5 reasons why you need to ramp up online marketing

Moving online has happened for most businesses and is seen as a standard piece of the business plan. But in the last couple of years many companies have started to question the value of an online presence, not because they think it isn’t viable, but to ensure they are maximizing their presence and have a coherent strategy. The massive rise of Twitter and usage of all the social media routes to market has bought a wider awareness to marketing. Once the domain of the marketing department, social media has expanded the marketing remit to just about everybody who needs to promote their business.

But the recent ‘cold snap’ has accelerated this even further with companies facing a normal slow start to the year seeing their workforces unable to travel to work and business grinding to a virtual halt. Online presence and marketing of the company has jumped quickly to the top of the to do list as an activity that really needs to be in place. Those companies that were already utilising their web presence fully were geared up to keep business moving, while those that had a web presence that was effectively just an information portal, realised that they weren’t getting full ROI from their online activities.

So the cold weather is a sharp reminder that online marketing in all forms – email, social media, web marketing, advertising etc – needs to be in place and effective otherwise it ends up just being a ‘me too’ activity that a company feels it must do to be ‘included’.

There are 5 main reasons why your business should be online and active:

1. With more and more people online, the internet is the best place to ‘be seen’. When busy people are looking for a product, they go to a search engine like Google and type in what they’re looking for. Quicker, easier and more convenient. And the current generation of management, your audience, have always done it this way, so you need to be attractive to today’s business decision makers.  
2. On the internet, your business is running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week even while you’re fast asleep. This is key to ensuring that you are available to a worldwide audience.
3. Running a website is much cheaper. Content Managed Systems put you in control of website content and enable you to react to market changes and promote items quickly. But make sure you evaluate your CMS choice to match your business, see my previous blog on CMS selection.
4. Advertising and promoting online is hassle-free and much cheaper too. Email marketing is still an efficient medium to target messages and cost effective for any size audience. With self managed email portals you are also in control of professional communication.
5. Social media is the way forward for marketing campaigns, you need to be there, but you need to use the right tools for the job. Twitter is good for some promotion approaches but you really need evaluate the different social media  routes to market in relation to your audience profile. (download Twitter guide here)

 These are some of the key reasons to be online, but the your main reason is to be prepared so that your business doesn’t suffer when we get the next cold snap – besides, don’t you want to be at home with the kids or your neighbours building snowmen or testing skis while your business is still running?

Oh, and I nearly forgot, we (Insight) recently launched a combined web CMS and email marketing solution that costs just £150 a month and puts you firmly in control of your online presence. You have to visit this page to view the Dylan cue card video featuring online markeitng

Learning from brand ‘America’

It dawned on me today that America was very clever with its marketing of brand America.

OK, yes I know, over the past few years they haven’t done themselves a lot of favours, but just putting that aspect aside for the moment (if it’s at all possible) I was just considering a term that is widely used worldwide and initiated and propagated by Americans. And that’s the simple use of adding American to other nationalities.

2nd and 3rd generation settlers in America have and always will be, I would guess, been known as African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans etc etc and even American Indians, you know those guys that were there originally. Does this happen anywhere else in the world? In the UK we have 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th generation nationalities that we just refer to as Italian, Chinese, Indian etc.

It’s just a very small point but just how clever is that by the Americans? Just by adding that one word onto the end of every other nationality present in the USA, no matter how long their families have lived there, they project America and the pride of being American. We talk in the UK about an integrated, multi-cultural, society but no British identity – not saying that is wrong because we all need a separate identity and to treasure our cultural roots. But how much more promotion for British/UK identity would we/could we have had by using British-Italians or UK-Italians. Everyone then has pride for where they are and where they live and retain their identity, pride and culture.

No matter what you say about our overseas cousins, they did a great job on brand America, worldwide. A marketing lesson to be learnt there.

Sky.com A perfect example of how not to do marketing

Sky, that massive organisation, you would imagine, judging from their advertising, online, off-line and on TV, would be able  to teach us a thing or two about marketing. Based on my experience they seem to have a better external marketing department than they do for customer marketing.

Picture this. I have a SKY+ box and I’m very happy. Then at the beginning of this year I start receiving lots of communications – direct mail, email and telephone asking me if I wanted to upgrade to SKY+HD. I had been considering an HD television so I was receptive. The communications kept coming and then the offers started and I succumbed. Several key marketing points were raised, one of which was the ‘new on-screen HD guide which was going to be ‘far superior’ to the old SKY+ guide. I saw a demo and was duly impressed – but then I’m easily pleased.

The unit came and was installed. The engineer, nice guy, was quick and efficient and then gave me a quick whistle stop tour of the new box.

“Great”, says I. “So how do I access the new guide?”

“Ah”, says he. “They don’t come pre-installed with that guide it needs to be downloaded. But his model is not getting downloads yet.”

Calls to SKY central ensued and I was told that it would be “…about 2-3 weeks before you get the new guide downloaded.”

That was July. 3 weeks later I called. “Soon.” Came the reply.

Then I called again in August, September & October. Then I gave up. It will come when it comes.

Then 4^th November I receive ‘the’ email:

—

Subject: Important Information for Sky+HD customers

Gripped with excitement and in a state of uncontrolled fervour I opened the email to see the news I had been waiting (a little longer than 2-3 weeks for):

Your new Sky+HD Guide is on its way (complete with trumpet fanfare – no, I made that up!) 

Look out for your new Sky+HD Guide. It will be with you shortly.

Here at Sky we’re always looking for ways to evolve our products and services to make them better for you. That’s why we’ve developed the new, beautifully simple Sky+HD Guide exclusively for Sky+HD customers.

Soon you’ll be enjoying great new features such as a Mini TV and enhanced search and record functionality that will make it even easier for you to find, watch and record the programmes you love.

—

Soon, in my time frames of soon, came and went.

Then today, November 26^th I received a direct mail piece from none other than: Mark Anderson, Customer marketing Director at Sky

I felt important that he should be writing to me, even more exciting because it was about the new SKY+HD guide, I read on excitedly:

“As you know, we recently added the new Guide to your current SKY+HD box and we hope that you like its new look….”

I stopped reading, I’d only just got home so not had time to turn on the SKY+HD box. So I did and…

No. Mark was wrong. No new guide and no I don’t know if I like its new look.

So assuming there had been an error I call SKY technical service.

I explain what has happened and ask when I will receive it.

I hold. I wait. I’m told that I should talk to customer service and I am transferred.

I explain (again) what has happened and ask when I will receive it.

I hold. I wait. I’m told that I should talk to technical service and I am transferred.

I explain (a third time) what has happened and ask when I will receive it.

I hold. I wait. I’m told that I should talk to someone else.

I shout “STOP!”

I’ve done this, I’ve been there. But I am informed that I will be put through to a specialist department.

I explain (for a fourth time) what has happened and ask when I will receive it.

I hold. I wait. I’m told that I should have received it because all boxes of my make have received the new guide.

I tell him I haven’t.

“Have you switched it off at the mains?”

“No”, I reply.

“If you switch it off then it won’t happen”

“No, I haven’t it always remains on standby eco mode”

“You need to make sure it is always on”

“It is always on”, I reply, for the second time

“If you keep it switched on it will update automatically”

“Ok, I say, we need to stop here, because I’ve told you that I do keep it switched on and it hasn’t updated so let’s not go down that route when will it be updated?”

“Well we’re updating the Thompson units now and you don’t have one of those”

“OK. So when will mine be updated?”

“The next time your make is updated”

“OK”, starting to slightly lose my patience now… “When will that be?”

“We don’t have a schedule. I can put your through to customer service and they..”

“STOP!” Yes, lost my patience now

“Just put me through to marketing I would like to speak with Mark Anderson”

“Accounts?”

“No, marketing please!

“Sales?”

“No, marketing please, Mark Anderson your Customer Marketing Director”

“Marketing?”

“OK, forget it!”

It really does illustrate just how customer support and customer care must be linked to marketing.

The people I spoke to from different departments didn’t have communication between them and did not appear to have the ability to pass information between them. They were not aware of the marketing communications I had received and even though I used the same language that was in the email and direct mail, it confused them. Not their fault, very helpful and nice people, but not kept in the loop.

Marketing is a very powerful tool, when used correctly, but when it’s not joined up with what is happening to the customer and not communicated internally, it becomes negative marketing. I know, I’ve just experience it from one of the largest marketing organisations around.

If you do see Mark Anderson around give him my regards.

Update: 3rd December 2009

I got home today and found a letter from Sky on my doormat. The envelope proudly announced ‘Your new SKY+HD Guide Wil be here soon’. So either someone at Sky read my blog and decided to put things straight or they just have no idea what is being delivered, when and to whom. I know which option my money is on…

Further update: 4rd December 2009

Just received an email to say “Important Information for Sky+HD customers – Your new Sky+HD Guide is on its way”. Am I excited? Not really, no idea when or if it will come. The problem is that now there has been so much hype and hassle it’s become an anticlimax.

Further update: 7th December 2009

I’m nearly so excited I can hardly write. It’s here. Finally, after what seems like forever, but is actually only 6 months, we have it. And you know, I can’t remember why I wanted it now!

Broadband – why is it so expensive?

Broadband checker results: We’ve just tested your line and can confirm your line supports the UK’s most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband. We estimate your maximum download connection to be up to 0.5 Mbps (Megabits per second).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but 0.5 Mbps doesn’t sound like the most complete broadband package.

I’ve lived in Bracknell for 22 years and every year BT tell me that my broadband will get better. It doesn’t and it hasn’t.

But I still struggle with the fact that I pay for a package that is quoted as up to 20 Mbps with unlimited usage. I can’t get higher than 0.5Mbps, I’ve resigned myself to that, because we live right on the border of Bracknell too far away from the centre where the exchange is located. But, this is where I have a problem. I pay the same as the person who lives within the magical cable distance and can receive 20Mbps.

Even after talking to BT (numerous times) no one can justify why I pay the same as someone who receives a service 40 times faster than me. I’ve used the argument that if I bought a Ferrari that was faster than a Mini, I would expect to pay more for the Ferrari and less for the Mini. So as I have a Mini from BT why can’t I pay less?

I won’t ever get an answer and I fear the only answer is to move.

If anyone has any thoughts on how this is calculated I’d be intrigued to know. Until then signing off from entering my blog on a very slow internet connection.

PS I have tried data dongles, but signal is too poor because of being surrounded by trees, no cable, no fibre and no wi-fi services.

How to, and how not to, provide good customer service

Moaning about customer service is a national past time in the UK. And sadly, because as a nation of service providers we do terribly badly at providing good customer service. This past week I have had two customer service experiences that made me think that it can get better.

First, was with Citibank. A reputable company, and I am led to believe a profitable company. I have no axe to grind with them. This month I opened an account with them via the interweb. In completing the online form I made a mistake, I ticked a box that I shouldn’t have. So when the notification email came I realised what a dork I was and made to call Citibank.

That was my first signal that Citibank weren’t customer oriented – no telephone number. So heading off to their web site I find after page after page of ‘contact us details’ with no telephone numbers. Eventually after persevering I find one. I call and I am met with the obligatory maze of menu options. And again after fighting with this I eventually get through to the line for my particular type of query.

This was when I was utterly amazed! After all this time I get through to a recorded message that says:

“We are experiencing high volume of calls at the moment. You can find out answers on our web site at www…”

Nothing unusual here except it is followed by being cut off.

I think that as I am calling on a mobile I’ve lost the line. So I retrace my steps on a landline and… I’m cut off again.

I can’t believe that this is actually happening, that customer service are leading me up a merry path and then batting me away like an annoying little fly to lie on my back spinning and buzzing like the annoyance that I obviously have become. I can’t believe it so much that I dial again, and I’m cut off again.

How wonderful that the web site doesn’t supply the answer and when you find a customer service number they ping you right back to where you came from. The eternal downward spiral of appalling customer service.

Second, was with Dominos Pizza. I don’t eat pizzas – and it’s not that I don’t adore them; it’s just that I can’t manage the massive amounts of calories. But I weakened. It was just last night, a Saturday. I had been working all day (unusual in itself as normally weekend are sacred) since 8:30. So on my return home late evening, my wife is away on a girlie weekend, the house is empty and I just can’t muster the enthusiasm to cook. So out comes the take-away binder and beckoning me is the Dominos Pizza menu. I falter and fall and notice that if I order on the web I can get a £5 discount. I didn’t need this encouragement but it did give me that lame reason to justify ordering a pizza!

Logging on, I am asked where I live. I enter the postcode and the local outlet is shown, but it’s not in my town. So I try looking for a local branch and yes, the store finder locates one just minutes away. As I place my order it changes the branch to the initial ‘not local’ store. I just assume that it is obviously some sort of territory management that is beyond me, I order, select the delivery time of an hour later and pay. Done.

Well actually, no, not done, because the delivery time comes and goes. It’s windy, stormy and raining. So I relax and think they will be here shortly. They’re not. So 20 minutes after the allotted time (80 minutes since I placed the order) I call. “Sorry but we’re short on drivers”. Did I shout? No. Did I get annoyed? No. Why not? Because we’re so used to such bad service and now I want the pizza because I’m very hungry and have now had too many beers to go out and get something else.

So, calmly, I enquire when it will be arrive and I’m told ‘shortly’.

15 minutes later as I am scouring the cupboards of old tins of fruit and packets and jars of food trying to figure out if tinned raspberries would go well with Soya Sauce and kidney beans, the bell rings and the pizza is here with a complimentary bottle of coke.

So off flies the obligatory email to Dominos. I call and leave a message and tuck in to my lukewarm pizza – which after re-heating was actually really nice, even through an annoyed haze.

But, this is where Dominos turned it round. That evening I get a call from the area manager. “Is nwo a good time to talk about your problem?” Actually it wasn’t as I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind, so when I said ‘No’, he calmly asked if he could call on Sunday.

Sunday came and… yes, he did call. And he apologised profusely, said this wasn’t the standard that Dominos expected and that he expected.  He agreed that they should have called earlier to let me know there was a problem, that the online system should never have directed my order to that branch as that compounded the problem and that even though it was late it should still have been hot. He went on to say that he had already credited my order because the whole experience was unacceptable and he wanted me to try Dominos again.

You know what? I will. Not because he gave a refund, I didn’t want one because the pizza was good so I got what I paid for it was just late. I will try them again (when I weaken next time!) because for the simple fact that we all make mistakes, it’s how we handle it in a customer service environment that is the clincher. Citibank had no idea I was calling with my tail between my legs to admit I had made a mistake, because they never spoke to me. Dominos however, took the pain out of the situation by admitting there was a mistake and taking action and the greatest thing doing what they said they would calling the following day.

Take a bow Dominos Pizza for having contact details clearly labelled on the web site, for being there to answer the email and call and for being big enough to take it on the chin and for being customer oriented.

 

PS You couldn’t handle Citibank’s call centre could you?

 

10 Questions To Ask When Selecting a Website Content Management System (CMS) Package

At the beginning of this year we noticed that our larger clients were using their web sites more but our SME clients weren’t doing anything. It seemed to us that all of our clients needed to make the most of their web sites as a ‘cost effective’ form of marketing when budgets were ’slighter tighter’.

We started asking around and got some interesting answers, so we carried out a survey to ask a whole raft of pertinent questions.

It turns out that all customers did want to use their web sites to increase marketing activities and generate sales leads but not all of them could capitalise on their internet resources. The results of the survey showed that over 60% didn’t utilise their online web marketing quite simply because it was too much like hard work. It was either:

• too slow to update - commonly this was due to poor updating software or bad server responses
• too costly to update – we discovered that people are still being charged (what we would consider to be) exorbitant amounts of money to update their web sites – one company listed in their survey responses that it cost them £40 to update an image – and they had a small catalogue site, so you can imagine what that meant on the cost front when they introduced new products.
• required levels of technical skill - many systems were legacy, created in native HTML, ASP, PHP etc and required a technical level of knowledge to update. Alternatively they used a CMS system that needed you to understand HTML so that you could get the best out of it.

We’ve been supplying CMS based web sites since around 2003. CMS systems are now very affordable from SME’s upwards, so we found these facts somewhat hard to believe. Based on the survey feedback I drew up a list of questions that you should ask when selecting your CMS. There’s the obligatory ‘Executive Summary’ here and the full report is on our website here: http://ow.ly/CKH8

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW OF THE 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK

1. Is it WYSIWYG?

You need to be able to see how it will look on the web, so text entry boxes just don’t hack it anymore.

2. Do I have to pay for it?

‘Free’ systems are never free. Commercial organisations need to earn money so watch out for the hidden costs.

3. How easy is it to use?

Don’t just read the marketing literature, check it out – easy is a comparative term.

4. “If you build it they will come” Or SEO?

OK, so it can put you in control, but make sure it understands search engines’ requirements so you get promotion.

5. Can you analyse your CMS success?

Make sure you’re able to analyse your visitors’ interest so you can change the website to meet their demands.

6. Is it Flexible?

Make sure the CMS works for you and that you don’t have to change your ideas to fit. And get a list of add-ons that are available now and planned.

7. Was it designed for you?

Make sure it can do what you need it to do in your market for your customers.

8. What about Social Media & Platforms?

Social media and mobile browsers are now and growing. Test out sites created to make sure they work and feed.

9. Can it work with my team?

Don’t forget, the way you work is your way and your team interact in a set way, make sure the CMS supports your team operation and management.

10. “Ah, yes, but can it…?”

Finally, you won’t have thought of everything, so make sure the CMS can be tailored/modified to whatever quirky thing you think of!

OK, that’s the executive flying visit to the 10 questions. But if you’re serious about CMS then take the time to read (and enjoy ) more detail in the full overview – http://ow.ly/CKH8

Remember a CMS is for life – or at least it should be, if it can be expanded as your business grows!

Marketing in a recession – you can’t afford not to

“You can’t ignore marketing’ when you are coming out of a recession.”

While, as a marketing agency owner, I am somewhat biased when I hear statements that promote active marketing campaigns, I need to stress that it wasn’t me who made the statement. It was actually one of the delegates that I met at a recent Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce event.

We had just sat through a presentation from the Bank of England, which was surprisingly entertaining – considering the subject matter and the recessionary oriented topic. But the speaker made the stats and trend analysis come to life.

It was after this that my newfound colleague (who does not work in marketing) stated the text-book argument, “Surely the best way for any company to get out of the recession ahead of its competitors is to market their way out?”

She’s right, but being right and actually doing it, are, as we all know, not always the same thing.

But it did remind me that I had now run a marketing consultancy agency through three recessions ; first in the late ’80s (just 2 months after we started the consultancy), then in the ’90s and now again in 2009. And in all three I can remember easily the number of companies that took the step of actively marketing their way out of the recession. I can remember them easily because they were the ones shortly after the recession ended that were smiling like Cheshire cats. They were very pleased with themselves and were reaping the benefits of their activities. Nice memories. 

But of course it wasn’t easy to do.

Text book marketing is a wonderful thing, mainly because there is no emotion involved. Look at facts and figures and yes it all makes sense. Add in a spoonful of people and that odd thing called a personality and it all goes haywire. But, the text books are normally right because they, themselves, have been produced without emotion. Commonly by very clever people that produce analysis and statistics to define what works, what doesn’t and what trends are created in every situation.

But the one thing that is common within marketing out of a recession is that the people that really succeed tend to be the same people that succeed in business. Purely (in my humble opinion) because they are: Entrepreneurs; Mavericks; Gamblers. They wouldn’t be running a business or responsible for a major piece of a business if they didn’t have that risk taking mentality. Those people that sit back and play it safe tend not to make many mistakes. The maverick personality works on the basis that if you don’t try it then it won’t ever happen.

And that is just the mentality that you need when it looks like everything around you is collapsing in a heap. As I write this, I can look back on last week and how Dubai added to the recessionary pressures, how RBS are playing silly wotsits  and talking about massive bonuses and how the government is cutting back it’s spenindg budgets. Faced with another dose of bad news it is easy to shut up shop or bury your head. But, during the same time I was able to see that new clients are coming on board because they want to ‘do amrketing’ to get as many people into their sales pipeline as they can ready for the new year. Many of our existing clients are beefing up their marketing because they feel they can’t sit back. All good news if you are sitting where I am.

So that led me to thinking. Is it just because we are in marketing that we are seeing this. Or, as I think is more likely, are we just surrounded by people (clients) that have the same mind set as us ‘Just Do It’? The reason I think it’s the latter is because marketing is a people business and anyone who has endured the marketing pitch situations will know that the right campaign, for the right company, at the right time and at the right price, doesn’t always win if the agency presentation team and the prospect just don’t hit it off. People matter.

So the moral? Within reason, Just Do It and do it hard and fast, mistakes and all, because if you just sit there ‘not doing anything’ it will come and bite you in the butt when you least expect it.

Your feet are too expensive!

When did customer service in the high street change from supportive to accusatory?

Was it this recession? Previous recessions (80s, 90s)? Or is it just an evolution that happens and you don’t notice immediately?

I hardly ever go to the cobblers (and no, that’s not a euphemism of any sort – it’s really cobblers as in shoe repairers). Today I went off with two pairs of shoes that had worn thin on the soles.
I gaily walked in expecting the regular “Yes sir, how can I help?” to be followed after various discourses with “They’ll be ready to collect on xxx”. But, surprisingly, as I extracted my shoes from the bag I was met with a sharp intake of breath. A sage shaking of the head. And a slightly lop sided, smug grin.

“They’ll cost you.”

Not quite what I was expecting as the opening volley. But, I’m old enough and experienced enough to soldier on.

“How so?” I replied, amazed at the speed of my reply and witty repartee.

“Well, they’re big, int they?”. Funnily enough, I’ve had the same size 11 feet since I was 15 and somehow they don’t feel big to me. Putting that aside, I refrained from commenting on the grounds it could seem confrontational and all I wanted was a two pairs of shoes re-soled. Laughing, I replied,

“Yes, that’s life eh!” And said , of course, with a consolatory grin nothing like getting on the side of the man who’s going to help you out. I drove onwards.

“So will you be able to give me a price for re-soling them then?”

“I dunno. They’ll have to be sent away, we don’t handle shoes that big, ‘ere .”

“That’s fine”, I replied, “I’m not in any hurry.”

“OK. Let me see”, said as rifling around in sheets of paper.

“OK, got it, that’ll be £60 a pair to re-sole. If you pay now we’ll have them done and back in a week”.

Strangely enough, I didn’t think that £120 was the going rate for four pieces or leather, or rubber – at that stage I wasn’t sure which – to fit  my ‘normal sized’ shoes.

“WHAT!?!. You are joking aren’t you?” OK, yes, I lost it then. Calm, cool and collected ran straight out the door.

“No. You want them or not? As I’ve got loads of shoes ‘ere to repair.”

I didn’t. And I told him so and the small level of bonding that we had achieved went straight out the window as he threw the sheaf of pricing paper, back under the counter, and without another look or word, put his protective goggles back on and started working on a ‘normal’ sized pair of shoes.

So just when did it become the consumers fault that they weren’t Mr Average? When did we start getting accused because we didn’t conform to what the retailers has laid down as ‘regular’. It all seemed very strange. Why did I walk away thinking ‘Are my feet actually oversized then? Am I odd?’ etc. etc.

I did get them resoled. I went to a different high street chain, smaller and more personal, and my feet weren’t too big, and for less than half the price I had them repaired. I didn’t feel odd or guilty and I didn’t get embarrassed or annoyed.

We all know we’ve moved into a replacement society where it’s cheaper to replace than it is to repair. But does that come hand in hand with an attitude that means if you don’t fit what the retailer provides then you should be accused of being in the wrong because they (the retailer) obviously know their business and what their customers need.?

And that’s the key ‘need’ not ‘want. What we want is no longer an option because we have to have what we are told we need. Supermarkets drop your favourite cereal/juice/pasta mix, because it’s what they need to sell not what you want to buy. Unfortunately the recession, the economy and the monopoly in retail by major brands have all combined to turn us, the consumer, into recipients of an attitude which is akin to ‘We know best’.

But unfortunately it’s not what’s best for us but what is best for the retailer.

Shame.

Brilliant Button does it in style!

Well, here it is the first post on my new blog. All these years ranting about how wonderful and free the interweb is and it’s only now I got round to writing my first post. I’ve written on bulletin boards, letters to editors (which have been published regularly and on occasion won prizes and star letter awards  – I know unbelievable that I could get that!). So why now? Well, simples (thanks Aleksandr – meerkat.com), today saw Jenson become World F1 Champion. How absolutely marvellous! It’s great to see something that we can all be positive about – yes I’ve already seen people writing negative things ‘Is he a worthy champion?’, ‘Why praise someone who doesn’t pay UK tax?’ etc etc Well guess what? After the tuff times that this country has seen, its nice to take a moment to just revel in something positive. Bask in the fact that he is British and with the gymnastics and F1 it’s superb.

It was made more superb because he demonstrated what you need to get through all the negativism – he believed, he took risks, he raced (which si something sadly lacking from today’s F1) and he raced hard. He pushed himself and his co-drivers to drive hard and race hard. It wasn’t all down to him, Webber, Hamilton et al, great racers and drove a great race. But, just watching Jenson scything through the competition and pushing and pushing hard to fulfil his dream and do it today – awesome. Yes there was some luck to help him out but then he’s had a fair amount of bad luck through the years and so today is a celebration.

Let’s for once just forget everything else and focus on enjoying the moment, supporting Jenson without any hidden jibes and relish the fact that when everything seems to be pretty naff, there is a shining light to make us remember that you only get through all the rubbish by fighting and being positive.

Well done Jenson, you are, literally a star – and the headlines tomorrow?…..  ‘Brilliant Button’  Has to be – simply because it’s true.