And the winner is...
This spring, we enlisted the wonderful guys at WeMakeWebsites to fashion us a new website. Wanting to put it through a (rather adventurously named) beta process, we put out a request to the members of The Cube asking them to exchange their honesty and opinions about the new site for the chance to be entered into a prize draw. Having finally managed to find a hat big enough, and without further a do, the winner is Adele Barlow. Adele is now the proud new owner of a £25 Amazon gift voucher and a very big thank you for your wise words.
The responses that we got back from this initiative were overwhelmingly positive. The Cube proved to be a very useful place to ask for opinions, as we received advice that covered numerous disciplines, ranging from the whimsical to the eye-bogglingly technical. Apart from an embarrassing typo that a few hawk-eyed people caught (we’re copywriters after all), the majority of suggestions focused on the home page and the lack of ‘wow factor’ emitting from it. This point has not been ignored but we have decided to sit on it a while longer while we consider our options. Again, to everyone who offered their advice and opinions, thanks for taking the time. And to Adele, happy shopping.
Adverts that reflect real life
Recently we’ve been doing some work for a rather big brand, known for their innovative and market-leading products. So we weren’t exactly surprised to find them experimenting with new marketing practices. One particular project we were involved in included the use of digital media displays in new locations, such as at bus stops and in taxicabs.
OK, so this sounds good but perhaps not jaw-dropping enough? Well, how about taking these ads a step further and allowing ordinary people to actively engage with the adverts themselves. In this case, the digital displays encourage people to take a photo of themselves and text it to a number supplied. It is then uploaded within 24 hours, so that they can feature in their own adverts in and around their local area.
This technology is only the crest of a massive wave of new interactive advertising practices. Marketing managers have been trying to work out how to engage detached viewers for decades. With the advent of revolutionary trends like social networks and ground-breaking technologies such as location and face-recognition software, expect to find yourself surrounded by ads that appear to be speaking to you personally, wherever you go.
So that’s why master advertiser Google has gone and got its tentacles into Facebook’s territory – whoever holds the world’s cache of personal information is hatching ingenious ways to make the most of it.
I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!
Well, by the looks of that headline it would appear the cat is most definitely out of the bag, one way or another. And if you didn’t hear it the first time, here it is again, Marcie MacLellan, our prestigious Managing Director, is expecting a baby in October.
While I try to battle my way through the inundation of assumptions that this draws forth, let me first warn you: Marcie is Canadian and she doesn’t take assumptions lightly. First things first, our sign reads ‘business as usual’ and if anything, our work will be better than ever during this time of pride, joy and zealous motivation. Second, we have prepared endlessly for this eventuality and are already working closely with partner agencies and professionals so that our clients will barely notice a bump in our work flow, even if it’s more than noticeable in our Managing Director’s belly.
When marketing agencies suck at marketing themselves
For an agency that spends a considerable amount of time preaching the gospel of social media to its clients, our record of self-participation is shameful. Not only that, as we happen to be big believers in the content of our own sermons, it’s also been a fool-hardy way of handling such a precious resource. But no more, here is where the excuses die and on their graves we set forth our manifesto for our own self-publicising future in social media.
Hold on now, get ready for it, here it is: we hereby solemnly promise to commit to publishing one blog a fortnight, alternating between a piece of vaguely related Incontext news and a broad observation taken from the wider market. These will also integrate with our Twitter and Facebook pages and be the source for our monthly newsletter.
While we admit this is not exactly revolutionary, we do hereby promise that, at the very least, our posts will amuse, titillate, entertain or shock the members of our team before being released into the world at large. You have been warned. So stay tuned.
