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After the year or so we’ve all had, the mental wellbeing of employees is increasingly concerning. As human beings, our state of mental health is always in fluctuation but the pandemic and consequent lockdowns, working from home and homeschooling have all had a serious impact on mental wellbeing across the globe.

The statistics are shocking. According to the Nuffield Trust, at any time, one in six adults has a mental health condition and one in 100 has a severe mental illness.

The reality is that one could be anyone.

Including your employees or members of your team.

The pandemic has exacerbated our everyday stressors and concerns. Loneliness, in particular, has become a big issue as we’ve been separated from our loved ones and colleagues and asked to work from home. It’s becoming increasingly evident that we won’t necessarily be returning to the office life we knew before, and while there are of course a number of benefits to home working, there are plenty of people out there who are struggling with the change.

With the introduction of this new normal, it’s not enough for businesses to simply throw in a few new procedures and call the job done. It’s time to change the culture completely and destroy the taboo surrounding mental ill-health. Businesses owe it to their employees to take responsibility for its role in their well-being. And you, as an employee, owe it to your colleagues to ensure no one suffers in silence.

So how can you ensure that? 

Creating an open culture

It starts with the culture. Have you created a safe and supportive environment for your employees and colleagues? Have you made it clear, leading by example, that mental wellbeing is a priority? Have you provided channels of support or steps that can be taken by any employee who may be struggling, and do you promote a positive and supportive digital culture?

It’s important to strive towards an environment in which any member of the team feels comfortable coming forward with their concerns and sharing their feelings. This starts with being willing to share your own and being honest about your own difficulties.

Equally, you can’t always expect others to come to you. You must make it a priority to check in with employees and colleagues proactively. Working from home can be isolating and it’s not as easy to get a sense when something may be wrong. While you may notice a colleague looking a bit down or stressed grabbing a coffee in the breakroom, it’s much less likely you’ll notice the same subtleties during an online meeting. Make time to chat on an informal basis. It will be just as crucial to the success of your business as any other meeting, if not more so.

Crisis prevention

Normalise dealing with poor mental health before it reaches crisis point. Make mention of the mental health support available part of the everyday conversation and put an emphasis on the normalcy of asking for help. At Armadillo we provide a dedicated employee assistance programme through Health Assured. They provide both emotional and practical support through qualified and experienced counsellors and legal advisors. Not only do they offer 24/7 confidential support through telephone counselling, as a one off or a reoccurring structured service, but can support employees through things such as writing a will, immigration information and divorce procedures. They also provide the ‘My Healthy Advantage’ app which holds a range of valuable materials for employees such as videos and podcasts with celebrities on dealing with anxiety, stress and traumas, 4-week well-being plans and the opportunity to live chat with their support team.

It’s so important that staff know the services that are available to them and are encouraged to take advantage of what’s offered. There can be a stigma around things like calling a helpline when feeling overwhelmed but it’s important to make it clear that your business does not endorse that kind of thinking. A great way of showing this is by leading from the top and ensuring your senior management team are promoting what’s available and using it themselves.

Crisis management

Crises happen. Are you prepared?

As an employer you owe it to your employees to know how to help and support them when help and support is needed. And as a colleague (and hopefully friend) the same applies. We don’t want to think of crisis situations happening, but the truth is, sometimes it’s largely out of our control. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it if it should happen.

Again, it comes down to creating a work culture that cares. At Armadillo we’ve offered mental health first aid training to ensure staff feel equipped.

Krisztian Szabo, Account Manager at Armadillo, is one of the team members who attended a two-day, mental health first aid training course run by Mental Health First Aid England. A mental health first aid training course is a wonderful way to empower staff and the business as a whole to feel confident taking action in a variety of mental health related crisis situations. The first aid training covers a variety of topics such as suicidal ideation and self-harm. All participants are briefed before the course begins to ensure their own mental health is protected and are also provided with an action leaflet at the end of the course to support them should they ever need to put their learnings into practice.

We really try to emphasise the course as an opportunity for Armadillo staff to learn valuable skills and techniques to protect their own mental health and support and nurture that of others.

Kris is passionate about making discussions surrounding mental ill-health as normal as those around physical ill health and ultimately that’s where you need to be as a business. You can only achieve this by making massive changes to work culture. Without this, amazing support procedures like phone lines and mental health first aid training go to waste because if your culture suggests mental health isn’t important, your staff won’t value it or feel it’s valued either.

We’re living in a new world. It’s time for a new attitude towards mental health in the workplace.

This article first appeared on Business Leader, May 2021.

By Holly Sorensen, Finance Manager.

On June 16th, Adapt is hosting a webinar in conversation with Head of Ad Tech at IAB UK, Tina Lakhani, about how businesses can start preparing for life after third-party cookies. Register here…

11 Ways to Prepare for the End of Third-Party Cookies

Third-party cookies are soon to be a thing of the past.

Are you looking for a way to drive connection through narrative? Want to tell the story of your company or messaging? In this blog, we’re discussing all things video storytelling – including brands who do it best and actionable advice on how you can get started.

Businesses of today don’t have it easy. With such a fierce world of competition, even having a solid business plan, a stellar product and visionary leadership isn’t enough to ensure raging success. To truly cut above the noise, what’s needed is an unrivalled marketing strategy that not only gets people to listen, but gets them talking too. Enter: the art of storytelling.

Storytelling is an ancient technique in grasping the attention of those around us. Cave dwellers used pigment to paint on walls with their hands to create stories and myths, and ancient Greeks carved their language into walls to tell how history was moving forward.

Fast-forward to 2021 and storytelling remains the epitome of engagement. Though unlike our ancestors who had to rely on horse-carriage-delivering letters and old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing (which could take months and even years to get across the message) today we are privileged with the advancements of technology. 

The internet and social media has made it far easier than ever before for brands to tell their story.  Marketing through storytelling is a sure-fire way to garner attention due to the fact it elicits emotion. Stories can tug on our heartstrings, influence who we trust, take us back to nostalgic memories, and help us make sense of otherwise complex information. A captivating story can communicate a brand’s core messaging in less than two minutes – and using video as a vehicle to deliver this message far and wide has proven to be incredibly successful.

From motion-graphics and animation, to documentary-style video; brands from all shapes and sizes have experienced the results that can be derived from telling their stories through engaging content. 

Let’s take a look at some of the ways brands are harnessing the power of video storytelling to build deeper connections with their target audience.

NIKE

Stroll your way down a street and it’s likely it’ll only be a matter of minutes before you come across the much-recognisable Nike Swoosh. The success of Nike, which has a lifespan of over 50 years, can much be attributed to the brand’s ability to foster connection through emotive storytelling.

“Why do people get married—or do anything?” Phil Knight, the founder of the shoe giant, posted to the Harvard Business Review in 1992. “Because of emotional ties. That’s what builds long-term relationships with the consumer, and that’s what our campaigns are about. Our advertising tries to link consumers to the Nike brand through the emotions of sports and fitness. We show competition, determination, achievement, fun, and even the spiritual rewards of participating in those activities.”

This mantra has long been woven into Nike’s marketing strategy, from TV ads and magazine features, to the social media clips we find ourselves mesmerized by today.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4dDs0T7sM&t=14s

Last year, shortly after the inception of the Coronavirus pandemic, the shoe giant released a particularly emotive video that has so far garnered just under 60 million views on YouTube alone.  The split-screen masterpiece has been highly praised for its emotive message of inclusiveness and perseverance at a time when much of the world was under lockdown and organised sports was upended by the pandemic.

Key takeaway: Building stories around emotion is a far more effective strategy for brand building than overbearing messages of features and benefits. 

AIRBNB

A great example of a brand that truly understands the importance of storytelling to connect with its audience is Airbnb. The tourism business even has an entire YouTube playlist dedicated to videos showcasing their community of both guests and hosts. From capturing the heartwarming story of a family adventure to an MTV Cribs style video with a quirky Superhost and their unique home – this window into their member’s lives enables viewers to become truly invested in the brand and its ethos.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fIMpheDNSw&feature=emb_logo

Positioning the customer at the center of the brand – in effect, letting the customer be the brand – is essential to the Airbnb philosophy.

This technique works for Airbnb not only because it helps consumers to build an affiliation with the Airbnb brand, but because it helps them overcome one of the biggest pain points of using a service like this: who are the people I will be staying with, and what will the experience be like? The stories woven into engaging brand video provide the answers.

Key takeaway: This example shows that sometimes the best brand stories don’t come from the brand at all, rather the passionate community that supports it.

MCDONALDS

Global fast-food chain, McDonald’s, has come up with some truly remarkable marketing campaigns over the years, using creative digital content to drive customers towards those magically comforting Golden Arches.

The campaigns are not only designed to increase footfall but also to increase brand loyalty and engagement. Once a single burger joint, McDonald’s now dominates the world of fast food and is worth an estimated US$106.4 billion.

Consumers flock to familiarity, and the fast-food chain delivers just that wherever you are in the world. The familiar branding of yellow and red can be found in countries across the globe, from Bristol to Tokyo.

Instilling this feeling of comfort and nostalgia is something that drives McDonald’s video marketing strategy. Their ads communicate relatable storylines throughout, making the consumer feel more connected to the brand as a result.

A recent example is the brand’s “Inner Child” Christmas advertisement from 2020.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJntbYytPz8

The animated tale, created by Leo Burnett, tells the heart-warming story of a mother desperately trying to encourage her teenage son to put down his screens and take part in family rituals in the run-up to Christmas. The storyline is, no doubt, a scenario recognised by families everywhere.

Key takeaway: Your storyline should communicate something relatable to the audience in order to build a connection.

How you tell your brand story goes a long way in how consumers engage with your product or services. From the messages conveyed across TV ads, social media advertisements, and pretty much every form of marketing content, customers pick up pieces of this story and internalise them with every interaction that they have with your brand.

To build a strong connection with your current audience and attract new customers, it’s important to craft and share content that tells your story both creatively and authentically. Video marketing is the optimal medium for innovative brand storytelling. Video captures the details of your brand stories and conveys them in memorable and engaging ways.

Looking to learn more about brand storytelling through video? Get in touch today.

Paul Feldwick worked at the legendary creative agency Boase Massimi Pollitt for over 30 years. His latest book, Why Does The Pedlar Sing?, examines what creativity really means in advertising. In April, he joined Bristol Creative Industries to share some of his insights. Dan Martin summarises the fascinating event.

Paul Feldwick has a distinguished career in advertising and has worked on some of Britain’s most famous advertising campaigns including the PG Tips chimpanzees, Rowan Atkinson promoting Barclaycard and the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster. What all those ads have in common is entertainment, a factor which Paul believes is essential in successful advertising.

But there is actually a long-held belief by many that entertainment actually doesn’t work. Claude C. Hopkins famously argued in his book Scientific Advertising in the 1920s that people don’t buy from clowns. “Advertising pictures should not be eccentric”, he wrote. “Don’t treat your subject lightly. Don’t lessen respect for yourself or your article by any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects.”

“Father of Advertising” David Ogilvy was a big fan of Hopkins and Sergio Zyman, who worked for Coca-Cola in the 1980s and helped launch the Diet Coke brand, said that advertising that merely entertains does not work.

But Paul Feldman is a big fan of entertainment in advertising, a subject of his book, Why Does The Pedlar Sing?

“The tradition of advertising that works by entertaining is not a new one, it probably is very ancient indeed”, he said during the event. “I see it as going right back to the medieval peddler, who would travel from house to house from village to village with what he was selling. He was a travelling entertainer, he would sing songs, he would tell jokes and he would dress in a funny way. He was all purpose, general entertainer.

“Entertainment as a way of selling things contradicts all those arguments about people not buying from clowns and selling a serious business. How is it that despite the fact that so much advertising through the ages has used entertainment, have we got saddled with the ongoing belief that selling ought to be a serious business?

When serious advertising does work

Before he tackled why entertainment and humour are good for advertising, Paul acknowledged that Claude C. Hopkins’ argument does hold up for direct response advertising, the kind of ads that you see in Sunday newspapers.

“It tends to be very sober,” he said, “it tends to be giving you the facts, it tends to be avoiding jokes and it doesn’t do anything that is eccentric or odd. If it’s well done, it works absolutely brilliantly. You know it works because the advertisers know exactly how much each insertion sells and exactly what the responses are.

“The split-run technique used by direct response advertisers originated back in the 1890s. It was based on using coupon responses that Hopkins evolved his give the facts, give the information argument around.”

Keeping your brand name before the public

“We used to tend to believe as a default that advertising works by a matter of rational persuasion; it has to give reasons why, it has to give consumer benefits. That’s the language that we still use a lot. If you look at most people’s creative briefs, they still have the idea of the central proposition. There has to be a single-minded proposition, we are telling people why the product is better.”

But Paul said that idea was turned on its head by the work of marketing specialist Andrew Ehrenberg and then Australian professor called Byron Sharp, who wrote the influential book, How Brands Grow. 

“He had the radical idea, which was originated by Ehrenberg, that advertising doesn’t really work by persuading people or giving information at all. It works by creating something that they call mental availability. To put that very simply, it’s like fame. All that needs to happen in order for a brand to grow is that it needs to come to more people’s minds, more often, and then they’re more likely to choose it.”   

Paul continued that this is also why people choose one brand over another. “Why do more people buy McDonald’s products than Burger King? Because more people think about McDonald’s more often than Burger King, and they have more associations with McDonald’s than they do with Burger King because they’ve had more experience of it.” 

Why entertainment in advertising works 

Paul said neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have shown that what underpins our decisions is something that’s emotional. If we don’t have an emotional response, we simply cannot make decisions so there’s no such thing as an entirely rational decision. “That’s why so much advertising has done something different, and what it has done differently is using entertainment”, he added.

So why does entertainment work?

It makes us feel good and simulates an emotional reaction, Paul said.

To illustrate the point he used the example of the massively successful advertising campaign by tea brand PG Tips which used anthropomorphic chimpanzees dressed in human clothes. It started in 1956 and ran until 2002. 

The brand remained a bestseller throughout that period despite lots of advertising by other tea brands and the introduction of much cheaper own brand products by supermarkets. Paul explained: “PG Tips maintained a significant business advantage, not by telling people why their tea was better, but because people remembered it more, it was more top of mind, and they felt more positive about it. That was through doing advertising that was entertaining and fun.”

Another example is the Compare the Meerkat advertising campaign from Compare the Market which Paul says uses the principles of entertainment. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIfWCrAdtX4

“It has characters, it has drama, it has incident, it has talking animals, it’s childish, it’s ridiculous.” It is also massively successful.

Holding his own cuddly meerkat, Paul Feldwick said the brand has gone one step further by using merchandise that generates even stronger consumer connections with the brand. The Kevin the Carrot campaign by supermarket chain Aldi is another example of a business linking merchandise to its entertaining advertising. 

Another brand ticking the entertainment box is Premier Inn and comedian Lenny Henry. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZI_p2_dYw

“It has to distinguish itself from the very similar business Travelodge and it has been hugely succeeded in doing that,” Paul Feldwick said.

The use of Lenny Henry also epitomises the use of a ‘distinctive asset’. It’s something or someone that is unique, distinctive and recognisable. The meerkats and Kevin the Carrot are other examples.  

“If you create something that is trying to say something about your product, the chances are you’ll produce something that looks pretty much like what all your competitors are doing,” Paul advised. “But if you produce something that has nothing whatsoever to do with your product, like a meerkat, then you have got something that is unique and is part of the psychology of what lodges in people’s memory.

Good distinctive assets are those that follow the rules of what makes good entertainment, Paul Feldwick said. 

Upcoming Bristol Creative Industries events:

• How to be more persuasive: An online workshop with Kit Altin
• Access to funding for the creative industries: All you need to know

Establishing and maintaining a business blog is unfortunately not as easy as sitting down and writing the first things that pop into your head. As in daily face to face conversations we can all be guilty of going off on a tangent now and then, and the same can be true of our blog posts. A little bit off centre this way and that can be interesting and add depth, but the most successful blogs offer a service and don’t deviate from that purpose. Here is how to keep your company’s blog on track.

• A blog is not a sales pitch. Blogs should offer advice and information. Your website is there to sell what you do and why people should choose you over anyone else, so your blog doesn’t need to do that as well. Readers most often visit blogs because they want help with something. Perhaps they are looking for advice on which product or service is for them, or maybe they need advice on how to overcome a problem they are experiencing. That is also precisely how blogs generate inbound leads – if people can find what they need from you, they are impressed by your online service and grateful for the help, they are more likely to decide to take the next step in the sales process.
• Answer questions. Following on from the previous point, a good way to make sure your blog posts are hitting the mark is to answer questions you have been asked in real life. Whether via social media channels or face to face interaction, if someone has asked you for more information on a particular aspect of your product or service, it is quite likely there are plenty of other people out there who want to know the same thing. The more useful you can be to people, the more likely they are to read on and the more likely they are to revisit it time and time again.
• Write for one person. Obviously, you’re hoping your blog will be read by more than one person! However, to make sure your message is on target, imagine you are writing for one ideal customer. What would they like to see on your blog? What tone would best capture their imagination? What would make them come back again? If you deal in different sectors and can identify a few different ‘ideal customer’ scenarios of course make sure your business blog has something for everyone. But for each blog imagine one person so that you don’t try to target every possible corner of society in every blog. People who own their own business for example will require a completely different tone and message to a newly qualified graduate. Decide who you most want to reach and tailor your posts accordingly.
• Encourage return visits. The best chance you have of getting visitors to come back to your blog time and time again is to engage with them elsewhere too. Every post should give the option for people to share it with their own social networks and remind people to follow you on your own social media channels. This allows you to stay top of mind while you helpfully let them know when your latest blog posts are available. Plus, it helps you to build a larger network of people that are interested in your offering.
• Be consistent. Regular readers of the Blog Write Blog are probably getting fed up of hearing this now – there’s an entire post on it here https://blogwrite.co.uk/why-consistent-blogs-are-better/ – but buckle up because here it comes again! Consistency really is key. If you have completed all of the other tips in this post, a reader will have landed on your site, found the answers to all the burning questions they had about the service you offer, feel like they have found a supplier that truly understands them and can help them and left your website to go off and dutifully follow you on all your social media channels. If you continue to post blogs, tweets and media posts, you will continue to be top of mind. Take a couple of months off or blog every now and then when you feel like it, and all your hard work in writing that killer blog post in the first place, will be undone.

Your blog, website and business will remain the ‘go to’ source of information, as long as you keep your end of the bargain and continue to publish useful content consistently.

There are endless reasons why creating video content should be on your marketing to-do list. But, if you wanted a single reason as to why it’s so imperative for your business or brand, let it be this one: search engine optimisation.

SEO is essentially the foundation of your entire online marketing presence, referring to what you do in order to grow your visibility on online search engine results pages (SERPS). In a hypercompetitive world, SEO is one of the best ways for businesses to be seen by their target audiences. 

Many of the common SEO strategies centre around keyword-focused blog writing to a comprehensive link-building strategy. But a successful SEO technique often overlooked by many marketers is the use of video content.

In fact, SEO is impacted by video collateral far more than a lot of people realise. With this in mind, we’ve pulled together four ways video content can help your business climb the rankings of Google.

Google loves video content

You’ve probably noticed that when you make a quick search on the Google, video thumbnails appear as results quite frequently. Videos are a great medium for storytelling and with the human brain hardwired to be distracted by moving images, more and more consumers are watching video content at an alarming rate. Google acknowledges this fact, and as such, consistently ranks this kind of visual content in its search results.

When it comes to video content improving SEO, Google’s internal algorithm for generating search engine results has a lot to do with it. As well as taking text into account when assessing the relevancy of a web page to a specific keyword, Google takes into account other media content you have to offer searchers.

If your web pages have a nice mixture of copy, imagery and video, this will show Google that your content is varied, valuable and informative. The trick is to ensure your video content is optimised for search by doing your keyword research and ensuring these keywords are in your video’s meta tags.

Drive traffic to your site with video

Another quality that Google takes into account when ranking your website is the amount of incoming traffic you have. If you’re regularly getting a great number of visitors, they’re quite clearly coming for a reason, and other people making similar searches are likely to feel the same about your content. 

Social platforms and video hosting sites such as YouTube and Vimeo are also great ways to drive traffic back to your site. In fact, people are more likely to visit your website through watching video on social media channels than through any other type of content.

By creating regular, engaging video content that draws your target audience in, the more traffic you can drive to your pages. This eventually will boost your SEO rankings.

Earn more backlinks

Did you know that blog posts which include video content attract three times more inbound links than posts without video? This statistic from Moz highlights the powerful role video can play in earning more backlinks to your website.

Getting quality backlinks helps your website build authority. To sum backlinking and SEO up, in a nutshell, the more people share your links, the more credible Google will see you as. And with this higher credibility and authority, the better ranking you will attain.

It’s not about simply building numerous links in order to rank highly though. It’s vital to create high-quality content that will lead to organic links over time. Originality will always be one of the main factors of success in using videos to build links. Just like any other content, you must consider how to make your videos stand and thus earn more backlinks.

Keep visitors on your site for longer

When ranking web pages, Google also pays close attention to how long users are staying on your site once they arrive there. If people are staying on your site for a good amount of time, this clearly indicates to Google that there is useful and valuable content on this page. Following this, Google is likely to reward the website via its search positioning. On the other hand, if you have a poor bounce rate, this communicates to search engines that your content isn’t all that great and users are leaving your website to seek answers elsewhere.

Video, when done right, is an incredible tool in keeping visitors on your page longer. The fact is, today’s modern consumers are far more likely to watch a video on a subject than read a lengthy block of text. We just have to look at the rise of video-first social platforms such as TikTok to understand just how vital video content has become. If you’re not already incorporating video into your marketing strategy, you risk losing your target audience to competitors who do.

Boost your brand’s social presence

Social media marketing plays a vital role in video promotion and distribution. According to Buffer App, video content on Facebooks receives, on average, 135 percent more engagement than a photo.

Social media is not only a sure-fire way to get more eyes on your content and create conversations online, but it can also play a key role in giving your SEO efforts a boost. While social engagement doesn’t directly impact search rankings, a strong correlation has been shown between a higher number of shares on social media content and higher positions in search engine results pages.  While the authority of a social account doesn’t directly impact search engine rankings, it is possible that links shared on social media (conjoined with engaging video) could be marked as credible back-links and therefore influence a page’s rank.

As of March 2021, P+S are now an official Amazon Web Services (AWS) Select Consulting Partner. Hurray! Exciting news for us – but why should anyone else care?

Don’t worry. This isn’t your typical self-congratulatory post.

What this means is we can help clients to grow and scale their businesses on AWS. So you could get a cost saving, industry-leading and super secure application.

To achieve our AWS Select Tier status, we had to demonstrate a whole lot of team knowledge and prove the strength of our experience too. So, over the past 4 months, we’ve delivered High Availability architecture for clients like Osborne Clarke and the UK Hydrographic Office.

So, we’ve written this blog to tell you just why you should take note about what AWS has to offer, and answer a few of the questions you might have.

Why is AWS your chosen cloud service provider?

Because they’re the industry’s leading cloud provider.

AWS offers a huge list of services and a robust global infrastructure that we knew could serve our clients around the world. If it’s good enough for 90% of the world’s Fortune 100 companies and the majority of Fortune 500 companies, it’s good enough for us.

And now our partnership status is testament to our experience and knowledge when it comes to designing and implementing cloud architecture.

As an application implementation, development and infrastructure partner, we can achieve a very close link between your applications’ functionality and its environment, ensuring you always get the very best performance.

What can you do for me?

We can save you time and money.

It’s likely you already know on-premise infrastructure can be hugely expensive. Or you might be using cloud computing, but finding it’s still costing you a fortune. With the right cloud architecture in place, not only can you gain a huge price advantage, you could also save countless hours of time, too.

Commissioning just one new server can take several days and thousands of pounds of hardware investment. But in the cloud, the same process takes just a few seconds. Plus, you can spin servers up and remove them again easily, and without having to worry about hardware.

Our use cases are normally centred around creating web architecture, where this flexibility is useful for creating cost effective solutions. A traditional web architecture might consist of several web servers behind a load balancer, where traffic is distributed across the instances according to some rules.

‍

The problem with this traditional set up is that during lulls in user activity, e.g., overnight or over the weekend, you end up with more servers than you need – you’re just haemorrhaging money.

Conversely, during traffic spikes, you might not have enough capacity to meet demand, putting your application’s performance at risk.

Auto-scaling prevents this by automatically adding more servers to the group if demand requires it. When the demand drops, these servers are removed.

Why is High Availability architecture so important?

Because in the words of Werner Vogels, “Everything fails, all the time”.

All technological solutions – no matter how perfect we might like them to be – will have points of failure and downtime. In fact, even cloud solutions within AWS are subject to the same risks.

By creating an infrastructure that anticipates this failure, we can overcome the risks and mitigate the impact before a failure ever happens.

For example, the AWS network consists of several geographical regions based around the world. These regions are further divided into Availability Zones. An Availability Zone is made up of separate physical data centres that are connected within a region.

You can then split your services across Availability Zones, so should one develop a problem, you’ll hardly notice – your application will still be up and running.

At P+S we follow the AWS principals for High Availability across all of our clients’ architecture to ensure there are no single points of failure, and recovery is automatic wherever possible.

Is AWS’ Cloud Service secure?

Yes. In fact, at AWS, they have a saying: Security is Priority Zero.

This is for good reason, given the critical nature of data security and harsh penalties for businesses who breach regulations.

There are multiple features in AWS’ tools and services ensuring every design meets stringent compliance requirements, with our own architecture including many of these features as standard.

For example, we deploy AWS CloudFront as a CDN as standard in front of all our sites, together with AWS Web Application Firewall and AWS Shield to protect your site against web vulnerabilities and attack vectors, including the OWASP Top 10 – globally recognised by developers as the top 10 risks to application security – and Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks (DDoS), which you may have seen recently taking a number of the Belgium government’s websites offline. It also ensures you’re compliant with Data Protection standards such as ISO 27001.

AWS also provides the ability to create entire virtual networks and subnets within the cloud, with complete control over data and user access and flow. This gives you the ability to lock down access to subnets, instances, and services to only authorised sources. For example, you can block physical access to web application servers, ensuring access can only be gained from the load balancer or approved IPs.

So I don’t need servers?

No. One of our favourite methodologies in cloud infrastructure is ‘server-less architecture’.

Server-less architecture means the servers or machine resources used to run a particular task are handled by the cloud provider. So you don’t have to worry about provisioning a server or maintaining it. This saves a lot of time and money; we can simply spin up a database or run code.

This methodology is extremely useful when working on prototypes, for example, allowing us to quicker develop and verify our ideas. It’s also useful for running Continuous Integration workloads to speed up deployments (useful for Autoscaling groups) and helping you manage repetitive tasks or queues.

For example, we successfully offloaded some database queue processing from the application into AWS Lambda. This meant we could configure a smaller database instance than would otherwise have been necessary.

Our summary

At P+S, we believe every business should be able to offer an excellent digital service to their customers. That means creating flexible digital architecture that grows as you – and your customers – need it to. It’s faster, more adaptable, and because it’s flexible, you won’t waste money on servers you don’t need.

Your application shouldn’t go offline unexpectedly. And we don’t believe you should have to pay more for a secure website, so we’ll ensure both your data and your customers’ info is protected at all times.

And our newly earned AWS Select Consulting Partner badge proves that commitment.

Want to find out more? Talk to [email protected] for a no-obligation chat.

During our Digital Marketing Futures series earlier this year, we gave a conceptual view of the marketing trends those in our industry need to keep their eyes firmly trained upon.

This article first appeared on MarComm News May 2021.

By Catrina Law, Armadillo.

To say it’s been a turbulent year for the travel industry (and us all) is an understatement. But with the end of lockdown insight and the travel ban looking to be lifted, the industry is beginning to reawaken and make plans for the future.

But attitudes and behaviours have changed as a result of the last 12months. So, to plan for our best comeback, as marketeers we must recognise and reflect the changed landscape.

Go Big or Stay Home

The latent demand for travel is unquestionable, with ABTA stating that 70% of UK holidaymakers plan to travel in 2021.  

And it makes sense. After this year we are all looking for some escapism. A chance to leave our homes and now repetitive lives, and see something new, experience some excitement and reconnect with those we care about.

But with so much lost holiday time, UK holidaymakers are wanting to come back with a bang. This is the time for bucket list style holidays and experiences. Whether that be trekking in the Andes (once we can), a round-the-world cruise or treating ourselves to 5-star luxury closer to home.

With money saved from staying at home, holiday credit banked and credit cards looking light, those not financially affected by Covid are set to travel in style as soon as they are able. And as marketeers, we need to show them we have that extra special experience for them.

Try parking the budget holiday message for a change and dial up the wow factor you can offer. Use communications to inspire and excite. Show them how to go that extra mile, whether it be exotic long-haul or a luxury glamping site in Devon. Use the time now to build the anticipation, so when the world opens up, they are revved up and eager to travel with.

Slow Fast Slow 

In the UK with the vaccination programme going well, not surprisingly it’s the over 50’s who are most likely to have booked a holiday so far – they know when they will have been vaccinated and feel most free to take time out.

But for families and under 50’s the story is different. Whilst the demand is just as strong, the unknowns are greater. Will they need a vaccine to travel? What about children’s vaccines? And what about summer school?

Whilst now this is leading to stagnation, as soon as these questions are answered holiday planning for families and under 50’s will quickly turn into bookings.

As marketeers we’ll need to be ready. Keeping travellers inspired, excited, and keeping us front of mind whilst the unknowns exist.  Then bamm! – ready to drive bookings when the moment is right. And if things change, back again to slow – inspiration and front of mind.

The same is true for the destinations we promote. Just two weeks ago Greece was pipped as a “safe” bet for 2021 holidays, but with case numbers across Europe on the rise, and France entering its 3^rd lockdown, even 2020 travel corridors are looking uncertain for 2021.

Planning for a 2-speed approach will allow to adjust your message quickly as external factors change. Adjust your speed and sales focus to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, then dial back and refocus on inspiration and information as new challenges emerge. Plan for it now, as one thing is certain, it will not be a straight road out of this crisis.

Trust and Familiarity Triumph 

Trust has always been a key factor for travellers choosing a holiday company to book through and/or travel with. But over the years, with independent travel confidence growing, low-cost holidays emerging and online operators sprouting, travellers have been increasingly happy to choose untrodden paths for the sake of saving money or to experience something new.

That’s changed, at least for now.

Keeping me safe and getting me home are huge influencers now for travellers choosing who to book with and where to travel. As such, companies and destinations that are tried and tested will win. Whether it be a household name travel operator or the same cottage in Cornwall they’ve visited before. Don’t underestimate the power of the familiar and safe at present.

Therefore, as marketeers we need to focus primarily on our past customers, now more than ever, over winning new business or growing market share.

We have already an element of trust with these travellers but building upon this will help to ensure they choose us, over other familiar brands they have travelled with, when the timing is right.

• Keep talking to customers even when you have nothing to sell – it shows you care.
• Remind customers of your relationship and your time together – whether that be simply sharing your famous scone recipe they enjoyed onboard.
• Remind customers of why others trust you – showcase your years in service, the scale of your operation, awards you have won or simply highlight testimonials of other happy customers.
• Use data to personalise their experience – show you know and understand your customers.

Don’t just sell a holiday, but also sell you.  Ensure your past customers are left feeling you are still right for them, and you are right for right now.

This article first appeared on MarComm News May 2021.