The agency – set up in 2008 by Mark Easby, Declan Metcalfe and Peter Jones – won the Internet and ICT category at the nebusiness Awards which were sponsored by Business Link and The Evening Gazette.

The judges were looking for an innovative use of internet technology to improve business performance or boost competitiveness within the business.  Better were credited for using their website and social media to communicate with peers, potential customers and the wider region to develop a powerful digital footprint.

Beating off competition from companies across the Tees Valley, Better will now represent the region at the Regional Final which will be held at Hardwick Hall Hotel on Thursday 29th April 2010.

Managing Director, Mark Easby said: “We are delighted to win this prestigious award in only our first full year of business.  It is a testament to our team’s adoption of the latest technologies in both our own and our customer’s businesses and it is brilliant that we have been recognised for this.”

“Staying connected is important to us as individuals and as a business in today’s marketplace. We use social media tools extensively to keep in the regional digital loop, as well as informing our friends and audience of how our business is growing and developing its service offering. In a competitive marketplace differentiation is key. We believe in breaking down the corporate wall, being human and letting the personalities of the individuals in the company talk for us. Our digital footprint facilitates this.”

Within the first 18 months the agency has expanded to 7 staff and is proud to have established a client base which includes NDI, Freshfayre, Philippa Gregory, SASDA, Codeworks, Onyx Group, Teesside University, The Enterprise Team, MPI Offshore, and Northumbria University. The team also won Best Social Media Marketing Campaign at the 2008 North East Digital Awards.

For more information on all the finalists please visit nebusiness.co.uk.

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.

We speak to a number of people regularly (often this is at some of these great events) from digital companies in these networks including Visualsoft, THAP, Mango, AYO Media, Hedgehog Lab, Leighton Group and OrangeBus who are all, amongst others, developing enviable regional, national and in some cases, international reputations.

From both an individual and business point of view, the North East is a great place to be. For students and new graduates i feel that this is also true which seems to be backed up by this video (from Thinking Digital: The Next Generation) – http://www.vimeo.com/3878837 – i watched Paul Callaghan’s (Chairman of Leighton Group) speech at this excellent event, held in the lead up to Thinking Digital 09, and it was truly inspirational. I wish i could find the full video for this as it was first class when it came to fully justifying why the north east is the place to be for digital start up and support. I am also involved in a Codeworks project to increase critical private sector and University engagement to influence how students are prepared for the digital industry and ensure our graduates are some of the most exciting across the UK. Again, this is not a quick fix but a long term plan to build on the Universities growing reputations and continue to reverse the traditional graduate flow out of the North East.

For me, there are clear reasons why any start up or existing digital business would want to base itself in the North East.

Other responses include:
Looks like the Telegraph is taking over from Techcrunch – Sarat @ Hedgehog Lab
Reply to the Telegraphs Milo Yiannopoulos – James @ nebusiness.co.uk

MARK Easby had to face his mum’s cancer and a confidence crisis before becoming Tees Valley’s king of communications. JEZ DAVISON discovers how the Big ‘C’ transformed his life

THE year is 2000 and a young Teessider is caught in a crisis. Former college drop-out Mark Easby had just scraped through university with a third class honours degree before being crushed by the death of his mother Gwyneth from leukaemia.

With confidence and motivation at rock bottom, he decided the only way was up and embarked on a post-graduate qualification “as much for my mum as for myself”.
Career-wise, it was the best move he ever made. His new-found determination yielded a Masters in multimedia enterprise and fast-tracked him to the summit of Tees Valley’s growing mountain of digital talent.

Having been a major catalyst for the growth of Middlesbrough agency Calm Asylum, he left last year to start a new company, Better Brand Agency, which he hopes will break through the £1m turnover barrier in three years.

He’s made one hell of a start.

The Stokesley firm, which specialises in brand, design, marketing and social media campaigns, already has more than 20 clients and recently scooped the Best Social Media Campaign at the North East Digital Awards.

It was symbolic of a 180 degree shift from Mark’s darkest days nine years earlier.

He recalls: “Back then I thought ‘what’s the point of it all if my mum can’t be here to see it?’ But then I realised I’d be letting my mum down – as well as myself – if I didn’t make something of my life.”

Now, though, the Stockton-born entrepreneur’s eyes are focused firmly on the future.

As the business grows he may open satellite offices around the UK but he’ll remain true to his roots by managing future expansion from the Tees Valley headquarters.

He’s firmly behind DigitalCity’s 25-year game plan to transform the area into a world-class creative and digital cluster – and says it could reverse a long-term brain-drain from Tees Valley.

“I’m not distracted by the bright lights of London and Manchester,” he says. “There’s a lot more belief about Tees Valley nowadays.”

Official figures show the sector is worth £1.1bn to the regional economy, employs 35,000 people and is set to generate more than 9,000 jobs in Tees Valley in the next five years.

Mark hopes to speed up this revolution by expanding his client base beyond the North-east and Yorkshire and boosting revenues by helping firms capitalise on the power of web-based communication channels.

His commercial assuredness is in stark contrast to the diffident teenager who found himself more turned on by swimming than study.

A “capable” student, he failed to marry ability with application and was booted out of Conyers School in Yarm before he had completed A-levels in law, English language and design and technology.

He retook them successfully at Stockton Sixth Form College and “did just enough” to gain a media technology and production degree from the University of Teesside, graduating in 1999.

Following his mother’s death he gained a temporary placement at Middlesbrough creative agency Chilli Media, which took him on full time after his postgraduate studies.

When MD Simon Brown started property development arm Chilli Developments, Mark was challenged to run the agency business – renamed Calm Asylum in 2004. Business boomed and by last summer they were running a six-figure turnover business with 12 staff.

Having failed in a bid to buy the company, Mark and colleagues Declan Metcalfe and Peter Jones broke away to form BBA with private investment and support from Lloyds bank.

With the social networking revolution gathering pace, Mark believes that businesses can get more value for their marketing spend.

“Social media channels are a strong digital platform but you have to have a brand conversation across them. Some clients don’t know what tools to use to get their message across.”

His succinct analysis betrays an inner certainty that’s propelled him into the spotlight of Tees Valley’s creative community.

Having jumped out of the shadow of his shyness, he’s now ready to shine.

A FLEDGLING digital agency in Stokesley has pledged to remain a local company for local people as it expands from its base in the Tees Valley.

Established last year, Better Brand Agency (BBA) is looking to hit £1m turnover in three years. Run by industry brand expert Declan Metcalfe and Teesside graduates Mark Easby and Peter Jones, the firm specialises in brand, marketing and social media campaigns and works with clients across the North-east and Yorkshire.
Managing director Mark Easby said the company was firmly behind the Digital City project, a 25-year game plan to position Tees Valley as a world-class digital super-cluster to rival others across the globe.

He said: “I hate to see local graduates get on a train to London or Manchester when they finish their degree. I would like to see graduates from outside the area come to Tees Valley.”

He said he would consider opening satellite offices in other parts of the country but “we will manage projects from Tees Valley”. The trio formed the company after their bid to buy out their former employer, Middlesbrough agency Calm Asylum, had foundered.

See Interview of the Week with Mark Easby in www.nebusiness.co.uk next Tuesday.