Jeremy Bourton, Armadillo’s Account Director, recently spoke to Little Black Book about building relationships, finding ways to connect and utilising your skills.
LBB: How did you first get involved in account management and what appealed to you about it?
Jeremy: I found my way into account management by accident. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but knew I wanted a fast-paced role that allowed me to have a creative input without being creative. That’s how I stumbled across the idea of working in client services. Once I looked into it more, I knew it was the right direction for me.
LBB: What is it about your personality, skills and experience that has made account management such a great fit?
Jeremy: Building relationships is key to the role. My ability to work with different people and make sure they all feel heard is what I think makes me successful. I like people and finding ways to connect, which is definitely useful in account management!
LBB: What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting their career in account management?
Jeremy: Ask questions. I think you need to question everything in order to fully understand it and help deliver the best work. Whether it’s the internal processes, the client’s brief, how it can be achieved technically… ask questions, listen and absorb. You’ll be working with experts in various disciplines, so learn from them.
LBB: Thinking back to some of your most challenging experiences you’ve had in your career, what do you think tends to lie at the heart of the more tense or difficult client-agency relationships?
Jeremy: Most issues come from not interrogating what it is you’re doing at the start. If you start a project without everyone being clear on what they’re looking to achieve, client-side and internally, then nobody will get what they want from it. And that will lead to a difficult conversation with the client sooner or later.
LBB: And what are the keys to building a productive and healthy relationship?
Jeremy: I don’t think you can build a healthy relationship without being honest and reliable. Clients would rather have a difficult conversation than have you try and tell them what you think they want to hear. If you’re open and honest, you’ll gain the respect of your clients as they believe you’ll deliver.
LBB: What’s your view on disagreement and emotion – is there a place for it and if not, why not? If so, why – and what does productive disagreement look like?
Jeremy: Of course. We’re trying to change consumers’ behaviour, so how can we do that without emotion? If that emotion leads to disagreement, it’s not a bad thing as long as there’s a positive outcome. Focusing on solutions is key, and remaining professional within the emotional side.
LBB: Historically, account management has been characterised as the mediator in an adversarial client and creative relationship – what do you make of that characterisation, is there any nugget of truth in that or is it wildly inaccurate?
Jeremy: Historically this may well have been the case, however I feel it’s changed. At Armadillo, our creatives, developers, and strategists are involved in conversations with clients. We ensure that there’s open dialogue between our wider team and client stakeholders so that relationships can be built everywhere, not just in client services.
LBB: These days, agencies do so much beyond traditional campaigns and as account management you’re pulling together creative, experience, data, e-commerce, social and more – and that complexity can often be mirrored on the client stakeholder side too? What’s the key to navigating (and helping the client navigate) that complexity?
Jeremy: The key to this is teamwork. As I’ve mentioned, there are experts in all these disciplines working within a business. If an account manager is trying to do all this themselves, they’re not utilising the skills around them. We work best while collaborating and all pushing in one direction, drawing on each other’s skills.
LBB: What recent projects are you proudest of and why? What was challenging about these projects from an account management perspective and how did you address those challenges? What was so satisfying about working on these projects?
Jeremy: Rather than one specific project, I am always proud of the way my team works together to get through a campaign.
Regardless of whether there are challenges, the most satisfying thing for me is being able to step back and recognise the effort we’ve all put in to achieving the end goal. As an account director I’m not the one writing the copy, bringing a concept to life in design or figuring out how to make it work in development, but seeing everyone work as a team to achieve something great is what makes me want to get up on a wet Monday morning to do my job.
Armadillo has opened the doors of its brand-new office in The Distillery, Bristol. The bespoke office space was carefully designed with Armadillo’s hybrid model in mind, creating an environment for flexibility and meeting the key drivers of collaboration, culture, and care.
After two years of carefully researching, consulting, and planning, Armadillo has created a space that is designed to suit different ways of working as well as the needs of employees. Walls have been kept to a minimum to allow Armadillo to evolve their use of the space over time as they test, learn and optimise their approach – but as there’s always a need for a video call, there are a few walls to create light, bright meeting rooms.
The vibrant office incorporates an open plan kitchen that converts easily into a social, event space with a pool table, the expected desks set up ready for use, increased collaborative project spaces, different seating types and configurations, and a wellbeing/prayer room. Plus, a library wing provides a dedicated quiet area for head-down work with no interruptions.
As part of bringing teams back to the office, complimentary lunch is provided three days a week and a variety of social activities are planned to bring the team together and continue to foster creative collaboration.
James Ray, Armadillo’s CEO, said “Our aim with this new space was to provide the best of both worlds, where people always have the best environment for the best work when in the office on some days at home on others. We started with a blank sheet of paper and, following extensive research within the team, industry and beyond, have designed a space that will work for the needs of the business now and in future.”
Hannah Waters, Executive Creative Director added “We chose the striking building for its bold, elegant features. We’ve balanced the beautiful internal concrete feature walls with our range of cool greys and warm vibrant oranges to ensure that, even on the rainiest day or after a challenging commute, our employees can be met with a positive palette and welcoming furniture.”
A launch event will be held at the new offices in April. Employees and guests are invited to explore the new space and learn how Armadillo will use it to continue to deliver exceptional, cutting-edge work for its clients.
The leadership team at Armadillo worked with employees to develop a hybrid space and policy that best fit them. As well as external research among agency peers, one-to-one interviews were held with every employee at Armadillo and feedback was used to create a strategy that can evolve and develop as it’s tested and evaluated over time.
Sustainability plays a key part in the design of The Distillery building, with features including rooftop mounted solar panels, intelligent LED lighting, water saving technology and an important emphasis on creating a healthy environment.
To demonstrate this, it has achieved a BREEAM Excellent accreditation, and an EPC Grade A rating and a Platinum and Gold Certified Wire Score, each of which is a globally-recognised symbol of sustainable achievement.
Armadillo Press Release published 28/03/23
CRM specialist Armadillo welcomes two data heavyweights into its team in the form of Lucy Darbon, Data Strategy Director, and Andrew Sargent, Head of Insight and Analytics. The new hires will help the DMA Award-winning agency drive its data and insight offering further for global clients including McDonald’s, Disney and Carnival UK. Armadillo has doubled in revenue and headcount in the last 3 years.
New data strategy director, Darbon, joins from Zone, where she was data strategy lead, driving acquisition, analysis and leveraging of clients’ data to achieve business objectives. Before that she led a team at BT as senior digital marketing effectiveness manager, having worked at the multinational telco for six years.
At Armadillo, Darbon will bring her skills and experience to bear, helping clients use data to drive businesses forward. Working as a bridge between strategy and data teams, she will use tools such as data visualization and analysis to democratize data, activating first-party data and driving ROI.
Meanwhile, Sargent joins from 12 years at Wood For Trees, the charity and non-profit data insights agency, where he was director of analysis. Fresh from working with major charities such as British Red Cross, Marie Curie and British Heart Foundation, at Armadillo he will focus on getting strong insight through data from its global clients.
Heading up a team of six, Sargent will provide in depth analysis across the agency and will work closely with the creative teams to enable data to inform creative strategy.
CEO James Ray comments, “Intelligent use of data is at the heart of everything we do at Armadillo, and Lucy and Andrew joining will give us a fantastic opportunity to further upweight our capabilities.
“As we continue to leverage first-party data for brands, the appointments will help move creative and data even closer together, allowing insights to inform creative strategy and output, and driving ROI across all our campaigns.”
Darbon adds: “Since my very first role at BT I’ve been inspired to work with data, and this position feels like it fits my capabilities perfectly. I could see immediately that Armadillo had very impressive technical expertise and data science skillsets, as well as the appetite to push things further.”
Sargent said: “I’m joining at such an exciting time for data and analysis – there’s never been more scope, with tech enabling even more access to insights. I also loved the culture of Armadillo from my first interview – it’s agile with a can-do, punchy mindset.”
Mentor Digital has announced the appointment of Dan Watt as its new Digital Marketing Director.
Dan brings a wealth of experience to the Mentor Digital team, having previously worked as a Senior Strategist at Google and Managing Partner at McCann. In these roles, he was responsible for developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for some of the world’s largest brands.
At Mentor Digital, Dan will be responsible for leading digital marketing services and driving growth for new and existing clients. He will also play a key role in developing and executing the overall business strategy for Mentor moving forwards.
Under Dan’s leadership, the digital marketing services at Mentor Digital will increase in scope to become a holistic offering, encompassing all elements of paid digital media, SEO and analytics.
Dan’s team is equipped to provide consultancy across the entire spectrum of digital media: from initial auditing, planning and forecasting through to campaign delivery across paid search, social and display platforms, alongside technical SEO, content strategy and production. As well as paid media and SEO, the team also offers end-to-end analytics services, from auditing and scoping tracking requirements through to tag implementation, data visualisation and reporting.
Dan is a highly skilled and experienced digital marketing professional, and the team at Mentor is thrilled to have him on board. His expertise and leadership will be invaluable as they continue to expand and grow their business over the coming years.
If you would like to get in touch regarding any digital marketing projects, you can fill out a contact form here or call into their Bristol-based office on 0117 305 8900.
Working with an SEO specialist can completely transform your company. You may forge a potent alliance that propels your online presence and boosts your exposure by fusing your understanding of the market with their expertise in search engine optimisation. Continue reading to learn more about how to manage this collaboration through effective communication, goal-setting, project management, and other techniques.
Understanding the Role of an SEO Expert in Your Business
Understanding the extent of an SEO consultant’s or expert’s obligations is crucial for maximising your partnership and getting the most out of your collaboration. You can anticipate an SEO specialist to handle the following tasks:
Finding highly probable keywords and phrases that are pertinent to your business.
Enhancing the headers, metadata, and content of your website to raise its search engine visibility.
Off-page optimisation includes controlling your internet reputation, managing your social media profiles, and creating backlinks of excellent quality.
Making sure your company website is well-built, with quick load times, accurate indexing, and mobile friendliness.
Analysing and monitoring SEO performance to guide upcoming plans.
Build a Strong Foundation for SEO Success
To get the most out of your engagement with an SEO specialist, a solid base must be in place. You should collaborate to enhance a few SEO-related factors before implementing any new SEO methods. They consist of:
Website architecture that is user-friendly: Work together to design a website structure that is logical, simple to use, and optimised for both users and search engines.
Content that is optimised for voice search: As voice assistants become more and more common, optimising your material for traditional search alone is sometimes insufficient. Instead, use conversational language and long-tail keywords to make sure your material is optimised for voice search.
Working with an SEO specialist, add schema markup to your website to provide search engines more information and enhance the look of your search results.
Establish Clear Communication Channels
Effective communication will always be the foundation of any successful cooperation. There are various things you can do while working with an SEO specialist from Core Web Vitals to develop and maintain open communication and promote future success:
Plan routine meetings: You can talk about ongoing work, progress, and any obstacles you are encountering at meetings that happen once a week, twice a month, or once a month.
Employ collaboration tools: To keep everyone in the loop and keep track of activities, use project management and communication tools like Slack, Trello, or Asana.
Be Available: Ensure that you are accessible to your SEO specialist in case they have any queries or require additional clarification on any responsibilities or goals.
Set Realistic Goals and Expectations
Setting up specific objectives from the beginning will guarantee that all sides are on the same page and pursuing the same aims. There are a few important factors to take into account before beginning to engage with an SEO expert for your business:
Provide details: Establish your SEO campaign’s key performance indicators (KPIs), such as keyword ranks, organic traffic growth, and conversion rates.
Set deadlines: Create a schedule for attaining your objectives and check in periodically to assess your progress.
Prioritise: Pay attention to the tasks that are most important first, and be ready to change your priorities as needed.
Provide Necessary Resources and Information
By ensuring that they have access to all the tools and data they require, you can help your SEO consultant or expert perform their task at its highest level. Offer these to them:
Give them access to any tools they will require to perform their duties effectively, including the content management system (CMS) for your website, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and any other pertinent tools.
Provide them with as much information as you can about your business, its goods and services, intended market, and rivals.
Support for content: If required, make experts available who can assist in developing and optimising material, such as content writers, developers, and designers.
Embrace a Teamwork Mentality
Mutual trust and respect should be the foundation of any successful relationship between your business and an SEO consultant, expert, or agency. You may promote a culture of cooperation and collaborate more effectively in a number of ways, including:
Respect their knowledge: Keep in mind that you engaged an SEO specialist to assist you with the aspects of SEO that you probably found difficult to complete internally. Respect and acknowledge the expertise of your SEO specialist.
Be receptive to criticism: If an SEO specialist is competent at what they do, they will tell you what you need to hear, even if it isn’t necessarily what you want to hear. Be sensitive to recommendations for improvement and constructive criticism.
Promote collaboration: Work to create a collaborative atmosphere where ideas may be openly debated and shared from both sides.
Review and Adjust Your Strategy
Your SEO approach will stay current and efficient if it is often evaluated. Any reputable SEO consultant will inform you that SEO is dynamic and constantly evolving, so it is important to check in frequently to make sure the techniques you have in place are still effective for your company. Think about the following:
Analyse results: Examine the data frequently to identify what is functioning well and what might need some improvement.
Get expert advice: Discuss any prospective or essential changes or updates to the approach on a regular basis with your SEO specialist.
Iterate and enhance: Adapt your approach in light of your discoveries, and keep enhancing your plan over time.
Stay Informed of SEO Trends
As was already mentioned, SEO is a field that is always changing. It’s critical to keep up with the most recent business trends and best practises in addition to updating your strategies. As it is their job to stay current on SEO, your SEO specialist will be able to share the most recent information with you. Here is where the effective communication discussed earlier will come in handy. You can also:
Follow industry news: Join credible SEO podcasts, blogs, and newsletters.
Attend webinars and conferences: Take part in business gatherings where you may network with colleagues and pick the brains of industry leaders.
Share your expertise: To make sure that your strategies are adjusting to the shifting landscape, schedule time to discuss the most recent developments and insights with your team and your SEO specialist.
Invest in Long-Term Growth
Successful SEO usually involves a long-term commitment and strategy, which takes time. By performing the following, you may maximise the advantages of your collaboration with an SEO expert:
Be patient: It’s important to realise that SEO effects are unlikely to come quickly, and it may take weeks or months before you notice a change.
Concentrate on sustainability: Implement long-term growth tactics before short-term remedies that can damage the reputation of your website in the long run.
Be sure your company has the funds and resources it needs to support continuing SEO initiatives before allocating resources.
Leverage Your SEO Expert’s Network
Partnering with an SEO specialist can help you and your company gain access to new contacts and prospects within the sector. You may take advantage of your SEO expert’s network in a number of ways, including:
Requesting referrals: Ask your SEO specialist to put you in touch with other professionals in the field who can assist you with services like web development, content creation, or digital marketing.
Collaborating on guest posts: To improve your online presence and create backlinks, work with your SEO specialist to identify opportunities for guest blogging on pertinent, high-authority websites.
Joining professional organisations: Take into account spending time taking part in online forums, social media groups, and other communities indicated by your SEO expert, where you may connect with like-minded individuals and gain knowledge from their experiences.
Optimise Your Content Strategy
For SEO to be successful, content is essential. In order to optimise your content strategy, work with your SEO professional by:
Finding content gaps: Consult with one another to identify places where your website could utilise more content or improvement to better serve users’ wants and search intentions.
Developing high-quality content: Provide interesting, useful content that speaks to the needs of your target audience while also using pertinent keywords.
Promoting content: To raise the profile of your website and improve traffic, work together on content promotion techniques such as email marketing, social media sharing, and influencer outreach.
Be Adaptable and Embrace Change
Your collaboration with an SEO specialist should always be ready to evolve as circumstances change. By working with an SEO consultant or specialist, you can embrace change in a variety of ways, including:
Remaining flexible means being willing to change your strategy as new trends, technologies, or adjustments to search engine algorithms appear.
Encourage experimentation by working with your SEO consultant or expert as they test out new methods and approaches to see what will work best for your company.
Learning from errors: Although failures cannot be prevented, there are a number of things you can do to reframe them as opportunities when they happen. Examine what went wrong and apply your newfound knowledge to better your efforts in the future.
Working together to develop the best SEO techniques can help you and an SEO specialist ensure that your website is not only optimised for search engines but also stays on the cutting edge of SEO.
Nowadays, customers have a multitude of options for products and services. Therefore, if your marketing strategy fails to deliver, potential customers are likely to seek out alternatives. Although it’s disheartening, it’s the reality we face. But fear not! There’s one element that can establish a connection with customers, differentiate you from the competition, and foster loyalty. A brand story.
However, creating a brand story that effectively conveys your company’s values, mission, and purpose requires more than just recounting the history of your business. It demands careful consideration of your narrative as a whole. While it may seem daunting, we’re here to guide you through the challenges you may face while crafting your brand story and how to overcome them to build customer loyalty.
So, let’s get started on crafting that perfect brand story!
Challenge 1: Finding the Right Narrative
Your first and greatest challenge is finding the initial narrative for your brand story that resonates with customers. This is no easy task, and it’s not as simple as just creating a marketing message or sales pitch. Your brand story needs to strike a balance between being compelling and authentic, and it must speak to your target audience’s specific needs and wants.
Solution: Research and Listen to Customers
To find the correct narrative for a brand story, it’s essential to research and listen to customers. For example, conducting surveys or focus groups to gather feedback and insights on what customers value about your brand, what they’re looking for in your product or service, and how they perceive the brand’s identity and mission.
By getting down to the nitty-gritty and gathering detailed information from your audience, you can create a powerful and emotionally resonant brand narrative that fosters customer loyalty.
Challenge 2: Differentiating from Competitors
One of the biggest hurdles in creating a brand story is making it stand out from the sea of competitors out there. It’s important to find a unique angle that distinguishes you from similar products or services.
Solution: Focus on a Unique Value Proposition
To stand out from competitors, you need to establish a unique value proposition. This is a statement that clearly communicates your products or services’ benefits and what sets you apart from competitors.
Is there something about your product or service that sets it apart in the market? Does your business have a particular company culture or value that will resonate with your customers? These are just some of the factors to keep in mind as you work to identify and highlight your business’s unique qualities.
Challenge 3: Maintaining Authenticity
Authenticity is a critical component of a successful brand story, and so is maintaining it. Customers are increasingly savvy and can easily spot a contrived or inauthentic brand story, which could damage your brand’s credibility and erode trust with customers. While it’s easy to become enthusiastic about your business and brand, you shouldn’t exaggerate or over-promise your brand story to stand out from competitors.
Solution: Stay True to Company Values
A way to avoid this is to start with a clear understanding of your business’s values, mission and purpose. Your brand story should be a natural extension of these.
In addition, using real, relatable examples in your brand story will help maintain authenticity. By telling real stories of how your business has helped customers or made a positive impact, you’ll build trust with your customers and demonstrate authenticity, ultimately building customer loyalty.
In conclusion…
Overall, successfully overcoming these challenges is crucial to creating a brand story that emotionally connects with customers. To read the full version, head over to our blog here.
If you’re still needing a hand, our team of experts is here to help. Get in touch to learn more about our customer-focused solutions and how we can help you achieve your business goals!
From Midjourney to ChatGPT, AI tools are flooding the internet with exciting possibilities, imaginative new imagery and many a meme – from the inspiring and amusing to the downright gruesome.
Possibly the most accessible and widely tested AI tool yet, ChatGPT has got many marketers thinking about the power of this emerging technology. But AI advancement doesn’t come without its critics and controversies – often generating more questions than answers.
So how can marketers make the most of this powerful technology? And should we approach with caution? UX and UI designer Dan Marek explores.
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT feels like absolute wizardry to use.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm recently, with one of the leading players being the natural language processing (NLP) model known as ChatGPT. In just two months, it set a new record for the fastest-growing user base ever to reach 100 million users.
Tools like ChatGPT have already begun transforming our lives. You can’t go more than five minutes without seeing a news article about it, or stumbling upon AI-generated imagery (albeit mostly more disturbing and amusing than beautiful). But make no mistake, this is the very beginning of a fast-moving revolution. So how can businesses make the most of this opportunity?
This article examines how businesses may leverage AI to solve problems more efficiently and gain a profitable advantage. We’ll also look at some of the limitations of AI tools like ChatGPT, so you can avoid making costly mistakes and stay ahead of the competition.
The AI opportunity for businesses
Imagine generating top-notch product descriptions, social media posts, and even entire search-optimised articles in a matter of minutes. How about 3000% returns on ad spend, automatic meeting notes and summaries, or asking AI to generate spreadsheet formulas? It may not all be possible yet – and it certainly won’t replace your copywriting and UX experts in the near future. But there’s certainly a big opportunity here.
“…It may not all be possible yet – and it certainly won’t replace your copywriting and UX experts in the near future. But there’s certainly a big opportunity here…”
With ChatGPT, businesses can streamline their processes, freeing up time and resources to focus on other areas of operations. It might sound cliché, but the opportunities for companies to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT in 2023 are endless.
Top 10 business use cases for AI tools in 2023
Eliminate background noise for clearer calls
Create videos with human voices from text
Summarise meeting notes and takeaways
Personalised customer service co-pilots
Autocomplete for basically everything
Tag and organise your digital content
Generate SEO-optimised articles
Plan strategic marketing campaigns
Research and brainstorm ideas
Write emails faster
The limitations ofAI
Hold on a minute – does this mean we’re ready to replace humans with AI? Not yet. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT are not a quid pro quo for genuine creativity and expertise. For now, it’s far more likely that you’ll be replaced by a human using AI rather than the tools themselves.
Think of ChatGPT as the Iron Man suit to your marketing team’s Tony Stark. Iron Man enhances Tony’s abilities, and ChatGPT can enhance your team’s capabilities. But just as Tony still relies on his human expertise and creativity to save the world, your marketing team should continue to rely on their own skills to resonate with the right audiences and create truly effective campaigns.
Garbage in = garbage out
The capabilities of these tools are quite difficult to comprehend as they are only really limited by our potential to ask the right questions.
“…the emergence of “prompt engineers” indicates the importance of creating the right prompts to unlock the full potential of AI tools…”
Just like calculators, they can only provide the correct answer with the right input, called prompts. The emergence of “prompt engineers” indicates the importance of creating the right prompts to unlock the full potential of AI tools.
Bias
AI tools present real risks of biases, such as generating discriminatory content and spreading misinformation. As responsible users of these tools, we must be aware of this and be sure to evaluate any responses provided. The CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, recently acknowledged inherent bias in the tool and assured users that they’re working to improve the default settings to be more neutral.
Plagiarism, relevancy, and factual inaccuracy
AI tools pose a risk of plagiarism and factual inaccuracy. An astronomer recently called out Google’s AI chatbot Bard for making a factual error in its demo. But everyday users may not realise that the output generated by the tool is not original, leading to unintentional plagiarism. You can take measures to avoid this, for example, by including a request for sources of any facts and figures as part of your prompt.
“…everyday users may not realise that the output generated by the tool is not original, leading to unintentional plagiarism…”
The relevancy of information can also be brought into question. While writing this, ChatGPT has only been trained on data from September 2021.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) impact
Google’s guidelines favour genuine, relevant, and reliable content. AI-generated content may struggle to meet these guidelines. This means that sole reliance on AI-generated content might negatively impact your website’s ranking on Google.
Ethical considerations
Using AI tools raises ethical concerns around data privacy, bias, and deception. These tools collect vast data through web scraping – sometimes without explicit consent. So regulations and policies must be implemented to ensure AI tools are used ethically and responsibly.
The future of AI tools
It’s worth remembering that AI tools are an emerging technology, so there are plenty of limitations to consider. But by using them as a starting point to generate ideas and assist workflows, businesses can largely mitigate these drawbacks.
AI is not the enemy. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. As AI technology continues to advance, it’s becoming increasingly clear that tools like ChatGPT will play a crucial role in the future of business, with those early movers able to leverage an unfair advantage over their competitors.
Oh, and if you’re curious whether I used ChatGPT to help me write this…
Video and animation will always be at the heart of Proctors Motion Department. And that’s why we’ve been hard at work continually refining our general expertise. But, over the past year we’ve also expanded our offering, to deliver interactive 3D experiences too.
Power at your fingertips with interactive 3D models
Overview
Panasonic challenged us to visualise how their extensive portfolio of hardware and software could be combined to create highly-specialised, complete, and integrated solutions.
So we proposed an interactive piece (making use of Babylon.js) that allowed users to explore sectors and areas for themselves – rather than a typical static image that acts as a clickable menu.
This all sat in an angular app, offering up relevant information in the form of whitepapers, product links, tech specs, video and imagery.
We developed a solid workflow that allowed us to: quickly design scenes for sign off; optimise geometry by hand and using AI tools (so the 3D rooms downloaded quickly without putting pressure on end users’ devices); create libraries of Babyblon.js code that could efficiently be repurposed for building out interactivity and the look; deliver a front end where content could be loaded in a simple JSON file, rather than buried away in complex code.
With an average dwell time of 5 minutes for education and nearly 3.30 for manufacturing, our interactive models have proven to be a great way of grabbing (and keeping!) potential customers’ attention.
Delivering a high-octane, high-end product shoot… without the high costs
Overview
Panasonic and Proctors go back a very long way, so when the time came to launch their latest flagship device, the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 40, they knew who to call.
We crafted a concept based around a fast-paced edit of the conditions a truly rugged laptop needs to stand up to. The final film was a mix of 3D, shot footage and visual effects (VFX), recreating the demanding environments where TOUGHBOOK is most at home.
The project could easily have become a very costly multi-location shoot. But we made use of minimal locations, lots of 3D expertise and some heavy post-production work to deliver even more, for a fraction of the time, cost… and carbon.
We demonstrated the TOUGHBOOK 40’s unique features – what sets it apart from the competition – wrapped up in a tight action-packed film.
2022 saw the launch of the first series in ‘P+S Unlocked’ – a new major initiative, designed to help audiences to tap into their full marketing potential with our latest insights, strategies and thought leadership content.
Series 1 took on Corporate Social Responsibility, specifically, how to communicate your progress and demonstrate your accountability.
We riffed on a Terry Gilliam style of animation, using a stop-motion collage approach to demystify explainers, illustrate some easy to implement CSR tips and generally add some humour and fun.
The P+S Motion Department went on a whistle-stop tour of Bristol to see our friends at Calibro and Burges Salmon to find out what CSR meant to them and document their progress in becoming the best citizens they can be.
Creating a toolkit that allows the client to produce their own slick videos
Overview
Meet Thrio. From voice to chat to email, bots and beyond, Thrio’s cloud-based, AI-powered tech helps take the customer experience to a whole new level.
This film was the brand’s first foray into the world of motion design, and we wanted to showcase it simply but powerfully – conveying how Thrio’s offering enables seamless interaction using a calm and collected visual style, communicating clarity in a noisy market.
We developed a graceful motion language to complement their new brand. We conveyed a sense of measured confidence, showing how Thrio’s all-under-one-roof solution simplifies the complex by avoiding the use of multiple vendors. This was elevated with delicate sound design, adding timbre to Thrio’s message in a confident but considered voice.
But this wasn’t their only step into the world of motion. Using the style of the brand film as a guide, we’ve since worked on multiple video projects with Thrio, including a video toolkit – a cost-effective tool that allows the client to produce their own slick branded and social media videos.
Watch the Trelleborg Capital Markets Day video here.
Illustrating highly technical processes… without overcomplicating them
Overview
Trelleborg is an engineering company specialising in polymer solutions that seal, damp and protect. From smart anti-slip mattress covers to trenchless pipe lining, it was our job to create several animations, displaying how various Trelleborg engineering solutions work – all in time for their annual Capital Markets Day.
Trelleborg’s products are often hidden within industrial equipment and machinery, so we needed to deconstruct them to showcase each in action.
Because these animations were to be presented at an event, it was vital to ensure the design and animation was effective and easy to follow. It was a great opportunity to explain and illustrate highly technical processes without overcomplicating them, with clear supporting copy.
Delivered
Five technical animations
Result
The project began with two animations to cover a couple of products, Trelleborg were so happy with the results that the final project was extended to five.
…And that’s just the beginning.
Our team of videographers, animators, motion designers and scriptwriters have been making award-winning, show-stopping video for decades.
We believe each of our clients has something really important to say – from tech behemoths and multi-national market leaders, right down to local, grassroots charities. Whatever story you want to tell, we’ll help you share it with the world. Talk to Proctors today.
At the end of last year, Open AI released ChatGPT, a first-of-its-kind machine learning chatbot. The revolutionary chatbot experienced explosive growth, reaching 1 million users in just 5 days.
In January we posted our blog “How ChatGPT will impact search marketing”, here we explored some possible use cases for ChatGPT across the four core teams at Varn. We also wrote about some of the potential limitations of the technology. Over a month on, we have now had some time to experience using ChatGPT to aid in our SEO work.
As a team at Varn, we have identified three key use cases where we have seen the most value in using ChatGPT.
1: Writing Regex with Chat GPT:
No matter if you love Regular Expressions or are terrified of them, this tip will help all of you!
Regular Expressions (Regex) can expand the possibilities of important SEO tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog and more. For example, we recently wanted to filter out all the URLs in Screaming Frog so that only those containing a query string would display. This is exactly where we would want to reach for a regular expression.
However, with all the rules and complexities, writing Regex is very difficult. Even using documentation, writing a simple regex string can be incredibly time-consuming. This is where AI tools like chat GPT can come in extremely handy. Because AI has an understanding of what a user is asking, and can use this to write the Regex for us.
Here is an example chat log with chat GPT:
As you can see, we simply asked the chatbot (in plain English) how we would like to sort our URLs. Within seconds it gave us the working regex code, along with a handy description of how it works. By copying and pasting this regex into the Screaming Frog filter, we were able to sort URLs so that only those containing query strings were showing.
The true power of this feature comes from its flexibility. As SEO professionals, we could easily be presented with any number of pages or queries that we may need to filter down. But with the analytical abilities of AI, we can convert any written command into a working regular expression in seconds.
This use case has improved the way we use Regex at Varn, but it does come with limitations. ChatGPT will always try to do the best job with the prompt you have provided, but it will rarely ask for more information if it feels your query is inadequate. This means that when writing your prompts for ChatGPT you should always be as specific as possible, leaving no room for a different interpretation.
Additionally, you should be very careful to not just copy and paste this code if it’s being used for something important, like a client-facing Looker Studio filter. Instead, you should use a tool like regex101.com to test the regular expression against any unusual edge cases it may encounter.
2: Planning Blog Ideas:
One of the most challenging parts of writing SEO-friendly blogs is coming up with an engaging idea. But Chat GPT can help!
Chat GPT is extremely versatile, and it is also able to assist with more creative processes, as well as technical tasks such as writing Regex.
Blogs can be a great way to improve the Search Engine ranking of a site. They also provide value to visitors which helps to keep them engaged. However, we will often find ourselves racking our brains for a blog idea that is both engaging to a user and will also tick all the boxes for SEO.
Here is an example of where we have used Chat GPT to assist in the ideation of new blogs on the Varn website.
Here you can see that as a result of our request, we have been provided with a bulleted list of ideas for potential blogs on the Varn site. It is important to remember to give a very descriptive prompt for chat GPT – In this example, we found that we needed to specifically state that we wanted the answers in a bulleted list. Otherwise, we were presented with completed blogs, rather than blog ideas. We also provided a list of keywords that we could potentially use, but needed to make it clear that using these keywords was optional. Otherwise, GPT would just cram as many keywords as possible into each bullet point. This extreme level of specificity is vital if you want to unlock the true power of chat GPT.
There are a range of ideas in this list of potential blog posts (some of which are better than others), but overall this list could be a valuable resource when coming up with new blog topics. For example, the 8th blog in the list brings up an interesting idea about deciding when to reach for PPC or SEO for your web promotion. There are some ideas in this list that are too broad, or which lack a certain context, but overall there are many good prompts that you could use when creating a future post; They may just need some work to progress them into a workable blog title.
3: Writing Metadata and Headings:
Writing Metadata and headings with SEO in mind can be time-consuming, but Chat GPT can help streamline this process.
In the previous section, we showed how we have been using chat GPT to assist in generating blog ideas. However, we can also use Chat GPT to create content for these blogs.
Here is an example of how you can generate metadata and headings using Chat GPT.
Once again within this section, we found it was very important to be hyper-specific with our prompts to Chat GPT, even going so far as to state the desired length of the metadata we wanted. The results are very interesting, the meta and headings are all well related to the blog topic we gave, and they do a good job of including keywords we might want to optimise for. In addition to this, the content reads well and tells a good story of what kind of content the rest of the blog might include.
Despite the fantastic quality of this AI-generated content, there are some problems. Firstly, the metadata actually exceeded the character limit we provided, this is because GPT cannot directly count the number of characters it is generating. For this reason, the character counts are often not what we asked for, even if it’s usually not off by much.
The biggest limitation preventing us from using Chat GPT to generate content like this is the risk of search engines picking up on our use of AI-generated content. Historically, Google has explicitly given guidance to avoid the use of “automatically generated content”, and this is what makes us so cautious about using AI-generated content on websites.
However, over the past year, Google has been slowly changing their guidance on AI content to appear more in favour of its use. Last month, the company properly clarified their stance on AI-generated content, essentially saying that it doesn’t matter how the content is produced, it will be judged based on the content’s quality. This suggests that AI content could be usable in SEO, provided it is user-friendly and meets the E-E-A-T guidelines set out by Google. Despite this statement by Google, we still tend to air on the side of caution and remember that AI-generated content is not perfect. It is also important to remember that as SEO experts, we have a fully formed understanding of the specifics and will be able to produce higher-quality content than a chat bot. For this reason, we tend to use AI generation as a tool to help inform our own content and will never copy and paste anything directly from Chat GPT.
Going forward…
So far chat GPT has had an extremely positive impact on our SEO work at Varn. It has allowed us to speed up some tedious technical tasks and allows us to put more time into other areas of our work. Even now, we still believe we could find other uses of the technology to better improve our workflow, and we are excited to explore these possibilities.
However, we also believe that it is best to think of Chat GPT as an (albeit very powerful) tool in our toolbox, not a superpower that will do all of our work for us. This means it is still important to have a good understanding of the task you are trying to accomplish, so that you can review the quality of the response and provide Chat GPT with accurate information and context.
Do you know what “user experience” means? It’s a term that’s frequently used in the context of web design, and for many good reasons. A user’s first impression of your company can make or break their perception after they visit your website. The navigation of the website is another crucial component of the user experience. Learn more about the significance of navigation in web design and what to look for in a web design firm that prioritises strong navigation by reading on.
What does web design navigation entail?
The term “navigation” describes how a user navigates a website. It has buttons, menus, and links that users may utilise to access the site’s various pages and functions. The navigation of a website functions essentially as a map for users.
Why Is Proper Navigation So Critical?
As you will see in the reasons listed below, navigation should be given priority in web design:
1. Enhancing user experience
The user experience is important when it comes to web design, as was already established. A professional web development company is aware that effective navigation enables people to quickly access the information they are looking for on a website. If a user is unable to find what they need on your website quickly and easily, they are likely to leave the site and never return to it. On the other hand, users are more likely to interact with the website and perhaps even make a purchase when they encounter smart, user-friendly navigation.
2. Improve SEO
While selecting a web development agency in the UK, search engine optimisation (SEO), which is the process of optimising a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), should always be given top consideration. Since search engines utilise it to scan and index the site’s pages, effective navigation is essential for SEO. The navigation of a website can make it difficult for search engines to comprehend the site’s structure when it is disorganised or unclear. The ranking of the website may suffer as a result.
3. Enhance Accessibility
Accessibility should be taken into account while creating websites. When a website provides clear navigation, people with disabilities—like those who use screen readers to navigate the site—will find it easier to use. Always work with a web design company that is aware of how well-organised and labelled websites are simpler for screen readers to traverse.
4. Decrease the Bounce Rate
The amount of visitors to your website that leave without interacting with it is referred to as the “bounce rate.” A high bounce rate frequently indicates that users are having problems accessing the website. Users can locate what they’re looking for more easily when the navigation is improved, which also boosts engagement and lowers the bounce rate.
5. Increase Conversion Rates
The basic objective of a website is to turn visitors into paying clients. By making it simpler for visitors to carry out desired actions, such filling out a contact form or finishing the checkout process, effective navigation can play a significant role in this.
A successful website must have effective navigation since it affects a number of variables, including user experience, accessibility, and SEO. It’s crucial to pick a web design company that prioritises and sets a high value on effective navigation.
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