For a long time there has been speculation over how Twitter might be monetised – we at Goode Communications believe that this updated version, which incorporates company brand pages and the ability to integrate sponsored tweets into users’ timelines, may well usher in the dream of real-time social advertising. This would allow us to precisely target and place adverts in front of the demographics most interested in our clients’ message; reacting to the conversations that they are having, as they are having them.

The newly devised brand pages are reminiscent of offerings from Facebook and Google+. They will allow corporate profiles to be more easily represented on the Twittersphere as brand pages permit extended taglines, additional logos, and also the option to post promoted Tweets to the top of their feed. Twitter suggests that “this Tweet helps you highlight your most engaging and important content and better connect with your target audience.” Due to the new design for auto-expanding embedded media in tweets, these promoted tweets could even contain promotional photos, videos, or sound recordings. Currently, only 21 companies (the likes of Coca-Cola, American Express, McDonalds, etc) are able to create these brand pages, however, they will shortly be rolled-out to all companies free-of-charge. Our experienced PR team can’t wait to experiment with these new features, and to supplement the services which we offer to our clients.

We may combine these novel brand pages with the less recent additions of promoted trending topics, tweets and accounts – features which do generate revenue for Twitter – to provide a structured and diversified advertising campaign. Enhanced potential for embedding of Tweets upon our clients’ own websites will also help to drive traffic to their Twitter page, which could become a hub for transparent communication with the company.

Although, for the time being, the opportunities for monetising Twitter remain limited to the options of promoted tweets, etc., Goode Communications believe that these latest changes are valuable in the paradigm-shift they entail. Twitter’s new design encourages its users to divulge more personal information, thus representing a shift towards a “social graph”, which will ultimately allow us to create a more comprehensive view of the demographics in which our clients are interested. This will also provide the foundation for the next step, which will be to capitalise upon the harvested information by rolling out micro-targeted ad campaigns.

There is speculation amongst the online community that by allowing targeted tweets, and promotional messages to infiltrate the otherwise organic spread of information on Twitter, the persuasive clout of Tweets may be undermined. However, in appreciating these concerns, and by understanding that an effective social media campaign requires more than unilateral communication from businesses to customers, Goode Communications seeks to use these marketing tools as a means of enhancing the existing relationship between our clients, and their customer-base.

Overall, the response to the new design of Twitter appears to be positive, and promises marketers exciting future opportunities for placing targeted advertisements. If you would like to discuss the potential for running your own campaign through Twitter, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on 01491 873 323 (Reading), or 0117 923 0027 (Bristol). Alternatively, email us at hello@goode.co.uk.

Reading, UK – 7th November 2011: Goode International, a leading marketing agency providing public relations, media, creative and digital services to B2B organisations, today announced the completion of a merger with Bristol-based T&T Advertising. The new agency, branded Goode Communications, will provide creative marketing solutions across emerging technologies and delivery platforms to B2B and B2C organisations.

Goode Communications will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Clifton Cowley Group, one of the fastest growing innovation hubs in the UK, which provides technology solutions, intellectual property, finance and marketing services to entrepreneurs, SMEs and global leaders.

With 25 staff across offices in Bristol and Reading, Goode will offer a powerful combination of marketing consulting and services. These include strategic marketing, PR, brand development, lead generation, media buying, creative, digital and augmented reality solutions. The new agency will be led by marketing and technology entrepreneur and partner at the Clifton Cowley Group, Tom Wood. Goode will focus on further developing its off-line and on-line integrated marketing services for organisations of all sizes from start-ups to established and global brands.

With this merger, we are bringing together a highly experienced marketing team with a great heritage in delivering creative and innovative integrated marketing campaigns and specialist communication services.

Our integrated thinking across brand development, reputation management and audience engagement, together with our marketing technology strengths, is a potent offering for organisations looking to expand their marketing activity in new directions.

Tom Wood, managing director, Goode Communications.

Goode’s services divisions will be led by a team of experienced communications professionals and all day-to-day client account management will remain unchanged. Goode International’s founder and former managing director, Philip Joisce, will take a role as a non-executive director at the new agency. The combined agency currently supports organisations across technology, FMCG, education and professional services sectors.

About Goode Communications
Goode Communications is an award-winning marketing agency dedicated to developing brands, enhancing reputations and increasing sales opportunities. It delivers integrated marketing services to organisations of all sizes to enable them to drive more value and more results from their marketing and communications. The agency’s services include Creative Design, PR, Media Buying, Lead Generation, Digital and Augmented Reality Solutions. With offices in Reading and Bristol, Goode is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Clifton Cowley Group. For further information please visit: www.goode.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @goodecomms.

About Clifton Cowley
Clifton Cowley was formed in 2006 to offer organisations seeking to grow through innovation, a solid service platform to develop, protect, market and generate revenue from their ideas and R&D. Through the creation of this platform, the team at Clifton Cowley has supported and grown small to medium companies through times of transition. The group now numbers 10 subsidiaries with a total of 108 staff based in six locations around the United Kingdom and one location in the US. For further information please visit: www.cliftoncowley.com or follow us on Twitter @cliftoncowley.

Press contact:
Kellie Collier
Goode Communications
Tel: 01491 873 323
Email: kellie.collier@goode.co.uk

His previous work incorporates multiple website development, internal IT programming and bespoke applications such as CRM systems and online campaign management tools.

Sam has already proved himself a valuable member of the team, having successfully completed several sophisticated online projects for T&T clients.

For further information on the digital services that T&T offers please contact Nick Cronk on 0117 923 0027 or via email on nick.cronk@tandtadvertising.co.uk

Building on past successes, T&T believes this year’s festival will be even more exciting, considering the breadth of entertainment on offer. The billing is exceptional and as one of Bristol’s leading agencies, T&T is keen to get involved and encourage business sponsorship of the event. Using unrivaled local and regional knowledge, not to mention contacts in the marketplace, T&T are letting organisations know about this great opportunity that willl enable them to reach out to festival-goers as the event unfolds in the city’s fantastic harbour area, which will play host to a plethora of live bands and dance, markets, children’s entertainment and fireworks.

The main festival is on the weekend of 29th to 31st July, but as this is the 40th anniversary there will be an additional preceding week of entertainment, commencing Saturday 23rd, that will see the harbour come alive with dragon boat races, music and more.

Many of the venues around the harbour, including Colston Hall, the Old Vic, Arnolfini and the Tobacco Factory, will also be hosting additional ticketed shows as part of the festival.

Check out the Queen Square stage for a great mix of jazz, reggae, soul and funk, or the Cascade Steps for folk and acoustic music. A diverse range of dance styles are to be found at the Millennium Square’s main performance stage, from ballet to African, salsa to Bollywood and Hip Hop to Tango.

The Amphitheatre will be the home of the Good Living Zone featuring a music and comedy stage, a community garden, workshops and great, local food and drink. A colourful range of markets positioned in Queen Square, the Waterfront and Welshback will be selling a range of items such as food, drink, gifts, crafts, clothing, jewellery and art.

One of the highlights of last year’s festival was the circus and street theatre of long time festival partners Cirque Bijou, who will again be located in Castle Park where they will be presenting two days of world-class circus acts and cabaret performances. This year they will be creating a gigantic pirate ship stage, which includes sword fights, pirates swinging from the rigging and unfortunate souls being forced to walk the plank.

And on top of all this there will be the usual audience prizes, games and special star guests. Other highlights include the juggling world record holder Rod Laver, the international swinging trapeze sensation Lucie Lepoirve, the fantastic saxophone phenomena Mr Woodnote and the Twin City Area which is celebrating Bristol’s twin cities with food and drink, dancing and music. The Children’s Area offers great fun for families and is packed with entertainment including storytelling, hands-on creativity, face painting, rides and interactive performances.

T&T Advertising’s heritage as the South West’s leading marketing agency, for over 20 years, places it as the obvious choice to support the festival. With such a rich variety of attractions, this is certainly a great opportunity for all businesses to get in front of their audience, while supporting a great local, cultural celebration.

For full details visit www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk

Kirsty Salmons, Managing Director, states “Our rebranding as T&T Advertising is an exciting stage in the history of the agency, it is the next step in the company’s development, offering a modernised brand whilst continuing to deliver the best in client servicing.”

For more information contact Kirsty Salmons on 0117 923 0027 or email kirsty.salmons@tandtadvertising.co.uk

In the UK, media agencies suggest that product placement could make up 5% of all TV spend within the next five years worth approximately £200m a year. However, is product placement really that new to the UK and will it make that much difference to the effectiveness of marketing on TV?

After all, un-paid product placement is already occurring on TV programmes in the UK. Nigel Robinson, Managing Partner of MediaCom, highlights the impact of Ally McBeal as far back as the 90s which helped “Starbucks’ mission to addict Britons to caffeine”.

Arguing against introducing product placement back in 2010, the ISBA stated that the current system of unpaid prop placement, where programme makers seek out branded products to use within shows, serves both groups well and that changing to a paid system would raise costs for advertisers. However, Lindsey Clay, Marketing Director of Thinkbox, states that “it must be new money” and “not replace spot advertising, which is the major force behind content investment”. Product placement could work more like sponsorship (and could be used to complement it) to influence brand affinity.

Broadcasters, including ITV, said it is more likely to follow the US example where product placement and spot advertising happily co-exist. However, David Turtle, spokesman for Mediawatch UK, expressed concern at copying the US model asking, “do we really want to go down the American road where you’re bombarded constantly?”. Julia Hutchison, Chief operating officer of APA, also makes the point that a comparison shoudn’t be made to the US as TV audiences are very different. For this reason she believes “the introduction of [product] placement to UK TV is unlikely to provide initial success to match that of the US”.

T&T Comment

We believe in making our client’s money work hard so they can grow their businesses profitably and successfully. Key to this is being able to accurately measure and analyse response for any medium. In order for product placement to stand any chance of becoming a success in the UK there needs to be an effective way of measuring its impact on UK audiences. Without this Agencies cannot justify brands spending sizeable amounts of money.

Research has also shown that length of exposure is important so this will mean that there needs to be a delicate balancing act to keep within the rules while also delivering results.

Brands are reacting to this and there has been a notable growth in the mobile search marketing spend over the past couple of years. Whilst the advertising sector was suffering in general, spend on mobile paid search in 2009 rocketed by 32% year-on year to a new high of £20.2 million. FirstPartner believe that mobile paid search will grow by 37% to an estimated £28 million in 2010.

To compliment this growth, operators and search engines are further developing their services to better assist brands communicating to their target audience. Google recently launched a click-to-call feature, which in BETA tests showed a 5% to 30% increase in conversion rates. Ian Carrington at Google claims that this potentially means “mobile can be a more powerful converting channel then desktop search”.

Now two of Britain’s biggest mobile operators, Orange and O2, have confirmed they are developing technologies that will allow brands to serve location based adverts to the millions of their subscribers this year.

Location based ads have so far been the preserve of niche specialists such as Foursquare, but brands will also be able to target consumers with location based adverts based on their demographic and other information held by the operators.

Further success to this new mobile offering will be in the development of the UK’s most widespread prediction for 2011, M-Commerce (mobile payments). Already well established in Asia, this new technology allows consumers to use their mobile device as a payment mechanism like an Oyster Card or PayPass.

The UK could, therefore, be on the verge of a new type of marketing medium, which can connect Brands and consumers in a way that other types can’t whilst also allowing for instant financial transaction. eMarketer state that “success will come from the combined power of reach, relevancy and the ability to drive offer redemption”.

T&T Comment

At T&T we are constantly keeping up to date with the latest digital developments in order to ensure our clients get the most from the digital world. Mobile is a fast growing area that really excites us and the latest mobile predictions for 2011 will be no exception.

Initially, we believe these location based mobile ads as more response based advertising that would suit the FMCG market, whilst also being heavily offer led.

As a regional agency with both local and national clients, these local based adverts for mobile could work across our client base connecting national brands with consumers at a local level, whilst also providing local advertisers with another method of communication.

So first off how does the daily press landscape look in terms of circulation? Let’s start with the top 5 overall… no surprises there with The Sun holding the top spot with 2,717,013 followed by the Daily Mail at 2,030,968, Daily Mirror at 1,133,440, Daily Star at 713,602 and Daily Telegraph at 631,280. Looking at quality papers specifically, the top 3 is as follows with Daily Telegraph then The Times 448,463 and The Guardian at 264,819.

In terms of growth/decline there is a general % decrease on the same period in 2009, with the Financial Times performing the best with just a 2.67% decrease, but which title took the biggest hit? Interestingly The Times suffered by 14.01%, can this be attributed to poor weather or perhaps to the general public feedback regarding the paywall on their website? We wouldn’t like to say!

Figures reporting the ABCes were released for 5 press sites taking part in the public audit, showing a general increase year on year. MailOnline came in first with over 50m monthly browsers (51,434,953) followed by guardian.co.uk at 40,804,452, Telegraph at 32,896,824, The Independent at 11,998,851 and Mirror.co.uk at 11,443,999.

T&T Comment
It is interesting to note that press sites were all on the up compared to the newspaper circulations, however the period of bad weather will have played a part with readers more likely to turn to the internet than brave the snow and ice!

In terms of why The Times suffered the worst hit in circulation, this could be down to several factors. Firstly the launch of The Independent’s “i” in October 2010 could well have caused a drop with the cover price of 20p being a cheaper alternative in a similar readership market. We also think that the Telegraph carrying cover mounts during this period may have had an affect.

MailOnline have achieved 11 consecutive months as the UK’s top newspaper site recording 51.43 million global unique visitors over the month, a 3% increase over October 2010 and a 65% lift since November 2009.

Internet on your TV: Anything that Google puts its mind to seems to become huge (with the exception of Google Buzz, but we will forgive them for that), so we were very excited when Google TV launched in October.

Google TV essentially integrates applications and the Internet directly into your television. It brings basic elements such as search or web browsing and goes as far as combining both web and TV simultaneously.

The most important element of Google TV is its search bar. Essentially it brings together all the information, programs, Internet, and media surrounding whatever you search for. So programs currently or soon to be shown will appear alongside IMDB or Google search results as well as any media or recordings you might have. The search bar negates the need for a TV guide as well and helps to enrich any programs you might be interested in by offering related websites and other online info.

Internet connected applications will also form a central part of Google TV. Much of what can be found on the Android operating system will be translated across to Google TV. Applications like Twitter and Amazon will be the first to appear on the hardware with the Android market eventually arriving on the platform sometime this year. Google also plans to make use of both the iPhone and Android powered handsets to act as a remote for Google TV. Voice search will allow you to use your mobile handsets microphone for input, creating search results by simply speaking into your phone.

The concept of Internet TV presents a huge potential to advertisers. We can currently create behaviorally targeted advertising campaigns that target users based on the websites that they visit. Imagine the potential if we not only knew what websites a web user visited, but also their TV and movie viewing habits? Campaigns could be created that are more targeted than anything currently available.

While still several years off from appearing in every home, we expect 2011 to be the year where Internet really begins to take off.

Quora: I think it is fair to say that Quora is still quite an unheard of platform, but we predict that this is likely to change in 2011. For many people, there are only two social networking website – Facebook and Twitter. Many of our clients are running successful campaigns on both platforms, but we are always wondering what social networking tool will be the next to become huge.

Quora describes itself as ‘A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.’ It essentially allows users to ask and answer questions on any topic. Users can also follow specific questions or more broad topics.

We have been playing with Quora since August, and it has already come on in leaps and bounds since then. It is a very entertaining way of networking with people, and many industry experts believe that it will have a ‘Twitter moment’ in 2011 and become huge
If you want to find out more on Quora, simply head to your nearest search engine and ‘Google’ it!

Mobile Internet: Users who access websites via mobile devices has risen dramatically over the past 12 months. The iPhone, iPad and android phones have all helped increase the number of mobile Internet users. At T&T, we’ve recorded high levels of web traffic, upwards of 10%, coming from mobile devices. Whilst mobile users tend to spend longer on the website (often due to the time it takes to download content), they are also less likely to convert into sales or leads. One way to improve the user experience for mobile users is to create a better browsing experience for them.

Apps were the big thing of 2010 with the explosion of the iPhone and iPad. During 2010, Apple announced that over 7 billion apps had been downloaded from its app store! Over 3.5 billion were downloaded between January and September alone.
As the number of users with android phones is now growing at a much faster rate that IOS devices (devices using Apples operating system such as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), there has become a much greater need to create an alternative to a ‘killer app’.
If you have a smart phone, we’d suggest visiting the BBC website. You should be automatically redirected to the BBC’s mobile website. While less aesthetic than the desktop website, it provides users with content which is much easily viewed on a handheld device. The BBC has stated that mobile users who access their mobile website look at more pages than if they accessed the desktop website via their handset.

A mobile version of your website may not be right for every business, however it is definitely worth investigating further – so please get in touch and we would be happy to discuss development with you.