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World Book Day; our favourite books

Whether it’s a novel, e-book, audio book, graphic novel or comic, stories are a powerful form of communication. For many of us the tales and characters we enjoyed in childhood and adulthood resonate with us for the rest of our lives.

Today is World Book Day, a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and of course reading - and to mark the occasion we’ve asked members of the team what their favourite book is and why:

George - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is my favourite book. I love the the interesting way it tells the story. The twists and turns in it had me picking up the book as often as I could until it was finished.

Martin – My favourite book is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Its multi-layered, multi-faceted, interlinked stories make it an enthralling and very thought-provoking read.

Claire – From my childhood it has to be The Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. These books got me into reading and are the reason why I read so much now. In adulthood, my favourite book is Fluke by James Herbert. It’s the story of a dog called Fluke who thinks he’s a man – it’s a wonderful tale that has you laughing and crying.

Tom – The World According to Garp is my favorite book – it’s just a brilliant novel and should be on everyone's list.

Kathryn - Life of Pi by Yann Martel is my favourite. I loved the relationship between Pi and Richard Parker, and the powerful and thought provoking storyline.

Rebecca – My favourite book would have to be The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I read a page from the Tollbooth in another children’s book and was immediately hooked; a dark, magical adventure - combined with a look at the absurdity of the English language - what's not to love?

Georgina – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is my favourite. I love reading books set in the Deep South of America in the 1930s because of the social themes and issues they tackle - To Kill A Mockingbird was where that passion began.

Sarah – My favourite book as an adult is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. The story is so unusual and captivating it made me wish I was a novelist... briefly. And as a child it was 'The Velveteen Rabbit' by Margery Williams. A beautiful children's storybook of what is is to be loved and then not. And then it turned into a real rabbit. Magical!

Donna – My favourite is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It captures your imagination from the very first page and it doesn’t let go until the very end. Tragic, beautiful, and quite unforgettable - and a book everyone should read.

Ross – My favourite book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a kid I loved losing myself in Willy Wonka’s wonderful world of chocolate.

Lily – I loved everything by Roald Dahl when I was younger, but the The Twits has to be my favourite. It’s marvellously funny and gave me great ideas for pranks!

We’d love to know what your favourite book is, and why, so let us know on Twitter using the hashtags #onebook and #WorldBookDay.

Happy reading!

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The power of storytelling

Robert McKee once said, “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today”, and he’s probably right. After all, storytelling is the oldest form of communication. For thousands of years, civilisations have learnt through the art of storytelling - helping create and shape cultures, religions and behaviours.

It was recently the 16th National Storytelling Week, an initiative run by the The Society for Storytelling to encourage the tradition of sharing stories.

Stories typically follow a beginning, middle and end format. For example, take the famous Disney formula; the protagonist faces a problem – often unsure of their identity – they then find a trusty sidekick to help them overcome the problem and find their ‘happy ever after’.

All businesses can benefit from communicating their story, identity and message, and more often than not it takes an external eye to crystallise it and make it as compelling as possible.

With the explosion of technology, the Internet, and social media, more content than ever before is created, shared and consumed. So there has never been such an important time to communicate a message effectively, and deliver it to the right audience.

When we develop a piece of work we are always looking to use our creative skills to deliver the intended message in an impactful way; achieve the communication goal; and, ultimately, change a behaviour.

Here are a few things to remember when sharing stories and shaping messaging to change behaviours:

- There’s no better story to tell than the story of the company itself; where it began, where it came from, who it’s people are – use this information to create a strong narrative and build brand loyalty

- Because of the quantity of content now available it’s very important to establish what you want to say, how best to say it, and what you want to achieve from it

- Set the scene and create context to develop messages that can resonate with audiences

- Create imaginative content and original ideas that capture the audiences’ attention

- Remember it’s not always about the product or service – it’s also about how that product or service may have affected someone else’s life - a vital chapter in a business’ story.

Whilst we can help our partners reach their happy ever after, we like to believe the story never ends there, and instead the plot just continues to evolve.

For examples of how we’ve worked with our clients to help share their stories, or for more information about how we can help tell your company’s story, please visit www.onebite.co.uk/#showcase  

The end.

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5 steps to case study success

In part one of our case study blog series, we looked at the art of writing an effective case study. Our Head of Content, Mark Kember advised on three key things to consider – human impact, make your argument with data and results, results, results.

In part two, we look into the process behind creating an effective case study. Case studies have the power to convince potential customers to invest in a company’s product or service - so it’s important to make every case study a perfect one.

The key thing to remember here is consistency. Case studies should always be interesting, informative and easy for the reader to digest.Here are some key tips to get you on your way to case study success:

1. Plan ahead

Do you have a framework already in place for case studies or do you need to put together a template for the future? If you don’t have one set up, now would be the time to get one in place. This means all case studies will follow a certain format, which can then be shared across the organisation if needed. Having a framework speeds up the process of producing a case study without sacrificing any vital content.

The traditional case study format covers three areas: problem, choice & solution. The problem stage introduces the customer and the issues that the team faced. As part of this, you can discuss why they decided to invest in a new solution. The choice stage goes through the customer decision process. This provides essential insight for the organisation on why this customer decided on a particular product.

The solution stage covers two areas – the implementation and the results.  It’s important to include metrics here so you can clearly show a positive result in the case study. Depending on the implementation the metrics will vary from hard return on investment through to improvements in processes that can be expressed as percentages. Whatever the result, adding metrics is a great way to show how a solution or product has benefitted a company.  

As well as considering the case study format, it’s important to think about the design of the case study itself. How will it look? Is the information presented in a way that captivates the audience? The actual design of the case study is a key component to how effective it will be as a marketing tool.

2. Back to basics

Once you have your format in place, it’s time to start your case study by interviewing the customer. As part of this, always check with the customer on how to spell their name and ask for dates of implementations. When starting the process of creating a case study these little details can often be easy to overlook, yet have disastrous consequences if not correct. It may sound like the obvious thing to do, but nothing leads to case study suicide more than incorrect information on a basic level.

3. Know the approvals process

Ask who will sign it off and how long they will need to review it. This can help you plan ahead and generally speed up production in a managed way. Again, this may sound like an obvious point but having a clear view of the approvals process in place prior to case study creation could save a lot of time and effort in the long run.

With larger companies there may be a number of people that need to sign off a case study so it’s vital that the approvals process is clear – particularly on a tight deadline. It can help to include quotes from across the business at different levels – this not only gives the case study a wider perspective, but can help those individuals support signing off the case study.

4. Size matters

The case studies themselves should be no more than 1,500 words or two sides of A4 paper. This helps include enough detail, but not make them too weighty that they don’t get read. The case study should be captivating to read, and if it goes on for more than two pages, this probably isn’t the case. Size really does matter!

5. Take your time

Taking time between drafts and coming back to the document gives you the ability to think more around the key messages that you are putting over. If you rush the content-making process, it’s possible to miss things or concentrate on the wrong issues. After a while, we become blind to our own mistakes – so take a break, think about the message you want to send and then go back to it.

Another set of eyes is always useful to check for mistakes, see if it reads well and get a different perspective. The more the merrier!

Remember that the case study is not just a tool for marketing but it’s also an essential internal tool for the sales team. Creating a compelling case study has never been so easy! We hope these tips help you on your way to case study heaven.

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The art to an effective case study

As documents that are part of wider content marketing programmes, case studies have a great role to play in convincing a prospect to buy. They are there to provide potential customers with insight into how a product or service solved a particular problem for another company. However, it’s not all about getting customers, it’s about telling a story. Sadly, there are case studies out there which are dull to read, or don’t provide the right information that should be valuable to the reader.

Recently featured in B2B Marketing, our Head of Content, Mark Kember, shares his words of wisdom. Starting with the reasons why poor case studies exist, Mark advises, “There may be many reasons for this: companies don’t want to sign off on releasing information that is commercially sensitive, or they worry about perception if they admit to any big problems.”

So, how can you create an effective case study that is both enjoyable to read and provides the right information? Here is Mark’s advice in full.

Human Impact

At the moment, when writing a conventional case study, there can be too much focus on the traditional “problem-solution-outcome” approach. However, this can mean that the wider context doesn’t come through. Aside from metrics, it’s important to consider what the ‘human impact’ that an implementation has.

For example, a new IT solution might help a company process something better – what does that look like to the company’s customers? Does the cost saved lead to lower prices for those customers, or offer a fundamentally new way of doing things that means better service? These are all questions your case study should look to answer, as they are what potential customers will want to know the answer to.

Pulling out a more “human interest” angle is one of the best ways to make any document believable and interesting to the people that will be targeted with it. This can be something that is removed from the formal body of the case study as a quote; alternatively, it can be used in a ‘product in action’ section if clients want to retain their traditional case study formula. However you structure your case studies, thinking about the human impact will help the case study stand out, wherever the customer is in the buying cycle.

Make your argument with data

It helps to have a convincing argument, and the best way to demonstrate this is to have experienced customers. This means that they should be at least six months to a year after implementation.

Many companies will seize on the fact they have a customer willing to speak about their experience with them right from the word go, but more often than not, new customers will have little experience with the business and won’t be able to provide you with any Return on Investment figures. Getting a year’s experience means that the customer has had time to see the real benefits from their purchase and will therefore provide more hard truths to base the study on.

Results, results, results

Be quantitative, and show as many results as possible. If you are to convince customers to buy from your business, they will want to see evidence of how well other customers are performing in figures as well as positive quotes.

Are there two sides to the story? Not every project is completed perfectly and there can be challenges that were part of the implementation. For readers, this kind of information can be vital as part of their decision-making. However, it’s important not to gloss over these challenges – instead this can be an opportunity to go into how requirements changed and how the business responded in partnership with the customer to overcome these issues.

For some providers, this may seem counter-intuitive. However, being honest and discussing challenges can make a case study more realistic for the reader. Taking this approach can help build up trust that the vendor or partner will be there whatever happens, and that the focus is on helping the customer make the most of their investment in a real world environment. This is particularly useful for journalists that might be looking for customer stories to feature.

Keep an eye out for part 2 where we will be looking at the process behind creating a great case study.

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Mobilegeddon: What does this mean for SEO?

Today, Google announced it will be updating its search engine to include “mobile friendly” ranking. This move to include mobile browsing has got many businesses riled up, with the perception to cause a huge shake up in SEO for millions of websites, some have even gone as far as to call the move “mobilegeddon”. As we move further into the digital age, with more devices becoming connected, surely this move has been imminent for some time? 

According to eMarketer, in Q4 of 2014, 50 per cent of US Yahoo searches and 43 per cent of Google searches were from a mobile device. Yahoo even said that approximately 39 per cent of all its searches come from mobile devices.

For web designers, marketers and small businesses alike, incorporating mobile into SEO strategies has therefore never been more important. Those who fail to recognise mobile after today, could risk losing their Google ranking altogether. So how can you ensure your Google ranking remains high? Here are some things to consider:

Responsive sites

When a user visits a site, it’s impossible to guarantee the device from which it will be viewed – someone might be viewing it on a mobile or an enormous widescreen monitor. If you have a responsive site, it doesn’t matter what size of screen or device your visitor is browsing from, it will adjust to the screen size accordingly. It goes without saying, that responsive sites are absolutely essential when targeting mobile users, as without it, navigation around the site is complicated for the user and overall a poor experience.

Easy navigation

Navigation is key for mobile users – you have to assume that if they are browsing on a mobile device, they want to find information quickly. The average mobile web browsing time for a mobile user is between 3.5-4.5 hours in total, a month, so the individual browsing time is minimal. This means navigating around your mobile site must be easy and interactive. Many mobile sites use a toggle menu as it allows the user to open the menu bar on one side, select what they want to browse for, and then the menu bar moves away out of site. Drop down menus can also work on mobile devices if there are fewer pages to go to.

Links

Make sure you use large text and clear fonts to make your links recognisable. It would also be worth making your mobile site’s URL a ‘mobile.nameofwebsite’ address so you can track your own SEO and understand your mobile users – this will help you tailor your content so you can target the right audience. If you are using sign up or download forms, make sure these are short and include an auto-fill function to make it easier for the user.

Design for mobile

Don’t use flash, pop-ups or videos that require buffering, as these will cause an annoyance for mobile users who want access to content quickly. Plus, with the over exposure of advertising and information on sites, if you want your content to sing; less is more - keep typography clean and imagery relevant for a clear narrative. It goes without saying, think about your choice of colours - neon pink type might look cool on the cover of a magazine but you wouldn’t necessarily want to use it for copy on a site - legibility is key.

Lastly, anything goes with mobile as users fall into many demographics and categories, so targeting your audience is much harder. The beauty of SEO is that it not only improves your search ranking but it can give you an idea of who is looking at your site and what their interests are. “Mobilegeddon” doesn’t have to be apocalyptic, as long as you embrace a mobile friendly site and use SEO to better understand your audience, this will drive a better customer experience for returning and new customers.

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Eight brands that solar eclipsed Twitter

Lets face it, the solar eclipse of March 20 2015 was a bit disappointing. In the week leading up to the event, the hype was incredible, everyone was talking about it - from the BBC’s Stargazing Live program to the funky solar glasses dished out in shops. All this hype amounted to one entirely cloudy eclipse, which meant that most of us could only see a pretty grey sky, with some of us having help from an iPhone app, telling us roughly where we were meant to be looking.

But, behind every grey cloud there is always a silver lining. You may not have seen anything from outside, however, if you were watching Twitter, you may have seen the brands battle it out for the best tweet about the solar eclipse. Move over Bonnie Tyler, we’re talking total eclipse of the Twitter!

So if you can’t wait between two and 85 years for the next one, here are some of our favourite tweets from the event to cheer you up!

1. #OreoEclipse

Though Oreo didn’t actively tweet so much during the event, its followers did. Months of campaign preparation had paid off as Twitter users joined in to share themselves enjoying the biscuit brand on the big screen at Piccadilly Circus. What would have made this campaign really special, is the eclipse happening in real-time behind the screen, which was probably planned, but unfortunately marketers can’t control the weather! (or can they?)

2. @Paddypower

Paddy Power has always been a little tongue in cheek, but this post really got Twitters attention, having received 1,600 retweets in one hour. Could Paddy Power be the master of the eclipse? Place your bets now!

3. @innocent

innocent drinks is another brand that mastered how to promote an eclipse on social media. Not only has it incorporated its brand in its social channels, but it also added a little extra humour using Emojis - that’s a smooth way to add a bit of creative zest!

4. @Starwars

Star Wars was welcoming Twitter users to the dark side with its animated 15-second video of the Death Star blocking the sun. May the force of great brand communication be with you!

5. @Justeat

Solar eclipse? Sounds delicious! Is there anything Just Eat can’t make edible? Apparently not. This Vine by Just Eat is a fun way to play on the eclipse with a rolling pizza.

6. @Sciencemuseumlondon

In all this excitement, it’s easy to forget that what is actually happening is a scientific phenomenon. But the Science Museum in London has offered us some rich history to make sure we don’t forget. That’s SUN history lesson!

7. @Stockportgs

Big brands may be dominating our Twitter streams with their promotional material surrounding the event, but we love this tweet by Stockport Grammar School, which shows that including imagery in a tweet can go a long way. Safety first kids.

8. @Redbull

After the International Space station released its picture of the eclipse from space, Redbull was the first brand to take to PhotoShop and make it all about them! Being responsive and acting instinctively is key for ensuring brand success on social media. This eclipse gives you wings!

So here you have it, eight examples of ecliptic excellence on Twitter. Which was your favourite? 

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Love is in the air: a look back at the best Valentines Day campaigns

It’s one of the biggest trading events of the year – after Christmas and Easter, Valentine’s Day sees shoppers spending over £1 billion on chocolates, roses, cuddly toys and other special gifts for their loved ones, according to Postcode Anywhere. But for brands, Valentines Day is the perfect time of year to try and pull consumers out of the January blues and hit those much-needed sales targets.

So how were brands looking to capture our attention this year? With some inventive, romantic and even comical campaigns of course! In order to stand out from the crowd, brands need to inject a little creativity, humour and maybe something a little daring. As we come back down from cloud nine, we’ve highlighted some of our favourite Valentine’s Day campaigns for those who aren’t prepared to give romance a rest just yet.

Love at first sight:

As a flower retailer, no doubt funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk had Valentines Day covered. And we absolutely love this hilarious stunt, which features a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ box baring a rose in case you see your love at first sight. But that’s not all this brand has been up to, if you think cupid hasn’t struck you yet – don’t worry! Cupid drone is on hand to deliver the romance. Whoever said love falls from above?

Chairs in love:

If you’ve read our onebite blogs before, you’ll know that Ikea is one of our favourite brands when it comes to creative campaigns. And well, yes, please don’t make us explain this one!

We go together like a fork and spoon: 

We often say less is more when it comes to advertising, and this is a great example of how a simple piece of photography, elegant typography and lots of empty space can be enough to sensualise the taste buds… see what I did there?

Say it with a burger:

Oh dear, it looks like Burger King and McDonald’s had the same idea. Either way, it’s still a fun and quirky way of representing the brand image during the most romantic day of the year. “Quarter pounder, extra cheese, no mayo and an 18 carrot gold ring please!”

Sweep her off her feet:

Simple and effective - we love how the brand has incorporated the logo into the image using shoelaces. Another unique and creative design that’s inspired us this Valentines Day.

A drive through date:

Right car is red, left car is blue, this advert is fun, we hope you think so too!

Painting the picture:

No text is needed to explain what this brand is trying to say – and that’s what is so special, simple yet so effective.  

Jodie’s advert:

Ok so the next two aren’t quite ‘campaigns’, but we love them all the same. When placing a classified ad it’s always a good idea to ask how much copy space you have. I hope Alex managed to finish Breaking Bad, that last scene was epic!

Proof that we are soulmates:

Infographics are a great way to communicate a message through visuals and punchy stats/text. You put forward your hypothesis, set out the facts to prove this, and then conclude at the end. So why not propose using one?

There’s 7,000,000,000 people on this earth, but only 0.48 are as perfect as you - would you say yes to that?

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The changing role of design

By Ian Lansley, Studio Manager at onebite

For those of a certain age and era, entering into the world of graphic design was an exciting one, full of established trades, conventional equipment and traditional values. This was an industry where you had to start at the bottom and work your way up to the top, with job titles from artworker, to camera operator, to visualiser and typesetter. You developed your skills to the maximum, using tools and equipment with names that have now gone into the history books and sound like something out of Harry Potter. The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies provides a great trip down memory lane to see the tools that were once used.

These jobs had real hands on skill, everything had to be done by hand; lettering, layouts with magic markers, typesetting that fitted the space required, we even had proof readers in the design department to make sure work was spelt correctly and made sense, no really it’s true!

With the time and dedication it took using these tools, a full page ad for example, would take at least a week, and a 24 page brochure would take at least three months, with a shelf life of 12 months before you thought about the next one. With this, deadlines were far more forgiving than they are today.

Design reinvented

So where are we today? With modern technology converting the way we work and to tighter deadlines, have these old skills now been lost to the computer? Or have they just been reinvented?

Like with every other industry, we too have had to change the way we work to embrace modern technology. Today, creatives need to be much faster, slicker, and with instant gratification. With clients, these skills are now a demand.

  The Brits come up top

According to the world design rankings 2014, the British are still one of the worlds best when it comes to design and the industry. The UK is still, so it seems, employing the same proportion of skilled workers that it did 30 years ago, however instead of an artworker, senior or junior camera operator or visualiser, we now have the generic ‘Mac operator’.

From Typesetter to Mac Operator

A Mac operator in my eyes is a very lucky person. They have the opportunity to try and test all the ‘old industry’ skills but without the three years training to find out if you liked it or not. Mac’s offer a wealth of programmes that can do in seconds what used to take hours, with instant access to a world of design ideas not just your small studio ones.

We now have digital and web, a new set of jobs skills that did not exist 30 years prior, another area that give us ‘creatives’ a chance to show what we can do with the never ending raft of apps and programmes. Universities and colleges are turning over digital and Mac operators in abundance, all with new ideas and dreams that can be turned into potential profit for an increasingly demanding industry. 

It’s true times have changed. The jobs titles have changed, the tools have changed, but the drive, dreams and creativity have not. For the new creatives that start off in this adjusted industry with wide and excited eyes, it has in fact got bigger and better in to my way of thinking. All those jobs are still there but with new titles, and the tools and equipment we use still do what they did 30 years ago, just more advanced. And yes, they still have names that sound like something from Harry Potter.

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5 ways to inject new ideas into your business in 2015

As we enter a new year it’s time think strategically about your 2015 marketing activities (if you need some guidance these research reports from CMO essentials are a great start). In this ever-changing market, a regular injection of creativity is essential for ensuring you’re inputting enough good ideas into your business that will give you a competitive advantage. By integrating new ideas into your marketing strategy, you’re well on the way to capturing customer attention and boosting your company’s competitiveness this year.

One of the key ways you can ensure your filling your campaigns with enough creative zest is to be more specific about your content. You’ll have a split window to convince a buyer that the information you offer is valuable – by using specific content you have the ability to offer expertise, relevance and granular understanding of your customers needs.

This is just one way you can inject new ideas into your business, but there are other great ways to use marketing initiatives to bring fresh thinking into your company.

We know that great ideas can create a buzz in your market, and within your company too – not only exciting your employees but also your partners. Our guide ‘Five ways to stay on top of new marketing initiatives’ will help you find new sources of inspiration, and provide marketing techniques to deliver leads to your business.

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Cracking Christmas Campaigns of 2014

We’re feeling the Christmas spirit here at onebite and with less that a week to go until the big day, there’s just enough time to look at some of the best Christmas campaigns that have inspired us.  

There’s been a number of cracking Christmas campaigns over the years, but the following ten campaigns are some of our absolute favourites and have inspired and motivated us to create our very own campaign - ‘Xmashed.’

#MontyThePenguin

One of our favourite social media campaigns this Christmas is by far the #MontyThePenguin Twitter campaign. Not only has John Lewis created an advert that is simply heart warming, knocking the Coca Cola lorry off the charts for most memorable advert of the season. But they have created a complete online identity for Monty the penguin and his lovable girlfriend Mabel, who have already achieved a combined 45K+ followers on Twitter.

What is so great about this campaign is that John Lewis has taken the story so much further than an advert, which is keeping the audience engaged and interacting with the brand long after the advert fades. We hope the relationship continues to glide nicely. 

Ho Ho Hovis

This simple yet effective play on words by Hovis is a great way to emphasise your brand image. And a sprinkle of snowy flour on the top just reinforces the Christmas theme.

Mini Cooper

Well, I’m sure someone somewhere is having a fantastic Christmas! This excellent idea by Mini Cooper to put a giant cardboard box out to be collected is a great way to bring humour into your campaigns. Is anyone questioning how Santa managed to fit this on his sleigh? Anyone?

IKEA’s #LaOtraCarta

It wouldn’t be a top ten list without IKEA - this is a brand that just seems to get it when it comes to marketing for the appropriate audience. What is great about this campaign is that it’s not your average ‘come check out my brand’ advert, but it’s a simple video that shows that children don’t just want unicorns for Christmas. Simple, sweet and effective! 

  Mercedes – should have been quicker

These poor three wise men will be waiting a LONG time for a Mercedes to give them a lift. Or maybe they got the wrong address? 

Omino Bianco

This ad brings Christmas back to reality. We’ve all had one of these days Santa, don’t worry, Omino Bianco will sort this out for you. 

Boots – Because she’s special

Boots has done well to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, time with family and the ones you love – and if there’s a few nice cosmetics and electricals under the tree, then all the better.  Boots’ advert for ‘Because she’s special’ is just one example of an advert that makes you want to tell everyone you love them.

It had to be Hellmann’s

This fun and quirky advert from Hellmann’s is a great way to add a bit of Christmas cheer to your sandwiches. The playful imagery and effective design really helps make this advert stand out. 

McDonald’s chips

If you’re not a fan of cooking this year, then McDonald’s has got it covered. This fun and festive image  reinforces McDonald’s family loving, fast food image that everyone knows and loves. All this needs is a burger present to go under the tree. 

Vodafone - #PowerToTheFestive

No doubt you’ve heard the most epic song of the year that is ‘Let it go’ from the animated Disney film, Frozen. If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat. Watching this advert, you don’t just feel the need to stand on a chair and belt out the lyrics like there’s no one listening, but it has a pretty powerful message too. In the video, nurses, mechanics and chefs can be seen singing the power ballad whilst working through their stressful day, before unwinding with a movie on Sky Movies or NowTV, courtesy of Vodafone 4G. The meaning behind the advert is clear but it’s the iconic song that’s helping to capture everyone’s attention.

Check out our very own Christmas campaign ‘Xmashed’ and get your photo’s Christmasafied by the onebite elves. For every photo that gets Xmashed, we’ll make a donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital – so get your skates on!

Merry Christmas from all at onebite.

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All you need to know about SEO in 2015

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            2014 has seen a huge focus on ‘content marketing’ and its role in successful marketing strategies, resulting in more and more time being spent on getting it right, from the planning stages right through to delivery and consumption. As mentioned in our content marketing blog series, ‘Why content marketing matters’, after investing in creating the content, you need to make sure it gets seen!

  Enter, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), a broad term given to the process of ensuring a website and its content is easily found by as many relevant visitors as possible; encouraging an increase in anything from sales, to employee engagement and even suitable job candidates. So when it comes to SEO, what should you be looking to achieve?

  One of the key SEO trends we can see building for 2015 is ‘mobile’ indeed in November of this year, Search Engine Land reported on Google’s focus in on mobile SEO. Mobile SEO is taking off, mobile-friendly sites built with responsive design are now essential and Google’s mobile SEO push could be the final piece in convincing marketers to think and act more ‘mobile’.

  As SEO is ever evolving, it’s important to stay on top and plan ahead. Venture Beat recently posted it’s predicted SEO trends for 2015 which include adding social layers to a website, visual content will replace plain text and pre-securing yourself from negative SEO.

  We know how important it is to get your organisation seen, and to capitalise on the opportunities to grow your business. Our guide ‘SEO for CEOs’ gives you what you need to know, explains what works, what doesn’t and why you can’t trick Google.

  Download our guide today to help plan ahead for a prosperous 2015 - ensuring that if you build it, they will come!

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Reasons to be creative: Inspiration in 3 minutes

Back in September of this year, our digital team attended the popular event ‘Reasons to be creative’ in Brighton. The event is there to share inspiration with like-minded designers, developers, coders, artists, animators and more. It offers the chance to not only inspire but educate and network with others, leaving you pumped with ideas and eager to get creating!

  Our Web Developer, George Anderson summarises his experience of the event with his favourite pieces of inspiration, including excerpts from the ‘elevator pitch’ – 20 speakers, with 3 minutes to present on a topic of their choosing.

  Opening credits:

  “It was my first reasons to be creative and after hearing a lot of good things from the rest of the team, I was sitting in the Brighton Dome on the Monday morning in anticipation of what the next 3 days will have in store for me.

  The lights dimmed and the opening credits began to roll, bringing the room to absolute silence and me in complete awe of how brilliant these titles were. I was excited before, but this pushed me up to a whole new level!”

Watch the opening credits

  “The people behind the video are FromForm who showed more of their fantastic videos in their talk. The effort they all put in and the passion they had for their (usually unpaid) work was very inspirational.”

  Mr Bingo:

  “Another highlight from the conference was on the Monday evening, when the much hyped Mr Bingo was speaking. An apparent favourite of the conference from previous years, Mr Bingo’s talk was engaging, motivating and hilarious.

  His hate mail work was particularly funny. Though this started out as being casual fun and for a laugh, it has now transformed into a business for him.”

  Mr Bingo’s hate mail

  The elevator pitch:

“The elevator pitch on the Wednesday morning consisted of 20 speakers talking for 3 minutes each about a subject of their choice. My personal favourite of the 20 presentations, was from Gareth James, who was using technology in ways that were so simple, yet completely genius.”

  “These included a Secret Squirrel, which was essentially a stuffed squirrel in an exhibition you could whisper your secrets to. However, this squirrel was then linked to a Twitter account and used Google Voice to take the secret and tweet it!”

  Not so secret squirrel

  “Gareth James also presented on his project Skypeframe. He told the story of how he always Skypes his Mum and as she has her PC upstairs, it is only if she is at the PC that she would see him online and be able to Skype him. This was a problem he was going to solve himself, by creating a picture frame that lights up whenever he is available on Skype.”

  “It doesn’t stop there… the frame also has a knock gesture inside it, so if it is tapped 3 times by his mother, a text message invitation is sent to him telling him his mum wants a Skype call. The frames knock gesture has different sensitivity levels, so the harder his mother taps the frame, the more assertive the text message is. Messages can range from “I’m ready for a Skype call” to “Get your **** on Skype now!” Lovely!

“Overall ‘reasons to be creative’ was a perfect mix of both creative and coding talks, which can easily cater for anyone working in our industry. I left Brighton on Wednesday evening feeling inspired and motivated to get home and start my own personal projects. Now I just need to unsubscribe from Netflix and I will have nothing to stop me….”

  You can see a great overview of the elevator pitches in the following video, lovingly edited by our very own Head of Digital, Shariff Moossun.

Reasons to be Creative - Elevator Pitch 2014 from onebite on Vimeo.

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Trick or Treat? 13 spook-tacular Halloween marketing treats we love

It’s that time of year when we see brands striving to be on top with a new and fresh Halloween marketing campaign. From simple print advertorials to chilling website designs and strategic social media campaigns, we’ve taken a look back through them and decided to put together 13 of our frighteningly favourite Halloween marketing treats.

1. NRMA Insurance make us think on Halloween

NRMA Insurance’s road safety advert hits us hard with a simple yet effective message.

2. Ford's car wash horror

Ford’s new Halloween advert features people who thought they were on a test drive, but they thought wrong.

A fantastic example of ‘prankvertising’ by Ford for Halloween – watch the full advert here.

3. Heineken - The beer drunk most on Halloween

Heineken’s cheeky advert adapted for Halloween with the simple slogan “The beer drunk most on Halloween”. 

4. Tide scares us stainless

Tide took to Vine in 2013 with this incredibly ingenious Halloween campaign. Seven videos based on famous horror films using #ScaredStainless.

See more here. 

5. Mini’s making us jump

Mini’s playful adverts never cease to amaze – simplicity at it’s best. 

6. TOPSHOP’s Trick or Tweet

Popular fashion retailer TOPSHOP builds customer participation through its devilishly clever ‘Trick or Tweet’ campaign. Customers share their Halloween costume tips for a chance to win a £100 shopping spree. Yes please.

See more here.

7. LEGO’s spooky creations

LEGO has launched a ‘spookify your LEGO sets’ contest on its website. Builders can upload their creations and have them featured throughout the month.

See more here.

8. Snickers – You’re not you when you’re hungry

Snickers Spanish advert “Your not you when you’re hungry” compliments Snickers playful charm in this Halloween themed ad.

9. Heeeeeere’s…IKEA

IKEA releases a brilliantly evil parody of the famous horror film, The Shining.

Watch the video, we dare you.

10. Fanta’s #HelpKen

Fanta takes to Halloween with its #HelpKen campaign asking the public to upload pictures of their scariest zombie look – it’s working a treat!

See more here

11. Samsung’s #ThatSucks 

As part of its #ThatSucks campaign, Samsung take to Vine with this Halloween treat as part of their ‘#ThatSucks’ campaign; a clever way to add some creative variety to a long term marketing campaign.

See it here

12. Oreo’s Paranormal Snacktivity

One of our favourites when it comes to fresh marketing ideas, Oreo hasn’t let us down with its “Paranormal snacktivity” video on instagram.

Watch the video.

13. Schuh’s creepily captivating web design

Schuh has taken the Halloween spirit by the horns with its updated web design. See it in action here.

Our wonderful designer Liane Milchem creep-ified our company logo to create these two treats!

From all of us at onebite, we wish you a happy Halloween!

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5 PR and Social Stunts that Inspire Us

Working in a fast paced comms agency means you’re surrounded every day by inspiration. But sometimes it is important to look around at what others are doing well and draw inspiration from an external source. 

The following five examples are just a snapshot of some PR and social media stunts that make us smile and give us food for thought.

1 – Mashable get creative for Easter

In Easter, Mashable went to Vine with this creativity-inspiring campaign, asking people to upload Vine’s of their decorated Easter eggs.

Mashable asked the question “Are you decorating eggs this weekend? Show off your creativity using food colouring, paint, glitter & more. Tag your vids with #CraftyEggs.” We love how this engages the audience on a creative level and helps to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.

2 – Orio gives us food for thought

  We’ve seen Vine be the platform for a number of campaigns this year and the next one we loved was from Orio, with its #OreoSnackHacks campaign. Again, a brilliant personalised hashtag and a fantastic idea to engage with their audience.

3 – Domino’s Pizza bring us savings through social

  Of course, Vine is not the only platform for successful content marketing campaigns. You may have heard of the Domino’s ‘Tweet for Cheap Pizza’ campaign. Domino’s reduced the price of the ‘star pizza’ according to how many people tweeted in time for lunch using the hashtag #letsdolunch – whilst this is a fantastic way to get big numbers of people tweeting, we think the hashtag could use some work. #Letsdolunch is used frequently and so measuring the effectiveness wont be as easy as if they tailored the tag and truly owned its presence.

4 – Pepsi shocks the streets of London

  This brings us to one of our all time favourites,  the #LiveForNow campaign. It first rolled out in the US before going global, the purpose was to inspire Pepsi fans to ‘live each moment to the fullest’ whilst still communicating Pepsi’s brand message. It’s important to remember, that whilst you may have a great idea for a campaign, the brand message is what needs to shine through. The video we want to show you is part of this campaign and incorporates a London bus shelter, this is just a fantastic PR stunt and a great way to get people talking, now with over 30 thousand likes on YouTube. 

5 – Walkers get us talking with ‘Tweet to Eat’

  Talking of PR stunts, we couldn’t leave out the equally creative Walkers, Tweet to Eat campaign. This stunt was a huge success, driving people to engage socially using a tailored hashtag and gaining vast amounts of media attention. Tick!

As you can see there are a huge variety of ways to communicate your brands message. Through a successful campaign and with great PR you can achieve the results you want, and perhaps even throw in a bus shelter!

  If you’d like to hear more about our work you can visit our website and contact us by emailing [email protected] or by finding us on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn.

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Coupa Appoints onebite to Support UK Public Relations and Content Marketing Campaign

Leaders in cloud-based e-Procurement and spend management, expands in EMEA

onebite to deliver PR strategy, social media marketing, content creation and thought-leadership development across the UK

Newbury, UK – September 2014: onebite, a leading marketing services agency providing strategic, creative, digital, PR and social media solutions, today announced that Coupa, the world leader in e-Procurement and cloud-based spend management software, has chosen onebite to run its UK public relations campaign. onebite will also be providing Coupa with social media support and content creation throughout the campaign as part of an integrated content marketing approach. 

Coupa provides easy to use, cloud-based software, which allows users to manage their pricing processes, improve purchasing decisions and make savings that impact the bottom line.

“Coupa is at a pivotal point in its expansion in EMEA, when brand awareness and credibility is paramount,” said Carina Hoogeveen, Senior Marketing Manager, EMEA at Coupa, “Appointing onebite is a key stage in our European communications strategy and the team’s specialist skills, knowledge of our markets, technologies and media is a great asset to us.”

As part of its UK growth strategy, Coupa will be working with onebite to expand awareness of the business and finance issues that can be solved by its cloud-based spend management solution. onebite will be providing a full public relations service to Coupa in the UK and working closely with its PR partners to support Coupa as they expand across EMEA.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to be part of Coupa’s ambitious growth plans. We look forward to working closely with teams across EMEA and the US to build and deliver an integrated content marketing strategy that will make a real difference to their success in the UK,” said Thea Hickman, Communications Director at onebite.

Coupa’s UK PR strategy will focus heavily on its strong customer relationships as well as its innovative cloud-based technology. A highlight of the initial activity will be support for the company’s INSPIRE EMEA 2014 – a day of in-depth learning collaboration and sharing of success and best practice to be held in London on 16th October, 2014.

About onebite

onebite is an award-winning marketing agency dedicated to developing brands internally and externally, enhancing reputations and increasing sales opportunities. The company delivers integrated marketing services for organisations of all sizes to enable them to drive more value and more results from their marketing and communications. onebite is accredited by the PRCA, the industry body for communications professionals in the UK. For further information, please visit onebite.co.uk, our Twitter account @onebitecomms or our blog onebitecomms.tumblr.com.

About Coupa software

Coupa Software is the leading provider of cloud-based financial applications. More than 450 customers headquartered in over 40 countries use the Coupa suite of financial applications to support business agility and reduce costs. Only Coupa provides a suite of true cloud applications for finance, including accounts payable, sourcing, procurement and expense management that allows customers to realize a return on their investment within a few months and savings that continually impact the bottom line. Learn more at: coupa.com. Read more at our company blog, Making Cents or follow @Coupa on Twitter.

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Why content marketing matters: The rise of creative content marketing

At Forrester’s CMO event last year, David Cooperstein, one of Forrester’s research directors, presented some insight on how marketers think their roles have changed – the most poignant focused on the amount the discipline and job role has taken on, and the level of pressure that marketers feel they are under to get results.  I think this is indicative of many professions, not just marketing, at a time when more needs to be done for less and business models are being redrawn.

       If you look at marketing, the remit of internal communications and external programmes have been expanded with social, online and video.  These have conspired to make the marketer’s job potentially harder with all the different channels that have to be managed, the need to stretch budgets to support more activity and prove ROI on new models that are still evolving.

  Content marketing represents a way to respond to the wealth of different routes to customers that have emerged over the past few years. Forrester analyst Ryan Skinner pointed out that part of the reason to invest in content marketing was its ability to endlessly re-package materials in ways to suit customers and prospects at different points of the buying cycle.

  This seems to be broadly true: content can be themed around products, for example, but use different language and formatting to offer information to given audiences at different points in the buying cycle. However, what will be more challenging for many businesses is how that content marketing strategy gets started.

  Granted, not all companies have customers that are as keen to embrace new social networks or online channels instead of traditional marketing approaches. One attendee at Forrester event from a software provider mentioned that their prospects are all in the public sector space and don’t yet use social channels as part of their work. This may be a valid observation but the question to ask is; do they in their own time?  And will they in time?  The answer is likely to be yes. It’s also important to consider that you’ll still need to evolve your marketing to capture new and future customers who, having been brought up as digital natives, will expect companies to have a sophisticated social presence.

  For companies in the B2B space, the changing sales environment gives an opportunity to rethink the role of content as part of an effective marketing and new business development strategy.  One way to start is to look at how existing content can be redesigned and used in different ways to make it fly further online and be more powerful as sales assets. This is where the use of external creative support is worth its weight in gold. 

  Being able to inject creative ideas into even the driest marketing collateral is a good example of where creative agencies can work magic. Rethinking how customers are presented to the world or white paper discussions are brought to life can add fuel to new product or service promotions.

  Content marketing as a formal strategy is beginning to go beyond the bleeding edge and into the mainstream – as verified in B2B Marketing’s 2013 content marketing benchmarking report, with 43 per cent of respondents answering that the importance of content marketing is ‘critical’. The urgency around this approach is because buyer’s habits have changed or are changing (see our first post – The B2B buyer has changed), forcing marketing and sales processes to adapt.

  Rather than looking at marketing collateral as isolated assets, planning content development has to bear in mind the journey that a customer will go through from beginning to end as they make decisions on the products and services they need. However, as with any new approach to content marketing has to be based on getting the initial creative theme right. Without this great “big idea” in mind, it’s harder to link content into a longer-term plan for getting that material into the minds of the right people, in the right format, at the right time.

  For more information on content marketing and how to inject creativity into your campaigns, subscribe to our updates or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

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Design Inspiration: Video Projection Mapping

We love to share what inspires us at onebite. What’s been making waves within the team this week is Video Projection Mapping; an exciting projection technique that can turn almost any surface into a dynamic video display.

  As explained by Video Mapping Blog, specialized software is used to warp and mask the projected image to make it fit perfectly on irregularly shaped screens. When done right, the end result is a dynamic projection installation that transcends ordinary video projection.

Our designer, Liane Milchem explains why Projection Mapping inspires her,  “It’s always exciting to find new and innovative ways of communicating an idea, Projection Mapping has an enormous amount of impact, especially when there is an interactive element to it”.

  Here are some of many amazing Video Projection Mapping examples that really inspire Liane, and why.

  (Make sure you have the volume up - this is all about the harmony of moving image and sound!)

1. BOX DEMO

http://youtu.be/lX6JcybgDFo

Bot and Dolly collaborated with Gmunk to create this "technology Demo” which exceeded the brief in leaps and bounds. Using the theme of Magic and five basic categories of Illusion to demonstrate the creative technology, they produced a mesmerising design and performance piece. Watch it and allow yourself to believe in the magic and wonder of the visuals, then read more here to find out how it was made. 

2. OMOTE/REAL TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING

http://vimeo.com/103425574

Projection Mapping is not an overly new concept, the process of projecting 2D visuals onto a 3D surface has been around for a while and explored in various ways, but here Japanese Media Artist Nobumichi Asai, Make up Artist Hiroto Kuwahara and their team have created an incredible video of projection mapping combined with real-time face tracking onto a moving object- a face - to create a kind of digital make up. 

3. THE MAKING OF A LIGHT SESSION - TRON PREMIERE - ENESS

http://vimeo.com/18525296

This is four years old but still looks great. Really like how this isn’t just being projected but appears to be interacting with the skater - making it come to life and feel almost realistic.

4. NEW BALANCE SNEAKERS

http://vimeo.com/15860939

A great example of how projection mapping can be used for a commercial project.

5. TOKYO CITY SYMPHONY

http://tokyocitysymphony.com

Lovely interactive site - read more here on creative review to find out about the idea behind it. 

  If you’ve seen any examples like the above that really inspired you, let us know @onebitecomms.