As featured on the Network News from Service Network….

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. (more…)

My latest shout out about what’s buzzing in the Better studio.

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. (more…)

Award-winning brand agency, Better has appointed Ian Chilton as its new Head of Digital.

Ian brings to Better a decade of digital experience, the majority with e-commerce specialists Visualsoft.

Ian will work closely with Better’s customers on their web projects taking overall responsibility for digital project management, managing resource, project specification, customer support, liaison and training.

Ian says: “This is a brilliant opportunity to join a growing agency and help guide its digital output and strategy to help it compete on a national level. As Head of Digital, I’ll be heavily involved in the planning and delivery of digital strategies for both existing and new clients, bringing to the table my understanding of a complex digital landscape that is constantly evolving.” (more…)

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

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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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…)

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…)

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

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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. (more…)

We’ve looked long and hard for the right person to be the cornerstone on which we build our web development offer. Our criteria was pretty big. We wanted someone who had buckets of big agency experience, who had spent a considerable amount of time working through the product development cycle at the very highest level and who could shape how we offer web development to our clients.   (more…)

A FAILED management buy-out has led to the creation of a new brand agency in Stokesley, Tees Valley.

Mark Easby, Declan Metcalfe and Peter Jones established Better Brand Agency after the trio’s bid to buy out their former employer, Middlesbrough agency Calm Asylum, foundered.

The new company, which launched in September specialising in brand, marketing and digital services, is now looking to employ extra staff with a view to achieving revenues of around £500,000 in two years.

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At Better Brand Agency, we like taking photos. We’re developing quite a library of photos and wanted to start sharing them so we’ve launched our own Flickr Photostream.

Check out our latest photostream updates including our Better Client Work Collection, Better Team Collection, Tees Valley & North East Collection, plus some of our own favourite personal photos.

We’ve also built in a clever little Flickr plugin into the bottom of our website and our facebook page showing our latest photostream updates to share the wealth.

If you would like further information about any of the photos featured in our photostream, please contact the Better team.

Better Brand Agency a brand agency offering brand, graphic design, marketing, social media and social networking, web and digital services based in Tees Valley, North East and North Yorkshire.