Independent Cinema Office launches new digital marketing course

The Independent Cinema Office and Creative Skillset are launching a new digital marketing course for creative marketeers working in the UK independent exhibition sector and film industry

Unhappy shoppers take to social media

New research shows nearly a third of consumers unhappy with the customer service they have received will take to social media channels to air their grievances. 

In a survey of 7,000 consumers by Verint Systems, it was revealed 32 per cent of disgruntled customers would readily share their bad experiences via social media sites and blogs. The study found 30 per cent of the 25-34 age group would resort to Facebook to discuss bad customer service experiences, and 24 per cent of 16-24 year olds would engage in online conversations on the matter.

The research examined attitudes toward services provided by five sectors, including financial services, retail, TV and broadband, phone and public services.

"The findings of this study clearly show that service has become a new means of marketing and is favoured over price," David Parcell, managing director for EMEA at Verint Systems, told The Drum. "Retailers understand this effect better than many sectors—that's why they tend to fare better than financial services providers and utilities firms when it comes to the customer experience.

"If they are not doing so already, organisations must invest in listening to the voices of their customers, in particular the new, social-savvy. They also must face up to the challenge of unlocking the feedback from those that aren't talking or remain indifferent about the service received, as well as the invisible. Until then, it will remain challenging for brands to distinguish themselves."

Additionally, the study found only 49 per cent of customers were happy with the level of service they had received and two thirds were aggravated by long waiting times.

Bank buys 8,500 iPads to enhance consumer experience

Barclay's Bank has made one of the largest UK IPad orders for use in their UK branches to help with mortgage advice. 

The bank has purchased 8,500 iPad devices which will feature a new app called Mortgage Brain, designed to help advisers interact with customers and colleagues alike. 




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Looking back at the different aspects of marketing through-out the years and how its changed over time, shows how digital marketing is becoming more and more important in today's society.

What are the possibilities for the future ?

Assignment Task Ai

Switch on marketing will be working towards promoting in the digital world, ensuring the product and manufacturer gain exposure in order to take the product to the next level, which is positioning the product in order to compete with its current competitors in the market. We also provide accurate, compelling SEO content for websites, from improved on-page information to optimised product descriptions. We offer: · Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) · Pay Per Click Marketing(PPC) · Commercial Copywriting · Social Media Marketing Meet the team Kwame Boahene (Online Copywriter & Trafficker) Having gained knowledge in the digital marketing field on his Digital Marketing Communications course, Kwame was able to contribute some of his knowledge when gained the opportunity of an internship for Silverspoon Media. Not only was he able to contribute towards planning marketing strategies, Kwame gained relevant knowledge in SEO, Social media planning strategy and search engine marketing. Rebecca May (SEM Specialist) Rebecca has previously worked at SRJ Marketing that are specialists in direct sales and marketing around the Manchester area. During her time at the company, she helped to develop and implement new marketing strategies to grow brand awareness for the company’s clients. She also has experience in: · Social media marketing ( Marketing local events for a local Manchester company) · Web design · Accountancy ( Having worked at Victoria Street business centre) Gregory Lai Lim (SEO Specialist) Gregory has worked as an IT trainee in one of the largest Insurance Company in Mauritius (Swan Group). He acquired skills, such as virtual server management and he also provided software support to the other employees. He then moved on a placement in a marketing company called Storm Telecom. Gregory was part of the SEO team for the promotion of their website. Ee Zhen, Ng (Social Media Specialist and Media Planner & Buyer) EeZhen has been actively involved in the sales and marketing industry for 6 years. Mainly based in a local telecommunications company in Malaysia, she started as a sales executive and moved on into the marketing department 4 years later. Being in both the sales and marketing department, she has developed experience and skills to market a product, media planning/buying, social media management and event management. The Company Since 1875, A.G.Barr has been a soft drinks business in making, marketing and selling some of the UK’s best loved soft drinks brands such as IRN-BRU. The company has a strong business base in both Scotland and North England. However, their newly introduced product, Strathmore – a natural drinking water extracted from an aquifer deep underground spring water - has yet to garner awareness as much as other products such as Irn Bru. Hence, SwitchOn Marketing has chosen to cooperate with A.G.Barr to build brand awareness for this product - Strathmore.

Assignment Task Aii & Aiii

The aim of SwithOnMarketing is to create brand awareness for AG Barr P.L.C’s water product Strathmore. Strathmore is relatively unknown within the UK market. The company has a number of products that hold greater presence in the UK market. As part of SwitchOnMarketing’s strategy, we aim to use social media platforms to advertise and create a better presence for the water. This can be achieved in different ways; we aim to do this by creating an advert Strathmore on the other products Facebook and Twitter pages such as Organina, Iron bru and Rubricon. We plan to reserve a small section on these pages where Strathmore water advertisement will be featured. The advert will be in a form of creative image with an HTML image link. A click on this image will take the user directly to the Strathmore social network page. Through this activity, we will be able to generate user traffic for the Strathmore page. On the Strathmore page, we plan to capture visitors attention and interest through the use of a marketing strategy; to have a quiz set up in place, with the winners having reward choices of; £5 ASDA vouchers or £10 off a gym membership, and a carton of 500ml Strathmore spring water. We believe that not only will this plan help Strathmore build online presence; it will build brand awareness and potentially generate more sales for AG Barr. The social network platforms we plan to work with are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Our main focus page will be Facebook, based on assumption that this is the most common platform for all AG Barr customers. The other websites will help Strathmore’s online presence and build brand awareness. We also plan to open an Instagram account where we will encourage customers to upload pictures of their experiences with the product. We hope that this method will help AG Barr build relationship with customers. With the plans and strategies we have in place for this project, we predict to gather 10,000 likes across all the platforms we will advertise on.

A matrix to help you review the tools, services and software that you use to manage digital marketing

As digital marketers we’re certainly not short of tools to review and improve our marketing. There are many free tools available and certainly some that are worth paying for too. A recent Redeye/Econsultancy report on Conversion Rate Optimisation contained useful charts for considering the use of marketing technology to impact on bottom line and resource intensiveness. I compiled some of these charts into a matrix to help show where the opportunities lie for marketers who are assessing technology expenditure:

As a digital strategist you can use this matrix to assess your current use of digital tools and plan new tools into your budget for future year(s). From the report we can draw that conversion optimisation technology is underutilised by organisations yet has the biggest chance of improving the bottom line. This lack of utilisation may be down to the specialist knowledge that’s required to implement A/B testing and multi-variate testing. Multi-variate and A/B testing require ongoing optimisation and improvement to use them at the most basic level. Even with automation tools, a marketer needs to continually update the collateral and fine tune the testing to get the most from it. Optimisation tools’ ability to unlock new revenue is why I believe they should be involved in any B2B/B2C web project. I hope you find the matrix useful. I’d be interested in any comments or observations on how you see the use of tools for digital marketing.

Check out the new IPad mini !!

Technology in 13 Years time

Is it where technology will bring us in 13 years time? It follows a scenario of a father and daughter spending some time together.“It provides an exciting glimpse into a hyper-connected Britain in just thirteen years’ time”,

See what the future of digital marketing could hold for you...