Category Archives: Digital

Blog, Creative, Design, Digital, Social Media

How To: Write A Strong Creative or Digital Project Brief

Get it right and your agency will deliver first time – no mistakes.

Writing a creative or digital brief in an agency can be particularly hard. So where do you begin? A good brief is one that inspires, is clear, sticks to one goal, has supportive constraints and inspires others to take on the project. Here are our top 5 ‘ignore them at your peril tips that any novice or expert ought never to exclude from a brief.

How To: Write A Strong Creative or Digital Project Brief

The Business Case: This part of the brief will encourage you to working together in a creative advertising agencyprecisely outline what the problem is that you are addressing with a new campaign or project. Make sure you have a clear objective, avoiding jargon and any internal lingo. Write with your creative agency in mind; give an obvious and detailed description, so they can fully understand all of the factors they need to consider to achieve your goal.

an advertising checklist when writing your own brief in a marketing agencyMeasurement: What impact do you want to make with the project? Include facts, figures and success indicators.

Competition: Investigate what your competition are doing and describe how they are achieving results.

writing your own brief with a specific target audience in a digital agency

Target Audience: Take your audience into consideration – is the project you’re commissioning targeted and tailored towards your target market? This is particularly important when making big decisions like whether building your website to work on mobiles/tablets is just the latest fad, or something you really need to consider.

knowing your budget when writing a brief in a creative advertising agencyBudget: Supplying a budget guide is always tricky, especially if you’re not sure how much it is likely to cost. With that being said, giving your design agency an idea of a budget will mean they can better tailor their recommendations to your expectations. If you don’t have a fixed budget, then a price bracket such as ‘between £2,000 to £4,000’ will be the best solution.

Ultimately, a creative brief should inform your agency as best as you can, so you can work together towards a shared goal: growing your brand and business.

image of teamwork

Blog, Digital

6 Whopping Marketing Fails of 2015 (so far)

Throughout most of the year, we celebrate the best of marketing, using this insight to better understand the industry and the latest trends. But while we believe there’s much to learn from the best, we also know failures can teach us a thing or two! With it being Halloween tomorrow, we thought we would compile a list of some truly monstrous mistakes brands have made. Whether on video, social, or advertising, let us relive and take stock of some of the most disturbingly disastrous fails of the past 10 months.

 April 2015- Budweiser’s new slogan

First up, let’s start with the outrage that was the Bud Light #UpForWhatever campaign. Back in April, Budweiser used the slogan “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”

Within days of its launch fanatics took to social media in disgust, criticising the brand for encouraging a rape culture with the hashtag #NoMeansNo. Even elected officials began to slaughter Budweiser for their controversial marketing tactics. Congresswoman Ms. Lowey added: “This grossly shortsighted marketing tactic shows an epic lack of understanding of the dangers associated with excessive alcohol consumption, such as sexual assault and drink driving. We need responsible companies to help us tackle these serious public health and safety problems, not encourage them.”

Soon after this public display of revulsion, Budweiser rapidly stopped the production of the labels. How this tagline made it through countless levels of reviews in the first place we’ll never know!

 June 2015 – Heinz QR code

The next Marketing Hiccup comes from Heinz, the beloved food-processing manufacturer.

Earlier this year, Daniel Korell, a customer from Germany, scanned the QR code on the label of his tomato ketchup, to enter a ‘design your own label’ competition. He was left startled when the code directed him to a hardcore porn site. What he didn’t realise, was that he was a year too late. Heinz had run this contest between 2012 and 2014 and the URL had in fact expired.

Korell wrote on his Facebook: “Your ketchup really isn’t for under-aged people”. Leaving Heinz more than a little red faced. The Heinz social media team was quick to respond and as an apology Korell was given a free bottle of ketchup with his own personalised design.

 July 2015 – Amazon #PrimeDayFail

The hashtag #PrimeDayFail became an Internet hit with Amazon shoppers when they were promised sales better than Black Friday but got nothing more than a ‘garage sale’.

The much-hyped Prime Day was just that – a lot of hype. Customers expected great deals on the latest trends but instead were offered discounts on Balaclava’s and beard growing kits. Disgruntled shoppers didn’t let Amazon off lightly as they received 41,434 negative mentions on Twitter. One user wrote: “When I die, I want whoever was responsible for #PrimeDay to lower me down into my grave so I can be let down one more time.”

Many Prime users were completely unaware of Prime Day in the first place. They received emails for the event, however the email did not indicate what the benefits of prime day would be. Luckily for them, they didn’t miss out on much!

 August 2015 – Birds Eye: The chicken dipper social media frenzy

Birds Eye’s ‘Mix up your menu’ campaign cooked up a storm on social media in August. The frozen food brand was mocked after releasing an ad, promoting chicken dipper canapés for children’s parties.

The advert featured food blogger Katie Bryson, making the ‘civilised’ snacks, which a lot of people on social media got very, very confused and angry about. Users of Twitter wrote: “The Birds Eye chicken dipper canapé advert is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” And “Canapés made with chicken dippers & potato waffles. Seriously?”

Birds Eye’s agency, Club Havas, were contacted to see if their advertising team had lost their minds, but in fact they were more than happy with the criticism and indulged in the fact the ad went viral, even if it wasn’t in the way they had intended!

September 2015- Volkswagen Emissions

The Volkswagen Emissions scandal has to be one of the biggest blunders yet! Costing them $18 billion in fines, a 32% drop in shares and the resignation of their chief executive, Martin Winterkorn.

Over 11 million vehicles worldwide have been affected due to Volkswagen’s deception. It has not only given their piggy banks a bit of a bashing but has also tarnished their reliable reputation not only as a brand but the prestige of cars being ‘made in Germany’.

It’s not only a marketing fail, but an ethical dilemma!

October 2015 – Burger King Black Whopper

Burger King went to extremes this Halloween with the release of their Black Whopper. When the Black Whopper was first launched, it proved a hit amongst Burger King diners. However, what they didn’t know, was that there was also a Halloween-themed side affect hours after consuming the burger.

The realisation hit the customers when they got home and popped to the loo! A Twitter user wrote: “Incase anyone wanted to know, the Halloween Whopper turns your poop green. And not even sickly green. Like cartoon green. Comical green.”

While this social media outcry doesn’t rival Volkswagen’s recent fails, the Burger King brand is still getting knocked. Brandwatch data says the burger has collected 29,000 tweets since its debut, with 89 percent of them being negative.

Although many customers are unhappy with the side effect, many are keen to try and have even suggested a re-release for St. Patrick’s Day!

 

So there you go, that’s our round up of 2015’s top marketing fails. Who knows what eye-boggling blunders may make their way on to the list by the end of the year. Did we miss anything that deserves a spot?

If so, let us know in the comments below, email, Facebook or Twitter.

Blog, Digital

How to optimise for mobiles

Its official – “mobilegeddon” is upon us. The term, coined by industry experts, was created by Google so sites which are optimised for mobiles are now given search preference. It’s hardly surprising the search engine giant has done this, as it’s estimated 50% of searches are carried out on mobiles and recent Ofcom figures suggest that more people are opting for a smartphone over the laptop as their device of choice.

It is because of these recent changes SEO has changed. The onus is now on optimising sites for mobiles, otherwise they simply will not rank as high as they had been.

Here’s a few key pointers to help you out:

Responsive design: Websites now automatically detect which type of device and screen size the site is being accessed from and adjust the layout accordingly. It is because of this that your site must be ready for mobile usage. It is worth remembering that the way people search on mobiles is different from how they use a desktop. Try viewing your website on a mobile to determine what the viewing and navigation experience is like and adjust the content to help make the site easier to use on a smaller screen.

Page speed: You have about five seconds for a page to load before a user will lose interest and go somewhere else. With this in mind it’s very important your site loads quickly on mobile devices. Google’s PageSpeed Insight tools allow you to check the loading page time and provide you with suggestions as to how to speed it up. Try to avoid using unnecessary images and plug-ins as they can slow the page load time down.

Optimising content: Making sure your content is optimised for relevant searches is still an important part of site ranking. Relevant keywords, which can be found using the Google Keyword tool, Ubbersuggest and Keywordtool.io, should be strategically placed throughout the site. It’s worth bearing in mind the local angle of your services too as around 50% of mobile searches are seeking locality, according to Google. Ensure all your meta tags are formatted in a mobile friendly style by keeping title tags to within 40-60 characters and meta descriptions within 90 characters. To check mobile search results try out the User-Agent Switcher Add-On for Chrome and use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, which will show you how mobile friendly your site really is.

Keep it clean: As mobiles are so much smaller than the average desktop it is worth keeping your mobile site design clean and easy to navigate around. Find a way to keep copy, pictures and visual elements minimal, while continuing to deliver the key message succinctly. All call to actions should be simple, easy to find and large enough to be activated by the touch of a finger. Avoid using small text as they will be harder to read on smaller devices and ensure links on your pages are not placed too close together as users will become frustrated if they are continually sent to the wrong page.

Blog, Digital

Getting the most out of your video marketing

An average internet user spends just over 16 minutes watching online video a month and at least 80% of people remember the videos they see. With figures like that, it’s not hard to see why online video is becoming big in the marketing world.

Producing engaging and well edited video content gets results because it grabs your audience’s attention quickly and conveys your brand’s message at the same time, all wrapped up in a format that’s become quite easy to measure.

Here are a few techniques to ensure you produce effective video content:

How long is too long? The first 10 seconds of a video are crucial in grabbing your viewer’s attention, so first impression’s count. Failure to engage in those vital few seconds could see you lose 20% of users. By two minutes it is thought around 60% of people will move away, no matter how long the overall video is. This is important information to bear in mind when commissioning new video content, as anything longer than three minutes is unlikely to be seen. Video analytics data tools are powerful as they allow you to extract information about the viewing habits of your audience, such as where they are viewing from and how long they viewed for, which will help you to create a better video campaign next time.

Where to place your video? Finding the right channel for your content is also another important element. Marketeers are opting to use social media platforms as their first choice for video marketing, rather than those channels dedicated to video distribution. This is due to the larger exposure social media has against the likes of YouTube. Having said that, YouTube still receives more than one billion unique visitors every month, so is still worth considering using. Don’t forget to host videos on your own domain too, which will also help boost your SEO, as it draws traffic to your site, rather than encouraging viewers to the other social media sites. When embedding the content onto your site, be sure to make use of video sitemaps which enable search engine bots to access and index the content easily.

SEO benefits: Videos are a great way to boost your SEO because the more shares and likes your video receives, the higher your site will place on search engines, such as Google. The way you tag your video can really make a difference too, so try to incorporate keywords. Using catchy titles for your video which will maximise user engagement and thorough descriptions will help users and search bots understand what your video is about. The easier it is to find your video, the better chance you have of people clicking on it and creating potential new traffic to your site. Transcriptions can also be hugely beneficial for search rankings if posted straight to the HTML of the pages that the videos are hosted on. Not only is it likely the transcription will include keywords, it will also make the video more accessible to people who may not be able to listen to the audio.

What to track: Tracking your conversion can be a useful way of working out your return of investment (ROI). The most obvious way to work out your ROI is by comparing actual purchases against the cost of the video production. But conversions don’t always have to be measured in monetary values. Social interaction can be just as important as it’s helping to spread your brand message across new audiences. With some video forums, it’s possible to view how many people have liked your content or made it a favorite. You can also see how many times it was shared on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If your video is getting shared, the call to actions are being completed, and the content is being recommended online by people, then its reach and engagement is increasing, which are all positive indicators that the campaign has been successful.

Blog, Digital

The Benefits of SEO

There are not many businesses out there that don’t have a website, so within this saturated market, how do you get your company to the top of the search engine? Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the answer. If you’re not familiar with the term, SEO is a series of procedures that involve using rich, unique content, made up of keywords, specific to your business.

Here’s five ways SEO can be used to boost your business:

Increased traffic: With time being so precious for most people, the need to be on the first page of your favoured search engine, such as Google, is essential. Very few people will click through to the next page if they have already found what they are looking for. Strategically placing keywords, relevant title tags and meta descriptions throughout your website will help to optimise each page and increase traffic to your site, which in turn should secure you a higher place in the search engines.

Cost effectiveness: SEO usually generates great results because the content is created to target users who are actively looking for your company’s products or services. Done correctly SEO can be effective in the short term, but it can also deliver a long term return of investment. Correct SEO analysis allows you to stay one step ahead of your competitors, securing your place on the front page of Google without having to keep spending more money. If you were to offset the amount invested into SEO, against increased earnings because of your search engine placing, it’s likely you would see just how effective SEO has been for your business.

Better usability: Another SEO benefit, which is often overlooked, is how optimising your site will help make it become more user friendly. Also, using keywords within optimised articles can help search engines find relevant content within the pages quicker. Content rich articles, which are interesting to the user, also stand more chance of being shared, which is another way that websites can successfully climb the search engine ranks.

Brand awareness boost: This is particularly important for new businesses who are looking to increase brand awareness, because they need to be trusted. Becoming top of a well known search engine is extremely useful because most people automatically trust the first few results Google tells them about. The higher the position a website ranks, the more chance users have of seeing the content on a regular basis. The more they are exposed to your brand, the more comfortable they become with it and are more likely to start using it.

Social media success: A frequently visited site is likely to see an increase in its social media exposure because they both go hand in hand. Well written and interesting articles on your site are more likely to be shared across social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media is an extremely powerful tool, because people are starting to use social media as a way of looking something up and bypassing the more traditional method of using a search engine. If your article has been shared around and is causing a buzz on social media it is likely to draw more people to your site who want to find the source of the content.