Author: Mark Baines
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Passwords – don’t they drive you MAD?!
OK – so we have to have them, otherwise who knows what information would be leaked on to the www? But I feel there must be an easier way. I now have a number of passwords – for business stuff, personal stuff and financial stuff – but over the years there’s been a bit of…
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Crowdsourcing: the new nirvana?
It’s been around for years, in one shape or another, but the proliferation of smart mobiles has really given crowdsourcing a boost. It’s massive around the world – especially in China and India – but even in the West it is becoming seen as a legitimate way to raise money, gain insight and achieve the…
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When to appoint an agency
Time was, you needed an agency to provide those marketing skills which your company lacked. Not so any more. Everyone’s a marketer now, partly because we’re all much more sophisticated in our understanding of brands and the drivers of marketing, and partly because many companies can survive and grow with just digital marketing – which is cheap…
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Is the QR code dead?
With global uptake of the QR reading app of only 10%, and usage only a fraction of that, you could be forgiven for ringing the death-knell of the QR code – which once was thought to herald a new age in marketing communications. But consider this: it’s actually on the increase in the US, and…
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Anarchy in social media
I was pleased to see that our industry conscience – and old clients – the CAP (Committee for Advertising Practice) have at last got round to publishing their tips on marketing via social media – they can be found at www.cap.org.uk Their ‘Rules of social engagement’ contain no great surprises. Basically user-generated content needs to…
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Serious about Search!
But is it all it is cracked up to be? We who live by the rules of Google Analytics – where every action is geared towards persuading the visitor to click the ‘buy’ button – find our lives dominated by minor tweaks to content and layout, subtle shifts in emphasis, content refinement and all the…
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Display advertising: there’s still life in the old dog yet!
Banner blindness… the downward price spiral of click-through rates… 23% of users with banner-blocking software, and growing at 43% pa… outdated technologies… untargeted impressions… In fact, you’d think that banner advertising was dead in the water. But actually it’s the opposite: 12.4% annual growth (IAB Research) in an industry already worth £1.3bn – now that’s…
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Seasonal trade – the annual Xmas nightmare
Love it or hate it, Christmas is the one time of the year that the whole economy depends upon consumption peaking. It’s not just the retailers, or the e-tailers; it’s the whole of British industry – we all depend on it in one way or another. Manufacturing, services, utilities, leisure and tourism, even financial services;…
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At last – a laptop you really can take anywhere!
Check out this beautiful baby – http://solaptop.com/en/ – no more excuses for being out of the office and unable to process your data. Tethered to your mobile, you really could take it anywhere. Mind you, it’s not not much use in rainy old England. Not only would it almost certainly fail, you’d probably ruin all…
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One to watch: Cisco adopts a new brand language
It’s really exciting to see what Cisco are up to with their brand: they’re talking about the ‘Internet of Everything’ and they want to be at the heart of it. They now have a ‘Director of Brand Experience’, and they’re transforming themselves from a networking company to being your most strategic IT partner. They have…