Web and Digital

Business2Business Exhibition – WEDNESDAY 14 OCTOBER 2009 (10am – 4pm)

Date:

06/10/2009

The exhibition aims to promote, inspire and connect innovative people in Stokesley, Durham and the Tees Valley. Please come along to this FREE event and see what the area offers in the way of diverse and innovative companies.

FREE seminars FREE buffet lunch from 12.30 pm. Open to members of the public and businesses. Register your interest today to attend one or both of the seminars. Lots of help and advice will be available. Parking available around the business park.
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TyneTees Twestival THIS MONDAY @ 7pm

Date:

11/09/2009

Hi all,

Just a reminder that Tyne Tees Twestival will be held this coming Monday.  The team here at Twestival Towers are really excited and have been a bit hectic of late, hence the direct mailing!  Thanks to everyone who has bought a ticket already, and I hope you will encourage others to do the same!

It’s on Monday at 7pm at Hoults Yard within the Boiler House – I just realized that I’ve been calling it the Boiler Room….oops!  The photo comes from PJ White’s Flickr account – worth a look! You’ll find a map on our blog page – thanks Google!

If you can not get a ticket before the event, send us a Tweet so we know you are coming along (and will buy more booze/food). You can donate on the door as Better Brand Agency will be manning it along with a big donation box.

So…the all important question – what does your £10 DONATION for each ticket get you?…
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Be Better Informed – August 09

Date:

13/08/2009

Our monthly shout out about what’s buzzing in the Better studio.

We’re all really pleased to introduce a new member of the Better team to you all. Say hello to Sam Larcombe, who has joined us as Account Manager. Sam will be keeping us slick and efficient as we grow as a business, ensuring we stay close to our clients. If you’re on Twitter please add her @abettersam.

In September we’re proud to be hosting the hottest event in the calendar if you’re a Twitter fan.
The Twestival is a global charity event being hosted in over 200 cites across the globe with the simple aim of having fun and raising money for local charities. This year the region will be hosting two events, TeesTwestival on Sept 10th and TyneTwestival on Sept 14th supporting Teesside Hospice and NECCR respectively. We’re looking for sponsors for either (Or both!) events so if you want to get your brand in front of techy cool crowd, and support a good cause get in touch.

If you’re on Twitter you really will need to be there. For exciting updates on plans as they develop follow them on @tynetwestival and @teestwestival and use the hash tag #TTWES. (more…)

TWESTIVAL IS BACK, AND TWICE AS BIG!

Date:

06/08/2009

As most of you have heard, Twestival is back and Better Brand Agency is happy to announce Tyne and Tees Twestivals will be taking place in early September.

Details of headline sponsor and corporate sponsors opportunities will be announced shortly, as will some of the ideas we’ve got to make this year, bigger and better. So keep an eye on the Twitter accounts @TyneTwestival and@TeesTwestival and local media for more news.

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Living through a revolution

Date:

28/07/2009

I read a piece recently by Clay Shirky, who in a blog post entitled ‘Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,’ reflected on the nature of revolutions. Periods of time when old ‘stuff’ was no longer relevant to us and new ‘stuff’ couldn’t come along fast enough to replace it. That feels like now doesn’t it?

The edges of our media space are expanding faster than our ability to make sense of them, of new technologies, of how people use them and of the shake out, that will mean some old media will fall by the wayside.

But this is an unravelling story seen from two very different perspectives. The user, swept along by the rush of the crowd to try new media, to make that media fit their lifestyle and the marketer, trying to position a brand where its’ target customer is. (more…)

PHP/MySQL Developer needed to join the Better team

Date:

08/07/2009

On the back of winning some exciting digital projects, the Better team is growing again. We are looking for a talented and exciting PHP/MySQL web developer to join us. You can have previous agency experience or be fresh out of Uni, as long as you meet the grade.

The web developer role requires demonstration technical ability but more importantly the passion required to forge a career in digital media that by its very nature requires continuous learning. You should have a love for all things web. You will see web projects as being not only design and functionality, but also understand the marketing and communication requirements for the project (including SEO). We are looking for a motivated self-learner, who finds code and problem solving interesting. (more…)

CIM Event: Facing the future – Is there space for social networks in your business?

Date:

12/06/2009

Is social media a flash in the pan?
Is it relevant to your business and should it be at the heart of your marketing strategy?
Or should we get a (second) life and stop the twitter?

As a marketing practitioner, you may feel that you need to be using social media, or simply want to keep abreast of developments in this area. This presentation will explain the explosion of social media; exploring winning case studies, when it goes wrong and outlining implementation strategies you can begin to adopt today.

You will leave inspired and armed with the knowledge to begin applying social media principles to your own business.

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'Grim up North'…not from where we're sitting

Date:

11/06/2009

In response to Sun Tech Mission 2009: it’s (still) grim up North

I find the article very disappointing. In the past 10 years that I have been involved in the digital industry and networking across the North East, things have changed dramatically. There’s a tangible buzz across both the public and private sectors about what’s going on here. Its difficult to know where to start.

We have seen organisations driven by the public sector such as Digital City, IDI, Codeworks, and Software City gather momentum and profile on a local, national and international stage helping to turn around such perceptions of the North East.

These organisations are helping to promote digital innovation and playing a key role in supporting enterprise and entrepreneurship. They are encouraging great ideas to become great businesses, while supporting existing digital companies, from animation to web technologies, to expand their networks, develop their skills and access new markets.

We’ve also seen the growth of groups such as Refresh Teesside, Super Mondays, and Thursday Fizz which  are proving successful at developing new communities and generating genuinely exciting conversations. These groups, spread across the region, are driven by passionate private sector businesses and individuals to create new industry networks, meet contacts (which often in the North East become friends), share ideas, and promote collaboration.

Other organisations such as the Entrepreneurs Forum with its IfWeCanYouCan Campaign (which i understand is unique to the North East), and the members involved in them, are fully committed to harnessing the buzz by supporting businesses and signposting them to the best advice, mentoring, investment networks and resources. To be honest from what we’ve seen, the results of this have been absolutely unquestionable.

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Forget the tools, think about the conversation

Date:

28/05/2009

Phew, it’s getting crowded in here!…New ways of connecting people are coming hard and fast with a handful of cool APIs a day being launched to connect to big social media networks and mobile devices as well as pure bred micro blogging tools (Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, Jaiku, My Say, Hictu) and the new rash of ‘Gauge your happiness tools’ (Moodmill, I Rate My Day and Emotionr). In fact tools are being developed to help us manage all our social media tools more efficiently! The buzz is tangible, in fact it’s overpowering.

I was at a social media master class a couple of weeks ago that was hosted by Stowe Boyd, the guy who coined the term ‘Social Tools’. It was a warm up session for attendees to the outstanding Thinking Digital Conference (Book for 2010 now!). As the session went on it was clear the focus in the room, with the exception of JP Rangaswami (Confused of Calcutta) who spoke passionately about people engaging with people, was on the relative merits of tools and new social media platforms being developed.

This left me pondering, ‘Are we too focused on tools?’… (more…)

Is this the end of focus groups?

Date:

29/04/2009

I was talking yesterday with an account manager who during a discussion about market research said that social media metrics would never replace the value gained from facial expressions, body language and the tone of voice of people attending a live focus group.

I’ve planned a few focus group sessions in the past when I was part of the team that re-branded Frisp Crisps and I have to say I remember them as being interesting and generating some useful feedback, particularly that the crisps were considered as being quite ‘foody’ and filling, more than a snack. That fed into the decision that new ‘foody’ such as Buttered Jacket Potato & Mature Cheddar would fit with our customers’ perception of the crisp brand.

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