Services

Strategy, Marketing and Social Media

Editorial

Design, Video & Content Creation

Tech, Platform Development & Search

Site Optimisation & Conversion Analysis

Measurement, Testing & Refining

Production, Deployment & Distribution

Advertising Sales

Newsstand Strategy & Execution

Content Products

We start by understanding your commercial and marketing objectives. We work with you to define what KPIs are important to your business. We make sure we understand what prospect and customer data you have and what permissions you have to use it. We look at what marketing and technology platforms you have or have access to. We review what you’ve done historically, what’s worked and what hasn’t, and then, when everyone is happy, we get to work on devising a strategy for you that answers your business need.

We deliver services that support your marketing disciplines and deliver against your commercial objectives.

Testimonial

“We continue to work with River because they stay very fresh from a commercial and editorial perspective.”

Peter Aldis, CEO

Holland & Barrett Int. Ltd

See case study

Strategy, Marketing and Social Media

In many agencies, ‘content’ is an answer looking for a question. But every brand has different problems, configured into a unique set. That content will only be a good investment if it’s a finely crafted tool to solve a well-defined challenge. The details of particular products, media contexts and audiences always change the rules of the game – and our strategists find new ways to take on those challenges.

We pride ourselves on having a genuine understanding of how your audience shops your category – the when and where, what the major sticking points are, and when and how content can make the biggest difference. These are dynamic factors. As the high street rises and falls, as Brexit makes waves in the economy, as mobile commerce and even social commerce become norms for more sectors, as trust in brands waxes and wanes, the problems your content has to solve will reshape themselves too.

The tools in our strategic armoury:

Audience insight
Customer journey planning
Qualitative and quantitative research
User experience
Social media analysis
Commercial modelling & ROI
Newsstand strategy & execution

Editorial

Brand storytelling is our stock-in-trade. The elements of any great story – heroes, villains, tension, mystery, empathy, discovery – are as old as human civilisation itself.

We believe that stories are the magic that turns information into emotion – and from there into action.

Effective editorial is about infusing well-crafted content with a strategic purpose. We have phenomenal specialist editors, each with unrivalled expert analysis and insight into the world of content, brands and publishing.

We weave together sector expertise with macro trends and a sprinkle of behavioural economics to create compelling reading.

Design, Video & Content Creation

From concept through to design, the visual idea and its execution is what differentiates good content from spam. Our in-house creatives, designers and producers are steeped in years of experience in creating imagery and video for brands that captures both the imagination and attention of your stakeholder audience.

Tech, Platform Development & Search

The technologies that seem incredible today will be invisible by a week on Friday. People’s fundamental desires for connection, fulfilment and safety won’t change – but the ways they satisfy those needs will. Every new technology brings the possibility of an entirely new point of contact there, or perhaps just another app you’ll never use..

Our marketing technology platforms and SEO teams are tasked with bringing those possibilities back to the business so that our storytellers have more powerful ways to work, and our strategists have more effective ways to think.

Site Optimisation & Conversion Analysis

E-commerce has transformed every business in every sector. If done seamlessly – and it’s a big ‘if’ – it offers unparalleled customer experience, and provides the brand with valuable data and insight to constantly improve customer journeys.

For brands that rely heavily on site traffic and conversion, our optimisation teams ensure that the website CX does what it’s supposed to – sell more.

It’s not just data we analyse. We look at language, structure, colour, and even reading age to ensure your site increases shopping frequency and cart value.

Measurement, Testing & Refining

As the saying goes, ‘What gets measured gets managed’. And the world of content needs new management.

Our research and analytics teams work to find new metrics for what good looks like, to match new channels and new forms of media, and to find ways to turn that data into decisions.

We want everything to be able to prove its worth. Every piece of content we produce carries an ROI projection.

Production, Deployment & Distribution

We create and distribute all manner of digital and analogue content. This is a pretty exhaustive list but do let us know if we’ve missed something.

Video
Still life photography
Podcasts
Print magazines
E-magazines
Social media

Websites & blogs
Microsites
Apps
eCRM
Mobile
Catalogues

Leaflets
Direct mail
Books
POS
Posters
Press inserts

Advertising Sales

Content should not be a budgetary black hole. The sales team are an extension of our commercial modelling unit. They sell omnichannel space to third-party brands, driving an essential revenue stream to at best offset, or at least partially fund client activity.

Newsstand Strategy & Execution

Marketing content now exists in the same spaces as ‘real’ content. Production-wise, does your work sit as well on a newsstand as GQ? Could your documentary hold its own against Making a Murderer on Netflix? As we’ve said before, when we’re not paying people to see our work, it should be good enough that they would pay to see it.

Assured of the quality of our content, our newsstand team design strategies and commercial models to take your content onto the newsstand, adding a further dimension of customer engagement while driving a revenue stream to support your content model.

Content Products

We recognise that some clients do not want or need a full-service agency relationship. As clients grow and nurture their own talent, we have developed a suite of content products designed to shape, improve, commercialise and audit their content. So if you’re thinking of reviewing your content strategy, training your team in content creation, or just need some new-launch creative assets, we have a product that’s right for you.

Services

Strategy, Marketing and Social Media

Editorial

Design, Video & Content Creation

Tech, Platform Development & Search

Site Optimisation & Conversion Analysis

Measurement, Testing & Refining

Production, Deployment & Distribution

Advertising Sales

Newsstand Strategy & Execution

Content Products

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