Caragh brings invaluable experience from previous roles at Huggg, Bristol 24/7 and comms agency JBP to help shape the agencyâs project and strategic partnership delivery.
The appointment marks an important step in Noughts & Onesâ growth and promises an exciting future for the creative development agency.
âWe are incredibly excited to have Caragh on board – her natural ability to build strong professional relationships and ultimately get shit done is going to be an absolute game changer for Noughts & Ones.â – Tom Locke, Agency Owner
As well as helping to shape project and partnership delivery Caragh, alongside the wider Noughts & Ones team, will be playing a key role in shaping the agencyâs identity as they embark on a brand repositioning project that is set to launch in early 2021.
âI am delighted to join the Noughts & Ones team at such an exciting time. As the e-commerce industry continues to grow, you can expect some big moves from this little agency. Over the next few months, I’m looking forward to forming new partnerships with brands and agencies that share our vision of doing some good in the world.â – Caragh Jones, Project Manager
Keep up to date with the latest new and updates at đ noughtsandones.com
Check us out on Instagram đž @noughtsandones
Welcome back to the second blog in our three-part series on Augmented Reality (AR). In our first segment, we introduced AR technology and explored its potential impact on our lives over the coming years.
But the technology already exists. And so, this poses an opportunity today.
Any brand who considers themselves a true tech pioneer, who is looking to distinguish themselves from their industry competitors, or is ready to forge an unrivalled relationship with millennial and Gen-Z customers, should consider grasping the opportunity AR presents for marketing and customer engagement, today.
When it comes to experiential marketing, thereâs no better vehicle for delivering an unforgettable brand experience than AR. As mentioned in our previous blog, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination â but there is one decision youâll need to make early on: how youâll deliver the experience to your viewers.
For those looking to get started today, there are two methods of AR access to choose from: by building an app, or using WebAR.
For many, apps are the option of choice. In-app augmented reality enables you to control the entire experience from end-to-end, maximising elements such as branding.
Take Pokémon Go, for example. The combination of technology, art and culture to form a real-life treasure hunt was arguably one of the most successful experiential campaigns to date.
During its peak, as many as 20% of Pokémon Go players were using the app every day, and by March 2019 it had been downloaded more than 1 billion times. Those are some vast numbers.
The ease of use was a key factor in the appâs success â and itâs worth noting, thereâs no doubt that downloads would have been significantly lower had the app required specialist technology, i.e. had it required additional headwear like âSnapchat Spectaclesâ-type tech to play. But every one of us has a smartphone in our pocket at all times, leaving a near-zero barrier to taking part.
The other option for creating an AR experience is to use WebAR.
Sometimes referred to as WebXR due to its ability to support AR, VR and MXR (Mixed Reality) functionality, WebAR allows you to use an AR experience directly within your browser â without having to download an app.
Most smartphones are WebAR-enabled, making it arguably even easier to access than downloading an app. However, you may have less control over some elements of the design.
So how do you choose the right platform for your audience? At P+S, we believe it comes down to your intent.
If youâre looking to integrate an AR experience into your website, maximise the âwow factorâ of your marketing materials or offer an AR experience in real-world locations, WebAR is a great choice. It removes barriers and offers instant access for anyone using a compatible device â without the need for having to stop and download an app.
However, if youâre looking to run a more complex experience â a game, or a more developed user interface like map overlays â then launching an app offers an excellent self-contained, immersive experience with unlimited customisation options. And youâll have the added benefit of being able to update and push new content without disruption to your other content and materials.
Apart from creating the next gaming sensation, how can augmented reality actually be applied for brand marketing purposes?
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For those businesses promoting a product, it could be as simple as creating the ability for customers to âseeâ a 3D visualisation of your merchandise face-to-face â all from the comfort of their own sofa. IKEA have recently begun offering just this, enabling customers to view furniture in their homes before ever making a purchase. And with COVID-19 set to disrupt the store experience the foreseeable future, now has never been a better time to offer virtual product experiences.
For those businesses who offer a service rather than a physical product, this is an opportunity to think laterally about marketing.
Letâs take an airline, for example. While enabling customers to view a Boeing 747 in their own living room isnât necessarily offering value, they could offer an augmented âmapâ of airline routes across the sky instead.
Or, they could look closer at the in-airport experience. In larger international airports, offering an augmented map that leads customers from the security gates to the airlineâs private lounge, or straight to their flight gate, would be a breath of fresh air.
Architectural firms can use AR to show their projects to a client in real-time. Financial services can demonstrate abstract concepts in a more tangible visualised form. And whatâs more, the data shows that AR visualisations improve B2B buyer confidence, and help to speed up sales cycles.
From marketing, to product visualisation, to making invisible concepts visible, the AR experience creates higher levels of engagement, increases conversions, and offers a powerful branding opportunity. When done well, itâs inherently social media friendly, shareable and creates a powerful lasting impact.
But thatâs not the limit of what AR will bring to brands.
Our next blog, and final instalment of our AR series, is coming soon – stay tuned.
Why not contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your goals with our team.
Marketing automation software does what it says on the tin: itâs technology which relieves some of the pressures of marketing your business, product or service, by automating your marketing processes.
No longer just the secret weapon of larger enterprises, marketing automation makes campaigns for businesses of any size easier to manage. From email to social, websites to text messaging, automation technology works across multiple channels â and across different touchpoints in the customer journey too.
But with hundreds of tools available, where do you start?
Luckily, we have tonnes of experience with automation software at P+S. In this blog, weâll break down why itâs worth investing in automation, how it all works, and give you five top tips to make sure itâs a success.
So, if youâre searching for a way to deliver more qualified sales leads with less supervision, nurture customers more effectivelywhile conserving your resources, and reduce your marketing spend while increasing sales opportunities, read on.
In short, automation software can do almost anything. One of the biggest benefits is that it saves you time and resources â no more having to hit âsendâ on every action you take. Plus, automation tools give you one place to manage multiple marketing streams, collect customer data and customise your campaigns.
Some of the tasks automation software can assist with include:
With the right automation software, you can liberate your teamâs time and creativity. So members are free to work on bolder ideas for attracting customers, free to aim for more ambitious targets, and free to expand your business into new growth markets.
But your team still needs to deploy, optimise and develop your marketing software strategy: team members will still need to do the thinking, while the âheavy liftingâ is carried out by the technology.
There are thousands of different MarTech providers out there, offering hundreds of marketing automation solutions. Choosing the right one can be a bit of a minefield.
The best place to start is by identifying your businessâs most critical needs. Are you taking too long to react to customersâ buying signals? Or maybe you regularly find yourself chasing the wrong leads? Make a list of your most urgent issues â there will undoubtedly be a tool designed to solve them. Once youâve covered the business critical, you can then increase this list to include ânice-to-havesâ to help you further narrow down your options.
Itâs important to create tangible goals, too. Not only will these help you measure your progress after deploying your technology, they will also help you to ascertain whether the investment is worthwhile for your business â and to justify that choice to your stakeholders, too. Using SMART objectives is a strong starting point for developing goals that make the most sense for your business.
Whichever provider you decide is best for you, there are a few ways to optimise the approach further.
Whatever software solution you settle on, choose to focus on simpler automation processes first, using simple data sets. This could be pre-scheduling some of your social posts, or regular marketing emails. Once youâre sure you know exactly how well this works, and that youâre benefiting from doing so, you can begin automating more complex processes with more tailored audience segments too: personalised automated upselling for customers whoâve shown interest in certain products, for example.
Any campaign youâre managing with automation software should complement your existing marketing. This isnât the opportunity to overhaul your tone of voice and begin bombarding people with daily newsletters. Youâll still want to focus on enriching your customersâ lives with relevant news, information and products.
Employing new software is easier when your team is receptive to the change. Who will drive its success within your business?
Identifying someone to be the internal champion of your automation software is a powerful move. Usually, this person is in a senior position, acting as an authority on the tech as well as a successful user of it. This personâs guidance and experience will also help you make decisions about training and support requirements, and put plans in place for the adoption and rollout process.
The goal here isnât to just market as much as you can â itâs to increase the value of your brand to your customers, using automation to build a long-term relationship with them. Automation enables you to interact with them in a more meaningful and relevant way, to build brand loyalty at every point in their journey.
And, of course, this wouldnât be a P+S blog without us mentioning measurable goals. As previously stated, setting clear, ambitious but achievable KPIs from the very beginning will allow you to measure your success. Lead scoring and nurturing data should form a part of these KPIs, and will help you to establish a business case for continued investment.
Even the strongest marketing team can benefit from automation technology. Half of the challenge of marketing today is collecting, organising and applying insights from a flood of customer data â which is easier said than done.
From website visits, to open rates, clicks, social engagement, events and forms â the amount of customer information available is truly staggering. But by analysing it all, you can identify key behaviours which can then become a trigger for marketing automation processes. It means you can immediately respond to those triggers, and exponentially improve the efficiency and value of your marketing.
At P+S we work with our clients to ensure their marketing automation software gives every customer a better, more personalised experience. Weâll save your marketing teams countless hours on repetitive tasks, and ensure your business never misses an opportunity to connect with customers across every touchpoint â no matter where they are in their user journey.
Plus, not only do we help you make more of your customer data, we also measure the results â and continually optimise them, to become even greater.
With COVID-19 meaning social distancing is the new norm, weâre seeing profound effects on our lives. Face-to-face meetings, gatherings and events arenât possible, making this a difficult time for the general population and most industries. For many businesses, budgets are under increasing pressure as revenue streams are cut and operational and marketing methods undergo huge upheaval.
As a society, weâre worried about our health, our familiesâ health, our wellbeing and our job security. Now is not the time for brands to choose a hard-sell approach, or to appear to be âcashing inâ on â or even preying on â social insecurity, as audiences become less receptive and more critical of insincere marketing.
So how can businesses maintain those physical interactions that are so vital to customer engagement, and promote their services in as effective and relevant a way as possible?
One option for connecting with your customers is through hosting a digital event.
Digital events have become more prominent in the last few years, and offer a range of benefits:
Two of the primary forms of digital events are webcasts and webinars. The terms are often used interchangeably, but in fact, they both feature a distinctly different approach to hosting an online event.
If you want to engage with a larger audience, featuring tens or even hundreds of participants, a webcast is an ideal way to broadcast your message.
Webcasts are typically a one-way flow of information shared over the internet, delivered like a lecture or speech. In cases where there are a large number of participants, a webcast gives you the opportunity to deliver a valuable presentation with minimum disruption.
If youâre looking for a higher level of engagement with your audience, a webinar might be a better option. A webinar more closely resembles a meeting, often with fewer participants who are more involved in the content. In this two-way, interactive option, your audience can ask questions, and thereâs more opportunity for you to drive direct interaction.
For the very highest level of engagement where creativity and collaboration is needed most, virtual workshops create an effective environment within the digital sphere. In âreal-lifeâ face-to-face creative workshops, structure is often more fluid, but this can be difficult to achieve in an online environment. To successfully deliver a virtual workshop, you should have a clearly-defined process for organising and managing participation, and use easy-to-implement, highly intuitive technology, to smooth the delivery process.
If youâre looking to fully replicate an existing conference or event, then a virtual tradeshow could be well suited for you. Virtual tradeshows can be hosted indefinitely, taking place online with on-demand information. By using live chat options and providing customer support, your visitors can experience the same feeling of instant, responsive communication as they would in a face-to-face expo.
In a virtual tradeshow, you can host digital exhibition halls, booths and auditoriums, helping you to replicate the immersive experience of a real-life event. However, itâs worth noting that this type of event the longest lead time, and can be costly to set up.
In this blog, we look at the different types of digital events, how you can build your audience for your events, and provide some top tips for success.
Different events will attract different audience sizes and levels of engagement. Its success will often rely on the quality and number of participants in the audience you manage to attract.
Traditionally, digital events are split into two audience segments; your existing database contacts, and audiences built through new lead generation.
Unless you have a well-managed and maintained database of contacts, GDPR and other data legislation, such as CCPA, can restrict the opportunity for direct email invitations to your event. So youâll need to check this, and consider alternative lead-generation tactics if this is the case.
Social media is a great tool for driving lead generation when used creatively, and can be supplemented through media partnerships or other paid media channels â for example, search engine advertising.
One of the greatest benefits of a webinar or a webcast is that either one can be held live or made available on-demand, depending on the platform you choose to host your event. By making an event recording available after itâs taken place, you can make connections with customers and prospects who canât necessarily attend in real-time, or who may be researching the subject after the event has already taken place.
In fact, with any online session youâll want to consider post-webinar activity â just as you would with a live event. Your digital session is just the beginning of potential engagement, and with strategic follow-up activity you can continue to nurture leads and maintain interest. Repackaged content following a webinar can be an ideal way to sustain the conversation with customers, as can additional âexclusiveâ materials.
With a combination of session playback and additional content, your sessions gain additional longevity â and that means maximum impact for your brand.
At P+S, weâve been hosting digital events for years, both for our own brand, and for our clients too. Our top tips for success include:
When it comes to digital events, our in-house team can take care of everything: from determining the strategy and execution of lead generation campaigns, to designing and copywriting your presentations and content. And itâs all tied together by our expert strategists, whoâll work with you to ensure we meet â and exceed â your expectations.
If youâd like to find out more about what type of digital event would best suit your business, and how we can help you deliver it, get in touch today, by emailing [email protected].
âDonât wait for opportunity. Create it.â
Never has this oft-cited pearl of business wisdom been more pertinent than it is now. Times are tough, and the companies likely to ride the waves, moving from âsurvivingâ to âthrivingâ quicker than the rest, will be those who are proactive and positive in pursuit of opportunity.
They will be those with a switched-on, sharpened-up approach to lead generation.
So what does it take to keep those leads flowing in through the door? Weâve broken it down into five critical areas.
Traditional strategies and models would have lead generation sectioned off as an isolated channel. That approach doesnât hold water today. Leads can and should come from everywhere and everything you do. Your website, your social media marketing, your advertising, your events and exhibitions, your brand strategy, even your conversations with suppliers, contacts and existing customers â theyâre all opportunities to be generating new leads and should be factored into your overall strategy.
The key is to approach each with the right mindset, keeping eyes and ears open for avenues of new business, and having the systems in place to capture and capitalise on opportunity as it presents itself.
Marketing generates leads, sales closes them, right? Wrong. Successful lead generation today relies on two-way collaboration between your marketing and sales teams. Both need to be involved at every stage of the design, development and delivery of your lead-generation planning.
Sales can help marketing understand exactly who you should be targeted and offer coal-face insight into what messages and media are likely to work. Equally, marketing can help sales build and nurture the one-to-one personal relationships that become profitable leads.
Now, more than ever, general marketing messages are going to disappear without a trace. If you canât give people direct answers to specific problems, or if you donât have a razor-sharp proposition that makes them sit up and take notice, youâll become just another voice in an already overcrowded market.
It is possible to stand out though. At Proctors, for example, weâve had great success recently in building a lead-generation campaign around direct, specific and single-minded offers to a targeted group of companies in the logistics industry. By doing our homework upfront â in conjunction with our clientâs sales and marketing teams â weâve been able to cut through the noise and talk to prospective customers about what actually matters to them.
Prospects will become leads far more quickly if you can establish a relationship with them. So a single postcard or impersonal email just wonât cut it. You need to make meaningful connections, based on the quality of your offer and message, and your understanding of who youâre talking to.
Weâve spent the past couple of years working on this area in particular, developing an approach that draws together web analytics, personalised content, social outreach, direct marketing and automation platforms to make the right connections for you â and turn them into high-value leads.
Because opportunities for lead generation permeate every aspect of your business, you need the systems in place to measure its effectiveness and capture the ongoing creation and cultivation of leads. Thereâs a plethora of tools out there to do just that, so choosing the right one can seem daunting.
The truth is, things can be far simpler than you might believe. Itâs all a question of co-ordination and consolidation of technology. And then having the mechanisms in place to take appropriate action as you measure ongoing lead-generation work. That might mean modifying your messaging, showering more love on certain sections of your target audiences, or adjusting the media mix as time goes on.
As with most things in marketing, lead generation works best when youâve got the fundamentals absolutely right. And thatâs where we always start at Proctors, swiftly turning robust plans into hands-on, accountable action.
So, if you want to have a chat about the lead generation opportunities available to you, or if you have a specific project in mind, weâd love to hear from you. Get in touch with us today at [email protected].
We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Microserve, a Bristol-based Drupal development company specializing in cutting-edge website design-and-build projects, UX, strategy and website support and maintenance.
The acquisition of Microserve further bolsters Investis Digitalâs ability to deliver on the companyâs proprietary Connected Contentâą approach, which relies on building and running intelligent websites and digital experiences that are rapidly deployed and strategically measured, all of which is underpinned by its secure Connect.ID technology.
Don Scales, Global CEO of Investis Digital, said, âAs we continue to see an unprecedented rate of engagement online, embracing a digital-first world is paramount to driving business performance. This acquisition reflects our commitment to our clients to deliver against our 24/7 service model and to help them communicate the messages that matter mostâ.
Microserve is composed of 24 employees and has developed an exceptional reputation for developing robust digital solutions. Its team of accredited Drupal developers is one of the biggest in the U.K.
âWe are so pleased to be joining the Investis Digital family, especially during a great period of growthâ, said Dan McNamara, Managing Director, Microserve. âThe opportunity to work alongside great talent, access a wider client base and use our technical skills to accelerate the Investis Digital vision makes this partnership the right choice. Weâre also looking forward to offering our existing clients a greater breadth of services and strengthening our key relationshipsâ
Like Investis Digital, Microserve has a strong client base, ranging from global blue-chip companies to charities, NGOs, local government and more. This portfolio of clients will add to Investis Digitalâs own roster of ambitious clients, including ASOS, Anglo American, Rolls-Royce, Ocado, Heineken, Vodafone and more.
Following the transaction, the Microserve team will serve as an additional footprint in the U.K. and will continue to be based in Bristol. Dan McNamara, current Managing Director of Microserve, will take on a Business Director role leading the integration of Microserve into the Investis Digital business. He will be reporting into Adrian Goodliffe, Senior Managing Director, Europe.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Softech firm Amdaris have won the Great British Entrepreneur Award just 6-months after securing a ÂŁ6m investment from BGF.
The Bristol company has offices in the UK, Dubai, Moldova and Romania, providing software development teams in high profile industries from Oil and Gas to finance and logistics.
In 2017 the board appointed AgencyUK to help develop a brand and marketing strategy fit for global expansion. Scale has been rapid, with new offices in Dubai and Romania in 2019.
AgencyUK have continued to support Amdaris with their external advertising, internal communications and PR strategy. This award win follows a string of new customer appointments.
One of the tools we used during discovery were sacrificial concepts. They enhanced discussion with participants, and provided a foundation for the upcoming design sprints.
Here, weâll explore what sacrificial concepts are, and why they are useful.
Sacrificial concepts are a tool originally developed by the design firm IDEO. They are used in early research as a stimulus for discussion, and are different from presenting prototypes later in the design process for the purposes of testing or validation.
Sacrificial concepts are:
Sacrificial concepts can be a powerful tool to enhance discovery. For the health and wellness project, they gave us a deeper understanding of peopleâs attitudes and needs, which enhanced the research insight, design principles, and set of personas from discovery.
We entered the design sprints with a better idea of how much information different people wanted and why, what type and depth of information they wanted, and how they might want to engage with the service.
Mace & Menter are specialists in service design, user research, discovery and prototyping for public services, health and the third sector.
To find out more, contact us on 020 7193 8952 or email [email protected].
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Georgia Christley has joined the Carnsight Communications team as Account Manager and will work alongside business owner Jessica Morgan and Account Executive Leigh-Ann Hewer; who became a permanent member of the team in March following a three-month internship with Carnsight. Â
Georgiaâs appointment marks the expansion of the permanent team at Carnsight Communications and promises an exciting future for the small business.
Jessica Morgan, Business Owner, commented, âGeorgia has natural ability to build strong professional relationships with clients and colleagues alike. She is a positive and driven individual and I am thrilled to welcome her to the business.â Â
Georgia added, âHaving worked within Office Management roles for over 10 years, I felt ready for a new and exciting change in my career. I have always had a passion for writing and media and feel very fortunate to have crossed paths and worked closely with the team at Carnsight Communications on a professional level.Â
From my initial meeting with Jess and Leigh-Ann, I instantly bonded with them. I just knew I wanted to work with this fabulous team! The company ethos is something that I longed for in an Employer, the flexibility and support from the team is second to none. Â
I am so excited to be a part of this modern, fresh and innovative company and to learn and develop in PR alongside a great team of professionals who immediately made me feel like part of the team.âÂ
Carnsight is built upon 17 yearsâ of industry experience in London and now Bath.Â
Jo Johnson and Steve Stanley appointed following investment
Access Creative College, an independent college for the creative industries, which launched a new state-of-the-art campus in Bristol in 2019, has made two senior appointments. The move signals its continued commitment to education and learning within the creative industries in the city.
The announcement follows a significant year for Armstrong Learning group*, the owners of the College, during which it secured investment from Apiary Capital, announced its new Bristol facilities and welcomed the National College for the Creative Industries (NCCI) to its portfolio.
Jo Johnson has been appointed by Access Creative College as Chair. The former Minister of State for Universities brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in education, technology and the creative sectors. Jo will provide leadership and guidance to the College, helping the team to navigate the educational environment in which it operates during a period of growth.
Steve Stanley has been appointed as Director of Evaluation and Impact. He has worked in education for 33 years. Around half of which, was as an inspector at Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate. As a former inspector, he brings an aptitude for assessing the impact of the curriculum on learning. As an educator, he has expertise in how education can make a positive difference to the futures of young people and adults.
Jason Beaumont, Chief Executive at Access Creative College, comments,
âWelcoming Jo and Steve to the team is big news for us. They will help us to have a voice on a national scale and deliver education and learning that students want and industry desires.
âThe creative industries will be a very different place post Covid and we are aware of the challenges ahead. But, with the creative industries sector having grown at a rate more than twice that of the total UK economy over the last decade, we are confident that it will bounce back.
âBy adapting to change, bringing in the right expertise and listening to the needs of our students and the wider industry, weâll be in the best position to provide meaningful education for the new creative economy and continue our track record of high student achievement and progression.
âThere are exciting times to come. As we approach our 30th academic year, we are focused on growth at our existing sites and in new cities. We are adapting our curriculum to support the increasingly digital market and we are extending our commitment to support BAME learners, staff and minority communities within the College network.
âOur passion to help young people from a diversity of backgrounds prosper in the creative industries remains constant, and at the heart of what we do.â
*The Armstrong Learning Group owns Access Creative College and Coaching Connexions and delivers creative industry apprenticeships under licence to NCCI Ltd. as part of a partnership with South Essex College and DfE.