Time to re-acquaint you with one of our favourite people.

Lefteris Koulonis has once again joined SoMaFusion for a quick n dirty project  (remember the Greek campaign? He’s preparing a surprise as part of that project).

LeLon (as he is affectionately known) is the wiz behind our logo. So he’s been with us from the very beginning and is one of the first people who saw the business plan.

LeLon is not your typical designer. He brings to the process a sensitivity that enhances his work – not to mention that as a result he’s a pleasure to work with.

It’s great to have him on board once again.

Check out his work.

It is a great pleasure to announce the GREEK campaign. Targeted to Greek hoteliers with small and medium – sized hotels it has been a long time coming.

The centrepiece for the campaign is the hotelspro.gr website – a version of the SoMaFusion website in Greek and set up specifically with tourism professionals in mind.

Other actions include a targeted e-mail campaign (extremely targeted) and an outreach campaign (even though the details of the later are surprise). (more…)

Meet Theodora Gkiousou.

She joins us as a Marketing & Customer Outreach Executive, specifically for a campaign we are about to run with hoteliers.

Theodora has substantial experience in customer relations with a marketing twist, mainly in the online gaming industry. She brings a thorough understanding of digital outreach campaigns, targeted to specific industries and audiences.

Already we have had our first meetings, discussing the draft material, the contact sheets and the outcomes we would like to see from the outreach campaign. Theodora brings invaluable commercial impact to the project.

Help us to welcome her to SoMaFusion – go on, leave a nice comment.

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Full disclosure: Theodora is Sofia’s sibling. Her CV was examined like any other and she will be paid for the work.

The work we do as SoMaFusion is a gift to us in more ways than one. But today, it’s important to talk about the special people we meet along the way. (more…)

Sometimes you have to explain what you do. In simple terms.

I certainly dislike lengthy presentations and documents and frequently wish that people would just get on with it.

When I started putting together this presentation about how we work with hotels I had a chat with my colleague Manolis about this idea I had to just put things in simple terms. However, there is always the challenge of the prospective client who knows what he/she wants and really wants a bit more detail. (more…)

moo loves to print and we love them.

Already we designed and printed our business cards with them and everybody loves them.

Up for a bit of fun we just got out stickers.

Aren’t they cute?

(more…)

Periklis Vanikiotis, an old hand in journalism and tech in Greece, has an interesting column in the Greek edition of Marketing Week. He recently put down some thoughts about tourism and its marketing, mentioning our white paper.

He kindly agreed that we could translate and re-publish in our blog.

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The product comes before advertising
by P. Vanikiotis, Marketing Week 1293

I am watching with interest, my friends, all these new cheerful acts to save tourism in Greece. I heard that we are even creating a DVD – it’s clear that this is all about advanced technology – in an attempt to show that we are a place of tranquility, order and security. Campaigns here, campaigns there, some good, some in need of improvement. And I wonder. Didn’t anyone note – Marketing 101 – that products have to come before advertising?

It’s true, if a tourist is looking for sun and sea they can be found in abundance. If you are looking for oily kebabs and warm beers, those can be found as well. If you are looking for a little bit of chaos in terms of where to go and where to stay, sure you’ll get that (I remember only too well those times in Tinos, the “rooms to let” guys where doing everything sort of picketing us). If, finally, you are looking for a general lack of info, you’ll get that too.

(more…)

Blooming London Uploaded by SoMaFusion on 28 Apr 10, 9.55AM BST.

As the picture will verify London is blooming these days. We actually did more work at the park lately then in an office. You know the volcano ash? Well, we got caught in it and Manolis was stuck in London for a while. Not that we minded too much, the weather being so nice and all. We managed to get through some work and start off a white paper. More on that, later, I promise.

These days our big hospitality contracts are running to full steam – start of the tourist period you see. Booking engines need to be updated, contracts renegotiated, prices changed, accommodation parameters arranged. To tell the truth it’s an exciting time for us; the whole time line stretches before you, the strategy is right there, the systems are ready from our work over the winter and all that’s left is to fill in the blanks. Perhaps I should blog about how we run the hospitality stuff sometime.

On other news we are running a pro bono contract these days with a marvellous artist which has got me thinking about creative people and their use of social media. There is some reading I want to go through and then I’ll share some thoughts.

Finally, we are working on a new venture – again on hospitality. Manolis is working out the details of the business plan before we sit down and think seriously about it but it’s still an exciting time for us.

If only the weather in London would hold as well…

Refuse Uploaded by D I C K S D A I L Y on 29 Jan 07, 9.45PM GMT.

All of our beloved designers have the same problem. They end up doing projects that they don’t like because the clients ask for minutely specified things. We sympathise and understand. Not to mention that we enjoy reading a lovely new blog (sorry, in Greek only) detailing some such adventures.

However, we tend to say ‘no’ quite a lot. Manolis reminded me today when we were discussing the possibility of doing a pro bono project for someone we like (more on that one later).

Before we get down and do a project we really, honestly look into who the client is and what are his/her needs. As we say in our process page, we then research and come up with proposals. We then discuss them and the client needs to be happy.

However, there are times that we say no. We see it as our obligation and our responsibility to say when we don’t think something is a good idea and especially when we think it will hurt our client.

Recent example: One of our clients was considering opening a Facebook Fan Page. We went over the audience, the needs, the segments and we as SoMaFusion agreed that there would be no tangible return whatsoever, it was too late (there was a specific deadline, sorry I can’t share more on this) and it would not achieve the desired end result. We discussed this with our client, explained, debated and in the end he agreed with us. And – crucially – he was happy.

Let me stress this for a moment. Our client trusted us to give an opinion as specialists and as people who actually researched the question and responded responsibly. Sure, effectively we said ‘no’. And we are still convinced that we did the right thing – our client agrees by the way.

It once happened that a prospective client did not agree. He approached us with specific (very specific) ideas and laid them down. We tried to debate, we tried to explain but he wanted to do it his way. We turned down the contract. Not out of animosity – not at all, but let me express this as clearly as possible. We like what we do. In fact we love it. We refused so that we could keep on loving it. We remained happy… even though I’m never sure how that prospective client fared.

Hi! Uploaded by BritneyMarie on 5 Aug 09, 4.59PM GMT.

It’s brand new so please watch the carpets with that wine you are holding. Welcome to our new home.

The pictures are new, the texts have been dusted down and the blog is now incorporated. What more do you need?

Naturally a website like ours is never really done. There are some white papers we want to upload, there are the new presentations to consider, there is the matter of our specialisations and oh so much more. But hey – stick around to see more.

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