What do your customers really think?
The $64,000 question in these ever changing times is “What does my customer think?” Well we’ve been thinking about that too and are really proud to announce the launch of Better Communities, our private online community platform. Since it’s launch in December interest has been phenomenal and we’ve already signed Scottish Power Energy Networks, Northumbrian Water and Home Group with 4 further communities in the pipeline.

Better Communities (www.bettercommunities.co.uk) provides our clients with a powerful online private community platform through which they can develop a long term strategy of engagement and co-creation with their customers and internal / external stakeholders. Our communities are currently influencing strategic business decision making, marketing planning, insight discovery, innovation and driving new product and service design.

Developed in partnership with award winning market reseach company Explain, our communities uncover customer attitudes by providing a secure online community through which we can conduct qualitative and quantitative market research. We strive for and discover actionable insight that our clients use to develop closer relationships with their customers, using techniques and online applications that harness the power of the community.

It’s awards time again, and we’re on the shortlist.
We’ve been shortlisted for ‘Newcomer of the Year’ and ‘Services’ award at the NE Business Awards, oh yeah!

It’s been a huge year for Better; we’ve grown our business, the team, the portfolio of clients we work with, and developed our first digital product that we launched at the start of the year (as above). When we submitted the award applications we’d considered the criteria for the awards carefully and reflected on our business. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, and with help and support we’ve built a business on strong creative, our imagination and financial management. It’s testament to the whole team, who have contributed to getting us here and this was recognised by us winning the Internet and ICT Award last year. We also recently announcement that we’ve been shortlisted in the Tees Valley Best New Business awards to be announced later this month.

We already think we’re winners just for being shortlisted so we look forward to celebrating with the other shortlisted businesses at the event in March.

Better investment in local talent.
Growing the team isn’t something we take lightly. Getting the mix right is vitally important to the buzz in the studio. So we’re delighted to welcome Ryan to the team, who recently graduated from Teesside University with a first class honours degree in Graphic Design. After leaving University Ryan enrolled on the Graduate Internship Programme and was offered an initial 10 week placement with Better, and we just couldn’t let him go.

Ryan is working alongside Peter, our Creative Director, on brand, creative and print design projects and in that respect he’s already making an impact. Ryan joins a team that has grown from the original 3 founders in 2008, to a powerful mix of 8 individuals specialising in digital and creative.

Better sponsor the EXPOTEES 2011.
EXPOTEES 2011 is in its sixth year and is the annual showcase of students’ projects which demonstrate innovation, research and development in a wide range of computing subjects – from advanced computer technology to those centred on entertainment. We’ve sponsored the Web Design and Development award and are looking forward to seeing the students work showcased. As always we’re looking forward to getting further involved with Teesside University and the exciting projects that are happening on campus. Find out more about EXPO Tees on Teesside University website.

We’d also like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.

Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

TADEA
We’ve been busy supporting the marketing team at TADEA who have appointed us to help develop their brand and marketing materials. A leading North of England, not-for-profit, carbon reduction advice company – TADEA assists homes, businesses and communities to find cost effective solutions in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable transport. TADEA also offer contract management and environmental project consultancy. TADEA has grown significantly since launching in 2002 and with a new markets opening up to them felt their brand needed to reflect the new strategic direction of the business. The brand project has been a totally inclusive process, involving people from across the business in helping to identify what differentiates TADEA within the market place.

Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI)
We’re very proud to have been selected by The IDI to redesign and redevelop the organisation’s website. Located on the campus of the University of Teesside, the IDI brings together business and postgraduate research to develop intellectual property, foster commercial opportunities, and create a strong creative industry and digital technology cluster in the UK. The new website, and development of the IDI’s social media channels, will support The IDI to build on the success of internationally recognised work in digital application and content development including animation, computer games, digital film and sound, visualisation, and virtual reality.

Sheena Douglass
We’ve been working with Sheena and her team to redesign and redevelop Sheen’a official new website, www.sheena.tv and support the development of Sheena’s digital footprint. If you’re looking for some papercrafting inspiration, it’s the place to go. The website includes Sheena’s blog (with a vibrant community of followers), latest news on TV shows, new products and more. Through the website, fans can get inspired by Sheena’s video projects and image galleries, or visit her online shop where you can buy all of her latest products, plus the essentials which no crafter should be without! While presenting regular TV shows on Create & Craft and Ideal World, Sheena still finds time for making cards, rubber stamps and papercrafting.

Anabas
By the time you receive this the studio will have taken delivery of a shiny new brochure for our client Anabas, one of the UK’s leading Facilities Management providers. We first starting working with the team at Anabas over a year ago and the relationship has gone from strength to strength since then. In this time we have worked on various projects including design and production of a bespoke direct mail, corporate stationary, design and development of a corporate blog, development of concise brand guidelines and even the production of branded chocolate coins! We are really excited to be working alongside them on their new corporate brochure which our Creative Director, Peter, has lavished with some amazing print stocks and treatments. We cant wait to show you the results which pictures posted on our new website soon.

From the Blog

We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence.

That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

Two heads are better than one?
In an age of coalition Government, the ‘Big Society’ agenda and focus on the entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration is emerging as an integral theme across all areas of society and industry. With the global economy tightening as never before, collaboration between businesses is absolutely vital for growth as well as profitability. So why should businesses collaborate? What are the personal skills and attributes required? How do you go about finding a partner to collaborate with? And once you have found that partner, how do you form an effective and mutually beneficial way of working together? Service Network’s event ‘Friend or Foe? Not going it alone’ on the 17th March will help to answer these questions. Find out more…>>

Out and about.

Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
We’ve been busy since the start of the year with events being attended by just about the entire team. Paul and I have been to number of Entrepreneurs Forum the highlight being the Sir Jackie Stewart event a few weeks ago. Ian and Simon went to the New Adventures in Design conference in Nottingham, and Ian also spent a mind blowing day at the UK Scale Camp event in London. Declan and Sam meanwhile attended the Agile Project Management event delivered by the Codeworks DEV team held at the Centre for Life. Declan also bought his ticket for Thinking Digital 2011 and it would be fair to say he’s been walking around with a smile on his face ever since.

From left field (but it shouldn’t be).

T-SHIRT WAR!!…a stop-motion music video. The makers of the video, Rhett&Link, changed shirts over 100 times each, taking individual pictures of each unique shirt. The designs on the shirts are not photoshopped. They are real shirts for each frame of animation. Watch it on our YouTube channel here.

From our YouTube Channel.

One of my personal favourites. New York invaded by 8-bit creatures! PIXELS is Patrick Jean’s latest short film, shot on location in New York.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou8vRWTSsJo

From our Flickr Channel.

We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent goings on in the world of Better.
Take a look at some recent photos of Life in the Better Studio, the Entrepreneurs Forum Jackie Stewart event and the visit from the NE Business awards film crew.

Follow us on Twitter.

Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

1. We called our company ‘Better’ to be both a challenge to us (to continually improve) and also to highlight the needs of our clients to have a better brand, marketing strategy, digital and social media presence.

2. We’ve talked to approximately 1500 business leaders in the past two years about the strategic implementation of social media within their businesses.

3. We’re keen supporters of charity and don’t mind making fools out of ourselves for a good cause. We’ve been honored to be part of the team that organise the North East Twestival which is an annual global gathering of Twitter users for fun, drinks and raising money. Twestivals are ran on the same day in over 100 cities across the globe for the last two years which has helped local and international charities. Mark Easby and Declan Metcalfe are also currently raising money by growing their mustaches for Movember. The funds raised through Movember’s UK campaign benefit the The Prostate Cancer Charity (TPCC), the UK’s leading prostate cancer charity. The money raised is channelled by their men’s health partner into a number of world class and innovative education, support, research and awareness initiatives.

4. We won a digital award for a social media campaign in our first year in business and was both a winner and finalist at last years North East Business Awards. We’ve also just been shortlisted for the Best New Business Awards. Recognition from the North East business community is important to us but the people we work with (clients and the team) is what drives us forward.

5. Amongst the owners of the company, one of us has been a life guard, one of us has been a tank driver/gunner in the Army, one of us invented a product at University and one of us climbs mountains for fun.

6. We’re just about to launch a social media product that has been developed with a partner company in the North East. We’ve already had some serious interest from national companies in varying industry sectors.

7. We work with a number of enterprise and educational organisations in our local area to help raise awareness of the creative industry to young people, raise their aspirations, and pass on our experiences in the hope they see they have opportunities too.

8. We have clients in the public sector and private sector, both nationally and local. We’ve over 50 years of accumulated experience in the company so we’ve been able to work with clients in all business sectors and with companies of all sizes.

9. We’ve recently moved into bigger offices to accommodate our growing team. We’re based in the Springboard Centre in Stokesley which is an environmentally sound building that harvests rainfall, solar gain and sensory ambient temperature control that means we have a very small carbon footprint. We don’t understand the technology but it makes us feel good knowing we don’t impact the planet too much!

10. Mark and Declan have only played 3 rounds of golf between them this year but have managed to lose over 15 golf balls.

If you would like to get us know us better, or have some golf balls to donate to Mark and Declan then just give us a call on 08451 222611.

Find out more about Better and the team by joining us on the following social media channels:

twitter: http://twitter.com/Better_Studio
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/betterbrandagency
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/betterbrandagency

Things are hotting up, and I don’t just mean the weather.
What a blur of activity the last couple of months have been.

We’ve attended some great events and recent conferences, and we’ve welcomed new clients on board that we’re really excited about. We’ve also been continually impressed by the commitment that our existing clients show to their customers, which we support them with through their brand and marketing activity.

Investing time and resource in new product development (NPD) was always part of our long term strategy, and this has already started to reward our efforts. Our new digital product (currently in development) is on target for our scheduled release date and we’re already having some exciting conversations with prospective clients in the B2C and B2B sector who want it as part of their brand/marketing tool box. Over the coming months we’ll be getting set for launch and I’ll be in a position to talk to you more about it.

Part of the investment in our digital product has been to recruit a new member of the team who has headed up the development. Ian Chilton, who brings to Better a decade of digital experience, has taken overall responsibility for our digital project management and is a fundamental driving force behind our NPD. Having Ian join our team is indicative of our growth over the last 18 months. He joins Senior Web Developer, Simon Scarfe to create a skilled digital team capable of delivering fantastic results for our clients and positioning Better for further growth.

We’d also like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.

Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

Contemporary Hair Salons.
The team at Contemporary have appointed us to help them develop their brand and deliver a new marketing and social media strategy for the salons and hair academy. We’ve been busy helping them make the most of the opportunity for using social media to connect with their audience and putting in place the channels to power the conversation. This includes an new website for the Hair Academy.

Five Lamps.
Five Lamps is one of the largest community led social enterprises in the North East. We’re so pleased to have won the pitch to help re-develop their corporate website and the supporting development of the organisation’s digital footprint. The new website (coming soon!) will help their diverse audiences find information faster and gain an insight into the organisation via their social media channels, presenting them with a great opportunity to engage with their community.

Jacksons Law Firm.
Jacksons Law, one of the regions major law firms has appointed Better to develop a social media strategy for the business. Law firms have traditionally held back from this kind of marketing engagement but Jacksons see the relevance social media has for it’s clients and believe it provides a perfect opportunity to open the door on what a law firms do apart from represent their clients, offering advice across a wider spectrum of business and personal requirements.

Quay2 Media.
Quay2 Media is a PR agency with a difference. Owned by Christian Cerisola and Antonia Clifford, Quay2 Media excels in public relations, media relations and crisis management. We’re proud to have been chosen by the Quay2 team to deliver the design and development of their new website.

Lead and Transform.
The inspirational Alison Freer and Colin Ashurst are working with us to develop the brand and online presence that will support the launch of their new business. Lead and Transform deliver development, education and consulting specifically for IT leaders, IT professionals and senior business people who want to get more from their IT investments.

Above and Beyond…
Going the extra mile for your client is something we’re all prepared to do but I want to mention Paul’s two day round trip to Aberdeen to support one of our clients who needed a fresh supply of promotional materials for an international expo. Putting in a full day in the office and then jumping on a train (One of four over the two days) at 7pm, an overnight stay in Edinburgh and then a dawn start to ensure the client had them on time showed real commitment. He even spent the day on the stand with the client helping out before setting off home (which he finally arrived at 11pm).

Being part of your team is better…
Working long term with our clients brings huge benefits. We get closer to the culture within our client’s company which makes our work intrinsically better and the client ensures there is no delay in generating their day to day marketing communication. MPI Offshore, Anabas, Artsbank, Chapters Hotel and The House work with us regularly.

From the Blog.

We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence.
That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

Be a Storyteller Brand (written by Declan, our Marketing Director).
I recently enjoyed a two day storytelling seminar given by Robert Mckee, the legendary story doctor who has worked with luminaries of the movie industry for more than 3 decades. Stories are art, crafted to take the reader on a journey designed by the author to deliver a meaningful emotional experience. This seminar, and I recommend you seek out one of Robert’s London seminars if you have the chance, provided me with a rich learning experience that helps me in my desire to understand better the correlation between our emotions and values and the brands we buy.

Out and about.

Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
Declan and myself had high expectations for Thinking Digital Conference this year and we weren’t disappointed. Highlights included the Robert Mckee Storyteller course prior to the conference starting and speakers like Christian Payne, Luis Von Ahn, Tom Scott and the inspirational Ken Banks.

I’ve been fortunate to have spoken at the Teesside University Business School Debates (amongst others), and was proud to represent the team at the Service Network Culture for Success Awards which was a great evening. I’m also looking forward to Middlesbrough’s first business conference on 1st July and speaking at both the Institute of Directors Tees Valley meeting and Business For Breakfast meeting next month.

From left field (but it shouldn’t be).

Jonathan Harris. An old favourite of ours since his presentation at the first Thinking Digital conference.
Particular favourites from his online projects include The Whale Hunt and We Feel Fine. Take a look at www.number27.org

Social Media updates.

From our Flickr Channel.
We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent goings on in the world of Better.
Check out some of the photos of the recent Thinking Digital 2010 Conference at the Sage Gateshead. www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency

From our YouTube Channel.
Some great new videos from a friend of ours, Alastair Griffin. www.youtube.com/betterbrandagency

Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

Become our friend on Facebook.
Better Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/betterbrandagency

Is it March already? Well January and February didn’t hang around did they! A very belated Happy New Year to you, I hope your year has gotten off to a great start and ahead of you are rewarding months and new experiences.

At Better we’ve just finished our first year end and it’s been a great ride so far.

We’re pleased, and very proud, to announce we’ve been shortlisted for the ‘ICT and Internet Award’ in the North East Business Awards. We got the call last week from the sponsors of the category to give us the good news and we’ve had visits this week from the judging panel and a camera man who called in to film some of the goings on in the studio (some photos are on our Flickr Photostream ). We’re now all excited and looking forward to the Awards Dinner on 25th March at Teesside University. The winning companies from each of the sub-regional heats will go through to the Regional Final of the nebusiness awards which will be held at Hardwick Hall Hotel on Thursday, 29 April 2010.

We can only put this down to a great team working incredibly hard for some great clients, so we will look to develop both areas in the year ahead. To that end we will be adding to the team shortly (More on that soon) and have finalised the brand and business development strategy that will help us capitalise on the momentum that is building up behind the business. We’ll be supporting the core business with some product development which we’re really excited about. Obviously we can’t say much about it right now, but the opportunity is huge and we’ve partnered with some really cool people who will help us make it happen. Watch this space.

Next month I’ve been roped into taking on the swim of my life and have entered Swimathon 2010, the world’s biggest fundraising swim. I’m part of a team called the ‘Twimmers‘ (check out the photo of us with ‘The Hoff’) and the money that we raise will help Marie Curie Cancer Care provide care and support to people with cancer and other terminal illnesses. The network of 2,000 Marie Curie Nurses work through the day and night to provide this care and every £20 I raise will pay for an hour’s nursing care.

If you would like to support me please just click on my personal donation page on the official swimathon website and make a secure online donation using your credit or debit card. It’s really that simple. Thank you for your support.

We also want to put out an early shout out for TyneTwestival, which will be soon upon us (7pm on the 25th march in fact!). Northern Film & Media are the headline sponsors this year and all money raised will go to Concern who are doing unbelievable work tackling poverty across the globe so we’re very proud to be involved in supporting the event. Please follow @tynetwestival for regular updates and news of what they’re planning and of course do join in, be part of it.

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We’d also like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.
Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

ArtsBank
Having met the guys who are making ArtsBank a reality (a serious gallery selling local, national and international art works both in their gallery and online) we really wanted to contribute towards something that is so clearly going to be important to the local community and a new platform for Artists in the North East. We’ve worked with the team to channel their vision into a cohesive brand and are currently working on the eCommerce website due to be launched when the gallery opens in the spring.

Entrepreneurs’ Forum
So here’s how it went down. We were talking to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum conference team about the upcoming Youth Summit. We’d decided on the title ‘Use your Loaf ‘ and somewhere during the buzz that happens when you throw ideas around (and I hold my hand up to this) I suggested wouldn’t it be a good idea to produce actual toast, with the conference brand toasted onto it, and mail it to 250 headteachers across the North East. A great idea yes, we just needed to think of how we were going to produce it. Well we did deliver it (Have a look here ). We’ve supported the direct mail with a website and conference literature and really enjoyed the whole process of working with a great team who are incredibly committed to producing high value conferences.

Social Media Training & Consultancy
It’s not surprising so many companies both in the public and private sector are investing in social media. What we’re really pleased about is they are not blindly walking into it but exploring how social media can help them support their communities and deliver their marketing strategy effectively online. We’ve been working closely with clients such as The Youth Hostel Association, Chapters Hotel & Restaurant, Teesside University, Darlington College, Teesside Hospice, and the author Philippa Gregory amongst others to help them develop an effective digital strategy for their individual audiences, and passed on our experience to enable them to take their strategy forward themselves. We’ve also been delivering some ‘Introduction to Social Media’ workshops across the North for organisations including North East Property Forum , Newcastle University Business School, Entrepreneurs Forum, North West Network and Grow, NEPIC, and CIM as well as speaking at Marketing:TheArtOf and Codeworks ‘Think and a Drink’ events.

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From the Blog
We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence.
That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

Social Media Burnout
I’m an average kinda guy. I have social network profiles on Twitter (x2), Facebook, LinkedIn (Including four groups), Flickr, Slideshare and Friends Reunited. I have my own blog and contribute to a company blog. I Subscribe to, and read regularly, eighteen blogs through my reader. Thats a total of 31 connections with different social networks and contacts. Read full blog post here…

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Out and about.
Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
Well it feels like the event season has got underway and the entire team has enjoyed some great evenings and daytime seminars around the region. a:design have set the bar high (Ilsa Parry winner of the BBC’s Design for Life competition with Philippe Starck last year is a point in case) and the big events being organised by CIM (Your Marketing Show) and the Business Link (Business to Business Exchange) were around in early March and of course Twestival will keep us busy too (more on that a little further down). All told the events on the horizon are looking great and we look forward to catching up with some of you along the way. I’m also looking forward to delivering some social media workshps across the North including ‘Twit or Tweet’ event as part of the Blue Sky Enterprise and North West Network and Grow events.

Tyne Twestival
Tyne Twestival means to provide real value for attendees and as big a return as possible to Concern to help them tackle poverty through children’s educations. We’re looking for Mystery Boxes with a minimum value of £150 to ensure we raise as much money through raffle tickets as is humanly possible on the night. Micro Mystery boxes of at least £50 are welcome but when you think that one additional year of primary education for girls (Which the price of a Mystery Box could pay for) can increase the life time earnings potential by 10%-20% it puts it into sharp perspective. Please contact the @TyneTwestival team on Twitter or me directly if you can help.

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From left field (but it shouldn’t be).
Take a look into Bob’s office at Web Hosting company Hostway. Looks like a fun place to be. Check out the wrestler post guy in the rear view mirror plus take a peak in the bottom draw for the knights jousting and post it decorators video. http://www.hostway.com/bobscube

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From our Flickr Channel.
We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent goings on in the world of Better.
We’ve added some photos of our recent projects and activities including how we put together the Use Your Loaf direct mail campaign, my Round the Table experience , and some images from recent enterprise events from around the region. www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency

From our YouTube Channel.
The Entrepreneurs’ Forum was proud to announce its 2010 Youth Conference, Use Your Loaf, to be held at Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton Le Spring on March 10th. Check out the showreel featuring past youth conferences. www.youtube.com/betterbrandagency

Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

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Shortlisted for The Northern Marketing Awards
We’re delighted to be shortlisted for Best Digital Marketing Campaign alongside four other companies at the up coming Northern Marketing Awards. We know the other companies involved and in all honesty just being pitched alongside them is fantastic. They’re good businesses, with passionate people so we’ll be chuffed regardless of who wins. (Secretly we obviously want it badly! But you knew that didn’t you?)

Our Second trip abroad to pitch!
After a successful first trip, we’re going back to deliver “The Social Media Pitch Part Deux!” This week Paul and I are going back to talk about specifics and hopefully, our first two international clients will follow shortly after.

A shameless shout out for Declan
Dec has launched a new blog, ‘A Social Life’, which will focus on our interest in social brands, design, and businesses who have implemented successfully social strategies. We figure if we find the case studies that show you social brands in action, and contributing to their community, we can all learn from them. We’d like your feedback, both good and bad so please tell us what you think. Take a look at www.asociallife.co.uk.

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We’d also like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.
Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

Onyx Group
We’ve been busy supporting the marketing team at Onyx Group. We’ve developed a new brand for their new Onyx Cloud Computing service as well a campaign for the launch of their state-of-the-art data centre in Scotland. We’re now feeling part of their team and that means being on call when they need it, and pitching in with ideas to promote their business.

Northumbria University National Student Survey campaign
We’re pleased to be designing the campaign for Northumbria University’s National Student Survey campaign for the second year running. We’ve been challenged by the team to find a new angle to attract the attention of third year students who are needed to complete the National Student Survey. The previous two years were pinned on ‘Take the ticking survey!”, and though popular, the marketing team want to freshen the campaign and find new ways of motivating the student body to to take part.

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From the Blog
We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence.
That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

A Mandate for 2010
A recent post by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd in Harvard Business discussed how few socially connected organisations there are, indicating this will need to be redressed if companies are to be attractive to a future workforce that judges a potential employer by the social media freedom they allow their employees. Read the full blog post online here.

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Out and about.
Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
We love talking and we’ve proved this over the last few weeks as Dec and I have been busy buzzing around the region delivering seminars and talks. The Plunge enterprise event was great to be involved in again. There’s so much energy in the enterprising schools in Redcar and Cleveland, I feel confident I’ve met the next generation of entrepreneurs. I also had the opportunity to deliver a seminar on social media to an audience of SME’s in Wigan as part of the North West’s ‘Network and Grow‘ events. Dec has also been busy delivering social media presentations at Think and a Drink, The North East Property Forum and at Marketing: The Art Of, where he also sat on a panel to discuss the future of social media with the conference attendees. All told the events were well attended and generated some great discussions.

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From left field (but it shouldn’t be).
What’s not to like about these images? Storm Trooper toys living in the real world – Check them out here…

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From our Flickr Channel.
We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent goings on in the world of Better.
This month we’ve uploaded some pictures of the recent Marketing: The At Of and Think and a Drink events. www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency

From our YouTube Channel.
This month I took the Plunge to support students in Redcar and Cleveland College. Essentially a cross between The Apprentice and Dragons Den, ‘The Plunge’ is a business challenge over three days involving students aged 14-19 years at the College. The highlights video is now online. www.youtube.com/betterbrandagency

Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

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

Out and about.
Where we’ve been and where we’re going.

From left field (but it shouldn’t be).

From our Flickr Channel.

We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent going’s on in the world of Better.

From our YouTube Channel.

Follow us on Twitter.

Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

Best wishes,

Mark Easby
Managing Director
Better Brand Agency Ltd

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.

We’d also like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.
Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

Freshfayre
A national chilled food distributor has appointed Better to re-develop it’s website with a view to make more of their internet presence. The online catalogue will be linked to their CRM solution, and a first for a food distributor it will be the first website to feature nutritional information on all food listed in the produce catalogue. We’re looking forward to kicking this project off in the very near future.

SASDA
Sedgefield and Shildon Development Agency recently appointed Better to help reposition their brand. The Better team worked within the organisation to help them discover and define their unique voice and language, this was then applied across a new identity that will support the organisation’s robust development plans. Working with the management team has been enlightening as these guys are hugely passionate about helping people.

Mima
Better is currently working with the communications team at one of the regions best modern art spaces to develop and implement a social media strategy that will engage people with the building, exhibitions and events. Our first project will be to help them understand the opportunity for social media and help build a buzz around the Summer Arts Fair. We’re really excited about having the opportunity to work with the team and support them.

From the Blog
We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence.
That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

Living through a revolution.
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?
Continue Reading…

From left field (but it shouldn’t be).
www.dontclick.it An experiment in navigating and moving through content without clicking! Try it!

From our Flickr Channel.
We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent going’s on in the world of Better.
This month we’ve uploaded pictures of our recent visit to the Stockton International Riverside Festival. www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency

From our YouTube Channel.
The latest videos from Thinking Digital Conference 09 and proof that ‘Creativity Does Work’ from the Wicked Sick BMX Project. Check it out, you’ll never be the same. www.youtube.com/betterbrandagency

Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio. www.twitter.com/better_studio

LATE NEWS.
We were really pleased to be asked by Sky News to provide an expert opinion on the Michael Jackson brand. Unfortunately, they didn’t notice our Stokesley address, they thought we were London based and realised we couldn’t get there in time. Still it’s good to know that we can be found ranked 4th on a Google global search for Brand Agency. “The power of organic SEO”, some hard work, knowing your subject and a little bit of know how.

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If We Can You Can Challenge. ‘The Winners’.
Sadly Mark didn’t win (Congrats BTW to Craig Smith, Ian Smith, Esther Dingley, Steven Smith, Ray Liddle, Louise Bell, Rob Earnshaw and Ralph Thompson) but a keenly contested challenge gave us a lot of valuable coverage and goes to show that just taking part in the challenge can help a young business raise it’s profile. A lot of friends, clients and peers took the time to support us so here’s a big shout out to all the good good people who took the time to vote for us. Just being in the company of such dynamic businesses makes us feel we’re doing the right things and people see us as a company worth following.

CIM Event 16th September 2009:
Facing the future – Is there space for social networks in your business?
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, delivered by our very own Declan, 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.

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We’d like to say a warm welcome to some nice new clients.
Please look out for them, they’re great businesses and organisations led by good people.

Northern Defence Industries (NDI) – Probably one the most memorable pitches we’ve ever been too. A power cut in the building gave us a break in the proceedings but we are delighted to have been appointed by Robin and the team after a three way pitch to deliver a new website for them. We’re enjoying working with the guys there and look forward to launching the new site in September.

Teesside University Student Union – The award winning Student Union has chosen Better to help them develop the Student Union brand. With over half the Better team having first hand knowledge of what the SU means to Students at Teesside University we’re really looking forward to working with the team and creating a new identity.

MPI Offshore – We’re really happy to be working with Paul and the team on their website and brochure. We love working with engineers, they hit every deadline and like solid project management which is absolutely fine with us. The website is in the studio and due to go live this month.

Thursday Fizz and Marketing: The Art Of launch – We’ve been happy to lend a hand with a new identity for Thursday Fizz where incidentally Business Link launched Marketing: The Art Of conference (Lots of buzz about this already on Twitter #mtao) We’re supporting Benchmark Communications social media strategy for the conference so check it out.

Philippa Gregory – Celebrated author of The Other Boleyn Girl has appointed Better to re-develop her website in time for the launch of much anticipated novel The White Queen.

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From the Blog.
We’d rather contribute to the conversation than sit on the fence. 
That means poking your head up above the parapet to get shot at. We have opinions and ideas we’d like to share so here’s one of our most recent blog posts.

100% pure filtered brand messages!
One of the greatest challenges we face as marketers is to build and maintain strong brands. Thankfully our tool chests are brimming with tools to help us carve out rich seams of knowledge and understanding relating to our audience that feeds our strategic thinking. That’s not all, add to this the torrent of real time feedback being generated across social media spaces about our products and some would say we’ve never had it so good. How could we fail to build strong brands? Read full blog post…

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From left field.
(But it shouldn’t be).

Do The Green Thing (www.dothegreenthing.com) is a public service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on seven things you can do – and enjoy doing. Join people from 199 countries doing their green things and making a difference. We met the inspirational co-founder Andy Hobsbawm at Shift Happens in York yesterday. Please check this out. Be entertained by what you see there and inspired to add your own story. Talking of entertainment check this short movie about roads signs and a walk we think it’s brilliant. www.dothegreenthing.com/content/gusty_and_ford

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From our Flickr Channel.
We’ve updated our Flickr channel with pictures from some of the recent going’s on in the world of Better.

Yarm Gala took place on a warm Sunday afternoon and included a couple of the Better team manning a station in the Bridge Street Gentleman’s Club Bell boat for the afternoons race. The team didn’t win but a great day by the river was had by all.
http://www.flickr.com/betterbrandagency

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From our YouTube Channel.
On our YouTube channel recent additions include what we think is going to become a Better obsession, we give your the international sport of ‘Speed Stacking’. Check it out, you’ll never be the same.
http://www.youtube.com/betterbrandgency

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Follow us on Twitter.
Keep up to date with the day to day goings on in the Better studio.
http://twitter.com/better_studio