now have several ideas to commercialise this campaign and generate some cash from it next time round.
Meanwhile I have personally realised that I cannot focus on two businesses well so I’ve decided to retain my shareholding in Runawaybrideandgroom.com and return all my efforts to Zara’s Planet and my horse riding holidays which are my personal passion. Overall it’s been a brilliant experience and Dragons’ Den was the best thing we ever did, as had we not, we would still be three girls talking about an idea but not actually getting it off the ground with a proper marketing plan which is all about execution!
Keep blogging…I pick one or two of your ideas every month and implement them! As soon as I make my first million I will be sure to let you know!
The Entrepreneur Show
What a weekend, last Friday and Saturday and the Entrepreneur show. As a first time event it was a real success and congratulations to entrepreneur, Darren O’Toole who created and executed the show.
The exhibitors I spoke to were all quite pleased with the show but I thought there were far too many talks going on. It has to decide for the future is it a conference or an exhibition?
Too Many Talks
For those of you who didn’t get to the show it was in the main Hall 8 of Simmonscourt, so it was a very large exhibition space, larger than the Ideal Homes the previous weekend. On top of that you had four very large arenas for speakers like myself and my fellow Dragons and some Dragons from the BBC.
Why four arenas? It meant the crowd was being divided by five all the time, i.e. the four arenas and the exhibition hall. It would have been so much better to have just one arena or theatre with half hour talks. But as in business you have got to start somewhere and this was a brilliant start. I look forward to Darren and his team doing it next year.
New Ideas
At the show, everywhere I went, people came up to me with business ideas. I was only too delighted to stop and chat. We have enjoyed a great season of Dragons’ Den on TV and the Irish public have been so supportive so I, and my fellow Dragons, were keen to give a little back. I actually did see a few ideas with real potential. A anti burglar device for sliding patio doors, a gift wrap alternative and a new twist on a scissors.
But coming up with a prototype for a good idea is so long away from an actual successful product. Through the Dragons’ Den people have seen that I am a marketing person who can take a product from an idea to mass market and fast. Becuase it is on TV I actually pay to do that. I invest in the company.
But I assure you the real investment is my time. To bring the Toilet Pipe Cover, the HidBin or TanOrganic to mass market success requires a huge time commitment.
I am very fortunate that the very large Corporations will pay large fees to retain me to advise them on their strategy and launch of new products or brand extensions. But this leaves me with hardly anytime to look at ideas other than those I have invested in on Dragons’ Den.
The Cost of Going to Market
What I am saying is if somebody came up to me with a brilliant idea I can tell you to get it to a ploace where people are aware of it and are looking to buy it in a shop takes at least €250,000 on marketing. And with marketing you need the very best advisors so as little of that spend is wasted.
Look what I am saying is, a good idea is only the very start. Imagine where TanOrganic would be now if Noelle O’Connor had not been brave enough to go on Dragons’ Den. I still believe Noelle is such a trooper that she would have got the product to market but it wouldn’t be the household name it is going to be by the end of 2010.
All the creativity that goes into inventing something is fantastic but you need to spend more time thinking about how are we going to get people to buy this product?
It all begins and ends with Marketing and Sales.
Finally – Best Speakers
Doug Richards who resigned from the BBC version of Dragons’ Den after two seasons to go off and manage one of the world’s big venture capital funds was at the show and was a great contributer. He is an expert in Technology but was alos great fun.
The speaker that impressed me most was Ian McDonald of weedle. Ian was one of the team behind Perlico and he has taken the money he made from its sale to Vodafone to now have a go at a skills version of Linkedin.
I didn’t get to hear it myself as I was speaking in the various arenas all day but Rachel Elnaugh’s talk was considered by many to very inspiring.
Keep it touch with my blog, next Blog Friday.
Great Weekend at Ideal Homes Show
There is nothing like putting your product in front of customers to find out its true potential. And this was the weekend. A first, the Spring Ideal Homes Show, was staged at the RDS by my good friend, Sean Lemass. Everyone was surprised by the huge turnout. I estimate over 50,000 people attended.
Great that consumers are back looking to shop.
There were still a lot of tyre kickers but the fact that consumers were out looking to shop has to be an encouraging sign for retailers.
As you know I was supposed to be away with my fellow Dragons on the slopes for late ski-ing in Zermatt but we got “volcanoed”. So I was at the show on Saturday. (I couldn’t be there Sunday as I had two nephews playing in the 85th Leinster Rugby Towns Cup Final. They play for Boyne who retained the title in a close fought battle against a gallant Tullamore with my nepew, Bevan Duffy, scoring the winning try with an intercept.)
“The Dream Team”
The Dragons’ Den Dream Team, that’s what they called themselves, of Noelle O’Connor, TanOrganic, Mark O’Loughlin of HidBin and Herbie Porsche of Toilet Pipe Cover were all there on one stand which created a big impact in the hall. It was by far the busiest stand at the show from what I could see.
A Few Learning Points.
Having said that, as people are following this blog to get some marketing and sales insights I would have a few criticisms of the stand. There was no video. People don’t walk straight up to a stand. They stay outside what we call the “grab-zone”. They observe you first from about 20 feet. That’s why you need 50″ screens showing them your product and announcing a special show offer and anything for “FREE”. Your stand has cost you thousands but using video you have quadrupled the square meterage. The video shouldn’t depend on audio but must have clear legible graphics spelling out your offer and invite. (Also some shows don’t allow audio.)
I can’t believe that my three colleagues who have been on Dragons’ Den did not have one bit of footage from the show playing on their stand. Now as it turns out they were busy enough anyway but there is great room for improvement.
Herbie needs to brush up on his sales technique, Mark missed an opportunity and Noelle underestimated the demand.
My good friend Herbie’s sales technique needs brushing up. On a few occasions I heard him say to a potential customer, “yes check it out on line”. That is sending a customer away. Even if somebody says my toilet goes into the wall not the floor, you do two things. “MayI have your name and address so we can tell you when the wall mounting is available?” And then ask them, “Surely you have a friend who’d you love to buy this for them it is only a fiver here at the show?” At another trade event I attended with Herbie a man told us he never, ever orders at such shows but only when he goes home. But I managed to get on his wavelength and he placed a large order there and then. Selling is about turning objections into opportunities and closing the sale.
The HidBin not having before and after footage on a 50″ screen – well what can I say? Missed opportunity.
Noelle running out of product on the last day of the show. Yes that is great news and proves the demand for TanOrganic but it also means we lost sales opportunities.
Am I just a whinging old you know what. No I hope not. I always like to encourage but I just like things to be done to their maximum potential.
Next Blog; Friday Morning.
Young Entrepreneurs – Brilliant!
Late call for Late Late
I was supposed to be away but got “volcanoed” with no flights. I had been asked to do The Late Late Show a couple of weeks back but we, the Dragons, had planned an end of series party, and I wasn’t going to miss it.
Then they started chasing me yesterday afternoon. It was only then I got talking to John, a researcher, from the show. Orlaith, my wife, and I had all the baby sitting arrangements in place so we were planning on just heading to a hotel and chilling out for the weekend. But Sean Gallagher then phoned and asked me to come on with him – “it will be better crack if we do it as a two hander” he coaxed. So I agreed. It was the best way to do it. I hadn’t been thinking about it all week. I just got time to go home get changed and head to the studio.
Behind the scenes of the longest running chat show in the world.
Got there at about 9pm and was brought to the green room. Had a quick drink and a sambo, I was starving and soon after Sean and Trish arrived. She really is a beautiful woman with the most gorgeous eyes and a warm smile, then I look at Sean and wonder????
Down to make up. Where I see on the list Sean and I are on first thing and following us is the Green Party leader John Gormley. We are sworn enemies. I love meat and he is campaigning for a meatless society. I don’t want to be vegan but that’s the way the Greens want to world to end up in the next generation or two. But we are polite to one another.
The make-up artists ask when will TanOrganic be in the shops?
I explain late May it will be in all the pharmacies. Interestingly they all call it by name – “TanOrganic” – it is already a regognisable brand name. Another asks me about Herbie and Minister Gormley’s driver wants to buy a HidBin.
Meet the Four Young Entrepreneurs.
I am slagging Sean that there seems to be a demand for my products. At 9:20 we meet the four young entrepreneurs who will be on the show with us. I’d like to get their names and a brief but their Mams and Teachers want photos of their big night so we pose for a few shots. I note it is the poor Dads who take the pics – always the same the Dads are there to record the moment but be not in it. So I make a mock big fuss and say I am not doing the show until I get photos with the Dads.
Wow we’ll be on any minute!
I can see in the background there’s a TV and the news is over. I am clearly not going to be told anything about what we are going to talk about.
Stephen, who shepherds the guests, takes us to studio 4 and we are taken to the back of the set. I can hear Ryan the far side of the curtain saying to the audience right guys we’ve one minute.
He then appears through the curtain – “Guys great of you to come enjoy the show. Gavin you go here….” I say ”No put Sean beside you first and come to him before me because I have no idea what we are doing.”
Then the theme music explodes – Ryan runs up the back of the stairs and the show is on. Sean is beside himself laughing that absolutely no one has told me what I am doing and keeps saying “you’ll be grand” and next thing we hear, …Sean Gallagher and Gavin Duffy and we are on.
“Go guys – good luck”
But genuinely Ryan is fantastic to be on with. He is such good fun and Sean and I hang around together so much it it like being in his living room in Blackrock, County Louth, except his room has a higher ceiling. It has, what the Yanks call, “a cathedral ceiling”. The room has magnificent views of the beach and sea.
The item is a brilliant one. I haven’t seen it back yet. I don’t look at shows I am on, including Dragons’ Den. It is the four finalists is the Young Entrepreneur show. Rather than go through it here check it out for yourself on the RTE Player.
But it really was uplifting and inspirational to see these young people make their pitches. The ideas were really, really very good.
TanOrganic
Ryan asked me about TanOrganic and was it going to be the really big breakthrough international product from Dragons’ Den. So I explained how it is 100% natural and organic and revealed about the interest we have had from the international market. But he was wanting to move along so I only got to mention Herbie’s Toilet Pipe Cover and the HidBin and that all three are at the Ideal Homes Show this weekend in the RDS.
After about 25 minutes it was all over and during the commercial break we slipped out of studio. More photos with the young entrepreneurs and then back to the Green Room. To my horror two boobs. I forgot to wish luck to Boyne against Tullamore in the Towns Cups Final this Sunday. I have two nephews, Prop, Cillian Duffy and centre, Bevan Duffy on the Boyne team. And for one of the items I said that Vodafone and O2 should be involved. Of course I should have mentioned Meteor where my brother in law works. He gave me an awful slagging later on the phone.
We just chilled out. The other guests were just sitting around. Riad and Siobhán two young gays were lovely as were their families. John Gormley came back in and spoke to Sean. We exchanged pleasantries. Michael Colgan appeared a cold fish. Michael Gambon just carries that bemused look about him always so why force a conversation with them so we just had our own crack. Orlaith and Trish had great fun with all the texts Trish was getting asking her was she pregnant? Apparently as Sean was mentioning the Pregnancy Show he is promoting I said “Yes Ryan Sean has even got pregnant for the event.” So I have started another false rumour.
“It all started on The Late late Show.”
After a while we split and headed home. Final comment about The Late Late Show. People forget long before Dragons’ Den there was an enterprise slot on the Late Late with Gaybo. Stira, the attic stairs, and John Concannon’s amazing multinational JFC Plastics all started on the Late Late.
I came away thinking last night the show is still brilliant, top of the ratings, so professional and with Ryan and Executive Producer, Jim Jennings, in good hands.
Next Blog - Monday.
On Tonight’s Late Late Show
Hi all. Just to let you know I am appearing on the Late Late tonight. On Thursday April 1st, Holy Thursday, Dragons’ Den achieved an audience share of 36%. That means one in three people watching TV in Ireland that night watched the show. There were some big events happening that day but Dragons’ Den also topped the ratings for the main evening news and was the most watched show that day also.
There are 18 Dragons’ Den shows around the world but we set a country per capita audience viewership record making the RTE version the most viewed Dragons’ Den in the world. So Ryan Tubridy is having us on tonight to mark that success.