New Trends - Digital first marketing

Marks and Spencer is a well-known brand in the UK but it has sometimes been seen as the ‘older generation’s’ store. Indeed M&S has been working to change this perception over the past few years with more modern and chic ranges of clothes and homeware and affordable food like ‘Dine in for £10’. Now they are looking to connect even more with their customers by rolling out advertising campaigns online, before print and television. 

Case Study: Making mobile advertising work for your business

In recent statistics gathered by accounting firm PwC, UK internet users spend an average of one-in-seven online minutes accessing their social networks. According to the most recent IAB digital ad spend figures, social ad budgets have increased 53% in the last year, creating an online spend of over £3bn. One of the main reasons for such an increase is the rise in use of mobile technology – smart phones and tablets, enabling users to access their accounts anywhere. 

What does this mean for advertisers? It means that one of the major channels for getting your message out there is via the realm of the social networking world. Increasing your online spend is the first step to taking advantage of these users but it not the only thing you need to be aware of. Mobile advertising is continuing to grow and a proactive business will invest in utilising social media on mobiles.

Place Pins – The latest feature from Pinterest

Last week Pinterest launched their latest pinning feature, Place Pins. Users can now pin their favourite location whether it is a restaurant, shop or tourist location, you can add an address, phone number and comment about the place. The idea behind the new pin is to create boards that can be utilised while you are out and about or planning your next holiday. In addition to the address, phone number and photos of the location, you can easily get directions to your place pin.

To launch the new pins and show how useful they are, Pinterest has asked over a dozen travel gurus to create special boards like The Top 100 Hotels in the World by Condé Nast Traveler and Angie Eats New York by authors of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide. These boards show how you helpful these boards can be when planning travel or time around town. 

Black Friday – The official start to Christmas shopping

Black Friday looms and many retailers are bracing for the impact. Not as known in the UK, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving that has become synonymous with huge sales, crazy shoppers and sometimes even violence in the United States. What started out as an interesting way to bring customers into the stores on a day when most of America was on holiday has turned into a ‘not to be out done’ campaign amid all the major retails stores.

When I was a child in the States, I remember the Thanksgiving weekend being the start of the holiday season. We would have a filled Thursday of family, food, hanging Christmas lights and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. That evening, we would pull out the circulars from the paper and find out where the good deals would be and who would be offering the best ‘Door Buster’ gifts.

Outdoor advertising – revamping a classic

With the amount of advertising that people are inundated with every day via the internet, it is no surprise that advertisers are thinking outside the box to grab attention. The surprise comes when you realise advertisers are looking at a classic form of advertising to do it.

Outdoor advertising has made a comeback in recent years as an advertising medium. But with today’s technological advancements, it is anything but the static billboard that comes to mind when someone says ‘outdoor advertising’. The use of digital screens, social media and near field communication (NFC) technology has taken out-of-home media to new levels of personalisation and utilisation.

The Christmas gauntlet has been thrown – so who has the best Christmas telly advert?

Many companies have only just hit the screens and web with their Christmas adverts but there already seems to be a clear leader this year, John Lewis’ The Bear and the Hare.

What makes these adverts so compelling and unmissable? Is it the great sales message making us rush out to their store for our Christmas shopping? Or is it simply more about the story and building brand awareness and less about the product?

The 2013 Christmas Advert League Table

Company	Advert	YouTube Views*
John Lewis	The Bear and The Hare	7,280,890
Marks & Spencer	Believe in Magic & Sparkle	752,750
Argos	Gifts for Santa	632,727
LittleWoods	Spread the cost	485,940
Sainsburys	Christmas in a Day	346,687
Tesco	There's nothing better than Christmas	317,358
Boots	Full of Surprises	236,799
Cadbury	Unwrap Joy	123,834
Morrisons	Go on...its Christmas	120,693
Lidl	Unwrap your Lidl Christmas	75,585
Debenhams	Wishes made fabulous	65,570
Asda	Snowman	45,892
TK Maxx	The Moment	22,712
The Co-operative	Relax, Christmas is just around the corner	12,487

*Based on YouTube videos posted by each company directly as of 19/11/13. The stats do not take into consideration additional posts of videos by other users.

Goodger Design Associates launch new mobile friendly website

We're delighted to launch the new mobile and tablet friendly website for Goodger Design Associates. The previous version relied on flash elements which were not compatible with some modern mobile devices so this new html 5 version retains the original design whilst being consistent across all devices now.

Goodger Design Associates are a professional practice of chartered landscape architects with a successful track record of over ten years. 

My Controller launches new franchising opportunities

We're delighted to launch the website for the My Controller Accountancy Franchise offering. It has been created to offer accountants the opportunity to offer the My Controller service to other regions and capitalise on the existing, proven infrastructure for client acquisition, service delivery and client retention.  

My Controller started in 2003 and today represents an innovative and expanding Accountancy & Tax practice based in Windsor. 

Nikkie Foster Interior Design launches new website

We're delighted to launch the new website for Nikkie Foster Interior Design based in Reading which has been created to present and endorse their services to prospective clients.  

Nikkie provides interior design services in a variety of ways, all focused on understanding the needs and requirements of each individual client and exceeding their expectations. 

Are your social media icons correct?

Interesting icons are a great way to add a visual spice to the links for your social media pages. But did you know that every social media platform has standards they require when using their logo?

Triple C Solutions website launches

We're delighted to launch the website for Triple C Solutions which has been created to present and endorse their services to prospective clients.  

Triple C focus on optimising Customer Contact Centres and achieve this via their consultancy approach as well as training of personnel and hosting of  systems.

Digity were actively involved in creating the brand and website and look forward to playing our part in the development of this fantastic company going forward.

Facebook Introduces More Business-Friendly Promotions Policy

Facebook has made it easier for smaller businesses to utilitise their pages for promotions, brand awareness and introducing new products.The site no longer requires promotions to be exclusively administered through apps; now, they're allowed to be administered on Pages, as well.

What does this mean for your company's Facebook page? It means if you run a promotion on your page, to enter users/customers can:

• Post on the page or comment/like the page post
• Message the page to enter
• Vote for something via the 'like' button

Tweet any part of an article?

A recent New York Times experiment allowed users to tweet specific sentences in a trial article with the link going straight through to the section of the article the tweet was taken from. They had an 11 times higher frequency of article tweeting than the top 500 shared articles the previous month. The hope is there will be more sharing because it is not always the headline that readers find interesting. 

Is this the next wave of tweeting?

If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email (info@digity.co.uk) or call: 01189 1000 12.

The Door To Design new website goes live

We recently created and launched this website for The Door to Design, a talented new Interior Designer company based in London.  It has been a pleasure to work with Katja and create an online destination to showcase her work (both now and the many future projects she will be leading).

If you are looking for some input on the Interior Design front, mention Digity and you'll be in very good hands.

Free tickets to a great Business event in Reading this July

I recently attended an impressive event hosted by Penninsula which really made an impact on me in terms of planning for future growth.  It was FREE seminar packed full of useful information and gave me a massive amount of confidence to expand in a way which ticks the legal requirements and gave me far more insight in to how to avoid any potential issues.

I've organised them to re-run the event in Reading and we have 20 places available so let me know asap if you would like to attend:

DURING THE EVENT WE WILL EXPLORE:

•  How the law affects your business

•  How to ensure Health & Safety compliance

•  Relevant, commercial advice

•  Recent and upcoming legislation

•  Tips to avoid tribunals

Coca-Cola produce a sharing can... good or bad idea?

Hi all,

I've just read with interest about Coca-Cola's latest innovation - the sharing can!  Check out the video which demonstrates how people (not necessarily in the UK...tbc) will be sharing their drinks for a short while...

It's certainly a novel idea but I wonder whether this will potentially make people realise that they can enjoy coke at half the quantity...therefore reducing the overall quantity consumed...or naturally, whether it will expand the reach of the global superbrand even more - and bring people closer together in the process?

Our Business Profile featured within Get Reading paper & website

I was delighted to see my business profile feature in the getreading edition which came out today.  If you're interested, you can see the full article here: http://www.getreading.co.uk/business/s/2134622_business_profile_digity_ltd

I've now got a good relationship with the team there so if you are a local business and would like to see your profile featured in this section, get in touch.

Re-brand project: Grover Accident Repair Centre

In mid-March I met-up with Scott Grover who owns and runs A.Grover Coachworks over in West Molesey.  The business was established in the 1970s and has built a very strong reputation in the market place for vehicle accident repairs.  

When we first met, Scott was keen to build-up his presence on Google and attract more awareness from private customers, in addition to insurance companies where he is very well respected.  The challenge therefore was to drive more awareness from the general public.  My concern when we met was that the current website wasn't equipped to convert the additional traffic we were aiming to drive their way.

New van hits the road for Property Excellence

Here are some photos of the new van for Property Excellence van which hit the road at the end of last week.

Options Bath & Tile Studio are feeling very Exclusive!

Options Bath & Tile Studio in Ascot recently secured the back cover of Exclusive magazine for the local areas and they've been delighted with their heightened presence.  This advert falls in-line with their overall marketing plan which is generating lots of positive interest for their fantastic showrooms.

If you're looking for plenty of options (excuse the pun) for a new bathroom, wet room, cloakroom or tile options for all rooms of the home, check them out.

Barclays 'Making an impact in 2013' event goes very well

I'm lucky with my bank (Barclays) that they have such a pro-active local business management team and I get to meet-up with them on a fairly regular basis.  Over the past few months they've seen what Digity has to offer and asked me to present to some of their customers at an event in Slough.

There were about 20 people in attendance which was great and I spoke for about 30 mins on the fundamentals for strengthening the marketing activities for your business.  I received lots of positive feedback after the event which was great and the audience seemed to like the approach I took - which wasn't all about the shiny bells and whistles which marketers often focus on, but simply about the importance of planning, implementation, tracking and improving on a continual basis.

What your business can do... in just 140 characters

Check out this inspirational video from Twitter and have a think about how you could improve the impact of your tweets going forward... of course, if you'd like any assistance, you can just get in touch.

New Digity office opens in Reading, Berkshire

I'm delighted to confirm our new office in Reading is now fully furnished and ready for business!

The move brings together Digity's fast-growing Marketing service alongside WeCreate Design (web development agency) and TenSevenNine (branding and graphic design) services.

Our new address is:

8B Portman Road

Reading

Berkshire

RG30 1EA

New Active Health Clinic Website & Signage

We were delighted to be given the opportunity to work with Active Health Clinics to put their new website in place and design and install new signage at their clinic in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

View website: Active Health Clinics website

The new signage was installed just in time for their Charity Open weekend which was a huge success!

Anthony Mullan furniture at the Ideal Home Show

This year saw the return of Anthony Mullan furniture to the Ideal Home Show after a very successful début in 2012.  Highlighted last year as one of the hot new stands to visit, we were delighted to get them featured again this year in the official show guide.

The show which takes place over 17 days (up-to 1st Apr) is set to be another cracker for the team who have put a huge amount of work and effort in to ensuring their fine craftsmanship is on display for all to see and interact with.  We'll be up there for a few days and have once again produced the signage, literature, competition entry forms, lead pads, pens and more.  It's all set to be a great show...

Here's another great stand from the team, featuring a 3m long island:

Marketing Survey - Please Participate

We're currently conducting a Survey to ascertain some key information about different companies Marketing Activities and set-up.

If you can spare a few mins to complete this, we'll send you a complementary summary report once we've reach 100 responses (note, all responses will be anonymous within the report):

Take survey now...